Author: Janet Riley

I get hired by companies to hack into their systems and break into their physical facilities to find security holes.  Our success rate is 100%; we’ve always found a hole.  ~Kevin Mitnick

I’ve been absorbing a lot of security training lately.  It’s a frightening world out there.  In no particular order, here are some of the tidbits that have left an impression.

Nobody wants to be headline news because they’ve experienced a breach.

Cyber Insurance does not pay ransomware.  Most policies will cover some costs, such as litigation and associated support for your IT assets, but it likely won’t cover any actual ransom payments.  (https://www.teamspring.us/does-cyber-insurance-cover-the-cost-of-ransomware/)

People in the U.S. are the recipients of 42% of phishing and malware mails.  If you are in the 55-63 age bracket, you are a more attractive target than those aged 18-44. (https://tinyurl.com/45dsbxye)

If your data has been previously exposed via a data breach, you are at higher odds of being attacked.  Find out if you’ve been previously exposed at https://haveibeenpwned.com/

Using 2 factor authentication aps is preferred over answering secret questions because the answers to secret questions can frequently be found on social media.

When (not if) your data is breached, restoring from backup can get you into trouble with the insurance companies and even the FBI. Restoring from backup will erase all of the forensics data available to track down the enemy.  You’re backup plan should include the option to run your servers as virtual machines which will leave the forensic data in place.

Spear phishing is email spam on steroids.  It will include your name and personal details gathered from the net and previous breaches.  It mimics real email from  real organizations.  If they successfully fool you, it will be expensive.  The average successful spear phishing attack cost $1.6 million.  Refer back to paragraph 3-cyber insurance typically does not pay ransoms.  (https://tinyurl.com/2267f37k)

If your data was exfiltrated or ransomed, would you have to close your business?

Need help rectifying some problem spots? 

If you have domain named email, not a free email like gmail or yahoo, we can setup email spam filters to keep 90% of the garbage out of your inbox.  We can also archive your incoming and outgoing email for compliance purposes or just because.

If you need a domain named email, we can assist with choosing the domain name, registering the domain name and parking the domain name.  If that last sentence sounded like a foreign language, we can explain it in English via a personal visit or phone call.

We have backup solutions that can be run as a virtual machine.

We are looking for 50 individuals with business email addresses to qualify for cyber security training and dark web monitoring.  If you are interested in being part of the group, please reach out to me.  Prevention is always cheaper than the cure!

Stay Safe,  Stay Healthy

~Janet

Because It Made Me Laugh!

A Geologist Found the Cookie Monster Inside An Agate.

Complete story at: https://tinyurl.com/57c4fx9u

One thing life has taught me so far is that kindness is like a boomerang, it always comes back to us. ~Judith Maduhu

Welcome to February and the “LOVE” month.  After the bitterness of everything “2020”, I’m really desiring some happy thoughts.  My girlfriend cheered me up with pictures of the quokkas.  Aren’t they adorable?  I love their smile!  I miss seeing smiles…

This month’s question/comment is:  “All of my friends are trading in their desktop computers for laptops, I guess I should too!  But I’m not sure why?”

This was my reply:

Laptop/Notebook computers are awesome when you have limited space or need to be mobile.  But the truth is, you will always get more bang-for-the-buck with a desktop computer.  Here is why:

Desktop computers have better cooling.  Heat is not a computer’s best friend.  Periods of prolonged heat will damage the computer. 

Desktop computers can have multiple monitors and larger monitors.  If your eye sight isn’t what is use to be, then having a 23 inch or 27 inch display is wonderful.  A large laptop display is 17 inches and a standard laptop display is 15.6 inches.  Laptops will let you attach an additional monitor. So you can have 2 displays, but the sizes will be disproportionate. Sometimes that causes problems.

Because stand-alone monitors are connected via cable, and not permanently attached to the computer housing, you can set them in ergonomically ideal locations.

The same is true for the keyboard and mouse.  If you are spending hours working on the computer, it’s nice to not be hunched over a little keyboard, peering into a small screen.  It makes my shoulders ache to just think about it! 

The CPU determines the speed of the computer and to a large extent, the price of the computer.   CPU’s come in desktop versions or laptop versions.  The desktop model comes with a huge cooling fan and is typically less expensive than the laptop model.  When you factor in the life expectancy of a laptop at 2-3 years versus the life expectancy of a desktop at 4-5 years, then the desktop is definitely the better bargain.

And take a look at the latest arrival in the desktop lineup.  These are pictures from our glass-sided case with the AMD Ryzen 7.  The lights cycle through the rainbow of colors.  As long as you’re working, you might as well have something pretty to look at!

Stay Safe,

Stay Healthy

Come Visit -with or without pie!

~Janet

It’s better to tackle one resolution well than multiple resolutions poorly. 

 From: https://www.goskills.com/Soft-Skills/Resources/Top-10-new-years-resolutions

Greetings & Happy New Year!!

Have you broken your resolutions yet?  A quick google search tells me the top resolutions are:

Exercise more, Lose Weight, Get organized, Learn a new skill or hobby, Save more money/Spend less money, Spend more time with family and friends, Travel more, and Read more.

I’ve got some suggestions to help you achieve these goals. 

Need Exercise?  WALK to copy machine.  Photo Copy this newsletter. WALK to co-workers/friends/neighbors and give them a copy.  If you walk fast, it will feel more like exercise.

Lose Weight:  If you are actually successful at losing weight, please don’t put it somewhere where I can pick it up!  I added a new decade to my age recently and it came with 10 more pounds.  Yesterday, I bought the book: The 40-Day Sugar Fast: Where Physical Detox Meets Spiritual Transformation by Wendy Speake.  If you are inclined to start a sugar fast, let me know.  We can encourage each other.

Need to Get Organized?  I stumbled into a tool you might like.  It is called OneTab and is available at http://one-tab.com.  This is an extension for Chrome, Firefox, Edge and Safari.  It converts all of your open tabs into a list for easy access later and frees up memory resulting in improved computer performance.   When you need to see the tab again, click on the list and it returns to where you left off.  I’m still experimenting with it but it looks promising.

Want to learn a new skill AND save money?  You can do both right here: https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/deals/deals-hunter/2020/01/free-ways-to-learn-new-skills/

Money Saving Expert offers a no-cost, personal finance class via The Open University (http://open.edu).  The Open University has hundreds, if not thousands, of no-cost courses categorized into Health, Sports & Psychology, Education & Development, History & Arts, Languages, Money & Business, Nature & Environment, Science, Math & Technology, Society, and Politics & Law. 

I laughed when I read that spending more time with family was a resolution. Apparently, COVID didn’t fulfill that desire for some.  And the longing to travel?  For now, I will stick with Virtual Vacations.  There are lots of places to visit at http://airpano.com the home of 360° Photos and Videos.

Last but not least, is the desire to read more.  Did I mention I just bought a book?  A 40-Day Sugar Fast book?  Feel free to read it with me!  Mom always told me that misery loves company.  I will be in misery, and you can be my company!

We added a new computer to the lineup this month.  It is an AMD Ryzen 7 with lights.  See the pictures on our facebook page.   We are open.  Grab your mask and come visit.  We would love to help.

Stay Safe, Stay Healthy and 

Let’s make 2021 the Best Year Ever!

~Janet

My Resolution:  Give away things I no longer want!

“In the old days, it was not called the Holiday Season; the Christians called it ‘Christmas’ and went to church; the Jews called it ‘Hanukkah’ and went to synagogue; the atheists went to parties and drank. People passing each other on the street would say ‘Merry Christmas!’ or ‘Happy Hanukkah!’ or (to the atheists) ‘Look out for the wall!’” ― Dave Barry

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah!

Here are some things I would like to share as we cleanup the ashes from the 2020 dumpster fire of a year.

If you are fortunate enough to have a business that needs to spend some money to reduce your tax bill, we can help.  We will need your computer orders no later than December 18 and of course, if you can get them in sooner, that’s even better.

If you are looking for unique gifts, check out airtightartwork.com.  They say art is a good investment.  I suspect they mean art by Rembrandt and Michelangelo, but who knows?  Maybe this will qualify.  My only suggestion:  Use plastic utensils if you invite this guy to dinner.

If all you want for Christmas is fewer ads and more privacy, then you will appreciate these links:

By default Google tracks what you search for, your location, your purchases, your trips and flight information, your upcoming bills and more.  Avira has posted a fun tutorial that shows  how to  disable tracking in your settings.  You can find it here: 

Facebook also likes to share, and has been known to grant partner companies access to what you liked and your friends email addresses.  Want to minimize what information facebook can collect and share about you?  Avira has created another How-To youtube video.  Find it here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zi61iD1H8M8

In 2018, The New York Times  did a study on how smartphones use location tracking.  If ever there was a reason to turn off the cell phone location feature, this is it.  You can read the article at: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/12/10/business/location-data-privacy-apps.html

If the above links don’t alarm you, then you need to read the blog post at: https://blog.avira.com/why-you-should-reduce-your-digital-footprint-and-3-ways-you-can/

And now for some good news!  This is my favorite  Christmas story.  Hope you enjoy it as much as I do.  https://youtu.be/suowe2czxcA

Stay Safe, Stay Healthy and 

Merry Christmas

~Janet

Because I Suffer From Insomnia AND I Have Those Same PJs!!

Handle them carefully, for words have more power than atom bombs.

~Pearl Strachan Hurd

It’s November and time to be thankful. It is doubtful we will know who was elected President for several days and maybe weeks, but at least we can be thankful the political robocalls will stop!  Yeah!!

As we head into a very different holiday season, I would like to remind you to be vigilant concerning your cyber security practices.   It’s tempting to say you are too small or too insignificant, to be hacked.  I can assure you, that is not true. I can also assure you that being hacked will be your worst nightmare.  And hacking is becoming so much easier.  The folks at knowbe4 recorded a short video explaining how hackers are using social media.    It’s a short 2 minute video you can see here: 

https://blog.knowbe4.com/cybersecurity-awareness-month-weekly-tip-social-media-safety

The synopsis is:  Social Media is a treasure trove of answers to all of your security questions.  Stop posting your entire life to social media AND configure the security settings to PRIVATE.  There is no reason to share that information with the world.

October has been designated as Cyber Security Awareness Month.  October is now history, but a free training video is still available.  The video is from knowbe4 but I shortened the link from 241 characters to something I thought you could type.  The link is:

https://tinyurl.com/y62f8o4d

Click the arrows in the bottom right corner to advance from section to section. 

The training shares experiences of people who have made huge mistakes and have been fired or demoted because of them.  It also includes suggestions that are easy implemented to protect yourself from similar experiences. 

The take away is:  Learn from the mistakes of others.  It’s much less painful than learning from your own mistakes.  From start to finish, including completing the five question quiz at the end, takes less than 10 minutes.  Watch the video and share it with those you care about.

Covid, Flu, Riots.  It’s a scary season.  As you attempt to make it as “normal” as possible, please heed the advise of aforementioned videos.  

Stay Safe, Stay Calm, and Care On!

Happy Thanksgiving

~Janet

You know what I think?  …  I don’t know what I think!!

Ron Fischer

Ron Fischer is a childhood family friend.  I don’t remember what we were discussing, politics possibly, when he passionately proclaimed “You know what I think?  (pause)  I don’t know what I think!” I laughed then, and I still laugh today.  It’s a classic statement.  It is especially fitting  in todays world of chaos. For the record:  Ron was (and presumably still is) incredibly smart (and good looking).

You know what Janet thinks?  I think the world is going to get even more chaotic and it is especially important to take extra precautions to protect your data, your identity, your finances.  Since October is officially Cyber Security Awareness Month, I thought I would do a quick review.

1. If it is important, BACK IT UP.  External drives are cheap.  Recovering data from a failed hard drive starts at $600 and can run into the thousands of dollars.  Recovering data from a ransomware attack is impossible without a local backup or a bitcoin account.

2. Think before you click.  If you don’t want to see a ransom note then pay attention to what  you are clicking.  Don’t open attachments you weren’t expecting.  Double check the spelling of all links before you click.  Hover over the link to see if the  landing page address actually matches the link you are hovering over.

3. Use Two-Factor Authentication.  At  a minimum, put 2FA on your bank accounts. Yes it is a pain.  But it is not nearly as painful as discovering your balance is now zero or below. 

4. Be suspicious of every email.  Over 3 billion fake emails are sent every day.  And they are getting more sophisticated.  Now they are taking the time to pose as a family member, friend or coworker.

5. Delete accounts you aren’t using.  Did you set up an account for a one-time purchase?  Go back to the site and close the account.  You don’t want your personal information sitting there if the site is breached.

6. Are you putting a credit card number into a web site?  Double check the site security.  If you don’t see httpS in the address line, then put your credit card back in your wallet.

7. Stay current with updates.  Windows 10 is good about keeping systems updated, but you should check your antivirus software and apps like adobe reader on a regular basis.  If you are see a message that says reboot to install updates, then by all means, REBOOT.

8. If you have to connect to a public network, use a VPN connection to keep your browsing private. 

9. Think it can’t happen to you?  That’s as funny as Ron saying “I don’t know what I think!”  Criminals don’t care who you are.  They are looking for easy targets.  They cast big nets in hopes of pulling in lots of fish.  Don’t be a fish!

And a personal note: If you are one of the many experiencing depression triggered by Covid/election/fires, I have two suggestions that will help. 

1.  Turn off the news & social media.  2.  Start a gratitude journal.

Stay Safe.  Stay Healthy, and if you know Ron, tell him Janet says Hi.

 ~ Janet

Summer is a state of mind.

Greetings!!

And welcome to September.  It’s been a fast and furious summer and I’m sort of tired and need a vacation, so I’m going to skip writing a newsletter this month. 

Enjoy the comics, and remember to come visit if your computer needs help or if you need a place to hide the excess zucchini and apples.

Stay Safe.  I hope to get writing again next month..

~ Janet

“Please remember to over-do it on gratitude this week…Gratitude reminds us of all that is good amidst the difficult.” ~Nataly Kogan

Aww… COVID…. Don’t you love it?  What’s not to love?  We get to spend extra time with our loved ones.  We have the perfect excuse to stay away from the obnoxious neighbors.  The house is clean.   Oops, wait, the clean house will never happen. 

I can tell you what is happening.  Spammers, Hackers and Fraudsters are making bank.  They are loving the fact that everyone is going stir crazy. In their zombie state, they are happily opening attachments and calling “Microsoft” because a random popup told them they should.  So lets review.

1. Microsoft never asks you to call them.   There are more than 1 billion devices running Windows 10.   (https://news.microsoft.com/bythenumbers/en/windowsdevices)   If  just one tenth of 1 percent of those device owners called Microsoft, they would generate 1 million calls.  Why would Microsoft initiate 1 million calls?  That’s absurd.  Don’t call Microsoft!  And don’t call any other phone number that randomly appears on your screen.  Always confirm the numbers you are calling via an alternate source.

2. If you aren’t expecting an attachment, don’t open the attachment!  KnowBe4 reports an emergence of Fake File Attachment Images.  In their words: “Something relatively new we are seeing over the last year is the use of fake file attachments, which are really images with links to other objects hosted on malicious websites.” https://blog.knowbe4.com/top-12-most-common-rogue-url-tricks   In English:  It looks like a pdf, doc, xls file.  When you try to open the file, you land on a malicious web site.  Wave good-bye to zombie life.  It’s now, all hands on deck as you try to minimize the damage!

3. Scrutinize the link before you click.  Is it spelled correctly?  Don’t mistake http://goggle.com for http://google.com.  Did you pick up the difference on those addresses the first time through, or did you have to read it twice?  That’s what the bad guys are counting on!  Always Read It TWICE!! All the carpenters in my family preach: Measure Twice, Cut Once!!  I have similar advice.  Read TWICE, Click is optional.

4. Hover over the link.  When you hover over a link a post-it note will tell you what the real website address is.  Does it match the link you are trying to reach?  You don’t want to click on myhouse.com and end up at fanaticshouse.biz. 

5. Don’t use the same password on multiple sites.  Can’t remember multiple passwords?  No problem, use a Password Keeper.  I recommend Dashlane or LastPass.  Visit http://dashlane.com/plans  or http://lastpass.com/pricing for a free or paid plan. 

Navigating COVID is causing enough unpleasantness in life.  Don’t make it worse by falling prey to bandits.  Educate your family, educate your friends, educate your co-workers.    If you need tech assistance, please keep Comp-U-Talk in business and come visit.  Remember to bring your mask. 

Stay Safe,

~ Janet

Because It Made Me Laugh!

“Wait” has almost always meant “Never.” ~Dr. Martin Luther King

Greetings!  By the time you get this newsletter, 2020’s Independence  Day Celebration will most likely be history, just like a customers data!

Why do I say that?  Another computer bit the dust.  Eventually, that computer will be yours. Computers, like people, eventually die.  It’s not a matter of if, it is a matter of when.

My first job after graduating business school was insurance sales.  My boss wanted me to focus on life insurance sales because life insurance paid higher commissions than car insurance.

I was living in Corvallis, a predominantly college town.  All of my contacts were college students or recent college grads.  The people in my circle of influence had NO money.  I was desperate.  I went to the morgue and inquired about the cost to die.  It was one on the best interviews of my life.  The undertaker gave me a tour, answered my questions, and implanted into my memory things I will never forget.  I won’t swear to the actual numbers, but back in 1983 a paupers cremation was nearly a grand.  If you wanted an average funeral, you needed to spend five grand.  Grief stricken and guilt ridden family members would shell out much more, because grief and guilt are easily assuaged with fists full of cash.

Why do I tell this story?  Death is expensive, but it can be planned for.  Plan your funeral.  Save some cash.  Plan your computer’s funeral.  Save some cash.

The customer system that died…  It had no backup.  They purchased a top of the line computer with RAIDed hard drives.  RAID means there are multiple hard drives sharing the data.  If one drive dies, the other drive(s) continue to function and you can still recover the data.  But you know what?  If the motherboard dies, or the RAID controller dies, this recovery process becomes a whole bunch more difficult and way more expensive. It’s  $3000-$8000 more difficult because we have to send those RAIDed hard drives out to a specialist to recover the data. 

Did you know you can protect your data for less than  $100?  A good quality external hard drive can be plugged into your computer and Windows 10 backup can be configured to run backups daily.  Basic backups can literally be setup in roughly 10 minutes.  We have drives and instructions in stock.

Need better protection?  We can send your data to the cloud.  Cloud backups protect  data from computer failure AND environmental catastrophe.  If you have been watching the news lately, you know wind, water and fire are not the only source of catastrophe.  Looters, rioters and demonstrators can wreak some havoc as well.

And… It’s affordable.  A personal computer can be protected for $1/per day.  Business servers, because of their complexity will cost more.  As an added bonus, our backup plans will alert me if your backup fails.  (It’s a huge jaw drop to discover your backup has been failing and nobody knew about it.) Learn from the mistakes of others.  Schedule your install today.  You don’t have to bring the computer in.  I don’t have to come to you, so all those social distancing rules and spritzing down surfaces can be avoided.  There is no charge for install and configuration as long as you have a high speed internet connection and you schedule your install before end of July.  Read the Dr Martin Luther King Quote again:  “Wait” has almost always meant “Never”.

Stay Safe, Call Me!

~ Janet

The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.

~Albert Einstein

May proved to be another exciting month.  My house for sale ad was picked up by scammers.  They wasted no time listing it as “For Rent” on Craig’s List.  In a surprise to me, my house now includes a play ground, a car park, air conditioning, and a fire pit!  All for $900/month AND all utilities included!  The nice gentleman trying to rent my house had to move to Florida ASAP  “to work and contribute to (W.H.O.) And also functioning in the house of GOD.” Umm Huh!!  I don’t think my God is the same as his god. 

In good news, Craig’s list took the ad down immediately.

And making the rounds again:  Email claiming to have hacked your router/email/camera with the intent of releasing “dirty laundry” and erasing your hard drive unless they receive $7,768 in bitcoin within 48 hours. 

Things to know about this email:  First, it is a scam. Email lists are cheap.  I priced email lists.  Generic lists of 1000 names can be purchased for as little as $100.  If just one person on the list takes the bait, the scammer has netted $7,668.  (Remind me again, Why do I work for a living?)

Second, they can’t access your camera if you have it turned  off or unplugged.  To turn it off (or on):  Click the start button (square in bottom left of your screen), Click on Settings, Click on Privacy, navigate to Camera in the left pane.  In the right pane, click the change button to turn the camera off or on.  If you need the camera for an online meeting, repeat these steps to turn it back on. 

Third, router manufacturers do release updates/patches for their equipment.  Each router manufacture has specific instructions for how to upgrade their device.  If you need assistance with router upgrades, we are here to help.

Working from home and the popularity of Zoom created some buzz in May as well.  Customers have worried about being scammed into installing fake updates.  The Zoom website states there are two types of updates:

Manual updates for minor enhancements and/or minor bug fixes can be downloaded from the download center or when instructed by the support team.

Important downloads with useful feature enhancements and/or critical bug fixes will download automatically or prompt the user to download when there is no meeting in progress. 

And Toms Guide (https://www.tomsguide.com/news/zoom-security-privacy-woes) pointed out an alternative option for using Zoom.  Instead of downloading the software, which will need to be patched, you can use the web version instead.  The web browser gets security enhancements faster and it doesn’t have the permissions an installed app has, which limits the harm it can cause.  The next time you click a link to join a meeting, instead of using the desktop software, read the fine print and click the link to “join from your browser” instead.

Stay Safe and Carry On!

~ Janet

Because It Made Me Laugh!

Is the normal you’ve left the normal you want to return to?
~Valorie Burton

April was a crazy month.  I think I have everyone who wants or needs to work from home, successfully working from home.  I’m hoping May will be more gracious and give me the privilege of working a day or two from home as well.

So what made April crazy?  Besides the pandemic, I got to rebuild an office that was hit by ransomware.  The ransomware came in via a link to a recorded webinar.  I don’t know any of the specifics concerning  which webinar or what platform was used (zoom, gotomeeting, or something else), but I do know,  it took several days to restore 1.5 terabytes of  data from backups, and reinstall critical business applications.  It was ugly.  They survived with minimal data loss.

My personal life is also crazy.  I have successfully moved most of my belongings out of the old house and into the new house.  While finishing up the move, Neal & I decided it would be a good idea to list our house for sale on zillow.com and forsalebyowner.com. 

That has been an experience.  I don’t understand why all inquiries ask “Is this for sale?”  Pretty certain Jeff Foxworthy is a distant cousin.  It takes every ounce of willpower to not say “No, we thought it would be fun to pretend to sell it… Here’s your sign…”

I was pretty excited when a legitimate inquiry came in.  I responded appropriately with options to tour the home.  A week went by and I got a really nice reply back saying they closed on a property they found on a really awesome site, and suggested I list our property there as well.  They kindly sent me the link created at bit.ly.  What awesome buyers! Right? 

It seemed too kind.  Kind of creeped me out.  So I did some research.  First thing you need to know, is bit.ly is a url shortener.  It will take a web address like:

https://www.ctv.ca/Your-Morning/Video/Teachers-song-about-her-feelings-during-the-pandemic-made-our-hosts-cry-of-laughter-vid1943353?jwsource=cl

And turn it into: https://bit.ly/2y9FQPr

For years I’ve been preaching: “DON’T CLICK ON RANDOM LINKS!!”  And because inquiring minds want to know,  I set off to find a way to verify where the link might take me, without actually taking me there.  Remarkably, there is.  You can preview the original unabbreviated  link by appending a “+” to the end of the link, like so:   https://bit.ly/2y9FQPr+ 

From there you can make an informed decision as to whether it is wise to proceed or not.  Turns out, the bitly link was a series of cascading shortened links that landed in Italy.  SO GLAD I DIDN’T TAKE THE BAIT!

TinyURL is a competing link shortening tool I have used repeatedly over the years to share links in these newsletters. 

TinyURL took the previous long link and turned it into: https://tinyurl.com/y9jfh9xo

To preview a tinyurl link, add the word preview to the address as shown: https://preview.tinyurl.com/y9jfh9xo

All of that to say:  I suspect the recorded webinar that brought in the ransomware was most likely a shortened URL.  It is especially important during these crazy times to check every link before we click on it. 

Hovering over the linked item will show  the actual address it opens.  If it is a bitly or tinyurl address, follow the directions above to see the real landing page.

And, check out the link used to create these examples. You will scream with laughter.

Helping You Stay Safe While Living In Less Than Safe Times!

~ Janet

Because It Made Me Laugh!

“Happiness is a function of accepting what is.”

~Werner Erhard

I mentioned last month that the barrage of negative media causes depression for me.  It’s a simple case of garbage in, garbage out.  So this month I want to share some sites to help take some of the YUK  out of social distancing or watching the news.

First up is Garrison Keillor and Prairie Home Companion, a radio show based on the fictional town of Lake Wobegon, in Minnesota.  Listen to the funniest episode ever: the Home Coming Queen and the Sherman Tank here:  https://youtu.be/FnPm9A-FodY

I’m not the only one searching for Good News.  Actor John Krasinski from “The Office” has started the “Some Good News” Channel.  See it here: https://youtu.be/F5pgG1M_h_U

Animal lovers will enjoy the antics of these Labs.  See it here: https://youtu.be/QEK8LS_0Gqk

Check out Ted Talks at: https://www.ted.com/talk for a wide variety of topics.  My favorite is “This is What Happens When You Reply to Spam”  found here:  https://tinyurl.com/yas2unkz

(link shortened via tinyurl because it took 5 lines of  the newsletter!)

Mom use to say: “All Play and No Work Makes Johnny a Dull Boy”  Wait! I think I have that wrong.  “All Play and  No Work Makes Johnny a Broke Boy!”  So when you are done playing, here are some recommends for easing the pain of working from home:

To Access Your Computer at work: 

AnyDesk (https://anydesk.com/en)  This “free for personal” use tool is a no fluff, tried and true winner.  Prefer a nicer interface?  Use GoToMyPc (https://get.gotomypc.com/) for a free trial and then purchase a subscription.

Need to Meet? 

EZtalks (https://www.eztalks.com/) has free versions for Web and Video Conferencing.  For more robust meetings and connections via everything but string and tin cans, try GoToMeeting (https://www.gotomeeting.com/)

Need to Take your Desk Phone Home, or have it forward messages?

VOIP (Voice over IP) are all the rage.  VOIP phones use your internet connection to communicate.  They are simple to use; just plug them into your internet connection and they work.  You can also leave them at the office and program them to forward all calls to your email, home phone, or your cell phone.  They are reasonably priced.  I work with three VOIP services.  If you would like to explore how VOIP works and how it can save you money, please reach out to me.

Need to Share Files between two or more computers and the internet connections are too slow to make remote access feasible?

Try a file sharing plan.  The most famous is Dropbox (https://www.dropbox.com/basic)  They have a paid plan and a free plan.  Just save the files you want to share to the Dropbox folder and it will sync across multiple computers. 

Need a more robust solution?

Anchor has gifted to me 100 licenses to their secure file sharing platform.  This commercial grade platform includes automatic & continuous backup.  A rollback feature in case you are infected by ransomware.  It includes roll-based access controls, secure share links with expiration dates, and unlimited storage.  Did I mention it is secure?  You can use it free until June 30. 

I’ve been using this tool for years and it is wonderful.  All of my files are at my fingertips, whether I’m working in the office or at home.  I never get messages about needing to purchase more space.  AND its works really well on my slow satellite internet connection.  I’d love to share the gift with you.  It’s first come, first served.  Give me a call.

(541) 756-8770

Helping You Stay Sane While Living In Insane Times!

~ Janet

Because It Made Me Laugh!

A Random Facebook Post