You've got mail. Remember those days? Its hard for me to believe people still use AOL, but many people are just used to it. Its been a while since I've needed to setup AOL on a new computer; many times I am able to convince people to make the move to something else like Gmail. Today I was pleasantly surprised to see just how easy it has become to setup aol mail in Thunderbird. Just popped in the email address and password and it found and configured the settings. What could be easier? No switching makes my customer's life easier, no configuring makes my life easier, and the computer thanked me for relieving its bloated feeling.

Did you know quicktime player on the Mac can also RECORD screencasts? In v.10 under the file menu you can choose New.. Movie, Audio, or Screen Recording.

Use these coupons as often as you like, tell your friends! Limit one coupon per visit per customer. Void where prohibited. No cash value.

Code can be entered on during the checkout, or be printed, clipped, and sent in with payment.

Have you ever received an email message warning you about a "brand new virus", "an email tax", or "a new health risk" ?  Has that same email asked you to send it immediately to everyone you know?

I'm sure at one time or another you have seen these - but did you forward it, or did you delete it?

If you deleted it, you did the right thing. If you also took the time to enlighten the person that sent it to you, I thank you and the world should thank you!

Sometimes the information being asked to be passed along contains some truth. More often however, it contains a lot of scary warnings from seemingly authoritative sources. Often, recognizable sources are cited even though they have no real bearing on what is being claimed. This is known as a Red Herring argument and is used to divert your attention or to misguide you into placing more importance on a fact than it deserves. Many virus threat warning emails will list a bunch of well-known companies in an effort to lend credence to their claim - even though the companies mentioned are not in the business of anti-virus or computer security.

Despite what the scary emails claim, unless your computer is already compromised, simply opening an email is not going to cause files to be deleted from your computer or mailed to a hacker. Executing a file attachment, following links from unsolicited or unknown sources, and not knowing how to spot suspicious or fake warnings, however, will make it much easier for you to fall victim to various forms of cyber attacks.

Some questions you need to ask yourself:

• Is your operating system up-to-date?
• Do you have an anti-virus, and is it updating and set to scan for threats regularly?
• Are you logged in as a "limited" rather than an "Administrator" on your computer?
• Do you make a habit NOT to click links in your email unless you are 100% certain who sent it, why it was sent, or were otherwise expecting to receive it?

If you couldn't answer "YES" to all of those questions, you are putting yourself at more risk than you aught to be. Learning how to make yourself safer online and helping others do the same is much more important than helping warn others by clogging their inbox with unsubstantiated claims and hype.

Instead of hitting the FWD button when something sounds like it might be real, take the time to analyze what is being asked of you. Try not to take all of their claims at face value. Remember that even though some of the information might be factual, much of it is exaggerated, hyped, or skewed. The aim of these emails are to instill a sense of fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD) to its audience. By forwarding email such as these, you not only aid in their success, but also help them to last for several years and continue to misinform.