Tech Geek and More

Technology Explained for All

Sponsor Ad IDrive Remote Backup

Monthly Archives: June 2010

Tech: Removing the in place ads from your browsing – Internet Explorer…..

 computer%20science One of the questions I keep getting asked involves “pop up ads” that appear as highlighted words on WebPages.  What you will see when browsing on various sites is that key words will be highlights and double underlined (As shown on example below), and when you place your mouse over the key word a “related” ad to the key word will appear. 

image

     There are a couple of problems with this, 1st off the ad pops up as long as you move your mouse, so you DONT get a choice on if you want to see it or not and 2nd, allot of those “related” ads may be related to the key word itself, but may have nothing to do with the topics you are searching for.  As in this post from a tech site, about a story the new i-Phone leak and when my mouse goes over the story, I get an ad for BP…..

image 

 

So what do you do if you want to get rid of these ads.  Here are the steps…..

 

1 – On the top of Internet Explorer – Go to Tools –> Internet Options

 image

2- Once in Internet Options, click on the “Security Tab” –> The on Restricted Sites –> The on the button that says Sites

image

 

3 – Once there in the box that says “Add this website to the zone enter the following 3 websites.

  • vibrantmedia.com
  • intellitxt.com
  • kontera.com

image

 

4 – You will need to refresh the webpage at this point by clicking on page refresh on the top of Internet Explorer.

 image

*********************************************************************************************************************************************

*NOTE – Example ads are bigger in post than normal for example purposes.

**NOTE – Sites that offer Inline ads do this as a revenue stream so that they can offer viewers services for cheap or free, while making money from the ads.

***NOTE – TechGeekandMore does NOT use any form of Inline ads and if anyone comes across any form of inline ads within the TGM site, we ask to be notified immediately.  Please send a screen shot if possible with details of what you see and from which posting.  (SOAPBOX) Even though TGM is looking for ways to help with the cost of running the TGM site, it is felt that inline ads ruin the browsing experience and as such does not want those type of ads for its visitors. (END SOAPBOX)

Software: Skype offering Free Calls to the USA, Mexico and many more countries for a month (FYI There is a catch)

skype Skype (pronounced /ˈskaɪp/ (http://en NULL.wikipedia NULL.org/wiki/Wikipedia:IPA_for_English)) is a software application (http://en NULL.wikipedia NULL.org/wiki/Application_software) that allows users to make voice calls over the Internet (http://en NULL.wikipedia NULL.org/wiki/Voice_over_Internet_Protocol). Calls to other users within the Skype service are free, while calls to both traditional landline telephones (http://en NULL.wikipedia NULL.org/wiki/Landlines) and mobile phones (http://en NULL.wikipedia NULL.org/wiki/Mobile_phone) can be made for a fee using a debit-based user account system. Skype has also become popular for its additional features which include instant messaging (http://en NULL.wikipedia NULL.org/wiki/Instant_messaging), file transfer (http://en NULL.wikipedia NULL.org/wiki/File_transfer), and video conferencing (http://en NULL.wikipedia NULL.org/wiki/Video_conferencing). (From Wiki – LINK: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype (http://en NULL.wikipedia NULL.org/wiki/Skype))

Many of you may know Skype simply as a chat / video chat tool that you use to communicate with others from one computer to another. However, chat does also do calls from computer to phone lines and starting today Skype has a special offer for “Free Calls to the USA, Mexico, and many more countries for a month” all in honor of the World Cup (Soccer or Football depending on where you live).  The following is from the Skype  “BIG BLOG” (LINK:) http://blogs.skype.com/en/2010/06/free_calls_for_a_month.html (http://blogs NULL.skype NULL.com/en/2010/06/free_calls_for_a_month NULL.html)

image

This is a great deal for users who need to make International Calls, however there are a few things you need to be made aware of.  (There always seems to be a catch)

  • You will need to create a Skype account and after that “Subscribe to the plan you are looking at (It seems each one of the countries has its own individual plan, so its not like I can sign up to call Mexico and also call the UK with the same plan.
  • When you “Subscribe” to the plan, Skype will ask you for either a Credit Card Number or PayPal Account Number and they will authorize $1 per “Subscription. They ultimately do not charge the $1 fee , they just put a $1 hold on your account for a couple of days which verifies the account as active.
  • - > Why do you ask they do that, because they want to make sure that the card / PayPal account is valid because you are signing up for the Skype plan for that country. IF you do NOT cancel the “Subscription” yourself before the 30 days are up, you will be automatically charged the fill price of the “Subscription” the following month. As seen in the following 2 quotes from the Skype site.

After the first month, you’ll be charged our normal subscription rate. A fair usage policy (http://www NULL.skype NULL.com/go/terms NULL.fairusage?cm_mmc=socialm|skypeblogs-_-global|intl|pl-_-skype-_-football2010|subscriptions) applies where we offer unlimited calls. Subscriptions exclude service, special, premium and non-geographic numbers. Terms and conditions apply to individuals countries – see the promotion website (http://footballpromo NULL.skype NULL.com/?cm_mmc=socialm|skypeblogs-_-global|intl|pl-_-skype-_-football2010|subscriptions) for more details.

You can cancel your subscription at any time before the end of your free trial and your payment method will not be charged; otherwise, you will be charged on a monthly basis. Learn more (http://go NULL.skype NULL.com/help)

  • There seems to be a different spot to cancel for Subscriptions using PayPal and those using Credit Cards
  • - > For PayPal (LINK: https://support.skype.com/en/faq/FA628/How-can-I-cancel-a-PayPal-Billing-Agreement?frompage=search&q=cancel (https://support NULL.skype NULL.com/en/faq/FA628/How-can-I-cancel-a-PayPal-Billing-Agreement?frompage=search&q=cancel) )

How can I cancel a PayPal Billing Agreement?

In order to cancel your PayPal Billing Agreement, you need to sign into your PayPal account (http://www NULL.PayPal NULL.com). Once logged in, go to Profile > Pay List and choose the agreement you wish to cancel and click the Cancel button on top of the page.

  • For Credit Cards (LINK: https://support.skype.com/en/faq/FA1881/How-do-I-cancel-my-subscription?frompage=search&q=cancel (https://support NULL.skype NULL.com/en/faq/FA1881/How-do-I-cancel-my-subscription?frompage=search&q=cancel))

How do I cancel my subscription?

You can cancel at anytime by signing in to your account (https://secure NULL.skype NULL.com/account/call-phones/settings) and on the Subscription settings page, click Cancel.

Please note – if you cancel your subscription, it will run to the end of your contract. For example, if you have a 3 month subscription, your subscription will run until the end of the 3 month period.

With all of that being said, as long as you remember to cancel before the 30 days are up (unless you want to continue with the service), this is a nice way to test it, so that you can see for yourself if this service is for you.

Software: The new Windows Live Essentials Beta – Available 6/24/10

microsoft-logo From a post earlier today on the Windows Team Blog (LINK: http://windowsteamblog.com/windows_live/b/windowslive/archive/2010/06/23/announcing-the-new-windows-live-essentials-beta.aspx (http://windowsteamblog NULL.com/windows_live/b/windowslive/archive/2010/06/23/announcing-the-new-windows-live-essentials-beta NULL.aspx) ), the latest version of Windows Live Essentials will be out tomorrow, June 24th.

The following Microsoft Video shows some of the latest features to Windows Live Essentials

Get Microsoft Silverlight

Windows Live Essentials – the essential software for Windows

Windows Live Essentials includes Messenger, Mail, Photo Gallery, Movie Maker, Writer, Sync and Family Safety. Essentials is available for free and in many cases may already be installed on your PC with Windows.

Picture of Windows Live Essentials icons (http://windowsteamblog NULL.com/cfs-file NULL.ashx/__key/CommunityServer-Blogs-Components-WeblogFiles/00-00-00-53-82-metablogapi/1537 NULL.Essentials_5F00_5BD7465E NULL.png)

In the upcoming release, we focused on achieving  two important goals with Essentials:

  1. Making everyday tasks simpler and enabling new possibilities on your PC
  2. Connecting Windows 7 to the cloud

Windows Live Essentials beta requires Windows Vista or Windows 7, and is available in English, French, Dutch, Japanese, Portuguese, Simplified Chinese, or Spanish.

As previously announced (http://windowsteamblog NULL.com/windows_live/b/windowslive/archive/2010/06/02/preview-of-the-new-windows-live-essentials NULL.aspx), this release of Essentials is focused on two things: connecting Windows 7 to the cloud services you already use, and making everyday tasks simpler, so that you can do more on your PC.

Connecting Windows 7 to the cloud

We’ve designed Essentials to connect your Windows experience to the web services you already use – not just the ones from Microsoft. The new betas of Windows Live Photo Gallery, Movie Maker, Mail, Writer, and Messenger (http://explore NULL.live NULL.com/windows-live-messenger-beta) connect to photo and video sharing (SkyDrive (http://skydrive NULL.com), Flickr (http://www NULL.flickr NULL.com/), YouTube (http://www NULL.youtube NULL.com/), Facebook (http://www NULL.facebook NULL.com/), SmugMug (http://www NULL.smugmug NULL.com)), social networking (Facebook (http://www NULL.facebook NULL.com/), MySpace (http://www NULL.myspace NULL.com), Linkedin (http://www NULL.linkedin NULL.com)), email (Hotmail (http://www NULL.hotmail NULL.com/), Gmail (http://www NULL.gmail NULL.com), Yahoo! Mail (http://mail NULL.yahoo NULL.com)), blogging (Spaces (http://spaces NULL.live NULL.com), WordPress (http://wordpress NULL.com), Blogger (http://www NULL.blogger NULL.com)), and document productivity (Office Web Apps (http://office NULL.live NULL.com)) services. And the new Windows Live Sync keeps your files synchronized across multiple PCs and in the cloud.  You can even directly access your PC over the web with Sync’s new remote desktop feature.

Making everyday tasks simpler and enabling new possibilities

People like to get creative on their PCs as much as they like seeing what everyone else has been up to. Whether it’s Retouch, Panoramic Stitch, or Photo Fuse in Photo Gallery, Auto Movie in Movie Maker, or Photo Mail in the new Windows Live Mail, we think you’ll be excited by the new additions to Essentials that make advanced tasks, well, easy. If you haven’t yet tried PhotoFuse to merge together the best of several photos, it’s a lot of fun. (http://techcrunch NULL.com/2010/06/02/microsoft-rolls-out-impressive-enhancements-to-windows-live-essentials-suite/)

As soon as the beta goes live tomorrow (we’ll update this blog post when it does), you’ll be able to get it from here (http://explore NULL.live NULL.com/windows-live-essentials-beta). (LINK: http://explore.live.com/windows-live-essentials-beta (http://explore NULL.live NULL.com/windows-live-essentials-beta))

Software: For anyone who watches the World Cup via an online stream that doesn’t want to hear the VuVuzela

Stardock Stardock (LINK: http://www.stardock.com/ (http://www NULL.stardock NULL.com/), a pc software company specializing in Windows experience software and PC games, has come up with a filter to block the sound of the VuVuzela for those watching any of the online streams of the World Cup.  The filter called Devuvuzelator does not require actual installation can be downloaded at (LINK) http://www.stardock.com/labs/devuvuzelator/ (http://www NULL.stardock NULL.com/labs/devuvuzelator/)

Here is the explanation from the site about the Devuvuzelator

image 

I tried it with one of this mornings matches and it works very well.  Unfortunately this software is Windows only. 

Open Letter to all the Visitors of TechGeekandMore…..

TGM

Hello everyone,

Thank you for visiting TechGeekandMore.com (TGM). Over that past year and a half, this project has taken a life of its own.  When I 1st started TGM, I figured that it could be a way that I could keep my tech skills sharp, while allowing me to pass helpful information to family, friends, and whomever stumbled across my little ol’ site.  Honestly the fact that I now average about 5000 page views a month still BLOWS MY MIND (OK that may still seem like a small number to some but to me its huge).

Since I can remember, as soon as someone found out that I’m a computer guy when shopping or at a party or just out on the street, I would always get the “Oh can I ask you a question”…….  I guess its the same thing if your a doctor, or lawyer, or well you get the idea.  Many of the posts on TGM since the beginning started with someone “asking a question” when I was out and about.

As well as running TGM, I too and a constant web surfer, and when I surf, I hate going to sites where you have to search for the story among all the ads or even worse ads in between each paragraph of the story that I’m reading. I always said that I wanted to keep TGM different.  So far TGM shows 1 ad and it is located at the bottom of the main page.  The ad is for iDrive, a very good online backup service that TGM recommends.  TGM is a paid partner/reseller for iDrive, however, we would still recommend it even if we weren’t.

Now comes the part when I need to ask those of you who visit TGM for help.  I don’t want to make TGM look like all the other sites, filled with ads all over the place, but the costs of running TGM is getting a little high and even though I am a computer “Geek”, in this economy I’m not getting paid (from my real job) like I used to be.  So I’m asking those visitors to TGM that can afford to donate anything at all ($1, $2, $5, $10, or anything at all), if you could please consider helping me and TGM out.  On the top right corner of the site you will see the “Help Support TGM” donate button.  This will lead to the PayPal page for TGM, your donations are secure thru PayPal.

image I hope that TechGeekandMore has been able to help resolve your computer issues, or at least educate you so that your tech life is a little easier.  With your help, I hope to be able to continue this.

Again to all the visitors to Tech Geek and More – Thank You

Alex Novelo – Head of Tech Geek and More

Software: ALERT – Critical Adobe Flash Update Released. You need to make sure your system is updated to this version.

adobe-logo Adobe has released an update to its Flash Player (New Version 10.1) and Adobe AIR software to correct 32 issues that could lead to everything from the application / your computer crashing all the way to someone else (“Bad Guy”) being able to take control of your computer. The bad guys in the past week figured out how to use the vulnerabilities to be able to infect peoples computers, this update corrects those issues.

This Adobe advisory (http://www NULL.adobe NULL.com/support/security/bulletins/apsb10-14 NULL.html) outlines the severity:

Critical (http://www NULL.adobe NULL.com/devnet/security/security_zone/severity_ratings NULL.html) vulnerabilities have been identified in Adobe Flash Player version 10.0.45.2 and earlier. These vulnerabilities could cause the application to crash and could potentially allow an attacker to take control of the affected system.

The vulnerabilities in this patch batch affects all major operating systems: Adobe Flash Player 10.0.45.2 and earlier versions for Windows, Macintosh, Linux and Solaris; Adobe AIR 1.5.3.9130 and earlier versions for Windows, Macintosh and Linux.

**NOTE THAT THIS ISSUE DOES AFFECT SOFTWARE INSTALLED ON WINDOWS, MAC, AND LINUX.

Here are some things to keep in mind.

- If you have more than 1 browser installed on your computer (Internet Explorer, Chrome, Firefox, Opera, etc), you MUST check this on each one of the browsers, even if you only use one. Check on any that are installed.

- You need to verify the Adobe Flash Player version number installed on your system, Adobe recommends that users access the About Flash Player page (http://www NULL.adobe NULL.com/products/flash/about/), or right-click on content running in Flash Player and select “About Adobe (or Macromedia) Flash Player” from the menu.

- In addition, check on your installed programs list (Windows Users – Start-> Settings-> Control Panel-> Add/Remove Programs or Programs and Features). Check and see that it doesn’t list multiple installs of either Adobe Flash or Adobe AIR.  If it does from that screen highlight –> select uninstall to all but the latest one.

- If you would like to make absolutely sure that all older copies of Adobe Flash are uninstalled or if you are having issues doing the upgrade, go to the Adobe knowledge base page (tn_14157) which is at (LINK) http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/141/tn_14157.html (http://kb2 NULL.adobe NULL.com/cps/141/tn_14157 NULL.html) and download the Adobe Uninstaller.  This will go thru your computer and automatically delete all versions of Adobe Flash.  Then you can just install the latest version.

- The following 2 links are the direct downloads from Adobe for Flash (NOTE that 1 link is for Internet Explorer and the other is for the rest of the Browsers).

http://fpdownload.ad…h_player_ax.exe (http://fpdownload NULL.adobe NULL.com/get/flashplayer/current/install_flash_player_ax NULL.exe) (IE)
http://fpdownload.ad…lash_player.exe (http://fpdownload NULL.adobe NULL.com/get/flashplayer/current/install_flash_player NULL.exe) (All other browsers)

Keeping your computer safe is not just about updating the Operating System and having an Anti-Virus program. These days the bad guys are looking for anyway into your system.  Imagine that when you left your home, you locked all your doors, but left a Window unlocked because the lock was broken.  A bad guy could use that Window to get inside.  So what would you do, replace the lock of course. This issue with software is the computer version of just that situation.

Google Ads