In a modern society, we do a lot of business online. Whether it's through e-mail or making monetary transactions while shopping over the web, we put ourselves at risk when we can't see the person with whom we are conducting business. Often, there are people out there who deliberately set traps so that they can benefit from our mistakes. These traps are known as "scams." Never fear, however, as there are many ways to keep yourself safe. The good people over at ScamBusters have recently put together a collection of tips for preventing one from falling for these devious digressions. Here are just a few:


1. Don't buy or invest in somethat that seems too good to be true.

What? A hundred bananas for only 50 cents, you say? WOW! What a great deal! Or not... chances are that if something sounds too good to be true, it is. The only exception to this rule is that if you personally know and trust the seller--and even then double-check just to make sure.

2. Don't accept that someone is who they say they are.

Hello, sir or madam: I am Prince Ballalalajoojibar from Nigeria, and I need your help.... Have you ever recieved an e-mail or Facebook message like this? If you have, chances are you've been a victim of a common scam. Unless you have proof and can be without-a-doubt certain of a person's identity, NEVER EVER believe they are who they say they are on the internet.

3. Don't be hasty.

"BUY NOW!" is a slogan you should never follow. Honest merchants and vendors will give you enough time to consider an offer and judge whether or not it is a transaction you would benefit from. ScamBusters says that the only exception to this might be if a "limited-time offer" were in effect, but even then it could be a trap!

4. Only invest in or donate to organizations that you've thoroughly checked out.

There are baddies out there that can stoop to the lowest of lows--even fronting as charities for starving children or the like. If you're going to put money into something, especially if you want that money to be of help to others, make sure you know with absolute certainty that an organization is legitimate before you go all in. Sometimes "for the children" is a mask for "for my Netflix subscription."

5. Protect your credentials.

From: DiscoverCardUSA Subj: Your Account -- Dear DiscoverCard Customer, Your account has been recently tampered with. In order to ensure your account remains secure, please provide us with your current username and password so that we can continue to prevent your information from further compromise... These e-mails can often be some of the most dangerous scams you'll encounter. This is because on the surface, they seem legit. It is important to note, however, that no card company or bank will EVER EVER EVER ask you for your username and password. This information and information like it is designed for you and for you only. Protect vital credentials such as this at all costs--no matter how legitimate a message appears to be.


Last but not least, it is crucial that you use good old fashioned common sense when interacting with others over the internet. Unless you know someone "in real life," and know that this is their tried-and-true account/address/product, TRUST NO ONE. When moving money, use third-party, secure tools like PayPal and Google Wallet. Always use a secure connection whenever possible, easily identified by "https://" in the address bar. Approach all things online with a smart sense of skepticism, and always play it safe!

[Source] ScamBusters

As university students, we get a lot of pretty kickin’ discounts when it comes to things we need for school. Unfortunately, we often still fall short of coming up with enough greenbacks to foot the bills because we already spent it all on NEEDTOBREATHE concert tickets. Microsoft Office is a productivity suite that many would say is a must for students, but (even with a discount) it can be pretty pricey. Microsoft Office University Edition 2010 costs just over $100 including taxes--even with the student discount. If however, you’ve spent that hundred bucks already on a textbook, you don’t have to worry.

Luckily, there are many wonderful (and FREE) alternatives to choose from:

OpenOffice (http://www.openoffice.org)

Probably the most popular alternative, OpenOffice provides the functionality and features to rival Microsoft’s popular productivity programs. OpenOffice is powerful enough to handle the tasks of business as well as help you conquer your Speech 101 presentation or British literature term paper.

Google Docs (http://www.docs.google.com)

A newcomer to the productivity scene, Google Docs is becoming increasingly more functional and full of features. One of my personal favorite features of Google Docs is the ability to share projects with multiple users, and collaborate with team members LIVE--editing, commenting, and working together to create dazzling results!

Zoho (http://www.zoho.com)

Perhaps a lesser-known contender, Zoho is another online platform (similar to Google Docs) that features collaboration capabilities as well as boast a couple of different programs not found in the other suites, such as a simple “Notebook” for aggregating information and a “Planner” to help keep track of activities and other things in your busy life.

The great thing about all of these alternatives is that they are compatible with current Microsoft Office formats, so you don’t have to worry about hauling your computer to class when you need to make a presentation--simply save it with a “.doc” or “.docx” extension and load it up when you get to class. So the next time you find yourself with a computer and no office suite, check out these alternatives for conquering your college activities!

We are nearing the end of application season here at Dorm Net, and I'm looking forward to seeing who will be joining us at the Help Desk next semester. Several of our longer-standing employees will be graduating, so the desk might be looking a little different.

I've thoroughly enjoyed my first year here, and am excited for another one. I think I'll be able to look back and say that this was one of the best jobs I've ever had. Even when we have every station filled with computers, five hundred routers going rogue and needing to be shut down, and some weird problem with our internet provider has service out for the entire city, I love this job. I always have fun with my fellow agents, whether it's laser tag during training or the phone is ringing incessantly because the new round of password resets has taken effect.

We send emails to each other, usually beginning with something important and then devolving into complete madness. We make jokes about buying a giant red siren for the Help Desk. We throw stuff at each other.

We decorated for Christmas. Carols played for hours on end, lights hung up everywhere, and we set up a spare monitor with a countdown to the special day.

There is an entire page on our Wiki completely dedicated to quotes. We have pages and pages of ridiculous things that we say to one another.

We have a huge box of Lego bricks, which you've likely seen all over the wall visible from the window.

I love this job.

I probably should have said all of this a little sooner than the day before applications are due - oh well.

What exactly are cookies, anyway?!

















You might here talk of HTML cookies or web cookies thrown around a lot, but what are they really? The term is derived from the so-called "magic cookie", named by Netscape engineers in the early days of the web. A magic cookie is simply a small packet of data passed to and then from the client's computer; this data was not very meaningful but perhaps comparable to a ticket stub that marked a particular event or transaction. The term was eventually shortened to "cookie" and these data packets were given digital signatures to increase their security.

There are many different uses for cookies. Some cookies can maintain data collected while browsing. For example, a website might use cookies to implement a "shopping cart" that stores selections until checkout. Another common use for cookies is website personalization. Have you ever had your username already filled in for you at a website? Or have you customized the appearance of a site and wondered how the website remembers you? This website server can encode these setting into cookies that they save in temporary internet folders on your computer. These are just a few of the neat ways that cookies are used!

Sometimes cookies can be used for less than honest purposes. Tracking cookies can keep track your browsing history as you surf the web. Do not be alarmed, for cookies cannot be programmed, cannot install anything on your computer, and cannot carry viruses. However, tracking cookies can be used by spyware and raise privacy concerns.

So as you can see, cookies aren't bad things, and in fact, they can be very useful. But because of possibilities such as tracking cookies, it never hurts to delete cookies from your computer every once in a while.

Firefox: ..................................................... Chrome:

Internet Explorer: ........................ Safari:
















While each browser handles things slightly differently, however there is some predictability. There is an options tool, maybe a security tab, and then an option to "Clear Browsing History" (or something similar). Here you will be able to delete cookies and other temporary files that might harm or just slow down your computer.

Having said these things... READ ON! :)

When informed by my boss that I was to write a blog, no brilliant ideas presented themselves to me. Scraping my brain for days on end yielded no exciting topic of which I could inform you about. It was only with a suggestion by a witty co-worker that the idea of discussing the wonderful features of Dropbox was formed. However, I digress from my actual discussion. I am here to tell you about Dropbox, and not about how I am inept I am at making decisions for myself.

Without further delay I will begin. You might ask, “What is Dropbox?” Is it a mythical creature? Hardly. Is it a hybrid car? Perhaps. Is it the nickname of a politician? Not in the least, it can actually be trusted. On the contrary to these points, Dropbox is an intuitive piece of software for all of your file sharing and backup needs. Dropbox is a program and service that allows you install a simple application on your electronic devices what will sync files to all of your devices at once. It can be used on your PC, Mac, Android, iPhone, tablet, net book, and pretty much every other device you can think of that connects to the internet and has data storage. It will greatly simplify your data storage needs.

To get started with Dropbox all one has to do is visit http://www.dropbox.com/ , create an account and then download the application to every device you want to connect to your account. Once you have created an account and have the application installed, on say your PC, there will be a folder located on computer that becomes you virtual “Dropbox”. Everything you “drop” in your Dropbox folder is not only saved on your local computer hard drive, but it is automatically synced with your Dropbox account, stored online in a safe place. Therefore your data is automatically backed up as you load things to your Dropbox folder. This feature, in and of itself, does not make Dropbox that special. Google has had similar features using their Google Docs application and add-ins such as Google Cloud Connect to make syncing and backing up files easier for a much longer period of time. Dropbox has other features that make it more useful, and for that matter, helpful than other programs. When a file is loaded to your Dropbox on one device, such as your PC at home, it saves and automatically syncs to your account online. If you then access Dropbox from another device on which you have installed the Dropbox application, such as your Android phone, the file is automatically download to that device. In fact every file saved in Dropbox is automatically downloaded and updated to every device you have connected to your Dropbox account. Therefore as long as you have a stable internet connection you can add, delete, move, modify, and save files to your account knowing that it will be backed up and accessible from other devices. You can even access all of your files directly by going to the Dropbox website and logging in to your account. It makes saving and sharing files between your devices extremely simple, no more uploading files to Google Docs, no more flash drives on your key chains, no more emailing yourself files.

Just as you thought the deal could not get any better, I will outline more of the features of Dropbox for you. The next feature I present to you is one of my personal favorites. It is the ability to share your Dropbox folder with others. This feature makes Dropbox an ideal way to share pictures with friends, share documents with colleagues, or just to make sure your project team has all of the same information available. I personally use Dropbox with my Senior Design Project team. It allows us to all edit different documents and be able to view and access the same information in our team Dropbox account, all at the same time. We can all be on different computers working on different documents, but Dropbox will actively sync from each computer to our account. Therefore every document you work on is backed up automatically to your online storage, and then it is downloaded to every device connected. Also if you are working on your computer, and someone else is working on something in your Dropbox account you will see notification in the corner of your screen indicating what document is automatically being synced. In the event someone else tries to open the same file you are working it Dropbox won’t corrupt the file, or give the standard “this file is in use by another user” error, but instead it will rename the second copy of the file that was opened, adding “(Steve’s conflicted copy”) to the end of file, where Steve would be second person to attempt to open the file. This allows both persons to be working on the same file, but unfortunately from that point on they would be working on separate files which would have to be merged together if one single file was wanted again. The ease of sharing files and backing up files with this system is second to none in my humble opinion.

I could probably ramble on about more benefits of Dropbox, but hopefully you have already learned how awesome it is by this point. If you would like to learn more and read less I would suggest visiting the aforementioned link to Dropbox’s website or check out the work of one of my colleagues at: http://dormnet.blogspot.com/2011/10/savvy-storage-solution.html.

I will conclude with this little caveat. Stop having file storage frustration, Dropbox your files, Roll through life without worries. See what I did there? I tied in my ridiculous title to my closing remarks. Until next time! Shalom!

Urg... I can't get into my account? Why!?

As noted in a previous article last semester, Harding implemented a mandatory password change requirement for all students, faculty, and staff back in October of last year. Hopefully at this point you have received an email reminder about this, and have changed it to something new. However, if you have been away from Harding for a while, or have not logged in quite some time, you may receive a message telling you your password is incorrect. No need to worry though, as we deal with this all the time and can help walk you through how to regain access to your account by calling our help desk at (501) 279-4545.

Read more about testing your password's security after the jump...

Tired of the general white, blah background on your Gmail?! Well have no fear because today is the day for spicing it up. It is super easy to change to what ever is to your liking...here's how!

1) Click on the gear symbol on the top right-hand corner

2) Then scroll down to "Themes"

3) All of the selections should now be in the area where your mail usually is. There are some great selections. Anywhere from a Matrix-type theme with "Terminal", to a android theme (for all of those anti-iOS people). I recommend one of the HD Themes because these look great on high resolution monitors.

All you have to to do is select the theme that you want and within seconds your background should change before your eyes! Enjoy!!