Read time (bolded) – 5 minutes

Read time (comprehensive) – 8 minutes

We’ve all heard the chatter: murmurs about a teenage girl losing her job because of a Facebook status update, or some guy calling in sick to work, only to have his (dated) fishing trip photos making the rounds on Flickr.

As social network users, we have to be aware that someone is ALWAYS watching. Whether it is our friends, casual acquaintances, colleagues, or complete strangers, when content is published on a social network, someone will see it.

As we’ve done previously, using real world analogies can help us understand just how online behavior can affect our lives.

Around close friends, people we know on a personal level, we probably feel most comfortable. Maybe we can cut loose a little bit, say what’s really on our mind, maybe engage in some behavior that could be embarrassing if seen by the wrong eyes. Likewise, most of try to keep profanity under wraps in the workplace or don’t feel the need to share the weekend’s exploits with our least favorite supervisor.

The same thing is true in the world of social networks. Just as we choose the appropriate time and place to vocalize certain thoughts or ideas (often based on setting or people in the room), we have to do the same online

This kind of discretion on social networking sites is generally accomplished through a balance of privacy settings, as well as making careful choices about the people we connect with and the information we share. Participating in social networks without considering your online privacy is the equivalent of undressing with the curtains open, for all the world to see.

While each social network has its own specific privacy settings, most have options to hide content from users you aren’t connected to, as well as options to hide content from the web at large, perhaps the most useful trick is to simply post and connect responsibly.

If you think your boss won’t like what you have to say on Facebook, make your profile private and don’t accept his friend request. If you don’t want to block your grandmother, but you don’t want to offend her either, maybe it isn’t a good idea to post the photos from your trip to Vegas.

It all boils down to deciding what you’re willing to share, and taking steps to not cross the line you’ve set. If you want to connect to hundreds or thousands of other users, you’ll have to be mindful of the information you are allowing that mass of users to see. This means everything from email addresses and phone numbers to work history and family photos. If you don’t want the information to be available, DON’T SHARE IT ON A SOCIAL NETWORK.

As these types of websites gain even more massive popularity, the users have to treat them less like a free-for-all, and more like a real-life social setting, complete with all of its hang-ups and consequences.

Read Time (bolded) – 7 minutes
Read Time (comprehensive) – 12 minutes

The Internet can sometimes feel very removed from the real world. Avatars and user names create new identities; introverts can acquire thousands of friends. There is a (false) sense of anonymity and safety in communicating through a computer instead of on the phone or face to face.

Don’t be fooled though, plenty of our dealings on the web are still very much in the real world. Real information (and real money) is the lifeblood of the Internet. Despite endless hours of silly video, Flash games, and cat pictures, the Internet presents many of the same dangers as the real world. Let’s draw some parallels.

• Lock Up The House – You wouldn’t just leave your front door wide open, or protect a garage full of valuables with some flimsy little chain latch. Treat your digital property the same way! This includes setting strong passwords (none of this “qwerty123” business!) and changing them regularly. General security includes, of course, anti-virus software and firewall protection, but it also means locking or logging out of a computer in a public place, and using some caution when browsing or emailing – always log out of your accounts. Always.

• Don’t Believe Everything You Hear – The world is full of people trying to stretch the truth or spin information in their favor. The Internet is no exception – links that promise instant riches or huge rewards are usually scams.

The classic example is an email from some unfamiliar sender, claiming to be some deposed foreign ruler. If you provide your bank information and a small loan, you’ll be repaid many times over. This is an obvious scam (usually called a Nigerian or 419 scam), and most recognize it as such, but they don’t carry this discerning eye into other online activities.

Facebook links (from friends you rarely interact with) promising some shocking video or juicy piece of celebrity news are a sure-fire way to infect your computer with spyware and malware.

Just as you’ve learned to detect body language or tone of voice associated with dishonesty, you can learn to recognize this kind of content on the Internet. Just like your mother told you: if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

• Don’t Take Candy From Strangers – Closely related to identifying online scams or malicious links, avoiding harmful downloads can be learned fairly easily. For email, simply stay away from attachments from unknown email addresses. While browsing the Internet, don’t download anything from a less-than-reputable website. Like the scams mentioned above, potentially harmful downloads will usually be accompanied by some falsified information. Learning how to identify these kinds of threats can save you a lot of trouble by protecting your information and your software.

• Have Something to Fall Back On – With all of the potential threats out there, not to mention the bevy of things that could go wrong with your hardware, maintaining a collection of backup files is always a good idea. The more sensitive or important your information, the greater care you should take in ensuring its survival in the event of a computer catastrophe.

Whether you upload items to a server, burn dozens of CDs, or pile everything on to an external hard drive, it’s important to stash copies of your most valuable files out of harm’s way. When the time comes, you’ll be glad you did.

Imagine Internet browsing as a walk down a busy street. Plenty of the shops are well lit, seem safe, and have what you want. Even some of the less polished looking businesses might have some great items; maybe you can find just what you’re looking for in a place you’ve never been. Enjoy the element of discovery as you wander from place to place.

In between though, are scam artists and pickpockets. Charming raconteurs beckon you from seedy storefronts. Keep your head and move on with confidence. If an alley looks too dangerous, don’t walk down it.

Read Time (bolded): 3 Minutes

Read Time (Comprehensive): 5 Minutes

The Internet can be a dangerous place. We’re constantly reminded to update our antivirus software, to maintain the firewall, to protect our identities at all costs.

Fortunately for the amateur web-surfer, a good deal of reputable websites are interested in your protection as well (it makes them look bad if someone steals your credit card number from their site).

This is done partly by website certificates. These certificates are required of any site that wishes to use an encrypted (secure) connection.

There are two simple ways to identify if a site is secure or not:

•      A closed padlock icon, either in the status bar at the bottom of your browser, or in the address bar at the top.

•      The URL begins with “https” instead of “http.”

Don’t be fooled though, clever phishers and attackers are not beyond inserting fake padlocks, even forging look-alike certificates. If you really need to verify the security of a site you are visiting, the certificates themselves can be checked.

By clicking on the padlock in browsers like Chrome, Internet Explorer, and Firefox, you can take a look at the certificate details. To verify the certificate’s authenticity, look at this information:

- First: Who issued the certificate? The issuer should be a certificate authority like VeriSign or Entrust (you can always search the name of the issuer if you’re at all unsure).

- Second: Who is the certificate issued to? The name on the certificate should be the organization that owns website (this is also information you can search for if something seems fishy).

- Third: What is the expiration date? If the expiration date on the certificate is passed, the certificate is no longer valid. Beware. Also, most certificates are only issued for one to two years. A certificate with an expiration date five years away just might be a fake.

This information will help you know which sites to trust, or at least how to check if a site is trustworthy. It’s never a bad idea to take a look at privacy policies, either.

As always, the best defense against online attackers is common sense. If a site doesn’t seem trustworthy, it probably isn’t.

Read Time (bolded): 6 Minutes

Read Time (comprehensive): 15 Minutes

Hard drives may very well be the most important component of any computer system. All the processing power in the world is useless without data to process. Storing information, be it music, photos, documents, or videos is a primary use of most personal computers.

We’ve seen hard drives grow and improve over the years, from archaic 100 megabyte, 2.5 inch drives released in 1991 to the multi-terabyte drives being manufactured today.

With all of this technological development, it was only a matter of time before some manufactures strayed away from the standard magnetic storage method used by most hard drives over the years.

Now we have a choice when selecting computer storage: standard hard disk (HDD) or the new kid – solid state. Let’s compare.

Solid state drives (SSD) have an awful lot going for them. First and foremost, they don’t have any moving parts. This means no mechanical arms, no rotating magnetic platters, nothing. From this, we can extrapolate a few important things:

• No parts to make noise
• No “fire-up” time
• No parts to BREAK

Solid state drives are essentially large-scale flash memory cards, and without the mechanical complexity of a standard HDD they are simply more reliable. In fact, most of the advantages of an SSD can be boiled to its mechanical simplicity.

Because a solid state drive doesn’t have to read from a moving object, no movement needs to be initiated, drastically improving read times.

Without spinning plates and an internal motor, an SSD won’t start whirring or clicking. They are silent.

There are definitely advantages to the SSD. It’s lightweight, not susceptible to magnetic damage, it’s quiet, and it has fantastic random read speed. It’s not perfect though. There are still some serious downsides.

For pure capacity, a standard HDD is still the best bet. Samsung has a prototype 4TB HDD, and there are plenty of 2 and 3TB drives on the market. Most solid state drives top out around 256GB.

Another setback, though maybe not a serious one to most, are the reduced write speeds associated with solid state drives. While the drives may read much faster, a typical SSD will have a much slower write speed than a standard HDD. This may be a nonissue for day-to-day computing, but could be seriously agitating while trying to do write-intensive work like video encoding or graphic rendering.

Now the biggest problem of all, the major thing separating standard and solid state hard drives: price.

Newer technology is always more expensive that its standardized counterpart, but the gap between the HDD and the SSD is massive. $69.99 will buy you a 500GB portable HDD. That same price will only get you 32GB of internal hard drive with SSD. The divide only gets bigger. For a terabyte of internal storage, an HDD will cost anywhere from $59.99 to $179.99. The same amount of memory in a solid state: $3,750.00!

It’s still a tough call. Both the HDD and the SSD have their ups and downs, though solid state drives are surely the way of the future. For now, selecting a hard drive (write speeds and size availability aside) comes down to a very simple question: is the reliability of a solid state hard drive really worth the price?

Read time (bolded): 2 minutes
Read time (comprehensive): 8-10 minutes

• Inkjet Printers: These printers spray tiny ionized drops of ink onto a page to create an image. Almost all inkjet printers are color printers and print at a resolution of 300 dots per inch – newer and fancier models may print at a DPI above that. Inkjet printers excel at producing wide color ranges by mixing basic, primary colors together. For reproducible color saturation and vibrancy, inkjet cannot be beat.

• Wide color range
• True-to-life color reproducibility
• Great for photographs and pictures
• Cheaper up-front; more expensive long term
• Less efficient

• Laser Printers: Color laser printers are very versatile, as they use the same toner-based process as a b/w laser printer. These models work just like a copy machine: by shining a laser beam to make an image on a drum inside the printer; the drum is then coated in ‘toner’ so that only the electrically charged portions of the drum pick up ink. Via heat and pressure, the ink is then transferred from the drum to the paper. The advantages of laser printers are primarily their speed, although they also excel at producing crisp text in large page-volumes, which makes them perfect for business applications.

• Fast and quiet
• Crisp, readable text output
• Dependable for high-volume printing
• Not appropriate for photo printing
• More expensive up-front; cheaper long term