2know A Tech...

August 2010

My stepfather called me the other day and asked for a technology favor.

Our hunting dog went missing and he wanted to know if there was any way

I could place a lost and found ad for him in the paper and maybe online. The dog has been a true companion to our family for several years. I called him Dan because I was a big fan of the book, "Where the Red Fern Grows." I grew up on a farm and have been the technology bridge for our family throughout the years. Using a computer to find a dog lost in the woods, I felt was a long shot. Nevertheless, I placed the ad. I believe my stepfather could have placed the ad himself, but he knows how much I like "that kind of stuff, you know, computers and stuff".

I was 10 years old and in the fifth grade when computers were first placed in Arkansas classrooms. All of the students were pretty excited about the additional computer time during math period. Those computers were brand new at the time, but still were slower than a current Atom processor or old 486 DX2. I had been waiting for that moment since I heard the phrase, "Beam me up." With all of the cartoons and television shows talking about computers, I knew this piece of technology would change the way we interacted with our world.

Over the past 20 - 25 years, I have had the opportunity to see technology grow exponentially from our heads and eyes to our ears and hands. Currently, it doesn’t matter whether it’s 3rd screen or 4th screen pieces of equipment; technology is, now more than ever, only a click away. The binary language of computers has been integrated into just about every piece of tech on the market today. Cell phones, gas stations, ATMs, grocery stores, cars, even refrigerators can call the market and order milk when you run low. Today, information is everywhere and there's a lot of it. There are over 187 million websites on the Internet and over 200 billion emails sent per day, with over a million new viruses being created each month. Surf with caution. And a spy ware virus combo program running in the background.

Although getting online can seem to be a daunting task, there are some very simple steps to consider that will help keep you as safe as possible and ease your surfing. Never upload content to the Internet that you do not have a hardcopy of saved elsewhere. Clouds (servers) and other online storage spots are great, but they should not be your only place to keep your most prized digital possessions. Never leave your computer running 24/7 without having it plugged into a battery backup. Otherwise if you are in the middle of an important document and the power goes out for whatever reason, you can kiss that work goodbye most of the time. To ensure you retain some portion of the document, go into the app’s preferences and set your Autosave to backup every couple of minutes.

And most important of all, never give out personal information to unprotected sites. You'll be able to tell if the site is secure by the lock icon at the bottom right of most browsers.

Being informed as to the changes coming down the pipe and not writing my password down on a piece of paper stuck to the front of my computer that reads, "This is my password: password," has saved me so much worry and stress. So keep your passwords safe and secure to help prevent identity theft. I hope these small tidbits help with your navigation of the Internet and technology in general. By the way, we've had three hits about Dan, one from the paper and two from the net. Now it’s off to Google Maps to check the address of the last sighting.