The paperback edition is also available at a discount and would make a great Christmas gift as well!!

http://amzn.to/1A25xI4

Thanks everyone!

— Jim

And if you’ve read the book and enjoyed it, please help me out with a quick review – that would help me out tremendously.

Thanks for your support!!

— Jim

http://amzn.to/1A25xI4

Thanks for all your support!!

— Jim

http://amzn.to/1A25xI4

Thanks everyone and please spread the word!!

— Jim

What’s a Picture Worth?:
A Guide to Organizing, Fixing, and Sharing All Your Photos on Your Windows PC

Well, it’s now available on Amazon (http://amzn.to/1A25mMV) and I would love for you to enjoy the fruits of my labor, so to speak.  I put over a year into writing this book because I know that you most likely have a lot of digital photos sitting on your computer gathering computer dust.

What’s a Picture Worth? will guide you in how to take all those pictures, and use some tricks and software to organize and rename them more efficiently than you could otherwise.  By tagging your photos, you’ll be able to instantly find any photo you want.  I’ll also show you how to correct your photos to make them look better.

Then I’ll help you to find better ways to share and show off those photos instead of leaving them to sit on your computer with no one to enjoy them.  I’ll tell you some better ways to back up your photos so you never lose those precious memories.  And finally, I’ll show you how to collaborate on events like vacations or parties to make it memorable for everyone.

Head on over to http://amzn.to/1A25mMV to get your copy today and thanks for your support!!

I’ve always been opposed to kids getting cell phones too early – yes they’re convenient, but to me I’ve felt that kids aren’t ready for a phone until probably around high school.

However, I’ve had to rethink that train of thought… the James Holmes’ shootings during the Batman Dark Knight Rises movie really got to me.  First of all, my prayers are with the victims and their families of this tragedy.

This whole ordeal got me thinking though… if my daughter were old enough to be at the movies when this happened, I’m sure as others were, I would be frantically trying to find out if she was OK.  That’s where I think a smartphone is important.  You might be thinking “so, why would they need a smartphone – couldn’t you just call her if she just had a regular cell phone?”  Yes, but if she made it out to the parking lot with everyone that was gathered there, with all the commotion going on, she probably wouldn’t hear the phone.  And depending on the circumstances, she might not have a chance to check in with me right away.

Step over to a smart phone.  I am currently using an Android phone, but whether it’s an Android phone, an iPhone, a Windows Phone, they call them smart phones for a reason.  One of the staple apps that almost every Android user will install is Google Maps because it’s amazing.  However, most people who download the app are unaware of a portion of the app that gets installed called Latitude.  Latitude is an app that allows you to share your location with other contacts.  You individually choose contacts you want to share your location with and can request they share theirs as well (though they are not required to do so).  You set it up one time and then forget about it and it will periodically update your location.  You can setup the phone to permit contacts to have different settings as well – for example, I could set it so my wife and daughter could see my exact location, but maybe a couple friends would only be able to see the city I am in.

So, in this scenario, if my daughter was at the movie and this took place, I would be able to open the Latitude app and be able to see if she was in the movie theater or in the parking lot (or wherever else).  This is not a solve-all obviously, but it does help give you a better idea on the fly of what the status is.  Think about how useful this would be in a kidnapping (until the phone was taken away) or just if your teenager was out with friends at night… simply a little peace of mind knowing where your loved ones are.

And of course, you can’t beat free, which is the cost of Google Maps.  Latitude is it’s own app in your list of apps once Google Maps is installed.  Keep in mind, this is not a spying app – each contact determines whether or not to share their location and to what extent – and it can be turned off easily.  This is something you use with people you trust.

Of course, this is not the only app out there, just one example that had come to mind for me.

This incident has really made me rethink my viewpoint and I now think that as soon as your child starts to go places with friends, it’s time to think about if a smartphone is right for them.

Have a great week!

— Jim

Hi everyone,

Just wanted to put up a quick post on a great offer on the BooksByJim.com website!

Starting today, we’ve reduced the price of the “Just the Computer Essentials” book by over 50% off the list price!!!!!!  It’s now available only from the BooksByJim.com website for only $12 plus shipping.

This is a great opportunity to pick up an easy-to-understand book for yourself or for someone you know who needs some help with critical best practices for your computer.  The book focuses on the following:

• Helping you understand exactly what you need to know when buying a new PC
• Leading you in protecting your computer from dangers such as viruses, spyware, spam and phishing
• Showing you how to set up a backup strategy to safeguard all your important files
• Coaching you how to recover your computer from system problems – starting with the least intrusive all the way to disaster recovery
• Teaching you how to migrate your files and settings from one computer to a new PC running the Windows Vista operating system

These steps are some of the biggest keys to protecting your data and helping protect your computer from the biggest threats out there!

“Just the Computer Essentials” has received excellent reviews from some of the great tech sites out there.  And the reviews on Amazon.com speak for themselves – check ‘em out here!

This money-saving opportunity is only available at the BooksByJim.com website – click here to jump on this one!

Take advantage of this offer while you can… it won’t last long!!!

— Jim White
MCITP, MCSE, CCSP, CCEA, Server+, A+, and more!
www.booksbyjim.com

Check out Bryan Eaddy’s review “Best Computer Book for Beginners (ever).”  Here’s a quote from the article:

What immediately stands out about “Just the Computer Essentials” by James White is that the author definitely understands the needs of his target audience. Mr. White provides computer beginners with practical tips that are easy to understand and apply; no fluff, just straight-to-the-point useful information.

Thanks for the review Brian!

If you are someone non-technical or know someone that needs help with computers, be sure to check out “Just the Computer Essentials.”  It’s available at BooksByJim.com or from Amazon.com.

— Jim White
MCITP, MCSE, CCSP, CCEA, Server+, A+, and more!
www.booksbyjim.com

It seems like every website you go to now wants you to create an account.  And that means you need to decide what password to use.  Many people get in the habit of just using the same username and password for every site.  And why is that?  Well, convenience, of course!  Why not use one password for all sites so you always remember it?

Here’s why – if that password is ever compromised, the person with the password now has the potential to log into every single website that you do!  Think about this for a minute.  This could be email accounts such as Yahoo! or Gmail, bank or credit card websites, shopping websites like Amazon.com or eBay, or social websites like Facebook or MySpace.  Really think about this – do you want someone to basically steal your identity just because it was convenient for you to throw security out the window and only remember one password?!

Well, I’ve got some good news for you.  I currently have over 450 user accounts and passwords and guess what… I don’t think one of them is even remotely close to being the same.  And the best part is that I only need to remember one password.  The trick is to use a password manager.

Password management software is great because almost all of them have one encrypted file that is protected by a master password.  Once you enter in that password, you now have access to enter as many account credentials you want.  In most password management applications, you can generally enter in the following:

• Title or name of the account (whatever you want to call the entry – i.e. “Yahoo! Mail” or “Facebook” )
• Username
• Password
• URL (the website address – i.e. http://mail.yahoo.com or www.facebook.com)
• Notes (this is for yourself for whatever you want to enter in as a reminder for yourself.  I always put the email address that I used to register the account, but I also use it for account numbers, special instructions, notes to myself, etc.)

Additionally, some of the software even lets you set an expiration date if desired or the ability to categorize the accounts into groups (such as Banking, Email, etc.).

So, you can have all your information in a single file that you can back up and you can have different passwords for all accounts.  And since you now only need to remember one master password to open it all, you should make it a very strong one composed of capital and lowercase letters, numbers, special symbols, and six characters long at the very minimum.  Once you start typing it enough, it will be a cakewalk – I promise!  Without this password, the file with all the passwords sits encrypted.  And because you don’t need to remember the password for the account, you can now make it more than your dogs name.  In fact, most password management software will provide the ability to auto-generate some complex passwords for sites that no one could guess… and you don’t even need to remember any of them!

How much would you pay for this peace of mind?  Ten thousand dollars??!!!  Fifty thousand dollars??!!!  Well, guess what – you can actually get some of this software for as low as FREE!!  That’s right – free!

I’ve been using different password management software for years now trying out all sorts of them to make sure that I would be familiar with them and be able to keep you informed.  Here’s some of my thoughts on just a few of them…

Password Keeper 2000

This was one of the first password managers that I started using.  It’s fast, it’s easy, and it works.  It’s kept up by a guy named Gregory Braun.  It lets you export your password list out as well.  This is critical when choosing your password management software!!!!  Over time, you gain more and more passwords.  Once you have even 50 passwords, if the software is no longer supported in a new version of Windows or you choose to use different software, you’re going to be upset with yourself when you need to re-enter each one of them, one at a time.  This is a very straight-forward program and might be worth looking into.  $19.95 after trial.  http://www.gregorybraun.com/PassKeep.html

Access Manager 2

This program is one that I used for quite some time.  Very straight-forward and easy to use.  This one allows you to import passwords into it from a couple different formats such as CSV and XML.  These are standard formats and you should find that other programs that allow you to export/import will generally support either one or both of these formats (you’ll probably have to do a little tweaking to the file first though).  The only downside that I have with Access Manager is that it’s not the fastest program.  Not to say that it’s slow, but you’ll find most other password management software to be more zippy than this one.  There are two versions for this software – a free edition that should support most of your needs and a professional version that gives some extras that some people may find beneficial.  Here’s the catch though, to export passwords, you need the Professional Edition.  So if you ever want to change programs without retyping them into a new program for example, you’ll likely need to upgrade to the Professional Edition first.  The Free Edition is obviously free and the Professional Edition is $24.95.  http://www.accessmanager.co.uk/

KeePass Password Safe 1.x

Alright, boys and girls, let’s talk about KeePass for a minute.  This is the software that I’m now using… and I love it!  Here’s the highlights and scoop about KeePass:

• KeePass is open source software.  That means that if you are a developer, you can get the actual code behind it to see exactly how it works.  That allows people from around the world to contribute fixes and improvements to the software.
• There are currently two versions of this software – the 1.x version and the 2.x version.  The 2.x version is still in beta.  Normally I’m pretty excited about getting in on beta software, but when I’m dealing with all my passwords – not so much.  I’ve been using the stable 1.x version and it’s great.
• It’s lightweight and fast.  There are keyboards shortcuts you can use to quickly open the software and auto fill in usernames and passwords.
• There are plugins that are available to do different things (integrate with Internet Explorer or Firefox, importers, exporters, etc.).
• There’s even a mobile version of the program.  I have a Windows Mobile phone and I set it up so my passwords sync to my phone anytime I connect up my phone to laptop.  And remember your passwords are in an encrypted file, so with a strong master password, they are as secure as you can get.
• Importing and exporting.  Even without the plugins, you can easily import in passwords from other programs (provided they let you export them out!).  And think exit strategy – if down the line you want to move to other software, you can export your passwords out from this software (no additional cost).  It lets you export out to several different formats as well.
• If you’re a fan of grouping passwords into different groups (Banking, Email, etc.), you can easily do that as well.  But you don’t have to – I don’t feel the need for that with mine, so I just don’t use that feature.
• There’s a portable version.  Do you need to have easy access to your passwords on a USB drive… done!  There is a version of the program that does not require installation so you can put it on a USB drive with your password file.
• Did I mention it’s free???!!!

Check it out… http://keepass.info/

Of the software above, I would highly recommend using KeePass.  It’s fast.  It’s easy.  It’s open-source.  It’s flexible in the options and plugins available.  It’s secure.  It’s portable.  And it’s free!  If you like it and stick with it, they do, however, let you donate to help support the project, and I highly recommend that you send them something.  Every penny counts when you’re dealing with free software – give the developers incentive to continue to make the software even better and want to keep it free!

A few other important notes:

• If you are using the “password manager” built into Internet Explorer, you should re-read this post and quickly find a password manager that suits you.  I discuss in Just the Computer Essentials some of the problems with Internet Explorer’s password keeping, such as weak encryption, no easy way to routinely back up your passwords, etc.
• There are tons of other passwords manager programs out there.  Check them out and find one that works well for you.  Just because I’m a big fan of KeePass and the others above, doesn’t mean there aren’t programs that might be better for you.  Many people are fans of RoboForm or Password Safe – find out the one that works best for you!
• Almost all password managers store all your passwords in a single, encrypted file.  Find out what file this is and MAKE SURE TO BACK IT UP!!!!  In my book, Just the Computer Essentials, I discuss the importance of backups and even take you through the process of determining what you need to backup and how you should back it up.  If you are not doing backups on your computer, get this book!  You will learn what you need to know to make sure that you are protected from problems in the future.

If you thought this information was valuable, just remember that I cover password management, along with all the other important things you should be looking at on your computer, in my book Just the Computer Essentials:

• Help you understand exactly what you need to know when buying a new PC
• Lead you in protecting your computer from dangers such as viruses, spyware, spam and phishing
• Show you how to set up a backup strategy to safeguard all your important files
• Coach you how to recover your computer from system problems – starting with the least intrusive all the way to disaster recovery
• Teach you how to migrate your files and settings from one computer to a new PC running the Windows Vista operating system

Check it out at https://www.booksbyjim.com.  Also available from Amazon.com, Buy.com, BarnesAndNoble.com, or any online bookstore.

Best of luck to everyone out there!

— Jim
MCITP, MCSE, CCSP, CCEA, Server+, A+, and more!
https://www.booksbyjim.com/

Obviously there’s a bunch of other options out there, but I thought this was a good start. Here’s what I have installed and use on my laptop:

And you may be thinking, “wow, that’s a lot of software to install,” but believe me, the 50 MB you’ll install is a heckuva lot nicer than the bloated 400 MB or so needed for the full Adobe Acrobat product… it’s also a lot cheaper!!!

— Jim
MCTS, MCSE, CCSP, CCEA, Server+, A+, and more!
https://www.booksbyjim.com/