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Month: June 2019

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Be Internet Awesome!

Google has launched a fun way for kids to understand how to be safe on the internet, but that doesn’t mean no grown ups allowed. There is a lot you can learn about internet safety with these games. If you’ve ever not understood how certain things work or you are always paranoid about your actions online then it’s worth a look.

 

Be Internet Smart

This section of the game teaches you what things are safe to share and with who. Things like sharing your location or certain pictures you would want to make sure only friends or family can see. Some people post information or status updates that are available to the public and people not on your friends list. It is also a good reminder to not share private information like your phone number or address with people you don’t know.

 

Be Internet Alert

Scammers are all over the internet and it can be hard sometimes to know if something is a scam. And even if you know that something is a scam, what steps are you supposed to take to stay safe? There are some things taught here that many adults may not know, so this section is definitely worth a look.

 

Be Internet Strong

Things like passwords, card information, or even sensitive photos need to be protected. This section helps you keep your private stuff private. Creating a strong password is extremely important!

 

Be Internet Kind

Children have difficulty with cyber-bullying. You may already know to be kind and cordial online, but it is helpful to remember to talk to people online as if you were face to face.

 

Be Internet Brave

It is important to know what you don’t know. If you don’t understand something it is better to ask someone who would know the answer, like your I.T. administrator! ☺

If you are interested in this game you can click the link below.

Software
What does it mean when Microsoft discontinues a product?

As an I.T. administrator any time a product is announced to be discontinued a slew of emails come in asking me “what do we do!?” It may seem like you’re being bullied into upgrading but that’s not at all the case. Any company has to cycle out old products to focus on new products. That’s all they’re doing. They support products as long as possible but there comes a time when they must refocus their efforts on bigger and better things. On the other hand when they start popping up notices every time you turn on your computer, that’s a bit more invasive.

It was sad to see the once great Windows XP operating system lose support back on April 8th, 2014, but even 3 years later I still see it frequently in use. Is that a concern? Well, yes and no. It really depends on how it’s used. I wouldn’t suggest using your Windows XP system to surf the web any longer. Fewer browsers are supporting updates, anti-virus solutions are slowly moving away from supporting XP and as a result it’s slowly becoming obsolete and more of a security risk in business environments. However, some smaller companies that depend on software that’s tried and true on their XP systems sometimes experience large costs associated with being forced to upgrade. With proper precautions these systems can still be safely utilized. For starters up to date anti-virus is a must. Content filtering is also a good idea just to prevent idle hands from visiting dangerous places on the internet. Whether it’s an operating system or software, just because it’s being discontinued doesn’t mean you have to upgrade immediately. They’re not going to automatically uninstall it from your system, they’re just not going to offer any further updates nor offer answers to any questions you may have about that particular software. Take the upcoming End of Life for Microsoft Office 2007 on October 10th, 2017 for example, the last major update was back on October 25th, 2011. Likely every possible question you could have about Office 2007 is already answered somewhere online. So, although Microsoft is saying they’re discontinuing the product in a few months, it has not needed much support for several years now.

Once discontinued a product will eventually become obsolete. That’s the point at which upgrading does make sense. As I said earlier, XP’s browser options are diminishing which makes surfing the internet difficult. Forget about Internet Explorer 8, you’d have to use FireFox to view most websites these days on a Windows XP system. But, eventually no browsers will offer a good web experience on XP, making upgrading to a newer OS a necessary decision. To sum it all up, don’t concern yourself too much about End of Life notices. Don’t brush them off completely, but you have plenty of time to figure out an upgrade plan.

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