Tech Tip Thursday — How to create symbols in Windows

Did you know that it is really easy to stick symbols such as ©, ® and ™ into documents (word processing, blog posts, e-mails, etc.)?

The trick is to hold down the ALT key AND type a code on the number pad (it HAS to be the number pad, not the row of numbers 1–0 above your letter keys). 

Some of my favorites:

• ALT 0169 — ©
• ALT 0174 — ®
• ALT 0153 — ™
• ALT 0167 — §
• ALT 0176 — ° (the degree symbol)
• ALT 0188 — ¼
• ALT 0189 — ½
• ALT 0190 — ¾

Additional directions and more symbols can be found here.

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Tech Tip Thursday, er Friday

This week’s tech tip revolves around computer security.  I don’t know how often I come across friends/family who have home computers which are completely unsecured.  I imagine that most of the worlds virus infections are spread by people too cheap to buy virus protection for their home computers.  To do a semi-competent job of protecting your home computer, you need to have a virus scanner, a spy-ware killer and a firewall.  Here are some free options:

1.  All-In-One solutions

You can help Symantec beta-test Norton Internet Security 2005 for free.  Free, I guess, until the beta ends.  [sometimes if you provide enough feedback companies give you a free copy of the software...]

2.  Anti-Virus

Grisoft has a free version of its AVG anti-virus software you can download.  It will scan e-mail and will automatically download new updates (so your anti-virus is always up to date).

3.  Spyware Killers

Microsoft AntiSpyware (free).  I run this in the background…it tries to prevent infection and also runs every night to detect infections for you to remove.  I’ve found that Microsoft’s program is pretty good, but that it does miss somethings.  Thus, I also use Ad-Aware Personal (free) and SpyBot Search&Destroy.  Yes…I think you should run MS in the background and run Ad-Aware and SpyBot once a week to be squeaky clean.

4.  Firewalls  (don’t know what a firewall is/does?  See Wikipedia.)

The latest version of Windows XP has a built in firewall.  If you don’t know if yours is running, click here.  Another highly recommended firewall is ZoneAlarm (free edition).

Conclusion…while these programs are not perfect, running all of them (at least one of each) will make your computer MUCH MUCH more secure. 

[also...when you go visit your parents/in-laws make sure you copy all of these onto your USB thumb drive so you can install them on their computer.]

The comments are open if readers have other suggestions.

UPDATE:  A reader pointed out that he’d suggest ditching Internet Explorer for FireFox.  That is a pretty good point.  I use both (I don’t know why).  What I really like about FireFox is tabbed browsing.  More details about FireFox can be found HERE.

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Tech Tip Thursday

Buzz Bruggeman at ActiveWords (a great software program you should try) pointed me to teleflip.com:

Teleflip™ started when the founder became increasingly frustrated at his inability to send text messages to friends’ cell phones from his PC.  It was of course possible, but you had to know the cell phone provider, the correct domain name and the correct syntax for the email address. There had to be an easier way….Teleflip™ was born.

The next time you need someone to email you directions, a recipe, sales information, or maybe just a few sweet nothings… tell them to TELEFLIP™ it, at:

(yourcellphonenumber)@teleflip.com

Want to try it out?  Here’s my cell number:  555–555–5555 (yeah, like I’d give you my cell number and get bombed with hundreds of “Hi” messages).

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