Help keep your laptop and data safe and secure

You already know how much your laptop is worth. Unfortunately, there’s a fair chance that the laptop thieves as well …

Here are some tips on looking after your laptop, minimizing the likelihood of a loss, theft or damage and also shrinking the possible pain if it does happen.

First, make sure it doesn’t matter so much if you do lose your laptop:

Everything that is important on your laptop should be backed up. Buy an external hard-drive (usually about £50/US$90). Keep it connected to your laptop whenever possible. Then buy a software system that will automatically copy your essential files to the external hard-drive. "Backup Platinum" is a good option - www.backup-platinum.com
Backup the backup - Copy the back-up files to another external hard-drive or computer. Your first may have broken or corrupted - and if you did not notice that until your laptop goes or goes wrong ...

Make sure you have copies of the license keys for all software on your laptop – create a text file of the these. This makes it much easier to reinstall when you get a new laptop. For security you might want to lock this license key file away behind a password-protected system. File Locker is handy – www.file-locker.com

Don’t travel with your laptop unless absolutely necessary - obvious but true – o you really need to take it with you? Laptop theft peaks on Friday, when office workers take their laptop home with them.

Put it in a rucksack not the laptop bag. If you want to use the laptop bag eg because it has stronger edges to keep your laptop protected, put the laptop in the laptop bag, and then put the laptop bag in a rucksack. This stops it being visibly a laptop.

When your do travel with your laptop, mentally program yourself to keep hold of your laptop. On trains etc jeep it between your legs, so you can feel when it is not there immediately. There are many cases of items even being stolen from between legs at restaurants etc, so also put 1 foot through the strap.

Avoid traveling on a Friday with your laptop - this is key theft-day, because many staff take their laptop home to use over the weekend. This means that Friday is key theft day.

Complete these simple steps and your laptop will be far safer – and should your laptop be lost, damaged or stolen, you will feel the pain far less.

This article was written by: Duncan Elliot
Ducan is the owner of www.mobile-phone-upgrade.com

Note: I did edit this article to help alleviate the article spam.
But was well written. So I wanted to give him credit some where.

Rules for Online Safety

In light of the Myspace related story below I dug up this little bit of information that I would share with my readers.

Kids' Rules for Online Safety

1.	I will not give out personal information such as my address, telephone number, parents’ work address/telephone number, or the name and location of my school without my parents’ permission.
2.	I will tell my parents right away if I come across any information that makes me feel uncomfortable.
3.	I will never agree to get together with someone I "meet" online without first checking with my parents. If my parents agree to the meeting, I will be sure that it is in a public place and bring my mother or father along.
4.	I will never send a person my picture or anything else without first checking with my parents.
5.	I will not respond to any messages that are mean or in any way make me feel uncomfortable. It is not my fault if I get a message like that. If I do I will tell my parents right away so that they can contact the service provider.
6.	I will talk with my parents so that we can set up rules for going online. We will decide upon the time of day that I can be online, the length of time I can be online and appropriate areas for me to visit. I will not access other areas or break these rules without their permission.
7.	I will not give out my Internet password to anyone (even my best friends) other than my parents.
8.	I will check with my parents before downloading or installing software or doing anything that could possibly hurt our computer or jeopardize my family’s privacy
9.	I will be a good online citizen and not do anything that hurts other people or is against the law.
10.	I will help my parents understand how to have fun and learn things online and teach them things about the Internet, computers and other technology.

I found this information over at safekids.com. A great resource for parents and their children.

7 Myspace Users Arrested

Texas officers arrested 7 Former Myspace users, all 7 members were sex offenders. Myspace turned over the contact information of the 7 individuals that were arrested. It appears that the 7 individuals profiles had already been shut down by myspace as a result of an internal investigation.

I have to say at least it appears that Myspace is trying to get rid of these scum bags. Myspace is becoming a hotbed for these type of scum bags, as well as spammers and various types of Trojans and Phishing scams. Thank god Myspace is showing some concern. All 7 of the individuals that were arrested have been convicted for sex crimes with minors in the past. Some of their victims were as young as 4 years old.

"Texans will not tolerate criminals who prey on our children," Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott said in a statement. "These convicted sex predators established online identities on a Web site that is popular with teenagers and children."

Now I know some of you are saying that Myspace should not have provided a users private personal information to law enforcement. Well it appears that at least Myspace is doing their own internal investigation before turning over this personal information. It does not bother me if Myspace turns this over after and through investigation. It may help save a life or help protect then innocents of our youth.

Coming Changes

Over the next couple of weeks there will be more daily post made. As well as some in depth reviews of tech related products, websites, and services. I have made it a mission to spend more time on the blog, so be sure to subscribe to the feed to get regular updates. Things are picking up a little in the tech world and I will bring you the coverage that you deserve. In short if you have never been to this blog before check out the archive I am sure you will find something of interest, and stick around for more great things to come.

Todays Extra!!!

Ok I decided to add a little extra snip-it to the site today. If you are a regular visitor to the blog you have noticed that I have added some select links to payperpost. Well here is why. Using payperpost individuals can hire me to write about their product or service. I write the blog about their item then I get paid a commission for doing so. I have been a member of payperpost for almost 6 months now. It is a great community. I have yet to have my blog approved due to their strigent 20 post per 90 day rule, which I am working on. But I have met a lot of great people through payperpost. As well I have found some great blogs just browsing through the site. The community forums are great as well it give bloggers a place to go to share and learn information about other blogs and webmaster based material such as page rankings and promoting your site. So head over sign up and check out payperpost.com


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Russian troubles with space station computer.

It seems that Russian engineers are having trouble reviving the space station computer that crashed early yesterday.

"We have not so far managed to fully restore the computers," Nikolai Sevastyanov, chief constructor at Russian space company RKK Energiya, told a news conference at mission control in the town of Korolyov near Moscow.

"Tomorrow we'll try turning on secondary power sources using a new method. If that does not work we will not try again."

The downed computers control many functions of the the international space station such as
thrusters that keep the space station in orbit as well as the navigational controls. Russian officials said that it is not the computers that are the trouble but the secondary power supplies that are the issues. Officials stated that if the repairs scheduled for Saturday fail they will launch a supply ship on July 23 with new power supplies on-board.

Officials said there is no real threat as there is a 90 day supply of oxygen, and that the space station can remain in orbit with out the computers functioning.