JamesClancy.com BLOG

Facebook applications make the site more entertaining but pose an unexpected risk.

They can access your profile. The developer can read your wall posts or collect your contact information.

You could be exposing your contacts' data. Or, your contacts could expose yours.

What can developers do with profile information? They may steal your identity. More likely, they'll use your data in ads.

Developers may sell advertising within applications. They are barred from using your personal information. Still, some may violate Facebook's policies.

To prevent this, only install verified applications. These have a green checkmark in the application directory.

To uninstall apps, click Settings, then Application Settings. Click the X next to an application to remove it.

Facebook has promised changes to prevent misuse of data. You should soon have more control over what data applications can access.

Facebook may use your profile pictures in ads it sells. This happens when you become a fan of a product or publication. These social ads are displayed only to your contacts.

To prevent Facebook from using your photo, click Settings, then Privacy Settings. Select News Feed and Wall. On the Facebook Ads tab, find the Appearance dropdown box. Select "No one" and click Save Changes.

And remember that ads on networking sites are much like newspaper classifieds. They're not vetted. Products may not work as promised. Or, they may advertise sham work-from-home opportunities.
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Posted by JamesAClancy at 05:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (919) | TrackBacks (0)

Quizzes and games

Quizzes and games often fall into the applications category. But they pose a threat different from other applications.

Quizzes and games may trick you into revealing personal information. Take, for example, the Twitter porn names game. Users were encouraged to create and post their porn names.

You create the name from your first pet's name and the street you grew up on. Some versions also call for your mother's maiden name or a teacher's name.

Many jumped on the trend and posted their names on Twitter. This information is often used in online security questions and password resets. The game may have been an attempt to trick users into revealing personal data.

Watch out for similar social engineering attacks. The best protection is vigilance — and a healthy dose of skepticism.
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From a Radio Computer Talk Show Kim Komando
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Posted by JamesAClancy at 05:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (350) | TrackBacks (0)

If you are using WIndows XP, I would hope you are aware that there were 3 additional update versions that came out since the original came out in October 2001.  They were simply called Windows XP SP1, Windows XP SP2, and finally Windows XPSP3.   These "SP's" or Service Packs are free downloads.  Support for SP1 and SP2 will end July 13, 2010.  If you have XP SP3, Microsoft will continue to support it until April 8, 2014.  So there is an influence to update.

Even after you load the free SP3, I am here to inform you that when you go to the Microsoft Update website to see if there are any remaining updates or free-be's.....you will be surprised to learn there are about 63 of them that total 215 MB.

The update to SP3 will also recognize if you do, or don't, have the new Internet Explorer 8. So after the 215 MB download and install, you will get a Window to prompt you to update your browser to the new version as well.

So if you have Windows XPSP2 or prior, schedule out a couple hours to get all your updates! And the slower internet you , the longer it will take. I was on a cable modem and it took 1 hour to do it all and have the PC back up and running all new again.

Posted by JamesAClancy at 01:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (819) | TrackBacks (0)

Some office buildings use a speed called a T-1 line. Some other office and homes use DSL, and Cable.
No matter where you get your internet, the provider of that internet charges a monthly fee to give you a given amount of speed. You can have the fastest NASA computer on the planet, but your internet is only going to go as fast as the provider says you have paid for.

Taking the information you have learned from Part 1 of 2, This chart should begin to make some sense.  Below it, I will continue to explain how this knowledge is useful when making the decision to use internet radio or not.

T1 is a fully digital signal giving the same speed up and down and called a 'symmetrical signal' because of that feature.
Cable and other broadband is 'asymmetrical' because most regular people do more downloading(surfing) than uploading(running applications).

You can go to http://www.speedtest.net/ to test your speed and see what speed your internet is running at.

If you are at home and listening to streaming radio at 300 Kbps...AND...you have DSL or Cable internet, you should not have too much of a problem unless you have spyware or other applications using the internet at the same time as your Radio Station listening time is happening.

But if you are on a network in an office...where the office only has 1 internet connecion for everyone to use, and 2 people are listening or streaming music, or 3 or 4 or 100....you can see that the internet will slow down for all other employees.  Because when people surf the internet to do anythng, they need bandwidth to get there. As we learned from Part 1 of 2, the chart showed that 300 Kbps = 132 MB per hour..and that is constant...or.."Streaming."

Surfing the internet is when you go to a webite and that is the end of it, then you go to your next one..or you get your email and that is all.  Bandwidth is not constantly taken up and in use every second. 

IN CONCLUSION
Internet radio is a wonderful thing.  As the speed of the internet increased, things like this became possible. This was not possible on the old Dial-up at 56Kbps, because Internet radio needs 300Kbps just to function. It is great for home and personal use, but if you are on any sort of network, I would check with your technical people and ask if its ok.  They will know  what speed they are paying for in that monthly fee.  If the office has paid for a top end speed, you are probably ok.  But if they have basic DSL, I would imagine the internet in the whole office would slow down because 1 or 2 people are listening to streaming radio somewhere.

Posted by JamesAClancy at 09:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (1110) | TrackBacks (0)

If you are going to be listening to the radio over the internet, or watching "LIVE" t.v. as it happens over the internet, you should know about speeds and how they affect your internet.

First, some defintions.
STREAMING - this is NOT YouTube, Google Video, or any other type of video site that had Audio or video already PRE-recorded and then uploaded to some website.  When something was already recorded and then uploaded to watch again and again by whoever wants to log on and see it....this is NOT 'streaming'.  I am NOT talking about this type of website in this blog entry today.

 BANDWIDTH - This is the method and terminolgy to measure the speed of your internet. A car's method is MPH (Miles Per Hour), ships on the ocean use Knts (Knots, or Nautical Miles per Hour), the internet uses Bandwith.(Kbps, Mbps).

Bandwith speeds are provided in "Per Second" increments.  So if a bandwidth is 1024 bits per second, that is equal to 1 Kilobyte per second(or 1 KB/ps....since....1024 of any measurement is equal to the next higher level of measurement.

THE MEASUREMENTS 
bit (the size of 1 letter of the alphabet),
Byte(8-bits),
Kilobyte (1024 bytes),
Megabyte(1024 Kilobytes)
Gigabyte(1024 Megabytes). 
There are more but this is as far as you need to know for the purposes of streaming radio.

Your internet music website usually states their Bandwidth in Kilobits per second, or Kbps.
Divide the stream kbps rate by 8 and you will get the kilobytes/second it uses..
Multiply by 60 to get Kilobytes per minute
Multiply by 60 again to get Kilobytes per hour
Divide by 1024 to get equivalent Megabytes per hour

SO.....

 

So let's take our new-found knowledge of speeds and apply it to the speed of YOUR internet and how listening to live music is better in some places than others. This is where my next blog will begin for you in Part 2 of 2.

Posted by JamesAClancy at 08:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (796) | TrackBacks (0)

My internet is provided by Comcast.  I am suppose to get upwards of 10Mb speeds.

When I went to http://www.speedtest.net/index.php?nojs=1 I was getting 2.5 Mb.
I did the normal things and ran repair tools such as;
CleanUp
4.52, CCleaner
SpyBot 1.6.2
AVG 8.5
Which you can all get at http://www.jamesclancy.com/Downloads.html

Nothing was found. All was ok.  Then I found 2 new free tools for Technicians.
These tools can tell the network and internet activity going on within the computer.
It's LIVE and streaming.  These are GUI's for the technician method of going to DOS and typing;
NETSTAT <NIC Card IP Addreess>.

But these tools went farther.
These associated the activity with what program is using it. I am giving away these tools on my website here.
http://www.jamesclancy.com/TechDownloads.html

Recently, while fixing a computer, a person's computer had its Microsoft Official sticker for Windows XP Home Media Center. They no longer had their manufacture's CD or did not make the CD's at time of purchase.  So since they had a code key, all I needed was the CD. I turned to Bit Torrents for that.  I had 3 installed called Bittorrents, UTorrent, and Azureus.  I UNISTALLED them after use and left it at that.  After a while my internet slowed down.

One or all of these used something called DNA to make downloads go faster.   Although I unistalled the Bit Torrent software and removed the folders and files.....this "DNA" remained behind as a separate program that is even visible in the Control Panel window under ADD/REMOVE Programs.  It is also under C:\Program Files\DNA

This 'DNA' used my computer to pass data and had about 8 active and open internet activity ports.  My internet lights blink crazy even when I was idle.  The 2 programs mentioned above pointed me to something called BTDNA.EXE. 
I deleted it, removed it from the ADD/REMOVE Programs...rebooted....and immediately did a speed test.  9.0Mb!

Who would have guessed?  So search for BTDNA.exe or DNA in your  ADD/REMOVE Programs. This makes your computer some sort of internet host for Bit Torrents even after the programs are gone.

 

Posted by JamesAClancy at 06:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (944) | TrackBacks (0)