What's the Best Way to Back Up My Data?

This is quite a common question. It seems almost everyone knows they should back up the information on their computer, but few know how to and even fewer actually do. Flash drives? CDs? Cloud? The tech world doesn't make it easy to pick a way to back up your information, but there are a few ideas to keep in mind when picking a backup solution.

1. Cost
2. Ease of Use
3. Security

Finding the perfect balance of these three things for you will give you the backup plan you desire, but to start things off, what does "backing up" mean and why is it important? Backing up simply means to make a copy of your computer's information onto a source outside of your computer. Why? What happens if your computer dies? Stolen, hard drive failure, struck by lightning, etc. Having a backup means not loosing all your important files and documents in case of such an untimely end of your computer.

I tell people to first consider the ease of use of their backup plan. How much time do you want to dedicate to this? Do you want something that you just set up once and it automatically runs after that or do you prefer to have a more hands-on approach? There are a plethora of automatic backup programs out there for people like me who know they won't remember to sit down and manually run a backup program on a regular basis. Ask your technology advisor, friends or family for recommendations.

Secondly, cost. Where are you going to put your backup? Is it going to go on an external hard drive or will you be burning CDs? In this example, an external hard drive will cost more up front, but will last you significantly longer with no additional costs. CDs on the other hand will have a smaller start-up cost, but you'll need to buy more as time goes on. Cost also ties into ease of use as backup programs will range from free (like Apple's Time Machine) to expensive (like a corporate backup program) and everywhere in between.

Lastly, security means how safe is your data once it's backed up? Here's where I get on my soap-box: Redundancy, redundancy, redundancy! If it's worth putting in one place, it's worth putting in another place. For example, let's say you have a laptop and you backup your photos on an external hard drive. What happens though, if your house catches on fire and your computer and hard drive are gone? That's the allure of online backup programs like Carbonite. These programs back up your computer's information to a remote location (yes, the "Cloud") so even in a worse case scenario, your data is safe and you don't have to worry about loosing it all.

Practical Tip of the Day:

Need a place to store information and a place to back it up too? External hard drives can be formatted in such a way as to make them act as is they are really two distinct devices. This means you can use half of it for storage (things you need to be able to access regularly), and the other half for backup (your "in case of emergency break glass" backup plan). More on the difference between storage and backup next time.

What is Phishing? (Part 2: Non Digital)

Last time we talked about phishing scams over the internet, but what most people don't realize is that more and more frequently, phishing scams are going "old school" and getting your personal information from you either over the phone or even in person. This is something I've seen first hand, and can be quite disconcerting because then you can see a face and/or hear a voice to put with the act.

The instance that I saw was with my then-boyfriend when I went over to his house to watch a movie. Part way through a young gentleman with a badge and clipboard came to the house and said he was from a start-up electric company in the area and asked if we were interested in getting a quote for electricity. To get the quote though, my boyfriend had to provide his name, address, phone number, email address (for an electronic copy of the quote), and several other things. At one point the man asked for his social security number; Thankfully my boyfriend did refuse to give that. A few more questions and he left, assuring us that the quote would be in the mail shortly and an electronic copy sent as soon as possible.

As soon he closed the door and turned around, he saw the look on my face and realized what he did. Thankfully the young man hadn't gone far and my boyfriend was able to retrieve all the copies of the information he gave. This is just one instance of something that looks perfectly legitimate, but was most likely a phishing scam. My general rule of thumb for giving your information to those inquiring is such:

1. If they claim to be from XYZ company, do a quick online search to verify this company. This is not fool-proof as most big phishing scams will make a fake webpage though.
2. Just because someone has an ID badge and clipboard does NOT mean they're official! As silly as this sounds, these simple props make people significantly more likely to comply with requests.
3. If at any point someone asking you questions requests your social security number- STOP! Unless you're in a professional setting like a job interview or doctor's office they don't need that information.
4. Assume first that people are phishing until proven otherwise. I know this sounds pessimistic, but being in this mindset will do more good than harm when protecting your personal information.

Practical Tip of the Day:
If a company calls you and then asks you for information to verify your account, STOP! Offer to call the company back using the phone number from the yellow pages or official website. Some phishing scammers will claim to be from your back, say there's been a potential security breach, and then ask "for your safety" to verify your account number and name. By offering to call them back from the phone number you already have for the bank, you can verify the legitimacy of the call. (Also, if your bank really does do this, get another bank. This is a terrible practice if any bank really does do it.)

What is Phishing? (Part 1: Online)

Phishing, pronounced "fishing," is becoming a popular phrase in mainstream media. It's this strange, indistinct danger that threatens to take your information and give it to goodness-knows-who. The real problem though is that this threat, while very real, is completely avoidable and needn't be a constant source of worry. What phishing is is simply someone tricking you into giving them the information they want.

That's right. You give them your sensitive information. Of course right now you're thinking "I'd never do that," but every year thousands, if not millions, of people fall for phishing scams. That's because even the most security-conscious people need to be careful- some of the scams are just that good. One of the most common types of scams is an email from your bank asking you to log in to their website and change your password. Changing passwords is something people do often enough that they rarely think twice about doing it, but in this case, you're not really changing your password, but giving away your current one.

Here's how this particular one happens: The "phisher"makes up a fake email address that looks like it could be official. They send this email to a large batch of people who's email address they've acquired through other shady means. Of these people, a certain percentage of them will bank with the one the phisher is trying to replicate. Of those people, a certain percentage will click the convenient link in the email to go to the webpage to change their password instead of navigating to it using a bookmark. If a person reaches this point, they're greeted by a webpage that looks like their bank's webpage, and even has a URL (web address) that's almost identical to the real name. At that point, they simply fill in the password change form, submit, and that's it. Their log in name and password is sent to the phisher's database.

So how can you avoid this? Here are some simple steps you can use to avoid digital phishing scams:

1. Don't open emails from people you don't know. Too often phishers will make their emails look like they were sent to the wrong person, or the email address will be slightly off from what your bank really uses. For example: If you bank usually emails you from customer_service@bank.com, and you receive an email from customer_service@bank.ca, it's probably not really from your bank.
2. Most companies will NEVER ask you for your password. If you ever receive an email from any company you do business with asking for your password, call them and verify that they sent the email.
3. If you receive an email asking for you to reset your password, do not use the link provided in the email. Navigate to the company's password change webpage using bookmarks you already have. Using the link given to you means you could end up on a fraudulent site if the email is, in fact, not from the real company.
4. If, for whatever reason, you are unable to do the above steps and you must use an email-provided link, verify the webpage it takes you to. Check for things like misspellings, substituting numbers for letters in the name, or having a different ending like ".ca" or ".lb" instead of ".com" These are all ways people can make webpage names look official at first glance.

Practical Tip of the Day:
Not all phishing scams are like the one I outlined, and not all of them are digital. Phishing scams are as plentiful and diverse as scams and cons before the digital age, and some of them are based on those old tricks. There is no way to protect yourself 100% from scams and phishing, but being mindful of your information and who you give it to is the best defense.

What's the Difference Between 1080p and 720p?

Buying a new TV? There are lots of things to look at and consider before spending all that money. One of the bigger considerations is whether you should go to 1080p or stay with 720p. What do those titles mean, anyway? Today we'll look at the two different parts of these titles and learn what the numbers mean as well as what the "p" stand for. Let's jump right in.

In the above picture, we see three different descriptions on the left hand side. DVD 480P, HDTV 720P and HDTV 1080P. To the right of those we see lots of lines and various shading. The smallest box (the one with the darkest shading) corresponds with DVD 480P (or 480p for short). This is the resolution of a standard definition (read: "normal") TV. What does resolution mean, you ask? See how the boxes are made up of lots of lines going both up and down as well and left and right? Each spot where one of those lines intersects another is where a pixel would be on your screen. Resolution is simply how many pixels make up the picture you see. The more pixels, the higher resolution, and the crisper the image looks.

So, the numbers. 480,720, 1080. These are the number of horizontal lines on the screen. See how the boxes above get bigger with the higher number resolution? That's because they have more lines they need to fit in. Most TVs nowadays are widescreen, meaning they have a 16:9 aspect ratio. This simply means that for every 9 horizontal lines, there are 16 vertical lines, hence giving the widescreen it's distinctive long look instead of the squarer look of a standard aspect ratio. Now, you've probably already noticed that most TVs will come in either a 720 or a 1080 ratio in the same size. That's where the difference between the two really come in. In a TV with 1080, they squeeze 360 more horizontal (and therefore 640 more vertical) lines in the same physical space. This is what makes a picture look "sharper" in a higher resolution.

As to what the "p" means, this is as opposed to "i" which is an increasingly less common standard to see. The P stands for "progressive scan" as opposed to the I which stands for "interlaced video." Interlaced video is called such because when an image is displayed on the screen, every other line is put up on the screen first, and then filled in. Of course, this happens quickly so it's not incredibly obvious, but if you'd like to see an example, Wikipedia has a nice one right here. Progressive scan means that all the lines are put up in their sequential order, so you don't have the jumpy look of interlaced video.

Practical Tip of the Day: 

While all this information makes you think that getting the highest resolution is obviously the best choice, first consider what you'll be watching on your HDTV. For example, my husband and I don't have cable. We primarily watch Netflix and Hulu from our Xbox. This means that the video we get from these sources is 720p. Even if we had a 1080p TV, the video itself is only 720, so it'd display as such. Getting a higher resolution TV won't make your videos look better than they are, but it'll make sure they look as good as they can. An analogy I use is if you have an old photo from the 1940s. Even if you scan it and print it out larger it won't be clearer because the original photo just didn't have more detail in it.

What is Push Notification?

Looking for a new email or maybe you have one and just noticed this as a feature? We know what "push" means, and what "notifications" are, but put in a technological light, what does the phrase "push notification" mean? This is, thankfully, one of the times that a technological phrase means exactly what it says. Push notifications are when notifications (emails, messages, etc.) are "pushed" to your device.

A good (though not quite perfect) example of this is email. I have two email accounts; One has push notification, one doesn't. When I look at my smart phone to see if I have any emails, I'll have a number next to my email icon if I received an email to the account with push notification. That's because the email was "pushed" down to my phone as soon as it arrived. If I want to see if I have any emails to my other account (the one without push notification), I have to open up my email and tell it to check for new messages. This is called "fetching" because I'm telling my device to go up to where the emails are held and fetch copies of them.



Another way of explaining it, if you're not that familiar with email, is like your actual mail. Normally, you have to go out to your mailbox to see if you received any mail today. That's how normal email works. If, on the other hand, every time you received a new piece of mail the mailman came up to your door, knocked, and hand delivered each piece to you as it arrived at the post office that would be "pushed." (And yes, I know it would be physically impossible, but that's how convenient push is for mail.)

The email analogy isn't perfect though because emails aren't really "notifications" per se, but I find that to be the easiest way for people to originally understand the idea. Normally, notifications are things like in the above image: small notifications sent from applications you have on your device that pop up when they are triggered. This could be upgrade notifications, news reports, weather alerts, reminders, etc., but the general term "push" is universal between all those examples and the email analogy.

Practical Tip of the Day:
Most applications have a default setup for what things trigger notifications and how they're displayed. If you find that you're getting too many notifications from a particular app, go into the settings. There is almost always a way to minimize or even turn off notifications for individual or all applications.

What is Syncing?

Let's say you have a computer and an MP3 player. (Click here if you don't know what an MP3 player is.) How do you get the songs you want from your computer onto the player? You sync them! What in the world does that mean? "Syncing" is short for "synchronizing," and it does just that; it synchronizes the information from two devices.

If two people are doing synchronized swimming, they're swimming in the exact same way. If two devices are synchronized, they have the same information on them. Lots of different devices can be synchronized: MP3 players, computers, smartphones and even more obscure concepts like "the cloud" can be synchronized with your information. If you're syncing something like a smartphone, you're often connecting it to your computer- either physically or wirelessly- and software on the computer walks you through the process of picking which things you'd like to sync. Here's an example of iTunes (a computer program) syncing an iPod (an MP3 player):

On the more obscure end, things like your bookmarks can be synced between devices using various methods. Bookmarks are website address you've saved so you can easily go back to the website without having to search or remember the address. It's like speed-dial for the Internet. Using a service like Google, you can have a bookmark created on your work computer appear on your home computer by syncing the two computers. See how this can be very handy? On the downside, if something gets messed up, you could also end up with doubles or triples of your items or worse yet, end up loosing the synced information entirely.

Practical Tip of the Day:

Before starting to sync information, make sure you have a backup of your information just in case one of those worse-case-scenarios happens. That way, if you botched syncing your address book from your phone to your computer and loose them all, you can go back to your backup and get them all over again.

How Can I Get My Home Movies Onto My Computer?

Remember that camcorder you purchased back in the 80's or 90's? The one that recorded onto a VHS or mini-VHS tape? Do you even still have a VHS player in your house? More and more, people are wanting to digitize their older media (media being photos, movies, and audio) to get it onto the computer where they can edit and share it. The trick is, how do you get the videos from your old camcorder onto your computer?

A digital video converter is what you need! These small, handy devices plug into your VCR, camcorder, or any other device with the above shown plugs on one end and into your computer on the other end. Using software that comes with the device, you can then easily bring the video into your computer in varying quality, formats and sizes. The product shown above is made by a company named Elgato which specializes in video devices for computers and gets very good reviews. You can find their webpage here.

Just like with converting your old photos into digital versions (click here on how to do that), you want to first shop around for places that will do it for you for a fee and compare the cost of purchasing the equipment and doing it yourself with the cost of hiring a person or company to do it for you. A company can often do it faster, but being able to do it on your own time and in the privacy of your own home can be nice as well.

Practical Tip of the Day:
Video converters can do lots of other things. For example, Elgato also makes a product that lets a person record their video game screen from a console like an Xbox or Playstation. This can be a nice gift for the video gamer in your family that you struggle to find something for. This device will record their game play, and then they can edit it to make movies to share with their friends, family, or post to websites like Youtube.

How Can I Watch the Olympics on My Computer?

With the Olympics going on, lots of people are asking how they can watch it on their computers. NBC here in the US has Olympic coverage pretty well controlled and unviewable on the internet except by use of their mobile application on smartphones and tablets, but what if you want to watch it on your desktop computer upstairs? Thankfully, there are devices that allow you to watch TV directly on your computer!

If you have the Olympics in mind, something like the Elgato EyeTV HD might be right up your alley. It's a small gray box that plugs into your satellite/cable receiver on one end and into your computer on the other end. The below diagram gives the details of which, and I promise it's not as complicated as it might look at first glance.

You do still need to have a cable subscription to get to NBC's coverage of the Olympics, but if you plug in the audio and video output of your cable receiver (the box the cable company gave you) into a device like the EyeTV HD and then connect the converter box (in this example an EyeTV HD) into your computer using a USB cable, you'll be able to watch the games, or anything else you normally would on TV, right on your computer. (The infared emitter shown in the picture is just to make the remote control work.) So there you have it! Maybe you live in a small apartment where a big TV isn't an option or maybe your TV died just days before the Olympic games started, you now know how to get them right on your computer instead.

Practical Tip of the Day:

There's an awful lot of games going on at the Olympics, some of them might happen while you're away from home working, traveling, or just not being glued to the TV. Some devices (like the EyeTV HD) also include DVR capabilities, meaning you can set it to record the shows you want so you can watch them when you want to, not when they decide to show them. Just make sure you have a lot of space on your computer! Remember, videos take up a lot of hard drive space!