How Do I Make a Picture Smaller?

It's probably happened to you. Someone you know sends you a photo in an email, it takes forever to load, and then WHOA! That's why it took so long! When you look at the photo you realize you're just seeing the top corner of someone's head. This photo is huge! Why is it so big? Can you shrink it?

When this happens, it's because the photo has a high resolution and no limit on the physical size of the photo. The resolution of a photo is measured in megapixels, which is a measurement of how many pixels are in a square inch of the photo. Check out this article for a quick lesson on megapixels and cameras: What's the Difference Between JPEG and RAW? Generally, when you send a photo in an email, or open it in an editing program, the program will shrink the photo down to a more manageable viewing size. Sometimes though, when someone has a photo with a high megapixel count, they choose to send it in its actual size which is great when viewed on large screens, but quite overwhelming on anything else.

So how do you adjust this? The easiest way is to save it to your device. If, for example, you viewed the photo in the email of your smartphone, saving the photo and opening it in the phone's photo viewer will resize it to the proper level. The same is true if you save it to your computer. While some photo viewing programs won't automatically resize, most will. If you're look for recommendations, Apple's iPhoto for the Mac or Google's Picasa for the PC are both good, free programs that allow editing, resizing, organizing and even sharing of photos.

Practical Tip of the Day:
Not sure what size photo to send to someone? Here's a good rule of thumb: How will they be viewing the photo? If they'll be viewing it on a smartphone, send a smaller version; this will minimize how much of their data plan is used loading it while giving them good enough quality for their screen. If, on the other hand, they'll be saving it on their home computer to later edit or print, send as close to actual resolution as you can. Computer can handle larger files more easily, and a higher quality photo is easier to edit and saves more of details.

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 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 a Computer Virus?

They're there. Lurking in your inbox, behind that photo attachment, inside that program- the fearsome computer virus! Viruses in the physical world are microbes that are self-replicating. Viruses in the digital world are small programs that are self-replicating. A virus in your computer takes advantages of weaknesses in your security in much the same way a real virus takes advantage of weaknesses in your immune system.

A virus can do anything, or even nothing. Some sit there doing nothing but slowing down your computer, some will corrupt your data, others will take over your computer for someone else's use. Regardless of what it does, it's not a computer virus unless it self-replicates, meaning it makes a copy of itself and sends it on to another computer. I've compiled a small glossary of commonly used and misused terms related to this topic:

• Virus- A program that self-replicates (typically) through computer programs and usually does harm to your computer.
• Trojan- A program that claims to be one kind of file (like a game or music file), but is actually doing harm.
• Worm- A program that self-replicates through a computer network, not through programs. Usually does not harm the network itself.
• Adware- A program that pops up advertisements even when you are not connected to the internet.
• Spyware- A program that spies on you, reporting your activity to an outside source without your consent.
• Malware- A program that does bad things. This is a general name for all of the above terms.
• Phishing- An attempt- usually via email or webpage- to trick you into giving your information to a fraudulent source.

The last one, phishing, usually isn't a program at all, and thus is one of the most dangerous ones since there is no program to keep you from giving your own information away. One of the most common tricks is an email that appears to be from your bank saying your password has expired and needs to be changed. It then links to you what looks like your bank's webpage, and then asks for your log in, old password and new password. Once you hit submit, your banking ID and password is now available to whoever sent that email.

Practical Tip of the Day:
If you do ever receive an email from your bank asking for you to log in, do not follow the attached links, but rather navigate to the bank site as you normally would and log in from there. This keeps you from being navigated to a fraudulent site. Be suspicious of anything that asks for personal information of any kind. Most companies have a strict policy of not asking for log-in or personal information via email. If in doubt, call the company to verify the email.

What Are Text Messages?

Previously, I had mentioned text messages (AKA SMS or texting) in an article about whether or not Facebook was replacing email. I love watching these topics build up on each other like this. One small step at a time, we're learning more about the technology world around us.

Text messages are exactly what their name says they are. They are messages made entirely out of text. They're sent from cell phone to cell phone (with some exceptions I won't go into here), and are usually short- around 200 characters or so.

"Texts" as they're usually called (short for "text messages"), are quickly becoming the most popular form of communication with American youth today. They're short, they're personal, private, and because they're instantly delivered, you don't have to wait for someone to check to see your message.

Text messages are different from email from both a fundamental and functional standpoint. Fundamentally, text messages seperate themselves from email because they are sent and received by cell phone towers, not over the Internet. In this way, texts are more closely related to phone conversations.

Functionally, text messages are short messages. They're usually one line messages like: "I love you, Mom." "Pick up milk on your way home, please." or the more common "c u l8r". What? You don't understand the last one?

Text messages have created their own cryptic psuedo-language that will drive any English teacher insane. The above message actually means "See you later." They make small reference guides to decyphering "text-talk", but I like my method of simply writing in normal English, and if someone replies with something I don't understand I simply reply with "?"

As tempted as I am to give a quick primer on popular acronyms, I'll leave that to the professionals. Click this link if you've found yourself confronted with text or Internet slang you don't understand, but I wouldn't try to memorize any of these. No one's going to be quizzing you. Promise!

Practical Tip of the Day:
Almost every cell phone on the market today is capable of text messaging, but often times it costs to send or even receive text messages. As any of our friends can attest, my husband used to scold people for texting him even though he didn't have a plan. Each time one of our friends forgot and sent him a message, it cost him $.5. Before you start going crazy sending text messages, make sure you and the people you want to text with have plans or you may be looking at additional charges to your monthl cell phone bill.

What is Social Media?

It's difficult to watch the news or read the papers or magazines nowadays without coming across the odd phrase "Social Media". We know what "social" means; To me it conjures up memories of ice cream and talking with friends. "Media" is usually used to refer to the TV networks, newspapers and other things we read and watch. At first it would seem odd that media could be social in and of itself. Yes, we talk about media, but actually interacting with your media is something new born from the Internet. Well, sort of.

Most kids nowadays only vaguly remember the time of pen pals. You would receive a letter in the mail (yes, REAL MAIL!), you'd read it, and you'd write a letter back (yes, with pen and paper!) to the person and have a conversation that way. If you take that concept and make it electronic, it becomes email. ("Email" literally means "electronic mail". See the post last week for a refresher on email.) Social media takes that concept and amplifies it.

Social media mixes messages sent between two people to messages sent to whole groups of people. If I want to share a picture of my daughter, instead of printing it out and paying postage to mail it to everyone, or sending it in an email that has everyone's email addresses in it, I can post it to a social media outlet like Facebook. (In this post I'll be using Facebook as the main example since it's the most commonly used method at this point in time.) By posting it in one place, all my friends and family can see the photo, and even talk about it.

Social media isn't for everyone. If you're a private person, you might not want to join a social site like Facebook since it involves sharing a lot of personal information just to get in, and then makes it very easy to share too much with too many people. Ever say something you regretted? Ever say something you regetted to every friend and family member you know? Quite a difference!

That being said, being able to see what your old friend from high school is doing in their daily life makes it easier to catch up with them and stay connected with them in ways that a telephone conversation, letter, or even a coffee date never could. Your friends and family can post whatever they want, and it will show up for you to see and comment on if you want. In short, social media is a very easy way to stay connected with a lot of people very easily.

Practical Tip of the Day:
When talking over the internet, whether it's via email, Facebook, blogs, or anything else, make sure you only say and share things you want the whole world to know about you. Don't just think of the whole world, though. Think of your kids, boss, pastor, parents, coworkers, etc. Some of the biggest scandals nowadays come from people in high positions violating this rule and having conversations or pictures they thought were private shared with the world!

Is Facebook Replacing Email?

As we discussed previously, Facebook is a kind of social media, (Click here if you don't know what social media is.) and email is a type of one-to-one communication very similar to regular paper-and-ink mail. (Click here if you don't know what email is.) How then could something so private as email be being replaced by something as open as Facebook?

A study of teens preferred methods of communication (source) shows that email use is declining in many demographics that grew up with computers. SMS messaging (AKA "texting") and IMs ("Instant Messages") are growing in popularity as more people have devices that can access the Internet whenever they want. I know I might have lost some of you with talking about texting and IMing, but don't worry. Here's a 15-second explanation for purposes of this article. I'll start working on full-length articles explaining them individually right after this!

SMS and MMS messages are either words (SMS) or pictures/videos (MMS) that are sent between cell phones over the cell phone towers. They do not require the Internet, and messages can wait in an inbox for the recipient to read them.

IMs are most commonly used between computers and/or cell phones. They require the Internet, can carry words or pictures, and are usually used as a more conversational alternative to emails. They require both users to be active at the same time- there is no "inbox" like email for messages to wait.

So why are more and more people using SMS and IM instead of email? I think (though no one knows for sure) that it's very similar to why people started having phone conversations instead of writing letter back when telephones started becoming more popular. It just feels more natural to have a conversation than to write a long letter, send it, wait for a response, and then reply back. SMS and IMs give the instant gratification and conversational feel that people enjoy.

Is Facebook replacing email? Not entirely, and not yet. I think "replacing" is a bit of an alarmist phrase, but I would say that people are shifting to more conversational methods for their day-to-day lives.

Practical Tip of the Day:
Not sure if you should send someone a message via email, text or social media? The general rule of thumb I use is that emails are good for long dialogs. For example, if you subscribe to this blog via email, you'll receive a message that tells you there's new post, and gives you more information. If you need to tell someone a message that isn't very private (if you don't care if others read it), and isn't very long, social media is good for that. If you have a short but private message, texting might be the way to go. (Note: Yes, I know phones work for talking too, but I'm only discussing written media right now. If you have something personal or private to tell someone in-person or phone conversations are considered the best form of communication in modern etiquette.)

What is Email?

People have been sending each other messages since history began. At first they were physical signs, then verbal, eventually written, and now electronic. In a time when most people only buy stamps to send out holiday cards or bills, email has become ubiquitous. While a lot of people know how to send and read email, not everyone understands exactly what email is.

It is, in the most basic sense, a letter that is typed and sent over the internet (see previous post) instead of sent via traditional mail. That's it! Only not. Email is popular because of it's speed. Typically, once an email is sent it only takes a few seconds for the recipient to receive it. Just like how you can send pictures with a traditional letter, you can also send pictures in emails, but you can also send other things like a website address to a news article or a cute video.

Here's a small crash course on email terminology:

Inbox- This is where you receive your new messages. This is typically the first thing you see when you go to your email. Think of this like your physical mailbox. You open it to check if you have any messages.

Outbox- This is where messages are kept while they are waiting to be sent. Think of this as your mailbox with your outgoing letters in it- flag up- waiting for the mailman. Mail is only kept their briefly.

Sent- This is where messages you've sent are kept. This has no good analogy to physical mail unless you're the kind of person that photocopies all the messages they send out before they actually mail it.

Spam (aka Junk)- What does canned meat have to do with unwanted messages? I'll spare you the history lesson (it's actually much more boring than you'd think), and just let you know that it's the electronic equivalent to junk mail that typically fills up your physical mailbox.

Practical Tip of the Day:
Often times, new computer users ask "Where should I get my email from?" Just like picking your child's daycare or your TV service provider, this is an important decission since your email address is like your house address- it's where people can get ahold of you- so you don't want to change it too often. There's no clear-cut answer to which email service is best, though.

More and more people are using Google's free Gmail addresses, but often your internet provider (the company that set up the box for you to get internet) gives you a free address as well. I usually tell people to ask their friends which they use, just like where they get their car serviced or who their doctor is, personal recommendations are often the best way to find a good solution for you.