Email and website documents – what types should I provide

Certain file types have always been vulnerable to virus infection.

In the broadest sense, there are basically 2 types of files on a computer.

  1. Files that are executable.  – These files are usually referred to as programs.  iTunes, Microsoft Word, virii, malware, even Windows itself is basically a (gigantic) program or group of programs. We sometimes say that these programs “execute code”, because all programs are coded instructions that tell the computer what to do.  Hence the term “Computer Programmer”, and one of the slang terms for the same person:  a “coder”.
  2. Files that require a program to run them.  For the most part, we can refer to these as documents.  Word  processor files (.doc or .docx), Audio files (.mp3, .aac, etc), pdf files, picture files (.jpg, .png, .tif, .cr2, etc), movie files (mp4, flv, etc) and the like.

Almost any executable file can be infected with a virus.  This doesn’t meant though that non-executable files are always safe. Continue reading Email and website documents – what types should I provide

Protect your identity online – A letter from Microsoft

I get these emails because I’m subscribed to things like this.  It does have good information in it. The email was titled “Help Protect Yourself From Phone Scams”, but the same goes for your online experience.

He mentions that if someone walked up to you on the street and asked for personal information (this includes credit card information), you wouldn’t give it to them.  Yet I’ve caught even family members considering paying for the “protection” that a piece of software – that they didn’t choose to install on their computers – put its virtual hand out and “asked” for.

80 years or so ago, we called it what it was.  Protection Money. Extortion. Continue reading Protect your identity online – A letter from Microsoft

Storm’s Eye launches a new site

Welcome everyone!  We’re pleased to launch our brand new site.  It’s been a lot of years since we did a refresh, and thought it was time!

Old posts from the forums were kept.  In reality, they really were more like blog posts, so they’ve been converted to blog posts.

Any of the posts that are basically archival in nature (i.e. how-tos on software most people don’t use anymore) have been given a date of Dec 2011.  They’ve been kept mainly because a lot of software doesn’t change that much, and these posts may still lead you to a resolution, in a pinch.

Posts that still somewhat relevant, but not “breaking news” have been given a date of May 2012.  These are still useful, but mostly for educational purposes.

Of course with blogging software as the driving force behind our new site, we have intentions of updating more frequently, and providing timely news about Storm’s Eye, and also of issues that you may face today, or tomorrow, with your computer experiences.

As always, we’re just a phone call or email away if you need help.

WordPress 3.3.2 updating plugins and uploading pictures not working

So today I was trying to set up a wordpress site for a client on my server. I noticed that uploading of images and updating plugins didn’t work.

The images part was similar to several posts I saw on the web, but none of the solutions worked for me.

For reference, the suggestions for fixing the image uploading issue were: Continue reading WordPress 3.3.2 updating plugins and uploading pictures not working