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Technological advances are being made at an increasingly rapid rate making it more and more difficult to stay on top of what's new. Even more difficult is determining whether new technology is useful to you or to your business. Where can you turn for help in weeding out the useful programs and gadgets from the "pretty cool but not necessary to me" stuff?

While the internet has made "finger-tip" access to global information instantly available, it has also created major information overload. Once you have found a few decent technology news web sites, bookmark them and try to return weekly to see what's up. Newsletters (like this one!) can also give you up-to-date information on any topic that interests you.

Another thing you can do to help stay in tune with changes is to talk to local experts whenever you get a chance. It can make all the difference and will free up your precious time when you let the experts do the "weeding" for you. Look around and I'm sure you'll find a handful of friendly pros happy to lend a hand.

WindowWalk Computer Education offers on-site courses and hourly training ranging from the basics to advanced "power user" features. We pride ourselves in making your computer education a fully personalized, comfortable, and convenient experience.

Find out more about our Free Business and Home Software Assessments for Small Business Owners and Home Users.

Visit on the web, send an email , or call 830-9336 to give us your comments and suggestions or to learn more about our effective software training.

SURFIN' SAFARI

Some Useful and Interesting Web Sites

WHAT DOES IT DO?

Quick Descriptions of Popular Software

GOOGLE DESKTOP SEARCH

How often do you hear, "I Googled this" or "Try Googling that"? Now our favorite Web search engine has gotten more personal, indexing the contents of your computer's local hard drive. Google Desktop Search isn't breaking new ground; Copernic Desktop Search, MSN Desktop Toolbar, and Yahoo Desktop Search also find information on your computer in seconds, and all (including Google) are free. But Google Desktop Search is definitely among the best.

The nine standard modules in the Sidebar include Email, a running list of messages in your Outlook in-box; News, with the latest Google News stories; Web Clips; and What's Hot, a collection of Google's most popular links. The Scratch Pad lets you take notes and saves them automatically, and the Photos module flips through a mini slide show of images from your local drive, as well as from Web sites you've visited. The Quick View module displays a list of frequently used files, applications, Web sites, or other items. You also get updated ticker symbols and indices within the Stocks box, with a section for weather conditions and forecasts beneath it.

Go to Google Downloads to get the Desktop Search and other cool programs.

SAY WHAT!?

Sound Like a Computer Wizard

HARDWARE HELPER

TOP 5 BUDGET CAMCORDERS

Canon's feature-packed camcorder shoots very good daylight footage but has reason to be scared of the dark.

Sony Handycam DCR-HC32

SOFTWARE SEARCH

Quicken Premier Home and Business 2006

Pity the makers of Quicken, the best personal finance package on the planet. When your product is already that good, it's hard to think up nifty new features each year. Such is the case with Quicken Premier 2006, an excellent program that, aside from a few nips and tucks, isn't a big step up from its predecessor. We like Quicken's new minireports, which make it easier to quickly study your spending mishaps in specific categories, such as dining out. The overhauled Reports Center is much easier to navigate, and version 2006's ability to attach check and receipt images to Quicken transactions is great for tracking tax records and eliminating paper clutter. Overall though, there isn't enough new stuff here for us to recommend an upgrade from Quicken 2005. However, Quicken 2004 and earlier stalwarts should consider upgrading, but check first to see if your financial institution will charge you for using the new OFX file format for online banking.

The Quicken Guided Setup is an easy-to-follow wizard for beginners. Once you've entered your data, the well-structured Home screen displays myriad charts and graphs that summarize your financial health. Menu and icon bars along the top of the screen, plus left-side column links to the Investing and Property & Debt sections, make it easy to access just about every tool you'll need. The best interface upgrade is the new Reports Center, a dramatic makeover of what was a drab, hard-to-browse section. In Quicken 2006, a single screen displays both standard and custom reports, and standard reports are organized by category (for example, spending or tax).

CNET Rating: 8.0 Excellent

Read the full review at Cnet.com.

WEB WARY

Viruses, Hoaxes, and Scams

HURRICANE SCAMS

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, we wanted to remind you that whenever there is a major natural or other disaster, scammers begin sending out charity relief scams within just a couple of hours!

Online scammers continue to join the looters as more of the Hurricane Katrina scams we predicted are making their way around the Net.

By Wednesday September 14, of the 4,000 sites claiming to offer help to Katrina victims, the FBI believes up to 60% are likely bogus.

Types of Hurricane Katrina Scams

Phishing scams: As described above, many fraudulent websites have already been set up pretending to be legitimate Hurricane Katrina relief organizations. These sites request charitable donations, but in fact steal financial information and may be used for identity theft as well. Contributions, of course, go into the pockets of the scammers rather than to help people who desperately need it.

Viruses and trojans: Spam is sent that includes photos of disaster areas or individual survivors, and these attachments contain computer viruses. For example, the Trojan, Cgab, is now related to a Hurricane Katrina email that is making the rounds. It provides full access to the victim's PC. According to CNN Money, the email headlines include: "Re: g8 Tropical storm flooded New Orleans" and "Re: g7 80 percent of our city underwater."

Variants of the Nigerian fee scam: unsolicited email (spam) is sent with the supposed purpose of retrieving large amounts of money tied up in areas devastated by Hurricane Katrina. We were surprised that it took over a week to start seeing these scams.

Investment and security scams: According to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), emails are already making the rounds that tout specific stocks on the basis of activity related to Hurricane Katrina. For example, one email says that investors could more than double their money in just days on certain penny stocks because of "refinery glitches."

Misleading emails trying to take advantage of the disaster to sell unrelated products. Emails seem like news stories and include a link inviting you to "Read More...". The link takes you to a Viagra (or similar product) site.

Requests for individual donations to help their family members: The first spam message we saw of this type had two different spellings of the scammer's first name!

Hate websites: Sadly, a lot of hate websites are popping up that characterize the disaster as the "wrath of God" -- and then they naturally ask people to donate to them.

Chain letters: According to Anne Mitchell, aka Aunty Spam, the first email hoax was a request to forward the hoax because fifty cents would supposedly be donated to help victims for every copy of the email forwarded.

Scammers posing as officials from government agencies, banks, insurance companies, credit card companies, etc.: These scammers are claiming they will help victims in some way (such as help process their insurance claims more quickly). However, the goal of these scams is to steal bank, credit card, and/or other personal information in order to steal money and sometimes commit identity theft. So far we're seeing this more offline than online, but it's only a matter of time until these scams become more prevalent online.

Contractor scams: Contractors (or people pretending to be contractors) are asking for money up front to do repair work, and then not showing up to do the work. Again, these scams are showing up more offline than online, but they, too, will become more prevalent online.

Fee-based spam: unsolicited emails offer, for a fee, to locate loved ones who may be disaster victims.

Never, ever, ever respond to emails that ask for personal info.

Always use common sense.

To see examples of the various Hurricane Scams and read the full article, click here.

ASK TIZZIE

From the Email Files of our Resident Computer Monster

Question:

What is the difference between "web mail" and email software, such as Outlook Express or Eudora?

Tizzie's Answer:

The best way to explain the difference betweeen web mail and email software is to use a post office analogy. Web mail is a mail box address located on a remote server - Hotmail or Yahoo Mail, for example. To read your mail and send messages you have to go to the web mail server and access your mail box while you are there. This would be like going to the post office to get your mail from a P.O. box.

Email software is more like the letter carrier who delivers your mail to your door. You tell the email program where your mail box is located (in the account settings of the program) and it goes to your mail box and fetches the mail back to your computer where you can save it for future reference.

Web mail is great when you are traveling because you can access your email from any internet-connected computer anywhere in the world. For collectors, like me, having email come to your computer where you can manage your email without any space restrictions is the way to go.

TIPS AND TRICKS

Customize the Screensaver in Windows XP

Windows XP comes with a customizable screensaver that you can use to personalize your monitor when the computer is not in use. To change your screensaver, click the Start button and click Control Panel. There are two ways to view the Control Panel - Category and Classic.

In Category view, click the Appearance and Themes topic, then click the Choose a Screensaver option. The Display Properties dialog opens. In Classic View, click the Display icon, then click the Screensaver tab in the Display Properties dialog box.

Click the list arrow under Screensaver and choose 3D Text from the list. Click the Settings button to open the 3D Text Settings dialog box. There you can enter your own custom text, change the font, and add rotation, motion, resolution, and other effects to the text.