Separate personal and official IDs

The best way to avoid such a situation is to have two email IDs with separate and long passwords -- one official, the other for personal use. Not only it will leave you better organised, but is the easiest way to keep cyber criminals at bay.

Also, be sure of the password you use. Remember, while easy passwords leave little room for forgetting, they leave a lot of scope for tinkering by cyber hackers.

With Internet becoming an important repository of our personal information both financial and otherwise, the stakes can be high if the same is tampered with.

So try using some mixed combos that can secure your mail. Length is a huge advantage to memorise your password. And always remember your name, spouse name, children names or birthdays are a strict no no.

Article Source:- http://infotech.indiatimes.com/quickiearticleshow/3956532.cms

5 tips to keep your inbox safe

Emails asking people to send money abroad so that they can collect lottery money are passe now. Latest is a new online scam with an all new modus operandi that has left even security experts clueless.

Recently a college student received an email from his friend asking for 1,200 pounds (Rs 85,000) as he had lost his wallet. It came from the account of someone she knew and even bore his digital signature. However, later she found out that his friend never wrote the email.



Few months back, a businessman approached the cyber crime cell after some of his friends received a mail from his Hotmail account requesting them to send him Rs 1.27 lakh.

And mind you, such incidents are on a rise, security experts have warned that cyber criminals are hacking mail accounts and sending mails to addresses in the contact list to extract money.

So, how can you make sure you don't become a victim of one? Here are five golden rules to follow to make sure you don't become a victim.

Article Source:- http://infotech.indiatimes.com/quickiearticleshow/3956536.cms

Turn off window animation

Vista went overboard with window animation -- the almost slow -- motion visual effect that occurs when you minimise or maximise an application. Whether you think the animation is cool or not, it's indisputable that it slows you down -- or at least it seems to.

Luckily, turning off window animation is possible, and doing so will not affect other types of interface animation that you may enjoy in Vista. Open the Windows Control Panel, click System and Maintenance, Performance Information and Tools, Advanced Tools from the task pane at the left, and then click "Adjust the appearance and performance of Windows". A user account control dialog box will prompt you, and you should click Continue. The Performance Options dialog box will open.

On the Visual Effects tab of the Performance Options dialog box, you have four choices: "Let Windows choose what's best for my computer", "Adjust for best appearance", "Adjust for best performance", and "Custom". "Custom" is followed by a list of individual check boxes that allow you to determine exactly which visual effects you would like to turn on or off.

To start, click "Custom", and then remove the check mark next to the "Animate windows when minimising and maximising". De-activating that option will make your applications and other windows snap into and out of view immediately rather than gradually. Changing this setting alone may be enough to make Vista feel snappier for you, and you could stop there and see how you like the change.
Article Source:- http://infotech.indiatimes.com/quickiearticleshow/4097507.cms

How to boost Windows Vista speed

Windows 7 with its commendable performance improvements may be on the horizon. But for now, most of us have to live with Windows Vista, which can make even the fastest computer seem slow.

But you don't have to put up with Vista's sluggishness without a fight. In fact, most of what ails Vista when it comes to performance can be remedied by adjusting some settings and eliminating some features.

And the good news: The whole process need not take more than half an hour. Afterwards, you'll be rewarded a computer that feels a lot faster.

Article Source:- http://infotech.indiatimes.com/quickiearticleshow/4097511.cms

Google Notebook

Google has also halted further active development on Google Notebook, the free online application that lets users save and organise clips of information while conducting research online. Though the web giant will continue to maintain the service for current users, it will no longer add features nor will accept any new users.

The service lets users write notes, and to clip text, images, and links from pages during browsing. These are saved to an online "notebook" with sharing and collaboration features. Google Notebook works as an interactive scratch pad for any visited web pages, offering to collect web findings within the browser window.

Google in its blog wrote, "We will no longer support the Notebook Extension, but as always users who have already signed up will continue to have access to their data via the web interface. However, existing users won’t be able to use the browser extension, which makes the service significantly less useful. Among Google’s suggestions for replacements are SearchWiki, Google Docs, Tasks (Gmail), and Google Bookmarks."

Article Source:- http://infotech.indiatimes.com/quickiearticleshow/4124279.cms