So many scams, so little time…

It seems like all the news outlets are talking today, about the scam purporting to offer Costco $75 online coupons, in exchange for forwarding the scam to your friends. I find it so sad, and so limiting, that they are publicizing this one specific scam warning... Especially considering that there are thousands of scams out there that sound equally juicy, but are equally fake and usually very malicious.

It might be wise, to remember the old adage: “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is!“ Maybe another good thing to remember, is that the Internet is a huge game-changer, because it allows anyone on the planet to contact you, bringing the criminals right to you, wherever you are.

Here are some articles from the Federal Trade Commission, and one from USA.gov, that may help you avoid being scammed.

• FTC's ten things you can do to avoid fraud
  
• FTC's list of most recent scam alerts
  
• FTC's list of online scams
• USA.gov's list of scams
• ScamSpotter's three golden rules
  

Y'all be careful out there!

Dropbox Available Storage

Here's how to see your available space on Dropbox, in case you've been wondering. It's worth knowing, that your total space used includes your own personal files and folders, but also the files and folders in any Dropbox shares to which you are attached.

The Internet and World Wide Web

Paul Gil at LifeWire posted this Beginner's Quick Reference Guide for the Internet and World Wide Web, which could have been written by some of my friends and coworkers, and some in my family, but it's still a nice write up, for anyone who could benefit from an overview or reminder of some of the major pieces used to host and access information out there "on the Inter-Webs." ;-)

A lot of the things I find on the web disappear after awhile, so I've copied / pasted the content of the above webpage below. Enjoy!

---

Internet 101: Beginners Quick Reference Guide

Start using the Internet with confidence

by Paul Gil
Updated on March 10, 2020
Tim Hale Photography / Getty Images

The Internet and the World Wide Web, in combination, form a worldwide broadcast medium for the general public. Using your desktop computer, smartphone, tablet, Xbox, media player, GPS, or car, you can access a world of messaging and content through the Internet and the web. This guide will fill in your knowledge gaps and have you fluent on the Internet and the web quickly.

How the Internet Differs From the Web

The Internet is a massive hardware network. The Internet's most extensive collection of readable content is called the World Wide Web, a collection of several billion pages and images that are joined by hyperlinks. Other content on the Internet includes email, instant messaging, streaming video, peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing, and downloading.

The Internet, or net, is a term that refers to the interconnection of computer networks. It is a conglomeration of millions of computers and smart devices, all connected by wires or wireless signals. Although it started in the 1960s as a military experiment in communication, the Internet evolved into a public free broadcast forum in the 1970s and 1980s. No single authority owns or controls the Internet. No single set of laws governs its content. You connect to the Internet through a private Internet service provider in your home or office or a public Wi-Fi network. 

In 1989, a growing collection of readable content was added to the Internet—the World Wide Web. The web is the HTML pages and images that travel through the Internet's hardware. You may hear the expressions Web 1.0, Web 2.0, and the invisible web to describe these billions of web pages.

The expressions web and Internet are used interchangeably by most people. This is technically incorrect, as the Internet contains the web. In practice, however, most people don't bother with the distinction.

Web 1.0, Web 2.0, Invisible Web, and Dark Web

When the World Wide Web was launched in 1989 by Tim Berners-Lee, it was filled with plain text and rudimentary graphics. Effectively a collection of electronic brochures, the web was organized as a simple broadcast/receive format. This simple static format is called Web 1.0. Millions of web pages are still static, and the term Web 1.0 still applies to them.

In the late 1990s, the web started to move beyond static content and began offering interactive services. Instead of only seeing web pages as brochures, the web began to offer online software that allowed people to perform tasks and receive consumer-type services. Online banking, video gaming, dating services, stock tracking, financial planning, graphics editing, home videos, and webmail became regular online web offerings before the year 2000. These online services are now referred to as Web 2.0. Websites such as Facebook, Flickr, Lavalife, eBay, Digg, and Gmail helped make Web 2.0 a part of our daily lives.

The invisible web, also called the deep web, is the third part of the World Wide Web. Technically a subset of Web 2.0, the invisible web describes billions of web pages that are purposely hidden from regular search engines. These web pages are protected by passwords or hidden behind firewalls. They are private, confidential pages, such as personal email, personal banking statements, and web pages generated by specialized databases such as job postings in Cleveland or Seville. Invisible web pages are either hidden entirely from casual eyes or require specialized search engines to locate. 

In the 2000s, a cloaked part of the World Wide Web spawned the darknet, also called the dark web. Darknet is a private collection of websites that are encrypted to conceal participants' identities and prevent authorities from tracking users' activities. The dark web is a black market for traders of illicit goods and a sanctuary for people who seek to communicate away from oppressive governments and dishonest corporations. The dark web can only be accessed through complex technology. You won't accidentally stumble across the dark web. Most Internet users never go there.

Internet Terms for Beginners

Beginners should learn basic Internet terminology. While some Internet technology is complex and intimidating, the fundamentals of understanding the net are doable. Some of the basic terms to learn include:

• HTML and http/https
• Browser
• Web page
• URL
• Email
• Social media
• ISP
• Downloading
• Malware
• Router
• E-commerce
• Bookmark

Web Browsers

A web browser is the primary tool for reading web pages and exploring the larger Internet. Microsoft Edge, Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, and Apple Safari are the big names in browser software. Each of them offers solid features. Other browsers include Opera, Vivaldi, and Tor browser. All Internet browsers are free on computers and mobile devices. You open a browser and enter a search term or a URL, which is the address of a web page, to reach any web page you are looking for.

Mobile Internet: Smartphones, Tablets, and Laptops

Laptops, tablets, and smartphones are the devices people use to surf the Internet as they are on the go. Whether you are riding on a bus or sitting in a coffee shop, at the library, or in an airport,  mobile Internet access is a revolutionary convenience. Dealing with mobile Internet connections requires some basic knowledge of hardware and networking.

Email: How It Works

Email is a subnetwork inside the Internet. People trade written messages along with file attachments through email. Over time, email provides the business value of maintaining a paper trail for conversations.

Instant Messaging: Faster Than Email

Instant messaging, or IM, is a combination of chat and email. Although often considered a distraction at corporate offices, IM can be a useful communication tool for both business and social purposes.

Social Networking

Social networking is about starting and maintaining communications with friends and family through websites. It is the modern digital form of socializing, done through web pages. Users choose one or more online services that specialize in group communications and gather their friends there to exchange daily greetings and regular messages. Although not the same as face-to-face communications, social networking is popular because it is relaxed, playful, and motivating. Social networking sites can be general or focused on hobby interests, such as movies and music.

Acronyms and the Internet

The world of Internet culture, social networking, and messaging is filled with jargon that has expanded into a language dominated by acronyms such as LOL, BRB, and ROTFL. You may feel lost without a guide to this cryptic terminology. Whether or not you choose to use these communication shortcuts, you need to understand them to know what others are talking about.

Search Engines

With thousands of web pages and files added every day, the Internet and the web are daunting to search. Although sites like Google and Yahoo help, even more important is the user mindset. Knowing how to approach sifting through billions of possible choices to find what you need is a learned skill.

Winter Driving Tips

Someone who had recently moved to Colorado, asked on our Word of Mouth group, about classes on snow/ice driving. My feedback was: Glad you're looking for advice! 👍 There’s no substitute for good judgment, and that comes from training and experience, and you can get some of that in a winter driving course, so definitely find and take one. In the meantime, here are some tips:

• An All Wheel Drive (AWD) car will get you going in slippery conditions, which is awesome, but it won’t help you stop any faster - all cars have four wheel brakes. 
• Front wheel drive (FWD) cars are more controllable when slightly accelerating (foot barely on the gas), and rear wheel drive (RWD) cars are more stable when lightly decelerating (foot off the gas). The operative word here is "lightly" since any big changes can cause you to lose control. 
• Locking your brakes will take away all your steering, so be really gentle, when trying to brake in loose traction. Gently reduce your braking, if the car starts sliding sideways. Keep your front wheels turning, so you can use them to steer. 
• Anti-lock brakes (ABS) will help you maintain directional control, but they won’t slow you down any faster.
• Tight (or sometimes any) turns at speed can easily get you off the road. Snow tires with good tread depth can help with that. Studded tires are amazingly helpful, but they tear up the roads, so get them changed back to regular tires, after the snow/ice season ends.
• Plan way ahead in slippery conditions. Time and distance are your friends here. 
• Black ice is just a description of frozen water on the road, which is extremely slippery. The light reflects off it differently, so that the road, which normally looks grayish in headlights at night, looks black. Brakes have almost no effect in these conditions, so all you can do, is try to maintain control as best you can, until you get to better road conditions ahead.
• Sometimes when conditions are really bad/slippery, like when fresh dry snow has fallen over a layer of frozen rain, the smartest decision is to stay where you are for awhile. 
• Never forget, one of your biggest risks is from other drivers who are not as experienced and careful as you. You can help them out, by anticipating their poor choices, and not being where they are heading, when they get there. One thing that helps with this, is a safe following distance. Never use car lengths - it’s a terribly obsolete method to judge a safe distance. Use timing, which compensates for speed - stay at least two seconds behind a car in front of you in dry conditions, and increase that to 3-4 seconds or more, in slippery conditions. 
• There is such a thing as going so slow as to be a risk to other drivers, even if they’re going too fast to be safe. If you find yourself having difficulty staying in control while keeping up with traffic, that’s a red flag that you may be beyond your own capabilities at the moment, or they may all be going too fast for conditions. Regardless of the reason, you might want to get out of that particular traffic flow as soon as you safely can. 
• If it snows before you get a chance to take a winter driving class, you might consider going to an empty parking lot, and trying to drive quickly in tight circles (donuts), to get a sense of how much easier it is to lose traction in those conditions, but watch out for the location of islands and light posts, to avoid damaging your car and ego while practicing. 
• Leave early to allow for slower traffic and accidents. 
• Look at Google Maps to get a sense of traffic conditions before you go. It may help you determine how much earlier you need to leave, and show you alternate routes that may work better.
• The CDOT website sometimes has a good depiction of road conditions.
• Don’t drive with obscured vision. Get one of those cool long brushes to get the majority of the loose snow off your windows and mirrors before you start moving. If you leave a thick layer of snow on top of your car, be aware that it could slide forward over your windshield the next time you stop quickly, blinding you. If you park your car outside, consider leaving an extra 10 minutes earlier, so you can sit in your car and let the ice on the windows melt, after you knock the loose snow off with your cool new brush. You really don’t need to be out in the cold, scraping your windows clear, so just sit comfortably in your car with the defrosters going, and let it melt, until you can just brush it off.
  
• And here is a link to a Google search result for winter driving - with lots of other resources.
  
• Welcome to Colorado, good luck and be safe out there!

USB connectors

Here's some information on USB connectors from Wikepedia. I had found a pretty interesting article (which has since been removed) at TopGreener.com, about the evolution of USB connectors, ending with the USB-C connector that some of the newer phones and laptops have. I wasn’t aware of the bidirectional power feature in USB-C, which sounds like something cool that will soon be well-exploited. I forgot what the old USB-B connector was - it was nice to be reminded.

Dealing with a slow computer

Someone on our private Word of Mouth site asked about dealing with an old slow Mac computer, that used to be much faster. I hate it when it does that! Honestly, I always get awesome results with a brand new computer, but it sounds like that’s not an option, so here goes:

In some cases, slowness comes from a bloated system, which can have different causes. Here are some of the things that slow a system down:

• Recent system changes can be the cause of a misbehaving system. The first thing to think about, is whether or not any changes have been made recently. If so, start by double-checking those changes, to see if they caused the problem. This can be the introduction of a new operating system, application software, or even just a system setting change that has a significant and unexpected effect.
• A hardware problem can cause a system to run slow. Sometimes an incompatible memory card, or other circuit card has been added to a system, which causes the system to work very hard to deal with a high level of bus or other errors. If a hardware change has been made recently, one thing to try, is to remove that new hardware, to see if it resolves the problem. It's also possible that an existing piece of hardware has partially failed, and is causing problems. That's harder to diagnose, but often there are clues that can lead you to the problematic hardware, if you're paying attention.
• An overfull system drive. This is easily diagnosed, with a high level disk status, that shows disk size and available space. An overfull drive is often caused by one or many large files on the system that don't need to be there. The best way to find these files, is to use third party utility software such as TreeSize Free, that can list all the files on the computer, sorted by size. An overfull disk can be also caused by a large amount of legitimate user data (pictures, music, videos) that has accumulated over time, in which case managing that data becomes the issue. You can identify your older unused data, and move it to external storage, to free up space. The simplest solution is to add a new larger hard drive to the system, or add additional storage some other way, such as by subscribing to Cloud storage, and move some or all of your user data to the new storage location.
• Overly full memory (RAM). This could simply be a case of not enough memory for the job the computer is now being asked to do. Operating System and application software updates often bring with them the need for more memory, just because the programmers have added new features. The simple solution is to add more RAM to the system, by carefully researching compatible memory. It can also be caused by unnecessary software running in the background.
• Corrupted system settings. Most older systems have suffered through myriads of system setting changes over the years, some of which cause the system to be looking for items that no longer exist. There are lots of third party software tools out there, that have the ability to scan your system for this type of problem, and help to clean out old obsolete system settings. I highly recommend a complete system backup, before giving this software the permission to change your settings, because they sometimes make changes that make it difficult for the system to work well, or sometimes, it can't work at all after the "repairs."
• CPU busy all the time. This is usually caused by unexpected software running in the background, but is also the symptom of a system that is running low on memory, and working very hard to use the available memory as efficiently as possible. Unexpected software can include benign software that came with other software, such as daemons whose job is to watch for available updates to installed software. There is also the danger that unexpected software is malicious software (malware) that is taking advantage of your system resources, to perform tasks that are entirely undesired. It is the job of good antivirus and anti-malware software, to find and eradicate malware, so make sure your system is running it.

You can spend a lot of time chasing down each of those individual issues, but my best results over many years of owning computers (Macs and PCs) at home, and developing software & doubling as a system administrator at work, have been with a complete system reload from scratch, starting with formatting the hard drive, installing the operating system from the original disks (or the network, if your computer can do that), then adding applications back (only the ones you need), and finally, restoring your personal data from backups.

This can be a daunting task, if you use many applications, and have a tendency to modify many system and application settings from their defaults, to make the system work better for you. However, every time I‘ve done this, my system has come up running way faster, for years afterwards.

Most importantly, keep a written system log, and from the moment the disk is formatted, make note of every significant change to the system, whether it is addition or deletion of hardware or software, or a system or application setting change. The system log is your most valuable tool, in identifying what changed, just prior to the system misbehaving.

Here's something that I found on the Web (of course there is much more like this out there), that sounds like some legitimate things to try.