I thought that was one of the big tech questions of late, but I was surprised to find out from some friends that their question was actually, “What’s tweeting?” or more precisely, “What’s Twitter?”

With all the buzz Twitter receives in the tech world, I assumed that everyone had heard of it and that I was a relatively late adopter. (I created a personal account in December 2008, and I created a TechKathy account in January 2009.) And while it has taken me a few weeks to understand what all the fuss is about, I have to confess that I’ve grown to like the service.

Read the rest of this entry »

More than three million Windows computers around the world have been hit by a malicious worm, but your computer doesn’t need to become one of this growing number. Just a few simple steps can protect you and save you hours of trouble.

A computer worm is a self-propagating piece of malicious software. Computer worms use networks (like the internet) to send copies of themselves out to other computers on those networks. Since no action is necessary on the part of computer users for a worm to infect their systems, users are often unaware they’ve been infected, and they unwittingly allow the worm to infect other users.

On Friday, the BBC reported that, in this particular case, “the malicious program, known as Conficker, Downadup or Kido was first discovered in October 2008.” Microsoft released a patch specifically to stop this worm from infecting machines, but it remains a problem because many owners of Windows computers have not downloaded and installed this patch.

Read the rest of this entry »

With the demise of JournalSpace two weeks ago and news of cutbacks at LiveJournal last week, blogging has been a hot topic lately. There are literally millions of blogs on the internet, ranging from simple online diaries to cute and crazy animal sites to news and commentary sites. People around the world use blogs to discuss anything and everything with friends, family members and anyone else who happens upon their blog.

Have you ever thought about starting a blog? It may seem like a daunting task, but it can be a really fun project. To begin, you just need an interesting topic to discuss or a niche to fill and a few ideas for blog posts. But once you’ve got a clear idea of your blog’s purpose, and you’re ready to start, where should you create your blog? There are a dizzying array of sites out there vying for your blogging business!

If you’re just starting out, you’ll likely want to find a free or low-cost blogging service that hosts your site for you. That’s what I did for my first blog (my personal site, Life in Amsterdam). These services are great because they don’t require much (if any) knowledge of HTML coding or any special software, they offer a number of great features and add-ons, and they can produce surprisingly professional-looking results. Plus, free and low-cost blogging services are a great way to try out the blogging medium without much financial commitment.

Read the rest of this entry »

Most of us have spam filters to help shield us from the junk that spammers send us via email, and I really hope that by now everyone knows that those Nigerians needing help “freeing” their funds are really just looking for naïve people to scam. But how well do you think you can spot “phishing” messages?

“Phishing” is an illegal method of tricking someone into providing very personal and sensitive information (like usernames, passwords, credit card numbers and etc.) to people who are not who they say they are. Phishing typically happens through email or instant messages, and these messages may have real business names, real logos and/or legal-sounding language requesting immediate action. The messages often include forms to fill out and return by email or links to fake websites with online forms to fill out.

Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve gone back and forth on social networks for years. Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Friendster, Flixster, Last.fm, Classmates—the list goes on and on. I couldn’t decide if there was really any value in them for me, and what about my privacy? Most of the social networks’ privacy policies are difficult to read, and many appeared to actually give the companies ownership of my information. Why should I agree to that?

In 2005, I decided to give one a try. After all, millions of people must be using these sites for some reason. I joined LinkedIn, mainly because my husband had joined and found it useful for keeping up business contacts and networking. I made a profile, but because of my fears about privacy and my general wariness, I gave LinkedIn the absolute minimum amount of information I could. Not surprisingly, I wasn’t contacted by (or linked to) anyone, and I saw very little value in it. My husband, however, filled out a detailed profile and linked to a number of respected friends and colleagues, and he began receiving messages from recruiters with job possibilities.

Read the rest of this entry »