January 18, 2007
Cold Weather in New England, Hot Stuff in Las Vegas
I was recently at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas to see all the awesome new gadgets. The big word for 2007 is "convergence." If you aren't already, you may soon be carrying a portable device that can compute, call, email, take pictures and play music. Desktop computers can do all those things too, and appliances, games and TV sets are starting to become much more computer-like. If you'd like to hear more about CES, send me a message. I'd be glad to hear from you. Moving on to this month's hot topics...
What is a Feed and Why Should I Care?
Feeds are a way of syndicating web content.
Okay -- that was a lame definition. Let's look at an example instead. CNN is a news site, and they have a feed. So does the BBC, CBS, FOX, the New York Times, and a million other papers, magazines, web sites and blogs. Let's say you want to keep track of what's going on in your world, city, industry or favorite hobby, but you don't have enough time to visit all these sites every day. Instead of surfing the same sites looking for new content, you can use a program called a feed reader to monitor all those sites. You probably already have a feed reader installed on your computer but may not know it.
What feed reader should you use? That depends on personal preference. You can use a web based program like Google Reader or Microsoft Live, a browser like Firefox or Internet Explorer 7.0, or an email program that has feed capabilities. There are also desktop feed readers that you can buy or download for free.
To subscribe to a site's feed look for an orange feed logo or "chicklet," then drag and drop the feed logo into your feed reader. It's that simple. Once you've subscribed to a feed, whenever the site publishes new material, the headline will appear in your feed reader. That way you can browse hundreds, or even thousands, of headlines to choose which stories you want to read. Feeds help you keep up with the latest news and events in a very short amount of time. Many feeds also provide podcasts that you can listen to on your computer, or download to an iPod type device.
If you have your own web site, you can create your own feed to deliver content to your audience. We recommend a free service called Feedburner that can help you set up your own feeds.
Do I Really Need to Secure My Computer?
We'd like to draw your attention to two rather extreme cases of what can happen when people neglect to maintain and secure their computers. Please don't take these stories the wrong way. We love computers and encourage you to use them, but we want you to be careful. A few simple precautions could help you avoid situations like these:
- Teenage Boy Faces Decades in Prison For Visiting Sexually Explicit Web Sites -- But Was It Really Someone Else? (ABC News)
- Substitute school teacher in Connecticut has been found guilty of exposing children to porn. (Norwich Bulletin)
Law enforcement today may not have enough technical know-how to understand whether the computer owner did something illegal, or if a hacker has turned the computer into a "zombie" that that's being used remotely and anonymously for criminal purposes. The safest thing to do is to take computer security seriously. Protect yourselves, your children and your employees. We recommend a variety of products that can help you secure your computer, including: Spysweeper, and CyberPatrol.
Internet Marketing in New England
A new organization for Search Engine Marketing in New England (SEMNE.org) has formed. If you haven't heard about search marketing, maybe you should get out more often. Today, businesses of all kinds are using the Internet to find more customers and do more business with existing clients. SEMNE provides opportunities for you to network with other business people and to learn about search marketing from some of the top experts in the field. Their next event is March 7 in Newton, MA, then on May 1, SEMNE will hold an event in Connecticut. I have some free passes for the Connecticut event, so drop me a line if you'd like one.
Please visit the SEMNE events page for more information.
That wraps up this newsletter. Thank you for reading! We look forward to hearing from you soon.
Yours truly,
Avi Smith-Rapaport
We Care Computers LLC
