Category Archives: File and data management

How to Avoid Being Phished

Unbeknownst to most people, the way they deal with their online log-ins and passwords makes them victims of phishing. Phishing?

Phishing is a way personal and sensitive information are stolen. These do not just limit itself to e-mail log-ins but to credit card details too and accounts made available online. This is online theft, in other words.

It pays to have a know-how on identity theft protection.

There are password-stealing malwares lurking at every corner in the world wide web waiting for opportunities to steal these information.

How should you avoid being phished?

  • Avoid using your birthdate or Social security number as your password.
  • Avoid using letters and/or numbers in sequence
  • Check the url of a site first before you click on it. For example, an email gives you notification about your paypal account but has a url that is not paypal’s site. Or, if you have an email stating you have purchased something but did not do so or an unclaimed package but did not send anything? Do NOT click on the links there.
  • Check the security settings of social networking sites where you have accounts for these have third party applications that fish information you put.
  • Should you find the need to use an internet cafe, be sure to clear the cache or clear history before you leave the workstation.

Being careful with online activity is something one should take note of.

And please, change your passwords every now and then and avoid being predictable 🙂

Organizational Leadership Program

I met my brother last weekend. It was our first time to see his cute daughter Amara (my first niece!).

Brother went here to accompany his wife and daughter who will have a short vacation. Brother also planned to enroll for the second semester for his Master’s.

We got to talking about the alternative of enrolling in an online program to save on fare and time travel. If road conditions prove to be not good, he runs the risk of not being able to go to school.

He majored in Industrial Psychology. I can’t particularly remember what he is majoring in right now but during our talk, we got to discuss the merits of enrolling in a program that about organizational leadership.

He was at first not sure if there are online programs being offered for that course so we were surprised when chanced upon an online Master of Arts in Organizational Leadership when we were scouring the web for programs like these.

Now, if only he can afford it, I know he will enroll in this program because it offers a lot of good topics like problem solving skills, strategic planning, team building and instituting change within an organization.

My brother was particularly interested in organizational communication and psychology of motivation.

If I may say so, students these days are too busy with mundane tasks (social media for one) that they need a lot of motivation to keep focus on their studies. Oh well, maybe its just me.

Protection

Everyone with a computer and net connection should have one. And I am talking about antivirus software.

This is especially handy for us who have children who go online. Who knows what lurks behind those online gaming sites that they so love to visit and play games with.

So are your gadgets protected from worms and malicious programs? I hope so.

Oh, by the way, I have written another kind of protection in this post here.

WordCamp Philippines 2009

WordCamp Philippines  2009 was  a mixture of different resource speakers who gave interesting talks. Congratulations to the organizers. Woot, woot!

Beau Lebens represented WordPress. Beau’s presentation can be read here.

Markku Seguerra presented WordPress in the wild with topics about deployment,  performance, optimization and security.

I enjoyed Danny Arao’s lecture on being responsible bloggers.

I guess a lot of  bloggers need to be reminded that not because they have the freedom to express their opinions mean that need not practice restraint. And tact. ‘Nuff said.

Seth Bindernagel spoke about the localization of Mozilla. This is Seth’s presentation as seen in Scribd. Translation in Filipino?  Hmmm…

Jeff of VisitSagada.com talked about writing and blogging and yes, it is advisable to “not burn bridges and be nice”. Positivity rules.

Gail Villanueva (her presentation is here) and Karla Redor talked about things tags, CMS,  plugins, custom field, and the like. (Pass the tissue please, am having a nosebleed, hehe)

Posts about WordCamp Philippines 2009: Read more »

Solution For a No Laptop Problem

I had a student before who wanted to have his own laptop but his parents won’t get him one. Reason? He spends too much time playing computer games.

He reasoned out that yes, he wants to have his files (or yes, games) with him wherever he goes. I even kidded him “So you want to guard your games 24/7 huh?” He just chuckled.

So when there was still no laptop for him but he did a move that surprised his parents. I was surprised too.

He got himself an external hard drive! Woohoo!

That way, he reasoned, he can bring his games with him when he go to his friends houses and that way, he can still play with these games  😀

Clever boy, he used his own money to buy the stuff.