ATT, Yahoo and Blogger Nightmare!

I’m back, for a while I think.

A while back ATT bought Yahoo and as I expected ATT screwed up the Yahoo e-mail accounts. They force us to use ATT’s’ ‘improved version’ of yahoo mail which of course it is not. For one, the new version no longer has a sender block option and without it I get hundreds of advertisement e-mails every week.

If I didn’t accept the new ATT version guess what, I couldn’t log in and because I have a link to Yahoo Mail from Blogger I couldn’t log onto Blogger or You-Tube!

So for the last more than two weeks I have been mostly off-line trying to sort-out the issues. I could log on one day but the next day I couldn’t. In the end they made me come up with all new e-mail passwords to get back on line. Hopefully it’s now over!

I need to find another e-mail service and not use Yahoo and ATT. Any suggestions?

FBI warns, Re-Boot Your Router

Link to story:
https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/security/fbi-warns-about-russia-linked-malware-threat-home-routers-questions-n878276

Back-Up your computers

I follow several sailboat cruising blogs and the story below describes a robbery that does from time to time happen! Sad part is everyone in the Caribbean knows sailors who come from other countries can not have weapons onboard to protect themselves so for the criminal it’s easy, almost risk free money. You can thank liberal politicians for this law.

Here’s a recent posting describing a robbery of a cruiser:

Lynne Dorning Sands     November 25 at 8:11pm · 

Very sad to report....
Do NOT go to Taganga. Sad to say in all my years of travel all over the world we were boarded last night & robbed. Outboard motors both gone, all jewelery, watches, phones, computers, cash, credit cards etc. We were both tied up & hit, but we & the dogs (who remained mysteriously silent through the whole episode) are fine. Shaken, stressed & certainly didn't need this..... and yes, we were warned.... what can I say....
We're in Santa Marta marina at the moment courtesy of good friends John & Jennifer Howarth whilst we decide next move..... sorry if I miss birthdays, anniversaries, emails etc. All my info is on my computer & is lost. I only have this galaxy tablet for now.

What to do?

As in the story, their computers and other items of value were taken. The most costly was the laptop computers. Not so much the cost to replace it, but all the hundreds of hours of work and irreplaceable information stored on it! There is a very simple low cost way to avoid data losses like they are suffering from, it’s a “Memory Stick” to back-up all your data onto.

Backing-up your files is not just for theft but hardware failure where the hard drive simply crashes or lightening strikes, etc.

Memory sticks are dirt cheap. The one below is just $7.00 for 32-GB of storage (32-GB is a lot of data and photo’s, over 16,000, 2-MG photo’s) and if you need more they make them up to 128-GB of storage. Another nice feature about the SanDisk models is they have an included program to password protect the contents, nice feature.

Memory sticks are what I use to back-up and store all my photo’s and files on. It is fast, small and simple to use.

However and most importantly when you back-up the files you want, please remove the memory stick and put it in a safe place. Not out in the open but in a drawer just out of sight but still convenient for you to retrieve and use faithfully. It would be even more painful if your computer was stolen and it had the back-up stick in it!

http://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Cruzer-Frustration-Free-Packaging--SDCZ36-032G-AFFP/dp/B007JR532M/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1448619286&sr=8-1&keywords=memory+sticks+for+computers

Also for Google Bloggers here’s a link to show you how to back-up your entire blog. I know of to many bloggers who have lost everything due to a problem with the host server and all their work just ‘disappears’!

Link:

http://www.livingprepared.blogspot.com/2012/11/for-blog-owners-how-to-back-up-your-blog.html

For Blog Owners: How to Back-up Your Blog

Re-posted by request:

We have a great deal of time and effort in our Blogs and everyone who has a Blog dreads the day that your Blog, all or in part ‘disappears’.

For several years I followed Granny Miller’s Blog. She was great at Blogging with her pictures and detail about her farm, canning, gardening and how she lived the self-reliant life. I learned a great deal from her. Well, the worst happened to her. She lost her Blog and did not have a complete back-up copy. Years of priceless information gone forever!

Fortunately, there is a very easy way to backup and save your entire Blog. 

In your Blog's control panel, if you click and open the Settings Tab you will see a Blog Tools section, click on that tab. It will open another window and you will see an option to Import Blog, Export Blog and Delete Blog. Clicking on the ‘Export Blog’ will allow you to save a copy of the entire contents of your Blog to your computer. A drop down window will allow you to pick where you want to save the file. It’s very simple to use this feature.

(Import Blog will allow you to restore your Blog should it become corrupted or lost by simply using your saved back-up copy)

Another great feature for Bloggers!

http://blogbooker.com The service this site provides is free. It takes your back-up copy of your Blog and converts it to a PDF in a book format with all the pictures.

The PDF is organized by date just like your Blog is written and with a table of contents allows you to pick a single article you may be looking for and open it.

The PDF is in a book printing layout. My file is large at 22meg and 630 pages. So printing or e-mailing isn’t really practical but it is fun to have or pass around on a CD.

Note, you can not use this PDF to restore your Blog. You must save the .xml back-up copy for that.

How to remove your Google Web Data History

Link to the story and video:
http://news.yahoo.com/how-to-remove-your-google-web-data-history.html

Do you know if Google is tracking your Web activity? If you have a Google account (for, say, Gmail) and have not specifically located and paused the Web History setting, then the search giant is keeping track of your searches and the sites you visited. This data has been separated from other Google products, but on March 1 it will be shared across all of the Google products you use when Google's new privacy policy goes into effect.
If you'd like to prevent Google from combining this potentially sensitive data with the information it has collected from your YouTube, Google+, and other Google accounts, you can remove your Web History and stop it from being recorded moving forward.

After signing into your Google account, type https://www.google.com/history into your browser. (Alternatively, you can choose Account Settings from the pull-down menu in the upper-right corner of a Google product such as Gmail, Google+, or Google.com. From the Account Settings page, scroll down to the Services header and click on the "Go to web history" link.) If your Web History is enabled, you'll see a list of recent searches and sites visited. Click the gray Remove all Web History button at the top of the page and a subsequent OK button to clear your Web History.

Just the way I like it, empty and paused.

This action also pauses the Web History feature so that it will no longer track your Web searches and whereabouts. If you'd like to fire it back up, simply click the blue Resume button.

(Source: Electronic Frontier Foundation)
(Via: LifeHacker)
(Credit: Matt Elliott/CNET)