I know it can be hard to remember odd combinations, particularly when sites ask for specific kinds of combinations, but one tip is to take words or phrases that you can remember and substitute numbers for some of the letters. A spider searching at random is probably not going to find that, but you will probably be able to remember it.
And for goodness sake, please don't do what a friend of mind did -- don't put all your passwords on a sticky on the side of your computer. When her laptop was stolen all her passwords were right there for the thief as well.
Use Keychain to store passwords and require a secure password to get into keychain. Keychain is a utility built into your operating system. You can find it at Applications > Utilities > Keychain Access.
Click on the + sign in the bottom of the window to add a new entry. I use Keychain to keep up with all my passwords, registration codes, bank passwords, and anything else that is important.
Here is something else you can do if you are concerned about security. Require a password to wake your computer. From the Apple menu select Preferences > Security > General. Put a check in the box next to "Require a password to wake this computer...".
One last tip. Whenever you visit a web site that requires a password to access it, such as your bank or credit card site, close your browser as soon as you exit the site. You can open it right back up, but closing it means you leave no trail for any nasty spider that might be hunting for information.
Nancy
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( 3 / 44 )If you have trouble reading text on-line and you are using a Mac, there is an easy, quick, temporary solution. I can't control the size of the text in this blog. If I could I would make it a font size larger. I'm blind as a bat. (That is why my column is called "Computing With Bifocals") I have to use this trick to proof read my own writing. Anyhow, it works and you might find it helpful as well. You need to be using a mouse to use this trick.
It works in Leopard and I think it works in TIger as well. Hold down the Control key and scroll with the scroll button on your mouse. Scroll up to make the text larger, down to make it normal size again. With a Mighty Mouse you can also scroll left and right if needed.
If You would rather set the text to always be bigger you may so do so by adjusting a preference setting if you use Safari as your web browser. The down side is that you will have to scroll up and down pages more, but if you have to do that to be able to read, then it is probably worth it.
Choose Safari > Preferences.
Choose Advanced.
Select the checkbox "Never use fonts smaller than" and choose the font size you want from the menu.
You will see the font change on the page you are reading.
Close the window and the preference will be set.
If you are reading a page where the text is displayed as a graphic the text size may not change because you are actually looking at a picture. When that happens, you can always use the method noted above. It always works.
Nancy
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( 4.1 / 133 )OK, so you are a beginner and you ask someone for help and they say "Well, just go into the terminal and......."
Run like hell. I am so serious here. When I talk about this in my column I have to couch this in acceptable terms, but run like hell is really better. You can do so much damage to your computer if you start messing around in the terminal. One little period or slash mark in the wrong place and you can wipe out your whole system. Any terminal command involves a long string of symbols, letters, and numbers to execute the simplest command and they have to be exactly perfect.
The terminal is part of the unix system upon which the Mac operating system is based and there are some people who like to work there. More power to them. I don't understand it, but to each his own. It is not the place for newbies because we don't understand all that code. It is not the place for me and I have been using my Mac for 10 years!
There are help forums all over the place and I once read a note from someone who wanted to know how to move an item from his desktop to a folder. A simple drag and drop operation, but the writer was obviously so new that he had not figured that out yet. Some bozo wrote back and told him to go into the terminal to do it. That is just cruel. There are also people out there who will give a newbie a terminal command that contains erroneous code and then when the damage is done, laugh at them.
The beauty of the Mac, for most of us, is that we don't have to understand how they work. They just work for us. We are fortunate that there is a whole cadre of people out there who do want to understand how they work and they keep them running and keep making them better for us. Thanks to all of them. I'm related to a couple. They don't try and send me to the terminal do do anything.
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( 3 / 56 )You know, the OS X Mac operating system really is a thing of beauty. I can say that with a straight face, knowing that I don't understand squat about how it works.
That doesn't keep me from appreciating the beauty of it though. It just all fits together so well in so many ways. One of the reasons that it keeps running so smoothly is the maintenance scripts that it runs overnight.
These scripts clean up a variety of system logs and temporary files. By default, they are executed between 3:15 and 5:30 a.m. local time, depending on the script. If your Mac is shut down or in sleep mode during these hours the maintenance scripts will not run. This results in log files that will grow over time, consuming free space on your startup disk.
I personally never restart my Mac more than once every two weeks or so unless I am installing software that requires a restart as part of the installation. It does not harm the computer to run all the time as long as you have it properly ventilated so that it does not overheat.
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( 2.9 / 44 )I started to write Laptop computer, but then I remembered that is not the politically correct term. The computer companies don't like the word laptop because they don't want to get sued if someone is stupid enough to leave their computer on their lap long enough to cause an injury. Bet you wouldn't do that more than once.
That is off topic though. The real purpose of this entry is to emphasize the importance of using a stand of some kind when using your note book computer. Today's computers are powerful and they can run hot. Running hot will shorten the life. There have been several documented incidents of note book computers bursting into flame. Granted they were almost always PCs and not Macs, but Macs can overheat too. It is so much easier to just use a stand.
Besides, it is better on your back and shoulders to elevate the desk top. The very best assortment of stands on the market, in my opinion, are made by LapWorks. I have reviewed several of their products in my column and have found them to be consistently outstanding. My favorite is the Ataché because it has built-in fans that absolutely keep your note book running cool. It is not something you would carry around with you though. It is for use on your desk. They make several other options that are light weight to carry with you.
If you don't already have a stand that you like I encourage you to at least check out their options. You won't be sorry.
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