“Mark, many thanks to you and Ryan for your help with the latest revisions to my web site. As usual, it was a rush job from my end, and as usual, you both worked hard to ensure that everything went off without a hitch! Thanks for your reliable and friendly service, and special thanks to Ryan who is great to work with even through the tiny details and last minute changes. Working with the both of you, I know I’ll get excellent service and the end result I’m looking for. Thanks so much!” Laurel Hubber laurelhubber.com/
When selling our clients hosting services, Nerds On Site strives to keep the process as streamlined and intuitive as possible. In the web hosting and domain registration world there are a lot of options, and this can get confusing. One such option is ID Protect, also known as WHOIS Protection. This valuable service hides your public WHOIS information, such as your name, address and phone number from spammers and Internet thieves. By hiding this information, you make it much harder for thieves to try to steal your domain name.
Once an add-on service, ID Protect is now included free of charge with every new supported domain registration! For every new com, net, org, biz, info, name, tv, cc, me, Nerds On Site will automatically turn on ID Protect to keep your domain even safer than before.
Without ID Protect, spammers can obtain your email and contact information and then use it for spamming purposes and redistribution to marketing firms. Your email address can stay on file with various spammers and marketing firms for years. Check out the difference between an unprotected and protected domain registration.
A hard reset should only be necessary on rare occasions, when all other attempts to resolve an issue have failed. This process WILL erase ALL of the data on the iPad, including an documents, photos, or email. After completion, your iPad will operate as though you just took it out of the box for the first time, unless you restore from a backup stored in iTunes.
This process *cannot* be undone. That said, if you have been synchronizing your iPad with iTunes on a regular basis, it will keep a backup of your iPad settings and data, which iTunes will restore once it has erased all data on the iPad.
1. Plug the iPad into the computer via the USB cable that came with it, and start iTunes.
iPad 2 Hard Reset - image source: www.itjungle.com
2. Press and hold the Sleep/Wake + Home for 10 seconds. (shown in above photo)
3. Once you see the Apple Logo appears, release the Sleep/Wake button and continue to hold down the home button for about 5-10 seconds. Look in iTunes and see if your device has shows up.
4. iTunes will notify you that you are now in Recovery mode. Click on OK to continue with the restore process.
5. Next press the Restore button. iTunes will proceed to apply default factory settings to your iPad.
If you have not updated in quite some time, iTunes will ask if you want to download the latest iOS update. If you choose to do so, it will take a few minutes to download that before beginning the restore process. If you have never connected the iPad to iTunes before, it will force the download.
It’s important to regularly connect your iPad to iTunes, as doing so will allow iTunes to create a backup of your data, which WILL be lost if you do not have a backup and need to do a hard reset on your iPad.
If your website goes down, it’s more than frustrating – it can damage your reputation and cost you money. Even the ‘big boys’ struggle with downtime, as this fascinating infographic shows. This infographic was brought to you by KISSmetrics. Click here to see this graphic in full size.
[this post is from Dennis Houseknecht, a Nerd in West Virginia)
Operating systems, such as Windows, and applications, such as Adobe Reader or JAVA, are used by tens of millions of computers and devices around the world, making them a huge target for cybercriminals. Criminals and security researchers are constantly prodding and testing the code, looking for flaws that can allow a “computer hacker” to take control of a computer or steal valuable data.
When a flaw is discovered, the software vendor issues an “update” or a “patch” to fix the problem. It is like a recall to replace a defective part for a car. Failure to apply these updates leaves the system vulnerable to attack or to be compromised, as these cybercriminals use these same updates to reverse engineer ways to take advantage of these vulnerabilities.
Your organization may think “Why would they want to attack us?” We argue – why give them the opportunity, and put your organization at risk?
On rare occasions, an update will cause an unanticipated compatibility issue with a specific application, and the application vendor normally addresses the issue promptly. The solution is NOT to stop updating the system indefinitely. This WILL leave the system vulnerable, making the entire network vulnerable if infected or attacked. As a last resort, if postponing updates is required, it should only be for as short of a time as possible, and the ideal approach would be to ensure that the system that is not updated is not used for other purposes (taken off the network) and not exposed to threats to which is may be vulnerable.
No application is permanently tied to an older version of JAVA, or any other application. If a JAVA update does cause a problem, it is NOT wise to revert to an older and vulnerable version of JAVA. On very rare occasions, we have seen a situation where a JAVA update causes an application (typically one that is poorly written) to “break”. In all such cases, the vendor responded by quickly updating THEIR software to be compatible with the new version of JAVA.
We do recognize that applying updates to systems that have not been properly maintained and updated properly may cause some frustrations, inconvenience, and perhaps even consternation, to users who were faced with changes in the “look and feel”, or a change in settings. However, any problems beyond this are less related to the updates themselves, and more to the lack of proper maintenance or updates to the systems as a whole.
About two years ago, Nerds On Site implemented a strong password policy for all our email users. Because of todays technology it’s become trivial to “crack” weak passwords, it’s too easy for malicious software and people to take control of email accounts – this means someone could send emails from your account without your knowledge. By strengthening your password, you’re reducing the risk.
It’s easy to reset your password – go to https://mail.nerdsisp.com and enter your email address and current password. Once you’re logged in, the system will prompt you for a new, stronger password – the system will let you know if it’s a good password or not. Try to chose something that will be easy to remember, or maybe write it down in a safe place (Hint: don’t leave it taped to the side of your screen.)
If you use Outlook, or Mac Mail, or another email client on your computer, you will need to update it to use the new password you’ve just chosen.
To help you with this, here’s a step-by-step video to guide you.
For fun, do you wonder just how weak your current password is? Check out security guru, Steve Gibson’s password tester: https://www.grc.com/haystack.htm.
Remember, strong passwords don’t guarantee that your email won’t get hacked, but it is a big step towards better protection.
Apple’s newly-launched iBooks Author will change everything. Alex Lindsay wrote a comprehensive post about this here. We agree and overall we’re thrilled about how education is entering a new phase, powered by intelligently-applied and practical use of technology. Not just for the sake of technology itself, but because it allows us to learn and understand more in a shorter period of time. As a father, I am very thrilled about my children being able to access iBooks textbooks.
About Authoring
Alex also points out that any author who has had publishing experience, is now looking at a 70% proposition (vs ~17% with publishers).
I noticed that avid bloggers that represent the publishing industry have remained completely quiet about iBooks Author, because they feel like the rug is being pulled out from under them, literally.
Learning for Everyone
While the western world and those that can afford an iPad are excited, this is not the case for the less fortunate. What has not been addressed is how to get an iPad into more learning hands. Competition and market forces will hopefully do their part to drive the price down so a larger scale adoption becomes possible.
Beware the EULA – End User License Agreement
Make no mistake, Apple seems to own your books when you use this tool. There’s been a strong voice from social media against this direction of Apple. Arstechnica says they are inviting Anti-trust concerns. This is a battle that is far from over, and it has only begun.
This will be very disruptive to an entire industry and many more battles are yet to come… in the end, there are always winners. The winners will be content creators (and Apple), that’s for certain.
Our team is truly global, and here are just a few photos of our Nerds in action all around the world. Check out the rest of our photos at NerdSpotting.com.
Have you ever wondered why your website doesn’t bring you any sales? Are your competitors more visible when you search for your “product” or “service”? Did you know that 73% of all activity online is in one way or another related to local content? While 82% of local searchers follow up offline via an in-store visit, phone call or purchase. Meaning, people are using the internet to research product information and brand reputation before they decide to buy. Find out crucial information how how to rank high on Google with our SEO audit.
The progressive realization of a worthy ideal – this is the definition of success, by one of the great masters. In fact, you can listen to him live… well, not live, recorded – The Strangest Secret (by Earl Nightingale). I highly recommend you find it – it’s available online. But the progressive realization of a worthy ideal is the statement of (definition of) success.
When you take a look at the end of some days – and we all have these kinds of days – you wonder/shake your head, looking at the tally, saying “This?… this was the worthy ideal I was progressing towards/I was realizing today?” It’s not always the case, but one thing to always keep in mind is “greater good, long term”. The “greater good, long term” is what should help us define and devise today’s tactic and strategy.
There’s a wonderful story about three little fellas out in the snow, freshly fallen. Here we have some freshly fallen snow here from last night. One of them started a challenge to the others – “I can walk a straighter line than you!”
Boys – you know (boys), they have to have competition built into almost everything. So there he is, looking straight down, heel-toe, heel-toe, heel-toe. And his buddy watches – “a little crooked.” He says “I can do better.” So, he’s walking beside the heel-toe, heel-toe line, and he does a little better job – he takes longer strides.
The third little boy, without much in the way of “fanfare”, starts his line. What he does is he looks across the field of freshly fallen snow, spies a light post, looks at it – and it alone – and begins to walk. And of course, you know, who had the straighter line? It was in fact the little fella that was looking up, straight ahead, focused on something in the distance.
“Greater good, long term” will help – I hope – make some of those decisions of the “What I could do today”… what I need to start, and what I need to stop.
The progressive realization of a worthy ideal. My best wishes in the pursuit of this!
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