PLCMC Core Competencies

We've moved

2011-01-26T09:37:00.000-05:00

Fans, this blog will cease operations on Feb 15th. Please follow us at facebook.com/cmlibrary, twitter.com/cmlibrary or on at youtube.com/cmlibrary.

For more on news and programming information from Charlotte Mecklenburg Library, please bookmark cmlibrary.org or subscribe to our many RSS feeds. - Charlotte Mecklenburg Library

Please update your bookmarks and feeds

2008-04-13T21:22:00.003-05:00

As you can see it's been a while since this site has been updated. The Core Competencies program is alive and well at PLCMC. I will be blogging about our Core Competencies program on my other site, Lori Reed.

All of the posts from this site have been moved over. Here is a link to access the Core Competencies posts: http://lorireed.com/category/core-competencies/

Stop by and say hello. The new site has Meebo embedded and I am usually available during the day for a quick chat.

Free Training from Microsoft

2006-08-22T17:13:00.000-05:00

Ever wanted to learn about some of the new features of Office 2003? In addition to the free online tutorials from GCF, Microsoft has their own tutorials available at: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/training

Check them out and let us know what you think!

1 Year Anniversary, Learning 2.0, and 23 Things

2006-08-10T11:05:00.000-05:00

This month is the one year anniversary of beginning the Information Technology Core Competencies Training at PLCMC. So how exciting that at the one year anniversary we embark on a new journey into Learning 2.0 and 23 Things.

We have come a long way in just a year. A year ago we were learning what USB meant and what flash drives are. Now we have staff setting up blogs, talking about wikis, and earning MP3 players!

I am so excited to work for an organization that is so committed to lifelong learning for all staff.

Back Me Up

2006-08-07T14:14:00.000-05:00

I grew up in Florida, the lightning capital of the US, and remember having to unplug TVs, VCRs, etc. almost every afternoon during our summer thunderstorms. My parents now have lightning rods installed underground. So their electronics have become fairly safe from these storms.

The past few weeks have brought record-breaking heat to Charlotte and with that some amazing lightning and thunderstorms. Normally when we have these storms we unplug most of our electronics. Even though we have surge protectors, most surge protectors will not protect from lightning.

Last night my neighborhood had a particularly bad storm from out of nowhere and within the blink of an eye my home computer got fried. This is the second computer that has crashed without a backup. Financial records, photos, videos, all irreplaceable because I have been too busy to make a backup, not that making a backup should take that long. After all I have a CD and DVD burner on the computer. Hopefully I will be able to recover some of the files, but thought it would be a good time to remind everyone that you should always back up important files and don't rely on a surge protector to save you from lightning!

New USB "Flash" Drives Do So Much More

2006-06-01T11:16:00.000-05:00

Flash drives, jump drives, thumb drives, pen drives, key chain drives, etc. They're known by many names, but they all serve pretty much the same purpose—portable computer storage. Very portable, in fact, as they do usually fit nicely on a key chain. They're increasingly available in an ever-growing variety of shapes and sizes, and their usefulness is on the rise as well.

Now, however, in addition to simply storing your computer files, newer flash drives are capable of providing us with a complete portable desktop environment. This means we can have our own Windows desktop (complete with icons and a taskbar), our favorite programs (email, Internet browser, office suite, etc.), and other features right on that little keychain. Pretty cool, huh?

So, what's the catch? Viruses are programs too. So, not only will public computing facilities like PLCMC need to be aware of the potential dangers posed by these mutated port-o-drives, but the average Joe and Jane will need to keep in mind that such facilities may be a little overly cautious at first (as with any possible hazard) resulting in difficulties using the devices.

While there's always been a certain level of risk from files stored on traditional media like floppy disks, homemade CDs or ordinary flash drives, these new flash drives throw a new element into the mix by having programs actually run right from the drives. Of course, anti-virus software can be installed on the flash drives too, but it will be up to the public computing facilities to draw that digital line in the sand.

More info:

The good: These advanced flash drives allow people to carry their desktop environment, favorite applications (web browsers, email programs, office suites, and lots of other stuff) in addition to their favorite files on a flash drive. Just plug it in and everything runs right from the flash drive with little to no evidence left behind on the PC (just needs a Windows environment in the background to power everything).

The bad: viruses are applications too. U3, a popular manufacturer of this new type of flash drive, makes software to allow or disallow drives based on authorization, and we may see other approaches as well.

Of course traditional flash drives already pose a slight danger if there are any virus-infected files on them, but they would require an application to activate the offending content. With U3, applications on the drive could launch automatically when the drive is inserted (unless the PC is instructed to preempt), and we should expect that virus authors will want to write for this new environment.

Read more about it:

http://www.u3.com/
http://www.everythingusb.com/u3.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U3

Times they are a changing

2006-05-24T08:20:00.000-05:00

Earlier this week I went to CPCC to purchase some books for a Spanish class. I went to the service desk to get my books and then asked the young woman working there if they sold "flash cards."

She answered, "of course," and walked me over to the computer area and showed me my choice of USB storage devices. I almost laughed out loud. This was the first time it dawned on me that the new generation of young adults have a totally different vocabulary than we do as they have been raised with technology since birth!

It made me wonder what other terminology will change over the coming decades?

Blogs

2006-05-19T13:12:00.000-05:00

The Shifted Librarian had a funny post on her blog about blogs and news aggregators:

Have you seen the quip on t-shirts and book bags, too many books, too little time? Well a 2006 version of that is too many blogs, too little time!

Can you relate?

I have well over 100 blogs that I subscribe to. I admit I don't read them all every day or even every week. But blogs are becoming an important way to keep in touch and to get information faster. I no longer go to charlotte.com to get my news. I get notified by a news aggregator or an RSS reader when breaking news happens.

I was disappointed last week when my favorite RSS tool NetVibes went down, lost my account, found my account, but lost all my subscriptions. NetVibes had been the perfect reader for me. It allowed me to have a multi-tabbed page with feeds for blogs, news, email, and hyperlinks to Web sites. Since the loss of all my data I have been a little frazzled. It would have been so easy to back the information up. But of course, like most people, I didn't.

I've switched back to BlogLines for now and am experimenting with BlogBridge, so I thought I would pose this question to other library staff...What RSS reader are you using and what are its best features?

Wiki, Wiki, Wiki!

2006-04-25T16:16:00.000-05:00

One of the most interesting things about technology advancing as fast as it does is the effect it has on language. The English language has always been a very fluid thing, incorporating new phrases as quickly as there are new concepts to explain, and so a wide variety of terms has arisen to describe the changing technology of the modern world. Thus we talk about blogs, iPods, mp3s, podcasting, and... wikis?

A Wiki is a quick-to-build, easy-to-edit website on which all information can be edited, changed, or rewritten by the users or members of the site. It is an incredibly useful tool for collaborative writing, pooling knowledge or exchanging ideas, especially on a subject that changes or needs updating frequently.

The word "Wiki" comes from the Hawaiian phrase "wiki wiki", which is commonly used to indicate something fast. The first Wiki ever made was WikiWikiWeb, an attempt to make an easily updatable website about certain trends in software development. It was started in 1995 and has been added to and continually updated since then.

The largest wiki in the world is the English language version of Wikipedia, which has been estimated at having over a million entries. Wikipedia is an open-source encyclopedia, an attempt to gather detailed information about a variety of subjects.

The advantage that Wikipedia - and by extension all wikis - over a conventional website is the fact that all of the wiki's users are potentially its authors. This means that when new information is discovered about a subject, it is quickly added to the collective knowledge base. Unlike a conventional encyclopedia, where editors have to find experts for different subject areas, and nothing gets published without their say-so, anybody can write a wikipedia entry. If you have knowledge about a given subject area, you can write an entry about it. If there is already an entry but it doesn't cover something, you can edit it to add your information. Wikis are dynamic and collective, updating quickly to take account of new developments, and drawing on the expertise of a very broad, very deep readership. Wikis are also not as limited as most encyclopedias in what they talk about. Wikipedia especially has entries on subjects as diverse as the rivalries between different newsgroups, Australian constitutional crises, the love lives of English footballers, and the current storylines in the Spider-Man comics. These are maintained and updated by enthusiasts with interests in and passion for these subjects.

The disadvantage a wiki has is ironically the same as its advantage. Being written by its readers, and having little in the way of editorial control, a wiki is prone to being subjective, or strongly influenced by opinion. Someone with a grudge against a particular public figure, for example, could edit their entry to make derogatory remarks about them, or simply delete the page altogether. Controversial subjects are occasionally the site of "editing wars", where an entry is edited multiple times in quick succession by people on opposing sides of an issue. Because of this lack of vetting of entries, many teachers do not allow students to use wikipedia as an information source.

Despite its disadvantages, a wiki is a good way of gathering facts quickly and pooling expertise from a large number of people. I have recently started up a Core Competencies wiki to gather information and experiences from people about the Core Competencies program and to provide the information necessary to fulfil the requirements of the different cores. Please come and visit the site, and if you have anything to add to the existing entries, or any new information to add to the requirements as yet uncovered, feel free to do so. The more we share our information, the more we learn.

Five questions about blogs

2006-03-21T10:56:00.000-05:00

1. What is a blog?
A weblog is just a tool for organizing information. Think of a weblog the same way you think about a physical book or magazine—-it is just a tool, so it can be about any topic.

2. What do blogs look like?
Well, you're reading one right now. Many follow the same format. There's a title at the top and a sidebar for archives and links. Most importantly, there's a column of posts—-brief entries arranged with the newest stuff on top, often peppered with links to other websites.

3. How many blogs are out there?
Weblogs first started popping up on the internet in 1998. As easy-to-use self-publishing tools were developed, the phenomenon grew exponentially. Technorati currently tracks 30 million registered weblogs, a figure that doubles every 5-and-a-half months.

4.Who writes these blogs?
Corportations, news hounds, libraries and librarians, politicians and talking heads, rock stars, tech folks and everyday people...basically, anyone who has something to say and, increasingly, many people who don't.

5. How do I start?
Sign up for my Tech Talk--Weblogs: Fresh Content, Fresh Context. There are two sessions scheduled, Wednesday, March 29th or Monday, April 10th. Come out, discover a bit of history, see creative examples of how people are using weblogs, then learn how to set up one of your own in the hands-on portion of our workshop.

ThinkFree Office Online

2006-03-19T20:32:00.000-05:00

Here is another free, online office-like application that looks and feels like Office. A basic account is free. You just need to create a username and password--just like you would for a free email account.

Here are some details from the ThinkFree site:

With ThinkFree Office Online you can :

Create Microsoft Office-compatible documents from the Web.

Open and edit your Office documents anywhere and anytime.

Create powerful Web presentations using a familiar interface.

Add flickr photos to your documents.

Post ThinkFree documents directly to a blog.

Convert your existing documents to PDF format, simply use the Save As PDF
function in the File menu when saving your document.

Save your documents in ThinkFree Office Online. You can create, read and revise your documents anytime and anywhere you want. If you save your documents in a secure Web storage account provided by ThinkFree Office Online, you can access and edit them at school, home, work or anywhere else you can think of.

30 MB of free storage.

Click on the image above to view a larger image.

Give ThinkFree a try, and post your comments below. We will be interested to see what staff think. http://online.thinkfree.com

And the winner is...

2006-03-02T13:43:00.000-05:00

Congratulations to staff at Steele Creek, winners of the Core I trivia contest. Way to go Steele Creek! And thanks to everyone who participated in the contest. The details for the next contest will be announced soon.

The End is Just the Beginning

2006-02-28T08:30:00.000-05:00

Today is the last day of the "official" Core I months of January and February, but that does not mean that training and learning on Core I will not continue.

So far I have made visits to D, WBL, MOR, COR, NCO, UC, HG, MTI, BC, SUG to conduct staff training in small groups and one-on-one on the Core I checklist. The staff at all locations found this to be very helpful and appreciated the opportunity to ask lots and lots of questions.

If I have not made it to your location yet, I will soon. I will be scheduling visits to other locations later this week.

As the month comes to an end I thought I would share some quotes for you to ponder:

Hardware: the parts of a computer that can be kicked. ~Jeff Pesis
If it draws blood, it's hardware. ~Author Unknown

The most overlooked advantage to owning a computer is that if they foul up, there's no law against whacking them around a little. ~Eric Porterfield

Give a person a fish and you feed them for a day; teach that person to use the Internet and they won't bother you for weeks. ~Author Unknown

The Internet is the world's largest library. It's just that all the books are on the floor. ~John Allen Paulos

I just wish my mouth had a backspace key. ~Author Unknown

Any comments or feedback that you would like to share on the past two months of Core Competencies training? Click the comments link below to post comments.

Troubleshooting Floppy Disks

2006-02-15T14:26:00.000-05:00

In the February Core Competencies Report, we shared a tip from Howard M. about troubleshooting floppy disks. Did you know there is also a tip sheet for this topic?

Do you have any other tips to share for troubleshooting floppy disks? If so, click below on "Comments" to post a comment.

2 Trivia Questions - ANSWERS BELOW

2006-01-30T12:27:00.000-05:00

Here's another trivia question for you. How do you change the default printer on a public PC?

Since this is a hard one, here is a hint. You can only change the default printer from within IE (Internet Explorer) but what are the steps to do so?

ANSWER
From Internet Explorer, click File then Print. This opens up a list of printers with icons. Right-click on a printer and select Set as Default Printer. Thanks to John Dettelbach from the Help Desk for pointing out that this can also be done from WordPad and Notepad. The key is that you need to see the printer icons after you click File/Print. If you try this from Microsoft Word, you will notice that you get a drop down list of printers as opposed to icons for the printers.

Points for this question went to: MOR-Charles, Melanie, Karen, William; MPK-Jamie; NCO-Ian; ST-Matt, Donna, Amy; SUG-Jonita; WBL-Aislynn

Please email me your answer to lreed "at" plcmc "dot" org (do not post) and I will post the correct answer on Friday.

Here's another bonus trivia question. Why did I write my email address like that?

ANSWER
In a blog, message board, or any other public forum on the Internet it is a good idea to not post or publish your "real" email address. There are computers with programs that crawl the Internet looking for email addresses, i.e. anything formatted as word@place.com. To prevent these web crawlers from "seeing" your email address you can phonetically spell parts of it out, as I did above.

Points for this question went to: CA-Kriss; MOR-William, Melanie, Charles; NCO-Ian; ST-Amy, Matt, Donna; WBL-Aislynn

For more information on web crawlers take a look at these sites:
http://www.dummies.com/WileyCDA/DummiesArticle/id-3088.html
http://www.robotstxt.org/wc/robots.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_crawler

CC Page Updated on PLCMC Central

2006-01-30T12:20:00.000-05:00

PowerPoint presentations from classes and self-paced tutorials created in PowerPoint have been added to PLCMC Central under training and then PowerPoint.

Just a note. You must save the PPT files to your computer to view them. They will not run directly from the Intranet.

Please let us know what you think!

TinyURL

2006-01-26T12:11:00.000-05:00

Have you ever tried to send someone a link to an item from Amazon.com?
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0451209710/sr=1-1/qid=1138295809/ref=pd_bbs_1/102-5935873-5010568?%5Fencoding=UTF8

Sometimes links can be so long that they break apart in email programs and no longer work. Why do they break? Because a URL cannot have any spaces in it. When a URL spans across multiple lines in an email message, some email programs will add a hard return that breaks the link in two.

The solution?

TinyURL

Tiny URL is a free service at www.tinyurl.com that takes a long link such as my amazon.com link above that was 115 characters and creates a new link, http://tinyurl.com/an9rm, of only 24 characters.

Best of all, the new link never expires. TinyURL has a huge database where they store the old and new URLs together so that if you click on the TinyURL link in 2 years, the link will still work.

Try it yourself!

CC Update: Core I Month Extended

2006-01-26T11:35:00.000-05:00

Good News!

With less that a week left in January, Core I Month has been extended to the end of February. Core I provides the foundation for all the other competencies so this extra time will give staff a chance to attend additional training sessions to be offered in February and a chance to apply the competencies learned from Core I.

Want an easy way to keep up with the CC Blog? Check out the subscription box on the navigation bar on the left side of this page and you can enter your email address for email notification whenever a new post has been added.

Library Success: A Best Practices Wiki

2006-01-12T08:40:00.000-05:00

Looking for programming ideas from other libraries? Or a listing of free online reference resources? Then pop on over to Library TechBytes and find out more about Library Success: A Best Practices Wiki.

For more info about wikis in general, click here.

Mouse Cleaning

2006-01-09T08:47:00.000-05:00

Is your mouse misbehaving? Does it jump around the screen or not respond to your movement? Well if it is, it may just need a good mouse cleaning. If your not sure how to clean a mouse (a computer mouse that is) check out this illustrated guide...

How to Clean Your Mouse: An Illustrated Guide

1st Trivia Question

2006-01-06T11:57:00.000-05:00

Ok here it is. Your first chance to earn some points for your branch. Who is reading this blog? The first 5 people to post a comment will each get 5 points!

What Web site do you use to identify your network settings?

You can post a comment as "anonymous" but be sure to include your name and location in the post.

January Contests

2006-01-06T11:53:00.000-05:00

Core Competencies Trivia Contest

For the month of January, Core I Month, staff will have a chance to earn points for their branch by answering questions about Core I. Questions will be assigned points based on degree of difficulty and will be randomly asked via e-mail, phone, and branch visits. Additional points can be earned by answering questions posted on the Core Competencies Blog, Core Competencies site on PLCMC Central, and other random places. Be on the lookout for a chance to earn points for your branch! At the end of the month the branch with the most points will win a pizza party.

Spirit Contest

Each month of the Core Competencies training project a "spirit stick" will be awarded to the branch, department, or staff member who displays the most spirit. The stick will travel from month to month and the Core Competencies newsletter will feature an article about the winner of the "spirit stick."

CC Update: January Declared Core I Month

2006-01-04T10:37:00.001-05:00

The first issue of the Core Competencies Report is hot off the press, and January has been declared Core I Month for PLCMC. Be ready Julia and I are going to start making random phone calls and branch visits this week and continue them throughout the month with Core I trivia. Prizes will be awarded for highest numbers of correct responses and for team spirit. Show us some spirit!

By the way Helene added a new feature for this blog where you can receive e-mail notification when new blogs are posted. Thanks Helene! This is a great way to keep up.

Look Out MS Office!

2005-12-28T09:55:00.000-05:00

There's a new breed of office productivety applications out there that not only don't require software, they're free!

Web-based office applications are gaining in popularity today much like what web-based email services (Hotmail, Yahoo,etc.) did in the 90s. With portability, easy access, and ease of use to their credit, these new tools may offer just the solution that patrons need.

As Frank Blair (IT) points out, here are some advantages to web-based office applications:

This has the potential of resolving several word processing issues for us that we experience in supporting patrons

1) No media upon which to save a document and doesn't want to buy a floppy disk

2) media where document was saved is corrupt (could have been saved on the web)

3) floppy drive or other device can't read media that has document

4) no more lost or forgotten floppies left in hard drive

5) Compatible with both Word and Open Office

6) Allows a person to work on a document even when they don't have their media present - anyplace where there is an open Internet connection
Web-based Office applications worth taking a look at:

Writely - Online word processing application that functions with both OpenOffice & MS Word formats.
GOffice - offers online apps for word processing (in PDF or HTML ouput) and desktop publishing. Online apps for presentations & spreadsheets are available as beta release. Free.

Take a look for yourself and let us know what you think...

Librarian Trading Cards

2005-12-20T10:35:00.000-05:00

Just for fun ...

In case you haven't heard there's a new action figure out there called the Deluxe Librarian which features yet another minature clone of Nancy Pearl. Unlike the 1st edition of the Librarin action figure, the deluxe issue comes with a minature PC and a cart of reference books for lighting speed retrieval of information.

Of course, not every librarian is lucky enough like Nancy (BTW: She even has her own website) to get our own action figure, but you can create your very own Librarian Trading Card and join the gallery.

To participate:

Create your own trading card here
Then upload your card to your free Flickr account and add the keyword tag “librariantradingcards” to the image so that it can join the gallery

View the Librarian Trading Card Gallery.

PC Pop Quiz

2005-12-19T09:07:00.000-05:00

Last week the Charlotte Observer ran a short 10 question quiz about PC knowledge geared toward average PC users (not experts). My favorite response was in question #2

2. Lately you hear a clatter from your computer, especially when you load a program or call up information. What's going on?

A. It's infested with reindeer.
B. Your hard disk may be headed for failure.
C. A loose wire is hitting the cooling fan.
D. A loud metallic clatter is perfectly normal.

Here's a hint - it's not A (although I've this time year I might be tempted to believe it )

Anyway, why try the quiz out yourself? You might be surprised at how much you really already know.

HOW MUCH DO YOU REALLY KNOW ABOUT YOUR COMPUTER?
By Bill Husted, Charlotte Observer, Dec. 5th, 2005

Go Phish

2005-12-12T09:36:00.000-05:00

Thanks to William Nation from MOR for sharing this news article with me, Can You Spot The Phish Attack? from internetnews.com.

According to the article only 4 percent of users can spot a phished e-mail 100% of the time.

Take the MailFrontier Phishing IQ Test and see if you are among the 96% of e-mail users who can NOT spot phishing 100% of the time. I took the test and am in the majority!

Gahooyoogle

2005-12-12T08:52:00.000-05:00

Do you ever flip between Goolge & Yahoo when searching for something to see which search engine will give you better results? Well.. meet Gahooyoogle -- Try and say that fast three times. :)

The site allows you to search both tools at the same time and splits your viewing screen in half so you can easily compare it. Take a look and try it. Which tool for you provides better results?

Fighting Spam

2005-12-08T10:52:00.000-05:00

These days when the word spam is mentioned, people tend to make a face. Not because of fond memories of the potted meat product, but because of the nuisance of unwanted email, which is the 21st century definition of spam.

Spam may come from someone you know in the form of chain letters or forwarded urban legends, or it may come from complete strangers. Some spam has viruses attached. But mostly spam is just a time-waster. Not only does spam waste your time but it also wastes valuable resources such as network bandwidth, space on email servers, and productivity costs in the time it takes you to delete the unwanted messages.

So here are some tips to combat spam:

Never, ever give out your email address on a public Internet forum, such as a discussion group or a blog. There are billions of zombie-like computers that scour the Internet looking for email addresses to add to spam lists. I have a Yahoo account that I use specifically for Web sites that require an email address, so that I do not get as much spam to my work and personal email accounts.
Or disguise your email address, joe at yahoo dot com, will allow people to understand your email address, but will prevent automated searches from finding your address. Remember that computers are looking for a standard email format, name@place.com.
Block images from your email. In Outlook, do not use the Preview Pane or Auto Preview. Most free, web-based email services will allow you to block images via the Options settings. Images can contain hidden messages that when viewed are sent back to spammers to let them know they have found a valid email address, resulting in…more spam.
Do not click the link at the bottom of any email messages to Remove Me From List. This is an instant way to let spammers know they have found a valid email address. Remember spammers get big bucks for real or validated email addresses. Don't let them know you exist. Cyberspace is the one place where you want to be unpopular.
Delete, without opening, any messages that look suspicious. If it looks like spam, it probably is. If you do not know the sender, it is probably spam. If you receive email from the FBI or CIA it is probably spam.

See the October 2004 issue of InfoBytes for more details on reducing spam and instructions for using Outlook junk mail filters to reduce spam.

For more information on spam and efforts to combat it, check out the following sites:

http://www.ftc.gov/spam/

http://www.spamlaws.com/us.shtml

http://spam.abuse.net/

PSA: CIA Warning

2005-11-23T12:06:00.000-05:00

(spoofing to transmit a virus)

Several staff have received emails that appear to be from the CIA. An example of the message is below:

-----Original Message-----
From: Post@cia.gov
Sent: Wednesday, November 23, 2005 3:37 AM
To: 0ILQ002W5BMMBI@plcmc.org
Subject: You visit illegal websites

Dear Sir/Madam,

we have logged your IP-address on more than 30 illegal websites.

Important: Please answer our questions!
The list of questions are attached.

Yours faithfully,
Steven Allison
++++ Central Intelligence Agency -CIA-
++++ Office of Public Affairs
++++ Washington, D.C. 20505
++++ phone: (703) 482-0623
++++7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., US Eastern time

While this email looks like it is from post@cia.gov, rest assured that the CIA is not monitoring your Internet use. In fact, Internet use doesn’t even technically fall under the CIA’s jurisdiction…unless you are a terrorist.

This is an example of spoofing. Spoofing is commonly used by spammers and phishers to forge the From line of an email address.

In this case, the email had a virus attached. One of the clues that the email is a fraud is the email address that the email was sent to is not a valid email address. Another clue is the inconsistent capitalization — the "w" in we should have been capitalized. Phony emails also frequently have misspelled words in an attempt to sneak past junk mail filters.

In this case the "sphisher" (have I invented a new word) was sending a virus. If I would have opened the attached file then I would have gotten the virus on my computer. Luckily, PLCMC has sophisticated anti-virus and email filtering software installed, so the attachment never even made it to my Inbox.

When is doubt always close the email (or better yet don't even bother to open it), and go to the home page where the email appears to have come from. A quick trip to www.cia.gov brought up this message on their home page:

Some members of the public have in the past few days received a bogus e-mail falsely attributed to CIA's Office of Public Affairs. CIA did not send that message. In fact, it does not send unsolicited e-mail to the general public, period. If you have gotten such a message, we strongly encourage you not to open the attachment, which contains a destructive virus.

For more information about phishing make sure to read Helene’s post on 11/18/05 about Bank of America and a phishing fraud, and if you have time take a look at this article: http://techupdate.zdnet.com/techupdate/stories/main/Phishing_Spam_that_cant_be_ignored.html

Imaging

2005-11-22T11:00:00.000-05:00

I remember the first job where I had my own computer. I was so excited! It had Windows 3.1. No more DOS commands! I had Microsoft Office version 4.3. I could easily create files and folders and see them again! I had everything so organized. But then I found all these other files and folders I had never heard of or seen—like the System folder and a lot of files that had strange file extensions. Well, I knew these were not Word, Excel, PowerPoint, or Access files so I deleted them all. Yes, I deleted everything that did not have a doc, xls, ppt, or mdb file extension.

Can anyone guess what happened next?

My computer was hosed, as the techies say. None of the programs would run. I, being the brilliant computer expert that I was, thought I would reboot the computer. Surely that would fix everything.

INVALID SYSTEM DISK
REPLACE AND STRIKE ANY KEY WHEN READY

Horrified I rebooted again. Same message. I read the message trying to make sense of it. Invalid system disk. How could it be invalid? I had just cleaned it up! It should thank me!

I walked slowly to the system-admin’s office, carefully avoiding eye contact with anyone. I explained what happened and she sighed, raised an eyebrow, and "told" me that I had just deleted the operating system. (Back in the days of Windows 3.1 you could do this.) It would take her hours to reinstall everything on my computer. She would have to reinstall Windows, reinstall Office, reinstall GroupWise, set up my email again, not to mention the time to try and recover all my files. As my punishment it took weeks to get my computer fixed and I had to use a typewriter to get my work done.

Needless to say, this was a learning experience and it is one that every person new to computers is afraid of happening. After all, no one wants to call IT and tell them "I have killed the computer."

But luckily ten years have passed and technology has come a long way. And luckily no one at the library has to worry about killing the computer.

Why?

IMAGING
If you’ve been with PLCMC for long enough you have surely heard some variation of the word imaging. "Hi, I am here to image your computer." "No problem, we will just re-image your computer."

So what is imaging?
Imaging is a process where your computer is configured just the way it needs to be, all the programs are installed, everything is working as it should, and then a virtual snapshot is taken of the contents of your computer by IT.

That snapshot is compressed into an image file, and the image file is then stored somewhere. At PLCMC it is usually stored on the D partition of your hard drive. Images can also be stored on a CD.

Later, if you have a problem with the computer, the computer can be re-imaged. Meaning everything on the computer will be overwritten with the original snapshot that IT took. That is why it is important not to save files that you want to keep onto the C: drive of library computers. When computers are re-imaged the C: drive is erased and rewritten by the original snapshot.

I wish the company that I worked for ten years ago had used imaging. I would have been back up and running in minutes instead of weeks. When I teach Computer Basics to the public I am often amazed at how afraid people are of using computers. Often it is because they are afraid of breaking something just by using mouse and keyboard. As an ice breaker I like to tell them that unless they pick the computer up and drop it on the floor, there is really nothing to be afraid of. We have virus programs installed and updated nightly, we have security in place to prevent people from downloading and installing files, and after all we can always just re-image the computer!

Visit the following sites for more information on imaging:
http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/G/ghost_imaging.html
http://www.pcnineoneone.com/howto/image1.html

Do you have a "memorable" newbie computer experience to share? Feel free to share by adding a comment!

PSA: Online Banking Alert

2005-11-18T12:04:00.000-05:00

(phishing scam)

Phishing schemes have been abundant for a few years now, but until recently they haven't been quite as sophisticated. Take this email notice for example (an actual email received by one of our staff members just today) ...

(Click for larger image)

The notice looks official and even contains references to the BofA website and a URL that looks like it should be legit. However, the URL is actually a redirect from the BofA site to a scammers site. How can this happen? Well according to several phishing alert and fraud organizations, the scammers are using a weakness of the Bankofamerica.com site. To view the explanation, click here.

The Bottom Line: No matter have legitimate an email notice may look, be sure to contact the company or organization personally first to confirms its not a scam --and don't use the contact info from the email -- get the information from a primary source (i.e. telephone book or company website).

Victims of phishing scams, which are designed to capture obtain your personal information (name, SS#, online passwords, accounts, etc) soon become victims ofidentity theft! So be on the lookout and if it looks ~~fishy~~ phishy ( or even not) always do your homework and contact the organization yourself. A mere 5 minutes of detective work could save you 5 years of identity theft headaches.

PS: These type emails are so common, that even the BofA site has its own section for fraud

Tech Talk: What's in your Wiki?

2005-11-10T12:35:00.000-05:00

Wikis are becoming so popular these days that even third graders (see recent SLJ article) are using them to collaborate and share ideas. So what's a Wiki you ask? According to Wikipedia (the mother of all wiki's -- its not only a collaborative encylopedia that anyone can add content to, but it's built using a wiki itself) a Wiki is...

"is a group of Web pages that allows users to add content, as on an Internet forum, but also permits others (often completely unrestricted) to edit the content. The term wiki also refers to the collaborative software (wiki engine) used to create such a website (see wiki software)."

Within the past 2 years, the use of these quick and easy collaborative tools has blossomed along with blogging as more wysiwyg editors have been created to replace hard coding. In fact, there are so many websites out there built upon wiki software that you may not even realize that what you're looking at.

Interested in finding out more about wikis or setting one up for yourself? There are several out there that you can try. Some require you to download and install software, but many others simply allow you to setup a user name and login and use thier site.

Here's just two free remote options you could try: pbwiki.com or jotspot.com

If you've dabbled with Wiki's already or have created one of your own, let me know. I'd love to tap you as a staff resource.

PS: Why Wiki? The name's borrowed from the native Hawaiian word "Wiki" which means "quick" or "fast."

PPS: First staff member to post the meaning of "wysiwyg" and define it gets a Net Head magnet from me. :)

From Einstein himself ...

2005-11-08T11:13:00.000-05:00

Welcome to the PLCMC Core Competencies Blog - where knowledge becomes power and power becomes ... ?? ... (you fill in the blank here).

This blog is an attempt to help staff keep up with current technology changes and stay informed. So please bookmark the site, feel free to contribute and join Einstein and us for the ride.

Image couresty of Hetemeel.com