TechConfidence™

Most advertising on the web uses a technology called cookies to track some of your web use so that you can be better profiled for marketing purposes.

Most major ad networks will allow you to opt out of this by filling out a form at the Network Advertising Initiative’s website. Just choose “select all” and “submit,” and you’ll be opted out of many of the largest advertising networks. Note that this is something that must be done per computer, per login. So, if you have a computer at home and one at work, you’ll have to opt out from both locations, and if your home computer has separate usernames for you and a family member, each person will have to opt out separately.

Opting out of ad network tracking is no guarantee of privacy, but it does decrease the ability for these particular companies to profile your behavior. (It also decreases their ability to deliver the most relevant ads to you, so if you’re a photographer, you may start seeing fewer photography-related ads and more ads for random other things that you’re not interested in.)

If you finally gave in and accepted a friend or family member’s invitation to join Facebook, you should be aware of a number of things you can do to increase your privacy on the site. After all, whether you’re posting names and photos of your grandkids, writing “25 interesting things about me,” or expressing a political opinion, you don’t necessarily want this information shared with the world.

The article linked above includes ten settings that, collectively, will make your Facebook content a bit safer.

In the perfect world, of course, Facebook would take the responsibility of making things private for you in the first place, and then allow you to make them less private as you see fit.

Tech reporter Hiawatha Bray at the Boston Globe provides a nice overview of home computer security basics. Nothing really new here, but it’s boiled down to the bare minimum steps that every user should take to minimize the risk of getting his/her PC infected.

Back in December, my wife and I decided to splurge on a digital SLR camera, the Nikon D60. A digital SLR (or dSLR) is the kind of camera that you see people wearing with a strap around their neck, a large lens protruding from the front. Although they have become cheaper and smaller in the last couple years, they are still far more expensive and much larger than the more common “point and shoot” cameras that most people own. They are intended for people who are really into photography, whether as a hobby or a profession, and who value the higher-quality images, interchangeable lenses, and manual control that can only be attained with a dSLR.

The Nikon D60 is something of a beginner’s dSLR. Out of the box, in automatic mode, it takes great pictures, and it’s smaller, lighter, and less expensive than many dSLRs. We paid $700 for it at Costco, in a bundle that included a carrying bag, two vibration-reduction lenses, and a memory card.

Both of us have been very happy with the purchase. In addition to great pictures in automatic mode, the camera offers several “scene” modes for specific situations (e.g., photographing children, shooting fast-action sports, taking portraits at night), as well as all the manual and semi-manual modes that any photographer would expect. This has allowed my wife and me to take great pictures with minimal effort when the goal is to just take pictures, but also to experiment with more complicated photography techniques that are new to us.

The Nikon D60 is the big brother to the D40. If you’re investing in a dSLR, I’d suggest making the leap to the D60, for both its built-in dust remover and its higher resolution (i.e., more detail captured per picture, allowing you to enlarge photos without loss of detail). Really serious camera aficionados, or those who already own Canon lenses, might prefer the Canon EOS Rebel XSi or XTi, which are in a similar price range. I found them to be a bit more expensive without offering quite as many beginner-friendly features, which is why we went with the Nikon.

Have questions about dSLRs? Let me know in the comments!

In March, I will be delivering two classes at Arlington (MA) Community Education:

1. Get the Most From Your PC—For Free
2. Get the Most From the Internet

Descriptions, dates/times, and prices for both classes can be found in the Arlington Community Ed spring course schedule (PDF). Registration information can be found on their website.

When using Google or another search engine to find something online, there are a few easy tips that can improve your chances of finding just the right website:

• Distill your question down to just the key words that are likely to relate to what you’re trying to find. Instead of searching for what is the name of the lead singer for The Who try lead singer The Who.
• Sometimes, like in the example above, it’s not clear that “The Who” is a specific name/phrase instead of just a pair of common words. So, to make it clear, surround the phrase in quotes, like this: lead singer “The Who”
• Occasionally you’ll get too many results that are irrelevant to what you’re looking for. For example, you might be trying to find information about seeing dolphins near Miami, but when you search for dolphins Miami, you get a bunch of pages related to the Miami Dolphins football team. Instead, try dolphins Miami -football which only shows pages that do not contain the word football.

Do you have questions about these tips? Would you like to share some additional search tricks? Go ahead and post a comment below!

People often ask me, when buying a new computer, whether they should jump through hoops to get a new PC with Windows XP, instead of the now-standard Windows Vista.

This question is largely the result of a lot of misinformation and out-of-date information about Vista. The most common beliefs are that Vista is unstable (e.g., it crashes a lot), that it’s extremely slow, that it’s hard to get used to, and that it doesn’t run older software.

Some users of Vista in its early days a couple years ago did find many of these things to be true. However, on a new PC with a couple GB of RAM and the latest updates from Microsoft installed (often installed by the computer manufacturer before you bring it home), Vista should be plenty stable and fast for your home computing needs. A few of the features do take some getting used to, but many users find it easier to work with. If you’re not one of them, there’s a video below from CNET that shows you how to make it look more like XP. (Note: Many users who think Vista is hard to use are actually referring to the latest version of Office–which includes Word, Excel, and so on–as it has a dramatically new toolbar that some people find confusing and others love.) Finally, most software that runs on Windows XP does run on Vista. There are some exceptions, including Office XP and certain software that came with old hardware like printers and scanners, but most people will be able to run their software and/or find suitable replacements.

So, unless you’re using specific software that you’re worried about or have some other specialized reason for sticking with Windows XP, I suggest buying your next PC with Vista.

If you live in the Medford (Mass.) area, please join me for a free class at the Medford Public Library, 111 High Street, on Thursday, January 8, 2009, at 7 p.m.

Keeping Your PC Happy

If you own a car, you know a few basic things you should do to keep it in good working order: get the oil changed, rotate the tires, replace the brake pads when they wear out. But do you know how to keep your PC running at its best?

This session will teach you simple to-dos and not-to-dos to ensure that your computer performs as well tomorrow as it did yesterday.

Handout: Keeping Your PC Happy