Facebook, Google, and Twitter have recently been accused of promoting fake news stories. Depending on your sources and who you believe, fake news played a role in the 2016 presidential election. However, fake news is misused in a number of ways:
Propaganda, trying to influence opinion like RT.COM
Direct attacks on a political opponent
Stock manipulation scams
Shock people into clicking and infect their machine with malware (celebrity deaths)
Sell advertising
So, how do you protect yourself against this type of scam? The very first thing you need to do with any kind of internet message you see is this: CONSIDER THE SOURCE. Meaning you ask yourself the following questions: Where did this come from? Who wrote it? What is their agenda?
There are a large number of false, misleading, clickbait, and/or satirical “news” sources you need to watch out for. Here are 8 Tips to analyze news sources and make sure you do not fall for their scams:
Avoid websites that end in “lo”, for example Newslo. These sites take pieces of accurate information and then packaging that information with other false or misleading “facts”.
Watch out for websites that end in “.com.co” as they are often fake versions of real news sources, and strange or unusual domain names are a big red flag.
If other known and reputable news sites are not also reporting on the story, that is a red flag.
If it is an anonymous story and there is no known / trusted author, it’s suspect.
Some news organizations are letting bloggers post under their banner, but many of these posts are opinion and not facts, make sure you note the difference. (Examples are: BuzzFeed, Forbes blogs.)
If you are in doubt because of bad design or grammar/spelling, check their “About Us” tab or look them up on Snopes for verification of that source.
If the story makes you upset or angry, it’s a good idea to keep reading about the topic using other sources to make sure the author wasn’t doing that on purpose (with potentially misleading or false information) to generate shares and ad revenue.
It’s always best to read multiple sources of information to get a variety of viewpoints and perspectives, which allows you to spot bias in reporting and confirm information with other sources before you decide to take action.
To summarize, consider the source, double check if the data is correct using other reliable sources, and especially with “fake news”… Think Before You Click!
I have come to appreciate the Apple Macbook Pro as one of the finest notebook computers I have ever used. I currently have a 2012 model that I run both OSX Mountain Lion along with Windows 7 Pro. From the fit and finish to the solid aluminum unibody construction, great backlit keyboard and excellent track pad the machine is top notch running Mac or Windows. That being said as with any machine they require maintenance and care and occasional repair. At our repair center Computer Doctor of Hampden we deal with both Mac and PC issues everyday. From liquid spills to broken screens, software glitches and hard drive repairs we see it all. First and foremost your Macbook Pro is hydrophobic! It does not like water, beer, wine, soda,coffee, tea, milk, dog urine or pickle juice and yes I have worked on all those scenarios! The adage an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure rings true even more with the base price for a Macbook pro @ the $1200 mark. Life can be hectic, you can bring your portable Mac so many places, think about the risks you run, from loss of the system, data corruption and at least a loss of productivity and repair costs.
Broken Macbook Pro Computer Doctor of Hampden Apple Repair
What is your back up plan? OSX has a very simple back up plan that can aid in both data and system recovery for the price of an external usb drive you can have peace of mind and the ability to find deleted files as well as recovering from a crashed hard drive . Please follow the instruction on Apples website to set up your back up plan sooner than later, consider it insurance for your digital life. Need help getting started? We stock external hard drives and can configure your back up plan as well as optimize your Mac for top performance and check for potential problems.
Given routine maintenance, reasonable care and proper usage your Macbook Pro can give you years of faithful service. Feel free to contact us with questions or submit a service request now.
The year is 1995, no wait that was 17 years ago… It seems a lifetime since the quantum shift from Windows 3.11 to Windows 95. What is my litmus test for quantum change? Stick a teenager on a Windows 95 machine and they will be able to get around, albiet begrudgingly. Put that same teen on a Windows 3.11 machine and depending on the crowd and their upbringing a WTF will soon be issued.
This was exactly how I felt when I downloaded a pre release of Windows 8. WTF? Where is my start button, what are these widgety things, how do I find my “real desktop” and come on Redmond this looks cool, but my desktop is not an iPad.
I get it, no I really do. Change is in the wind, the PC is a complex device capable of so many things and relied upon more and more everyday, by more people to do more things. So what is the problem? Market penetration is my guess. Call it simplification, or dumbing down or spoon feeding the masses, computing is not easy for everyone, so everyone doesn’t own one or two or three. Believe it or not there are people that don’t have a smart phone, tablet, laptop and desktop. But just imagine if a company could make a simple interface, sort of like an iPad that would work and look the same regardless of the device. Welcome to Windows 8.
It is a brave new world of technology and Microsoft is jumping into the future with both feet. The legacy desktop that greets us every morning is not the first thing you will see when you fire up your PC. You will however see smart tiles that portray basic information pulled from “apps” yes, I said apps not programs. The software model is too lucrative for MS to ignore. Selling small, purpose built applications available instantly from their store, MS wants to cash in on the short money sales. Easier to part with $2.99 than worry about plunking down$299 for office, especially when all you need is word and excel. I’ll take my software ala carte please…
So welcome to 1995 all over again. We will all beta test Windows 8 for MS, just like we bought Vista, you remember that buggy short lived platform that bought MS some time to get Win7 stable. I am sure Win9 will be out in Q1 of 2014 and be the polished, tweaked and stable version of Win8 we should be getting now.
Personally, I will get one of the new MS surface devices which will drag me into Win8, probably learn to love it and if it suits my fancy, it may lead to a Windows phone purchase. I am not planning to install Win 8 on my desktop anytime soon, I have little hair left to pull out these days and frankly just want things to work right so I can get right to work.
Want more info or a personal recommendation for new hardware? Feel free to contact me !
This is an old post from the Computer Doctor of Maine in Bangor. This could still be relatable to you today, but we can recover your lost data. In addition to this, solid-state drives, SSDs, have been replacing hard drives, for their improved speed, reliability, and at a cheaper price. Nowadays, many more computers use SSDs, but some of your older computers may still be using hard drives. Bring in your computer to the Computer Doctor of Maine in Bangor, and we can recover your data from your failed hard drive. Or, we can replace it with an SSD, greatly improving the productivity of your old computer.
So your hard drive just died, and you didn’t back it up. I’m so, so sorry. You can expect to go through the following five stages once you discover that all of your photos, files, and music are gone forever.
Stage one: Denial
“No. No, there’s no way. This is probably just a software issue, maybe if I try rebooting again it’ll work. I’ve only had this hard drive for two years, there’s no way it just died. I’ll get all that stuff back. This silly computer always freaks out but is fine after a reboot. Even though I’ve tried rebooting five times and it sounds like a fork is stuck in a garbage disposal in there, it’s probably just the CD drive.”
Stage two: Anger
“Are you kidding me, Western Digital? I’ve lost everything! I trusted you, and for what? How does a company that sells such crappy products stay in business? I will murder the first WD employee I see. And what the hell is wrong with me that I didn’t back this stuff up? I am the biggest idiot in the world and I want to punch myself in the face. I hate myself and don’t deserve to be happy.”
Stage three: Bargaining
“OK, so maybe I can download some software and boot this drive as a secondary drive and try to recover some stuff. I mean, I’ll have to go buy a new hard drive and install it and then figure out how to hook this one up as a secondary drive, and I’m not sure where my OS discs are, but hey, I’m a smart guy, I can figure this stuff out, right? Or maybe professional data recovery services have gotten much, much cheaper lately. Yeah, I’ll bet they’re affordable now, they’ve gotta be.”
Stage four: Depression
“All those photos. I’ll never, ever get them back. I’ll never see those faces again. And my essays from college, I was going to share those with my kids someday. And man, all that music, it’s taken me years to collect all that. Why did I even bother? It’s like the last ten years of my life have just been erased.”
Stage five: Acceptance
“Ah, none of that stuff was that important. Most of it was uploaded to various sites like Flickr, anyways. At least the really important stuff. Regathering all that music will be fun, too! And hey, you know what? Maybe it’s good to start fresh every once in a while. And man, hard drives have gotten a lot cheaper since I last bought one. This is really just a good way to put things in perspective; none of this stuff was all that important. Except for those photos. Why the hell didn’t I back them up?”
Below is some excellent information provided by the US Department of Homeland Security US-CERT Security TIP. Although this post from the Computer Doctor of Maine is a bit old, the information is still relevant today. You can bring your personal computer to the Computer Doctor of Maine in Bangor and have us install anti-virus software for you, so you can keep your information safe without the threat of a virus ruining it.
What does anti-virus software do?
Although details may vary between packages, anti-virus software scans files or your computer’s memory for certain patterns that may indicate an infection. The patterns it looks for are based on the signatures, or definitions, of known viruses. Virus authors are continually releasing new and updated viruses, so it is important that you have the latest definitions installed on your computer.
Once you have installed an anti-virus package, you should scan your entire computer periodically.
Automatic scans – Depending on what software you choose, you may be able to configure it to automatically scan specific files or directories and prompt you at set intervals to perform complete scans.
Manual scans – It is also a good idea to manually scan files you receive from an outside source before opening them. This includes:
saving and scanning email attachments or web downloads rather than selecting the option to open them directly from the source
scanning media, including CDs and DVDs, for viruses before opening any of the files
What happens if the software finds a virus?
Each package has its own method of response when it locates a virus, and the response may differ according to whether the software locates the virus during an automatic or a manual scan. Sometimes the software will produce a dialog box alerting you that it has found a virus and asking whether you want it to “clean” the file (to remove the virus). In other cases, the software may attempt to remove the virus without asking you first. When you select an anti-virus package, familiarize yourself with its features so you know what to expect.
Which software should you use?
There are many vendors who produce anti-virus software, and deciding which one to choose can be confusing. All anti-virus software performs the same function, so your decision may be driven by recommendations, particular features, availability, or price.
Installing any anti-virus software, regardless of which package you choose, increases your level of protection. Be careful, though, of email messages claiming to include anti-virus software. These messages, supposedly from your ISP’s technical support department, contain an attachment that claims to be anti-virus software. However, the attachment itself is in fact a virus, so you could become infected by opening it (see Using Caution with Email Attachments for more information).
How do you get the current virus information?
This process may differ depending on what product you choose, so find out what your anti-virus software requires. Many anti-virus packages include an option to automatically receive updated virus definitions. Because new information is added frequently, it is a good idea to take advantage of this option. Resist believing email chain letters that claim that a well-known anti-virus vendor has recently detected the “worst virus in history” that will destroy your computer’s hard drive. These emails are usually hoaxes (see Identifying Hoaxes and Urban Legends for more information). You can confirm virus information through your anti-virus vendor or through resources offered by other anti-virus vendors.
While installing anti-virus software is one of the easiest and most effective ways to protect your computer, it has its limitations. Because it relies on signatures, anti-virus software can only detect viruses that have signatures installed on your computer, so it is important to keep these signatures up to date. You will still be susceptible to viruses that circulate before the anti-virus vendors add their signatures, so continue to take other safety precautions as well.
This is an old post from the Computer Doctor of Maine, discussing the release of the first Apple iPad. Since then, iPads have become more and more advanced. You can bring your iPad to the Computer Doctor of Maine in Bangor, and we can help with repairs, setup, data transfer, and more.
Phone screen too small to meet all your needs? Laptop or netbook too bulky to carry? You may be ready to delve into the latest tech rage of tablet computing…
Apple had been rumored to be developing a tablet device since the days of its Newton line of PDA’s. With the release of the iPad it has started a juggernaut of tablet development. Much more than a Nook or Kindle, the tablet device has great potential for those who would benefit from what it does well and whose form factor fits in with their lifestyle. Small, light, and dazzling, navigating pages effortlessly with a casual flip of the wrist, tablets must be experienced first hand to really get an appreciation for how they work and what they do. Pinching, zooming, auto screen rotation, multitouch features, while there is a lot of hype, there is just as much function and convenience if you need and will use it.
Sure the uber geek factor is tremendous, pulling out a tablet device in any social or business situation will always generate attention, but it’s when you start harnessing its power and not just checking Facebook that the devices truly begin to shine.
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So your hard drive just died, and you didn’t back it up. I’m so, so sorry. You can expect to go through the following five stages once you discover that all of your photos, files, and music are gone forever.