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Weekend Roundup #127

Jaypee Habaradas — Mon, 02 May 2011 17:46:53 +0000

Hi folks! How are you all doing? Welcome to the 127th edition of the Weekend Roundup. Had a very busy weekend – went out of state (NJ & NY) and did a lot of driving. Was too tired and didn’t have enough time to prepare this post and publish it on time. Anyways, this week’s edition still has a lot of very cool and interesting articles and links so make sure to check all of them. I have several posts lined up for this week, including another contest so for those of you who like contests and giveaways, make sure to check back so you won’t miss it.

Here’s this week’s edition of the Weekend Roundup. Enjoy!

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HowTo: 5 Pieces of Essential Technology For A Minimalist Office

Lloyd Burrell — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 16:37:01 +0000

This is a guest post by Lloyd Burrell of Office Desk Reviews. If you want to guest post on this blog, check out the guidelines here.

Do you hate clutter, or are you on a budget? Some of us love collecting objects, which then collect dust. Some of us like to spend as least time as possible dusting. Some of us need to save money in order to pay off student loans and can’t spend much on setting up the old home office, because setting up a home office will save us money, and if we spend too much on office equipment, it becomes a catch-22 situation.

I’ve dug some tips out from under my own pile of dust to help you set up a fantastic minimalist office which would make any architect, or your own mother, proud.

Go wireless for your printer needs, now there is so little difference in price between wireless and wired models you would be a fool not to. That’s the first piece of advice I can offer. In this instance you can put the cart before the horse and get yourself one of those wireless all-in-one printer/scanner/copier machines. There are also great bargains out there on laser units that use black toner only, and which work beautifully.
Set up a nice home network and avoid even more wires and cables. You can sit in the living room, watching your 3D Internet-enabled TV, while getting the scores from the latest games on your laptop or iPad 2, and then printing a sheet or two out in your home office, on your spiffy new networked and wireless all-in-one printer/scanner/copier machine. See how it ties together? Less clutter and less expense. Just make sure your WiFi router is properly secured.
If you simply must have some storage, then attach a few clean shelves to the wall above or behind your desk. Get the kind that are “floating” so there’s no ugly brackets sticking out. They serve no value in a minimalist’s office. Typically you will be looking for a modern home office desk with perhaps one or two storage drawers in it, which could accommodate a few file folders, if you are tight on space a small corner computer desk is a good choice if you have a bit more room to play with then an L-shaped office desk might make more sense. To be truly minimalist and higher tech, store your files on your computer. That’s where the scanner part of your all-in-one comes in handy. You can also purchase some good OCR software and cram even War & Peace onto your hard drive.
Computer wise, you can certainly ditch that old monitor which takes up all of the desk space you have, and get a nice all-in-one iMac (there are affordable Macs out there also), or a flat monitor with the PC hidden either under, or in, your desk. A wireless keyboard and wireless optical mouse are essentials in any minimalist’s office. Do make sure you get enough RAM and hard drive space in your new computer. They are well-equipped these days.
Finally, treat yourself to an ergonomically-designed and comfortable office chair. There are some new designs which can operate by remote control. In the least, they have high-tech fabrics available which can also cool you, or heat you up. Getting a renewable and very “green” flooring or carpet or rug onto your minimalist office floor may not be high tech to look at it, but many parts of our modern technology were used to manufacture a durable, renewable resourced, and attractive surface.

One final touch for your minimalist office — a simple and attractive live plant always adds a bit of nature to even the most high-tech and minimalist space. It can also give you someone to talk to or throw your ideas around with. Plants are very low key and fit right in with the minimalist office.

Over to you guys. What other types of technology do you use for your minimalist home office? Any other space or money saving tips or pieces of technology that you can suggest on creating a minimalist office space? Please share your thoughts.

3 Basic Ways To Secure Your WiFi Router

Jaypee Habaradas — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 08:26:33 +0000

The first thing you should do when you purchase and install a wireless router in your home is to secure it. Most people neglect to do so because they are either too lazy and they think that sharing their Internet connection is a noble thing or they are technically challenged and do not know what to do.

Why is it so important and why do you need to keep your router or WiFi connection secure? An open/unsecure wireless router or connection means that anyone can share your Internet connection and use it to browse raunchy, racist or other offensive websites using your IP address. Aside from that, it can also slow down the performance of your Internet connection.

Having an open/unsecured wireless connection will also leave you exposed to other serious threats which could lead to serious problems like online fraud and identity theft which are very common these days.

Here are 3 basic ways to keep your WiFi router or connection secure:

1. Change the router’s Default Username and Password.

Choose an uncommon username, something only you can know. Then choose a strong password – keep it at least 8 characters long, using a combination of letters, numbers and characters. Keep it secure and don’t share it with others.

2. Turn on Encryption.

Right now, the best encryption technology is WPA2. Select that one if your router supports it. If you’re still in the process of purchasing one, avoid routers that only support WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access) and WEP (Wired Equivalency Privacy) and purchase one that supports WPA2. There are available tools on the Internet that can easily crack WPA and WEP encryption.

3. Change the Default SSID and Disable Broadcasting.

The SSID is your network name. By default, routers use a generic manufacturer SSID like “netgear”, “linksys” or “default”. Change it to something else, something uncommon. You can use the same principle as choosing/creating a strong password. A network using a default SSID can be perceived by the attacker as a weak and poorly configured network and will most likely attack it first. Another thing you can do with your SSID is to shut off or disable broadcasting. Keeping it “out of sight” will lessen the chances of it being attacked. Don’t worry about shutting this feature off because you can still connect to it manually.

I hope that this short tutorial on 3 ways to secure your WiFi router will help you keep your wireless router/connection safe. This is just a basic tutorial and I plan of coming up with a more detailed tutorial that includes more ways (some advanced ways) to keep your wireless connection/router secure so stay tuned for that. You can subscribe to receive FREE updates via email so you’ll be sure you won’t miss it.

Have you or someone you know had issues with online fraud, identity theft and other problems because of an open or unsecured wireless Internet connection? What measures are you taking to keep your WiFi connection safe and secure? Remember, its better to be safe than sorry.