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Site of the Week: GreenDisk
One would assume that after years of writing tech articles for the Summit Daily in addition to the approximately 3 billion hours I’ve spent online thus far in my life, I’d know what to do with my technotrash.
Even I assumed this.
Yet lo and behold last week I found myself looking at a broken monitor far beyond donation potential, and I wasn’t quite sure what the most responsible method of disposal was.
A bit of research cleared my confusion and I now know of an incredibly useful, socially responsible company that can handle whatever technology-related trash I might have. The company is called GreenDisk, and it can handle whatever you’ve got — from a single DVD to a printer to an office building filled with unusable computers. Greendisk safely and securely destroys old data, recovers reusable components, and recycles the rest.
Learn more at www.greendisk.com.
Question and Answer of the Week: Bank Info and Unsecured Connection
Q: Hi Erin. I have a secure wireless connection at my home and in my office but when I’m on the road I tend to use a lot of public wi-fi spots.
My question is: Is it safe for me to access my bank account information and conduct online banking transactions if I’m not on a secure connection?
A: Great question.
The answer is yes, it’s safe.
While it may seem like a frightening concept to access your banking info from an unsecured wireless connection, you’re actually totally, completely fine in doing so.
This is because financial institutions encrypt all online banking sessions, meaning that other people cannot access your info while you’re logged in — that’s what the little “lock” at the bottom of the screen means when you login to your bank site.
Just remember that with the exception of when you’re actually viewing these secured pages (ones displaying the lock icon that also have URLs starting with https:// instead of just http://), you should always operate under the assumption that anything you view and send online could potentially be read by others.
Grab Bag: Five Random Links of the Week
• http://lobotome.com/ brainiac.htm — Eight “braniac” notepads to choose from. As of mid-August, they’re buy one, get one free.
Fun options include pack me, fit me, help me, and check me.
• www.nowdothis.com — For those that don’t enjoy moving forward in a linear fashion, nowdothis.com shows you nothing more than the next item on your to-do list.
The item won’t go away until checked, at which point the next item on your to-do list appears.
• http://tinyurl.com/5vx927 — A blog post with links to Mac and PC programs enabling you to edit, reorder, encrypt, crop (and so on ...) your PDF files.
• www.wowio.com — Free books, free minds.
• http://www.mikesacks.com/ wp/photos-of-tv/ — Funny site for today.
Aptly entitled “Photos of TV.” Surely one of the screens will give you a chuckle.
Personally, I enjoyed the map pointing to the doughnut thief’s location.
And that’s it for today, everyone. Have a great week, and see ya next Monday.
Based in Frisco, eRin pheiL is the primary creative force behind timeforcake.
Learn more about her Colorado website design company at www.timeforcake.com or contact her via e-mail at info@timeforcake.com.
One would assume that after years of writing tech articles for the Summit Daily in addition to the approximately 3 billion hours I’ve spent online thus far in my life, I’d know what to do with my technotrash.
Even I assumed this.
Yet lo and behold last week I found myself looking at a broken monitor far beyond donation potential, and I wasn’t quite sure what the most responsible method of disposal was.
A bit of research cleared my confusion and I now know of an incredibly useful, socially responsible company that can handle whatever technology-related trash I might have. The company is called GreenDisk, and it can handle whatever you’ve got — from a single DVD to a printer to an office building filled with unusable computers. Greendisk safely and securely destroys old data, recovers reusable components, and recycles the rest.
Learn more at www.greendisk.com.
Question and Answer of the Week: Bank Info and Unsecured Connection
Q: Hi Erin. I have a secure wireless connection at my home and in my office but when I’m on the road I tend to use a lot of public wi-fi spots.
My question is: Is it safe for me to access my bank account information and conduct online banking transactions if I’m not on a secure connection?
A: Great question.
The answer is yes, it’s safe.
While it may seem like a frightening concept to access your banking info from an unsecured wireless connection, you’re actually totally, completely fine in doing so.
This is because financial institutions encrypt all online banking sessions, meaning that other people cannot access your info while you’re logged in — that’s what the little “lock” at the bottom of the screen means when you login to your bank site.
Just remember that with the exception of when you’re actually viewing these secured pages (ones displaying the lock icon that also have URLs starting with https:// instead of just http://), you should always operate under the assumption that anything you view and send online could potentially be read by others.
Grab Bag: Five Random Links of the Week
• http://lobotome.com/ brainiac.htm — Eight “braniac” notepads to choose from. As of mid-August, they’re buy one, get one free.
Fun options include pack me, fit me, help me, and check me.
• www.nowdothis.com — For those that don’t enjoy moving forward in a linear fashion, nowdothis.com shows you nothing more than the next item on your to-do list.
The item won’t go away until checked, at which point the next item on your to-do list appears.
• http://tinyurl.com/5vx927 — A blog post with links to Mac and PC programs enabling you to edit, reorder, encrypt, crop (and so on ...) your PDF files.
• www.wowio.com — Free books, free minds.
• http://www.mikesacks.com/ wp/photos-of-tv/ — Funny site for today.
Aptly entitled “Photos of TV.” Surely one of the screens will give you a chuckle.
Personally, I enjoyed the map pointing to the doughnut thief’s location.
And that’s it for today, everyone. Have a great week, and see ya next Monday.
Based in Frisco, eRin pheiL is the primary creative force behind timeforcake.
Learn more about her Colorado website design company at www.timeforcake.com or contact her via e-mail at info@timeforcake.com.
