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Our Latest Posts About: Internet

What is Shameware? Beware of "I Know Something Else About You" Scam!

Sunday, October 24, 2021 8:00 AM By Joe Crescenzi

BEWARE of SHAMEWARE!

As a tech guy, people come from me from time to time with some pretty unique questions. Shameware caught me off guard completely.

My first experience was when somebody told me they received an email asking for money or they would share nude photos of them to all their friends and family. They didn't explain why they felt somebody had those kinds of photos, so I didn't ask.

I didn't know anything about the scam back then and my biggest question was why they felt anyone would even have such photos in the first place, other than to think that the person was married to or dating somebody who was into taking such photos (with or without consent).

Several months later, several more people, including an 85 year old man, who received similar emails actuall... [More]

Continue...What is Shameware? Beware of "I Know Something Else About You" Scam!...

We Need a Universal Directory For Finding People and Businesses

Monday, July 3, 2017 1:00 AM By Joe Crescenzi

We can find virtually anything we want online, except people.

Before the Internet, we had phone books and 411 directory assistance. They were simple, but reliable ways to find just about anyone or any business in seconds. This was mainly due to the fact that phone companies automatically put every phone number into their directory, so unless you paid extra to get an unlisted number, you could be found in the phone book.

Fast forward a few decades and the phone companies no longer make phone directories and just about everything we do is online. Unfortunately, without a central phone directory. we no longer have a single, reliable way to find people and businesses.

Isn't it time somebody like Google, Apple, or Microsoft did something about this? We need a modern director... [More]

Continue...We Need a Universal Directory For Finding People and Businesses...

The Problem With Browser Home Pages

Saturday, May 20, 2017 1:00 AM By Joe Crescenzi

It's time we got rid of Browser Home Pages.

If you're reading this from a desktop computer, chances are there's a little "Home" icon somewhere in your browser that takes you to your default "Home Page". Just about every desktop browser has one, and they've been there since the first browsers were developed in the early 90s. Meanwhile, have you ever noticed that the browsers on your mobile devices don't have one? There's a good reason for this. They suck.

For what its worth, there's absolutely no reason for todays browsers to have a Home Page anymore. Desktop browsers should do exactly what mobile browsers do... take you to the last page you opened, nothing more, nothing less.

The problem with Home Pages is that web sites and software programs often exploit browser Home... [More]

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How to PREVENT Viruses

Wednesday, May 17, 2017 1:00 AM By Joe Crescenzi

Most computer viruses don't come from surfing the web.

I've seen a lot of viruses over the years, and almost all of them share one thing in common, they came from an email, not from surfing the web. This may sound surprising to some people who think they're safe because they "don't go to risky sites". The simple truth is, if you want to prevent viruses, you need to know how to spot them, and that's in your InBox.

Email is, by far, the most common way to get a virus, simply because it's the easiest way for somebody to let their guard down. That's because more often than not, the virus comes from a fake email that looks like its from somebody you know.

For example, if a total stranger sent you an email that said "Here's something I thought you would like..." followed by a... [More]

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Why We Need Real Email Signatures

Sunday, May 7, 2017 1:00 AM By Joe Crescenzi

Just about every major security breach starts with a fake email.

We've all been told that we shouldn't click links in emails from people we don't trust. The trouble is, most viruses are sent in emails that look like they came from somebody you already know and trust. This is because it's nearly impossible to confirm who actually sent the email.

At the root of the problem is the fact that you don't have to hack somebody's email account to send an email that looks like it came from them. In fact, all you need to do is change the name and address in the "From" part of your email program and it will look like it came from them. This means you can sit in a coffee shop anywhere in the world and send an email that looks like it comes from anyone else in the world, without needing... [More]

Continue...Why We Need Real Email Signatures...

Nobody's #1 On Google

Saturday, April 15, 2017 1:00 AM By Joe Crescenzi

Ever since Google changed their Page Rank algorithm in 2009, web sites can no longer claim to be #1 for any given search term.

One of the most misunderstood things about search engines is the way they rank websites in search results. A website's position in search results can make or break their business, so it's always been important to get the best rank you can.

Because of this, many companies spend a lot of time and money trying to improve their rank. The problem is, no matter how they try, there is no longer a SINGLE #1 site for any particular keyword. That's because Google's now uses at least 60 different factors to determine a site's rank, and most of those factors are based on the personal information they've gathered on the person who's searching.

For example, if... [More]

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Ban Fake Download Ads

Sunday, April 2, 2017 1:00 AM By Joe Crescenzi

Why does Google allow FAKE download ads?

One of the biggest scams on the Internet is Fake Download Ads, but you never hear anything about it. A "Fake" download ad is the kind of ad that tricks you into downloading a program you weren't looking for, because its placed on the download page for something you were looking for.

For example, if you go to a legitimate site to download a popular open source program like Open Office, or Audacity, more often than not, the "ads" Google runs on those pages are for entirely different programs, and they have oversized "Download" links in them that confuse many visitors into thinking they are the legitimate download buttons they should be clicking to download whatever it was they were looking for.

Google, and the download site are essent... [More]

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Internet Cookies... Explained

Wednesday, January 11, 2017 1:00 AM By Joe Crescenzi

What's an Internet Cookie?

As a tech guy, people often ask me about deleting their "Cookies" because they really don't know what they are, and they often think they're harmful.

The simple answer is cookies are harmless text files placed on your computer by a website. They don't contain any programs, so they can't harm you computer. Most of the time, they only store a bunch of random looking numbers that the web site uses to know you were there.

Here's how it works.

As soon as you visit a web site for the first time, the web site asks your browser software if it has a cookie from a previous visit. If not, it generates a unique number and stores it in a Cookie file that your browser saves on your computer. It also keeps track of the number it saved in a database in... [More]

Continue...Internet Cookies... Explained...

How Hackers... Go Phishing

Tuesday, January 3, 2017 1:00 AM By Joe Crescenzi

Real hacking is nothing like what you see in TV and movies. Most of it is done through Phishing.

When most people think of hacking, the image that comes to mind is of a computer expert banging away at the keyboard tearing down firewalls and security systems at a breakneck pace, just like they've seen a thousand times in movies and TV shows. The truth of the matter is that REAL hacking is nothing at all like that.

Computer security is very sophisticated, so it's not easy for a hacker to break into your accounts using those kinds of techniques, especially since most online accounts limit the number of failed attempts so that they can only make a few wrong guesses before they're blocked for a while. Because of that, Hackers use another approach... Instead of trying to crack yo... [More]

Continue...How Hackers... Go Phishing...

Newspaper Legal Notices?

Monday, January 2, 2017 1:00 AM By Joe Crescenzi

Why do newspapers still run legal notices?

Last time I checked, we're still in the 21st century, but for some reason just about every newspaper in the country still has a section for Legal Notices. Why the heck don't they just use the Internet for things like that?

Before the Internet, newspapers were an effective way to make legal notices available to anyone who was interested, but there's absolutely no reason for them to continue to be printed today. Just about everyone today has access to the Internet, so it's about time we change local laws that require public notice, so they no longer require newspaper ads.

I think the only reason this hasn't already happened is because newspapers get paid for running the ads. That's pretty stupid

The End of Common Media?

Saturday, December 10, 2016 1:00 AM By Joe Crescenzi

We no longer live in a Common Media World.

Hundreds of years ago, news and information was spread through a very small number of media sources. Because of this, entire communities shared fundamentally the same news, at the same time. The news you read each day was identical to the news your friends, family and neighbors read.

Until recently, whenever people talked about things they saw in the media, chances are they all saw the same media. Centuries ago, it was the local newspaper, and in the last century, it was a combination of print, TV and radio, but it was still limited to a small number, so the media was still essentially common. Each morning, the majority of people still heard, read, or saw the same news, at virtually the same time.

This is no longer the case.
... [More]

Continue...The End of Common Media?...

Self-Destructing Email.

Wednesday, November 30, 2016 1:00 AM By Joe Crescenzi

Some emails have a tendency to haunt you for years. Here's how a system can be designed to make some of them go away right after reading them.

After all the buzz over Hillary Clinton's email server in the 2016 election, I think we all know the value of securing sensitive emails. One way this could be done is to create a system where emails that need to be secure are stored as encrypted text on the server, and can only be read by looking up the encryption key when you receive it.

To make it even more secure, it would be great if your email system could put an expiration date on the encryption key, and deleting the key as soon as it expires, effectively rendering the original email unreadable.

Like SnapChat, the system isn't foolproof, because people can still copy or print... [More]

Continue...Self-Destructing Email....

Group Tabs For The Same Site Together

Tuesday, June 14, 2016 1:00 AM By Joe Crescenzi

Sometimes I have dozens of tabs open at the same time. Most of them are from a handful of sites.

Everyone loves tabs. They let you open multiple web pages at the same time, all in one window. The trouble is you eventually have so many tabs open at once that you can't find the one you're looking for.

Wouldn't it be great if you could cut down on the clutter and show only one tab per site? So, every time you open another tab on the same site, it gets grouped together with the other pages from the same site, cutting down the number of tabs on the top. Naturally, if you only have a few sites open, it can still create a separate tab as it does now, but as you open more pages, it would be great if they were grouped together.

So if you're shopping and you have 10 tabs open in... [More]

Continue...Group Tabs For The Same Site Together...

Split Plane Side By Side Browsers

Monday, November 9, 2015 1:00 AM By Joe Crescenzi

Wide screens + narrow web pages = side by side browsing.

Just about every screen sold today has a wide screen. It's nearly impossible finding a TV or computer monitor that still has the old 4:3 square aspect ratio, so why not make a browser that actually takes advantage of the extra width by letting you view two web sites at the same time.

Although some web sites are look decent when you extend your browser window to it's widest size, most are still optimized for narrow screens. In fact, because of mobile devices, just about every web site today looks great even when the browser is squeezed into a very narrow space.

I love using browser tabs, but there are a lot of times when I'd rather have two browser windows side by side, so I can see them both at the same time. While... [More]

Continue...Split Plane Side By Side Browsers...

Website Info Files. For Better Search Categorization.

Wednesday, September 16, 2015 1:00 AM By Joe Crescenzi

Sometimes search engines make big mistakes.

One of the great things about search engines like Google is how they've managed to index and categorize just about every web page in existence. It's not an easy process. Search robots need to scan every page they can find, then use the words on the page to try to determine what it's about.

For most sites, search engines are pretty accurate, but sometimes they aren't even close.

There are many reasons a search engine will incorrectly categorize a site, but the biggest problem is a lack of clear information on the site itself. For example, if you created a national review site and the search engines saw the address of one of the restaurants you reviewed, they may think that you are a local site, and that the address of the restau... [More]

Continue...Website Info Files. For Better Search Categorization....

Web Page Expiration Dates

Saturday, August 1, 2015 1:00 AM By Joe Crescenzi

There are billions of outdated web pages online.

One of the most frustrating things about the Internet is that it's often hard to know when you're reading something that's outdated. While some content is timeless, some content is not, and there currently is no system to determine when the content you're reading is no longer useful.

I'm not advocating that every web page have an expiration date, but if there was such a system in place, it would allow content providers to designate when any given page should be ignored. By designating that a page has an expiration date of 30 days, it will let the search engines know that they shouldn't display it after that, unless the page owner updates the content, and changes the expiration date.

Some news sites for example release break... [More]

Continue...Web Page Expiration Dates...

Cat Video Network

Ketchonnaise - Pre-Mixed Ketchup and Mayonnaise

A Guaranteed Spam-Free, Pre-Encrypted Email Service

iPhone and iPad Keyboards Should Show Numbers Too

Sleeveless Snuggies!

Don't Bother With SEO. Use Real People Optimization Instead.

3 Ways Smoke Alarms Can Be More Pet Friendly

Emergency Contact Info Needs to Bypass Locked Phone

Autocorrect Should Translate Text Slang into English... Because Kids Actually Think It's Correct Grammar

Lookalike Finder Site

Out of Ideas? Fusion of Two or More Ideas Could Change Everything.

How Camera Makers Can Simplify On-Camera White Balance

Darth Vader is Retuning to Star Wars?

A Bedside Book Projector - Read Books on the Ceiling!

Reinvent The Wheel? YES. There's Always Room For Improvement.

Amazon Echo as an Intercom. Room to Room Communication, Even Across the World.

TV Needs More Shows Like Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood... The Seinfeld of Children's TV

Stop using default Security Questions... here's why.

A Car Periscope? Why Not?

Digital String on Your Finger... To Remind You You Left Something Behind...

Use Social Media to Listen To Your Customers, or They'll find Somebody Who Does.

Why Doesn't Apple Offer a FULL SIZED Wireless Keyboard?

How Banks Can Make Checking Accounts More Secure

4 Cell Phone Parental Control Ideas Your Kids are Guaranteed to Hate.

.Podcast Domain TLDs. A Direct Domain For Podcasters.

* Note: The ideas on "Idea of the Day" were posted without any formal research into existing inventions.

In some cases, patents may already exist for these ideas, in other cases, there may not be any existing patents and you are free to develop and explore the viability of developing and patenting the ideas.

The authors make no claim that any of the ideas are safe, practical, or suitable for any particular purpose. You are responsible for the results of trying, developing, patenting or using any of the ideas on this site.

For some people, our ideas are just an interesting read, but our goal is to encourage you to take action. If you see an idea that you like, do something with it... Take action.

- Joe

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