“Everybody gets so much information all day long that they lose their common sense.” Gertrude Stein

I know I've written of Facebook scams before and the simple method of Googling some unusual link a friend posted before clicking on it. But I believe you should be a little proactive with your Facebook scam knowledge. Recently I came across a FB page called FaceCrooks that’s main purpose is to keep you up to date of the current badness going on in the FB universe. To join FaceCrooks, do what you do with any page that’s cool or interesting, hit the “like” button. Now when they post you’ll see it in your feed. By you being more aware you can warn your friends and in turn you will see less spam.

I did enjoy it," he says. "But it was very, very weird. Rick Astley

Most of the questions I answer are pretty standard about having issues with the computer or programs. Recently someone asked what is a Rick Roll? This happens to be a blend of a practical joke and an internet phenomenon. At its core it is the Rick Astley song "Never Gonna Give You Up" that was quite a hit in 1987. So where is the practical joke? This type of practical joke is called a bait and switch. Essentially you would receive and email with a link from someone saying how wonderful the website they found was and when the user clicked on the link it would be the music or video of Rick Astley. It is not seriously funny by itself but it far outgrew its roots last April Fool’s day with amazingly wide use. Many sites I go to on a regular basis for news and info Rick Roll’D me by posting curiously intriguing headlines. I clicked on the links and would be hit with Astley singing at me for the umpteen time. As I said before it has grown past its origins. Now Rick Rolling is now even more about remixing it into every genre from the Muppets to the presidential candidates. Mr. Astely finally spoke about the practice and said he finds it bizarre and funny. It has been an internet bit of strangeness for a while but it is creeping into off line life like at Basketball games and such. So I hope this answers the question on this unusual topic. Many thanks to the asker. If you would like to read more click here otherwise to see the video click here.

"I stopped believing in Santa Claus when my mother took me to see him in a department store, and he asked for my autograph." Shirley Temple

Recently there was a video of people putting their cell phones near some popcorn and then calling the phones. Amazingly the popcorn starts popping. I received that video as an email link from 15 different people. All the people that sent it to me thought I would be very interested because of how much I like gadgets. Every email that I got had almost the same subject line. “If they can do this what are they doing to our brains?” I really do appreciate all the people who sent these in because it is hard trying to stay on top of tech. Unfortunately all of the senders were duped. I too had an instant reaction of “wow” followed by a “something is wrong here” moment. What we need to understand is that tools like Photoshop and video editors have destroyed the old saying “seeing is believing”. Everything can be cut up, rearranged, added to and just generally messed with to create any picture or video desired. Most of the time I have no problem with these videos. They are usually entertaining and fairly cool but this one introduces paranoia about a well known product. Some people will watch this video, not knowing it is fake, and believe it to be a real possibility. It is not. It just doesn’t work that way. Now if one person creates this by themselves I can say OK that was a person’s bad judgment but when it is a company doing this my thoughts go from annoyed to downright angry. The popcorn phone video was created by sellers of Bluetooth headsets in hopes of getting people so scared of the effects of cell phone radiation that they will run out and buy one. That is unfair and frankly just awful. Consider the potential possibilities and effects that these videos might have. We have laws about commercials and what they may say on TV for a reason. When confronted with a similar video that is just a little too amazing please head over to a site like snopes and double check the validity. Be entertained first and then be informed and yes keep the emails coming.

"It's a trap!" Admiral Ackbar

Recently I had an unusual question concerning a check. The person had received a check for a company that said she had won $5000 dollars from some sort of lottery. All she had to do was call this number and they would tell her how to collect. This all sounds great but the question is is it true and is it safe to pursue? So I did some searching and came across this gem of a website called Ripoff Report. Like so many websites now, this is a user generated information site. Essentially, if you know of a scam or have received a letter, phone call, etc....,you can come to this site and check to see what others have found about the information you have received. It is easy to search or just browse through the listings. Much of the posts are well thought out but there are a few that are useless. If you are not sure of something you may want to give this a try.
Note:If you are not geeky enough to know Admiral Akbar then please click here

“If you spend your whole life waiting for the storm, you'll never enjoy the sunshine.” Morris West

I wish this was a great site or useful tip but it is just a simple warning. There is a virus being spammed everywhere. Spammed is an old fashioned way of getting viruses to email boxes. Millions of emails go out and hope many open them. Now onto the problem at hand. A programmer out in cyberspace is taking advantage of the storm in Europe. So, many emails are showing up with the subject lines like 230 dead as storm batters Europe and British Muslims Genocide. There is an easy way to defeat this type of virus, simply do not open it or if you do, do not use the attachment. You will notice that the extension of the attachment is an .EXE. An extension is just the end set of letters to a program that tells the computer what program to use like .DOC or .PDF. The problem with an .EXE is that is an executable file type, meaning that it can do what it needs to just by you clicking on it. Translation please! Well it needs you to click on it and then it will do its stuff all by itself. In this case it will release a simple virus that will try to take over your computer and give access to others. This is decidedly not friendly.
To recap: see a subject line like the ones above? Throw it out and you should be fine. Definitely give it a try!
Read the full story.

“You can fool too many of the people too much of the time.” James Thurber

The other day I received an e-mail that told me about a child who had cancer and a request to send the e-mail on to as many people as I can. The reason for the chain letter is that the Make A Wish Foundation would give money for each person that it is sent on to for the child. Now, I get a lot of Internet hoaxes like this one that says that the senate voted to charge per e-mail. I say hoaxes but how do I know? I usually check Snopes.com to verify spam and other claims. Snopes has kept a running tab on what goes on out there with as many facts as possible. I looked this one up and it told me it started around 1997. Check this page to read the whole thing. Before you forward more junk on or even more serious, get taken in financially by an email hoax, look it up on Snopes first. Give it a try!