A few mouse clicks could mean the difference between staying online and losing Internet connections this summer.  Unbeknownst to many, international hackers ran an online advertising scam to take control of infected computers around the world.  The FBI made the bust and set up a safety net months ago by putting temporary dns servers in place, but these servers are scheduled to shut down on July 9.  Afterwards, infected users won’t be able to connect to the Internet.

IT Radix recommends devoting several hours today to the care and nurture your computer.

While tomorrow is the traditional day for hearts and flowers, today is an excellent time to unclog the information arteries on your PC according to Kerry Gleeson.

Have you ever wanted to quickly lock your computer?  Perhaps for privacy, perhaps it’s part of your corporate security policy or in my case, to keep my son’s fast fingers from wreaking havoc on my laptop while I’m getting him something.  If this sounds like you, then read on.

In the words of sir Francis Bacon, “Knowledge is Power!” This is exactly what your in-house IT guru has—the knowledge of how your network is set up and where everything is, thus the power to control it. Well, that’s all well and good, but what happens if your IT person up and leaves? Where does that knowledge (and power) go?!?!? That’s right.

Have you ever had a security alert pop up on your screen while browsing the web?  Your first reaction may be to click on it to find out more, fearing your machine may be infected with a virus.  Those that are skeptics may click the “X” in the top right corner to close it and continue what you were doing.

No brown M&M’s! (Photo: Mr. T in DC)

At IT Radix, our clients are our rock-stars.  We've developed a variety of checklists to help us deliver computer support services.  Why?

The following is a short excerpt from The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande, also reprinted by Tehelka magazine in India.

These keyboard shortcuts have been in Windows since the beginning; however, they are worth repeating.

Move the cursors: Quickly jump the cursor to the beginning or end of your word, paragraph, or document.

CTRL+Right Arrow: Move the cursor to the beginning of the next word
CTRL+Left Arrow: Move the cursor back to the beginning of the previous word
CTRL+Down Arrow: Move the cursor to the beginning of the next paragraph
CTRL+Up Arrow: Move the cursor back to the beginning of the previous paragraph
CTRL+Home: Go to the start of a document
CTRL+End: Go to the end of a document

Give these a try and see how much more efficiently you can type that email! Check back next week for more.

iPad Tip:  Want to quickly change the brightness and volume on your iPad without using the button?
 
Double press the home button.  Now, slide to the icons along the bottom to right to open up the control menu. You can use the sliders here to adjust the brightness or sound.

Hurricane Irene has certainly impacted business the northeast.  On Monday morning, Max one of our IT Radix techs negotiated flooded roads to arrive at a client site to power up their servers on a floating generator.  Little did he expect to also be driving a duck-hunting boat to the building with our client.

Portable Document Format or PDF files have become the preferred document interchange standard for all users regardless of the file type.  Late last year, Adobe launched CreatePDF, a cloud-based application that allows you to make PDF files online fast.