Social Media: Avoiding scams and hoaxes

We've all seen the posts on our favourite social networks - endorsed by friends and relations that tell us about a new startling discovery/scary news item/unbelievable photo/medical marvel...

Such things used to be (and to some extent still are) the domain of chain emails, foolishly forwarded and rather irritating at best.

But these days we are getting these posts shoved in our face by those people around us who 'like' or comment on such things.

So what are these things, what is wrong with them, and how can we spot/avoid them?

Here goes...

Fixing Windows 8

So you have a new laptop or PC? How nice 

With Windows 8 you say? Oh...

Microsoft's new Operating System is certainly raising a few eyebrows - and not without reason (check out my review [coming soon] for a proper overview of the controversial issues).
Windows 8 is a conflicted and confused OS, which has a great many changes since Windows 7 - many of which directly impact on usability, making it confusing and frustrating for many people, whether they were previously experienced with Windows or not.

Put simply Windows 8 is half a touch-screen OS and half Windows 7, which makes using it properly on a non-touchscreen device tricky. However there are a few simple tweaks that can be made, and applications that can be installed that will fix this for you. They are all free and easy to do, and shouldn't take more than about 15 minutes. What you'll be left with is effectively Windows 7 - but with better security and more timely updates. So, all in all, a major improvement over stock Win8.

Online security: Using a subscription VPN

As I described in the Open Wifi post, the dangers of free Wifi are well worth considering before you connect to the internet in a coffee shop.

One very effective solution is to connect through a secure tunnel to a VPN server, which can either be set up at home on your computer, or be a paid-for service from one of the many companies online.

In this part of the VPN thread I will describe how to choose a suitable service, and then how to set it up for use on your laptop or smartphone device.