A friend of mine recently asked if I could create some passport size photos for his baby ready for official documents especially the passport for traveling. Luckily, I know three websites that can do the job and was able to help him immediately. I thought somebody could also need this tip.

Here are the links: www.epassportphoto.com and www.idphoto4you.com and www.portraitbooth.com

You may want to save this page for future references, just press CTRL+D (on your keyboard) to bookmark this page.

Several security websites are reporting a flaw in one telephone company that is transiting malware via HTC phone's USB port port when connected to computers.

A person recently bought an HTC Magic (Android) phone and when she connected it to her PC over USB, the antivirus (Panda) software went off.  The say that the phone had malicious autorun and other files identified as a "Mariposa" bot tied to a botnet run by a Spanish hacker. There was also Conficker and a Lineage password stealer.

Other smart phone users need to be aware of this threat in order to prevent their phones and computers from getting these malicious files that could severely affect their documents.

Click here to read and see screen capture of the  Vodafone HTC malware issue.

Learn how to create a long, complex, strong yet easy to remember password.

Katika posti iliyopita, tuliongelea juu ya namna ya kujiweka mbali na wezi wa mtandaoni kwa njia ya email lakini tuliacha kiporo cha kujifunza namna ya kutengeneza nywila ndefu, ngumu na madhubuti  na ambayo ni rahisi kuikumbuka. Leo tutajifunza kuhusu hilo.

1. Tunga sentensi ambayo utaikumbuka. (Think of a sentence that you will remember).
   Mfano: "Nilisafiri kwa mara ya kwanza nikiwa na miaka kumi na mbili."
2. Ibadili sentensi hii kuwa nywila. (Turn your sentence into a password).
   Tumia herufi ya kwanza ya kila neno katika sentensi yako uliyotunga hapo juu kutengeneza nywila. Mfano nskmyknnmknm
   Use the first letter of each word of your memorable sentence to create a string, in this case: "nskmyknnmknm".
3. Ongeza ugumu katika nywila yako (Add complexity to your password or pass phrase).
   Changanya herufi kubwa na ndogo na namba na weka makosa ya lazima.
   Mfano: Tukitumia sentensi yetu ya awali, unaweza kubadili 'kumi na mbili' kuwa '12' kwa hivyo nywila yako sasa itakuwa, nskmyknnm12
   Mix uppercase and lowercase letters and numbers. Introduce intentional misspellings.
   For example, in the sentence above, you might substitute the number 12 for the word "kumi na mbili", so a password might be "nskmyknnm12".
4. Ongeza alama maalum (Substitute some special characters).
   Tumia alama zinazofanana kwa ukaribu na herufi. Unganisha, ongeza au zitumie kubadili kabisa baadhi ya herufi. Hii itaongeza ugumu wa nywila yako.
   Mfano: n$kmyknnm12
   Use symbols that look like letters, combine words, or replace letters with numbers to make the password complex. Using these strategies, you might end up with the password "n$kmyknnm12" .
5. Changanya herufi kubwa na ndogo (Combine capitals and small letters).
   Mfano: n$KmyKNNm12

Natumai hadi kufikia hapa utakuwa umeelewa namna ya kutengeneza nywila madhubuti. Ukitaka maelezo ya ziada, unaweza kusoma kupitia mojawapo ya tovuti hizi (bofya hapa).

Tunza nywila yako katika usiri. (Remember to treat your password as a secret).
Kwa vidokezo vilivyopita tafadhali peruzi kwenye 'Computer Or Email Tips & Tricks'.

Just learned two days ago from Gmail's official blog that they have improved the loading time for the pop up window. I went ahead and tried it and I was satisfied. And here are the latest tips:

(i) If you're reading an email and want to save it for later, can click the "New window" link in the upper-right hand corner of the conversation view.

(ii) When writing a message, hold the "Shift" key while you click on the Compose Mail, Reply, Reply All or Forward links and you'll get a new window for your new message. (Holding the "Shift" key while typing the keyboard shortcut — in other words typing "C" "R" or "F" — has the same effect.)

(iii) When reading a mail, hold the "Shift" key while you click on a message to open the conversation in a new window. (Same effect for the "Shift" key and the "o" or "Enter" shortcuts.)

Unfortunately, these tips don't work in Internet Explorer, so to see the speed-up, you'll need to be using Mozilla Firefox, Apple's Safari, or Google Chrome.

Please be informed that scammers have now started sending junk mails asking you to 'enter in a competition for a chance to win a prize', see an example on the captured screen image.

Those messages contain information and links luring readers to click on them in order to complete a quiz or survey which will, supposedly, win them a chance to enter on a draw in a competition for a chance to win a certain gadget like a computer, cell phone, mp3 players etc.

As we have been cautioning, be wary of free money or 'chance to win big money'. Refrain from clicking any link or responding to such emails. Do not reply to the sender, better still, do not click on the 'unsubscribe' link given at the end of the email. Usually those links are a way of confirming that your email is active, so instead of deleting it from their database, they keep and sell it to other spammers. Trust me, I once saw an advert with a list of sample emails going for $250 saying, '...1,000 active email addresses'. The best you can do is,  mark such emails as 'spam' or 'junks' and delete them.

...that Internet Explorer 8 (ie8 or IE8) would beat Firefox, security wise? I didn't, well, d-u-h? I know there are several other good browsers out there but five of those are the most used ones. Talk about all IE versions being weak, vulnerable to attacks and all that scary stuff, but hands off, IE8 has TKO'ed the most famous and praised browsers such as Firefox (FF), Safari, Google Chrome and Opera. See the pictorial result below.

IE8 emerged a winner over the top five browsers in a 24x7/18 days test performed every six hours over 74 discrete test runs, each one adding fresh new malware URLs. The test was done by NSS Labs [an independent product analysis and testing organization that operates the largest security & performance lab in the world providing product functionality, security efficacy, performance and manageability, helping organizations worldwide make empirically informed decisions about how to purchase and maintain complex information security defenses].

You can download the full Q1 2010 Web Browser Comparative Test: Socially-Engineered Malware at:
http://nsslabs.com/test-reports/NSSLabs_Q12010_GTRBrowserSEM_FINAL.pdf

Downloading any text rich website or page for offline reading or printing can be done via the File --> Print or File --> Make available offline. But what happens when you don't want to sit in front of your computer all the time? or when you have to let somebody else use the computer at an inconvenient time? or how about when using office or internet cafe where time is limited? even better, how about wanting to read something while in the public transport or when waiting for something? Instead of staying idol, you can easily visit some interesting websites, convert the pages int simple PDF files, download them in your reader or print them for easy reading.

To easily convert pages into PDF format, simply make use of either: pdfmyurl.com OR html-pdf-convert.com

FOR WEB-BLOG owners, you can place the link in any page you want downloaded as PDF by just adding the url of the web, blog or page. Those with one page personal info i.e. online e-business card or an online resume/cv you can also do the same. Simply link the text or image you want people to use for downloading a specific page/url like this: http://pdfmyurl.com?url=www.wavuti.com
e.g. <a href="http://pdfmyurl.com?url=http://www.wavuti.com/">downlaod this page as pdf</a>
will create a text link that looks like this: downlaod this page as pdf

Katika posti iliyopita, tulizungumzia kuhusu namna ya kutambua na kujikinga na wizi wa mtandaoni. Leo tutizame kanuni za utengenezaji nywila imara na madhubuti na na hivyo kuepuka kutengeneza nywila nyepesi, legevu, nyong'onyevu, jinga kabisa na ambazo ni rahisi kubambwa.

1. Usitumie tarakimu au herufi zinazofuatana. (Do Not use similar or sequentials). 
   Mfano: "12345678," "88888888," "abcdefg," au herufi zinazofuatana juu na chini ya kibodi kama vile yhbujnikm ama xswcdevfr
2. Usitumie alama ambazo ni rahisi kufahamika kuwa zimetumika badala ya herufi. (Do Not easy to identify reversed letters or numbers).  Mfano: '1' badala ya 'i' au '@' badala ya 'a'  au '0' badala ya 'O' au 'E' badala ya '3' au "P@ssw0rd" nk.
3. Usitumie jina lako la login au username wala sehemu ya majina yako rasmi au tarehe ya kuzaliwa au namba ya TIN au SSN au sanduku la posta au namba ya simu au namba ya nyumba unamoishi n.k. kutengenezea nywila. (Do Not use your official names, date or birth, SSN, TIN, postal office box number, zip code, post code, phone number, house number etc to create a password). 
   Unaweza kushangaa, 'wezi wanawezaje kupata taarifa hizi zote?', ni rahisi. Wezi hutafuta habari zako kwa kina kupitia vielelezo vyako kwenye mitandao jamii kama vile Facebook, Twitter, Hi5, LinkedIn, nk. vile vile katika Wasifu wako wa CV au Resume, na kwenye tovuti yoyote ile ambamo umeacha taarifa zako na ikawa rahisi kuzipata kwa njia mitandao ya utafutaji (search engines) kama vile google, yahoo, ask nk.
4. Usitumie meneno ya kwenye kamusi ya lugha yoyote. (Do Not use words from a dictionary to create a password).
   Utawakuta baadhi ya watu hutengeneza nyila kwa kutumia maneno ya kamusi na kuyageuza kinyumenyume au kuandika maneno ya kutusi nk. Hii ni rahisi kwa wezi kutumia software ya word-scramble na kupata aina mbalimbali ya maneno yanayoweza kutengenezwa kutoka katika neno hilo, hasa pale wanapokuwa wameshapata 'hint'. Kumbuka kuwa wapo watu wanaolipwa kwa kufanya kazi ya kuiba nywila, hivyo ni ajira na huwza kuifanya kazi hii kwa saa hata kumi mfululizo ikiwa wameahidiwa donge nono na hasa kama walishawahi kufanikiwa kung'amua nywila nyingine. 
5. Acha tabia ya kutumia nywila moja kwa akaunti zako zote. (Do Not use only one password for all your accounts).
   Wapo baadhi ya watu ambao hupenda kujifanyia urahisi kwa kutumia nywila moja kwa ajili ya akaunti zao mbalimbali, kwa mfano, mtu anatumia nywila ya Facebook kufungulia Twitter au LinkedIn. Hii ni makosa kabisa. Ukitumia nywila moja kwa akaunti zako zote, siku mwizi atakapofanikiwa kuibamba moja, basi utakuwa umewarahisihia kazi ya kujaribu akaunti zako zote kukamilisha ujangili wao. 
6. Kuwa mwangalifu unapotengeneza neno la siri la kukumbushia anwani yako pale utakapoipoteza. (Be careful with password recovery questions).
   Mara nyingi unaposahau anwani yako, huwa unatakiwa kubofya neno, 'I forgot my password' na hapo huanza utaratibu wa kukuuliza neno la siri kabla ya kukurekebishia nywila yako. Kuwa mwangalifu na swali la siri pamoja na jibu lake. Mara nyingi kampuni au huduma husika watakupa maswali yaliyoandaliwa ambapo utatakiwa kuchagua mojawapo na kulitolea jibu. Kwa bahati mbaya au nzuri, maswali haya ni rahisi kwa mtu kuyakisia. Mfano, Shule yako ya msingi inaitwaje? Swali kama hili ni rahisi kwa mtu anayekufahamu kulijua hasa kama mlisoma pamoja shule ya msingi au ni jirani yako au alisoma nawe shule ya Sekondari au Chuo au anafanya kazi nawe au ndugu, jamaa na rafiki mnayefahamiana akawahi kutamka kuwa mmesoma pamoja, huyu anaweza kupata urahisi wa kuiba nywila yako.
7. Jiepushe na matumizi ya stoo za mtandaoni (Do Not trust any online storage).
   Mwizi atakapoweza kuiba online storage yako,  ni rahisi sana kuiba nywila na taarifa zako ikiwa umezihifadhi humo

Ukitaka kusoma vidokezo vya namna ya matumizi mazuri na angalifu ya emails, tafadhali peruzi kwenye lebo katika 'Computer Or Email Tips & Tricks'. (To read previous email tips, use the search box located above the page or click through 'Computer Or Email Tips & Tricks' under the labels).

Scam or phishing is a method of sending email messages to other people with the purpose of stealing their sensitive and personal data and/or financial information for a wrongful use in the future.

While this could be an easy task for someone, it can be a hard task to others. In order to be able to differentiate between the two, build a habit of reading as many tips as you can regarding internet scams. No one can say they have qualified in this subject as phishing tactics change almost every day. Keeping yourself abreast of these new ways will save you out of a lot of troubles.

1. Do not reply to any message coming from a person unknown to you. Do not reply even to a person you know if you are suspicious that the contents of their message seem unrelated. It is sound too good to be true, it probably is.
2. Do not provide any personal information such as your date of birth, place of birth, nationality, bank account number, password(s), telephone number, social security number (SSN or SS#), TIN, passport ID # etc. There is no legitimate business that will just ask you for this information especially when you have already provided it in the past during registration. Be sure by calling them and asking if they wanted your information. When calling, do not use the number in the email which says call this # instead, go to the bank or company's OFFICIAL website and get the customer service number from there. Sometimes, spammers could give you a number to call and they will pick and give you wrong answers, their goal being to mislead you so that you give them your information.
   
3. Do not click on any URL address link inside an email message, instead, point your mouse on it, then read the words which shows up at the bottom, left corner of your browser. This will help you see if the URL is pointing to what is being talked about. Even when the URL is correct, the best way to access it is by copying the URL and pasting it on your browser's address location bar. Sometimes, pasting the URL link address on search engines may give you results for genuine and false links.
   
4. Do not trust all shortened URL. Use websites such as www.untiny.me or sucuri.net which can uncover the URL and show where it really points.
5. Do not call any telephone number in order  to provide your information over the phone. Some scammers can mask their numbers so that it is impossible to tell where the call is being routed.
6. Do not open any attachment you receive, even if it is coming form a person you know but you didn't expect. Call them (if possible) and ask for details or keep quiet and if it is important, they will send again the attachment or call you to ask whether you received the attachment or not and what it was in it.
7. If you live in a country where their mode of transaction is through credit or debit card, make sure you review your account statements regularly to ascertain bank activities. If you see even a single cent deducted from your account without clear clarification, call or visit your bank to report and ask for clarification.
8. Make sure you are using secure and encrypted website whenever necessary especially when providing sensitive information. The way to know if a site is encrypted or not is by looking at the browser's address to see if the prefix http has an 's' at the end of it, i.e https and not just regular http. The 's' denotes 'security' or 'secure' feature.
   

Test yourself, try these tests and see if you can spot a scam
It is reported that, people who spent at least 15 minutes playing the Anti-Phishing Phil game were better able to identify fraudulent websites than people who spent the same amount of time reading traditional anti-phishing tutorials.

• Follow this link: wombatsecurity.com/antiphishing_phil and click on the words saying ‘Play!’
• Click on this: SonicWALL Phishing IQ Test and test yourself. When you have completed the test you’ll get a score along with a chance to see “why” a question was a phish or legitimate.

Better still, learn some tips from:

• Microsoft - office.microsoft.com/en-us/help/HA012300411033.aspx
• USA Government FTC - ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/alerts/alt127.shtm
• USA Government OnGuard Online  - onguardonline.gov/index.html
• SANS Institute, Security Awareness tip -sans.org/tip_of_the_day.php?utm_source=web-sans

Some people get annoyed when visiting some websites that have an image that seem to be rotating indefinitely. Most of these animated images are in the .gif format. You don't have to contact the webmaster and file complaints, after all, how many webmasters will you contact? How many will respond? and how many will actually remove the images? DIY. Stop the madness easily from your computer by doing the following:

Wait until the page is full loaded, then:

1. For Internet Explorer (IE) users: Press the 'Stop' or 'Esc' button on your keyboard
or Go to Tools & Internet Options,  click on the "Advanced tab", then go to "Multimedia", now un-check the "Play animations in web pages" option and finish by clicking the "OK" button.


2. For Firefox (FF) users: Press the 'Esc' button on your keyboard
or Go to your browser's "about:config" then search for "image.animation_mode" then change the value to "once" this will just play the animated GIF once, click OK or Save or Finish button. 
or To completely block ALL animations in any website you load, go to your browser's "about:config" then search for  "image.animation_mode" then change the value to "none" if you however change your mind and now you want to see the animated GIFs go back to "about:config" then search for "image.animation_mode" then change the value to "normal".  
or Try the flash blocking Firefox addon on Firefox. All animations based on Adobe Flash will be blocked this way, the commonly used one is the "FlashBlock" add-on (flashblock.mozdev.org) which stops flash files from loading automatically.
 
3. For Opera users: Press [F12] on your keyboard then un-check the "Enable GIF/SVG animation" in the option.
4. For Konqueror 2.2.x users: Right click on it and select "Stop Animations"

NOTE:
As I said before, this works ONLY with animated .gif images, it may not work with other flash, banner, ad or logo. You will benefit much from Firefox's image & ad block addons which works on an array of images.