My Most Important Book
I consider The Ask Leo! Guide to Staying Safe on the Internet my most important book ever.
Not that my books on backing up aren't important, but if I had to make the call and choose only one book I could sell, it'd be Staying Safe.
I know a lot of people don't believe it, but You can use the internet safely! I do it every day, and you can too. In this book I cover the things you must do, the software you must run and the concepts you need to be aware of - to keep your computer and your data safe as you use the internet.
As a newsletter subscriber I wanted to remind you that it's 20% off when you use the coupon code that's present in the bottom section of every emailed newsletter.
It's important. Get a copy today, for yourself ... or maybe for that friend you know that really needs it. 
The Ask Leo! Guide to Staying Safe on the Internet
Featured
Why am I getting spam from myself?
someone@somedomain.com
where "someone@somedomain.com" is someone I don't know, but "myemail@hotmail.com" is, in fact, my email address. It as if I was getting spam from myself, but I did not send it.
How do I stop these emails from coming into my box? It's usually for drugs or financial services that I don't need or would never be interested in. How can they use my own email? I can't block them as it says it is illegal to block my own email.
I'll start with the bad news: there's almost nothing you can do.
This is spam, pure and simple. Abusing your email address is only one of many techniques spammers use to throw their garbage into our mail boxes.
The remedies are pretty standard, albeit less than 100% effective.
Continue Reading: Why am I getting spam from myself?
https://askleo.com/3131
•
Back Up Smartphone Photos Using Dropbox
I'm going to take a small departure from my usual PC-centric discussions, and talk for a moment about using your smartphone.
Specifically, since I'm such a fan of Dropbox, I want to show you how to install and use Dropbox as an automatic way of backing up the photographs you take using your smartphone.
I'll use my Android-based Samsung Galaxy Note for these examples, but the concept applies to just about any smartphone running either IOS or Android.
Continue Reading: Back Up Smartphone Photos Using Dropbox
https://askleo.com/17803
•
Do You Back Up?
This past month I've focused a little more specifically on backups. Not that every month isn't "backup month" here at Ask Leo!, but at the risk of over-saturating you with backup-related information, I elected to try and run with a little bit of a theme.
Today, I want to explain why.
I've been running a little survey, and the results are not encouraging.
Continue Reading: Do You Back Up?
https://askleo.com/17825
Sponsor
The Best of Ask Leo!
Like what you see in this newsletter?
Subscribe to The Best of Ask Leo!
One complete, hand-picked article every week from the Ask Leo! archives.
The Best of Ask Leo!
Previous Issue
- Ask Leo! #532 - Download Destinations, Continuous Backup, Trusting the Repairman, Please Share Links and more...
- Where do downloads go?
- Using Dropbox for Nearly Continuous Document Backup
- May I Share a Link to Your Post?
- How do I secure a hard drive before sending it in for repair?
Glossary Term
malware
Malware is short for malicious software.
Malware is a kind of catchall phrase that encompasses pretty much any kind of software that could cause harm to your data or your machine. It includes software such as viruses, spyware, adware, Trojans, worms, scareware and more.
The term was probably developed by people (like me) who didn't want to keep writing out "viruses and spyware and adware and …" when writing about current internet threats.
Glossary Terms are featured selections from The Ask Leo! Glossary.
Have a term you'd like defined? Submit it here.
Featured Comments
If I Had to Do It All Over Again...
Bewildered Bob writes:
Leo: the course taken in high school l-o-n-g ago which i hated was TYPING (which was for girls not future engineers). I thrived on math & science but only tolerated typing since it was needed to graduate and supposedly would help in college. Now many years later I'm a retired engineer and guess which skill was most used during more than 40 years in the "real world" - TYPING. The tech stuff has been somewhat useful but keyboard knowledge has been most helpful over the years. Apparently the high school administrators knew something i didn't as a teenager.
Bob
Using Dropbox for Nearly Continuous Document Backup
Paul Braden writes:
For a very long time, many, many articles have been written on how bad Dropbox is for your privacy. Here is one of the articles from PCWorld.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2455215/edward-snowden-dropbox-is-hostile-to-privacy.html
Leo writes:
Which is why the article talks about "Dropbox or Dropbox-like services" and I also talk about BoxCryptor in other articles. I do believe most of the privacy scares are overblown, but there are many ways to address it.
Rich Deem writes:
The only disadvantage is that if you accidentally delete the file from your dropbox folder, it instantly disappears from your computer and the "backup". So not good!
Leo writes:
Actually quite good, since as the article points out, Dropbox maintains file history - you can get it back.
Leo's Blog
If You Hated Windows 8 ... Give Windows 10 a Chance
If you hate Windows 8, chances are your mind is already made up about Windows 10 – and not in a good way.
And that's a shame.
Actually, both opinions are a shame. There's still no reason to hate Windows 8, and Windows 10 fixes some of the most common complaints that Windows 8 generated.
OK, perhaps the most common complaint.
Continue Reading: If You Hated Windows 8 ... Give Windows 10 a Chance
https://askleo.com/17845
Facebook - YouTube - Google+ - Twitter
Leo's Books
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Administration
Need more help with or have questions about the newsletter? Check out the newsletter administration page.
Help Ask Leo! Just forward this message, in its entirety (but without your unsubscribe link below) to your friends. Or, just point them at https://newsletter.askleo.com for their own FREE subscription!
Newsletter contents Copyright © 2015,
Leo A. Notenboom & Puget Sound Software, LLC.
Ask Leo! is a registered trademark ® of Puget Sound Software,
LLC
