Data Doctors Tech Tips

For anyone that see's themselves as a travel junkie or for anyone that loves exploring the world, today's tip is for you! Google's Arts and Cultural website is an awesome tool that you'll want to bookmark.and#160; Google created it to allow us to virtually explore destinations, art and museum collections complete with lots of historical information from your computer or smartphone. Not only does it provide useful info and historical facts, it also lets you explore some of the sites as if you were on the ground through Google's Street View technology.and#160; Anyone planning to visit a world heritage site can get familiar with the area before leaving using this awesome tool.and#160; Now you can get familiar with an area that you're planning on visiting with extensive local perspective allowing you to get the most out of your trip.and#160; The collection is searchable by a specific individual, time, place or event so it's also a helpful homework tool as well.and#160; Start your exploration here: https://artsandculture.google.com/explore

Do you know what people are saying about your business online? Knowing what people are saying about your business is critical these days, but what are you supposed to do to know what's being said? Monitoring your online reputation is an essential part of running a business in this day and age and a basic process you need to incorporate.and#160; Google Alerts (https://www.google.com/alerts) is the first step for any business to monitor the chatter about their organization online. Google allows you to set alerts so that anytime your business is mentioned anywhere online, you'll get an email alert. Just type the name of your business and remember to use quotes if it's more than one word to avoid getting alerts on each word seperately. You shouldn't fear negative comments ore even bad reviews, because knowing about a problem is half the battle. How you respond will show others how you conduct business when you are aware of a problem.and#160; Doing nothing about negative reviews is the worst thing you can do. Not responding can easily be taken as you not caring, so make sure you know about posts as soon as they appear with the Google Alerts. It's important to be transparent, honest and aware with your online reputation. Google alerts is just the beginning of your options as there are lots of other places and apps you can use to monitor your organization's online reputation.

Camera's with thermal imaging can detect infrared light in the dark, allowing you to see things around you thermally.and#160; There have been a lot of devices that have been released that can turn any smartphone into a thermal imaging camera but most of them are really expensive.and#160; But now, you can inexpensively turn most iPhone or Android handsets into a thermal camera that can clearly make out images in the dark using one of the 'Seek Thermal' camera attachment. The small devices plug into the power connection on many smartphones and it lets you take both still images or videos in the dark.and#160; The low resolution images are somewhat grainy, but if you need to see what's lurking in the dark in your yard or down a really dark alley or parking lot, the Seek Thermal camera gets the job done.and#160; The Seek attachment will also allow you to see where pipes might be clogged, where the hot air is seeping out of your house or check the temps of just about surface you point it at.and#160; If you're intrigued by thermal imaging, checkout Seek's affordable devices atand#160;https://www.thermal.com/compact-series.html

Whether you like or despise Edward Snowden, one thing is perfectly clear - he certainly knows about cybersecurity.and#160; So when Snowden endorses a messaging app that he says is secure that he personally uses, you can count on it being as private as any messaging system gets.and#160; Snowden's recommended app is called Signal and it made by Open Whisper Systems for iPhone or Android users.and#160; Signal allows you to send secure messages using both text and voice and it won't require you to go through a sign up process to use it.and#160; The app uses your current phone number and contacts and doesn't require a separate login or PIN.and#160; Despite its very sophisticated encryption, the app is super simple to setup and use as your every day messaging appand#160; The app also determines automatically if your recipient also uses the Signal app, so it will know not to secure messages that are sent to those that don't have the app.and#160; If you would like to have a more secure way of messaging, checkout the Signal app at https://WhisperSystems.org and#160;

I'm using today's tip to remind everyone to activate two-factor authentication for your online accounts because it's still an excellent extra layer of protection that's effective. If you think about it, it's kind of like using your debit card where you have to have two-factors of authentication: your debit card as well as the associated PIN. Just think how dangerous it would be if your debit card didn't require a PIN in order to get money out of an ATM. IMHO, it's what anyone that is not using 2FA is doing with their online accounts. Once activated, a thief would be required to steal both your login credentials and your smartphone at the same time in order to sneak into your account. This security layer also provides you with alerts to know when someone has stolen your credentials, because you'll get a security code out of the blue on your smartphone. Virtually every major online account is now offering this extra layer of protection. To see which of your online accounts offers the protection along with how to activate it, visit" https://twofactorauth.org

Our smartphones are marvels of technology and they are even more powerful than the computers used by NASA to get mankind to the moon, which is pretty amazing.and#160;and#8232;and#8232; One of the best features of our smartphones is the high resolution cameras that pack a lot of technology into our pockets allowing anyone to take amazing pictures without having to be a pro photographer, or so we'd like to think.and#8232;and#8232; Features such as auto white balance, focus, and exposure along with color correction are all great to have available but mean absolutely nothing when the person taking the picture doesn't understand how to compose the picture.and#160; and#8232;and#8232;The rule of thirds is a basic concept that appears to still be a mystery for most photographers but now there is an app for those people.and#8232;and#8232;Camera 51 focuses on the thing that most smartphone photographers seem to be clueless about, which is the all-important composition.and#160;and#8232;and#8232; The app uses the sophistication of your phone to dissect the scene you are shooting, with an on-screen guide which allows you to know where you should point the camera.and#160;and#8232;and#8232; Anyone that has no idea how to compose a photograph should definitely download this free app to start taking better pictures! https://www.camera51.com/camera51-app

It's a safe bet that your primary mobile device has a camera included that has some sort of flash.and#160; It's also common to assume that the flash is only needed in low-lighting settings, but in actuality, using it outside can make a huge difference in your pictures. Whenever you're take pictures of someone outside, they often times end up with lots of shadows and wide contrasts due to the bright light in the frame.and#160; Manually forcing flash can in many cases fix both issues and turn a picture that might have been almost useless into a masterpiece.and#160; Whenever you use the flash on your smartphone, be sure that you get close enough so the weaker light has the intended effect in daylight.and#160; On bright sunny days, try putting people in a shaded area to eliminate the squints and use your flash to fill in their faces.and#160; Knowing when not to use your flash, especially indoors along with when to use it outdoors can make a huge difference in the quality of your images. Playing around with the flash on your phone before you have a special event is the best way to learn and know what to do when the time comes!

Clearly defining your financial plans along with retirement planning is something that everyone needs to do, but it's easy to get overwhelmed when you attempt to manually track it all.and#160; An awesome tool that I have been using available at https://www.personalcapital.com simplifies the tracking of virtually everything financial in your life. Very quickly you can generate a visual dashboard that shows you your entire financial picture in one place.and#160; Personal Capital gives you easy to use tools to generate net worth along with the 'what if' planning for retirement which allows you to see a much a clearer vision of what it might look like.and#160; This is far from a resource for active traders, but it is for anyone looking for a replacement to having to go to multiple tools to generate a financial picture in a more concise way. They also offer a concise mobile app that allows you to quickly review everything, every day on your smartphone.and#160;

Setting up remote access to your own computer is pretty common, but most of the options that used to be free, have converted to pay services.and#160; Those looking for a great free tool that's easy to use should look into the options available from Google's Chrome Remote Desktop.and#160; Just download the plugin to the Chrome Browser on any of your computers that you'd like to remote into.and#160; Once it's setup, whether it's a Windows, Mac or Linux-based computer, you can remotely access it as if you are at the keyboard!and#160; You can even use Chromebooks, tablets or smartphones to remote access your computers.and#160; This allows you to remote into any of your computers right from a smartphone anywhere in the world in a pinch. It only takes minutes to setup, so if your looking for a free remote access tool, we highly recommend this one!and#160; Here are the links Chrome Remote Desktop Add-on:and#160;https://chrome.google.com/remotedesktopand#160; iOS remote app:and#160;https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/chrome-remote-desktop/id944025852?mt=8 Android remote app:and#160;https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.chromeremotedesktopand#160;

An important way to understand ways of protecting yourself when online is to start thinking like hackers do.and#160; A very valuable item sold on the dark web is your personal info, so tricking people online into allowing the bad guys into your computer is a very common method of attack. But instead of trying to trick adults, hackers have figured out it's much easier to trick the kids in the household to get to the parents.and#160; They often sneak silent tracking programs into your computer by hiding them in free music, videos, games or other expensive programs that younger users are more likely to want to download.and#160; The reason that this approach is effective is because parents generally let their kids use mom and dad's profile which has full administrative control over the computer.and#160; If your household is setup in this way, you should be making a change asap! Parents should always setup a completely separate profile without full admin control for their children as a way to reduce the exposure to mom and dad's profile.and#160; It's really a fundamental security step for every household, so if you need help setting it up, find someone you trust as every operating system is different.