Data Doctors Tech Tips

Our email has become so full of spam messages that the various tools designed to detect them can often mistake legit messages, (ham) for spam.and#160; Most people don't know that specific words in a message and how messages are constructed can actually make your legit communications look like a scammers message to automated filters.and#160; Images in the message that aren't needed or specific words can dramatically increase your message's 'spam score' but how do you know what is and isn't acceptable? A free web-based tool that will allow you to test for the spam score of any message at http://mail-tester.com is an excellent way to know. The next time one of your messages ends up in someone's spam filter or they keep telling you that they never got the message, get the spam score of the message to see if that's the cause. You simply send the message to a special address that's provided and then after a few seconds, you click a link to check your message's spam score.and#160; You will be presented with a score with optional details on the message including whether your address has been blacklisted, which could be the cause of many messages being blocked.and#160;

Those of you that are part of a large group of friends that regularly get together, often times end up splitting checks, sharing rides or buying each other theater tickets.and#160; You then have to repay them and if you happen to have the right change, pay them with cash or more likely try to keep a ledger, which get's pretty complicated with a large group.and#160; That's why the Venmo app comes in handy for those situations, because it allows you to easily transfer money to others without any fees.and#160; Venmo allows you to pay your friends exactly $8.27 instead of that awkward point when you realize that you have to make change.and#160; The transfers are FDIC insured and once you have setup your account, it will only take a couple of taps to send a friend some money.and#160; Remember, there are no transaction fees, it allows you to send really small amounts of money to cover sodas from your coworker , so they'll know you don't take it for granted.and#160; Users with roommates can easily split rent, utility bills and even groceries to avoid that constant juggling act when you live together. You won't need it every day, but when you do, it can take a lot of the drama out of these common social situations. http://venmo.comand#160;

The tech tip for today is a reminder to all the old-school Internet users out there because it's a site you most likely forgot about.and#160; In the early days of the Internet, the first real popular deal site that we loved was a site called Woot (http://woot.com) because it had a really simple offer: One item for a single day.and#160; This 'deal of the day' would always sell out really quick so you had to be quick as well or you would miss out.and#160; Today the Woot.com website offers many deals in everything from watches to tech to home and garden items, sporting goods, kids stuff and one of my personal favorites: WINE!and#160; One of the best features is that you can discuss any of the items with your fellow shoppers to get input on items before you buy them.and#160; W O O T.com is kind of like a virtual home shopping channel without any annoying pitch people but do be careful... it can be addictive!and#160;

Counting calories is a vital skill for any type of fitness program these days and many restaurants are joining in by publishing the calories right on their menus.and#160; But when we get to the grocery store, we have to spend time looking into the product labeling to figure out the nutritional values, which can get be too time consuming.and#160; Unless you're able to go shopping with a nutritionist, we have an app suggestion for getting the info you need before you buy anything at the store.and#160; It's an app that provides food education called 'Fooducate' and all you have to do is take a picture of the barcode to generate a health grade, calorie count and lots of other health info if you really want to know what you are about to buy.and#160; The app tells you if a product has controversial ingredients, high levels of sugar or sodium, if it's highly processed and best of all, it will give you a list of alternate products that are healthier to consider buying instead.and#160; Anyone counting calories can now do it with ease with the Fooducate app; available for free on both iPhone and Android handsets. https://www.fooducate.com

Lots of you regularly start your day by walking, jogging or taking a bike ride because it makes you feel so good.and#160; Anyone that exercises daily and wants to the value of your regular workouts should checkout the 'Charity Miles' app for your phone.and#160; 'Charity Miles' is an app that tracks all your activities but it also includes a charitable connection which allows you to generate money for a charity of your choice with every activity.and#160; Bike riders can raise ten cents a mile, while joggers and walkers can raise twenty five cents a mile for the charity of thier choice.and#160; You have most likely seen your friends posting 'Charity Miles' updates via social media and now you know why!and#160; Anyone that wants to help organizations like 'the Wounded Warrior Project' or Autism Speaks or Habitat for Humanity and many other charitable organizations can do so with something they're already doing every day!and#160; The Charity Miles app is available for iPhone and Android users and using it will allow you to claim that you're now a sponsored athlete!and#160;

Red with meat and white with fish - if this is about the end of your wine knowledge, there's an app made just for you!and#160; 'Hello Vino' is a useful app for anyone looking to learn more and simple to use while being full of great info to allow you to expand your knowledge beyond the basics.and#160; With over 10 thousand types of wine grapes on the planet, the best part of discovering new wines is in my opinion, is finding food pairings that are made in heaven.and#160; The app makes it so simple. Need to find a wine that will go great with a bacon cheeseburger? No sweat!and#160; Looking for a wine to pair with that creamy French Brie that you've just sampled at the deli counter? Just say Hello Vino!and#160; Need to find the right white wine to go with that spicy Thai curry? The app has you covered there too!and#160; Another great use is when you feel overwhelmed at a restaurant when you're asked to choose a bottle of wine, let Hello Vino save the day. Ask your fellow diners what they plan to eat and let the app guide your choice. Finding the perfect wine pairing in Hello Vino will have you talking like a wine snob in a few minutes!and#160; http://www.hellovino.comand#160;

The creation of tabs in browsers is one of the greatest improvements to web surfing to ever come happen because you can quickly bounce between websites without having to use the back button everytime.and#160; But when you get overzealous with too many tabs, it can eat up lots of memory and slow your computer down.and#160; If you have noticed that you tend to have lots of tabs open routinely, check out an extension called The Great Suspender for the Chrome browser.and#160; This great utility automatically monitors tab usage and pauses the web sessions that haven't been used in a while. Whenever you click on a paused tab, it will reload and pick up right where you left off.and#160; Not only does this tool free up memory and processing power, it can also help to reduce drain on your batteries by pausing all the background activities.and#160; You can easily add special sites, like real-time stock trading pages to a 'whitelist' so it knows not to ever pause them.and#160; For avid web surfers that are constantly battling slow performance, this tip is a lot cheaper than buying a new computer!and#160; Download the tool here: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/the-great-suspender/klbibkeccnjlkjkiokjodocebajanakg?hl=en

Tracking online activities and search requests is big part of today's Internet and it's easy for companies to track your every move.and#160; Since most people are taking more of an interest in their privacy online, finding tools that allow you to see who's tracking you and blocking them are becoming more popular.and#160; A tool called 'Disconnect' gives you a simple way to manage your privacy while your are browsing and searching the Internet.and#160; It's a browser add-on for Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Opera and it allows you to pay-what-you-want to support their online privacy and security efforts.and#160; Once the add-on is installed, all online activities become masked as it then looks like all requests are coming from the Disconnect servers, not your actual computer.and#160; The Disconnect add-on also shows you all of the invisible tracking requests that are occurring and makes sure you're using encrypted connections as you share your data.and#160; So anyone that wants an easy to way to manage who can see personal surfing habits should look into the disconnect tool.and#160; https://disconnect.me/disconnect

If a cyber-thief gains access to any of your important e-mail accounts on your smartphone, they can pretty much get every password reset message that they want, since they get sent to your phone from your bank when they are prompted.and#160; Your smartphone is loaded with lots of sensitive info that can make ID theft of piece of cake, so anyone that doesn't have the access passcode setup on they phone yet, get it done.and#160; Another thing to keep in mind when you plan on trading, selling or disposing of an older smartphone is to remember to reset the phone to remove your personal info.and#160; The resetting precess to the reset your phone to the factory settings is easily done with just a few taps of the screen within the 'Settings' menus.and#160; If your smartphone has an memory expansion slot, remember to remove the micro SD card before you get rid of your phone as well. If you decide to include your old micro SD card when you sell your phone, be sure to format the memory first.and#160; You should also remove your old SIM card as the person that ends up with your phone will have no need for it.and#160; Anyone that needs step-by-step instructions for resetting their phone can simply enter their model number followed by 'reset instructions' in a Google search.and#160; Here's our complete advice: http://www.datadoctors.com/help/columns/21892-Wipe-Before-You-Get-Rid-Of-Your-Old-Smartphone

The Internet is plagued with malicious websites that are almost like virtual 'venus fly traps' that are waiting for you to land on them.and#160; Staying away from websites that you've never heard of is the usual general advice, but that really isn't very practical, so what are you supposed to do to stay safe? A useful and free resource from the folks at Trend Micro, which is one of our favorite Security companies, is what we recommend.and#160; They have one of the largest online 'site reputation' databases that's constantly being updated, so when you paste the web address of any site into their tool, they'll run a quick safety check.and#160; Within seconds, you will get one of several safety ratings: Safe, Dangerous or Suspicious or if the website has yet to be tested, Trend Micro will add it to their tests.and#160; You will also be presented with a summary of the content that you will find at the website, so you won't end up at an inappropriate site.and#160; Making the assumption that a website is safe is a really bad strategy these days, so before you visit any strange website, get a security opinion from Trend Micro!and#160; http://global.sitesafety.trendmicro.com