Kevin’s Stories and Columns

In the past couple of weeks, Facebook released their new Terms of Service, which many users and websites protested it, because of the way it reads. It appeared to say anything you post to Facebook becomes their property, forever. Within days, Facebook reverted to its old terms, instead opting to invite users to have a say in a revised Terms of Service.

Hate it or love it, Windows Vista is here to stay.

From the day it hit the shelves, Windows Vista has had a bad reputation, and for good reason. For the longest time, it didn’t work with a lot of hardware and software. I switched back to XP when some of my hardware wouldn’t work with Vista. Its release proved what consumers are willing to put up with in terms of software.

It’s tough to predict the weather, and depending on who you ask, you’ll get a different answer. Some trust old-fashioned methods, such as those used by the Farmers Almanac to predict the weather, but it seems modern farmers are basing their farming decisions more on the marketplace and technology to stay competitive and make a living.

With the introduction of the Blu-Ray format a couple of years ago, consumers have been given the choice of whether they want to continue to watch regular DVDs, or pay the extra money for the better picture and sound that Blu-Ray offers.

Dr. David Swann, who has led the Alberta Liberal Party since December of 2008, after Kevin Taft resigned, wants to make it perfectly clear that his party’s mission is to renew itself by reaching out to young people, end voter apathy, make the environment a much larger focus, and renew Canada’s democracy.

Have you backed up your files lately? If not, you risk losing them forever.

No one should rely on any one storage device for their data. Always keep your files in multiple locations, including usb thumbdrives, CD or DVD, external hard drives, and other mediums.

Despite all the advance hype to the contrary, it appears computer systems in Lethbridge survived the Conficker computer worm scare unscathed Wednesday. Local experts say all the attention focused on the potential carnage shouldn’t be viewed as wasted time, however.

I finished my last day of classes on Friday, and will be starting my month-long practicum at the Lethbridge Herald tomorrow (Monday). I fully intend to post any work I do at the Herald on this blog as well. Since I won’t be making any money off this blog, it shouldn’t be a problem, but I’ll be sure to ask.

We have been using Microsoft Office over 15 years, some of us even longer. Very few of us question why, even though it slows down our computers and the majority of us only use about 10 per cent of the available features, even though we pay for them all. Maybe it’s time we take a look at what else is out there.

The truth is, you can have all the security software in the world, but if you don’t follow safe computing practices, your computer will be at risk regardless of what software you use to secure it.