The Red Brick Times

The Washington Post has produced a brief tutorial to basic online security that I think a lot of non-techy home users will find very helpful. As the intro below mentions you will need Flash and sound capability to view it.

"I wanted to call attention to a new resource on washingtonpost.com for people who need a little help getting started in securing their computers. We produced a series of video guides demonstrating some of the basic steps users need to take to stay safe online, including brief primers on choosing and using firewall and anti-virus software, downloading and installing the latest Microsoft Windows patches, and taking advantage of free anti-spyware tools.

These videos are by no means definitive guides, but I hope they will be of some use to those who find themselves completely intimidated by computer security.

One thing to note: If you're viewing the video page and see white text on a black background but no 'Click to start video' button, you need to install the free Macromedia Flash Player."

Note: Some of the utilities mentioned can be found on our "Cool Tools" page. Also, The Washington Post requires registration. If you don't have your own user/password get a temporary one at bugmenot.com.
Posted 6:53 AM by whatley (2) comments

       Comments:

Unfortunatley, with a dial up, I get a few seconds of playback, and another 30 seconds of buffering. Its like trying to write a letter while hopping up and down on one foot.

# posted by  Andy : May 24, 2005 10:52 PM
 
Yeah, things like that don't work well with dial up. I remember writing my first web pages when dial up (and we're talking 14k being considered fast at that time) was the norm. You'd agonize over whether to include any graphics other than basic color and patterns. When you did you'd use all sorts of techniques to minimize the file size. As dial up speed increased you could become more liberal but still had to watch it. Eventually "watching it" became considered a polite thing to do, not a necessary one. For example, a home page might first give people an option of selecting "high or low bandwidth" versions of the site. That was considerate but a lot of extra work. Today I don't think most people pay any attention at all to page size. It's never been an issue for them.

# posted by  whatley : May 25, 2005 6:55 AM
 
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