Here is some good news: You’re not sending out spam. Neither is your computer or your IP address. However, it still makes you look bad and you will get flooded with bounced messages, etc…If spam is going out from your email address, the address has been either spoofed or hijacked. Either way, the spam isn’t going out from your computer, and probably not from the criminal’s computer, either. It’s probably going out from an unknowing victim’s malware-infected PC. Spoofing an address is basically like forging it and there is no solution for this. Hijacking is worse as the criminal can take control of your account. The immediate step that you should take is to change your password. If that doesn’t work, you may need to contact your mail service. Here are the links for Gmail and Outlook (that is outlook.com addresses).
Apps
PackPoint Packing List Travel Companion – cost:Free – Offering packing list templates that can be adjusted for length and type of trip
Countable– cost:Free – For political junkies – Launched in May 2014, Countable uses location technology to link users to their personal representatives. From there, users can see everything their members of Congress are voting on and read quick versions of bills hitting the floor.
Google Translate– cost:Free – Type to translate 90 languages, use your camera to translate text instantly in 26 languages
Windows 10
Microsoft’s newest operating system
During the next year, if you have a computer with Windows 7 or Windows 8, you may “reserve” a free copy of Windows 10 from an icon in the lower right hand corner of your screen. I have installed it on 2 of my computers and I like it a lot. If you are on 8, you will love the update. If you are on 7, I believe you will just find it to be a cleaner, newer look. Your learning curve should not be too difficult. I will try to spot light a few of the new features over the next few months. FYI, I only had 2 small issues from the update. My icloud calendar and contacts did not show up right away. I had to do 5 minutes of manipulating and they were back. I also needed to download a newer version of Carbonite (my backup). That’s it, at least so far.
Cortana
Cortana is Windows 10 assistant. If you’d like to be able to just bark commands at your PC, open Cortana by clicking the search field in the taskbar and select the Notebook icon in the left-side options pane. Select Settings from the list, then simply enable the “Let Cortana respond when you say ‘Hey Cortana’” option. You’ll need an active microphone for this to work, of course.
Cortana can help you find all sorts of online information via natural language queries you ask using text or voice commands. Cortana can also apply those natural language smarts to use search your hard drive, OneDrive, and business network for files that meet certain filters, like “Find pictures from June.”
