Tech | PhilMcDonnell.com

Are we giving our children too much freedom?

Written by phil on September 29, 2010 146 views · 3 Comments

How do we know when enough is enough, or too much when it comes to our children? Being a single Dad of two children one 11 and one 14 it is hard for me to find the balance of giving them their freedom but also keeping tabs on them as well. Both of my children now have cell phones. This is a necessity because of various activities they have along with my crazy schedule, I need to be able to get in touch with them. Also since they live with me, they need a way to stay in touch with [...] Read more »

Categories: Children, Tech - Tags: cellphone, children, freedom, tech

Linux has an evil side

Written by phil on December 20, 2009 3 views · Leave a Comment

This was just too funny not to repost it. If you use Linux at all you will understand the above image, if you are stuck on windows well you have other things to worry about :) Anyway thanks goes to GeeksAreSexy.net for posting this. ~Phil Read more »

Categories: Fun, Tech

Phishing, Fake, Spoof emails now affecting Payal?

Written by phil on October 24, 2009 3 views · Leave a Comment

Photo by: Ricky David First it was J.P. Morgan Chase then it was eBay and now Paypal! When is it going to stop? Do these phishing emails really work? Do people actually click on a link that look like this: http://rolexwatches2.com/images/.www.paypal.com/ If you would consider clicking on a link like that can you tell me why? Why would you think that a domain that starts with http://rolexwatches2.com has anything to do with Paypal? Here is the email I received today and have since forwarded it on to Paypal. (Click image to enlarge) If you receive one of these phishing emails [...] Read more »

Categories: Phishing, Security, Tech, Warnings

What’s up with Yahoo Chat Spam?

Written by phil on September 14, 2009 228 views · 4 Comments

First let me just say that I am not a big fan of Yahoo instant messaging, but I have it because several friends and clients use it. I personally use AOL Instant Messenger, but I also use Yahoo and Google Talk because of others as well. So for the last couple of days I have been getting chat requests from people that are not my “buddies” this usually is not a big deal because it could be a new client or someone that found me from my blog or Facebook. But these recent chat requests have gone something like this: [...] Read more »

Categories: Internet, Tech, Thoughts

Another Microsoft Internet Explorer Exploit!

Written by phil on December 18, 2008 5 views · Leave a Comment

Microsoft has released a patch on Wednesday to fix an exploit that could allow remote access to your PC. If you use Internet Explorer 7 you MUST apply the patch when it is available. You can read about the exploit here and here and you can read about the actual flaw on Microsoft’s website here. Why are you still using IE anyway, Firefox can do whatever IE can and more. If you like living on the bleeding edge why not try Google’s new browser Chrome? It is lightning fast and removes all the junk from your screen except for the [...] Read more »

Categories: Security, Tech

How to upload an image in Word Press

Written by phil on March 19, 2008 12 views · Leave a Comment

I have been asked many times by my clients “How do I upload an image in Word Press”? Instead of me telling everyone individually over and over again I thought why not post to my blog. So here is a very short and simple tutorial on how to upload an image to Word Press. It is assumed you are logged in and at the “Write Post” or “Write Page” screen and that you already have the title and body text written.Â Once you have the cursor where you want to insert an image you scroll down the page to the [...] Read more »

Categories: Tech, Wordpress

The annoying language bar in Windows XP

Written by phil on February 8, 2008 277 views · 1 Comment

After installing Microsoft Office I noticed an annoying little button bar on my Windows task bar at the bottom of my screen. It is called the Language Bar and looks like this: I can’t stand how it gets in the way of my task bar and hogs space. I don’t need it, I only use one language so it is not necessary for me. If you too have this bar and are annoyed by it and want it gone, please follow along with me and I will show you how to eradicate it once and for all. Steps to [...] Read more »

Categories: Tech, Windows

Domain Name Renewal Scams

Written by phil on February 8, 2008 25 views · Leave a Comment

It has been brought to my attention today that a domain name renewal scam is currently making the rounds. This scam is not new, but domain owners continue to fall victim to this practice on a daily basis. I just wanted to make you aware of how the scam works so that you can protect yourself from losing domain registrations to these companies. The scam works this way: unethical companies monitor the publicly accessible WHOIS database and obtain registrant contact information as well as domain expiry dates. Using this information, they then mail domain registrants an official looking document, months [...] Read more »

Categories: Internet, Scams, Tech

Now eBay Phishing?

Written by phil on January 31, 2008 25 views · 1 Comment

Just like the post I made about Bank Phishing, today I received an email supposedly from eBay requesting to change my registration information. Well of course if you read my post from the other day you already know that I am very aware of spoofed emails that are phishing for personal login information. Guess what? This is a spoofed email that appears to be from eBay but in reality it is not. I confirmed with eBay that this is in fact a spoofed email and they are working to disable the site that it is currently installed on. [Click image [...] Read more »

Categories: Phishing, Security, Tech, Warnings

Bank Phishing

Written by phil on January 29, 2008 33 views · 5 Comments

Today I received and email from what appeared to be J.P. Morgan Chase which if you don’t know is a very well known bank. The email looked official and actually would lead you to believe that it came from Chase. Have a look at a screenshot of the email (click to enlarge): Looks pretty good except for the fact that there is a couple of spelling mistakes like Complate instead of Complete, and why is the C capitalized anyway? The sentence under “Please Note:” If we do no??? Shouldn’t that be NOT??? Well anyway to make a long story short [...] Read more »

Categories: Phishing, Security, Tech, Warnings