CST News

Welcome back to 2014

It seems hard to believe that the first month of 2014 has been and gone – less than 11 months till Christmas!!!

Sue and I have had a good break away with our youngest daughter Wendy getting married in early January. As you would expect, it was a great day meeting lots of family and friends and a really proud moment to walk with her down the aisle. It is amazing that some of the old traditions persist amongst the younger generation. Sue and I had a week away in Kaikoura and Hanmer and then another family wedding near Hanmer. I really enjoyed the second wedding also – I did not have to pay for it!!

I would like to thank the boys and Kelly for looking after the place while we were away. All obviously went well and the ship continues to float.

When we got home, Kelly handed in her notice after almost three months with us. She was headhunted back by her old employer with a deal “too good to refuse”. We will miss Kelly’s vibrant personality and cheerful smile and wish her well for the future.

We have appointed Jackie Grant as our new office manager. Jackie is a local with considerable experience of accounting and payroll. We welcome her to CST and hope she enjoys her time with us.

 

Phishing Scams

We seem to be in a rash of phishing scams at present. We are aware of three or four locals who have responded to these scams and been taken to the cleaners. These are emails sent to unsuspecting victims which are fraudulent. Some are so obvious that they can be easily seen through – others are more elaborate and require more thought.

The general rule of thumb is “If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.” If something just does not feel right, trust your instinct and ignore it or use the phone book to find the supposed sender (do not use a phone number in the email) and call them to check it out. Remember that the bank will never ask for your account number (they know it!) and Microsoft will never email you or me directly.

Other things to look for: 

Poor Spelling and Grammar

Whenever a large company sends out a message on behalf of the company as a whole, the message is usually reviewed for spelling, grammar, legality, and a number of other things. As such, if a message is filled with poor grammar or spelling mistakes it probably didn’t come from a major corporation’s legal department.

Personal Information

No matter how official an email message might look, it is always a bad sign if the message asks for personal information. Your bank doesn’t need you to send them your account number. They already know what it is. Similarly, a reputable company should never send an email asking for your password, credit card number, or the answer to a security question.

You Did Not Initiate The Action

Just yesterday I received an email message informing me that I had won the lottery!!!! The only problem is that I never bought a lottery ticket. If you get a message informing you that you have won a contest that you did not enter then you can bet that the message is a scam.

You Are Asked To Send Money To Cover Expenses

One telltale sign of a phishing E-mail is that you will eventually be asked for money. You might not get hit up for cash in the initial message, but sooner or later a phishing artist will likely ask for money to cover expenses, taxes, fees, or something like that. If that happens, then you can bet that it’s a scam.

The Message Makes Unrealistic Threats

Although most of the phishing scams seem to try to trick people into giving up cash or sensitive information by promising the victim instant riches, other phishing artists try to use intimidation to scare the victim into giving up information. The kind of thing might include threatening to close your bank account if you do not respond by a certain time.

The Message Appears To Be From A Government Agency

Phishing artists who want to use intimidation don’t always pose as a bank. Sometimes phishing artists will send messages claiming to have come from a law enforcement agency, the IRD, the FBI, or just about anything else that could scare the average law abiding citizen.

The most well known local one is purportedly from the Police explaining that your computer has porn on it and you need to pay some dollars to unlock it. This is still doing the rounds.

The Message Contains a Mismatched Email Address

One of the first things that I recommend checking in a suspicious email message is the integrity of any embedded addresses. Often times the address in a phishing message will appear to be perfectly valid. However, if you hover your mouse over top of the address, you will see the actual hyperlinked address (at least that’s how it works in Outlook). If the hyperlinked address is different from the address that is displayed then the message is probably fraudulent or malicious.

Look in the box below and see that the two addresses at the top of the email and in the lower part of the email do not match AND the lower address is really weird and not much to do with the ANZ bank. Incidentally, another clue with this scam is that we do not have an ANZ account!!

 

Windows XP

I pointed out in an earlier newsletter that Microsoft is about to withdraw support for Windows XP. XP has been around now for 12 years and in the computing world, that is a lifetime. When XP was first released to the public, digital cameras were so expensive that we could not afford them. Now we have cameras in our phones!

What does this runout mean for the average user? In simple terms, your XP computer will be more vulnerable to attack by those who delight in causing the rest of us problems. Obviously if you do not put your computer on the internet, then it will not be an issue. However, if you use the net, then our strong advice is that you talk to us and look at upgrading. If the system is a work computer, this is more important again. If you access banks and accountants etc, maximum protection is not desirable but essential.

Certainly, do not buy a second hand system with XP – you are buying potential trouble. It seems silly spending good money on an old computer. We will now not sell any second hand computers running XP.

If you need help deciding whether your computer is running XP, do not hesitate to contact us for help.

If you would like to read some stuff, look at this link.

 

Epic Construction Fails

It is hard to believe that builders using common sense would allow these sorts of blunders!!

 

Talking of Crazy Things

This must be the most amazing traffic interchange in the world.

And if you look at the links down the left side of the page, they work too and have some pretty amazing things as well.

 

Laptop Deals

We still have deals available on some HP laptops. These are business level laptops with on-site warranties and until the end of the month, come with either a free HP multifunction printer (valued at $570.00) or a free screen (valued at $390.00) or a free video camera (valued at $350.00)

This deal expires on 28 February so get in quickly to get a great laptop and a really good bonus. You will not get this deal at the big boys in Dunedin – only the specialist stores around NZ.

 

Odds and Ends

A couple of things that do not fit easily anywhere else:

• If you change your email address, please let us know. This is really important if you have NOD antivirus with us as we will not be able to advise you of its expiry unless we have a current email address. We will also not be able to get a newsletter to you without a current email address.

• Dead toner and inkjet cartridges can be left here for recycling – or you can take them into New World yourself. Do not let yours be one of 350 million cartridges that are thrown out each year worldwide.

• Dead and dying computers and equipment can be recycled here. We do charge a fee because we are charged but it is not a money maker for us. As long as we cover our costs, we are happy to recycle your old stuff for you. Phone us for charges. Alternatively, take your old stuff to the Green Island Recycle Centre yourself.

 

NOD antivirus

We have been selling NOD antivirus for a lot of years now and see no reason to change. We run it on our machines here and we run it on our laptops and home computers. There are lots of good things about NOD:

• It is an effective antivirus
• It is a very reasonably priced product
• It is cheap to renew each year
• It t is easy to add extra licences as the number of computers increases
• It is easy to get support – either here at CST or on the phone to Auckland where they speak English
• It is easy to transfer from an old PC to a new PC – no cost if you do it yourself and we can easily tell you how.
• There is a good product range from business level antivirus to home user level (two products) to protection for Mac computers and Android tablets.

 

Electron Microscope Pictures

These things fascinate me – some of them relate back to my teaching days but some are simply fascinating.

 

FedEx Humour

After every flight, FedEx pilots fill out a form known as a “gripe sheet” to tell mechanics about problems with the aircraft. The mechanics fix the problems and then document their repairs on the form.

Here are some of the actual maintenance problems submitted by the pilots (marked with a P) and the solutions recorded (marked by an S) by maintenance engineers, who by the way have a sense of humour.

P: Left inside main tyre almost needs replacement.
S: Left inside main tyre almost replaced.

P: Test flight OK, auto-land very rough.
S: Auto-land not installed on this aircraft.

P: Something loose in cockpit.
S: Something tightened in cockpit.

P: Dead bugs on windshield.
S: Live bugs on back order.

P: Auto pilot in altitude-hold mode produces a 200 feet per minute descent.
S: Can’t reproduce problem on the ground.

P: Evidence of leak on right main landing gear.
S: Evidence removed.

P: DME volume unbelievably loud.
S: DME volume set to more believable level.

P: Friction locks cause throttle levers to stick.
S: That’s what friction locks are for.

P: IFF inoperative in OFF mode.
S: IFF always inoperative in OFF mode.

P: Suspect crack in windshield.
S: Suspect you’re right.

P: Number 3 engine missing.
S: Engine found on right wing after brief search.

P: Aircraft handles funny.
S: Aircraft warned to straighten up, fly right and be serious.

P: Target radar hums.
S: Reprogrammed target radar with lyrics.

P: Mouse in cockpit.
S: Cat installed in cockpit.

P: Noise coming from under instrument panel. Sounds like a midget pounding on something with a hammer.
S: Took hammer away from midget.

 

CST Sales

We have just had some printers delivered for sale “on behalf”. These will be “make an offer” and will be sold for any reasonable offer.

Canon MG2260

Only just superseded model

Inkjet print, copy and scan

See here for details

Canon MP280

First released about late 2011

Inkjet print, scan and copy

See here for details

Brother MFC 8860DN

Black and white laser print, scan, copy and fax

Reliable workhorse

See here for details