Identity thieves use deceptive e-mail messages to fool you into giving them personal information, such as your Social Security number or credit card numbers. You may get an official-looking message warning that your account will be closed or asking you to update your account information. Most businesses do not ask for personal information via e-mail. If there's a link in the message, place your mouse over it but don't click. If you see a string of numbers or a different Web address, the message is probably a fake.

For more information on identity theft, go to the Identity Theft Resource Center. Be sure to take their Identity Theft Test!

Registration is not needed for the "101 Ways to Google" program on May 4. I've updated the infomation on the web site's calendar.

The Daveman will be on vacation next week.

We'll be spending a few days visiting our new granddaughter in Narrangansett, Rhode Island. Then we'll stop in Salem, MA to visit the Peabody Essex Museum, the House of Seven Gables and the Salem National Historic Site

On the way back home we'll stop at the The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst and the Sterling & Francine Clark Art Institute in Williamstown.

To help us get in the mood, here are some words from Jack Kerouac:

"Whee. Sal, we gotta go and never stop going till we get there."

"Where we going, man?"

"I don't know but we gotta go."

Well, lackadaddy, I was on the road again.

The My Documents folder doesn't appear on the desktop of Dell 4. No matter how many times we put it there, it keeps disappearing. But you can still save your work there, and you should, because in the event of a crash anything in that folder will be protected. You can't save to the desktop for this reason.

Here's how to access the My Documents folder. I posted this in the Dell 4 carrel, too.

To save your work to the My Documents folder

Go to the File menu and select Save or Save As.
When the dialog box opens, click the My Documents icon on the left.
Your files will be saved to the My Documents folder.

To access the contents of the My Documents folder

Double-click the My Computer icon on the desktop to open it.
Open LabPC3.
Open the Documents and Settings folder.
Open the Patron folder.
Open the Shortcut to My Documents.

Google UK Goes Local

Google UK will be starting a local search feature soon that lets you find businesses and services in a specific geographic location. Google UK already features some of the same services we use here, such as Froogle, News and Catalogs.

Maybe the local search will help cut down on those e-mail requests we get that are meant for England's Liverpool Public Library.

There are more details in this article in The Register.

Right-clicking the mouse

That neglected right button on the mouse can give you a shortcut to commands you can't find anywhere else. Unlike the left mouse button, right-clicking will not actually do anything, but will instead show a context menu. The contents of this menu will depend on the program you're working with. To perform an action in the list, put your pointer on the desired command, then click with the left mouse button.

If you're using a Macintosh computer that doesn't have a right mouse button, you can find the context menus by pressing the Control key when clicking.

It's been over a week since my last posting because I got hit with a sore throat/head cold bulldozer that put me in bed for 4 days. The Daveman's fans will recall that it was only 2 months ago that I had the killer sinus infection. This is just wrong on so many levels. I'll try to post often this week because I'm on vacation next week.