Internet Marketing Tips and Freebies

As business people, we still drive everywhere, we meet with others on a daily bases. This practice is not cost effective and cuts into time we could use for other things.

This coming year I am going to undertake a green initiative and start having client meetings on line.  To do this I am planning on using a free, open source application called Dimdim.

If you are familiar with Skype, this works in a similar way.

You call from computer to computer for free.  The only requirement is that the computer have a microphone,  Internet connection and a Web browser.

Dimdim is cross platform capable and can be used on Mac, Windows & Linux.

Features Include:

• No software has to be installed for you to join a meeting ( access a free on-line meeting room and start your meeting)
• You can easily share you desktop with others (this does require a plug in)
• The chat feature is both public and private
• Both Audio and Video Conferencing between multiple users (something skype currently lacks) You can see and hear everyone using voice IP or the free teleconference service.
• The ability to record and playback meetings (so if people miss the meeting you can provide a copy for them).
• Multiple Presenters ( you can easily pass control of the meeting to anyone with a click).
• Secure Meetings
• No software to install to host the meetings.
• Host meetings with up to 20 people for free
• Every participant can mark up a whiteboard, send instant messages and broadcast both audio and video (the presenter must give permission for this feature)

So now all I need is a reason to have a meeting. 

Hmmm.....sure wish I could convince the IT alliance to meet this way.  I brought it up once but several of the members like to press the flesh. 

Me, I rather save some gas and some time and be more productive. 

Any ideas on how I can convince them?  Anyone game to help me test this? Until next week...

Since I am just returning home from vacation and I am still in Fun mode.  I decided this week to tell you about an on line tool I happened upon.

It is called Animasher.  This free tool is for making animations from photos or drawings that you already have or use their image library.

These are kind of South Park like animations but they are actually fun.  Once you start making one your hooked!

It is pretty easy to use.  Just drag and drop the images from the library or upload your own.  They have backgrounds to choose from or upload a favorite.

It is very easy to use so it is not very difficult to figure out how to create your own animation.  It is strange and very addicting. 

Caution you could spend hours here without knowing it!

Here is an example.  Have fun.

by akajos

Make your own | Clone and edit

Find your lost or stolen computer for FREE. 

Ever worry about your laptop getting stolen?  Worse yet can't remember if you left it at a client's home or at the coffee shop?  Did you know that some of the largest and medium-sized U.S. airports report close to 637,000 laptops lost each year, according to the Ponemon Institute?

 Here is an easy and FREE way to make sure you know where your laptop is.

 Adeona is a FREE, open source, on line computer tracking service. 

The nice thing about Adenoa is that is does not rely on third party tracking.  This means that only the laptop owner (or a designated agent) can use Adenoa to track the laptops location.

This also means that no one can abuse the system to find out where you use your laptop (important if you have a boss who wants to determine exactly where you where when you emailed that proposal were you home sick or at the beach)?

Andenoa uses a community based - remote storage facility to store the laptop location updates. These location updates are sent to the storage facility by the software client, which you install.

 Here is how it works:

• Download and Install Adenoa.
• Adeoa sends location updates to a remote storage facility so when you laptop is stolen you know exactly where it is.
• Locations are only retrievable by the laptop owner.
• Snap a photo of the thief (Mac Version). The Mac OS X version will capture an image of your thief using the built in camera and a freeware tool called isightcapture.  Images are privacy protected and only the laptop owner can access them.

 Adeona can also be installed on desktop computers or servers. They do not currently support mobile devices but are working on it.  It works behind a firewall but needs Internet access or if used behind a corporate firewall needs access to port 80.

 For more details check out the Frequently Asked Questions or the documentation.

UPDATE 9/10/08:  The saga continues...Watch out for infection by this virus through ads, infected websites, false IE and Google Pages and .pdf files.  This is spread by trying to scare you into downloading it.  It is spread by a Trojan that when downloaded installs the malware.  This Malware downloads other nasty Trojans and fun things.

This malware takes some time to infect your machine.  At first the computer just starts running slow then eventually your machine starts popping up windows telling you that your computer is infected.  It looks real official and very Microsoft like.  It says it runs a scan and finds a bunch of infected files and asks you to click to buy the program and remove the infected files.  Under no circumstances should you click on it.  If you do you will make matters much worse.  If you do get infected.  Call a professional for help with this on it is a real bugger to remove!

Don't be afraid, just stay safe.  If in doubt, don't click on anything and download only from trusted sites.

There is a particularly nasty email scam afoot...Malware mascarding as a free anti-virus program.

You receive a spam email that offers you a six month trial of a new anti-virus program by the name of "Antivirus XP 2008" and "XP Antivirus 2009".

These rouge anti-virus programs are being spread through spam emial messages  The message contains a link to an automatic download of a phony anti-virus program.  When clicked, the automatic download delvers much more that you expected!

For an example of what the email looks like, the offending url's and the ISP that serves the malware vist the dozleng.com security update site .

How do you know what programs are safe?:

I recommend checking any new program at a site called Spyware Warrior.

They have been around since 2004 and keep a list of Rough/Supsect Antispyware products and websites. If you have any doubts, check it out here first, before clicking on any link or downloading anything!

They also provide a list of trustworthy adware anti-spyware removal software.

Verizon Business on the ICSA site also provides a list of "certified" anti-spyware products.

If you think you have downloaded a program that might contain malware you can scan the zip files here:

In a previous blog I listed  two site that will scan your downloaded files before you open and  install them here they are again.                                                                             

Jotti (Virus scanning sites on line) and

Virus Total. 

Safe Places to download programs: The software developers site (provided you know it is safe), or one of the sites listed below , they scan every item before offering it for download.

Cnet's downloads.com

PC World downloads

Tucow's downloads

ZDNet

MajorGeeks

Protect yourself - Practice Safe Surfing:  Watch out for hidden dangers - sites that contain 

• Hacked pages ( I visited a blog the other day and all the links to the downloads were hacked and pointed to god knows where whatch that address line!)
• Phishing and fraud scams 
• Malicious sites
• Exploits (WMF, VML, CreateText Range to name a few)- These allow hackers to spread rootkits and open your computer ports so that they can they can control your machine remotely (create a Zombi).

Just visiting a bad or hacked Web page can expose your computer to some very nasty things. 

Here are two programs that will help you practice safe surfing. 

LinkScanner Lite (is FREE) and they also have a Pro version which is not free.  They are programs that integrate into your browser to help you identify bad websites. This program's free version requires you to right clik on a site to get information about it.  The pro version delivers it automatically.

If you are lazy and cheap like me, you want a FREE add on like Finjan Secure Browsing.

I use is Finjan Secure Browsing ( FREE) every day for a long time and love it.  It can be used with either Firefox or Internet Explorer.  Just, download and install the program.  When you do a search the program scans and classifies the web addresses and gives you a safety rating of the stie before you visit them.  They place a green check mark next to safe sites, a brown ? mark next to sites they cannot scan and a red X next to sites that are unsafe. This program scans every site in your search every time. 

FREE - Download it for Firefox or Internet Explorer here.

Sources for this Blog:  Donna's Security Flash - Windows Secrets (paid version) and dozeling.com security updates

 Photo Credits:  "Horror" by Dawn Allayn, "Piranha sign"  by Viktors Kozersp and "Surfs Up" by Dan Shirley

Photos downloaded from: Stock.Xchng.com