Internet Slangs/Acronyms
by Ope on September 19th, 2009
filed under Blogging Tips, Online Tools
AFAIK =» As Far As I Know
AFK =» Away From Keyboard
ASAP =» As Soon As Possible
BAS =» Big A$$ Smile
BBL =» Be Back Later
BBN =» Bye Bye Now
BBS =» Be Back Soon
BEG =» Big Evil Grin
BF =» Boyfriend
BIBO =» Beer In, Beer Out
BRB =» Be Right Back
BTW =» By The Way
BWL =» Bursting With Laughter
C&G =» Chuckle and Grin
CICO =» Coffee In, Coffee Out
CID =» Crying In Disgrace
CNP =» Continued (in my) Next Post
CP =» Chat Post(a chat message)
CRBT =» Crying Real Big Tears
CSG =» Chuckle Snicker Grin
CYA =» See You (Seeya)
CYAL8R =» See You Later (Seeyalata)
DLTBBB =» Don’t Let The Bed Bugs Bite
EG =» Evil Grin
EMSG =» Email Message
FC =» Fingers Crossed
FTBOMH =» From The Bottom Of My Heart
FYI =» For Your Information
FWIW =» For What It’s Worth
GAL =» Get A Life
GF =» Girlfriend
GFN =» Gone For Now
GMBA =» Giggling My Butt Off
GMTA =» Great Minds Think Alike
GTSY =» Glad To See You
H&K =» Hug and Kiss
HABU =» Have A Better ‘Un
HAGN =» Have A Good Night
HAGU =» Have A Good ‘Un
HHIS =» Hanging Head in Shame
HUB =» Head Up Butt
IAE =» In Any Event
IC =» I See
IGP =» I Gotta Pee
IMNSHO =» In My Not So Humble Opinion
IMO =» In My Opinion
IMCO =» In My Considered Opinion
IMHO =» In My Humble Opinion
IOW =» In Other Words
IRL =» In Real Life
IWALU =» I Will Always Love You
JMO =» Just My Opinion
JTLYK =» Just To Let You Know
KIT =» Keep In Touch
KOC =» Kiss On Cheek
KOL =» Kiss On Lips
L8R =» Later
L8R G8R =» Later ‘Gater
LHM =» Lord Help Me
LHO =» Laughing Head Off
LHU =» Lord Help Us
LMAO =» Laughing My A$$ Off
LMSO =» Laughing My Socks Off
LOL =» Laugh Out Loud
LSHMBB =» Laughing So Hard My Belly is Bouncing
LSHMBH =» Laughing So Hard My Belly Hurts
LSHTTARDML =» Laughing So Hard The Tears Are Running Down My Leg
LTNS =» Long Time No See
LTS =» Laughing To Self
LUWAMH =» Love You With All My Heart
LY =» Love Ya
MTF =» More To Follow
NRN =» No Reply Necessary
NADT =» Not A Darn Thing
OIC =» Oh, I See
OL =» Old Lady (significant other)
OM =» Old Man (significant other)
OTOH =» On The Other Hand
OTTOMH =» Off The Top of My Head
PDS =» Please Don’t Shoot
PITA =» Pain In The A$$
PM =» Private Message
PMFJI =» Pardon Me For Jumping In
PMP =» Peed My Pants
POAHF =» Put On A Happy Face
QSL =» Reply
QSO =» Conversation
QT =» Cutie
ROFL =» Rolling On Floor Laughing
ROFLAPMP =» ROFL And Peeing My Pants
ROFLMAO =» ROFL My A$$ Off
ROFLMAOAY =» ROFLMAO At You
ROFLMAOWTIME =» ROFLMAO With Tears In My Eyes
ROFLUTSROFL =» Unable to Speak
RTFM =» Read The F****** Manual!
SETE =» Smiling Ear To Ear
SHID =» Slaps Head In Disgust
SNERT =» Snot-Nosed Egotistical Rude Teenager
SO =» Significant Other
SOT =» Short Of Time
SOTMG =» Short Of Time Must Go
SWAK =» Sealed With A Kiss
SWAS =» Scientific Wild A$$ Guess
SWL =» Screaming with Laughter
SYS =» See You Soon
TA =» Thanks Again
TGIF =» Thank God It’s Friday
TCOY =» Take Care Of Yourself
TILII =» Tell It Like It Is
TNT =» Till Next Time
TOY =» Thinking Of You
TTFN =» Ta Ta For Now
TTYL =» Talk To You Later
WAS =» Wild A$$ Guess
WB =» Welcome Back
WTH =» What/Who The Heck (or sub an F for the H)
YBS =» You’ll Be Sorry
YG =» Young Gentleman
YL =» Young Lady
YM =» Young Man
Using Google for more than just searching
by Ope on September 18th, 2009
filed under Blogging Tips, General, Online Tools
- Explicit Phrase:
Lets say you are looking for content about internet marketing. Instead of just typing internet marketing into the Google search box, you will likely be better off searching explicitly for the phrase. To do this, simply enclose the search phrase within double quotes.
Example: "internet marketing"
- Exclude Words:
Lets say you want to search for content about internet marketing, but you want to exclude any results that contain the term advertising. To do this, simply use the "-" sign in front of the word you want to exclude.
Example Search: internet marketing -advertising
- Site Specific Search:
Often, you want to search a specific website for content that matches a certain phrase. Even if the site doesn’t support a built-in search feature, you can use Google to search the site for your term. Simply use the "site:somesite.com" modifier.
Example: "internet marketing" site:www.smallbusinesshub.com
- Similar Words and Synonyms:
Let’s say you are want to include a word in your search, but want to include results that contain similar words or synonyms. To do this, use the "~" in front of the word.
Example: "internet marketing" ~professional
- Specific Document Types:
If you’re looking to find results that are of a specific type, you can use the modifier "filetype:". For example, you might want to find only PowerPoint presentations related to internet marketing.
Example: "internet marketing" filetype:ppt
- This OR That:
By default, when you do a search, Google will include all the terms specified in the search. If you are looking for any one of one or more terms to match, then you can use the OR operator. (Note: The OR has to be capitalized).
Example: internet marketing OR advertising
- Phone Listing:
Let’s say someone calls you on your mobile number and you don’t know how it is. If all you have is a phone number, you can look it up on Google using the phonebook feature.
Example: phonebook:617-555-1212 (note: the provided number does not work – you’ll have to use a real number to get any results).
- Area Code Lookup:
If all you need to do is to look-up the area code for a phone number, just enter the 3-digit area code and Google will tell you where it’s from.
Example: 617
- Numeric Ranges:
This is a rarely used, but highly useful tip. Let’s say you want to find results that contain any of a range of numbers. You can do this by using the X..Y modifier (in case this is hard to read, what’s between the X and Y are two periods. This type of search is useful for years (as shown below), prices or anywhere where you want to provide a series of numbers.
Example: president 1940..1950
- Stock (Ticker Symbol):
Just enter a valid ticker symbol as your search term and Google will give you the current financials and a quick thumb-nail chart for the stock.
Example: GOOG
- Calculator:
The next time you need to do a quick calculation, instead of bringing up the Calculator applet, you can just type your expression in to Google.
Example: 48512 * 1.02
- Word Definitions:
If you need to quickly look up the definition of a word or phrase, simply use the "define:" command.
Example: define:plethora
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"time in tokyo" or any other major city displays the current local time there.
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Currency converter: 100 GBP in USD
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if you click a search result and find a dead link or a removed page, go back to the Google search page and click on "cache", you’ll get the content of the page as stored by Google.
Avoiding Internet Fraud, Theft and Phishing
by Ope on February 17th, 2009
filed under General, Make Money, Online Tools
Phishing is one of the main scams in the present moment. People set up phoney websites and email addresses. Then they spam Email inboxes with official-looking messages explaining that your account with Company X has encountered a problem and that they need you to login and confirm some details. The email addresses are masked to appear official and the links provided in the email all seem to check out. If you click on the link provided then you will usually be taken to a site that looks for all intents and purposes to be official. When you click ‘submit’ your details will be sent to a criminal somewhere who will do as they please with your information, such as withdrawing money from a bank account or purchasing things in your name. The scam has been labelled ‘Phishing’ because the criminals engaging in the activity behave similarly to a fisherman throwing bait out in the hope that they’ll receive just one bite from the millions of people that receive the email.
So how do you avoid these online scams? First and foremost, it is important to realise that no legitimate organisation should be sending you a request to fill out your personal details because of some server error or for any other reason. Your bank will never send you an email with content along the lines of “We’ve lost your bank account number and password… please supply them again for our records”. You should also know that no bank is going to require your bank account number, and PIN number just to log in to your account or retrieve your password. Other sites such as Ebay, PayPal, interswitch, and the like will not email you asking for these details either.
If you’re a little unsure as to whether or not an email is official, scroll down a bit until you find the link that they are requesting you to click and simply hold your mouse pointer over the link text without clicking. Now take a look at the bottom left-hand corner of your browser window. The link text is often the address that the phisher wants you to think you will be heading to but the real address will be revealed in the bottom of the browser. This address will most likely not have anything whatsoever to do with the company that the email is attempting to imitate. It could be a dodgy web site or even just a page on someone’s personal computer. If the address doesn’t appear in the bottom left-hand corner then you can right-click on the link, select ‘properties’ from the pop-up menu and then read the address listed in the information box.
To avoid further scams make sure that you have updated firewall and anti-virus software active on your system at all times. This will make it harder for anyone to install key loggers, Trojans, spyware, or other similar devices intended to retrieve your information. Keep your operating system up to date with the latest security patches and updates and be careful where you enter your details. Always look into the reputability of the site that is requesting your details and keep an eye on the lower right-hand corner of your browser. If the page you are viewing has a little padlock symbol appear in the corner, then it means that your details are being secured by some encryption method. You can double click on the icon to get more details if you wish. Sites without the padlock icon don’t have encryption, which means that your details are a lot easier for malicious crooks to get a hold of. Even if you’re sure the website is legitimate, it’s not a good idea to send your details over an unsecured connection. By the way, email does not count as a secure connection, and neither does any instant messaging program, (such as Yahoo Messenger, MSN, ICQ, AIM etc.) so don’t give out personal details that way either.
Another common scam very similar to phishing involves the emailing of promises of great wealth. Seriously, what do you think your chances are of winning the lottery, let alone one that you never even entered? Or of some obscure yet ridiculously rich person in Africa dying and you being legally allowed to pick up their money? Or of a foreign prince wishing to smuggle money out of his country using your account? These emails are all scams. I wish it were true that I won three different lotteries every single day, but if you get in contact with the people sending these messages they’re going to do their utmost to clean out your pockets. Unfortunate as it may sound, the ‘Please Donate to Charity’ emails sent are usually also scams. If you really want to donate money to a charity, look them up and send it the usual way, don’t respond to a multi-recipient email that may or may not be real. You also shouldn’t donate to some random charity that no one has ever heard of before. Some of the Internet lowlifes have started up fake charities, ‘dedicated to helping Tsunami victims’ or similar and are simply pocketing the donations.
Everything in this world can be used for either good or evil purposes and the Internet is no exception. Staying alert and having just a little bit of Internet know-how can keep you out of harm’s way for the majority of the time, and allow you access to the wonderful online services available with relative safety.