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February 2015

Friendly Advice: Taming tech traumas

Cynthia Eaton

 

Technology can make our lives more enjoyable, more efficient, more fun. But technology can also bring frustration and heartache.

For this month's friendly advice, I bring you solution suggestions for two technological traumas.

Please note that I am not on the payroll of either of these companies; I highlight them because they've been positively reviewed by several tech organizations and they've both received a thumbs up from Consumer Reports.

last pass

1) Last Pass

I know how you feel as you navigate today's tech-infused world. As you move between different websites, you have to remember so many different passwords. You loathe this. Every single company has different rules about what your password can and cannot be. You keep forgetting which password you used where and, to complicate things, each website forces you to change your password periodically.

You don't want to write them down anywhere because that wouldn't be safe and secure either.

Enter Last Pass. This online password manager manages all of your passwords for you—and, yes, all of your passwords are secure due to their encryption protocol.

You download their software and develop a LastPass password—the last password you'll have to remember, they promise. Then as you navigate the Internet, LastPass prompts you to save your login information, generate new passwords, etc. And you can download LastPass to multiple devices so you can safely roam online... free of all those annoying passwords!

 

unroll me

2) Unroll Me

Want to get rid of annoying junk email?

Did you somehow get yourself on a newsletter/email list and you cannot even recall how or why it happened and you're tired of deleting those emails every single day?

Unroll Me is a program that helps you manage your email subscriptions and can unsubscribe you from junk email. One click, and you won't suffer that junk again!

To get started, sign up at unroll.me. The program needs your username and password for limited access long enough to review your email account. It'll locate all of your subscriptions and do a "roll up" so you can see them organized all in one place. You get to edit those settings and then you'll receive a daily digest of your email subscriptions in your "roll up."

You can also, of course, unsubscribe from email subscriptions, newsletters, etc. using Unroll Me. The program will unsubscribe you from the list and, just in case that doesn't work properly, the program will automatically trash all future emails from that company or organization.


Here's wishing you less tech aggravation this year!