Feds Offer Cyber Security Tips for National Cybersecurity Awareness Month

October is National Cybersecurity Awareness Month!

As part of this initiative, the Federal Trade Commission has launched a new site focused on the cybersecurity. OnGuardOnline.gov provides practical tips from the federal government and technology industry to help consumers be on guard against Internet fraud, secure their computers, and protect their personal information.

Topics include computer security, broadband Internet, identity theft, Internet auctions, email scams, and social networking sites. The site also offers a variety of practical tips and tools consumers can use to be safe online, including a glossary of Internet terms, and tutorial videos on topics like spam filtering and wireless security. There is even a game, The Case of the Cyber Criminal, that teaches tips on how to protect privacy online.

For more tips on cybersecurity, also check out StaySafeOnline.org.

Consumer Electronics Will Be Big This Holiday Season

The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA)® says that finding from their recent research points to a holiday season where consumers plan to spend more on consumer electronics.

The CEA study found that four out of five adults (80 percent) plan on buying CE products this holiday, the highest results in the 16 years of the survey. Overall gift spending this holiday will increase four percent over last year despite a drop in overall holiday spending. They also found that consumers plan to spend an average of $222 on consumer electronics this holiday, a gain of eight percent over last year. Half of consumers (48 percent) also plan to buy a CE product for themselves this holiday.

Consumer electronics comprise four of the top 10 items on adults' holiday gift wish list, with computers and video games ranking two and three respectively behind clothes. Televisions and digital cameras also made the list. Several emerging technologies, such as Blu-ray players, eReaders and netbooks, are among the most wanted and hottest gifts this season. These products are in adults top ten CE wish list for the first time, joining mainstays such as notebooks, portable MP3 players and flat-panel TVs. Netbooks are another hot category, especially among teens, ranking in the top ten CE gift wish list of that age group for the first time.

What consumer electronics products are on your wishlist this year?

It's National Lead Poisoning Prevention Week

For the week of Oct. 18 - 24, the Environmental Protection Agency is observing National Lead Poisoning Prevention Week to focus on the importance of educating parents and children about the dangerous health effects of lead exposure, especially lead paint hazards in housing.

This year's slogan -- "What's on Your Walls?" -- aims to raise awareness that the greatest lead exposures can occur when paint on the walls and trim in a home is disturbed. Lead paint has the potential to affect many generations living in a home as a result of lead dust created from disturbing older paint during renovations and repair activities.

Common renovation activities like sanding, cutting and demolition can create hazardous lead dust and chips by disturbing lead-based paint, which can be harmful to children.

To protect against lead hazards associated with common renovation activities, on April 22, 2008, EPA issued a rule requiring the use of lead-safe practices and other actions aimed at preventing lead poisoning. Under the rule, beginning in April 2010, contractors performing renovation, repair and painting projects that disturb lead-based paint in homes, child care facilities, and schools built before 1978 must be certified and must follow specific work practices to prevent lead contamination.

To learn more about lead paint safety for your home, check out the EPA's Lead Awareness Program.

Saving Time and Money with the Freezer

As a new home owner, switching food over between refrigerators and freezers has made me more acutely aware of just how bad I am about preserving food. After cleaning out several sets of leftovers, it's hard not to feel like there's more I could have done to freeze the food that wasn't going to get used right away. Using the freezer better not only results in less time preparing food, but also less money spent since you're using the leftovers so well.  I've tried to do this a few times in the past, but I've never been able to find the right balance of time and effort.

I'm not sure if any of you are in the same boat as me, but if you are, I found a recent post on Lifehacker to be fairly helpful when it comes to the freezer. 10 Simple Freezer Tricks to Save You Time and Money has some practical guidelines to follow that will make your life easier. For instance, one of the tips talks about using a chopstick to break apart pieces of frozen meat for portion control. Also, saving hard drives in freezers can help damaged recover lost data, or may at least allow it to boot long enough to get what you need.

To read more freezer tips, be sure to visit Lifehacker. How about you guys? Do you have any freezer or refrigerator tips to save time and money?

Solar Energy Program Open to New Jersey Residents

If you live in New Jersey, then you are eligible to participate in the solar energy program with utility company PSE&G.

This program, that was approved earlier this year, will allow utility companies to pay rent to property owners to rent space for solar arrays. So not only will you be helping to harvest energy,  you'll also be getting paid for it.

To learn more about the solar energy program, click over to Cool Planet.

Get Smart and Go Green Sweepstakes

For those of you who have to deal with a long commute to work, you know the awful pain of going to the gas pump and re-filling every week. If you don't have a fuel efficient vehicle, constantly stopping and paying for gas can be both tedious and expensive. Well, if you've been looking to get smart and go green with your vehicle, now might be the perfect time for you.

Green Mountain Energy Company and smart center Dallas and Fort Worth are teaming up to give Texas residents a chance to win a smart fortwo Passion coupe, valued at $16,235 before tax, title and license.The smart fortwo is one of the greenest and most fuel efficient cars that money can buy, pulling in around 41 miles per gallon on the highway. It also emits up to 50 percent less polluting emissions than average 2009 model vehicles. This is certainly a fitting give away for Green Mountain Energy Company, Texas' only electricity provider dedicated to cleaner energy.

Registering to win the smart fortwo is a piece of cake. Simply enter online or visit any number of Green Mountain Energy Company events. You need to get in fast though, because the give away ends on December 14, 2009. To enter the 2009 Sweepstakes, visit Green Mountain Energy Company. If you want to know more about the guidelines, check out the contest's official rules.

7 Ways to Easily Lower Your Electricity Bill

No one likes to get a huge electricity bill at the end of the month. With that in mind, here are seven easy ways to increase your energy efficiency and slash your electricity bill at the same time.

• Shop for a new provider — In many states, consumers now have a choice when it comes to their electricity provider. Check out WhiteFence to see if you have a choice in providers. If you do have a choice, you can compare plans from different providers and order your new service right on the site.

• Hunt down your energy vampires — We’ve blogged about this one before, but it bears repeating, many things draw power even when turned off. To combat this, unplug things like cell phone chargers or hair dryers when you aren’t using them, and consider purchasing some of the new smart power strips that allow you to turn multiple devices off at once.

• Use fans when you can — Fans use much less power than your AC system, especially when you take into account that your AC system has to cool the entire house, while a fan just has to cool you. They won’t do you any good if you’re not sitting in front of them though, so turn your fan off when you leave the room.

• Have your AC system inspected — There are many points along your cooling system where electricity can be wasted. Have a professional come out and look for issues, and you might just save 20 percent on your cooling costs.

• Switch to compact fluorescent light bulbs — While everyone has heard about compact fluorescent bulbs by now, many people haven’t taken the plunge, even though they can cut your lighting bill by up to 75 percent! Sure, CFLs cost more up front, but they easily pay for themselves in energy savings over their life.

• Get a programmable thermostat — Instead of keeping your house at one temperature all day, invest in a programmable thermostat and cut down on all of the electricity wasted cooling an empty home. By programming your AC system to turn off while you’re at work, you could save up to 10 percent on your cooling costs.

• Turn off lights when you leave a room — It might be a dinosaur of a tip, but it’s one that makes a lot of sense. Teach your kids this one early to help encourage a mindset of reducing waste.

LG Releasing Solar-Powered Cell Phone

When you think about solar power, you probably think about a big solar panel array on top of a house, or a solar farm out in the desert. Lately though, there has been flood of new solar-powered chargers for portable devices hitting the market. From iPods to laptops, it seems like now there’s a way to charge almost anything on the go. Now, LG is getting ready to release the POP, a cell phone with a solar panel built right into the battery cover.

To charge the phone using the solar panel, you have to leave it in direct sunlight somewhere, which probably won’t appeal to everyone. Also, it charges a little slow, taking around ten minutes to provide with phone with enough clean energy for a little over two minutes of talk time.

But that’s not really too bad. Besides all the green benefits associated with a solar powered phone, I can think of plenty of times in the past where I was away from a charger and needed to charge my phone, even if it was going to take a while.

Sure, it may not be the most practical solar application we’ve seen yet, but I still love the road that we’re heading down. Imagine, in the future we will be able to charge our cell phones anywhere, and without wires.

Well, as long as we’re outside, that is.

Photo credit: LG

Making a Greener Halloween

Like most U.S. big ticket days, it's hard to avoid Halloween. Seeing as how stores start lining up the orange party decorations as early as July 5th, it's obvious that October 31st is a big event for many shoppers. To be honest, I've never been one to dress up much myself, but that doesn't stop me from buying candy like Willy Wonka. Or looking at pictures of robot pumpkins.

Given the amount of consumption around Halloween, it makes you wonder just how much of what goes on is environmentally friendly. Luckily for the eco-minded, we have Green Halloween. Not only does Green Halloween like capitalizing on clever rhyming conventions, they also give great tips about how to make Halloween less harmful to the environment. Their blog has tons of great tips including party activities, masks and even costumes for the kids.

To read more about how to be green this October, visit Green Halloween.

Online Shopping Safety Tips

Shopping online is the most convenient thing since sliced bread! There's no need to hassle with mall parking or crowds. Just simply click on what you want, enter in your credit card information and in a few days you'll get your items in the mail — so simple! Or is it?

Of course there are those who shy away from online shopping because of identity theft. Sure it's a problem but if you arm yourself with knowledge then you can avoid becoming a target.

Below are some safety tips to keep you safe while you're shopping online.

• Read reviews from other shoppers
• Look for the Better Business Bureau logo or call them to verify the company is legitimate
• Shop with reputable leading companies
• Look for the lock icon that lets you know the Web site is secure
• Update your browser often as it comes with security features
• Stay away from sites that ask you to enter in your social security number to make a purchase