Techlines is a great web series produced by Lifehacker (a Babeltech Blog favorite) and ZDNet, two high profile sources of technology news in Australia. In their latest series, chaired by The New Inventors host James O’Loghlin, with the help of a high profile panel of experts, Techlines tries to explain what the cloud is, who it’s for, why it might help you and how it can save you money.

If you want to know how you may benefit from the cloud, why don’t you contact Babeltech today… Use the form to the right!

1. Divide your inbox time between two tasks – sorting email and replying to email. Sorting email should NEVER include replying to email. So – what do I mean by sorting email:
   1. If you receive a massive amount of email each day, chances are you can divide it into several catagories – junk/spam, not important conversations between family/friends/colleagues that doesn’t warrant a reply, conversations between people that does warrant a reply, emails directed at you personally that needs attention within x number of days, and emails that are directed at you personally that need attention immediately.
   2. First off, lets start with the former. Say you have 100 unread emails. Go through them in your inbox (by that, I mean don’t open them to read) and determine what is safely complete junk/spam. Now delete/archive it. That will get rid of a whole heap of your mail.
   3. Then we need to do a little pruning. – Set up some extra folders (you can do this in Gmail/Google Apps with the Multiple Inboxes lab option with tags, or by simply making new folders in Thunderbird, Outlook, Apple mail, or anything else you use). Name one Follow Up, one Priority and another one Urgent.
   4. Put all the conversations that warrant a reply into the follow up folder. Then put the emails directed at you personally into the Priority folder. Finally, put the emails that need attention immediately into the Urgent folder (DON’T go replying to thos emails yet, no matter how urgent they are).
   5. Now you should have a clean and clear inbox, with your mail sorted. Now you can move onto the next task:
2. Actually replying to email:
   1. Simple – start with the Urgent folder, and make sure they’re all sorted before you move onto the Priority folder. Once you’ve worked through that, you may choose whether to move onto the Follow up folder or not – it’s really a matter of time.
   2. By pre sorting these emails, you can churn through the urgent folder quickly, without loosing your concentration with sorting email again. That’s why I said wait until they’re sorted to reply.

If you want to be really tricky, you could set up a rule in your mail system whereby emails in the Priority folder are automatically moved to the Urgent folder if they haven’t been replied to after x days ( I generally say 4 days). You can also set up autoreplies, whereby people have the option to flag an email as urgent if needs be (although I find that this can cause abuse). In general, try to keep your inbox as clear as possible, as the more you have in there, the more stress you will undergo when opening it up in the morning.

If you want to read more about this, you can see a brilliant article about it posted on the google blog here.

As always, if you need help with any of this, please don’t hesitate to give us a call. We can help you wrangle that Inbox hell into Inbox Zen! – call 03 9017 0155 or email service@babeltech.com.au for expert computer support and technology support in your area now.

A Breif Rundown on Hard Drive failures:

Hard drives are one of the few remaining spinning parts in a computer system. That makes them more vunerable to the wear and tear associated with movement.
For a hard drive to store your data, there is a spindle spinning at between 5400rpm and 7200rpm (some drives spin even faster than that, but tend to be used in server applications). Attached to this spindle are multiple platters, which hold the data. We then have a little wand that moves over the face of each platter, at speed, to either write or read data. This wand sits at such a close distance to the spinning platter that any slight movement or bump can case the wand to ‘hit’ the platter face and cause damage both to the wand and the platter.
Anyway, once the data is read by the wand, it is translated into binary data via a logic board that sits on the outside of the hard drive. This logic board translates the data from the form it is in on the platter into something readable by a computer – binary code. It then presents the computer with this binary code via an interface, be it Serial ATA, Parallel ATA, SCSI.
At its most basic, that is what a hard drive does.
Failues can occur in the following fashion:
•    Spindle error – will not spin up due to connection problems with the power source, or has just seized. Considered high level problem.
•    Reader wand cannot read properly due to insufficient spacing – most likely caused during bump or drop. Reader wand cannot move due to wand spindle being damaged. Reader wand cannot move due to extreme trauma and general physical association with the platter face.
•    Logic board failure – missing/broken solder points, IC failure, pins failure, etc.
And that’s just the physical ones.
Non Physical failures can occur with corruption being the prime suspect:
Soft level corruption occurs when the operating system or other programs required for startup find themselves not working correctly due to either registery problems, dll problems or other items. These can sometimes be fixed by reinstalling the operating system, or booting into safe mode and fixing the actual suspect file/entry.
At worst, the file is a highly needed file for startup, so you’ll have to completely wipe the drive and reinstall. Most of the time, data is recoverable.
Hard level corruption occurs when there is failure at the platter level of the storage device. If the blocks on the platter are exposed to radiation, or a massive number of read/writes, even manufacture errors, or any other number of factors, then you find that you small changes in the data. These can be kept in hand by the operating system, which will monitor those and try to recover them periodically, but it can result in a ‘bad block’ when the system cannot recover from it.
If the ‘bad block’ occurs in the area of the drive that addresses your directory structure, then you have real problems, as your directories start disappearing, and their associated contents, which are addressed under them, appear not to be there.

So, the good news first: All of these scenarios above are recoverable!

With regard to soft and hard corruption, we here at Babeltech can do most of that on site, so it’s covered by our standard fee. We actually think this is good news too…
The bad news:
With regard to physical failures, we have a group that does that for us off site, but their fees range from $500-$5000 per drive.

So, if you were the smart one, you have that external drive working as an ACTUAL backup don’t you?
If not, don’t worry, there’s another way.
We suggest looking at Mozy@Home, an offsite backup solution that uploads your important files, in the background, for US$4.95 a month. It’s unlimited backup, and does it automatically in the background.
In fact, there’s a special on at the moment – simply click on the link below and enter the code “august” for our august 10%off special. That means for as little as US$4.40 a month, you no longer have to worry about backups.

Simple enter the code “AUGUST” for 10% off!

A rogue security program is made to look legit…. It pops up in your system tray, and scans away for viruses. A few of the ones we’ve come across are Antivirus Soft, Antispyware soft and “Personal Antivirus” to name a few – Wikipedia has an extensive list here. It basically scans as if it’s a normal program, then pops up to say you have an infection, and would you like to clean it. Here’s the kicker – when you press yes, it takes you to a web page asking you to pay for the software to remove the virus, and in actual fact, you have no virus to start with (only the rogue software itself).

The really REALLY nasty ones run a proxy on all your browsers so that every page you visit seems like it has an infection, and sometimes even doesn’t let you visit any pages, saying they are all infected.

Another nasty version blocks you from opening MSConfig, or even cmd!

A lot of people say that the best way of removing the infection is to boot into linux, and edit the registry by hand, or even trying to force your way into safe mode (not always possible), or even do a system restore to a point in which you didn’t have the infection. A hell of a lot of people actually say a complete system reinstall is the best method.

Whilst there’s some really detailed methods of getting rid of these viruses on the net, I find that the easiest and most reliable is using a combination of AVG’s wonderful Rescue CD, and Malwarebytes anti-malware.

AVG is a bootable linux environment in which the AVG virus scanner can update itself (using either a local ethernet connection or a wireless one) and then run through your system above the operating system level. It’s a little tricky to know how to use, but it gets the job done.They used to only provide a copy to resellers and system admins, but it’s now free in the downloads section of their site!

Once it’s updated the database, it does a full scan of the system, then gives you the choice to either quarantine the files, or move them to a separate partition or drive for examination later (useful for submitting the files to AVG itself).

Malwarebytes Antimalware is an in system equivalent, which is one of the more powerful removal tools out there.

By using both in combination, Babeltech can quickly clean out the majority of rogue security suites out there.

Lets just hope that AVG and Malwarebytes keep on top of their game, and make our lives easier.

My name’s Ezra and I am the newest Babeltech employee. In the coming months I’ll be moving into an IT support role so that there will be back up when James is otherwise occupied.

To give a brief overview of my background; I moved to Melbourne from  New Zealand when I was 16, finished high school and went on to study an undergraduate degree in Maths and Physics. During my degree I lived and worked in Stuttgart, Germany for an internship year before moving back to Melbourne to complete my final year of study. Over the last two years I’ve been working full time in a corporate IT environment and will continue to do so in the short to medium term. Therefore I’ll be available for Babeltech afterhours and on weekends. I have plans to start a Master of Actuarial Science course next year at Melbourne University.

Technology has always been a passion for me since a very young age. I have a firm belief that technology should be something that helps in life as opposed to being a hindrance. I’m looking forward to meeting you all and helping to make technology work for you.

Sincerely,

Ezra Clough

Babeltech has donated its time to help with the IT and Technology aspect of i ski for tommy. We urge you to all check out the website at iskifortommy.com and possibly even buy some stuff from the webstore at shop.iskifortommy.com. All proceeds go to the Victorian Melanoma Service, run by the Alfred Foundation.

If you’re just inclined to give a little money, then why not make a donation through the Alfred foundation webpage – found here .

We ski for tommy.

Cheers,

Babeltech

Isn’t that awesome? If you need more info, give us a call on 9017 0155.

Please let us know here – http://sgiz.mobi/s3/76fb95a3ad58

We’d really appreciate the feedback.

Secondly, we’re going to start looking professional! We’ve just got new shirts, and we’re trying to get the cars fitted with Babeltech signs. You’ll see us driving around town, and hopefully we’ll toot and wave.

All in all, we’re trying to become a better service, so not only can you help us by letting us know what you want from an IT and Technology service, but also letting us know how you think we’re going. We’ve got an email address at ideas@babeltech.com.au that is specifically designed for this purpose. So get emailing…

Cheers,
James Buzzard

Google Apps:

Babeltech runs all of its email systems through Google Apps. Google Apps is a ultramodern email platform, that basically takes the web application “gmail” and runs it for your domain (Babeltech.com.au). As well as getting gmail for Babeltech.com.au, we get google docs – a word/excel alternative; and Google Calender – a powerful interactive calender tool.
Where Google apps really benefits Babeltech is in its ease of access. Google apps easily synchronises with my phone, so that when I change a contact, or calender appointment, it will ‘push’ to the google cloud, and be viewable on any other program I have synced with Google apps (such as Outlook on my desktop or iCal on my laptop, and our CRM solution). By having this synchronisation across our systems, we don’t get lost in the swathe of data – it’s all centralised.
Google Apps Standard edition is free. Yes, you read correctly – Its completely free! It comes with 7Gb of data per user, and up to 50 users per domain. There are ads within google apps mail, but they are restricted to the right hand side of the page, and are fairly unnoticeable. However, there is a premier edition, which is $50/user/year, which gets rid of the ads, bumps it up to 25Gb data per user, and provides outlook exchange connectivity and blackberry support.
If you’re interested to change to the latest email technology out there, don’t hesitate to contact James Buzzard, our head Babeltech, on 0412254108 or at james@babeltech.com.au

Dropbox:

Another system which Babeltech uses day to day is Dropbox – a free (up to 2Gb) backup and synchronisation utility. By monitoring a given folder on your computer (your dropbox), Dropbox will upload all files and folders within ‘your dropbox’ to the internet for backup. And, if you have dropbox installed on several computers, then it will push those files and folders down to the other computers as well. Essentially, it synchronises your dropbox over several computers, as well as backing up to the internet.
As you can imagine, this is great for general backup of files, but also as a substitute to a usb stick. For example, if you work at the office and often take work home with you, you normally would have to remember to put the work on your stick before heading home, and vice versa when you’re at home. However, if you just store all your files within dropbox, you’d be able to just save your work, and walk out the door, knowing that dropbox is syncing your files to your home office before you’ve even got there. There are other features of dropbox, which we don’t have time to go into, but email us if you’re interested, and we’ll go through the lot.
Dropbox is free up to 2Gb, but is available at a monthly cost for both 50Gb and 100Gb sizes. If you’re interested in banishing your USB stick, contact James Buzzard on 0412254108 or at james@babeltech.com.au

There are lots of other cloud computing systems out there, but we didn’t have enough room to write about them all here. If you’re interested in Client Relationship Management software, or remote backup systems like Mozy@Home, or online accounting systems such as Xero, don’t hesitate to contact us and we can explain further.

Since the advent of Windows XP in 2001, there has been little change in the world of Microsoft operating systems. However, in the intervening years, Apple OS X has taken the lead in the “ease of use” stakes for operating systems. Windows Vista was Microsoft’s challenge to that. It failed, as it was not widely accepted, and was generally criticised by the IT community at large.
Microsoft saw that criticism, and tried to do better with their next version of windows: Windows 7. They succeeded.

Beta Testing:
Microsoft learnt from the problems it faced at the initial release of Windows Vista. There was wide incompatibility with various devices (all NVidia products were incompatible – that’s over 50% of graphics cards in the world) and other problems. These were eventually addressed, but Microsoft didn’t want to face the same problems with Windows 7. Thus they decided to run a very extensive beta test of Windows 7 before release. By providing free beta versions of Windows 7 to anyone who wanted it, Microsoft managed to iron out the major bugs before release.
Safety:
Windows 7, due to its extensive beta testing, is one of the most well rounded and secure operating systems ever released. Utilising the same User Access Control mechanism that Vista introduced, it can provide an incredibly secure environment, especially for children. Parental Controls mimic those found in Mac OS X, and can be set to restrict a child’s exposure to unsuitable online content. Of course, unlike Vista, in Windows 7, you can set the level of User Access Control that you would prefer for your own usage.
Windows 7 is also covered for viruses by the free suite of security tools from Microsoft – Microsoft Security Essentials. Deemed as a very competitive alternative to paid suites, Microsoft Security Essentials will cover general day to day usage of the computer – from online banking to youtube. For business users, all major internet security suites, including Babeltech favourite AVG, now run on Windows 7.

Compatibility:
Windows 7 has been designed to be backwards compatible with all Vista devices. It will scan the Microsoft site for updates that help it work with any older style of program.
However, as a bonus, if you are really worried about compatibility, then go for Windows 7 Professional – it comes with Windows XP mode, which provides a virtual version of Windows XP for you to run any older software.

Performance:
Although Windows 7 comes in a 32 bit version, it’s the 64 bit which Babeltech recommends to all clients. Since Intel’s Core Duo processor came out several years ago, all processors since have been 64 bit capable. What this means is that you can have more RAM in the computer.
The problem is that 32 bit computers can only see up to 4Gb of RAM. That includes all RAM: video card RAM and main system RAM. As programs get more complex, the use more RAM, so things start to slow down. By using a 64 bit structure, the computer can see up to 192Gb of memory – not currently available to any consumer computer.
Along with this, Windows 7 makes use of ‘prefetching’, which basically means that it loads up the available memory on login with the programs you use the most. This means that those programs appear to start up much faster than normal. Essentially Windows 7 is much faster than Windows XP on a day to day scale.

Appearance:
The very first thing you will notice when booting into a Windows 7 computer is the dramatic change in user interface (UI). The UI is the visual element of how people interact with a computer. Windows 7 takes cues from Vista in this department, but makes some improvements in terms of customisability.
The general user interface in Windows 7 is called Aero. Aero is a glass like theme, allowing the user to change the opacity of windows, and generally get more out of multifunction of a computer. By using Aero Peek, you can quickly flip through the currently open windows and see what’s happening real-time.
The taskbar has changed as well. No longer will each open window list as a new item in the taskbar – they will be grouped under the program name. When you scroll over the program icon, you will see a popup of all currently open windows, which you can click on to pull into the foreground. Of course, if you don’t like this, you can always change it back to the traditional taskbar arrangement – that’s another option in Windows 7.
The file structuring has changed slightly as well – Windows 7 is trying to introduce library folders to the file system. Essentially this means that instead of having to root through directories to get to a specific file under My Documents > Pictures > Holiday 2008 etc, all photos will be accessible under the “photo” library. The way this works is by tagging each file with a specific library tag.
Say you want to have all your backed up documents on your external drive and all your normal documents viewable under the same “folder”. This can be achieved by setting them all with the “documents” library tag. It’s very simple, and works well.

Comfort:
Windows 7 is designed to make everything easier. Not only is it infinitely customisable, but it’s far easier to get everything going. No longer do you have to install specific drivers each time you plug something in – Windows 7 will simply look for the driver on the internet and install it automatically. In fact, in the majority of cases, when we initially installed Windows 7 on a client’s computer, by the time the main screen booted up, the computer was fully functional, requiring no more drivers to be installed.
Not only that, but when you plug in a camera or mobile phone, Windows 7 will recognise it, and can automatically perform tasks on it, such as backup of photos, or contacts.

Price:
Windows 7 is in a very competitive world these days. Not only does it have to compete with the growing Apple contingent, but it also has to compete with people moving to open source alternatives such as Linux. This is why Windows 7 is priced at a lower point than any previous windows release.
There are 3 flavours of windows that are currently available in Australia:
•    Windows 7 Home Premium  $149
•    Windows 7 Professional        $209
•    Windows 7 Ultimate              $239
Windows 7 Home Premium is the base model, and would be suitable for all normal users.
Windows 7 Professional has further features, such as ability to join Domain groups, and it also comes with Windows XP Mode, a virtual machine option to provide backwards compatibility.
Windows 7 Ultimate has all of the above, as well as the Bit Locker option to encrypt your hard drive.
All features can be seen here: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-AU/windows7/products/compare

Durability:
Windows 7 is essentially an upgrade to Windows Vista. Microsoft is currently planning to release “Windows 8” in 2012. Usually these get pushed back, so that means more like 2013.
Whilst some may argue that it is a waste of time and money to upgrade from a “perfectly suitable” operating system such as Windows XP, we have to take into consideration what Windows XP was designed for.
When Windows XP came out, there was no concept that it would survive as long as it has. Whilst it has been patched in the form of several service packs to provide operability, it is still not designed to work that well with modern computing components. For example, 64 bit processing wasn’t considered to be a consumer level option in 2001. Since then, there has been a 64 bit release of Windows XP, but it is not widely compatible.
Windows XP in general will not be able to keep up with the increasing requirements of RAM in modern computing. More and more, we’ll see programs come out that require substantial amounts of RAM, such that it will make Windows XP non-functional in a multifunctional world. Windows 7 has been designed from the ground up to take into consideration the modern components available for computers.
In general, Windows XP can’t keep up. Whilst I understand that it is an outlay of money that may be considered unnecessary, I would like to point out that if you are using Windows XP on a modern computer, you are not getting your money’s worth out of that computer anyway.

As always, if you require further advice regarding windows 7, or whether it might be a good choice for you, don’t hesitate to contact Babeltech at service@babeltech.com.au or on 03 9017 0155.

Cheers,

James Buzzard
Head Babeltech

Cheers,

James Buzzard
Head Babeltech

Further reading:

Wall street Journal blog: http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2010/01/18/clearing-up-confusion-on-google-and-china/

BBC Article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8462889.stm

Several years ago now, Google provided an enterprise model for their Gmail system, allowing business users and other owners of domain names (such as babeltech.com.au) to basically host their email through the gmail systems.

So far, over 2 million businesses (including babeltech and a lot of our clients) now use google apps as their day to day email solution. The reliability and scalability it provides far surpasses anything on offer from hosting companies or ISPs in current markets.

Late last year Monash University announced that it will be transferring all of its 50,000 plus email users to Google Apps for Education in a phased rollout over the next year or so(Monash Newsline (Monash University)). We applaud this move, and hope that others follow.

Google apps is available in several ‘flavours’. The basic edition, which is free, is called the Google Apps Standard edition. It includes all google/gmail applications, and a web based user interface, and 7Gb+ of online storage. It also includes IMAP and POP3 support so you can link your traditional email clients to the system. It standardly supports sync to iPhones, which means you can have a constant backup of all your iPhone contacts and calendars without ever having to plug it in (a relief if you’re prone to loss). The Premier edition includes several ‘enhancements’, such as google sync to Microsoft Outlook, a guaranteed uptime of 99.9%, superior antispam technology, no ads, and 25Gb of storage, for $50/user/year.

If you are interested in trying Google apps, please contact us to initiate a trial.

Cheers,

James Buzzard
Head Babeltech

As such, some of you will shortly be receiving an email from our marketing babeltech – Michael – to ask you 10 short questions about what you think of us, and what you’d like to see us do for you in the future.

If you don’t get this email, and would still like to give us some feedback, please feel free to email him at michael@babeltech.com.au or simply use the contact us tab on our homepage.

I’ll be blogging more often from now on.  Feel free to comment, suggest, chastize, object, participate, inspire or deny anything we do here. That’s what we’re all about!

Cheers,

James
Head Babeltech

The result was a list of 100,000 usernames and passwords being published online.

Whilst Google, Microsoft and Yahoo did not have a breach of their internal security, the list did show how ineffective some peoples passwords were. The most common was “123456″, with “qwerty” and “asdf” being others.

Google has written a very good article about how to create effective and unique passwords so that your security is never compromised again. Essentially, it makes the following points:

Phishing, a topic that’s been in the news, is unfortunately a common way for hackers to trick you into sharing personal information like your account password. If you suspect you’ve been a victim of a phishing attack, we recommend you immediately change your password, update the security question and secondary address on your account, and make sure you’re using a modern browser with anti-phishing protection turned on. Keep an eye out for the phishing warning Gmail adds to suspicious messages, and be sure to review these tips on how to avoid getting hooked.

Creating a new password is often one of the first recommendations you hear when trouble occurs. Even a great password can’t keep you from being scammed, but setting one that’s memorable for you and that’s hard for others to guess is a smart security practice since weak passwords can be easily guessed. Below are a few common problems we’ve seen in the past and suggestions for making your passwords stronger.

Problem 1: Re-using passwords across websites
With a constantly growing list of services that require a password (email, online banking, social networking, and shopping websites — just to name a few), it’s no wonder that many people simply use the same password across a variety of accounts. This is risky: if someone figures out your password for one service, that person could potentially gain access to your private email, address information, and even your money.

Solution 1: Use unique passwords
It’s a good idea to use unique passwords for your accounts, expecially important accounts like email and online banking. When you create a password for a site, you might think of a phrase you associate with the site and use an abbreviation or variation of that phrase as your password — just don’t use the actual words of the site. If it’s a long phrase, you can take the first letter of each word. To make this word or phrase more secure, try making some letters uppercase, and swap out some letters with numbers or symbols. As an example, the phrase for your banking website could be “How much money do I have?” and the password could be “#m$d1H4ve?” (Note: since we’re using them here, please don’t adopt any of the example passwords in this post for yourself.)

Problem 2: Using common passwords or words found in the dictionary
Common passwords include simple words or phrases like “password” or “letmein,” keyboard patterns such as “qwerty” or “qazwsx,” or sequential patterns such as “abcd1234.” Using a simple password or any word you can find in the dictionary makes it easier for a would-be hijacker to gain access to your personal information.

Solution 2: Use a password with a mix of letters, numbers, and symbols
There are only 26^8 possible permutations for an 8-character password that uses just lowercase letters, while there are 94^8 possible permutations for an 8-character password that uses a combination of mixed-case letters, numbers, and symbols. That’s over 6 quadrillion more possible variations for a mixed password, which makes it that much harder for anyone to guess or crack.

Problem 3: Using passwords based on personal data
We all share information about ourselves with our friends and coworkers. The names of your spouse, children, or pets aren’t usually all that secret, so it doesn’t make sense to use them as your passwords. You should also stay away from birth dates, phone numbers, or addresses.

Solution 3: Create a password that’s hard for others to guess
Choose a combination of letters, numbers, or symbols to create a unique password that’s unrelated to your personal information. Or, select a random word or phrase, and insert letters and numbers into the beginning, middle, and end to make it extra difficult to guess (such as “sPo0kyh@ll0w3En”).

Problem 4: Writing down your password and storing it in an unsecured place
Some of us have enough online accounts that we may need to write our passwords down somewhere, at least until we’ve learned them well.

Solution 4: Keep your password reminders in a secret place that isn’t easily visible
Don’t leave notes with your passwords to various sites on your computer or desk. People who walk by can easily steal this information and use it to compromise your account. Also, if you decide to save your passwords in a file on your computer, create a unique name for the file so people don’t know what’s inside. Avoid naming the file “my passwords” or something else obvious.

Problem 5: Recalling your password
When choosing smart passwords like these, it can often be more difficult to remember your password when you try to sign in to a site you haven’t visited in a while. To get around this problem, many websites will offer you the option to either send a password-reset link to your email address or answer a security question.

Solution 5: Make sure your password recovery options are up-to-date and secure
You should always make sure you have an up-to-date email address on file for each account you have, so that if you need to send a password reset email it goes to the right place.

Many websites will ask you to choose a question to verify your identity if you ever forget your password. If you’re able to create your own question, try to come up with a question that has an answer only you would know. The answer shouldn’t be something that someone can guess by scanning information you’ve posted online in social networking profiles, blogs, and other places.

If you’re asked to choose a question from a list of options, such as the city where you were born, you should be aware that these questions are likely to be less secure. Try to find a way to make your answer unique — you can do this by using some of the tips above, or by creating a convention where you always add a symbol after the 2nd character in the answer (e.g. in@dianapolis) — so that even if someone guesses the answer, they won’t know how to enter it properly.

At Babeltech, we tend to recommend to our clients to memorize a song verse, or poem verse and use the first letter from each word. If you want to be extra tricksy, then swap the letters for punctuation  – eg, i becomes ! and a becomes @ and e becomes 3 – etc.

As always, we’re here to help – please don’t hesitate to contact us at any stage on 03 9017 0155 or service@babeltech.com.au