TechByter Worldwide 2018-01-21: Begone, Vile Telephone Spam and Scams! Short Circuits. Spare Parts.

Telephone based spam and scams continue to escalate. Those with land lines have limited options for fighting back but mobile phone users and those who use some voice-over-IP systems have an increasing number of weapons. In Short Circuits: Even if your computer has already been updated to deal with the Spectre and Meltdown threats, you might receive a message that tells you to download another patch. Don't do it! Some people needlessly fear cookies that many websites write to their computers. Most are safe, but some caution is reasonable. In Spare Parts (only on the website): The Banking and Securities Department in Pennsylvania has released an electronic booklet that has some useful tips to avoid being scammed on-line and it's available no matter where you live. • New docking stations that have been designed and built by companies that don't make computers have a worthwhile feature that computer manufacturers don't include in their docks: They work with both Windows and MacOS computers.