Thanks to the Suffolk Cooperative Lending Library program, the Islip Public Library will have access to the HTC Vive Virtual Reality system from March 24 through March 28, 2017. Schedule a 30-minute appointment and transport yourself into another world -- the world of Virtual Reality! Swim underwater, travel to a foreign country, jump off a skyscraper -- these are just some of the virtual reality experiences that will be available. While wearing the virtual reality headset, you will be able to look around in the artificial world, move about in it, and interact with features or items that are depicted inside the headset.

What Exactly is Virtual Reality?

Virtual reality is the term used to describe a three-dimensional, computer generated, interactive environment that you can explore. You become a part of this virtual world and are immersed in its environment - while there, you’re able to manipulate objects or perform a series of actions.

Please note - due to the intensity of the virtual reality experience, you must be at least 13 years old in order to sign up for this program.

Please stop by or call us at 631-581-5933 to find out more and to schedule an appointment.

Microsoft offered its newest operating system to Windows 7/8.1 users at no cost for an entire year. If you’re still running windows 7/8.1, your time is just about up to get the free upgrade to Windows 10. Once the free upgrade expires on July 29, 2016, Windows users will have to pay to get Windows 10.

How to Upgrade to Windows 10 for Free

Click the button below to get started with your upgrade:

Click the button below for how-to information on scheduling and notifications, and other upgrade information:

4 Benefits of Upgrading to Windows 10 for Free

1. New Features

Brand new for Windows 10 comes virtual assistant Cortana, the new web browser Microsoft Edge (the long overdue replacement for Internet Explorer), better security, significantly increases boot up times (especially from Windows 7) and more. Although Microsoft Edge gets excellent speed ratings on reviews, I find it can freeze up a little bit upon loadingbusy/heavy webpage. However, with a few tweaks down the road, this web browser should be on top of the competition and the browser itself offers new features currently not available on the top two web browsers, Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox.

2. Longevity

You might get a couple of chuckles seeing the title longevity when talking about technology. It sure feels like you’re totally cool, hip, and rad the day you buy a new piece of technology . . . until you wake up the next morning feeling like it’s out of date already! That feeling is mutual and the technology industry is to blame because they come out with new hardware or software every year. However, there is some longevity support for Windows, and Windows 10 will guarantee you the longest amount of support to date.

Microsoft has offered mainstream support for 5 years after an operating system is released and then an extended support for an addition 5 years. Mainstream support provides substantial updates, new features and of course security patches. The extended support provides security patches for the operating system.

The mainstream and extended service support is expected to expire in the following years for Windows operating systems:

There has been no official word on Windows 10 mainstream support end date but the operating system was released in 2015. Windows 8/8.1 users only have another year and a half of mainstream support remaining.

3. The Start Menu Returns!

For Windows 8/8.1 users this was a warm welcome. Working with the Windows 8 start tile screen was a mess. Users found it difficult to navigate and the power button was hidden from the screen. Windows 8.1 updated this screen a little bit to make it a bit more manageable but, users still had some trouble using it. With Windows 10, users of Windows 8/8.1 can say watch out for the door on the way out! The new start menu does incorporate Windows 8 tiles. Live tiles were fairly popular by displaying current news for a given topic. Windows 7 users can experience this for the first time on Windows 10 however, if you don’t like it, don’t worry. All tiles can be removed from the start menu to appear as a menu you’re used to seeing in Windows 7 and previous versions.

4. It’s Free But, Not for Long

Windows 10 is free but, the offer ends on July 29, 2016.

Google Flights is a fantastic tool that allows you to see a multitude of destinations, dates, prices and airlines all at the same time. This tool will allow you to quickly compare and discover the best time and price for your next vacation.

For the adventurous person who is fairly flexible on their destination, try the Explore Map feature, found in the menu bar. Here you can type in a region, such as the Caribbean or choose a more specific destination such as St. Lucia.

Google Flights will navigate you to a map of the region with prices for all of the major airports in the vicinity.

St. Lucia might be more expensive than you thought but would you consider Antigua if it was significantly cheaper to fly there? It is also a useful tool for those travelling to an area with multiple airports within driving distance, such as Southeast Florida.

A menu above the map will give you the option to limit the search based on the amount of stops, total price, particular airlines, departure times, duration time, and interests.

The options for interests allows you to discover great destinations based on your likes such as beaches, food, culture, shopping, and more. I chose Adventure Travel because I enjoy swimming with sharks and jumping off cliffs…OK, I chose beaches because I really just want to read about people who do those crazy things while sitting on a beach drinking anything out of a coconut.

If you want to fly to a specific airport choose the Flights feature from the menu. After entering in your desired information, Google Flights will produce a list of flight options you can choose from. On their menu, you can limit the amount of stops, price range, airlines, travel times and more. If you are flexible on your dates of travel you can also discover a great bargain with Google Flights, click on one of the dates you entered for departing or arriving and Google will provide a calendar with the cheapest flight prices for your selected options. If you are flexible on the amount of days you are travelling, choose the Flexible Date button to display a chart of the prices broken down by various degrees of travel days.

For a more general search, the Price Graph feature will give you a broader view of how prices change. The Price Graph feature is beneficial for planners who want to discover the cheapest times of year to fly to a particular destination.

The cost of the flight can often make or break a vacation budget, especially when travelling with a family. Google Flights is a great tool to discover cheaper flights for your next destination so that you can splurge on other parts of your vacation. To discover more about the destination itself I would recommend that you come into the library so that we can find you some great travel books and movies that will help you fine tune your next vacation – this way you won’t be stuck hanging off a cliff someplace instead of relaxing on a beach with the most delicious drink imaginable.

By walking into the Library and exploring our collections, you might think you have a good idea of what the library has to offer. That’s partially true, however what you see is only a portion of the Library’s resources. How much do you know about the invisible Library collections?

The digital age is nothing new. Since the turn of the century, technology has rapidly evolved. Our digital resources do not occupy any physical space inside the Library, they are invisible.

Take a moment and think about how much you know about our digital resources. What digital services can you think of? An easy answer is eBooks. You may have also thought about online databases. If so, great! Now for the follow up question, what kind of databases do we offer? Maybe you can think of a few and maybe not. You may have thought, “if I need to find something, I’ll just Google it.” Google is a great tool, however the information you find there is not always credible information. Our online databases provide credible information on various topics.

Libraryopoly

Digital resources can sometimes be forgotten about. So, as part of this year’s Adult Summer Reading Club, we’re offering an optional activity called Libraryopoly. Included in your reading club folder, you will find a Libraryopoly board, instructions, and an online database information sheet. The board is filled with online database and social media activities to be completed. These are short and simple. By completing the activities you’ll earn raffle tickets and gain knowledge of various digital resources provided by the Library. If you take the time to go through these short activities, you will be surprised and hopefully impressed by our digital resources.

Feel free to leave a comment about your experiences using our online databases. We would love to hear from you.

Oh, right! I mentioned something about raffle tickets. Well, if discovering excellent resources and information you were previously unaware of isn’t enough motivation, we’ve added an additional incentive.

Libraryopoly raffle tickets will be entered into a separate summer reading club prize drawing for one lucky winner to win a basket of gifts. The drawing will be held at the Adult Summer Reading Club Party!

Are you aware of malicious software known as ransomware? Since the beginning of this year ransomware attacks have been on the rise and they’re nasty. Ransomware will encrypt all of the files on your computer. You won’t be able to access any of them and you will be prompted to pay a ransom to unlock all of your data. The ransom varies but, it’s commonly in the range of $200 - $400. To top it off, if you pay these crooks, there is no guarantee they will unlock your computer. Paying them is not advised in any situation. Once your computer is infected, there is nothing you can do to unlock it. The only real choice you have is to wipe your hard drive clean and start over from scratch. Yes, in the process you will lose everything on your computer.

Recent attacks have been so nasty, that the United States and Canada issued a joint cyber alert on Thursday March 31, 2016. A link to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security cyber alert can be found at the end of this post for more information. For now, let’s take a look at some of the highlights:

How does Ransomware happen?

“Ransomware is often spread through phishing emails that contain malicious attachments or through drive-by downloading. Drive-by downloading occurs when a user unknowingly visits an infected website and then malware is downloaded and installed without the user’s knowledge.”

• Department of Homeland Security

Ransomware may lock up your entire screen prompting you with a message to make you panic and give in to their demands. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security provided these few examples:

• “Your computer has been infected with a virus. Click here to resolve the issue.”

• “Your computer was used to visit websites with illegal content. To unlock your computer, you must pay a $100 fine.”

• “All files on your computer have been encrypted. You must pay this ransom within 72 hours to regain access to your data.”

Please remember, paying the ransom is not advised. According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, “paying the ransom does not guarantee the encrypted files will be released; it only guarantees that the malicious actors receive the victim’s money, and in some cases, their banking information. In addition, decrypting files does not mean the malware infection itself has been removed.”

How can I protect myself against Ransomware?

• Backup all of your files onto an external hard drive. Once your backup has completed, safely disconnect the external hard drive from your computer. If the external hard drive is still connected to the computer, ransomware can infect and lock up the external hard drive as well.

• Use application whitelisting to help prevent malicious software and unapproved programs from running. Interested in application whitelisting? Check out this article from howtogeek.com. The article explains the Family Safety feature in Windows 8. Instructions will be similar for Windows 10 and they note how to get this feature for Windows 7.

• Update your operating system and software to the newest version. Staying current reduces your risk of an attack.

• Have anti-virus software installed on your computer and make sure it is up to date. When downloading files from the Internet, scan the downloaded files before you open them to check for malware. In addition to anti-virus software, get anti-malware software such as Malwarebytes.

• Restrict user permissions from installing and running unwanted software, and apply the principle of “Least Privilege” to all systems and services. This may prevent malware from running or limit its ability to spread through the network.

• Avoid enabling macros from email attachments. Enabling macros will activate the malware installation coding to run.

• Don’t click on links in unsolicited emails. Be careful when clicking on any links in an email, even from people and organizations you know. Crooks have gotten very good at making their email scams look very professional.

Take precautions to protect yourself from ransomware. Back up your files as soon as possible. Losing all of your data will be devastating. I highly recommend you look over the official cyber alert from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for more information by clicking the link below: