How Safari shows evidence of certificates Click to see a larger image

Hopefully by now, you have heard of phishing. Maybe you don't know the term but know the concept: Thieves create a look-alike website to one you trust and try to get you to give them personal information. Then they take that information you gave them and play a little game called identity theft.

Safari and other web browsers use a system called certificates to verify that the website you are connected to (your bank for example) is real the site you think it is and not some clever look-alike out to steal your info.

Names in your Address Book Click to see a larger image

I have a friend with a name that is not common in English. I noticed a while back that his name didn't get flagged by the spell checker or autocorrect in Lion.

I was pretty sure I hadn't added his name to the built-in spelling dictionary and was curious as to how OS X knew that his name didn't need correcting.

Here's how OS X knows certain proper names without you teaching it.

Did you mean... Click to see a larger image

This isn't a Mac-only tip, but did you know that you can use Google as a quick and dirty spell check?

Flash Update Notification Click to see a larger image

Flash is a program from Adobe that runs in a web browser and mostly deals with things that move on the screen. Flash is the tool that plays many of the videos online and is responsible for all of those blinking, moving advertisements on websites that are so annoying. Many online games are written in Flash and occasionally an entire website runs using Flash.

Flash is also a pain in the caboose. It is inefficient and often hogs much of the computing power of your Mac. It is also an entry point for malware. Oh, and did I mention those horrible blinking ads?

In the past few years, Flash's dominance has decreased quite a bit and there are many ways to avoid it. However, there are still a few times that you just have to have Flash to do a certain task online.

Here are a few things you can do to best co-exist with Flash.