Since a lot of you have received new computers for Christmas, you may be confronted with a new browser, most likely Internet Explorer 7. While it is much improved, it has a lot of flaws, but, interestingly, Firefox (my favorite browser) has more.
So take some time TODAY and install a sound anti-virus program, along with some anti-spam and anti-malware software. Free versions can be found (google it), as well as paid-for.
And don't forget the most important piece: A firewall. ZoneAlarm is free and very good.
eWeek put together a brief writeup of Kaspersky Lab, an anti-virus vendor a lot of folks have never heard of. But they're very good and nimble.
PC Magazine has a great 3-minute video tutorial on how to sync two folders using Microsoft's FREE Sync Toy. Worth a watch.
I've tried using Microsoft's Briefcase, and it never quite really worked as I expected; I didn't like it.
But now I am going to try this utility. It looks very promising.
Apparently, Earthlink, the big ISP, is losing millions (8 or 9 out of every 10) of email messages -- and, get this -- they know about it and aren't telling anyone!
Microsoft issued an alert on a critical Word vulnerability yesterday. Virtually all versions of Word are affected. No patches are available -- yet. For now, the best practice is to refrain from opening any Word documents that you did not personally create.
This serves as a terrible reminder how fragile and susceptible to attack our critical computer systems remain.
This works for most songs in iTunes, except for those that don't have artwork...works great for those tunes that have wrong artwork.
This is a great tweak for seeing what's going on behind the scenes during Windows XP boot time -- courtesy of Tech Republic --
You can accomplish this by adding a little-used switch to the Boot.ini file. Follow these steps:
- Go to the Start menu, and right-click My Computer.
- Select Properties from the shortcut menu.
- In the resulting System Properties dialog box, select the Advanced tab.
- In the Startup And Recovery section, click the Settings button.
- In the resulting Startup And Recovery dialog box, click the Edit button in the System Startup section.
- When the Boot.ini file opens in Notepad, add the /SOS switch to the line that ends with the /fastdetect switch.
- Save the file, close Notepad, click OK twice to close the dialog boxes, and restart the system.
To restore the splash screen, follow the same directions, and remove the /SOS switch.
Shop eCOST - Your Online Discount Superstore -- then search for "Lexar jumpdrive sport"
Check out Giveaway of the Day. The site offers one FREE download per day. Some good stuff.
This is one of those "duh" things to do, as I think we've all done this before. I do it quite regularly, but this application provides a very slick, right-click-in-Windows-Explorer way of backing up files on your system by sending them to Gmail.
By the way, if you don't have a Gmail account, email me or go here.
This is one of the most insightful and funny posts I've seen in a while. Some sort of hack of a "technology adviser" bought a Mac. He paid almost $5k for it. He hates it. He posts a story about it.
Wil reads it. Gets all sorts of "flamey." Posts a rebuttle. Here it is, at the Jump.
A brief overview of a discovery that UK credit cards have been comprosmised by Indian outsourcers.
CIO Insight is reporting that IT outsourcing is on the downswing, mostly due to foreseeble factors like:
- Oversight, administration and other indirect costs are much higher than projected
- Security. Data is the crown jewel, yet companies who choose to outsource are giving data away. What can be done when a foreign company loses your customers' data or uses it to your customers' disadvantage? This is HUGE.
Here's a nice way to filter email and find out who's given your information away --
PC Advisor is offering a few FREE security guides (one for Windows, one for Internet, one for hardware, which was damaged when I tried to download it). Registration required.*
* unless you use BugMeNot, a free Firefox extension. Also works without Firefox. Try it at bugmenot.com
The folks over at Lifehacker have published an article full of tips to keep your information private. There are a lot of ideas here, and they are presented very well.
Great resource.
The New York Times wrote a story about batteries and how to maintain them. This is especially topical, given the two very public recalls of the past week or so of lithium ion laptop batteries used in Dell and Apple computers.
Twango is a new media sharing site that allows you to upload more than just photos and/or videos.
Apple is recalling iBook and PowerBook batteries sold between October 2003 and August 2006.
Dave Caolo at tuaw.com has a great comparison summary of Apple's .mac service versus Google's offerings (Gmail, Gcalendar, browser sync, etc.). Very detailed analysis, where Google's tools win over .mac.
Dave's hope is that Apple will revamp .mac because a) he likes it b) he's a big Apple fan, and c) he'd like to stick with Apple's service.
But Google wins and he's using it more often than not over .mac.
Apple fanatics often forego better for towing the company line, but Dave is a sensible guy who knows that better solutions make him more productive.
Google's promise to light up municipal Wi-Fi in Mountain View, California has been kept. John C Dvorak illuminates the underlying issues and possible ramifications in the article at the Jump.
By the way, google is offering this service free of charge. Sure, it is an ad-supported service, but this may be a win-win for google and its customers, in that google could serve up ads specific to Mountain View and its surrounding areas, simply by virtue of knowing where its customers are. (Sound a little like Big Brother? Is the "don't be evil" company turning to the dark side? I doubt it, but anybody can be bought.)
The remarkable thing about google's implementation is that it only cost them $1 million. That's nothing for these guys. They could certainly begin to offer VOIP, video, photo, and other services and cut out the telcos and cable companies.
The post at the Jump demonstrates how to create a Microsoft Word template with your business logos and graphics.
Very handy.
Great resource that summarizes all the cool digg tools available.
John C Dvorak has a post on Market Watch about YouTube. I think I want to try it. He says YouTube makes it very easy to upload personal videos.
Security experts the world over, including the Department of Homeland Security's United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) division, are warning that the exploit, which can cause Denial of Service (DOS) attacks, could easily be turned into a worm, much like the MSBlast worm of 2003.
Such a worm could wreak havoc on the public Internet, causing outages all over the web.
It is HIGHLY recommended, therefore, that ALL WINDOWS USERS patch their systems immediately -- the link to Microsoft's web site for the patch is http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=3646728.
Command line utility reference. Great resource!
Full listing of command parameters for all the different commands.
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