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Updated Last on 2008-01-22

 

If you miss a talk that interests you...

If you can't make it on Sunday, you can hear the whole service (realtime) as a shoutcast. All you need is a computer that can open and play playlist (".pls") files. On Linux, Apple, or Mac. The simplest solution is to download for free the latest WinAmp or iTunes program. Access our Sunday morning talk at 10:30 AM on Sundays at http://itrebal.com:9000/ . Once you click on the link , select the "Listen" button, then open with your associated program, i.e., iTunes. If you miss the morning talk you can also listen to the MP3, which is normally online within one day; these can be found at http://universityuus.org/audio.htm. (2006-12-03)

Tip: checking email while traveling

Did you ever find yourself traveling without a laptop but wanted to check your email? It's simple to do. Find a place with an internet connection: hotel, library, or internet cafe. If your ISP provider is earthlink, enter "webmail.earthlink.net" in the browser URL (where the addresses show) window. Webmail will redirect to the correct page and you'll be asked for your email address and your password. Fill these out and you will be able to see your email and compose replies.

Programs

I recommend the following free programs.

    1. Firefox: On October 24, 2006, Mozilla released version 2.0 of its free browser. (See a comparison between the new IE7 and FF2, comparison of IE7 and FF2.) Firefox is available across platforms on Mac, and Linux also. It renders websites better than anything currently on the market, plus adding many new features, see http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/2.0/releasenotes/. (2006-12-03)
    2. Open Office: This open source free productivity suite is similar to Microsoft Office and is available in all conceivable languages and for varied platforms (windows, mac, Linux). Version 2.0.4 became available on 2006-10-13. It has the benefit of being able to open and save varied word and excel formats. http://www.openoffice.org/. For more information, see OpenDocument format gathers steam. If you have a Mac, you should consider NeoOffice.
    3. Thunderbird: Presently at version 1.5.0.8. This is an excellent email program, offering automatic import of messages and address book from Outlook, Outlook Express, and others. The program offers varied pasting options, signatures, server option, and many anti-spam features, get it at: http://www.mozilla.org/.
    4. AVG:  Grisoft's AVG anti-virus is free software for home use and does an excellent job. It is updated regularly. To download for your Linux, Apple, or Windows machine, click here --> http://free.grisoft.com/doc/2/lng/us/tpl/v5.
    5. Look at the following site for more freeware programs-- 46 Best Free Programs http://www.techsupportalert.com/best_46_free_utilities.htm.

 

Operating Systems

Windows:

In my opinion, if you're interested in running Windows programs, the best bet continues to be XP Professional, although Microsoft (MS) has updated its operating system with Vista, which has been heavily hyped as a mature operating system. Despite MS's claims for better battery life on portables this has not shown itself to be true, probably to the increased graphics load. After the business bombshell- Microsoft's Vista isn't compatible with SQL Server, we now are finding more problems, see Vista Security Flaws Uncovered. Further, see the link below concerning MS's new EULA which appears to be illegal according to the author of the article. The problem of course is that Microsoft, like all s/w companies will discontinue support for XP Professional in the future.

OS X:

Apple's OS X has recently been upgraded to Leopard, which offers increased security, along with many upgrades. For a review of this product, see http://arstechnica.com/reviews/os/mac-os-x-10-5.ars. Apple's OS X, Tiger, has proven itself robust but some security flaws are showing themselves, see New Mac Security News.

Linux:

For Linux security issues, see Linux Security.

Protect Your Data

Several people have asked me concerned with protecting their computer's data from corruption, theft, and viruses. I don't have all the answers but as a starting point I suggest the following suggestions and links.

Data loss or corruption can be caused by a number of factors; hardware failures and software viruses are the two of the most common types. Yes, there are a lot of things one can do to reduce the risk of data loss but they boil down to a handful of basic things.

  1. Partition your data and operating system; this is a good way to protect your data. Partition Magic is one of the most popular programs of this type.
  2. Run backups of your hard drive data to protect from hard drive failures. Another better approach is to clone your harddrive and rotate one drive into the system every day or week. The negatives are the added cost of a drive but it can protect your data from a catastrophic virus or drive failure, while allowing you to almost instantly be running again (after swapping drives). Finally, another approach is to use a RAID hard drive system (for more info see- Redundant array of independent disks). With some configurations of RAID, it is possible for the system to tell if one drive fails and remove it from the system since data is written and read from multiple drives at once. Of course, the downside is the added cost of multiple drives while harddrives are more reliable than ever. Plus, a virus can still infect all the drives.
  3. Run at least one Anti virus software and keep it up to date. I recommend BitDefender Internet Security, V10 , McAfee Internet Suite, Kaspersky Internet Security 6.0, Trend Micro's PC-Cillin Internet Security, although Grisoft's free AVG anti-virus is pretty good. Several people I know run more than one anti-virus program hoping that if one doesn't catch the problem, another will. I read this year that a PC running Windows XP is compromised on average in twenty minutes without adequate protection. If you are running Windows XP, download the free Windows Defender. (2006-12-03)
  4. Run Adware software and keep it up to date. Adware slows down your PC and is a privacy threat as data is retrieved and sent back to some corporation-hacker. The Best Adware recommendations are presently Spyware Eliminator and Spware Doctor. There are several programs on the market. Unfortunately, none of them does a complete job. The best alternative is to run two programs, such as Spyware Eliminator along with the free Ad-aware or MS's AntiSpyware.
  5. Keep your operating system up to date. For windows users, click on "start" and then "help and support". Under "pick a task", select "windows update". Every operating system has holes in it and periodic updates fix these vulnerabilities.
  6. Run a firewall. You can read about these online but they offer another level of defense from internet attacks.
  7. Run some type of program for detecting and eliminating spyware. Spyware is software that keeps track of the websites you visit and reports this information back to its creators. Besides potentially compromising your personal hard drive data, spyware slows down your computer. Ad-aware, Microsoft and Spybot offer spyware detection. Spyware Stopper claims to stop spyware before it runs on your computer.
  8. Run a good mail program such as Mail on the MAC or Thunderbird on the PC. Never open email that has no topic or return address. If you run, Outlook disable the preview pane as this can allow viruses posed as basic programs to run.
  9. Don't set your CDs to autorun. On PCs, some programs can install themselves without your intervention.
  10. If you use a wireless network, use WMA protection. See 2005-11-14: Security Now- Episode 12 -Wifi Security Part I and Security Now- Episode 13 -Wifi Security Part II.

 

Windows XP Hints

General Hints

Browsers

Run an up to date browser such as Firefox or Safari (Mac users) . Doing this gives you two basic advantages. One, website content will be better rendered as most sites are geared for displaying with newer technology, plus newer browsers fix many of the incorrectly done techniques used in the past. Second, newer browsers typically have better security features.

In particular if you are using a Microsoft browser, download and install all of the latest updates from Microsoft, including SP2, and all of the anti-virus patches, which helps fix many of the security holes in their products. Further, use automatic updates to keep current. Better yet, download and use the latest version of Firefox. This program is very secure and offers built-in favorites reading from existing Internet Explorer. Note: when doing windows updates, open an Internet Explorer window and then select "Tools" and then "Windows Update." Otherwise, "Windows Update" will not work when started from the "Start" button if Internet Explorer is not the default browser.

In December 2006, serious security flaws have shown themselves in IE7. Also, consider Opera, which I have alos used. Microsoft's Internet Explorer's 7 has proven itself plagued by At a basic minimum don't use Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 or 6 which have major security concerns, instead upgrade to the improved version 7. (12-27-06)

 

Firefox Tips

I've used the about site and taken some of this information and reworked it, see http://netforbeginners.about.com/od/understandyourbrowser/l/blfirefoxtips1.htm. Some more tips can be found at http://www.5starsupport.com/info/mozilla.htm.

 

Microsoft: More Questions

2006-12-03: When Corporation's Attack- Microsoft has begun a series of attacks against the open source community. With a large amount of capital available, and a U.S. court system that favors coroporation, they can reak havoc. MS has had a wait and see attitude concerning Linux but this year has realized that more and more people are switching to it.

2006-12-03: Vista's EULA product activation worries- Vista is welcomed by hardware manufacturers in general because of its increased requirements for RAM and Microsoft has changed the End User License Agreement (EULA) for Vista in a disturbing manner. This article delves into it. If you are not satisfied with this change, consider either sticking with Windows XP (if you're presently a Windows user), or consider changing to Linux or Apple's OS X (derived from a Carnegie Mellon version of UNIX).

Sony: Rootkits and general problems

2006-12-03: Dell customers respond to recall-Dell, Apple and HP have all had product recalls concerning poorly manufactured Sony Lithiom-Ion batteries catching fire.

2005-11-13: Once more on the Sony rootkit case- Can you say boycott? It is now known that thousands of titles (not just sales) of these CDs have been released on the market for the last year. Sony/BMG has not been open to what their software does or the damage inflicted (including a patch that didn't do what they claimed and denying that their software sent back personal information to Sony when this "feature," a.k.a.- spyware, was discovered). Now at least two viruses (Breplibot.c and Breplibot.b) are known to take advantage of their rootkit to infect PCs. If you run any Sony CD on your computer, you are taking a risk that it includes this rootkit. For more detailed info see Twit 29: Sony Baloney and Security Now! with Steve Gibson, Episode 12: Sony/BMG's Rootkit DRM. 2005-11-02: Sony, Rootkits and Digital Rights Management Gone Too Far: Sony BMGs new CDs exposes users to threats from hackers and virus writers and other record companies are joining the frey. For a more basic overview, see this Washington Post article Study of Sony Anti-Piracy Software Triggers Uproar.

EPSON: Another company to avoid?

Epson has filed suit against makers and resellers of ink-jet cartridges - As anyone who has ever bought an ink-jet can testify, the printers are often close to free, since the real sticker shock occurs when you start buying replacement cartridges. Now Seiko-EPSON is attempting to control the market for their printers by suing many of the smaller suppliers. Udo Rossner, head of sales at JR Inkjet Deutschland GmbH said, "If all the manufacturers got together and defended it as one it would be a big problem [for Seiko Epson]." He believes Epson will never be able to completely control the market, especially due to its international nature, but that it might be easier to control through legal means in the U.S. than in Europe. In the U.S. its easy because corporations have more rights than consumers," he said. "But in continental Europe the consumer has damn hard rights. If they lose one case, they lose it all." Years ago in the U.S., you couldn't even buy an aftermarket oil filter, since many companies voided your warranty if you used one. (2006-12-03)

Some Links for More Info:

Use OpenOffice.org




Quicktime with iTunes (free) Great multi-media player

Spying on the spyware makers
2005-05-04: Harvard student Ben Edelman hasn't made any friends in spyware and adware makers, thanks to his work publicizing how the programs work.

Computer Security

Software Reviews

If your drive is damaged, and you want to retrieve the data

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