Tuning Up Your Computer

On Wednesday October I will be giving a presentation at the Randolph Library. Here's a copy of the description of the presentation as it apppears on the library website:

" Learn how to restore your Windows-based PC back to its peak performance and reliability (rather than resorting to buying a new machine). Topics discussed include eliminating unnecessary files and programs, optimizing your hard drive, cleaning the Registry, installing the latest Windows updates and bug fixes, improving security, tweaking the Desktop and Start Menu, and preventing spam gunk."

Here is a link to the spot on the library website where you can register to attend. No fee. Hope to see you there! http://www.randolphnj.org/library_programs/details/degunking_your_pc/

Buying a New Computer - September 2006

One of the most frequent questions I am asked is "what computer should I buy and when should I buy it"? The first part of that question depends on the individual and I ask a lot of questions before I attempt to give an answer BUT the second part of the question is usually easy; the answer I usually give is "as soon as you want to". Right now that could be the wrong answer.

Microsoft is preparing (mind you this was originally due in 2004) to deliver it's next operating system , Windows Vista, in January of 2007. Recommended (by Microsoft) hardware configurations for the new operating system are considerably greater than they are for WindowsXP.

For Windows XP recommendations see here.

For Windows Vista recommendations here.

If you look at the Vista recommendations link above you will see that Microsoft uses two distinctly different terms to identify computers that will run this new operating system. The term "Capable" describes computers that "will deliver core experiences.... at a minimum". For this you should read "it will at least boot up but may or may not be capable of running the programs you need to run". The term "Premium Ready" is used to describe a computer that will not only run your applications but will take advantage of the new aspects of the operating system, especially the new user interface.

As of 9/13/2006 Dell Computer's website does not seem to offer any systems that are identified as "Vista Premium" compatible and their use of the words "Vista Capable" is very confusing. For someone unaware of the distinctly different meanings of the terms "Capable" and "Premium" in this context, much of the text on the Dell web site does not make the difference clear. HP's web site does a much better job of describing the difference.

Bottom line, at present it is not clear that all manufacturers (and in particular all retail sales clerks) will give you a clear idea of what if any part of the new operating system will run on a given system. I also believe that as we start getting closer to the holiday gift giving season, we will see major computer manufacturers and retailers selling systems bundled with a free upgrade to Vista when it is finally brought to market by Microsoft.

All in all, this is one of the few times that I am advising folks to wait a few months before making a new PC (desktop or laptop) purchase. Let the dust clear a bit first.

Destroy That Hard Drive Before Throwing Out Your Computer!

Here's a great example of why you should physically remove and destroy your hard drive before trashing your computer:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/wlwt/20060601/lo_wlwt/9303216

Some folks will tell you that if you delete all your files or Format your hard drive it's safe to give it away or trash it. NOT so! Deleted files are easily recovered (especially if after they are deleted there is no additional activity on the drive). Even formatting the drive doesn't remove all traces of your data. There are lots of utilities (many of them used by computer forensic experts like those you can find at the FBI) that can restore date on a reformatted disk to readable condition. Hard to believe? Here's an example of software that will do the trick: http://www.recovermyfiles.com/

Bottom line: if you are going to trash your computer, open the case, remove the hard drive, and literally beat the crap out of it with a heavy ball peen hammer or small hand sledge. Then trash it.

Downloading Audiobooks From Randolph Library

I have often used books on tape and more recently books on CD, buying them or borrowing them from the library to play in the car on road trips. I have also used them at home while doing some chore that doesn't take much attention. A couple of times I have forgotten to go to the library until the morning I'm leaving on a trip and, since the library doesn't open till 9:00, I've had to leave without my "book on tape". No more! Now, in just a couple of minutes, I can download a new book via the Randolph Library online!

As of May 1 2006 any Randolph resident, landowner, or person who works in Randolph can go to the library (you must go in person) and register to participate in the program. You will need an already established eMail account (anywhere) but if you're reading this it's pretty likely you already have one. After that, it's a simple matter of logging into your account, browsing the titles available, selecting one to download, and down it comes!

You will be able to play them back from your Microsoft Windows based home computer because the included Windows Media Player can play the .wma file type that these are recorded in. If you have a PDA that can play .wma files *and* you have enough storage room on the PDA to download the book files into then you can play them on your PDA. Any PDA using the Windows Mobile or Windows CE operating system from Microsoft and others that have licensed use of a .wma audio codec from Microsoft will be able to play .wma files. Most manufacturers of MP3 players have licensed .wma codecs from Microsoft and can play .wma files.

If you want to play the audio books from your PDA through your car's stereo system, buy an inexpensive device from radio shack that looks like a cassette tape with a wire attached. You plug the wire into the PDA or MP3 player head phone jack, pop the "tape" end into your car's cassette tape player and viola! the book plays through your car stereo. If you don't have a tape player in the car there are other ways of connecting the two devices. Note that Apple has a format that competes with .wma and has so far (this is being written 4/2006) refused to include a .wma codec in it's very popular IPod music players.

.wma files are capable of being managed by digital rights software that can put limits on their use. After downloading a book from the library and before you disconnect from the Internet, you "open" the book on your computer (using Windows Media Player). The player will then, over the Internet, acquire a license. According to the Randolph Library site, " The license allows you to listen to the audiobook for 21 days and to copy it to two additional portable listening devices". When the 21 days are up you will still have the file but your player will not be able to open it. According to Leanna Povilaitis, Assistant Director of the library, "the audiobook license can be renewed once and it will play for another 21 days.".

Click here to go to the Randolph Library site and find information on this great new service.

Happy listening and thank you Randolph Library!

Podcasts - Internet Radio and TV on Demand

When I retired I was determined I would stay current with new developments in Information Technology. Of course, retirement also meant I would begin to catch up on all those "around the home" projects I had been putting off for years. Some of those projects involved mindless labor like stripping wallpaper off the wall and painting it afterward and doing my own yard work. Podcasts have allowed me to keep my mind active, stay current on technology events and futures, and get the mindless projects done with a minimum of pain.

An excellent definition and explanation of podcasts can be found on Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podcast but I'll give you a short version here. If your cable TV provider offers "Movies On Demand" you're already familiar with the concept. A Podcast is audio or video content on demand over the Internet. Of course the techies got there first so early podcast "shows" have been predominantly on technical topics and that suited me just fine.

At this point some of you are saying "Hey, I've been able to download voice, video, and music files over the Internet since almost day one, what makes Podcasts so different?". The answer is a technology called Real Simple Syndication (RSS). RSS has been used for some time to syndicate (distribute) text from web sites and web logs (blogs). With the right receiving software (known as a NewsReader) on your PC, RSS lets you "subscribe" to a "feed" of new information from a web site or blog. This way you don't have to keep going back to multiple originating sites to see if there is anything new. The new stuff just shows up from each site you subscribe to "aggregated" in your newsreader on your desktop when any of them add new content. For a more in depth discussion of RSS and newsreaders see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS

Of course, to listen to an audio RSS feed or watch a video RSS feed you need software and hardware different than a text newsreader. In my case Apple's ITunes multimedia player takes the place of the newsreader. Yes, ITunes is free (you can download it from Apple's web site) and there is a version that runs on Windows. If you go to a website that offers podcasts and click on the RSS icon they will have on the page that offers the podcasts you will get a URL (like the text you type in to go to a website). You then highlight that URL and "edit/copy" it. You then start up ITunes, go (on ITunes main menu) to "Advanced", "Subscribe to Podcast", and, in the popup window, paste the URL you copied and click "ok". You have now subscribed to the current and future podcasts offered by that site from that "RSS stream". ITunes will automatically download them as they become available and you can either use ITunes to play them on your computer OR, if you have an IPod, you can tell ITunes to download them automatically to the IPod next time you connect it to your computer.

This technology has enabled me to "keep up" - I listen to the latest technology news and discussions while getting my "mindless chores" done. The very best site I have found for information Technology discussions is ITConversations which is part of http://www.conversationsnetwork.org/ There are literally thousands of "shows" to choose from in dozens of "channels". You can mark the ones you want to download to ITunes and/or your Ipod by adding them to your own personal queue on the ITConversations site. Your personal queue has its own RSS icon. I clicked on it, fed the URL it gave me to ITunes (as described above) and BINGO anything I drop into my personal queue on ITConversations winds up on my IPod! The amazing part of this is the content on ITConversations includes recorded sessions from conferences that my former employer paid thousands of dollars for me to attend back in my working days! In the latest batch of available podcasts on www.ITConversations.Com is their first video podcast and since my IPod is a video model, it works just fine. Of course, video makes it a little difficult to work on chores at the same time but hey, maybe I raked enough today.

Try it, you'll like it!

Safe Surfing

Virus, spyware, phishing attacks, identity theft - the headlines are scary for an experienced Internet user let alone the newbie. According to an article in the 3/20/2006 issue of Business Week, 33% of Americans age 45 or older do not use the Internet at all and the rate of new users signing up is expected to be less than 1% this year. Complexity and a lack of security are the two most important reasons quoted. With that in mind, let's take a look at a simple set of rules that will dramatically reduce your risk of being attacked by any of the above.

First rule: Run Windows update at least once a week

1. Windows Update. Many of the above attacks depend on errors (bugs) contained in Microsoft software. As soon as one is discovered the bad guys look for ways to exploit it and Microsoft looks for ways fix it. Microsoft makes those fixes available to you free of charge by way of Windows Update. You should run it manually (you will find it in your start menu) at least once a week or, better yet, work through the menus you'll find in it to set it up to run automatically once a day.

Second rule: Install and run antivirus software and
keep your subscription up-to-date.

2. Antivirus Software: Any good antivirus software will serve you in several ways.
a. You can manually start it scanning your computer's storage (hard disk) for any virus that might have found its way there.
b. You can set it up to do a full scan of your system automatically at the same time every day (recommended).
c. In addition to the system scans mentioned above, when you install the software (or later) you can tell it to always be active watching everything you download and every attachment you receive in your eMail and warn you if they contain a virus.

NOTE: The antivirus "stuff" you get from any reliable vendor comes in two forms, equally critical:
a. Software
b. Virus descriptions used by the software as part of its efforts to spot a virus.
The first, software, will continue to be able to run on your computer for years. The second, virus descriptions, are updated by the vendor on a daily basis and are available to you on a subscription basis. What this means is, you buy the antivirus package, install the software, and then have to renew your subscription for virus descriptions on a periodic basis, usually annually. Without up-do-date descriptions your antivirus software becomes more and more useless over time since new virus appear every day.

Third rule: Install and run antispyware software and
keep your subscription up-to-date.

3. Anti Spyware software: Spyware is a general term that refers to virus like software that watches what you do on your computer and reports it back to its creator over the internet. The result can be anything from annoying popup ads for things you might be interested in based on what you've been doing on your computer to identity theft as it sees (and reports) what you type as userids and passwords. Software to combat this threat works much like antivirus software does (see above) including the "software and subscription" model. As a result, antivirus software is beginning to look for and combat spyware and vice versa. Soon you should be able to buy one package and maintain one subscription for both.

Fourth rule: NEVER EVER respond to an eMail which directly or indirectly asks you to provide critical identifying information like account or social security number

4. Phishing attacks are usually eMails that pretend to be from a legitimate business that already has a relationship with you but "needs some identifying information refreshed" for some fictional reason. The eMail will usually ask you to click on a hot link. The link will take you to a web site that can look EXACTLY like the official site of the company you do business with but it IS NOT. Any information you enter will be captured by the "phisher" and used by them against you.

Safety is a relative thing. We all do things that are to some degree risky because of the potential reward. Riding in a car is a prime example. More than 40,000 people are killed annually in the USA in automobile accidents yet we don't stop getting in the car. Instead, we wear a seat belt, buy cars with air bags, and drive defensively. You can think of the above four rules in the same way. Safe surfing, folks.

Putting Video Up On the WWW for Free

Well, my apologies for the long hiatus over the holidays. I'm sure many of you were busy also, so perhaps you'll understand. At any rate, I'm back, and hopefully with something you'll find interesting.

In an earlier post I mentioned snap shot sharing as one of the useful things you can do on the web. One of the best known and easiest locations to do this from is www.flickr.com. Once you have set up a free account there, you can upload and store photos on Flickr. The number you upload is unlimited, but with a free membership only the last 200 will be viewable by anyone. You can designate them as viewable only by people you name or by the whole world (which is the default). You have the choice of retaining copyright to your photos or making them available for anyone's use under the Creative Commons license. (You can check the meaning of a Creative Commons license in Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_commons ) . If you establish a paid membership, restrictions on the number of your photos that can be viewed are removed and you get other benefits as well. Among other things, I use Flickr to store the picture of me that appears in this blog.

So much for photos, how about video? Keep in mind that if you are on a dialup link, video isn't practical because the files are too big to upload or download unless you have an amazing amount of patience.

Flickr does not handle video but another free site, WWW.Putfile.Com does. Upload any number of up to 25MB files and they stay for up to six months even if they're never viewed. If they're viewed at least once every six months they stay indefinitely. They have a FAQ here http://www.putfile.com/faq that spells out the terms of service. I spent a couple of hours browsing and it looks like for the most part people are experimenting, learning how to use software to capture, edit and mix video. There is an occasional gem in the mix. Here is an example: http://media.putfile.com/Ball-Player

Hope you enjoyed it; why not browse around the site to see if there is a Gem you can locate.

Computing on Two Feet - Robots Arrive

Many of us have seen the little iRobot vacuum (it now has a brother that will wash your floor, see here ) but neither of these useful gadget robots look very human in form, nothing like the robots we've come to love (or hate) in the movies. Most of what we've seen there, however, is fiction, someone's imagination showing what the future might hold. Well, the future is a lot closer than you think. Honda has introduced a new generation of its humanoid robot Asimo (named for the famous science fiction writer Isaac Asimov). Take a look at the December 2005 clip labeled "Press Conference" toward the middle of the page you will find here.

NOTE - When you go to the above site and click on the Press Conference link, wait till the film clip view screen appears then find the pause button below it (two vertical bars) and click on it. Wait until the progress bar fills all the way to the right and then click the pause control again to start the movie. You will be amazed!

But wait, you say, robots may be able to get around on two legs like us now, but they can't really think, can they? They aren't "self aware" are they? Check out this article.

The future is closer than you think.

Avoiding Spam When You Can

Do you hate junk eMails (Spam)? Do you ever wonder how the spammers get your eMail address? Here are some clues:

• You go to one of the free sites on the Web that will send an electronic greeting card for FREE. To send it, you obviously give them the eMail address of the person(s) you want to send it to. They will also ask for your eMail address. Guess who you have just given those eMail address to.... drum roll please..... a company that collects verified, bona fide, currently working eMail addresses and sells them to Spammers! So you thought it was free, did you. If it sounds too good to be true....

• Someone forwards you a Really Great Joke. Its so funny that you immediatly click "Forward" and fill in the names of many of the folks in your personal address book. Guess who found/wrote the joke and put it initially on the 'net.... you guessed it, the same folks who run the "free" greeting card site (or their first cousins). Many folks, when forwarding something like this, list all their friends on the "To:" address line. As a result, all of the eMail addresses that you send it to have ALL OF THE ADDRESSES YOU SENT IT TO listed! The spammers then sit back and have their computers locate this kind of forward circulating on the 'net. When they find it, they "harvest" the eMail addresses it has collected from all the folks who have forwarded. But wait, you REALLY like to send some of these jokes to your friends, right? You can avoid some of the trouble by addressing each of your friends on the Blind Carbon Copy (Bcc) line instead of the To: line. If you send them this way, then each copy has only the address of the single individual it went to.

Now, how about some reader input. If you have some additional information about keeping your eMail address out of the hands of the spammers, please step up and add it as a comment (see below) to this blog entry. Thanks for sharing!

Getting to a Human on the 800 Line!

Here's a little extension to the "What Can I Do With This Computer" theme: Here's an Information Access coup if I ever saw one: Have you ever been frustrated by a company's 800 line because you need to talk to a human and just can't break through? Here's a link to a list of corporate and government 800 numbers and the "seceret code" you need to break through to a human:

http://www.paulenglish.com/ivr/

NOTE: The list can be used by printing it off and leaving it near the phone BUT since it is activly being updated it can be more useful if you check it online. If you use it online, you will see the new updates AND you can use the many hotlinks in the list. As an example, scroll down to PayPal and click on the hotlink. My computer is never turned off; instant access to information like this is one of the many reasons why.

Here's another link, to an article in Network World about the above list:

http://www.networkworld.com/columnists/2005/121905buzz.html

Enjoy!

What Can I Do With This Computer?

eMail is the carrot that led most home computer users to turn on the machine. The need to stay in touch with children who have gone off to college has moved many moms to the mouse. Some have gone well beyond eMail, others have no idea what else there might be. Following are a few examples of what else is available. I'll cover many of the following in more detail in later posts:.

Applications and Information on the Internet

• Web browsing. This one is as ubiquitous as eMail. If you didn't know a little about browsing the WWW you wouldn't be reading this.
• Web Search: When you don't know the name of a website (like WWW.Someplace.Com) how do you find what you're looking for? Search engines have indexed the web pages on literally hundreds of millions of web servers.
• Product Support: Computer hardware and software companies usually include support at their web site. There you can find such things as user guide documentation and software fixes and updates. Did you know that many other companies include support at their web sites too? For example, you can find user manuals for things like garage door openers, thermostats, microwave ovens, etc. etc. If you've lost or missplaced the manual to your device, you can find it on the web (but it helps to know how to look - see Web Search above).
• Entertainment Information and Ticketing: What movies/plays/musicals/circus acts/operas/ etc. are playing in theaters near you (or anyplace else in the world)? Get seat availability, pricing information, and/or buy tickets.
• Travel Information and Ticketing: Airlines, airline ticket wholesalers, hotels, motels, car rentals - information about them and tickets for them are available on the WWW.
• Communication: eMail is just one way to communicate over the Internet. Others include:
• Instant Messenger - unlike eMail, instant messenger applications are done in "real time" like the telephone except instead of talking, you are typing. If you've had a conversation with someone this way and you want to pass the information on to someone else, it is easy, after the fact, to copy the conversation into an eMail and send it on. This way a conversation you have had with (for example) a niece or nephew in the service in Iraq (yes, believe it or not armed services personnel do get access to computers) can be passed on to other members of your family.
• Web Cam - like a picture phone. You can see (and hear) your grandchild waving to you and saying "Hi Grandma"
• Research: enormous amounts of information are available on every topic under the sun. many research journals, magazines and newspapers are available in full text with archives going back years.
• Government Information and Assistance: Local, state and national government entities make information and frequently make forms available on the WWW.
• Shopping: Very much like shopping from a catalog, but the "catalog" is always up-to-date. Some clothing stores on the web will allow you to give them your measurements after which they will show you how a given article of clothing will look on someone with your dimensions. Try that with a catalog.
• Online Banking: This one is scary for many people. With some education and training, this is as safe as walking into the bank.
• Snapshot sharing: Pictures you have taken with your digital camera (or scanned from a paper photograph) can be uploaded and stored, at no cost, on the web for others to see/download/print/share. You can make them available to the world or only to the few that you select.
• Music Purchase and Download: Music "sharing" sites that allow you to download for free copies of copyrighted tunes are dangerous to use and are being shut down one-by-one by the courts for copyright infringement. However, there are sites like iTunes that allow you to legally purchase (iTunes offers them at 99 cents per tune) and download a wide variety of music to your PC. From there you can listen to them directly on your PC or "burn" them to a CD to listen to them in your car or wherever. Instead of buying a CD for $15 to get the two tunes you like, buy just the two tunes and save $13.
• Driving Directions and Maps: Get a map and turn-by-turn driving directions from any address to any address in the USA and beyond. "Fly" from one point on a map to another - see either the map or actual satellite pictures of the location you are "flying" over. Pictures are in simulated 3D and in some cases, like the Grand Canyon, are incredible photorealistic! (goggle Earth).
• University Education: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), for example, is well along in the process of putting all of the course material used by its world renowned teaching staff up on the WWW, freely accessible by anyone. Incredible.
• etc. etc. etc: I've written the above list without even pausing to think. This list just barely scratches the surface.

Standalone Applications - No Need For Network Connections

• Word Processing is to stand alone applications what eMail is to network applications - its the starting point of computer use for the generation that grew up with typewriters.
• Home Budget and Tax preparation: Keep track of your budget and expenses, have the software prepare your income tax forms for submission on paper or over the Internet.
• Snapshot Storage and Slideshows: Upload the pictures from your camera to your computer. From there you can run slideshows, print copies, "doctor" the pictures to remove that old boyfriend from the great snapshot of your daughter.
• Home Video Edit and Archive: take your library of home videos - all those old vacations, birthday parties, weddings, etc, edit out the miscues, and transfer the results to a DVD where they will last longer than they will on VHS tape.
• Home Music Library Management: You probably have a library of CDs collected over the years. You can transfer them to your PC where you can either play them. and/or you can select individual songs that can be "burned" by your computer onto a CD. This creates your own personalized mix of tunes on a CD. That personalized "mix" CD can then be played in your car or other CD player.
• Games -some come for free when you buy your computer, hundreds more are available for free on the Internet (although it takes knowledge and experience to judge which of the free games are safe to download) and hundreds more are available for a fee both in stores and on the Internet.
• etc. etc. etc.: Hundreds of software titles are available. Click here for a link to one of many software catalogs.
  

More detail to follow in future posts.

Jim White

Starting Anew

I'm starting this blog as a service to my customers, friends and family. I hope to use it to offer interesting and helpful information on home computer use, home network management, new and emerging technology and related topics.

***************************************************************************

Sony's music division has installed software on many of it's music CDs that, when inserted into your PCs CD drive, will install itself without telling you and will then hide itself in such a way that if you use any tool (like the Windows Task Manager) to see what is running on your PC, IT WILL BE HIDDEN FROM YOU. They use this software to prevent you from copying the CD more times than they think you should.

In addition to doing this to your PC without even telling you and then hiding it from you, there are bugs in the software that will help hackers to attack your machine and to hide their attack in the same way. Here is a link to an excellent article in the NY Times explaining the details:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/16/technology/16sony.html

For the more tech savy among you here is a link to Bruce Schneier's excellent blog covering this fiasco in detail: http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2005/11/sonys_drm_rootk.html

I also snail mailed the following yesterday. If you feel the same way after reading the above, you may want to send something similar:

Nicole Seligman
Executive Vice President and General Counsel
Sony Corporation
550 Madison Avenue
New York, NY 10022-3211

Dear Ms. Seligman:

Sony was a company I could trust. I have purchased or recommended to friends and family for purchase literally dozens of Sony products based in large part on a trust which Sony has now violated.

The inclusion by Sony of software on music CDs which installs on PCs without notice then hides itself and, to make terrible matters worse, does so in a fashion that in several ways exposes Sony’s customers to further damage by third parties is an unforgivable abrogation of Sony’s responsibilities to its customers. I refuse to do further business in any way with a company that treats it’s customers in this fashion.

Sincerely,

Jim White

End of Message
Probably won't do any good, but mailing it, and making the resolution to boycott Sony products certainly made me feel better.

More later.
Jim