Antivirus and Malware Removal

Just thought I would share. Prevx is the only virus removal software I've ever endorsed. Typically these products are system hogs that have constant nag messages about things that just aren't important as far as security is concerned.

This one however is different. It's lightweight and does all the profiling and virus definitions in the cloud so you aren't constantly having to download virus definitions in order to stay protected.

It's also easy to disable the real time protection if you have that option unlike many others (cough cough McAfee, Norton). This software also found two viruses that I had recently where Windows Defender and AVG Free failed to detect either of them. On top of that, this is the first product of this type where the price point is appropriate. Personally I think the "Cleanup" product is all you need, only $24 for a single license, but if you opt for 10 licenses the price drops to $16.

You can test it to see if it detects any problems with your existing system for free. I would hang onto this email and if you have wonky behavior or performance problems on your computer then give this a shot and see if it picks up anything, if it picks up the problem then you really can't beat the price.

If you'd like to equip your office they have really good deals on multiple licenses for small and medium businesses as well as single licenses.

Ultimately the best protection you can have for viruses is to make sure that your user account has a password, turn on windows firewall, and if the programs you use allow for it run your computer as a Standard User instead of an Administrator. Unfortunately lots of windows software still requires Administrator access, however this will quickly diminish as vendors now have a big incentive to remove the most annoying UAC prompt which if you are currently on Vista or windows 7 you've definitely seen.

Hope this helps.

If there is a topic that you would like to know more about or would like a software suggestion to solve a problem that you are currently having. Let me know and I'll see if I can't write something up.

Getting Things Done Google Tips (GTD)

We live in a world today where there are billions of dollars worth of software brilliance available to anyone with a web browser and the software simply within your basic operating system contains more features than any single person could name.

Using these applications and tools in collaboration is an exercise in creativity learning from your peers. So here are some tips that I've amassed over many years of attempting to get the computer to bend various Google Properties to my will.

First up email (I'm an avid GMail user as are many people). Many people compulsively Archive and folder away email. This is a additional handful of clicks that simply is a waste of time. Archiving simply removes it from your Inbox and doesn't have any performance gain. You can already leverage read and unread marks in order to determine whether or not the email has been addressed. I could get behind archiving at the end of a day since that would only take one action but personally I have no desire to since it just reduces the amount of information you see.

Gmail and other emails that support an easy way to tag things have become a very useful tool for me. I've created my own little workflows within my email by using custom tags. "TODO - Assigned", "TODO - Received", "TODO - Complete". I use these to make sure that I can follow up on delegated task and revist incomplete task. I do something similar with bills, "Bills - Received", "Bills - Paid".

For the longest time I used Star and Unstar, however I abused this to the point where I neglected it altogether so if you are having this problem I would suggest figuring out your own workflows.

Google Reader Tips -- (Learn about Google Reader and RSS)

Google Reader is a great tool for teaching if you are in a position where you are training someone, Or finding new interesting blogs from people you are friends with that also use Google Reader. Simply go to your Sharing Settings then send a request to your friends. No need to wait until you are at a party and try to remember the name of some obscure blog. Just follow people and any item that they choose to share will appear on your list. Imagine the power of having extra sets of eyes pairing down content they don't deem share worthy and introducing you to new things.

You can subscribe to almost anything with RSS these days: News, PhotoAlbums (Flickr, Picasa Web Albums, Comics, Calendars). Anything where you see RSS, ATOM, or this icon ().

Google Calendars allows you to publish your calendar as an iCal format these can be consumed by nearly any calendaring application in a readonly fashion.

Shared Google Calendars are great. Add an additional calendar for US Holidays and your favorite sports team. Make sure to add separate calendars for separate logical things. So that you can hide and show/ share the calendar without worrying about sharing private events or unnecessary information. With the notifications feature of the calendar you can truely create your own tickler style workflow in conjunction with email.

I'm currently using separate calendars for each employee to manage assignments and initiatives.

Google Bookmarks is one of my favorite seemingly abandoned Google project. I'm really hoping that they integrate this one with Google Chrome since it is my current choice for recreational browsing. It is already integrated with FireFox via the Google Toolbar plugin and I would really like to see this in Chrome. When you are using multiple computers / browsers it's really awful trying to figure out where you may have bookmarked something. Pushing this to the cloud with something like Google Bookmarks, delicious, etc is the only thing that makes sense. Google Bookmarks supports tagging and search like any good Google Product.

Use Picasa Web Album to share images because it will not resize them down a non - printable size. Sharing will be easier with Picasa Web Album since it's a google property and many of your friends will already have a Google Account. If you manage your photos locally with Picasa 3 like I do then you can quickly get rid of red eye, crop, and reformat all your images then click the "Upload" button at the bottom of the screen to Upload them to Picasa Web Albums in order to share the high res images with your friends (without having to send them in several separate emails). Then if you want to push them up to Facebook as well. That's easy, just use this Facebook plugin that works with Picasa.

Wow google has quite a few web properties. Use them, they are free. I will be covering some techniques for getting things done with Windows Vista/XP and certain freeware products.

Wal-mart Knows

I was standing in line at the returns counter at Wal-Mart and I noticed a huge shelf full of simalac against the wall right there at the returns counter.

If this were another store I might decide that they received a shipment of simalac and didn't have any where else to put it.  But this is Wal-Mart and nearly everything is by design when it comes to product placement.  So I ask myself.  Are "new" mothers more likely to return items to Wal Mart?  While I haven't seen the research I'd have to say that new mothers must be the most likely demographic to return items, (because it seems that someone at WalQuarters has already made this determination).

The implications of this decision imply quite a bit more if you think about it a bit more.   For example.  The only information that you provide them is your credit card number and possibly your zipcode.  However if they keep your credit card as an identifier and then store all the items which you purchase then they know quite a bit more.

If I buy pretzels and beer and never buy socks then maybe I'm a college kid.

If I buy diapers, milk, eggs only.  I might be a husband sent on an errand.

If I buy diapers, milk, eggs and a bunch of other stuff.  I might be a mom.

I could go on but you get the idea.   Walmart's research probably doesn't put us into distinct classifiable categories such as this.  Because it's much easier to simply see correlation between products which are purchased together and products which are not purchased together without the additional burden of stereotyping your shoppers.

At the moment, I'm kind of on the fence about privacy.  If Walmart and others can figure out what type of person I am by what I buy and arrange the store accordingly then more power to them.

But at the same time...  

If we are what we eat.  (and walmart knows what we eat).  Then Walmart knows what we are.

and that in itself is a little disturbing.

Eagle Eye Review: (Computers don't work that way)

First off.  If you haven't seen the movie this maybe a spoiler, probably less than the preview however so I imagine your safe.

In this movie, a computer takes control of cars, accesses security cameras, cell phones basically anything that has a circuit it can control through the interweb.  (and those are just the things within the realm of physics).

It concerns me that some portion of the general public might believe that this technology is closer to non-fiction than fiction.  It also concerns me that they didn't consult so much as a teenager determine if something in the script was doable or not.

Section 1:  The physically impossible

There is one scene in the movie where the computer triggers a sprinkle system.   You even see a shot of the sprinkle head just before it triggers and it's your traditional sprinklerhead system right down to the fusable alloy with a melting point of 302 degrees Farenheit.  So I have to ask:  How did the computer make the head of all the sprinklers in the building become 302 degress Farenheit?

Section 2:  The logistically rediculous

There is a scene in the movie where the computer decides it wants to kill somebody so it blows up a transformer on a power line which then causes the line to whip into the victim with deadly accuracy.  To accomplish this feat the computer would have to locate the position of the intended victim using satellite imagery (which would be sheer luck to have 1 of 8681 satellites overhead in the first place), cell phone triangulation would be a possibility but unlikely to be accurate enough to accomplish something like this.  At this point it would have to hack our power grid, essentially rewrite the software to allow for decisions which overload the system to be performed, then quickly reroute power in such a way that it converges on that particular transformer miracalously without blowing the transformers it traveled to get there.  (I'm not gonna even get into the physics it would have to compute to determine if all this would even work, just assume it's far from trivial).

One thing that I don't think that people realize is that business rules are built into software.  For example, if I was writing software for trains I would likely put in some rules which prevent it from ramming into another train head on for example.  The only way to interface with the train tracks is through my software.  So guess what?  You can't ram trains into one another.  So even if you were able to gain access to some traffic light system for example, you would be bound by the rules of the system.  So while you may be able to turn lights green.  You wouldn't be able to turn lights green in both directions in order to cause a wreck.

For a moment let's ignore the artificial intelligence, and behavioristic predictions.  Logistically, having a system that integrated into all these other areas BY DESIGN would be the largest software undertaking to date.  The premise of all these movies is that the computers are in control of these systems without permission/knowledge of the system.  This is completely proposturous.  Even with the full cooperation of 3rd party companies, "daunting" would not begin to describe how difficult this would be.  To give a real world example some of the best programmers in the world have spent thousands of man years on word processors and operating systems and the government doesn't have the same resources in personel to my knowledge.   

I could go on but bottom line is I'm confident nothing even close to this exist.

Email: Explained (POP vs IMAP)

I get lots of questions about how to setup email. While the software vendors have made this a pretty painless endeavor these days the consumer still needs to know a bit to accomplish the behavior they desire.

First off for those people that are still on CompuServe or AOL. End your subscription and get one of the many great free email services that exist. I've used all the major ones since their creation (HotMail, Yahoo, Gmail). And the reason that I use them is not because they are free. It's because simply they are better than any other web interface for sending email that is available (paid or otherwise). My personal preference is Gmail because the search is excellent and the interface is minimal. But they all provide very generous storage, excellent interfaces and POP and IMAP access (more on this later).

Gmail even has a free hosted option if you want to have a personalized domain name such as myemail@widgetsforsale.com . You can set those up here if you have an existing domain name or if you purchase one through them.

Once you have one of these great options. Now you need to know about POP and IMAP. These are the different protocols for accessing (not sending) your email. POP is old but most widely used. POP simply provides the emails as is to the client. However if you have multiple computers which you use Outlook, Eudora, Thunderbird on and you use POP then it will not preserve your read marks. It will simply download all the mail every time you fetch it.

If you get a significant amount of mail. Resorting it every time you sit on different computers is too much of a pain. IMAP is the solution for you. It maintains your read marks whether you check it on your phone, laptop or desktop. It also maintains your folders. So if you are one of those organizers then this is a must have. (you'll need to indicate which folders you want to synchronize on the client that you use).

Why use a desktop client? Well several reasons:

• You can't paste an image into the body of an email on any of the online web clients.
• You can't integrate with Outlook calendar or other clients calendar solutions.
• You can't drag highlight multiple emails and move or delete them (Yahoo is an exception here)
• You can't work offline on a plane

As Silverlight and Flash get better these differences will disappear and there will be no super compleing reason to not simply use an online client. But for now if the online client does what you need it to use that.

If it does not then my suggestion is to use one of the free email providers for your email and setup Outlook or Thunderbird with IMAP so that you can preserve your folders and "read marks" and stars.

Ignore the default setup of Thunderbird and configure it manually because it will use POP by default if you select that option. Here is a video of how to set it up.

If you already have Outlook I would suggest using it because it has calendar and contacts built in.

If you start using thunderbird or Outlook you may find yourself irritated that you don't' have all the contacts that autocomplete when you are using your web client. If you are using Gmail there is a solution, but it's not for the faint of heart that don't like to follow instructions. But if you're willing to simply follow the readme you'll be fine.

http://gcaldaemon.sourceforge.net/usage4.html

Please post any comments or suggestions you have for another article.

Buying a new Personal Computer?

First of for the majority of the non-specialist that already have a computer. You probably don't need one at all. But if you are dead set on getting something new and shiny you should at least talk to someone who is knowledgable first.

Also this is not to endorse any brand. I'm a pragmitist by nature and I'm always up for suggestions.

If you're existing computer is slow and bogged down you might can con one of your good friends into doing some work on it. If you find someone with some talent they can likely get it running nearly as good as when you first purchased it, and if your needs don't extend beyond email and surfing the web, and writing an occasional paper Windows XP or OS X is probably just fine.

Laptops
If you're decision in the past has based off what's in the commercials and what color to get then I have good news. If you aren't a gamer, and don't frequently do video & photo editing I dont' think you can purchase a computer these days that won't perform well for your needs. The cheapest system on dell these days ($512) has 1 gig of RAM and a DVD-RW, which is plenty for anyone who doesn't already know that their needs extend past that.

So those days where you call in and they ask you do you like music are kind of a mute point at this stage unless you are an audiophil of some sort, because the default configuration of their cheapest model has a DVD burner which will not only burn CD's but DVDs as well.

In fact we are reaching the stage where most things are pushed into the cloud. If you are the type of person that only needs email, IM, word processing and a browser. Then Ubuntu is free and does all those things with the basic install with no configuration. Linux isn't what it used to be. At this point it's quite easy to use and even the installation is as easy or easier than most operating systems out there. You don't have to know anything about your hardware to install it these days. If you are on Dell or some of the other manufactorers you can order them without an operating system and save yourself some cash. But given the deal you are given on it when packaged with hardware I would probably go ahead and get it.

Apple is taking quite a hold of the market these days. However they target a wealthy consumer starting at $1099. This isn't a bash on Mac, they have excellent hardware and software. However if you are a thrifty windows user that wants to convert you may find it very expensive. If you have existing application that don't have a version which works on the Mac then you'll need to run VMware Fusion ($80) or Parellels in order to run windows in a virtual machine. (VMware Fusion is the definite choice as it manages your hardware better and can even allow you to make windows programs appear in a native mac window). Not to mention that you have to purchase a windows license if you don't have one already that you can use. And lastly you probably won't be happy with the preformance of a MacBook Pro while running Windows in a Virtual machine with now puts your laptop up upwards of $2k.

Dual booting in my opinion is not an option. I'm not personally willing to close all my programs and restart just to use 1 program as well as install a duplicate of other programs I wish to use when I already have a suitable version in the other Operating System.

Desktops

I honestly believe that desktops are for working, or gaming. If you are thinking of picking one or the other, then you'll likely be happier with a laptop since you can take it with you. If you use a computer for your profession I would highly suggest a desktop for your day to day use unless you are a road warrior.

I see lots of companies simply purchasing their employees laptops these days and having them use that at their desk. I think this is a mistake for one reason. Screen real-estate.

If you have a desktop, get a graphics card that supports dual monitors. If both of your monitors are DVI then I would advise getting a dual DVI graphics card. You don't need a good one unless you play games.

Having two monitors is the largest productivity boost you can give yourself after learning how to touch type.

For Gamers and other enthusist I really like what I see over at Puget Custom Computers. It looks like they have great support and tracking on all of their products. Also they will overclock your cpu and put aftermarket heatsinks on them for maximum performance.

Majove Criticism defended.

For those of you that haven't see the little ad, Microsoft has a new campaign to dispell all of the bad press it has received with Vista.

http://www.engadget.com/2008/07/28/microsofts-mojave-experiment-promotes-vista-ashton-kutcher/

But all over the place it has gotten bad press. Nobody seems to take up for Microsoft lately and in many people's eyes they can simply do no right. In many ways lately Microsoft has behaved more transparently and more benevolently than many of it's competitors. Giving away a large amount of software these days and contributing to open source and the developer community have really led me to love Microsoft as a company. Corporations do and should try to make money as they have a responsibility to do for their shareholders and employees. Apple has no apologies for this and I don't see why everyone thinks that Microsoft has a responsibility to.

Microsoft stands idly by while Apple continues to makes slanderous commercials. Microsoft can't resort to that because not only do we have the reminents of the Slashdot community bashing them we also have a growing number of Mac Zealots joining in.First of all companies have every right to use whatever marketing ploys they choose. Microsoft never claimed this used proper scientific method etc. This is not an independant study. But there are people that harp on that fact.Personally I simply think it's unethical to attack a competitor so explicitly as in the Mac commercials.

Most people associate Vista with a dirty word and other than device drivers (which have caught up quickly) there is no justification. Having signed device drivers has got to cost Microsoft a fortune and they are doing it for the consumer's benefit, so that they can have a stable experience. Microsoft doesn't have the luxury of being able to operate only 10 possible hardware configurations.

Microsoft could attack back but they choose to turn the other cheek with this campaign. If I would choose any word to describe it it would be noble; given the circumstances. It's just as easy to point out the downsides of Macs. There could be Microsoft sponsered commercials with themes like... "Mac's great until you wanna play a game", or "It's great if you like spending twice as much on hardware and still have to purchase a windows license for parellels in order to run quickbooks".

Which for the most part would be more constructive. At least it would portray honest concerns instead of (Hi I'm windows and I'm dorky compared to this cool kid).