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Clean up your computer

Internet Explorer isn’t the only thing from Microsoft that makes your computer unsafe. Your operating system, Windows, often seems to be so full of security holes that you’d think that it’s putting out the welcome mat for malicious software.

Link: PCWorld.com: “Zombie PCs: Silent, Growing Threat”

You need to make your operating system safe. Do this:

  • Get the latest Windows security patches from Microsoft. Open Internet Explorer, and go to the Windows Update website (windowsupdate.microsoft.com) and download the “critical” updates. Not surprisingly, Microsoft makes sure you can only view this page in Internet Explorer. (Can you say “monopoly”?) Check this once a week if your computer doesn’t do this for you, or more if you’re paranoid. Paranoia helps when it comes to securing your computer.
  • Get a firewall, anti-virus software, and spyware/adware scanner. Although you can get some security software for free, such as the free ZoneAlarm firewall, I’ve been happy with the McAfee Internet Security Suite, which includes Virus Scan, Personal Firewall Plus, and assorted other tools. It costs about $70 US, but it seems worth it to me to get tools that work well with each other.

    What will this stuff do for you? A firewall will block unauthorized access, which is vital. Anti-virus will block viruses, trojans, and worms, and will help find and remove the ones that may already be on your computer. A spyware scanner will remove spyware/adware that may invade your privacy and/or interfere with the proper functioning of your computer (like constantly spamming you with popups, regardless of what you’re doing).

  • Update your anti-virus software daily. Having a virus scanner is great, but it doesn’t do any good if it doesn’t know about the new viruses out there. New viruses come out all the time. Either set up your software (like McAfee Virus Scan) to check for updates daily, or check for yourself.
  • Scan for and remove spyware and adware. I can pretty much guarantee you that you have spyware on your computer right now. This stuff can sneak in when you install legitimate software or install itself when you simply browse the web or open an e-mail. It will at best collect information about you and forward it to a marketing company or, at worst, use a portion of your computer’s processing resources or hard drive for something nefarious. If you see advertising popup messages all the time regardless of what you’re doing, you have adware on your computer.

    Clean the adware and spyware from your computer. I mentioned McAfee. You can also get the free Lavasoft AdAware. Like the anti-virus software, this stuff needs to be updated regularly for it to be effective.

  • Stop using Internet Explorer. Use Mozilla or Firefox.

It sounds complicated, but it’s not really. You just have to get this stuff set up and update it regularly. The price of not doing it is a crippled computer. It’s up to you.

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Stop using Internet Explorer

Lately, it seems like every week someone discovers another dangerous security hole in Internet Explorer. So listen up, people. Stop using Internet Explorer. You don’t need it. If you do use it, you’re exposing your computer to viruses and malicious automated attacks. No, they’re not targeting you, specifically — these things look for random unsecure computers and take control of them for their own evil, slimy, nasty purposes.

What can you do to surf in safety? Use a good browser instead of Internet Explorer.

So here’s what you’re going to do. Go here: www.Mozilla.org. Download and install either Firefox or Mozilla. After it’s installed and you run it for the first time, it will ask you if you want to make it your default browser. Say Yes.

Done.

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Orrin Hatch: Peer-to-peer file sharing = pornography

This entry, written on March 27, 2004, was recently found in my “drafts” folder.

It’s so reassuring to see an American senator weilding his political power in the name of the downtrodden wealthy, and defending Americans from the threat of the evil file-sharers, who are of course all pornographers of the worst kind. (Self-described musician and) US Senator Orrin Hatch equates the people and technology that permits that sharing of files between computers with the exploitation of children and pornography. God help you if you have allowed a file to be copied from one machine to another. Evil! You are evil, all!!

Unscrupulous corporations could distribute to children and students a “piracy machine” designed to tempt them to engage in copyright piracy or pornography distribution.

Link: Orrin Hatch website “News Room”

Link: via BoingBong.net: Congress moving to criminalize P2P

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Scientists find way to block out sun

Astronomers have discovered a planetoid beyond the orbit of Pluto, more than eight billion miles from the sun. It’s the largest object to be discovered in our own solar system since Pluto was discovered in 1930.

At more than 8 billion miles from the sun, the temperature on Sedna never gets above minus 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

“The sun appears so small from that distance that you could completely block it out with the head of a pin,” said Mike Brown, an astronomer at California Institute of Technology, who led the research team.

I hate to nit-pick, but I believe you can block out the sun with the head of a pin on Earth too. You just have to hold the pin right in front of your eye. Or inside it.

Link: Wired.com: “Welcome to S-s-s-s-edna”

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A contentious issue in the blogging community is whether a hyperlink should open a new window or replace the current page. It’s a heated debate that’s rife with outrage and moral indignation on both sides of the issue.

A while back, I decided that links in this blog should spawn new browser windows. It’s something that I thought about carefully first before making it a habit. To me it’s a usability issue. I start with the assumption that the user wants to read my article. After all, if nobody wants to read my articles, then why do I have the site in the first place? (Hmm. If nobody responds to this, then maybe I should address that issue at a later date.)

Here’s the no-spawn scenario: User is in the middle of reading my article, and clicks a link in the middle of a sentence. My article (my entire site, in fact) is replaced by the new page. If the user does too much surfing in the new site, it’s difficult or tedious to back out of it and return to the unfinished sentence. My no-spawn hyperlink is like a trap door for unsuspecting readers.

Here’s the spawn scenario: User is reading my article, clicks a link, and the new page opens in a window overtop of my site. In their detour from my ariticle, the user can click around in the new site. When they’re done, the user can close the new window and finish reading the article.

Some people feel that it’s enough that IE users can SHIFT-click (Mozilla users can CTRL-click) to spawn new windows, and that website designers shouldn’t force a new window. That’s fine for expert users who know that poorly-documented trick, but I would like to think that my readers don’t need to be experts just to browse my website. The web should be a novice-friendly place.

So… to conclude my ramble, unless your audience is comprised of highly technical types, not spawning windows makes browsing difficult for regular people.