Computer Tips and Tricks

Following the User access control theme from the last post, a better way to handle all those "Allow or Deny" pop ups is to silence them, sort of. Go to the site: http://www.tweak-uac.com/download/  to get the program Tweakuac.  Once you download this, just run the program and I suggest selecting the option "Switch UAC to the quiet mode" and this way you are still protected from malware programs but have not turned it off leaving yourself vulnerable as the last post described. Check it out at TweakUAC.

Every now and then you run across some tools or software or whatever that helps you out in you life and it just works. This is the case with the Stellar Phoenix Photo recovery program. I went looking for a program like this when my wife accidentally wiped our flash card with my son’s graduation photos among a bunch of others. We thought there was like 200 pictures on the card. Man, what a crisis!

Well, I can tell you this program rocks, and was actually able to restore about 790 pictures from that "wiped" card. It will recover all files even if there is holes in the data and holes in the picture. If your precious memories is only contained on that card, whatever you get back is appreciated. But in most cases, you get all back and then some. If you are local to me, and you are in this predicament, as I was, let me know and I would be glad to do a restore for you. Let me know.

Here is a link to the site to get your own copy.

Send me a question about it on cananet.com

I have watched videos from TyisTech before and I love what this kid does. I always learn something from him. It turns out that the new PSP Go no longer uses the UMD discs and is now going to a download only environment and they have their own APP store now. He also has an unboxing video that is good to watch.

Check out his review and the unboxing video too.

You can also go to his Youtube Channel for other videos at http://www.youtube.com/user/tyistech#play/uploads

I ran into this post over at Daily Cup of Tech which is a good read…

from Daily Cup of Tech by Tim Fehlman

A salesperson walks into your office today and tells you that you have to buy a new, pre-built, expensive desk for every one of your employees. You have to buy a new desk today and replace it every three to five years. Additionally, there are no options for the desk and you may not alter it in any way - one desk is all we make and you have to buy it from us. You see, you don’t really own the desk; you’re simply purchasing a license to use the desk. Chairs are sold separately and we have the corner on the market for chairs that are 100 percent compatible with the desk. The chairs are also very expensive.

Does that sound like a scenario in which you wish to participate? Preposterous, you say? Is it? Now, what if I told you that you do have a choice of desks? In fact, just across the street from your office is an entire mall filled with desks and chairs from which to choose. Here’s the exciting part: The desks in that mall are all free. That’s right, free. Take as many as you want. You want chairs? They’re free too. If you want to customize your desk - or even build one from scratch - you can. What’s stopping you? Go pick up your free desks and chairs.

I’m feeling your reluctance to load up on those free desks and chairs. What’s the problem? Do you believe that there’s something wrong with those desks because they’re free? The free desks and chairs are just as good as the expensive one, plus they’re customizable down to the most minute detail.

If you’re like most, you’ll opt for the “one size fits none” expensive desk. Having choices, even if the other choices are free, often doesn’t make it any easier to choose. Sometimes it’s a “follow the crowd” mentality. For example, if your insurance company, family physician, elementary school and engineering company all bought the expensive desks, who are you to go in some other direction? A mind of your own is a terrible thing to waste.

Who cares if, while using your expensive desk, you occasionally have to open all the drawers and reclose them for the desk to work properly. Again, it’s what everyone else bought and it’s good enough for him or her, so why should you go to the trouble of learning how a new desk works or messing about with some new-fangled chair? After all, if something goes terribly wrong with the desk, you only have to call the manufacturer and someone will fix it, right?

Wrong.

The desk manufacturer assumes no responsibility for the workmanship or the maintenance of your desk. That’s left to independent businesses or individuals who’ll charge you to fix the desk. The manufacturer releases semi-annual patch kits to fix any anomalies you find with your desk. However, there are numerous manufacturer freebies: Cute drawer handles, holographic arm rest decals and fun paperweights to make your desk-using experience more enjoyable.

One word of caution: You should make nightly copies of all your desk’s contents and store them in a larger, more expensive desk that no one uses. Yes, you have to buy a chair with that desk too. Don’t become too attached to your current desk (now that you have it arranged just as you want) - you have to upgrade to a newer, heavier and better version in a couple of years. Not to worry, if the new one is so cumbersome and unstable that your productivity slows to a crawl, the manufacturer will have a better version in a couple of years for you to buy. You’ll buy it and again you’ll be just like everyone else.

Does this entice anyone to want to learn Linux??? Let me know your thoughts.

Go to the Berean Website to download the sermon as shown below:

Just Right click on the High Speed entry that you want to view

and click on “Copy Link Location”

Now click on the Start Button and click on the VLC Media Player

Now click on Media > Advanced Open File

From that screen, click on the Network Tab then click on the Address bar. In that bar, right-click and then click paste.

At that point click the play button at the bottom, and this will start playing the file.

This one drives me crazy, so this is a good tip for Vista users

I am always getting questions about emails that might be phishing emails. In other words, they might get something from Ebay or their Bank that looks legitimate but is not. I always recommend that you do not click on any links in emails unless you are sure but here is a trick.
If you hover your mouse over the link but don’t click, then look down in the lower left of the browser, you will usually see the actual url to the link in that email. If it not the company that the email is about or has a domain extension that is another country, that is a good indicator that the email is a fake. It is always best to go directly to the site via your web browser to make sure.
Recently, Netcraft has posted a report on a large amount of phishing traffic out there regarding Citigroup banks and their  Customers…

You can read the rest of the post over at Netcraft

Technorati Tags: email, phishing, windows

I am a big fan of Current TV. I have been watching it more lately since the presidential campaign is winding down but this caught my eye over at arstechnica…

Starting at 7pm EST/4pm PST on November 4, Current will launch its
“Current Diggs the Election” coverage with streaming headlines, facts,
information, and commentary from Digg and Twitter. It will be the first
time that Digg will leap from from the PC to the television, and this
massive mashup of old and new media will be available to Current’s
58-million-plus worldwide household cable and Internet viewership.

Read the whole article here…

Technorati Tags: vista, windows 7

Found a review of Windows 7 over at Paul Thurott’s WinSupersite. His review has more there but it looks a lot like Vista with some new modifications. Notice the task bar at the bottom and it looks like the “Start” menu has more intuitiveness. Is that a word, anyway, check it out.

The Windows 7 M3 Start menu support pop-outs for icons so you can get to more places without mousing around.

Technorati Tags: vista, windows 7

As
technology advances, more and more people are actually very dependent
on computers. No matter personal or work related, it often involves
personal information or classified data.
Internet is another great
help in our life, like a forest full of resources. But people should
never forget, there are dangers lurking around the internet just like
beast in the forest, we call them viruses.

One of the more famous
Anti Virus Software is non other than Norton. It not only provides a
Virus Protection, but also Internet Security and Firewall. But the
biggest draw back is it’s yearly subscription fee and the fact that it is a Hog on system resources.
But for people
whom are unwilling to pay, there’s also many well-known free anti-virus
utilities which will do the job and are also well rounded in security.

Often friends will ask ‘What’s the best free Anti-Virus Software on the internet?’.
This answer really comes down to personal preference.

Let us start the ball rolling in the quest for Best Free Anti Virus Software.
This post, we will cover what is arguably the most effective and popular free anti-virus utility: Grisoft’s AVG Free Edition.

Like
many other Anti-Virus Software, Installation is straight forward. But
do make sure there is a free license included when installing.

During installation you will be prompted to choose to if you would like include the Toolbar.
This
comes back to personal preference, I never like to install any toolbar
as it makes my browser messy but AVG advises more web threats can be
avoided when using it.

Internet Explorer and Firefox have
already include good Phishing protection, so by having another toolbar
might be just an addition.
Here’s some detailed information from their site.

After a successful installation, a wizard begins to prompt for personal preference or setting for the utility.
But one most important step is to get the latest updates for the virus database.

Other settings includes scheduling daily scan and register your software with AVG.
You can go through the wizard or simply skip the process entirely as these settings can still be change later.

All settings and components can be access from the User Interface.
AVG Free Edition includes more than just anti-virus protection.
Other components include:

Anti-Spyware - Protects against malicious software applications
Email Scanner - Integrates with Outlook to scan email messages and attachments for Viruses and Spyware
Resident Shield - Real-time protection against viruses and malicious spyware

One unique point of AVG is it enables you to control the speed of Full system Scans.
The
faster the scan the more CPU processing power required, so if you wish
to continue using the computer while the scan is running choose a lower
scan speed.

This is also where you can also pause, start, or resume a scan.

There are also a surprising amount of settings and options for you to customize how AVG works.

Like all other Anti-Virus Software, Pop up notifications are shown on the Taskbar.

All
email messages will be scanned and this will be verified by a message
at the bottom of each email. Also, similar to other Anti-Virus
Software, AVG integrates into Windows Explorer so you can scan
individual files by right clicking.

Conclusion

AVG
is so popular for a reason: the user interface is attractive and quite
easy to use and there’s also a bunch of options available to allow you
to customize the behavior to your liking.
It also offers a lot of
components and options that are only available in the professional
version of other utilities, at the great price of free.

If you
have used AVG for a while please comment and let us know your thoughts
and opinions, or any recommended settings that you use.

Download AVG Free Edition For Windows

Tags: antivirus, avg