Computer Tips -Tech Info

Tag: ANYTHING

  • The Cost of Running a PC 24 Hours a Day

    I saw an interesting question over at slashdot on the topic of how many companies actually had their employees power down their PC’s overnight. The site in question had about 8000 PCs about half of which stayed powered on overnight. There’s a lot of talk these days about “going green”. I’ve always been interested in the idea of conservation because it just makes sense to not be wasteful where it’s possible. So, as many of you know already I have somewhere around as many hobbies as there have been Presidential debates this last year…. At one point in time I’ve spent a lot of time working with off-grid power ideas (built a small somewhat portable emergency power system with solar/car recharge capabilities.) And if you’ve ever seriously looked at alternative energy you know that you need to learn about power consumption…. so based on what I learned here are some things to think about…

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  • Microsoft Issues advisory on Powerpoint flaw

    Here’s the link to Microsoft’s advisory. The main workaround seems to be…. Don’t open or save powerpoint attachments that you receive from untrusted sources, OR that you receive unexpectedly from trusted sources…. So, the only real workaround is what SHOULD be common practice. Whether or not there is a vulnerability in the news you should always be cautious with receiving file attachments. ANYTHING unexpected, even from a trusted source, should be verified “out of channel”.

  • Windows Vista Beta 2 download torrent

    After spending about 5 days using wget to resume the download of the vista beta 2 .iso file (which is a bit over 3 GB). I finally gave up seeing as how that 5 days had netted me about 2-3 MB of data. As I started looking around online, I found that Chris Pirillo had got a site up vistatorrent.com where he is hosting a tracker for a bittorrent download of the vista iso. Of course, Microsoft recommends that you order the dvd and wait, but Chris has provided md5sum information so you can check your download. I’m up to 25% done now *(I discovered the torrent about 24 hours ago, although last night I didn’t download.) I let it download part of the afternoon and then remembered to restart this morning. So, it’s making pretty quick progress.

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  • Using .htaccess to ALLOW directory browsing

    By default the apache install for most sites now restricts directory browsing. It’s a good idea, you don’t want just ANYTHING to be browsable on a web server, but there comes a time that it makes life easier for a directory (or tree of directories) to be browsable without having to write (copy and paste) links to a bunch of files. Fortunately, .htaccess files can be used for many things and this, of course, is one of them…

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  • Kaffeine no sound

    Ok – so now post upgrade to Mandriva 2006 I sit down to try something out. Put a dvd in the drive and see what happens. I rarely sit and watch dvd’s on the desktop, but it’s always been a possibility… So, when I pop the disc in, kaffeine pops up with it’s “install” sequence – checks to see what’s on the system and what’s not what version of kde, libdvdcss, dvd, dvb hardware, etc….

    So, the disc pops up and no sound…. hmm. maybe it’s just kaffeine…

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  • Another example of how we’re vulnerable for identity theft

    The SecurityFix is reporting on a security breech at reevesnamepins.com a company that supplies (among others) law enforcement personnel. Apparently, CardCops (which monitors for possible stolen data), discovered names and addresses of several law enforcement officers from across the country. The common denominator seemed to be recent orders at reevesnamepins.com and the company has confirmed a recent security breech.

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  • Most home pc users lacking on PC security…

    Surprise!!… ummm wait, no… This article has come out while I’ve been in the midst of cleaning up a Windows ME pc that has been “0\/\/ned” (owned/controlled…) by someone other than the owner for a bit over 15 months. The system had NO antivirus, no firewall (no antispyware) and used dialup for internet. (That much said, this is probably the most infected dialup system I’ve seen… 30-100 virii, 230+spyware remnants/etc.) Anyway…. the article from cnet news claims that a recent survey found 81% of home pc users lacked either

    at least one of three types of critical security–a firewall, updated antivirus software or anti-spyware protection

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  • So many things so little time…..

    The last month has been quite busy as is evidenced by so few postings here…. Of course, the majority of what I do is on-site computer service and sometimes that explodes to fill most every moment of most every day leaving little time for “un-necessary” things like this… nothing big seems to be popping today, so I may get to write a few things.
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