This Month:

Four Letter "F" Word

At the Shop

Frivolous Lawsuits

Y2K Again?

Network Disconnect

VoIP Troubles

Different Spam Approach?

Keep It Updated!

Laptop Theft

More Individuals Sued

Anti-? Applications

Adware/Spyware

AOL

FYI

Batch Files

Laugh a Little

We are PC correct but not necessarily when it comes to humor.. :-)

Any suggestions, recommendations or ideas found on this site are applied at your own risk.

September - 2005
11th year in business		8th year of newsletters

Have problems or ideas you would like to have us address? Let us know!
Like most sites, this one is designed for an 800x600 screen resolution.
For previous newsletters click here. (Web Printing Hints)

A Few Reminders...

If you have a new computer: Save your orignal CDs!
No Operating System Restore CD? See our July 05 Newsletter

Be sure to activate the antivirus application immediately!
If your new computer is more than *90 days old, or
if you have not paid for a subscription within the last year,
your antivirus application is out-of-date and you are not protected. More details on this issue in the 0302 newsletter.

* Many new computers come with a 90-day free trial version, but after that period you must pay to renew the subscription. Wonder if your antivirus is up-to-date? Click here

Looking to buy a new computer:

Click here for some ideas that may help your decision.

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Fall
(That four letter "F" word we are sorry to utter)

At the Shop

Due to "restructuring," sometime by mid October, we will be discontinuing retail sales for items like printer ink, paper, labels, etc. Ben Franklin will apparently continue to offer these types of products for the Annandale area.

We appreciate everyone's support over the past few years but the retail end of the business is distracting from what we do best: customer service and computer repair.

Frivolous Lawsuits

Soon to be under control? H.R. 420 if passed would curtail many of these frivolous lawsuits, e.g. a youth baseball coach being sued for a winless season or the couple that sued a Health spa because the husband began a cyberspace romance. More examples of our runaway litigative society here.

The proposed bills: http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h109-420 and http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h109-554

Will Y2K-like Problems Reoccur?

If the proposed changes to daylight savings time pass, there may be minor problems for many electronic devices. Microsoft indicates a Windows update will make this transition seamless but devices that do not receive automatic updates may become date/time confused. The article

Network Disconnect

Intel is currently testing Automatic Network Outbreak Containment with good results. So future machines, when infected, will automatically close all network connections stopping the virus from spreading.

If this technology existed in (all) computers today, as many as one million machines would be denied access to the Internet and the owners would be forced to address the problem.

More and more Internet Service Providers are watching for viruses and pulling the plug, but unfortunately there are just too many that do not. Consequently the Internet is alive with viruses.

Have a VoIP Phone System?

Maybe not for long!

An estimated 100,000 VoIP customers may find their phone system will not work by the end of the month. Original article and a follow-up Deadline Extended

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A Different Approach to Spam?

One of our customers recently received this interesting email message:

Subject: order

Hello Sale,s,
I am shola clegg, i am intrested in your product and also to know whether you do ship international and do accept credit card. If so kindly let me have the list of your product and their price each or do give me your website to browse through. Here is my address so that can calculate the shipping cost on them each; 54 martins street, mushin, lagos-state. 23401. nigeria.

We especially love this next part...

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail .yahoo.com

Keep It Updated!

Windows XP machines, without Service Pack 2 are vulnerable to attack and takeover. Without SP2, visiting the "wrong site" may download and install a key logging application without your knowledge. Earlier versions of Windows (98, ME and 2000) may be at risk even with all available updates in place. The article

Have a Laptop?

In 2003, 600,000 computers were stolen in the United States. Microsoft article.

But in addition to the Microsoft article's hints, we suggest the following (Windows XP only):

Password the login account and use a good password! A combination of letters, numbers and even special characters such as @#$%, etc.
Be sure all your data is in your "My Documents" folder (more on this here), then make the folder private as explained here.

Still File Sharing?

The Motion Picture Association of America filed 286 lawsuits against individuals that used a peer-to-peer file sharing network to trade movies. The article

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Anti-? Applications

Antispyware and antivirus are not synonymous, but do you need both? Maybe!

All machines need a good Antivirus application!

You will not need AntiSpyware software if you are running Windows XP with all the latest service packs and patches and you:

have not installed any Internet Junk, and

have not been hijacked, and

are behind a good firewall.

If however you have installed junk, been hijacked, are not behind a firewall or are running any operating system other than Windows XP with all the latest patches, you likely need an antispyware application. But which one?

We have seen many computers with various different antispyware applications but none have thrilled us. Here are a couple reviews but keep in mind, the results may have been be swayed by sponsorship. Review 1 Review 2

Adware/Spyware

It is estimated that 80% of home users' computers are infected with spyware of some kind and most are unaware of the problem.
Webroot names their top threats starting with CoolWebSearch, followed by Elite Bar, PowerScan, Look2Me, PurityScan, Clkoptimizer, 180search Assistant, Web Search Toolbar, ISTbar and aBetterInternet in that order.
We have run across some of these and although most offered an "uninstaller" via the Control Panel's Add/Remove Programs, a few did not uninstall!
It was then necessary to manually remove the adware/spyware. In a couple cases we could not remove the application at all, making it necessary to format the drive and reinstall Windows.

Nag, Nag, Nag: DO NOT INSTALL INTERNET JUNK!

AOL

When does "cancel my subscription" not mean cancel the subscription? AOL found out the expensive way... more on this

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Batch Files (Description)

"DOS Ain't Dead" (yet), in fact, we use it a lot. One very useful command is Xcopy. Unlike the copy command of earlier Windows, Xcopy maintains the long file name. Additionally it can copy the folder structure. Much more on the Xcopy command here

We use the Xcopy command for backing up files. Xcopy is a very straightforward and logical command. It copies whatever you specify to wherever you specify.

Example: Xcopy C:\*.* D:\ would copy all files (*.*) found on the C: drive (root) to the D: drive.

So if you want to backup (copy) all of the files found in your My Documents folder to the D:\ drive, you could create a batch file with this command line.

xcopy "C:\Documents and Settings\Username\My Documents\*.*" D:\ /E /Y

The /E switch tells Xcopy to include all subfolders (and files), e.g.,
My Documents\My Pictures and the /Y switch tells Xcopy to replace files (with the same name) found on the destination drive without prompting.

The term "batch" means multiple commands so a single batch file could have many individual lines, example:

xcopy "C:\Documents and Settings\Username\My Documents\*.*" D:\ /E /Y
xcopy "C:\Program Files\Intuit\Quicken\qdata.*" D:\ /E /Y
xcopy "C:\Program Files\Intuit\QuickBooks\mycompany.*" D:\ /E /Y

Notice the above lines are enclosed in quotes. This is necessary because of spaces in the folder names. Failure to use quotes would result in Xcopy interpreting the source as C:\Documents rather than C:\Documents and Settings\...

More on using Xcopy to backup and m ore on using wildcard characters (*.*)

Create a Batch File

The easiest way to create a batch file is via Notepad.
Start menu > Run "notepad"

Type your batch file command line(s), save and close the notepad file, then change it from a TXT extension to a BAT extension.

If you cannot see file extensions, click here.

Remember, computers do what you instruct them to do!
A batch file could potentially replace files
you do not want replaced.

So think, backup and test before using batch files!

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You know you're living in 2005 when (Thanks Tom):

1. You accidentally enter your password on the microwave.

2. You haven't played solitaire with real cards in years.

3. You have a list of 15 phone numbers to reach your family of 3.

4. You e-mail the person who works at the desk next to you.

5. Your reason for not staying in touch with friends and family is that they don't have e-mail addresses.

6. You go home after a long day at work and you still answer the phone in a business manner.

7. You make phone calls from home, you accidentally dial "9" to get an outside line.

8. You've sat at the same desk for four years and worked for three different companies.

10. You learn about your redundancy on the 10 o'clock news.

11. Your boss doesn't have the ability to do your job.

12. You pull up in your own driveway and use your cell phone to see if anyone is home.

13. Every TV commercial has a web address at the bottom of the screen.

14. Leaving the house without your cell phone, which you didn't have the first 20 or 30 (or 60) years of your life, is now a cause for panic and you turn around to go and get it.

15. You get up in the morning and go on-line before getting your coffee.

16. You start tilting your head sideways to smile. :)

17. You're reading this and nodding and laughing.

18 . Even worse, you know exactly to whom you are going to forward this message.

19. You are too busy to notice there was no #9 on this list.

20. You actually scrolled back up to check that there wasn't a #9 on this list.