Technology – kenahrens.com

2011-05-092011-05-09

Viruses and Malware

I work in the Computer Service industry and most of the Viruses and Malware we have been seeing in the store are easily avoided.

The first and most important tip is to make sure that all of your Software / Programs and your operating system are up to date.

This includes.

Windows updates. (Microsoft updates Preferred as they include updates for Office Programs)

Adobe Products ( Flash Player and Acrobat reader)

Java

A properly functioning Anti Virus Program is critical to the continued health of your system. Norton Anti Virus, Webroot Spysweeper with Anti Virus are some of the good anti virus programs available.

Do not spend Extra Money on Internet Security Suites they will only slow your system down.

In Canada the two biggest ISP’s Telus and Shaw both offer Internet Security Solutions that are relatively ineffective and will cause lots of performance issues unless your PC is very fast.

Java Updates

Windows will by default install the updates automatically however Adobe and Java will just inform you that they are available. Do Not ignore these messages, run these updates as soon as possible.

The Hackers /Virus Malware Authors are taking advantage of security flaws in the older versions of Java are probably the biggest source of problems we are currently seeing. One of the reasons for this is that even if there are two or three updates for Java in a month, the program only checks once a month for the updates.

The second Issue is that that they allow you to set the update period to less such as daily or weekly but after Java does install an update, it resets the update period to monthly again.

We recommend that you manually check for updates weekly as well as manually checking for Windows Updates and performing a complete Scan of your hard Drive with your anti-virus software.

How to Check for Java updates manually.

1:The Java Application Panel is located in your control panel.

In Windows XP you may have to select switch to classic view to see the JAVA Icon.

In Windows Vista select Classic View on left panel.

In Windows 7 you need to change the View by: Category to View by: Small Icons Top right of Window.

The Icon you are looking for will look like this.

Windows 7 64bit

In XP and Vista 32 bit.

When you open this you will see the following.

The Second Tab is for updates. It will also tell you when the last update was run. In this case December 6^th 2010.

Click the update Now button and it will go out and check for updates. If it finds one you will see the following window open.

When you click on the install button it can take a little while for the Setup Program to Start.

You should close the Java control Panel before continuing the install.

If you notice a small Orange Icon similar to the one displayed on the Java Control Panel in your System tray this means Java has automatically downloaded and update and needs your permission to install it.

If you go into your Add Remove Programs (XP) or Programs and Features (Vista, Windows 7) and notice multiple versions of Java installed please remove all of them by uninstalling them, and then install the latest version from JAVA.com.

If you have more than one listed they are all installed and you can be vulnerable to old security flaws even if the latest version is installed as well.

Adobe Acrobat Reader.

The latest Version is Version 10. If you are running an older version than this you should uninstall the older version and then install the latest version of the adobe reader from www.adobe.com.

The new versions ( 9 or 10) will let you know when an update is available to install.

Adobe Flash Player.

Again Make sure you have the latest version installed from the Adobe web site. It will then let you know when additional updates are needed.

2011-05-07

Weblog Client–Windows Live Writer

In the last post I used Microsoft work 2010 as my weblog client. I did like the interface and all the editing tools that were available to me however I could not figure out how to add more than 1 category to the post.

Setting the tags was also not something that stood out for me.

So far Windows Live writer seems to be ahead of the group as it also allows me to preview the post much easier than was available in the other options tested so far.

Inserting images seems fairly easy however the wrapping of text took a bit longer for me to figure out.

Setting up of the account to post in all cases has been fairly easy with just a bit of a learning curve required on the setup for Adobe’s Contribute.

The one big advantage I see with Word will be the ability to set up everything in a word document and copy and past it directly into a post.

So far Zoundry – Is out of the running.

Adobe Contribute, I will take another look at. I may have missed some features that were turned off by default.

Microsoft Word 2010, Ok very familiar interface, Did not mess up the post after publishing it however I was disappointed with the lack of a decent preview and the Tag and catagory setting was not up to what i would expect.

Live writer seems to be the winner so far however I plan on looking a little farther before settling on one.

Thanks for reading.

Ken

2011-05-07

WordPress Weblog Client – Microsoft word 2010

In this continuation of my testing of weblog clients, I am testing the posting ability built into Microsoft word, 2010.

The previous post was made using Adobe contribute. It worked OK but seemed a little slow to respond and update. I did like the fact that it was very easy to add an image and configure the way the text wrapped around the image. It also automatically resized the image for the blog.

When writing this post I already like it as I am already used to using Word and the spell and grammar checking ability’s it offers.

2011-05-072011-05-07

Weblog Clients

Lenovo X220 Laptop I am currently testing a couple of Different Weblog Clients for use in posting to my blog with the hopes that a better interface than that built into wordpress itself will let me post more often with better formatting and fewer errors.

Hopefully I will be able to find something that will allow for Spell checking as well as Grammar and also allow me to post easily and add images without a complicated two step process where the image has to be loaded separately from the post itself.

The first I tried was Zoundry. Which is now in a beta stage being rebranded as Zoundry Raven. I don’t know if it was just the beta status but I had two many errors and had to go back an correct some of the post with the web based editor in WordPress. Needless to say, It is now removed from the system and on to the next option.

I have included an image of the Lenovo X220 Laptop in this post to see how hard it is to add an image to a post and how well the software handles the formatting and wrapping of the text around the image.

2011-05-072011-05-07

Eye Fi Pro – Update

A couple of quick updates on the Eye-fi Card.

Eye-fi has released new firmware that allow use without a router. The Eye-Fi card itself now can act as an access point allowing you to download your photo’s directly to your laptop or iPad without having an active wi-fi connection/router available/configured.

It works pretty well however you do not have the ability to change the SSID you are connecting to or the WPA2 Password for the card. It can be a bit tricky setting it up for the first time.

Secondly I have recived a CF adapter and have tested it with the eye-fi card. The good news It works, The bad news, range is drastically reduced.

Using the Eye-fi card in my Nikon P7000 point and shoot. I can send from anywhere in the house and the images show up very rapidly on my laptop. With the Card in the adapter and in my D300 I can send the images to the laptop from about 30ft away ( thru 3 walls) but any further and the images don’t transfer until I get back into range. As well it seems to take quite a bit longer to send the images when only 2 walls were in the way.

This is probaly due to the metal in the card adapter as well as the heavier metal in the body of the D300 sheilding the transmission. I did not have any problems when shooting in the same room, so I expect that in a studio enviroment or at a trade show where you are in an open area you would not have any issues.