GuruNews, Volume 8 Number 37, 10-9-08

Thu Oct 9 20:24:50 EDT 2008

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Vol. 8, No. 37                 

10-9-08

1 The BIOS            

2 Oops!       

3 More iPhone clones, Google goggles, hackin' Palin, clickjacking, Google stalking

4 Advanced photo editor

5 Remove OE

I've mentioned the BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) many times in the past but I don't believe I ever explained it.  It's time for that to change.

The BIOS firmware is installed on a programmable chip on the motherboard and controls the low-level configuration and activities of a PC.  Firmware is basically a software program imbedded into a hardware device so it's kind of a combination of the two.

The BIOS maintains the date and time, detects and configures your drives and RAM and contains settings to change the boot order of the drives.  Newer machines even allow you to insert USB devices as bootable drives.

It also enables you to enable and disable functionality like support for Legacy USB devices (this needs to be on in order to use a USB keyboard outside of Windows) as well as onboard devices such as the audio and ethernet ports.  This allows you to upgrade to a faster network connection or upgrade to higher end sound.

Those are a few of the simple settings you can change but it goes much deeper, and gets much more dangerous.  On some high-end boards you can alter the CPU and DRAM clocks, change voltages for over clocking and alter alarm temperatures.

There are sections to control the power saving modes, set system passwords and even to turn the PC on for incoming network connections.  

The good thing is there are failsafes in case you change something that causes serious problems.  If you can get into the BIOS there are selections to reset defaults, but if the machine won't even boot it becomes slightly more complicated.

A hardware reset is possible by moving a jumper on the motherboard, which is usually located near the battery, called a CMOS, which maintains the settings.  Move the jumper, power up then back down and move the jumper back to its original position.     

Keep in mind that if this happens to a laptop you may be in a world of hurt.  They don't have a jumper to reset the system and, even if they did, the machine would have to be partially disassembled to get to it.

Just accessing the BIOS in the first place can sometimes be frustrating.  It varies across the industry but usually it's F1, F2 or Del.  It is generally displayed somewhere on the manufacturer's splash screen when you first fire the system up, but not always.  Plus modern computers boot past that screen so rapidly that often you never get a chance to look for it.

Regardless, it's not a bad idea to access the BIOS and just look around.  Familiarize yourself with the basic settings and where the different options are, just so you know what it looks like and how it's laid out.

Just don't change anything until there's a need to.

Kevin Mefford, Editor

pcguru at microdome.net

Terry Wise

www.ratland.com

Tech News of the Week

Research In Motion, the company behind the Blackberry name, showed off the Storm on Wednesday, the company's latest touchscreen-based smartphone:

http://tinyurl.com/4rmyjs  

Have you ever sent a late-night e-mail you regretted the next morning?  Evidently, the folks at Google have done the same thing:

http://blogs.pcworld.com/staffblog/archives/007897.html

A Tennessee man has been indicted for hacking into Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin's personal e-mail account, the Justice Department said on Wednesday:

http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSTRE497ATS20081009

Details about the cross-platform browser exploitation technique known as "clickjacking" have started to emerge. Among the more alarming ways it can be used: covertly watching and listening to people who have microphones and Webcams attached to their computers:

http://tinyurl.com/43qz8a 

Google Maps is going high-definition with GeoEye-1, a satellite launched by GeoEye, an aerial and geospatial information company:

http://www.crn.com/hardware/210800708

Matthew Dattilo

thepcgurus at gmail.com 

www.mattstodayinhistory.com

Download of the Week

"If you are a user of any sort of Wide-angle lens, or indeed just using a normal lens at wide aperture, then you will without doubt have had the inevitable convergence or proportional distortion that can spoil a good pic. No prog will work miracles in such cases, and indeed there are one or two other programs that include some adjustment for this - but Shift-N is just for this alone, is very easy to work with , and in fact in the situations where it does give the desired result , it is literally just a two-click program."- ericN2

That blurb above is from a satisfied user of ShiftN.  Since I'm just a "point and shoot" kinda photog whose editing skills are limited to removing "red eye", I'll have to let you folks decide about this week's download.

It's free here: 

http://tinyurl.com/52a2jj 

Carlita Lupino

Cards57 at gmail.com 

Email Question of the Week

Q:  I just had Microsoft Update download XP SP3 to my computer. Now I notice a shortcut to Outlook Express in my Programs start menu. I refuse to use it. Is there any way I can uninstall it, or should I just delete the shortcut and pretend it doesn't exist, even though it is using valuable computer real estate? Any advice is appreciated.

A:  Your best bet is to just delete the shortcut and forget about it.

While OE can be removed, it is a very involved procedure that requires editing the Windows registry, a process that can potentially hose the Windows XP OS if mistakes are made.

If you've never configured Outlook Express as your email client, it is doing nothing but occupying a little hard-drive space and presents no threat.

Good Luck,

Art Maley

artman at gmail.com

Contact info and legal stuff

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