GuruNews, Volume 9 Number 2, 1-15-09

[Kevin-PC Gurus]

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Vol. 9, No. 2                   

1-15-09

 

1 And the results are in     

2 Um. Hi   

3 Windows 7, it's for the children, franchise slowdown, Google Giga-Earth

4 Information aplenty       

5 Threats intro

6 Chkdsk stuck

 

Last week I asked for feedback on the newsletter but wow, I didn't expect such a response!  I got emails in spades.  Below are a few excerpts:

 

"I like Guru News just as it is.  It is great to get warnings about threats and ways to avoid them.  I also truly appreciate your willingness to help a grandma like me when I have a question or need to know how to get my computer to behave itself!



As for having my name on any questions published, I would prefer having the choice to allow it or not each time."

 

"As I said last year the format is fine, I enjoy the layout, the stories the rants and raves and the cartoon.  Like most editoral type cartoons I may not always get it, but it is good never-the-less. I have seen too many of my favorite tech ezines get sucked into a black hole ezine who's name I won't mention, I am tickled that this one is staying independent!!



Regarding usage of names, email addresses, etc. I believe a good policy would be the one that says "We will not use your email address or name unless you specifically spell out in the email that we have your permission

to do so"....... thus you have written authorization from each individual. Thus preventing a lawyer from enjoying making money from this fine group. *grin*"

 

"My suggestion is to ask readers to put their question AND a name they want to use (whole name, first name, nickname, etc) on their question, in the body of the e-mail.  If no name is provided, then "Name withheld by request" would be the default."

 

"Hello!  You all publish an excellent newsletter.  I believe that for the following reasons. (1) You provide information about needed products that are available at no cost or low cost.  AVG is an example of this.  (2) You explain when and why there is a problem between the big wigs in the computer world, i.e. Microsoft and Apple.  (3) You provide detailed explanations for fixing things on a computer.  It might be too complicated for me but I know there are plenty of people who will be able to take  your instructions and accomplish their goal.  I usually have to call in an expert.  I think the commentaries are just fine.  I like to hear someone give me their opinion on their studied observation of events.  Yes I look forward to your newsletter.  As for the signed or unsigned email.  People could choose that option when they submit something.  Anyway thank you for being in my world."

 

That brief overview shows basically the unanimous consensus.  Overall the newsletter is fine as is, threat warnings are good, free software is good, sometimes I get a little complicated and everyone would like to be able to opt in for their name to be used.

 

I've always felt the basic structure was sound with a mix of leads, the cartoon to stimulate a little thought on the subject, the news flashes on technologies and political/private sector happenings, a fun or useful site/download and a common or interesting question.  It covers a lot of ground on a variety of subjects and everyone should find something interesting or useful.

 

When major threats hit the Internet we report them, but daily there are new threats introduced that may not be as widespread but can do a lot of damage.  That section starts this week.

 

As I mentioned above, the Download of the Week has a good tool or fun site every week and as a general rule they are all free.  There may be a way to gather these together on the website, I'll have to talk to Ed about adding a page for it (Ed loves me when I toss his name around ;)).

 

I DO occasionally get complicated; I'll be the first to admit it.  I try my best to keep things in plain English but sometimes there just isn't a good analogy.  If I get too deep or lose you please, email me.  I'm more than happy to spend the time trying to clarify.  One of the main reasons we're here is to make this box that takes up so much of our time less mysterious, after all.

 

For the name issue, you came through loud and clear.  Often there isn't time to email you individually to request permission if your email is chosen for something due to deadline.  Yet another thing to discuss with Ed, maybe we can add a choice to the Mail Form where you can choose yay or nay.  I'll keep you posted on it, but if you specifically want to allow it just mention it in your emails.

 

So there you have it, welcome to GuruNews 2009!

 

Kevin Mefford, Editor

pcguru at microdome.net

 

 



 

Terry Wise

www.ratland.com

 

 

Tech News of the Week
 

Microsoft hopes that the release of Windows 7 will solve problems
ranging from desktop clutter to what Vista did to Microsoft's public
reputation:

http://tinyurl.com/9nlc7w


A long awaited report from the Internet Safety Technical Task Force
concludes that children and teens are less vulnerable to sexual
predation than many have feared:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-19518_3-10142096-238.html

"Guitar Hero III" is the first video game to surpass $1 billion in
sales, but the current iterations of both that franchise and MTV's
"Rock Band" sold fewer copies last year in the U.S. than their
predecessors:

http://tinyurl.com/7dsq8m


The digital globe app Google Earth is getting new imagery from inside
buildings. One, at least: a new layer gives viewers gigapixel
(ultra-high-resolution) photos of artwork from inside the Prado Museum
in Madrid, Spain:

http://www.download.com/8301-2007_4-10142156-12.html

Copy us on the good stuff


Matthew Dattilo
www.mattstodayinhistory.com

thepcgurus at gmail.com

 

 

Download of the Week
 

Want to know what's inside that PC case?  You can ask the SIW tool anything about your PC--it'll give you a list of regional settings or scheduled tasks, or which DLLs are loaded and which are shared. How about which video and audio codecs you have installed, or details about your network or open ports? SIW has everything, offering lists that you can easily access from toolbar shortcuts or from a panel with a hierarchy list.

 

By the way, because this version of SIW is a stand-alone utility that you don't need to install, it'll run directly from a USB flash drive, a floppy (if you still have one), a burned rescue CD, or a network drive.

 

Be careful: Unless you uncheck the Add Crawler Toolbar to IE and Firefox box during the installation, SIW will automatically install that toolbar and make it your default search provider.  It's free here: http://www.softpedia.com/progDownload/SIW-Download-15757.html 

 

Carlita Lupino

Cards57 at gmail.com

 

 

Threat of the Week
 

Rather than dive right in this week, here are some definitions to get us started.  Most of these may be familiar but I've never mentioned some of them:

 

Phishing:  An attempt through an email or pop-up window to mislead users into entering personal information including user names, passwords and account information into fraudulent websites.

 

Exploit:  A malicious activity that takes advantage of known security flaws in browsers, email clients and web servers.

 

Session:  Any active connection, such as one involving online banking or shopping, that involves logging into an account.  The session ends when the user logs out.

 

Malware:  Catchall phrase encompassing viruses, spyware and adware.

 

Bot and BotNet:  A bot is a computer hijacked through a variety of means, usually exploits, that allow remote code execution for an individual or group for malicious purposes.  A botnet is a group of such zombie computers when used in concert to launch attacks or distribute spam or phishing emails.

 

DDoS:  Distributed Denial of Service, usually by sending multiple small data packets continuously from a BotNet.

 

Most of the other terms I'll be using are common to our language at this point so there's no need to define them all.  If the need comes up in the future I'll define new terms at that point.

 

Kevin Mefford

Pcguru at microdome.net 

 

 

Email Question of the Week
 

Q:  Suddenly, every time I turn on or reboot my system the following
message appears: "A disk check has been scheduled - press any key
within 10 seconds to stop". I have let it continue and it goes thru 4
or 5 stages. The last one takes forever and nothing is ever found to
be wrong. I have not set up anything that I know of to schedule a disk
check at next boot up or restart. I have seen this before when doing a
disk check; the system says it will do a check on next startup but
this is happening all the time. I'm using XP Pro. Any ideas how to
stop this? I've been just hitting a key within 10 seconds to stop the
scan. Let me know what you think.I also use Avast and Malewarebytes.
Nothing shows up using these when scanning for problems.

 

A:  When you have to shut a PC off hard, like when it locks up,
Windows doesn't log a successful shutdown and it wants to run a Chkdsk
on startup.  It will continue to prompt for that until you let it run,
then it should stop doing it.



Reboot it tonight when you're ready to hit the sheets and then
just leave it alone.  Once it finishes (overnight if needed) you
should be OK.



If it continues after that it might indicate a problem with the
hard drive that you should have checked soon.  And make sure your
backups are current.

 

Kevin Mefford

pcguru at microdome.net

 

 

Contact info and legal stuff
 

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