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Sunday, September 25, 2005

Tech News

Firefox users: update now!

A very complete example for taking advantage of the most recent Firefox security flaw has been posted on the net. Time to upgrade to 1.0.7.

Is Google getting into the free wi-fi business? Some think so.

Who needs Google wi-fi? Lenovo, HP, and Dell plan to ship laptops with Verizon EV-DO wireless built-in.

The Common Malware Enumeration Initiative is a plan to come up with unified names for viruses. It’s about time. Every antivirus company uses a different name, which complicates remediation for end-users.

It’s a free browser. The ad-free version of Opera is now free. So how does the company make money?

Jeff in Santa Ana adds - A wonderful example of irony: If you want to use one of Opera’s older, slimmer versions for free, you have to get a crack.

A new virus discovered Wednesday infects Symbian cell phones then, in a first, attempts to copy itself to the user’s PC.

The Authors’ Guild is suing Google over its plan to index books.

The FCC is set to approve two big phone mergers. Verizon-MCI and SBC-AT&T.

11a-Noon

Richard in Fullerton - do I need an AV on both computers?

Yes.

Jim in Gilbert, AZ - Software and hardware firewalls

I don’t think you need a software firewall if you have a hardware router unless you want to protect your computers from other computers on your own network. An example of this is the Zotob worm which was introduced into CNN’s network when workers brought back infected laptops on Monday. This is a complicated and sometimes controversial topic. Read more at GRC.com or listen to our Security Now podcast on the subject - Episode 3. Even the built-in Windows firewall would be sufficient to protect yourself from intra-network infections.

For most Windows users you should have:
1. A router (which acts as a firewall)
2. Anti-spyware
3. Anti-virus

Ryan in Los Angeles - designing your first web site

I use Macromedia’s DreamWeaver - but it’s expensive and can be overwhelming. On the other hand, you’ll never outgrow it. You might look at Contribute, also from Macromedia. It’s under $100 and very easy to use. Both are WYSIWYG editors - they work like word processers, creating the HTML for you. There’s an excellent free HTML editor called MatrixY2K that I recommend for editing.

An open source option worth a look is nVu

Bryan in Bloomington, IN adds - I’ve used nvu and like it a lot. It is WYSIWYG and similar to DreamWeaver.

If you’d prefer to focus on content over web design, I recommend using one of the free Blogging services like Blogger or Typepad.

If you want to set up a message board, too, get ready to geek out. I use the excellent commercial program Fusion, but the free phpBB is very good too.

Matt McInerney in Deerfield, MA adds -I’ve always used a product called Cutecast. It’s free from a company called Artscore. Check here to download: http://www.artscore.net/cutecast/index.shtml
One tip: try downloading older version of the message board, because the new 2.0 feels a little cluttered to me, while the older version has just what you need.

Jacob in Barberton, OH adds - I recommend the WYSIWYG Web Builder it’s completely free and works great. I use it to build my web site, check it out: Techno Talk

Donald in Palm City, FL - Mac antiviruses

They exist, but you don’t need one. There are no Mac viruses, and there hasn’t been one in years. Which is not to say there won’t be, but for now you’re safe.

Noon-1p

Kelly in Anaheim - recovering deleted partitions

He accidentally deleted a number of NTFS partitions. How can he recover them? Something like Stellar Phoenix should work, but I haven’t tried it. Any recommendations?

A second question: will Ghost or True Image back up deleted partitions?

I just recovered all files from a drive that was repartitioned and reformatted NTFS.
I used the Linux dd command to make an image of the drive, then I tried every free util I could find to restore the data. None worked. I restored the image back to the drive after I tried each one because each made a mess of the drive. I switched to paid software and tried a bunch of demos.

I settled on EasyRecovery from http://www.ontrack.com. It runs $200, but it’s worth it. I slaved the reformatted drive into a WinXP system, ran EasyRecovery and told it to recover files. I tried the partition recovery, but it did not work. Recover files found every file and copied them to my other drive without touching the reformatted drive. It’s the only tool I have found so far that does that. It worked perfect and recovered all 6GB of data in 45 minutes.

Ontrack offers a free demo that will show you what files it sees on your system and lets you view them, but not restore.
—Porch Light of DOOM!!!

Richard in Costa Mesa offers:
Search & Recover from iolo (http://www.iolo.com) claims “Recover anything from everything” and it has “Built-in drive, CD, and DVD mirroring-technology”, which will allow you to image the drive with the deleted files, so that you can restore to your hearts content w/o jeopardizing your data.
“Search and Recover’s disk imaging preserves data the right way by backing up all files - not just those you can still see”.
I own the software, but I haven’t had the time to recover that hard drive I’ve been holding onto for the last year.
I picked up my copy at a local store for $2 after rebates. If you can wait; watch the Friday & Sunday computer store ads for deals.
I’ve tried recovering it previously, w/a couple of different products, but w/o success.
I believe the problem was compounded by Norton Undelete, which attempted to recover the files on the source drive, instead of giving me the option to save the data to another drive, like every other software product did.
iolo does provide a 30 day trial version of the product, so you can try it before you buy.
I don’t know if it will actually let you recover any of the data using the trial product, but it may allow you to view or play the file.
If I get a chance to try the software anytime soon, I will update this entry with the results.

-
I have tried several programs for recovering deleted partitions in the past and the best one according to me is Acronis DiskDirector. It’s a $60 program, but worth it if you have valuable data. It supports FAT, NTFS, HPFS, Linux etc filesystem and you can boot it if your os partition is corrupt.
/Acceon

Jeremy in Foothill Ranch - copying songs from iPod in Windows

He wants to copy his songs from his iPod - including play counts and ratings. Any suggestions?

josh_mini in Nashville, TN adds - If he has access to a Mac a great program for restoring your iPod to iTunes is Senuti

Jacob in Barberton, OH adds - I recommend YamiPod it’s a windows program and works great for transferring your songs from your iPod back to your computer.

Brian in Pensacola, FL adds - If you’re on Windows, use the wonderful ephPod. It lets you copy songs from the iPod to your computer as well as transfer songs to it. Best of all, its free.

Tim in Australia adds - I use a Windows program called PodPlus, which not only copies songs from the Ipod to your hard drive, but also imports them into iTunes with their ratings and playcounts. Also, be very careful not to run iTunes with your ipod attached before you have restored your music to the PC, it may just synchronise and delete everything off your ipod!

Mark in Santa Ana - Firefox keeps asking me for a floppy

Type about:config and look for an entry pointing to A:. You might also delete your profile (you can make a copy of the bookmarks.html file to save your bookmarks).

The ThinkPad Z60 is the first notebook to offer built-in EV-DO compatibility.

Delores in Apple Valley - Quicken can’t read my backup

She backed up to floppy and now Quicken can’t load it. I suggest copying the file from the floppy to Quicken’s normal data folder. Floppy drives are unreliable.

Chris in Riverside - dad won’t let me buy a Mac

Let’s come up with a list of Mac programs that will drive Windows users crazy with envy.

Quicksilver or Launchbar
Textpander

George adds
We have a OS that doesnt have virus’s or spyware, I think thats great
oh and we have Ilife!

Ed from Poulsbo Wa. adds

 Mac Only programs that are great:

-OSXPlanet - Real time World on your desktop showing Sun, Earthquakes,Storms,etc.

             http://gabrielotte.com/osxplanet.html

-Icon Organizer that acts like iTunes - Pixadex

             http://www.iconfactory.com/px_home.asp

-A real cool Performance Monitor with Skins (called Jackets)called iPulse

             http://www.iconfactory.com/ip_home.asp

-Free Fall Real time Satellite simulation www.xtrememac.com/freefall
-Earth Browser - is an innovative earth simulation that combines an easy to navigate 3 dimensional globe showing realtime eathquakes, webcams, volcanoes, weather, etc. http://www.earthbrowser.com/
-Notebook by Circus Ponies is a Notebook and outliner on steriods with a easy to use interface - http://www.circusponies.com
-Delicious Library - the ultimate book, DVD and CD Collection and Organizer - http://www.delicious-monster.com/
- Bounce Back - Backup Utility, Backup to an External Fireware Hard drive (which makes it bootable), so when your primary drive crashes you boot from the External Hard drive and keep on going. (Windows machine can’t boot from a External Firewire hard drive because the drivers aren’t built-in to the hardware). - http://www.cmsproducts.com/product_bounceback_software.htm

Very cool Screen Savers:
-Cosmo Saver - http://www.cosmosaver.com/
-Desktop Aquarium - http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/icons_screensavers/3ddesktopaquariumscreensaver.html
-Holding Pattern - http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/icons_screensavers/holdingpattern.html
-Image - Puzzle - http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/icons_screensavers/imagepuzzle.html
- Desktop Puddle -http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/icons_screensavers/desktoppuddlescreensaver.html

1–2p

Ray in Beaumont - RPC stub

Microsoft offers a fix here.

Walter in Venice - Celeron for laptop

I’m not a big fan of the Celeron, but I do have to say the new Celeron Ds with 1MB L2 cache are pretty swift. If you can, get a Pentium M—but if money is tight the new Celerons are good. I also strongly recommend buying a computer with XP SP-2 pre-installed.

Arnie in Rancho Palos Rancho - Outlook Express can’t save its settings

This article on About.com explains how to find the settings in the registry and delete them.

Jacob in Barberton, OH adds - I recommend using RegSeeker to clean out your registry. I’ve used it and it helped speed up my computer by getting rid of all the registry keys that aren’t used anymore and it may help you to.

Mike in Riverside - Firefox won’t play Windows Media Files

Reinstall Windows Media Player. Check to see if you have the Windows Meida plug-in by typing about:plugins in the Firefox address bar.

Marty - WI Tech Guy adds: To play some Windows Media files with firefox you need to install the Flash Player plug in for Firefox in order for this player to work correctly.

Judy in Huntington Beach - formatting the hard drive

She wants to install Windows Me, but needs to format the drive first. Doesn’t the Me installer give you a format option? If not, make a Windows boot disk, boot the floppy, then type format C:\.

Louis in Toronto - You might want to use the format C: /s to be able to put the system files on that hard drive so you can boot to it.

Doug in Hisperia - creating your own restore disks

Use DriveSnapShot to create an image of your disk.

Robert in Vista - Windows 98 can’t boot

Sounds like a format and reinstall are in order.

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