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Computer Safety (mht) |
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Computer and Technology |
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Browsers, Office XP and TV Photo Viewer Presented by Dick Curry Dick opened the discussion by stating that he would first entertain questions and comments from the membership and then proceed to a couple Microsoft Promotional Videos. In response to a question, Dick noted that the SP2 upgrade, once installed, precludes one from re-installing XP from the installation disks if those disks were issued before SP2. There was a discussion of firewalls and Dick said he preferred Zone Alarm because it worked against both incoming and outgoing email. He suggested that everyone visit Steve Gibson’s site, www.grc.com, and take the Shield Up test as well as the Leak Test to determine how safe your computer is to cracker attack. He also mentioned that he had recently installed Zone Labs new software program “Zone Alarm Security Suite (ZASS). He noted that PC Magazine prefers ZASS over Norton’s antivirus because Norton’s Utility Suite is a memory hog and often conflicts with other programs. Dick called attention to the SOBER virus. Since its release some time ago it has gone through many variants. The virus can take over your address book to send secondary infections, contribute to denial of service attacks, or mass mail pro-neo-Nazi propaganda. Keep your antivirus and spyware up to date. Dick noted that if your anti-spyware programs repeatedly notes that your data files are not up-to-date it may be that they have issued an updated version of their software and are no longer supporting the version that you have installed. If a newer version of your anti-spyware program is available uninstall your current program and then install a new version. The Diablo Valley College Computer User Group “build your own computer” program will take place sometime this summer. See Dick for details. If your Windows XP operating system should freeze Dick suggested trying to “unfreeze” it by pressing control/alt/delete to launch the Task Manager. Under the Processes tab, click on explorer.exe, then End Process, then click “Yes” in the Window that next pops up. Before doing anything else next click on the File menu button, and click New Task (Run…). In the Open: window type in explorer.exe and click OK. If this works your computer will “unfreeze” and you can save all the work you have open. If it doesn’t work you haven’t hurt anything. You may now have to shut down your computer, loosing all your open data. Dick then showed two Microsoft Demonstration Videos. One demonstrated many of the new features of Office XP. Both Word and Excel have some very interesting new features. The second described a product called Microsoft TV Photo Viewer that connects to your TV. It operates with a remote control and will show up to 40 photos downloaded from your computer onto a floppy disk. A year ago this device and accompanying software sold for $160; Dick said he saw them available on the Internet now for $30. There were different views expressed about the wisdom of buying a new computer with or without a DVD burner. Dick’s position was if you’re into copying DVD movies and copy write protection or the cost is not an issue go for it. He does favor a DVD ROM and CD R/RW as well as a floppy drive. |