To Auto Update or not Auto Update - that is the question!
It takes a certain amount of guts (some call it stupidity) to turn the control of your computer to some unnamed entity that wants not only to take over your computer for updates but wants to do it all at a time of his choice and in a manner not controllable by you.
The problem is compounded exponentially if you have more than one computer to administer and your goal in life is not to spend the rest of your life being an administrator.
What are you going to do when you have 2 or 20 to take care of? How about three but you are not familiar with what needs updating on a routine basis?
The answer is to seek out the control section of each of the programs in question and to set the program to automatically update whenever the program feels like it. I always find out the habits of the computer user and set the update time for a time that makes sense for the user - often an hour after the computer is turned on.
And so it is worth it to go to each application program's update section and set the available options appropriately and give away control of the computer to an entity that can administer a specific portion of your computer on your behalf. Only once in years have I ever had a problem that I would not liked to have but, in this case, the correction came though a month later.
And so, yes, I do give up control of my computer to others which frees me to do what I do best - other things associated with my user function on the computer.
So give it up. Find every automatic sequence you can and activate the automatic update wherever you can.
If you are handling computers for others, the decrease in calls or the decreasing amount of time spent with the computer will be worth the investment.
A proposed charitable donation program was described a representative from the Elks Lodge. SPAUG members were asked to donate to the veterans, especially in the spinal cord injury section, funds to purchase a subscription to NetFlix. The subscription would provide DVD disks for the veterans to share, then exchange for new ones. There are already viewers, probably enough to go around, but a supply of fresh material for viewing is a problem. A NetFlix subscription could fix the problem. Maury Green suggested he contact the local rental shops, and volunteered to contact Laser Video to see if they would also provide DVDs. The membership was also asked to donate, rather than discard, any DVDs they are finished with. Jim will continue taking donations of check (preferred) or cash, but the check should be noted as "VA Project".
CrossTalk/Random Access
Microcenter has converter cables from RS-232 (serial output) to USB, so output from devices with RS-232 plugs can be input to a computer with a USB port but no serial input port.
A printer Jim brought in for "adoption" was "adopted".
Is a temperature warning that the hard disk is 46 degrees. Is that an issue? The warning says "critical". Advice: contact the hard drive manufacturer and find out what are the recommended temperature limits; you may need to reset the default limits, or immediately buy a fan to cool the CPU.
Bookbuyers at 317 Castro Street in Mountain View is a good source of used software, including Adobe products. Jim Dinkey also has had success buying software on E-Bay. Be sure to get sealed packages, and keep a record of who you got it from.
Google World is so accurate it is scary! It's more than just two-dimensional.
The Tire Rack has a good discussion of the pros and cons of various tires, and an interactive tire selection feature. It helps choose the right replacement tires for your vehicle without having to filter various salesmen's pitches.
Reverse phone numbers can be done in Google. Just enter the phone number in the Google bar as ###-###-#### (note that the (###) ###-#### format confuses Google), and see the result. However, many wireless and business numbers are not available.
Jim recommends search for your email address using Google. Try to get them removed, because spammers have found that a good source of email address. Contact the owner of the website where the address is posted, and formally request they remove your address. Google has not been cooperative, but Jim intends to pursue the matter. In the meantime, don't send anything you want to be private.
By the way, the email addresses on the SPAUG website are "hidden" from scraper bots looking for email addresses. Another way to hide an email address is to replace the "@" symbol with the word "at", and the "." symbol with "dot". People reading it will get the message, but bots are confused, and ignore it. Also, you can create a graphic, using a graphic editor like Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro or even Microsoft Paint, to spell out your email address. (Note: these last two methods are not hot "clickable"; your correspondent will have to manually transcribe the address to their email editor.)
Seth Shostak appreciated the Late 2005 CD; he expects to get a lot of use out of it.
Presentation
George Sidman discussed his newest business venture, WebLOQ™.
WebLOQ has developed new technologies that deliver ubiquitous and secure privacy over the open Internet, to any Internet user, free of the prior costs and technical constraints of the traditional VPN and stand-alone encryption.
Designed as a simple download, the WebLOQ trust solution will run on any PC, laptop, PDA or cell phone. All elements that achieve this new paradigm for privacy - such as strong encryption and isolation from malware - operate within truly private communities, completely transparent to the user, and independent of the method of Internet connectivity.
WebLOQ is completely agnostic to the transport layer or the service provider. A WebLOQ subscriber can roam freely and connect securely anywhere - through both wireline and wireless connections - with no changes to device configurations.
Private communities are established in front of, or behind, corporate firewalls, and host any number of private email accounts. Communities may be federated to achieve cross-chain sub-communities, which are granular to the individual email address. Such private communities have only been possible before behind the corporate firewall. Until now, achieving privacy has required the expense and challenges of a VPN installation - a job only pricey IT expertise could manage - and limited to only single point connectivity.
WebLOQ resides behind standard desktop applications, and once installed, operates with no further user manipulation.
WebLOQ sorts out standard .com email from the WebLOQ private email traffic, sending each on its way with no special action from the sender. Email messages, attachments - and even the private email addresses - are encrypted, assuring that they cannot be harvested from the open Internet. The private WebLOQ email address is uniquely configured so that it will not even route over the open Internet. It can be openly disclosed to anyone, but can only be used within your private community.
Since your private email address cannot be harvested, you are protected from malware within your private community.
WebLOQ accounts and private communities and are available directly - and very economically - from the WebLOQ web site. Enterprise solutions are also available for larger organizations that prefer to host WebLOQ privacy on their own servers.
WebLOQ is the first to offer an easily implemented, inexpensive and legally compliant privacy solution - while locking out malware and securing any device, on any connection anywhere - in a manner readily beneficial to any level of user.
WebLOQ desktop and server solutions are Java based and operate on all popular operating systems and platforms. Standard SQL databases and the Objectivity very large scale object database are supported.
Address: WebLOQ, Inc., 484-B Washington St. #170, Monterey, CA 93940; Phone: (831) 771-0142 Website:www. Webloq.com
The meeting was held at Bev Altman's house; attendees: Jim Dinkey, John Sleeman, Bev Altman, John Buck, Stan Hutchings, Nat Landes, Richard Sweet, Maurice Green. The attendees enjoyed the refreshments served.
The attendees discussed the proposed donation to the VA Hospital for the veterans. We have $295, and it was decided SPAUG could match the donations from individuals up to $500. Also, we should give donors a receipt so they can claim a deduction on their tax. We should also give a receipt to anyone who donates equipment. We should follow the example of other nonprofits in our format. Needs more study.
Review of finances - Nat says we're in good shape.
Membership - Bev gave $435 to Nat, we got 5 new members.
Mail - John Sleeman picked up the mail, but there was nothing of interest. He will renew the post office box sometime this month.
PrintScreen - John Buck is constructing the Newsletter, needs the standard input. Jim will try to get the Prez message done this weekend.
WebSIG activities and schedules - next Tuesday 7:30 at Stan's, but no meeting at Stan's in March
DISIG - Maury is now webmaster for SVCS, and showed some logos he designed and invited us to use.
Publicity - Richard Sweet needs the speaker bio input as soon as possible so he can post it.
8 March 06 - Red Calub, General Manager of Santa Clara Microcenter will talk about how Microcenter can help us. The pre-meeting dinner will be at .
12 Apr 06 - Gary Sasaki will speak about “Digital Cable Ready”. Visit Gary's website at www.digdia.com. The pre-meeting dinner will be at .
10 May 06 - Maury Green will demonstrate Site Grinder, a website creation tool. The pre-meeting dinner will be at .
14 Jun 06 - Andy Marken, a marketing entrepreneur will speak. The pre-meeting dinner will be at .
12 Jul 06 - Paul Kunz has accepted an invitation by John Sleeman. The pre-meeting dinner will be at .
Possibilities for 2006 - presentations are being considered or investigated by: Dan Gillmor, Mike Langberg, David Einstein, Brad Templeton of the Electronic Freedom Foundation, voice recognition software.
What do you want to hear about?
Clinic activities and changes - the Saturday Clinic will be offered by pre-arranged appointment only.
C|Net evaluation of AntiVirus overhead and Trend Micro
by Jim Dinkey
None of us has the time to exhaustively investigate the relative merits of competing software, so we rely on reports like those in the following links to at least give some feel for the good and bad points of each program or service.
Having gone through literally hundreds of computers, I have pretty much settled on Trend Micro's PC-cillin™ Internet Security 2006 and indeed, usually attempt to keep a small stock on hand so that as I need licenses for the Clinic, we don't have to fool with a trip to the store. I have gone thorough 15 so far.
Further, I have found that the Symantec products cause weird problems that eventually cause me to remove the product and replace it with Trend Micro.
Further, Trend Micro provides an effective firewall, but doesn't tell the user anything about what it is doing - it just does it. When installing the package onto a computer of a user that is not into all of the administration, this is a great advantage.
Attempting to explain to a newbie about all of the decisions that have to be evaluated when using Zone Alarm, even I, who am in the business, do not know some of the answers unless I take the time to go out on the net to evaluate the Zone Alarm popups. The Trend Micro people have huge database of programs to be automatically accepted and programs to be automatically rejected and only a very few that require any user input. This is a great advantage, as it allows users to act as users, not as System Administrators.
The C|Net review of the speed degradation of various anti-virus products The C|Net opinion on PCcillin 2006
