This month the newsletter is on line, as a PDF corresponding to the printed version.
Note that we now have an index of several years of the Prez Letters with topics listed. It's in the table of contents - check it out.
Just a week before Halloween, several newsletters and emails have referred to a Microsoft Update release of an unscheduled patch to all Microsoft software wherein the absence of a key patch can allow a nasty virus to gain access to your computer.
Microsoft has never before deviated from its policy of releasing patches on the second Tuesday of the month (or once in a while on an in-between Tuesday) but this patch was released on a Thursday near the end of the month and all of the technical media are jumping on the requirement that everyone update their computer - NOW!
I have been through the technical reviews. The ability of selected malware to exploit this vulnerability to get past just about everything including all of the anti-virus programs is without parallel as several viruses can attack the operating system itself as a legitimate piece of data.
While you are at it, please feel free to do a backup and bring all of your patches current. Don't forget the Office updates. The use of Secunia here is appropriate.
And don't forget to have Avast check your computer at boot time! Right click the rightmost rotating ball at the bottom right of the screen, click on "Start Avast Antivirus", wait for the 30-second scan to complete, right click on the funny controller that appears, and choose "Schedule Boot Time Scan". Reboot and be prepared for the reboot scan to take 20 minutes. Review the resultant report file at: Program Files/Awil Software/Avast4/Data/Report/aswBoot.txt. It is amazing what shows up when the viruses can't defend themselves because the anti-virus programs are running with the operating system quiescent.
Remember the old Homebrew Computer Club? A part of at least its spirit will be with us in February when two of our members, Larry Templeton and Bill Young, will bring to the meeting, their own creations that started as a pile of parts. Hands-on demonstrations with Q and A will be the order of the evening.
For the umpteenth time if one puts into Google: [ WINDOWS LIVE SAFETY SCANNER (tab) (tab) ] you will be looking at the Microsoft stand-alone scanner that will check out the registry, fragmentation, anti-virus, general checker, resources and a lot more. Please run it.
Many of us keep on using Windows XP because it works! Why help Microsoft debug their next OS be it Vista or OS7? It turns out that OS7 will look and feel like Vista. Some time in the far distant future we all will be using OS7 or some derivative. Everyone will be translating the support functions we have been doing for twenty years into the new procedures presented by Vista and OS7. Just finding out how to do a simple FORMAT is a trial. Delay the "fun" as long as you can! Windows 7 is really Vista (that failed) and is reworked yet again. All of the functions of XP are there - just hidden from 20 years of history of kinesthetically running around the operating systems. Now if the UNIX people would just make a decent interface to the support functions.
One last caveat: when you purchase your next computer and you are tempted to spend the extra bucks for a quad core that requires 64-bit-designed programs, make darn sure you don't get a surprise to find that a key older program won't run because it is not designed for a 64-bit environment!
Caveat emptor!