A Little Preventive Maintenance for your Computer:

It is the hottest time of the year here in Colorado. With record temperatures all over the country, there are all sorts of heat related problems including fires, heat exhaustion, and fatigue. Heat has a way of affecting your computers in bad ways as well. Just as you feel kind of worn down and sluggish from the heat, your computers have similar problems. When they get too hot, they will do anything from rebooting themselves without warning, to ‘blue screening,” to shutting down (for their own protection), or even just outright failing. The central processor (CPU) and memory components are most susceptible to heat related problems. There are some things that you can do periodically to prevent these things from happening, and even prevent costly damage to your machine. Your machine has some built in self-protection measures, but you need to periodically make sure that these built-in measures are able to do their job properly.

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CNET Article: Clean up your Grungy PC

Gonzo's Garage Computer Page

Web Browser Updates

On the web browser front, there are a few updates you need to be aware of. First, for the Firefox user’s version 1.5.0.5 is now available. This update fixes a few security holes. I’m a big Firefox fan, but it sure seems to me that they have released a lot of updates lately. Are the hacker kiddies finally getting bored with Microsoft and going after someone else?

For you Internet Explorer users – this is a biggie. Internet Explorer 7 will be hitting the streets sometime this coming fall. The thing to be aware of is that IE7 will come to you as part of the regular Windows Updates in whatever month it is released. But even if you have your automatic updates set to auto/auto, you will be getting an IE7 prompt, with the choice of whether or not to install it. I am telling you this now because IE7 is a completely different looking creature than your present IE6. It will feature tabbed browsing, anti-phishing filters, the ability to subscribe to RSS feeds (no separate reader required), and a whole new look and feel. I have been using the beta version of IE7 for quite some time now – and it is pretty cool looking. I would just warn you that you need to make sure it will work with all of your web applications. The learning curve will be slightly higher on this new browser.

More Information Here

For you corporate folks (and even home users), if you don’t want IE7 even offered to you, Microsoft plans to provide a blocking tool that you can apply to keep your computer from getting IE7 automatically.

The new Firefox version looks and feels the same, just has a few security holes plugged. Hmmm…. Firefox - security holes? Could it be? The new IE7 will be very different, however. You will need a little time to get used to it and get used to where all the buttons have moved, but you will be very pleased with the new browser.

SPAM - Are You Part of the Problem?

I feel like griping about something today – so I’ll gripe about SPAM. I’m sure you have noticed that every day your email inbox fills up with messages from people selling everything from online dates to Viagra to pharmaceutical products or even the latest hot stick tip. Friends and family even bombard you daily, telling you the latest jokes, admonishing you to pass on a message - or risk bad luck for the next ten years if you don’t. I am mentioning this because I read an interesting article about how the United States is listed as one of the top SPAM relaying countries in the world.

http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=44780

We are spreading SPAM at an incredible rate. We can’t just blame it on the online marketers and scam artists. We are blindly relaying thousands of messages with cute cartoons, jokes, warnings about going to hell if we don’t forward this prayer to 10 friends.

Now to be honest with you – I think all that email that we forward is just innocent fun. A lot of those stories are real tear-jerkers, and at least make us stop and think. But one thing that we should pay attention to a little more is the validity of some of it. I saw one the other day that talked about how Mars was going to pass earth at its closest point in 5,000 years, and be as big as the moon to the naked eye. The email is taken out of context - what they mean is that with 75x magnification that Mars will look as big as the moon - but that's not even the point. The event of Mars coming this close to the earth happened two or three years ago. I have been getting an in-box full of this one this whole week. Mars is over 35 million miles away. C’mon – does that really sound plausible to you that Mars would appear as large as the moon to the naked eye?!

Another of my favorites is the one about the lives of the soldiers who guard the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Some pretty interesting facts, mingled in with some hyperbole about how they can never drink alcohol or swear for the rest of their lives. Those specifc points turned out to be false, by the way. Or the one about Paul Harvey's essay on school prayer. The email makes some really good points, but it wasn't written by Paul Harvey. The points that the essay make are valid, but is it somehow more credible because Paul Harvey was the one who wrote it? Why not just give the true author credit? Read up on some of these hoaxes before you pass them on. One good site to check is http://www.snopes.com/. Many of these hoaxes are listed there.

The other issue I have is that if people get in the habit of blindly forwarding everything, then they won’t think twice about passing along cleverly crafted messages that can do damage and spread viruses. Even worse - emails of virus hoaxes telling you to delete critical files from your computer are worse than real viruses. The lazy-ass virus perpetrators are too stupid to write their own virus code, so they just get YOU to do their damage for them, and they know that YOU will forward this hoax to all your friends and get them to blindly follow the instructions and hose up their computers.

Furthermore, and as the article I linked above puts it so well, people will believe anything that comes in a nicely packaged email. Get in the habit of maybe scrutinizing this stuff a little, and be more selective about the stuff you pass on. I’m looking at this from purely the perspective of the security geek that I am - so go ahead and call me a party pooper.

This is a problem we’re all going to have to live with, but let’s not be part of the problem. At the very least, keep your email filters tuned up, your virus programs up to date, and be a little more selective about what you pass on to others.

Gotta run - someone just sent me an email about Mars coming close to earth and appearing as big as the moon next month - where's my camera?!

“Help – The Internet is Broken!!”

Well – actually – the Internet isn’t broken. If it was, I would be the first one running down the street and proclaiming the end of civilization as we know it. What is broken though is your connection to the Internet. In fact, even as I am writing this, I am unable to receive email and I can’t get a page to display on my web browser. I guess this would be a good time to discuss what to do in a crisis situation such as this.

Troubleshooting an Internet connection is as simple as following the layers, starting at layer 1 and moving on to layer 7. What the heck are these layers?! Network engineers, a long time ago, described a networking model called the OSI model. Without an advanced networking lesson, I will summarize by saying that layer 1 is the physical layer – cables, wires, and voltage. Layer 7 is the application itself – email, web browsers, and anything else you use on your computer. The layers in between represent things like network addresses, networking protocols, encryption, and communication session setup.

Lets start at layer 1: Is your network cable plugged in? Is your phone cord plugged in if you use dial up? If you use a cable or DSL modem, is the cable or network light on, off, or blinking? Is the cable modem connected to the cable itself? Is the power even on?

Take my problem today, for example. I have a cable modem. The power light is on, but the “Cable” light is not on. That means that the cable modem is not getting correct data to sync up and get good network connectivity from Comcast. I also have other indicators – my router is telling me that it is able to talk to the computer, and it says it sees voltage from the cable modem. What I have done is segment the problem and narrowed it down to which piece of equipment was having the problem – in this case the cable modem. Some things you can do in a case like this. Power cycle the modem, power cycle the router (if you use one), and see what information the status lights give you.

Also, check the router's admin console to see if it is pulling good information from the cable modem. If the router is successfully talking to the cable modem AND the cable modem is getting good network information from the provider, then the router status page will usually tell you that your router has good connectivity. If you do a release and renew and you get what looks like a good address, then that part of the network is fine. If it comes back all zero's then either the modem is bad or your provider is having a network outage.

If the modem and router (if you use them) are OK, then it is time to start checking your computer. For the most part, your computer represents layers 2 through 7 in our troubleshooting, but usually, the problem is at layers 3 or 4. Do you have a good network address, also known as an IP address? If you are using what is known as a dynamic (DHCP) address, then it is a good idea to know what it looks like when it is correct. Go to a command line (Start, Run, cmd) and type in “ipconfig /all” (no quotes). Your address will be four numbers separated by dots, such as 24.120.83.124:

As I mentioned – you need to know what it looks like when it’s working to know if it’s wrong when it’s not. Usually, if you have all zero’s or a number that starts with a 169, then you usually aren’t “pulling” a good address from the provider or your router. If you use a router, the address will usually come from your router, and be something such as 192.168.1.2. If you do not have a router and connect straight to your cable modem, your service provider will give you an address and it will be any number of addresses – find out what it is now so that you know what to look for later.

If all that is correct, then you may have another deeper problem. Usually rebooting the computer will clear this up. If it doesn’t, call your service provider. They will usually tell you if the problem is related to a service outage (which can also cause the problem with not getting a good address) or possibly your computer.

The bottom line – start at layer 1 – power cords, cables, modem and router lights, and then move up the layers looking at network addresses. If this still doesn’t solve it, reboot. And that includes the cable modem, router (if you use one), and your computer, in that order. If it still isn’t working, call your ISP for help – it’s their job.

Whoops – gotta run – my cable modem light is back on – time to go surfing.

What Title Do You Give to Your Computer “Expert?”

Computer Geek: My favorite. I am a geek and darn proud of it. To me, this is a way to describe someone who is fascinated by technology, knows that they **don’t** know everything there is to know about it, but is willing to dig deep to do research and find answers. Likes playing with toys. Usually don’t know how to tie their own shoes, and they usually wear clothes that don't match. Let's see now - where did I put that pocket protector????

Guru: Makes my skin crawl when I hear this. There is no such thing. No one person on this earth can possibly know everything there is to know about computers, and it makes me sick when people pretend to know everything there is to know about computers. Self proclaimed gurus are the worst – they are pompous and no fun to talk to. They may or may not like playing with toys – they would rather sit under an umbrella, slurping down Lattes at Starbucks and speak very loudly (so that all can hear) about their prowess with computers. Besides, I hate the word "guru" - I envision someone sitting on a flying carpet, wearing a turbin.

Consultant: This is the person that charges you lots of $$$ to give you vague answers, and then charges you even more $$$ to come back and tell you what the vagueness means.

Expert: There is no such thing. See “Guru” for more info. The main difference between an expert and a guru is that the expert has three cell phones and two Palm Pilots - at least they know enough to take lots of notes and keep them handy.

Programmer: Someone who is usually kept in a back room and not allowed to go out in public. They can tell you the value Pi to the two-thousandth decimal point from memory, but don’t know crap about how computers really work. Not only can they usually not tie their own shoes, but they usually can’t keep from clicking on email attachments with viruses. In their defense, they like playing with toys also, so they're not so bad.

Free Microsoft Tools to Help Your Computer

With the almost daily barrage of news about computer viruses, hacker attacks and other malicious intrusions, it is no wonder that people find computer security a daunting, almost intimidating venture. There are so many sources coming at you from all directions, that it is hard to know what is important (do it as soon as you can), and what should be considered urgent (do it yesterday).

The other thing that amazes me is the seemingly endless supply of people who want to **sell** you the same tools you can get for free on the Internet – good tools at that - to allow you to clean up your computer and keep it safe. Walk into Best Buy (or CompUSA, or Circuit City...) and there is always some "expert" waiting there to tell you that the ONLY thing that will help your poor computer is the $159 suite of tools on their software rack. I am not dissin' the hard working college kids that work there - I am simply saying that these folks are typically not "experts," and usually only know enough to parrot what they have been told by the person who trained them. One of my hobbies, after all, is to hang out in computer stores and eaves-drop on the conversations that these people have with customers. It is amazing the amount of hyperbole and B.S. that these kids spew out in order to make a sale.

Having said that, I can now tell you the good news – there are a lot of tools available for free. Microsoft has really done a good job of improving information about security updates for their software. Not only that, but they are making a wide variety of tools available for free as well. Now you can get all sorts of things from them that will help you to eradicate spyware, remove malicious software, tune up your hard drive, provide phishing filters, and even find out about the latest patches and updates.

Windows Live Safety Center (Beta):

This one is a free online suite of tools for checking for and removing viruses, cleaning out your disk drive and registry, both of which will help improve your PC’s overall performance.


Malicious Software Removal Tool:

This is also an online tool that scans your computer for a variety of malicious software. If any are detected, it allows you to select the right tool to remove the specific malware that it caught.


Windows Defender:

Still in Beta, this utility catches and removes a wide variety of spyware. Windows Defender evolved from Microsoft Antispyware Beta, a tool that Microsoft bought from Giant Software. In my own testing, this one got rid of spyware that AdAware and Spybot S&D weren’t able to. Both of the others found the spyware but couldn’t clean it off whereas the Microsoft product did.


Microsoft Security Bulletins Summaries and Webcasts:

Find out about the latest patches here. If you are extremely curious (or it is your job, as in my case) you can sign up for and attend free monthly webcasts that discuss the implications of the patches being released on “Patch Tuesday” each month. You can even sign up to get advance notification.

Internet Explorer 7 (Beta 3):

This is the next version of the Microsoft browser. This version (also available standard in Windows Vista) will include phishing filters, malicious web site warnings, RSS feed viewer, and tabbed browsing. I will caution you though – it is unlike your current version of Internet Explorer in every way. IE7 has a completely different look and feel. Don’t install this unless you are willing to take the time to learn this new browser, however.

So before you go out and spend a ton of money at Best Buy, because some pimply kid tells you that you can’t live without their $79 antispyware package, give some of these free tools a try. I guess what I am telling you is that you don't need to become a computer geek to be informed - you just have to know how to read - the sources above are a good place to start. You will find many of these tools embedded in the new version of Windows (Windows Vista) due out in 2007, but can take advantage of many of them now.

For more computer stuff, see my main web site!

Organizing Your Email

If you're like most people in the modern workplace, even those who work in a small office, you get an average of twenty or so emails a day. I work in a large IT department of an agency in the Federal Government. As you can imagine, my email inbox gets a lot of traffic. I get tasking messages from managers and colleagues, and email from our offices all over the United States asking about various aspects of the duties that I perform. If I were to let those numerous daily emails just sit in my inbox, I would find it harder and harder to sort through the important messages, and find the ones that have the information that I really need later. In this article, I want to share a few hints and tips that have worked for me to help keep the inbox manageable, and to help find those important messages when you need them later.

Reading Your Email:

The fundamental concept that will help keep you sane in the insane world of email is to keep your inbox cleared out! There should be as few messages in the "inbox" folder as possible. Read your email, decide its importance, and either delete it or put it where you can easily find it. Make reading and filing your email a scheduled event if necessary. Find a time in your busy day that you can regularly sit down and go through your messages.

Once you read them you can quickly determine if it is a task someone is giving to you, some important information you might need later, a new policy in the office, or just plain junk. The last type of email that I mentioned (the junk) is easy... delete it! Better yet, put that email filtering feature to work for you, and prevent the garbage from even reaching your inbox in the first place. As I will discuss in just a bit, if you read a message and it has a new task or important policy information, you can easily file it in a folder that will help you keep on top of the important stuff and get those "action items" done.

Create a Folder System:

One of the most important things that I have found is that keeping the clutter out of the inbox is the first step in helping to keep things organized. To help me do this, I have created a folder system that helps me to "file" my messages in a place where I can easily recognize the subject, and to retrieve notes that I will need at a later time. Organize your folder list, and name the folders something that will help you identify what is being kept in them. For instance, in addition to the usual "inbox," "sent," "trash,' and "drafts" folders that are already there, I have created a folder structure that separates the many functions that I am involved in. I have an "Action" folder, and folders for various things like team meetings, committee meetings, publishers/vendors, and others that help me sort out my messages by topic.

The "Action" Folder:

The action folder deserves some special mention. It is in here that I immediately move my messages containing time sensitive or other tasking messages that I receive from others. It sort of becomes a "to-do" list. I read a message in my inbox, and if it is worthy of the "action" folder, I move it there right away. I look in my action folder at the beginning of the day, and again before I go home. I can get an idea of deadlines and urgent replies that I need to pay attention to. Once I have completed the required action, I delete the message, or archive it in the "Filed Messages" folder. Like the inbox, you want to keep your "Action" folder cleared out as much as possible. Little clutter here means that you are responding to those important issues quickly, and will help you easily identify tasks yet to be done.

The "Other" Folders:

Don't forget to check those other folders once in awhile. It would be too easy to forget that you stashed all of those messages somewhere unless you go back and at least review the subject lines. Be sure to clean out the old messages once in awhile as well. If you were saving that piece of email for some information that you thought you would need later, transfer that information to a more permanent place, such as your address book, to-do list, calendar or Palm Pilot.

Delete the messages that aren't serving a purpose any more. Above all, don't play the old "shell game" with your email. Shuffling messages from folder to folder may give you the feeling that you are staying organized, but you are really just sweeping the dirt under the rug, so to speak. Act on it, or get rid of it! I have a simple rule of thumb: If it has been in another folder all year, chances are that I either have the information I need from it, or it just doesn't matter any more :)

Emailing Yourself:

I personally don't do this much, but other people have mentioned that this helps them to remember which messages they have responded to. My replies go into a "Sent" folder, and I just look in there when I need to know which replies I have sent out. You may want that extra assurance, however. You can very easily include yourself as a CC or BCC on a message, and have a copy of it sent to you when you send it out.

While I'm on the subject of having a copy of a sent message - for many short replies or short messages to others, you may not even need a copy of the sent message at all. Remember - every email you save, even those in the "sent" folder takes up space. If it is your computer at home, you are eating up valuable disk space. If it is at work, your friendly email administrators have to back that stuff up - which takes resources. If it is you Internet Service Provider, and you are leaving copies of al your email on the ISP server, that email takes up space - and most ISPs limit the amount of space on their server that you can occupy. If your email program has an option to do so, have it prompt you each time whether or not to even save a copy of your outgoing messages.

Be a Good Email Netizen:

Chances are that someone else that you are emailing is trying to keep themselves organized as well. Be a good "netizen" and put a subject in your email! That's what the subject box is for, and it makes it much easier to scan a list of messages when you are trying to find one that you need later. I know one of my pet peeves is when people send me email with no subject... then I have to read it to find out if it is important or just junk mail. With all the SPAM email, I have filters on my email that automatically deletes messages without subjects. If you send me an email without a subject, I may not even receive it.

Another annoying thing is when people use the subject box to type the first sentence, or even the entire message of their email. That first sentence makes for a loooooooong subject line, often has nothing whatsoever to do with what the email is about, and makes it extremely confusing later when I am searching for a specific subject. Be nice to your readers, put a succinct SUBJECT in there!

When you respond to an email by hitting "Reply with history" be sure to edit the included history to keep the email from "growing" as it is sent back and forth. When emails get volleyed back and forth as part of an ongoing discussion, they tend to grow and grow as the appended history grows from the discussions that have been taking place. Be sure to "snip" out the parts that are no longer germane to the discussion thread. This will help eliminate confusion and frustration (and storage space), as your reader tries to sift through the history to find out what questions this particular email is answering.

Wrapping It All Up:

Staying organized in the world of email is often a difficult task. With a little planning and organization, however, you can make this daily chore a little less painful, and make your messages a little more easy to work with. Keep out the clutter, and especially keep your inbox cleared out. Create an "Action Folder" as a way to keep track of those messages that require immediate attention. Schedule some time every day to read through your emails and file them. Do some housekeeping periodically. And finally.... don't simply shuffle email from folder to folder. Act on it, transfer the information to a more permanent place such as an address book or to-do list, and then get rid of it! Be a good netizen and use subject lines. You'll find that keeping on top of your daily messages will be a bit more organized, and a lot more manageable.

Hey Hackers - Why Don't You Do Some Good For Once?

OK, guys. How about getting with the program and doing some good for once? I mean, really. Your main goal in life is to see how much mischief you can do by hacking into someone's web site and data servers and such, right? All you are really looking for is for people to pay attention to you, right?

Well - how about this? There are all those middle-eastern terrorist web sites that proclaim hate and feature the videos of people being brutally tortured and beheaded. Why don't you use some of those skills of yours to deface their web sites? Talk about a juicy target for your own cyber-terrorism abilities. Do you have any idea how much publicity that would get you? MSNBC would be all over it, and you could point to the tube (while eating Cheetos and drinking Jolt Cola) and say "See that? I did that! Heh, heh, heh, heh..." Talk about fifteen minutes of fame. You would be heroes in the American public eye, and it would keep you busy and away from our stuff for awhile. And since you are so good at staying anonymous, it would drive those terrorist bastards absolutely nuts. They would spend all their time trying to find YOU instead of blowing up our buildings and such.

Just a thought.

Are You A "Responsible" Computer User?!

By “responsible,” I mean do you take the time to understand that your computer is only a machine that can do work for you? In other words, the computer can’t read your mind, it can’t open your documents just by you thinking of them, it has no way of guessing where you want them kept, and it has no way of predicting what catastrophe is going to wipe out the last four hours of your work. Do you take the time to understand what you need to do to keep your computer in tip-top running order?

You do read your car’s owner’s manual right? I mean, you took the time to find out what the little buttons on the dashboard do, and what it really means when that funny light turns on? Well – that little piece of electronic real estate on your desk is more sophisticated and more powerful than the computer that put a man on the moon. You should probably get to know it little. Read the instructions, use the embedded “help” tools that came with it (Start --> Help and Support), buy a book (even if it has “…For Dummies” in the title), explore online news groups, read my blogs. Whatever it takes, but do some homework.

Visit the "Computers" section of my web site: http://www.wflinn.com/computers/

Okay – you’re up and running now. Do you know how to save your documents? Did you know that when you hit the “save” icon you actually have to take the time to find out where it is saving the document to? You can also choose an alternate location to which to save it. I have seen many people frantically call their IT support people and rant about how they can’t find their documents – the computer obviously lost them! “Where did you save them to?” the IT person asks. “I don’t know!” (Translation - "that's not my problem, the computer was supposed to figure that out!") replies the frantic customer. Take the time to know where your documents are being saved. Explore ways to organize your “My Documents” folder so that you can easily find things.

“Oh -$#@&-, the power just went out!” That’s OK – when you power your computer up after the outage is over, your document will magically reappear and all will be well. In your dreams, perhaps. Another crazy thing about these electronic gadgets is that they can’t tell the difference between a quick note you are typing up (that you have no intention of saving) and an elaborate spreadsheet with the past million and six lines of data and formulas that you need to keep forever and a day. While you are working on these precious documents – save them! Save them immediately upon creation so that the document gets named and properly saved to a location of your choosing. Save frequently as you go along. Then when the power goes out, you may lose a little of your work, but not the whole last four hours worth. In Microsoft Office products, you can also go to “Options” and tell it to save “AutoRecovery Information” every “x” minutes. I have mine set to 10 minutes.


Being a responsible computer user, particularly if you are in a corporate setting, also means watching what you install on your (er-uh, your company’s computer). Is your computer always broken and you can’t figure out why? Does it seem like your computer never seems to work right? Let me ask a follow-up question: Are you one of those people who always downloads and installs every “free” toolbar, game, or other neat looking gadget? This is one of the leading causes (in my opinion) of computers not working correctly with corporate applications and needless calls to the service desk. You have a responsibility NOT to install unauthorized software at work, and you have a responsibility to yourself to be a little more discerning at home not to install every cool gadget that comes along. Your corporate service desk will tell you it’s unauthorized, and when you call tech support for your home computer’s woes, they may not support you either.

Finally, your computer, again using the car analogy, needs maintenance. You wouldn’t drive your car 100,000 miles without changing the oil would you? Do a periodic “Disk Cleanup” and “Defrag.” These simple tools will help your computer run as efficiently as possible. You can even automate them. Use antivirus software, personal firewalls, and for Pete’s sake – stay patched. Here are some procedures to help you get your maintenance routine started:

• Disk Cleanup and Defrag
• Automating Maintenance Routines in Windows XP
  
  

Your computer, for all its sophistication, is nothing more than an expensive doorstop – until you bring it to life and put it to work. You have to know at least a few fundamentals about it, and you have to know how to take care of it. You and you alone are responsible for where you put things in a computer – I mean you don’t blame your house when you forget where you put your keys, do you?

When Your Computer Acts Funny - Reboot!

Computer is acting funny. The mouse doesn’t seem to want to work right. The Internet connection is off. Strange looking video is appearing on the monitor. The computer is slow. Sound familiar? When this happens, you have a choice: you can spin your wheels for several minutes troubleshooting, or you can simply reboot.

No – don’t kick your computer. Shut it down and turn it back on again. Just like we humans do from time to time, your computer gets a little confused. There are any number of things that can be happening. A driver is misbehaving, memory is clogged with garbage, too many programs are loaded and you have run low on computing resources. Who knows? One of the simplest things you can do to start eliminating many of these things is to simply shut down and restart. More times than not, the simple act of rebooting a computer brings it back to life and acting normally again. Restarting clears out memory that was somehow not freed up as it is supposed to be. Restarting also reloads those misbehaving drivers. This is known as a warm reboot – where you don’t really turn the computer off, you just tell your computer to reload the operating system.

“But my computer is completely frozen – how do I do a normal restart?” In these cases you just have to perform an unnatural act and shut down manually. (Don’t worry – if you are running Windows XP, it is tough – it can handle it and recover fairly nicely.) Most computers these days do not have a hard power switch – but rather a soft switch that interacts with the motherboard and what is known as a switching mode power supply. Don’t worry about the reasons or the technical jargon. It just means that instead of the computer turning off immediately when you hit the power button, it has to go through a somewhat lengthier power-down sequence. What this means to you is that you have to hold the power switch for about eight seconds before the computer turns off. Wait thirty more seconds, then turn it back on. This process is known as a cold reboot, by the way.

Rebooting is one of the simplest and usually most effective means of recovering a confused system. When the computer is acting funny, save all your work and reboot. Now – let me get back to work on my Linux computer – it doesn’t seem to have that problem :)

Know Thy Computer!

With computers as common as toasters and microwave ovens, you would think that people would get to know how to at least use the basic features of a computer and what it can do for them. Some essential functions that you need to know are:

• How to save files
• How to move and copy files
• How to back up your files
• How to explore your computer to find things
• How to install your antivirus software
• How to visit Windows Updates and stay patched.

To be sure, there are a variety of advanced features that can make people feel intimidated. But don’t let that expensive door-stop make you feel inferior. Spend a little time reading the instructions that came with it. Don’t feel silly because you buy a book called “Computers for Dummies.” Explore a few news groups and discussion boards about computers. Have some fun.

A computer is nothing more than an electronic device. It does things when it is told to, and sometimes even when it is not told to, but there is usually a human clicking a mouse or punching a keyboard to make it happen. Get to know your computer, and you’ll find it isn’t really the enemy.

Summer, Static, and Thunderstorms - Protecting the Availability of your Data:

Who would even think that part of computer security deals with static electricity and thunderstorms? Why do we care, from a security standpoint, if the humidity is too high, or if there are looming thunderstorms? Computer security has three distinct aspects that make up a well-rounded security posture - Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability, or what is commonly known as the C-I-A triad. Several articles so far have discussed how to keep your data safe from prying eyes and how to keep you from becoming victims of phishing and social engineering - things that mostly deal with confidentiality of your data. But part of what we consider to be very important in the computer security world is the idea of making sure that you can get to your data whenever you need to - the availability aspect of C-I-A.

This time I would like to talk about the environmental (and other) things that can threaten the availability of your data. More importantly, if something damages your computer and takes away immediate availability, are you sure the data itself wasn't damaged or destroyed? What's the plan for getting it back? After all, if your computer becomes damaged then you won't have access to your information when you need it. Even worse - unless you know the dangers and the ways to protect your data, you may lose it entirely. Even if you just have a small business at home, this can be devastating. How much damage would be done if you lost all of your business accounting records, client contact lists, and even saved email messages? Home users - would you care if several years of your income tax returns, digital photos, and even secret family recipes were suddenly lost forever?

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Welcome To Gonzo's Garage - The Blog Site

Welcome. This is my blog site. Here you will find various rantings about computers, security, stupid people, or whatever else is on my mind that day. Basically, I use this site as a way to "gently" goad people into using their computers smarter and more efficiently. So, don't be surprised (or offended) if you see me referring to people as idiots from time to time. I'm not calling you an idiot, but people in general tend to act kind of silly sometimes. To paraphrase a line from the movie "Men in Black" - "A person is smart, but people are dumb, scared, frantic, confused..." Stay tuned.

If you want a site with all the techie info and none of the insults, then go see my main web site: Gonzo's Garage

If you have a question or want information, leave a post in this blog - they get emailed to me, so I don't overlook them.

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