Archive for November, 2006
Critical ActiveX problem for Internet Explorer PDF reader
Here we go with yet another ActiveX security hole. Adobe has warned that the ActiveX component that is used to help Internet Explorer read PDF documents contains a critical security bug. Firefox and other browsers are not affected because they do not use ActiveX. As of this writing, Adobe was still working on a fix [...]
Ancestry.com extends access to its records
Ancestry.com has large online databases of immigration and census records. Normally, a subscription is required for access. However, recently the organization has made one of the databases freely available for a limited time. They have extended the time and announced:
On November 9, the company released the most comprehensive collection of all readily available U.S. passenger [...]
A site to get free computer help
Got a computer problem? Can’t find the answer? Googled it and got no joy? The Web is full of help forums where you can go and post a question and hope the resident “experts” will help. Of course, at many of these sites the “experts” may not actually be so expert. However, there are some [...]
Managing favorites in Internet Explorer
If you are like me, you keep accumulating favorites or bookmarks for your browser. Periodically, all these favorites need some housekeeping. Some will be obsolete and need deletion, others will need to be rearranged. Unfortunately, trying to manage your favorites through the Internet Explorer function, “Organize Favorites”, is a pain. In a previous post, I [...]
Microsoft keeps making WGA worse
Microsoft shows no signs of recognizing the problems that they are causing consumers with Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA). They just keep making the anti-piracy measures more and more burdensome. An article at InfoWeek reports:
Microsoft announced Tuesday that it would use Automatic Updates to roll out changes to the component of its anti-piracy scheme that nags [...]
Upgrading to Vista
If you are wondering about the possibility of upgrading your present PC to Vista, PC World has an article with some upgrade experiences. The author says:
I installed Release Candidate 2 of Windows Vista Ultimate Edition, the latest prerelease version as we went to press, on several PCs ranging from a brand-new machine powered by a [...]
Is Vista security too inconvenient?
Laurie’s Law of Constrained Convenience says that the time it takes to do anything on a computer is inversely related to the security measures being applied. Paul Murphy at ZDNet writes that Vista’s new security features are going to upset a lot of people. He thinks that the IT staff at many businesses are just [...]
Dell sees the light on rebates
If you have ever bought a PC from Dell, then you know about the games that have been played with pricing and with rebate offers. First, you have to go through an irritating process to get the best price. Someone in a blog (I forget the link) once remarked that buying from Dell is like [...]
Be careful how you clean your LCD
It seems that there may be some commercial cleaners that are ostensibly safe to use on an LCD screen but aren’t. A reader reports a bad experience at PC World
A couple of weeks ago, I purchased the CompUSA LCD/CRT Cleaning Kit and used it to clean the screen of my Dell 18-inch [...]
Another way your wireless connection could be unsafe
The fact that you should use encryption on your wireless network is well-known but there is another security issue that is becoming serious. It seems that most wireless drivers may suffer from a buffer-overflow problem. Security expert Roger Grimes reports on the situation at InfoWorld. He says:
Take an inventory of all your wireless devices: wireless [...]
Colors for Web pages
A few years back, most people had somewhat limited graphics processors and the range of colors that could be displayed was mostly limited to 8-bit color. Today most PC users have 16-bit or 32-bit color so a pretty full spectrum of colors can be displayed. Anyone who puts together Web pages of any complexity has [...]