Archive for December, 2008
List of must-have utilities
Ian “Gizmo” Richards has been finding and evaluating software utilities for a long time. Periodically, he publishes Gizmo’s Desert Island Utilities. This is his personal selection for his own computer. It’s a list well worth looking into. He writes:
Last year I installed for review purposes, hundreds of utility programs and applications. In the last five [...]
A selection of Windows tutorials
Among the many lists being posted at year-end is one from Lifehacker, Everything You Need to Know How to Do in Windows. Two examples are How to format your hard drive and install Windows XP from scratch and one on dual-booting.
What’s the best computer mouse?
A computer mouse is in constant use and I regard a mouse that performs well and feels good as a sine qua non. Personally, I like Logitech products and I am still enjoying my old wireless MX700 that I mentioned several years ago. Logitech has newer entries in its MX series and, of course, Microsoft [...]
Microsoft “pay as you go” scheme
Microsoft has applied for a patent that allows the metering of PC software usage. Computerworld reports:
Microsoft Corp. last week applied for a patent that spells out a “pay as you go” concept under which users would be charged for both the software they run and the computing horsepower they use.
According to the patent application filed [...]
Freeware for Vista
I don’t agree with everything on this list from Tweakhound but it’s a compilation of freeware for Vista that is worth looking at.
Links for best software
It’s the time of year for lists and the Web is full of them. Some are more useful than others and many are just space-fillers. One list that may have something useful is from Lifehacker and gives its best selections from a regular feature called “Hive Five”:
Our Hive Five feature series answers the most frequently [...]
Finding computer help on the Internet
All of us need help with our computers at some time or the other. From time to time I have posted about finding help on the Internet and pointed out some sites where you can ask about your tech problems (for example, Tech Support Guy). Personally, I find that a judicious use of Google will [...]
The hard drive as it once was
Speaking of hard drives, here is an advertisement from the old days when a hard drive was something special. Remember that a dollar then was worth at least ten times what it is today.
Hard drives on the way out?
It’s the time of year for predictions and here’s an interesting one- hard drives are going to be replaced by solid state drives (SSD). That’s what a post at Computerworld says. Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols writes:
Sound impossible? Actually it’s all too possible. SSD (Solid State Drives) have gone from being small and pricey to being roomy [...]
Security suites reviewed
OK, so I keep telling you that the Internet is a dangerous place. What are you supposed to do about it? Part (but only part) of your defense could be one of the security software suites that combine a number of different kinds of security functions. These suites have been getting better about using system [...]
Internet police?
An article at PC World summarizes how Internet crime grew rapidly in 2008:
In its ‘End of Year Data Security Wrap-up for 2008′, Finland-based security company F-Secure said their detection count tripled in one year, which means that the total amount of malware accumulated over the previous 21 years increased by 200 per cent in the [...]
