Stapler

I love Technology. All kinds of technology. Fast cars like the BMW M5 or fuel efficient cars that I hope we get here in the US some day. There are many other things I dream about like sweet monitors, and really fast computers. But many of those are expensive toys that I may never afford or find practical.

Along the lines of impractical toys is the Optimus Maximus keyboard. It sounds like a transformer and in a way it is. What is amazing about this keyboard is that all the keys can be swapped out. In their place you can put replacement keys that have miniature OLED screens in them. Then you can use a piece of software to display images in those keys and to assign functions to those keys.. So you could have a key that was the Firefox logo that launched Firefox. Or you could find a picture of a flower and have that be your F key. The possibilities are limitless. There are some really practical uses for this keyboard, especially if you are bi-lingual. You could have your keyboard display in English, and then switch it to Greek, and then to Hebrew. How cool is that. The price? If you have to ask, you probably can’t afford one. They start at around $600 and go up to over $1500 depending on how many OLED keys you want.

On a more practical note, there is another piece of of cool technology that is a little more reasonably priced. It is called the EeePc. It is a miniature laptop that has a 7 or 9 inch screen, weighs 2 pounds, and it has a flash based hard drive. It was originally released with a version of Linux as the only operating system option, but is now available with Windows XP. The bonus, it only costs $299. Now there is a toy that I may end up getting one of those days. Too bad the ole station wagon needs tires.

Back to dreaming.

Woohoo, It is here!!

The new version of Ubuntu, 8.04 Hardy Heron was released today. What is Ubuntu?  It is a FREE and Open Source operating system. It is fast, stable, really secure, and one of my favorite pieces of software. In the near future I will write a couple of posts about installing it on my Dell Latitude D630, and about some of the new features. You can get it here.

Enjoy,

These days there are so many different kinds of Mal-ware out there, that the categories start to get confusing. Spyware, viruses, trojans, worms, root-kits, key-loggers, spybots, etc. What is a computer user to do? In my previous post I went over Anti-virus options. In addition to that, keeping you rcomputer and your software updated and using more secure software such as Firefox goes a long way in protecting your computer from the bad guys on the web. There is a third type of protection I would like to go over. Spyware protection.

One of the biggest problems with spyware protection is knowing who to trust. Many of the spyware protection suites advertised on the web install more spyware then they remove. So here are my recommendations:

One of my favorite tools is Spybot Search and Destroy. This free tool has many uses, but it’s main capability is removing spyware. When you install it, I would recommend that you don’t allow it to install the Tea Timer as it can be annoying and confusing. Make sure you run the updates, and you are ready to rock and roll. Searching for and removing unwanted software is pretty straightforeward. click on the check for problems button, and when it is finnished, click the remove problems button to remove them. The immunization function is a great tool that puts known malicious sites in the do-not-trust list of Firefox, Internet Explorer, and or Opera. I would recommend doing an update, spyware scan, and immunization with Spybot once a month.

If you are an advanced user, Spybot has some other capabilities that I use quite often. In the Tools menu, there is an advanced mode.Do not turn this on unless you know what you are doing as you can cause some damage to your computer with some of these tools. My favorite advanced tool is the startup list editor. I use this tool to remove programs running in the background of computers on a daily basis.

I also use Windows Defender. It is a free tool that Microsoft puts out that checks for spyware on your computer. I like it. It is relatively light weight, free(from Microsoft? hmm that’s a first), and effective. install it, update it, and it will do it’s thing.

Other options include Ad-aware, Spyware Blaster, and commercial options like Webroot Spysweaper. I don’t use any of these because they either prohibit commercial use in their licenses or they are not free.You are welcome to try them, but I think that a well patched computerwith good anti-virus, Spybot, and Windows Defender, and a little common sense(don’t open attatchments unless you know you can trust the attatchment) and you will be fine in the crazy jungle that is the web.

Social Networking. It’s a buzz word. A phrase to descride the incredible way that the web connects people from all over the web. Many of the most popular sites on the web are social networking. MySpace, Facebook, even Flickr. Here are some of my favorite social networking sites. Check them out, you may like them:

DIGG is my favorite and most often used social networking website. It is a web site where you can submit web sites, videos, articels, or pictures that you find to be interesting. Then you can vote on other people’s articles and they can vote on yours. If an article gets enough votes, it makes it to the main page. You can view my profile here.

Twitter is a social networking site that I am relatively new to. It is a cross between blogging and instant messaging. You get 140 letters to describe what you are doing. Then you can follow what others are doing. It s not for everyone, but it has helped me to think more creatively especially about blogging. You can view my profile here.

LinkedIn is another interesting web site that I joined today.  It gives you the ability to network with Coworkers, coleagues, and people you went to schol with. This has some interesting possibillities that I haven’t quite exlpored yet.You can veiw my public profile here.

Do you have any favorite social networks?

Have you ever noticed how your digital world ebs and flows? For Example. Today I got fed up with all the emails I get. Not necesarilly spam, but email lists I got on because I thought it wouldn’t be too bad to receive an email from travelocity (or sites like it) when there was a great airline fair available. After a while they start to build up, and I start to get 10 or 12 a day. I finally get so fed up that I start un-subscribing from every list I can find. If it comes in, I am unsubscribing.

 I find that is true of much of my digital life. How much I blog or use Twitter. How often I play flash video games or see what I can find on YouTube to entertain myself. Even things like RSS Feeds/Google Reader. Sometimes I read every post from every blog and website I care about, and then there are times when I don’t care all that much. I guess that is life though. There are seasons to everything. Freindships, exercising, even sleeping. Or, Maybe I’m just crazy. Probably both.

Here is another fun free game. It is called Shape Wars. It’s a challenging Flash game that I have yet to really master. I can only get to about 10000 points.

Good luck.

I am an IT guy during the day, and I often get asked about what to do for anti-virus. It is a good question. My first thought is to use Linux(like Ubuntu) or a MAC and then you don’t need it. The way Windows was desinged is the biggest cause of many of the viruses we have. Since many of us for many diferent reasons have to use windows, I hope I can bring some clarity to the Anti-Virus issue.

On a side note/rant, I am idealogically oposed to ever buying any anit-virus from Microsoft.  Windows Live OneCare is their current offering, and I am not willing to pay Microsoft more money to secure an Operating system they designed insecurely to begin with.

When you buy your computer new from the store or even direct from DELL, it usually comes with an Anti-Virus suite pre-installed. Usually it is a Norton or Mcaffee 90 day trial. The margins are so small in the computer building industry that the manufacturers bundle these products because those companies pay them too, not necesarilly because they are a good option for the consumer. I have found that the offerings from Norton and Mcaffe, while probably very secure, do so many things and are such bloated software, that they drastically reduce the performance of your computer. Therefore I am going to recomend a few options that are going to provide good protection without being worse than the viruses they are protecting you from.

 I recomend that people check out AVG and AVAST. Both are free for non-business use, and don’t completely bring your computer to its knees when you use them.

The other option is ClamWin. It is also free and it is OPEN SOURCE. I really like this tool, but there is one downside. It doesn’t do active scanning. In another words, It only scans once a night, so it isn’t actively watching what you are doing to catch viruses as they happen like the other two do. If you are a smart computer user and you are confident in your ability to keep your computer out of harms way(the websites you visit, the emails you read)then it is a great solution, but if not, then the other two are great options for you.

The biggest tool for stopping viruses is the user, so be smart, keep your comptuer and your software up to date,and that is half the battle. In the nexty post I will cover Anti-spyware. 

Nathan

Hi all, This is my first of hopefully many blog posts.

To start things out right, I thought I would start by providing some old school fun. For all of us 20-somethings, It will bring back memories. It’s a web site that has all your favorite Original 8-bit nintendo games. Available for playing right from your web brower. Mario, Tetris, Zelda, Excite Bike, and many more. I hope you enjoy. I sure have.

nintendo8.com – play Nintendo 8-bit games online (no download required) 

Nathan