Thursday, May 28, 2009

Even Safer browsing




This post has two bits of good information.

1) A good program for rating websites - as to how harmful they are for your computer -
is - WOT ( Web of Trust ).
You can download it for free from:


www.mywot.com



Currently there is a version for Internet Explorer and Firefox browsers.

WOT will show up on your screen when you click on a suspected bad website - instead of going directly to the site you were trying to go to - you will be prompted that the site may be bad, and you may continue to the website if you choose - that may be a bad idea to continue - and may defeat the purpose of having WOT in the first place or you can choose not to go to the site.

2) I found out about WOT from Major Geeks
A Great site for downloading safe programs, both free programs (freeware) and paid / commercial programs.
I am a member of majorgeeks forums and I submitted a post that referred to McAfee's siteadvisor - I was replied to that siteadvisor's info. is not as up to date as that of WOT.
So I believe that siteadvisor is good - at least to some degree, but WOT would be better.
If I find any better program for testing the safety of an Internet site I will post it here.

Happy safer browsing.

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Old Song - You Send Me by Sam Cooke




Old Tune - You Send Me By Sam Cooke - Coming from Blip.fm DJay - StonyTunes

This is a non-technical post - that I am sending out to my wife - Katarina,
and to be enjoyed by all who may pass this way.


I may post some more music later.


Ron0Mac

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Clear your browsing personal info. and speed up your computer



One of my favorite personal information browser history cleaners recommended by many Technical forums. It is free - but you can make a donation to the creator.

CCleaner

CCleaner is a freeware privacy and cleaning tool.
It removes unused temporary files from your system - allowing your Windows computer to run faster and frees up hard drive space.
It cleans traces of your Internet history - and - contains a full blown registry cleaner.
It runs very quickly and is Spyware / Adware free.

Download from: http://www.ccleaner.com/

Friday, May 15, 2009

Laptop and laptop batteries recalls




U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission
posted an HP / Compaq laptop battery recall on May 14, 2009

http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml09/09221.html

HP Battery Replacement Program Web site
http://www.hp.com/support/BatteryReplacement
or call (800) 889-2031



Older recalls between 2004 and 2006 listed below:

http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml09/09035.html

This recall was listed October 30, 2008
but certainly many missed the recall - I am posting here for anyone who missed it.

The cpsc.gov site listed above, lists the model that are on the recall and has the phone numbers
to HP / Compaq, Dell and Toshiba


Sony Laptop Recalls:
Vaio VGN-TZ100 series, VGN-TZ200 series, VGN-TZ300 series and VGN-TZ2000 series, These are small 11" screen laptops.
Contact Sony at (888) 526-6219, or by goint to thier website:
www.sony.com/support

This list is not all inclusive you may want to visit your laptop manufactuer site and contact them about your model or look it up on their website.

Apple laptop battery recall:
Mac recalls iBook G4 and PowerBook G4 laptop models sold between
October 2003 and August 2006
Consumer Products Safety Commission.


Thursday, May 14, 2009

Safer browsing




Tips for safer web browsing:

Use a sight or service like McAfee's site advisor to check download sights before downloading an application (computer program).
http://www.siteadvisor.com/
Use the "View a Site Report" text box to paste the Internet Address (URL) you want to check up on.

Use a web search through Google or your favorite search engine (search site) copy the link location of what you have searched for or the name of the site and the program name that you are downloading - to be informed about what you are about to download or install.


Recommended Antivirus programs: None of them are perfect -
none will block all viruses, malware, trojans etc.

The Antivirus programs listed below have both free and paid versions:

(both the free and paid versions are good. The paid ones have more features

You can read up on the features on the owner's / authors websites.)


AVG, Avira, Avast, and Windows Security Essentials (added 12-2010)

Download Windows Security Essentials
HERE


Paid only Antivirus programs:
McAfee, Symantec (Norton), Kapersky, BitDefender

Online scanners are useful also - They scan your computer from another computer - less bad things can hide from them.

Panda: http://www.pandasecurity.com/activescan/index/
Microsoft's LiveOneCare: http://onecare.live.com/site/en-us/default.htm
Kapersky: http://www.kaspersky.com/virusscanner

Consult your your favorite search engine for free online scanners, but remember, if you are not familiar with the product, you may want to use the McAfee's sight advisor (link above) to check the safety of the download.