Sarasota PC Monitor

Review Chairmans Industry Comments (04/04)

The Computer Buffet

by Herb Goldstein, Review Editor

E-mail comments, suggestions, etc. to Herb Goldstein at: revieweditor@spcug.org

A BETTER BROWSER. I have never been a great fan of Microsoft's Internet Explorer. It has improved in recent times, but it's still slow and klunky in many areas. Consequently, I made Opera my default browser some time back. It was a great improvement over Internet Explorer, but a recent upgrade to Opera turned me off. A new and supposedly improved Java setting made it almost impossible to follow hyperlinks. So much for Opera!

I had heard lots of good news about a very popular free browser called "Mozilla," and decided to give it a try. I was delighted. It had both Opera and Internet Explorer beat! It had become my new default browser and I can't think of a single criticism after several months of use. It automatically imports all your bookmarks from your previous browser, so the changeover was flawless.

Recently Mozilla upgraded to a new version called Firefox which is faster yet and even further improved from Mozilla. It is also free, contains many nuances and it's dynamite. Speed-wise it leaves everything else in the dust. You can keep your former browser intact, just using Firefox as your default, so what's to lose? It's a quick download at mozilla.org.

Mozilla Firefox (formerly Firebird) is a speedy, full-featured browser for Microsoft Windows that makes browsing more efficient than ever before. Firefox includes comprehensive pop-up controls to keep unwanted advertising off your desktop; a tab-browsingmode that lets you open several pages in a single window, allowing you to load links in the background without leaving the page you're on; integrated Google searching; industry-leading keyboard navigation; simplified privacy controls that let you cover your tracks more effectively; a streamlined browser window that lets you see more of the page than any other browser, while at the same time being more configurable; a large variety of free downloadable extensions and themes that add specific functionality and visual changes to your browser; and a number of other details that work with you to help you get the most out of your time online.

New features in this release include a powerful new download manager that makes tracking multiple downloads easier; numerous improvements to bookmarks handling, making it easier than ever to keep track of your favorite sites; improved handling of extensions (small, easy-to-download applications that can be installed with a few mouse clicks and that extend the browser's functionality); and an easy-to-use installer for Microsoft Windows users. You will probably find both Firefox and Mozilla a welcome improvement over whatever browser you are currently using.

WINDOWS XP CRITICAL UPDATES. The Windows Security Update CD will be shipped to you free of charge. This CD includes Microsoft critical updates released through October 2003 and information to help you protect your PC. In addition, you will also receive free antivirus and firewall trial software: www.microsoft.com/security/protect/cd/order.asp

REGISTRY CLEANER CAUTION. Use extreme caution with registry cleaner software. Programs that offer to take the junk out of your registry are a dime a dozen and are often overly ambitious. Before you use any of them, be absolutely certain you back up your registry. If you don't you can be faced with programs that don't run, or the inability to boot up into Windows itself. In any event, don't give any registry cleaner carte blanche to delete anything without asking you first. If you are unable to offer proper judgment, you are unable to do it in the first place.

PLASTIC SURGERY SELF-TAUGHT. Have you ever wondered what you would look like with a nose job or chin lift? Upload a picture of yourself and instantly change the way you look Make eyes bigger, chins smaller and ears wider. You can also add glasses, mustaches or a jaunty hat. If you want to save yourself from embarrassment, there are plenty of pictures in the Web site's database. Warning: You may find yourself giggling uncontrollably from the results. http://www.morphases.com/

SEAGATE INTRODUCES NEW MINI HARD DRIVES. Seagate said its new Savvio drives, about the size of a deck of cards, will spin at 10,000 revolutions per minute and be available in one- and two-platter designs, providing 36GB and 73GB capacities. While the diameter of the platters in the drives is about 2.5 inches, the unit as a whole measures about 2.75 inches wide by 3.88 inches long by .63 inches high. Compared with typical storage system drives today, the Savvio drives use 40 percent less power, according to Seagate.

FOR DOG LOVERS. Here's a site all dog lovers must go to. It's called Dogster and is a place for and about-what else?-dogs. Register your dog with the site and upload your favorite pics of your pooch. Include a profile of his/her likes and dislikes, nicknames, favorite toys and character traits on the Web page. You'll also find an advice column and featured dog of the week. www.dogster.com/

CNN's MONEY WEBSITE at http://cgi.money.cnn.com/tools/ can mathematically figure out answers for dozens of life's everyday problems and situations. Don't miss this super-great site.

LCDs LEAD. For the first time, global shipments of liquid crystal displays in 2004 will surpass those of cathode ray tube (CRT) units, market research firm IDC said. The driving force behind the switchover: a surplus of LCD units from Asian gear makers. The abundance of the flat-panel displays has driven prices into a comfort zone for more and more buyers. Mainstream PC users are being lured to the market as 17-inch displays have dropped below $400, and in some cases $300, IDC said. Prices will decline steadily over the next few years, the researcher said. By sometime next year, 17-inch LCDs will dominate the market, according to IDC.

WORLD CLOCK is a program that shows any number of clocks on your desktop, and a tray icon showing current date. Left click on the tray icon will bring up a monthly calendar. On this calendar, you will find things like Sun Clock, Moon Phase, Sun/Moon Rise/Set time, Yearly Calendar. It synchronizes your computer with an Internet time server. It's a free download. http://home.iprimus.com.au/miclone/

RESTORE DESKTOP is a Windows Context Menu addition that automatically saves and restores the icons' positions on the Windows desktop after a resolution change.

How many times have you changed screen resolutions to discover that your neatly placed icons have scattered all over the screen. No more! Restore Desktop magically restores icons' positions after display resolution changing. You can also restore saved icons' positions manually by control-click on the desktop.

The utility is very small, works automatically and requires no training at all. Just install it and forget about improperly placed icons on your Desktop http://www.softwarium.com/windownloads.html

SPYWAREBLASTER doesn't scan and clean for so-called spyware, but prevents it from being installed in the first place. It achieves this by disabling the CLSIDs of popular spyware ActiveX controls, and also prevents the installation of any of them via a webpage. This allows you to run Internet Explorer with Active-X enabled, but it will never download or even prompt you for any of the known ActiveX controls. All other Active-X controls or plug-ins will work fine. The SpywareBlaster database contains information on these known spyware Active-X controls and can be updated with the click of a button. The application windows displays a list of all controls that it is able to detect (this is not a list of what was found on your computer). The program cannot detect if you have any of the known objects already installed, but if you do, they will be disabled. The program also allows you to take a snapshot of your computer (certain settings) in its clean state and later revert many changes made by spyware

THE MEGAPIXEL MISHMOSH. If you care about image quality in digital cameras, more pixels are always better. Or are they? Five-megapixel models aren't always worth the extra dough. Here's a comparison of that top-of-the-line technology and three top-rated 4-megapixel alternatives. http://reviews-zdnet.com.com/4520-6501_16-5118311.html?tag=cc

MOFFSOFT FREECALC is a great replacement for your existing Windows calculator. We took the standard Windows calculator functionality and added a printable/savable transaction tape, sizeable display, tray icon, digit groupings, color schemes, double and triple zero keys, visible memory value, "always on top" setting, and much more, http://download.com.com/3000-2057-10194467.html

STARTER is a free startup manager, that allows you to view and manage all the programs that are starting automatically whenever Windows boots. It lists all the hidden registry entries, as well as the common Startup Folder items as well. You can choose to safely disable selected entries, edit them or delete them altogether (if you know what you re doing). Expert users can even add their own entries. Very nice interface, easy to use, no documentation though (but hardly needed). /www.webattack.com/get/starter.shtml

REGSEEKER 1.35 is a perfect companion for your Windows registry! It includes a powerful registry cleaner and can display various informations like your startup entries, several histories (even index.dat files), installed applications and much more !

With RegSeeker you can search for any item inside your registry, export/delete the results, open them in the registry. RegSeeker also includes a tweaks panel to optimize your OS ! Now RegSeeker includes a file tool to search for duplicate files, bad shortcuts and more ! RegSeeker is FREE for personal use only ! www.hoverdesk.net/freeware.htm

Privacy Restored- Kryptel

Our ongoing series to restore privacy to the realm of computers has covered considerable territory to-date. If you followed the advice we offered, you are using PC-Cillin to prevent viruses, Zone Alarm to thwart hackers, and a combo of both Ad-Aware and Spybot to keep spyware and Trojan horses off your hard drive. These are the best products available for what they do. I wouldn't start up my computer without them.

Formidable as your coverage will be using these products, there's still another base that needs coverage. Most computers contain stored items that are nobody's business but your own, and no one except you should have access to them. They may be business and tax records, personal correspondence, private memos, graphics you wouldn't want your mother to see, MP3 files, and who knows what else. Whatever they are, you need heavy-duty protection to keep them private. Up to now and after considerable investigation we could not find the product we could without reservation recommend. It seems that everything we tested suffered from one serious drawback or another.

In the world of software tools you can tackle a wide range of problems and will find many answers if you search long and hard enough in among shareware. These are software apps that you won't find in a box at Best Buy, but are available on the Net for your investigation and purchase after free trial. A typical place to discover many categories of such products is down- load.com, tucows.com, or google.

If you want to keep data really private, it needs to be both hidden and encrypted. There are many programs that will do either, or a few that will preferably do both. To be acceptable, such a program must:

The only product we have found (after considerable investigation over a long period of time) that complies with all our requirements and a whole lot more is Kryptel. You will find it at Krptel.com ( try it free for 30 days and purchase it for $29.95), as well as a plethora of world-class help and quick support which is tops in its class. It is a genius of an application and easily outclasses anything in its genre we have seen. On a scale of 1 to 10, we give it a 12! :

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Copyright 2004. This article is from the April 2004 issue of the Sarasota PC Monitor, the official monthly publication of the Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc., P.O. Box 15889, Sarasota, FL 34277-1889. Permission to reprint is granted only to other non-profit computer user groups, provided proper credit is given to the author and our publication. We would appreciate receiving a copy of the publication the reprint appears in, please send to above address, Attn: Editor. For further information about our group, email: admin@spcug.org/ Web: http://www.spcug.org/

The Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc. has 1,100+ members and was established in 1982. We are members of the Assoc. of PC User Groups (APCUG), the Florida Assoc. of PC Users Groups, Inc., and we are members of the America Online Ambassador Program.

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