Sarasota PC Monitor

Review Chairman's Industry Comments (08/08)

The Computer Buffet
by Herb Goldstein, Review Editor

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

BAD HYPERLINK?? Occasionally for reasons beyond our control, a hyperlink provided here will not work. After carefully checking your typing (needs to be 100% accurate), the only suggestion we can offer is that you go to Google and enter the name of the software. If a more current hyperlink is available, this is the best place to look for it.

Please also note: Most of the software mentioned below is freeware. It is gathered through researching usually reliable sources. I do not personally try most references, time being the obvious factor.

KAREN’S DIRECTORY PRINTER. Want to print a list of all your files or folders? Use the free Karen’s Directory Printer. It generates folder and sub-folder listings in every way imaginable, including (or excluding) file size, creation date, and attributes.

PARTITION LOGIC is a free hard disk partitioning and data management tool. It can create, delete, erase, format, defragment, resize, copy, and move partitions and modify their attributes. It can copy entire hard disks from one to another. Partition Logic is free software, available under the terms of the GNU General Public License. It is based on the Visopsys operating system. It boots from a CD or floppy disk and runs as a standalone system, independent of your regular operating system. Partition Logic is intended to become a free alternative to such commercial programs as Partition Magic, Drive Image, and Norton Ghost. http://partitionlogic.org.uk/about/index.html

UPDATESTAR will keep you updated with the latest updates and upgrades available for all the software running on your system. All the personal software running on your system could become out of date or old with the latest versions created daily. Older or outdated software could make your system vulnerable to online threats and system failures. Hence, to avoid such situations you can use this tool to be assured that you use the latest software running on your system. The tool is compatible with all your; freeware, shareware, demos, commercial software, and includes other special offers. The tool saves your precious time by instantly notifying as soon as a new version is available so that you can download the update straight away. Providing other benefits this tool can import top-rated software setups with just a single click. UpdateStar is also effective in providing; Free security alerts, software ratings and recommendations, great coupons and software deals. www.freedownloadscenter.com/Reviews/r4510.html 

GETDIZ. Many downloadable ZIP archives have DIZ (file_id.diz) and NFO files included within them. Sure, they’re simple text files that can be viewed with Notepad, but GetDiz is a Windows Notepad and is a great little utility for viewing and editing text files, but haven’t you ever wanted just a bit more? Like launching URLs by clicking on them or using light colored text of any font on a dark background. Well then, what you need is GetDiz—a small, lightweight Notepad replacement that’s every bit as fast, integrates seamlessly into Windows, and offers a nearly perfect set of improvements. www.outertech.com/?_charisma_page=index&PHPSESSID=bf3a94ef4335a2ece3707b59656013f7 

STAROFFICE. Many dreams of a Microsoft-free world are squashed because it is so hard to find other programs that share standards. StarOffice is compatible with Office documents, and is cross-platform compatible with Solaris, Linux, and Windows operating systems. StarOffice includes word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation applications. You can open and view files created in Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel, WordPerfect, and AmiPro Documents look the same in all three environments. Note that macros embedded in Microsoft documents are proprietary, and cannot be converted into StarOffice. www.sun.com/ 

DP WIPER. The Recycle Bin isn’t quite the end for deleted files. Even after files are removed from the Recycle Bin, they can be easily recovered through commonly available software. To make sure your deletions are permanent, use tools that overwrite the deleted data. This program allows you to securely and thoroughly delete individual files or folders. You can either type in a file path or simply drag and drop files onto the program’s window. DP Wiper offers different levels of secure deletion. The major difference is the number of times that the deleted file is overwritten. The single pass option should be enough to thwart common file recovery programs. Cost: Free Link: www.softpedia.com 

ICONIX EMAIL ID. Tired of trying to figure out which email messages might be phishing or fraudulent spam? Iconix eMail ID lets you see what’s real before you even open the message. Iconix eMail ID works with your current email service such as AOL mail, AIM mail, Yahoo! mail, Windows Live Hotmail, Gmail, Earthlink, Outlook Express (all on IE or Firefox). Iconix eMail ID double checks the source of a message to make sure it’s not a spoof. It then uses a simple visual indicator in your inbox — a gold lock with a checkmark to show that a message is real. www.iconix.com:80/  m:

doPDF is a PDF converter for both personal and commercial use. Using doPDF you can create searchable PDF files by selecting the Print command from virtually any application. With one click you can convert your Microsoft Excel, Word or PowerPoint documents or your emails and favorite Web sites to PDF files. www.dopdf.com:80/ 

HOTSPOT SHIELD is freeware that ensures anonymous and censor-free Internet usage. With Hotspot Shield you can even access blocked Web sites. For example: Skype is blocked in certain parts of the world. With Hotspot Shield, anyone can access Skype (and any other site they choose). http://anchorfree.com:80/downloads/hotspot-shield/ 

CROSSLOOP. A free, secure screen-sharing utility designed for people of all technical skill levels. CrossLoop extends the boundaries of traditional screen sharing by enabling non-technical users to get connected from anywhere on the Internet in seconds without changing any firewall or router settings. It only takes a few minutes to set up and no signup is required. Security is built into all aspects of CrossLoop https://www.crossloop.com/landing.htm 

BOOKDB. You can enter all your books with author, category, publisher, etc. and print them out in a variety of formats. Why would you need such a thing?

Well, if you’re always going to book sales and buying bargains only to get home and find you’ve doubled up, take a printout with you. Free software from the author of the Hal Spacejock series. www.spacejock.com/BookDB.html 

ONECLICK PSP VIDEO CONVERTER. Converts multimedia files from any supported format (including AVI, ASF, WMV, MOV, MPG, MPEG, AVC, OGG, MP4, DivX, FLV (YouTube), IFO, MP3, WMA, WAV, AAC, and more) to Sony PSP compatible format using xDiv or H.264 compression. www.app-zilla.com/psp_convert.html

FOTOSIZER. A freeware batch image resizer tool. It resizes your photos in just three easy steps: select your photos, select resize settings, then start the resize. Choose to resize by percentage of width and height. www.fotosizer.com/

NET-RUNNA RESTOR. Provides fast, flexible automated data back up and recovery with advanced data storage. ReStor has several unique features that set it apart from other backup solutions. ReStor backs up just about any kind of data including your PST File (email), Windows system files and the Registry. ReStor has a small memory footprint and operates in the system idle time to minimize the impact on your CPU. http://tinyurl.com/6f6pvd 

ERASER is an advanced security tool (for Windows), which allows you to completely remove sensitive data from your hard drive by overwriting it several times with carefully selected patterns. Works with Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, Windows 2003 Server and DOS. Eraser is Free software and its source code is released under GNU General Public License.

The patterns used for overwriting are based on Peter Gutmann’s paper "Secure Deletion of Data from Magnetic and Solid-State Memory" and they are selected to effectively remove magnetic remnants from the hard drive. Other methods include the one defined in the National Industrial Security Program Operating Manual of the US Department of Defence and overwriting with pseudorandom data. You can also define your own overwriting methods.

Why use Eraser? Most people have some data that they would rather not share with others - passwords, personal information, classified documents from work, financial records, self-written poems, the list can be continued forever.

Perhaps you have saved some of this information on your computer where it is conveniently at your reach, but when the time comes to remove the data from your hard disk, things get a bit more complicated and maintaining your privacy is not as simple as it may have seemed at first.

Your first thought may be that when you ‘delete’ the file, the data is gone. Not quite, when you delete a file, the operating system does not really remove the file from the disk; it only removes the reference of the file from the file system table. The file remains on the disk until another file is created over it, and even after that, it might be possible to recover data by studying the magnetic fields on the disk platter surface. Before the file is overwritten, anyone can easily retrieve it with a disk maintenance or an undelete utility.

There are several problems in secure file removal, mostly caused by the use of write cache, construction of the hard disk and the use of data encoding. These problems have been taken into consideration when Eraser was designed, and because of this intuitive design and a simple user interface, you can safely and easily erase private data from your hard drive. Top reviews from the most popular software sites and magazines confirm that Eraser is one of the best security tools available for Windows. http://www.heidi.ie/eraser/ 

SPYWARE BLASTER. Along with firewall and antivirus programs, anti-spyware is a security must-have. Spyware is a particularly unpredictable type of threat. It can trigger pop-ups or cause your computer to slow to a crawl.

Even worse, spyware can work in the background without noticeable symptoms. You should use a few anti-spyware programs to ensure that each possible threat is detected.

SpywareBlaster is an effective free anti-spyware tool. Unlike most anti-spyware programs, it does not scan the hard drive for spyware. Its strategy instead is to prevent modifications of your files and settings. For example, it can block browser toolbars from installing themselves. SpywareBlaster can be used to prevent changes to Windows’ HOSTS file. It also has a System Snapshot feature similar to Windows’ System Restore. SpywareBlaster will report any changes to your system since the last snapshot. Link: www.javacoolsoftware.com 

FRESH UI is a kind of tweaker’s heaven: With it you can change scores of settings in XP, many of which you no doubt never even knew existed. Want to alter most any aspect of the Windows interface? Go ahead. Customize the Start menu? No problem. Change global menu settings, the way applications work, and dozens of network and Internet settings? You can do all those things, and a whole lot more. www.freshdevices.com/ 

AUTOEXIT is an application that you can use to shut down, log off, reboot, reboot shell, power off, lock the workstation, or hibernate Windows. You can do it instantly or you can set a time, date, and frequency. You can also use the settings with remote computers; the options are the same as for a local computer. All you have to do is choose the computers that you want to shut down. http://computershopper.download.com/AutoExit/9100-2344_4-10613247.html 

DRAGDROPUPLOAD allows you to drop files directly into attachment boxes instead of having to browse for them or type in their filenames. Drop multiple files and fill all entries. Some Web sites will allow you to add new upload files: in Gmail it’s possible to drop the files directly over the "Attach a file" link. www.download.com/DragDropUpload/3000-11745_4-10745681.html?tag=lst-0-5 

ACEMONEY LITE. Are you always asking "Where does the money go?" If you’re brave enough to find the answer, AceMoney Lite will give it to you. The tool tracks your spending habits, generating a report by category or payor/payee. For example, you can generate pie charts that show how much money you spent on food, hobbies, or books. The program also lets you create and manage budgets, with more than 100 predefined spending categories. Finally, you can track the performance of your investments, be they in a 401(k), stock options, or an employee stock purchase plan. You don’t need to enter stock quotes manually, either: AceMoney will download them from the Internet. www.mechcad.net/products/acemoney/index_lite.shtml 

MY STUFF DELUXE. Catalog your valuables. This freeware inventory manager is perfect for keeping track of your personal assets. Features include data backup, filters, printable reports, data import and export, and depreciation calculations using three different methods. www.contactplus.com/ 

CLEANUP ASSISTANT. This simple freebie helps speed up your system by unclogging your hard disk by finding duplicate files, cached files, and others, then deleting them for you. It will even shred files so that they can’t be restored, if you’ve got personal files you no longer want, and don’t want anyone to see them. It’s free, and easy to use, so even though it may not be the most sophisticated of programs, it’s is worth a shot www. cleanupassistant.com/ 

QUICKMONTH CALENDAR. I’m using QuickMonth Calendar because it’s unobtrusive and doesn’t have any bells, whistles, or frills. Just roll your cursor over on the clock in your System Tray and up pops a calendar. www.codedawn.com/home/quickmonth-calendar/ 

KEY SCRAMBLER. The new version of QFX Software’s KeyScrambler is out, and even the free version (Personal) has greatly expanded coverage. The browser add-on protects everything you type into a Web page on all Web sites and in all parts of the browser:

All Web sites: login credentials, credit card numbers, passwords, search terms, and more.

All parts of the browser: Java, Flash, PDF Forms, including Runescape and many bank logins.

All Web email: Yahoo! mail, Hotmail, and Gmail.

Major browsers: IE, Firefox, Flock.

The Pro and Premium versions protect a wider variety of programs including Word, OpenOffice and StarOffice, along with other types of applications. The free version ONLY protects things happening in the browser, and only in IE, Fx, and Flock.

Keyloggers are the fastest growing form of information theft on the Internet. They invade users’ computers through viruses, worms, and other malware, and silently log keystrokes to steal usernames and passwords. The stolen information is then used to steal money and identity from the victims. Keyloggers are also commonly used by employers and other parties to track what’s happening on specific computers. There are a number of commercial products on the market (many free), not to mention those in use by purveyors of malware.

KeyScrambler works by encrypting keystrokes at the keyboard, before they can be intercepted by keyloggers, and then decrypting them in the browser or other program. Since by their (present) nature keyloggers must reside in the computer’s operating system, the encryption prevents them from picking up useful information. By having KeyScrambler encrypt everything you type on your computer, you’re protected against both known and unknown keyloggers. (Learn more about KeyScrambler). www.qfxsoftware.com:80/learn_more.htm 

SHADOWEXPLORER. Operating Systems: Windows Vista. The Shadow Copies feature of Windows Vista is one of the least-understood and least-used features of the operating system. ShadowExplorer makes it easy to use Shadow Copies to quickly find and restore any old versions of files you’ve changed or deleted. www.shadowexplorer.com/ 

BAKU allows you to search for system registry errors and unneeded files that can be safely removed. Delete empty folders, history folder contents, recent documents folder contents, temp folder contents, temporary Internet files, and cookies. Search Windows log files, shortcuts to missing files and folders, and user specified file types. Registry scan removes unused and obsolete keys, including ActiveX/COM, application paths, fonts, help files, icon files, sound files, uninstall programs, and Windows installer. www.download.com/Baku/3000-2094_4-10632555.html?tag=lst-0-2 

THREATFIRE 3, from PC Tools, blocks malware (including zero-day threats) by analyzing program behavior, and it does a better job than many signature-based products. Add its free protection to your security arsenal, but don’t pay extra for the less-effective scan-and-clean Pro edition. www.pctools.com 

COMODO FIREWALL PRO 3.0 aces all basic personal firewall tasks. Its Defense+ module protects critical system areas. Yes, Defense+ flags both good and bad programs, but Installation mode can cut down the hassle factor. Best of all, it’s totally free for personal or professional use. www.comodo.com 

GOOGLE CALENDAR SYNC. This nifty freebie from Google is designed for a problem that bedevils many who use Google Calendar as well as Microsoft’s Outlook calendar—how can you keep them in synch? If, for example, you use Outlook for your personal calendar, and Google Calendar for your work calendar, you have to manually retype all of your appointments. Google Calendar Sync solves the problem neatly. It automatically synchronizes events in your calendars. So just enter them once, and they show up in both places. You also have the choice of synching events only from your Google Calendar to Outlook, and vice versa. So, for example, if you use Outlook for personal events, and don’t want to share them with co-workers, but you do want all Google Calendar events in your Outlook calendar, you can do that. www.google.com/support/calendar/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=89955 

HYDRA BROWSER. Hydra Browser is a freeware browser which marries concepts found in Explorer and Firefox, though it does not share any code with them. Hydra Browser has some nice features—for example, there is an ‘up to domain’ button, and ‘fast forward’ and ‘fast backward’ buttons which guess the likely next (and prior) pages in a sequence—useful for reading online comics. However, features get lost in the multitude of tabs. For example, the Fast Forward/Backward buttons are on the Edit tab. The normal forward/back arrows, the most-used buttons on any browser, vanish when you leave the Home tab; if you are on another ribbon, you must either remember the key combo or go back. www.hydrabrowser.com/ 

TRIPIT. A free travel planning information service. Whenever you receive a travel confirmation e-mail, all you need to do is e-mail it to TripIt and the service will automatically combine everything into a master itinerary for each specific trip. Not only does TripIt keep you organized, but it can also give you additional information from other online services about your destinations and let you know when your travel plans overlap with those of your contacts. While you’re traveling, you can also easily use your mobile device to get all of the details about your itinerary if you don’t have paper printouts with you. www.tripit.com:80/ 

EXAMDIFF is a freeware Windows tool for visual file comparison. Features: Toggles between the first and second files. Automatically detects file changes and prompts the user to re-compare files. One push re-compare function which attempts to leave the viewer’s focus in the same place as before the re-compare. www.prestosoft.com:80/edp_examdiff.asp 

SLEIPNIR. In the words of this software’s home page, "Sleipnir make good role which is ‘See Webpage with coziness.’" In other words, it is a Web browser, one with origins in Japan and an English translation which is enthusiastic, but sometimes confusing. In keeping with the program’s origins, it has built-in features to translate from Japanese to English, or vice versa. It also includes the ability to ‘grep’ (Global Regular Expression Parser) text, a handy tool for searching large Web pages for content. If you are a Japanese speaker, this might be a very useful Web browser—I am not capable of comparing it to localized versions of Explorer or Firefox, but its feature set is fairly good. If you are not, it might still be worth looking at. Sleipnir seems to be a one-man show, and as such represents a considerable effort. www.fenrir.co.jp/en/sleipnir/ 

PICLENS. Add PicLens to your Firefox Web browser to get a new way of viewing many photos at once on selected sites. Supported sites include Flickr, Smugmug, Facebook, Google Images, and others. On those sites, if you mouseover a photo you’ll see a small play button in the lower left of the image. Click that button to get the PicLens photo display, a 3D-animated presentation screen with a wall of thumbnails for all the pics on the page you started on. You can shift left and right through the wall using a box at the bottom of the display. If you ever view photos on the supported sites, give PicLens a whirl. It’s not often that an applet makes something more glitzy and more efficient at the same time. www.cooliris.com/ 

WINDOWS POWER SAVING. Follow these settings to save energy with the computers you already own. It’s easiest if you set these as part of the drive images you use to set up and restore PCs. Of course, these settings aren’t written in stone; you can adjust them to suit your work habits.

Vista settings: Go to Control Panel | System and Maintenance | Power Options. From here you can select a power plan. Set your computer for Power Saver and then select Change Plan Settings. The settings shown should help you conserve energy while not interfering with your work habits. Naturally, the battery versus plugged-in setting are relevant only for portable computers. Before exiting the Power Options applet, click Change advanced power settings and then set the Hard disk | Turn off hard disk option. Click OK, then click Save Changes.

System administrators can use the Microsoft Management Console to deploy a Group Policy regulating power consumption on Windows Vista. Power-management policy settings are located under Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\System\Power Management in the Group Policy Object Editor. From here you can control all the settings mentioned above on a user, group, or machine level as well as secure power-consumption settings so users can’t alter them.

XP settings: In Windows XP: These settings are found under Control Panel | Power Options

DELETING DATA BEFORE DONATING OLD PCS.

When it comes to disposing of an old computer, whether you are selling, donating or recycling it, you’re biggest concern should be your personal information. Identity theft through electronic means has become such a focus of cyber-criminals that disposing of your old computer without taking steps to ’scrub’ the personal or business data off first could be very risky. There are several options to consider, ranging from very simple to somewhat technical, that will allow you to keep your files from being accessed by future users of your old computer. If you’re selling your computer, you may want to maintain the software programs on the computer so that it’s more valuable for the next owner. In those cases, your best bet is to "scrub" the individual data files off the drive with a secure deletion program such as Eraser.

The reason that you don’t want to rely on the ‘delete’ function in your computer’s operating system is because it doesn’t actually remove the data. When you tell Windows to "delete" a file, it simply removes it from the view of the user and marks the space as ‘free’ for use by other data. If nothing ever overwrites this space (which is a completely random process), retrieving the ‘deleted’ files is fairly simple for a moderately technical cyber-criminal. Eraser is much more secure then deleting through the operating system because it immediately overwrites the space previously occupied by your personal data files.

If you want to add another layer of protection, run the ‘Disk Defragmenter’ utility built into Windows after you use Eraser (in the ‘System Tools’ section of the Accessories group of your program listing). If you don’t care about maintaining a working computer, you can wipe out the entire hard drive with a secure wipe program such as Darik’s Boot and Nuke. This free utility will completely and securely wipe your entire hard disk. This is a great option for those that are only interested in donating, selling or recycling the hardware and not any software. Boot and Nuke does a much more thorough job then simply "reformatting" the hard drive with your operating system. It conforms to Department of Defense data clearing and sanitizing standards and makes it nearly impossible for anyone to get anything of value off of the drive. This procedure is much more comprehensive but requires some technical experience (making a boot disk or bootable CD) in order to use it.

If either of those options sounds too technical, simply remove the hard drive from the system before disposing of it so you can deal with the sensitive data at a later date. Keep the drive until you can find someone that you trust to securely delete your data for you.

Some say that it’s just easier to throw their old equipment in a dumpster, which is a really bad idea. Never throw an old computer away as it’s filled with hazardous waste. Recent studies claim that as much as 40 percent of the lead in our ground water is from all of the consumer electronics that have been dumped into our landfills.

STARTUP DELAYER . Will allow you to setup how many seconds after Windows has started, to load each application. It configures timed delays for each application that starts after Windows boots up. www.r2.com.au/software.php?page=2&show=startdelay 

THE COST OF SMOKING FINANCIAL CALCULATOR. This free calculator determines discretionary spending on long and short term cigarette purchases simply and easily. This is the most advanced smoking calculator available and determines both past and future spending and considers increase in cigarette cost over time, inflation, and savings rate. http://tinyurl.com/5bamvh

FLOOLA FOR WINDOWS. A freeware application designed to efficiently manage your iPod or your Motorola mobile phone (any model supporting iTunes) under Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows. Floola can be run easily directly from your iPod and needs no installation. Take a look at the feature list to find out what it can do and feel free to suggest anything that might be missing. www.floola.com/modules/wiwimod/ 

COMCAST TO INCREASE BROADBAND SPEEDS. Comcast is upgrading its broadband network. By the end of the year, 20 percent of its market will have faster service. Speeds will hit 100 megabits per second. That rivals Verizon’s fiber-optic service. Comcast plans to extend the service to most of its market by early 2010. :

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Copyright 2008. This article is from the August 2008 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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