AT&T Offers Free McAfee With Their DSL Service

McAfee security software offered for free by AT&T.

The Link for the download is AT&T Internet Security Suite.

Existing Norton users who got their software from AT&T will have to convert to McAfee by 6/1/2009.

For those DSL subscribers that bought Norton and need to renew their subscription it would be a good time to switch to the free McAfee.

Several weeks ago I needed to install Norton on a virtual XP PC running under "Ultimate Vista" I went to the AT&T Yahoo page for member downloads: NO Norton or any explanation of why it was missing! AT&T finally posted the replacement software.

In the near future I will post about McAfee’s ease of installation and configuration tips.
Several weeks ago I need to install Norton on a new computer.

Stuart@911Computer-rescue.com / http://www.911computer-rescue.com/

Antivirus 2009 is a new Virus!

Antivirus 2009 is "a new and improved" version of the virus "Anti virus 2008". To remove it you must have the latest version of Spybot and the latest version of the Detection Rules (=> than October 15 2008).


If you are infected you probably won't be able to use the infected PC to install Spybot. On another PC burn a CD with the Spybot downloads (Both the program and the detection rules). Boot the infected PC in safe mode, install Spybot, and open the directory where the rule updates are.Then click on the update file. Spybot will be updated from this file without Internet access.

Spybot is supported by your donations. There is a Paypal button on the download page to make a donation.


If you need assistance with the removal, and you are in San Diego County go to my homepage (911computer-rescue.com) and contact me!

New in Gmail: Stop sending mail you later regret!

Official Gmail Blog: New in Labs: Stop sending mail you later regret

To complement the efforts of the folks at Google Labs I have added a new service for customers of 911computer-rescue it is the installation of Gmail Goggles to any Gmail account.

"This is a breakthrough for those of us who may not exercise good e-mail judgement on a Friday or a Saturday night" said Bill Wilson.

Need NVIDA Drivers?

Here is a link to NVIDA Drivers. This is an easy to use tool that detects you NVIDA card and selects the correct driver for you. It should be used to check if you have the correct NVIDA driver.

I used it on my Vista PC with a NVIDA card and it told me that there was a newer driver for my card.

Official Google Blog: A fresh take on the browser

Official Google Blog: A fresh take on the browser

Google Chrome - New Browser!

From the Google Blog, (http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/09/fresh-take-on-browser.html)

"A fresh take on the browser
9/01/2008 02:10:00 PM At Google, we have a saying: “launch early and iterate.” While this approach is usually limited to our engineers, it apparently applies to our mailroom as well! As you may have read in the blogosphere, we hit "send" a bit early on a comic book introducing our new open source browser, Google Chrome. As we believe in access to information for everyone, we've now made the comic publicly available -- you can find it here. We will be launching the beta version of Google Chrome tomorrow in more than 100 countries..."

For all of you that for one reason or another don't like Internet Explorer (IE6, 7 or 8) this is the browser to watch and download.

This software is a result of the "war" between the old server/PC Centric Microsoft and the Internet focused Google. No entity has created a browser with as much technical resources invested, software and human interface design skills and Internet understanding than Google.

Remember:

Microsoft Excel is to Lotus 123

as

Google Chrome is to Microsoft Explorer

This is a strategic move by Google that was not made lightly!

Chrome will be available 9/2 - link.

#30#

Computer Virus on International Space Station

Even “Rocket Scientists” can get a computer virus!

Space.com in a copyrighted article by Tariq Malik, reports one of the 71 computers aboard the space station (ISS) has been infected by the worm identified by Symantec as W32.Gammima.AG.

The source of the infection was a flash drive. When the drive was inserted to the USB port, the computer was set to autoplay and executed an ".exe" program.

If they call me to clean the virus I am really going to charge an “astronomical” fee!

Priceless!

"XP antivirus 2008 - is the infection!! (Malware / Virus)

See my post on the link below:

http://sandiegocio.blogspot.com/2008/08/xp-anti-virus-2008-is-virus.html

What about the Olympic Lenovo Commercials, What’s That All About?

You may have seen the commercials for Lenovo. Who are they? Should I consider their PC products (Laptops and Desktops)?

Lenovo is a Worldwide Olympic Partner and the ”Official Computing Equipment provider” for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. They are publicly traded (in the US - ADR's/OTC): (http://www.otcbb.com/asp/Info_Center.asp?symbol=LNVGY). The stock has outperformed IBM by a factor of 2 since 2006 Lenovo purchased the IBM desktop and Laptop business in 2005 for $1.27 billion. Last annual (2007-8) reported sales for the company was $16.4 billion USD.

So how are the Lenovo laptops? They are VERY GOOD. The current offerings are a mix of 2 brands; the ThinkPad (for the business market) and the IdeaPad (for home and home/office). BUT, the interesting fact that I learned in the course of my research for this post is that the vast majority of their laptops are assembled by OEM laptop manufactures! Well, HP, Dell, Apple, Acer, and Toshiba, and Asus also outsource assembly.

The majority of LCD screens are made by 5 OEM companies). CPU's are made by two CPU suppliers (Intel and AMD). The "chipsets" are made by Intel, AMD (bought ATI), NVIDIA and VIA. NVIDIA and VIA are leaving the chipset market. As a result there will be 2 chipset component manufactures.

If most laptops are assembled in the same assembly plants, with the same CPU's, chipsets, and LCD screens, running mostly Vista as an operating system what can we base a buying decision on?

Here are some ideas on how to make a “rational” Laptop buying decision:

* "Google" for specific reviews for the Brand / model you are considering.

* Check the specifications: Each seller puts creates their own specifications for the final product to be assembled, each have unique internal and external designs, so product specifications are very important.

* Go to the support site for the laptop that you are interested in. Is the support information easy to find, response time for the web site acceptable?

* What is the warranty (Buy your laptop from Costco and you get a 2 year warranty rather than the usual 1 year usually at the same or lower price than the manufactures site.) Take a look at the forums that some manufactures have. What is the tone of the forum, what is the nature of problems reported?

* Bundled software: Laptop manufactures include bundled software such as Microsoft Works in the laptops. Do you need the bundled software, if not don't consider if a factor in your decision.

* Finally look at the diagnostic software included. Does it make sense to you? Could you use it if you needed it? Some manufactures just include a link to their web site, not a real help if you have a problem that prevents you from accessing the Internet.

ALL of the above aside, product reviews as well, most of us will make the buying decision based on non-technical issues of look, feel, color, and brand familiarity.

My thoughts are that you won’t be disappointed by purchasing a HP (not the "HP Compact" brand), or a Lenovo laptop.

Sorry to incur the wrath of the Dell and Apple fans. Sales of Apple laptops and desktops are soaring as a result of the move to Intel based processors (lower retail price) and the ability to boot both the Apple operating system and Windows (more software available). Apple, in the past, was a very expensive choice, and less software was available for the Apple operating system in the marketplace. I have used several Dells and found them all disappointing in some way. To be fair there is an army of loyal customers in the market place for both Dell and Apple.

Enjoy your new laptop!

“Best of the Late-Night Olympics Laughs”

The Olympics has really cut into; my "free" time and according to my "GF/SO" addiction to all things computing! I could not resist some excerpts from a copyrighted article from the on-line edition of The Edmonton Sun. “Best of the Late-Night Olympics Laughs”
(Link= http://www.edmontonsun.com/Entertainment/Television/2008/08/24/6554906-sun.html)

LATE SHOW DAVID LETTERMAN:

“There’s excitement in the air over the Olympics ... also lead, arsenic, benzene."

"--- And human rights activists have sent a letter to President Bush, asking him to raise human rights issues with the Chinese government during the Olympics. Unfortunately, they also sent a letter to the Chinese government asking them to bring up human rights issues with President Bush. So, it's pretty much a wash."

JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE! JIMMY KIMMEL:

“More than 60 heads of state will be at the opening ceremonies, so security is extremely tight ... Many stores and factories in Beijing have been required to close, and people have been forced out of their houses. It's sort of like here in the United States, only for them, it'll end in a couple of weeks."
*****
And what about the Lenovo commercials, what’s that all about?

e-mail attachments in outlook cannot be opened

My client e-mailed me that the fix described in the last post fixed the problem!

Yea!

Forwarded email as attachment will not open. - What is your list of the top computer irritants?

When we use our computers it seems that we are often abused by bad computer behavior that is frustrating, reduces productivity, and or eliminates fun!

Often when on house or business calls for 911computer-rescue.com, I am presented with the original problem that caused the call to 911computer-rescue.com and then several other additional items that fit the description of computer irritants.

Just recently I was called to a business that needed file sharing activated between a Vista machine and a Windows XP laptop. While making the changes to the Vista machine and the XP laptop for the file sharing, I was presented with the business owner’s computer irritant, “e-mail attachments in outlook that cannot be opened”.

All of the attachments which could not be opened, have a yellow envelope as a icon, but will not open on click or “save as” in a readable manner.

First step was to determine if there was “content in the attachment”. I saved the attachment to a folder but it would not open in a readable manner. (Yup, you can use your Hex editor but the content is still unreadable! (LOL).

Then I forwarded the email to my Google account, and much to my pleasure the attachment was readable in Google as a txt file and clearly was a forwarded e-mail message with important information for my client. I now realize that ALL of the attachments were forwarded e-mails!

I was pleased that I had created a “work around” but it was not a real solution!

It is now early Saturday morning (O’Dawn O’clock) Instead of sleeping I am doing what any true Geek would do, Googling for the solution. The best search seems to be, “Forwarded email as attachment will not open”

My best guess is the following described in this Link, according to the Green Magician:

“Try the following (Oulook 2003) and let me know if it worked:

Tools -> Options -> Other -> Advanced
Remove Google Toolbar Tick in Both Ad-In Manager and Com Ad-Ins. Once you are done, all should work fine again. “

My next step is to call the client (one of my favorite folks and see if this is the cause. If not back to more research for the cure! (I will update this post with the results!)

If you are tired of your “computer irritants” and want to remove them send e an e-mail Stuart@911computer-Rescue.com ! (I provide computer services for home, home office, or businesses.)

Blog Vacation!

I regret that I have not posted recently.

I really got pressed for time (several large projects for 911computer-rescue.com) and did not want to dilute the quality of the writing or the focus of the Blog. I am back!

My last post was about the San Diego Chargers. Since then the Padres have taken over causing San Diego sports fans much unneeded aggravation.

“Trevor we love you, but - is it time for Trevor?”

More technology related posts in the works.

Landing

(Cross wind landing of Air Bus 32o)

Chargers!

Go Chargers

In preparation for watching the game you may want to visit one of many football oriented Web sites. My favorite is NFL.com . This Link will take you to the highlights of our victory over the Colts. For a very comprehensive listing of football related links is the Football Links directory Blog.

Can an old dog learn a new word processor?

The last time I converted word processors I converted from Wordperfect 5.1 (DOS) to Microsoft Word for windows.

In December I converted to Staroffice8 (Free Download in Google Pack ).

Why? - To save money!

In December created a Vista (Ultimate) machine using a P4 PC (I invested $550 in for the Vista upgrade: OEM edition of Vista Ultimate, added 2 disk drives, 1 gig additional memory, a Vista supported RAID card, and a new Vista dual monitor graphics card).

I had the choice of finding my office 2000 CD's and loading them up or going to Google and downloading Staroffice8 along with Picasa. I chose the easy path - download.

Staroffice8 has word processor, spreadsheet, data base, and drawing program. All the programs can save files in Microsoft office formats so you have compatibility with both your own old documnents and can send documents to others.

At first it was a bit painful. All of the “clicks” that I preformed automatically had to be relearned. Within 1 month I had gained enough familiarity with Star that I became unconscious of the change. I had also saved $150 to $400 by not “Upgrading” to Office 2007.

No I am not a Microsoft basher. In fact, I am a fan! Microsoft brought the graphical interface to PC's replacing DOS for ever. They moved the computer from data centers to the desktops and homes of the world. I have been raving about the features and stability of Vista since I moved from XP.

Converting to the new spread sheet program was slow but I am making progress.

The biggest difficulty I had with the word processor change was the Sun update process. With Office you sign for Updates and they come overnight and install automatically. I got a notification that there was an update available. I click on the place it said to down load updates automatically. It said “ automatic updates not available and referred me to the Sun web site.

Well that was a confusing place as Suns main products are computers and the sun operating systems.

I did finally figure it out! It took 3 tries and 1.5 hours. My updates are installing as we speak!

If you are interested best install the updates, just post a comment and If there are enough interested parties I will post a how to on this Blog.