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PrezNotes - March 2010

Mon, 03/01/2010 - 00:01 — JimDinkey

There is more to LCD displays than meets the eye

If you are like the rest of us, you go to the store, run down a bunch of computer displays, evaluate as best you can the picture quality presented by each display and then make an emotional selection based on looks, the presence of special features such as speakers, and definitely price. . . .

. . . And then you take it home.

PrezNotes - February 2010

Mon, 02/01/2010 - 00:01 — JimDinkey

 The mess of moving your phone to Comcast et al without Local Number Portability (LNP)

 
In order for you to learn from the experience of others, I offer the following discussion on how to avoid problems when attempting to move data communications services between vendors, and the problems their personnel insert into the process.
 

Coming to an ATM Near You

Fri, 01/29/2010 - 01:19 — Webmaster

San Mateo Police received 80 reported cases of ATM/Debit card skimmer fraud during the month of December 2009. SMPD Detectives were able to determine that the suspects surreptitiously broke into a gas pump paying machine, and attached “a skimmer device” to the back of the key pad at the ARCO Gas Station. The skimmer was connected to a wireless recording device which captures the ATM card number and the PIN number. The victim customers have no way of knowing the device is attached because it does not disrupt the normal operation of an ATM machine, or the gas pump in this case, and does not interrupt any other functions.

PrezNotes - January 2010

Wed, 12/23/2009 - 22:34 — JimDinkey

Recently a computer was brought to me that had severe problems with its hard drive which basically necessitated reloading from the manufacturer-supplied disk image.

 
Since the user was relatively unsophisticated, it was decided that the reload would be such that the user would have minimum interaction with the operating system and that the computer would be set up to be essentially as self-main­taining as possible.

Moving from Windows XP to Windows 7

Sun, 11/08/2009 - 23:28 — Kevin

After I furnished copy for SPAUG Newsletter, and it was posted on the General Meeting page, I got several comments from members that they wanted to know about how to move from Windows XP to Windows 7, and save all of their favorite things that they had gotten used to in Windows XP.

So I tried out several schemes for upgrading-in-place (U-I-P), from XP to Vista, then from Vista to Win 7, hoping that I could move settings and such automatically.

November 2009

Sun, 11/01/2009 - 00:00 — JimDinkey

It was on one of my routine bi-monthly runs that a virus file — “TrojanClicker:win32/Yabector.gen” — appeared.

About every two weeks my computers are scanned in a series of steps that attempt to assure that all is well—including viruses, structure, data integrity, and software-patch currency.
Many of these activities take hours, but I don’t care because the scan is started and I disappear out the door.

October 2009

Fri, 09/25/2009 - 21:42 — JimDinkey

“Trick or Treat” -  It’s Not Just For Halloween

Whether it’s software you bought from a big-name source or something you got for free from a no-name, you have to be alert when you install it so you don’t open yourself up to some ghoul or pirate or other attacker who wants more from you than you expected. And those ghouls, pirates, etc., are always adding to their bag of tricks to use on you. It is a sad commentary on the ethics of some companies that they use this type of “software pushing”. It is also a fact of life that most of us just press NEXT when doing installs—and the unscrupulous ones take advantage of this!

Re-creating the Normandy D-Day Invasion

Tue, 09/22/2009 - 00:24 — milt

How would you recreate the massive Normandy D-Day assault on Omaha Beach with three actors, a green screen, some old military gear and sophisticated editing software?

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