Category: Tech

McAfee’s broken protection racket

Security software is a necessary evil. Sometimes the problems it causes are almost as bad as what it’s supposedly protecting against. For example, in the process of preventing spyware from slowing down Windows, anti-spyware software tends to… slow down Windows.

You’re lucky if slowness is the only downside to running real-time protection. McAfee has managed to cripple thousands of Windows XP users with its latest security update, which mistakenly quarantines an essential system file:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-20003074-83.html

This is what I do for Windows security at home:

That’s it. And none of them cost anything except the time and effort to set up. Oh, and something else. If you use a mail client like Outlook Express or Thunderbird, pre-screen your mail with a web browser and delete anything suspicious before downloading it.

Dying to run, running to die!

It’s seemed that over the past few years more runners are dropping dead during races. Yesterday’s Boston Marathon had such an incident, but fortunately the victim was revived. He had a stent installed a few years ago for a blocked artery, yet he continued to run marathon distance races! I can’t imagine his doctor thought that was a great idea.

Something else about yesterday’s marathon was that it was the first to use disposable transponders for tracking the runners.

Hasta la Vista RTM

Today was it for (all three or four of) you Windows Vista lovers who can’t bear to update your original RTM (release to manufacturer) installation with the broken Control Panel. After today support ends you’ll get no more security updates unless you update to Service Pack 1 or 2. And you XP SP2 diehards (you know who you are — or maybe you don’t!) have until July 13 to embrace SP3.

Netbook year two

My Acer Aspire One netbook, a now-defunct 9″ screen model, is already a year old. It’s been trouble-free, and I’m glad I bought it. I’m using it now.

The Chumby One that I bought Carol for Christmas was working fine, but then it suffered a failure of some sort when I unintentionally powered it off while checking the Netflix widget. I returned it, and a replacement is on the way. When it gets here I’ll put a pair of Dell AX210 speakers on it that I picked up for next to nothing. For now they’re on the netbook. They sound pretty good!

The mono speaker in the Chumby One is actually pretty good, but Carol wanted something more for listening to Pandora in the kitchen. I was going to buy a multi-outlet power adapter for a pair of computer speakers to plug into the headphone jack; but then, for only a few dollars more, I found the AX210, which doesn’t need an AC adapter because it’s USB-powered, and the Chumby One has a USB port in the back.

Follow-up: The AX210 speakers are not a good match for the Chumby. The USB port is a very noisy power source, resulting in hum and whistling sounds.

78s4FR’s on YouTube

One of my favorite YouTube genres is of turntables playing records. It must be the ex-DJ in me. One of the best examples is from a woman in England named Liz, whose channel is called 78s4FR.

http://www.youtube.com/user/78s4FR

Here’s a sample. Stan Freberg’s superb parody of Harry Belafonte’s ‘Banana Boat Song’, followed by the equally great ‘Tele-Vee-Shun’.

Note for younger readers: Because a shellac 78 could hold only a few minutes of sound, record albums used to be exactly that — multiple discs in an album book. Later, vinyl LP’s could hold up to 30 minutes in mono, yet there were still albums. In a 2-disc LP set, side 1 was backed with side 4, and sides 2 and 3 were on the same disc, so they could be played in sequence on a changer. The arm on the changer held the stack steady. When playing a single record, with the arm in the position shown in the video above, most changers repeated the record.