Calibrate your monitor!

Most people can benefit from adjusting their monitor in order to view online photos better. Here are two web pages that help you do this:

• Step wedge adjustment - a simple adjustment that can improve the photo looks a lot. You should be able to see each of the shades of gray.
• Monitor Calibration - Stanley Rowin Photography. This page includes a step wedge with even more intermediate shades of gray, making finer adjustment possible.

Also note that Stanley Rowin's page mentions that the gamma adjustment part of his page doesn't work for most flat panel monitors.

Feed Reader reviews

You don't really have to come to this web page to read the latest posts. All you have to do is set up to receive the "feed" from this page.

OK, OK, so now you're starting to get glassy-eyed and wondering about "feed". Well, a "feed" is the information about a posting here -- the title, date/time, and text of the post. You can access those via a "Feed Reader". Most are free.

Once you "subscribe" to a feed, your NewsReader automatically checks for new posts when you open it. Of course, you can still just check back here now and then.

cnet has reviews of several feed readers. An executive summary... if you use Internet Explorer, it looks like Pluck is a good one to try. [ Download Pluck ]

If you'd like to read blog feeds via a separate web page that collects "feeds" from different blogs for you, try the Google Reader or NewsGator.

If you are a FireFox user, you can "drag" a web address for a blog to your bookmark bar and it adds an orange "feed" icon. Clicking on that icon lets you see all current posts for that blog. Internet Explorer 7 is reported to also add this feature.

Free PowerTools, PowerToys

Karen Kenworthy has some great, and free, PowerTools (utilities) including Cookie Viewer, Directory Printer, and Registry Pruner.

Microsoft developers created the free (but unsupported -- go figure) PowerToys for Windows XP.

I personally also use an older PowerToy (for Windows 98) called "SendTo X" in XP Pro a lot, myself. Caution: SendTo breaks the "Desktop (shortcut)" in the SendTo context menu, but I rarely Send a file to Desktop anyway, and if I wanted to I could SendTo any folder and choose desktop.

WiFi for Dummies

The average user has no idea of the risks associated with public WiFi hotspots. They don't even know what common related terms are -- 802.whatever!, WEP, WPA, SSL, https, POP3, IMAP, SMTP. Tons of people surf the web with ease and can even send emails with attachments (gee, isn't my baby cute!). But they have little knowledge about the computer system itself, let alone what the security vulnerabilities are or how to protect themselves.

Scott Granneman, columnist for Security Focus, has some very simple tips to keep your WiFi network access secure.

Protect your PC from malware

The amount of malicious software on the Web has increased greatly recently. Here are some guidelines to help protect yourself:

• Practice Safe Browsing.
• Avoid unfamiliar or untrusted Web sites, especially Web sites that advertise "too good to be true" deals.
• Don't install unfamiliar third-party toolbars. WindowsIT Pro magazine recommends you use only the MSN toolbar or the Googletoolbar.

A few other tips from Windows IT Pro...

• Configure your email program to read messages in "Plain text", not HTML or Rich Text.
  This avoids possibly activating malicious software
• Use your browser or a browser add-in such as the Google Toolbar to block pop-ups.
  Only allow pop-ups from pages where you really need them.
• Only install updates from trusted sites.
  Some people have been burned by installing an "update" that arrived by email. Don't.
• Do keep your system and programs updated.
  Many software programs need security-related updates too.
• Use caution with IM -- bad guys abound. Don't automatically click on a link you receive, even if it seems to be form someone you know.
• Always run virus protection.

You may want to subscribe to the "Windows Tips & Tricks UPDATE" or one of the other email newsletter from Windows IT Pro .

Clean your registry

The Windows registry over time accumulates entries that are no longer needed. They just make the registry larger and slower. So cleaning out those entries is a good idea. Unfortunately, doing that by hand is tearfully tedious, let alone risky.

That's where Registry cleaner utilities come in. Fred Langa's article in Information Week contains comments and evaluations of 10 Registry cleaners. Fred recommends JV16 Power Tools for a commercial product or EasyCleaner if you need a free one.

Read the whole article

Security: Upgrade Firefox to 1.5.0.1

Details on how to exploit a Firefox web browser vulnerability has been posted on the Internet. Firefox has upgraded the severity of the flaw to critical. Firefox 1.5.0.1 fixes that flaw.

ACTION: If you use Firefox, download and install version 1.5.0.1
http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/

Read the articles:
News.com (CNET News)
Information Week
ComputerWorld

Tech News Junkie highs

• ALPHA (CNET blog)
• Information Week
• CNET News.com
• ZDNet Blogs
• TECH_SPACE Blog (USA Today)
• TechNewsWorld
• Slashdot -- "News for Nerds. Stuff that matters."
• Wired News
• Sci/Tech News (Google)

Defender stays free

Windows Defender will be the new name for what has been called Microsoft AntiSpyware. Microsoft has promised that it will remain free. If you want the full "OneCare" security package, though, it will probably be a subscription fee.

Some related sites:

• OneCare (PC Magazine review)
• Windows Onecare Live beta (Microsoft)
• Windows Live Safety Center (free)

Suite security!

Isn't it disgusting what lengths we have to go to nowadays to just protect ourselves online:

• Anti-Virus software that even checks your email (outgoing as well as incoming)
• Cookie blockers
• Anti-Spam software
• Anti-Phishing software
• Anti-Spyware software
• Firewall software

I personally use ZoneAlarm Security Suite for AntiVirus (from Computer Associates, really), Anti-Spam, and Firewall, though the new version of the firewall checks so much in depth that I still get a bunch of pop-ups to authorize a program to do its thing.

Fred Langa has always recommeded a multi-pronged approach that even uses more than one AntiSpyware program. My current favorite is Microsoft's AntiSpyware (Beta). It has seemed to do the most thorough job of both detecting and cleaning our spyware. But I use Ad-Aware SE Personal and SpyBot as a backup. If I detect spyware with Microsoft's AntiSpyware, I then use Ad-Aware and SpyBot to do a second and third "sweep" of the computer. No single product catches everything.

I control third-party "cookies" and prevent the display of many third-party pop-up ads via MSIE 6 settings. I even check over cookies with the IE Cookies View. Nearly all cookies are "OK" ... there's some undeserved paranoia about cookies. Some cookies are, in fact, good for you (yum!). These type cookies can save your preferences for a particular site so that you don't have to choose them everyh time you visit that site. The few bad cookies that might harm your 'puter's digestion ruin it for the vast majority of "good cookies".

Internet Explorer 7 is supposed to add some Anti-Phishing capabilities. We'll see. Meanwhile, I try to stay very cautious about what messages I even open. And if I didn't ask for an attachment, I usually won't open it without checking with the alleged sender first.

Step right up and get your security suite for free:

• AVG Antivirus Free edition
• Zonealarm basic
• All the Anti-Spyware mentioned above is free