Is 'Internet Privacy' A Myth?
June 30, 2009 by Sam Roberts · Comments
This is quite a contradictory question, almost a Catch-22. After all, we place all our personal information on the internet and then want to know whether it is safe. Most of us lead two lives, the reality and the virtual, and we tend to keep them as two distinct identities. But there are sites that require authentic data to process the official requirements, or you may as well be working in the paper, stapler and snail mail era.
So even if we wanted to avoid, we are compelled to place something authentic about ourselves in some official site, and not necessarily the various Social Sites. Now, if you have taken the trouble of demarcating Dr. Jekyll from Mr. Hyde even in the confines of the virtual world, where and how do they converge to take on a singular identity? Good question, but to understand it real deep, you need to be a techie or a geek. From a lay-mans point of view, which would be ours too, let us understand this in the simplified language of the complicated cyber world.
Let us know that the moment we create an email identity, and we log into the internet thorough our safe password within the confines of our home on the very personal computer, we are still not alone. No, we are not talking of the Twilight Zone; we are talking of something worse called Microsoft, Google and Yahoo. Between these three CCS or Cloud Computing Service providers, nothing much is really ‘hidden’, so the internet privacy does become a myth.
Presuming you have a yahoo email account, a gmail, or even a hotmail account. Know that any of these is controlled by one of the CCS, and somewhere down the line, there is an overlap that allows the exchange and filtration of data. For example, you can create any false identity on a social site, but Google knows your real name, when and for what you use the search engine, your mails and chats and from whom including their email id, access to friends and communities on Orkut, pictures stored in Picasa album, who you have been tracing via Geolocation.
Google knows every Blog, your birthday, your appointments through Alerts, your music preference through YouTube. These are just examples of some of the Google features in regular use, and there are many more. Similarly, Microsoft has features like Windows Mail, Messenger, Live Spaces, Live Searches, Windows Zune, Live Skydrive, Live Maps, Soapbox, and the list goes on. It’s too technical, but somewhere down the line, there is an info-share or just a trespass that does occur, and it becomes easy to segregate the chaff from the rice, surfacing the ‘hidden’ you.
But let us be realistic and ask ourselves, ‘why do we need to hide from ourselves?’ If we just be our transparent selves, we won’t need to worry much about our identity. Yes, keeping important and very personal data is another thing, but then no one advises you to place that on the internet. The privacy on the internet is a myth, but that myth is safe as long as you are within the limits of the law.
Got A Virus Problem? – What You Should Do
Boot sector virus removal can be a tricky business as these are some of the most evil and difficult kinds of viruses.
They lodge in your boot sector, the part of your computer that is responsible for loading or “booting” the rest of it, so that as soon as your computer is turned on, the virus is already loaded into memory. This can be a big problem, because a cleverly designed boot sector virus can convince your computer that there is no virus at all when it loads as I found out recently.
lost and delirious movie Apparently the best way for boot sector virus removal is to make a backup “clean” disk. This disk loads your computer when you stick it in the drive, so it is not loading from the boot sector, which has been contaminated by a virus. This way, you can load your computer virus free and then clean the virus off of it.
Boot sector virus removal isn’t the only protection you might need on your computer. You need spyware removal as well. Spyware is a little like viruses, but much less harmful.
When you visit certain websites with spam, they will put a program in your web browser which keeps track of your information and sends it back to them. It follows what websites you go to, what you buy, etc., and uses it to market things to you.
It also slows down your computer and opens pop-up windows that you don’t want to see, which is very distracting and annoying. Some adware can even divert your web browser, sending you to websites you don’t want to see, and stopping you from getting to the ones you’re trying to get to.
Always make sure you have a virus protection software loaded on your computer. This will help you avoid any ugly bugs from invading your computer.
Computer Viruses Are Always a Hot Topic
No matter who you talk to, everyone has either had a computer virus or knows of someone who’s gone through the agony of trying to get rid of the problem. Computer viruses are a hot topic that seem to affect everyone who owns a computer, whether at work or at home. The companies that produce application programs that catch and delete these computer viruses are constantly updating their databases for virus types and definitions so that you can better protected against all the newest viruses. Developing virus protection programs is a multi-billion dollar business that’s growing more and more everyday. The number of viruses being created and uploaded to the web is growing at an astounding rate of at least two every eighteen seconds! This definitely keeps the virus protection companies on their toes with research and development.
Because these viruses copy themselves to any computer we come in contact with, the spread of viruses throughout a computer network or the web is a fast and deadly inconvenience to happen to your computer. Because computer viruses are a hot topic, they’re routinely the subject of magazine articles and forum topics online. While some viruses do nothing but frustrate you with pop-up ads or other messages, others are malicious and set out from the start to destroy the files and operating system on your computer.
Of the 53,000 viruses that have been identified and classed, over 80 percent of them have been classed as malicious and capable of harming your computer process or data files. These computer viruses behave in much the same way as biological viruses by contaminating any computer system that it comes in contact with. These self-executing programs are generally small and work at damaging the way your computer works or by damaging or removing key process files.
To prevent viruses from taking over your computer, scanning all downloaded files with an anti-virus program before opening them is important. It’s always a good idea to take the time to ensure that the file you thought you were downloading is indeed the file you have. For instance, a file that labels itself as a movie file and is less than two megabytes in size is not a movie file. Movie files are generally almost a thousand times that size and therefore, the file you have downloaded is most likely not a movie file and may in fact be a computer virus.
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When computer viruses are a hot topic, more and more people find out about the destructive power of these programs. In this way, people find out about virus protection programs and rush out to get the newest protection programs or ensure that their computer virus protection is up to date. Many magazines and news articles about computer viruses have the effect of sometimes panicking people in to believing that their computers are at risk. Having a quality anti-virus program and current updates is two of the best ways to protect your computer against virus attacks.
What You Should Do To Troubleshoot A Slow Computer
June 13, 2009 by Michael Torc · Comments
The Registry is a vital component of Windows. It’s an obscure database that stores a record of every activity performed through the Control Panel. Installing new software, for example, will add new records into the Registry. These new records contain all the information needed by the OS about the installation. If the software was installed with the aid of the Windows Installer, when that software is removed with everything else being equal, those records will be removed also. But since not all installations are supervised by the Windows Installer, and not all other Registry write/delete operations are perfect, records tend to build up over time and the Registry inflates.
Since the OS, short for Operating System, often consults the Registry before organizing sets of tasks, it is easy to see how a more convoluted Registry would result in a slowing down of the system leading a user to troubleshoot a slow computer. The residual data in the Registry can and does produce lowered PC performance. As can be imagined, the slowing down is gradual, and increases over time. It is not uncommon for Windows users who are unaware of the Registry and its function to attribute the slowing down to hardware deterioration or to a virus. In an effort to troubleshoot a slow computer, the user might send it to its vendor, take it to a repair shop or even replace it with a newer model – a move that costs both time and money.
The organization of the Registry resembles that of a directory system. There are Five to Seven main directories, depending on the version of Windows. These main directories are logical regions of the OS and are commonly called hives. They have names such as HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT (HKCR), HKEY_CURRENT_USER (HKCU), HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE (HKLM), etc. Like a file directory, a hive can be expanded down to several levels of sub folders until the ultimate elements are reached. The final elements of the Registry are not files but Keys and Values. Each Key and Value is a holder for a numerical or string value that represents data and is meaningful to the OS.
A Windows operator is able to access the Registry by means of a Windows program known as the Registry Editor or the Regedit Utility. We will call it Regedit. Regedit has a similar user interface to Windows Explorer the well known utility used to manipulate folders and files. For example, the right pane facilitates navigation of the hives and sub-hives. The left pane allows interaction with the Keys and Values. Remember what those are? A menu bar at the top provides similar functionality to that on Windows Explorer. Here, a note of warning. Messing with the Keys and Values is a highly unsafe activity and should not be done unless maybe you are an experienced System Admin or Programmer. Tampering with the Registry can render your computer unbootable and salvageable only by costly data recovery techniques. So to implement the following tutorial, use Regedit only to inspect the Registry, not to modify it.
First, launch Regedit. Just click Start, Run, then type “regedit” in the command box. Next, do a backup of the Registry. Never skip this step. It is done by clicking “File” at the top left, scrolling down and selecting “Export”. Now type a name for the Registry backup file and save it in a convenient location like your Desktop. As you can see, the Registry is a file with the extension .REG. Now you are free to explore the Registry more or less risk free. Investigate HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE (HKLM) which stores the hardware and software configurations. Inspect the rest of the hives. Now that you’ve seen how complex and obscure it is, you can appreciate the fact that cleaning the Registry manually to troubleshoot a slow computer simply makes no sense.
That is why there is a category of software tools known as Registry Cleaners. Consumers prove that they are the Second most frequently used tool after anti-virus programs. Like their name suggests, their function is to clean up the Registry of the residual data mentioned earlier and restore the database of Windows into its present state. Although all Registry Cleaners have the same intended purpose, not all of them do the same thorough job.
The most highly recommended tool is Registry Fix. It corrects DLL issues, installer issues, ActiveX controls, errors due to Windows and Internet Explorer, Windows installer issues, System32 errors, Runtime errors, email client Errors, Svchost errors, EXE errors and more. To troubleshoot a slow computer just visit Registry Fix and press the Start FREE Scan button to save and install the program on your PC. After you run it, it will display a report with all the Registry problems and their severity. To fix those problems you will need to buy a license for the product but, fortunately, it is not expensive and certainly well worth the price as it will restore your PC to its original speed.
Michael Torc is a former Programmer, a successful Online Marketer and a member of Mensa. He enjoys writing articles on techie topics and highly recommends Registry Cleaner to troubleshoot a slow computer and restore it to its newly-out-of-the-box speeds.
Hacking the Web Raises Security Issues
If there is one thing people hate to put up with when they are online, it’s a hacker that disrupts web connections & even affects the files a user has on a computer. Here is a look at how hacking the web raises security issues & how hackers can be stopped so that these security issues won’t be a problem.
Hackers who hack the web can steal specific information that other groups may give to web-sites. This includes phone numbers that can be used to call people with unsolicited offers. In some cases, a hacker may have more control over the malware that’s used & therefore insert this program into a cell phone that’s listed on a web-site database. This can cause the hacker to steal even more phone numbers.
Three ways that hacking the web raises security issues is that it can generate dangerous programs. Hackers can easily insert malware in to a computer. This consists of files that can be damaging to the computer. The reason for these damaging capabilities is that a hacker can easily look through & edit files that are inside a website or the computer of a user on a website. Hacking the web raises security issues because it not only affects the websites involved, but it can also affect the users of the sites that have been affected.
In many cases, the hackers can send data to people on a contact list & this is then considered spam. They can send viruses & other pieces of malware that will only end up expanding the level of power that the hacker has. Some people may not know what to do with the emails that they get from a hacker because they may not know whether the message is legitimate. This makes it clear that hacking the web raises security issues.
A hacker can steal sensitive financial data, & this is another reason why hacking the web raises security issues. For people who are sending financial information & other important pieces of data to a web-site, the information can be important. This includes not only credit card numbers & other information regarding these cards but also Social Security numbers.
Having the appropriate antivirus program is needed. A typical firewall program will have all of this information. This can be used for a server as long as the program will automatically update itself as new information on viruses & other dangerous things that hackers may have to gain access to a web-site or your computer are known. With automatic updates, you will be more protected.
It’s clear that hacking the web raises security issues. By taking care of these risks with a quality firewall & antivirus program & by recognizing how hackers work will make it easier to handle hackers & any other dangerous things that may come around.
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Laptop Insurance and Computer Coverage
When you lose your laptop either by loss or theft, there are so many things that you must deal with and so many worries to go through. What’s being done with all the important information contained on your laptop? Laptop insurance will give you peace of mind on the replacement taking one worry off your mind.
Laptop insurance provides a great alternative to purchasing a new laptop after loss or theft. It will give you protection, a replacement laptop in 48 hours and even laptop coverage while you’re out of the country. They also offer other types of policies such as liquid and malicious damage. Having this type of protection lets you concentrate on your life instead of the stress of the lost laptop.
Liquid damage to a laptop or computer will in most cases make a laptop repair impossible due to the corrosive effect water can have on delicate system components even if they appear to have dried out.
Getting laptop insurance could not be simpler. You can apply right online, using the secure website. There is no period where you are made to stay with it if it’s not something you want to continue and the payment methods are great. You can pay with direct debit which also gives you an additional month free coverage or you can use your credit card annually and obtain two additional months of coverage. You can also cancel your policy at any time if you are not completely happy.
Laptop insurance also covers many of your other electronic items such as hand held computers, music players and even your cell phones. You can also add in your digital camera and camcorder as well as your game consoles making this a very comprehensive insurance that covers many of your electronic items.
free lucky number slevin What are some of the reasons this insurance would be important? What if you are a student going to college away from home? If your laptop or other electronic gadget gets stolen from your room or your locked vehicle, you will be covered and not have to pay out of pocket for a new laptop. This is very important to the student who lives on a fixed income. Not to mention that not having to wait for a replacement means no down time for class work.
If you are traveling overseas for work or even just traveling for pleasure, having laptop insurance can be a lifesaver if something happens whether it is on the plane or while you are in another country. This insurance means that no matter where you are located you are protected in full.
If you need to make a claim on your computer insurance, you don’t have to touch your home insurance policy. This is because it’s a separate, specialist, computer insurance coverage that will pay out if and when you need to make a claim on your laptop insurance policy i am sam download .
