Many of us do it. Imagining that we are “powering” through tasks at an impressive rate. Emails every minute, text messages every second; communication crack. Problem is, science disagrees with our illusions of productivity grandeur. Studies indicate that our brains are not capable of doing two thinking tasks at the same time. We will go in and out of one to the other and many times miss what we shouldn’t. Remind anyone of trying to listen to someone and thinking hard at the same time? I have personally experienced this on both ends; taking 3 or 4 times engaging in the same topic because one of us is “multi-tasking”.
I think it is a game we play with ourselves. The “image” of looking like we are “hard workers” conquering what is before us with every tool. The gadgets of our time have made things much worse with no end in sight. Try to have a conversation with a professional text-er when their device is in their hand. They will miss whole sentences without a blink or learn to nod politely. The truth is all these gadgets that are supposed to enable us to do more (while driving, while on the phone, while on the computer) are ruining the quality of our productivity. Not to mention the inefficiency of all the “stop and restarts”. It is called FOCUS. Now, if you can use the device while not doing something else you should be good. The problem is the addiction factor of all the uninterrupted notices. We are wired to respond to all the stimulus “breaking into” our world or at least that is our tendency. Kind of like that baby crying in the night. It will leave one quite frazzled. Time to turn some of this stuff off. It will be their when we get back to it after efficiently completing our task at hand.
Tired of fooling with that clunky scanner cluttering up your desk? Mac now has an application that works with your digital camera allowing you to scan with it. It will auto correct distortion and no more feeding paper! Check out Prizmo and remember to backup those scans…
Big brother creepy, virus causing our brakes to go out, can’t make any repairs myself. Stuck gas pedals? I know what can go wrong with computers and software and the idea of having them control all features of our vehicles quite frankly “freaks me out”!
Look what happened recently…
And do we really need more gadgets when we drive? We are already waaaayyyyy too distracted. I’m yearning for simpler days.
BOTNET. What is that? Just another scare tactic? Consider the arrest recently made in Spain. The BOTNET owners were “normal people”. They had control of 12,000,000 + computers affecting 800,000 users with information stolen from some of the largest companies. How could they do this? OUTSOURCING. Software for sale that allows anyone with modest tech skills to become a cyber criminal. Our economic crunch is probably not helping either.
“The three main propagation vectors (how this thing spreads) include MSN, removable media (flash drives, etc.), and through P2P, targeting the following networks - Ares, Bearshare, Imesh, Shareaza, Kazaa, Dcplusplus, Emule, Emuleplus, Limewire.” I personally believe P2P software is the worse culprit. It’s almost like the user “leaves a key under the doormat” for the cyber criminal. But for the Limewire addict, it’s like asking a smoker to give up cigarettes. They know the risks but for some reason consider it worth the trouble. Just remember, nothing in life with value comes without costing someone, somewhere. Be vigilant folks.
Windows 7 is all over the stores these days. According to TechRepublic statistics, it is off to a much better start than the infamous Vista operating system release. Is it really better? Yes. It has a much cleaner interface (Mac like) than Vista, use only as much resources as XP (Vista was a resource hog), yet still has the improved security.
Our beloved XP though a fine system is just too vulnerable in the wild world of the internet. Like it or not, professional malware writers have its number with 10 years to perfect their software craft. Even with a fully patched version of XP, and current antivirus, I regularly see machines get infected just by browsing around google (although a protected machine is much easier to fix). An XP machine that is not protected you can almost count on a clean install to repair it. Even the large companies are beginning to migrate to Windows (7.0) unlike with Vista.
Upgrading to 7.0 on XP software is feasible though a minimum of 1 Gig of RAM is ideal. Fresh installs are always the best. A cluttered XP (with many programs) won’t necessarily translate over perfectly.
The bottom line is Windows 7.0 will keep Microsoft as the dominant PC player for another 5-8 years. Currently, usage is approximately (92% for PC/Windows, 6% for Mac, and 1-2% linux/other). It’s still a windows world. Although Mac is definitely an attractive alternative. Expect to pay more, have much less troubles with virus/malware, and to have a great look and feel. That is unless you don’t enjoying getting used to a new way of doing things (the menus, apps, and commands are different). You will have “gaming and business application” envy.
For me, if I’m allowed one machine only, I still find the PC’s to be a better value with a little web surfing discretion. It is time to let go of the past (unless your corporate IT guys won’t let you).
P.S. - There are many additional ways to keep a system safe in corporate IT with server policies. It is called “taking away user rights” through network policies and restricting Web Usage. Very effective but more expensive.
I don’t mind some superstition. It adds some color to the job of logic that I do. Sometimes it is great for a good laugh too (: Tech Republic has a decent video of some of the more common ones here. Personally I am not superstitious but I realize that all things cannot be explained by logic and what is seen. I can get a firm diagnosis of what happened to a computer about 1/2 the time and the other 1/2 “I just fix it”. Most of the “just fix it” is because customers don’t want to pay me big bucks just to find the byte out of place in the 7 layers of the network model. But there are times when the problem is inexplicable (not often) but enough for me to say ” sometimes there are gremlins” in your computer.
Good to see the FBI is getting to some of these rats. A good example of phishing is receiving an e-mail from your bank requesting personal information. Banks do not collect information that way so do not respond. If in doubt call your bank for verification.
Click here for details on “operation phish phry“.
Personally, I have yet to witness an infected Mac so I wouldn’t be too worried. However, the malware writers are beginning to put Mac in their crosshairs (including IPhone) and there have been some trojan reports due to users loading contaminated software. Stay away from pirated stuff and that should solve most of that problem. Click here for full details.
More to come on Mac versus PC. Here is a more balanced assessment than what you see on the TV commercials. Enjoy…
September 30th, 2009 in
Uncategorized | tags:
Mac,
Security |
1 Comment
This is an example of why the miscreants try and infect your computer. The banker trojan means real money stolen with the worse case scenario being identity theft. A botnet is a group of computers controlled (unknowingly) by these trojans to expand the reach of these criminals and also enable them to hide. So, make sure you have a reputable, updated antivirus, keep your computer updated with security patches from Microsoft and Apple, and use good judgement on what you view and download from the web. If your computer begins behaving strangely (excessive slowdowns, pop-up ads, lock ups, programs you haven’t seen before begin showing up) then run a full disk scan with your “known” antivirus program already installed (not anything new saying it is here to help). If you have no luck, better call a professional because it will be much cheaper than the damage the criminals can inflict.
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The black hat hackers see serious problems with LoJack theft security that is loaded on 60% of new laptops to deter theft. Because authentication is not strong, it can be perverted to be an almost undetectable rootkit; meaning someone else controls your computer and the method is very hard to find because it lives in in the hardware bios (not the operating system); even a clean “wipe” won’t remove it. At this point, I recommend skipping this service. I don’t like the privacy implications either.
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