Tech News
Tech News
Plasma or LCD for 3d
It was not long ago that we all assumed LCD would replace Plasma for TV's however the new Panasonic Viera VT is arguably better than LCD particularly when it comes to 3d.
Plasma has always had the advantage of deeper blacks, but historically it has tended to be slower, burn in images, and have relatively short service lives. The plasma folks have fixed all of the shortcomings and retained the deep blacks. In addition, by speeding up the technology, plasma is actually better than LCD at the moment, because LCDs can't turn off fast enough, leaving shadows in 3-D that shouldn't be there.
In addition, because plasma generates its own light and doesn't require LEDS, it is better at applying that light so you don't get the light halos that LED gives bright objects on dark backgrounds with LCD sets.
What makes the VT series stand out in a field of plasma displays, is that Panasonic appears to have one of the most universal glasses for 3-D (at $150 a pair, trust me, you want universal), and it has done the most work to eliminate glare and assure the quality of the video image for both 2-D and 3-D content.
This is important, because if you are buying a TV this year, you are buying it for 2-D, not 3-D, given there is very little non-gaming 3-D content yet. In short, you don't buy a TV this year for 3-D, you buy for 2-D -- and this line is great for 2-D, with 3-D being a potential plus.
PC Maintenance Tips
5 Easy PC Maintenance Tips
The No. 1 reason consumers replace their computers – short of a complete system failure – is that their current computer is too slow or suffers from poor performance, according to a recent Harris Interactive poll.
If you've noticed a decline in your PC's performance, and you are using your computer for about the same amount of time and for the same tasks that you did when you purchased it, there are simple and free procedures to try before you head out for a replacement.
Here is a five-step process that can be done right from the desktop, no tools required. After the initial tune-up, plan on doing this maintenance routine about every three months if you are the average home computer user, more frequently if your computer is used all day throughout the week, and less if it is used only once or twice a week.
Step 1: Uninstall Programs You Don't Use
Over time, unused software collects in our computers like old keys in a drawer: They were useful for a time, but chances are you can't remember what they are for now. So if you haven't used a program in the last six months, uninstall it to free up space and allow your computer to run the important stuff more efficiently.
To do this, go to the Windows Start button, choose "Control Panel" select "Program and Features" or "Install/Uninstall Programs," depending on the Windows version. Scan the list. If you see a program you recognize and know you don't use it, right click on its name, and then click uninstall. If you are unsure about a program, leave it alone.
Step 2: Delete Temporary and Unnecessary Files
Each time you visit a site online, your computer stores information so the next time you visit, the page will load faster. This is good in principle, but temporary files add up over time, and may ultimately slow the load time of applications. If you haven't deleted temporary files in a year or longer, you may be able to free up 10 percent or more of the computer's memory.
To do this, go back to the Start button, select "Computer" or "My Computer," right click on the "C" drive, select "Properties" click on "Disk Cleanup" and select "All Users" if you get a popup window with that option. Once you give it the go-ahead, Disk Cleanup will calculate how much space you will be able to free up. Click to check the boxes in this window. If you disagree with Disk Cleanup's recommendations, simply make sure that box is unchecked. And then stop – don't click "Okay" yet. Rather, select the "More Options" tab and proceed to Step 3.
Step 3: Delete All but Most Recent System Restore
Free up more disk space by removing all but the most recent restore point. As a standard function, Windows takes a snapshot of the contents of your computer at regular intervals. This procedure will keep only the most recent one.
Click "Clean up." This takes a fraction of a second, but as you proceed with the Disk Cleanup, be patient. This process may take up to half an hour or longer if it's been some time since the last cleanup.
Step 4: Defrag
Data is written and stored in disk blocks. Over time, files are deleted and new files are added. If a file cannot be stored in adjacent blocks, they become fragmented. One 5 megabyte jpg. photo file, for example, could be scattered across 5,000 disk blocks. Instead of pulling the pieces of a file from adjacent blocks, the computer has to gather them up, which of course takes longer. Defragging is simply a way of eliminating empty blocks and putting files back together.
Your Properties window should still be open. Select Tools. Click on "Defragment Now." This process may be scheduled as an automatic task about once a week.
Step 5: Scan for Viruses, Spyware, etc.
Now that your computer is clean, use your security software to do a sweep for viruses, worms, and spyware that can damage your computer and compromise your privacy. This step should be faster now because you've already deleted unnecessary programs and files, which can save scan time.
If you are not sure about any of the above then Please give Brockworth PC Repairs a call and we will be glad to help 01452 534719 or email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
10 Things You Must Know About Malware Infections
No1
Infections happen
According to the report, of all the computers that visited the Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool (MSRT) in the first half of 2009, 8.7 out of 1,000 (that is, not quite one percent) had some kind of malware infection identifiable by the tool.
The hot spots were Serbia and Montenegro, where the rate was 97.2 per thousand, Turkey with 32.3, Brazil with 25.4, Spain with 21.6, South Korea with 21.3, Saudi Arabia with 20.8, and Taiwan with 20.4.
The cleanest were computers in Finland with a rate of 1.9. The U.S. rate of 8.6 was nearly the same as the global average. (Other sources--typically malware protection vendors who see no reason to be coy--quote much higher infection rates.) Not mentioned by the Microsoft report is that Apple Macintosh infections remain rare.
No2
Malware amounts to an ecosystem
There's viruses that replicate themselves and spread to other computers, sometimes just for its own sake.
They're called worms if they do it through e-mail or instant messaging. Trojans follow the metaphor of Homer's Trojan Horse, whose occupants emerged in the night to open the Troy's gates to a devastating attack. Spyware watches your actions for marketing purposes. Adware produces annoying popup ads. Malware, incidentally, is any software you didn't ask for, especially software that has malicious intent. A bug, meanwhile, is any software that doesn't work right--and may be preferable to malware.
No3
Malware has many sources
You can get an infection by visiting a malicious Web site, or by clicking a file attached to spam e-mail, through a p2p file-sharing network, by downloading what you thought was free software, or by using an infected removable device like a USB memory stick. Intrusion attacks can come in over the Internet.
No4
Malware can bite
Many trojans will download other malware that take root in our computer and start doing nasty things. These include password stealers and keyloggers that will try to swipe your account information so that someone else can swipe your money. Or they may turn your computer in to botnet node, under the remote control of a bot herder, who will typically use it to spew spam.
No5
Malware can bite
Many trojans will download other malware that take root in our computer and start doing nasty things. These include password stealers and keyloggers that will try to swipe your account information so that someone else can swipe your money. Or they may turn your computer in to botnet node, under the remote control of a bot herder, who will typically use it to spew spam.
No6
Vulnerabilities vary
Not all operating systems are equally vulnerable. Microsoft's figures show that unpatched Windows XP has an infection rate of about 32.5 per thousand--about four times the global average. The rate falls to a sub-average 8 for thousand for Windows XP with Service Pack 3 (i.e., fully updated.) The rate for updated Vista machines was 3.1 per thousand for the 32-bit version, and 2 per thousand for the 64-bit version.
No7
Patching works
Hackers have a reputation of being ahead of the software vendors, but in reality they often use vulnerabilities for which patches has already been issued. Even when the bad guys get the upper hand, it may not be for long. Microsoft likes to use the example of the "Reno" Trojan that was attacking Vista, causing Windows Explorer to generate trackable error reports. After Microsoft issued a patch, the reports fell from 1.2 million error reports daily to less than 100,000--in three days. Within a month it was off the chart.
No8
Patching works
Hackers have a reputation of being ahead of the software vendors, but in reality they often use vulnerabilities for which patches has already been issued. Even when the bad guys get the upper hand, it may not be for long. Microsoft likes to use the example of the "Reno" Trojan that was attacking Vista, causing Windows Explorer to generate trackable error reports. After Microsoft issued a patch, the reports fell from 1.2 million error reports daily to less than 100,000--in three days. Within a month it was off the chart.
No9
Malware is not the only danger
The big news is the rise in phishing--e-mail that tries to trick you into revealing information that could be used for ID theft or other fraud. The phishers have been going after denizens of social networking sites and even large corporations.
No10
Malware is not the only danger
The big news is the rise in phishing--e-mail that tries to trick you into revealing information that could be used for ID theft or other fraud. The phishers have been going after denizens of social networking sites and even large corporations.
Man Infects Himself with Computer Virus
University of Reading researcher Mark Gasson has become the first human known to be infected by a computer virus.
The virus, infecting a chip implanted in Gasson's hand, passed into a laboratory computer. From there, the infection could have spread into other computer chips found in building access cards.
All this was intentional, in an experiment to see how simple radio-frequency identification (RFID) chips like those used for tracking animals can host and spread technological diseases.
The research shows that as implantable bionic devices such as pacemakers get more sophisticated in the years ahead, their security and the safety of the patients whose lives depend on them will become increasingly important, said Gasson.
"We should start to think of these devices as miniature computers," Gasson said. And just like everyday computers, they can get sick.
Down with disease
Gasson had a relatively simple chip implanted in the top of his left hand near his thumb last year. It emits a signal that is read by external sensors, allowing him access to the Reading laboratory and for his cell phone to operate.
He and his colleagues created a malicious code for the chip. When the lab's sensors read the code, the code inserted itself into the building computer database that governs who has access to the premises.
"The virus replicates itself through the database and potentially could copy itself onto the access cards that people use," Gasson said.
The experiment showed that implants which wirelessly communicate with other computers can infect them and vice versa.
Gasson said he knows of no instances to date of bionic devices having been contaminated by computer viruses. But the threat will grow with the number and complexity of these devices.
Besides pacemakers for people with heart trouble, other modern bionic devices include cochlear implants for the hearing impaired and deep brain stimulators – a "brain pacemaker" – for neurological conditions such as Parkinson's disease.
Years ahead, this surgically implanted hardware may not only be for people with medical conditions. Bionic enhancements, much like today's cosmetic surgery, could boost memories and IQs. A side effect mentioned in cases of deep brain simulation is patients who have experienced greater creativity, Gasson said.
Wash your digital hands
To fight communicable diseases caused by bacteria, viruses and fungi, we take precautions such as washing our hands.
To counter threats of technological agents, Gasson said we are quite accustomed to keeping our computers updated with antivirus software and exercising caution online. A similar degree of hygiene and awareness may be necessary to keep the devices in our bodies clean as well.
"I don’t think for us that [infectious technological agents] would be a particularly new concept, but implants in our bodies will make it a lot more real," Gasson told TechNewsDaily. "A denial-of-service attack on a pacemaker, if such a thing were possible, would of course be very detrimental."
Facebook virus
How to remove the Koobface virus from Facebook
“Britney Spears is watching you through Facebook webcam!” “You look just awesome in this new movie!” Those are just few quotes that were taken from hackers who were trying to hack Facebook accounts by installing a Facebook virus called Koobface. Once you clicked on the messages, you will be brought to a page where you need to update your Flash player before the video can be viewed. Therein lies the virus, cloaked in a “flash_player.exe” file.
So what can you do to prevent or remove this stinky Facebook virus? Facebook has posted a “How-to” method to guide users on overcoming this problem:
If your account has recently been used to send spam, please visit one of the online antivirus scanners and reset your password on Facebook.
* http://www.kaspersky.com/virusscanner
* http://security.symantec.com
* http://us.mcafee.com/root/mfs/scan.asp?affid=56
* http://www.bitdefender.com/scan8
* http://onecare.live.com/site/en-us/default.htm
* http://ca.com/securityadvisor/virusinfo/scan.aspx
* http://www.ewido.net/en/onlinescan
* http://www.pandasecurity.com/homeusers/solutions/activescan
Some preventive measures that you should take to avoid such things happen :
* If a link or message seems weird, don’t click on it.
* Be aware of where you enter your password.
* Report any spam or abuse you see on discussion boards and Walls.
* Don’t use the same password on Facebook that you use in other places on the web.
* Never share your password with anyone.
* Don’t click on links or open attachments in suspicious emails.
Legal Action on WIFI
Brits "could face legal action" for leaving Wi-Fi unsecured...
Britons could face the prospect of legal action for not securing their Wi-Fi connections, according to a legal expert at Sheffield University.
The warning follows a German case that saw a broadband subscriber fined for not securing his wireless network, which was used to download music illegally.
If the Digital Economy Act comes into force in the UK, similar cases of liability for having an unsecured network could follow here.
There's no real definition of what 'allow' means and it could be that not setting a password could be taken as 'allowing' someone to use your network,
“The German case is an illustration of what could happen here, so it's a bit of a salutary warning,” said Lilian Edwards, professor of internet law at the University of Sheffield. “At the moment there's no legal requirement to lock down your network – it's not a crime to leave it open, but it may break the terms and conditions of your ISP, and it could take legal action.”
Under the Digital Economy Act, however, you could be sent warnings and eventually disconnected from the internet if you “allow” someone else to download content illegally – a grey area that could be exploited by media industry lawyers.
“There's no real definition of what 'allow' means and it could be that not setting a password could be taken as 'allowing' someone to use your network,” said Edwards.
However, she stressed that any such sanctions would have to wait until the "technical measures" part of the Digital Economy Act had come into force, something that still requires Ofcom's recommendation in a year's time, plus a new vote in both houses of Parliament.
Campaigners against the act hope the downloading sections of the Act could be repealed by the new Government. In line with pre-election promises from now Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, party members at this week's Liberal Democrats conference called on their ministers and MPs “to take all possible steps to ensure the repeal” of large swathes of the Act.
Graphics flaw Win 7
Microsoft warns of Windows 7 graphics flaw
A flaw with the graphics driver in Windows 7 could compromise the stability and security of PCs, Microsoft has warned.
The vulnerability lies in the Windows Canonical Display Driver (cdd.dll) for the 64-bit versions of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2.
"If exploited, it would likely cause the affected system to stop responding and restart," Jerry Bryant, group manager of response communications warns on the Microsoft Security Response Center blog. "Code execution, while possible in theory, would be very difficult due to memory randomisation, both in kernel memory and via Address Space Layout Randomisation (ASLR)."
Microsoft claims that the vulnerability only affects machines running the Aero graphics interface, and advises that customers "may choose to disable Windows Aero as a workaround to protect against potential threats" until the company releases a fix.
That said, Microsoft claims that the chances of the flaw being exploited in the wild are low, and have awarded the bug the lowest possible score on its Exploitability Index.
Further details of the flaw can be found in Microsoft's security advisory.
Swoopo
So what is Swoopo and is it a scam?
Well its an auction site with a bit of a twist, goods appear to be sold at a very cheap price.
We are all used to Ebay where we go and place our bids on something that we like, and when the auction ends we win or we lose depending on your bid obviously.
The auction ends at a predetermined time and we don't have to pay for bidding. All the costs are incurred by the seller.
The reason why I mentioned the above separately is because this is where Swoopo is different.
So this is how Swoopo works :
So you see all this cheap stuff being sold on there so you decide to have a go, you start off by registering.
You then want to place a bid for which you will have to buy bid packs which cost $0.75 or £0.40, and you have to purchase a minimum of 30, 50, 100, 300 or 700, or in the case of UK 25, 50, 100, 250 or 500. Now you have the choice of placing single bids yourself or using the service of a bidbutler. Bidbutler is like using an auction sniper when bidding on an Ebay auction, but here the difference is that whenever you place a bid the auction time gets extended, but I will cover that below.
So you place a bid yourself or by using a bidbutler, everytime you place a bid you will have to pay Swoopo $0.75 or £0.40 regardless of the fact whether you win or lose, so if you place 10 bids in an auction, you will be out of pocket by $7.50 of £4.00, and if you don't win the auction then that may well appear as if you have just wasted your hard earnt cash.
Every bid you place will increase the price of the auction by $0.15 or £0.08 and everytime you place a bid the time will get extended by upto 20 secs, so if there is a second left and you place a bid then the time will get extended and the price will go up by $0.15 or £.0.08
In order for it to sell goods at that price, it needs to make its money somewhere, obviously Swoopo is not some generous saint that will give away goods or sell goods at a loss.
Now in order for it to make up for the low price its selling its goods, it is charging for the bids that are being placed, its as simple as that. Other bidders are basically paying for that item for one bidder to walk away with...its like a lottery system, everyone pays for the ticket and then one person walks away with the jackpot....do we call a lottery a scam?
How they make their money
Lets take the example of a PS3 that was sold
It sold for £177.84, in order for the price to reach this far, Swoopo must have made £177.84 / £0.08 = 2223 bids placed - each bid is worth £0.40 so 2223 x £0.40 that equals to a staggering £889 and it doesn't end there, the winning bidder will still have to pay the winning price which was £177.84 and the delivery cost which is £4.90, so that totals to £1071.94
Shocked? Well you shoudn't be...why? because thats the sort of markup companies make, the only difference is that we can clearly see this here but with other companies like Microsoft, Sony, Ebay, Google we can't reverse engineer their prices so we can't figure out that easily what their making but trust me they make similar money and even more.
If we shift our attention from Swoopo and forget how much they are making but rather focus on our lucky winner we will realise that he got a good deal, he placed 156 bids at a cost of £62.40 + £177.84+£4.90=£245.14. So he paid £245.14 for an item worth £299.99....Not the best deal but still he saved some money.
Do we stop buying from companies if they are making alot of money? Ofcourse we don't because we don't know how much they are making, but say we found out that the PS3 only costs £10.00 to manufacture and Sony are selling it for £299.99, would we call them a scam? Do you get my point?
The focus should be on yourself, as to how much can you save.
Just remember you pay for every bid you make whether you win or loose so be careful with your bidding..........
The Pogoplug
The Pogoplug – an all-new multimedia sharing device that aims to make syncing a cinch – is now available in the UK. Traditionally, remotely accessing hard drives and sharing files is a process that requires a degree in computer science. But the Pogoplug aims to give you access to all your hard drive goodies – images, video, music and docs – with just a 60-second installation time.
Just plug in your router and up to four hard drives to Pogoplug and then activate the device through its website (my.pogoplug.com). Once registered, you can access your hard drive remotely and share until your heart’s content. It’s compatible with both Macs and PCs and can automatically port in new content form iTunes, Windows Media Player and iPhoto.
The Pogoplug is on sale exclusively at John Lewis now at £99.
Dazzling LG EX-Series vibrant LCD monitors
Technology precisely modifies our preferences and interest by introducing highly advanced techniques. Now LG has come up with its hottest EX-series LCD monitors which truly capture the attention of all technical experts. Gloriously designed are the slimmest LCD monitors which will illuminate your lifestyle and makes you feel great with its eye-catching expression. These LED monitors proffers electrifying versions 20-inch, 21.5-inch and 23-inch EX-series named as EX225, EX235 and EX205 correspondingly.
Laser Guided scissors
Can’t cut straight with scissors? Perfect for the arts and crafts aficionados, the Laser Guided Scissors sports a built-in laser that shoots a straight beam of red light across the surface you intend on cutting, allowing for straighter cuts. Similar to a laser level, the beam can be easily toggled on or off with a simple press of a button. All you have to do is cut along the line. Simple enough, right?
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