Book Reviews and Money Saving Tips

This information is based on the IT Security blog post "10 services to turn off in MS Windows XP," by Chad Perrin. I got the information through ZD.Net and TechRepublic. You should consider joining both to keep up with a lot of the technical issues. Keep in mind that you may not want to turn any of this stuff off but if you are reasonably technical you may wish to close some of these holes. Microsoft Windows is a network-capable operating system, it has come with quite a few services turned on by default, so it's a good idea for security-conscious users of Microsoft’s flagship product to shut down any of these services they aren't using. If you're running Microsoft Windows XP on your desktop system, consider turning off the following services. You will be surprised by what is running without your knowledge. IIS Microsoft’s Internet Information Services provide the capabilities of a Web server for your computer. I turned this one off. NetMeeting Remote Desk...

Heads up, your AVG 7.5 version is going to bug you to upgrade due to it's nearing demise. I upgraded to the 8.0.100 after wading through the sales pitch for their paid version. I did the reboot and all the crap they ask you to do. I then tried to get on the web via Explorer 7.0 and could not get on the net. I uninstalled AVG 8 and got on the net no problem. I discovered a site noting an issue with AVG 8 and Google Desktop after doing an issue search. I thought what the hey and uninstalled Google Desktop, reinstalled AVG 8, rebooted and hooray, I am back on the net. So this may be just a random incident but if you use AVG and you do update and there are issues and you really like AVG and don't want to dump it gor Avira, and you have Google Desktop, maybe this will save you some aggravation. The following link will take you to the free AVG 8.0.100 download page if you want it. Personally I am going to do some more looking at Avira too. I don't like incompatibi...

This relates to my post about backing up your data. If you have some old ide drives laying around and are comfortable with a simplistic installation, read on. This description is right off of the Amazon site and their box has a full one year warranty from Netgear. My experience with Netgear and their service and warranties has been very positive. If you want to live a little closer to the edge, the same unit is available at http://www.computergeeks.com/ refurbished with a 90 day warranty and half the price. For the money, I think I would go new. Of course if you are like me and have multiple old computers on your network, you can just throw some extra drives in them and achieve a similar success. If after reading this you are totally turned on to buy one, the geek link is above. To buy from Amazon, click on my Amazon Store Widget and put NETGEAR SC101 in the search box. The NETGEAR SC101 Storage Central is an expandable storage system that allows shared access by all computers on your...

Here is an immediate money saving tech tip. Clean your computers. I have a clean environment, no dust, no fumes and no contaminants. However, when ever I open one of my boxes I am amazed how much dust and ensuing dust bunnies are in the computer. Heat kills! The more dust on your board, the more likely you are going to fry a component. I even run a Heppa filter and I get the darn dust bunnies. First vacumn all you can get out. If you have a metal tip on your vacumn, please make sure you don’t fry your computer with a static discharge. After you have sucked out as much dust as you can, blow the computer. You will be astounded at how much dust hides under things that you can’t vacumn. I know this is simple, everyone knows it but like running your virus scan, NOBODY DOES IT! Keep the box clean and you extend it’s life, big time.

If you aren’t a golfer, STOP HERE, READ NO FURTHER , you will be bored to tears. If you are a golfer, check this out. It works, it is easy and it is small and really, really inexpensive. I bought one for my technophobe wife/avid golfer. She likes it and found it fairly easy to use. You put the bottom line at the base of the pin and the top moveable line at the top of the pin and get a very reasonable measure of distance. Obviously different courses use different heights on their pins so it is not going to be fool proof but for $30.00 how can you lose . A fancy satellite range finder is hundreds of dollars. Ezonic has is on sale with free shipping for $29.99. http://www.shopezonics.com/product_p/ez-628.htm Take note, it isn’t really happy if it gets wet so keep it out from under your water/beer/ice tea. Ezonics description: A new invention of golf scope measures distance by using precise optics and digital technology. This digital golf scope measures distance from 50 to 920 yards with +...