Computer freedom and reasonability

I’m at the end of my lunch so I’ll post a couple of links about this later, but it seems that PC manufacturers and PC/Service providers are beginning to stop fixing hardware that isn’t running the Windows OS that it was sold with.

So in other words if you get Windows Vista on a computer and it doesn’t do what you need it to, so you load Linux or even Windows XP(or older) and then your hinge breaks or a crack in the case appears then the Manufacturer or Service provider will say you voided your warranty and then not fix it.

This is not only unreasonable on the business’s part it just plain falls under the stupid category. I can understand not providing drivers or software support, but the software is completely separate from the hardware in this regard. Installing Linux doesn’t make the hinge break. Although if it did, it’d be a pretty cool trick.

Update:
It looks like PC World finally decided to fix the laptop, but the local store manager still hasn’t gotten the news. Anyway it sounds like there is still confusion here. Here’s the links for the story

http://www.theregister.com/2007/09/13/pc_world_linux/

Here’s the link to the fellow’s blog that is trying to get it fixed.

http://www.dreamstate.eu/

Gizmo project

I found out something neat about Gizmo Project. Gizmo is an IP phone software that lets you use your comupter online as a phone.

You can use a headset and mic or one of those computer phone attachments at Wally World.

But the cool part is that if you and your friend both have accounts and you both put your mobile and land lines in your profile then you should be able to call your friends landline and/or mobile phone for free from your computer.

I don’t know too many ppl using it yet to try it out, so if you want to give it a try and need someone to help you set up let me know.

You can download it from here

http://gizmoproject.com/

Rootkits, spyware, and other malware

I’m a computer tech by trade. Lately I’ve been running into more rootkits than I used to.

It’s hard to believe that a lot of people still don’t know about spyware and rootkits. Most people have heard of viruses.

So I thought I’d give a list of links and tools I use to hunt and remove malware like spyware, adware and rootkits. From here on out I’ll refer to the whole group of bad software as malware.

First and foremost prevention is the best policy.

You could first buy a Mac. That can get expensive so below is some free software that you can download for Windows. Don’t be too fooled by Mac ads though. They can get malware too, it is just not as frequent.

The best way I ever stopped getting malware was to stop using Internet Explorer. I use Opera myself. Sometimes I use Firefox.

Opera http://www.opera.com
Firefox http://www.firefox.com

Tool for blocking spyware sites:

Spyware blaster http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/

Now if you’ve been infected or think you are infected here is a list of tools to help you find and remove malware.

Spybot – Search and Destroy http://spybot.safer-networking.de/
Lavasoft Adaware http://www.download.com/Lavasoft/3260-20_4-69274.html
AVG – free antivirus and free antimalware http://free.grisoft.com
F-secure Blacklight – http://www.f-secure.com/blacklight/
Trend Micro RootkitBuster – http://www.trendmicro.com/download/rbuster.asp

For advanced users:
This stuff starts to take a little know how of Windows processes so you can try it if you want, but be sure to make backups before you tinker with stuff.

HiJackThis! – you can use this to make a log and post to the net on forums to help others to help you know what to delete otherwise, be careful http://www.download.com/HijackThis/3000-8022_4-10379544.html?tag=lst-0-1

Icesword – be sure to get the english version … unless of course you speak chinese, then by all means download the one that makes the most sense to you. There that should take care of the whole, “Which language should I download it in?” question. http://pjf.blogcn.net/ For the english version you’re going to want to look for IceSword120_en.zip. Icesword will help you find rootkits and stop their processes but it’ll be up to you to remove them manually. Once again I can not stress enough to be careful what you stop and/or remove.

RootkitUnHooker http://www.rku.xell.ru/?l=e&a=dl

Rootkit Revealer – from the Big Dogs themselves at Sysinternals, now Microsoft http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/utilities/RootkitRevealer.mspx This will help you locate rootkits but once again it will be up to you to remove them yourself.

You will probably need to run several of these tools, because unlike antivirus manufacturers the anti-malware people don’t have a big communication network going so a lot of the time one piece of software will find differrrent malware than another piece of software.

Clear as mud? Good. Actually if you have any questions shoot me a message and I’ll try to answer as well as clean up this entry a bit. I know it is a mess of info but right now I’m just trying to get the information out.

One other cool thing is this is all freeware/expireware and some of these are multilanguage so if ingles is not your primary language there is a chance you will still be able to find a version of it in your language to use.

Good luck to you on cleaning/maintaining your computer.

Trick out your Mac!

Yay, now you too, can trick out your Mac!

http://www.applegazette.com/mac/10-ways-to-trick-out-your-mac/