Portable Computing with PortableApps

A few years back jump drive manufactures started making jump drives that were "U3 Enabled". These drives would auto start a Start Menu like program that listed portable applications that would run off your drive without needing to install your programs onto the computer. This was a great idea but there was some major problems. First, most of the software was proprietary and the free software was mostly worthless. Secondly, the drive took a long time to startup because of the way the software was implemented. Thirdly, it only came on select jump drives and couldn't be installed on any other jump drive. The free alternitive called PortableApps, has fixed all of these problems with an installable application that would work with any jump drive as small as 64mb and they offer their own launcher tool that takes much less time to load. Unlike U3, PortableApps has a ton of free, useful, software. You can install many of your favorite free programs such as OpenOffice, the Gimp, Notepadd++, Firefox 3.0, games, even software that can make your jump drive into a full web server and many more.
Having all these apps on a jump drive may sound nice but what is the real practical use for it? Think about it this way, you are on vacation and you are forced to use your cousin Lou's piece of junk computer. He doesn't have any of the software you need and his hard drive is so full that you can't install anything on it. If you have your trusty jump drive on you then all you have to do is plug it in and start up Thunderbird and check your email then if you use the Foxmarks add on for Firefox you can surf the internet with all of your bookmarks right there on your jump drive. While you are surfing you can start up VLC and listen to your music that you have on your jump drive. Then when you are done you can payback your cousin Lou by letting Clamwin clean out his virus infested computer because his OEM copy of Norton's has expired and he has been "Reminded Later" for the past 5 years. Then after his computer has been saved from every virus known to man you can start up VirtualDub and start making your vacation video and burn it to a DVD with InfraRecorder. Then, leave his computer completely unchanged (except for having removed his viruses). That is why everyone should be using PortableApps!

Internet The Way It Should Be

I am always looking for the next new thing that will change how we interact with information. We have more at our finger tips now than any other generation has had in the past. The more information we have the more difficult it is to access it. Ubiquity is attempting to fix this problem. Check out this video to explain more.
Ubiquity for Firefox from Aza Raskin on Vimeo.

Has Firefox Finally Been Beat?

A few days ago, some one leaked information about a project that Google has been hiding for several years. Google Chrome is Google's answer to Microsoft's Internet Explorer. Chrome is a totally redesigned web browser; built from the ground up it aims for speed and security. I have been a fan of Firefox back in the days of 1.0 but after trying Chrome I have to say I'm reluctant to going back to Firefox for several reasons.

1. Speed - Incredible, unadulterated speed! One of my biffs about Firefox has always been the slow start up times. General web surfing has always been faster than IE but the start up times have at times taken longer than 30-40 seconds on an older PC. Chrome is faster than even IE with start up times and surfing is even faster than Firefox 3.

2. Memory Usage - One of the negative things thrown around by IE Fan boys is that Firefox is a resource hog, and to a degree they are right. Most of these problems have been fixed with 3.0, IE has been shown to use more memory than Firefox has ever. Chrome continues to run smoothly even after marathon surfing.

3. Secure - Chrome was built from day one with the thought of security. IE is not secure due to some short sightedness from the beginning of the project. Active X controls allow someone to take control over your browser with relative ease.

Even with these advantages over Firefox I think that power users will really struggle to cross over the the shiny side. One of the biggest disadvantages to Chrome is that unlike Firefox there is no add-ons for Chrome. Also right now Chrome is only available for Windows XP and Vista. Lastly, Chrome has few options available for power users to tweak.

Over-all, Chrome is a very good browser. I will be watching it's development in the future. I think that for the everyday user Chrome will be a perfect replacement for IE. For the power user, I think that it will be a while before we will cross over to Chrome.

If you have not yet tried it, give it a chance before you write it off as a fad or just not for you. Click here to go to the download page.

What do you think? Comment and let me know.


UPDATE:

After having used Chrome for a while I have just a few things to add.

1. Flash is not as fast as in Firefox. I have an older PC that I use at work (2.0 Ghz, 2.0gb RAM, on board video). I found that Chrome makes all Flash (youtube.com, dilbert.com/animation, any flash based games) drop frames.

2. Java based apps are much faster than in Firefox.

3. I miss my Ad block Plus add-on.

4. Spell checking does not work everywhere it should. (such as while I type this blog)

5. It works best in google based apps (gmail, google docs, etc...)

Microsoft to Replace Vista in Late 2009

Microsoft has just released some footage of a preview of Microsoft Windows 7. From the looks of it it looks like Vista mated with a MS Surface Table and was installed on a laptop. Is this touch screen toy the answer to our Vista woes or is it just more unnecessary features that will suck our system resources away from more productive programs? We will see soon... Until then check out the video. Just a note, the video has no sound until the last 15 seconds. This is not an error it is the way it was the way it was made.

Video: Multi-Touch in Windows 7

Real Time Stats and Communication for Your Blog or Site

I love trying new things to make my sites more interactive and cool. I recently found a cool app that allows you to have real-time stats on your site as well as the ability to chat with a specific visitor on your site.

Woopra is the first step into what will be the future for websites and blogs. Imagine being able to see who is on your site, where they are from, what operating system they are using, and how long they have been there in real-time. Woopra uses a desktop client to monitor your sites.

INSTALLATION

Installation is very easy. When you get your account they give you a small piece of Javascript to put on your site. Once the script is on your site you will instantly start receiving information about your visitors.

USE

The desktop client is easy to use and looks great. It gives you as much information as any other stat tool but it allows for real-time interaction with your visitors.

PRICE

Currently the beta is free. They plan to have both free and paid services.

Currently it is still in private beta but if they let me have an account, they should let anyone have one. (Actually these invites are so hard to get that someone sold theirs on Ebay!) If you are interested check them out and sign up.

Automatically Synchronize All Your Firefox Browsers

If you use multiple computers and have several Firefox browsers that you use on a regular basis you will know the headaches caused by having different settings, bookmarks, history, cookies, and saved passwords. I actually use about four different Firefox installs. I have three computers I use on a daily basis and a USB thumb drive with a portable Firefox install. I needed all of these to automatically sync with each other. This is how I did it...

Get a Google account

The add on that syncs your browser uses a Google account to store the sync info. To do this click here then fill out all of the information. Make sure your account is active and then move on the the next step.

Get the Addon

1. Click this link to go to the download page for the Firefox add-on.
2. Click on the link that says "browsersync.xpi"
3. Click "Agree and Install", then click "Install" on the next window that pops up.
4. Let the program install and then let your browser restart.

Activate the Addon

1. Make sure you have your Google account information available because you will need it.
2. Follow the on screen instructions that will appear before your browser starts back up.

Add It to All of Your Firefoxes.

If this is going to help you at all you must install it on all of your personal browsers.

And that's all. Right now this only works for Firefox 2. Support for Firefox 3 should be coming out soon.


***Update***
If you are only interested in syncing your bookmarks, then check out Foxmarks. The version is still in beta but they are allowing anyone to sign up. I use it now and it works great. Click here to create an account.

Save XP!

According to InfoWorld, Windows XP will no longer be sold after June 30, 2008. For those of us who are not big fans of the resource hogging Vista, this will be a blow to our sanity (not to mention our wallets). InfoWorld has started a "Save XP Petition". I understand that many people wish that Microsoft would just die and let Linux and OS X reign, understand that many of us would like a choice. For many, Vista is not a viable option for computing. It is slow, bloated, and buggy. Not to mention that there are five different versions available to choose from ranging from $129 -$399 for a OS! I am not saying that we should kill Vista and everyone go back to XP (although that doesn't sound too bad of an idea!) but Microsoft is making a stupid decision just to push their new OS. Sign the petition and hopefully MS will listen to the people who pay their bills - the end user!

Bathroom Tech...

If you ask anyone who knows me well they will tell you that I am totally obsessed with tech. Having said that, I also believe there is tech that is contributing to heinous violence in our country as well as spreading death and disease. Anyone who has been forced to interact with these electronics from hell will agree with me explicitly. Among the offenders are as follows:

1. Automatic Flushing Toilets

Urinals aren't so bad but the stall version was designed by terrorist trying to overthrow the western world. Toilets in of themselves are gross, so most places are starting to put those nice paper seat cover dispensers in the stall. Automatic toilets mock those who wish to protect the purity of their posterior. I was in a Walmart not long ago when nature called in a big way (yeah I know, too much info). So I go into the wonderful Walmart bathroom and proceed to cover the seat with the paper protection. I get it just right and turned to sit and the toilet flushes sucking down the seat cover, as I am hovering over the seat preparing for a landing. Now I'm a patient man but this is not funny, I quickly grab another and get it just right turn and goosh! This happens four times. By now nature is not only calling it's texting, emailing and paging me all at the same time. I grab the seat cover throw it down, spin around, and plop down just a split second before it flushes....Success!

2. Automatic Faucets

So I answer nature's call and proceed to the sink. ...it's “automatic”... I say a quick prayer and stick my hand under the faucet... nothing... (I love how automatic these things are!) So like anyone who has encountered one of these monsters, I start waving my hands all around like I'm directing a symphony orchestra until the tiny stream of water comes out. Yay, success.

3. Automatic Soap Dispensers

Now that my hands are almost wet I reach for the soap ...it too is “automatic”... I start directing my orchestra, but this demon is too smart for that. Just as I get my hand in the right place it waits a second and then spits out a microscopic amount into the sink, not in my hand. Then it waits before serving anymore soap to the sink so that we greedy bathroom users won't waste it on things as trivial as washing our hands. When you finally out smart the sneaky soap squirter, you then have to find the sweet spot for the sparse stream again.

4. Automatic Hand Dryer

Now that my hands are nearly clean, I proceed to dry my hands. There are two kinds of hand dryers to choose from, the kind that blows your hands dry in a little less than an hour, and the paper kind that kills trees but takes just a fraction of the time to use. This should be easy right? Wrong! Since I have now spent nearly two hours trying to do what would take just a few minutes at home, I don't have the time or patience to deal with the blow dryer, so I try my luck with the paper towel kind. I walk up to it and it has this picture of a waving hand just over top a dark glossy spot with a red light in the middle of it. (I really think that red light is a camera that sends a direct feed to the Terrorist Funniest Home Videos network.) So you walk up this thing start flailing your arms around until a single sheet slowly descends. Of course this is never enough. So once again you have to wait for a while before it will work again (an effort so keep you from using it for what it was made for). After finally getting enough you walk out of the bathroom enraged about how that someone made something as simple as using the bathroom such a painful process. Continuous encounters with this system will either turn someone into a homicidal maniac or they will die of some kind of strange bathroom disease because they skipped the whole painful sanitation process entirely.

If you look below at the statistics that I've made up, you can see how since these things have been placed into bathrooms, violence has gone up while life expectancy has gone down. Unless these bathroom torture devices are not corrected America will continue to decline until it will be completely destroyed.

C.G. Quick Tip: Email on the Fly

I recently found this easy way of emailing someone on the fly. If you use Firefox this is very easy.

1. In Firefox, right click on the bookmarks toolbar.

2. Click "New Bookmark..."

3. In the "Name" box, type something like "Email the Boss".

4. In the "Location" box, type "mailto:(enter-email-address-here)" (without the quotes)

5. Click "Add" and you are done. You now have a single click way of emailing whoever you want.

Not Geeky News But Still Awesome!!!

This blog usually features cool geekery but today is going to be a little different. My wife and I are having a baby and yesterday (April 1, 2008) we had an ultra-sound and we found out that we are going to be having a boy!! We are very happy. (especially since my boss has nine daughters and no boys!) I had heard that people who play with electronics too much are not able to have boys after a while. (case and point; my boss) Either this is an old wives tale or I was just lucky. Anyway, his due date is July 6th. We plan to name him Robert Steven Reed, after his grandfathers names. Pray for us during this time and I promise to bring you more geek stuff soon. I am planning on writing a post on how to build yourself a rock-solid $250 computer, with step by step pictures and directions. I have built this same computer for about five different people and have had zero problems with it. My aim is a fast, easily upgradeable, inexpensive, all around good computer. I, however, will have to wait until someone orders one again from me, because I really am a really cheap geek and can't afford my own wares.

Save Hundreds Every Year on Ink with a Virtual Printer!

It is strange that we spend more on ink for our printers than we do for the printer it self. Even the most expensive printer will quickly be double by the cost of a few replacement cartridges. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to virtually print and save your documents, web pages, email, and receipts? Then you have to check out a cool little app called PrimoPDF. PrimoPDF is a app that will take any printable document and turn what would be a physical printout into a PDF document. This program is totally free and does not leave a watermark on your PDF like other "free" virtual printers do. I use this all of the time to make PDFs to save web pages or to send a word doc to a friend or to make a large Publisher document easy to save.

Here is How It Works...

1. Download it



















2. Install it





















3. Use it

1. In whatever program you are in, go to file --> Print

2. Choose the new PrimoPDF Printer from the drop down menu

3. Click print


4. Save it
- This screen might take a few seconds to appear especially if you have a older computer. This screen will allow you to set any settings you will need. Most of the time you can just click create PDF without changing anything.

- If you are intending on emailing your PDF after it is made you can make it do it automatically by setting the Post Process to "Mail PDF".

That's it. This program has saved me hours of pain and tons of money. Check it out, I think you'll like it.

Free Software You Shouldn't Live Without!

I have an obsession with usb flash drives, as well as an obsession with free software. These two things go well together and every geek should have a thumb drive on their keyring with their favorite software on it. This is as important to us geeks as coffee. This list covers a variety of different categories and I will list them as I have them arranged on my thumb drive.

If you have a ton of software on your thumb drive you need to have it arranged in a way that will allow you to find what you need quickly with out having to search for several minutes to find what you are looking for.

I have my software arranged like this.

















Great Free Software

1. Burning Software

-InfraRecorder - Great burning tool, can be ran off your thumb drive. (no installation needed)

-CD Burner XP Pro - Works like Nero, very easy to use

-Img Burn - Great for burning ISOs and anything else you might need

2. Developer Tools

-DevCPP - C++ IDE (if you don't program you don't need this) Easy to use, better than some of the non-free IDEs I've tried.

-Notepad++ - A wonderful notepad replacement. Has the ablity to markup a varity of languages such as php, java, html, c, etc. Not a complier.


3. Hardware Testing and Inspecting Software

-CPU-Z - Can give a lot of information about your cpu.

-Heavy Load - A stress testing tool, good for when you want to see if your system is stable after a overclock.

-SpeedFan - Can show the status of your system fans, temperatures, and hard drive conditions.

-SIW - System Information For Windows can give you information about nearly everything on your system. Works off a single exe file, one of my favorites.

4. Internet Utilities

-FileZilla - A great ftp client, updated VERY often.

-Firefox - Internet browser --The very best of the best on the top ten lists of every uber geek.

-Foxit Reader - a very lightweight replacement for Adobe Reader. Less than 2mb, and it does every thing that Adobe does only faster.

- Pidgin - An instant messenger program that can work with nearly every type of instant messenging software. Can replace all of your other IM clients.

-ThunderBird - A great Email client that works like Microsoft Outlook. Easy to setup and use. Has built in spam killers.


5. Media

-Audacity - A very capable audio editor. Make sure you get the MP3 support with it.

-dbpoweramp - it converts and rips to a ton of formats. Some formats will require you to buy a license to use. This is one piece of software that I would pay (and have paid) to get the full functionality out of.

-DVD Shrink - This is a very controversial piece of software. It will decrypt and rip any DVD and then shrink it to fit onto a single layer DVD. I am not going to link to a download page but will link to his home page for you. DO NOT USE THIS FOR DVDs YOU DO NOT OWN. This is only for making backup copies of your own collection so that when your four-year-old uses it for a frisbee you don't lose your copy of Lord of the Rings.

-Gimp - A poor man's version of Photoshop. Very nice and works well.

-Paint.net - Easy to use version of MSPaint on steroids.

-VLC Media Player - Can play nearly any media format better than any other player can. Will play DVDs better than any other software I have used. Very simple small and uses less system resources than other media players.

-ZaraRadio - A fully functional free radio automation program. I work at a radio station that uses a $10,000 piece of software that does all of the same things that this does. Great for internet DJs.

6. Misc Utilities

-Autoruns - Shows every thing that is running on your computer.

-7zip - A full featured zip program similar to Winzip

-Advanced Windows Care - Cleans, repairs, and optimizes windows quickly and easily. One click fix for most problems. Works great, a new comer to my list of favorites.

-CCleaner - Cleans up unwanted junk from your pc.

-My Mouse Meter - Pointless program that tells you how far your mouse has traveled. Fun but won't make you any better as a person.

-nLite - If you have a old windows installation disk and want to add hot fixes, drivers, software, or service packs to your installation disk this will add all of that to your install disk and give other options such as making your disk fully automatic and put your key in for you so you don't have to babysit your computer while it installs.

-Primo pdf maker - Can turn any document into a PDF including web pages. Anything you can print it can turn into a PDF. Very useful, I use it all of the time.

-Real Desktop - Pointless desktop replacement. Turns your whole desktop into a 3D environment. You will need a fairly good video card to make it work.

-Visual Task Tips - Gives you Vista like thumbnail previews of all of the items in your task bar.

8. Office Software

-Abiword - Small and lightweight, this word processor is great if you need simple document making with out all of the bloat.

-Open Office - A full blown Microsoft Office killer. Works great and can fully replace Microsoft office.

9. Security Software ( I break this down into two categories: Anti-virus and Anti-malware)

ANTI-VIRUS

-AVG Free Edition - Works great I have it on all of my computers and have never had any problems.

ANTI-MALWARE

-Adaware 2007 - The free edition will clean up most all spyware from your system.

-Spybot Search and Destroy - One of the first things I run on a infected system. It looks for specific types of spyware and malware. This will quickly destroy your biggest problems.

-Threat Fire - This is know as a "zero day attack defense". It watches for suspicious behavior and alerts the user of it. This works great if coupled with AVG. When used with AVG it can keep you safe from most any problem.

-Windows Defender - A spyware killer from Microsoft. The 0nly free real-time scanner for spyware I know of. Works about as good as you can expect from Microsoft.



Unsorted Programs, zz Personal Stuff, and Drive Content Map?

These last three things are nice to have on your drive. The Unsorted Programs folder is great when you find that piece of software that you don't know where to put it yet.

zz Personal Stuff - Your personal junk. Start it with a zz so you will always have last in your list to find it easy.

Drive Content Map - This is a text document that has a index for all of your stuff. This is nice if you don't want to look through ever folder to see if you have something or not. You will want to keep it updated.

All of these programs will fit on a 1GB thumb drive. If you are looking for a place to get one for very cheap, check out NewEgg.com. I bought a 4GB drive from them for only $18 last month.

Clean Up Your Virus Infested PC!

Cryptic error messages, hour long startups, dirty pop-ups, and other strange behavior, seem to plague many people's PCs. This can become so bad that people throw out a good computer and buy a new one because they think it is irreparable. Never fear there is hope, even for the worst of infestations.

How to fix it...

1. Get a some software.
-If your computer is badly infected then use someone else's computer to download the required software.
-download:
Spybot Search and Destroy
AVG Anitvirus (the free version)
Advanced WindowsCare Personal
Threatfire

2. Restart your PC and then boot into safe mode.
-To get into safe mode, restart and then just before the Windows startup screen comes on push F5. This should get you to a screen that will ask you if you want to boot to safe mode.
-Log on to your account

3. Once you are in safe mode, install both AVG and Spybot.

4. Let both of them update.

5. Run a full system scan with AVG.

6. Order a pizza. (the scan might take over an hour)

7. When it is done you might have to restart. If you restart make sure you boot back into safe mode.

8. Run Spybot

9. Take your family out for ice cream. (this might take a while also)

10. When you are done with the scan, click the "Fix Selected Problems" (It's toward the top)

11. Once again you may need to restart and it might ask if you want to run it again when it restarts, say yes and then let your computer restart.

12. This time let your computer boot up normally.

13 . Spybot will run one more time to finish it's clean up.

14. Install Advanced WindowsCare. IMPORTANT: When you install it, it will want to install a Yahoo tool bar and change your default search engine to be Yahoo. Don't let it, uncheck the option boxes.

15. Run Advanced WindowsCare

16. When it is done with it's scan, click on the "Show Details" next to the Startup Manage button.

17. Go through each item in the green highlighted area and read the description about each. Decide which ones you need and which ones you don't, then uncheck the ones you don't need.

18. The items that are not highlighted in green do not have a description, look them up on google, then decide if it is something you need to have running.

19. When you have taken care of your startup items, click "OK" then click "Repair" on the main screen.

20. Install Threatfire.

21. Done. You should have your computer full repaired. Some viruses can be a little harder to remove. If you think you might need to check a little deeper then download and run the malicious software remover from Microsoft.

Of course this is not perfect but it will take care of most infestations. Here are a few tips to follow:

- Never let your computer get out of hand. You won't have to do all this every time if you keep your PC clean all you will have to do is scan your computer with Spybot every month or so.

- Keep AVG running and updated.

- Don't use Norton's. It is expensive, bloated, ineffective, and will suck the power out of your computer.

- Don't give into ads that tell you that you have viruses or spyware on your computer. These will install spyware and not be effective.

- Read my past posts for tips on keeping your PC clean.

Learn to Geek for Free

I have never had a formal training in computers or web design (except for a short course on the Internet when I was in high school.) I have learned everything I know from three sources.

One: Learn by doing.

When I was in 9th grade I had a shop class that offered a section on computers. It was more or less a joke. There was no books telling you what to do, no teacher who knew anymore than the students did, nothing. What they did have was two old IBM 386 computers. The teacher told me, "If you can strip this down to all of the separate parts then put it back together and have it still working then you can have it." WOW! A real working computer! How could I refuse? I stripped that thing down to the motherboard and then put the whole thing back together and prayed that it would still work. Sure enough, when I pushed the power button it came on and had no errors.
If you want to learn how to geek out then go get an old computer and tear it up. I don't recommend using your new Alienware gaming rig, that would not be a good testing platform. Instead find your old computer that you retired back in 2001 and see if you can fix it. If you start and get stuck, don't worry that's when my next point will come into play...

Two: Learn by Reading

We have the greatest resource that has ever been developed sitting at our fingertips. The internet has how-tos, walkthroughs, and tutorials.
Finding information does not have to be as daunting a task as you might think. Your first and best option is Google. Google is the best search engine ever developed, and most everyone has used it at least once, but most people have no idea about the power it really has. Google has many advanced 0ptions that most people have no idea even exist. For example, your computer gives you an error message, you search for it on google but you get a bunch of irrelevant links that just contain a couple of the words in the error, how do you get only what you want? If you put quotation marks around the phrase, google will only search for that exact phrase. This is only one example but there are many more that you can learn about for yourself here. When searching Google, remember that it looks through websites for the words your are looking for, so think about what might be written in the page instead of asking a question. Ok, I know that was confusing so let me give you an example: Instead of "How do you cook collard greens?" use "collard greens recipes" The latter phrase is more likely to be found on the site you are looking for rather than just asking a question.
Anything you want to know can be found on the Internet somewhere. The key is to look for it. There is even sites that are dedicated to teaching a certain subject. For instance, I've never had a formal lesson on web design but I have built several sites. I learned all of that from a site called W3Schools.com. This is a great resource for everything you would need to make a dynamic website.

Three: Listen to People Who Know

Whenever I find someone who knows more than me on geeky stuff I pick their brain for anything that I can pickup on. Don't be proud, be humble and let them know that you think they are smarter than you are. This will open them up more than trying to compete with them. Also in the last few years a new media has been evolving called podcasts. Podcasts are videos or audio clips that individuals make and post for people to download (usually for free). I subscribe to about a dozen different podcast, most of them are tech podcasts. These help me to learn and stay on top of the news in the tech world. The easiest way of getting these is to download iTunes from Apple then go to their iTunes store and search for podcasts.
Some of my favorite podcasts are Tekzilla, Geekbrief, DL.TV, and Webb Alert. These have a good mix of tech news and how-tos. These will help you to learn and to stay up to date.

I hope this will be helpful for those who want to geek but don't know where to start. Comment below with any questions your might have as well as any other tips you might have.

Computer Ownership 101

I work full time at a small Christian radio station, but I do some computer repair on the side. I am often shocked at what I find on people's computers. I once cleaned out a PC that had over 900 viruses! We spend hundreds, even thousands of dollars on our PCs and then we fill it with our music, documents, emails, movies, pictures, and other priceless content, and ignore some of the most basic of security measures. I understand that not everyone is interested in being a power user, but everyone who owns a computer should understand a few things.

Number One: Your Computer Needs Protection!

Your car has some built in security measures. You have door locks and it takes a unique key to start it. That said, if you live in a area where cars are stolen like my wife's cookies, then you put more security measures like an alarm on it. Your computer needs protection. If you run windows, then you should at least use an anti-virus. Lets face it, Windows is attacked more than any other system out there. Secondly, you need some sort of second layer of protection. A newer threat has started to attack windows, its purpose is not to destroy your computer but to learn anything it can to exploit you through advertisements, stealing of your personal information (credit card numbers, user names, social security number, your online habits, passwords, and any other information it can use to exploit you.) many times this is not picked up by your anti-virus. There are a number of anti-spyware programs out there that work to keep you protected.

"I don't have anything that is important on my computer so, I'm not concerned about all that stuff." This is the most dangerous mindset that anyone can have. Viruses don't just attack your system, but they also use your unprotected PC to infect others. If you don't care about your PC then please do everyone else a favor and protect it for our sake! Viruses can spread themselves by sending themselves to everyone on your email list as well as use all of your internet bandwidth (your internet speed) to do anything they want. Letting your PC become infected with viruses and leaving it, hoping that it will fix itself, is like giving your computer to a nefarious person to do what ever he wants with it.

Security does not have to make you take out a second mortgage on your home. My favorite set up is to use AVG Free Anti-Virus for viruses, PC Tools Threat Fire for zero day attacks (attacks that are not yet known), and Windows Defender for spyware and a few other problems. These three are free and do a very good job of protecting your system. As long as your computer is not made before 1998, you shouldn't notice any performance hit.

Number Two: Backup Your Stuff!

This is something that I can't stress enough. Most people don't do this, and many of those who do don't do it right. You don't have to do a full system backup to protect yourself. Sometimes you only have to put your documents on an USB thumb drive. Other times, it is important to clone your whole hard drive. The most important thing to remember is that if you are going to protect your important information then you need to get the information off the computer and put in a different place all together. If your hard drive dies then all of the backups you made on your hard drive will die also. With the price of USB drive going down and the capacity is getting larger there is no reason why the common person can't backup their info. Blank CDs and DVDs also make for a good backup medium, but beware these are not for long term. After a few years a CD or DVD will suffer from rot and all that info will be lost. This has happened to me with some of the CDs I burned when I was at college. If you have huge amounts of data, you will want to buy a external hard drive. If you are looking for some good backup mediums that won't break the bank then look on Newegg.com. Newegg has the best prices on hardware and also has the best customer service.

Number Three: Don't Be Stupid!

This is the most important tip that anyone could ever follow. I know people who have all of the super expensive anti-whatever software and total security suites and still get pwned by viruses and spyware. The best thing you can do is to use your brain before you do something. If you get an email from someone you have never heard of that says "check this out" or "here is what you requested" or (God forbid) "Cheap Viagra!" DO NOT OPEN IT, DO NOT REPLY TO IT, DO NOT BE FOOLED! These are like worms on a hook. Any message you get that has an attachment from someone you have never heard of DO NOT OPEN IT!
Update your security software. If your software does n0t auto-update then make sure you update it manually at least three times a week. If your software expires, renew it or get a free option but do not let it go unattended. I have cleaned out infested computers with the full Norton's suite that wasn't kept updated and had expired.
Don't trust other people's portable storage devices (Burned CDs, DVDs, USB Drives, etc...), viruses can be spread through them also. Stay way from "shady" sites. Porn sites are notorious for this. While they have your attention they will install all sorts of things that will destroy your computer. Have some self control stay away from sites offering things like free money, free porn, free screen savers, free wallpapers, etc... I use Firefox to browse the internet (which will help keep you safer). Firefox has these wonderful things called add ons. One of the best ones I've ever used is call WOT. It has a rating system for sites based on four things: trustworthiness, vendor reliability, privacy, and child safety. This is a quick and easy way to find out if a site is dangerous or not.
Be careful of pop-ups. Many times they are made to look like a normal window or have items that look like you can click to get out of them. Many times the "click here to close" button lies. If you are using Firefox or Internet Explorer 7 and you get an unwanted pop-up, be very careful. The best option is not to click the X on top because it can sometimes do something very bad to your computer. It is best to hit Ctrl+Alt+Delete and kill the pop-up manually in the task manager. This may seem like an over kill but it is better than spending an entire day trying to fix your PC.

If you own a computer you have some responsibilities that come with it. If you are responsible you will have many years of trouble free computing, if you are careless and ignore the advice of all your geeky friends you will have hours of headaches. So stop procrastinating and take care of your PC there is no excuse.

Drastic Measures...

My current computer is um... old. Actually it's not that bad it is a 1.3 ghz AMD Athlon with 768 mb of pc 133 ram with a 128mb PCI Radeon card. This is a decent computer for common tasks but when I start gaming it starts to get smoking hot! The inside of the case is stuffed full of IDE cables and a huge air flow director. I finally got tired of it and decided to take measures into my own hands. I have always wanted to mod my own case but never had a case that I thought would be worth it. So I decided to put a side viewing panel on it and then put a 120mm side fan on it. I hope that this is going to help, I also am planning on making those unsightly IDE cables look a little bit nicer and possible make them round. (we will see how that turns out) After a few case lights and some model paint the case might look almost cool.

I know what some people might be thinking "What on earth is he putting all of that time and effort into such a lame PC?" My rational is why on earth would I take a nice case and try to cut holes into it on my first try. If I totally destroy this computer then I haven't lost anything valuable and this gives me that opportunity to learn. After all, I'm cheap.

Comment and give me ideas about what else I can do as well as some of your own modding stories.