Posted by admin on Oct 17, 2008 in
macintosh
Sorry I just couldn’t resist the title!
Everyone loves apples and some like Apple. I at times admire and find myself cheering Apple on and then cringing when I see some of their actions. Regardless it was good to see this article today. I think all companies should be working on ways to become greener. I think green is more than a fad and something we should all be living for. Green is about being local and social reform as well. Being local has been a business model I have tried to follow from the start. No I would not consider myself as green as some and I think I have much to improve on but I try. Helping out my community and giving back is more than a statement for me. At the same time I think of the environment in the same way, I always try to give back. Anyways check out this article.
By Justin Berka | Published: October 17, 2008 – 09:16AM CT
For a few years now, Greenpeace has been dogging Apple (and plenty of other electronics manufacturers) to remove acronym-ified chemicals like PVC and BFR from computer components. As you’re probably aware, the new MacBooks and MacBook Pros are more environmentally friendly than previous models, and now that Apple has taken a few more green steps, Greenpeace has issued a statement giving Apple some kudos for the recent environmental developments.
Between the new, greener Mac notebooks and Steve Jobs’ 2008 Environmental Update, Greenpeace has quite a bit to talk about this week. The organization expressed some disappointment after seeing the specs for the new machines, since it had been hoping that the new notebooks would be completely free of PVC and BFRs (brominated flame retardants) at launch time. As it stands right now, the notebooks have PVC-free cables and use no BFRs in internal components, putting Apple’s new products on par or slightly ahead of Sony’s Vaio line.
While the chemical reductions at launch time are a good step, the Apple 2008 Environmental Update is the real bombshell. In the update, Jobs revealed that the new notebooks will be completely free of PVC, BFRs, bromine, and chlorine by the end of 2008, a move that Greenpeace says will “resonate within the industry.” The move puts Apple ahead of other manufacturers like Dell and HP, and may force other manufacturers to remove things like PVC earlier than their pledged 2009 deadline. Greenpeace also said that the increase in Apple recycling and the new carbon footprint disclosures should boost Apple’s score in the next Guide to Greener Electronics. Ultimately, Greenpeace believes Apple still faces “many challenges,” but it does at least give the company credit for the recent changes. Steve Jobs can probably give himself a quick pat on the back right about now.
It is good to see some companies are listening to reason. I have posted several articles on things Google is doing. It definitely is a good pattern to follow and many of these companies are helping the environment and saving money at the same time. Thats win win for everyone!
Tags: Mac
Posted by admin on Oct 17, 2008 in
Software Eau Claire Wisconsin Real Estate with Agent and Realtor® Shane O’Gorman
I have seen it myself too many times to count. Someone calls me up (yeah I’m the fix it guy in our family) and says they have a problem with their computer. I take a look and am amazed at what I find. It seems the computer is just infested with multiple viruses and yet anti-virus software is installed. Worst yet it seems I can’t even control the AV program because something is locking me out. Then the pop ups start. I ask and find out they installed this program because the program told them to do it! Then when they run the program the screen says “all finished” and shows it cleaned up some sort of infection. All finished is right because the computer is finished at this point! Not that we can’t go back and fix things up but at this point it basically has been so widely infected that there is no easy fix left. It requires a format of the drive and a new install. Hopefully some of the info can be salvaged at this point but then there is a huge risk of infecting the new install with old infected data.
What we have here Houston is a huge problem!
By Jacqui Cheng | Published: October 17, 2008 – 05:56AM CT
More than 30 million Internet users have fallen victim to fake antivirus programs that snatch up people’s money and personal information, security research firm PandaLabs has announced. The phenomenon may not be a new one, but it’s growing more and more popular as the scammers are getting more crafty. There are now over 7,000 variants of this type of adware, says PandaLabs, and the number of infections caused by it is increasing rapidly.
Users can get infected with this fake antivirus scam in the same manner as any other type of virus or malware—by downloading questionable content from P2P networks, opening e-mail attachments from unknown addresses, or visiting malicious web pages. As most of us already know (probably by servicing the computers of our parents and other less-tech-savvy family members), users are often duped by seeing the software pop up windows that claim the machine is infected, fake bluescreens, or cause other annoyances (PandaLabs notes one where cockroaches crawl all over the desktop).
While many Internet users know not to hand over private information or credit card numbers just because of a few pop-ups, PandaLabs estimates that three percent of them have provided personal details to the purveyors of products that claim to disinfect computers. “Extrapolating from an average European price of €49.95, we can calculate that the creators of these programs are receiving more than €10 million per month,” writes PandaLabs.
That is, of course, ignoring the greater financial implications of users handing over their credit card numbers to scammers—the firm notes that, if those numbers are being used fraudulently, then the cost to consumers is obviously quite a bit higher.
Of course, the fact that 30 million users may have fallen for such a scam doesn’t surprise us too much. A recent study by the Psychology Department of North Carolina State University revealed that most Internet users don’t exercise much caution when presented with fake dialog boxes and pop-up windows with obvious warning signs of malware. Additionally, security software maker AVG found earlier this year that men tend to be much more confident about their online security knowledge than women, but they both end up suffering from identity theft in equal amounts. It just goes to show that even when users talk the talk, they don’t always walk the walk when it comes to being safe online.
What can you do to prevent this problem?
Avoid surfing the net randomly. There are sites that are set up to purposely infect your computer. If you don’t know a site is safe then don’t go there. Sites you can trust are usually sites that are frequented often and are well known. There is no easy rule on this you just have to be trained to know what is safe and what is not.
If you don’t know what a program does then don’t install it. This sounds easy enough but the root of this problem is deeper. It is actually a cause/effect relationship that is complicated. The problem is caused by going to malicious sites that infect your computer in a variety of nasty ways or by clicking on pop ups or by installing software that you are told is safe by the manufacturer or the one advertising the software. The problem is caused by trying to fix the problem and going about it the wrong way. You have to know how to get this stuff off your computer in a safe way. It is tricky and again there is no easy fix. The effect of installing this sort of crap on your computer is obvious.
Install a good anti-virus program and scan everything that you come across. When you install it make sure it is updated daily. Make sure it scans your entire computer daily. Do not shut off your computer at night! Have it in sleep mode so that your computer will fix itself at night and be scanning while you sleep. It will shut itself down when its done(with the right settings)
How can you know what to trust? A good anti-virus program isn’t going to advertise that it is safe because it is inherently so! A program that is telling you its safe probably isn’t! Again there is no good rule here you just have to learn by your mistakes or USE GOOGLE. Yes just Google the software in question and do some quick research. Ask a simple question in Google like this “is blank software bad?” This sounds stupid but people post stuff like this on the internet all the time to warn people. Weigh it in your head to decide, are more people saying something is bad than good? Go with what they say and be safe!
Everything I learned about computers I learned while working on computers. All the information to every single question you have is available if you Google it. You have to do some research and you have to be proactive. You cant fix a car without some training and you cant fix a computer in the same way. But anyone can learn how to fix a car just like anyone can be trained to fix a computer! You just have to be willing to spend the time.
Tags: AntiVirus
