TTC Shelbyville – Technical Blog

Judging the cyber war terrorist threat: newyorker.com.

(Added from the NewYorker.com via addthis)

Sometimes your computer has locked a file and the file cannot be deleted.  If this happens, you often reboot and still cannot delete it.  Use Unlocker to unlock and delete the file.

Adaptive Memory™ technology is 80% faster than traditional 7200–RPM drives and boots within seconds of a laptop with SSD Works in any standard laptop with any OS.  Be sure to watch the video and see the comparison.

With Windows Live Mesh, you can copy a picture or document to your computer and it automatically synchronizes to all of your computers.   You can even take a picture on your phone and send it to your computer where it synchronizes to any computer on your mesh network.    Windows Mesh

A free visual trace route is available at YouGetSignal. Most people don’t realize that the internet uses OSPF (Open Shortest Path First) meaning that a trace from my ISP (Use the Proxy test)  travels all over the U.S. just to get to middle Tennessee.  Greater than 7000 miles traveled.  (The actual distance 53 miles) That’s 3.3 million mph…. ~D. Babian

Want to see your external ip address and check open ports?  Use Open Port Checker. Link

Glarysoft has an excellent disk defragmentation tool that allows you to schedule, defrag drives independently or together, defrag and optimize, adjust settings and move files that are not used often or that are large to the end of the hard disk.  This defrag utility uses very little resources, is smooth in operation and is an asset to your computer’s health and performance.  Remember, always clean your computer before you defrag. Link

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We recently ordered touchscreen laptops and monitors for our Industrial Maintenance and Computer Information Technology class.   This technology has gotten much more affordable.  With DUO, you can add a small piece of hardware to your monitor(17″ or less), load the software and you have a touch screen that integrates with Windows 7.  Link

Some of the best software I have seen.  Make 3d animated movies.  Add effects, characters, scenes and more.  Muvizu

Microsoft has Free Virtual Labs at TechNet that allows you to take mini courses in Server 2008 and Server 2008 R2.

Link

China claims supercomputer among world’s fastest. via ShareThis

So everyone is looking for Firesheep.  Why? So they can download Firefox and add the add-on to Firefox.  The purpose?  It allows people to steal data that you send over an http connection by intercepting this data.

With AirSnarf and downloads for droids and other software you should be aware that people may be broadcasting a fake SSID (access point) that you may connect to inadvertently.  By doing so you connect to their device and pass through their device and travel to the internet unknowingly streaming your data through their device.  So be aware…

How do you protect yourself?

• Use https in front of urls that allow it.
• Use a VPN when in a wireless hotspot (Several programs are available when using hotspots or another network – OpenVPN, AlonWeb, CyberGhost, SecurityKiss or HotSpot Sheild)
• Don’t allow anyone on your network that you don’t know.
• KNOW your access point you are connecting to – don’t login to email or sites that aren’t https on untrusted networks
• Keep your data encrypted.
• Use complex passwords.
• Turn off file sharing.
• Some browsers offer plugins that allow https everywhere

Tennessee Electronic Library.

SAT Study Guides

Genealogy

With Skydrive and the other features of Microsoft Live… along with Office Live (all free to anyone), Windows 7 is the most powerful desktop software that is out there.  Yes other operating systems offer some of these services but you know, the difficulty in setting up these services is not what the average user wants.  Users want simplicity.

I don’t think most users get it.  You get 25 GB online, Microsoft Office online for free.  And you can Sync your files and encrypt them.  Go check out Microsoft’s cloud.

Windows Cloud

Skydrive

Office Live Online

Sync

Google Maps now has new features- measuring, Lat. Lng., smart zoom, drag and zoom, aerial imagery and more.  Click on the new icon in the top right corner.

Linux Kernel Flaw Coughs Up Root Rights.

See Also- Linux kernel exploit gives hackers a foot in back door.

Linux is still one of the most secure operating systems but as they grow, so do the vulnerabilities.

What? Sounds odd but it is true.   Having out dated drivers can slow down your computer.  So use Slimdrivers or the manufacturers’ website to download the latest drivers.   What about devices that no longer exist or software that adds network drivers and you no longer have that driver?  These are called ghosted drivers.  Windows still loads the drivers and they can cause your system to slow down.  A great example of this is Dawn and I removed an old sata driver from a server and the response time increased 10-20%.  GhostBuster helps to find these items.  This software works off a simple command that is ran from a command prompt and you would later look in the Device Manager to remove the items.   This simplifies the process by presenting a GUI to the user and allowing them to remove the items.

For Windows 7, turn off UAC, reboot.  Find GhostBuster.exe, right click, properties, compatibility mode, Select Windows XP and run as administrator.  Now right click ghostbuster.exe and run as administrator.  Find ghosted items.  Right Click on a device (select more than one with the Ctrl key).  Right click on the devices.  Select add device. (this adds the devices to the removal list).  Now click remove ghosts.

Want to tuneup Windows and make your computer run better?  Here’s another utility you can use to make Windows run better.  CIL Software has Complete System Tuneup that helps you defrag, cleanup, look at startup files and more.

You see the ad for electronic devices that drive pests away.  Here’s a program that says it uses your computer speakers to do just that.  (OK, so we break trends every now and then)   So sit on your deck or out at the cookout with your netbook or computer and see if it works. Link

Every weeks someone comes to me wanted to take a scanned document and turn it into text.  OCR software does that for you.  The problem is everyone searches for free OCR software and how the software works always varies.  Here’s two solutions for you –  Free Online OCR and Free OCR (which is also online).  Taking a snapshot of a notepad document with links, the OCR software on both sites were able to separate the text from the picture.  As with any OCR, formating was a slight issue.

Below is a jpg of notepad –  Both OCR programs were able to separate the text from the picture.

Result – The text can be copied and pasted in your editor