Cheap digital cams
Before I talk about some cool digital cameras, we need to talk viruses again. This whole thing is a learning curve, I can tell you that.
I used to think if you ran a decent anti-virus product and kept it updated you were fine. Turns out you need to do that and much more. After doing a complete, in-depth scan of a friend’s system recently, Norton Anti-Virus found several viruses but failed to delete three of them.
I restarted the system in Safe Mode and turned off System Restore (so Norton could fix viruses in the system restore files) and ran it again. Again, we found a couple more but could not delete three of them.
What good is finding them but not deleting them? So I turned to some Web-based virus scanners. These are offered free to get people to try other virus products. I went to two, Trend-Micro (www.trend.com) and Panda (www.pandasoftware.com) Turns out each could remove what the other can not.
One of those that Norton could not remove is one that steals passwords to online banking sites. (It found it but the delete was unsuccessful.) Panda managed to remove it but this whole experience shows that once a month you really need to do a major housecleaning of your computer that will take a few hours.
In other news, I’ve been playing with a new digital camera from Concord Camera. This company (www.concordcam.com) has been quite successful in lowering the price point for digital cams. The most recent camera I bought, a 4 megapixel gem from Canon, cost me $350. The Concord Eye-Q 4060F retails for about $160.
That’s a pretty amazing price point. To be fair, the Concord isn’t built like the Canon, which is an aluminum brick. Instead, you get a plastic case but a decent interface and ease of use.
(It’s one of those things. I have several high-end 35mm Canon cameras from my days as a photojournalist but because of their weight I rarely use them any more. Instead, I like the convenience of a point and shoot camera.) The Concord is the camera you take when you need simplicity and won’t freak if you leave it in a cab.
In terms of image quality, I found the Concord to be very good (not as good as the Canon but remember, at half the price.) It clearly is good enough for the snapshot market, the ones currently using disposable cameras today. The benefit of digitals of course is speed; now you can take the smart card (containing your pictures) to your closest drug store and walk out with prints for a quarter or so.
If you need a first camera as an entrée to the digital world, a second camera or one for a budding photographer, this would be a good choice. And Concord’s aggressive pricing will only serve to lower prices for everyone.
WEEKLY WEB WONDER: One of the best places to read opinions about items you plan to purchase is Epinions (www.epinions.com)
James Derk is co-owner of a computer repair business, CyberDads, and columnist for Scripps Howard News Service. His e-mail address is jim@cyberdads.com
How to fix the world
There is a basic misconception here about how to keep your computer free of evil stuff. Just having an anti-virus product won’t cut it any more. But let’s all get on the same page.
An anti-virus product will protect your computer from viruses, which are programs written with the expressed purpose of hurting your computing experience. Some shut down your computer, some e-mail junk to others, some just annoy you. But (and this is the important part) they won’t work unless you update them at least once a week and run a total system scan. Just booting your computer and going your merry way won’t cut it. So make a pact every weekend you will update your virus files (go to the Web site for the product you have if you don’t know how) then run a complete scan overnight.
The second thing you need is a firewall. That’s a product that sits between you and the Internet and acts as sort of a one-way valve. It lets you get to the Internet but stops people using the Internet to get to your computer’s data.
If you have Windows XP, there is a basic firewall built in, but you have to turn it on. For step-by-step instructions on how to turn it on, go to www.google.com and type in “XP firewall” without the quote. The first link will tell you.
I don’t think those with dial-up connections need to bother with a firewall; other people do. They are a must if you have a high-speed connection. (If you have a router connected to your system and all of the systems are installed downstream from the router, you already have a firewall assuming you didn’t turn it off when your router was set up.)
Number three on the list is something to remove Spyware. That is software that gets installed on your PC without you knowing about it. Some of it is harmless, some of it is designed to steal your passwords, credit card info or banking files. My current favorite for this is a program called “Spybot Search and Destroy.” To find it, go to Google again and type in “spybot s&d” without the quotes. Update that to the latest version and run it ever week too. Once your PC is clean, hit “immunize” to keep it that way.
If that wasn’t enough for you, you have one more. AdWare are evil files that are designed to make it easier for advertisers to target ads to you, spam you or issue you pop-ups. There is a program called “AdAware” that takes care of this. Go to www.lavasoft.de to get the free AdAware. If you don’t was to manually update it and run it every week, you can download a “professional” version for $40 that monitors things in real time.
You may ask why all of these are not in one product…and I hope someday they will be. Unless then we’re at the mercy of all the creators of this nonsense.
Speaking of pop-ups, one of the best ways to block them that I have found is to download the Google toolbar (toolbar.google.com). It has a great, simple search engine right on the top of your browser and free built in pop-up blocking.
WEEKLY WEB WONDER: Microsoft is taking on Google in the “plain-page search” war. Check out “search.msn.com” and let me know what you think.
James Derk is co-owner of CyberDads, a computer repair firm, and columnist for Scripps Howard News Service. His e-mail address is jim@cyberdads.com
