Tech Tuesday Two

No, I will not say Electic Boogaloo, and neither should you. It's time to let that one die. Thanks. And now, back to the bloggin'.

Exclusive's for online music services suck!
The Rolling Stones, exclusively on I Tunes. Keith, Mick, Charlie, Ron, whoever else, for shame! Giving your entire library exclusively to one online music provider is crap. Would you agree to sell your CDs exclusively at Wal-Mart? Or to allow your music to be played exclusively on Clear Channel? Well, yeah, you probably would, but it's too late and you didn't get your chance. Glad you're making up for it you bad boys of rock. Don't worry, we the consumer are thrilled to have less choice. We love a monopoly.

A virus for Mac?
Maybe it's the anti-competitive behavior above, or perhaps the annoying I Pod advertisements but some cyber vandal finally decided it was worthwhile to create a virus that attacks the Macintosh Operating System. It's not so exciting as one would think. It seems Mac's Linux based security system is pretty damn effective and the Leap-A virus relies on a novice operator approving the attachment it's embedded in before it can launch. The virus was not spread far and it would seem Mac users can still tease us Windows users for being more vulnerable to viruses and more attractive to virus authors.

How Not To Get A Virus
This is especially for you beginners.

• The main thing you can do to keep from getting a virus or any malicious software is not to download attachments that you're not 100% sure were sent to you and even then scan them with an anti-virus program. I use Yahoo for my e-mail and I've been happy with their virus scanning. Ocassionaly I have to skip seeing that oh so hillarious video clip because I can't get assurance that it's virus free.
• Remember, even if the e-mail seems to come from someone you know this doesn't mean it's safe. Viruses spread by mailing themselves to every address in the affected computer's address book.
• And even if your Aunt Sue really did forward you the funny video of the singing penis, where did she get it? Did she scan it? Can you trust that she's not unwittingly passing on a nasty virus or pest?
• You put yourself at risk everytime you download from a website also. Do not download from sites that you are not very familliar with.
• Lastly, consider using Mozilla's Firefox as your browser. This free browser has some wonderfull security features and many users, myself included report having less trouble from pests and ad-ware after switching to Firefox. You can find this software here http://www.mozilla.com/
  

There is more you can do, purchasing security, using a firewall, but it's the simple mistake of opening every attachment sent to you that seems to cause more problems on more computers.

That's it for this week. I'll drum up some more tech oriented stuff for next Tuesday. Suggestions and questions are welcome.