Just updated my website

Hope all readers of this blog had a good Christmas. I've just spent the past few days updating my website. Why not head over there and let me know what you think.

All the best

Roy

Toying with the idea of a website overhaul

I'm toying with the idea of completely re-designing my own website, but am stuck for inspiration as to what feel to apply. It is almost tempting to point my domain to one of the blogs to which I post, but again, I am torn between the feel and content of them.

Website hosting now available

I can now offer web hosting services including PHP and MySQL for active content.

An old virus hoax has resurfaced

One of my clients phoned in a bit of a panic earlier...they had received an email warning about a virus called 'life is beautiful', warning them not to open a powerpoint attachment of this name and promising all sorts of dire things would happen should they open it.

This is an old hoax virus which first surfaced in 2002. See snopes or symantec for more information.

Some interesting ideas on getting links

Sujan Patel over at singlegrain.com has some innovative ideas on getting more backlinks, particularly point 3, where he advises to upset someone!

Creating a secure password

To create a secure password that is easy for you to remember, follow these simple steps:

Do not use personal information. You should never use personal information as a part of your password. It is very easy for someone to guess things like your last name, pet's name, child's birth date and other similar details.

Dont use real words. There are tools available to help attackers guess your password. With today's computing power, it doesn't take long to try every word in the dictionary and find your password, so it is best if you avoid real words.

Mix different character types. You can make a password much more secure by mixing different types of characters. Use some uppercase letters along with lowercase letters, numbers and even special characters such as '&' or '%'. You can substitute some letters for numbers e.g. i = 1 e = 3, L = 7.

Use a passphrase. Rather than trying to remember a password created using various character types which is also not a word from the dictionary, you can use a passphrase. Think up a sentence or a line from a song or poem that you like and create a password using the first letter from each word.

For example, rather than just having a password like 'yr$1Hes', you could take a sentence such as "I like to read the news" and convert it to a password like '1l2rttn3w5". By substituting the number '2' for the word 'to' and using a 1 to replace I, you can use a variety of character types and create a secure password that is hard to crack, but much easier for you to remember.

How to show filename extensions in Windows

Windows is designed to be user-friendly, to the point where filename extensions (the bit of the filename that Windows uses to decide which program should open a file) are by default hidden.

This can have serious repercussions, where some viruses attempt to disguise themselves as an innocuous spreadsheet or word document. Double clicking on the filename does not open Word or Excel as expected, but executes the virus.

There is a simple way to ensure that filename extensions are shown however;

Double click on My Computer from the Windows Start menu. (You can use any method for launching Explorer.)

Choose Folder Options from the Tools menu. Then, click the View tab.

In the Folder Options dialog box, uncheck the Hide Extensions for Known File Types option.

Click OK.

Now when you view filenames, you can see exactly what sort of file you are about to open.

Slow computer

A new client presented me with an old computer (running Windows 2000 pro) that was running incredibly slowly for the spec (1.4G processor, 80Gbyte hard drive and 1.5Gig of ram). Lets put it this way, instead of making a cup of tea whilst waiting for it to boot (I drink coffee by the way), you could have gone out for a full dinner at your local eatery!

Loading up defrag, the analysis screen showed almost all red. After setting a defrag going and popping back the next day to check, the system was re-booted and performed almost like a new machine.

For good measure, I also ran a spyware and virus scan that fortunately turned up clean and left the client with a PC that was running as good as new.

After chatting with the client, it transpired he had never run a defrag, so a quick ad-hoc training session was organised.

Random Failures

A client of mine who runs a financial services company was experiencing random failures across his network.

In a very short space of time, he had fried two flat screen monitors and 3 power supplies. In spite of his insistence that the power into his offices were ok, the only thing that could explain the damage was power surges.

A quick trip down the local electrical shop and clearing out their stock of surge protected extension leads provided a reliable fix for the client, not to mention low cost.

Computers are sensitive devices and even a slight surge can cause inexplicable damage.