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.

Hospitals

My son was admitted to hospital with severe breathing difficulties just before Christmas and had to stay in over the festive season. He has now been discharged and is on the road to recovery, however I met a very interesting chap in the cubicle opposite.

He describes himself as possibly the tallest ukelele player in the world!

Have a look at his site and wish his daughter well (she was still in hospital when my son and I were discharged).

Whilst I am on this topic, I would like to offer my vote of thanks to the excellent staff in Kipling Ward at the Conquest Hospital, Hastings. In spite of their unit and jobs being at risk due to NHS cuts, they provided both me and my son with faultless care and attention and ensured that in spite of my sons illness he had a good christmas (even down to a sack full of toys being at his bed on Christmas day!)

Well done to all of the staff and wishing you a Happy New Year!

Seasons Greetings - Roy

Web sites

Why is it some companies charge the earth for providing basic services?

I recently was approached by one of my private clients (an elderly gentleman) who wished to produce an on-line gallery for his paintings. Other designers had named fees well in excess of £1000.00 to produce a 7 page site which merely had scans of his paintings.

Completing the work took me no more than 2 hours and I agreed on a profit share arrangement for payment. Is it just me, or are techies getting a bit like plumbers and car mechanics?

A spot of web design

One of my long-standing clients, a retired gentleman in his 70s who could perhaps be described as eccentric approached me over the Christmas period to design a website for his new-found hobby - nude oil paintings.

He has already written a book about impotence and made a breakthrough with discovering an alternative cure for erection difficulties by means of a commonly available root vegetable. In researching his book, he hitched up with a 30 year old woman and the story takes off from there....

Trying the obvious

Most of my support calls seem to be a case of users not engaging their brain before pressing the panic button.

In my experience 90% of faults are due to something trivial, such as loose leads and the such like. Please check before calling. It is one of the first checks I will carry out when arriving to fix your problem.

What to check:

All the leads at the back of the PC are plugged in correctly (Monitor/Keyboard/Mouse/Power/Printer/USB etc)

That there is actually power going through to the socket where the PC is plugged in (if it appears completely dead).

Making websites accesible

The Disability Rights Commission in the UK have produced a report into web accessability for the visually impaired. Whilst this initiative is to be applauded, surely, if the DRC really wish to improve web access for those of less than 20-20 vision, why are they charging £30.00 for access to the report?

Spam

After my last post was spammed, comments are now restricted to members of Blogger.com.

Mind, you it is interesting that the post was actually about spam....

What is SPAM??

What is Spam?

Over the years, people have often asked me to explain the various concepts of Marketing Communications. The following analogies might help clarify the "tools of the trade."

You see a handsome guy/girl at a party. You go up to him/her and say, "I'm fantastic in bed." -- That's Direct Marketing.

You're at a party with a bunch of friends and see a handsome guy/girl. One of your friends goes up to him/her and pointing at you says, "She's/He's fantastic in bed." -- That's Advertising.

You see a handsome guy/girl at a party. You go up to him/girl and get his/her telephone number. The next day you call and say, "Hi, I'm fantastic in bed." -- That's Telemarketing.

You're at a party and see a handsome guy/girl. You get up and straighten your clothes. You walk up to him/her and pour him/her a drink. You say, "May I," and reach up to straighten their clothes brushing lightly against their arm, and then say, "By the way, I'm fantastic in bed." -- That's Public Relations.

You're at a party and see a handsome guy/girl. He/she walks up to you and says, "I hear you're fantastic in bed." -- That's Brand Recognition.

You're at a party and see a handsome guy/girl. You talk him/her into going home with your friend. -- That's a Sales Rep.

Your friend can't satisfy him/her so he/she calls you. -- That's Tech Support.

You're on your way to a party when you realize that there could be handsome men/women in all these houses you're passing. So you climb onto the roof of one situated toward the center and shout at the top of your lungs, "I'm fantastic in bed!" -- That's Spam.

Another host to avoid

Just received an email as follows;

Envelope-to: xxx@xxx.co.uk
Delivery-date: Sat, 11 Feb 2006 19:54:54 +0000
Received: by ptb-mxcore01.plus.net with spam-scanned (PlusNet MXCore v2.00) id 1F80pZ-0007Mn-8J
for zzz@zzz.co.uk; Sat, 11 Feb 2006 19:54:54 +0000
Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1])
by ptb-mxcore01.plus.net with esmtp (PlusNet MXCore v2.00) id 1F80pZ-0007Mc-4F
for zzz@zzz.co.uk; Sat, 11 Feb 2006 19:54:53 +0000
Received: from smtp.mailix.net ([216.148.213.132])by ptb-mxcore01.plus.net with esmtp (PlusNet MXCore v2.00) id 1F80pY-0007M4-33 for zzz@zzz.co.uk; Sat, 11 Feb 2006 19:54:52 +0000
Received: from [192.168.8.8] (helo=localhost)by smtp.mailix.net with asmtp (Exim 4.24-MG)id 1F7zan-0004Di-Iv; Sat, 11 Feb 2006 10:35:33 -0800
Received: from 81.199.189.96.rmts.satcom-systems.net (81.199.189.96.rmts.satcom-systems.net [81.199.189.96]) by webmail.namezero.com (IMP) with HTTP for ; Sat, 11 Feb 2006 10:35:24 -0800
Message-ID: <1139682924.43ee2e6ca3974@webmail.namezero.com>
Date: Sat, 11 Feb 2006 10:35:24 -0800
From: soo cho
Reply-to: soocho01@hellokitty.com
User-Agent: Internet Messaging Program (IMP) 3.2.3
X-Originating-IP: 81.199.189.96
Bcc:
X-SA-Exim-Mail-From: soocho012@walla.com
Subject: [-SPAM-] Letter of intent
X-SA-Exim-Version: 3.1 (built Thu Oct 23 13:26:47 PDT 2003)
X-SA-Exim-Scanned: No; Unknown failure
X-uvscan-result: clean (1F7zan-0004Di-Iv)
X-PN-VirusFiltered: by PlusNet MXCore (v2.00)
X-PN-SpamFiltered: by PlusNet MXCore (v2.00)
X-Antivirus: AVG for E-mail 7.1.375 [267.15.6/257]
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1



Mr.Soo Cho
CHO HUNG BANK.
14 1-ka Namdaemun-ro Chung-ku
Seoul, Seoul 100-757
South Korea.
www.chohungbank.co.kr


I am Mr.Soo Cho, credit officer of CHO HUNG BANK. I have an urgent and very
confidential business proposition for you.
On July 8, 2000, a British Oil consultant/contractor with the South Korea Solid
Minerals Corporation, Mr. Phillip Morris made a numbered time (Fixed) Deposit
for twelve calendar months, valued at (Twenty-eight Million American Dollars
only) in my branch.
Upon maturity,I sent a routine notification to his forwarding address but got
no reply. After a month, we sent a reminder and finally we discovered from his
contract employers, that Mr. Phillip Morris died from an auto-mobile accident.
On further investigation, I found out that he died without making a WILL,and
all attempts to trace his next of kin was fruitless.
I therefore made further investigation and discovered that Mr.Phillip Morris did
not declare any kin or relations in all his official documents,including his
Bank Deposit paperwork in my Bank.This sum of US$28,000,000.00 is still sitting
in my Bank and the interest is being rolled over with the principal sum at the
end of each year. No one will ever come forward to claim it.
According to Laws of South Korea, at the expiration of (five) years,the money
will revert to the ownership of the South Korea Government if nobody applies to
claim the fund. Consequently, my proposal is that I will like you as aforeigner
to stand in as the next of kin to Mr.Phillip Morris so that the fruits of this
old man's labor will not get into the hands of some corrupt government
officials.
This is simple, I will like you to provide immediately your full names and
address so that the attorney will prepare the necessary documents and
affidavits that will put you in place as the next of kin. We shall employ the
services of an attorney for drafting and notarization of the WILL and to obtain
the necessary documents and letter of probate/administration in your favor for
the transfer.
A bank account in any part of the world that you will provide the will, then
facilitate the transfer of this money to you as the beneficiary/next of kin.
The money will be paid into your account for us to share in the ratio of 70%for
me and 25% for you and 5% for Expenses
Incurred in the course of the transaction.There is no risk at all as all the
paperwork for this transaction will be done by the attorney and with my
position as the credit officer guarantees the successful execution of this
transaction. If you are interested, please
reply immediately to my email box.
Upon your response, I shall then provide you with more details that will help
you understand the transaction.
Please send me your confidential telephone and fax numbers for easy
communication. You should observe utmost confidentiality, and rest assured that
this transaction would be most profitable for both of us because I shall
require your assistance to invest my
share in your country.


Regards,
Soo Cho,



This looks like another hosting company to avoid - unless you want your emails blacklisted!!!.

Any spam-baiters fancy a go - you're more than welcome!!!!

I'm unable to print.

One of the most common calls I receive relates to printing. The following tips could well save you an expensive (if not embarrassing support call).

If nothing has changed on your printer or in your printer settings on your computer then chances are that the problem is quite straightforward.

First check to see of the printer is on, especially if the trouble occurs first thing in the morning. Perhaps you or someone else turn the printer off when you finished your work the last time you sat down at you desk.

Check the printer status lights or status LCD screen. If there's a flashing light or if the status screen shows an error, then it's your first clue to a problem. Most printer manuals have a diagnosis process for alerts.
Check to see if the paper tray is empty. If so refill it. Make sure to feather the pages to eliminate static. Hold the pages in one had and flip through the pages at a fast rate with your thumb.

If the paper tray is not empty check for a misfeed. A sheet may have been caught in the mechanism. There may be a variety of printer access doors to check. Pull out any remnants. Even the smallest piece of paper could be causing the problem so check carefully. Tweezers are handy for this procedure.

If the problem is toner-related, check to see if the toner cartridge is empty or low. The printer warning should indicate this. Swap it for a new one and the unit should work.

Some laser toner cartridges have an ejected toner reservoir. There is usually a trap that can be emptied.

The toner drum on laser printers also needs to be replaced usually once a year depending on the volume of printing the device handles. The printer's error lights should indicate this if it is a problem. Print-outs will become fuzzy or faded when this starts to go.

If all the physical hardware on the printer seems to be fine check to see that it is connected to your computer. Personal printers connect via either a parallel or USB (universal serial bus) connector to the back of the printer. Follow the cable from the back of the printer to the back of the computer to make sure the connection is good.

If the printer is connect by what looks like an oversized telephone cable or coaxial cable (like the cable for cable television) then your printer is connected through a network. If this is the case the problem gets suddenly complicated. If your network based printer is acting up for everyone in the office then you'll need to call in your resident network expert. You probably have a print server, hub or cable problem. If it's just you that's having a problem with your network printer, make sure that your computer is connected to the network.

If the printer works but spews strange characters or it appears as if the PC and printer creates error, it likely that you have a printer driver problem. When a printer acts up and there is no hardware problem, the solution is often driver-related. A driver is a piece of software that allows a computer to "talk" to a printer. It's a kind of translator.

Occasionally if a printer has worked previously, but won't work with a newly installed program, there could be driver problems.

To remedy this, download a driver from the printer maker's Web site, remove the old driver and install the new driver. Drivers are normally available under the "support" area of a Web site.

If you have an inkjet printer and you get smudged or blurry images, you might want to look up the utility on the printer that cleans and or aligns the printer heads. Most inkjet printers either have software that can start this process or have a setting on the printer itself that can kick start it.

If all of these solutions fail, you might want to search the manufacturer's support area for printer issues. Often there will be bulletins issued on how to fix newly discovered bugs.

If you have a scanner and printer and experience printing problems take heart, this is easily solvable. Detach both devices and remove the software and drivers for both devices. Then reinstall the printer first and then add the scanner second.

Help - The printer's not working

One of the most common calls I receive relates to printing. The following tips could well save you an expensive (if not embarrassing support call).

If nothing has changed on your printer or in your printer settings on your computer then chances are that the problem is quite straightforward.

First check to see of the printer is on, especially if the trouble occurs first thing in the morning. Perhaps you or someone else turn the printer off when you finished your work the last time you sat down at you desk.

Check the printer status lights or status LCD screen. If there's a flashing light or if the status screen shows an error, then it's your first clue to a problem. Most printer manuals have a diagnosis process for alerts.
Check to see if the paper tray is empty. If so refill it. Make sure to feather the pages to eliminate static. Hold the pages in one had and flip through the pages at a fast rate with your thumb.

If the paper tray is not empty check for a misfeed. A sheet may have been caught in the mechanism. There may be a variety of printer access doors to check. Pull out any remnants. Even the smallest piece of paper could be causing the problem so check carefully. Tweezers are handy for this procedure.

If the problem is toner-related, check to see if the toner cartridge is empty or low. The printer warning should indicate this. Swap it for a new one and the unit should work.

Some laser toner cartridges have an ejected toner reservoir. There is usually a trap that can be emptied.

The toner drum on laser printers also needs to be replaced usually once a year depending on the volume of printing the device handles. The printer's error lights should indicate this if it is a problem. Print-outs will become fuzzy or faded when this starts to go.

If all the physical hardware on the printer seems to be fine check to see that it is connected to your computer. Personal printers connect via either a parallel or USB (universal serial bus) connector to the back of the printer. Follow the cable from the back of the printer to the back of the computer to make sure the connection is good.

If the printer is connect by what looks like an oversized telephone cable or coaxial cable (like the cable for cable television) then your printer is connected through a network. If this is the case the problem gets suddenly complicated. If your network based printer is acting up for everyone in the office then you'll need to call in your resident network expert. You probably have a print server, hub or cable problem. If it's just you that's having a problem with your network printer, make sure that your computer is connected to the network.

If the printer works but spews strange characters or it appears as if the PC and printer creates error, it likely that you have a printer driver problem. When a printer acts up and there is no hardware problem, the solution is often driver-related. A driver is a piece of software that allows a computer to "talk" to a printer. It's a kind of translator.

Occasionally if a printer has worked previously, but won't work with a newly installed program, there could be driver problems.

To remedy this, download a driver from the printer maker's Web site, remove the old driver and install the new driver. Drivers are normally available under the "support" area of a Web site.

If you have an inkjet printer and you get smudged or blurry images, you might want to look up the utility on the printer that cleans and or aligns the printer heads. Most inkjet printers either have software that can start this process or have a setting on the printer itself that can kick start it.

If all of these solutions fail, you might want to search the manufacturer's support area for printer issues. Often there will be bulletins issued on how to fix newly discovered bugs.

If you have a scanner and printer and experience printing problems take heart, this is easily solvable. Detach both devices and remove the software and drivers for both devices. Then reinstall the printer first and then add the scanner second.

Computer Support

I was scanning my local free advertising supplement (Friday Ad) checking out the competition, when I noticed something disturbing.

Out of seven advertisers providing computer support, only one provided his name within the advert. Upon telephoning the other six, none of them answered with their name and had to be prompted to get this fairly important detail (I don't know about you, but I like to know who I'm dealing with).

This begs the question, do the six who withheld their name from the advert have something to hide, or are they too cheap to pay for another two words????

I personally have learnt from experience that in marketing, the brand precedes the service and most of my clients come from recommendations due to being open and not afraid to admit 'I dont know'.

Five Tips for getting the best value out of your IT guy

Don't go to your IT guy with solutions, give him problems. A lot of clients might propose throwing extra storage into their computer system, when perhaps a better document storage format may suit the business better for example. A good IT guy will carefully fit the solution to your business model.

Give your IT guy the big picture. Computers and Information Technology are but a small part of business operations. You need a solution that integrates with your business seamlessly.

Manage the task. Do not rely on your IT guy. Ask for written progress reports and proposals/specifications. You don't want to waste the money you have spent on this task without retaining some knowledge after the IT guy leaves.

Understand the big picture yourself and how the details fit into this jigsaw. The key to most successful IT projects is to implement the key, essential parts first then work on an iterative process of optimisation and enhancement.

Get a proposal for the project in writing. Ask that a timeline or other indication of how the project should proceed is included. This can help identify any scheduling conflicts early on in the project so they can be resolved easily and with minimal expense.

Surviving a computer crash

It's the day of the week when you run your invoices...You load up the paper in the printer, press print and....An error message pops up 'Unable to read drive'.

Sound like the stuff of nightmares? It could well signal the end of your business unless you plan for this eventuality. All computers are like cars – highly complex machines with many parts to go wrong at the worst possible moment.

How can you protect yourself against this nightmare?

In one word – Backup. Ensure all critical data is stored in at least one other location than on your server or main computer. This could be in the form of tapes, recordable CDs, floppy disks, external hard drives, online storage or many other options. Ensure that the backup is carried out at least daily and periodically check the backup by attempting to restore data (like computers all back-up media can fail).

Ensure you have a UPS (Un-interruptable Power Supply) running your main computer. This could buy the critical minutes you need to save open documents and shut down cleanly in the eventuality of a power outage.

Set your office applications to 'auto-save' every 5-10 minutes. This could also save hours re-creating documents, not to mention prevent the frustration should the computer lock up for no apparent reason.