Friday, June 12, 2009

Recovering a lost Windows password

Nothing can freeze the blood like losing the logon password to your computer. It's all-too-easy to forget these things, particularly if you have set up multiple user accounts and you use some only infrequently. Or you have set up a user account for your kids who are as good at remembering things as they are at putting their clothes away. Fortunately, help is at hand. This video at PC World explains a range of options you can follow to regain your sanity.

Free word processors

A colleague has an ageing computer, which can run only an old version of Word. She can't afford to purchase a new version, so what to do? Fortunately, there is a large range of open source (ie, free) word processors available, some of which give Microsoft Office a hefty run for its money. The most popular is probably OpenOffice.org, which almost matches Word feature-for-feature, and in addition adds a few which Office does not have, such as a drawing program. In addition, it has an installed user base of millions of people, so there is plenty of help if you strike difficulties. A list of the best-known word processors is here, and most of these run on Mac and Linux as well as Windows.
A new Office package I have only just heard of, and which is not included in the above list, is The Fifth Element, from Ssuite Software. It apparently packs in even more features than OpenOffice.org. Certainly you can't lose by trying any of these (except maybe if you exceed your broadband download cap).

Thursday, June 11, 2009

How secure is your "secret question"?

Many websites that require passwords recognise that most of us have a fit of forgetfulness from time to time. So they offer a "secret question" option when you sign up, for use when you have lost or forgotten the original logon. The theory is that only you know the answer to the secret question - except that many hackers are very adept at working out the answers to these questions, especially if the question is something like "where were you born", or "what is your pet's name"? Technology Review looks further into the issue in this article.
There are other ways to solve the problem, as there are numerous programs which can store you passwords securely. Some free examples are Password Safe, Key Folder and Secret Server.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Free typefaces

I posted yesterday on clip art. Today, it's time to look at typefaces. The right typeface can really enhance the look of a document (indeed, some graphic designers consider that typography is the most important part of good design). Conversely, inappropriate typefaces - or too many different ones in the same document - can work against good design. While Mac, PC and Linux systems all come with a range of typefaces pre-installed, they are fairly limited, and I draw on a big stable of others I have gathered over the years. These days, there are plenty of websites offering huge ranges.
One of the best collection of "classic" (ie, well-designed or well-known) typefaces is at http://www.fontcenter.de
SearchFreeFonts has more than 13,000 typefaces, including many classics.
Fontyukle claims to be the world's biggest repository of type faces, and has many that are otherwise hard to get. However, its procedure for locating and downloading is clumsy. (Hints: use the search engine to locate by name, and you will have to endure a Capchacode when you start to download.)
Betterfonts claims to have over 10,000 typefaces.
There are 6500+ fonts at WebPageFonts
And a big selection at this site.
Once you have installed all these fonts, how can you view them easily, to decide which to use? Word gives you a representation when you click on the menu bar, but it may not be convenient to go into Word to see the list. A better alternative is a little program called FontView. It finds all the typefaces in your system, and displays them in an alphabet or short sentence (you can type whatever you want, and it will display those letters).
Finally, a note about the difference between a typeface and a font. Technically, the typeface is the family (eg, Arial, Helvetica, Times). The font is the individual member within that typeface family (eg, Arial Bold, Times Italic). These days, the distinction has been all but lost, and people generally use "font" to mean "typeface".

NZ's top 10 risky online behaviours

We're used to not clicking on sex drug emails, we know that sending vast sums of money to people in Nigeria isn't very clever, and most now understand that loading a Facebook photo of yourself sitting on a beach while you're meant to be off sick could get you in trouble with the boss, says The NZ Herald.
"But while Kiwis are getting better at not being screwed by cybercrooks, the internet security boffins at Trend Micro say we're still making big mistakes in our often-risky online behaviour.
Trend Micro's security experts have identified the top ten mistakes that New Zealanders are still making in their online lives - putting our finances, our PCs and our private lives at risk."
Here's the list...

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Clip art

Clip art can be a real help in dressing up otherwise bland reports, newsletters and the like. In the old days (like, 10 years ago), I bought Corel Draw simply to get access to a good collection of clip art and typefaces. This has been rendered completely redundant by the internet, where you can find almost unlimited resources for free. There are scads of sites containing clip art these days, although the quality is pretty awful in many cases. Here are few in my browser's address book:
i-clipart says it has 30,000+ images in its collection.
A major resource is at Public Domain Clip Art, with 25,000+.
A newly revamped site is the Open Clipart project, which now has 11,000+ images.
And of course we can't ignore the 50,000 or so images and sounds on offer at Microsoft, for use in Word, Publisher, etc.

I surf unprotected...

...writes Michael Scalisi. "That's right. I don't use any anti-malware applications," he says.
"In over two years, I haven’t gotten a single virus or piece of malware. The only protection I have is that I’m behind a Linksys firewall and I have my Windows firewall enabled. On this computer I’ve used Windows XP, Vista, and currently Windows 7 Beta.
"How have I managed this dangerous and reckless feat without any consequences? Simple. I trust no one. If for some reason a pop up Window comes up asking me to click OK or Cancel, I click on ‘X’ instead, I never open e-mail from people I don’t know regarding products I didn’t buy. I keep my system updated with the newest security updates from Microsoft. I use Chrome as my main browser, but I also use Firefox and IE only when I have to."

Monday, June 8, 2009

AVG accidentally harms PCs

According to Ian Paul, PC World, users of AVG's virus scanner received a bit of a shock in the past week from the antivirus program, which instructed them to delete a core Windows file that their PCs actually needed. AVG mistakenly believed the file, called "user32.dll," contained several viruses. Users were instructed to delete it, which caused their computers to jump into an endless loop of reboot cycles. The only way out of this is to boot the computer from the original Windows CD and run the repair option.
AVG is wildly popular because of the free version it offers to home users. However, this is not the first time that AVG has had a problem with user32.dll. Last year, AVG alerted users that user32.dll had been "changed" and could be infected. At the time, the program did not recommend any action, but did cause users to post a frenzy of worried messages on some Internet forums. Earlier this month, AVG was also registering a false positive on ZoneAlarm, another security product. AVG says it has fixed the current user32.dll problem and apologized for the mishap on its forum.