Internet Explorer 8

The long-awaited final release of Microsoft's browser, Internet Explorer 8, has finally hit the road. (You can download a copy here.) Microsoft obviously hopes this will seriously dent the growing popularity of Firefox, while users will hope this fixes some of the serious deficiencies of IE. I haven't downloaded a copy yet, but will do Very Soon Now. PC World has a very good article outlining the new features of IE8. If it's half as good as they suggest, I could start using it a bit more. On my work computer, when it comes to IE, I am locked into version 6. The irony is that the PC World article would not display properly in it, while it showed perfectly in Firefox.

Password protecting Blackberry

I am astounded how many Blackberry's I see on the streets and among colleagues. But here's a VERY cautionary tale from David Farrar, of Kiwiblog fame. First, David left his Blackberry on a bus, and it was never handed in. When he reported that to the Police, they asked if he had password protected it. No. So when David bought a new Blackberry, he made sure to password protect this one. That's when the trouble started. (Reader caution: some strong language.)

Drag and drop to start

Here's the situation: you have a video or audio file you want to play. If you double click on it, it will launch the default programme set for that file, but you want to use another player (I have four I commonly use). Here's the simple answer: drag the icon of the video or audio file onto the icon of the player you want to use, and it will start in that player.
You can easily set up shortcuts on your desktop of your favourite programs, and dragging an icon onto the shortcut works just the same as if it were onto the actual program. (To make a shortcut, click on the program icon with the right mouse button, and drag to where you want to put it. In fact, you can create shortcuts of absolutely anything using this technique. And you can make as many shortcuts as you want of any file.)

Viruses and PC health

There's been a couple of helpful articles in the NZ Herald in the last few days:
How to tell if your PC is infected and
How to make your pc last longer