Mozilla launches Firefox 3.6, calls it 'world's best browser'

I installed Firefox 3.6 this morning. As usual, the installation was simple and very fast. If you use Firefox,you can do the same at anytime. Simply click on Help in the Menu Bar up top and click on Check for Updates. I had been version 3.5.7 prior to the upgrade. I can also say that the 3.6 screen looks the same as the prior release, and I consider this a good thing. The last thing I need as a user is to have to learn how to use a new browser.

Of course, you can change the look and feel of it if you wish, but I wanted to start out simple, i.e., with no obvious changes.

 

Here are a couple of links if you wish to study up before upgrading:

Firefox 3.6 Brings Performance Improvements, a Few New Features

Mozilla launches Firefox 3.6, calls it 'world's best browser'

 

Patch arrives for IE hole targeted by Chinese

Look for this patch from Microsoft today (or soon) and be sure to install it!

From Windows Secrets:

"As of this writing, Microsoft is scheduled to release on Jan. 21 an update that fixes the Internet Explorer vulnerability behind the recent, highly publicized cyberattacks on Google and other major corporations.

The sophisticated "Aurora" exploit is delivered through common file attachments or links — typically in e-mail or other messages that appear to come from trusted sources — but proven security measures and a little common sense can negate all such threats.

The first reports of the cyberattacks that prompted Google to threaten withdrawal from China were alarming indeed. So was Microsoft's first official response, in MS security bulletin 979352, which described the scope of the newly discovered IE vulnerability.

The flaw permits remote code execution by what Microsoft describes as a "specially crafted attack" that affects most versions of Internet Explorer:

• IE 6 SP1 on Windows 2000 SP4
  
  
• IE 6, 7, and 8 on Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7, Windows Server 2003, and Windows Server 2008 and Server 2008 R2"
  

Lots of luck with that! Didn't they try this once before? I know they have been near bankruptcy, but somehow manage to keep going. I for one wouldn't pay a nickel for this service let alone their paper. It'll be interesting to see if they really go forward with this or if they are convinced that they are out of their minds and decide to leave almost well enough alone.

New York Times plans to charge for some online access

Maine Vacation Rentals

My Maine Vacation Rentals web site has been updated by a very talented woman who has added color and life to the site. In addition to an ever-growing list of Maine homes for rent, the site now looks great! If you have ever had any interest in spending some time in Maine by the sea, please take a look at the revised site and check out our many listings.

Because it is a "For Rent By Owner" site, you can contact the owner directly and save money. There is no middle man!

Check us out at Boothbay Region For Rent By Owner

Thanks for looking!

MSRT

For those of you who, like me, may want to do an additional check of your system for malicious software, the January version of the Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool (which I call MSRT) is now available. If you have Automatic Updates enabled, it will be (or was) downloaded this week. I like to go out to the MS web site and download this program every month and do a Full Scan, one I can see and view the results of. MS says the tool, if downloaded thru Automatic Updates, runs in the background and will report IF it finds something. I guess it has never found anything on my systems because I have never seen any reports at all from its having been run for me. So, being a Doubting Thomas (funny, but I really am) I let it run its 3+ hour course and then see the results (always nothing found). If you want the extra insurance, at no cost other than your time, download the MSRT to your desktop, double click on it, select Full Scan, and let it do its thing. After it runs you will see the report that says what it found and fixed, if it found anything, or it will tell you it found nothing. Afterwards, close the report and delete the tool from your desktop (or from wherever you downloaded it to). You can download the MSRT here:

Download MSRT Here 

Back in town

Family trumped business for me for the past 4 days. I went to Atlanta to visit family last Friday and returned Monday. Other than finding a sub-freezing spell there which followed one inch of snow, the trip was perfect. It was so interesting to see how the inch of snow crippled the whole area. Schools were closed and there were many accidents. More interesting to me, patches of ice remained on the roads for all 4 of my days there, refusing to melt in the sub-20 degree weather. Apparently Atlantans do not make use of salt or sand or gravel down there as the icy patches continued to slow things down and probably are still causing the less careful drivers to slide out of control and hit something!

I was very pleasantly surprised by AirTran. I really didn't even know anything about them, but I experienced two non-stop, low cost, on time flights between Boston & Atlanta. I will fly them again.

Make tech rebates work for you, not against you

This article can be found on the Windows Secrets web site. Have you ever had trouble getting rebates when purchasing some tech item? I have. There is some good advice in this article.

Make tech rebates work for you, not against you

Facebook

I wonder if most of you are Facebook users. I have been a member for quite a while, and as more and more people join it gets more interesting. I just "discovered" through their Search facility a young woman I worked with at IBM in 1968-1975, so the last time I even saw her or heard from her or of her was 35 years ago. In her profile I learned that she went on to other companies and became a Vice President of a major tech company! How great for her. It was fun to see this and to send her a "hello" message with congratulations after all of these years. I think she was about 27 then. She too is retired now and enjoying her grandchildren, much the same as I am enjoying ours. What a nice thing this Facebook system can be when used like this. I look forward to discovering many other classmates and friends and co-workers whom I haven't seen or heard from in many, many years. It's a nice way to share and relive some good old memories.

Google Nexus One

Well here it is, the Google Nexus One, sure to be a big seller and competitor of Apple's iPhone.

The price tag is $530, or $180 with a 2 year T-Mobile contract.

Google Nexus One

This is a Computerworld.com story. If anyone out there has one of these Droids, please consider sharing your experience with it by commenting to this post. Just click on Comments below this post. I am quite interested in this myself, and I imagine others will be too, especially since service is provided by Verizon, the one servicer we all love to hate.

Google's own version, Nexus One, will be coming out soon, but I hear it'll only work through T-Mobile. Are they even available here in the Northeast? Please comment if you know.

Verizon sold 100,000 Droids over first weekend, analyst says

Happy New Year!

I wish you and yours a very happy 2010.

At a NYE dinner party someone at the table said he was in his 10th decade. I knew he was 80, and that he was born in 1929. So he had lived during the 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, 00s, and now the 10s decades. Count them up. That is indeed 10 decades.

I didn't like that idea but of course had to check my own, and found that I am entering my 8th decade! Now that is not a fun way to look at this new year, in which I hope we all may find peace, health, safety, and good times and memories with our families.

Happy New Year!

12000

I started this blog back in February of 2008. That's about 2 years now, and there have been over 12000 hits, or views, of the blog. That is more than 500 a month, or about 17 views a day. That is small potatoes for many web sites, but pretty good for a local PC Doc.

So I say thank you to those of you who are faithful regular visitors.

I have about 300 customers on my address list, however, so this number also shows that most are not regular visitors. I wish I could get more of my customer base to check in more regularly. A lot of what I post has to do with preventive steps we users can take to avoid problems, so the more one views the blog, the fewer problems one will experience. Please encourage others to look here once in a while. There are 5 posts on a page, so visiting once a week will show the viewer the past week's posts.

Search this site

I am happy to say that Google has finally made a fairly good search engine available for searching this blog. Just to the right of this post you will see a small Google search window. You can now enter a search argument and you will get all hits that are on this blog. Those of you who, like me, have had to go through the archive list, also to the right and lower down, to fine an old post, can now just use the new search facility. Note that when you do the results will be displayed with 3 tabs up on top. Be sure to check (view) the contents of all 3 tabs.

SeniorNet of Vermont Class Schedule

SeniorNet of Vermont has posted its schedule of computer classes for January & February. This is a great opportunity for seniors 50 and over to catch up with the younger generation in their use of computers! Classes are inexpensive, taught by volunteer professionals, and definitely worth checking out. View the offerings and register online at:

SeniorNet of Vermont Class Schedule

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

This pretty much says it all for me:

I hope you and yours have a very Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year!

(The photo is of the Our Lady Queen of Peace Church in Boothbay Harbor, Maine and was taken by Kevin Burnham of the Boothbay Register staff).

I will be taking a few days off from blogging to enjoy the holidays. Thanks for visitig here.

Top 10 Cell Phones

Wow, what a great article this is. All you would want to know about the top 10 cell phones available today. This comes from pcworld.com, and could be very timely for many of us. My only concern about all of this is twofold: initial cost of the phone and the ongoing monthly fees. I admit to feeling a bit hypocritical saying this after buying an Apple MacBook Pro.

Need a break from your laptop? These productivity phones offer a lot more than the ability to make calls. Here are the 10 best smartphones available today.

Edited by Ginny Mies, PC World 

Top 10 Cell Phones

Tip of the day: Move the My Documents folder - an oldie but a goodie

A customer asked how to move her MY DOCUMENTS in Windows XP to an external hard drive. It seems her C: drive was getting rather full, and she had aleady bought a large external drive.

I thought I had blogged on this. It is something I have done. I can't, however, find the blog post, so I am blogging it here today for those of you who may wish to do the same thing. This blogger offering I am using is from Google. Google bought blogger.com some time ago. Would't you think therefore that there'd be a good way to search my (or any other) blog? I guess Google doesn't see the payback in improving the search facility, which is practically useless.

In any case, if you would lie to move your XP MY DOCUMENTS, it's very straightforward. It may take a while if you have a lot of documents because they all have to be moved!

Use this link for the show me instructions: Tip of the day: Move the My Documents folder

A "thank you" and a tip of the hat to Ed Bott for having posted this on his blog.

Securing Your PC - Revisited

Protecting your computer from attack by viruses, rogues, malware or spyware is not rocket science. I promised I would re-post this information in response to several inquiries. On March 9 of this year, I posted all of the components I use to combat the bad guys and to keep my machines running smoothly.

Here is the link to that post:  http://pcdocsblog.blogspot.com/2009/03/securing-your-pc.html


I have been experimenting lately with Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) as an alternative to AVG Free. I have expressed my disappointment with AVG's marketing techniques in this blog, so I have no problem leaving them behind. If you are using AVG Free and feel the way I do about them, you can try MSE as well. Simply go to microsoft.com and download it there. It is free!

In answer to other questioners, YES, using a HOSTS file is an integral part of a good security package. The one I recommend is considered the best by many people, including me.

All of the software on my March 9 list is free.

My new MacBook Pro 17"

So what I did last night was finally bit the bullet and got myself a Mac. Quite a few of my PC customers have switched, and even I had recommended to several that they consider a Mac. I have heard so much good about them, and I wanted to be in a position where I could begin servicing them. Heretofore I have just responded "sorry" when asked if I could help with a Mac problem.

I bought a new MacBook Pro with a 17" screen. For those of you not familiar with the Apple product line, this is a laptop. Here are its specs:

• 2.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
• 4GB 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2X2GB
• 500GB Serial ATA Drive @ 5400 rpm
• SuperDrive 8x (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
• MacBook Pro 17-inch Hi-Resolution Glossy Widescreen Display
• None
• Backlit Keyboard (English) / User's Guide

It is really a slick machine. I played with one at the Apple Store in Natick, MA before making my decision to buy. I always recommend getting hands-on before making your decision.

I still balk at the price. One of my sons replied that you could buy 5 Corollas for the price of a Mercedes! :-) Hmm.... For sometime I will be wondering if I did the right thing.

The Apple Store

Tonight I visited the Apple Store at the Natick (MA) Collection (Mall). Tomorrow, when I am sober (just kidding) I will tell you about my experience and what I did.