CompuDent News

SENDING TEXT & PICS TO YOUR CELL

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Dent) — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 14:47:00 +0000

If you want to send a picture from your cell phone to your email, easy right. Just enter the email address when sending a camera shot and voila', done.

How about the other direction. Say you took this picture on a camera and want to save it as wallpaper to your cell phone.

Took me a while to Google this and I ended up calling AT&T to find the information. Evidentally this is some type of secret. Your cell phone has an email address:

yourcellphonenumber@mms.att.net -> at&t (formerly cingular)

You may need to call your provider to get the address for your cell phone.

NETMETER v1.1.2

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Dent) — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 13:42:00 +0000

For those of you interested in what your computer is downloading and uploading, here is a free utility that has some nice features.

It sits in the lower right hand corner of your screen, can be made transparent and allows you to click through to the windows below, essentially making it a ghost window you can see what is happening.

http://www.metal-machine.de/readerror/

TASK MANAGER TINY FOOTPRINT

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Dent) — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 21:49:00 +0000

If you have ever opened the Task Manager and the title bar & tabs are missing, you don't have a virus; it is running in Tiny Footprint mode. Double-click the border and it will return to the normal view.

FLIP MAIL

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Dent) — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 14:31:00 +0000

https://www.teleflip.com/ is offering a new service called "FlipMail". It turns your normal cell phone into a BlackBerry with emails sent to you as txt messages on your cell phone.

The features make it pretty attractive at the moment:

1) It's free.
2) It only sends the emails you designate you want sent to your phone.
3) It only sends them when your email client is closed. You don't get duplicates.

COPY MESSAGE BOX TEXT TO THE CLIPBOARD

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Dent) — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 11:49:00 +0000

Ever get a error message and need to write it down? Particular one with an obscure error number like 0x80040e09? Sometimes you can copy the entire contents of a message box to the clipboard by pressing CTRL+C.

To test this, go to the Start menu and choose “Run...“ Then type in something that doesn't exist, such as “foobar“ and press Enter or OK. You'll get a message box dialog that says “Windows cannot find 'foobar'.“ and a lot more information that I didn't want to bother to type in manually. Press CTRL+C, the text of the message will be copied to the clipboard. If you paste it into notepad, it'll look like this:

---------------------------
foobar
---------------------------
Windows cannot find 'foobar'. Make sure you typed the name correctly, and then try again. To search for a file, click the Start button, and then click Search.
---------------------------
OK
---------------------------

This won't work for every dialog box but it's worth a try before calling someone and saying, "I had an error." without being able to tell the person what the error was.

WINDOWS UPDATES CONTINUED

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Dent) — Sat, 12 May 2007 14:53:00 +0000

Clients,

Below is a snippet from a security show talking about compromising a network. It's a bit deep in technical jargon but the important part is two fold: 1) don't open stuff you don't know about, and 2) run MS critical updates and virus protection often.

http://www.grc.com/sn/SN-091.pdf - (zero day exploits simply mean they are hacking you from the day the bug is published/released.)

But when it comes to these client application vulnerabilities, the easiest way to really do some damage and get some data out of a company is to send the Microsoft Word zero-day to the HR department at a large company, and the lady in HR opens it, Word disappears, she’s none the wiser, now I have that computer compromised. Now that I’m on the inside of your network, I take a remote attack like the DNS zero-day to target your active directory server. And now I’ve compromised that, and I can do anything I want to your company. And this all happens within a few hours.

KISS OF (UPDATE) DEATH ...

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Dent) — Fri, 11 May 2007 00:22:00 +0000

Clients,

A number of you have been bit in the last several days with a bug in the Microsoft Automatic Updates. This service starts with the computer and talks with Microsoft to determine what patches need to be installed on your computer. Recently, this service has been crashing rendering your computer incapable of anything other than a hard reboot to recover its attention. You see a message containing information about svchost and 0x7… in a dialog and are asked to send a report to Microsoft.

If you are experiencing this behavior or just instability, the solution is simple.

1) Restart your computer.
2) Immediately open the Automatic Updates Control panel and turn it off.
3) Manually run the updates from the Start -> All Programs -> Microsoft Update menu item. This might require a ½ hour to complete before rebooting.
4) Open the Automatic Updates Control panel and turn it on.

Steps 4 is optional but the problem is fixed after running the manual update in step 3.

FREE PDF & XPS DOCUMENTS

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Dent) — Sat, 24 Mar 2007 13:29:00 +0000

Reposted from Kim Komando news letter:

Convert documents to PDF

This add-in is designed for Office 2007. It allows you to convert Office documents to PDF. The format is great for professional portfolios or other archives. It's also great for e-mail; Recipients can open your documents with the freely available Adobe Reader.

The add-in also allows you to convert to XPS. This is a Microsoft format that competes with Adobe's PDF.

(I would clarify that XPS is displayed in your browser and while it competes, it's certainly a different animal in that sense.)

COMPOSITE BLOCKING LIST

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Dent) — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 21:43:00 +0000

Please read the following carefully:

Repeated detections/delistings should be taken even more seriously, because:

The CBL will refuse to delist an IP if the problem continues after multiple delistings.

The CBL's users expect us to list compromised machines, and we cannot in good faith continue delisting an IP when it's known to be compromised: no exceptions.

If too many delistings occur, the CBL may insist on waiting several days to confirm that the problem has been fixed before delisting.

A DEARTH OF EMAIL

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Dent) — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 01:35:00 +0000

This morning was the culmination of 3 bad days. Over the weekend Redshift went down for 6 hours on Saturday and 2 hours on Sunday when PG&E blew up equipment. Today I awoke to find the new mail server crashed so hard it required turning off the power.

My apologies for the inconvenience. And the answer to the question, “Have I lost any email?” Probably. However it may show up tomorrow. If you have something critical, please call the sender and have it resent.

That’s all the bad news.

The good news is your web mail is back up on both email servers. You will need to enter your website address and add mewebmail as shown below. When you enter your name, be sure to enter your username and the domain. Viola’.

(If your email isn’t listed below, someone else is hosting it and you can safely ignore this.)

http://www.billholdridge.com/mewebmail enter bill@billholdridge.com for the username, etc.
http://www.buygardensource.com/mewebmail enter lou@buygardensource.com for the username, etc.
http://www.carolerose.com/mewebmail and so on ...
http://www.ccbcbrasil.com/mewebmail
http://www.compudentsystems.com/mewebmail
http://www.crowleysales.com/mewebmail
http://www.cyclesgladiator.com/mewebmail
http://www.doblerandsons.com/mewebmail
http://www.ellenmcewen.com/mewebmail
http://www.fieldfreshproduce.com/mewebmail
http://www.georgedentsales.com/mewebmail
http://www.ibunchit.com/mewebmail
http://www.kimstemler.com/mewebmail
http://www.luciennewines.com/mewebmail
http://www.metzfarms.com/mewebmail
http://www.metzfresh.com/mewebmail
http://www.moceoproduce.com/mewebmail
http://www.montereybaymultisport.com/mewebmail
http://www.sunsationfarms.com/mewebmail
http://www.tomdeluc.com/mewebmail

WEB MAIL

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Dent) — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 03:06:00 +0000

Is backup for all of you that have been asking for several weeks. Enjoy.

And so you know I know, yes all the SPAM is back because this version does not support any SPAM filtering.

BETTER IN BELGIUM!

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Dent) — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 07:41:00 +0000

Coffee's better, food's better, hotel's better, internet's better (Amsterdam was €22 for 24 hours, limited to 400MB vs free with the room), chocolate's better. What's not to like about Belgium?

Is today only Wednesday? Yes, I think so.

Tuesday was spent at the Nike European HQ with very limited Internet access. Followed by the longest, most difficult drive I've ever taken in Europe from Hilversum, NH to Hasselt, Belgium. The number of transitions from road-to-road were tough at night after a long day, jet lag and questionable dinner where the waitress started us out an appetizer of glass shards (four exploding glasses dropped on the table) followed by a 5 minutes before she got around to refilling the lettuce in the salad bar. Obviously service (automatically included in the bill) isn't a high priority in the NH.

The Nike Help Desk could not have been any kinder, letting me use their lone DSL connection to the Internet.

Today is Pam's tour of the DC in Laakdal. This is the European equivalent of Memphis but about 20% of the size.

AT THE LEIDSEPLEIN ... TAKE 2

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Dent) — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 07:45:00 +0000

Pronounced lide-sa-pline but you already knew that.

An early arrival at the airport paid off with a seat change to the bulkhead just behind business class. Wonderful leg room! That almost made up for the 3 hour delay due to "unscheduled mechanical repairs". All that said I had a reasonable flight and the people next to me did mention I slept. I only hope I didn't drool or snore.

The forecast in Amsterdam for the next 9 days is rain, light rain, heavy rain and showers. I think the canals are really drainage. However, we plan to make the best of it with gortex and trams around the city. We are still up in the air about what to do for the weekend but that is several days away.

I'll do some scouting around today while Pam is at Nike Europe. Then tomorrow evening we head down to Hilversun and Lockdaw. Should be fun.

I have an unusual Internet connection. Long story short, I'm limited to 400MB of data in a 24-hour period. When you are used to GB's of data, 400MB is not much. However, if I run out, I can head over to the laundromat that has free Internet. Go figure. However the chairs and view aren't as nice.

One other thing we immediately noticed was cigarette smoke. We in CA are spoiled by no smoking almost everywhere. Here the norm appears the french equivalent of the baguette, you must have one in your hand at all times. We returned to the room last night smelling of smoke after 30 minutes in a pub for a bier and dinner at a restaurant.

And yes the stories you have heard are true about pot. Haven't seen/smelled so many people smoking since I was in the dorm in college.

Oh my gosh, the sun has come out. I may have to leave for a run soon while I don't need boots.

ALL SNAP

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Dent) — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 14:02:00 +0000

If you like your windows aligned on your desktop, this utility provides that functionality.

allSnap is a small system tray app that makes all top level windows automatically align like they do in programs such as Winamp or Photoshop.

http://www.cs.toronto.edu/~iheckman/allsnap/

DEFENDER DIES ...

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Dent) — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 12:39:00 +0000

Windows Defender has hit a snag. If you are getting a message:

"Application failed to initialize 0X800106ba. A problem caused windows defender service to stop. To start the service, restart your computer ..."

This is due to Window's Defender expiring. You need to go to the Microsoft web site and download the latest and greatest version. It should fix the problem as my upgraded systems don't see this happening.

AT THE LEIDSEPLEIN ...

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Dent) — Thu, 04 Jan 2007 01:23:00 +0000

And I'll be there and other places in Amsterdam, Netherlands between the 6th and 17th.

However, I won't be out of touch:

Send email -> I'll call you back from Amsterdam.
Call (831) 649-2575 (office) -> message to call Holly Davis @ 443-9942 for emergencies.
Call (831) 224-2875 (cell) -> forwarded to call my Skype VoIP phone #.
Call (831) 207-4121 (skype) -> get me in Amsterdam or leave voice mail.

WINDOWS LIVE ONE CARE

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Dent) — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 16:05:00 +0000

Clients,

Costco has Windows Live One Care for $12.99 at the register, call it $14.00 per copy. Compare that to the $40+ renewal fees for Symantec, Norton, McAfee, etc. It doesn't help SPAM but it's does cover virus and spyware.

If you have a renewal coming up it's worth considering.

WHY WAIT ... PLENTY OF REASONS

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Dent) — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 14:45:00 +0000

Clients,

Sure you can buy the hardware but I'm going to tell you from experience that a clean install is _always_ better than an upgrade. I know Microsoft tells you it will work. These are the same guys that gave us Window ME. So sit back, drink another cup of coffee and wait until you can get that box _with_ Vista pre-installed.

If you aren't going to wait, here's the catch phrase you need to know: Vista Capable or Premium Ready. Vista Capable is self-explanatory. Premium says you are ready for Home Premium or Ultimate Vista.

Here's the stick:

Don't wait to buy a new PC

There's no need to wait to buy a new PC this holiday season. When you buy a Windows Vista Capable or Premium Ready PC, you can be confident that it will run Windows Vista. When you shop, just follow these tips:

Look for a PC with the "Windows Vista Capable PC" logo.
For an even better Windows Vista experience, including the breakthrough Windows Aero user experience, ask for a Windows Vista Capable PC that is also "Premium Ready."
Be sure to ask your retailer about an Express Upgrade to Windows Vista.

IT'S 2006 BUT IT'S STILL WINDOWS TOO

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Dent) — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 01:21:00 +0000

Clients,

Merry Christmas from the politically incorrect. Here's hoping your Christmas Season is one to be enjoyed rather than endured.

With that in mind I'd like to remind you of BJ's 1st rule of tech support: "Reboot before you call me." 95%+ of the problems on Windows can be cured by a simple Start -> Shutdown -> Restart. It's simple, it's fast and it makes all your holidays happy(ier).

PREPARE FOR A GLUT OF SPAM

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Dent) — Sun, 26 Nov 2006 14:24:00 +0000

October was a record month for spam. And things are only going to get worse. As Christmas approaches, spammers will be sending more and more messages. They'll be pitching everything from iPods to fake Rolexes.

This year, spammers have a new weapon in their arsenal: SpamThru. This Trojan connects an infected computer to a botnet. And the botnet is capable of sending more spam than other botnets. Combined with new ways of tricking spam filters, we're in for a record season.

As you're cleaning out your inbox and spam folder, don't get tempted by any of the offers. Just delete the messages.

(Reposted from Kim Komando)

NEW MICROSOFT CRITICAL UPDATES & IE7

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Dent) — Wed, 15 Nov 2006 02:28:00 +0000

Clients,

Take 'em. Go get 'em!

However, I'll say this about upgrading to IE7, think about it. It's big and 20-30 minutes to finish. If you don't have the time, don't start because you can't quit once it starts.

I've got IE7 on my box. It's good but it's incompatible with a number of things I do. Most, if not all of the special connections I make to routers, etc., won't be anything you experience. And to be honest I've seen a number of web sites that were broken by IE7 get fixed over the last few days. This is simply normal. Early adoptors pay a price, the rest of us cruise along at their expense. If you don't want any bumps, wait until Jan. 2007.

In the mean time, get those updates to keep the bad guys out of your computer.

WINZIP 11 BETA BACKUPS

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Dent) — Sun, 12 Nov 2006 15:38:00 +0000

For some of us, new fancy, makes the coffee as well as does the backup software doesn't help what we are trying to accomplish. I fell into the Beta 11 version by accident when purchasing a license for a client. Normally I ignore betas as I have work to get done and I have enough problems with flakly software without resorting to beta headaches. This turned out to be different.

I didn't send WinZIP a list of wants but someone did:

1) Let me choose folders and files.
2) Let me encrypt the archive.
3) Let me specify a destination and date tag it.
4) Let WinZIP decide what compression algorithm decide which gets the best compression on a file by file basis and don't bother me with the details.
5) Let WinZIP FTP the file to a remote location when done.
6) Let WinZIP email me the compressed or uncompressed log of what happened.

For those of use doing remote, drop dead, when the system and the backs have been destroyed type backups, WOW! Stop the databases, copy them and bring them back on-line. WinZIP backs up the copies and delivers the file to the offsite server and emails you the results good or bad.

At the offsite server, create a script that deletes ZIPs older than your drop-dead retention time of 1 week, 1 month, etc. Viola'.

WINZIP 11 Beta

FREE SECURITY TOOLS

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Dent) — Wed, 08 Nov 2006 13:40:00 +0000

Foundstone, a division of McAfee, has some free downloads for security professionals. They include security assessment utilities, forensic tools and scanning tools. These tools are designed for business networks.

http://www.foundstone.com

WHEEL MOUSE TRICKS

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Dent) — Sat, 28 Oct 2006 18:43:00 +0000

What happens when you mix the mouse wheel with key combinations?

Shift & Spin - change the page
Open several pages in your web browser. The hold down the Shift key spin the wheel on your wheel mouse The browser goes either backwards or forwards, depending on which direction you spin.

Ctrl & Spin - change the font size
Open a page with text in your web browser. Hold down your Ctrl key and spin the wheel in a web browser (Explorer, Netscape or FireFox). It makes the text larger or smaller depending on which way you spin.

SONY BATTERIES

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Dent) — Sat, 28 Oct 2006 13:05:00 +0000

Sony's battery recalls have been made official. On Monday, the Consumer Product Safety Commission issued a formal recall for the batteries.

Last week Gateway joined in, recalling 340,000 batteries. Apple, Dell, Lenovo, Fujitsu, Sony and Toshiba have all recalled batteries.

To see if your laptop battery is under the recall, visit my site.

- reposted from Kim Komando.com -

My comment; we trashed DELL as they were the first company to recall. Now they look like the most responsible party. Hmmm.