From: newsletter-bounces@thepcgurus.com on behalf of Kevin-PC Gurus
[microdome@seidata.com]
Sent: Thursday, August 14, 2008 9:15 PM
To: jpdurbin@jpdurbin.net
Cc: PC Gurus Newsletter
Subject: GuruNews, Volume 8 Number 29, 8-14-08
Attachments: ATT00031.txt
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Vol. 8, No. 29
8-14-8
1 ForceField field test
2 We need more cache
3 Georgia safe from bears, Faces vs. Spaces, US broadband lags, faulty 3G
4 Manage USB devices
5 Photo printing
Needless to say, this week’s News Flash generated a ton of email. Scads of readers were able to get the free one-year license for ForceField before the deadline of 9:00 AM local time Wednesday and many went ahead and installed it.
I got three emails that said the program slowed their systems or browsers down horribly so they uninstalled it. Others had no serious issues; reader Jim P. has been using the program in Beta for a year, Ray C. couldn’t get the license key to paste and John D. sent me this handy link to ZoneAlarm’s blog:
I downloaded and installed the program prior to doing any research so I could poke it with a stick without preconceptions. I used the ZA Firewall for years so I have a relatively high level of trust that their programs are free of malware and safe to use.
During installation I had the same problem that Ray did with the license key, but using the keyboard shortcut (CTRL+V) allowed me to paste it in even though the right click and paste wouldn’t. That’s a minor glitch that I’ve run into with other programs and websites so I didn’t worry much about it.
The rest of the install went without a hitch and I rebooted. On a side note, this is a good idea with any new install, especially security programs, even if you aren’t prompted to do so. This insures that any portions of the program that need to be memory resident are working.
Once back to the desktop I opened Task Manager to check the footprint of the new program. On the Services tab I found ForceField and the program showed 00 for CPU cycles and about 20 MB of memory usage, so fairly small. I kept Task Manager open and opened IE. It flickered to 01 CPU then back to 00. Pretty nice.
I browsed to several pages for an hour or so and everything was fine. Then I closed the browser and handled some email and reopened the browser. The PC just sat there. After about five minutes the IE window came up but it was blank and unresponsive. I rebooted and everything was fine again.
Through a little poking around on ZA’s website I found that this problem could be caused by the Virtual Cache so I closed IE, emptied the cache in ForceField (which you accomplish by right clicking the icon in the System Tray and choosing Settings, then clicking the Advanced section and clicking Clear Virtual Data at the bottom).
I reopened IE and it came right up. Through further testing I found that the program worked fine if you emptied the cache between each browser session but this is unacceptable, especially considering there’s not an option to empty it automatically after each session. I’ll admit I’m running SP3, which isn’t on the supported Operating Systems list, but every XP user will eventually get it so the program needs to work with it.
I’m saving a text file of notes about these issues to send to ZoneAlarm to see if they can address them. I’d really like to see this program settle in because in theory it could provide the safest method for surfing the web.
What it does is hook IE and Firefox so that they run in a “virtual sandbox”. Nothing in this virtual space can interact with your actual system so drive-by downloads, tracking programs, spyware links and just even plain safe files are all housed it this virtual space and can’t infect you.
It’s not an anti-virus or anti-spyware program nor is it a firewall, so don’t think it will do everything. Your email client and other types of Internet apps are still vulnerable, but the main problem right now is the Web, and this would wall that off completely from your computer.
I’ll keep you posted on any responses I get from ZA…
Kevin Mefford, Editor
Terry Wise
Tech News of the Week
Security researchers say that
the recent cyber attack on Georgian Websites might have been initiated by
random hackers, not from the Russian government, as previously thought:
http://www.crn.com/security/210003769
The latest results from comScore show that
Facebook has overtaken MySpace as the world's No. 1 social networking site:
http://www.technewsworld.com/story/Facebook-Stands-Atop-Social-Networking-World-64154.html?welcome=1218676926
Betcha Al Gore didn't see this coming. The U.S.
-- the country credited for inventing the Internet -- has fallen from No. 1 to
15th place in high speed Internet behind other industrialized nations in high
speed Internet adoption:
http://www.crn.com/networking/210003637
A financial analyst believes Apple's iPhone 3G
reception issues may be the result of some faulty chips:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10015301-37.html
Copy us on the good stuff!
Matthew Dattilo
Download of the Week
When you connect a new USB
drive or insert a DVD or CD, the handy Desk Drive utility automatically creates
a shortcut on your desktop to access the drive or disc. No more searching for the drive. Remove the
device or disc, and the icon likewise disappears. Desk Drive keeps an icon in
the system tray while it's running, and right-clicking the icon allows you to
change settings such as whether it should start automatically with Windows (off
by default) or create icons for newly connected network, fixed or RAM drives in
addition to optical or removable drives.
Get it here:
http://blueonionsoftware.com/deskdrive.aspx.
Carlita Lupino
Email Question of the Week
Q: I really do appreciate the time it takes to put together this volunteer help service. I find answers to many things that confuse or befuddle me. Thank you for your work. I find that I have a question today that does both. Why when I print a picture from my computer does it not look the same as the image on my computer screen. The colors are subtlety different and the over all intensity of the photo is different. I've wondered about this for a while.
A: The reason for your issues is due to many
different variables, but it all comes down to one major issue: color
calibration. And, what most people don't realize is that it's not just
your monitor that needs to be calibrated properly. There are several
different items that need to be considered:
a) Is your monitor properly calibrated using a hardware calibration tool?
These devices usually hang from the top of your monitor using a weight and have
a sensor that lays flat on your screen. The software that comes with the
hardware calibration tool then runs and measures the color output of your
monitor, then creates a what is known as an ICM profile that is then applied to
your monitor settings. The monitor color settings can be found in the
"advanced" section of the display properties screen settings.
b) What usually surprises people when I tell them this is that your printer
needs to be calibrated too! There are additional hardware devices that
have software which you use to print out a color bar on a sheet of paper.
The paper is then fed through the hardware or the hardware is put on top of the
color grid on the paper, which then provide profile settings for image
management software, such as photoshop.
c) As I mentioned before, if photoshop or any other similar tools don't have
the proper ICM profile applied, it doesn't matter what you do to calibrate your
printer or monitor, because what you see in the program may be simply
incorrect.
d) Know the difference between CMYK and RGB. Most printing companies use
CMYK 4 color processes, so if you create a photo that you wish to have printed
professionally, it's best to convert it to CMYK to provide the best color
detail possible. Don't rely on others to convert your photo or images for
you! The end result may be something completely different than what you
originally intended.
Here's a few links that may provide some additional details:
http://www.ddisoftware.com/qimage/icc.htm
http://www.colorwiki.com/wiki/ColorWiki_Home
http://www.drycreekphoto.com/Learn/profiles.htm
http://solutions.brother.com/Library/sol/printer/color/4000_pc_icm.html
http://www.impressionsinprint.ca/cmyk-vs-rgb.php
Color management isn't the easiest thing to
achieve, however once you get it down your images and photos will look exactly
like you expect them to. Also, don't forget that just because you
calibrate your monitor/printer and applied the profile to your photo program
doesn't mean that you never have to do it again. I would recommend
re-calibrating once every month or two at minimum. If you're an amateur
photographer who wants to get the best results from your equipment, then I
would recommend weekly or even every few days.
I hope this helps!
--Ed Engelking II
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