[ccc-news] Assorted News 4 :)

[ccc-news] Assorted News 4 🙂

In this edition:

Important News
Reminder on Trading Hours

Security News
Safest ways to browse.

What’s New on the ‘Net
Stage 6
New Wireless Internet and Mobile Phone coverage on the horizon.

Warehouse Specials
Wireless Keyboard & Mouse $30
Digital Tire Pressure Gauge $20

Trivia
The Kingswood’s Back!
GPS Thoughts.

Reminder on Trading Hours

G’day to you all, and welcome to 2008! Hope it’s going well for you! Here at CCC the year has started off surprisingly busy – where traditionally Dec – Jan were the slow months.

Just a quick reminder on the trading hours – they are officially 9am to 8pm. There are two reasons for these slightly unusual hours.
1 – It allows me to help people who work traditional 9-5 jobs and don’t get home until 6 or 7
2 – I’m a ‘night person’

As a result, if you try to call CCC before 9am you’ll very likely get the answering service. The office phones are on a timer which turns them off between 4am and 9am. In case of emergencies, there is a special hotline number available for anyone who requests it, but it is not publicised.

Safest Ways to Browse.

In the last few months there’s been an increase in popular websites becoming laced with nasty bugs – particularly sites popular with younger people such as MySpace, FaceBook, etc, and I read in the news this morning that there’s some new bugs doing the rounds on some e-commerce sites that have the experts a bit baffled too! So, if you’re particularly keen on keeping safe on the ‘net, here’s a few tips that might help 🙂 (Apart from the usual ‘have a virus scanner’, etc.)

There are five possible steps below – for most people step 1 and 2 are enough, step 3 optional, step 4 useful but occasionally mildly frustrating, and step 5 is only if you think you’re going to be going exploring off the beaten track.

Easiest Step: Upgrade to Firefox.

There are many reasons why I recommend this step.
– It loads pages faster than Internet Explorer
– If is open source, which means it is updated quickly when a glitch is found.
– It supports ‘extensions’ which allow you to customise it to be even safer
– It doesn’t natively support the technology Microsoft made many years ago that allowed websites to add programs to your computer without asking.

While Firefox alone won’t make you completely safe, it is a good first step, and is required for the next few tips.

You can get it free by going to http://www.getfirefox.com/

Step 2: Get AdBlock Plus

A good number of bugs get onto people’s computers through advertisements. These can be messages like “Your computer is vulnerable – click here to scan” etc – when really it’s just a picture, not a real message but might fool you into downloading something. Additionally, the reason some big sites have been hit is because what usually happens when you visit those sites is that they then call up a third party site that has the ads on it, and you see them. Those third parties don’t always spot a malicious ad given to them by a fourth party, and so they slip through onto the web page you’re looking at, and in some cases can do damage to your computer wihout you even clicking on them.

So, you can largely avoid much of this by installing the AdBlock Plus extension for Firefox. It will remove most pesky banner ads from most websites. You can get it by clicking here: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1865

This also has the advantage that pages load faster – sometimes much faster if the advertising page is slow but the real site is fast.

Of course, this does deprive some websites of some of their income, but in my view if the industry can’t keep itself clean, why take the risk.

Step 3: Get FlashBlock

OK this step is not quite as necessary, but can still prevent some more recent bugs; and also save you a fair bit on your downloads; which can be useful if you’re on a restrictive plan. Many websites use Flash to do fancy ads that love to get in the way, play fancy animations or movies, quite often without you asking for them.

FlashBlock prevents them from downloading and running straight away – it leaves their outline and a round ‘play’ button you can click if you want to see whatever’s hidden. You can get it at https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/433

Step 4: For the mildly paranoid? NoScript

Some bugs can be in the form of hidden ‘scripts’ that make your computer do things that the webpage wants it to do. Usually these are pretty benign things like ‘add up the total of a shopping cart’ or ‘make that menu turn blue when the mouse is on it’ etc. However, they are also able to be abused to do nasty things. NoScript will prevent any script from running unless you give it permission. You only have to give permission once per website if you find the site isn’t working right while blocked. Perhaps this one’s a bit ‘geeky’ for many people, but if you’re wanting to be particularly safe, it could be worthwhile to have as well. Download NoScript here 🙂 https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/722

Step 5: For the completely paranoid, or if you like ‘going off the beaten track’

If you’re a bit geeky, want to be able to surf the Internet and not have to worry about bugs at all, you can make a Virtual Computer using “Microsoft Virtual PC” from http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/virtualpc/default.mspx – you’d then have to install a copy of Windows or unix in it and use that for looking around on the Internet. You can then either set it to ‘undo’ it’s changes after closing, or just reinstall it when it gets too bad. A Virtual PC generally can’t interact with the real one, so any virus you get can only damage what’s on the virtual PC.

Stage 6 – Kinda like “YouTube”, but better content?

A customer just recently introduced me to Stage 6. It’s another video sharing site, a bit like YouTube, but with higher quality video, and in some cases some more contemporary video too. It has an option once a video has finished playing for you to save it on your computer to watch again later. Of course, be careful if you’re on a low downloads plan! You can find it at http://www.stage6.com/

New Wireless Internet and Mobile Phone coverage on the horizon?

As you know, NextG is able to be used for Internet connection, but is ridiculously expensive. (Comparison: NextG: 200MB for $59 vs. Vodafone 5,000MB for $50, or in other words, 29 times as expensive as their best competitor.) Both VodaFone and Optus have made noises about introducing high speed Internet coverage to many more towers in Australia, which could possibly include us! This could be particularly good news for people who cannot get ADSL broadband because they live more than 6km from an exchange.

I’m not sure yet whether I’ll be able to resell, or act as an agent for any of these services, but will of course keep you informed. The key thing for now is to avoid getting caught in a long-term contract with NextG if possible.

Oh, by the way I think Vodafone was looking at possibly using a new frequency for their regional towers so they’d have a similar coverage to NextG’s – here’s hoping!

Wireless Keyboard & Mouse set for $30

They still have some “Laser” Wireless Keyboard and Mouse sets for $30. I’ve sold four sets now, and only had a slight issue with one which was corrected by pressing the ‘connect’ button to get a new frequency. They’re at the front of the store – turn left as you go in.

Digital Tire Pressure Gauge for $20

A new bargain item – usually these gauges are more expensive. I compared results with a $50 model – exactly the same result. They’re at the back of the store. A bit weird looking since the integrate a knife (for cutting seat belts apparently) and a torch (what doesn’t these days) and a hammer (for breaking windows) as well as the gauge.

I have no relationship with The Warehouse – other than occasionally picking out the good stuff from the rubbish 🙂 I think the $4 USB hubs are back in stock too.

The Kingswood’s Back!

Well, it took a little longer than planned, but the Kingswood’s back on the road again, with a new front seat, and some additional wiring to tidy things up a bit. (The fuse box was getting a little hot when running the laptop and the evaporative airconditioner at the same time through the inverter.) I do apologise for the noise from the front – I have a replacement flange gasket that should shut it up, but it’s a bugger to get under and fix; so I’m waiting for a suitable time to find a mechanic to do that for me. Oh, and with the new GPS I can now see why I get overtaken regularly – 60MPH is only 92KPH on my speedo. Well, of course there’s the issue that it’s a 161 motor (the smallest motor available for that model) so it’s not powerful – but I’d rather that than be paying more for fuel.

GPS thoughts.

One new addition to the Kingswood this year is a GPS unit. A little hard to justify spending $460 on one, but it was a Christmas gift from a relative so I no complain 😉 They are interesting to work with, and generally are a time saver. However, this one’s plagued by a few issues which I believe affects many others too.

Old Maps: On this one, the pinch is still the old pinch, so I find myself driving through a fields and trees according to it’s screen
No Dirt: It knows Urandangie Street is dirt, but it doesn’t know that parts of Old Armidale Road and Bushy Creek Road are dirt, so it’ll send you that way in preference.
No Numbers: In some cases it knows no street numbers at all – or very few. For example, Toms Gully Road it only knows 193 and 880, blissfully unaware of all the others. Not a big deal ‘tho, just a frustration.

Those issues aside, they are quite useful. It’s good to finally be able to just plug in some address down the Ebor road or Wards Mistake road for example, and then listen to the radio / podcasts, etc, without having to continually watch for elusive turn-offs. At least 4 times last year I passed turnoffs on the aptly-named Wards Mistake road!

I’m not yet in a position to give a comparison of different models. The one I purchased, a Navman S50, was largely purchased because of it’s Bluetooth hands free option, meaning I could see who was calling (by name) and talk to them while driving, instead of using that silly ‘cyborg’ ear piece thing that seems to prefer life down the side of the chair rather than in my ear, and is often flat when needed. Of course, it turned out not to be compatible with my Telstra NextG mobile, so eBay has solved that problem with a secondhand LG mobile to replace it. If it weren’t for that killer feature, I’d have done more research 😉

I’m a little ambivalent about the windscreen mounting since it takes away a small viewable area, but it’s well off to the side. Finding other mounting points on a 1971 car isn’t so easy – the steering wheel was the next likely contender, but it’s a bit hard on the eyes changing focal range from wheel to road repeatedly. I have at last filled one of the ironies that my workmates from Bourke RetraVision used to say about putting a GPS in such an old car – now all I need is one speeding ticket and all their ridicules will be null and void!

I wish you all the best for 2008 🙂 Feel free to write back with feedback or comments on these newsletters – if there’s something you want to know about or share, let me know!

Cheers, Mike.

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