The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group Editorial Gary Taig editor@melbpc.org.au |
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The group is promoting the Melb PC Gift Certificate. You can use it as a gift for Birthdays, Mothers and Fathers Day, Anniversaries, Christmas etc. in fact any special occasion can represent a good excuse to buy someone a Melb PC membership.
Applications Gone?
"Your Applications To Go" was published in April PC Update. No, it wasn't an April Fools joke, but it did lack any mention or warnings about one of the biggest plagues we're experiencing today - Virus and Trojan programs.
In a Letter to the Editor from David Brownridge, one of our Technical Editors. David was clearly quite disgusted with the fact that the author paid no attention to Virus protection or other safety issues and that this wasn't picked up along the way. Following receipt of David's letter I talked to another of our Technical Editors Dennis Parsons and asked Dennis what lie thought were the options for a busy traveller; could he suggest some simple precautions that might assist one to avoid being stung.
Dennis wrote, "Using on unknown computer poses a considerable risk to the data on your USB flash drive. Without scanning for viruses and other malware you just don't know there could be key loggers to capture your keystrokes or viruses to damage your Word documents. Or as already mentioned, you could become a 'carrier'.
Ask yourself "do I trust this computer?" - a very rough guide:
Yes - corporate work environment
Maybe - friends and relatives
No - publicly available systems (such as the one in the hotel)
One possible solution is to odd o few more applications to your flash drive - virus and malware scanners. F-Prot for DOS is a simple but effective on-demand virus scanner that will run on Windows XP. Ad-Aware and Spybot Search & Destroy anti-spyware software can be added to your flash drive by simply copying the files installed in Windows. They run from the a USB drive without installation, although Spybot tries to back-up the Windows registry; just click next to each question to bypass this.
Write protect your flash drive (if possible) before running any scan. Don't delete files from the host computer without asking the owners permission, even if they are viruses or malware, instead advise them of what You've found."
There you have it. When travelling with your USB flash drive, treat every machine as though it contained enough virus and Trojan programs to cause you more than a major headache. Actually, that's a good approach with every computer, isn't it? No matter where you are or how responsible the owner or operator seems to be, these days you cannot trust anything.
We certainly live in different times.
Here's a Typing Tip
Have you ever pressed Crtl+Z too many times and undone a whole paragraph or something similar when all you wanted to do was delete the last couple of words or characters? I did it tonight and discovered yet another key stroke for my DTP software.
Those who muddle around with a mouse to find Edit | Undo, who never experience the relative speed of the keyboard, they might not know that when you make an error you can remove the last word or character typed, or reverse the last action with Ctrl+Z. Tonight I was typing quickly, did something wrong, hit Ctrl+Z quickly three times, bang, bang bang, looked up and I had deleted the last three corrections. For love nor money I couldn't remember them all.
After staring at the keyboard for a few seconds I felt a brain wave hit. I held down the Shift key and pressed Ctrl+Z and blow me down, it reversed the excessive use of Ctrl+Z; it re-did the corrections. Magic! I tried it with a number of applications but it didn't always work the same way. With NotePad Shift+Ctrl+Z did nothing in particular and Ctrl+Z simply toggled the undo-reverse undo action. But it does highlight that most software has additional keystrokes available. There is no doubt, browsing the help file occasionally can dramatically affect your productivity.
Reprinted from the May 2006 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia
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