Free Blog

In the March issue of Entrepreneur magazine there is a interesting article called “Google Eyed - Prepare to Fall hard for Google Based OS and the computers that run on it” which takes a really in depth look at the 3 computers on the market now powered by Google applications. Its a good read and covers Zoho, Everex and Zonbu PC’s.

I wonder now with Google gaining the desktop market share if anyone will actually really use MSN without it being embedded in their operating system.

Also thinking about the mobile platform I am SOOOOOOOOO looking forward to the Google Android powered phones that will be coming out this summer. People want a hack and slash cellphone so bad =(.

I hate the stock market but I think Googles stock looks pretty good right now.

Reader Mike Waters writes: I am concerned about Wi-Fi security. One of the most basic ways to secure a wireless signal seems like it would be to reduce the strength in “uncontrolled” areas so no signal can be received. I would like to be able to REDUCE the range of my home Wi-Fi network so it just covers my house! As it is I can receive signals almost 2 blocks away! Is there any safe, reliable way to do this? Remove tha antenna from the hub, wear a tinfoil hat?

Sure enough, there is, but not on every router. Hop into your router management system (either through a program you installed when you set up your router initially or by typing the IP address of the router into your web browser), and poke around. Every router is different, but you’ll likely find the option to reduce radio transmission power under advanced settings or somewhere else in the wireless configuration section. On Linksys routers, for example, look for “Output Power” under the Advanced Wireless tab. Remember, though, that not all routers include this feature (not even all routers from the same vendor).

Like Mike suggests, lowering the total power output of your router can do a good job at keeping the signal from spreading too far outside your house and down the street. However, this method comes with some caveats. The big one: By lowering signal strength you may inadvertently lower the signal too much so that you don’t cover your entire house. Wireless signal is finicky, and the just-fine signal strength on one floor may be barely acceptable a single story up. You may very well drop your connection altogether in the far corners of your home, so experiment before you etch this setting in stone.

The other caveat is that even if your signal doesn’t drop out, it will likely slow down throughout your house, even when you are relatively close to the router. As signal strength decreases, the signal-to-noise ratio falls as well, which means you’ll lose more data and suffer through more re-transmissions as interference gets worse, lowering the overall speed of the connection.  (Neighbor networks may overpower yours, even.) This may not be a big deal, in fact you may not even notice it, or it may have such an impact that it makes your network unusable. Again, you’ll have to experiment to find a setting that keeps the network relatively confined to your house while still giving you enough bandwidth to work comfortably in.

Regardless of whether you throttle your wireless radio’s power output, don’t rely on this as your sole means of Wi-Fi security. Use wireless encryption, set a strong administrator password, and change default settings.

Last night Google switched on what may be a feature marking an historical evolutionary point in the evolution of the most popular Internet search engine.

Within the Google Personalized Home Page facility, Google has in fact activated a full RSS aggregator, capable of bringing together on your private Google Home page any and all the feeds that you want to subscribe to.

It goes with it that for Google to make this possible, it is also capturing, indexing and tracking any and each of those RSS feeds, though what the most popular search engine is exactly going to do with that feed data is not yet visible to the public.

So in one shot Google opens up officially to full RSS adoption and use, launches an online RSS aggregator that is easy and functional to use and opens up the door for RSS feed submissions directly to its indexes.

The new Google Personalized Home page allows indeed easy addition of RSS feed URLs, though the interface isn’t as sleek and functional as the one from Microsoft Start, which I like so far the best.

With this move Google equalizes somehow the advantage that Yahoo and Microsoft had taken over it with earlier introductions of their Web-based RSS aggregators and officially steps into the RSS-fray for indexing and leveraging at some point or another the full cloud of RSS content that it will be collecting.

And for those of you interested in increasing the reach and visibility of your RSS feeds, you now have a fast, easy and direct way to submit your those feeds to Google itself.

While it is hard to say now how and when Google will start leveraging that RSS-based content to augment, expand and diversify its search capabilities, it is almost certain that at it will.

So, to make your blog and RSS feed part of this new Google index, head off to the Google Personalized Home page facility and follow this simple instructions:

a) If you don’t have a Google Account click here and create one now. (If you do just go to http://www.google.com/ig and log in)

b) Sign in on the Google Personalized Home Page.

c) Look at the left column and click on “Create a section“.

d) Input your RSS or Atom feed directly.

That’s all!

For now, the Google Personalized Home page displays only a the feed title (cut off to the first three words) and the titles (only) of the latest posts appearing in it.

Please test it out yourself, and let me have your feedback and insight.

N.B.: While testing further the new Google Personalized Home Page features, I also noticed that, nonetheless I do have a GMail account, I wasn’t able to make Google display a feed of the latest emails show up on this page. While I could have input the RSS feed that is generated by GMail accounts by default, I wanted to see whether there was any way to specify which GMail account I wanted to monitor. But, as it seems, I’ll have to wait for this.

For now Google only allows me to specify how many email messages I want to preview here, but gives me no option to specify my Gmail account.

Reader Mark asks: Should I make a complete backup of my hard drive to avoid the hassle and the time of reloading from OEM disks, in the event of a catastrophic failure? In addition to the obvious programs requiring reinstallation, how can I quickly reload the really technical stuff-like DSL settings and printer settings-that’s been tweaked over the years to just how I like it? I am very interested to get your input as to what exactly to back up and the best way to back up that information. Thanks for your time.

That’s a big question, Mark, and it requires a big answer. Looks like it’s time for another primer on how to best back up your computer.

In the beginning of your question, you ask if you should back up system files and programs. All that data you didn’t create takes up a lot of space, and getting it reinstalled properly can be difficult.

Ultimately, this decision comes down to personal preference. Do you feel comfortable about reinstalling Windows and your other programs on a bare hard drive? If you don’t, then back up everything. Power users can forgo the full drive backup and just grab data files, typically the stuff that lives in your My Documents folder.

The easiest way to make a full backup is to “clone” your hard drive. Cloning gives you an identical copy of your drive as it exists right now. If your drive crashes, you can clone the backup drive onto a new drive, and it will be like nothing ever happened.

You’ll need a drive dedicated to cloning and a little knowhow to use a cloning program, but it’s a simple enough procedure for an intermediate user. If you use CloneZilla (a system I’ve mentioned before), you should also be able to add more backups to the clone, assuming there’s enough room.

It makes sense for everyone to have a hard-drive clone, just in case. External drives are cheap, and this method is the easiest way to back up your files and get back up and running in a jiffy. Reinstalling Windows and other applications can be an all-weekend affair. After that, as Mark noted, comes the job of tweaking your system to get it just the way you like it, which can take weeks.

Let’s say you’ve got your clone drive in hand, or you just want your data files and don’t need a full backup. Now what?

Depending on the computer, I use two different approaches.

First, you can use a syncing program like GoodSync to make a daily or real-time backup. GoodSync is very fast, because it only copies new or changed files. So, you’ll have an identical copy of your hard drive on the external drive, and you can update both whenever you like. You can also use GoodSync to copy files between two computers, allowing you to run two identical machines at once.

My second approach is to just use a regular backup program like Cobian Backup. It runs quickly, it doesn’t require a lot of maintenance, and it’s free. I use Cobian on systems that don’t change a lot and when I don’t need a full clone.

With a clone drive and one of the above backups, you’re covered in the event of a hard-drive crash. But I also like to hedge my bets by making an online backup, in case of something catastrophic, like a fire at home. I use Mozy, and I only back up my data files. Backing up the entire hard drive online would take too long, and it wouldn’t make sense, since I’d have to reinstall Windows to run the Mozy restore program, anyway.

The online backup is only a safety net. But it’s a safety net I wouldn’t want to go without.

Anonymous writes: I am soon to be a single mother. My soon to be ex-husband and I owned a computer store. I only have a working knowledge of computers; he was very good at it. When he left the house, he still was able to enter the PC, and I think he installed a keylogger program on the family computer. I can’t do anything on my computer at home for this reason, and was wondering if you would know how I can check this, or delete it from my computer.

Keyloggers are a common form of software and hardware that are used to keep track of everything a user does on a PC: Essentially, every button you press is recorded to a file, which the spy can then access at a later time. All your passwords, and everything else you type, is accessible by the perpetrator. Some keylogger programs can even record occasional pictures or video of the screen. Other variants can take a snapshot of you with your webcam. And yes, they can relay those logs over the internet (though this makes them easier to find).

As you can likely tell, keyloggers represent one of the most serious forms of spyware on a PC, but they are hardly unbeatable. First, most spyware detection and antivirus software should be able to uncover their presence and remove them. If you suspect a keylogger is on your PC, update your antivirus software of choice and give it a full run. Also try a sampling of other spyware killers: My current favorites are Ad-Aware and Spyware Doctor. Both are free (the latter if you get it as part of the Google Pack).

Also, and this is critical, check out your computer for any hardware you didn’t connect yourself. Many hardware keyloggers look like thumbdrives and connect to either your USB or keyboard port, often between your computer and your keyboard cable. The device does all the recording and the spy simply collects the device at a later time to access your keystrokes. Spyware detection software may not uncover these devices. See the photo above for an example. They can be very small and hard to detect, so check thoroughly.

If you detect nothing in your spyware hunt but still suspect you have a keylogger (or if you find the keylogger software but are unable to remove it), your best bet is to reformat your hard drive and reinstall Windows from scratch. It’s a pain, I know, but you’re better safe than sorry in a situation like this. Anti-spyware tools are not perfect and can miss infections. I’d rather advise you to spend a weekend reinstalling software on your computer than potentially give up all your secrets to someone who might use them against you.

Steve Jobs took the stage to kick off the annual Macworld Expo today. As usual, he brought with him a crushing amount of buzz and a pile of new product announcements. Here’s what we’ll be seeing from Apple, starting today!

MacBook Air

As widely expected, Apple is launching an ultra-thin notebook called the MacBook Air. At 0.76″ thick at its widest point, the three-pound Air has a wedgelike shape that tapers down to 0.16″ thick at the front base. LED backlighting on its 13.3-inch screen, multi-touch trackpad (which offers some nifty features like rotating photos, all in the touchpad), and a backlit keyboard. Specs are decent: 1.6 or 1.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo (on a cleverly shrunken socket), 2GB of RAM, and an 80GB hard drive (or 64GB SSD option). No optical drive (of course), and just one USB port. It’ll set you back $1,799, which is on the inexpensive side for ultralight notebooks with specs like this. Ships in two weeks.

(By the way, as great as the MacBook Air sounds, calling this the “world’s thinnest notebook” is hyperbole: The Sony X505 was 0.75″ thick… and it was released in 2003.)

iPhone Software Upgrades

Apple isn’t resting on its cell phone laurels; after selling 4 million iPhones, it’s adding new features to the existing software package (including webclips, which will bookmark not just a web page but a specific zoom and pan and then let you place them on your home screen; multiple recipient SMS; and lyrics support for iTunes). Nothing major, but some nice, incremental upgrades to the existing software. iPod Touch gets the same upgrades as the iPhone, but it will cost you $20.

NOT announced: iPhone 2!

iTunes Movie Rentals

As widely rumored, Apple is launching a movie rental service to complement its TV and movie sales service as part of iTunes. All major studios are on board. Titles will be available 30 days after their DVD release and can be viewed on a PC or your iPod/iPhone. You have 30 days to start watching and 24 hours after that to finish. The price: $3.99 for new releases, $2.99 for old titles. Launches today. (Hey, that Netflix deal is looking pretty good!)

Also: The flagging Apple TV will get the same rental features, without the need for a computer. You’ll also be able to get photos from Flickr and .Mac, podcasts, and YouTube videos via Apple TV. It will still sync with your computer via iTunes, but that isn’t required if you just want to use it to watch web content. It also does high-definition… but rentals will run you a whopping $4.99 each. The Apple TV features will be a free software update to existing boxes (available in two weeks). New boxes drop in price to $229 from $299.

Time Capsule Wireless Hard Drive

Also announced: A wireless external hard drive designed to be used as a backup solution (with Apple’s Time Machine backup software). $299 (500GB) and $499 (1TB).