Graphics software with a difference

If you want to create unique graphics using a program that is easy to use especially for children then I suggest that you give Umajin a try.

I have often been frustrated using Microsoft Word or Microsoft PowerPoint trying to get images to line up or text in the right place for hours without success, when all I wanted was to produce a nice looking graphics document quickly. If you have had similar problems and frustrated with not being able to produce interesting looking documents without any hassle then you might want to have a look at this software.

Umajine is software that allows you to create multimedia documents easily and quickly, not only can you produce an amazing looking flyer to go up on your noticeboard incredibly quickly, but you can also create documents with the sound, video and even 3-D graphics to share with others. I have found it particularly useful when I need to produce graphics for things like websites, letterheads and e-mails.

Additionally, as I have some experience working with children I can see it being particularly appropriate to their type of use. Children are extraordinarily creative and often try to do things with programs like Microsoft Word which it is just not capable of, and wanting instant feedback in the way that today's children do they give up. Umajin allows children to get their ideas on to paper much more quickly than other programs and in my opinion much more easily. A great choice for a parent looking for software for their children which is will encourage them to be creative.

Umajin is available as a free trial, so you can see what it is capable of and if you want to print things out it is very cheap to buy, we suggest you give it a go.

Dave

An issue of trust?

After helping to fix someone's computer in the US today I got thinking about the issue of trust. I'm approached by a lot of people online requesting help and although I can give a lot of advice in the end a lot of problems need me to login to the offending computer to be able to figure out what is going on. However, many people are hesitant to say the least when it comes to allowing someone control over their computer. My question today is, is this hesitancy justified?

When you have a computer problem that you can't fix yourself you obviously have to get someone to help you and most people unless they have a relative who is also a computer support specialist believe they have only have one choice, a computer repair shop. Taking your computer to a computer repair shop generally involves being without it for a couple of days, something that is abhorrent to most people with the addition to not to mention a large fee for the privilege. My question about this is simple:

Is leaving your computer with a total stranger for up to 48 hours without your supervision a good idea?

I think that the answer to this is no.

First of all such a person can install and conceal any remote access software, remote monitoring software or uninstall and remove all replace any hardware they want primarily because they are not being supervised by you and have unlimited access to the computer.

And secondly not only that but the process of fixing your computer using this method remains a mystery to you, you learn nothing when you get your computer back except that it is repaired. Your level of knowledge about the problem and ability to avoid it in the future remains unchanged and therefore you are just as the vulnerable as you were before.

Now consider the alternative, namely getting your problem fixed over the Internet.

You get to watch, supervising every step of the process, choosing what software is installed or uninstalled and what changes if any are made. If at any time while your computer is being repaired you decide that you want to disconnect, it's as easy as unplugging your Internet connection (probably asking us first if we can disconnect might be easier). And at the end of the process because you have watched the repairs take place you are richer for it and will probably know how to fix it in future yourself if you need to. Finally the icing on the cake is that this type of repair costs a lot less because the repairer does not have too account for travel costs or the cost of renting a repair facility.

To me this sounds like a much safer way of getting your computer repaired.

Think about it, let me know what you think.

Dave

The worst sources of infection

Cleaning up computers is our bread and butter, we see infected computers every day and are getting pretty good at determining the the main culprits when it comes to infection, so read on and I will give you our top three worst sources of infection.

Many people ask me why people create things like viruses and spyware for your computer and before I start explaining the sources of this material I should give my opinion as to why people are creating it in the first place. Malware (the heading under which all viruses spyware and other software that causes mischief comes under) can do just about anything to your computer, but generally it keeps itself to one of the following effects.

1. It extracts information off your computer like passwords, e-mail address books or website browsing habits, with the purpose of using this information to market or make money from.
2. It tries to take over your computer to make it do things like performing attacks on other computers to spread infection.
3. It pops up or exposes you to some form of advertising for a product or service or something like that, often trying to make it so that the only way you can get rid of the message is to use your credit card.

As you can see the net result of doing these three things is making money plain and simple. The massive amount of time spent making malware and distributing it around the net is in my opinion an investment which by the looks of things has a very good return. If 1 million computers for example are affected by one of the pop-ups I'm talking about and only 1% of people try to use their credit cards to get rid of it, that's 10,000 people paying $29.95, not a bad payday I think. And how valuable is the browsing habits and e-mail address books of 1 million people, I would say many companies would be interested in that type of information. Basically it comes down to money, people create malware in my opinion to make money plain and simple.

Now, for some sources of infection:

Limewire - this is a filesharing program for downloading music (mostly illegally) and it is very popular around the world. Unfortunately many of the files that people download using this software have been infected in some way. So much so that if I run into a computer with limewire on it I can be almost certain that it will have some infection. The best way to avoid this infection is to not use the program and there are better alternatives available such as utorrent and bittorrent which have a lot less problems, however filesharing in of itself is a little dangerous as you never in really know what you are going to get so be careful.

Windows live messenger - this is an incredibly popular program which generally does not suffer too many problems until of course you accept files from others. Lots of kids, in fact I suspect all of them use this program and in general they aren't doing any harm. Chatting with your friends that does not necessarily lead to infection in your computer, sharing files however is entirely different. Infected files, whether they be music or programs or whatever are easily shared using messenger and this is its weakness in terms of infection. If you or your children are using messenger the best thing that you can do is tell them to not accept files from anyone else. Doing this should stop the infection coming in.

Porn - websites that deal with adult material and downloads of the same material are very often packed with infection. Porn accounts for a bigger slice of Internet traffic than anything else and that reason alone is enough to make one cautious as where there is traffic there is the opportunity to make money and that is the motivation behind people who create malware. As for the best way to avoid infection, apart from abstinence is to basically make sure you have good anti-virus and anti-spyware software installed. Unfortunately there is not much else you can do.

There are many other sources of infection that we have come across in our work but these are the top three that we have run into so far. In writing this I realise there is a lot more information I could give on this topic so I will finish by saying that I will be doing more blogs the sources of infection in the future.

Happy surfing

Dave

Star Trek and speech recognition

With today's computers running as fast as they do I would have thought that we would all be talking to our desktop or laptop like they do in Star Trek. Unfortunately this just hasn't happened computer speech recognition although it has been around for many years has not taken hold in the public consciousness.

Possibly it is like the iPod, Walkmans had been around for years before the iPod even flash MP3 players were quite common but until the iPod came along it was not that often I saw someone listening to music out and about. Then the iPod came onto the scene and it seemed in the space of a year everybody was listening to music on the street, the change was that dramatic.

Speech recognition for computers I don't think will take the same path however, what I do know is that there is usable speech recognition available today. A few years back I had some serious problems with RSI (repetitive strain injury) so much so that I could no longer type so I had to find an alternative. Dragon NaturallySpeaking seemed to be one of the most popular speech recognition programs I could find so I tried it, and I was pleasantly surprised. I am currently using Dragon NaturallySpeaking version 10 and the recognition accuracy is very satisfying. Even out-of-the-box with very little training Dragon naturally speaking manages to get most of what I say correct and if it doesn't its correction options usually do.

But what, I hear you say, is it useful for? Can I tell my computer to turn off at 10 o'clock or remind me tomorrow morning that I have a dental appointment for example? Well, yes and no. You can certainly use Dragon NaturallySpeaking to dictate into programs like Outlook, Thunderbird and Microsoft Word, indeed I am writing this blog with it at the moment, dictating into a browser window. Dictation is not a problem, instruction is something else however. The computer is just not set up to recognise and interpret instructions and although Dragon NaturallySpeaking has a long list of commands for doing everything from opening windows to moving the mouse I don't find myself using those features. For example, you can say "switch to Mozilla Firefox" to bring Firefox in to focus, however it is much quicker to actually use the mouse, just try it yourself, try to verbalise everything you do with the mouse and you will quickly see how tiresome it becomes. In fact I think that this is one area where Star Trek may have got it wrong, talking with a computer to extract information is actually quite a bit slower than clicking and reading in the way that we do today. Imagine for example having someone read every webpage aloud to you, it just wouldn't work.

So what is Dragon NaturallySpeaking good for? Answer, dictation of text. As I am not much of a typist writing blogs, writing e-mails and writing assignments is factors of magnitude easier than it was for me before. If Dragon NaturallySpeaking threatens to do anything in this world it is to make the skill of being a typist obsolete. And as for the future I don't think we will talk to computers to get things done, instead I think our interfaces will be visual and tactile as they are much faster means of navigating.

Yay, Star Trek starts today.

Kiwi Dave

Wales, land of castles

Here are a few pics from our recent trip to wales, we went to Conwy Castle, Rhuddlan Castle and Flint Castle all in the north of Wales. It was amazing to see something built so long ago with such a serious purpose in mind and it brings one's own life into perspective. It makes fixing computers seem rather insignificant that's for sure.

Pretty impressive protection that's for sure, looking at these pictures it reminds me that I need to do a blog on firewalls, so keep a lookout for that over the next few days.

Happy computing.

Dave