According to today’s article on myway, electronics from overseas are being shipped complete with one or more viruses:

From iPods to navigation systems, some of today’s hottest gadgets are landing on store shelves with some unwanted extras from the factory - pre-installed viruses that steal passwords, open doors for hackers and make computers spew spam.

None of the companies whose products were infected would respond to questions with any details.

To protect yourself  you should run an up to date anti-virus program on new electronic products your purchase.

Technorati Tags: pre-installed virus,virus,electronics,ipods,digital picture frames,hard drives

Step 1: Disable unwanted startup programs.

Startup programs, as the name suggests, are programs that load at system startup. Although, there are several startup programs and services essential for your Windows computer to function, there are some that are usually set to load at startup when you install certain software applications. These programs are usually not required until you actually use the application they belong to, and the rest of the time they unnecessarily run in the background eating up precious system resources.

To prevent these undesirable programs to load at startup, go to the Start menu, point to Startup and then delete the shortcuts of the programs you do not want to load at Startup.

Next, at Start > Run, type msconfig and then press Enter to open the System Configuration utility dialog box. Here, on the Services and Startup clear the check boxes of the services and processes you do not want to load at system startup. After you have specified your settings, restart your system to apply them.

Step 2: Remove unwanted information from the registry.

Accumulation of junk information such as outdated, empty, orphan, error and invalid entries, corrupt and fragment registry files and thereby slow it down. A slow registry takes a long time to fulfill requests sent to it by various programs and hardware devices and causes system freezes. This is the reason why, to fix Windows freeze problems, you need to regularly clean your registry and keep it free from this unwanted digital debris. You can do this easily with the help of a registry cleaner tool. Using a registry cleaner tool, you can perform several registry maintenance tasks, such as scan and remove unwanted registry entries, repair invalid and error entries, defrag the broken registry files, and backup the registry.

Step 3: Scan for malware programs.

Malware programs, such as viruses and spyware start filling up your hard disk with malicious files and programs as soon as they infiltrate your system. These malicious programs feed on your system resources and drastically bring down computer performance. This is the reason why when you are troubleshooting system freeze problems, you must run a full system scan using updated antivirus and antispyware tools to detect and remove any malware infections.

Note: For better results, it is recommended that you perform antivirus and antispyware scans in Safe mode. To start your system in Safe mode, restart your system, press F8 when the system is just starting up and then scroll down and select the Safe Mode option.

Step 4: Clean up and defrag the hard disk.

As your PC gets older, the hard disk gets filled up with loads of undesired programs, files, and folders. This unwanted stuff eats up a lot of space on the disk, causing clutter. Moreover, with too much information stored on the disk, new files cannot be stored in adjacent locations and are therefore, fragmented and stored wherever space is available on the disk. This clutter adds a lot of load on the hard disk’s head and also slows down data access time.

Therefore, to prevent system freeze and also to repair system freeze problems, you must use the Disk Cleanup tool to first get rid of all unwanted files and programs from your computer. And then, use the Disk Defragmenter tool to consolidate the broken files, speed up data access, and as a result, enhance the performance of your computer.

Free PC Security

Colin Richards

Free PC Security

http://cotojo.wordpress.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Colin_Richards

Playing unlimited amount of computer games, surfing the Internet, chatting on the Internet, using Internet forums, anything can be an addiction.

Computers and related fields have entangled man, woman and kids into its mesmerizing world so much that he has forgotten social norms of interacting.

Today, with the ease of getting an Internet connection, computer and Internet are almost used as synonyms of each other. No matter whom you are, what you do, where you’re from, computer can have a grip over your mind and thoughts.

Even if you do not have an Internet connection yet, you can still be addicted to the computer games. Unlike Internet gaming, you might not loose money, but what you will loose is your precious time that you could have spent in a more productive way.

Computer games are the most common forms of computer addictions. People of all ages just succumb to them and play them for hours altogether at a stretch.

It is also said that it is easier to write things you can’t say. In the world of computers, it is modified as it is easier typing things you can’t say, and with the anonymity Internet offers you; you can be anyone you always wanted to be. There will not be any counterchecks or mocking at your actual self.

Not realizing what a harm this computer culture is for our society, people actually flaunt their online relations and gaming stats.

This is very harmful for children because long hours in front of the computer screens can harm their growth process and may lead to many serious illnesses later on in life.

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Build Your Own PC
If you have a personality that enjoys learning, and want to strive to get the most knowledge, usability, and usefulness out of your PC, and yourself as possible you should seriously consider building your own PC. The experience and knowledge one gains from building their own PC is immeasurable by any of the other previously mentioned options. Not to mention the pride and joy you get from building your own. And who knows, this could also lead you down the road to a new hobby, or even maybe a future profession.

Pros:

• You’ll know your computer better than anyone else.
• You can learn a lot from building your own computer, like repairing, troubleshooting, and upgrading PCs.
• You get bragging rights for building your own. (You may know one or two people that have built their own PC, but the rest of your friends will be amazed)
• You can easily make room for future upgrades, and when the time comes you’ll know how to upgrade your computer.
• You’ll get a good bang for the buck when putting together your own computer, and if you have a lot of buck you’ll get a lot of bang.

Cons:

• Any problems you encounter will have to be solved by yourself and a clever use of the world wide web.
• There’s a chance that some parts you order will be DOA (Dead on Arrival) which means you’ll have to send them back and wait for a replacement part
• Operating Systems aren’t cheap, unless you’re going with Linux.

Ordering A Dell PC
This option is good for those that simply don’t have time to mess around with all this techno-stuff, and would rather just get on with using their computer, not learning anything new. This is the lazy way out. Luckily, for the lazy people Dell has a nice website setup to help them ‘assemble’ their new computer, pay for it, and have it shipped to them in a week or so, though this usually comes with a premium price tag.

Pros:

• It’s an easy way to get exactly what you want, without any hassle or problems.
• Tech Support will always be there when you have a problem.
• Comes with a warranty.

Cons:

• If you have a problem, you can’t fix it without voiding your warranty, and if you don’t have a warrant you’ll probably spend big bucks at Geek Squad getting your computer ‘fixed’.
• Recommended upgrades, hardware, software on the website is extremely expensive, and usually not needed, or do not offer the performance increase for the price.
• Prebuilt systems usually cost more.
• Sometimes it’s hard to find your exact system specs if you want to upgrade your PC yourself, or if you do certain hardwares may not be compatible with your manufactured system.

Using Your Trusty Friend
If you have a tech savvy friend that knows more about computers than you do, you could try asking him to help you build a system, it’s a good way to get the benefits of a custom PC, while having a backup check and recheck all your work to make sure you don’t do anything wrong or make any problems. Chances are, if you ask your friend he will say yes, but you have to make sure you’re ready to put in the work, because he will put in his fair share (Hopefully). Don’t forget to reimburse your friend for the time and effort that he’ll put to help you get the PC you want, it is hard work to put together a PC, even if he is enjoying don’t forget to say thanks for his hard work or take him out to lunch or something, and don’t take him for granted. Tech people usually get put into that category of service people that will help you out with all your tech problems, and have no feelings, or no need for any reimbursement or thanks, because they just simply enjoy helping you out with your problems.

Pros:

• Your friend is probably the easiest and most trustworthy tech support you can find.
• A good second judgement to correct any mistakes you’ve made or are about to make.
• You also get many of the benefits from the Building Your Own section

Cons:

• Friend may be lazy and not want to help you.
• Your friend could lack the knowledge needed to build a complete system, and will get you stuck halfway through the process.
• He may be unreliable in helping you with the computer.

Hopefully this post has helped you decide whether or not you want to take the task of building your own PC, or leaving it to the pros. Readers please leave me a comment on what category of system you have, did you build your own, get someone to help you build, or order it from Dell/bought it from a store?

Steve’s Tech Guide - A blog that helps you scratch your tech itch with computer guides, informative how-tos, and important news events.

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My HP computer was moaning and groaning, acting weird - all the scary stuff that let’s you know it doesn’t have long to live. It never was very good, anyway…I’d already put a new hard drive it it. So I quick as a rabbit got online and headed over to the outlets.

Long story short, I got an awesome (certified, refurbished) Dell computer for $379 - 2 GB DDR2 Non-ECC SDRAM 677MHz, 320G memory, Pentium dual core processor, everything but the monitor, and I’ve already got 2 of those. A

fter a conference with my coworkers, I decided on 2 day business shipping -I have more trouble choosing the shipping method than anything else. I thought it would show up in a week or so. Imagine my surprise when I got the email that Dell had shipped it that day! How cool is that!

I can’t wait to crank up my new lightning fast Dell, transfer all the files from my sucky HP, and fly!

An outdated or congested cell tower, as well as too few or even no cell towers in the area, can cause cell phones’ signals to weaken. But carriers and companies, committed to improving phone coverage, say construction of more cell towers and modernizing the current towers is the most resourceful way to improve service.

The most frequent neighborhood opposition is that cell towers will cause property values to drop. There are many more cell towers than the general public realizes. In order to “hide” them from view, some cell tower landlords conceal them inside structures, for instance, church steeples. They then pay subsidies to the owners that can bring in a significant amount of money. Preserved treescapes often hide cell towers inside an artificial or preserved tree. Disguised as church steeples & crosses, trees, road signs, silos, flagpoles, rocks, cacti, and even more objects, cell towers are faultlessly blending into communities and could be hiding in your backyard right now.

Recently, health opposition to cell towers has become a cause célèbre. However, the American Cancer Society says that “the energy level of radio waves coming off cell towers is too low to cause any noticeable human health impacts…” and that a person would have to stand right in front of an antenna to pick up even trace amounts of radiation.

Google Service uses cell towers to locate users. Google Maps with My Location can locate users who don’t have GPS-enabled phones by basing their location on nearby cell towers. Google says this location is accurate within about 1,000 meters and it’s not done through triangulation of the towers that are receiving the signal.

From Wikipedia:
When Google Maps with My Location finds the current location via the cell tower it will put a lighter blue halo around the solid blue dot indicating that the current location is less accurate. With Google’s new My Location technology, users who don’t have GPS-enabled mobile phones will now be able to take advantage of the added speed and convenience afforded by location information. The My Location technology takes information broadcast from cell towers and sifts it through Google-developed algorithms to approximate a user’s current location on the map. This approximation is anonymous, as Google does not gather any personally identifiable information or associate any location data with personally identifiable information as part of the My Location feature.

I also remember Christmas morning in the 4^th grade when I was in my pajamas and my brothers and I opened a big box from my uncle that had the Atari game system and a handful of games. (You know you were a child in the 1980’s when you remember you mastered Pitfall on Atari.) Now I say to myself, how the world of game development has changed. It’s come a long way.

Today, technology in the gaming world produces systems like the Xbox 360 that allows gamers to play with other gamers all around the world, called Xbox 360 Live. Xbox creators have produced not just 1 console, but 3 different consoles. On the lower end, you have what’s called the Xbox 360 Arcade which comes with 5 arcade games. The middle edition is called Xbox 360, and for the ultimate gamer, you can purchase the Xbox 360 Elite. The Elite is Xbox’s premium game system that has a 120GB hard drive and high definition multimedia interface. This game system has been the craze of Christmas for the past few years now with no immediate insight to let off.

To compete with the Xbox, Nintendo came out with the Wii. I personally purchased this game system as a gift this year for Christmas. Well, Christmas came a few months early because I knew that if I didn’t purchase the Wii in September when I found it, I wouldn’t find it again in time for Christmas. The Nintendo Wii functions by a wireless controller in which the gamer must move in the direction the player wants to go in the games. I am not a gamer these days but I’ll admit I did try out the Wii with my kids and I found it fascinating that you could bowl without ever having to leave your house to go to the loud and smoky bowling alley.

For the gamers who prefer a handheld or portable game device, the Nintendo DS Lite is a hot commodity. It’s the upgraded version of its predecessor, the Nintendo DS, which was the upgrade from its predecessor, the Game boy Advance SP, which was the upgrade from the predecessor, the original Game boy. The DS Lite is a dual-screen handheld game system that was first launched in Japan in March of 2006. This popular portable game system comes with wi-fi installed for gamers to connect and play with others. This slim and sleek game system offers battery life of up to a whopping 15 hours when fully charged. That’s a whole lot of gaming going on.

Just like anything else in today’s world, with constant improvements in technology, game developers continue to offer appealing new products to gamers, leaving them with gaming obsession, always wanting more, and waiting to spend their money on the next big gaming craze.

Alienware made its “technology statement” in Las Vegas their curved display monitor for gamers.

This exciting new development for high-end PC gamers doesn’t have a price tag yet, and the release date isn’t slated until the second half of 2008. It’s going to be hard for some hard core gamers to wait.

(Photo Credit: CNET)

A rear-projection DLP screen, it runs at a resolution of 2,880×900 pixels off a single, midrange ATATI Radeon HD 3870 graphics card. The panoramic screen encompasses the entire line of site, which means almost all visual distractions are eliminated. It fits easily on a desktop. This will bring gamers much closer to total immersion!