September 2008 newsletter

Shop 2/2 Bowral Road, Mittagong

Telephone: 1300 794 022

After Hours: 4886 4012

Fax: 4871 3889

SHOP OPENING HOURS:

Monday-Friday 9.30am-5.00pm

Saturday 9.30am-3.00pm

7 days onsite service and support
Southern Highlands and Southern Tablelands

Hello friends and fellow computer users

Congratulations to Margaret Chapman who has won the giveaway for August - a Canon Scanner.

Now that Spring has arrived, it's time to have a good clean out - your computer needs one of those as well every 6 months or so. For the month of September you will receive a FREE internal clean with any workshop service if you mention our newsletter.

Wishing you all a healthy and happy September from the Lotus team. As always we are very happy to have your feedback on our service, please email us with both positive and negative feedback so we can serve you in the best possible way.

support@pcscomputers.com.au

INTERNET UPDATES

Fraudsters turn to Blue Screen

The blue screen of death screensaver is a classic when it comes to IT pranks. As its name suggest, the screensaver mimics the appearance of the 'blue screen of death' so infamous in Windows 95/98 and now reappearing in Vista.

Storm Worm

The so-called Storm worm is actually not a worm, but rather a family of Trojans that typically have the following components:

. A backdoor component that allows surreptitious access to infected systems;

. A spam relay component that turns infected machines into spam-bots;
. A peer networking component that allows the Storm Trojans to communicate with other infected computers on the Storm botnet;
. An email harvester to steal email addresses found on infected computers;
. A downloader/dropper component to update itself or download additional malware; and,
. A rootkit is often included to hide the presence of the Storm Trojans.

The Storm worm botnet is considered to be one of the largest botnet populations. Between the size of the botnet and the email addresses harvested, the Storm creator(s) is able to spam millions of recipients. Much of this spam is designed to spread more copies of the Storm Trojans. Storm worm email is typically disguised as a greeting card, but may also use fear tactics such as claiming to be from a private investigator.

The Storm family of Trojans may be detected by antivirus software using a variety of different names. Though detection names may vary greatly, the most commonly used names today include Storm, Zhelatin, Peacomm, and Nuwar. The download component is often detected as either a Small or Agent Trojan.

XP Antivirus 2008 scam

This is one of the latest scams to hit the Web. It's a fake antivirus program, but it looks so real and it has fooled a lot of computer users. It usually starts showing up after you've downloaded a video (or something similar) that supposedly has a virus attached to it. You are then urged to install XP Antivirus 2008 to get rid of the malware. That is, after you pay for it, of course. Once you shell out your money and install it, it starts popping up false virus alerts and fake scans. It also takes up a lot of your system memory and makes your computer almost impossible to operate.

We recommend AVG Internet Security to give you full protection. Click here for more information.

Q & A

Can you please explain what hot swappable means?
    In this day and age, it's very important for computers and other electronic devices to be as user-friendly as possible and with that, more and more devices are being made with hot swappable capabilities. Basically, a hot swappable device is one that can be added or removed from a computer without having to reboot. USB devices are probably the most well known for being hot swappable, but there are several others as well.
     Let's take a USB flash drive as an example. Most flash drives already have all the software they need built right in to them, so when you plug a flash drive into one of your USB ports, your computer is able to automatically recogniSe it as new hardware. In addition, you're able to start working with the flash drive right away, without having to download any software or drivers. All in all, if a device is able to begin functioning immediately after you plug it into your computer, it is considered to be hot swappable.
     There are many hot swappable items on the market today � flash drives, printers, digital cameras, scanners, Webcams, microphones and many, many more. The hot swappable functionality is beneficial in that it allows you to work much faster without interruptions and with ease. You can also use most hot swappable devices on other computers. For instance, if you have more than one computer in your home, you can use your flash drive on both PCs without any trouble.

What is a Dongle?
A dongle is a basic hardware device that was created to ensure that no unauthorised users are able to copy or use specific software programs, especially high-end applications. Some of the more common dongles are hardware keys, special key diskettes and registration numbers. Most of them are mainly put in place to require verification from users before they can access certain software programs. The dongles are kept intact until the verification is confirmed. Otherwise, the user won't be able to continue on with using the software.
For example, if you've ever purchased a piece of software that required a serial number, you have come in contact with one type of dongle. Now, just for some extra information, dongles are not used very often, because a lot of manufacturers don't like having that type of limit on their products, but they are used a lot with the more expensive software applications.

MININOTEBOOKS (ALSO KNOWN AS SUBNOTEBOOKS)

Mini notebooks, also known as subnotebooks are a relatively new development in the personal computer market and are the result of industry development to bring computers to developing countries. They are now available to us all. Here is a bit of info in case you're interested in purchasing one.

Speed isn't everything
Most subnotebooks are not what you would consider fast when it comes to computers. They are not designed for fast speeds but more for power efficiency. They need enough processor performance to handle basic computing tasks such as web browsing, email, word processing, spreadsheets and basic photo editing. This is where they tend to get the nicknames as network devices or mobility platforms. Frankly, you don't need much computing power to do these tasks. As such, subnotebooks tend to use older mobile parts or newly designed low wattage parts such as Intel's Atom processor.

Where's The CD?
Since their computing tasks are limited and costs are a key factor, the number of features in a subnotebook is less than you would find in a traditional laptop. Items such as CD/DVD drives are not required and only add to the cost an bulk of the system. By removing features like this, they can reduce the weight, size and power consumption. As a result, most people will not be able to use a subnotebook as a complete PC replacement without adding additional peripherals such as a external drives.
Solid state or hard drive?

Many of the early subnotebooks decided to use flash or solid state drives in lieu of a traditional hard drive. This again reduces the overall size of the system and reduces power consumption. The problem is that the memory chips used for solid state drives are extremely expensive. This results in limited storage space (sometimes not even enough to hold Windows XP) or rapid increases in the cost of the system compared to a standard notebook. Because of this, most of the recently announced subnotebooks have opted to use traditional notebook drives instead of flash memory.

Software

    Software is another big item when talking about subnotebooks. Windows Vista is generally too resource intensive to support the hardware. Microsoft had planned to phase out support and sales of Windows XP that could run on the systems. This along with the base costs of the Microsoft software led many of the manufacturers to turn to open source software such as Linux and OpenOffice as a means of running the systems. This helped reduce costs but has some compatibility issues for consumers and governments.
     Microsoft made some recent announcements that are set to change the subnotebook market. They have pledged to continue selling Windows XP for subnotebook uses only and at discounted prices. This means manufacturers of subnotebooks can bundle Windows XP for those that require it past Microsoft's original end of life date. In order for XP to be allowed for sale though, there are hardware restrictions on the subnotebooks such as the processor speed or the amount of RAM.
Display and Size
    LCD displays are probably the biggest overall cost to manufacturers of laptop PCs. In order to reduce the overall costs of these systems, the manufacturers developed systems using smaller screens. Subnotebooks use screens anywhere from 7 to 10-inches in size. This reduces the cost of the display and has the benefit or producing a smaller overall system. The downside is that the smaller screens have much more limited resolution making them more difficult to use for some tasks.
    With subnotebooks being smaller than ultraportables, they also tend to be much lighter. This makes them great for those that need to have network connectivity while they are traveling or basic productivity computing. The small size does have its drawbacks though. Subnotebooks tend to be very narrow forcing the keyboard to also be smaller than a traditional notebook design. These small keys can be very problematic for use over extended periods of time or for those with larger hands.
Conclusions
     Subnotebooks offer up some great values in the computing world as well as extremely mobile computing platforms. The problem is that they fail in most aspects of having all the standard features of a traditional laptop computer. This makes them a good choice for supplementing a desktop PC for those that don't want to buy a full notebook for traveling away from the office or home. They are very good as network appliances for web browsing or accessing email. If you are thinking about getting a subnotebook, be sure to ask yourself two questions:

1. Does it meet my computing needs?
2. Am I willing to sacrifice features for portability and budget.
     If the answer to these two questions is yes, then a subnotebook might be a computing item to consider.

Lotus Computers can supply Asus and HP Subnotebooks, please ask us for a quotation if you're interested.