Is Your PC Safe Enough?

There was a time when people used to have only two basic facilities in a PC (there were no notebooks then) that is, keyboard and mouse. The monitor looked like a packed up dustbin and had basic "black and green" graphics. Computers hardly had any network connectivity then and were mostly safe.

But today... computer users are like rats on the field -- constantly under surveillance by the government and spied upon by hackers like eagles looking for potential prey. Now what can the rats do to save themselves from being pounced upon? They can hide!

Today I will share some common tips and tricks with you that if you practice you will have the greatest amount of security as you can have without installing the costly so-called "internet security" applications or locking up your PC with useless security crap.

Use plain and simple firewall applications... AVOID THE INTERNET SECURITY SUITES! The so-called "internet security" applications simply slow down not only your system but also your internet. They send so much of your "anonymous" data to their servers that these companies start to know more about you than even your relatives.

Install adblocker addons in your internet browsers. Even Internet Explorer has adblock addon available these days. Google for it and enjoy faster opening websites without obscene images and useless ads appearing on the screen along with your favourite websites.

Please be careful while running application installer wizards because there are some options hidden AMONG the license agreement that if you do not DESELECT will install additional bloatware on your system without your knowledge (or consent).

Just like point 1 above, please always use antivirus/antispyware solutions that are light on resources and DO NOT include any internet security with them.

Try to improve your personal knowledge about what network ports are and how hackers can exploit open ports on your system. Though a good firewall can take care of the ports for you still it is advisable to be aware.

If you happen to use pirated software, always remember to first run anti-virus scan on such software. In case of cracks and keygens (that are generally deleted by antivirus software automatically) you may use "sandboxing" applications so that they cannot access your system locations.

Please be careful while using "Run As Administrator" option on untrusted applications.

Learn to use Google to look for solutions and help and do not panic if you find any infections in the system. Try to have a Windows reinstallation disc and portable virus scanner ready to use on a CD/DVD that you can use in emergency.

And last but most important -- keep a backup of all your important documents on an EXTERNAL MEDIA.

Whew! Finally I listed them all. These are very simple and convenient techniques that don't require any extra work. The key to safety is to always be a bit paranoid and to be aware.

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How to Setup Windows 7 Taskbar in a Better Way

A taskbar is the center of control in Windows 7 from where a user can operate, manipulate and customize Windows 7. But there are several shortcomings in default setup of the taskbar like:

• The icons have more-than-required gaps in between that kill the purpose of pinning lots of items.
• The themes with "better graphics" are stuck with thumbnail previews that appear when mouse pointer is moved on the open taskbar application icons... very distracting!
• Though not a big problem or any issue - it would have been great if there were a feature to just point at any open application's icon on the taskbar and the application opened up.

To do all this and more a very nice application is available called 7+ Taskbar Tweaker. This tiny application with hardly any memory footprint can setup up your taskbar the way YOU want it. It is free to download and has been in use since many years.

7+ Taskbar Tweaker is regularly updated and there is even a beta version also available with some new features on the developer's website. This app can be downloaded HERE.

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Use Multiple Accounts Simultaneously in Firefox

There are millions of Firefox users all over the world and many (if not most) of them would like to be able to use multiple website accounts on a single browser without much hassle. For example, many people have couple of Facebook, Twitter or Gmail accounts and they want to able to open each of them at a click of a button instead of using two or three memory-hogging browsers at the same time.

As always Firefox (and its army of addons) has the right solution. The name of this addon is CookieSwap. It is visible as a small menu on the top right of Firefox window and it allows to select multiple profiles at the same time. It is fully configurable and light. You can even rename the profile names if you want.

Click here to visit the addon homepage. Alternatively, you may directly visit this Firefox addon page.

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How to Install Seamonkey in New Linux Versions

Seamonkey is a popular Internet Browser/Email Client/RSS Handler suite developed by Mozilla (Yes the same people who created Firefox! :) It is a stable trustworthy application that is available on Windows and OS X as well apart from Linux.

There have been many users of it since years back on Linux especially and it was natively available in Ubuntu PPA repository at least for quick install from Software Center. It has many users all over the world including me who were disappointed to find that the software was removed from Ubuntu repository while Ubuntu Server 12.04 was launched and is not available natively on further versions of it.

However, the good news is that it is available from its website here. You may download and extract it in your favourite folder and create links to the seamonkey script (and NOT the seamonkey-bin binary as many have been doing!) and use it once again! :D

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Miniblog 2: How to make Multiline Comments in Perl

Perl programming language supports two kinds of comments. One is the single line comment that everybody knows about. It's made by prefixing a "#" symbol to any line like:

# This is a comment. This will not run

What many don't know is that there is a known way to make multi-line comments too. It can be done by adding a "=pod" before and "=cut" after the commented lines like:

=pod
This line has been commented and won't be interpreted
This line too
   Yes this line too!!
And this one as well is commented between the show pod-cut
Pod-Cut combos are for documentation comments but we can use 
 them for multi-line comments too
Enjoy! :)
=cut

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Why Windows Will ALWAYS Have Viruses..

Many people say that Windows has developed a lot since the days of Windows XP and given current security measures it is very difficult for a malware to infect it. But, surprisingly, the truth is the exact opposite. Windows will NEVER be free of Viruses.

Firstly, as this article points out -- if there are no viruses on a so extensively marketed and used OS as Windows then what would happen of the anti-malware giants like Norton and Symantec! Since, Windows is in a partnership with them it sometimes appears true that these very companies might be responsible for creating and releasing certain malware into the wild. This could be a serious accusation but the point is that I am just speculating and not accusing them of anything ;P

Secondly, Windows is a closed source OS developed and sold by a company fanatical for profit even at the cost of others. Whenever there is vulnerability detected in the OS Microsoft needs to patch it up with updates. They are often delayed and, unlike open source kernels like GNU/Linux, cannot be patched by anybody else.

Thirdly, it is suggested by some people that Microsoft appears to be itself putting malware in its OS by instructions from espionage organizations like NSA. While closed-source, yet there are ways to detect any incoming/outgoing packets from Windows using specialized tools. This could be another reason why malware could always be injected into Windows.

Fourthly, it is well-known that Microsoft allows some room for it to be hacked/patched at some points for piracy, etc., purposes. Now the question arises why would itself allow piracy and loose its profits in the market. The reason is the popularity and mass usage of Windows is also because of the amount of piracy it has faced. Windows would never have spread so much if it wasn't pirated worldwide on such a massive scale. One good evidence of this is Apple's Macintosh!

Hence, either you need to stay super-cautious while using Windows or you can move all/part of your jobs to Linux that is virus free by design :) Or else you can allow NSA to watch you change clothes through your computer's webcam ;P The choice is yours!

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Miniblog 1: Make Youtube Faster in Firefox

Some recent changes by Google in Youtube's way to serve the videos has affected both the download speed and loading times of the videos. For example the videos do not keep loading in the background while they are paused. Also, even if you change the quality of the video yourself, Youtube mischieviously (and without any notification/consent of any kind) changes the quality to lowest possible if you have a slower internet connection!

This sort of "trolling" is really very annoying and there are no replies whatsoever on the Google groups site from ANY Google representative on why this happens. Apparently, Google thinks you have a 100 Mbps internet connection and you only play 1080p videos without requiring any break for buffering :D

Considering, this ridiculous situation a Firefox addon developer YePpHa has created a marvelous extension called "Youtube Center" that is available here. This addon provides lots of customizations.

For example to make Youtube load videos in the background while paused do this: (a) Open this addon's preferences (b) Click the "Player" section and uncheck the "DASH Playback" option. There are many other customizations that I am sure you can find out after little tinkering with it :) So have fun!

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