802.11N has finally been finalized and new routers with the new specs should be hitting the stores soon. If you are planning to upgrade to one the new routers, make sure you follow Leo Laporte’s list of router security tips.
Five steps – 1) rename router, 2) change the default password, 3) turn off Wide Area Network Administration/Internet Administration, 4) Turn on WPA2 encryption with a hard password with numbers and punctuation included, and 5) turn off Universal Plug n Play.
Note – after using this program for a couple of weeks, my desktop disappeared. Literally all the icons on my desktop went away. I also noticed that when you install the Fences program it also installs “Stardock Impulse,” another program taking up resources. They don’t ask you if you want to install it, they just put it on your computer – not very nice.
I have now uninstalled both of these programs
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Chances are your desktop looks something like this – probably a lot worse. One solution to organize and keep things a bit neater is the FREE program Fences. I’ve tried it on two XP computers and it does a great job, although I did have to reboot on one computer. Here’s what my desktop looks like after I Fenced it in.
If you just can’t seem to get your fill of online news Google FastFlip might just be what you’re looking for. It allows you to quickly flip through mounds of articles and even specify areas of interest like hi-tech or health etc.
One of the few programs I use on a regular basis is Acronis True Image. While I paid for mine, they now have a FREE version available through Western Digital. (click here)
The program is somewhat limited in that it appears you can’t make Incremental backups, but only Full Backups and you need to be cloning to a new Western Digital Drive. Still it can save your computer the next time you have problems.
If you’ve ever used Handbrake to rip a video, one of the options in the iTouch/iPhone format is MP4 or M4V. Which should you use?
In my experience, the files are exactly the same except that the iTouch needs the .M4V extension, while my WD Media Player needs the MP4 extension if you want to Fast Forward through a video. To play videos in my iTouch I use Better File Rename to rename all my videos with a M4V extension. If I want to play them on my TV using my WD Media Player, I change the files extensions back to MP4. Weird – but it works.
