Neuron Computer Services Blog

Pretty much anyone who has dealt with ordering goods and services online or doing online banking has heard of encryption. But what exactly is it and how important is it really?

I would say it is absolutely crucial that any personal information being transmitted online be encrypted to the highest level possible. Modern web browsers such as Mozilla FireFox or Internet Explorer have good encryption and do a good job in letting you know if you’re about to send personally identifiable information to a third party. You should always look out for the yellow lock icon whenever you’re about to send a password, address, or other personally identifiable information. Anything less, you should avoid doing so.

Encryption does not end at web browsing and using services on the Internet, however. It’s also important to have strong encryption for your home or office wireless network. The most common type is WEP, which unfortunately, is not as secure as originally thought. With the right tool, it can be hacked in less than a minute. I recommend at least WPA encryption security, or WPA2 if your wireless router and laptop support it.

A growing trend in data privacy and security is the encryption of storage media such as the hard disk drive or even flash drives. I use a Lexar JumpDrive, which can be configured to have an encrypted, password-protected volume. There is a new flash drive called the IronKey. It not only encrypts and protects your data with a hardware Cryptochip, it can also self-destruct. Should it get in the wrong hands, it will literally fry itself so the data cannot be recovered.

For encryption of your files on your computer, there is a non-profit organization called TrueCrypt that has developed a great, free software program. Their program, TrueCrypt, allows you to encrypt entire drives, folders, or individual files with ease.

Here are some quick tips for making sure your data is safe and protected:

• Make sure the yellow lock is on and visible whenever you send information via a form online.
• Make sure the website address is prefixed with an https:// instead of just plain http://. This denotes Secure Socket Layer (SSL) SSL security.
• If you need to transmit sensitive information or documents via e-mail, you really shouldn’t. Instead use fax, certified postal mail, or a secure file-sharing service such as ShareFile.com.
• Contact me if you have any concerns about the privacy of your sensitive data.

For a great article on on encryption, check out How Stuff Works. It is rather technical, but still offers insights on protecting your information online.

Ever since I upgraded my computer to Windows 64-bit, as well as QuickBooks 2009 up from 2007, I’ve experienced a lot of lock-ups with QuickBooks. More specifically, these lock-ups would occur whenever I tried reconciling accounts, saving an invoice or estimate as a PDF, or sending an invoice via E-mail from within QuickBooks. Upon further troubleshooting, I discovered that the QuickBooks PDF Converter “printer” was erroring out with the document stuck in its queue. It was also setting itself as a default printer as well. Needless to say this was extremely annoying and NOTHING worked…until now.

I tried everything initially. Reloaded the PDF Converter numerous times by deleting it and letting QB rebuild it, upgraded to 2009 R2 web patch, and a bunch of other miscellaneous things. I was about to pick up the phone and call QuickBooks for $79 dollars a month. How lame! It’s a rip-off to pay a software vendor for support when it’s their own software that has bugs and doesn’t work! Googling like crazy, I finally came across this Knowledge Base article from Intuit’s site:

http://support.quickbooks.intuit.com/support/Pages/KnowledgeBaseArticle/1007856

I was finally able to fix this annoying issue by following the steps to make the PDF Converter compatible with settings in a 64-bit OS environment. I’ve copied and pasted the exact steps below for our future reference:

Windows Vista:

1. Make sure that you are logged in as a user with administrator rights.
2. Click the Windows button, select Control Panel, and click Printers.
3. Right-click the QuickBooks PDF Convertericon and select Run as administrator and Properties.
4. Click Continue.
5. Select the Ports tab, then click the Add Port… button.
6. Select Local Port and click the New Port… button.
7. Enter PDF1 for the new port name and click OK. Close the Printer Ports window.
8. Ensure that the PDF1 port is selected in the Ports list.
9. Select the Advanced tab.
10. Select the Spool print documents radio button to make the options below it clickable.
11. Clear (uncheck) the box labeled Enable advanced printing features.
12. Select the Print directly to printer radio button again.
13. Ensure that Amyuni Document Converter 300 is selected in the Driver: drop-down arrow
14. Click the Apply button, and then click OK.
15. Important: In order for the changes to take effect, you must restart your computer.
    Reboot your computer and then try to print, email, or create a pdf from QuickBooks.

64-bit computing is GREAT, but beware of pesky little issues like these. Mental note to self: Whenever upgrading to 64-bit, make sure ALL hardware is compatible (i.e. have compatible 64-bit versions of drivers) AND make sure that software “printers” like PDF converters are also compatible. There are three other printers loaded on my system: Dell 3110cn Color Laser Printer (networked and fully 64-bit compliant - works great), Adobe PDF (from Acrobat 9 which is fully 64-bit compatible), and Microsoft XPS Document Write from Office 2007 (I never use it but it does work fine).

Now I can get back to business!

Computers and the Internet have made all of us incredibly productive. Long gone are the days of writing letters on paper with a pen. With typing speeds on average of 30-45 words per minute, computer users can type up an e-mail and send it off far quicker than mailing a letter via the United Slow Postal Service. With such a dramatic increase in productivity with computers, it may be hard to imagine even faster ways to get things done and do things on a computer. Well, in this blog post, I’m going to talk about several ways to increase your productivity with your computer.

Use the Keyboard More
Moving your hand constantly from the keyboard to the mouse is a time-waster. For example, filling out a form online where it has fields that ask you to fill in your name, e-mail, and other information can quickly be navigated with the Tab key instead of using the mouse to click on each individual field. Here are some other great keyboard shortcuts to speed up your productivity:

Alt+tab: Hold down the Left Alt key and tap on the Tab key to quickly navigate the open applications that are running on your computer. Let go of the Left Alt key to switch to that application. The slow method: use your mouse to click on the application on the bottom task bar.

Windows Key+M: Need to quickly see your desktop screen? Hit the Windows Key (it has a logo of Microsoft Windows) and then M to minimize all the open windows on your screen. The slow method: clicking that minimize button one after the other with the mouse.

Ctrl+N: Need to make a new document, e-mail, or web browser window? Just hit Ctrl+N to create a new whatever.

Alt+F4: Close a bunch of windows and applications that are open by hitting Alt+F4 repeatedly. The slow method: clicking all those X buttons one after the other with the mouse.

Ctrl+Enter: If you use Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express, or Windows Mail, you can send off e-mails faster by hitting Ctrl+Enter instead of clicking the send button with the mouse. You can also do Ctrl+R for replying to an e-mail, or even Ctrl+F to forward.

For a more comprehensive list of virtually all available keyboard shortcuts, check out the following knowledge base article on Microsoft’s site.

Go Dual Monitor, or more
The more you see on the screen, the more information is there to help you get things done even quicker. Before, it was all about getting the bigger sized monitor so you can have the biggest desktop screen space. Nowadays, however, it’s not uncommon for businesses and individuals to have dual monitor setups. Personally, I started out with a 24-inch Dell widescreen monitor that sports a 1920×1200 resolution. I have tons of desktop screen space. However, I quickly outgrew it so I added another 17-inch monitor. The result is I am now, statistically speaking, up to 30% more productive with two monitors than with just one. For more information on this great productivity gaining idea, check out this article.

How about going Triple Monitor?!

Find & Open Programs Faster With Launchy
This great, free software lets me use the keyboard to launch any program I want that’s in my Start Menu or Quick Launch bar. All I have to do is hit Alt+Spacebar (by default; it can be changed to any keyboard combination you want), then type in a partial phrase of the program I want to launch. For example, I can type “quic” and right away it shows QuickBooks, which I hit Enter to launch. I don’t even have to worry about spelling. Wait a few more seconds and other program suggestions will come up. This increased my productivity tenfold because I no longer have to dig around endless Start Menu entries to find the one obscure program I’m looking for. Check it out here: www.launchy.net. Don’t forget to check out the Tips & Tricks of the program as well.

Do you have ideas for increasing productivity on the computer? Please feel free to share them with me!

A lot of people are confused about the transition from Windows XP to Windows Vista, especially since Microsoft has really pushed for Vista despite a rocky, well-published start. In this blog post, I’m going to talk about this very situation and give you my honest take on the whole deal with Windows Vista. Read on!

My Take On Windows Vista

For starters, it has always been my policy to stay away from any new operating system release until at least the first service pack (SP) has been released for that particular OS. I did this back in the days of Windows 98, 2000, and even XP. I held onto Windows 2000 the longest, for at least 4 years, well beyond the time frame of Windows XP’s service pack 1 release. I can even recall how people complained about Windows XP’s flaws and shortcomings when it was first released. I’ve seen reviews of the “new Fisher Price toy operating system that does not offer any new, exciting features over Windows 2000″. However, Windows XP is an exception to Microsoft’s line of operating systems because of the fact that it has been the operating system of choice for over 7 years now (it was released in 2001). As such, it has been patched, re-patched, updated, and is currently at SP3 level. The result of 7 years of Patch Tuesday updates has brought on a rock-solid operating system that millions of users have come to love and appreciate. As an IT tech, computer gamer, and computer hobbyist, it still remains my operating system of choice for myself, friends, family, and clients. I currently run Windows XP on my primary desktop PC as well as my “Tech Station” PC that I use to backup hard drives and serve out files on my network.

My Dell XPS m1330 Laptop Came Preloaded with…

I purchased my new Dell laptop back in November of 2007 preloaded with, you guessed it, Windows Vista. The first service pack was not yet released for Vista at this time, so I actually did break my own golden rule of “wait for SP1″. However, since I am an IT technician, I have to stay on top of the game and keep my knowledge and skills sharp with the latest software and hardware technologies. This was the only reason I chose to get my laptop preloaded with Vista. Despite all of the negative publicity surrounding Vista in terms of performance, stability, and most importantly, compatibility, I personally did not experience any problems whatsoever with my Vista laptop. However, with other clients’ Vista computers, the most common problems I faced were:

• Printer compatibility: Very, very rocky in the beginning. It was nearly impossible to get even a 6 month old printer to work with Vista as drivers were not released. Microsoft had completely changed the printing subsystem, so as a result, it broke a lot of applications’ printing capabilities as well as printers.
• Software compatibility: While Vista does have a “compatibility mode” feature where you can make programs run as if it were installed on Windows XP, for example, they were still flaky and unstable in some cases.
• Learning curve: The user interface of Vista has changed dramatically from XP. It took time for some clients to adjust to the interface. While you can turn off a lot of Vista’s new user interface features, and make it look practically like XP, it’s still a different and unfamiliar way of doing things.
• Performance: Forget about running Vista on less than 2 GB of RAM. You can also forget about running Vista’s Aero interface on a slower, older graphics card. Memory requirements for Windows XP are recommended to be at least 128 MB (512 for even better performance) whereas Vista recommends 1 GB. It’s such a huge leap in memory requirements, but luckily memory upgrades have become dirt cheap.

The Future of Windows XP

Microsoft officially stopped selling Windows XP on June 30, 2008. You can no longer walk into a retail store to pick up a copy of Windows XP. However, the good news is, OEMs like Dell or me can still provide copies of Windows XP on preloaded systems. You can purchase a Dell with a valid Windows Vista license and legally “downgrade” to Windows XP and the computer will come shipped with XP preloaded and ready to go. The same holds true if you want to purchase a PC from me, although there won’t be a Vista software DVD included - only Windows XP.

Windows XP patches and support will continue until the end of 2014, even though sales will officially end, regardless of Dell, OEM, etc, at the end of 2009.

So, in short, we have until Q4 2009 to get our hands on Windows XP but our investment in Windows XP is good ’til 2014.

The Bottom Line: Should We Embrace Windows Vista?

My short answer to that is yes, but only for very specific situations. If you are running brand new hardware and have business applications that do support Vista, then it would be an ideal choice. If you have a relatively new Windows XP computer that has absolutely no problems, then there is certainly no need to upgrade to Vista. You wouldn’t be missing out on anything if you chose not to go to Vista in that case.

In my recent experience with working with Windows XP and loading updated third party software, I have noticed some programs actually get broken with their latest update, since they were “fixed” or “optimized” for Vista. This has happened in some cases with clients’ computers and networks where business applications that were once rock-solid on Windows XP became very buggy and broken due to updates tailored for Vista compatibility. Ouch!

As for me, I love the fact that I’m running Vista on my laptop because it is great with managing battery life, networking/wireless connectivity in multiple locations, and has gotten much, much more stable with SP1. However, I’m not in a hurry to switch my main desktop PC over to Vista anytime soon. In fact, I have decided to hang on to my current setup, as-is, until at least 2010, when Windows 7 is slated to come out. At that time, I will upgrade with totally new hardware that would be more compatible and in line with the requirements of the next generation operating system.

Microsoft Corp Chairman Bill Gates is stepping down from daily operations at the software maker, to focus on his philanthropic efforts. Go here to see a cool time line of all the major events in the life of Microsoft, the company he co-founded in 1975, and in the Gates’ life.

Until now.

I came across this great post: http://forums.spybot.info/showthread.php?t=11047

I had been searching for an answer to the slowness that I was experiencing with opening and even closing emails with Outlook 2003. Whenever I double-clicked an e-mail message, more so HTML in particular, it would draw the window border on the screen, then approximately 5-10 seconds later finally display the message. VERY annoying since I am a power user with e-mail and expect it to be extremely quick.

What’s interesting to note is I used to have XP Professional with Internet Explorer 6. I also was very diligent in keeping up-to-date with SpyBot Search & Destroy immunization updates as well as SpywareBlaster immunization updates. These two programs add a huge list of known bad websites to IE and FireFox’s blacklists. With XP Pro and IE6 and full immunizations from both programs, I never had an issue with Outlook.

I purchased dual Western Digital Raptor 150GB 10,000RPM drives and decided to wipe the OS and reinstall. I run the Raptors in a RAID-1 setup for maximum redundancy and with the elite Intel SATA Matrix controller, it is extremely fast. I loaded XP Pro again, loaded all security updates, including Internet Explorer 7, loaded Outlook 2003 again, loaded SpyBot and SpywareBlaster with full immunizations. I also switched permanently to FireFox as my main browser. Before, I was dancing around with IE6 and FireFox, mainly using IE6 cuz of the extremely fast load time.

So with this brand new OS reinstall and everything nice and fresh, I one day noticed how slow Outlook 2003 starting behaving. Opening e-mails was taking 5-10 seconds at times. Other times it was extremely quick and instantaneous. I tried EVERYTHING. I tried removing some features during Office’s setup program for Outlook. I trimmed the fat, so to speak. I removed Add-ins such as Adobe PDF, Exchange forms, etc. I really dived in.

Finally, however, I find the solution via http://forums.spybot.info/showthread.php?t=11047

I uninstalled SpyBot and SpywareBlaster completely and immediately noticed an improvement with Outlook. HTML e-mails now open up instantaneously!

Internet Explorer 7 is probably the main culprit however. One client had experienced strange printing behavior where the text was printed out extremely small. It was later determined, after several hours, days, and a couple weeks of random troubleshooting, that it was IE7. A complete uninstall of IE7 was the remedy for the small print problem in her Outlook 2000 and Outlook 2003 emails (I had tried upgrading her to Outlook 2003 to fix the problem).

The moral of the story: Why does Microsoft’s software affect other, almost completely non-related software? IT MAKES NO SENSE!