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We have the Microsoft Wireless Mouse 4000 in stock at $39, it's $50 over at Staples. It has the cute little receiver!We usually get 6 or 7 clients per month who are unhappy with the last computer store they were dealing with, primarily because the technicians there don't understand the first and most important rule of any computer, old or new: System performance is a function of cpu capability and quantity of ram versus size and number of processes being run.

Today I have two PCs in for service that came directly from EZ-Tech Computers, after having been in there twice each with virtually identical problems being "solved" with equally ineffectual solutions. The real problem is that both of these machines are between 5 and 7 years old and the techs at EZ-Tech don't understand that they were never designed for 140Mb 7 process security programs or 100 mb web browsers.

This is hardly surprising since A+ certification teaches nothing other than rote memorization of jargon. What is surprising is that they have no moral qualms about charging their clients a second time to NOT solve the problems they left the first time. Both machines still have active rootkits while Panda Internet Security is running. What's even funnier to me is that they didn't even bother to pull off the AVG on the one machine before putting on their big fat Panda. To put it in perspective, this machine is a Celeron 2200 with 768Mb RAM. They left 250 Mb worth of conflicting security software running on the machine, rendering it entirely useless. Good job, boys.

If I were more interested in sales than helping people I would tell these clients that they need to buy new PCs. Instead, I am removing Panda Antivirus and putting in Avast Free, removing Internet Explorer 8 and installing Mozilla Firefox with AdBlock, performing all the security updates manually and then turning off Automatic Updates, and killing off all the other "speedlauncher" and registration reminders that Todd and Sven don't understand are completely unnecessary.

Hey boys, no need to thank me for the education, you're welcome.
We have just found a new (new to us anyway) form of extortionware out on the web. Instead of a fake antivirus alert we now have a fake copyright violation alert. A notice comes up on the screen telling you that you have violated someone's copyright and asks you if you want to go to court or settle out of court now.

Don't get suckered and don't click on this thing anywhere. Shutdown and reboot your PC immediately, or Ctrl-Alt-Del and kill off your browser task (iexplore or firefox or chrome).
Due to popular demand, I have finally written an instructive and morally indignant guide to becoming a pirate:



AVG is no longer a good product in our opinion. Over the past year, the core design of the program has been changed such that it is now taking up to 120 Mb ram, which makes it just as fat and slow as Panda, Kaspersky, Shaw Secure or McAfee. If you want something free and slow, AVG is still it.

Avast! has come up with a free version of their commercial software and it only runs 27 Mb RAM. Available here.

Norton Internet Security 2010 is fatter than 2009 was, it now takes 20 Mb RAM. That still makes it the best product available because it is fast and light while still giving leading edge effectiveness against threats of any kind. In addition to virus protection you get a software firewall, spam blocking, browser protection, Instant Messenger scan, Identity Safe password protection. My verdict: PHENOMENAL PERFORMANCE at a reasonable price. It's just $79 for 3 PCs for one year.

Stop installing Internet Explorer 8, it's TERRIBLE. For that matter, if you're still running Windows XP at all, please consider turning off Automatic Updates altogether. Start > Settings > Control Panel > Automatic Updates > Turn Off Automatic Updates. You will also have to turn off the appropriate setting in the Security Center > Change the way Security Center alerts me > Turn off Automatic Updates. My belief is that Microsoft is intentionally fattening up your XP to coax you into buying a new PC with Windows 7.

ADDENDUM: Certain porcine entiities in town are critical of this advice. My full advice to you is to buy a new quad core PC with Win7 x64, it's fanatastic as long as you don't cheap out on the hardware. But from a pragmatic point of view, if your old XP PC is meeting your needs, don't install IE8; it provides no benefit to you since your OS doesn't support its more advanced security features and it will only slow you down (and crash alot). As for updates, do security updates only, manually. There are no new "features" to install for XP, only more problems (.NET, Desktop Search, IE8, MP11, Cardspace, etc. etc. etc.) and the security patches to fix those problems. For a more secure browser than IE7, use Mozilla Firefox or Chrome with AdBlock.

WARNING: This article contains potentially paradigm-shifting material, be prepared to alter your opinion.

Additionally, this is written by a neophyte Mac user, not an expert. Feel free to consider the writer a crackpot.




SaskTel Satellite Internet powered by Xplornet is now available for everyone that can't get on SaskTel's regular high speed services or SaskTel's High Speed Wireless Broadband service.

To get hooked up, contact DirectTech here in Moose Jaw at 631-5244. For more details concerning pricing, click this: SaskTel Satellite Internet