Baby boomers and the elderly ruin their computers by clicking things they shouldn't; whine.
Network Too Full of Spies
Stephen Seemayer had the first Pong video game system on his block. A decade later, the Echo Park artist was the first of his neighbors to get a personal computer. And in 1996, he was so inspired by the World Wide Web that he created a series of small paintings for viewing over the Internet.Now the 50-year-old Seemayer is once again on the cutting edge: Sick of spam clogging his inbox and spyware and viruses crashing his system, Seemayer yanked out his high-speed connection.
"I'm not going to pay for something that I can't use," he said.
Lame. If Seemayer were so ahead of the curve (as the article implies) he'd be more than aware that now that if a dozen years have passed since Ifirst heard what a computer virus was, than he's had plenty of opportunity to learn that it doesn't require a great deal of time-- or effort-- to simplify his internet experience.
I've had this computer for more than two years. It has never crashed because of a virus. I've never once thought that it might be a good idea to drop out of the internet. Here's a few easy behaviors that I'd suggest:
1. Obviously invest in an anti-virus system. Frankly, I'd go with Grisoft's AVG program. It's probably the most full featured antivirus solution on the net that doesn't require a subscription. Set it up to run and update daily at a time you know you won't be online (4am for the updates, 5am for the test, for instance).
2. Drop Internet Explorer. You can't take it off the system altogether, but you should still avoid using it. Try Mozilla Firefox or Opera. I prefer Opera because I'm just used to it's built-in features, but Mozilla's a wonderfully light and flexible program that you can build up with add-ons called extensions.
3. For webmail, go with Gmail. Spammers have (until recently) been able to access directories of the addresses of many Hotmail account holders. Hotmail's spam blocker has improved, but still pales in comparison to Gmail's wonderful blocking system. In six or seven months of having a Gmail account I'm not sure even a single piece of spam has landed in my Inbox. Gmail's ads are also text based (and reference your mail content, like it or not), which means less intrusion by ugly, tacky banners and ads that, at the very least, are probably more likely to pertain to you.
4. Get a firewall. The best one to have (again, if you're cheap) is ZoneAlarm. It's a free setup and will give you a great deal more control over how and who your computer contacts. Every time a connection is requested by a program the firewall asks you if that program is allowed. If it is, you say yes and check the box to save your answer. Give it a week and you'll have a box pop up only when you install new programs. A firewall like ZoneAlarm is better than Microsoft's SP2 program that only protects from incoming traffic-- what if you accidentally install a piece of spyware? That program will connect to an outside server and you won't even know about it.
5. Run Adaware every few weeks. It's a hell of a program and it'll find all the little pests lurking within. It doesn't automatically run or update without a subscription so be sure to check it every few weeks.
6. Download a spyware blocker. There're dozens of decent names out there-- I personally use SpywareGuard (which detects spyware trying to install itself) and SpywareBlaster (which removes the problems that make it in). Microsoft has apparently made a spyware cleaner of its' own, but I've yet to try it. You never know with Microsoft.
7. Don't be stupid. Don't open up email from somebody you don't know or aren't expecting OR who just don't sound like somebody you would ever know. Expect that every email contains a virus-- many from your friends even will (especially if they contract a trojan). That's why I've always gone with webmail-- better to keep that shit on someone else's server than my hard drive.
8. Go with BitTorrent for filesharing. Because of the way the system is set up, BT files are almost always exactly the file you're looking for without all the garbage.
9. Don't download Kazaa or Grokster. Jeez.
10. Just make a point to take care of your machine. Defrag it once or twice a month-- especially if you ever reshuffle file organizations (which I do constantly). Invest in a product like TuneUp (a program you're supposed to pay for) that will calibrate your machine so that it's always running at its' best possible performance. Personally, I take off all the bubbly iMac-esque XP shit in favor of a Window 9x look-- save memory, saves me time. Also regularly check to see what files load at startup (Start ----- Run -------- type "msconfig"----click on "Startup"------uncheck what doesn't look right). TuneUp also regularly cleans out poinless files and problem entries in my registry-- it does it once a day, in fact.
Taking care of a computer is like taking care of a car-- it's an investment. If you want it to last you've got to have a basic understanding of how it works and what you can do to make it run smoother. The computer will take care of you if you take care of it. So hearing a bunch of whiners (excepting the 77 year old man who shouldn't have even bothered purchasing a computer when he'll obviously be dead within a few years) bitching about how scary the internet is makes me think that they ought to just buy WebTV and be done with it. The web's opened up a new world for all of us-- citizen and criminal alike, and you've got to be on your guard-- just as you'd be in the real world, in any other place you're not familiar with.
Figure it this way: if you buy a $30,000 Mercedes and you can't change the oil, you ought not be on the road. If you buy a $3,000 Windows Media Center computer and you can't defrag it, you might as well pull the plug.
Stephen Seemayer had the first Pong video game system on his block. A decade later, the Echo Park artist was the first of his neighbors to get a personal computer. And in 1996, he was so inspired by the World Wide Web that he created a series of small paintings for viewing over the Internet.Now the 50-year-old Seemayer is once again on the cutting edge: Sick of spam clogging his inbox and spyware and viruses crashing his system, Seemayer yanked out his high-speed connection.
"I'm not going to pay for something that I can't use," he said.
Lame. If Seemayer were so ahead of the curve (as the article implies) he'd be more than aware that now that if a dozen years have passed since Ifirst heard what a computer virus was, than he's had plenty of opportunity to learn that it doesn't require a great deal of time-- or effort-- to simplify his internet experience.
I've had this computer for more than two years. It has never crashed because of a virus. I've never once thought that it might be a good idea to drop out of the internet. Here's a few easy behaviors that I'd suggest:
1. Obviously invest in an anti-virus system. Frankly, I'd go with Grisoft's AVG program. It's probably the most full featured antivirus solution on the net that doesn't require a subscription. Set it up to run and update daily at a time you know you won't be online (4am for the updates, 5am for the test, for instance).
2. Drop Internet Explorer. You can't take it off the system altogether, but you should still avoid using it. Try Mozilla Firefox or Opera. I prefer Opera because I'm just used to it's built-in features, but Mozilla's a wonderfully light and flexible program that you can build up with add-ons called extensions.
3. For webmail, go with Gmail. Spammers have (until recently) been able to access directories of the addresses of many Hotmail account holders. Hotmail's spam blocker has improved, but still pales in comparison to Gmail's wonderful blocking system. In six or seven months of having a Gmail account I'm not sure even a single piece of spam has landed in my Inbox. Gmail's ads are also text based (and reference your mail content, like it or not), which means less intrusion by ugly, tacky banners and ads that, at the very least, are probably more likely to pertain to you.
4. Get a firewall. The best one to have (again, if you're cheap) is ZoneAlarm. It's a free setup and will give you a great deal more control over how and who your computer contacts. Every time a connection is requested by a program the firewall asks you if that program is allowed. If it is, you say yes and check the box to save your answer. Give it a week and you'll have a box pop up only when you install new programs. A firewall like ZoneAlarm is better than Microsoft's SP2 program that only protects from incoming traffic-- what if you accidentally install a piece of spyware? That program will connect to an outside server and you won't even know about it.
5. Run Adaware every few weeks. It's a hell of a program and it'll find all the little pests lurking within. It doesn't automatically run or update without a subscription so be sure to check it every few weeks.
6. Download a spyware blocker. There're dozens of decent names out there-- I personally use SpywareGuard (which detects spyware trying to install itself) and SpywareBlaster (which removes the problems that make it in). Microsoft has apparently made a spyware cleaner of its' own, but I've yet to try it. You never know with Microsoft.
7. Don't be stupid. Don't open up email from somebody you don't know or aren't expecting OR who just don't sound like somebody you would ever know. Expect that every email contains a virus-- many from your friends even will (especially if they contract a trojan). That's why I've always gone with webmail-- better to keep that shit on someone else's server than my hard drive.
8. Go with BitTorrent for filesharing. Because of the way the system is set up, BT files are almost always exactly the file you're looking for without all the garbage.
9. Don't download Kazaa or Grokster. Jeez.
10. Just make a point to take care of your machine. Defrag it once or twice a month-- especially if you ever reshuffle file organizations (which I do constantly). Invest in a product like TuneUp (a program you're supposed to pay for) that will calibrate your machine so that it's always running at its' best possible performance. Personally, I take off all the bubbly iMac-esque XP shit in favor of a Window 9x look-- save memory, saves me time. Also regularly check to see what files load at startup (Start ----- Run -------- type "msconfig"----click on "Startup"------uncheck what doesn't look right). TuneUp also regularly cleans out poinless files and problem entries in my registry-- it does it once a day, in fact.
Taking care of a computer is like taking care of a car-- it's an investment. If you want it to last you've got to have a basic understanding of how it works and what you can do to make it run smoother. The computer will take care of you if you take care of it. So hearing a bunch of whiners (excepting the 77 year old man who shouldn't have even bothered purchasing a computer when he'll obviously be dead within a few years) bitching about how scary the internet is makes me think that they ought to just buy WebTV and be done with it. The web's opened up a new world for all of us-- citizen and criminal alike, and you've got to be on your guard-- just as you'd be in the real world, in any other place you're not familiar with.
Figure it this way: if you buy a $30,000 Mercedes and you can't change the oil, you ought not be on the road. If you buy a $3,000 Windows Media Center computer and you can't defrag it, you might as well pull the plug.
posted by Smith at Friday, January 14, 2005
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