On the second Tuesday of each month, Microsoft releases security patches (see Security updates). This is known as “Patch Tuesday“. Depending on the settings on your home PC you may not even notice this. Updates on business PCs may be handled totally differently.

There are several settings for Windows Update (I’m referring to Windows XP only, I haven’t seen how patches are handled in Windows Vista).
The recommended one is “Automatically download and install“.
I tend to choose one of the next two options:
“Download updates for me, but let me choose when to install them” or “Notify me, but don’t automatically download or install them“.
The last option, “Turn off Automatic updates“, is not a good idea, despite the following story:

When Windows Update reminds me that there is an update, I usually apply the patches to one machine and see what happens. On Tuesday this week there didn’t seem to be any problems. That was until I rebooted the PC and found that I no longer had Internet access! So I went through the updates, chose one and uninstalled it. It turned out to be the right one - KB951748. After a reboot my internet worked again.

It turned out that it was a clash between the changes made by the security update, and the ZoneAlarm firewall (see “Check Point Provides ZoneAlarm Customers Solution for Loss of Internet Access Which May Occur after Installation of Microsoft Update KB951748“) Oh well, just another software conflict.

It is less than a month ago that I wrote about a USB thumb drive. I mentioned that I use one almost every day. They are becoming almost as commonplace as floppy disks.

Occasionally though, I come across one that is quite unique. This time it is the Corsair 16GB Flash Survivor USB Flash Drive. This flash drive is water resistant up to depths of 200 metres (almost 219 yards) and has shock protection. Housed in a cylindrical aluminum casing, it comes with Corsair dog tag (to wear along with the Flash drive). Also, the flash drive has a generous 10 year limited parts and labor warranty, and will be replaced if you somehow manage to destroy it (as long as you have the broken pieces). From what I’ve read it has withstood being run over by a car, boiled in water, hit with a hammer several times and thrown off a building. If you want to keep your data safe this is definitely an option.

Another Corsair USB thumb drive, the Corsair 16GB Flash Voyager USB Flash Drive, apparently does even better at being thrown off buildings, as it is entirely encased in rubber (and tends to bounce a lot!). However it will not survive being driven over by a car.

Spies like our PCs, spies as in Spyware that is.

Currently I’m trying to de-gunk a Dell notebook which had two anti-virus programs (one expired and just working as a firewall), but no Anti-Spyware program. It really needed one, because it was infected by one worm, and three key-loggers of various flavors – very nasty stuff. For a relatively new PC with 1GB RAM and Windows XP it was running as slow as molasses.

Just having an Anti-virus program is no good, unless it is a Security Suite which includes an Anti-spyware component. Symantec Norton Internet Security 2008 is one such Security Suite.

Unlike Anti-virus programs, you can run more than one Anti-Spyware program. Experts recommend running a commercial anti-spyware program, and also running one of the many free anti-spyware programs. Here it really helps to read reviews of the anti-spyware program, as the top program from two years ago may just not have kept up with technology, even though gets regular signature updates. I have run into minor conflicts while running two anti-spyware programs which both do background (real-time) scanning, but they were very minor.

Also, beware of fake Anti-Spyware programs. The Spyware Warrior website has a list of “Rogue/Suspect Anti-Spyware Products & Web Sites“.

One of the aspects of being a computer professional (or geek if you prefer), is being asked to look at computers with problems by friends and acquaintances.

On at least two occasions when I’ve looked at computers that were either having errors on startup, or running very slow, there was something immediately obvious. In the mistaken belief that the more anti-virus programs the better, more than one anti-virus program had been installed. This is a case of two not being better than one.

Brian Krebs’ blog at washingtonpost.com has a transcript of a security question and answer session, and he says this is response to the question of running two different anti-virus programs on the same machine:

“…Having two anti-virus programs running at once is at the very least asking for your system to slow to a crawl. At worst, each could identify the other as a potential threat…”
There are a few exceptions; some anti-virus programs like ClamWin Antivirus “…don’t load when Windows starts up, …and they don’t do real time protection… If you felt you really wanted that, I don’t see the problem with it…”

My advice is - don’t even try to have more than one anti-virus program running on your computer. It will save a lot of headaches.

I noticed that on Pricegrabber.com, the Anti-virus with the highest User Rating currently is Kaspersky Lab Anti-Virus 7.0. Hmm, maybe I’ll try that one once my current anti-virus subscription runs out.

The iPod Touch is a converged device; a portable media player and a basic PDA. At the moment it appears to be the younger (and neglected) sibling to the iPhone. It also appears at first glance to be more expensive than the iPhone:

iPod Touch 8GB costs $299, 8GB 3G iPhone to cost $199
iPod Touch 16GB costs $399, 16GB 3G iPhone to cost $299
iPod Touch 32GB costs $499, no 32GB iPhone yet.

Of course the 3G iPhone comes with a two year contract which costs at least $70 per month (without any text messaging package). That means after two months the a 3G iPhone will cost more than the same capacity iPod Touch.

Two weeks ago I was almost sure there wouldn’t be a price cut for the iPod Touch, now I’m not sure.
The iPod Touch is an important device, it is the next generation iPod, a true portable media player with a wide screen and closer to a PDA than any other iPod before it. With the next firmware update, which unfortunately is not free, the SDK will be added. Now third party developers can legally write applications for both the iPhone and the iPod Touch. I know of at least one commercial developer with several applications which run on everything from Palm to Blackberry to Symbian devices. They are now developing for the iPhone as well. This will bring some world class applications to both the iPhone and the iPod Touch.