Building a New Computer

Although many people are already experts when it comes to building a new computer from scratch, many others are still a bit intimidated by the concept of looking for each component, and putting everything together. For those who actually want to know how to build a computer, the computer help website “The How-to Geek” has put up an excellent tutorial about building a computer from scratch.

The tutorial is mainly divided into five parts (the titles are self-explanatory):

• Part 1: Choosing Hardware
• Part 2: Putting it Together
• Part 3: Setting it Up
• Part 4: Installing Windows and Loading Drivers
• Part 5: Tweaking Your New Computer

The tutorial is very thorough, and full of pictures and screen-shots which makes it even easier to read and follow. If you are interested to learn about building computers, make sure to check it out.

The Best Freeware List

For those, like me, who love free software (who doesn’t?), it can be hard sometimes finding a good piece of software that does a certain task, especially since these freeware products appear and disappear all the time. This is one scenario that has happened to me personally too many times: I find a nice freeware program, and I use it for a long time. Then at some point, I recommend it to someone, only to find that it has now become a commercial software (and not free anymore), so I have to go and try to find a good freeware product to replace it. If this has ever happened to you, then you know what I mean.

That’s why I was very glad when I found Gizmo’s Tech Support Alert. This site offers a list of the top freeware products out there. It is classified into categories like:

• Security / Privacy / Encryption
• Internet: Email / IM / FTP / File sharing / Download managements
• Enhancements to Windows / Desktop
• Computer maintenance / Performance
• System utilities / Backup / Data recovery
• Audio / Video / CD / DVD
• … and more.

Each category is further divided into subcategories for easy navigation. Each sub-category usually features 3 or 4 products, with a full review showing the pros and cons of each product, so that the reader can make an informed decision of which product to use. The list is also updated constantly, removing products that are not freeware anymore, and adding new software that just proved itself to be worth mentioning. The website also provides a free monthly newsletter (with a paid version that has more stuff in it), and a forum where visitors discuss freeware programs and computer problems.

This site used to be a lone effort by Ian “Gizmo” Richards, who created and maintained a highly popular list of the “46 Best-ever Freeware Utilities”, but over time that list grew well beyond 46 and reached the point where it could not be maintained by one person. So, now the website has changed to wiki-style, where it relies on the contribution of dozens of volunteer editors who edit and moderate suggestions from thousands of site visitors. As a result the range of software covered is ever increasing and quality of the reviews ever improving. In some sense, some might think of it as a Wikipedia for Freeware.

At this point, whenever I am looking for a software product in a certain category, this is the first place to check. I wonder how many others do the same. Again, the URL of the website is http://www.techsupportalert.com

Google’s New Favicon

When you are as famous and well-known as Google, the slightest changes in your identity will be noticed by millions. A couple of weeks ago, many people around the globe have noticed that the big capital “G” that was used as a favicon for the Google website was replaced with an unrecognizable lower-case “g” (which is the second “g” in “Google”).

Old Favicon	New Favicon

Some people seem to like to new icon, while many others (including myself) seem to prefer the old one. I personally think that the old favicon was instantly recognizable as the initial “G” from “Google”, while the new one does not have that quality. For a brand name like Google, I believe it is very important to have a logo (or even something as small as a favicon) that can be recognized.

Google’s reason for this change (as mentioned on their blog) is the following:

..we wanted to develop a set of icons that would scale better to some new platforms like the iPhone and other mobile devices..

They also state that the selection process was not easy, since they had to chose from among more than 300 different permutations. Some of the other alternatives they came up with are:

Seeing these designs, personally I would have chosen one of the more colorful designs with the capital “G” in it, since these two features (the capital “G” and the colors) are what comes to mind when you think Google. However, they also say that this is not the final design, but rather a first step to a more unified set of icons. So, hopefully, they will come up with something better. They also welcome suggestions, so if anyone can come up with a idea for a design, they can submit it here.

So, what do you think about the new favicon? Do you like it or not? and why?

How to Protect Yourself from Phishing?

For those who don’t know what phishing means, Wikipedia defines phishing as:

“an attempt to acquire sensitive information, such as usernames, passwords and credit card details, by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication.”

The most common form of phishing is when someone receives an “urgent” email asking them to take immediate action to prevent some impending disaster. Here are some examples:

“Our bank has a new security system. Update your information now or you won’t be able to access your account.”

“We couldn’t verify your information; click here to update your account.”

Once a person clicks on the provided link, they are taken to a webpage that looks exactly like the legitimate web site that they know (e.g. the website of their bank). Because the page looks familiar, people enter their username, password, or other private information on the site, not knowing that they have just given their information to someone unknown, who can now use this information to hijack their account, steal their money, or open up new lines of credit in their name. They just fell for a phishing attack.
Google just issued a warning on their official blog, to warn people from these phishing emails. According to this post, you can reduce the chances of being a phishing victim by following these steps:

• Be careful about responding to emails that ask you for sensitive information
• Go to the site yourself, rather than clicking on links in suspicious emails
• If you’re on a site that’s asking you to enter sensitive information, check for signs of anything suspicious
• Be wary of the “fabulous offers” and “fantastic prizes” that you’ll sometimes come across on the web
• Use a browser that has a phishing filter

You can read the details of these steps here. In addition, there are several quizzes online to test whether you can differentiate between a legitimate webpage (or email) and a phishing one. Just type “phishing IQ quiz” in your favorite search engine, and enjoy!!

Cool Reference

A friend of mine was working on a paper, and he pointed out that one of the references he had to cite is:

W.H. Knox, R.S. Knox, J.F. Hoose and R.N. Zare, Observation of the 0 fs pulse, Optics and Photonics News, April 1, 1990

Now, try reading the authors’ last names together into one phrase, and see what you get…