Cyber-Wars

I just heard on the news that we are in the midst of a Cyber-War being waged mainly by hackers located in China. What does that mean? For most of us it means nothing, but pay attention this stuff is IMPORTANT. Let's set the record straight, there ARE people out there on the Internet that, a)have too much time on their hands, b)want to feel like they made an impact on the world, albeit negative and c)do not care about the pain, suffering and lost money they cause to their unsuspecting victims.

Most of you reading this have made the jump to light speed and are on a fast Internet connection, Cable, DSL or even Fiber Optic. It's not that these fast information pipes are the cause of the Cyber-War it just facilitates it. In the blink of an eye a pop-up appears and tells you with a professional looking graphic that your computer is already infected and you need to click on "THIS" button to clean them. You do it and like a fly in a spiders web you are caught. "DON'T CLICK ON ANYTHING YOU DON'T RECOGNISE AS SAFE"

Okay so you did, no worries you have an up-to-date anti-virus right? Please tell me you do.. no it's no good if you did not renew the subscription in 2002, the virus you just downloaded was designed 2 weeks ago, how can anti-virus definitions that are years old protect you from that? Like I said computers are dumb.. we have to tell them how to look after themselves.

See my page on Recommended Software and make sure you computer is protected, there is no excuse, these products are FREE for personal use. Not sure how to install them or maintain your computer to be safe from attack in the Cyber-War? Then call someone who can help you. Don't leave it to chance, there are only 2 ways to protect your computer, keep the protection up-to-date or don't turn the darn thing on..:-)

I'll write more soon and maybe we will all become a little more knowledgeable about our computers.

Till then "Control-Alt-Delete".

Steve Holder

Dumb Computers

So after thirty odd years in the computer industry I decided to go back to my roots and start messing with those dumb computers again. But its not like it was 30 years ago when I worked on mini computers or even 20 years ago when I came across the pond and worked on my first PC, today these little beasts are powerful, connected to everyone around the world with untold access to a global information bank of facts, lies and everything in between. So why is it all so difficult if these personal computers are supposed to make our lives so much easier? Why is it that it takes twice as long to find something, write something, chat with someone than it did before we all had computers? We used to pull the encyclopedia off the book shelf, take pen to paper and pick up a phone. What happened to those days? I guess they are gone, now with a computer we can have instant knowledge, instant mail and instant messaging. Trouble is when they don't work who are you going to call? Ghost busters? The lucky have access to a tech savvy family member or neighbor, but what about the rest of us? Tried calling Dell Computer tech support lately? Although the accent is a dead giveaway you would otherwise never know you were speaking with a technician in Delhi or Calcutta. Not that there's anything wrong with that, except for the lost American jobs, but it's tough to get them to stop by the house and check the machine out if what they are telling you just don't make sense.

Anyway I digress.. this article is supposed to be about helping you understand better about this machine that we are expected to use every day for just about everything. So lets start by setting the record straight, its a computer and as such it is extremely complicated, far more complicated than ninety-five percent of us will ever need it to be. So DO NOT feel stupid, the people that make these machines and write the software have thousands of hours into them, let alone their education to get them to the point of understanding, and guess what, they don't always get it right either.

It is not you that are stupid, it is the computer that is a dumb machine. It's a harmless piece of electronics and as long as you keep it well ventilated it won't burn you house down so don't be scared of it. Finally if you don't know how to do something just ask, there is always a techy out there dying to show you how smart he or she is.

I'll write more soon and maybe we will all become a little more knowledgeable about our computers.

Till then "Control-Alt-Delete".

Steve Holder

Welcome

A 30 year veteran in computers and customer support, Steve runs "Fix My PC 2", a PC and networking support business serving both home and small business users in Northern New Jersey.

Steve started his career back in the 70's developing electronic solutions for an innovative computer image processing company called Crosfield Electronics. Soon becoming itchy to see the world, Steve took on the role of International support engineer and traveled extensively for 7 years to countries around the globe. During these years Steve become adept at fault finding complex electronic systems and has never lost the knack. Working from his UK base Steve was sent to the states for what was supposed to be a temporary management assignment in 1984. The rest is history.

Since 1984 Steve has been heavily involved in computing, networks and the Internet. He has held senior positions in many high tech start ups.

Today Steve is happy to go back to his roots and to simply "fix the customer".