It is now Labour Day weekend - finding me taking a week break at Ocean Grove.

While you're relaxing on the beach, the mind wanders, wondering what is ahead for our PCs. Let me share some of those beach side thoughts with you.

Future Technologies

Looking around, I saw many people using their digital cameras (and phones) catching those happy snaps with gay abandon, these days that they are not encumbered by the 24- or 36-roll limitations. These pictures (and movies) will probably need editing and storage, but with technical advances and falling costs of processing and storage, our PCs can readily match the camera.

The functionality in editing software is also expanding, but most of us only use a small proportion of the features available. Why? because we don't devote adequate time to learning the software product, and thus don't exploit many of the functions for which we have paid but then don't use. This is where participation in our User Group activities can assist. Each month when attending our subgroups, I see some amazing demonstrations of what others have done, using other features of low-cost editing software.

So with both hardware and software being affordable to meet the growing photography needs, all that is missing is time. Suggestions invited.

PC Defences

Having decided that lowering cost of storage and PC functionality will solve our photography and similar problems, what next? It has to be protecting our handiwork and privacy.- a strange idea while watching the surf, but to me it's the number one issue.

Protection comes in two forms. Protection from within, where we need to backup our essential photos and data (and store them offsite), and this is easily achievable using DVD-RWs, Memory sticks or external Hard Drives. Protection from external is far more difficult, especially for most of us now that inter-connecting via Local area networks (LANs) or Internet.

A few years ago, it was just computer viruses that worried us, possibly introduced when we swapped files via floppy disks. To combat it, we added AntiVirus software such as Norton or McAfee to our PCs. But then with regular Internet connection (especially for always-on broadband), we have needed to add a Firewall such as Zone Alarm or Black Ice. Now days, we also need to detect and block Spyware, using SpyBot or Microsoft's AntiSpyware. However, these three defences do not solve our worst problem - the unsolicited e-mails, commonly called Spam.

While advertising Spam is mainly an annoyance, more drastic effects can arise when the Spammer sends viruses, Trojans or similar program code or scripts to us - designing them to either take over our PCs, or capture key information such as our banking passwords. Protection from Spam and Junk Mail may be at the ISPs servers (using software such as Mailwasher or our own SpamAssassin), or within some Mail readers (eg. Eudora, Thunderbird). Regretfully Microsoft's Outlook Express does not have such protection, but will be available in their new WinMail product - as part of the VISTA operating system available later this year.

All four defence areas seemingly need different software and all need regular updating - weekly if not daily, and this can become a significant chore. Luckily since leaving the beach I have found that the latest version of ZoneAlarm (v6.0, about $80-$90) now embodies AntiVirus, Firewall, Spyware and some limited Spam protection all in the one product - so it will probably be my next project when back in Melbourne.

Problems Being Caused

Regretfully a few of our Internet members have not had adequate defences, and possibly unknown to them, their PC has been hijacked to be sending out Spam Messages. The activity has been detected by some ISPs causing Melb PC to be blacklisted, such that for a short period, that ISP may not accept ANY email emanating from melbpc.org.au

As black-listing affects all Melb PC users, we urgently track the source - and at times may need to suspend that account until virus and Trojan checking is completed. Make sure that you are not the next culprit of such "anti-social" e-mail behaviour by adopting all four defence methods above, and keeping that software up to date. If you do that, then I can then be more relaxed here at the seaside!

April Monthly Meeting - VISTA

This month our main meeting on Wednesday 5 April is at Parkville (not Deakin), and at 7.00 pm rather than previous 6.00 pm city meetings start time. The special topic will be Microsoft showing us a pre-release of VISTA, the eventual replacement for Windows XP. Be sure to come along and see this exciting development.

Reprinted from the April 2006 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia

[ About Melbourne PC User Group ]