(Disclaimer: As with all my blog posts, these are just my personal views. I'm not speaking on behalf of any organisation that I work for.)

As I mentioned in my previous post ( International commerce) there are sometimes reasons to import goods from foreign countries. One potential reason is when homegrown companies do a crappy job. Here are a few ( Read more... )

Scareware is normally just a minor nuisance, assuming that you know how to get rid of it without paying any money. However, I've now come across a new wrinkle: it can get you blacklisted, so that you can't send email.

I recently saw a desktop PC with a fake security warning, so I got rid of that. Process Explorer was useful here, since it gives a ( Read more... )

Following up on my previous posts about Facebook and LinkedIn, I complained that they asked me for my email password to help me find people I know. The idea is that they can log into my email account, go through my address book, then search their own database for people with matching email addresses. That would certainly be convenient, and save me ( Read more... )

Someone called me earlier, because she had a big virus warning on her screen. This was actually a hoax (a web page trying to install malware), so it's useful to be aware of it, so that you know what to recognise ( Read more... )

In part 1 of my LUA series, I mentioned a virus that modified the HOSTS file on a PC. This meant that each time someone tried to connect to their banking website, they actually went to a fake website instead, even though they'd typed in the correct URL. This could also be a problem if your DNS server gets compromised, or if someone reconfigures ( Read more... )

Microsoft recently released Ribbon Hero. This is an add-in for Office 2007 and Office 2010, and the idea is to earn points by completing challenges (e.g. formatting a table). In the process, you'll become familiar with the new user interface ( Read more... )

This post is part 5 of a series about using a limited (standard) account in Windows for everyday activities rather than logging in as a computer administrator all the time. (You may want to read parts 1, 2, 3, and 4 before continuing ( Read more... )

This post is part 4 of a series about using a limited (standard) account in Windows for everyday activities rather than logging in as a computer administrator all the time. (You may want to read parts 1, 2, and 3 before continuing ( Read more... )

This post is part 3 of a series about using a limited (standard) account in Windows for everyday activities rather than logging in as a computer administrator all the time. (You may want to read part 1 and part 2 before continuing ( Read more... )

In part 1 of this series, I explained why it's a good idea to have separate accounts on your computer: a standard account for day to day stuff (e.g. reading email), and an administrator account for making system changes (e.g. installing new software ( Read more... )