Pc Clean recommends Windows 7 as the ultimate OS for your Pc or Laptop
Pc Clean often updates its blog of IT related news that has caught our attention. The blogs are not my thoughts, but of thoughts of people who study the finer sectors of the IT Circle
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Friday, July 30, 2010
Would you like to upgrade to Windows 7
How to get your PC ready for Windows 7
7 points to consider before you upgrade
Windows 7 , Microsoft's latest PC operating system, has proven popular. A stable, good looking OS with a host of bells and whistles. But if you're thinking of taking the plunge, there are seven things you should consider before you download and install Windows 7.1. Decide on a version of Windows 7
While Windows 7 does not have the bewildering range of options which blighted Microsoft Windows Vista, there are still several flavours to choose from, principally Home Premium, Professional and Ultimate. Which version you should plump for will depend on your needs. If you're a Vista user and the level of functionality you have is sufficient, you'll generally want to move to the equivalent edition. So, if you have Windows Vista Home Premium, you'd move to Windows 7 Home Premium. Indeed, all but power- and business-users will probably find that Home Premium suffices.2. 32- or 64-bit?
If you have a 64-bit version of Windows Vista or Windows XP, you'll need to install the 64-bit edition of Windows 7. To find out whether you are running a 64- or 32-bit OS, if your PC is running Windows Vista or Windows 7: click the Start button, right-click Computer, and then click Properties. The edition of Windows Vista is displayed under Windows edition near the top of the window. If your PC is running Windows XP: click Start. Right-click My Computer, and then click Properties. The edition of Windows XP is displayed under System near the top of the window.3. Check system requirements
Here's what your PC needs to run Windows 7:32-bit: 1GB of RAM, 1GHz processor and 16GB of hard drive space. 64-bit: 2GB of RAM, 1GHz processor and 20GB of hard drive space. (For Aero visual effects you need a 128MB graphics card with support for DirectX 9.)
4. Run Windows Upgrade Advisor
The bare system requirements tell only half the story. To find out how your PC will handle Windows 7, read this story: Is your PC ready for Windows 7?5. Decide on a custom or upgrade install
There are two ways to install Windows 7 on a PC: a custom (or clean) installation or an upgrade installation. The table below shows the type of installation you'll need to do based on the version of Windows you have and the one you want to install. Here's the difference between the two methods:
A custom installation erases everything on your hard drive. So you'll need to back up all your files, photos, music, and settings on an external hard drive or on CDs or DVDs and then transfer them back to your PC after you install Windows 7. You'll also need to reinstall all your programs from their original installation disks. If you have Windows XP, you need to do a custom installation.
With an upgrade installation, Windows 7 will simply replace Windows Vista without affecting anything else on your PC. You can do an upgrade installation from many editions of Windows Vista depending on which edition of Windows 7 you want to install.
For more details on Windows 7, contact PC Clean, Navenny Ballybofey, Co. Donegal
www.pcclean.ie
sales@pcclean.ie
mobile: 086-2377033
Mention this blog to get discount
Uploaded by Pc Clean,Navenny Ballybofey, Co. Donegal
Created by Pcadvisor 28-7-10
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Hacker use Windows CE to get free money from ATM Machine
Hacker tricks ATM into doling out free cash
I'm not naive enough to think I'm the only person who can do itHe spent over a year learning to break into stand-alone bank machines found at gas stations, bars and retail establishments.
At the annual Black Hat conference, Jack showed how he could upload his home-brewed piece of software dubbed Dillinger - named after the infamous bank robber - to an ATM made by privately held Tranax Technologies. After he infected the ATM, he approached the machine and instructed it to start dispensing cash.
Jack used a key available over the internet to open the case of an ATM from privately held Triton Systems, then inserted a USB thumb drive that forced the machine to spit out its entire jackpot.
The ATMs he tested run on Windows CE.
He said both the ATM makers have issued software that would prevent hackers from repeating the same attacks he performed onstage, but he added that ATMs from all manufacturers are still vulnerable to attack.
"I'm not naive enough to think I'm the only person who can do it," he said.
He also said he believed that the ATMs used by financial institutions were also vulnerable, but that he had not simulated any attacks because he had not been able to get hold of any bank ATMs.
Bob Douglas, vice president of engineering for Triton, said he was not aware of any successful attacks on his company's equipment.
Officials with Tranax could not be reached for comment.
Uploaded by Niall Mulrine, Pc Clean, Navenny, Ballybofey, Co. Donegal
Created by Pc Pro 28-7-10
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Apple iPad now available in Ireland
The Apple iPad tablet computer has gone on sale in Ireland this morning, with much coverage in mainstream media, from radio to national newspapers and more.
In the last few weeks, almost every major mobile operator in the country has released plans for the much anticipated device.
Vodafone is offering a one day 500Mb plan for €3.99, or a monthly 5Gb plan for €20, with details here. O2 is offering a similar deal with 500Mb for €3.97 and 5Gb for €19.90. Three is taking a slightly different tack offering 1Gb a month for €9.99 and 15Gb a month for €19.99.
With prices starting at €499, the "magical and revolutionary" device is likely to be a sales success, despite the rumoured problems with Wi-Fi connectivity. The recent iPhone 4 antenna issues are also unlikely to dent the initial sales to enthusiasts.
While previews have been available, the Irish press will be getting their hands on review models today. However, if you have bought an iPad, or are intending to, please let us know through the comment box below, we would be delighted to hear your experiences and feedback to add to our own hands on reviews which will be appearing in PCLive!, ComputerScope, Irish Computer and Smart Company.
Uploaded by Niall Mulrine, PC Clean, Navenny, Ballybofey, Co Donegal
Created by Techcentral
In the last few weeks, almost every major mobile operator in the country has released plans for the much anticipated device.
Vodafone is offering a one day 500Mb plan for €3.99, or a monthly 5Gb plan for €20, with details here. O2 is offering a similar deal with 500Mb for €3.97 and 5Gb for €19.90. Three is taking a slightly different tack offering 1Gb a month for €9.99 and 15Gb a month for €19.99.
With prices starting at €499, the "magical and revolutionary" device is likely to be a sales success, despite the rumoured problems with Wi-Fi connectivity. The recent iPhone 4 antenna issues are also unlikely to dent the initial sales to enthusiasts.
While previews have been available, the Irish press will be getting their hands on review models today. However, if you have bought an iPad, or are intending to, please let us know through the comment box below, we would be delighted to hear your experiences and feedback to add to our own hands on reviews which will be appearing in PCLive!, ComputerScope, Irish Computer and Smart Company.
Uploaded by Niall Mulrine, PC Clean, Navenny, Ballybofey, Co Donegal
Created by Techcentral
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Google Data Centres go Green
Google has signed a 20-year deal with NextEra Energy who will power the tech giant's data centres using wind.
The deal comes less than three months after the giant Google invested $38.8 million in two wind farms in North Dakota, developed by NextEra Energy Resources that generate enough energy to power more than 55,000 homes.
Google Energy LLC will begin buying wind power from 30 July from NextEra's facility in Iowa at a predetermined rate, Urs Hoelzle, Google's senior vice president of operations, said in a blog on Google's website.
"Incorporating such a large amount of wind power into our portfolio is tricky, but this power is enough to supply several data centres," Hoelzle added.
Google has pushed ahead in addressing climate change issues as a philanthropic effort through its Google.org arm.
The often-quirky company said in late 2007 that it would invest in companies and do research of its own to produce affordable renewable energy - at a price less than burning coal - within a few years.
The company's Google Energy unit, formed in December, allows the company to buy large volumes of renewable energy from the wholesale power market.
The deal comes less than three months after the giant Google invested $38.8 million in two wind farms in North Dakota, developed by NextEra Energy Resources that generate enough energy to power more than 55,000 homes.
Google Energy LLC will begin buying wind power from 30 July from NextEra's facility in Iowa at a predetermined rate, Urs Hoelzle, Google's senior vice president of operations, said in a blog on Google's website.
"Incorporating such a large amount of wind power into our portfolio is tricky, but this power is enough to supply several data centres," Hoelzle added.
Google has pushed ahead in addressing climate change issues as a philanthropic effort through its Google.org arm.
The often-quirky company said in late 2007 that it would invest in companies and do research of its own to produce affordable renewable energy - at a price less than burning coal - within a few years.
The company's Google Energy unit, formed in December, allows the company to buy large volumes of renewable energy from the wholesale power market.
Friday, July 23, 2010
Home Routers open to attacks
Millions of routers vulnerable to web attack
By Jose Vilches, TechSpot.com
Published: July 21, 2010, 1:02 PM EST
An upcoming presentation at the Black Hat security conference later this month will reportedly demonstrate how millions of household routers, from popular brands such as Netgear, Linksys, and Belkin, suffer from a vulnerability that allows hackers to intercept and redirect traffic as well as access computers on a local network. The flaw was discovered by Maryland-based security consultancy Seismic and exploiting it involves an old a technique called DNS rebinding.
By visiting a maliciously crafted website, vulnerable routers can be tricked into giving up a visitor's IP address as if it were a secondary IP address for that site. This in turn allows the router's administrative front-end to be compromised, enabling hackers to gather information from the router, monitor traffic, and access machines on the victim's network. Though these router front-ends are normally password-protected, most people don't bother changing the default passwords, and even when they do, security flaws within the front-end may allow the password to be bypassed anyway.
Modern browsers offer some level of protection against such attacks, but not with this particular scenario -- for reasons that are due to be explained at the Black Hat conference. The researchers claim these vulnerabilities have been known for a while, which is why they've announced plans to release a proof-of-concept tool that will facilitate such attacks, with hopes that browser writers and router vendors will finally come around fixing the issue.
A list of vulnerable routers tested so far are Belkin, Linksys, D-Link, OpenWrt and ActionTec- the last column indicates whether the specific router listed is prone to this sort of attack or not. While we wait for more details to become available, Notebooks.com lists some possible workarounds such as updating your router's firmware and using strong passwords.
Created by Techspot
By Jose Vilches, TechSpot.com
Published: July 21, 2010, 1:02 PM EST
An upcoming presentation at the Black Hat security conference later this month will reportedly demonstrate how millions of household routers, from popular brands such as Netgear, Linksys, and Belkin, suffer from a vulnerability that allows hackers to intercept and redirect traffic as well as access computers on a local network. The flaw was discovered by Maryland-based security consultancy Seismic and exploiting it involves an old a technique called DNS rebinding.
By visiting a maliciously crafted website, vulnerable routers can be tricked into giving up a visitor's IP address as if it were a secondary IP address for that site. This in turn allows the router's administrative front-end to be compromised, enabling hackers to gather information from the router, monitor traffic, and access machines on the victim's network. Though these router front-ends are normally password-protected, most people don't bother changing the default passwords, and even when they do, security flaws within the front-end may allow the password to be bypassed anyway.
Modern browsers offer some level of protection against such attacks, but not with this particular scenario -- for reasons that are due to be explained at the Black Hat conference. The researchers claim these vulnerabilities have been known for a while, which is why they've announced plans to release a proof-of-concept tool that will facilitate such attacks, with hopes that browser writers and router vendors will finally come around fixing the issue.
A list of vulnerable routers tested so far are Belkin, Linksys, D-Link, OpenWrt and ActionTec- the last column indicates whether the specific router listed is prone to this sort of attack or not. While we wait for more details to become available, Notebooks.com lists some possible workarounds such as updating your router's firmware and using strong passwords.
Created by Techspot
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Intel new 6 Core CPU especially for gamers
Intel has added a second six-core desktop chip to its roster of high-end processors used to crunch through the most demanding games and multimedia applications.
Falcon Northwest high-end gaming box, which can use a six-core Intel processor.
Falcon Northwest high-end gaming box, which can use a six-core Intel processor.
(Credit: Falcon Northwest)
The Core i7-970, announced Sunday, is priced at $885 and follows the six-core i7 980X ($999) released earlier this year. Like the 980X, it has 12MB of L3 cache memory and is made on Intel's latest 32-nanometer manufacturing process.
Unlike the Extreme Edition 3.33GHz 980X, however, it is rated at 3.2GHz and has a "locked" CPU multiplier, which means it is not marketed as a chip that is officially eligible for overclocking, or increasing the clock (gigahertz) speed of the chip. (A closer look at the chip here.)
The difference between high-end six-core and four-core processors (Intel offers many models of the latter) is not always that significant, according to Kelt Reeves, president of high-end game box supplier Falcon Northwest. But it all depends, of course. "Background stuff can always use the extra cores. Windows can take advantage of that," Reeves said. Background tasks might include running non-game-related applications in the background, for example, while playing a game.
But gamers typically opt for more cores. The Core i7 980X is used in Falcon Northwest's best-selling systems, Reeves said.
Intel also introduced other desktop chips, such as the 2.8GHz Core i5-760, priced at $205, while cutting prices on processors such as the 2.93GHz Core i7-870, reduced 48 percent to $294 from $562. The company also eliminated more than a dozen Xeon processor models for servers and workstations.
Falcon Northwest high-end gaming box, which can use a six-core Intel processor.
Falcon Northwest high-end gaming box, which can use a six-core Intel processor.
(Credit: Falcon Northwest)
The Core i7-970, announced Sunday, is priced at $885 and follows the six-core i7 980X ($999) released earlier this year. Like the 980X, it has 12MB of L3 cache memory and is made on Intel's latest 32-nanometer manufacturing process.
Unlike the Extreme Edition 3.33GHz 980X, however, it is rated at 3.2GHz and has a "locked" CPU multiplier, which means it is not marketed as a chip that is officially eligible for overclocking, or increasing the clock (gigahertz) speed of the chip. (A closer look at the chip here.)
The difference between high-end six-core and four-core processors (Intel offers many models of the latter) is not always that significant, according to Kelt Reeves, president of high-end game box supplier Falcon Northwest. But it all depends, of course. "Background stuff can always use the extra cores. Windows can take advantage of that," Reeves said. Background tasks might include running non-game-related applications in the background, for example, while playing a game.
But gamers typically opt for more cores. The Core i7 980X is used in Falcon Northwest's best-selling systems, Reeves said.
Intel also introduced other desktop chips, such as the 2.8GHz Core i5-760, priced at $205, while cutting prices on processors such as the 2.93GHz Core i7-870, reduced 48 percent to $294 from $562. The company also eliminated more than a dozen Xeon processor models for servers and workstations.
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Finland's right to broadband: kind of like access to electricity, water
Finland's right to broadband: kind of like access to electricity, water.
The government in Finland has made it official: access to a broadband connection of at least 1 megabit per second is now a legal right for the residents of that country. And by 2015, the government hopes to impose minimum connection of 100 mbps to its residents.
Granted, Finland is a small, sparsely populated country and about 96 percent of the country is already connected, according to a BBC report, so the whole legal right thing doesn’t bring about any immediate change.
Still, broadband as a legal right is an interesting concept. Increasingly, as the Internet becomes the pipeline for all types of information, its presence in any home in any country is more like that of a utility, comparable to electricity, water or a telephone. And like those instances, the utility is simply available. The service isn’t provided. Consumers still have to pay to turn the service on and a monthly bill for usage.
The only thing that’s required of the power companies or water companies is to make sure that a home has access to their services. It’s not required that they be provided for free. And, the utility companies don’t have to provide the products that utilize the services. After all, the electric company isn’t giving away table lamps to plug into the electrical outlets.
When you think of it like that, the burden here becomes that of the Internet service provider, which is now required to deliver at least 1 mbps of broadband, and soon 100 mbps, to every resident. Certainly, those providers would pass along their investment costs to their customers. But at least they would be in compliance with everyone’s legal right.
And now, when other technologies emerge - whether smart grid electricity or Internet-powered television - the people of Finland will be ready for it, ahead of the curve.
Hmmm. Ahead of the curve on broadband technology, huh? Wouldn’t it be nice for the U.S. to be in that tech camp again? Maybe - just maybe - Finland is on to something with this legal right to broadband thing.
Posted by Pc Clean
Created on www.zdnet.com
The government in Finland has made it official: access to a broadband connection of at least 1 megabit per second is now a legal right for the residents of that country. And by 2015, the government hopes to impose minimum connection of 100 mbps to its residents.
Granted, Finland is a small, sparsely populated country and about 96 percent of the country is already connected, according to a BBC report, so the whole legal right thing doesn’t bring about any immediate change.
Still, broadband as a legal right is an interesting concept. Increasingly, as the Internet becomes the pipeline for all types of information, its presence in any home in any country is more like that of a utility, comparable to electricity, water or a telephone. And like those instances, the utility is simply available. The service isn’t provided. Consumers still have to pay to turn the service on and a monthly bill for usage.
The only thing that’s required of the power companies or water companies is to make sure that a home has access to their services. It’s not required that they be provided for free. And, the utility companies don’t have to provide the products that utilize the services. After all, the electric company isn’t giving away table lamps to plug into the electrical outlets.
When you think of it like that, the burden here becomes that of the Internet service provider, which is now required to deliver at least 1 mbps of broadband, and soon 100 mbps, to every resident. Certainly, those providers would pass along their investment costs to their customers. But at least they would be in compliance with everyone’s legal right.
And now, when other technologies emerge - whether smart grid electricity or Internet-powered television - the people of Finland will be ready for it, ahead of the curve.
Hmmm. Ahead of the curve on broadband technology, huh? Wouldn’t it be nice for the U.S. to be in that tech camp again? Maybe - just maybe - Finland is on to something with this legal right to broadband thing.
Posted by Pc Clean
Created on www.zdnet.com
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Do you find your laptop battery does not stay on as long as it used to.
Read this self help tip
http://bit.ly/9tmNZR
Read this self help tip
http://bit.ly/9tmNZR
Maximise laptop battery
1.
Step 1
1. If you are not using the internet turn off your wifi connection and lower the intensity of your backlight (hold down function and move the arrows up or down to change intensity).
2.
Step 2
2. Don't leave your computer plugged in constantly when it is not in use. If your computer always relies on this power, it will loose its ability to last long on its own. So always charge your computer when the battery is almost dead and then unplug it from the wall.
3.
Step 3
3. Keep your computer in a well ventilated place and keep it cool. Your battery works faster when it is hot because it is creating more energy and is burning out faster.
4.
Step 4
4. Try to avoid turning your computer on and then off constantly. If you turn your computer on in the morning, leave it on until you are done with it for the day. You can put your computer into sleep mode throughout the day if you like.
5.
Step 5
5. Always use the correct battery for your laptop. Don't try to use some other source of power. This will do nothing but destroy your laptop.
This was brought to you by PC Clean.
It was created on ehow.com
Step 1
1. If you are not using the internet turn off your wifi connection and lower the intensity of your backlight (hold down function and move the arrows up or down to change intensity).
2.
Step 2
2. Don't leave your computer plugged in constantly when it is not in use. If your computer always relies on this power, it will loose its ability to last long on its own. So always charge your computer when the battery is almost dead and then unplug it from the wall.
3.
Step 3
3. Keep your computer in a well ventilated place and keep it cool. Your battery works faster when it is hot because it is creating more energy and is burning out faster.
4.
Step 4
4. Try to avoid turning your computer on and then off constantly. If you turn your computer on in the morning, leave it on until you are done with it for the day. You can put your computer into sleep mode throughout the day if you like.
5.
Step 5
5. Always use the correct battery for your laptop. Don't try to use some other source of power. This will do nothing but destroy your laptop.
This was brought to you by PC Clean.
It was created on ehow.com
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