Power User: The Windows XP SP2 bell finally tolls
As you stalk the aisles of FOSE this week, something may be stalking you back at the office.
Power user: What's all the fuss about Firefox?
I've received several e-mails pointing out the superiority of Mozilla's Firefox 1.0 over Microsoft's Internet Explorer 6.0.
Power User: More Google power
The announcement of a project to digitize millions of old books from university libraries put Google in the news recently.
Power User: Avoiding Java's jolt
Am I the only person who thinks Java doesn't work very well?
Power User: Products, services and tips for a happy holiday
Despite the many things I complain about in this column, a lot of the products and services I test are quite good.
Power User: XP Service Pack 2, Chapter 2
GCN readers who saw my recent column about a mysterious resource-eating problem on an aging Microsoft Windows XP Pro system might like to know the outcome.
Crypto net takes a quantum leap
Many people think the application of quantum mechanics to encryption is blue-sky technology that won't see real application for decades.
Power User: Horror story -- security update eats custom settings
Some days it just doesn't pay to boot up. Mindful of the ever-increasing breeds of malware, I update my virus signatures with great caution.
Power surge
Today you can buy a low-end, off-the-shelf PC so powerful that it would have been impossible to build a decade ago, even with unlimited funds.
Power User: Make the most of Google's operators
Nothing has shaken up the leading online portals as much as Google.com's offer of free, gigabyte-size e-mail accounts with simple archiving and searching through messages.
Laser printers on the spot
With prices dropping and image quality rising, the low-end color laser printer is coming into its own, competing with the ubiquitous ink-jet printer that has long been the mainstay of the spot-color market.
Power User: Web security gets even
It's bad when almost every e-mail user gets bombarded by a virus, as happened last month courtesy of previously unexploited search engine vulnerabilities.
Power User: Are we gambling on democracy?
Participants in the SummerCon 2004 hacker conference last month in Pittsburgh heard an electronic-voting panel discuss the past year's e-voting failures, such as not encrypting vote data and not sealing the machines to prevent tampering.
Show of hands
Biometrics is the art and science of using a measurable and preferably unique biological characteristic to identify people.There are two main ways to use biometrics.
Tips for tablet use, training
It will likely take a bit of training to get the most out of a tablet PC. Microsoft Corp.'s almost universally used Tablet XP operating system isn't just XP on a tablet; it has a number of new features, mostly related to the use of the pen.
Is the pen mightier than the mouse?
I've made no secret that I love the tablet format for a portable PC.I get along fine with standard keyboards but do very little text input out of the office, so I've always resented having to tote one along on road trips simply because all notebooks had one.
A fluid line of defense
Firewalls are an essential element of network protection, though they're not the whole package.
Power User: Security trumps backward compatibility
Government agencies are seldom in the forefront when a new operating system comes along, and that's good sense. The only time I risk installing brand-new software is when I'm being paid to evaluate it.
Power User: Is start-up a drag? Windows has the tools to help
Ever notice how slowly your PC starts up? Does it seem less stable now than when you first turned it on? Don't bother answering. I already know the answer is yes. But don't just blame Microsoft Corp. or mythical bit-rot. If you run Windows, use Microsoft tools to make things better.
Power User: A little of this and that on security
A useful download from Microsoft Corp. called PortReporter has several virtues: It's free, only 135K and probably all right to use even if agency rules otherwise forbid freeware.
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