John's Tech Tips

John Seyfarth, Sump Memorial Library

Follow-up II on Spyware Prevention (From Fall Issue)
During the past couple of months I have been doing some reading and testing of Anti-Spyware programs. As I mentioned in the previous issue, Microsoft has put out a free download called MicrosoftAntiSpywareInstall.exe (Microsoft Anti-Spyware Beta1) which can be downloaded from http://download.microsoft.com . It works exceptionally well with Windows XP. It also is supposed to work on Windows 2000 versions, but I haven't tested it there, since all the machines in our Library run XP. I would expect that it runs very much the same. The only glitch that I have so far found is that Internet Explorer users have trouble getting into their mail login on the Excite website, ( http://www.excite.com ).

I mentioned Spybot Search and Destroy 1.3 in my last article. It seems to work quite well, and has been updated frequently, and is free. For those of you that are using Windows versions other than 2000 or XP, Spybot Search and Destroy may work well for you. There is a newer version out, 1.4. To download it, just go to Google and type in “download spybotsd14.exe ” and click on search. It is a less than 5 MB download, and then double click on it to install it. Then follow the screens on the program to make a backup registry, download and install updates, immunize, and then check for problems.

A third means of anti-spyware is using the Symantec Anti-Virus Corporate Edition Version 10 I mentioned in the last issue, which also has anti-spyware capabilities.

At present, I have all three running on every machine in our library that access the Internet, and unlike having multiple anti-virus programs that fight each other, this trio seem to work well together without getting into each other's way.

Another resource you may want to consult is Consumer Reports, Volume 70, Number 9, September 2005 . There is a wealth of good data in there about protecting your computers in the “Online Survival Guide” starting on page 12.

Purchasing Strategies
The recent price reductions in LCD technology displays have made them a very attractive option if you are in the market for new computers in your library. Last year, I purchased four LCD 17” displays for our library staff, and they were about $375 each. This year, I was considering obtaining some more for our circulation desk, and found that the price on the same model I purchased last year was down to $237.00. LCDs are nice for a couple of reasons. First they take less space, and give the user a good bit of desk space back. Further, many can be hung on a vertical surface, and finally, they use a good deal less electricity. The picture is equal to that on a flat panel CRT display. Our staff loves their LCDs. Again, Consumer Reports has reliable reports on monitors of all kinds in the Jun 05 issue.

Another item that is helpful for your library, including both staff and public machines are front panel ports for USB 2.0 and for the various flash memory cards that are in digital cameras and portable digital assistants. Many of the PC manufacturers have incorporated these into their case designs, and many have even made the floppy disk drive optional. The floppy drive is a worthwhile and usually very inexpensive option that is still useful for public users. We have front panel USB ports on all our machines in the computer lab, and find that many patrons bring in a USB flash drive to save their work. We are also installing ports on some of our machines in the lab to accommodate digital camera flash media that allow patrons to manipulate photographs on our machines. We also have CD-RW drives on all our machines. Installing them was a $35 investment, and we also stock CD-R media at the Circulation Desk as well as floppy disks. We find that our clientele really appreciate the media options we offer, and the investment was really quite small for the library.

Firefox Browser “Tabbed Browsing” Features
The new Firefox (Version 1.0.6) browser is worth considering both for your public and staff computers. The browser is free, and all you need do is to browse to http://www.mozilla.org and download it, and install it. After installation, it will even automatically import your Internet Explorer settings and favorites if you desire. I have found it to be faster than Internet Explorer, and the updates for detected security problems are available almost the next day. My favorite feature on the browser is the “ tabbed browsing ” feature. I can have several websites open at once and tab between them as needed. Indeed, I have my options set so that all the sites come up when I launch Firefox. I have five frequently used sites setup on our lab computers setup, and our patrons seems to appreciate having them at their fingertips.

Setting up tabs during a session:
•  When you have Firefox running, to add a tab, simply click on File-New Tab and then type in the URL in the address line at the top, and press the <ENTER> key. You now have two tabbed sites that you can just click on the tab at the top to switch between sites. You can add them at will and add as many as you want using the same procedure.

Setting up Firefox to have multiple “default home” pages open at once:

  • If Firefox is running, click on Tools-Options and then on the General item on the left column.
  • Then just type in the website URLs you desire to come up automatically, each separated by a pipe (|) character [ Shift – Backslash , which is the key just to the left of Backspace ]. An example for three sites would be: http://www.yahoo.com|http://www.google.com|http://www.msn.com
  • In the example above, Yahoo, Google, and MSN would automatically come up as three tabs when you launch Firefox. Once you have typed in the URLs, click on OK at the bottom to close the Options menu.
  • Exit Firefox, and then re-launch it. The multiple websites that you have designated will all come up as tabs, and you can simply switch between them by clicking on the appropriate tab at the top.