Computer Repair Tech

New version of Firefox, version 3.5, ready for download - here's the shortened URL: Mozilla Firefox download page.

This new version supports the following new features (from the Mozilla site):

Those French! Linux Magazine has posted an article they've gathered from the Linux.com web site that is about the history of the La Gendarmerie Nationale (French National Police) and its quest to streamline, simplify, and reduce costs of its Information Technology infrastructure. They've finally come up with the solution of moving over 5,000 desktops to Ubuntu Linux. Ils sont si intelligents!

Wow! This is awesome! Now we can get a virus infection from Adobe Acrobat Reader PDF files. Just what I've been waiting for! Actually, there was evidence a few years back (otherwise known as Proof of Concept) about how a specially-crafted Acrobat PDF file could be a distribution vector for viruses. There has been a virus, Exploit.PDF-JS.Gen, that has Javascript code embedded in the PDF file that executes malicious code on the user's computer. Oh, joy! Next, the anti-Obama crowd will blame this on him and his leftist-regime -- [nyuk]!

I helped out one of the administrative staff with an issue that was really annoying her. She was trying to use the Multilevel List option in Word 2007 and couldn't get the application to automatically increase the hierarchical indentation to the next list level--whenever she pressed the Tab key to increase/move the indentation to the next level, she would simply have the Tab move over to the next tab mark. Like I said, really annoying. I found this simple set of instructions on Tech Support Forum that resolves the the situation.

I tried running the Java software upgrade on a Windows Vista Professional using the Online Installer that downloads and then runs the Java upgrade installation process. The main upgrade ended dramatically during the Extracting Installer portion with unzipping core files failed - error 25099 error message. The install canceled and brought up the Java help via the Java web site. The error 25099 code was listed as a possible reason for the install failure. Sun/Java states that it doesn't have a solution for the problem. Here's what I tried to get Java to install:

I've had a trouble call from a user who was having problems seeing all of her clip art in different Microsoft Office 2007 applications. Here are some of the options to check:

The most-awesome Ms. Mindi McDowell (and co-author Monica Maher) have re-posted this very timely article about shopping online and protecting your identity and credit information. A very good read during this holiday season. A wee-bit late for Cyber Monday, but still useful! Please be careful out there. Better yet, use your American Express card for really fantastic fraud/identity protection online or brick-n-mortar.

I'm really concerned about a tidal wave of virus infections on campus PCs with the increased use of USB thumbdrives. I'm giving this issue some real thought and trying to come up with some innovative solutions or methods to help us stem the flow of viruses and worms on campus systsms. This isn't a Chicken Little thing! No, my anti-psychotic meds haven't worn off and I'm not having those feelings of paranoia again! Really, this is big stuff! It's obvious that the Symantec Antivirus software running on our PCs is not catching the different viruses, trojan downloaders, and spyware -- PCs are getting infected.

This page provides a list of tutorials (also known as screencasts) I've added to the Textbox.beelybox.com site. Note: the list of tutorials is also available from the Tutorials menu in the left navigation menu.

These tutorials are developed with Wink and are Flash-based with navigation options and timings tuned for your online reading.