Jim Sanderson is Digital Journal‘s expert tech advice columnist. He is the author of Lemon Aid: Personal Computers and president of Dominion Business Machines. Check each issue of Digital Journal to get advice from our PC doctor!
You can also watch Jim every week on David Onley’s television show HomePage, airing on CP24 and Canadian Learning Television.
You can contact Jim at: sanderson@digitaljournal.com
QUESTION 1: I record and store lots of multimedia files — AVIs, MPEGs and such — and I’m on my third USB key! I really need a different storage solution. Writing to CDs or DVDs is an option but I need something faster and more versatile. Any suggestions? — Patricia
Jim Sanderson: First, Patricia, it’s worth mentioning that there are some new flash drives out there as big as 10GB (check out pendrive.com.) so you might want to consider one. You can fit more than 30 hours of audio on a 2GB key.
But if you still need more capacity, look at a USB hard drive from a company like Pocketek or DiskGo. LaCie offers Mac-compatible externals too. Regular-sized 3.5-inch models in hard cases plug into your USB 2.0 port and are downwardly compatible to USB 1.0. They start at less than $200 for 20GB. If you need it, you can find USB drives as large as 300GB. These are palm-sized — 2.5 inches — and a little more expensive.
Almost all models now come with extra features geared to their portable purpose: password protection, data transfer, backup and other utilities. Extra-rugged versions are also available.
So check these out, Patricia. They have come down in price in the last year and you can now get a suitable solution to easily move your video files from place to place.
A product you might want to consider: The SanDisk Cruzer Titanium Flash Drive allows you to store up to 2GB of video clips, pics and music with SanDisk’s USB flash drive, coated in a casing that can withstand 2,000 lbs.
QUESTION 2: I got an email last week that looked like it came from my bank. When I followed the link, I was prompted for my account number and password. Of course, I didn’t enter them. But how is it that my bank’s website could get used in this kind of scam? — Brian
Jim Sanderson: Actually, Brian, it wasn’t your bank’s site at all. Even though the Web page and address looked authentic, you were linked to a page that had been skilfully recreated — prompts, logos and all — by a “phisher.” How sneaky can you get?
“Phishing” takes its name from an obvious origin — someone trying to lure you into providing personal information. The “ph” preface is a throwback to the old days of phone phreaking when proto-hackers played around with switch tones to make free long-distance calls.
Now that email has become the killer application of the Internet, phishing and other scams have increased dramatically. Phishers know that most people are smart enough not to enter personal information on dummy pages; they rely on a very small percentage of people who do get sucked in. When they capture account and PIN codes — sometimes by remote keystroke-logging software — they use them to steal money or hijack identities.
So, never give out personal or financial information of any kind when solicited via telephone or email. Legitimate financial institutions and e-commerce companies never ask for it that way.
Other things to remember to protect your online ID: change your banking passwords regularly; monitor your bank and financial statements for unusual activity; obtain a credit report on yourself at least once a year to make sure nothing phreaky is happening; create and use a Web-based email address and use it when registering for online services.
For more info on phishing, see: “>www.pcisig.com/specifications
A product you might want to consider: ATI FireGL V7100 uses PCI Express which allows the FireGL graphics card to minimize distance between data requests to deliver maximum performance. Ideal for animation, visual effects and mechanical design.
QUESTION 4: I want to upgrade the video memory in my P4 laptop. It runs office applications OK but it’s very slow for online gaming. Can I get a new video card or some other hardware to fix this problem, or am I stuck with what I have? — Alan
Jim Sanderson: In general, Alan, laptops use parts that are specific to each manufacturer, sometimes even to each model. This almost always affects pricing and availability of upgrades.
As far as video RAM, until recently what you bought was what you had to live with, but this is changing. Some of the latest models allow manufacturer enhancements, notably Dell Latitudes. These upgrades should be researched carefully before purchase, since they may not provide the boost you are looking for in a gaming environment.
First, contact your laptop vendor or go to the manufacturer’s website and determine if a video upgrade is available. If so, and it increases your current level by an increment of 128MB, then it might be worthwhile.
Next, take a hard look at other factors that might be affecting your gaming performance: Internet connection (is it wireless?), the servers you are accessing (do they overload?) and the RAM in your system. Without taking these variables into account, you risk paying for an upgrade that does not make an appreciable difference.
For more info on increasing video performance in laptops see: subscribe to Digital Journal now, and receive 8 issues for $29.95 + GST ($48.95 USD).
