Can your PC replace your cable or satellite subscription? Part III
In part I, we learned about some free and completely legal ways to watch TV and movies. In part II, there was some long explanation, and a brief bit of some information about how to watch your shows that are not well-defined. The laws contradict each other, so you are on your own down that path. Now, I will explain the completely illegal ways to get your shows. Please know that I do not suggest doing anything illegal, but feel that you should know about these methods so that you can avoid them and any trouble that comes with using them. The first, easiest, and most common illegal way I see of getting music, shows, and movies is LimeWire. There are legal reasons for using Lime, but the use of it is not for those reasons. Lime is used mostly to illegally “share” music and other files across the Internet. People like to claim that they are only “sharing” these files with their friends or, really, complete strangers across the Internet. That, is a lie. Not about what they're doing, but pretending that it is legal. People are taking material that they do not own the copyright for and giving it away to others. They are also downloading material illegally from other LimeWire users. Along with the illegal files comes a big risk for viruses, also something I see a lot on PCs people ask me to fix. Up next is Bit Torrent. Torrents are similar to LimeWire, except that they are used more in legal ways, such as sharing legal discs to install Linux and other free information. Unfortunately, a lot more people use torrents to illegally download movies, music, and more from others. So, Bit Torrent is covered under this illegal section. How torrents differ from regular downloads is that it downloads from many different users in 'chunks'. It operates on the idea that the more you “share,” the better/faster you can get files. It works out well for everyone because the more people share a file, the faster it downloads for everyone. After downloading files illegally, the most popular way to steal (yes, it is stealing) material is to rent it from the video store, borrow a CD, or find another way to get a digital copy and rip it or copy it onto your PC. People have mentioned several times that they rent a DVD when it comes out, rip it, and keep the copy they made on their PC. Once again, this is completely illegal. These people rent a piece of copy-written material, not own it, and make a copy (that may be legal if they owned it). There is no salvation for those who rent a DVD or borrow a CD to copy it. Ripping most anything without owning a copy yourself is stealing from those who put it out there for sale. As always, there are exceptions: if something has been released under a license that is free to distribute, like some written works and all Linux distributions. These materials are different than most things, and are the exceptions. Generally, if someone downloads material that is copyrighted, they are breaking the law. If anyone is ripping material that they don't own a copy of, they are also breaking the law. This is the simple version, but gives a decent overview. As always, this is not legal advice. Do your own research.
June 15, 2009 08:26 pm
Ask a Geek: Wireless and you
Like most homes with more than one computer, we have wireless network access set up in our home. This makes it very convenient for me to prop the laptop onto my lap and write articles while watching the Golden Globes. Unfortunately, anyone driving down the street can pick up my wireless connection as well. They would have to be pretty close, but neighbors (especially in apartment buildings) would have no trouble 'borrowing' a signal. This often happens on accident. Your computer is dumb, and will connect to the strongest wireless signal it can find. If your neighbor has their wireless placed so that your laptop or computer picks up that signal stronger, then it will connect to their network. This is not a safe situation. Your neighbor can see everything on your computer while you are connected to their network. They can also watch every bit of traffic you send across the air and then through their cables. As horrible as it may be, they might be doing something illegal, and if your computer has been using their network you may be implicated. Borrowing signal and your laptop randomly connecting can both be overcome fairly easily though. The simplest matter is to enter your wireless router's settings and change your system identification (SSID) from 'linksys' or whatever the default name is to something you pick. This will let you be sure you connect to your home network and help your neighbors stay off of your network. The most important step to securing your home wireless network is to enable encryption between your computer and wireless router. There are 3 types of encryption – WEP, WPA, and WPA2. Something is better than nothing, and that's what you will get with WEP. It is extremely easy to crack within minutes, and how-to's are all across the internet to follow the process. WPA and WPA2 are good enough to keep 99% of home wireless networks secure. Recently there have been reports of flaws in WPA, but they are theoretical and very unlikely to matter unless someone wants into your network traffic badly. There you are, two simple steps to keep your private network private. There are many different manufacturers, and each will have slightly different steps to making these changes. A quick trip to your help menu or manufacturer's website should help you make necessary changes and keep you safely surfing from the couch.
March 16, 2009 10:00 am
You probably don't need a new computer...
Every few weeks I hear the same thing from a different person: "My computer is slow, I guess I need a new one. Any advice?" More often than not, your computer is just as capable and fast as it was the day you bought it. The problem with slowdown usually arises from 'clutter' in your PC. Everything from the mysterious Registry in Windows to files that remain after a program is un-installed will add to your computer taking longer to perform tasks that used to be no major issue. Just as I find myself having a harder time finding things thanks to my children's clutter, your PC has similar issues digging through the mess on your hard drive. There are several ways to help clean up this muck, but I will only cover a few that are pretty safe and easy for everyone. My first suggestion is to use the free program Ccleaner (www.ccleaner.com) to remove some of the gum from the internal workings of your system. It will remove garbage from your temporary files (which aren't really temporary) and clean out your registry. I will say use this at your own risk, as there are always chances, but there have been no issues with this program in my experience or reading. Up next is defragmenting your hard drive. As you use your computer, the drive (like a record player) has a 'head' (needle) that floats across the tracks reading and writing information. To save time and increase speed, it just writes information wherever it happens to be over the tracks. This helps speed, but leaves information scattered everywhere. By using Windows' built-in defragmenting tool, it will re-organize your files into neat tracks. With all of your information together and in order, your hard drive can access files faster and more easily. This means less slowdown as the head jumps across tracks reading all the pieces of files scattered around. Finally, you might need to add more RAM to your system to help it operate more smoothly. RAM is the place to hold information that the processor needs immediately. Your hard drive is like a filing cabinet, and RAM is like Radar from MASH having those files in-hand waiting on you to ask for them. I recommend 1GB (gigabyte) of RAM minimum for Windows XP systems, and double that if you have been forced to use Windows Vista. This way, your PC can have a lot of files in RAM and not have to slow down while it reads more information from your hard drive. Your local computer shop or even the maker of your computer can help you find the type and amount of RAM that your PC can use. I have never seen more RAM hurt a machine. These are just three simple solutions for helping to speed up a PC instead of buying a new one. This way you can stop some electronic waste going to landfills and keep some dollars in your pocket in this tough economy. Both sound like good reasons to try these ideas before buying a new computer with your hard-earned money. Have computer issues? Please feel free to email me at askageek@register-news.com and I will reply and/or answer questions as best as humanly possible.
February 10, 2009 06:58 am
The debut of Dan Voyles' technology blog
I’m a pretty average guy who lives in Mount Vernon, and have been here for 31 years. I love this community and the people in it. I am married with two wonderful children. Erich, Amaya, and of course my wife Emily are the lights of my life. I don’t know what I would do without them, even though the kids make me crazy daily. I worked at First Cellular for over four years, but the market changed so much that the owners decided it was time to sell. That leads to my return to college. With Alltel buying First Cellular of Southern Illinois and the subsequent closing the back office, I decided to formally pursue my interest in technology with an IT degree from Rend Lake College. While in school, I am also working at Ecodigital Development Group as a ‘Network Support Specialist.’ I am pursuing an Information Technology Specialist degree. My Cisco Certified Networking Associate classes are done, along with several others. I’ve so far maintained an “A/B” average in my degree-related classes. The curriculum is being modified, so I have been able to substitute some VoIP and wireless classes that were not previously included in the degree. Overall, I would say that these classes have resulted in a well-rounded and pretty comprehensive education. My education, in combination with working with other IT professionals and repairing PCs as a hobby have given me a fair amount of technology knowledge in a relatively short amount of time. If you’re investigating me, or just curious, I can be found all across the web by the moniker ‘dirtvoyles’. Here are some specific places you can find me directly: twitter.com/dirtvoyles blog.danvoyles.us facebook.com linkedin.com and of course... myspace.com/dirtvoyles Soon, I will start posting tech how-to's and answering questions from you great readers. Please feel free to email me at askageek@register-news.com and I will reply and/or answer questions as best as humanly possible.
February 03, 2009 11:19 am
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