Categories: Security, Anti-Virus
04/08/10
02:57:50 pm, Categories: Security A client asked me to design a new bespoke PC for him last week. I did so and sent him a detailed specification that would be balanced in the likely use he would put it to. This totalled £618 inc. VAT. He looked around the Internet and found a Dell Optiplex 380 and wondered why the PC I specified was £219 more expensive.
After a testing time trying to find out the full specification of the Dell PC I was able to send my client the results as a table that compared my initial spec (£618), the Dell headline version of the Optiplex 380 (£399) and the Dell version that matched most closely the balanced system I had proposed for him. The Dell headline version of their system was indeed £219 cheaper, but the components were generally much more modest and did not include items such as a monitor display - in the use my client typically puts his PC to this computer would perform like a dog with no legs.
By 'customising' the Dell specification to match as closely as possible the PC I designed for my client the cost rose to exactly £999 - a £381 difference. And what's more, if a Dell main board fails after a couple of years it is next to impossible to get a replacement as Dell are the sole suppliers.
I knew that custom built computers were better value for money than mass produced ones in the long term but I hadn't appreciated just how much of a saving there is from day one. I should add that I believe Dell are no worse and indeed, somewhat better than other off-the-shelf distributors including large nationwide shops.
14/03/10
Many people now are aware that phishing is the criminally fraudulent process of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an e-mail - usually a hyperlink to a web site.
To protect themselves from being spoofed, some people let the mouse pointer hover over the link and read the destination address in the status bar, but this is not a safe way to detect phishing because the status bar can easily be programmed by Javascript so show something legitimate.
The only safe way is to open your browser and type an address (or use a favourite/bookmark) into the appropriate field.
02/03/10
10:33:29 am, Categories: Security To get a free copy of the upcoming release of MS Office you may visit
The version will be good until October 2010 by which time you should be able to buy a full copy. Note that the beta test edition may contain more bugs than the released code, but it is fairly stable.
28/02/10
Unless you are loading the same manufacturer's code when you renew your annual subscription, you must remove the old antivirus product and restart the computer before installing the new one.
A handy pointer to uninstallation tools for each main manufacturer is at:
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