December 2011 - Newsletter

Hello all

In this news letter:

• Latest Updates

• Virus and Malware prevention

• Technical Terms - CPU

• Checkup before the holiday season

• Business to Business show feedback

Latest Updates:

There has been a few very important updates the last month or two and here are some of them that are urgent.

FireFox and Thunderbird: is now on version 8.0.1 and has made a lot of updates on security risks and program faults.

Internet Explorer: On XP the latest version is 8 and there will not be a new version according to MS, however on Vista and Win 7 is now on version 9

Windows Updates: Vista is now on service pack 2 and Windows 7 on service pack 1. A service pack contain all of the critical updates and therefore you need to make sure you are on the latest. If you are not sure if you are on the correct service pack please contact CJM IT Systems.

AVG: Is now on version 2012, make sure you are up to date as this is part of you security front.

Virus and Malware Prevention:

As always it is very important to be on the latest version of Anti Virus (AV) protection. But then also when you get email with an attachment choose one of the following options:

1. If you do not expect the attachment then DO NOT open it.

2. If it is from a person or company you do not know then DO NOT open it

3. If you do expect the attachment then FIRST save it to your computer's downloads or documents and by doing so you give your AV a better chance at inspecting the file.

Technical Terms - CPU:

The CPU or Processor is the brain of the computer in that it is where all the processing takes place. It is not the storage or memory (memory was discussed in the last news letter, if you missed it you can always go to our website at www.cjmITsystems.com and look under Company News) in the old days the GHz (speed - Giga Hertz) was very important but not so much these days, you might buy a 3GHz cpu but a 2GHz might out perform it as there are many other factors IN the cpu that plays a factor, some of these factors are:

1. The speed of the data bus (highway the data travel from one end of the cpu to the other)

2. How many cores are in the cpu. Handeled in a bit more detail below.

3. The amount of memory and type of memory in the brain (not to be confused by storage space - hard drive)

4. And many other factors.

Think of a cpu as your head and a core as a brain lobe inside your head. A few years back you had only 1 head and one brain lobe in it and that was it, at that time the speed was very important as you could do only 1 task at a time. These days you can get in a high end consumer PC, 4 cores pre cpu and easily more than 1 cpu. Now think of it this way if you have 2 cpus with 4 cores in each then you would have 2 heads with 4 brain lobes in each head, all of a sudden speed becomes less of a problem as you could do now 1 task per lobe at the same time, this equate to 8 tasks all done at the same time.

Now that you know this, do not let a sales person try to sell you a "FAST" computer just because the GHz is more in one PC than in another.

Checkup before the holiday season:

Like a “winter” checkup for your car it is always a good idea to get your PC checked up before the holiday season coming up, this will make sure you are as ready as can be for al the nasties out there that tries to infect your PC.

We at CJM IT Systems LTD would like to help you stay secure and therefore offer you a £10 discount on all computer MOTs done from now until 31^st December 2011 when you quote “Christmas MOT” on your order.

Business to Business show feedback:

The venue, as you can see, was very beautiful and the day was cold, but inside the castle it was buzzing with about 150 guests and between 20 and 35 exhibitors.
All in all we enjoyed the day and are looking forward to next year's event.

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