October 2011 - Newsletter

Hello all

In this news letter:

1. Latest Updates
2. Virus and Malware season
3. Windows XP on its last legs
4. Technical Terms - Memory
5. Checkup before the holiday season
6. Business to Business show coming up

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: is now on version 7.0.1 and has made a lot of updates on security risks and program faults.
Win XP: The beloved operating system is now on its last legs and Microsoft will only bring out Urgent / Critical updates for it, and there has been a lot of these so make sure XP is up to date.
Apple Products: This company (apple) as also been very active and brought updates out for the iPlayer and Safari, amongst other things
Adobe Acrobat: is not on version 10.1.1 and you should upgrade as soon as you can.

Virus and Malware Season:
The Virus and Malware season is coming up also known as Halloween and Christmas . Many people send each other eCards (like a post card or normal Christmas card but via email) and 80% of these are relatively safe but usually contain tracking technology that allow people on the internet to see where you are going on the internet.

1. If you get an eCard from someone you do not know then please DO NOT OPEN it.
2. If you get an eCard from someone you do know then it would be BEST not to open it but this would not be fun at all so if you do want to open it then open it with a browser like FireFox.

And always remember it is MUCH safer to NEVER click on a link sent to you via email. Rather copy the link and past it in FireFox, this way you would prevent a lot of nasty links from being activated.

Windows XP on its last legs:
The beloved Windows XP is now officially on its last legs and it is Microsoft's vision for it to completely stop supporting it by the end of the year. They might bring out a few updates for XP but these updates will only be for critical security risks. This mean that if you still have XP you might be at risk as any faults found by hackers will most probably not be fixed by Microsoft. The best way forward if to:

1. Make sure your PC is strong enough and then install Win 7 or
2. Buy a new PC and transfer your data to the new PC.
3. Load Edubuntu on it for a perfectly good educational PC
4. Donate it to a school or give it to your kids.

We here at CJM IT Systems LTD have redistributed PCs like these to nurseries and schools in the local areas and the kids love to play with all the games. So if you would like to recycle your old PC please give us a call. We will make sure your data is completely and securely cleared before redistributing your old PC.

Technical Terms - Memory:
Memory is the general term used to describe how big a PC is but to be more correct we need to split this term into two parts:

1. RAM – Short term memory
2. Hard Disk – Long term memory

We described RAM in the July news letter but if you did not get the July news letter please send us an email and we will send it to you. Hard disk (or just “disk” / “HDD” for short) is like a filing cabinet the place where you store your files and books. Now the larger the disk space the more files you can keep on your PC. These days we get two types of disks: SSD – Solid State Disk Non SSD – Normal Disks The SSD is still very expensive in comparison to non SSD and start at about £80. The single biggest advantage you will obtain from a SSD is that your PC will start in general between 2 and 5 seconds ready to use, compared to the non SSD systems will start between 1 and 5 minutes. The SSDs are also very very quiet as to compared to the non SSD system

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 31st December 2011 when you quote “Christmas MOT” on your order.

Business to Business show coming up:
We will be at the B2B show in Winchcombe on the 16th of November 2011. See this website for more detail: B 2 B Tewkesbury.