Question: All of a sudden, my computer says it has a bunch of viruses and I can't find any of my files. What's up?
Answer: Good question. Most likely, you have a virus. This is something I’m seeing a lot now. The virus is a scareware type of program that finds a bunch of bogus viruses. The twist is that now, the bad guy is setting the hidden attribute of all or many of your files. Each file on your computer has 4 attributes, Archive, Read-only, Hidden and System. Files marked as hidden and system can be rendered invisible in Windows. A virus can then offer to “recover” your files for $39.95, or whatever. So, how do you fix it? This may be one of those times that you want to have someone take a look at your computer, but... If it has just happened, you can try to use Windows System Restore to put your computer back the way it was before you contracted this virus. The really bad thing with this one is if you do get rid of the virus, that won't unhide your files. Furthermore, some files are supposed to be hidden to prevent accidental modification. You can use a program called iReset that lets you reset these attributes by dragging a folder or file and dropping it on the application. I'm going to try to work up a script that can fix this issue relatively automatically because many folks want something like this.
Cool Site: HomeAndLearn.co.UK: One of the questions I get sometimes is "Where can I get some computer training?" One of the places I'd recommend is this week's cool site, Home and Learn. It's at www.homeandlearn.co.uk, which should tell you that the site is in England. So, be prepared for spelling differences, and a pound sign instead of a dollar sign, and such. But, cultural differences aside, you'll find lessons on Beginning Computing, Word, Excel, Web Design and several programming other programming courses. Most of these are aimed at beginners. I looked specifically at the beginning Microsoft Word course and found that the site covers Word 2000, 2003, 2007 & 2010. So, whichever version you need or have to practice on, they've got it covered. The lessons start from Writing your first letter to Creating Word Macros and programming your documents to do things.
Cool Gadget: Apple Wireless Charging System: Do you remember the old crystal radios? They never needed batteries, because they were powered by the radio signal they were receiving. Well, I may be the "King of Free", but Apple is the King of Cool. The computer and gadget maker has now patented a device based on a similar principle to the one behind the crystal radio that is able to charge your other gadgets wirelessly with a range of up to a meter away. This way, you don't have to connect yet another cord to a gadget to charge it. We've talked before about inductive technologies that require you to put your device on a mat or something, and those are great, but it looks like a future iPad, iPod, iWhatever, will have a way to charge the device that only requires getting close to the charger.
It's All "Geek" To Me: Server: This week, we look at the term Server. This is a term that occurs in a couple of different contexts: software and hardware. In a software context, a server is any program that is designed to handle requests from other computers. Those "other computers" are called clients, and the server sends the clients what they request. Because one computer can run several server programs at once, they are often run on computers that are specially designed to run 24x7 for several years, and that's exactly what server means in a hardware context.
