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Compact Digital Camera Reviews Article

Coming clean

Is it possible for internet office providers to act not only as portals but also as guardians of these portals? In fresh words, instead of the somewhat stressful, random, and constantly challenged efforts at security made by individual PC users, ISPs would be totally liable for the security of their customers while accessing the internet.
Alex protection

Jack Schofield replies: It is possible for ISPs to work as gatekeepers or even maintain what the IT industry calls remote desktop management, but it could be expensive and risky. Many ISPs, including BT, Telewest, NTL and Tiscali already offer spam and virus filtering (though this may comprehend downloading a free anti-virus crate). However, there is a grey area between prominent spam and legitimate bulk mailings, such as newsletters, where blocking can cause problems.

In the US, for illustration, AOL once blocked some permission letters sent to prospective students by Harvard University. Also, while it is probable to strip out well familiar virus attachments, there are forever new ones appearing, and new ways of hiding malware.

dull filtering is cheap and reduces the problem, but still requires users to run their own refuge systems and remain vigilant. thing fully responsible for a "guaranteed clean" service is much more difficult, much more high, and is bound to lead to arguments about "unreal positives" when legitimate emails and files are blocked. Offering remote desktop administration is even harder because viruses and other malware can come from "drive by" installations from websites, and from thumb drives, CDs and fresh sources not under the ISP's control. However, managed services are seemly more common in the institution market, and could appeal to home PC users desirous to put up with the restrictions and pay the price.

Flash in the pan

I have just purchased a new Sony Cyber-opportunity T7 digital camera and am fulfilled with everything except the artillery life. entirely charged, it lasts for only about 70 or 80 minutes.
Simon Dale

JS: Sadly, battery lifetime seems to be a dilemma with this extremist-compact camera, below. A review on the Pocket-lint website says: "The drain on the battery is unbelievable. We were given a rich charged artillery and within an hour of use (and not literally using the flash) we were already running low on liquor" ( . ).

What makes it worse is that Sony's website touts its invention of a special certain Imaging Processor with "progressive might management capabilities that work in tandem with Sony's rechargeable InfoLithium batteries to dramatically reduce the camera's power exhaustion." The T7 uses a proprietary Sony NP-FE1 InfoLithium artillery, so when you run out of vigor, you can't just pick up a couple of AA or AAA cells from the nearest newsagent. If you adjudicate to stick with it, your best preference is doubtless to buy another rechargeable NP-FE1 as a spare.

Favorite cuts

Is there any way I can print out all the website addresses that I procure in my Favourites list? I want to preserve a record of sites I do not visit at all repeatedly.
Ronnie Baker

JS: Internet Explorer lets you ship all your links to a web page stored on your hard drive, so you can print that. Go to the File food and appoint consequence and Export to run the wizard. Select Export Favorites, again Favorites, then Export to a File or Address, clicking Next each time. You can then keep your favourites as, say, , and click Finish. Now double-click the bookmarks. htm file to open it in Internet Explorer, go to the File menu, and select Print. eventually, click the tab marked Options and tick the box that says: Print table of links.

One idea is to use the file as your browser home page (the environment is under Tools/Internet Options) so you get a full page of links each time you open a browser. Alternatively, put on your desktop so you can open it quickly.

Icon invader

An icon called matcli appeared out of the blue on my toolbar. Unfortunately, I cannot delete it. What it is?
Brian Allison

JS: Matcli is the inspiration Assistant Command Line Interface, which is part of a system that motivation .com sells to broadband providers, printer and peripheral suppliers, as a way of improving online support. It collects enlightenment about your theory and writes it to a log file. BT, Telewest Blueyonder and HP attend to be users. You could exclude Matcli by using the Add or Remove Programs expediency in Windows to uninstall the help crate. However, this may establish it harder to get help when you need it.

Spatial apprehension

Do you deflower any recommendations for a better disk defrag tool than the one supplied with Windows XP? However many times I run defrag, it still leaves fragmented files.
Tony Mackie

JS: The Disk Defragmenter in XP (in the System Tools portfolio) is as good as it needs to be. However, it is a rather limited reading of Executive Software's Diskeeper, which gives you the chance to buy what is in effect an upgrade. You may find that what Disk Defragmenter shows as free extent isn't really. When XP's NTFS (New Technology File mode) installs its master file table, it grabs % of your hard drive for future expansion. This is mainly called the "MFT Zone". If you fill the drive, NTFS will use this space to store your proof, but when it needs more space for its index, it will have to store it somewhere else. A fragmented MFT can abate performance, and Disk Defragmenter may not be responsible to defrag it. Moral: try to keep 10% of your drive space free.

BitTorrent hazards

Is it certain to use BitTorrent? A while ago I used the KaZaA program and ended up with dodgy Trojans and viruses.
Bobby Onion

JS: It is never wise to usurp anything is 100% safe, but the architecture of BitTorrent riches it is dramatically safer than KaZaA (see .org/ for an account of how it works). Also, BitTorrent programs don't accommodate KaZaA-style adware. However, shoulder in mind that it is not anonymous. Someone in Hong Kong has been convicted of copyright infringement for distributing three Hollywood blockbusters using BitTorrent.

The source of spam

Does anybody undergo where the word "spam" actually comes from?
Jack Lyons

JS: Spam's use for what we should call UCE (unsolicited commercial email) derives from luncheon muscle via the encore in a Monty Python sketch. There's a good explanation at .com/brad/

Backchat

· Last week, Ant Smallwood was looking for a good location where he could compare MP3 players. Tom Hiles suggests Digital Audio Player Review ( .net ) as "an supreme goldmine of message, reviews and opinion on MP3 players", though it seems to lack the side-by-side likeness features of, say, Digital Photography Review ( .com )

· Peter Benlow was having problems saving web pages in Internet Explorer. Andy Dix, commenting on the Ask Jack blog, says: "Your best bet is to forget about IE. Install Firefox and then use an production (add-on) called Scrapbook which frequently makes a perfect copy of any web page. Scrapbook does parse any scripts on the page." Alan Dyson writes: "Rather than saving as .mht files (or trying to manage the same effect using Firefox, if you can get the add-on to job), I've now started saving web pages as PDF files. You can print to a file using primoPDF as the printer and again use Foxit (or AcroRead) to look at it." Keith McClelland adds that, up to a point, it is also imaginable to select the page (Ctrl A) and gum it into a Word document or other word processor.