Rapid Web News

So Google announced in July that they’re going to have a crack at making an OS (operating system). Interesting, we all mused here at Rapidweb. Will it be just a fancy GUI (graphical user interface) for Linux? Will it just be a proverbial middle finger to Microsoft? I guess most importantly will it be any good? Most of these I can’t answer but let’s look at what we know already.

I’m going to start with a list of technology companies that say they will design, build and I quote “devices that deliver an extraordinary end user experience” – exciting prospect. These companies are: Acer, Adobe, ASUS, Freescale, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, and Toshiba – some REAL big hitters! But are they just talking about pre-installing Google OS on existing netbooks and smartphones? After all it is Linux based and Linux as we all know could run on an 8o’s calculator watch. As you can see from the quote though it does suggest specific hardware to run on, this could just be Google branded products though with sponsorship advertising from the above mentioned manufacturers.

I really like how Google have re-vamped the web browser, I like how quick it is, it keeps the last bunch of webpages on a kind of active favourites homepage – in theory you could always have your favourite webpages on a single page! I also like the fact that the search bar is also the URL bar, something that Firefox also boasts but will all these innovations be enough to push an OS? One of the biggest features they’re talking about is a near instant boot up, this is interesting, and a lot of netbooks do carry a small SSD drive but it’s still not near instant, perhaps they are talking to manufacturers of chips to make their OS embedded? This in itself creates a number of potential problems, firmware flashes instead of updates? Sure it’ll be quicker initially but if it is going to be embedded wouldn’t that be a step backwards? I mean, for instance, how many people actually update their BIOS (basic input/output system) regularly on their motherboard? Ok techies do, sure but it does make it a niche market and not a widespread user friendly piece of software.

According to reports Google are currently working on a video player and a jukebox style program to roll on their new OS. Again I think it’s good that they are deciding to develop their own, after all if they use Linux based applications Google Chrome OS would just be a re-branded version of Ubuntu. This also keeps other companies on their toes, iTunes may face fierce competition if Google’s jukebox style program can sync with an iPod and I doubt Google would accept money from media goliaths like NBC to enforce DRM (digital restrictions management) so that users are prevented from recording television shows that they have the legal right to record (allegedly).

There are some supposed leaked screenshots of Google OS which you can take a look at here draw your own conclusions though, some claim them to be real some not so convinced, one thing is for sure though – it free so it’s got to be worth a look.

With the Internet constantly being flooded by hundreds of new and more vicious viruses daily it’s never been a more important time to be well protected. It’s quite difficult to fully explain what a virus is as there are so many variations, we’ve know virus’ to be as timid as changing your desktop background to some rather unsavoury pictures to the more severe end of viruses which can launch on a particular date or time to transfer complete control of systems and networks to a single remote user, this could be to soak up all your internet speed or simply to steal important documents, log in details or secure site information such as bank details. These viruses are rare but they do happen, identity theft is becoming a very real problem.

So which Anti-Virus program should you choose? There are so many on the market and everyone has their own opinion as to their favourite. Well we’ve found a little known Anti-Virus package called NOD32, a nifty little package that will not constantly pop up asking you a hundred different questions about program access it also doesn’t slow your system to a crawl as some Anti-Virus packages can. It will occasionally pop up if there is something attempting to penetrate your PC but other than that it’s very much a stealthy program. Don’t take our word for it though you can try a 30 day free trial from here:  http://www.eset.com/products/nod32.php

Sadly no Anti-Virus package is 100 percent full proof, occasionally one may slip under the radar so to speak, so what next? If your Anti-Virus fails to remove or quarantine a virus the last thing you want is to have a rogue virus on your system doing heavens knows what so what we’re aiming to do is assist you in removing the tricky ones.

Again I feel that everyone has their own way of dealing with things but hopefully we’ll give you enough of an idea what you can do in this situation. Firstly you should fully update the Anti-Virus package you are using in the hope that the latest definitions file (the file that contains a catalogue of different virus names) contains removal details, do this until the Anti-Virus package your using reports that it is fully up to date then run a full scan. A full scan of your system can take quite a while so it’s best to do it at the end of the day or if you have to leave to office for a couple of hours. If the update still fails to remove the offending virus then more steps need to be taken, next I would find the “System Restore” option.

***CAUTION****

More and more PCs have built in destructive recovery programs where a small portion of the hard-drive is reserved for the operating system (2000, XP, Vista etc) and can be accessed via the start menu, PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU USE THE MICROSOFT WINDOWS SYSTEM RECOVERY AND NOT THE MANUFACTURER’S VERSION AS THIS CAN AND WILL FORMAT YOUR SYSTEM. When you’ve located this tick the box that reads ”Turn Off System Restore” as this is a well know place for viruses to attach themselves to. Now you should restart your PC and continually tap “F8” as the system is booting (this means start pressing “F8” as soon as the system starts to power on) if done correctly you will see a menu listing various different options, at the top of which is an option called “Safe Mode” this is a way of loading your operating system with absolutely nothing running in the background so don’t panic when it finally loads as it will look VERY basic. In “Safe Mode” most of the drivers will not be initialized. The next step is to re-run your Anti-Virus package because in this mode it may find the rogue virus that you cannot remove.

If the above steps still fail to remove the virus then there is one last thing to try, write down the name of the virus and then open your internet homepage, or whichever search engine you favour, and type in the name of the virus followed by “Removal Instructions” at this stage if it is a know virus there will be specific programs and or deletion steps advised to be taken, this may involve additional downloads or deletion of certain files in the registry. I cannot stress enough at this point if you are at this stage and you don’t feel confident poking around in the registry of your PC it’s time to give Rapid Web a call because if you delete the wrong items in the registry this could lead to loss of data or worse still it could cause your PC to stop working altogether.

So what if it’s not a virus it’s actually Spyware? Well you can follow the same steps as above the only real difference is the software you use to remove this, we can recommend 2 products for this, again personal choice but very effective, one of which is called Spybot: Search And Destroy – free version available here: http://www.safer-networking.org/en/spybotsd/index.html and the other is Adaware 2007 by Lavasoft which you can get from here: http://www.lavasoftusa.com/products/ad_aware_free.php again free version. As before just make sure both programs are up to date before using them as these can also take some time to complete.

Ok, so we’ve all heard that Microsoft are producing another operating system called Windows 7 but will it be any good? After their last lack lustre release of Windows Vista will people still put their hard earned cash into another Microsoft flight of fancy? Well after having used the release candidate version, that has been available for several months now free of charge, I can say YES! It’s everything Vista should have been! Over the next few weeks our techie supremos will break down the main features for you, perform comparisons to the current Windows XP favourite that the majority of us are still using and give some hints and tips to lesser known features from an end users point of view. Below is a little taster of things to come.

Let’s start with how it installs, after all this will be the first step for anyone, if you’re upgrading from Vista the install process can take a while as Windows 7 will change the settings and keep all the user information as is on your system but as with any new OS (operating System) it’s always advised to do a fresh install. I’ve been a techie for quite a number of years now and as with all techies anything that happens REALLY quickly gets us excited, I have quite a mid range PC just now (AMD X2 6000 processor, 4 gig RAM, 4800 series ATI graphics card) nothing particularly punchy, sure it’s not the slowest of PC’s but for the hardware that’s out there at the minute its mid range for sure. From putting the disc into the drive, allowing the CD drive as the first boot device and selecting the type of install I would like to perform it took 20 minutes, that’s right 20 MINUTES! I was astonished, sure it was missing a couple of drivers but only a couple, bearing in mind I installed this months ago when there was little to no drivers available an all round great result so already I’m impressed.

If anyone has used the help system in Windows XP or Vista you’ll know it’s pretty dilute however not so in Windows 7, it advised me that it had problems installing my Creative X-Fi sound card and would I like to use the online support, here we go I thought, a breadcrumb trail that leads nowhere… it proved me wrong! It advised me that I needed to download an additional driver from the creative site and put the web address on-screen for me, I thought ok, it’s better than the last help and support but I know where the homepage is, I clicked on the link anyway just to see where it would lead me. As I clicked the link a download dialog page appeared asking me where I would like to download the driver too, GENIUS! Although I’m not sure I should have got so excited about an enormous company like Microsoft finally getting their help and support system finally working after 2 OS’s and over 10 years of development.

What this does show us though is that Microsoft is finally listening to customers’ feedback about how users would like the software to work with the key responses being “…just make the features included work correctly and quickly…” – sadly something that Vista fell short on, very short.  So next time on the blog we’re going to go through some of the new features of Windows 7 and how they compare to Windows XP and the equivalent Vista features, stay tuned.

Here is our follow on article on the Look and Feel of Windows 7.

Why is Google naming the latest development version of their search algorithms after the main component of my morning beverage? And more importantly, will the new ‘Caffeine’ algorithms really put the ever expanding Bing in the shade more than it already is?

Earlier this week, Google let slip the development of the ‘Caffeine’ algorithms. The new algorithms are designed to ensure new and fresh content (in terms of time-sensitive news and articles) appear at the top of search engines meaning it will soon become even more important that websites keep their content up-to-date where appropriate. Although these changes will have a significant issue for search engine optimisers, many end-users of Google may not notice the difference as Google’s current web interface is not going anywhere, and thus for many, these changes will go unnoticed apart from perhaps the odd more relevant search result.

Bing – Microsoft’s search engine – is soon to become the search engine which powers Yahoo search, and will likely become Google’s only major competitor in both the UK and US search markets. This will make for some ne and interesting challenges for SEO optimising for the new Google and Bing algorithms. However, removing the Yahoo algorithms from the search engine optimisation equation entirely will certainly benefit many websites that already rank well in Google and Bing, or indeed Live Search from which Bing inherited its index and many of its initial search algorithms.

For more information on search engine optimisation in general please see our dedicated SEO services page, or to see how we are doing in ever advanced optimisations see our Live SEO Rankings page which automatically updates to show the latest results for a small selection of our clients’ targeted keywords and their positions in Google, Bing/Live and Yahoo.

Any other questions? Feel free to comment just below or contact us directly.