Wanderings of a RuinExplorer

I have always harbored mixed feelings concerning parental control. For the longest time, my argument was that education, making sure the PC was in a public place in the house, and instilling good values in users was enough. Now I understand that there is always extenuating circumstances. The problem with Internet filters and the like is that they can only be as good as the designer. I remember working on a pc that had an early version of a church sponsored Internet filter. The problem was, the little girl using the computer couldn’t get any site on bunnies to come up. You see, the filter had been programmed that bunnies (playboy bunnies) was inappropriate material. Myself, I used a pc with a filter disallowing weapons, so my eBay search for 12 gauge sheet steel for blacksmithing was disallowed (12 gauge shotgun). Now to the tools. The other major concern with parental control is to put enough in place to protect the user without either losing their trust, or making the PC so locked tha...

In addition to cleaning and optimizing your system, there are a number of free programs out there to make your computer ’useful.’ This list contains all the software I would normally put on a Windows computer just after installing the operating system and protection programs. Firefox First and foremost, Internet Explorer and I don’t get along and quite honestly, it doesn’t have the interface or add-on features that I feel are critical surfing today’s internet. Firefox has a slick interface, seemingly has less direct threat from malware, and if you couple it with the Adblock Plus add-on, I guarantee you will enjoy your internet surfing experience much more as it will be unhindered by unwanted advertisements*. Once Adblock Plus is installed subscribe to the EasyList filter subscription and update it. Adobe: So much of the web has been given serious dynamic graphical presence and interaction from adobe add-ons that there is a whole suite of programs you need installed to...

It's quite common to hear about how you processor (CPU) or amount of memory (RAM) will impact your system's speed, but fragmentation, overstuffed hard drives, and a messy registry can be a drag on performance as well. Before beginning optimization, you will want to have already given your system a decent scub as malware and viruses wreck havoc on optimization efforts. But assuming you've got some virus software installed and up to date, a good protection suite, and a basic janitor program like CCleaner , you should be good to go. A Hard Clean: If you find that CCleaner wasn't able to get all the little pieces that you want removed in a scub session, I recommend Super AntiSpyware Free Edition . I use this program for deep malware cases and uninstall the program after it's completed it's task. The program is great for all kinds of things, but tends to be a little bit of a nagware itself in pushing its commercial version. The Registry: Trying to explain the window...

I'm frequently asked questions regarding computer cleaning, viruses, malware, spyware, and optimization. Often times it's due to either a perceived lack of funds or education required to do system maintenance. The surprisingly positive answer to many of these questions come in free downloadable tools you can use to address such issues. Now I openly admit that when it comes to tools used to address these kinds of problems, sometimes the tools themselves can be just as bad. Well, here is the fist in a couple of posts addressing some of the best tools I've found and since cleaning and optimization go hand in hand, the topics will be covered somewhat together. Basic Cleaning/Protection: Whether you have a new system you want protected, or suspect you have a system that could benefit from a good cleaning, this is where I would start. AVG Antivirus Free Edition : ( direct link ) A good approach to cleaning and protecting a system starts with a good antivirus pro...

There are literally thousands of games in the domain of freeware, however I think of most interest are games that were originally released as commercial titles that have been given by the copyright owner to the freeware community. Commercial software understandably has a higher polish and quality associated with it (at least on average, open source is making leaps and bounds). Some game developers (the most respected by many) have taken it upon themselves to give back to the community that supports them. They release software titles as freeware once the main profitable lifespan of the product has run. ID Software was a forerunner and made a huge statement when they released Doom as freeware (only 4 years after its commercial release!). Doom had been one of the most popular first person shooters of all time and ID felt that it had made its money and it was time to release not only the game, but the source. This allowed for a huge community development of mods, levels, and for many u...

The problem with waiting to do something until you know you can do it perfectly is pretty obvious, you never start. I mean without the practice and evolution caused by repeatedly making a mistake, correcting it, learning how to avoid it, gaining insight on what works and what doesn’t, how do you get any better let alone perfect? Thus I start. Years after I tagged http://ruinexplorer.blogspot.com/ and then continuously checking up on an empty blog so that my site squatting wasn’t lost, I finally make a friggin post. I have several online resources, many with only sparse if any content. All are grossly outdated. I have been toying recently with this idea of finally consolidating resources so that I have a somewhat coherent online presence as I did a long time ago, back when a few hundred kilobytes of web presence was something to be proud of. Now we have MySpace, FaceBook, MSN Spaces, Yahoo Spaces, and the new entry into world domination we fondly call Google… There are ...