Jicola.com Blogs

Earth Hour is on tonight 8:30-9:30pm. You can read more about Earth Hour on their website. http://www.earthhour.org/home/

Yesterday, Myspace launched a IM chat feature on their website, very similar to the one on Facebook.
You can read more about Facebook IM at http://www.myspace.com/aplaceforim

StuNews is a new website brought to you by Jicola.com.
StuNews brings you the headlines of what is going on in Technology, Entertainment and more.

If you have a news story, please let us know on our Got a Tip page, otherwise, you can write your own news on our Submit News page on the StuNews Website. http://stunews.jicola.com

In the time being, all StuNew posts will appear on Jicola.com Blogs in promotion of StuNews.

Happy reading!

Who would want to live down this road?

Just to let everyone know, we have done the best we could to restore all our posts that we lost from now to the beginning of February. However, so information on the post times were lost or are out of position.

We hope that we all the posts back online, otherwise it was ‘wasted work’.

So if you notice a post missing, please let us know, so we can track it down and upload it.

You may notice some duplicate posts as well.

Also note: we have lost our pictures assigned to the posts.

There are many ways that you can stay in contact with Jicola.com Blogs to get the latest news and updates.

Recently, we just developed a referral script which allows you to send a message to your friends telling them how good our site is. You can access the form at the bottom of the sidebar on our home page and other pages. Just enter your friends email address, your name and your email (so your friends know who you are) and a custom message.

Other ways to stay up-to-date is to add http://blogs.jicola.com/feed to your Google Reader account or other RSS reader. You can also subscribe to other readers by click on the subscribe which is on top of the sidebar.

If you are a registered member of Jicola.com Blogs, you are automatically subscribed to our Weekly Newsletter which sends out a snippet of all our posts that were made in that week. If you would like to subscribe to our newsletter, simply enter your email address on the form on the sidebar, or register an account

Registering an account with Jicola.com Blogs is easy. You can create your own account or login with your Gmail account or Open ID account. By doing so, you can comment, manage your email subscription and more.

So what are you waiting for? Register and account, subscribe to the newsletter, subscribe to the RSS feed and refer your friends to Jicola.com Blogs

Viruses, spyware, adware, malware, Trojan  can be really annoying once on your computer. So here are some tips on how to prevent and remove viruses.

To prevent a virus:

1. Don’t visit to un-trusted website’s - One of the most common ways to get a virus on your computer is through website’s. So if you visit illegal website’s such as illegal software, cracks and pornography, you greatly increase the chance of downloading viruses. Be very careful of what website’s you visit.

2. Don’t install unnecessary software - Some software, particularly free software may install adware or spyware on your computer. So make sure you carefully read the T&C before installing to see what they contain.

3. Regular update your windows PC though windows update - People are always finding ways to access  computers though the Windows Operating System, and Microsoft constantly updates their OS, so make sure you download the patches to fix the vulnerabilities in the system.

4. Install only trusted sources - If you don’t trust a program or a website, don’t visit it and don’t install it. Simple.

5. Use anti-virus software and regular scan your computer - If you don’t follow the guides above, you must do this one, if you do follow the guide, you could probably get a way with it. But to be on the safe side, make sure you have an anti-virus program installed and is up-too-date.

6. Don’t connect to unsecured wireless networks - If you do roam the streets looking for free Internet, the computers you connect to may be infected by a virus that could spread to your computer. Also, if you have shared files, people could access them, install programs, delete your files and cause havoc to your computer.

To remove a virus:

1. Run MSCONFIG and untick any startup programs not wanted - This can improve boot time of your computer. Making the virus not run on start up could stop that program sending data to their network, increasing the chances of them stealing personal data.

2. Do a System Restore - A system restore reverts you computer back to a point in time. So if you, or a virus has done something bad to the Windows system files the registry, or installed an exe files or batch files, this could remove it and fix your computer

3. Run a virus checker - scan your computer with a Anti-virus program which may detected and delete the virus. This is the easiest way to remove a virus.

4. Backup your files and format your computer - The most effective way to remove a virus, is to start your computer for scratch. A fresh install of the operating system. If you would like help with this, visit www.techmanhelp.com. Remember to back up your documents and files first.

Our next post will tell you how to detect a virus on your computer.

Fox has just ordered another two seasons of The Simpson’s making the family of 5 the longest running prime-time series in US TV history.

The Simpson’s began airing in December 1989 and is up to its 20th Season.

There will be a total of 44 episodes in season’s 21 and 22 which will bring the total number of episodes to 493.

Although this post does not co-inside with posts on this blog, I am just a huge fan of the Simpson’s.

Currently, their is a feature in Microsoft Windows that allows you to deny the Automatic Updates for Windows Service Packs. However, this will change.

For Windows Vista users, on 28th April, 2009, you will be forced to download and install Service Pack 1. Service Pack 2 will not be forced on you to upgrade.

For XP users, 19th May is the day that you will not be able to block the update.

For some PC users, this will be timely and costly. If you are still a dial-up user, the update will take a while and Internet time outs my make it impossible to update, using your Internet speed every day.

For broadband users on limited bandwidth (Telstra Bigpond 200mb plan), at 15 cents per megabyte, a forced upgrade to your computer will be costly. If your on this plan, you basically loose 15 days of not using the Internet because your computer will be heavily downloading this update.

You may have noticed that our website may have been down the past couple of days, and this is due to a failed Hard Drive and Corrupt backups from the web host.

The backup being restored is from 5th of Feb, so our recent posts have been lost, but these posts have been kept elsewhere which will soon be uploaded.

In the mean time, new posts will be stopped until it is clear that more recent backups where kept.