I’ve been using Windows 7 since early beta and have overall been pleased with the OS.  I won’t bore you with a lengthy review (there are plenty of other articles on the Internet for that); instead, I’ll give you some basic information that you should be aware of before you install Windows 7.

Like Windows Vista, there are several different versions of Windows 7 that you can buy. Which version you decide to purchase depends on the features you’re looking for. For example, bitlocker encryption isn’t available in the home or professional versions. For more information, see the “Which one is right for you” page on Microsoft’s website.

If you’re upgrading from Windows Vista, you should be able to simply launch the installer from within Vista and go from there. However, if you’re upgrading from Windows XP, you’ll need to upgrade in a completely different way by rebooting with the Windows 7 install disc, and selecting the drive where your current install lives. This is essentially a clean install of the OS (which is actually a good thing). Back up all of your important data such as documents, pictures and emails before proceeding, and prepare to reinstall any programs you had running under Windows XP since they will also be deleted in this process.

One important thing to remember: Windows 7 no longer comes with a mail client. If you aren’t using XMission Webmail, You can download a copy of Mozilla Thunderbird which is an excellent mail program. You can also download Windows Mail by itself or as part of Microsoft’s Windows Live Essentials.

Finally, if you were worried about not being able to use some of your favorite free programs such as Mozilla Firefox, Thunderbird, FileZilla and free virus scanners AVG and Avast, fear not! We’ve tested out all of these programs under Windows 7 and they all run wonderfully.

If you’re wondering whether or not your existing XP or Vista computer can run Windows 7, there’s an app for that (Windows 7 upgrade advisor).  If you need help backing up your important data or installing the upgrade, give the guys at geekbox a call and they can help you out.

I can assure you that the Internet did not evolve with your privacy in mind. Did you know that every search you make is recorded and archived by the search company? This is standard practice for every major search engine such as Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc.

A friend pointed me to a Firefox web browser plug-in called Scroogle which would allow me to privatize my searches. Scroogle serves as a Google search proxy making it so Google cannot track searches to build a profile and gather information on you. Scroogle destroys cookies and purges all logs within 2 days.

Scroogle plug-in for Firefox works great and even blocks the ads within your search. The company is run by GoogleWatch.

You may also refer to proxy.org for a list of web browsing proxy sites. Web proxies are not as convenient as a browser plug-in but are ideal for some situations.

XM

Register now at http://attend.utosc.com. Registration lasts until October 10, 2009 but you’ll save some money if you register before September 19.

To read about the presenters, keynotes, activities, workshops and more, please visit http://2009.utosc.com

Thanks to the Utah Open Source Conference for extending this discount!

Apple’s ‘Software Update…’ will not notify of this critical update. Please head to Version test for Adobe Flash Player to test if you are running an old version 10,0,23,1. If so, download and install the update.

Here are the details:

Ignite Salt Lake 3 (visit their website)
Thursday, August 20, 2009
6:00 – 10:00 pm
Admission is Free

Murray Theater
4959 South State Street
Murray, Utah

In partnership with Utah Free Media, XMission will sponsor a live video broadcast from the event. You can access the broadcast at www.utahfm.org

XMission is the primary sponsor for tonight’s Twilight Concert Series.

Come on down to the Gallivan Center Plaza to hear Sonic Youth and Awesome Color along with a few thousand of your closest friends.

Click on image to see larger sized version of this poster by Casey Burns (posted by Sonic Youth):

Don’t forget that XMission provides free wifi on the plaza so you can stay connected whenever you are at the Gallivan.

Stop by our booth and say “Hi” to the XMission crew!

When:
Friday, June 19, 2009
9 p.m. to 10:30 p.m.

Where:
BFS Warehouse
555 South 400 West
Salt Lake City, UT 84101

This collection, which focuses on graphics hardware, includes:

• SGI workstations and servers from the Personal Iris 4D/25 through a 4 rack SGI Reality Monster
• Tektronix graphics terminals from storage scope terminals like the 4010 and 4014 to raster terminals like the 4105 and 4205.
• Evans & Sutherland products including ESV workstations with CDRS 6.0 and Advanced Rendering System, Freedom series graphics accelerators, and ESIG image generators
• Aesthedes graphic design system
• Control Data Corporation CC545 Console
• Megatek 3D graphics terminal with the coolest keyboard you’ve ever seen

Additional information about the museum can be found here.

BetaLoft is located at 357 West 200 South, and is open from 9 a.m. To 5 p.m. You can choose to purchase a part-time membership for access during normal business hours, or a full-time membership for 24/7 access.

Amenities include:

• various work spaces
• high speed Internet
• conference rooms + equipment
• media production facilities

Check out the BetaLoft site for additional details.

Phishing emails are dangerous and have potentially catastrophic effects.

One particular type of phishing email could be the most malicious of them all: an email pretending to be your email provider that asks you for your account and personal information. Do not be fooled.

Read below and learn about phishing attacks, what you can do and what XMission does to protect your accounts.

How phishing attacks happen.

Phishing is an elaborate form of data and identity theft. It works by persuading users to respond to emails asking for personal information or to go to a website where information can be entered. These are so effective because the emails usually look trustworthy and sound like plausible scenarios.

How to spot a phishing email.

While phishing emails often differ, they almost always look legitimate and always ask you for something confidential.

Examples of email subjects:

• “Verify Your Account”
• “Email Upgrade”
• “Update Your Email Account”
• “Your email account has been suspended!”

Examples of From:

• “Xmission Admin”
• “Support”
• “Webmail Support Team”
• “email@xmission.com”

Example of a Phishing body:

Confirm your email account by filling in the details below:

Username:

Password:

Why it’s so difficult to stop.

Often, phishing emails come for legitimate email accounts that have been compromised, which is what XMission has been dealing with recently.

Phishers use a variety of camouflage techniques to avoid being detected by our antispam/antiphishing systems by using:

• Random letters or famous quotes in the subject or in the body of the email;
• Invisible text in HTML emails;
• HTML or Java content instead of plain text;
• Pictures only (no other text in the email body).

Potential consequences:

By replying or following links inside emails like these you can do more damage than you might imagine.

Common Examples of what phishers can do:

• Use your information to run up your bank accounts
• Open new accounts, credit cards, loan or contracts in your name
• Have access to all of the confidential emails you receive from your bank

Don’t fall for it:

Follow these tips to stay safe:

• Don’t ever reply to emails that ask for personal/confidential information
• Forward the email to spam@xmission.com and then promptly delete it
• Do not click links in emails unless you were expecting the email
• Do not fill in forms that request information. Any trustful provider will use a secure website and digital certificate

Safety:

Customers with “@xmission.com” email addresses can verify that they have spam filtering enabled on your account, this catches almost all phishing attempts. You can verify that filtering is enabled by going to http://webmail.xmission.com and entering your login information. There you will find a button called, “Filters”. Business customers have filtering enabled already, unless requested otherwise. If you have questions, you can always go to http://chat.xmission.com and talk with one of our technical staff or call us at 801-539-0852.

Use an antivirus program that helps detect malicious emails and websites

What XMission does to protect you:

We have full time staff that monitors incoming and outgoing email for spam, phishing and other potentially harmful traffic

XMission uses Spamassassin on its five email scanning servers (http://spamassassin.apache.org) and is constantly writing rules to account for trends in spam and phishing emails (see: What is Spamassassin below)

We have Email Admins available around the clock to respond to phishing emails.

We keep details statistics that you can view at: http://postmaster.xmission.com

Our systems have been configured to automatically detect phishing emails and notify our staff

What is Spamassassin?

Excerpt from spamassassin.apache.org

SpamAssassin uses a wide variety of local and network tests to identify spam signatures. This makes it harder for spammers to identify one aspect which they can craft their messages to work around.

If you’d like to get into the details of our filters, you can visit:

http://postmaster.xmission.com/senders/spamassassin/