Front page stories in newspapers across the globe this past week warned that a flaw in the most popular communications protocol for sending data on the Internet could allow hackers to shut down the Net.
However, as the week progressed, Paul Watson, a security specialist working in Vancouver, British Columbia, stated that reports about the flaw were overblown. He referred to the media reaction as an “inordinate level of attention in respect to the amount of risk.”
Malicious code has been unearthed that can exploit the flaw, but experts say the risk of real-world problems remains fairly low.

Why You Shouldn’t Turn Off Your PC — Or Not
Yes, the debate continues. Brian Cooley, Editor-at-Large for ZDNet magazines, states “My position in the debate: I say, forget the thing even has a power switch. Leave it on … the average PC draws something like 60 watts in normal operation … so, we’re talking maybe $120 per year … (as for) wear and tear … the only part of a PC you really worry about breaking is the hard drive. My Seagate Barracuda is a 600,000-hour part … that’s about 69 years, always on.”
On the other side of the argument: From the standpoint of energy conservation, it’s better to turn computers off when they’re not in use, if only to save half of the power costs for the year. From an operational perspective, a periodic shutdown can benefit most computers. This is because PCs tend to accumulate errors in memory as they are used. The best way to clear out system memory errors is simply to shutdown and reboot the computer from time to time.
The compromise: leave your PC on during the day; shut it down at night.
PC World: 68 Tips & Tricks for Windows
And, finally this week, in the upcoming issue of PC World, the world’s best-selling consumer computer magazine offers computer users a range of tips designed to keep your computer safe from hackers, edit the send-to menu in the right-click dialogue box, employ Windows shortcut ‘hotkeys’ to speed task completion, and much much more.

Raymond Tomlin

Raymond Tomlin is a veteran journalist and educator who has written frequently on the political realm — municipal, provincial and federal — as well as on cinema, mainstream popular culture, the arts, and technology.

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