rob cheng

The Ultimate Internet Super Speed Guide

internet speed

We’ve been analyzing performance of computers for well over 10 years, and there is another sub system that can impact the performance just about as much as any of your traditional sub systems such as memory and processor. That is your internet connection. In today’s world, you really cannot run your PC well without an internet connection. Even when I am writing an article like this, I prefer to be connected to the internet to do on-the-fly fact checking, or quick synonyms, or whatever. This guide will tell you everything you need to know about your internet connection and how to get the most out of it.

The Ultimate Internet Super Speed Guide Read More »

Email is NOT dead

email

If you read the press lately, one would think that email is on its death bed. There are primarily two reasons why people are predicting email’s demise. First, people are using Facebook for email and the CEO, Mark Zuckenburg thought that they might give Google Gmail a run for its money with its Gmail service.

Email is NOT dead Read More »

The Sad Tale of my Broken Sony Laptop

November 3rd, 2010 was a sad day for me. I woke up from a sound sleep, and reached for my trusty Sony laptop at the foot of the bed. The peace from a good night’s sleep was quickly replaced with horror. My beautiful Sony laptop was broken. The screen was almost separated from the laptop’s body and keyboard. Apparently, while I was sleeping, my youngest son, Jesse (1 year 10 months), quietly slipped into the room and started banging on the keyboard.

The Sad Tale of my Broken Sony Laptop Read More »

The World of Computer Security

Thanks for the tremendous response to our last piece analyzing the state of the security industry. We firmly believe that using cloud technology can help us better understand security issues and therefore make better security products. In this edition, we decided to analyze the distinctions between security in different parts of the world. We analyzed which types of security threats were most prevalent by region. We also analyzed which security software was most prevalent by region.

The World of Computer Security Read More »

Detecting Facebook Security Problems

I joined FaceBook roughly about 1 year ago, and I have truly enjoyed the experience. I have connected with many old friends and relatives. Without FaceBook none of this would be possible, and hence my life is a little richer. But and this is a big but, Facebook is evolving into a dangerous place.

Let me give an actual example of how one can be tricked into downloading badware when on Facebook. First, I would like to introduce an old friend of mine, Duffy Conway. Duffy worked at Gateway in sales, and was consistently one of the company’s top producers. I left Gateway over 10 years ago, and I was delighted to have Duffy as my friend on Facebook.

Detecting Facebook Security Problems Read More »

The State of PC Security

PC Pitstop Research analyzed 50,258 computers and found the following:

  • 23% of computers have no active security protection.
  • 14% of the computers had some sort of high level threat.
  • Spyware is the most common malware threat followed by Rogue Security Software.
  • Kaspersky protects the best against Rogue Security Software and Trend Micro is the worst.
  • Symantec protects against spyware the best, and Kaspersky the worst.
  • Trend protects the best against keyloggers and Avast fares the worst.
  • Kaspersky protects against viruses the best, and Symantec tails the pack.

The State of PC Security Read More »

Extreme PC MakeOver #3

By Rob Cheng

I ran into Mark Tobias here in Rio de Janeiro. We were both attending a party to commemorate the third anniversary of the passing of a dear friend of ours, Doug Matheson. I soon found out that Mark is known as the tax man. No, he doesn’t work for the IRS, so don’t fly an airplane into his building. He is the software tax man. As our sales tax code gets continually more complex, Mark is the expert that writes the software to make sure that all the sales tax codes are being followed when we make an online transaction.

Extreme PC MakeOver #3 Read More »

10 Years of Making PCs Faster and Live Longer

PC Pitstop is 10 years old. Can you believe it? That’s right, PC Pitstop officially opened its doors in March 2000, exactly 10 years ago. As a former SVP at Gateway Computers, I had noticed that support costs were growing faster than revenue. “There had to be a way to automate the process of diagnosing and fixing common computer ailments”, I thought. And voilà, PC Pitstop was born.

Our tests were revolutionary for its time using principles of cloud computing that would become popular close to a half decade later. As millions of computers came to our web site for PC help, we were also able to collect the world’s largest database of PC statistics.

10 Years of Making PCs Faster and Live Longer Read More »