Comments on: Terry’s Computer Tips newsletters June 14th

By: Corrine

Corrine — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 21:42:13 +0000

Re: SunJava

Hi, Terry. I thought I would pass along this additional information regarding SunJava for your readers.

Older versions of SunJava (up to JRE 6 update 7) indeed did remain when updates were installed and need to be removed as the older versions of SunJava are highly vulnerable to infection (i.e., Winfixer/Vundo).

With a lot of Microsoft MVP nagging, it took from 2005 until the update late last year to JRE 6 update 10 for Sun Microsystems to get the autoupdater of SunJava to overwrite previous (vulnerable) versions of the program. Updates from JRE 6 Update 10 forward are in a self-contained “jre6″ folder that is overwritten if a new JRE is installed.

Even when using the most up-to-date version of SunJava, if older, vulnerable, version(s) are still on the computer, it is vulnerable to infection. Unfortunately, simply using Add/Remove programs to uninstall the old versions is not completely affective. I strongly advise removing old versions of SunJava and agree with Ron’s recommendation to use JavaRa.

JavaRa will remove the left-overs through JRE 6 update 7 that are missed in an normal uninstall of Java. (Windows Vista or Windows 7 users need to right-click the JavaRa.exe and Run as Administrator.)

After running JavaRa, the latest version of Java can be downloaded from http://java.sun.com/javase/downloads/index.jsp

Note: UNCHECK any pre-checked toolbar and/or software options presented with the SunJava software. They are not part of the software update and are completely optional.

Regards,

Corrine

By: Ron

Ron — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 13:55:37 +0000

Regarding the “User Questions About Java”, here’s a pointer to a website/tool to help you cleanup after those Java updates … JavaRa

http://raproducts.org/javara.html

btw, thanks for your efforts!

By: Clif

Clif — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 06:32:20 +0000

Hi Terry, check your spelling in this line:
you have not fixed theh security problem.

Happens to the best of us.

Now onto the Question …
Does anyone else hate the idea of multiple versions of Java installed?

Check out JavaRa to ditch those older versions.
http://freewarewiki.com/JavaRa

Don’t even try to remove these manually. I’ve tried and it’s a real headache if not done properly.

Best wishes, Great letter as usual.

Clif
http://freewarewiki.com/NewsLetters

By: David

David — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 21:57:33 +0000

Re. digitising vinyl. I have done this extensively in the past, both with records and tapes, and earned the “been there, done that” T-shirt. I would juat like to add my two penn’orth. (It’s just as good as two cents’ worth, being British!). I use the ubiquitous Audacity for my recordings and I could probably write a whole article on that alone, having played around with just about every available “effect” and tool in the program. If the end result is to be like a commercial CD, i.e. with all the tracks topped and tailed and track markers in the right places, the process is really rather laborious. I have yet to find any software that can accurately put automatic track markers in the right places 100% of the time, most being fooled by fade-ins, fade-outs, quiet beginnings, etc. Also if tracks need extensive “cleaning” (de-clicking, equalising, etc.), that can also take a great deal of time. I find that most of the automated functions are easily beaten by good old-fashioned hard graft, using all the toys and tools that are available in Audacity.