Phishing for Compliments

If you're like me, you probably get 5-10 emails weekly from thieves who are trying to get your Paypal or eBay passwords. Some of them can be very realistic looking. Paypal has released a short tutorial on how to spot fake emails from these folks. You can read about it here.

Vista Flavors

Many of you have been hearing about the new version of Windows, called Vista, which is due out sometime in 2006 (hopefully). What's going to be confusing, though, is that they will be releasing six versions of the software! Three will be aimed at home/home office, two at business, and one for emerging markets. I'll have to see the features before I decide which versions will be appropriate for dental offices. You can read the details here.

Hard Drive Cloning

I'm a big fan of software that allows you to clone or image your entire hard drive. While I've used Ghost or True Image before, why not use a free program if it exists? Enter HD Clone. HDClone Free Edition enables you to move the content from an entire hard drive to another, larger one. The program installs itself on a bootable floppy or CD, and includes it`s own operating system, so it runs completely independent from Windows. Once HDClone has created the bootable floppy or CD for you, you can use it to boot your computer and copy the drive content to the new (installed) drive, using a graphical interface. The free version is perfectly suitable to upgrade your existing drive to a larger one. It supports IDE/ATA/SATA hard disks and is able to copy up to 300 MB/min.

Wireless Fun

Many of the dentists we work with are using wireless Internet, usually at home and sometimes in the office as well. While a wireless network can be used to share the connection, many people forget that you can use that same wireless connection for many things, such as streaming video and pictures, playing music, or using a webcam to monitor your home or office. This site offers a good review of the different applications and some of the best products for those applications.

Treo 700W Disappoints?

I know a lot of people who read this log use Smartphones. I used to use the Treo 650 but switched to the Samsung i730 about 8 months and I love it. Recently, the first non-Palm Treo, the 700W, was released (the W stands for Windows Mobile). According to one of the most comprehensive reviews I've seen, they have a ways to go.

New Canon 30D

I've always been a huge fan of the Canon digital cameras, and I know many people out there have one. If you've been waiting for a great digital camera, then wait no longer. Canon recently announced the 30D, and it looks like it will be released in the next few weeks. You can read all the specs here.

Photo Printers

While I'm a big fan of inkjet printers for day to day printing, you don't really need that if all you're printing are photos. Thermal dye printers have been around for a long time and do a great job at a good price if all you need is 4" X 6" prints. Two of my current favorites are the Canon Selphy CP510 ($100) and the Samsung SPP-2040 ($150).

Freeware Alternatives

I'm always looking for lists of free software. What's really nice about Neowin's list is that they are broken down by category, such as antivirus, image tools, network utilities, and many others. Definitely worth spending some time to download and try these programs out; you may be pleasantly surprised.

Taking it to the Web

Almost everyone that uses a computer also uses a word processor like Microsoft Word. Almost all of those same people find Microsoft office incredibly expensive. Not only that, the documents you create are confined to your computer and you must send them as unsafe attachments if you want to share them with others. Wouldn't it be nice if all of this could be done over the web? (You already know my answer).


There are three main programs that I found online that all do this to a varying degree. These are Writely, Zoho Writer, and RallyPoint. Writely is the easiest of the tree, although it is missing a few advanced features like spell checking or mail merge. Zoho Writer allows you to export the document you create as a Word or PDF file. All three allow you to easily share and collaborate on documents. Very cool stuff.

Invisible Cat5

Here's one that makes a lot of sense: invisible Ethernet cable. Ok, well, while not invisible, at less than 0.1" thick, you can easily cover it up. Designed for homes, it would seem to be a natural fit for many dental offices that are struggling with how to hide their unsightly network cables.

Portable X-Ray

I never knew this was a hop topic, but it seems that the world of portable x-ray units is heating up. I've talked about the Nomad system before. Now, enter MinXray. They've been around since 1967 and have specialized in military installations and nursing homes. Something like this is ideal for satellite offices or field clinics.

Radiography Congress

As much as I enjoy lecturing and writing on Digital Radiography, I realize that there are plenty of people out there who know a lot about this topic. A great resource to learn as much as you can about this is the 2nd Annual Digital Radiography Congress, being held in New York City in May. It’s my understanding that they don’t have a final list of speakers, so if you know someone at Advanstar, feel free to put in a good word for me. Even if I’m not speaking, I’ll definitely be there.

Take Care of #1

For many of us, sitting at a computer all day can cause a lot of stress to our eyes and bodies. Here's a great site that lists many ways you can reduce stress and fatigue by making some really simple adjustments.

Mac Virus

You know all those annoying Mac fans who have been bragging for years that Mac's don't get viruses? Well, that streak has officially come to an end. The Internet has been abuzz today about the first virus to be found in the wild that targets Mac OS X. While there's been some debate about whether it's truly a virus, most of the major security firms classify it as a worm, a subsection of viruses. Here's the gory details.

Sensor Slipper

Here's one of those "why didn't I think of that" products. It's called the Sensor Slipper from Strong Dental Products. This is basically a plastic barrier sheath that appears to have something very similar to an Edge-Ease built into the sheath. This foam pad provides comfort for the sensor. There are adhesive tabs on the ends that allow you to use these with traditional RINN kits or similar devices; you can use the ones you already use. I haven't tried this yet, but the concept seems very sound.

Office Goes Live

Today, Microsoft announces the release of their Office Live product. It's designed for small businesses (like dental practices). Here's what it does:

Today, an online presence is almost a requirement for small business success. That’s why Microsoft is introducing Microsoft® Office Live—a set of affordable business productivity services designed to help you grow your business more easily by establishing a professional presence online.

Microsoft Office Live will provide your company with its own domain name, Web site, and e-mail accounts for free.

Additionally, Microsoft Office Live will offer you and your employees expert business management applications, such as customer, project, and document management tools, and a security-enhanced private Web site—affordably managed and maintained by Microsoft—where you can work together and share information with your employees, customers, suppliers, and contractors.

Blogger Issues

As many of you have noticed, Blogger is still have numerous problems. I'm working with my web designers to relocate the blog to a more dependable hosting solution, so please bear with us as we try to resolve this issue.

Patterson to Offer Remote Support (Finally)

I'm a huge fan of remote access software like VNC and LogMeIn. We couldn't run our business without it. I'm glad to see that the major players in our industry are now offering this remote support as well. Patterson recently announced they will be offering this to their customers. Here's the specifics:

Patterson Dental Supply, Inc. introduces Remote Support, an online tool allowing customers to share their desktop with the Patterson support staff to troubleshoot, send and receive files or perform step-by-step training on the spot.

Powered by WebEX, Remote Support allows your support specialist to annotate and highlight information on the customer's screen, view system information such as available RAM to ensure optimum performance, and confirm proper installation and configuration of your software.

Remote Support is available to Patterson EagleSoft, Patterson hardware, Schick digital X-ray, eMagine and CEREC customers Monday through Thursday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. CST and Friday from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. CST. For more information about Remote Support , call the support team at the Patterson Technology Center at 1-800-475-5036 or contact a local Patterson Technology Representative.

New Windows Defender

One of my favorite free applications the past year has been Windows Beta AntiSpyware, which was renamed Windows Defender a few months ago. While it was recently in the news as a bug caused it to identify Norton AntiVirus as spyware (that bug was fixed), it's still an excellent product. Beta 2 of the program was just released today, so go here to download it if you're looking for a good, free antispyware product.

File Sharing Done Right

Here's a great little service I found recently: Avvenu. It's basically a service that allows you to download and share your files and folders online. It's not remote access like VNC in that you don't control a desktop. However, it has some very cool features. First off, you determine which files to share and with whom and for how long. Secondly, you can download those files directly to your computer, not something you can do with VNC. Finally, it works with almost any smartphone or PDA. Very cool, works with any firewall, and best of all...it's free. Check it out.

Early Protection

I've read a number of reports online that show that an improperly protected computer that connects online will typically be infected within minutes. Since I know people are getting new computers all the time, I found this great article that explains the 10 things you should do to a new computer before you go online. You can check it out here.

Effortless Sharing

This is probably the coolest application I've yet seen on the web: Glide Effortless. It's a bit hard to describe everything it does but basically, it allows you to store almost every type of file you own online: Word, Powerpoint, music, video, photos, you name it. Not only that, you can share the files through email or an online conference. Very slick and well developed. They have different packages that range in price from free to $10/month.

Speeding Up XP

PC Stats has released their second review of 99 Performance Tips for Windows XP. Many of these are relatively simply to do and you should see some performance upgrade with a lot of them. The page is a bit slow to load at first, but just be patient.

Proxy Passion

Do you want to use a Proxy when you go online? Or, better yet, do you know what a Proxy is? Just like a voting proxy, a proxy online sends out information requests that appear to be from another source other than you. Why would you want this? Perhaps your Internet service is being monitored. Or, you use public computers and don't want your surfing habits to be traced. Or, you just want more security. When people talk about these services, they normally talk about being able to surf anonymously.

Enter a proxy. What's nice about many of them is that they are completely free. Here's a list of many free proxies. Safe surfing!

New Google Search

Google today announced a new feature for their Desktop Search, called Search Across Computers. The premise is a good one: you index your computer's hard drive, and can search that index from any other computer. How do they do this? Well, there's the rub: that index resides on their servers, not your computer. With all of the recent press about the Bush administration trying to get Google to cough up user data, I'm not sure if I would want a list of all my files on their servers. However, you can choose to index just certain files so it's really going to be a comfort issue. You read about the new features here and download the Desktop Search here.

Browser Roundup

PC Magazine has published a review of the top web browsers on their web site. They looked at the major ones, which included Internet Explorer, Internet Explorer beta 7, Netscape, Firefox, and Opera. I'm an IE user, but only because the web service we use for tracking service and support issues requires IE. If not for this, I'd be a Firefox or Opera user. Most are free or at least, free to try.

Dell Deals

I normally suggest just contacting me if you need help to configure a new Dell system. However, if you prefer to do it yourself or if I'm not available, here's a great site that explains how to get the most bang-for-the-buck. Nothing earth-shattering here, but good, solid advice.

Free AntiSpam

Here's a great idea in the war against spam: BlueFrog. They have basically created a Do Not Intrude Registry. Complaints are sent to the ISP and the merchants whose products or services are being advertised. Looks like a cool idea. It's currently free but I hear they plan to start charging for it soon, so get the download now.

Let Microsoft Do the Work

One of the great features of Microsoft Office is that you can create templates to use for all kinds of applications, such as Calendars, Business Forms, Appointment Cards, Authorization Forms, etc. While you can do this all yourself, why do it when other have already done the work for you? Just go on over to the Microsoft Office Templates page and find some templates you can use. These are all completely free to download and use.

Couldn't Get to my Blog?

Neither could I. Blogger has had some major issues the past 48 hours so I apologize to everyone that couldn't access the site. I'll be looking at new hosting solutions over the next few weeks. You can read about their troubles here.

Removing Device Drivers

Found this at the Tech Republic site, a good resource for technology:

When you install a device driver on a Windows XP machine, the operating system loads that driver each time the computer boots regardless of whether the device is present—unless you specifically uninstall the driver. This means that drivers from devices that you have long since removed from your system may be wasting valuable system resources.

Follow these steps to view and remove these unnecessary device drivers:

1. Press [Windows]+[Break] to bring up the System Properties dialog box.
2. Select the Advanced tab and click the Environment Variables button.
3. Click the New button below the System Variables panel.
4. In the New System Variable dialog box, type devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices in the Variable Name text box and 1 in the Variable Value text box.
5. Click OK to return to the System Properties dialog box and then click OK again.
6. Select the Hardware tab and click the Device Manager button.
7. In Device Manager, go to View | Show Hidden Devices.
8. Expand the various branches in the device tree and look for the washed out icons, which indicate unused device drivers.
9. To remove an unused device driver, right-click the icon and select Uninstall.

20,000 and Counting

Thanks to everyone who continues to visit the blog. It took me close to six months to record the first 10,000 visitors, and just over three months for the next 10,000. We are now averaging 150-175 visitors daily. Please let me know if there are any topics or products or services that you would like me to comment on. You can post your comments here as well.

Automated Backup

The topic of backup seems to something that generates a lot of interest and debate. I'm always looking out for other opinions. Here's a great blog site that discusses a relatively-easy system using SyncBack SE, a program I've used but not often. One of the best parts of that blog are the user comments posted at the bottom, where there a ton of good ideas and programs mentioned.

Worm Warning

The online world has been abuzz the past few days about an upcoming worm outbreak scheduled for this Friday. Called BlackWorm and a few other names, it attacks on the 3rd day of every month. If you have anti-virus (and if you don't, we have a lot to talk about!), just make sure it's current. You can read the details about this worm right here. Stop what you're doing and go ahead and update your virus definitions and run a scan.

Patterson Takes On Planmeca

According to the press release, Patterson is now assuming control of the support for Planmeca products. I'm not sure how this is different from the past, as I always assumed if you purchased a Planmeca from Patterson that they provided the support. In any event, here's the press release:

Patterson Dental Announces Support for Planmeca Products
Patterson Technology Center to provide support and training for Planmeca digital imaging products sold by Patterson

ST. PAUL, Minn. – (Feb. 1, 2006) – Patterson Dental announces that its Effingham, Illinois-based Patterson Technology Center now supports the entire line of Planmeca Digital X-ray products, including Planmeca’s digital imaging software, intraoral sensors and panoramic and cephalometric X-rays.
Patterson offers this new support plan for customers who have purchased their Planmeca digital imaging products from Patterson. Customers who use Planmeca products integrated with Patterson EagleSoft or with Planmeca’s proprietary Dimaxis® software will benefit from the ability to call one phone number for both software and digital X-ray support. In addition, Certified Patterson Technology Instructors will provide software and product training to new Planmeca customers.
“This agreement improves a great partnership with Planmeca and provides the next level of service for our customers,” said Patterson Technology Center Director Pam Hemmen. “The simplicity of making just one phone call means our customers can get the information they need easily and efficiently.”
Planmeca designs, manufactures and markets high-tech dental equipment, including digital imaging products and dental care units. Headquartered in Helsinki, Finland, Planmeca is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of high-tech dental equipment, and the largest privately owned company in the field.
For more information about the new support plan offered by Patterson Dental, call 1-800-294-8504 or contact your local Patterson Dental Branch or Technology Representative.