Let’s all face it. We don’t have to agree with it or even like it, but the porn and gaming (poker) industry push the boundaries of the Internet and sometimes that translates to a better Internet experience for all of us.
From experience with my business, I can tell you that computer users who frequent free online gambling sites, porn sites, and free music downloading sites have the worst running computers. This is for two reasons, again in my experience:
- This type of computer user is usually not smart enough to use sites like HelpMeRick.com to properly secure their computers.
- Because of reason #1, proprietors of these types of sites count on computers like these and therefore dump large amounts of spyware and adware into them.
How does this make the Internet a better place for those of us who don’t frequent porn, gambling, and free music download sites? I can think of two ways:
- The technologies that these types of sites use really can be bleeding edge (pushing the limits of what is possible). And in developing these new or bleeding edge technologies, the spill over into legit sites like news, blogs, video sharing sites like YouTube, etc. do make our Internet experience richer.
- Watching others make mistakes solidifies in our minds why we are better off not doing those types of activities.
OK, I piled on the gambling and porn users quite a bit. Now, just in case any of them kept reading, here are 10 things you can do to actually keep your computer running at least at 50% of the power the rest of us have:
- Keep all your Windows updates up-to-date
- Search this site for the word “security” to get our advice on the best comptuer security software (Hint: AVG Anti-virus, AVG Anti-spyware or Super Anti-spyware are among them)
- Stop using Internet Explorer and use Mozilla Firefox or Opera instead
- Gamble with your friends using real cards.
- If you must play cards online, don’t try and be tough and use the sites that are guaranteed to give you trouble (usually the ones that advertise on radio, late night TV and the back of men’s magazines).
- Play cards on sites like Yahoo or MSN games…you will not be subjected to spyware with those sites.
- If you must look at porn online, stick with the bigger sites that have been around for years and that you have to pay for: Playboy.com, for example
- If all this seems to hard and laborious, you can buy a new computer every three months or,
- Use Ubuntu Linux, which isn’t near as hard to upkeep because viruses and spyware aren’t designed to attack it.
- Or, use an Apple computer, which also isn’t attacked like a Windows machine.
I ended up trying to write a semi-serious article, but actually I’m testing to see whether the title of this story gets more hits than some of my most recent ones. A little social engineering at work here at HelpMeRick.com.
Related articles:
- The no porn approach to computer maintenance
- Porn doesn’t just happen
- Spyware’s on the rise – Rules to keep your computer safe
- Good security can only do so much
- Another parental reminder
Tags: adware, Apple, AVG, download, Firefox, Internet, Internet Explorer, linux, Mac, music, new computer, Security, spyware, ubuntu, update, virus, Windows, Word, Yahoo
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HelpMeRick.com started as a monthly tip site for beginners in 1996, and now supports our popular call-in computer show, and hosts thousands of useful computer tips and links.
Don’t feel bad about a small number of hits. WorldNetDaily is one of the bigger “conservative” news sites on the web, with hundreds of thousands of hits per day, and their founder (and only daily blogger), Joseph Farah, more often than not, gets 0 “Diggs” on his articles. A really exceptionally popular article might get 20-30
Diggs”.
I don’t go to porn or gambling sites and I still use helpmerick constantly.
Moral of the story: do NOT even think of being discouraged or down-hearted. Just keep doing the right thing! Beyond any reasonable doubt, helpmerick is by far the world’s coolest non-geek website, hits or no hits.
Remember “Field of Dreams.” If you build it, they will come. Well, you guys have built it. Now just keep working on it and making it even better and more valuable than it already is.
Hey, you know at least one guy who has your page for his home page! He reads your blog every day. That should tell you something!
Me, too, what he said!
I also look at your daily every day and read through the weekly and then look at Shotgun several times a week. Go back to the Tips and Archives regularly to look for a tip that I saw but can’t remember. You guys are doing a great job so please keep it up.
I don’t look at porn sites – I don’t download music and I don’t play poker so don’t have that problem.
You are right. When I first got interested in web design, I looked at the porn sites because they always had the new, cutting edge stuff. Remember when pop-ups were cool? Now they are annoying. Then the pop-unders came and went. Stay off of most of those sites though, as they can cause a lot of what Rick said, spyware, adware and even worse.