TODAY'S TOURBUS STOP(S): Google Scholar / Upgrading to XP SP2

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Google Scholar

Google released a new search site Wednesday called Google Scholar that lets you search "specifically for scholarly literature, including peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, preprints, abstracts and technical reports from all broad areas of research."

You can find Google Scholar at

http://scholar.google.com/

Google Scholar supports most of Google's regular query modifiers [for more information about Google query modifiers, check out my free Google 201 PDF handout at http://tinyurl.com/4hhn9 ]. Google Scholar also introduces a new query modifier:

author:authorname

How do you use the new author: query modifier? Well, here are three examples of it in work:

author:stack "The effect of country music on suicide"

author:Balasubramaniam "Coordination Modes in the Multisegmental Dynamics of Hula Hooping"

author:crispen "Social stress in pregnant squirrel monkeys"

Google Scholar is brand new and is still in beta. In other words, the folks at Google are still working out the bugs and the database is kind of small. But from what little I have seen so far, I'm impressed.

For more information about Google Scholar, check out

http://scholar.google.com/scholar/about.html

How to Upgrade to Windows XP SP2

Well, it's after Halloween. I guess it's time to *finally* upgrade to Windows XP Service Pack 2. Here's how to do it.

1. Get a copy of Windows XP Service Pack 2 on a CD-ROM.

Trust me on this one, folks: XP SP2 is so large that you don't want to try to download it over even the fastest Internet connection. Besides, when your computer crashes sometime in the future and you have to reinstall Windows, having XP SP2 on CD-ROM will speed your recovery process.

How can you get XP SP2 on CD-ROM? Well, go to the computer section of your nearest big box retailer and ask for a copy. Microsoft shipped massive amounts of free XP SP2 CD-ROMs to Circuit City, Best Buy, and places like that. All you have to do is ask.

If you can't find a copy of XP SP2 in your local tech store or, even worse, if your local tech store tries to sell it to you [something that happened to at least one Best Buy customer in the Chicago area a few weeks ago], hop on over to either

http://tinyurl.com/6g675

or

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/updates/sp2/cdorder/en_us/default.mspx

Either page lets you order the XP SP2 CD-ROM directly from Microsoft. Free. Both addresses take you to the same place, and that last address needs to be on one line.

2. Once you have the XP SP2 CD-ROM, scan your computer for viruses.

Personal experience shows that unwanted stuff on your computer like viruses or spyware [see step 3] can wreck havoc on ANY software installation, especially a major operating system upgrade. And while you may think your current antivirus software is doing a good job of scanning your computer for and protecting your computer from viruses, over 60% of broadband users aren't running the latest version of their antivirus program. [Source: http://tinyurl.com/5kdh9 ]

So, just to be extra safe, before you even THINK about putting that XP SP2 CD-ROM into your CD-ROM drive, let's have Symantec scan your PC for viruses online. Open Internet Explorer and go to

http://www.symantec.com/cgi-bin/securitycheck.cgi

[Unfortunately, Symantec's free online virus checker only works in Internet Explorer.] When the page loads, click on the orange Go button. This opens a pop-up window. Click on the red Start button under Virus Detection to start the virus scan. You'll be asked if you want to install and run three small plug-ins. Click Yes all three times.

The scan will take a while, but it is well worth the wait. If Symantec says your virus status is safe, continue on to step three. But, if Symantec finds a problem, expect to spend a lot of time at http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/index.html downloading the appropriate removal tools.

3. Scan your computer for spyware and other malware

Spyware seems to be the number one cause of problems when upgrading to XP SP2. So, in addition to scanning your computer for viruses, you also need to scan it for spyware. But you need to make sure you are using the latest version of your antispyware program when you do this.

How? Well, in Spybot Search & Destroy, go to Help > About. There you'll see the version number. The latest version of Spybot is 1.3. If you have an older version, head on over to

http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html

and download the latest version.

If you have AdAware, look in the bottom right corner of the AdAware screen. If you don't see "AdAware SE Personal, Build 1.05," you don't have the latest version and you'll need to download a new copy at

http://tinyurl.com/5kgsl

Once you have the latest version of your antispyware program, check for updates and then scan your computer. If you find any spyware, nuke it.

4. Update your software firewall

If you are running a software firewall like ZoneAlarm or Sygate Personal Firewall, you may need to update your software firewall so that it will fully work with Windows XP SP2. This usually involves downloading a simple patch that you can get from your software firewall’s manufacturer's website.

5. Get the latest PC manufacturer updates for your computer

If you have a name-brand computer, check the manufacturer's web site and download any software or driver updates they recommend. For example, Dell recommends that its users update their BIOS before upgrading to XP SP2.

For a list of the XP SP2 upgrade sites for most of the major PC manufacturers, check out

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/sp2/oemlinks.mspx

If you can’t find your computer manufacturer’s web site, call the company or store that sold you your computer and ask them if they know of any issues with upgrading your make and model of computer to XP SP2. By waiting to install XP SP2 until today, you’ve given the folks in tech support enough time to figure out what computers upgrade well and what computers have issues.

Sloth pays.

6. Backup any files you cannot live without

If media and blog reports are any indication, you should be able to upgrade to XP SP2 without any major problems. But sometimes things go awry. That's life.

Just to be extra safe, make sure to copy ALL of the important stuff on your computer to a CD-ROM, DVD, thumb drive, external hard drive, or whatever. You can never have too many backups.

In particular, make sure to backup your:

Again, you'll probably not need this backup. But you can never be too safe.

7. Make a system restore point

Yeah, I know. The XP SP2 installer does this for you automatically. Do it by hand just in case.

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