WINDOWS 7 REVIEW
Windows 7 gets the basics right. Here's what you need to know
about the new OS.
Harry McCracken, PC World
Monday, October 19, 2009 2:00 pm
What if a new version of Windows didn't try to dazzle
you? What if, instead, it tried to disappear except when you
needed it? Such an operating system would dispense with glitzy
effects in favor of low-key, useful new features. Rather than
pelting you with alerts, warnings, and requests, it would try to
stay out of your face. And if any bundled applications weren't
essential, it would dump 'em.

It's not a what-if scenario. Windows 7, set to arrive on
new PCs and as a shrinkwrapped upgrade on October 22, has a
minimalist feel and attempts to fix annoyances old and new. In
contrast, Windows Vista offered a flashy new interface, but its
poor performance, compatibility gotchas, and lack of compelling
features made some folks regret upgrading and others refuse to
leave Windows XP.

Windows 7 is hardly flawless. Some features feel
unfinished; others won't realize their potential without heavy
lifting by third parties. And some long-standing annoyances
remain intact. But overall, the final shipping version I test-drove
appears to be the worthy successor to Windows XP that Vista
never was.

(Adapted from
http://www.pcworld.com/article/172602/windows_7_review.html

Windows 7 gets the basics right. Here's what you need to know
about the new OS.
Harry McCracken, PC World
Monday, October 19, 2009 2:00 pM


The Windows experience occurs mainly in its Taskbar ?
especially in the Start menu and System Tray. Vista gave the
Start menu a welcome redesign; in Windows 7, the Taskbar and
the System Tray get a thorough makeover.

Windows 7's revamped Taskbar introduces several new
features and gives users much more control over how it looks.

The new Taskbar replaces the old small icons and text
labels for running apps with larger, unlabeled icons. If you can
keep the icons straight, the new design painlessly reduces
Taskbar clutter. If you don't like it, you can shrink the icons
and/or bring the labels back.

In the past, you could get one-click access to programs
by dragging their icons to the Quick Launch toolbar. Windows 7
eliminates Quick Launch and folds its capabilities into the
Taskbar. Drag an app's icon from the Start menu or desktop to
the Taskbar, and Windows will pin it there, so you can launch
the program without rummaging around in the Start menu. You
can also organize icons in the Taskbar by moving them to new
positions.

To indicate that a particular application on the Taskbar is
running, Windows draws a subtle box around its icon ?
subtle, in fact, that figuring out [CONJUNCTION] the app is
running can take a moment, especially if its icon sits between
two icons for running apps.

In Windows Vista, hovering the mouse pointer over an
application's Taskbar icon produces a thumbnail window view
known as a Live Preview. But when you have multiple windows
open, you see only one preview at a time. Windows 7's version of this feature is slicker and more efficient: Hover the pointer on
an icon, and thumbnails of the app's windows glide into position
above the Taskbar, so you can quickly find the one you're
looking for. (The process would be even simpler if the
thumbnails were larger and easier to decipher.)

Also new in Windows 7's Taskbar is a feature called
Jump Lists. These menus resemble the context-sensitive ones
you get when you right-click within various Windows
applications, except that you don't have to be inside an app to
use them. Internet Explorer 8's Jump List, for example, lets you
open the browser and load a fresh tab, initiate an InPrivate
stealth browsing session, or go directly to any of eight frequently
visited Web pages. Non-Microsoft apps can offer Jump Lists,
too, if their developers follow the guidelines for creating
them.

Other Windows 7 interface adjustments are minor, yet so
sensible that you may wonder why Windows didn't include them
all along. Shove a window into the left or right edge of the
screen and it'll expand to fill half of your desktop. Nudge another
into the opposite edge of the screen, and it'll expand to occupy
the other half. That makes comparing two windows' contents
easy. If you nudge a window into the top of the screen, it will
maximize to occupy all of the display's real estate.
(Adapted from
http://www.pcworld.com/article/172602/windows_7_review.html)

Para responder às questões de números 26 a 31, considere o texto abaixo.

3 Homemade Natural Cleaning Products

One of my earliest memories is of my mother cleaning with
what looked to me like cooking ingredients. She would be listening
to the radio as she poured baking soda, lemon, and vinegar
combinations on the surfaces of our home. Magically these natural
cleaning products kept our home clean and smelling fresh, without
stretching an already thin household budget. Here are a few basic
household ingredients and items you can use to clean your home.

Vinegar naturally cleans like an all-purpose cleaner. Mix a
solution of 1 part water to 1 part vinegar in a new store bought
spray bottle and you have a solution that will clean most areas of
your home. Vinegar is a great natural cleaning product as well as
a disinfectant and deodorizer. Always test on an inconspicuous
area. It is safe to use on most surfaces and has the added bonus of
being incredibly cheap. Improperly diluted vinegar is acidic and
can eat away at tile grout. Never use vinegar on marble surfaces.
Don't worry about your home smelling like vinegar. The smell
disappears when it dries.

Lemon juice is another natural substance that can be used to
clean your home. Lemon juice can be used to dissolve soap scum
and hard water deposits. Lemon is a great substance to clean and
shine brass and copper. Lemon juice can be mixed with vinegar
and or baking soda to make cleaning pastes. Cut a lemon in half
and sprinkle baking soda on the cut section. Use the lemon to
scrub dishes, surfaces, and stains.

Baking soda can be used to scrub surfaces in much the same
way as commercial abrasive cleansers. Baking soda is great as a
deodorizer. Place a box in the refrigerator and freezer to absorb
odors. Put it anywhere you need deodorizing action. Try these three
kitchen ingredients as natural cleaning products in your home.

(http://housekeeping.about.com/cs/environment/a/alternateclean.30.10.2009.
Adaptado)

January 23, 2009
Worm Infects Millions of Computers Worldwide
By JOHN MARKOFF

A new digital plague has hit the Internet, infecting millions of personal and usiness computers in what seems to be the first step of a multistage attack. The world's eading computer security experts do not yet know who programmed the infection, or what the next stage will be.
In recent weeks a worm, a malicious software program, has swept through corporate, educational and public computer networks around the world. Known as Conficker or Downandup, it is spread by a recently discovered Microsoft Windows vulnerability, by guessing network passwords and by hand-carried consumer gadgets like USB keys.
Experts say it is the infection since the Slammer worm exploded through the Internet in January 2003, and it may have infected as many as nine million personal computers around the world.
Worms like Conficker not only ricochet around the Internet at lightning speed, they harness infected computers into unified systems called botnets, which can then accept programming instructions from their clandestine masters.
Many computer users may not notice that their machines have been infected, and computer security researchers said they were waiting for the instructions to materialize, to determine what impact the botnet will have on PC users. It might operate in the background, using the infected computer to send spam or infect other computers, or it might steal the PC user's personal information.
Microsoft rushed an emergency patch to defend the Windows operating systems against this vulnerability in October, yet the worm has continued to spread even as the level of warnings has grown in recent weeks.
Earlier this week, security researchers at Qualys, a Silicon Valley security firm, estimated that about 30 percent of Windows-based computers attached to the Internet remain vulnerable to infection because they have not been updated with the patch, despite the fact that it was made available in October.
Unraveling the program has been particularly challenging because it comes with encryption mechanisms that hide its internal workings from those seeking to disable it.
The program uses an elaborate shell-game-style technique to permit someone to command it remotely. Each day it generates a new list of 250 domain names. Instructions from any one of these domain names would be obeyed. To control the botnet, an attacker would need only to register a single domain to send instructions to the botnet globally, greatly complicating the task of law enforcement and security companies trying to intervene and block the activation of the botnet.
Several computer security firms said that although Conficker appeared to have been written from scratch, it had parallels to the work of a suspected Eastern European criminal gang that has profited by sending programs known as "scareware" to personal computers that seem to warn users of an infection and ask for credit card numbers to pay for bogus antivirus software that actually further infects their computer.
One intriguing clue left by the malware authors is that the first version of the program checked to see if the computer had a Ukrainian keyboard layout. If it found it had such a keyboard, it would not infect the machine, according to Phillip Porras, a security investigator at SRI International who has disassembled the program to determine how it functioned.

(Adapted from The New York Times)