Archive for February 25th, 2007

In Korea (and in other Asian countries as well), it is a good idea to wear socks without holes. In many restaurant (and temples) you have to take off your shoes before entering.

Fortunately, I knew this before my trip to Korea:

http://es.news.yahoo.com/29012007/24/foto/in-this-combo-picture-world-bank-president-paul-wolfowitz-with.html

World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz, spotted while leaving a mosque in Turkey

If you bring your computer to China or often visit Chinese websites, there is a high risk of getting spyware or viruses. One reason is, that in China, there are still other standards for websites and advertisment then in western countries. You download a program, install it on your computer and suddenly it changes your registry entries, changes your browser startpage or installs some spyware.

Or you travel to China and can not resist the tempation to buy fake software which probably contains a virus. Or you just exchange some data with a USB-stick and suddenly you have a virus on your computer.

Okay, just a few hints, what you should do, if you bring your laptop to China or go travelling for some time.
1) Always update Windows. If you have Windows XP, you should have Service Pack 2 installed on your computer and update Windows.
2) The following software is recommended:

– Firewall ( for example Zonealarm, McAfee, Norton)
– Anti-virus program (Antiv by Avira)
– Anti-spyware (for example Ad-aware by Lavasoft)

– a program prevent windows-registry entries on your computer, for example spybot SD-resident
– you should use Firefox to browse in the Internet, because this browser is not so popular in China

3) I know, there is a big tempatation to buy cheap fake software or fake windows versions – but really don’t do it!! You can not update fake Windows versions, so it is a high security risk. Fake software is not sold by the original producer, this means, it can contain viruses, trojan horses or spyware.

4) If you travel in China for a longer time, always bring your original software to China (Windows, Office…). You probably will need the support for East-Asian languages or you have to install Windows again because of virus problems, so it is better, to have the original software with you.

5) Always safe important data on another hard-drive than you Windows-installation (normally, Windows is on C-drive, so safe your data on D-drive.

6) always make copies of your data on a portal hard-disc.