January 2005

One problem I’ve consistently had with Skype in recent months is that, every time I load it up, I get an alert from Norton Antivirus 2005 to tell me that its worm protection feature has detected a remote system trying to access Skype:

No matter what I do, this alert happened every time I ran Skype. I just couldn’t figure out why. Skype is included in Norton’s list of permitted application yet Norton kept giving me these alerts.

The solution is actually very simple:

1. Close Skype if it’s running
2. Open Norton Antivirus options and select: Internet Worm Protection > Program Control
3. In the resulting dialog, select Skype (which will be listed) and click on Remove and then click OK
4. Close Norton and run Skype
5. You’ll get the warning, as per the dialog shown above
6. Select Permit and click OK
7. Exit Skype and run it again - you won’t get the alert

Is this a Skype or a Norton issue? Or both? I don’t know. This fix works - but you will need to repeat it each time when you install a new version of Skype.

Thanks to rocketman in the Skype Support Forum for this extremely helpful solution.

Google released version 2 of its Picasa photo manager program today. I tried version 1 out when I had a blog on BlogSpot as I was keen to see how it integrated with Picasa’s Hello, the service for posting photos to your blog. It worked well.

With TypePad, you don’t need such third-party services, so I haven’t used Picasa for over 4 months now. But version 2 looks good with some neat new and improved features, so it might be worth looking at it again.

There’s a good concise overview on The Office Weblog.

Engadget:

Sometimes when Skype rings we scramble to find the headset in time to answer the call. This wouldn’t happen with Actiontec’s Internet Phone Wizard. It connects a regular phone to a computer for making, and receiving calls using Skype. The box channels the sound through the phone instead of the computer speakers and mic. There’s also some echo-cancellation technology that enhances the quality of the call.

Engadget | Make Skype calls using your regular phone

So I’ve put the new look at NevOn into effect. In doing so, I encountered a significant difficulty with TypePad.

What I did was upload two files to the root directory of the blog - the new style sheet plus the new banner image. The style sheet overwrote the one that was there. Then, I opened the blog in Firefox expecting to see the new layout - but the original one displayed.

I refreshed the browser, then emptied the cache and tried again - still the old look. Tried it in Internet Explorer, refreshed, emptied the cache - still the old look.

Then I thought: let’s check the settings from within TypePad. Maybe it isn’t just a simple matter of uploading a new style sheet. And that is the case - it is not just a matter of doing that when you make a major design change. At least, not with TypePad Plus, the service level I have, which doesn’t let you directly edit page code or stylesheets.

When I looked at the design settings, I discovered that they were all still set to the blog layout as it was before the changes. Fixed pixel widths. The previous banner. So I manually adjusted the settings, uploaded the new banner through the settings interface (ie, not uploading it directly as I had done), and saved. This time, the new look took effect.

While I’m curious about how this all works, I’m not that curious! It works and I’m happy with the implementation. But note for any future change: whatever you do to the stylesheet, you still have to make the changes from within TypePad. And that has significant limitations on what you can do.