ALKHOBAR, 19 August — All right folks, I’ve had it. I think I’m the only one in the Kingdom with an updated anti-virus program. “Delete” has become my favorite key on my PC. I’ve received more than 20 messages in the past week with the SirCam worm attached. Some organizations have sent out SirCam infected mails twice — weeks apart! That takes either extreme ingenuity or serious stupidity and I think everyone knows which choice I’m betting on. I’ve gotten to the point that I press “reply” on suspicious e-mail, type “Did you send me a virus in the subject line” and dump the mails back. More than half the time I get calls from people thanking me for my action because that’s the first warning they’ve had that their computers are infected.

I don’t mind being a public servant. It’s one of the primary aspects of my job. But for goodness sakes, I can’t understand why people won’t take five minutes and update their anti-virus software. I’ve seen machines that are still using anti-virus software that hasn’t been updated since 1999. I swear, I am telling the whole truth here. When I suggested to the owner of that software that he upgrade it, he thought it was an amazingly incredible idea and wanted me to explain how to do it. First, I had to excuse myself for a moment to go out and bash my head on the wall in the hallway a few times but then I came back and did my duty with a 10-minute demo.

I read an article recently in which it was suggested that PC users should be licensed to a minimum skill level before they’re allowed out into Internet traffic. What a wondrous concept! Drivers need a license before they can take off in a car so why not legislate that people must be licensed before taking off into cyberspace? I know such thoughts are just the stuff of dreams but if something doesn’t change soon I’m going to wear out my delete key.

Before we switch to a new topic, let me warn you about a worm that propagates via MSN Messenger. Called Troj_Newpic.A or Troj_Brain.A it is not a destructive little creature, but it’s definitely annoying. When the worm is executed the following message will be displayed “Cannot open file. May be corrupted. Replace the file with a new one and try again.”

The worm then creates a C:\Messenger1324\Brain folder where it drops a 1README.TXT file, which contains information on the worm and how to remove it from the infected system. In the file the worm’s message starts “I come in piece. My name is Jerry. The purpose of me is to spread. I’m not annoying, nor dangerous.” Jerry may not be dangerous but I expect that his future pals will be. Update your anti-virus programs folks and get ready to blast Jerry to pieces.

So now let’s move on to the real subject of today’s column — PCs and purchasing them. There is great confusion out there about exactly which is the best PC to buy and in the past I have avoided getting involved in the whole messy business. Recently, after a vigorous discussion with colleagues and friends, I was persuaded that my position is not in the interest of this market. Why? Because this market is vendor and manufacturer driven.

Vendors are of course the companies that sell computer hardware. IBM is a manufacturer of hardware, and also a vendor, but most corporations and consumers don’t purchase hardware from the manufacturer. The majority of corporations purchase computer equipment from value-added resellers (VARs) and consumers buy computers from retail stores. Manufacturers call VARs and retail stores “channels” and one channel or vendor can represent many different manufacturers.

Hardware vendors are a part of life all over the world. In the United States for example, companies will sit through a product vendor’s presentation, but rarely will they purchase a product simply on the information they receive from that vendor. It should be obvious that a product rep will not reveal the less than optimal features of the equipment he is touting. It can be quite amusing to invite three or four product reps in to do presentations and then inquire of each one how his hardware performs compared to other makes and models. Of course, any claims made under such conditions must be investigated but it can be a quick tutorial in the hardware under consideration.

In the US, companies generally turn to their own chief information officer (CIO) or chief technical officer (CTO) for help in making such choices. Companies that don’t have their own technical departments may take advice from outside consultants before making major purchases or have their purchasing departments look through catalogs or go out onto the Internet to sites such as cnet.com, wired.com or zdnet.com to compare hardware offerings. Tech savvy individuals in the United States purchase hardware in a similar manner by first shopping around at retail stores but then they will consult online sources or computer magazines for advice before making their final selection.

In the Middle East, we don’t buy computer hardware in such a manner. The market here is very price sensitive. For both corporations and individuals price is often the overwhelming criterion in any hardware decision. For companies that do have selection standards there are often bizarre purchase guidelines such as that the machines be manufactured in a specific country. I have seen companies pay hundreds of riyals more for machines that claim to be manufactured in the United States. Perhaps the machines were assembled in the US, but it would be extremely unusual for all their components to have been manufactured there. PCs are made up of internal components. The manufacturer and compatibility of each component in a machine is far more important that its place of assembly. Companies and individuals that truly understand what they want when they are buying PCs usually specify components either by brand and manufacturer’s number or by their performance needs.

There are several issues involved in purchasing desktop computers. The main ones are price, service, vendor relationship, component consistency and performance. The average desktop machine has an optimal life of 3-5 years. Many machines come with warranties of 2-3 years. If the vendor is a new one in the market or a small, local operation, will it be around in three years to honor a warranty? It is especially risky to buy unbranded equipment from a vendor without a strong reputation. No-name boxes are usually the least expensive option but they are often packed with the cheapest internal components available. Companies that purchase such equipment could find themselves in trouble because these machines could have similar specifications but their internal components can be mixed and matched to meet the specs. This can cause problems in regards to support in the areas of equipment life, hardware drivers, configurations, etc. The cost difference between branded and unbranded equipment is shrinking so there is not a real justification to buy unbranded boxes anymore. When choosing a machine think about performance first, investigate after-sales service next and then finally consider price.

There are six main components to a desktop PC. They are monitor, CPU, disk drive, RAM, modem/network connection and mouse/keyboard. For PCs, 17-inch monitors are standard and graphics artists and spreadsheet users will want at least 19-inch monitors. The size of the monitor is the diagonal measurement across the screen. A monitor with a smaller “dot pitch” or number of millimeters between pixels will have a crisper image than a monitor with a larger dot pitch. The most common dot pitch specs are .26 and .28. As the dot pitch goes down the price increases. Flat-screens are handsome space savers but servicing them is still inconvenient and they can be pricey.

When it comes to the CPU, hardware power has far outpaced software requirements. If you choose the lowest-level CPU available you’ll regret it because it will be obsolete quickly. If you choose the fastest processor you’re probably buying more power than you need unless you’re doing graphics or software development. AMD’s processors are comparable to Intel’s. Macintosh machines use processors from Motorola. The deciding factor in CPU performance is the cache. The cache is very high-speed memory that significantly impacts performance. As the cache size increases, performance increases and cost increases.

Disk drives are very cheap. Sizes commonly range from 4GB to 20GB. Sizes up to 40GB are available in the Saudi market. Don’t consider less than 10GB or more than 20GB. Looking at RAM, 128MB is the standard now. Mac users doing graphics will want hundreds of megabytes. PCs that will be used as servers should have at least 256MB or 512MB for high traffic on the Internet. 56K modems are standard. For corporate network users a LAN connection of 100 Mbps is what’s available.

Keyboards and mice should be bought by the comfort standard. Use durably made equipment that has the control the user needs. Keyboards and mice come in many different types and each user has a favorite. Choose whatever gives that person optimal performance with the equipment.