My IT team is often asked about how we calibrate IOStream’s displays and networked printers to achieve true color representation both on-screen and in the hard copy output. Well, the short answer is that we utilize ColorVision’s PrintFIX Pro Suite 2.0 to accomplish this task. This package is composed of the PrintFIX Pro 2.0 software along with the excellent Spyder2 colorimeter device. The PrintFIX Pro suite retails for $649 U.S., but less expensive Spyder2 packages are available (Click HERE to run a price comparison search at PriceGrabber for the Spyder2 Suites and HERE for the PrintFIX Pro Suites).

As IOStream’s employees know, I am a big proponent of running ‘lean and mean’ systems. This means taking advantage of either downloadable tools that can be run from a thumb drive/single executable or taking advantage of web-based applications. Regarding the latter, I wanted to feature two online services that allow for good, basic monitor calibration.

The first of these services is “DisplayCalibration.com“. This tool allows you to:

• Calibrate Brightness And Contrast.
• Calibrate Color Depth.
• Calibrate Screen Resolution.
• Access downloadable versions of the tools if desired.

The second service (and my personal favorite) is the flash-based “Online Monitor Test” sponsored by vanity.dk and flatpanels.dk. The OMT tools can be run directly in 3 different modes:

• An ordinary HTML window.
• A full screen HTML window.
• An executable fullscreen program for any resolution.
• An input lag test to test for input lag if you have 2 monitors connected (You will need a camera to record the counter).

I was made aware of an excellent on-line service for testing the effectiveness of your firewall courtesy of Steve Gibson’s very informative Security Now! podcast (Episode 105). The name of the site is Firewall Leak Tester. The site’s developers describe the service thusly:

“This website, on one hand, enables you to test your software personal firewall thanks to different test programs (‘leaktests’), and on the other hand, shows a global vulnerabilities view of the most common personal firewalls in a summary page. Firewall Leak Tester provides also documentation and advice to improve your security dramatically.”

Nineteen (19!) tests are linked from this master resource. This is definitely a recommended service for the IT professional double checking their corporate firewall setup, computer enthusiast learning about how easily computer systems can be penetrated, or home PC users concerned about their privacy and security.