Kevin’s Stories and Columns

In the past couple of weeks, Facebook released their new Terms of Service, which many users and websites protested, because of the way it reads. It appeared to say anything you post to Facebook becomes their property, forever. Within days, Facebook reverted to its old terms, instead opting to invite users to have a say in a revised Terms of Service.

Facebook is one of the most popular websites in the world, with more than 150 million active users. The site quickly introduced a new “Bill of Rights”, and is allowing the site’s users to comment and vote on the new wording of the Terms of Service.

As CNN noted, Facebook, and we quote, “granted itself permanent rights to users’ photos, wall posts and other information, even after a user closed an account.”

Thousands of angry users either cancelled their accounts in protest.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was quick to point out that users reminded the company that they feel a real sense of ownership over Facebook itself, and just the information that they share over the site.

Facebook was quick to clarify their position, which eased a lot of minds. Here is an excerpt from that statement:

“We are not claiming and have never claimed ownership of material that users upload. The new Terms were clarified to be more consistent with the behavior of the site. That is, if you send a message to another user (or post to their wall, etc…), that content might not be removed by Facebook if you delete your account (but can be deleted by your friend).

The note goes on to say that any limitations that a user puts on display of the uploaded content are respected by Facebook.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has also posted a more philosophical response on the Facebook blog saying that while the new Terms of Service were “overly formal”, and that the company is encouraging user input for a new Terms of Service. In essence, they admit as new features are introduced, mistakes will be made, because companies like Facebook are new.

“Rather than simply reissue a new Terms of Use, the changes we’re announcing today are designed to open up Facebook so that users can participate meaningfully in our policies and our future,” said Zuckerberg, referring to how the company is now accepting input into a new Terms of Use.

In 2006, Facebook launched the News Feed, which is a key part of the Facebook site now, but it caused a great deal of uproar when it was introduced, since users can see what a friend’s friends are up to. Users came to accept the feature, though.

Many websites use user information for marketing purposes, including Facebook. For example, if you make it known to the site that you’re single, you will see a lot of singles ads. Websites across the internet use such methods.

A golden rule of thumb seems to be that people shouldn’t post anything to the internet that they want kept private or that could embarrass them, including pictures, video, and personal information. Sites like Facebook make it a lot harder for just anybody to find your information, but for sites like MySpace, YouTube, and Twitter, anyone can access it.

It’s important for users of sites and companies like Facebook to continue to make it known what they feel is acceptable for a Terms of Service. This will remind companies not to get power hungry, and that, overall, the success of such sites solely depends on how they treat their users and customers, and their content.

Originally posted 2009-03-02 01:33:17. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Hate it or love it, Windows Vista is here to stay.

From the day it hit the shelves, Windows Vista has had a bad reputation, and for good reason. For the longest time, it didn’t work with a lot of hardware and software. I switched back to XP when some of my hardware wouldn’t work with Vista. Its release proved what consumers are willing to put up with in terms of software.

Microsoft tried to force people to upgrade their software and hardware to newer products if they wanted Vista to work well, and no one likes being forced to do anything.

One test, done by CNET.com last year, said “Vista, both with and without SP1, performed notably slower than XP with SP3 in the test, taking over 80 seconds to complete the test, compared to the beta SP3-enhanced XP’s 35 seconds.”

The test was run on a system with only 1GB of RAM. I use 4GB, and the speed is noticeable on everyday tasks.

Consumers rebelled, and it took nearly a year for Microsoft and manufacturers to get their act together. People didn’t want to wait, and no one could blame them, and all we could do was shake our heads in disbelief.

Most of us have been using Windows XP since it came out in 2001. We’re used to it, and we understand it. We don’t like change, or to be exact, we don’t like change that makes our lives more difficult.

One change in Vista that really irks people, and certainly irked me at first, is the User Account Control (UAC) prompts that pop up far too often. People are more annoyed then comforted by the security of UAC and the security of Vista in general.

The truth is, Microsoft built Vista with security in mind, not usability. This fact was made crystal clear to technology experts that Windows was created with big business in mind, and not the consumer.

People stuck with XP, since it was still widely available, and worked well. There was really no compelling reason to switch to Vista.

Since June of this year, Microsoft has stopped selling Windows XP, trying to force people to buy Windows Vista. Those who have purchased it discovered that manufacturers have caught up and are making products that now work well, for the most part.

That said, many problems have been reported all over the internet, and consumers have been convinced by word-of-mouth that Vista sucks, even though it has gotten better. Some have become so frustrated with it, they switched back to XP (I did for a year), or even to a “Mac”. Others seem to have very little trouble with Vista.

One good thing to come out of the Vista problems is that consumers have become more aware of their options, and have upped the market share of the Apple “Mac OS X” operating system, and although “Macs” are more expensive, they’re very easy to use.

So, hate it or love it, Windows Vista isn’t going anywhere, in fact, the next version of Windows will be based on it. Macs are here to stay as well. We are now more aware of our choices, which is a fantastic thing.
For more information, please visit http://thedigitaldistraction.com.

Originally posted 2008-10-09 17:18:16. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

It’s tough to predict the weather, and depending on who you ask, you’ll get a different answer. Some trust old-fashioned methods, such as those used by the Farmers Almanac to predict the weather, but it seems modern farmers are basing their farming decisions more on the marketplace and technology to stay competitive and make a living.

Most will agree that predicting the weather involves looking back and finding patterns through the years, depending on various environmental conditions, including rainfall, temperatures, and other factors.

According to its website, the Farmers Almanac claims to use a centuries-old top secret formula based on a “top-secret mathematical and astronomical formula, taking sunspot activity, tidal action, the position of the planet, and many other factors into consideration.”

“It appears that we are going to see a fair amount of spring precipitation. Summer looks drier. So, I think the crops will be OK – but some will depend on just how dry,” says Peter Geiger, editor of the Farmers’ Almanac in an e-mail.
Many southern Albertans wonder if we’ll have more bitterly cold weather. While Geiger won’t confirm we’ll have another deep freeze, he does say more cold is on the way.
“Your average last frost in Alberta varies depending upon the city. For Edmonton, it is May 7th and for Red Deer, it is May 25th. So, I expect that there will be more cold before summer,” says Geiger.
Less farmers seem to be relying on the Farmer’s Almanac, or even technologically advanced prediction methods used by meteorologists, Farmers are leaving as little to chance as possible when it comes to growing their crops, using modern technology to grow and harvest many times more land then previous generations.
“I think that anyone who is a farmer in southern Alberta, where the weather changes so rapidly and dramatically, probably fully realizes that predicting the weather beyond about this afternoon is pretty silly,” says Vince Ellert, an agriculture instructor at Lethbridge College.

2009 doesn’t look good, as the farming industry is certainly not immune to the affects of the recession.

“2008 was a very good year. It was a year that we really needed. The outlook for 2009 is it isn’t going to be as good, because of the world financial crisis, a lot of people are simply not going to be in the market,” says Ellert.

Ellert makes it very clear that the marketplace has become a big concern for farmers. Like everyone else, they need to make money to continue operating.

“Yields are one thing. The biggest thing is market price. If you could predict what the price of wheat’s going to be in September, you’d be very wealthy. We don’t know. The outlook isn’t very good because a lot of people don’t have the money,” says Ellert.

Ellert says there are less farmers harvest more land with the aid of technology, as a great deal of farmers, as many as two thirds, have given up due to economic conditions.

“Farmers have a great diversity of skills. A farmer is on his farm, not making a great living, he says ‘gosh, I can go to McMurray, use my welding skills, and make $35 bucks an hour’, it’s not a hard decision,” says Ellert.

In regards to the snow fall amounts we’ve had this past winter, Ellert says it didn’t do the farmers much good, aside from those that have livestock, as it gives the cattle plenty to drink.

“We want snow cover in the winter, to protect certain perennial crops from being frozen, and insulation value. Having your water sources for  livestock full of water from spring runoff is extremely valuable. You can’t put cattle out in dry land range if there’s no water,” says Ellert.

Since modern farmers are managing much more last then older generations did, they have more land to farm on, and therefore yields they can make a profit on.

“Our living standards went up on the farm.  There’s less dollars of profit per acre. The cost of vehicles, fertilizer, and everything. There’s no family that can survive on 1,600 acres of dry land anymore. Dry land farms are now 4-6,000 acres, because the dollar per acre is so much lower,” says Ellert.

Originally posted 2009-03-29 19:15:47. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

With the introduction of the Blu-Ray format a couple of years ago, consumers have been given the choice of whether they want to continue to watch regular DVDs, or pay the extra money for the better picture and sound that Blu-Ray offers.

It’s important to note that just buying a Blu-Ray player doesn’t give you the high-quality picture and sound, you need a TV that supports it, and audio equipment if you want the best sound.

“You need a TV with 1080p. [If you don’t have one], you won’t notice the difference. If you’re a stickler for sound, you can buy the speakers,” says Rob Horlacher, a supervisor at the southside Blockbuster video store in Lethbridge.

Those who want the full experience can talk to an expert at Future Shop or other electronics store to ensure they purchase the proper speaker setup.

Many argue that DVDs work just fine, and have a hard time justifying the purchase of a Blu-Ray player or the discs.

“I just get the regular DVDs, [they] work just fine, [and] I don’t have the player,” said Charlotte Etches, a student at Lethbridge College.

Blu-Ray players are not cheap, as those who choose to pay for them can look to hand over $200 or more. The good news is they do play regular DVDs as well. The bad news is consumers can’t enjoy the full experience without having a decent home theatre setup to enjoy the advanced technology.

It seems age might have something to do with whether people choose to invest in Blu-Ray movies or not.

“It depends on the age bracket. [Those between] 30 and 50 are more inclined to rent Blu-Ray movies. After 50, people don’t really care,” says Rob Horlacher, a supervisor at the southside Blockbuster video store in Lethbridge.

Horlacher also points out the obvious in saying poor college students aren’t likely to spend the money on Blu-Ray, and will likely stick with DVDs, since it’s ‘good enough’, which we confirmed after asking a few students on the Lethbridge College campus.

“I walk right by the Blu-Ray [discs] to the DVDs, because I don’t have the desire, nor the money,” said Chris Smith, a student at the college.

One argument that can be made is that just because the industry is moving forward with new formats and technology, that doesn’t mean all consumers are ready, or willing, to abandon what they have for the latest and greatest thing.

“I’m used to DVDs. I’m not really into the new technology. [I have] no desire to get [a Blu-Ray player],” says Hanna Graves, a college student in the Child and Youth Care program.

Another valid point is that consumers are often weary of how long a new technology will be around, since things in the industry move so quickly.

“[Some people] wait until [new technology] is around for a while; make sure it’s not just some trend,” says Stephanie Rush, a nursing student at the college. “If I had the money, I still don’t care about [high definition]. Eventually, everyone will have [it]; it’s not a necessity, you get it because everyone has it.”

Originally posted 2009-01-26 18:11:20. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

from left to right: Allan Wilson, teacher and writer; Bridget Pastoor, MLA Lethbridge East; and Dr. David Swann, Leader of the Alberta Libera Party.

Dr. David Swann, who has led the Alberta Liberal Party since December of 2008, after Kevin Taft resigned, wants to make it perfectly clear that his party’s mission is to renew itself by reaching out to young people, end voter apathy, make the environment a much larger focus, and renew Canada’s democracy.

Swann has spent over three decades in the field of medicine, and admits jumping from medicine to politics has been ‘really interesting’. Swann says both medicine and politics are essentially about the same thing, creating healthy communities. He says it’s been a ‘fun transition’.

He wants to increase the involvement in Canadian politics, starting with getting people back to the polls at election time.

“It’s a challenging time for the party. You know, we only had a 40 per cent turnout in the polls last year. Our vote dropped, and our membership has dropped to 6,000, our peak membership was in the ‘90s when we had 100,000. A tremendous amount of work needs to be done, I’ve called for a renewal process within the party,” says Swann.

Dr. Swann is scared that we’re losing democracy in our province, and is determined to do something about it by creating ways for people to have a say on issues that concern them.

“That’s why I’m in politics, I’m afraid we’re losing our democracy in this province.  This is 37 years of increasing entitlement, power broking, and self-serving that seems to be a tighter and tighter connection with the corporate community and making decisions in short-term interests of private enterprise, not public interest, for the long term, which is what I’m about,” explains Dr. Swann.

One of the key ways Dr. Swann and his Liberal Party are using to connect with young people is by using the web services they use, such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, keeping a blog, and producing a podcast on Swann’s website, which is http://www.davidswann.ca/.

“[We’re] using web based interaction to hear from people about what they think about the Liberal party,” says Dr. Swann.

For the first time in Alberta history, the Conservative government will be running under a deficit of more then $1 billion. Swann says this is because of a lack of responsible spending, and that the provincial government wasn’t saving during the past decade, when it had oil and gas surpluses of nearly $10 billion per year.

“We’ve spent [all of the] oil wealth coming out of the ground in the last 15 years. The Heritage Fund is worth less then it was when Peter Lougheed left office.”

“We should have been saving during that boom time, because by spending, we caused such an inflation. Housing, costs went sky high, we had everyone wanting to come here because the economy was doing so well, that’s when we should have been saving,” explains Swann.

Dr. Swann says the best way to stimulate the economy is to move away from non renewable resources.

“We need to move away from this fixation on fossil fuels. It’s not only unsustainable, because of the non-renewable resources, it’s unsustainable because we’re killing our climate.  We can tax carbon and give tax incentives for retrofitting your home, for using a high-energy furnace, [and] for using public transit.”

“It’s a lack of imagination, lack of commitment. The [Conservative government is] so tied in tight with the oil industry that they can’t back out,” says Swann.

A lack of affordable housing is a huge issue. Dr. Swann says that the way to solve the housing crisis is to slow down the population growth that has been encouraged in recent years.

“Slowing down the growth would be one thing. That would make less inflation, more affordable housing. We have to, federal, provincial, municipal, develop a longer term plan. We have the largest homeless population in the country in Calgary,” says Dr. Swann.

Dr. Swann blames the growth of the oil sands in respect to our current environmental and economic threats. He says that because of the inflation, the oil sands themselves are in trouble.

“We’ve allowed the oil sands to grow as fast as they’ve wanted to grow without respect to environmental, social, or even the economic threat that we’ve created. Because we’ve increased the level of inflation, we’ve now threatened the oil industry itself,” says Dr. Swann.

Dr. Swann also explains that the government needs to invest more in green technology, and give more incentives.

“If you’re going to invest in a real legacy for future generations, if you’re going to give more incentives for green technology, like solar and wind, geothermal, giving money to create energy efficient buildings. That’s a good investment. We know [the cost of] fossil fuels are going to go higher and higher,” emphasizes Swann.

Swann says the current provincial government isn’t doing enough to monitor or enforce environmental protection.

“They denied climate change up until three years ago. It’s not a priority for this government, to educate people on the greening of their lifestyle, or how to reduce their carbon footprint. That’s where the environment department needs more resources.”

A common complaint among young people and many Canadians is that the level of rhetoric in the legislature needs to be toned down, since seeing our leaders screaming and yelling at each other is hardly inspiring, nor conducive to meaningful conversations.

“My goal is very simple, I want to attract people to politics. I don’t want to repulse them. I think what you called apathy is really repulsion. They don’t like who we are, they don’t like what we do. I want to attract people to politics. If we’re going to attract, we have to act in a responsible, mature, respectful way,” says Dr. Swann.

Last semester, students were quoted saying they would really appreciate it if politicians would come to their workplaces, and our schools, to speak directly to people, many saying it might change their vote if that happened.

“Definitely. I would love to see that. I want more younger people involved. This is your future we’re playing with,” says Dr. Swann.

Originally posted 2009-03-17 01:34:13. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Have you backed up your files lately? If not, you risk losing them forever.

No one should rely on any one storage device for their data. Always keep your files in multiple locations, including usb thumbdrives, CD or DVD, external hard drives, and other mediums.

Lethbridge College students have access to their internal college “Z” drives, which offer 750MB of space, but students should save their data on portable drives as well, to minimize the risk of data loss, says Dean Johnson, manager of network services at Lethbridge College.

“Don’t rely on any one thing,” says Johnson. “Use online storage services such as Google or Windows Skydrive.”

Online storage services, including Box.net, allow students to access their files from anywhere with an internet connection. The storage services double as a back-up location for those irreplaceable files.

There are online services dedicated to automatically backing up your files via a small program you install on your computer. Two examples are Carbonite.com, $40 per year, and Mozy.com, $4.95 per month. Either provides incredible peace of mind, and are automatic, so you don’t have to think about it.

With Carbonite and Mozy, they backup all the files you have selected the first time, which takes a while, but only backup the files that have been changed or updated after that.

Another benefit of storing your data online is you can access it from anywhere, as opposed to “Z” drives, which are only accessible on college campus.

Keep data in multiple places in case something happens to one of the sources, so in the case of a hard drive failure, loss of a usb thumbdrive, or a fire, you’re not at a loss, or forced to recreate a report or essay you spent hours or days on.

The college does not keep back-ups of the student “Z” drive, so it’s important not to rely on it as the only storage source, Johnson says.

Information Technology Services doesn’t monitor the data either, though it does monitor quotas automatically.

Student receive an automated email if they go over the allotted 750MB to alert them they need to reduce the number of files they have stored.

However, for Communication Arts and Multimedia in particular, that space fills up very fast, which is why students are encouraged to use external hard drives for their recorded video and graphics work.

“Keep your data on your person,” says Johnson, referring to portable storage.

To read all of my stories and columns, visit the Endeavour website or www.thedigitaldistraction.com.

Originally posted 2008-10-09 17:22:53. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

NOTE: I realize this article is no longer current, since it was published on April 1st. I just kept forgetting to email the story to myself, which is why I’m posting the story now for portfolio sake.

Despite all the advance hype to the contrary, it appears computer systems in Lethbridge survived the Conficker computer worm scare unscathed Wednesday. Local experts say all the attention focused on the potential carnage shouldn’t be viewed as wasted time, however.

“It’s always a valuable opportunity to educate the public,” said Darren Shell, information security manager at the University of Lethbridge.

As of April 1, the worm was programmed to “call home” for additional instructions, though it is not clear what those instructions were. A quick survey of some of the city’s largest institutions which rely heavily on computers Wednesday revealed no major problems, causing some to compare it to the null event of the supposed Y2K computer bug as year 2000 rolled in.

Although it, too, was spared, the City of Lethbridge wasn’t taking any chances.

“We keep the systems up-to-date on an ongoing basis for any virus that may be coming our way,” said Sabina Visser, the general manager for information technology at the City of Lethbridge. “In preparation for Conficker, we ran scans to confirm we haven’t been infected.”

The Conficker worm has had many variants since first appearing on the Internet in November of 2008. In January, a version was released that had the ability to spread through network shares, USB drives, and peer-to-peer networks.

The latest version was supposed to be able to shut down security software, and block computers from accessing security vendor websites.

If computer users aren’t sure if they might have been infected with the worm or another Internet virus, local experts say the inability to enter tech support websites like Microsoft.com or TrendMicro.com is an indication they may not have escaped the bug.

According to a CBSNews.com video, “as many as 10 million computers have been infected. The worm is now living on millions of computers, mainly in corporations. So far, the bad guys haven’t triggered Conficker, it’s just sitting there, like a sleeper cell.”

” I think this is going to be a big problem in countries where computers can’t be updated, because they’re running pirated software,” said Dean Johnson, manager of network services at Lethbridge College.

Whether it’s the Conficker worm or some other virus which threatens to cause turmoil in the future, those in the industry all seem to agree that being proactive on a corporate and consumer level is key. Everyone needs to be much more careful in what websites and links they click on, because it only takes a moment for a computer to become infected.

“Keep your antivirus up to date, (and don’t open) attachments you don’t recognize,” said Ray Still, a computer technician with Geek Delivery in Lethbridge. “Be careful of websites, of what you’re downloading, (and) don’t let your computer think for you, because it can’t.”

Originally posted 2009-04-15 21:19:46. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

I finished my last day of classes on Friday, and will be starting my month-long practicum at the Lethbridge Herald tomorrow (Monday). I fully intend to post any work I do at the Herald on this blog as well. Since I won’t be making any money off this blog, it shouldn’t be a problem, but I’ll be sure to ask.

In any case, this website will always be a way to see my work, and be provide ways to contact me.

Thank you for reading my stories and columns up to this point, and I hope you will continue to check back for new content!

Originally posted 2009-03-29 21:01:30. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

We have been using Microsoft Office over 15 years, some of us even longer. Very few of us question why, even though it slows down our computers and the majority of us only use about 10 per cent of the available features, even though we pay for them all. Maybe it’s time we take a look at what else is out there.

The most common reason people stick with Microsoft Office is because we’re familiar with it. Let’s face it, we don’t like change, even if that change may be better and more efficient. Another reason is that people are comfortable with it, and of course because everyone else seems to use it.

The best competitor right now is ‘Open Office’. It’s called that because it is developed by a very large community of people who donate their time to the worthwhile cause. It’s completely compatible with Microsoft Office, and it’s free. You can get it from http://www.openoffice.org. Their goal right now is simply to get people to use it.

Consumer perspective seems to be encouraging, albeit sceptical. People don’t want to take the time to learn something new, but considering the lack of a price tag and compatibility with Microsoft Office, consumers seem more than willing to take a look.

“I’d definitely check it out, I would,” says Steph Norris, a first-year nursing student at the college, but says

sticking with a new product would “depend on how much I like it. Free stuff would be nice.”

With students, learning new programs in addition to their course load isn’t appealing, so alternative programs need to be easy to use and not require much of a learning curve. They don’t need every feature known to man built-in, they just want something that works.

“You have to go with something that you know, you don’t have time during the school year to learn something new [in addition to everything else],” says Norris.

With the internet gaining strength over the past decade, many companies, such as Google, are taking their applications online instead of selling their boxed software in stores. Google has ‘Docs’ and ‘Google Spreadsheets’. Another company is Zoho Office, which is also free.

Even with the convenience, some are not yet comfortable with storing their documents online, and consumers don’t fully trust the internet, so companies need to do more to gain customer trust.

“I don’t know if I’d trust the online programs,” says Mike Campon, an Environment Sciences student at the college, “I don’t believe they are as secure as they say they are.”

As for whether online applications are beginning to makes a dent in boxed software sales, the answer seems to be no.

“[There isn’t] an awareness and people are set in their ways, and it’s brand loyalty,” says Julian Clement, an Entertainment Associate at the Future Shop in Medicine Hat, “[there is a]lack of information out there about online software.”

Unless you’re “in-the-know”, customers only seem to be aware of the software on the shelves and don’t seem to trust anything else. With the vast amount of features, Microsoft Office seems more targeted toward business, while the alternatives are aimed at home users.

“If people were more aware [of the alternatives], they might definitely second guess that decision [to buy Microsoft Office],” says Candace Knelsen, the department manager for Electronics at the Lethbridge south Wal-Mart location, though she says that “sales seem to be as strong as ever.”

One solution to bloated software that includes features most people never use is called ‘modular software’. Microsoft is a perfect example, with many experts predicting Windows 7 will be sold as a basic operating system, and customers can buy or subscribe to add-ons and other features.

“I want the computer to come with the basics with the option to expand, but I want them to make it easy to find and download the add-ons,” says Paul Sywanyk, a third-year Conservation Enforcement student.

Sywanyk brings up a valid point. Companies will need to make it easy to obtain the additional features, and the lack of doing so will only bring confusion and hassle to the already complex software industry.

Customers are tired of bloated software that is difficult to use and that slows down our computers. We are becoming more aware of other choices in the software market, and we’re making it clear through the internet and our spending habits that we just want something that works and that isn’t a hassle to use.

Originally posted 2008-11-21 17:20:40. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

The truth is, you can have all the security software in the world, but if you don’t follow safe computing practices, your computer will be at risk regardless of what software you use to secure it.

Trust your gut. If you get an email attachment or receive a file on your computer, or through email that looks suspicious or that you’re not expecting, don’t open it, no matter how tempting.

Keep Windows up-to-date. Every second Tuesday of the month, Microsoft releases patches and updates for Windows. You need to run Windows Update and install them as soon as possible to protect against internet threats.

Don’t visit websites that aren’t well-known or trusted. There are millions of websites that look perfectly legitimate, but contain code that takes advantage of exploits in Windows that may or may not be patched.

There are a lot of products that claim to protect your computer from the threats of the internet. The trouble is, there are a lot of options, and some products work much better then others.

Norton and McAfee are the most well known. The most notorious problem with both products is as much as they protect, they slow the system down, and impact performance.

Products like Norton SystemWorks try to be an all-in-one solution. The trouble is, since it’s trying to do too many things at once, it doesn’t do any one of them very well.

There are free choices that are very effective. Tens of millions use them because they cost nothing. Once people use a product, they’re more likely to pay for the paid versions down the road if they like it. AVG and BitDefender are some free choices that also have paid versions available.

The best security software on the market today is NOD32. It was designed to be highly effective while having a limited impact on system performance. and it’s easy to use. NOD32 isn’t free, $30 for the antivirus, and $60 for the Smart Security suite.

The other highly effective choice is Kaspersky. They also have a security suite that is highly regarded. While it does have a slightly larger system footprint in terms of performance then NOD32, it’s equally as effective. Kaspersky starts at $60.

Never run more then one anti-virus or firewall program on your computer. They don’t get along, and can sometimes detect each other as threats, and crash your computer.

You may have heard of “spyware”. As you surf the net, files are downloaded to your computer that monitor your computing habits and report them to a third party.

These days you don’t really need more then one anti-spyware program, in fact the one that comes with your security software is usually good enough.

Some spyware are almost as bad as a virus. They’re constantly communicating with the internet, and some contain scripts that change system settings. Ad-Aware was one of the first products to detect and eliminate such threats.

Modern anti-virus solutions now monitor and eliminate spyware and viruses, replacing the need for a separate solution. The most effective standalone product is Spyware Terminator, which is free.

Pay attention when the computer prompts you to accept or deny a program from doing something. If your security software isn’t sure, it will ask you, and if you ok something you shouldn’t, you might as well not be secured at all.

Originally posted 2008-10-31 04:16:46. Republished by Blog Post Promoter