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| 1029usr078198 |
Posted - November 11 2008 : 07:47:09
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Question: Jann writes, “I've got a virus on my PC which blocks me from my e-mails. It's called Antivirus Pro 2009. I found some mentions of it through Google searches but I'm afraid to download what they suggest since everything may be tainted by the virus.” What do I do?
Answer: Thanks Jann for the question. When it comes to knowing if a particular program is good or not, you’ll see some red flags. One, if a program is advertised via a pop-up ad, it’s probably not a good one. Two, if a program just “appears” on your computer, it’s definitely not a good one. Three, some rogue programs look very close to Windows’ own security center. But since Windows has never included Antivirus capabilities, any program that claims “Windows has detected” this or that virus is the result of a bad guy. Finally, Antivirus Pro with or without a year attached, XP Antivirus with or without a year, these are all bad. I know of only one exception where the name of a legitimate general anti-malware program doesn’t have a company name attached: SuperAntiSpyware. This is a great, free, anti-malware program I recommend to everyone. On the forums, we have an article I call my “Anti-Malware Toolkit”. In it, you’ll find a link to a program called Smitfraudfix. It’s a remover for a class of viruses called Smitfraud. This program will remove Antivirus Pro 2009. We got Jann’s problem repaired by the way, and installed both the free version of AVG for antivirus, and the free version of SuperAntiSpyware to get rid of spyware. Today’s show notes will include links to both of these.
Cool Site: www.Godtube.com: You can watch videos on YouTube and you can see some really good ones. But the site, while popular, is not intended to promote Christianity and Christian values. God Tube is. Like YouTube, GodTube is a social network that allows users to comment and discuss the videos that have been posted. Some of what they have is serious, some is funny. It hopefully goes without saying that their content is family friendly. One video I found interesting was a trailer for the controversial “House: The Movie” that comes out today. It’s an R-rated Christian movie, like “The Passion of the Christ” was, but this one takes a form similar to a horror movie. Some folks are upset about this, others realize that God’s Love won’t persuade some folks, but fear of Hell will. This illustrates the social aspect of the site. Doctrinally, the site represents traditional Christian denominations, not just one, so you will find things you disagree with and things you agree with.
Cool Gadget: TV Tuners: A lot of folks have way more hard disk space than they use, especially if you have a new computer. One way to put that space to use is by installing a TV Tuner card. With a tuner card, your computer becomes a Digital Video Recorder. With VCRs and DVD burners, you have to know what date, time, and channel to record, and when to stop recording. That’s usually not a big deal, but with a TV Tuner card in your computer, especially if you have XP Media Center edition or Vista Home Premium. External tuners are available, so you don’t have to open your computer to install one of these. You can record your favorite shows and series straight from the onscreen program guide. You can also receive FM radio broadcasts, like KBJS. Of course, you can also pause and rewind live TV. The way this works is that when you switch to a channel, the computer begins saving what it receives to disk. If you pause, it’ll keep saving what’s been received. When you return, just push play and the show will resume from where it left off. This action introduces a 2-3 second lag in the broadcast, but you will only notice it if you have 2 TVs on the same channel. My tuner card is an ASUS MyCinema card, but there are several companies that make them. Some are single-tuner, some are dual-tuner. With two tuners on the card, you can record one channel while watching another on the same computer. Or you can record two different shows that would otherwise cause a conflict while you watch something else on the TVs tuner.
It's All “Geek” To Me: Boot: Today’s word is “Boot”. Not the kind cowboys wear, but what your computer does when you first turn it on. The word comes from the phrase, “to pull oneself up by one’s own bootstraps”. In fact computer from the 1950’s used the word “bootstrap” to refer to this process. The Boot Process is what happens between when you first turn on your computer and when it becomes ready to use.
Links
Anti-Malware Toolkit:
http://www.daconsult.com/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=76
AVG:
http://free.avg.com/download?prd=afe
SuperAntiSpyware:
http://www.superantispyware.com/
A Good YouTube Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_e4zgJXPpI4
GodTube:
http://www.godtube.com/
House: the Movie Trailer:
http://www.godtube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=2354b4cc3793d6b1c3b3
MyCinema Tuners:
http://usa.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=18
Hauppauge Tuners:
http://www.hauppauge.com/
“Booting” on Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Booting
Boot on Techterms.com:
http://www.techterms.com/definition/boot |
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