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Posted - June 04 2010 : 22:17:52
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Question: A listener asks, "Which antimalware package do you recommend?"
Answer: This is a good question, for a number of reasons. The first thing to note is that I don't recommend just a single antimalware product. In fact, having a few is a good thing. You just don't want more than one of them scanning everything that you do because that would slow down even the fastest computers. You do, however, want one of them doing that. I've used Microsoft Security Essentials for a bit now, and find that I like it pretty well. It finds most everything I've thrown at it. The best thing is, it's free and doesn't try to do too much. Some programs like Norton 360 really try to do way more than just antivirus and antispyware. They wind up slowing your system way more than necessary. For home use, I really recommend checking out our antimalware toolkit where we have links to three free programs you can try out. Try them all if you want, but not all at once.
Cool Site: 4Truth: This week, I've found another site with apologetics information: 4truth.net. 4truth is a site run by the North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention. It has information on evangelizing cults, about other denominations, new religions and world religions. Many of the articles on the site are in PDF form, so you'll need Adobe or Foxit reader to read these. The good thing about PDF's is that you can download and print these for use in Sunday school or evangelism classes. There's a big section for Youth and how to deal with the various belief systems they might encounter. The blog has answers to questions like, "Can God kill Himself?". This particular question was asked by a skeptic, and yet it's a question you might face. It's a good site to prepare to meet the outside world. The rapture's coming soon - it almost has to be. Even if not, we're commanded to be prepared.
Cool Gadget: Zomm Bluetooth Alarm: This week's gadget is called the Zomm and is made by a company of the same name. It is a Bluetooth device that, when paired up with your cell phone, will make sure you have it close by. If you get over 30 feet away from your phone, the Zomm will start to vibrate, flash, and sound an alarm. It's a great gadget if you tend to set your phone down and then forget about it. Now, if that was all it did, that would be cool, but it wouldn't be worth $80. It also adds speakerphone capabilities to your phone, but this last feature is probably the most important. Let's say you find yourself in danger and need help. Press the button in the center of the Zomm for 9 seconds and it will sound a panic alarm. Keep holding the button down and it will automatically dial 911. If your situation doesn't allow you to speak, the Zomm will play a recording asking the operator to send help immediately. This way, you get many of the same features of that "I've fallen and I can't get up" device in a more portable form. It would be really great for seniors. They'll be available in July at Best Buy or we'll have a direct link to their website in the show notes.
It's All "Geek" To Me: ASCII: You might have heard how a computer can only store 1's and 0's. You might have thought to yourself, "If that's true, how can computers store things like words or text?" This week's word begins to answer that question. The term is ASCII (pronounced ASK-key). It stands for American Standard Code for Information Interchange, and it defines how letters are encoded as numbers which can be stored in a computer. It defines 256 characters which run the gamut of most languages based on our alphabet. Remember how you used to do that cipher where the number 1 represented the letter A, 2 represented a B and so on? Well, this is the same idea, only a capital 'A' is represented by the number 65; a little 'a' by the number 97. Of those 256 codes, the first 128 are standardized. The second 128 aren’t and can be used by different computer makers in whatever way they see fit. Why 256? In binary, a single byte can only hold numbers from 0 to 255, or 256 possible values.
Links
AntiMalware Toolkit:
http://www.daconsult.com/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=76
Foxit Software:
http://www.foxitsoftware.com
4Truth:
http://www.4truth.net
Zomm on Gearlog:
http://www.gearlog.com/2010/06/the_zomm_has_arrived.php
Zomm:
http://www.zomm.com
ASCII at TechTerms:
http://www.techterms.com/definition/ascii
ASCII Table:
http://www.asciitable.com
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