Odds and Ends
by Cate Eales
Appeared November 12, 2009 on castanet.net
Browsers, Security, and just plain fun this week.
Firefox is five, AVG Free is trying to put one over on you, GeoGreeting is
totally great!
Happy Birthday, Firefox!
It’s hard to believe that Firefox is five years old this week. That’s
practically drinking age in Internet Years!
Firefox is an alternative to Internet Explorer. It is faster, more secure,
and it’s customizable.
I began using Firefox as soon as it was available as a
stable product, and I’ve never looked back. I highly recommend it.
You can
learn
more about Firefox here and you can download Firefox from the link on
this page:
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/personal.html.
AVG Update Foolishness
If you are running AVG Free antivirus, you should be running version 9.0.
If you are still on version 8.5, you’ll soon see a warning from AVG
advising you that support for 8.5 will end December 1.
Pay close attention to this warning. When it pops up, you’ll have an
opportunity to purchase AVG Internet Security for $49.49. So you might
think that AVG is no longer free, and that you are required to purchase
AVG Internet Security. However, if you look at the bottom of that window,
you’ll see in small, light-coloured print, a link to click that will allow
you to update your current version --- the FREE one!
Clicking on that link will take you to the download page
for AVG Free (not AVG Internet Security!) and you can download and install
the update for the free product. As you do, you’ll have to continue
batting away attempts to sell you the full version. Persevere! You can
go directly
to that page, here.
I do not recommend AVG (Free or any other version) for computers with less
than 1 GB of RAM. Earlier versions of AVG were far more efficient, but
beginning with version 8.0, when more features were included, I found that
it would slow down computers that were short of RAM. If your computer
falls into that category and you want a good, free antivirus and
antispyware program, you might check out
Avira’s free AntiVir,
available here. Avira is as good and doesn’t consume the resources AVG
does. It will, however, throw a big ad at you once a day!
Microsoft Security Essentials is the new, free antivirus + antispyware
offering. I have not had a chance to try it, but it comes highly rated in
effectiveness against viruses. You can learn more and
download it from this page. You must be running a genuine copy of
Windows to install this product.
Send a GeoGreeting
Did you ever notice that from above, some buildings look like letters of
the alphabet? Me either, but as luck would have it, someone did, and you
can send an online greeting made up of buildings that look like letters.
You’ll see information about each building’s location, and you can click
through to a larger map of the area.
Check out the
GeoGreeting site, here, and compose your own greeting by clicking on
the “send” link at the top of the page. Or, go directly to
this page
to send your greeting.
Links
Happy Birthday Firefox
http://www.spreadfirefox.com/5years/en-US/
Download Firefox
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/personal.html
Firefox Versus IE: The Icon
http://archangel-daemon.deviantart.com/art/Firefox-Versus-IE-The-Icon-31501420
AVG Free
http://free.avg.com/ww-en/homepage
Avira Free AntiVir
http://www.free-av.com/
Microsoft Security Essentials
http://www.microsoft.com/Security_Essentials/
GeoGreeting Home
http://www.geogreeting.com/
Send a GeoGreeting
http://www.geogreeting.com/main.html
How to fix a computer
http://www.geogreeting.com/view.html?yqoDUkUlsqqoBUrkwwoBa
Computer Care Kelowna
http://computercarekelowna.com
Getting Along With Your Computer Column Archives
http://rlis.com/column.htm
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--
Do you need help with your computer? I'm here to help you and your home or
business computer get along!
Cate Eales runs Computer Care Kelowna, a mobile service helping home users
and businesses get along with their computers. To arrange an appointment
phone her at 250-764-7043. Cate also welcomes your comments and
suggestions. Send email to
help@computercarekelowna.com.
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©
Cate Eales 2009 – All Rights Reserved
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