]]>
]]>
If you're paying more than $0 for your home anti-virus software, you're probably paying too much. Avira, a German security software company, offers its AntiVir Personal antivirus product free-of-charge to home users.
This is the most important property of an antivirus. According to recent tests conducted by AV-Comparatives.org, Avira scored higher than all of the major antivirus vendors including: AVG, Avast, ESET, McAfee, Symantec (Norton), and Trend Micro.
In our personal experience, Avira is also one of the lightest antivirus products in terms of CPU and memory usage. Many antivirus products can bog down a system and make it virtually unusable. Older systems are especially vulnerable.
Avira Antivir Personal can be downloaded at http://www.free-av.com. Avira AntiVir Personal is for personal use only. Business users should consider purchasing Avira AntiVir Professional.
Sources:
]]>Data recovery doesn't have to be prohibitively expensive. Gaslamp Computers offers affordable data recovery for homes and small businesses with prices starting at $80.
Here are a few simple steps to increase the probability of a successful data recovery.
How to Opt Out of Facebook's Instant Personalization
This video will show you how to go through and restrict your Facebook privacy settings. We recommend starting out with the most restrictive settings and then relaxing certain settings on a case-by-case basis.
Important Note: The only way to keep information 100% private is to not share it at all.
]]>
Use it to create and share DVDs of your home movies that less technical relatives can easily play on their home DVD players.
]]>Antivirus Live is particularly nasty because it renders the infected computer almost useless. It will produce a fake scan that shows dozens of fake infections. This will be followed by numerous pop-ups telling the user to buy the program. Internet traffic is redirected to the attacker's site. Legitimate security software such as antivirus and malware scanners will not run and new programs can not be installed.
The best way to deal with one of these programs is to run an anti-virus scan from a live CD. Avira offers a free one called Avira Rescue System. If you're in the San Diego area, call Gaslamp Computers at 619.793.5545 to remove Antivirus Live and learn how to prevent similar infections.
Never pay for scams like this.
The technology that allows this is called grid computing. Many research projects generate enormous amounts of raw data that they are simply unable to process themselves. Grid computing combines the computing power of personal computers across the world to make a virtual supercomputer. Since purchasing time on an actual supercomputer costs money, grid computing significantly lowers the cost of reasearch for projects that would otherwise be extremely expensive.
Here's how it works:
The great thing about the software is that it runs in the background without any interaction from you, the user. You probably won't even know it's running.
Warning: Running GridRepublic or any grid computing client can cause your computer to run hotter than normal. If your computer has cooling issues, please do not run this software.
Note: Your computer will consume slightly more power while running this software. For a detailed explanation heat and energy considerations please see this page.
Software:
]]>Compatiblity
OpenOffice is fully compatible with Microsoft Office documents. So if your friends create a document in Microsoft Office, you will be able to open and edit it in OpenOffice.
Functionality
The functionality of the two suites is very similar. Most people won't know even notice a difference because OpenOffice can do almost everything that Microsoft Office can.
Price
OpenOffice is free and all of the updates are free. It can be installed on any computer for free. Microsoft Office ranges in price from ~$100 for the Home and Student version to $500+ for the Enterprise version. You'll also need a license for each computer. In a business with 5 computers, OpenOffice can easily save you over $1000 compared to Microsoft Office.
Conclusion
OpenOffice is one of the most polished examples of open source software. It offers all the functionality of Microsoft Office for free. There is simply no reason to spend the money on Microsoft Office unless you're an enterprise user.
Software:
]]>