When it comes to antivirus software, I think programmers don’t realize they are unintentionally doing the same things they are trying to protect us from. They still produce pop ups and are hard to remove, it makes you wonder if these programs are viruses themselves. I did find that the majority of users hate their own AntiVirus software, and would gladly switch to another one if they weren’t so wary of the side effects. I know alot of you reading would chime in and say, they should use Grisoft or Avira, but this article is for us people with money, you know the ones who have jobs…
We’ll take a look at the Majors (Norton & Mcafee) and the Rookies (Kaspersky, F-Secure, Gri-Soft). More and more people are switching over to Kaspersky and F-Secure and I believe in the end they might become household names as soon as they start selling in Costco..
10. High Prices
If there’s anything that can deter you from buying any Antivirus Suite is its high price…
Product Name: Total Price/Amazon Price
Kaspersky Internet Security: $79.95/$49.99
Gri-Soft AVG Internet: Security $69.95/$54.99
Norton Internet Security: $69.99/51.25
Mcafee Internet Security: $69.99/$41.49
*F-Secure Internet Security: $59.90/47.92
I always say to myself, anything that costs more than a video game better be good. Its something we come to expect from software, and most of the time $49.99 seems to be the cap that most people would expect to pay. Keep in mind that these prices are for the 2008 internet security versions with up to 3 users. So its a good idea to retail below 49.99. F-secure was not listed on Amazon when this article was written, and its price is taken from its own website.
9. Toolbars And Junk
Aim Toolbar, Google Toolbar, Yahoo Toolbar, MSN Toolbar, Decline Decline Decline!!! I’m not sure why there is this big obsession over packaging your programs with toolbars. Maybe there aren’t much complaints about them, but everyone I’ve talked to just don’t know how the Fun Web Products Toolbar appeared on their browser. Its even worse when the program that is supposed to protect you from things like that, installs one anyway.
“The first thing you might notice is that is installs it’s own ‘Norton Toolbar’ into whatever browser you’re using. And it locks it in. Seriously, you cannot remove it without uninstalling Norton” ~Amazon Reviewer
8. Pop Up Ads!?
Previously when we bought any Internet Security Suite, some would come with a pop up ad blocker. Since the internet has changed and IE now has one built in there isn’t any need for all that anymore. But still (Mcafee! I’m talking about you) there is no point in having Pop Up Ads telling me to purchase some overpriced license renewal earlier in the year. These ads don’t come up often but periodically you’ll just see it there thinking your loaded and full of money!
7. Unnecessary Blocking
Blocking malicious websites might be a good idea for those of us who just stumble on them. But what happens when it starts blocking websites you know and love.
“One web site in particular (Home Shopping) will load OK…but if you go to the various topics (Jewlery, electronics etc.) it will not open them at all…and a blank screen is all you get…the only way to get those things to open is to COMPLETELY disable the Kaspersky program” ~Amazon Reviewer
6. Complicated and Hard to Find Settings!
You usually won’t see this problem in Norton and Mcafee, but as soon as you scurry away to the alternative antivirus software, they stop being nice and start being real! This is the Real World! F-Secure’s firewall really hates p2p programs by blocking every connection attempt. When I try adding some rules to the firewall, I feel like a complete idiot when its asking me about IPv6, UDP, and TCP. I only set those things up in my router. I never had to worry about that on Mcafee, but now I have to figure out what the hell they are talking about.
“The worst thing is after I block a certain activity, there’s no way to go back and find out where to unblock it. Ok, if you are computer expert, I think you will figure out a way to unblock it. I’ve gone through help file, searched google, and forums for answers and still could not find the solutions.” ~ Amazon Reviewer
5. Constant Alert Pop Ups
You’ve seen those Mac commercials where PC has to allow or deny everytime something happens. Most people think Vista’s UAC is annoying, well why not add another layer on top of that when you install Norton, Kaspersky, and F-Secure. Norton doesn’t trust what your doing. Kaspersky wants to ask what muscle your going to use next, and F-Secure thinks everyone your inviting over is High Risk! I think Mcafee handles this somewhat well and tries to keep it to a minimum.
“…Apparently, this program has no brain. For example, I have the Live Search Toolbar installed in Outlook. It had to ask me if it was OK to run that dll file. In fact, each program that called up a process from a shared dll has to ask permission before it could run… ”
4. Tech Support
Tech Support should be the last and final straw for any problems you have. Just hope they are not outsourced, otherwise expect them not to help you since ”its not our fault.”
“I had to pay three dollars a minute to use the technical support telephone number. Of the seven minutes I was on that call, I was on hold for more than half the time (still being charged). When the technician finally emailed me instructions to resolve my technical issue, I quickly discovered he had sent me instructions for an issue completely unrelated to mine. In essence, I spent 21 dollars on hold music. ” ~Amazon Reviewer
3. Hard to Uninstall
Its always easy for spyware to install on your computer, but why is it soo hard to uninstall… hmm. In essence the same thing happens with Mcafee, Norton, and Kaspersky. Try removing them and you learn you’ll need an additional uninstaller to uninstall where the uninstaller left off…
“…you have to use an uninstaller from the Symantec web page, to guarantee that you remove its hidden installations that the uninstaller from the Add/Remove programs from the control panel will miss.” ~Amazon Reviewer
2. Resource Hog
Nobody likes a hog, the ones who don’t play fair and doesn’t share. Mcafee, Windows Defender, Kaspersky, Norton, are all resource hogs. They come in, dump their tub o lard and take your precious time loading some obscure feature for whatever reason.
“Internet loading will be drastically crippled. Expect frequent system choppiness due to automatic downloading and background processes.” ~Amazon Reviewer
1. IT KILLS YOUR COMPUTER!!
It has happened to me, and many others. For some reason whether its our fault or not, the program just can’t take it anymore and boom, blue screens of death, constant crashing, and in my case, java just went up and left. The last thing you want to do is call tech support, so off we go reinstalling Windows. I know the Mac user is laughing their butts off but you know your day will come soon! *SHAKE FIST*
“You’re better off with a virus than this POS. Two days after loading this tumor it was doing an update and froze my computer like a two week old penguin turd…Way too busy, not allowing you the use of your own computer. Had to run a recovery on my system” ~Amazon Reviewer
Aim 6.5.7.20 was released this week, and features the ALL NEW… actually nothing really is new, its just bug fixes. It does add a new module called “Hot Searches” which recieved a lukewarm response from the beta testers. I think they didn’t care much for it, quite personally. There are some UI changes to the buddy info and thats about it. All skins on this site will be updated on the weekend, so check back when they are ready.
Posted 11 months, 2 weeks ago at 2:17 am. 1 comment
Click her Booty and Win Free Stolen Account!
We’ve seen this phishing attempt many times, but here is another one using the MyspaceTV screenshots that can lure an unsuspecting victim to a phishing website that looks exactly like a login page. When a user clicks on the image they are redirected to ”myispaceverify” domain. As such we always recommend not to click on pictures and links sent through messages and comments. This link was not caught by the Msplinks filter yet so this may prove that Msplinks takes a while to catch every comment or they figured out a way to bypass the filter, but lets not jump to any conclusions yet.
Posted 11 months, 2 weeks ago at 1:17 am. 0 comments
Today, Gmail released their first integration with AIM. You can sign into your screen name and it will display your most popular contacts. Gmail will automatically store all conversations so you’ll never lose any logs, it also supports friendly names. That’s all there is to it. Its not something spectacular but at least they did something.. and this took over a year to do.. Still there is no way to contact Gmail users using Aim 6.5, and there hasn’t been any news on the plan to completely integrate AIM with Gmail. In unrelated news, AOL plans to roll out a brand new update to their message board system. Almost daily, AOL’s message board system receives very critical responses about their lack of features and their use of annoying advertisements.
Posted 11 months, 4 weeks ago at 9:15 pm. 164 comments
Connection Timed Out
Periodically throughout the year, AOL’s servers may be down or blocking connections. When this occurs, every time you sign on, you’ll receive the message “Connection Timed Out.” The details of why a server may be down is never revealed, because of this, only AOL’s staff can fix it. AOL Staff usually calls this an “AOL HOST ISSUE”. This means it is an internal problem occurring inside of AOL’s facilities.
Since I and everyone else does not work for AOL, its unlikely you’ll be able to do anything to fix it. In the meantime you can comment below whenever you receive this message. If its a big server outage, others will join in and comment about a similar experience.
While a server is down, you may be unable to connect to AIm 6.8, Aim 5.9, Aim Express, AOL.com, and AOL Forums. However, you may have other screen names that can connect. Don’t panic! Some AOL servers may be down while the rest are up. All you can do in the meantime is wait until the server comes back online. You can think of these server outages like a rolling blackout.
Workaround to connect to AIM
Try out these suggestions when you receive this error message:
Try signing onto another screen name
Try signing onto another AIM client like Aim 5.9
Try checking your firewall if it’s blocking connections to AIM
Try contacting your IT department to allow connections to AIM
The final integration between AOL and Userplane is finally here. AOL has launched Aim Chatrooms today that can be accessed through chat.aim.com. Each chatroom features audio and video capabilities allowing you to watch up to four people at the same time. Currently there is no way to create any chatrooms but you can however create a small private chatrooms within them.
I also was able to speak to an AOL Journals staff about what they thought and if there were any plans along the way. She did state that they do plan to add the ability to create your own private chats but was unable to tell us when. She did hint that there will be a few releases before that happens. The chatrooms will be moderated by admins randomly for the time being, each chatroom has a notify AOL feature that will be sent to staff. For now chatrooms are pretty much empty and sparse but that will change once it gets more publicized.
Hi We’re Back! So some of you have been receiving messages about some buddy inviting you to their buddy profile. Its not such a terrible thing to do but if you get many invites you might get annoyed. There are two sets of messages, follow the one that pertains to you:
AIM:Hey! Good news! Somebody says they are your buddy and wants you to show up on their AIM Profile.
1up.com this week did a week long peice of all the new information spilling out with Nighs Videos galore. Finally we have a glimpse of what to expect from the game that sticks really close to the original. They also showed off some new features like platform levels where the kids run around throwing ideya balls to enemies.
So far I must agree with 1up, their running animation looks very odd. She looks as if she really really needs to go to the bathroom. The graphics might not be exceptionally outstanding on the Wii compared to Super Mario Galaxy, but its definitely better than Nights into Dreams.
This desert filled theme park looks pretty barren in the backgrounds. The music is pretty much stays towards the safe side, it doesn’t really go off to be as creative as the first game. Still we don’t know if the music will be dynamic changing its melody based on the Nightopians you have killed. The music follows the style of the Sega’s previous Daytona USA game from Sega Dreamcast. It is a very smooth jazz album, taking your hand as it guides you through the air.
So far we have only seen 3 levels. If this game remixes all the dreams from the original, we are still left with a dense jungle with tall trees (as seen in the artwork), a museum of some sort, and a snow covered mountain. 1up.com has provided an Mp3 of Aqua Garden which you can listen to here.
Psst… By the way, you can download the Mp3 from this link:
During this week, we’ve been seeing a number of reports for chatroom error, “Invite or Request Timed Out”. The information known so far is that it affects Aim 6.5 and all versions of Aim. This issue does not happen to all members which might likely be an AOL server issue that needs to be fixed by them. Stay Tuned for More Information.
Suggested Workarounds
Meebo.com has AIM chatroom capabilities. In order to use chats follow these steps
WARNING: These Instructions will remove any custom skins. If you do not want to remove any custom skins please follow the instructions inside the readme file. Please note you should always back up your files incase anything goes wrong.
Note: Winzip users, please click View Style at the top of your window to allow better viewing of the folders.
1. Extract (and select Yes to Replace) themes.box at:
Does your Buddy list have extra words below the screen names? Are you tired of seeing what song your buddy is playing?People have asked how they can remove these status messages so here is what you need to do.
To Remove Status Messages or Away Messages
1. Click View
2. Click Status Messages
Now your Buddy List will be clean like in previous versions.
Adsense added a new feature to their advertisement platform that now allows you to set up an ad template. You can change the colors, the corners, and the format (text and images) while still at the site. What it does not do is allow you to change the size of the ad, you’ll have to create a new ad template each time you want a new size. This is great and all, but the referral ad platform needs some serious work. One of the most annoying things about Adsense Referrals is the inability to save a bunch of ads into one unit. Each time you add or subtract your ad, you get a brand new code and will have to paste the code to your template each time. I can easily do this in Commission Junction and take out any ads without repasting the code. Referalls also do not have the curved corners, so the ads look pretty cramped trying to fit inside the block.
So anyway the skin will be included in an OS pack which will include, Windows Vista, OS X Leopard, and Windows XP skin. If you have any OS skin requests speak now or forever hold your peace!
AIM OS Skin Pack:
–Windows Vista Basic [Blue] + Windows Vista [Black]
Lets play the commen sense roulette and explain what this means to any of you publishers out there wishing to sell music or audiobooks on Emusic, and others.
Digital Rights Management - Free
Penguin Audio recently listed their audiobooks to be sold on Emusic. Emusic is known for selling music without Digital Rights Management. After you purchase a song you are free to put it in whatever music player you want to. Your even able to send music to your friends and file share them to others (although Emusic does not advocate you to do this). Thats the whole freedom of selling Mp3s. Its already apparrent that music from the Electronic Genres have been selling Mp3s for years and are even selling them directly from their own webpages without a label. As with Radiohead, and others, as a musician you might no longer need to have a label to promote your music. I mean its going to be tough to get people to buy it, but thats what concerts are for.
Sweatin’ to Books on Tape
Penguin Audio also sells audiobooks on iTunes, which sells most music under Digital Rights Management. This means you can only listen to it from the computer or iPod you bought it from. Companies can restrict the license even further to allow you to listen to a song for a few times a month (Windows Media Audio files protected with Digital Rights Management have been known to do this in the past). So why in the world did Penguin Audio agree to sell their own audiobooks? Without digital rights management, anyone can do whatever they want with their files after they purchase it. Whats even more weird is that they didn’t find any pirated files, but suddenly they are "concerned about piracy." Not that the audiobook piracy market is big anyways, who would want to bring Tuesdays With Morrie to the gym anyway?
names. That’s all there is to it. Its not something spectacular but at least they did something.. and this took over a year to do.. Still there is no way to contact Gmail users using Aim 6.5, and there hasn’t been any news on the plan to completely integrate AIM with Gmail. In unrelated news, AOL plans to roll out a brand new update to their message board system. Almost daily, AOL’s message board system receives very critical responses about their lack of features and their use of annoying advertisements.
