Microsoft Security Essentials

As I am always looking for newer, cooler options I decided to try out Microsoft Security Essentials anti-virus program. Microsoft Security Essentials is a free anti-virus program that was derived from Windows Live One Care. It is provided free to consumers as long as they pass the Windows Validation test. It updates via Microsoft Update, approximately every eight hours. It does not allow any manual configuration in the program for updates and does it automatically. It has a very low system impact on the computer, making it a low impact software on your system resources. Its user interface is very simple to use and understand. I like Security Essentials as it is an "install and forget about it", type of program.

One of the things that has really impressed me with it, was its test ratings. It scored as one of the top three anti-virus programs, along with Symantec and eSoft. It even surpassed my personal favorite, AVG. This is quite an accomplishment, especially from a free software to surpass several others that are paid for.

So from everything I read and understood, I was more than curious to try it out for myself. I began by putting it on an XP laptop that had been running Symantec Anti-virus. I definitely noticed a performance boost and was quite happy. Happy enough to put it on my home laptop that was running Windows 7. However once I moved from AVG to Microsoft Security Essentials I noticed a performance drop. My programs were taking about one to three seconds longer to open, and it was utilizing half my CPU usage when I was opening programs. I did some more reading online and found this is happening to several people using Security Essentials on Windows 7. So sadly, with my hopes dashed, I went back to AVG Anti-virus as I really prefer my system performance. Hopefully in the next release they will address this issue, as for me I would definitely be willing to give this another try.

Firefox 3.6

I have upgraded my system to the new Firefox 3.6 and so far it works great and performs as I would expect Firefox to. However, my biggest problem with it has nothing to do with Firefox 3.6, but with one of my favorite add-ons, the IE Tab.

The IE Tab add-on was my main reason for moving to Firefox in the first place. It gives you the ability to run Internet Explorer within a Firefox tab. Very handy for websites that prefer Internet Explorer over Firefox, such as Microsoft's Outlook Web Access email. But sadly this add-on has not been updated for Firefox 3.6, at least not yet. I am holding out hope that they will and my life of surfing the web with Firefox can go back to the tranquility I have come to take for granted.

Now when I did the upgrade it did warn me about this add-on problem, but I found another add-on called Coral IE Tab which seemed to be an enhanced version of the original IE Tab. I thought my problems were solved and proceeded with the upgrade. Much to my dismay the Coral IE Tab gets hung up in Microsoft Outlook Web Access when sending email. It is as if the add-on does not know how to close the tab after sending the email and gets hung. Other than this issue, it seems to work fine for the most part. However my main reason for needing Internet Explorer or an add-on such as this is for Outlook Web Access email, which we use at work.

So if you rely on the IE Tab and have not upgraded to Firefox 3.6, be aware of this problem. I am hoping that either the Coral IE Tab add-on gets an update to fix its problems with Outlook Web Access, or that the original IE Tab gets updated for Firefox 3.6. In the meantime, I plan to live with the Outlook Web Access Light Version or use Internet Explorer when accessing my work email. I still have hope though because if I know Firefox and Open Source, it won't be long before a solution will become available. So if you are like me, hang in there, I am sure a fix is coming.

The Princess and the Frog

Jill and I went with our neighbor and her little girl Friday night to see Disney's The Princess and the Frog. This movie was done in the older Disney animation and really brought me back to the older movies, such as The Little Mermaid and Aladdin.

This movie tells a slightly different tale of the story of The Princess and The Frog. It is set in New Orleans, and brings a lot of the music and culture of New Orleans to the movie. Overall I thought this movie was good, not great for me, but good. It had a few different twists than you'd expect, but overall entertaining. If you want to see this movie I would recommend going at a matinee instead of paying full price.

Firefox Add-on: Adblock Plus

One Add-on that I have come to like in Firefox is Adblock Plus. What it does is block advertisements on some of the main sites, which causes pages to load faster and with less cookies. Two of the sites I have seen the most improvement on are Yahoo and Facebook. I play the Dungeons and Dragons game on Facebook and this add-on has made a significant improvement on that game.

Once installed it will ask you to subscribe to a list, the Easy USA list is the one I would recommend. There are also options to unblock certain websites in case it happens to block something you want. You can also click to block certain things it may have missed, making it very customizable. When in doubt just right click on the red Adblock Plus icon in Firefox.

So if you are tired of advertisements and want to speed up your browser performance, I would recommend Adblock Plus. I have been extremely pleased with it thus far and plan on continuing to use it.

UPDATE - February 5, 2010
After installing the add-on I really noticed a performance boost from blocking all the advertisements. But after upgrading to Firefox 3.6 I started seeing some sluggishness while surfing. I thought it was my local ISP, but after some testing I found it was Adblock Plus. After disabling and then removing the add-on my surfing performance increased dramatically. So I am afraid I will have to re-tract the above blog post about this add-on as I prefer browser performance, even if it means advertisements.

iTunes Gift Cards

Something I found out this holiday season is that not a lot of people know how to get iTunes gift cards directly from iTunes. Sure, we all see them in the store, hanging on the shelves as we check out begging to be purchased. But did you know it is even easier and safer to purchase them at home if you already have an iTunes account?

If you have an iTunes account and iTunes already installed on your computer all you have to do so go into iTunes Store, then click on Buy iTunes Gifts in the top, right hand corner of the iTunes Store. From here you have a few options on purchasing them, I am going to talk about my two favorites. These are the Printable Gift Certificates and Email Gift certificates.

Printable Gift Certificates let you put in any $10 amount, such as $10, $20, $30, etc. These are great as you can fill out the information, put in the amount and a personal message, then print the gift certificate right at home with the redemption code. No shopping lines, no wondering if the cashier activated the card, no worries. This is great if you don't want them to have it instantly and want something to wrap or put in a card.

The other one of my favorites is the Email Gift Certificates, these are just like the printable ones, except it is sent via email. This one is instantaneous, so make sure you want the person you are sending them to, to get the gift certificate right now. This one is really great if you need to birthday shop for someone who lives in another state, such as a sister.

In conclusion, the next time you are thinking of buying an iTunes gift card for someone, make it easier on you and them, and get it directly from iTunes. I know for myself first hand that there are several problems in the stores such as cashiers not activating the card, or other shoppers trying to get the numbers off of the cards. So take advantage of this great feature in iTunes and save yourself a trip to the store.

Malwarebytes

I have talked before about Malware, such as fake virus spoofs that infect systems. Basically if you go to the wrong website, or click YES to install something you are not sure of, you will infect your system. It doesn't matter what kind of anti-virus you are running, once you give it permission you have just bypassed your security software. So make sure if you get virus messages it is from your regular anti-virus and not from something else.

One of the best tools that will remove a lot of these fake viruses or malware is Malwarebytes. You can download their free version from their website and run it and do a full systems scan. In many cases it will find and remove the malware and viruses that might be on your system. If you do run into this situation and can successfully remove the infection with Malwarebytes, I still highly recommend running a full virus scan after wards as many malware infections open the door for other viruses.

So in conclusion, try to be safe out on the internet, but if you do mess up there are a few tools, such as Malwarebytes that might get you out of a jam.

Avatar

Last night my wife and some friends went and saw the new James Cameron, Avatar movie. I wasn't sure about paying extra to see it in 3D as usually 3D movies do a lot of unnecessary special effects that take away from the movie. This is not true about Avatar. They did a remarkable job with the 3D effects that added to the movie, and at no point did it distract you from the story line. Even the CGI animation effects and acting between the animated characters and the real people was seamless. And no point in this movie did I lose interest or was reminded I was watching a movie from all the effects. Although, I will admit I did try to bat a few bugs out of my way during the film, but that only goes to show how well it was done.

All the cool 3D effects and animation aside, the story line of this movie was great. It showed a very realistic view of mankind and you truly felt something for the characters. Again, the acting was superb. A truly wonderful film from top to bottom. Other than the packed theater, there isn't much I can say negatively about this film. So if you like a good movie, I would recommend going to see it, and shell out the extra money to see it in 3D. Trust me, it's worth it!!