Tech Stuff ~ Pattaya Rag

Grisoft rolls out 2008 version of AVG Anti-Virus

For the past five years, I have been using AVG from Grisoft and I have always been amazed at how great it is. The other day, they rolled out their 2008 free version and it blew my socks right off.

To give you an indication right off the bat of how good it is, a friend of mine has Norton Anti-Virus (for which he pays for) and it failed to detect a virus. On my recommendation, he downloaded AVG Anti-Virus 2008 - and it detected the virus immediately. My friend is now so disgusted with Norton that he has uninstalled it from his computer and he can’t stop raving about AVG 2008.

AVG does everything that a virus checker normally does - real time virus checking to begin with. When a virus enters your computer, AVG immediately flashes a warning sign on your screen with the location of the virus and it asks you what you want it to do. Obviously you want the virus moved immediately to the secure virus vault and once you make that choice, AVG moves away to do it and you can then continue with what you were doing before *cough* looking at naughty websites *cough*.

Secondly, AVG also scans your incoming and outgoing emails if you download your emails to an offline client such as Microsoft Outlook or Mozilla Thunderbird. It quarantines and zaps suspicious attachments, especially if it has a file type “exe”. [via MakeUseOf]

5 Firefox extensions to manage your bookmarks

If you browse the Internet on a regular basis (and which Make Use Of reader doesn’t?), it doesn’t take long to stack up a big list of website URL’s that you will want to check up on later. The default bookmarking feature in the Firefox browser only takes you so far, so let’s take a look at some ways to better organize your growing bookmark collection, whether it’s synchronizing with another computer or just accessing the links a little bit easier.
1. Foxmarks : The Add-on Multiple Computer Users Can’t Live Without
Do you have multiple computers or multiple operating systems that use Firefox? If so, you need Foxmarks, a Firefox add-on that automatically synchronizes your bookmarks between multiple computers. It also allows you to access your bookmarks online. This is particularly useful if you often find yourself using public computers where you do not have administrative privileges to install anything. Foxmarks synchronizes your bookmarks by storing them on a remote server. With Foxmarks you no longer have to worry about backing up your bookmarks when reformatting or changing computers. If you are worried about security, there is an option to turn on encryption.

2. Speed Dial : See Thumbnail Views of Multiple Websites On One Page
Do you have a favorite set of websites you check daily? Would you like to be able to see thumbnails of them at the same time? Want to access frequently visited sites using ‘Ctrl+1/2/3/4…’ shortcuts? Speed Dial does just that. You can specify how many thumbnails it should show, organize thumbnails into multiple groups (sort of like tabs) and choose whether you want a thumbnail to be opened in new a tab or window.
Speed Dial is full of options that allow you to customize each thumbnail to your specifications. It even lets you set how often the thumbnail reloads. Speed Dial also provides an import/export feature which allows you to easily setup Speed Dial on multiple computers.

3. Delicious Bookmarks : Integrate Del.icio.us Account into Firefox
Are you a del.icio.us user? This add-on is not the standard del.icio.us button that every member already has. This add-on gives easier access to your del.icio.us bookmarks by integrating them directly into Firefox. You can easily add your existing Firefox bookmarks to del.icio.us and keep all of your bookmarks organized with tags. Also allows you to search your Del.icio.us tags from within Firefox.

4. GMarks: Integrate Google Bookmarks into Firefox
Are you an avid Google user? GMarks integrates your Google bookmarks right into the Firefox browser. GMarks allows easy migration to and from Google Bookmarks. Gmarks is completely separate from your existing Firefox bookmarks and does not remove or hide them.

5. Smart Bookmarks Bar: Helps Save Space On Your Bookmarks Tool Bar
Is your bookmarks toolbar overcrowded? Smart Bookmarks Bar is an add-on that helps ease the clutter by reducing the space each bookmark takes up on the bar. It does this by only showing the icon for each website. If a website does not have a specific icon, you can set one using the Favicon Picker 2 add-on. By default, when you hover your mouse over an icon, the name of that bookmark is shown. There is also a preference that allows you to auto hide the tool bar allowing for even more browser space. [via MakeUseOf]