Book Reviews and Money Saving Tips

I recently read about Lookout Mobile Security and decided to check it out.    I went to their web site and read all their features.    I then went to Android Market Place and downloaded it. It installed quickly and easily.    I get a truly lousy Verizon signal at my home.   Verizon, please note, it is truly a lousy, lousy, abysmally weak signal.    If my phone didn’t have WiFi I would never download anything.    Setting up the Ap was very easy.    I did a back up and then went to the web site and verified my contacts had been backed up.    If you upgrade to Premium you can back up your pictures and music too.    ($2.99/month) In addition to backup you have antivirus protection.    Another feature available in the free version is the ability to find your phone from your computer.    You need to have your GPS turned on for this feature to work.    Initially it ...

I’ve detailed my frustration with Windows 7 and then with my new Acer Aspire hard drive crash ad nauseum. I’m still fighting to get back to where I was prior to “upgrading” to new computers and a new problem fraught OS. Let’s just say if I wasn’t bald before I would be now. Latest issues after I got my Aspire back from Acer with it’s new hard drive and a newly installed Windows 7. My wonderful IO Gear GUB211 auto switch, that allowed me to share my printer with my XP and Vista machines and my miserably unfriendly Windows 7 machine, has stopped working. I am in the midst of troubleshooting that with IO gear via email. Not the best support but better than no support. Secondly when I got my machine back I reinstalled Norton Security Suite, free from Comcast. I had it on one of my XP machines as well. Lo and behold my file sharing no longer works between my machines. My XP m achines running Avast free talk to each other but won’t talk to either machine running Norton. My Vista mach...

My experiences with the paid anti-virus community have not been positive. I have had issues with Norton and McAfee conflicting with software I normally run. I currently use Avast Anti-Virus and both Ad-Aware and Spy-Bot Search and Destroy. I suspect they are not top notch but by using them all, I have had pretty good protection. My innate cynicism kicks in when ever I read glowing reviews about different software packages. ZDnet.com has a good article rating the behavior of different anti-virus and malware solutions. Don’t be deluded into thinking that the ones marked free are really free. You will find them to be either trial versions or a version that tells you, “yes I have found much nasty stuff and if you will slip $50.00 in small unmarked bills underneath the un-welcome mat, I will then remove them for you”. Here is a LINK to go to the chart that rates the software, look at it with a jaundice eye and read the accompanying text. I didn’t find the chart all that use...

Wired magazine has an article in the October edition that addresses that question. Security is big business. Look at Norton and McAfee, they get you with a fee each and every year. Every week you hear of some data base that has been compromised. Keep in mind that your home computer has little likelihood to be the target of the more talented hackers. Even those of us who have or had small businesses are not that attractive to the hackers. High volume shysters have been targeting gas stations with their parasitic card readers because that is where there is some serious money. Look at how many credit cards they can get in one day with minimal work so it stands to reason getting your credit card information off of your home computer is not going to be high on the agenda of the average cyber creep. This is not to suggest that you should do nothing to protect your computers. You should have a good antivirus software package installed and a spyware destroyer or two. Most importantly you shoul...

Heads up, your AVG 7.5 version is going to bug you to upgrade due to it's nearing demise. I upgraded to the 8.0.100 after wading through the sales pitch for their paid version. I did the reboot and all the crap they ask you to do. I then tried to get on the web via Explorer 7.0 and could not get on the net. I uninstalled AVG 8 and got on the net no problem. I discovered a site noting an issue with AVG 8 and Google Desktop after doing an issue search. I thought what the hey and uninstalled Google Desktop, reinstalled AVG 8, rebooted and hooray, I am back on the net. So this may be just a random incident but if you use AVG and you do update and there are issues and you really like AVG and don't want to dump it gor Avira, and you have Google Desktop, maybe this will save you some aggravation. The following link will take you to the free AVG 8.0.100 download page if you want it. Personally I am going to do some more looking at Avira too. I don't like incompatibi...