Double Anti-Spy Professional

Thankfully, I’ve never had to put Avanquest’s Double Anti-Spy to a real-life test yet – I recently installed Windows XP under VirtualBox, and thought I’d give it a whirl by testing Double Anti-Spy.

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The GUI’s acceptable (sorry, I can’t think of another word for it); the blue kind of matches Windows XP’s colour scheme (not Vista or Windows 7 though), the buttons have a light shadowed gradient and don’t have that millenium-glassy look that a lot of programs go for (thank the Lord). Everything seems pretty simple and accessible, which is a green light in my books.

Likely it’s just my virtual environment, but I found Double Anti-Spy to be awfully slow – I realize that it’s not the most fair judgment, but understand this: a lot of computers, both in corporate and small business environments, aren’t equipped with the latest dual-core processors or anything more than 512mb of RAM (my virtual environment precisely). I’d really like to see Double Anti-Spy’s client get streamlined a lot more so it performs more efficiently – heck, I’d like to see all anti-virus programs slimmed down.

A plus: Double Anti-Spy’s background process doesn’t take up that many resources (100mb is alright, right?) and doesn’t noticeably slow down my computer too much.

Double Anti-Spy automatically quarantined the EICAR test file and rendered it inaccessible; I couldn’t even locate it in the Downloads file. Kudos! (And yes, I turned it off and downloaded it and let Double Anti-Spy scan my computer – it detected the EICAR file.)

I really like the automatic quarantine; it’s been a while since I’ve used a Windows machine, and while there are many freeware antivirus programs out there, I think that Double Anti-Spy’s got some features that I’m really impressed with (automatic quarantine!). For $29.99USD on Amazon.com, the price is comparable to Norton’s Internet Security 2010 – which has a pretty good reputation. Either way, I think $30 is relatively cheap if you really want to pay – but why not give free antivirus programs a try?

November 2009 Discoveries

It’s been an exceptional month, and I wanted to share a lot of things I found over the Internet with you readers. Of course, the majority of the month was spent doing work and trying to hack my way through my schedule, but I’ve still managed to get around the Internet.

First off, I’ve found a bunch of Mac Gems — a column constantly updated: http://www.macworld.com/weblogs/macgems.html

Secondly, TED.com was brought up to me by a friend. I started watching some videos today, and that stuff is alright. I’ve yet to see an exceptional one (I’ve only watched two — one about a writer turning into a homeless person, and one about a physicist explaining explanation, which I didn’t understand at all I’m not ashamed to admit). I think this is the direction that I want to put CutEdge.org in.

Thirdly, I’ve discovered Chuck Anderson’s graphic designs. Anderson is the designer that created (from scratch) the wallpaper and login screen of the recently released Windows 7. You can find his portfolio at: http://www.nopattern.com/nopattern/

I’ve always been interested in graphic design, so that’s a possibility of pushing CutEdge.org into that direction too. Of course, I’m still an amateur, so there won’t be any tuts.

Oh, the possibilities.

The Sound of Music: VidtoMP3.com

Ever go on YouTube to find a piece of music? You know, that song you want to hear every so-often, but not often enough to download it onto your hard drive. Or maybe just new music. Or stuff you can’t buy on iTunes or obtain by other means.

Face it – YouTube’s really convenient to hear indie, live, or underground music. Now by no means do I consider myself an ‘indie’ or ‘underground’ fan, but I do like many offerings of YouTube; for example, John Frusciante’s cover of the BeeGees’ “How Deep is Your Love” brings much joy to me. Similarly, the Klasix instrumental “I Can’t Help it” really helps me. I don’t carry my laptop everywhere, and it’s impossible to put YouTube on repeat (or is it?) so I decided to download it.

My friend Rohan (at www.yourworldwired.com) introduced me to VidtoMP3.com – and ever since then, I’ve been a fan. Sure, the website looks a tad sketchy, but it saves any video as an MP3 file on your hard drive, all processed online. Granted, it won’t have the best sound quality (actually I don’t mind it, it’s not as bad as I thought it would’ve been – definitely audible), but it’s a great way to get music you wouldn’t have been able to otherwise.

www.vidtomp3.com

Virtual Windows XP on OS X, for free!

There was trouble in paradise. Don’t get me wrong – I really love OS X. I can say with my integrity (boy, that word doesn’t come up much anymore) intact that I love OS X with all my heart. It’s here to stay. There have just been a few tough patches in the transition from Windows Vista to OS X.

Firstly, I had to buy a new version of Office. When mine was totally fine. Stupid.

Then Photoshop. Stupid.

Stupid, but at least do-able. I was able to get my hands on these items (which can be acquired by other “torrent”-ial means, I’ll just say) and install them into OS X. And they worked like a charm!

Friends over at APH Networks also introduced me to Darwine and TRiX, and I was able to get some Windows applications running. Most unfortunately, Windows Live Writer just wasn’t one of them (apparently some .NET incompatibilities were the cause or something like that).

Anyway, that was that. For a month, I’d had to write using WordPress’ built-in service. I tried Qumana, but that was mediocre (no offense) – even though it was easily the best out of all the free OS X blog publishing software I could find. Downgrading from Windows Live Writer to Qumana was probably the only negative to my transition to OS X.

So I finally took the dive and got Windows XP.

Similarly, I downloaded a piece of FREE software by the name of VirtualBox; in comparison to the software Parallels and VMware Fusion (both paid solutions), VirtualBox was free and still comparable. I finally got Windows Live Writer back on OS X, running simultaneously with all my OS X programs. :)

You must be wondering how I did it.

1. Get your hands on Windows XP. Preferably Professional, as always.

2. Get VirtualBox. http://www.virtualbox.org/

3. Create a new machine in VirtualBox, and don’t forget to go into Settings and make sure your computer’s optical drive is in-sync with the virtual computer.

4. Insert Windows XP into your optical drive, boot your new virtual machine and install Windows XP.

4i. Go into Devices, and install guest additions. Trust me, they’re a huge help (especially in adjusting screen resolution, whew).

That’s it! 4 simple steps, probably takes you an hour or two. And now you have Windows XP on OS X, and not using dual-boot (rebooting is so 1999). Haha.

Planning: A Technique to be more Productive

I’m still really new to my MacBook Pro, and I’ve only recently discovered the program known as iCal. As a university student, I’ve now formatted iCal so that my classes are set as recurring events in the work calendar.

I never really knew what to do with iCal before because I never had a need for it — I never planned my days because they were so rigid; school would be from 8AM-3PM, I’d do homework until around 6PM, and then do whatever until 8PM, when I’d eat dinner. And then, I’d do whatever.

But I’ve realized that those days are long gone, and aren’t coming back anytime soon (oh sweet summer, why won’t you arrive sooner?). And if I were to gain an edge over other students, and survive this semester of university, I would have to step up my game. Everyone’s focused, and everyone’s determined to be the best. How could I separate myself from the rest of the pack?

I decided firstly to make the most use of my time. I decided that I’d focus on whatever I was doing at the time, so I could work hard and produce good work for a series of days (getting into the flow of work), and then enjoy my time the rest of the days. How would I go about doing this?

Planning, friends. Planning.

I’ve decided to make it a habit before I go to sleep to open iCal and figure out what I would do with my day. I usually have a morning lecture (for about an hour or two), then a long break and an afternoon lecture. This can be seen as a beautiful or a disgusting thing; if I didn’t use the time wisely, then my day would end late and I’d have to do homework. If I did manage to use this time well, then I would be able to do some work, reinforce my learning, and possibly even kill the workload so I wouldn’t have to do it after my afternoon lecture.

Sweet.

What do I do with the spare time?

There are a ton of extracurriculars that I hope to be a part of at this university. Not to mention that CutEdge.org could use more updates and more content. I usually enjoy writing articles, because I find that it’s good practise and Lord knows I could use it. But my whole goal is still to be more productive — not to enjoy my time (well, there are times for that — they’re called weekends), but to kill everything so that I can recreate hard on weekends and focus on schoolwork on weekdays.

Here’s an article that I ran into today to inspire me:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203803904574429151858232582.html?mod=rss_careers

Hope I was of some help. I realize that this is taking off in an untraditional CutEdge.org direction, but I do hope to explore not only technologies, but also techniques that help people. And not just useless gadgets that people get sick of so very quickly.

Hot off the Press: The new Snow Leopard and Windows 7 Wallpapers

Ladies and gentlemen, Snow Leopard is out. And with Windows 7 nearing release, mark the celebration by changing your wallpapers! There is a Snow Leopard wallpaper pack, as well as various Windows 7 wallpapers available for download! You’ll be surprised at how drastic a change that wallpaper makes. Enjoy.

http://ka-booka.deviantart.com/art/Snow-Leopard-Wallpaper-Pack-132160873

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/downloads/personalize (navigate to the Desktop Backgrounds tab).

Here’s an idea — if you’re usually using Windows, download the Snow Leopard pack. If you’re using Mac, use some Windows 7 wallpapers. It’s an interesting change.