I've been using and recommending Avast for years and have been very happy with it. The home users I support are reasonably savvy though, so the threat was probably fairly low.
While fixing another computer that was known to be infected (multiple times), I plugged the hard drive into a Avast protected PC. A pretty brave move, but I was in a hurry to get a backup before I blatted and reinstalled. Big mistake though, as most would have guessed. The second computer was now infected and Avast alone couldn't remove it. It detected the troublesome virus as a trojan but couldn't clean it. It must have been missing a related file that was reinfecting the box. I thought I'd try Ewido (www.ewido.net now owned by AVG), a free trojan remover.
Ewido worked like a charm, but it took several hours to remove, and gain confidence that I'd cleaned everything (various SysInternals tools etc).
I'm still using Avast though, why? Because I agree with this article: http://www.techsupportalert.com/free-vs-paid-av.ht m No one program is perfect, and two different free versions are statistically better than one commercial one.
I checked the virus files on Virus Total (virustotal.com) and confirmed that I'd be in a similar boat with Norton, Symantec and McAfee. I assume these guys offer some type of free telephone support with their product, but this would never be valuable to me.
Avast is still running (active scanning), and Ewido is still installed if something strange happens and I need a second opinion.
Perhaps another way to go at it is to have a board of scientifically-inclined folks to preside over the patent system and work at it with newer laws on what can and cannot be patented.
Granted, but let's see them repeat the experiment with a device that has a full keyboard on it.
Or what about get the guy holding the SMS device (phone) to type in a specially crafted 10 digit number allowing a two way audio connection between two devices.
Every person on the planet has a wife, sister or mother than can talk faster than 250+ WPM.
"In short: Cassini is at Saturn, and about to launch the Huygens probe into Titan's atmosphere (splashdown 14th January 2005). The communication link between Huygens and Cassini was not thoroughly tested before launch. Some thoughtful engineer realised this might be a problem, and after some pushing against resistance, managed to test Cassini's response to how they expect the signal from Huygens to look. Surprise suprise, Houston we have a problem. Turns out, the original engineers took account of doppler shift in the carrier wave, but not in the encoded data. D'oh! Problem is encoded in firmware, can't be fixed after launch. Double d'oh! So instead, they've altered Cassini's trajectory to eliminate the doppler shift. Hurrah for Boris Smeds!"
Yes, and lights out gear makes it a hell of a lot easier to outsource your job to some remote country. The guy in the fringe third world posts his inane questions to Slashdot for only a fraction of the cost.;)
So many things are becoming an addition to the mobile phone, and different groups teaming up to cover their core areas. Obviously Sony are placed fairly well at the moment with their audio, imaging, comms and gaming devices. Who else will team up to compete?
Personally, I'd love to see the Nintendo technologies meshed with Apple and Motorola. To me both Apple and Nintendo, lean towards highly usable, simple technology with high build quality.
Slashdot Mirror
NEBS compliance is still needed for military applications, right?
Can't you just give them something for their anxiety?
Maybe they should run a competition, and put Golden Tickets into chocolate bar rappers?
I've been using and recommending Avast for years and have been very happy with it. The home users I support are reasonably savvy though, so the threat was probably fairly low.
t m
While fixing another computer that was known to be infected (multiple times), I plugged the hard drive into a Avast protected PC. A pretty brave move, but I was in a hurry to get a backup before I blatted and reinstalled. Big mistake though, as most would have guessed. The second computer was now infected and Avast alone couldn't remove it. It detected the troublesome virus as a trojan but couldn't clean it. It must have been missing a related file that was reinfecting the box. I thought I'd try Ewido (www.ewido.net now owned by AVG), a free trojan remover.
Ewido worked like a charm, but it took several hours to remove, and gain confidence that I'd cleaned everything (various SysInternals tools etc).
I'm still using Avast though, why? Because I agree with this article:
http://www.techsupportalert.com/free-vs-paid-av.h
No one program is perfect, and two different free versions are statistically better than one commercial one.
I checked the virus files on Virus Total (virustotal.com) and confirmed that I'd be in a similar boat with Norton, Symantec and McAfee. I assume these guys offer some type of free telephone support with their product, but this would never be valuable to me.
Avast is still running (active scanning), and Ewido is still installed if something strange happens and I need a second opinion.
Perhaps another way to go at it is to have a board of scientifically-inclined folks to preside over the patent system and work at it with newer laws on what can and cannot be patented.
Great idea! I'm gunna patent it!
Granted, but let's see them repeat the experiment with a device that has a full keyboard on it.
Or what about get the guy holding the SMS device (phone) to type in a specially crafted 10 digit number allowing a two way audio connection between two devices.
Every person on the planet has a wife, sister or mother than can talk faster than 250+ WPM.
Personally, I just don't understand the appeal of text messaging.
So obviously you don't own a telco that charges significant amounts of money to send 162 characters of text.
Nice save.
v s.html
"In short: Cassini is at Saturn, and about to launch the Huygens probe into Titan's atmosphere (splashdown 14th January 2005). The communication link between Huygens and Cassini was not thoroughly tested before launch. Some thoughtful engineer realised this might be a problem, and after some pushing against resistance, managed to test Cassini's response to how they expect the signal from Huygens to look. Surprise suprise, Houston we have a problem. Turns out, the original engineers took account of doppler shift in the carrier wave, but not in the encoded data. D'oh! Problem is encoded in firmware, can't be fixed after launch. Double d'oh! So instead, they've altered Cassini's trajectory to eliminate the doppler shift. Hurrah for Boris Smeds!"
http://gimbo.org.uk/archives/2005/01/boris_smeds_
Yes, and lights out gear makes it a hell of a lot easier to outsource your job to some remote country. The guy in the fringe third world posts his inane questions to Slashdot for only a fraction of the cost. ;)
So many things are becoming an addition to the mobile phone, and different groups teaming up to cover their core areas. Obviously Sony are placed fairly well at the moment with their audio, imaging, comms and gaming devices. Who else will team up to compete?
Personally, I'd love to see the Nintendo technologies meshed with Apple and Motorola. To me both Apple and Nintendo, lean towards highly usable, simple technology with high build quality.
Who else is next?
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Glen Williams
Why on a Humvee? I'd mount it on the moon, and call it my "Death Star".