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According to Internet security software company Symantec (and I’m interested to know exactly how they studied this), cyber crime now generates more revenue than drug trafficking.

In light of this, Symantec’s newly released Norton Internet Security 2010 is a welcome sight, and improves over the 2009 edition in a number of ways. Although never failing to test well in protection ability, NIS 2009 was somewhat heavy and tended to slow Windows down. The 2010 edition is much more light weight. It also installs and updates itself in minutes, before silently ascending into the sphere of electronic guardian angels. But if you do have any problems you will be happy to know Norton’s technical support is also timely and effective, according to NZHerald.

Joining the Internet Security battlefront, Microsoft also released its own security software on September 30^th of this year: Microsoft Security Essentials.  And while Norton Internet Security 2010 comes at a good price, Microsoft’s is free.

Still, Microsoft doesn’t pretend their software is equal to security giants like Norton and McAfee, and says its software is targeted for the “50 to 60 percent [of PC users] who don’t have, or won’t pay for, antivirus protection, anti-malware protection…”

In an independent study by UK-based Davis Technology Lab, Norton Antivirus 2009 performed much better than Microsoft Security Essentials in in-depth scans and real-time protection.

One of the most notable features of Norton, and one of the perks to being a leading Internet security company, is their file reputation rating technology. Norton is able to offer a reputation rating of any file being considered for download. To this, they appeal to their vast reservoir of data collected by Norton software installed around the world, as it scans millions of files and sends back the results.

Norton also manages and saves web passwords in profiles that can then be saved on a flash drive and securely used on other PCs. And Internet browsing becomes much safer, as it highlights search results to show whether a site is listed as safe, risky, or downright dangerous.

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Continue reading »]]> Windows 7 is being met with largely positive performance reviews — and after the PC profanity that was Windows Vista, it had better be. The bloated Windows Vista, laden with clunky features and poor compatibility, was universally decried, and many users retreated back into the much more solid edifice of Windows XP. With its rapidly approaching release, we will see if 7 will redeem Windows.

PC World’s report was mixed, saying that while 7 had improved performance over Vista in most areas, it lagged behind it in a few, and was not that much faster. Overall though it is a much more efficient and compatible OS, and the PC community is in universal agreement is that Windows 7 is the true successor to XP (Vista slipping forever into the collective computerworld unconscious). Microsoft has taken a minimalist approach to the new OS interface, and is offering very reasonably priced upgrades to 7, completely opposite of Vista.

But the real threat for Microsoft, is, once again, Google, with its plans to release its own operating system in 2010, Google Chrome OS. It will be fast. It will be web-focused. And most incredibly, it will completely free.  ”It’s our attempt to re-think what operating systems should be,” Google says. If Windows 7 doesn’t deliver, the burial rites of Vista may be only a prophetic sign of the times as to the ultimate end of the Age of Windows, and the coming Reign of Google. It should be interesting to watch.

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Continue reading »]]> As was the case with Google Chrome in the browser war, Google Wave is coming late to the social networking game.  But if true to form, Google’s tardiness will only make for a grander entrance.  Even so, it will be an impressive feat if their latest project can become a serious competitor to Facebook and Myspace.

But we may be surprised yet, as Google Wave seeks to do much more than simply keep us all in touch via profiles and message posts. Here we have web-based tool that seeks to merge it all — e-mail, IMing, wiki, and social networking — into one application with “a strong collaborative and real-time focus.” And as Wave was also made with an eye to seamlessly integrating plug-ins, apps, robots, and gadgets, it may very well show itself to be the ideal tool for groups and businesses seeking to sync themselves digitally in mind and purpose.

Interestingly enough, Google Wave also takes full advantage of Html 5, an encoding that the latest versions of the most popular browser on the market, Internet Explorer, is not even equipped to handle. (Google Frame is suddenly making much more sense.)

The name Wave comes from the Firefly television series, where a “wave” is an instant electronic communication.  For Google, a wave is a shared communication that can include formatted texts, photos, videos, maps, and pretty much anything else you can electronically come up with. It is shared in the sense that communicating participants can reply during the message, can edit in real-time and play back, and can even add content at any point, thereby creating an unto-itself web object, constantly evolving and allowing for faster and highly-adaptable virtual interaction. Confusing, yes. Google Wave is live in every sense, and in a sense even translive…  or something… honestly, I’m not sure if I entirely grasp it yet.

The Wave is a new internet entity, created and limited to Google. But Google is hoping the new concept will catch on and third-parties will begin building their own Wave services, eventually replacing e-mail. Replace e-mail? Well there’s Google “ambition” for you.

Go here to check out some of the extensions already developed.

“I’ve got a golden ticket…”

Want to visit out Google Wave for yourself? Well too bad. Google only gave out a limited number of accounts to attendees to their recent Google I/O conference, hoping visiting developers will begin creating apps for Wave before wide release later this year. Each initial account was given 8 other invites to hand out. A Google invite auctioned off on eBay went for $157 bucks. So unless you know the right people (I don’t), or are willing to fork over some cash (I’m not), we’ll all just have to wait with the rest of the world to be invited to the Google Clique.

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The newest versions of QuickBooks Pro and QuickBooks Premier, the world’s most popular accounting software, are set to be released Oct 7 for the PC, with QuickBooks for Mac soon to follow on Oct 19.

Last year Intuit awed the software world with an all-new QuickBooks. With a dramatic cosmetic overhaul and a quiver-full of added and improved features, the result was a warm reception of the most popular accounting application on the market.

And after the recent preview of Quickbooks 2010, it is clear Inuit didn’t let 2009’s success go to its head. This year’s new release focuses on a personalized QuickBooks, with a new GuideMe feature to walk users through the most common tasks, multi-options for widgets and apps, and improved customizable home screens, as well as a now-customizable Snapshot screen, a feature introduced last year that displays relevant business data on one page.

As for the Mac version, newly available are at-a-glance information pages and an add-on for credit-card processing, features found in prior Windows versions but that have been conspicuously missing from the Mac line. The Mac version now looks and functions more like a Mac product as well, rather than a PC product with menus and features adapted for Macintosh.

But still found only in the Windows versions are the innovative Inuit APP Center, allowing users to download useful plug-ins, as well as online bill pay and multi-user support.

To users who bought QuickBooks 2009 within the last 60 days, Intuit is offering a free upgrade to the new version.

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Continue reading »]]> It’s strange to think about, but computers are a matter of everyday life and death. In the past thirty years, our entire world has developed a digital alter-ego that has steadily integrated and assimilated our lifestyles, our culture, and our planet. A worldwide, or even US-wide, computer failure would result in the end of life as we know it, unaware as we are to what degree each of our individual digital umbilical cords keeps us alive. The more a security buffer we can give ourselves, the better — thus my shameless plug for the tightrope that keeps us suspended over an abyss of digital darkness: backup software.

Knowing what you’re doing when it comes to backup is now not only a practical or business concern, it is ethical; these are our lives being recorded here: our accounts, our business, our credibility, our own identities in a massive interconnected and self-dependent framework. So do your research. Be prepared. Consider your options. Know who is backing you up.

Let’s consider two popular options on the market today, ARCserve’s CA ARCserve Backup and Symantec‘s Backup Exec. Both offer data protection and system recovery for servers and PCs, both physically and virtually. Both have expertly kept up with the rapid expansion of virtual environments and met the need for instantaneous backup and recovery.

In most recent reviews of the latest releases, CA ARCserve has pulled ahead of Symantec Backup Exec, with higher ratings in usability and data control. For pricing or more information about each of these data protection solutions visit these product pages:CA ARCserve Backup and Symantec Backup Exec.

If you have an opinion on either of these products or any other other thoughts, please leave a comment below. Thanks.

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Continue reading »]]> For this video tutorial, I show you how I created an animated GIF in PhotoShop CS4. The GIF animation is of the twitter bird, who flaps around around a bit and then shows a little banner that asks you to follow him.

In the video below, I walk you through the whole process, from importing the images, to saving it as web content. I show you how to create a timeline, edit slides, and watch your animation before exporting
.

If you like this tutorial, be sure to check some of our other tutorials here on our blog. Just click on the Tips and User Guides category in the side bar, or do a search for “tutorial.” Thanks.

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Continue reading »]]> I just wanted to post the first contest submission here, to get all our creative juices flowing.

The author is Jordan Konkel of Boston, and the photo is entitled, This Way to the Cafeteria Sir. It is a composite of two pictures, with himself as the subject in the picture, then photoshopped into a picture of an alley way. He was kind enough to let me post the original photos (below.)

This photo with it’s title, I thought, was pretty damn funny. Please note however, this is solely his interpretation of the guidelines, and not in any way indicative of the preferred theme or content for the contest. In fact, narrow as my expectations were, I wasn’t anticipating a humorous submission, but there you go. Anyway, thanks Jordan. Happy choppings everyone.

(Originals below)

Here are the originals:

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Continue reading »]]> Easter eggs are amusing features or displays in an application, left behind by the developers for users to find. They are sometimes as simple as a funny message, or as elaborate as an entire flight simulator game, such as could be played way back in Excel ’97.

Here are some of my favorite recent Easter Eggs in common software.

Windows XP

Candy Cane Pipes: Turns 3D Pipes into candy canes

1. Right click desktop, click Properties, click Screen Saver tab
2. In the Screen saver pull-down menu, select 3D Pipes, and click Settings
3. In the Surface Style category, turn on Textured, and click Choose Texture button
4. When the Choose Texture window comes up, Click cancel, and the Pipes should now be candy canes.

Pinball game:  How to cheat

1. Open the Pinball game.
2. Type: “hidden test”
3. Right click the ball.
4. Now left click and hold, and you should be able to move the ball with your mouse.

Notepad: Anti-Bush? Strange and pointless… I’m not sure if this is intentional. Anyway.

1. Open Notepad
2. Type “bush hid the facts”
3. Save as anything.
4. Close and reopen the file, and help yourself to some rectangle text symbols.

Mozilla Firefox

Try Typing these in the Address Bar:

[About Mozilla]: a verse from The Book of Mozilla
[chrome://browser/content/browser.xul]: A browser within a browser. Very strange.
[About robots]: A message to humans from robots.
[About:kitchensink] An interactive symbol-based kitchen sink. It actually didn’t work for me, but it can also be viewed here: Kitchen Sink.

Adobe CS4

Photoshop: Stonehenge developer page
1. Open Photoshop CS4.
2. Press and hold CTRL key.
3. Click Help, and About PhotoShop. A Stonehenge style developer page should appear.

AfterEffects: Periodic Table of Developers
1. Open AfterEffects CS4.
2. Press and hold ALT key.
3. Click help, About AfterEffects.

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Continue reading »]]> A friend of mine said to me recently that IE is the worst thing to happen to us since the Great Depression. “Really?” I asked. “Unemployment? Homelessness? Starvation?”
“Well, in terms of the computer world, yes.” He answered.

Google has apparently heard his cry, and answered with Google Chrome Frame, a new plug-in for IE that means to patch up, soothe, encourage, and give a friendly boost to the less able-footed browser. Never has a plug-in been so condescending.

According to Computerworld, Internet Explorer 8 runs a whopping 9.6 times faster with the new plug-in. That’s insane.

The add-on is less like a plug-in, and more like a super-intelligent alien parasite that takes over its host’s brain while leaving outsiders unaware. Google Chrome Frame basically works by rendering webpages inside of IE, doing all the hard work like JavaScript and HTML 5 that Microsoft seems to have not ever known about.

Needless to say, Microsoft is less than thrilled about Google’s smart-alecky innovation. The more seasoned of the two computer companies was even moved to express personal familial concern, saying “Given the security issues with plug-ins in general and Google Chrome in particular, Google Chrome Frame running as a plug-in has doubled the attach area for malware and malicious scripts. This is not a risk we would recommend our friends and families take.”
Why would Google do such a thing? The problem is that IE, as the most clunky and popular of browsers, basically bottle necks internet’s capacity for evolution. It’s like, the ambitious land-longing fish of the web keeps crawling out on land, and then comes along IE, every damn time, and kicks it back in. Google’s own browser, Chrome, doesn’t help things much, since only about 3 percent of Internet users have it. Now, however, IE is basically replaced from within. Web developers won’t have to sell visitors on a new browser before they view their site now, they now only face the much simpler task of pushing a pesky, but necessary plug-in download, something most people are reluctant but willing to do to see cool stuff on the internet (eg Flash.)
In response to Microsoft’s complaints, Google said “Accessing sites using Google Chrome Frame brings Google Chrome’s security features to Internet Explorer users, providing strong phishing and malware protection (absent in IE6), robust sandboxing technology, and defenses from emerging online threats that are available in days rather than months.”

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