No more Norton Anti-Virus, free alternative gives better protection

Someone has asked me about a cheaper anti-virus alternative to replace the expiring Norton subscription.

My answer is to use the free anti-virus, and my favorite anti-virus are:
AVG, http://free.avg.com/download, and
MalWareBytes, http://www.malwarebytes.org/

Both are excellent security products, the AVG came with a suite of different defensive weapons, such as the (IE and Firefox) browser safe search plug-in. The safe search screen all search results, and warn you on those pages that may contain any potential harmful script.

All anti-virus software can not keep the virus, worms, and trojans completely away. Surf responsively, and make sure your Windows are up to date at all time, especially those security updates. Keep your Windows Security Center armed at all time, i.e. turn Control Panel -> Firewall, Automatic Updates, Virus Protection, all On.

My PC is canned regularly, why is it getting slower?

Someone asked me about why his PC is getting slower, even the PC is scanned daily.

Several reasons may cause the computer to slow down:

1. Too many software programs have been installed as starting at boot.
2. Hard disk drive is short on available disk space.
3. Data Corruption.
4. Computer is overheating.
5. Corrupt OS.
6. Bad Hardware.

The most common cause is #1. too many software programs have been installed as starting at boot. Once the program is installed as starting at boot, that program is having a piece of the precious resource, regardless of whether you use it or not. The evidence can be found in the increasing number of running tasks in Windows Task Manager (by ctrl-alt-delete). Over time, more and more programs were installed and started at boot, hence the PC gets slower and slower.

It is really difficult to find out which process (name) is what program is almost impossible. The easy way to regain those lost resources, i.e. to speed up your PC, is to NOT starting all applications at boot, or clean boot. In the mean time, these software are remian installed, but not started. They are evoked only when you need to.

Here are the related tech notes from Microsoft:
How to clean boot XP: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/316434
How to clean boot Vista: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929135

Freed by Google, no more Window's Office

I have been looking for a copy of office suite can work with Vista x64, as the number of free trials on the Michelle's new Vista x64 notebook quickly counting down single digit. After a dozen different installations and uninstallations, just as I thought that my only option is to pay the heavily discounted student license seat for $60. Google Doc. came to save me. Now I can import/export Microsoft Words, Excels, and Powerpoint files from/to Google Doc freely and truthfully.

(The following is not a Google advertising, but my own testament.)
I can now:
work on all my documents anywhere with a browser connected with Internet;
collaborate with others without sending the files back and forth, read only or writable;
find (google search) the file from the big pile of files of inconsistent or no filing and naming habit.

Need more reason to NOT pay Microsoft and continue to suffer?
Log in Google Doc, http://docs.google.com/ and test it out with word, excel, and powerpoint files.
For how to import/export Office files, see http://docs.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=50092

Running multiple Skype on the same PC

The ability to run multiple skype instances really have helped me, for I have different skype account for different purpose. Here is how to do it: http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1219248/multiple_skype_instances/


Multiple Skype Instances

* P.S. The latest skype has blocked out this feature. Here is a copy of portable skype v. 3.6 http://rs211.rapidshare.com/files/109475489/Skype_3.6.rar

How to select Traditional Chinese in the Google Pinyin

I use Google Pinyin to enter all my Chinese . For those who want it go to http://tools.google.com/pinyin/ and click on the “big blue button” to download it.Install it the usual way. And continue when finished.

I use Google Pinyin to enter all my Chinese . The default Google Pinyin is set to be simplified. In order to find stuff from Taiwan, I change Google Pinyin to Traditional Chinese. Here is how I do it:

From the language bar, click the “EN”, then select “Chinese (PRC)” to change the language.

The google language bar appears.

Right click the blue ball part of the google bar, and select the item shown.

Select the fourth tab.

Check the “Traditional Chinese” option.

Click “Apply” to apply the changes, or “OK” to apply and exit the options page.

All the characters that appear when using the tool should now be Traditional Chinese. The characters in all the menus and options remain in Simplified Chinese.

To toggle between the Traditional Chinese and Simplified Chinese, simply right click on the Character "Zhong" and select change to simplified (in the example below) or change to traditional.

Another good Chinese Learning Tool

For our next generation, I have a collection of Subtitled Chinese movies and TV Series: http://subchimoo.blogspot.com/. Start up the JDownloader; copy the DDL (megaupload) links; then let the JDownloader do the hard part for you.