I was reading my tech updates yesterday and came across an article that Apple was thinking about buying Processor manufacturer ARM. Why they would do this is simple. Now there's level of the playing field, but then there's also closing off the playing field and not allowing your friends in to play with you.
If Apple takes over ARM, that would probably be the end of them producing CPU's for other mobile phone manufacturers like Motorola, HTC and the like. Excuse my french, but if this is true, Apple is a big pu**y. I've been checking the amount of Patents these guys have been filing. They want to put a patent on just about everything so that nobody else can use "their" technology. On the other hand, if ARM is smart, they won't sell to these spoiled brats. How is that good for business? Go from supplying multiple clients to only one exclusive client?
Did you know an Icon based GUI on any Operating System (Windows, Linux, Android, etc) was patented by Apple? Or they at least tried, it's a bit late now. I'll be damned if you ever catch me with anything from them now, be it software or electronics.
Well done Apple though. If you can't beat the other team, buy the ball park and kick them out. And you fanboys complain about Microsoft...ha!
Friday, April 23, 2010
Sunday, April 18, 2010
My Lexicon
My Personal Lexicon: My theories, ideas and terminologies analysing the modern world.
Just a collection of the things I think about. A basic analysis on the world around me and the people in it, my theories on what I would call phenomenons, and some terminology I use to categorize/understand behavioural patterns. I'm not a Psychology or Philosophy student, these are just thoughts of mine. They may/may not be correct/offensive/thought provoking, but I apologize in advance if I do step on any toes.
Distorted Motives:
Motives that were conceived with positive objectives in mind, but which have now become unclear or misled due to various influences. Negative factors are a big influence, such as greed, jealousy, M.A.D. and revenge as may cloud the subject's judgement or motives, leading them to commit selfish acts of violence - verbal or physical -, or various other acts considered to be morally wrong and socially unacceptable.
Seasonal Branding Phenomenon:
A Phenomenon that creates pandemonium during various seasons of the year due to commercialism. This Phenomenon manipulates the mindset of the average human being for a certain period of time, ultimately convincing them to acquire as much as many tangible objects as possible relating to the given season. These objects are usually branded, modified or manufactured specifically for the given season in order to attract attention and potential buyers. This usually occurs at three main points during the year (Valentines Day, Easter, Christmas/New Years) in much of the Western world, and some parts around the globe. However, there is the possibility that this Phenomenon can occur more than thrice a year, for example, any large sporting event(s) that involve most of the global community, either as spectators or participants. Avoidance of this Phenomenon can lead one to be seen as socially awkward.
Modern Attention Deficit. This occurs mainly among people under the age of 25, most being in the 12-19 years old group. It can occur however, at later stages in life, or continue from an earlier stage. Very different from Attention Deficit Disorder or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, this involves more the social status of a person rather than their own attention span. As the subject may feel bored, rejected or unnoticed, they will try to find ways of averting the attention of others towards themselves in order to feel socially accepted/loved/appreciated/needed/functional. An influence of Distorted Motives, M.A.D. may cause the subject to exhibit potentially self endangering behaviour or acts seen by many as socially/morally unacceptable, for example, public indecency or performing various "stunts". In certain cases, the subject might have been threatened or abused at some point in their life, be it verbally, physically emotionally, which could lead them to doing the same to others. Certain situations may become endangering or life threatening to by standers or people/animals in the same vicinity as the subject.
Human Refinement:
....
*work in progress. I still need to refine some of the topics and make them clearer while adding and expanding more*
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Really Sorry but....in all honesty....
Oh yes this is gonna be a mean one. I'm sorry but I just have to get this off my chest. Call it sour grapes, call me a grump, whatever. But...hear me out.
These Facebook Fan Pages have destroyed the whole fabric of this social network. Yeah yeah I know, I have one, but it has a purpose. I don't give a flying squirrel what happens when you eat a pack of M&M's and take a dump or what you do after you go to bed. I think it's stupid and pointless creating the groups first of all, but joining them is even more pointless.
Why am I pissed? I'm trying to build a career but does anyone give a shit about someone genuinely making a page to share his creations with the world? NO! Do you even check your groups you joined now and again or do you just join them for the sake of joining them and showing off to your friends that you like having a coffee in the morning? It's stupid, it's senseless, and it's become an annoying thorn in my side because everyone is in the habit of joining stupid things, and the real stuff just gets glanced over and left.
I ask time and time again for feedback (Murray I hear you on that one mate) but it's pointless. If you don't give a shit about my project, don't make me happy by becoming a fan.
This whole stupid network has lost it's purpose and the amount of douchebaggery (yes I just made that word up. Go on, make a fanpage for that) and stupidity has grown rapidly over time. I'm sorry, but I'm even closer to closing my account. If it wasn't the only way to communicate with friends (how many can I even call that?) and relatives far away, as well as managing my music project, I would have left the moment stupid fan pages started popping up and revealing the percentage of complete and utter idiots on this network.
And just like MySpace before, this place has been overrun by scum. It's a free world though, you have the right to do what you want, and that means the right to delete you from my account if I feel your level of intelligence isn't worth the space on my list. Please note, I've gone from 340+ contacts to 60, so you KNOW I'm serious!
Again, yes I'm sour grapes....and maybe a bit of a bigot....
These Facebook Fan Pages have destroyed the whole fabric of this social network. Yeah yeah I know, I have one, but it has a purpose. I don't give a flying squirrel what happens when you eat a pack of M&M's and take a dump or what you do after you go to bed. I think it's stupid and pointless creating the groups first of all, but joining them is even more pointless.
Why am I pissed? I'm trying to build a career but does anyone give a shit about someone genuinely making a page to share his creations with the world? NO! Do you even check your groups you joined now and again or do you just join them for the sake of joining them and showing off to your friends that you like having a coffee in the morning? It's stupid, it's senseless, and it's become an annoying thorn in my side because everyone is in the habit of joining stupid things, and the real stuff just gets glanced over and left.
I ask time and time again for feedback (Murray I hear you on that one mate) but it's pointless. If you don't give a shit about my project, don't make me happy by becoming a fan.
This whole stupid network has lost it's purpose and the amount of douchebaggery (yes I just made that word up. Go on, make a fanpage for that) and stupidity has grown rapidly over time. I'm sorry, but I'm even closer to closing my account. If it wasn't the only way to communicate with friends (how many can I even call that?) and relatives far away, as well as managing my music project, I would have left the moment stupid fan pages started popping up and revealing the percentage of complete and utter idiots on this network.
And just like MySpace before, this place has been overrun by scum. It's a free world though, you have the right to do what you want, and that means the right to delete you from my account if I feel your level of intelligence isn't worth the space on my list. Please note, I've gone from 340+ contacts to 60, so you KNOW I'm serious!
Again, yes I'm sour grapes....and maybe a bit of a bigot....
Monday, February 1, 2010
Testing
Just testing to see if my SoundCloud widgets work. For the ones that didn't know, everything to do with Gigitsu will now be posted on http://gigitsu.blogspot.com apart from this widget.
Gigitsu - Surrealism by Gigitsu
Gigitsu - Surrealism by Gigitsu
Monday, November 2, 2009
Reshaping Our Society
I urge you to read the entire document through and write comments if you feel it necessary. I
m open to all forms of criticism.
m open to all forms of criticism.
A couple of months ago, a concept was brought to my attention. You're probably going to criticise me for having no life at all, or assume that I've lost my mind and that I'm part of some cult. None of this is true. I just ask, where are the thinkers in our generation, and the next one. Have we all become so obsessed with superficial things?
Being a follower of the Zeitgeist movement, a project of theirs sparked my interest. If you have never heard of it, Project Venus is basically a concept that aims to reshape our society for the good. This got me thinking, because I myself have doubts about our future and how things will turn out if we keep letting things go the way they are now.
Taking recent events in Austria into account, when did it become right for one or more teenagers to hold a taxi driver at gunpoint? Sure, there have always been criminals, but when minors start falling into this sort of lifestyle, shouldn't something be done? Should we not question why this is happening? Within the space of one week, three taxi drivers have been help up at gunpoint or threatened with a knife, all of the perpetrators being teenagers.
I go back just a couple of months, still in Austria, when a fourteen year old was shot dead by police, and his seventeen year old accomplice wounded. The pair had broken into a supermarket at 2:25am and there is still debate whether they were shot out of self defence, or whether the police officer that opened fire was “trigger happy”. When did it become normal for fourteen year olds to even be out at this time of the night? Have parents become too lenient on their children?
The next question is, who do we place the blame on? Who is responsible?
As an atheist I will be honest and tell you that I don't believe in God. I don't believe that praying day and night will lead to society changing for the better. I don't believe in divine intervention. How many Christians, Catholics, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists and the like, have prayed for the safety, protection and anointing of their people? Countless I'm sure, but have we seen much change, if any? Have our lives and our society not continued to spiral to the point where teenagers are now criminals? I do not believe anything has happened. I believe their efforts ultimately in vain.
Should we not be responsible enough to stand up and do something? Are we really so incapable and lazy? Why do we find it necessary to pass the blame onto someone else and assume THEY will do something? We are all responsible. We are the only ones who can do something.
I'll start of with the parents of this younger generation. I have personally seen many pay no regard to disciplining their children. This in turn leads to the children believing that they have the upper hand, and that they will always have their way. Many parents are far too concerned with either themselves, or with work. Instead of looking after their children, spending time with them, teaching them the fundamentals that build up a healthy society, they would rather earn more money or pamper themselves. I do understand that there is global economic hardship, and that some families do require extra income to survive, but there are some that give in to greed.
Their disciplinary measures are reflected in the schools where some children easily refuse to learn. They would rather play the class clown, the so called “badass”, or spend their time indulging themselves with different forms of media. I don't have a problem with a child owning a game console or mobile phone, as long as they are disciplined enough to know that there is a time to learn, and a time for leisure. If a parent has no interest in the education of their child, are they really worthy of being called a parent? If your child comes home from school, refuses to do their homework and heads straight for their room to lock the door and entertain his or herself, shouldn't you show the slightest bit of interest how much they are actually learning, BEFORE the school calls you in regarding you child s progress?
Is it right to spoil a failing student with all sorts of materialistic gifts? When your child has done wrong, should you just sit back and watch them continue to do the same thing without trying to stop them and teach them that their actions are wrong? How will they learn otherwise? Who else is going to teach them? The school? How can the school teach them when they have absolutely no discipline in their own home, when the concept of discipline has fallen through the fingers of their guardians and is no longer attainable?
I move on to the media. In the 21st century, it's impossible to escape this entity. We are surrounded by televisions, computers, cellphones, multimedia players, and the giant of them all, the Internet. While it is still largely impossible to censor the internet or even enforce an effective form of restriction in order to shelter minors from certain things, the other forms of media can be censored. I'm sure we have heard of the Censorship Board and many other institutions that carry out the same tasks. When you buy a DVD or computer game, there are clear markings throughout the inlay that state the minimum age one must be, or maturity level, before they are allowed to purchase, view or use the product. The titles that contain more violent, morally and sexually explicit content are clearly designed for young adults and older. And yet parents, other family members, and even the stores allow minors to purchase media containing such content. Not only this, but they blame the publishers and the creators when their children begin to imitate what they have seen.
A few months ago a German software company was banned from selling their games within the country due to a school pupil gunning down fellow schoolmates and teachers. Everyone knows that this is not the first time this has happened. And this is definitely not the first time a video game publisher has been held accountable for releasing a game containing violence. But people fail to see that, yes, they did design such a product, but no, it was not intended for minors, and no, it should not have been sold to minors. The creators and publishers only go as far as designing and releasing the product to the market. They are not responsible for who buys it, because they clearly state on the cover, in plain sight, who the product is intended for.
Again, I bring this down to discipline from the parents. They are the one's allowing, maybe even indirectly as well as directly, their children to purchase these articles. I look at all aspects of the media industry. While DVD's and videogames carry clear ratings, what about the music industry?
I don't mean to put them on the spot, but when did it become normal for artists, if we can even call some of them that, to release songs containing lyrics that are: Degrading to women, degrading to other cultures, not as such condoning but rather nowhere near discouraging the use of drugs and/or alcohol, being promiscuous, the use of foul language and the glamorising of violence? I'm sure you'll agree with me that substance abuse is one of the biggest problems among the younger generation, but the problem of promiscuity and all round moral is an issue in itself.
Albums do in fact carry a warning that the music does contain explicit content, and again, people ignore this. In fact, I believe that record labels have become so obsessed with making a profit, that they target anyone and everyone to buy their music, regardless of age or maturity level. I myself have stopped buying and listening to certain types of music because I totally disagree with the content. I find it offensive that someone should be able to make money and become an idol, when the message they preach is mostly sexist or violent. No, they might not condone this sort of behaviour, but they have managed to glamorise it and have done NOTHING about discouraging it where the younger fans are concerned. I'm looking mainly at what the Hip-Hop and Pop genres have become.
If I recall, when Rap and Hip-Hop first came onto the scene, they had nothing to do with being sexist or violent. They were created as a way for people to get a message out there, a story of their hardship and growing up in a ghetto. I still respect Tupac Shakur, because he did send out a message. He knew that the violence wasn't right, he didn't condone men being sexist towards women and objectifying them. But the more recent artists have use these as devices to make their way in the world and gain fame, fortune, and a global group of blinded followers who idolize them. And again, parents have sat back and allowed their children to idolize these idiots, rather than themselves. What happened to wanting to grow up like daddy, or daddy being your hero? All this next generation want is fame and fortune without really understanding the amount of hard work, talent and skill needed to achieve it. They don't even know the real price of such a lifestyle, because all they're been able to see are the glamorous parts of it. They driven by greed for material wealth and attention.
And we could bring the greed for attention back to the parents, AGAIN! As I said earlier, some parents are either far too concerned with their own well being, or with earning money. The children come home and have nobody to talk to or give them attention, so they look for other ways of attaining it.
I could continue to go on,but in conclusion, I hope you have read this through and I want you to ask yourself these questions and think about them. What is the next step? Who should take it? The answer is literally under your nose. If we as parents, or prospective parents, or one day will be parents, take it upon ourselves to try and teach our children the fundamentals, protect them from the wrong kinds of influences, and be attentive to them in that they are well disciplined and in turn, well educated, WE could reshape our society for the better.
Being a follower of the Zeitgeist movement, a project of theirs sparked my interest. If you have never heard of it, Project Venus is basically a concept that aims to reshape our society for the good. This got me thinking, because I myself have doubts about our future and how things will turn out if we keep letting things go the way they are now.
Taking recent events in Austria into account, when did it become right for one or more teenagers to hold a taxi driver at gunpoint? Sure, there have always been criminals, but when minors start falling into this sort of lifestyle, shouldn't something be done? Should we not question why this is happening? Within the space of one week, three taxi drivers have been help up at gunpoint or threatened with a knife, all of the perpetrators being teenagers.
I go back just a couple of months, still in Austria, when a fourteen year old was shot dead by police, and his seventeen year old accomplice wounded. The pair had broken into a supermarket at 2:25am and there is still debate whether they were shot out of self defence, or whether the police officer that opened fire was “trigger happy”. When did it become normal for fourteen year olds to even be out at this time of the night? Have parents become too lenient on their children?
The next question is, who do we place the blame on? Who is responsible?
As an atheist I will be honest and tell you that I don't believe in God. I don't believe that praying day and night will lead to society changing for the better. I don't believe in divine intervention. How many Christians, Catholics, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists and the like, have prayed for the safety, protection and anointing of their people? Countless I'm sure, but have we seen much change, if any? Have our lives and our society not continued to spiral to the point where teenagers are now criminals? I do not believe anything has happened. I believe their efforts ultimately in vain.
Should we not be responsible enough to stand up and do something? Are we really so incapable and lazy? Why do we find it necessary to pass the blame onto someone else and assume THEY will do something? We are all responsible. We are the only ones who can do something.
I'll start of with the parents of this younger generation. I have personally seen many pay no regard to disciplining their children. This in turn leads to the children believing that they have the upper hand, and that they will always have their way. Many parents are far too concerned with either themselves, or with work. Instead of looking after their children, spending time with them, teaching them the fundamentals that build up a healthy society, they would rather earn more money or pamper themselves. I do understand that there is global economic hardship, and that some families do require extra income to survive, but there are some that give in to greed.
Their disciplinary measures are reflected in the schools where some children easily refuse to learn. They would rather play the class clown, the so called “badass”, or spend their time indulging themselves with different forms of media. I don't have a problem with a child owning a game console or mobile phone, as long as they are disciplined enough to know that there is a time to learn, and a time for leisure. If a parent has no interest in the education of their child, are they really worthy of being called a parent? If your child comes home from school, refuses to do their homework and heads straight for their room to lock the door and entertain his or herself, shouldn't you show the slightest bit of interest how much they are actually learning, BEFORE the school calls you in regarding you child s progress?
Is it right to spoil a failing student with all sorts of materialistic gifts? When your child has done wrong, should you just sit back and watch them continue to do the same thing without trying to stop them and teach them that their actions are wrong? How will they learn otherwise? Who else is going to teach them? The school? How can the school teach them when they have absolutely no discipline in their own home, when the concept of discipline has fallen through the fingers of their guardians and is no longer attainable?
I move on to the media. In the 21st century, it's impossible to escape this entity. We are surrounded by televisions, computers, cellphones, multimedia players, and the giant of them all, the Internet. While it is still largely impossible to censor the internet or even enforce an effective form of restriction in order to shelter minors from certain things, the other forms of media can be censored. I'm sure we have heard of the Censorship Board and many other institutions that carry out the same tasks. When you buy a DVD or computer game, there are clear markings throughout the inlay that state the minimum age one must be, or maturity level, before they are allowed to purchase, view or use the product. The titles that contain more violent, morally and sexually explicit content are clearly designed for young adults and older. And yet parents, other family members, and even the stores allow minors to purchase media containing such content. Not only this, but they blame the publishers and the creators when their children begin to imitate what they have seen.
A few months ago a German software company was banned from selling their games within the country due to a school pupil gunning down fellow schoolmates and teachers. Everyone knows that this is not the first time this has happened. And this is definitely not the first time a video game publisher has been held accountable for releasing a game containing violence. But people fail to see that, yes, they did design such a product, but no, it was not intended for minors, and no, it should not have been sold to minors. The creators and publishers only go as far as designing and releasing the product to the market. They are not responsible for who buys it, because they clearly state on the cover, in plain sight, who the product is intended for.
Again, I bring this down to discipline from the parents. They are the one's allowing, maybe even indirectly as well as directly, their children to purchase these articles. I look at all aspects of the media industry. While DVD's and videogames carry clear ratings, what about the music industry?
I don't mean to put them on the spot, but when did it become normal for artists, if we can even call some of them that, to release songs containing lyrics that are: Degrading to women, degrading to other cultures, not as such condoning but rather nowhere near discouraging the use of drugs and/or alcohol, being promiscuous, the use of foul language and the glamorising of violence? I'm sure you'll agree with me that substance abuse is one of the biggest problems among the younger generation, but the problem of promiscuity and all round moral is an issue in itself.
Albums do in fact carry a warning that the music does contain explicit content, and again, people ignore this. In fact, I believe that record labels have become so obsessed with making a profit, that they target anyone and everyone to buy their music, regardless of age or maturity level. I myself have stopped buying and listening to certain types of music because I totally disagree with the content. I find it offensive that someone should be able to make money and become an idol, when the message they preach is mostly sexist or violent. No, they might not condone this sort of behaviour, but they have managed to glamorise it and have done NOTHING about discouraging it where the younger fans are concerned. I'm looking mainly at what the Hip-Hop and Pop genres have become.
If I recall, when Rap and Hip-Hop first came onto the scene, they had nothing to do with being sexist or violent. They were created as a way for people to get a message out there, a story of their hardship and growing up in a ghetto. I still respect Tupac Shakur, because he did send out a message. He knew that the violence wasn't right, he didn't condone men being sexist towards women and objectifying them. But the more recent artists have use these as devices to make their way in the world and gain fame, fortune, and a global group of blinded followers who idolize them. And again, parents have sat back and allowed their children to idolize these idiots, rather than themselves. What happened to wanting to grow up like daddy, or daddy being your hero? All this next generation want is fame and fortune without really understanding the amount of hard work, talent and skill needed to achieve it. They don't even know the real price of such a lifestyle, because all they're been able to see are the glamorous parts of it. They driven by greed for material wealth and attention.
And we could bring the greed for attention back to the parents, AGAIN! As I said earlier, some parents are either far too concerned with their own well being, or with earning money. The children come home and have nobody to talk to or give them attention, so they look for other ways of attaining it.
I could continue to go on,but in conclusion, I hope you have read this through and I want you to ask yourself these questions and think about them. What is the next step? Who should take it? The answer is literally under your nose. If we as parents, or prospective parents, or one day will be parents, take it upon ourselves to try and teach our children the fundamentals, protect them from the wrong kinds of influences, and be attentive to them in that they are well disciplined and in turn, well educated, WE could reshape our society for the better.
For those of you that want to forward this on to friends and family or keep print a hard copy, I have uploaded the PDF for you to download at the following links.
Sunday, October 18, 2009
My top tips for safe and secure browsing.
First off, I want to commend Microsoft for pulling Internet Explorer as their default browser in the European version of Windows 7. In my honest opinion, IE was only a good friend when i had no other friends. Now I'm no expert in the field, but i have some knowledge of web browsers. I've been experimenting with new ones from as far back as Netscape and the Neo browser. I remember K-Meleon which was another Mozilla browser.
Currently I'm running Chrome for quick access and videos because its so fast, and FireFox for extra features like RSS feeds and bookmark synchronization. The security in Mozilla based browsers is the best in my opinion. So here are my top tips of what to use.
1: Choose a browser.
Kick IE to the curb. I've had this computer over a year now, and very seldom used IE. I only needed it occasionally when a piece of software was directly dependable on it or didn't recognize that FireFox was my default. However in that short time of usage, there seemed to some sort of "bombard Gigi with useless toolbars" conference because I've never installed anything into the browser, and yet it takes at least 5 minutes to load up because so many toolbars have found their way into it.
If you're looking for performance, I hear Safari is the one to go for. Its based on the Mozilla engine, widely compatible, and I've used it on many occasions and I can honestly say the interface is beautiful. Load time is excellent but I've never really monitored how fast it loads web pages. As with most good browsers out there, it supports Tabs and Tab-Tearing, so you can pull a tab into its own window. It does get a little sluggish now and again when you have a few tabs open with streaming content. Even on my 2GB of RAM and dual-core.
Another excellent browser for performance is Google's Chrome. Although the browser lacks features (Safari is pretty basic too), it has all the basic things you need and maybe one or two extras the others don't have. Load up time is excellent and I've made it my default browser for that reason. As with the other Mozilla based browsers, the security is excellent. The popup blocker works to some extent, but the browser will automatically show a red screen when you're about to view an unsafe page. You do have the option to continue to the page, although I wouldn't recommend it.
My final choice here, which I will write about in more detail than the others, is FireFox 3. I've been a fan since the first release and I have been using it ever since. For most of my Internet experience, FireFox has been my default (until recently when it became too bloated and sluggish in the loading department). Not just because it was secure, but because it did load faster than IE and as far as i can remember, IE was the first one to support add-ons. And these add-ons are the reason I still stay close to FF.
2. Get FireFox.
Also Mozilla based, firfox supports a wide range of features. Add-ons, plugins, skins and with a few tweaks, you can make it even more useful. Think of it as the swiss army knife of browsers.
3. Get FireFox Add-Ons.
I've discovered a host of Add-Ons for Firefox. I've been using this computer for about a year and a half now, and never ever had a problem with it. I only recently started using a software firewall and yet, i've never had a problem with viruses and malware. The only viruses i've had are the ones i purposely downloaded. I've never had to restore windows from a backup, and never had to format my drive. Knock on wood!
The following add-ons are highly recommended by me and are all FREE.
- WOT (Web Of Trust). This is an add-on which is sort of based on a small social network. You can participate if you want, or just use the add-on. What it is basically, is a rating system. The WOT members surf the web and give the different websites ratings in four categories. Child Safety, Trustworthiness, Vendor Reliability and Privacy. If a website is deemed unsafe, WOT will automatically block the website with an overlay displaying information as to why the website is unsafe. Again, you have the option to continue to the page, but this is not recommended. You can get more info here. WOT Demo
- Ad-Block Plus. If you get sick of those ads that show up on all the sites with flash animations, this is the perfect add-on. Most of those ads display false messages telling you that your computer is infected. To the average person, this looks legitimate and they end up downloading what they believe to be an Antivirus or cleaner. This is just a piece of malware to turn your computer into a bot and/or steal your personal information stored on it. You have the power to block these ads, and entire domains so that non of their ads show up. You can even block any content you want. And you always have the power to disable the blocker and removed items from the black list if you make a mistake. When you download this add-on, make sure you subscribe to one of the servers so your black list is kept up to date with what to block.
- This last add-on beefs up FireFox's popup blocker. Yes Popups makes the built in popup blocker more aggressive. NO website is able to open a popup unless you whitelist it first. This can easily be done by clicking a link on a site, waiting for the bar to show up informing you of a blocked popup, and clicking the options button where you can select the option to allow popups from that domain. This is recommended for websites you trust, because Yes Popups is so aggressive that it will even block you from opening links if they try to open in a new tab. You can always turn it off and remove sites from the white list if you do make a mistake.
These are basically the only three security add-ons i use with my FireFox, and like i said, I've never accidentally downloaded and installed malware, trojans or anything of the sort.
4. Get an anti-spyware program.
There are a few out there, and the best I've come across so far are Lavasoft's Ad-Aware and Spyware Terminator. Please note that these ARE NOT alternatives to an Anti-Virus. Some Anti-Virus programs have malware removers built in, but a few don't, and this is for the people that don't have that feature. Ad-Aware comes in a very basic package that you can only scan your computer with and clean. If you want the background monitor, you need the full version which will cost you a bit. It is a good program though.
Spyware terminator is free and this one actually does give you the option of installing their own antivirus to go with it. I've never tried it out though because I'm happy with Avast Home Edition. Spyware Terminator also gives you the option to immunize your web browsers against certain bugs and loopholes in the browsers and your system. This will prevent your browsers from launching malicious code in the background.
You also have the option of using the Real Time Scanner, which works in the background. A useful feature, however it does get annoying at times. It basically monitors every action your computer makes. If it deems something unsafe, it notifies you and asks how you would like to proceed. If it is a program you purposely launched, it is added to the database and you will never be asked again. If its something you didn't launch, just click the block option and it will be blacklisted and never allowed to run. You do have the option of changing the levels of security. Disable does just that, the monitor is turned off. Allow mode, which i would only recommend when you're installing software from a secure source, i.e. a retail CD or a trusted piece of software from the official website. Game mode will allow you to play your games without the interruptions, and Normal mode prompts you for every unknown action.
As with all security programs, updates are frequent and scans should be run just as often. Again, you have the option of editing you white and black lists.
5. Avast! Home Edition.
I remember going out and paying 50 Euros for Norton Internet Security 2007. Not only did it slow down my entire system and hog my resources, but it let a piece of malware through MSN which destroyed my system. This was two years ago, and since then I've never touched anything with Norton on it again. I've never paid for an antivirus since then either.
Avast! comes in two versions. Home Edition and Professional. The Home edition will cost you nothing, and you'll get all the features you need PLUS a licence key that's valid for one year. And when it expires? Just renew it or, if you're feeling generous, pay for the Professional licence. This will unlock small extra features like a Script Blocker, PUSH Updates, the ability to store scan results and a few more other things. I still say Home edition is fine for everyday use.
6. Firewall.
Most Routers have built in firewalls, and company networks too. But sometimes an extra bit of protection does help, and the Windows Firewall doesn't cut it. I'm using COMODO Firewall. Another free program. Just like Spyware Terminator, updates are frequent and it will prompt you about every action you make if it finds it unsafe. Unlike Spyware Terminator that only prompts on local actions (starting of programs and services without connecting to the Internet or network), it does it's job of monitoring EVERY connection you make to the Internet. Every time a program tries to access a port or an outside I.P. address tries to communicate with a port, you will be notified. Its up to you to decide what's safe, but the program will help you if you don't know. As for security levels, it's much the same as Spyware Terminator, with the addition of Safe mode which will prompt for absolutely everything, and Training mode which learns which actions to allow. Network and Local actions have separate security levels, so you can adjust them independently.
7. Don't download just anything.
There are so many programs on the internet that are available for download, and most seem to good to be true. If you don't need it, don't download it. Theres countless weather applets, so called spyware removers, and little gadgets to add to your desktop to make it look fancy, but so many are full of malware and trojans. Instead, Google the software first and see what comes up. If other users deem it safe and reliable, go ahead and install it. This method has saved my skin countless times.
You can get more info on these programs by visiting the following websites:
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