Activity for Yesterday

Review - Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 3
Final (Apr 29, 2008)

Works. Does nothing extra except what the overview document says it'll do. No, I didn't notice any difference in Office App speed. It isn't any slower, but isn't any faster either that I can tell. Just think of it as a normal security update...a really big one...
Review - AVG Anti-Virus Free
7.5.524a1289 (Apr 16, 2008)

Yeah, I had to finally stop using this one because of all the false positives it picked up--and in the end it's "tamper protection" (or whatever AVG calls it) prevented me from easily stopping the processes that picked up these certain false positives. When that happened this last time, I finally gave up and uninstalled AVG so that I could run the legitimate program.

It was a sad day in a way, but I had had enough of the inconveniences that it gave me. I started using AVG Free because it was free and easy, not so I would have to hassle all the time with it. Slowly over the years (particularly between version 6 and version 7), it had become more and more of a hassle.

Oh...and before you ask if I'm sure that the "false positives" were indeed false, I used http://virscan.org/ and found that only AVG had the false positive and no others. This happened four times last year alone with four separate programs, and once this year that was the last straw. Shame too, I've used AVG Free since version 5.0 on Windows 95.

I moved to Avast! now. Not anything super, way better customization features though. It also supposedly has slightly better detection rate and certainly can't have any worse results as far as false positives go...but I digress--after all, this is a review of AVG Antivirus, not a review over Avast! Antivirus.
Review - Vista Codec Package
4.6.3 (Apr 15, 2008)

This one does well. I've used this one on another machine and it seemed fine--haven't found anything left out yet, although I've heard it is not quite as comprehensive as K-Lite which also works fine on my main PC. (both run Vista FYI)
Review - K-Lite Codec Pack Full
3.9.0 (Apr 15, 2008)

I've tried many other codec packs out there, and this is the one I settled with. After installing it, I don't run into any problems with codecs. This is the best I've used by far.
Review - Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool (x86)
1.40 (Apr 9, 2008)

Yep, it does what it says it does. I for one welcome it, as it is not an extra resource hog and does a one-time scan (unless you manually run it again).
Comment - EC's Reding: Government should act as broker for media downloads
1.40 (Jul 9, 2009 - 4:47 PM)

Government needs to stay out of business and out of our lives. Their tentacles are already in far too much.

/+1
Comment - Sony CEO Stringer: No PS3 price cut
1.40 (Jul 9, 2009 - 11:52 AM)

why drop the price anyway?

Because people like me who PC game and already own the 360 can't justify the price of the PS3 for a handful of exclusives. I'm not a big FPS gamer anyway, but the 360 has plenty of FPS games to keep someone satisfied. Very few people are willing to pay $400+ to play MGS4. If the PS3 had a huge number of star-lineup games like the PS2 did, I'd probably buy it. With many former PS-exclusive series like Final Fantasy and such being released on the 360 I don't need a PS3.

Oh, and before someone else mentions it, I have a BluRay writer/HD-DVD reader/DVD+/-RW combo drive in my PC that I purchased for less than $200, so I could care less about paying $400 for having BluRay in my console.
Comment - The battle ahead: Google Chrome OS vs. Microsoft 'Windows 8'
1.40 (Jul 9, 2009 - 11:41 AM)

So what you're saying is that Google (and 3rd party devs) need to have the application space cornered before the OS could make true inroads?

Not necessarily. Remember that Windows 1.x and 2.x hardley put a dent in the market...and we know the rest of the story. You can almost compare this to that phase--Windows was built around MS-DOS at the time, and Chrome is being built around Linux. If Chrome OS 1.0 "fails" like Windows 1.0 "failed", it will not necessarily be the end of the story. Now, I'm not sure that strategy will work here or not, I just know it worked out in the end for Microsoft is all.
Comment - Up Front: Congress asks about AT&T iPhone exclusivity
1.40 (Jun 16, 2009 - 11:17 AM)

"Imagine, the nation's second largest carrier doesn't sign up customers in an entire state represented by Patrick Leahy. That might not be a good thing."

That made me giggle...
Comment - Microsoft to release Windows 7 in Europe without Internet Explorer
1.40 (Jun 12, 2009 - 2:50 PM)

...So the more successful you are, the more the EU has to castrate you?

Firefox's market share proves that MS is no longer a monopoly in the browser market anyway.