Thursday, April 29, 2010

Do not pay for security software

I saw this Interesting news in CNET by Rafe Needleman
.I just want to share it so that you could be aware.

After the recent disaster of an antivirus app update from security vendor McAfee, I took a quick look at what the laptop and PC companies--from whom most people get their security software--were offering in the way of security software on new computers.



Here's what I wanted to see: computers pre-packaged with with Microsoft's free antivirus software, Microsoft Security Essentials (download), which I've found to be robust enough for all users except the most cavalier sloppy clickers out there. MSE is also lightweight enough that it doesn't slow your computer and is largely invisible when doing updates. And it's free. Did I already say that?
It's not that free software is better by nature. The full-feature, paid security suites are robust computer and information protectors, especially for people who might otherwise get themselves into trouble online due to a lack of education on basic computing security practices. There's nothing wrong with saving these folks from trouble. But are you one of them?
McAfee-type flubs are also rare, and nothing's magically protecting Microsoft, AVG, Avast, and any other free antivirus apps from the same fate. But I say, given the problems that you might have with any antivirus app, why pay money for features you don't need? It's not like your money buys you complete peace of mind.
So where can you buy a computer with MSE pre-installed? Microsoft confirms that no top-tier computer maker is yet offering it pre-installed on new PCs. That's a shame. In Microsoft's own retail stores, though, MSE is part of the included software suite.
The standard offering now is a trial (time-limited) version of either Symantec's Norton security suite or McAfee's, for no charge, or the option to select either Norton or McAfee. On some product lines you can opt out of the pre-installation of either of these products and get a computer completely unprotected if you ask. Others will let you opt out of the setup of a pre-loaded security suite when you first power up your computer. On these machines, you can easily download MSE and install it yourself.
Keep in mind that connecting an unprotected computer to the Internet is not the smartest thing in the world to do. While I do not believe the hype that a new, unprotected computer will be instantly taken over and turned into a zombie for the Russian mafia, if it connects to the Net over Ethernet or Wi-Fi without running security software, you still don't want to do much, if any, surfing without a protection app installed. (One way to stay belt-and-suspenders safe: download the installer for MSE from a protected computer, put it on a flash drive, and then install it on your new computer before you let it connect to the Net.)
So why can't you get the excellent Microsoft app pre-installed instead of Norton or McAfee? Because the companies that make the paid apps pay the manufacturers for converting trial users to subscribers. Microsoft Security Essentials is free, and Microsoft pays computer makers nothing for installing it. So it's in the manufacturers' financial interests to keep offering you security suites that are too big, too expensive, and frankly too flaky.
A Dell rep even told me that the suite you're more likely to be offered depends on the "deal of the month" that Dell has with the security vendors (Symantec or McAfee). It's like walking into a Best Buy, she said: some days the big in-store displays push one product; some days another. It depends on the deal.
Sure, this is capitalism at work, and we can't really fault that. But in this case I call foul. Users' computer security is more important than making a few bucks from them, and not all security suites are created equal, certainly not equal enough to be swapped out based on the deal of the moment. It's time for computer vendors to do the right thing for users, and that means offering good free security apps if they're better for users. And for many users, they are.

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Ask them anything! Anonymously or not!

I notice a website which is called formspring.me. It is said that you can ask anything to your friends either anonymously or not.

Unlike Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr. Formspring.me gives you another way in rising your social needs.
It is like a Personal Interview Profile just for you! Anyone can ask you different questions just like your being Interviewed by someone.
The website is very simple, its simpleness and creativity makes it popular to many people who also uses Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr.
You can also invite other people on answering your questions either anonymously or not.
Now, you can connect to the website via Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr.
Its easy! I love the sites core even thought its very simple yet attractive
It also has handful widgets to those people who has their own website, I do actually have one, look at the right side of my Blog, you see it right?
If your have some bad social media following, the site can also offer you random questions.

Of course, given the fact that you get to choose exactly which questions you want to answer, you can tailor this ongoing interview to be totally self-serving. Given that many of the questions are likely to be submitted anonymously, you could even ask yourself questions that you really want to answer (“Why yes, I do regularly contribute to charity and promote world peace”). That said, it will be pretty easy to spot people who do this, and the most interesting (and popular) users will likely be the ones who are most willing to leave their comfort zone.
Popular users are likely to draw a lot of spam and negative questions. You’ll have some control over this —  you can require people to log in before they submit a question (though their question will still be anonymous if they wish). But most people with a significant following can probably expect some hateful or meaningless questions. Of course, people can @reply you on Twitter with whatever they want, so this isn’t a new problem, and you’re not obligated to answer any of these questions.

There have been similar applications available for both blogs and Facebook before, but what Formspring.me lacks in originality it makes up for in execution. The site is clean and easy to navigate, and makes it easy to connect with multiple social networks and blogs. It’s currently throwing some DB Errors, but I suspect that might be because the site is quickly gaining steam. And it’s not hard to see why people are calling the site extremely addictive. 
Formspring.me was created by Formspring, a company that provides tools for building web forms.

formspring.me

Ask me anything http://formspring.me/cierre

A Review: Cheap Phone Calls to any part of US and Canada!

I'm one of the users of this device, it is called MagicJack. I was amazed by this device because you can call in any part of US and Canada for just $20 a year!.
I'm currently at Philippines and I can call my Parents at the U.S. without any hassle of buying International Phone Call Cards or any Domestic Phone Lines.
You can use this device in any part of the world unless you can only be allowed to call US and Canada. I'm not sure if you can call in other countries, maybe there is a huge charge is there is.
MagicJack is a device that has a USB to plug in your computer and has a phone jack that plugs in a standard phone.
It is a computer peripheral that, in combination with telephony service from the related YMAX Corporation, provides Internet Based Telephone-Service (VoIP) to the United States and Canada. The firm's primary product is a  USB device that holds both the software necessary to place Internet-based telephone calls via a customer-supplied high-speed internet connection, and electronics (technically known as a SLIC, or Subscriber Line Interface) supporting conventional landline telephones to be plugged directly into same device. The products are promoted through television infomercials and a website.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

E-Games is releasing 2 new Online Games! (Part 2)

E-games will release another casual game in the Philippines called Band Master. Band Master's gameplay is like O2 Jam but this time you can roam around.
It would be fun if E-games would sell some guitars or drums for the PC just like in guitar hero. Anyway here is the site of Band Master Philippines
A Casual Game for Music Lovers like O2jam, but this one totals the difference between it.
The Characters are now in 3D and you can see them move and hit the guitar, drums, piano, synthesizer, brass and bass.
I don't have quite knowledge of it yet because I still haven't played the game yet however all I can say is I can't wait to tackle this game.
It seem to be exciting!

Here's a sample video, to see more of it just go to www.bandmaster.com.ph




BandMaster Status: Closed Beta
BandMaster Open Beta Launched: Unknown

E-Games is releasing 2 new Online Games! (Part 1)

They we're about to release two new Online games this coming may if my thoughts we're exact (LOL!).
The first one is Dragonica Online, here is a short brief about the game
.
Dragonica Online is a 3D action side-scrolling MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing game) developed by Barunson Interactive. Development has been ongoing since March 2006. Operation of Dragonica is relegated to different publishers for their respective regions. It is a free-to-play game which includes a cash shop that allows for unique customization of player's characters. The game has been in Open Beta across Europe since June 10th 2009, has implemented the Kundara Content Update during August 2009 and has announced that the "Tales of the Damned" expansion will be introduced during October 2009. The North American Open Beta Test began on August 18th, 2009. Characters created during the Open Beta Test will carry over to the commercial release.

I played the European version that was published by gpotato.
The game was somewhat like Grand Chase, however Grand Chase have a 2D background and 2.5D Character Rendered Definition, and in Dragonica they do have both 3D in Towns, and Mission Maps, however its still a Side-Scrolling game. still confused how it became a side-scrolling game because of its 3D-ness? here's a screenshot!


I'm with my Couple, Martiena at that photo, I'm in the town because I'm selling stuffs in the market to make money.
There is also a Couple system in this game, where you can teleport to your couple with a Love Warp Scroll and a useful actiive skill to increase your attack speed when your couple is around you.
Now I will let you see a screenshot in a mission map, I'm actually doing solo here for and using my Arbalist (Archers 2nd Job).



Its a fun game, you can actually make a party inside the mission map just like the grand chase you can hire for 4 members. If you have an existing party you can make them join in your party without inviting them.

Dragonica PH Status: Closed Beta
Dragonica PH Open Beta Launch: Still no announcement.
We'll move now to the next game which is Band Master

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Vector Graphics

One of my talents and hobby actually, even though this thing takes me more than 7 hours to work, yeah your right more than 7 hours.
Vectoring is not easy, you need concentration and dedication before you can finish a masterpiece like this.
Don't you feel heavily joyed whenever you finished one?
I don't actually have a talent is drawing, mixing of colors and photo editing.
The only matter here is you want to learn how it works, that you can do it and your dedication in doing it is a 100%.

Vector graphics formats are complementary to raster graphics, which is the representation of images as an array of pixels, as it is typically used for the representation of photographic images. There are instances when working with vector tools and formats is the best practice, and instances when working with raster tools and formats is the best practice. There are times when both formats come together. An understanding of the advantages and limitations of each technology and the relationship between them is most likely to result in efficient and effective use of tools.

One of my favorite softwares in vectoring is Adobe Photoshop and Adobe illustrator.
I started using these software since I was in 3rd Year High School.
Its easy to use when your always playing with it, the filters, the layers, editing options, etc..
However Vector Graphics mostly revolves in many layers and the most essential tool here is the PEN TOOL!
At first, this tool is very hard to use but after too many tutorials and tries I finally get into using it until I came to see this photos which are called Vector Art.
In creating Vector Graphics you must use the Shape Layered Pen Tool, you will create same shape as the raster image, with many layers by it.
I guess the minimum layers I saw in creating a vector image was 100+.

At least now, you have the idea and what is Vector Graphic is.
Its fun doing this kind of art, you can make it as a part of your hobby, and maybe you can discover a new talent!

Etchel is a blogger!

Yeah I became one at last,
I've only blog posting things that mostly because of love matters but now is actually different.
I'll use this website to extract all my feelings and to remove my bored-ness in my life.
I will publish all my projects, ideas and features that comes in my mind, technology nowadays is way too vast now.
You can even get money online by the use of some sort of sites like adverts, blogging and selling of advert space, there are some more but its way too many to mention.
You can redeem your cash via paypal, an online merchant account, you can also say that its a savings account.
You can also use paypal by buying stuffs online is many sites like www.ebay.com, and making people to offer job and pay them via this.
Here is a short brief about Paypal.

PayPal is an e-commerce business allowing payments and money transfers to be made through the Internet. PayPal serves as an electronic alternative to traditional paper methods such as checks and Money and has been involved in many cases of litigation concerning fraud scams.

A PayPal account can be funded with an electronic debit from a bank account or by a credit card. The recipient of a PayPal transfer can either request a check from PayPal, establish their own PayPal deposit account or request a transfer to their bank account. PayPal is an example of a payment intermediary service that facilitates worldwide e-commerce.

PayPal performs payment processing for online vendors, auction sites, and other commercial users, for which it charges a fee. It sometimes also charges a transaction fee for receiving money (a percentage of the amount sent plus an additional fixed amount). The fees charged depend on the currency used, the payment option used, the country of the sender, the country of the recipient, the amount sent and the recipient's account type. In addition, eBay purchases made by credit card through PayPal may incur a "foreign transaction fee" if the seller is located in another country, as credit card issuers are automatically informed of the seller's country of origin.

See? Paypal has so many advantages nowadways, using money electronically, buy things online, buy softwares, and even for business accounts.

what a good money transmitter isn't it?

Once this sentence is on your blog, come back to your PPP account and press the claim blog button. You can remove the post after you have successfully claimed the blog.

A hand kids past a misplaced believer.

Now that you've added your blog, we need to make sure that you own this blog.
Create a new post on your blog. Copy and paste the randomly generated sentence shown above exactly as it is given anywhere in your new post. Publish the new post so that it is viewable at your blog's URL.
Once this sentence is on your blog, come back to your PPP account and press the claim blog button. You can remove the post after you have successfully claimed the blog.

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