Today (Sunday) is, I think a typical winter day. The is no sun and it is raining. A perfect day to be staying at home. Tan is doing some adjustment to the pants she bought during the sales which started on Boxing day while I am on the computer researching TV tuner cards and reading the Sunday newspaper. There are heaps of newpaper here in the UK. I personally enjoy reading the Times and the guardian online and it is FREE. I like free stuff. I only buy newspaper on Sunday and sometimes on Saturday.
Anti-Spyware
While browsing, I came across Microsoft's antispyware software. I installed it and am currently performing a deep scan. It also comes with real-time protection which is a bonus.
I am paranoid about spyware and thus have installed ad-aware SE peronal edition and Spybot search and destroy on my PC and I scan for spyware at least a few times a week. I even use Firefox for my general surfing. Firefox has features not found on IE such as TABs which is great. If you haven't tried firefox, I wholeheartly recommend it. Because of IE's dominance, some website are optimize for IE and thus won't display properly on Firefox. When I encounter this then it is just a simple matter of copying the address and then open IE and pasting the address into IE. In effect, I only use IE if I have to.
I have seen people's computer who doesn't have antispyware software installed. I reckon that out there, there are heaps of people without any spy ware detection software. You can't really blame them can you? Not everyone is aware of what's out there. Not everyone is interested in computer. The computer is SOO different to any other appliances people buy. Is computer an appliance? A computer especially one with internet connection need constant maintenance, much like a car. The computer breaks down, just like a car. The computer can have accidents (virus) just like a car.
When you think about it, you bring your car for service at set intervals, why not your computer? Perhaps there is a great market out there for a company which specialise in maintaining computers such as updating people's antispyware and virus software. Think of the thousands of people who jumped on the broadband bandwagon. Some of them just have a free modem from their ISP. I belive that having a modem is not enough, it is recommended to install a router as well. If not a physical router, at least install a firewall on your PC. Why not have both, a physical firewall and a firewall on your PC like me? I think i am a freak but you can't never be too careful.
Talking about virus protection, there are two free products out there which provides free updates over the net and I think you can get the updates from most CD/DVD which comes with computer Magazine. They are Avast and AVG.
The MOST important thing with virus protection and antispyware program is that you HAVE to keep them up-to-date. It is no use just having them. If you are like me, then you probably would have bought a computer with free anti-virus software and free updates for a few months. After that, if you pay your subscription then you are safe, but like me, no way would i pay for subscription as there are free virus software out there as mentioned in the previous paragraph.
The microsoft antispyware program just finished its scan and detected just a "threat". It would be fun running it for the first time on some unprocted PC and finding thousands of threats. hmmm. I am sick.. hmm
Out of the three antisypware program I have installed I think I like Microsoft's Interface. It is as easy to use as Ad-Aware. Because of my paranoia, I will be keep all of them and update and scan my PC with each one, one at a time.
TV tuner
Back to TV tuner card. At the moment, we don't have a TV and as we are here temporary. I don't think buying a TV is sensible, it just adds to our possesion which is still growing!!. Therefore, having a laptop already, all I need is a USB TV tuner card which would turn my laptop into a TV. Right now for news we watch BBC news over the net. I am quite impress with BBC news. From the news player, you can also access weather, sport and their radio stations which are broadcasts over the net. CBS and Channel nine (Australia) also have FREE news over the net. Most other network requires subscribtion.
During the day I normally have Bristol GWR Bristol FM in the background.
Back to TV Tuner :). The things in the UK is that there is now digital TV available and it is known as Freeview. It comes with 30 TV channel and 20 radio channel. The channels includes the 5 which you would get from the current analog system. I belive freeview is only SD quality. I don't really care what quality it is right now. Any channel is better than nothing and I don't have the necessary equipment to take advantage of HD anyway.
In light of that, It would be sensible and logical to get a Digital TV tuner for my laptop because I will be able to get all the 30 TV channel which includes the 5 which comes with standard analogue. The only catch is that digital TV is highly dependant on the quality of the signal which could be affected by the area you are in, the condition of your aerials and/or the wiring etc.
Because of that, if I get a digital TV tuner, I might only be able to get a few channels and not the whole 30. I guess I can return the tuner if it doesn't work and just get an analogue Tuner which is cheaper. There is this Lifeview TV walker DUO which is the first USB 2 based digital and analogue capable tuner. I think it is about £100 at the moment. ATI also has a product which is capable of receiving analogue and digital signal but it is only available on the PCI interface. I think in the not too distance future, we might see more duo product being offered on the USB interface as laptops are as common as PC. I remember, a few years ago, laptop sales in Australia outnumbered desktop.
I think I will wait a bit longer to see what people say of the lifeview walker DUO. I might not be able to wait and just spruge on a digital TV tuner.
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