-Zaphod Beeblebrox in The Hitch-Hikers's Guide to the Galaxy
Douglas Noel Adams, writer, 1952-2001

It happened again today. For the better part of my adult life, I have been haunted by a vision from my past and there is little (if anything) I can do other than welcome this specter from days gone by. The apparition takes the form of a face. With skin of yellow and eyes of oxidized copper. The vision always comes without warning although it is obvious what has summoned it. A smell through the portals of time.

[ please continue... ]

My Side

I have always held the position that this blog should strive to avoid controversy and present a non-political, non-denominational face to the world. However, in light of the horrifying atrocity that has befallen our kindred in Mother Earth I feel the need to lift the vail and editorialize in this instance.

I have never been a gung-ho Facebook guy but I do use RSSGraffiti to keep my "time-line" busy with BlogDogIts and I am not without my "friends." Over this past weekend I was alerted to the following friend status messages and (against my better judgement) entered the fray. I have omited the comments of the others involved feeling that my statements stand on their own but you may infer the remarks to which I address.

Please understand that I am not reproducing these comments here to incite debate. I am posting simply because I think these qualify as masodo's musings and I do have the freedom to express my opinion so express I shall...

I am often asked to recommend software for virus and malware protection. I sent the following information to a colleague in an email and decided to post it here for future reference. I hope you find this information useful:

To get free anti-virus go to the following page:

http://free.avg.com/us-en/free-antivirus-download

Click the “Download Basic Protection” button:

a download.cnet.com page will open...

click on the green download button:

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Welcome AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition 2012 users

To complete your download, click on the link below:

============================

choose to save downloaded file to your computer.
file is named similar to: avg_free_stb_all_2012_####_cnet.exe

double click downloaded file to install AVG following prompts...

Basically

·         be sure to select free version

·         do not allow program to provide information to AVG (product improvement – or whatever)

·         I do recommend the installation of the AVG toolbar for browser and setting AVG as default search provider.

·         update AVG (possibly a couple of times) to get latest protections

·         run a complete scan as soon as possible

The complete process may take 30~60 minutes.

On Windows 7 (and Vista) the install places an AVG “widget” on the desktop with a scan button and an update button – as long as you occasionally do each you will be secure and up to date.

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and for good measure...

One of the best resources for instructions on cleaning up an infected computer can be found on the following page:

http://wiki.lunarsoft.net/wiki/PC_Cleanup

Of particular intrest here is the proper procedure for the installation and configuration of the following programs:

• SpywareBlaster.
• CCleaner.
• Malwarebytes Anti-Malware.
• SUPERAntiSpyware.
• Spybot S&D.

For best results download and use the recommended Anti-Malware_Toolkit
to download the above listed programs.

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Keep in mind: AVG should be all the Anti-virus you will need. Installing more than one anti-virus on a system is inviting problems.

Best of luck && Watch what you click!

Using the above resources I have been able to protect and clean several computers; from XP to Windows 7 - I have had success with these products. I have never seen the need to investigate the purchase of anti-virus or anti-malware products for personal computers. On rare occasions a system may be so infected that an operating system may need to be reinstalled or repaired; I have found that system stability is greatly restored using the above techniques, allowing for file recovery and backup efforts prior to the dreaded reformat.

yadda-yadda your results may vary yadda-yadda