Ira Wilsker's archive

2012 security software updates

Just as the automakers announce their new offerings every fall, so do the major security software publishers. In recent days, I have seen announcements and promotions for the 2012 offerings from Kaspersky, AVG, Panda, and TrendMicro. 2012 editions from McAfee and Norton may be available by the time that you read this. With each new model year, just like the automakers, the computer security software companies typically offer more features and improved performance.

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Free online proofreading

In the 11 years that I have been writing this weekly column (more than 500 columns), I know that I have had some spelling and grammatical faux pas. I have used several versions of Word, Google Docs, Open Office and Libre Office as my word processor, and all have a reasonable spelling and grammar checker, which I have never failed to run, but still some errors slip through.

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Free backup software from EaseUS

Last week I wrote about the imperative to frequently and constantly back up our hard drives. I referenced the three most important words in computing: Backup, Backup and Backup! I warned about Murphy’s first law of computing: “A properly backed up hard drive will never fail, but the first time that you do not have a current backup, it will always fail at the most inopportune time.”

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