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1. I get Norton's security/antivirus suite free from Comcast. It's been frustrating lately. Fixed now, but I'll take the opportunity to vent, for the sake of posterity (or something). Norton has been really slowing my computer down. Coming out of hibernation takes forever, it randomly starts claiming huge amounts of CPU time, and the email checker is so bad that even a plain text email can cause everything to freeze up for several minutes. I looked around the web and found that the CPU time issue was actually a known bug set off by some kind of conflict with Windows Update. The threads I found were fairly old, and people claimed that newer updates would fix it, but much as I checked for program updates, nothing seemed to help.
So I started looking around for alternatives. There are several free or cheap antivirus programs which get excellent ratings. And several people in the various threads on various sites talking about which program was better mentioned that Norton had become bloatware: trying to do too many things, and notorious for hogging resources to do so.
Last night, I tweeted about it, sort of hoping someone would chime in with a recommendation. Should I go with Avast? F-secure? Something else? Well, someone did chime in. Out of the blue. @NortonSupport. I hadn't addressed the tweet to them, but obviously they run a regular search for anyone mentioning their name. I was asked for the specs of what I was using, and quickly informed that my program was way out of date. (I was using version 3.8 when Norton had already moved on to 5.0.) The virus definitions were updating, but the program itself hadn't. I don't know why I wasn't notified (the guy at Norton says that was supposed to be Comcast's responsibility).
I went to Comcast to update and found that I couldn't do it directly. They have a new software bundle, and you have to install the whole thing to get Norton. Which was annoying, but fine. Did that, but it didn't update Norton. Just noticed that I had some version of Norton installed and told me I was fine on that front. So I uninstalled the version of Norton I had and the new Comcast suite (leaving my computer with very limited defenses), rebooted, and tried again. (In the meantime, Tim at Norton Support checked up on me to see if things were better and if I still needed help. Note that I'm not paying Norton a dime and I never directly contacted them.) This time, I got the new version of Norton. And it installed fairly quickly and didn't even require a reboot. But when Tim checked on me again, the computer was running very slowly.
I checked the Task Manager to find that half my CPU time was in use... by that Comcast program I had to install in order to get Norton. I looked around a bit for information about that only to find that I was not alone in having issues with it. Meantime, Norton popped up to tell me that FireFox was using a suspicious amount of memory. (Comcast's thing includes a browser security add-on.) Oh yes, and Comcast's program kept coming up with these pop-up notifications that took up nearly 1/4 of my screen.
The people in the threads who were having issues with processor time discovered the fatal flaw: Comcast's program conflicts with other anti-virus/anti-spyware programs. Which, if I read things correctly, includes the Norton Suite it installed. User-suggested solution: uninstall Comcast's program. Official response in that thread: Glad you found a solution!
I uninstalled it. Things seem much better now. So far. We'll see if Norton acts up again.
Forgot to mention: Installing Comcast's program instantly closes all browser windows. Uninstalling it opens a browser window with a survey to ask why you got rid of it. A survey I got to fill out three times. Because, of course, I had to go tend to the family computer. It was also running the outdated copy of Norton. So I uninstalled Norton, installed Comcast's program, used that to install the new version of Norton, and then uninstall Comcast's program.
In summary: Comcast failed to notify me of at least two major antivirus software updates, forced me to install their crappy software to get the latest update, didn't make their crappy software well enough to realize I needed an update, made their crappy software so badly that it conflicts with the stuff it's supposed to install, and generally managed to be seriously annoying. Urgh.
I am glad that they provide this stuff free to customers. But I'm also still generally disgruntled that the cable companies managed to get some kind of anti-trust exemption, allowing them to divvy up the market so that there's only one cable provider available to any given home in the country. Competition might just encourage them to lower prices and offer better service. So far, FIOS doesn't seem to have done much in that direction, but the fiber optic cables still aren't available in a lot of places.
2. Julian Gough is a published author whose free "goat bubble" story is the best, clearest, funniest explanation of the recent financial crisis I've seen. He's got a series of books about a mysterious orphan named Jude who grows up in Ireland. Book One is, sadly, not readily available in the US (it was supposed to be, but Amazon screwed up or something). Book Two, Jude in London, is out now. Both in traditional print format and also free online. How's that work, then? It's the Radiohead model. Download it, check it out, and, when you're ready, come back (on your honor) and pay what you think it's worth. Proceeds split 50/50 with the author, which is a much better deal than most authors get for even an ebook put out through a traditional publisher.
The book itself is... hard to describe. It's sort of like an extended dream sequence, with a series of inexplicable surreal events flowing into each other. It's pretty fun so far. I'm still early in the book, but there have been some really funny bits.
Worth a look, I'd say. It doesn't cost you anything to try.
3. Had a good vacation with the family. Short this year, unfortunately, but we made the most of our time together, I think. (When I say it was short, I was there for 2 1/2 weeks, but the whole family was only together for a few days. Actually, scratch that. My sister came up late because of Irene, and Dad had to leave to get back to work, so this is the first year where we weren't all together at all. That was weird.)
4. I don't think any of you ever watched Voltron when you were kids, but it was one of my favorite cartoons. Turns out the whole thing is available free online. Legitimately. WEP, the copyright owners, have a YouTube Gold account which allows them to put full-length episodes. Their channel is here. Not only do they have Voltron, but also GoLion, the Japanese cartoon used to make Voltron. That has English subtitles. It's interesting to watch both and see what got changed and cut out for American audiences.
5. I had an appointment with a new sleep doctor Mom found. I was going to give the full story elsewhere, but as long as I'm posting here, I'll give you the lowlights: She had nothing to offer, repeated herself ad nauseum, didn't seem to hear or understand a word I said, and said a few things I'm pretty sure are flat wrong. She did seem nice, personally, and wanted to help, but... I won't be going back.
So I started looking around for alternatives. There are several free or cheap antivirus programs which get excellent ratings. And several people in the various threads on various sites talking about which program was better mentioned that Norton had become bloatware: trying to do too many things, and notorious for hogging resources to do so.
Last night, I tweeted about it, sort of hoping someone would chime in with a recommendation. Should I go with Avast? F-secure? Something else? Well, someone did chime in. Out of the blue. @NortonSupport. I hadn't addressed the tweet to them, but obviously they run a regular search for anyone mentioning their name. I was asked for the specs of what I was using, and quickly informed that my program was way out of date. (I was using version 3.8 when Norton had already moved on to 5.0.) The virus definitions were updating, but the program itself hadn't. I don't know why I wasn't notified (the guy at Norton says that was supposed to be Comcast's responsibility).
I went to Comcast to update and found that I couldn't do it directly. They have a new software bundle, and you have to install the whole thing to get Norton. Which was annoying, but fine. Did that, but it didn't update Norton. Just noticed that I had some version of Norton installed and told me I was fine on that front. So I uninstalled the version of Norton I had and the new Comcast suite (leaving my computer with very limited defenses), rebooted, and tried again. (In the meantime, Tim at Norton Support checked up on me to see if things were better and if I still needed help. Note that I'm not paying Norton a dime and I never directly contacted them.) This time, I got the new version of Norton. And it installed fairly quickly and didn't even require a reboot. But when Tim checked on me again, the computer was running very slowly.
I checked the Task Manager to find that half my CPU time was in use... by that Comcast program I had to install in order to get Norton. I looked around a bit for information about that only to find that I was not alone in having issues with it. Meantime, Norton popped up to tell me that FireFox was using a suspicious amount of memory. (Comcast's thing includes a browser security add-on.) Oh yes, and Comcast's program kept coming up with these pop-up notifications that took up nearly 1/4 of my screen.
The people in the threads who were having issues with processor time discovered the fatal flaw: Comcast's program conflicts with other anti-virus/anti-spyware programs. Which, if I read things correctly, includes the Norton Suite it installed. User-suggested solution: uninstall Comcast's program. Official response in that thread: Glad you found a solution!
I uninstalled it. Things seem much better now. So far. We'll see if Norton acts up again.
Forgot to mention: Installing Comcast's program instantly closes all browser windows. Uninstalling it opens a browser window with a survey to ask why you got rid of it. A survey I got to fill out three times. Because, of course, I had to go tend to the family computer. It was also running the outdated copy of Norton. So I uninstalled Norton, installed Comcast's program, used that to install the new version of Norton, and then uninstall Comcast's program.
In summary: Comcast failed to notify me of at least two major antivirus software updates, forced me to install their crappy software to get the latest update, didn't make their crappy software well enough to realize I needed an update, made their crappy software so badly that it conflicts with the stuff it's supposed to install, and generally managed to be seriously annoying. Urgh.
I am glad that they provide this stuff free to customers. But I'm also still generally disgruntled that the cable companies managed to get some kind of anti-trust exemption, allowing them to divvy up the market so that there's only one cable provider available to any given home in the country. Competition might just encourage them to lower prices and offer better service. So far, FIOS doesn't seem to have done much in that direction, but the fiber optic cables still aren't available in a lot of places.
2. Julian Gough is a published author whose free "goat bubble" story is the best, clearest, funniest explanation of the recent financial crisis I've seen. He's got a series of books about a mysterious orphan named Jude who grows up in Ireland. Book One is, sadly, not readily available in the US (it was supposed to be, but Amazon screwed up or something). Book Two, Jude in London, is out now. Both in traditional print format and also free online. How's that work, then? It's the Radiohead model. Download it, check it out, and, when you're ready, come back (on your honor) and pay what you think it's worth. Proceeds split 50/50 with the author, which is a much better deal than most authors get for even an ebook put out through a traditional publisher.
The book itself is... hard to describe. It's sort of like an extended dream sequence, with a series of inexplicable surreal events flowing into each other. It's pretty fun so far. I'm still early in the book, but there have been some really funny bits.
Worth a look, I'd say. It doesn't cost you anything to try.
3. Had a good vacation with the family. Short this year, unfortunately, but we made the most of our time together, I think. (When I say it was short, I was there for 2 1/2 weeks, but the whole family was only together for a few days. Actually, scratch that. My sister came up late because of Irene, and Dad had to leave to get back to work, so this is the first year where we weren't all together at all. That was weird.)
4. I don't think any of you ever watched Voltron when you were kids, but it was one of my favorite cartoons. Turns out the whole thing is available free online. Legitimately. WEP, the copyright owners, have a YouTube Gold account which allows them to put full-length episodes. Their channel is here. Not only do they have Voltron, but also GoLion, the Japanese cartoon used to make Voltron. That has English subtitles. It's interesting to watch both and see what got changed and cut out for American audiences.
5. I had an appointment with a new sleep doctor Mom found. I was going to give the full story elsewhere, but as long as I'm posting here, I'll give you the lowlights: She had nothing to offer, repeated herself ad nauseum, didn't seem to hear or understand a word I said, and said a few things I'm pretty sure are flat wrong. She did seem nice, personally, and wanted to help, but... I won't be going back.
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I didn't remember all that about Silverhawks at all. Swat Kats sounds fun, though! I'll keep that in mind. :)