Poirates Ahoy!

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AV Performance put to the test

AV-Comparatives.org have been busy testing the performance hit your system takes by running a resident AV.
Some people will use this report as an excuse not to run a real-time scanner, and just get by with one full scan a week, but these people are stupid. Stupid I tell you!

One interesting thing is Symantec's position in this test. If these results are to be believed, then not only is it catching almost all threats, but it is also extremely light on resources too, even on higher security settings.

Meanwhile, in other news, the number of empty brown envelopes found out the back of the AV-Comparatives office went up by 2342% last month.


Read the last few reports on av-comparatives.org

Read the full performance report

A BSOD with a difference :)

If your PC dies with a BSOD specifying the error:

*** Hardware Malfunction
Call your hardware vendor for support
*** The system has halted ***

NMI: Channel Check / IOCHK

Visit http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315223 and download Windows Memory Diagnostic tool from here:
http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp

When I got this error the first time, I simply restarted  the PC and it was fine for a week. This morning it came back with a vengeance - rebooting wasn't an option as I was getting a string of BIOS beeps (indicating a memory problem).
I had to reseat each and every memory module, one-by-one until the BIOS beeps stopped and the PC could be started. Next step will be to burn this memory diagnostic tool onto a disk and do a check. Another day's work :)

Cringeley's "Triumph of the Nerds" Part 3 of 3

Note: This is part 3 of 3

Part 1 of 3
Part 2 of 3

Cringeley's "Triumph of the Nerds" Part 2 of 3

Note: This is part 2 of 3

Part 1 of 3
Part 3 of 3

Cringeley's "Triumph of the Nerds"

12 years is a loooong time in the world of computing, but this is still one of the finest programmes on computing ever to grace the television screen:



Note: This is part 1 of 3

Part 2 of 3
Part 3 of 3

Plastic Logic answer the call

Finally, an A4-sized, flexible eReader that doesn't look like a big lump of nasty plastic, despite what the company who makes it calls itself.
Perhaps this could provide a convenient alternative to carrying around a load of paper. I'll only know when I get one in my own hands and try it out - but it looks promising.