Activity for August 18

Review - Opera (32-bit) for Windows
9.50 Build 9807 Beta (Feb 25, 2008)

Great app. Very clean, and handles very well. Though, I would like to see a more universal rendering of CSS. Unfortunately, that's something that IE/FF/Opera/Safari/etc. will need to work out between themselves. I would love to see something like 'Firebug' and 'User Agent Switcher' as add-ons. Great job.
Review - Opera (32-bit) for Windows
8.50 (Sep 20, 2005)

Doesn't block pop-ups? Huh? This is fully customizable. You can block all pop-ups, block no pop-ups, or block 'undesireable' pop-ups. You can manually enter the names of sites you consider safe to view pop-ups from, and also manually enter sites you want to always block pop-ups from. Just because some site says it doesn't work, doesn't mean that they checked everything out. It even shows you how to block pop-ups on the Help files... this is an easy 5 of 5 for me.
Review - AMD Catalyst Drivers for Windows
5.8 (Aug 17, 2005)

Very nice. Windows XP Pro SP2, P4 3.2Ghz @ 3.8Ghz. 1GB Crucial XMS @ 413Mhz, 4x 74GB Raptor in RAID 1+0, Sapphire Radeon x800XT PE (AGP). I have had no problems with any of the ATI Drivers since back in the 4.x days. 5.8 is no exception. I might be lucky...but I don't think so. 5.7 offered the best jump so far, but 5.8 fine-tuned some small issues I noticed.
Review - Norton Internet Security
2005 AntiSpyware Edition (Apr 20, 2005)

What can I say...it's a Norton product. It's good at what it does. The AntiVirus is near the top currently in existence. I like Symantec AV better than Norton (Yes, I DO KNOW that they are made by the SAME company, but they behave and run VERY differently). Norton is 'prettier', and therefore takes up more resources. This beta didn't seem to affect my PC near to the level that NIS 2004 did. The anti-spyware capabilities are definitely something to give Spybot/Ad-Aware/MS Antispyware are run for the money. However, I agree with the majority of the posts in wondering why I would pay so much for just this feature if I can get the same thing from something that doesn't cost me jack (of course, I'm not talking about the MS antispyware, rather Spybot/Ad-Aware since we all know that if it's M$, it costs you something somewhere down the line). Some delinquent non-admin posted the idea that Ad-Aware is "so 2003" and that it doesn't make the top 5 anymore... I'd love to know where they got their info. Probably 'Wired' or some other GQ techzine. Oh well, that's another tangent.
Back to target: Good job Norton...now make it cheaper.
It will be interesting to see what happens when more people wake up and start using NOD32...
Comment - AT&T leaves customers with only two texting options: pay-per-text or unlimited
2005 AntiSpyware Edition (Aug 18, 2011 - 2:04 PM)

+1 for Google Voice ;-) Free texting!!! Too bad it doesn't support MMS yet...
Comment - LinkedIn for iOS gets a much needed makeover
2005 AntiSpyware Edition (Aug 17, 2011 - 2:01 PM)

The improvement is DRASTIC. Great job...finally a version of the App that is kinda fun to use.
Comment - Developers say Google+ can catch up to Facebook in social
2005 AntiSpyware Edition (Aug 8, 2011 - 8:02 AM)

I only use FB because that's what the majority of my friends use. When Google+/Public Profiles opens up for Google Apps, I'll use one of the many invites I have to start using it. Most likely I will always keep the account since I already have Google Apps. Once enough friends jump ship to G+, I'll happily close my FB account. It's a decent product, but I have to agree with Sparxx2k7 comment about the ceaseless annoyance of apps/surveys/ads. I don't think we can ever rid ourselves of useless posts....
Comment - Developers say Google+ can catch up to Facebook in social
2005 AntiSpyware Edition (Aug 8, 2011 - 7:58 AM)

I will speculate that we will see a drop in social networking site usage in general, but then it will plateau. Personally, I believe it is here to stay..but it has lost it's "trendiness". It will generally fade back into just being another tool that we use to communicate...similar to the "email revolution" almost 2 decades ago when getting an email address was all the rage. Now it's just everyday life. I believe the same will be true of social networks.
Comment - Is connecting to WiFi from Windows really as hard as MacDonalds claims?
2005 AntiSpyware Edition (Jul 26, 2011 - 8:15 AM)

Regular at McD's here in Greencastle, Indiana and use the WiFi while sipping away at my coffee (which is better than straight Starbucks blend *imo* - and 1/2 the cost). Restrooms are clean, and so is the wifi. Besides...who does banking or other sensitive browsing on a public wifi? What happened to common sense?

However, this article appears to bear more on Win 7 on McD's public wifi in Australia...so I really don't have any traction here. Connected plenty of times to McD's public wifi on my iPhone and on my Win 7 laptop without any problems.