Hodge-Podge Linkfest

The rest of the Hodge-Podge links that didn't merit "standalone" posts:

RE: McAfee (Part I)

AOL recently dropped its free AOL branded Kaspersky antivirus product "Active Virus Shield".

Spotted via heise Security News: AOL discontinues Active Virus Shield

The AOL Active Virus Shield page link now brings a page display that reports the following:

AOL® Active Virus Shield is no longer available.

Looking for protection from viruses, spyware and hackers?

We are now offering McAfee® Virus Scan Plus-Special edition from AOL.

Please visit AOL® Internet Security Central to find the most comprehensive FREE set of safety tools available to help keep you, your family, and your PC safer from online threats.

Jumping the link to the Internet Security Central shows AOL is now using anti-virus provider McAfee for their free branded product offering: McAfee® VirusScan Plus - Special edition from AOL.

On the plus side, it does support Windows Vista, XP, and 2000 flavors.

I'm curious on a few points with this:

1) Does this mean users who downloaded and were depending on the Kaspersky/AOL version will no longer be supported? Or will they still be able to get DAT file updates?

2) It was my understanding that the Kaspersky/AOL version now discontinued could be downloaded and used for free by all, not just registered AOL users. Now appears the following text on the new McAfee/AOL product page

Buy this protection yourself, and you could spend as much as $39.99, but with an aol.com email address, you can receive this comprehensive set of safety tools free.

The download link looks good for all, but I don't feel like experimenting with trying to go through an install routine to see if I will be prompted for an AOL email address to register.

Getting the AOL email address itself isn't a problem: AOL offers free email addresses via this link:

Free email address from AOL Mail

I'm a bit bummed to see that Kaspersky was shown the door, and I'll personally still be sticking with AVG Free antivirus and antispyware products as my front-line defenses for now.

It was a nice dance while it lasted.

RE: McAfee (Part II)

I've mentioned this product before a while ago, but McAfee has done beta-testing its Rootkit Detective tool and now has released it in a final build:

Free McAfee Rootkit Detective 1.0 Home Page

Probably good to keep handy on a USB stick, just in case, along with the other freeware Anti-Rootkit utilities I have previously mentioned: Anti-Rootkit Tools

Read the page carefully before using as it does come with a number of Known Issues.

RE: File Sync Tool Toucan

Not too long ago I waxed gushingly about a freeware file-sync tool that has helped me keep my "standalone" sysadmin utilities sync'ed up across my various systems and USB storage devices: DSynchronize.

It isn't pretty, but it is powerful and did an awesome job.

This past week saw the introduction of the freeware utility Toucan over on the PortableApps website.

It has a very simple but pretty GUI and allows you to sync, backup, and secure files.

Features

Toucan is a small utility allowing you to synchronize, backup and secure your data with more options than the built in suite utilities. Its features include:

• Four synchronization modes, copy, update, mirror and equalize.
• Four backup modes, complete, update, incremental and restore, in industry standard zip and 7-zip files
• Encryption using the BURP updated blowfish algorithm
• Command line support, allows you to create a batch file for repeated jobs

Both DSynchonize and Toucan accomplish the same base tasks, but each does have some plusses of their own.  I'm keeping a copy of both at the ready depending on the usage application I have at hand.

RE: BibMe

No, I don't mean as in I need a bib because I am a messy eater.

BibMe is an on-line utility to assist with correct bibliography format generation.

It covers books, magazines, newspapers, websites, journals, films, and other sources.

Just search for the item and it will attempt to pull the details from the Web, or manually enter the items.

Add the results to your bibliography list,

Then download the final list in MLA, APA, or Chicago format and add it to your paper.

You don't have to register for use, but if you do, it will retain up to 10 saved bibliographies for you for future reference.  That could be handy, especially if your young student is hopping between project-members' homes during the writing process if it is a group project and changes need to be made.

I spent lots of time struggling over proper citation format in high-school and Alvis has sought my wisdom out already in junior-high.  This should help us greatly.

More BibMe reading: BibMe - Free APA & MLA Bibliography Generator - CyberNet News

Whew.

--Claus