Mini-Linkfest

I’m sitting on I think at least three interesting posts right now.

I’m trying to clean out these other links I’ve got sitting here so I can clear my mind and get really focused on them exclusively.

Bear with me for the brevity.

Panda launches free anti-Virus – offloads almost everything to cloud – Security – The Tech Herald.

Interesting on multiple points.  Panda is providing a “thin” solution to AV bloat by offering a new “free” anti-virus product that installs on the local system, but then gets its protection and analysis from “cloud-based” computing.

I’ve seen a number of other AV products that this method as well.

Panda Cloud Antivirus FREE – Panda Security

I haven’t had a chance to play with it on a virtual system, but one person who has states that the installer alone is 18 MB in size.  Not necessarily what I would consider “thin.”

Contrast that with another “cloud-based” free A/V scanner Prevx Edge which delivers it’s local product as an EXE that weighs in at about 800 kb.  Hop over to TinyApps.Org Blog : A better NOD32? for more linkage on that product.

I’ll add more on Panda when I get the opportunity.  I’m OK with the theory but a bit skeptical on the actual delivery.

Adding to the “free” march is Outpost Firewall Free 2009.  Outpost has had a good reputation and this new offering should delight folks looking for another free firewall solution from a trusted player in the field.

Outpost Firewall FREE – Agnitum  Supports both XP and Vista.

Agnitum finally blog about their free Firewall :-) - Donna’s SecurityFlash

Agnitum’s Outpost Firewall goes free – Agnitum Blog

Old new now but Firefox 3.5 Beta 4 available for testing now - Mozilla Links.  With the patch to NewsFox now in place, I’ve only started using this build version heavily today.

This is interesting:

Tip: How to install and uninstall a program in Safe Mode – 4sysops blog

The post details how to do a registry hack to get the installer service going in Safe Mode.

I prefer to use SafeMSI (download link off that Computer Business 101 blog page) instead which is a single exe file solution I keep handy on USB sticks.

Anyway, that’s not what is curious to me…I’ve been trying to leave a blog comment on 4sysops but now cannot get the website to load at home or work.  Only way I can reach it is via a proxy.  I’ve not been able to leave a comment over there to tip off on SafeMSI as an alternative technique.

I serious doubted I would be blocked somehow from the site from two different IP address (though that could be possible). I’ve also tried in several other browsers to see if a particular Firefox add-on might be doing it but no-dice.

Strange.  I’m going to try to drop the site a direct line to see if something is up.

Short: vLite screws up Windows Vista SP1 upgrade path - Within Windows

Turns out that using vLite to optimize a Vista installation disk might strip the Vista OS version of components needed and called to during a Vista SP2 upgrade run.  So (according to Microsoft) if you have used vLite to deploy Vista, you might get bit when Vista SP2 rolls out.

IEBlog : Customization in IE8 – Most folks (including myself) probably just roll with the toolbar layout and elements as it is presented to them.  While I’ve got my Firefox build pretty tricked out as far as toolbars, icons, element layout items, etc. I don’t really use IE enough to do all the tweaking it can offer.

IEBlog covers a number of adjustments that can be made.  So if you need a good reference or inspiration on ways to make IE 8 a bit more flexible, check out that post.

Cheers.

--Claus V.