Some longtime PC users have never bothered with antivirus software, see no need for such programs, and have never encountered a virus. Some of these people even use Windows.
The cold, hard reality of the computer world dictates that most of us require multiple layers of protection from malware. Last week, I described how I removed dozens of Trojans and viruses from the family PC. The free program I used, Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware, is intended to be used in conjunction with a real-time antivirus program. Based on several comments, this point wasn't clear in the original post.
One of the "Five simple PC security tips" I wrote about last June was to use antivirus software. The two freebies I cited in that post are Avast Home Edition and Avira AntiVir.
Another commenter suggested I write about online virus-scan services. I did that very thing back in May 2008 in "Your one-stop shop for online virus scans." I was glad to see that most of the services I linked to in that post are still available and still free. Unfortunately, you now have to register to view the results of Virus Bulletin's most recent tests of antivirus apps.
More disappointing was that the PC Flank scanning service I described appears to have gone belly up last month. When I returned to the site, Norton Safe Search identified it as dangerous. According to discussions on various forums, such as one on DSLReports.com, PC Flank went dark sometime this summer.
Still, nearly every major antivirus vendor offers a free online malware scan. It's best to stick with well-known brands in this regard because the scanner will access many sensitive areas of your PC. Some such scans are more intrusive than others, and most will detect but not necessarily remove malware.
Maybe if I didn't have to use Windows I wouldn't have to bother with all this security stuff—maybe. But I do have to use Windows, and I do have to use the Internet, so taking precautions is just part of the workday. Fortunately, if you do it right, it doesn't have to be a big part of it.
The official Google Books blog has a fun post on how to scan your books into the service's "My Books" feature by using a USB barcode scanner. The My Books section of Google Books is similar to the popular Mac application Delicious Library in letting you keep a list of all your titles in a digital card catalog that can be shared with others. Of course you can do this without the USB barcode scanner simply by searching for the book, but Google's Matt Cutts makes it look like fun:
As Cutts mentions in the video, one of the benefits of building up your Google Books library is that you can limit in-text searches to just the titles you own. Not mentioned, however, is that it's a great way to build up a personal effects value estimate for insurance purposes.
Having recently given away an entire bookshelf while doing some spring cleaning, using a system like this would have made it easier to keep track of all of the things I've read throughout my life. This is something that the Kindle and other e-book readers can provide for future generations of readers without as much elbow grease.
If you don't feel like giving all that personal information to Google you can also use some other Web services to do this, including Shelfari, GoodReads, and Library Thing. However Google's big ISBN entry screen is the most barcode-friendly of the bunch.
Sometimes overlooked in the Sturm und Drang about Google Book Search is any consideration of the mechanics of economically scanning the books in the first place, but a patent awarded to Google gives insight into how the search behemoth accomplishes the task.
In short, Google has come up with a system that uses two cameras and infrared light to automatically correct for the curvature of pages in a book. By constructing a 3D model of each page and then "de-warping" it afterward, Google can present flat-looking pages online without having to slice books up or mash them onto a flatbed scanner.
This diagram shows patented Google technology for correcting for curved pages while scanning books.
(Credit: Google)
Cloud Contacts, the online manager for offline business cards, has a new feature for users with camera phones. You're now able to snap a pic of a business card and send it off to get categorized with other contact cards you've sent in. There is no application for this, you simply send off a copy to a special, private e-mail address.
Unlike competing services Evernote and Shoeboxed, Cloud Contacts creator Allen Stern says his system brings more accuracy to the table since each submission is handled by real people instead of machine scanning (update: Shoeboxed has people looking over the data too). This can be far more important with camera phone pictures since your phone's built-in camera tends to focus about two to three feet away, making the text on business cards quite tiny.
If you've got an iPhone and are thinking about using this service, worth checking out is Griffin's Clarifi case, since it lets you focus about four inches away from a business card.
GPS vendor TomTom announced Thursday that it has launched an online mapping solution to compete with MapQuest and Google Maps. Dubbed TomTom Route Planner, the free service provides door-to-door route planning options to any address in the U.S. or Canada.
Using TomTom's MapShare technology, the service provides users with continued map improvements made by TomTom users that see flaws and correct them. According to the company, improvements are uploaded regularly to provide up-to-date driving conditions. TomTom's IQ Routes feature will offer more accurate arrival estimates by accessing average speeds for each road instead of employing posted speed limits to determine arrival. The service is currently in beta and available now to all users.
Local.com, a company that offers local search and networking, announced Thursday that it has signed an agreement with coupon provider Valpak to distribute local business offers through the Local.com network. According to the company, Valpak coupons will appear on the site's search results and profile pages. Users will be able to print the Valpak coupons for redemption at local businesses.
The Karaoke Channel Online, a service that lets people record themselves singing their favorite songs, says that it will now allow its users to publish their recordings across Facebook, MySpace, Delicious, and other social networks. To participate, users will need to pay $14.95 per month for unlimited access to the site's 5,000 songs. A full-year membership costs $99.95.
In its monthly Global Threat Report released Thursday, SaaS (software as a service) Web security firm ScanSafe reported that the rate of zero-day malware blocks increased to 26 percent in November, up from 16 percent in October and the 19 percent average for the year. According to the company's senior security researcher, Mary Landesman, "attackers were more intent than ever on ensuring the malware they used would bypass traditional security measures" during November. A sign of even more Web threats to come?
Goober Networks, a company that offers consumer communication services online, announced the launch of CallingAmerica.com Thursday. According to the company, the site will allow anyone in the U.S. to access the site and place an unlimited number of VoIP calls to any landline or mobile phone in the U.S. Registered users can make an unlimited number of calls, while those who choose not to register can only place calls that last no longer than two minutes in duration. To monetize the service, Goober Networks has partnered with advertisers that will place ads of 15 seconds or less before a call is placed.
If you've ever had trouble finding scanned documents on Google, it's probably because it was not indexing them. On Thursday, this all changed. Google has announced that it is now indexing scanned documents.
Google is now able to perform optical character recognition (OCR) on any scanned document it finds stored in the PDF format. OCR technology is able to "read" a scanned document and covert it into words that can be searched and indexed.
OCR technology has always impressed me, I mean deciphering between a "0" and "O" is hard enough for a human, but for a computer? Now to apply it to all scanned PDF images on the Internet? Very impressive.
Here are a couple of examples:
Facebook's EZcode.
(Credit: ScanLife)Scanbuy announced on Wednesday their free Scanlife barcode reader for iPhone called ScanLife. The software allows for scanning an EZcode using the iPhone's camera then instantaneously executing an individual action that the code is associated to, such as launching a Web site without you having to remember its URL and typing it on the phone's browser.
ScanLife saves you from having to remember and type in the URL for a web page.
(Credit: ScanLife)I tried ScanLife on my new iPhone 3G to launch a few Web sites, and it worked very well most of the time, even when the code is not on the center of the photo. A few times when the photo was blurry or underexposed, I had to take it again.
The software only works with EZcodes, which you can create your own for free after a quick registration. You can even create an EZcode for a specific Web page, for example, to send users directly to an iTunes page to preview and purchase a specific song or to watch a particular video on YouTube.
ScanLife is available for other smartphones, too. You can get it by texting the word "SCAN" to 43588 to receive the download instructions or go to www.getscanlife.com on your mobile browser. ScanLife supports hundreds of other camera cell phones running major mobile operating systems including BREW, Java, Symbian, Palm, Blackberry, and Windows Mobile.
This seems a fun and convenient way to access and process information from your phones, especially when the implementation of EZCodes becomes popular.
There's a catch, though: your memory will atrophy, and soon enough you won't be able to do anything without your phone. This has already happened to me.
Pixily is a cool scan-by-mail service that launched in early June. Like Shoeboxed, which I checked out last month, Pixily is all about taking paper clutter out of your life by scanning it in for you and making it both searchable, and able to be organized into buckets. The big difference between the two services is that Pixily is focused less on receipts and finances, and more on day-to-day papers like insurance claims, long cell phone bills (with call lists on them) and little things like birthday cards.
Everything that's scanned goes through optical character recognition (OCR), so you can search for it in the built-in search tool. It also lets you tag, and make notations to documents for the sake of sorting. If you've got digital documents, you can upload them into the mix as well.
Like Netflix, Pixily works through the mail with similar pre-paid envelopes that you can stuff with as much paper as allows. Each paid plan has a higher number of envelopes you can send in each month, along with limits on how much scanned content the service will host for you. After it's scanned, it's sent back in the same mailer, which can be chucked in with your paper recycling--envelope and all.
It's worth noting that for things like school papers and general writing, Scribd.com has a free program called Paper-to-iPaper that lets you send in all sorts of paper items by mail (at your postal expense) complete with OCR. One thing to note, however is that you have to get the content pre-approved, and things like bills and notes scribbled on paper are not welcome.
Pixily plans start at a free level (which requires you sending in documents on your own dime), all the way up to a $60/month plan that serves up four envelopes a month for you to stuff.
[via ReadWriteWeb]
Pixily requires using the mail to get your documents online, although if you've got PDFs lying around, you can send those digitally to go alongside your scanned docs.
(Credit: CNET Networks)
LinkScanner Lite warns against a hidden IFrame launcher in Megaupload.
(Credit: CNET Networks)Those of you who haven't yet installed a link scanning or Web site rating program for your Firefox or IE-based browser should hop to it--and consider using LinkScanner Lite when you do.
I've been using LinkScanner Lite and McAfee Site Adviser on both Firefox and IE browsers. Overkill? No way. Each program serves the greater goal of alerting you to dangerous links but differ in their approaches.... Read more
Qipit is a free service for turning digital photos into sharable, online documents. It works with any photo taken with a digital camera, or from your mobile phone. Like ScanR (review), Qipit will store and host your photos, and let you rotate them to your heart's content. This works the best with shots of documents taken at an angle, and with whiteboards, business cards, etc. Once uploaded, Qipit will tweak the contrast of your shot, drawing out the text, and doing its best to correct perspective warp. Unlike ScanR however, you're not getting the archival goodness of optical character recognition to turn those notes into searchable text. Instead, it's up to you to tag your shots for easy sorting later on.
Qipit can turn handwritten notes into easy-to-read PDFs and JPEGs, although we didn't have much luck with angle correction.
(Credit: CNET Networks)Qipit has a few handy features, like storage for 100 different files, and a way to embed full versions of your scanned photo documents on your blog or Web site using a simple line of JavaScript. You can also process any old photo just by e-mailing copy@qipit.com with an attachment. Qipit will send you back a permalink to the full version, complete with links to download the shot as a PDF or JPEG.
I had mixed results with the service. All my test shots with oblique angles didn't receive any perspective correction, and the two I had selected for color instead of black and white turned out harder to read than they were originally. Also, many modern-day digital cameras have text and whiteboard modes that will either help you center your shots or do correction right in the camera (such as Casio's Exilim line). For phones however, Qipit is a slightly better solution than ScanR, which requires one megapixel or higher, leaving many phones in the dust.
[via Lifehacker]
