RL Achievements and ToW

[Madge]

Woohoo

Fabian, my brand new computer, is now alive and well!

Ended up spending like 5 hours setting the whole thing up. It's overclocked just a little (3 GHz --> 3.2 Ghz) which Otter assures me won't shorten the computer's life.

The CPU temp is only about 40C after being on all night downloading and installing windows updates, so I have reasons to believe him. (It's max temp is 70)

[Fjorab_Teke]

Achievement: I went to Arizona for almost a week and a half to see my grandparents. Grandpa is 92 and is still a spry old fellow. I also got to see the Grand Canyon! As usual, I tend to have preconceptions of a place and have those preconceptions shattered by actually seeing it in person. I also got to see wild (er, established-feral) Mustangs and a small group of California Condors during the Grand Canyon tour!

Woe: JUST before the trip (as in, the late evening and morning before the flight), I got a sudden shock that might have meant that I couldn't go. The ironic part is that I had to go to a building that's directly in front of the airport...the emergency veterinary clinic. About 4am, one of my kitties, the boy named Teasel, got really sick, total mystery as to what caused it. About 9am, the clinic called to say he was on CPR, and I told them to just let him go peacefully. My plane flight was 5 hours later. So over that time, I had a very lonely and bored little Catkin (Teasel's sister, they'd never been separated)...and came home to a kitty who was even MORE of a clingy attention hog.

Huh!: I got other news while I was in Arizona. It was hard to reach me, since Sprint doesn't have coverage in the areas I was in most of the time. But my husband DID manage to reach me by calling my grandparents. He wanted me to be the first to know we're MOVING TO CALIFORNIA! Ah, the adventures of an Army wife! At least they gave us AMAZING forewarning. The Army is notorious for not telling you of a major event until it's go-time. And along with that, and the aforementioned "no Sprint coverage areas" - we may or may not end up switching cellphone providers. AT&T has the iPhone (though I still really have a sore issue regarding iTunes) and slightly better coverage, but Verizon has the best coverage I see (and I'd probably get a Blackberry if we switch). Even if we do stick with Sprint, I'm getting a new phone because although mine's spiffy, it's also terribly buggy (first generation Instinct).

Whew! Adjustments!

[AngharadTy]

Where in CA? I'm in SoCal and I love it here. ^_^ I think Sprint has a fairly decent coverage area. A lot of people who have AT&T have problems with it. Also I hate the iphone. (Apps are cool, yeah. Call quality and what it does to people, especially people who also have bluetooth, awful.) And I hate Apple's ad campaign and refuse to support lies.

T-Mobile has great coverage; it's what I have. The only place I don't have coverage is a dead zone where NO ONE has coverage, no, not even Verizon, suck it, commercials. I plan to upgrade to the newer google phone as soon as they release it. Or some other spiffy phone.

[Cranberry]

My computer is well again! It took a pro from the SpywareInfo forums plus Spybot, HijackThis, MalwareBytes Anti-Malware, BitDefender and ComboFix, but we're pretty sure all traces of the trrojan are gone. It was a nasty one. It even changed Firefox to make it connect through a proxy server. (I need new antivirus protection now, and I'm on an old-ish, slow-ish computer so I need something light on system resources or I'll just end up getting annoyed and disabling it like I did with AVG. Any suggestions?)

In bad news, something's wrong with my wrist. It's very painful when I try to lift anything, and the wrist feels hard like a rock if you push in on the skin. I went to a doctor and he spent about 30 seconds looking at it before deciding it was probably tendonitis and prescribing me an anti-inflammatory. It's helped a little, but I still can't scoop any cookies or anything at work, which is a BIG part of my job (I'm a baker). Bleh.

[AngharadTy]

What do you mean about using up system resources? AVG running in the background is about a meg. Do you mean while it's actively scanning? If you have the link scanner turned on, it'll make your browsing slower. Don't use it. But other than that, you're really not going to find something less system intensive. And for the love of jebus, don't use Norton.

Also, I have recurring tendonitis. Ice helps me, although because it's recurring, heat would too. Don't use heat unless it's a chronic condition. But ice might help you. 20 minutes at a time.

[Madge]

Cranberry - give ClamWin a go, it's open-source. One of my techie friends swears by it. It's very unobtrusive and uses the default windows menu style which is always nice. However, it may not be thorough enough for your needs.

Another one you can try is avast. Another techie friend swears by it. He says it's lighter than AVG. I tried it several years back on my old computer though, and it ate up just as much as AVG.

I'm at work and my co-worker basically says if your computer can't run AVG properly, there's not gonna be much out there for you.

Three perspectives for you. (My own perspective? Um. I'm abstaining, so that way if anything fucks up your system its my friends' fault!)

EDIT: Ty posted whilst I was posting! But what she said is pretty much what I was saying? Except I did it with a sexier avatar, so my opinion is better.

[AngharadTy]

Hey! Slorgs are sexy!

[Arviragus]

For antivirus I'm a big fan of Kaspersky, although I don't know how it compares to Avast!. Kaspersky definitely runs less irritatingly than AVG or Norton on my computer, though.

[Cranberry]

I didn't mind AVG until they updated recently and included some new component -- I can't remember what now -- that I did not want and could not disable. I didn't find the program slow while it ran in the background (until they added that new component, anyway), but the scan was really slow. I have heard good things about Avast and Kaspersky, as well as Avira, so I'll probably compare those and pick one. I'll be getting a new, fast computer when I can afford it later this year, so I won't have to put up with it for TOO long, anyway.

[Seerow]

I used to have AVG then it just stopped working for some reason and refused to ever update and I got too annoyed with the "YOUR SYSTEM IS AT RISK OMG" messages to care any longer. Deleted it and got McAfee from my collage website for free. I haven't had any issues with viruses and it mainly just takes care of itself as it's set to run at night.
My mom's computer had Avast on it and I didn't like it, as it would keep popping up messages every five minutes.
Hope you find something that works for you!

[AngharadTy]

I didn't find the program slow while it ran in the background (until they added that new component, anyway), but the scan was really slow.

First, make sure that you delete your temporary internet files before running a scan (cookies, etc.) and that'll help things along. Next, run it when you're not using your computer--I run mine before I go to sleep.

[Monkeyguy]

Breakups suck... big time.

[EofS]

I made the switch from AVG to avast! recently and am pretty happy now. AVG was getting on my nerves (I have a 5-year-old laptop and it was eating resources). Also I was fed up of it being in permenant "YOU MIGHT BE IN DANGER OMGWTF" mode because I had the gall to turn linkscanner off. Because I have limited bandwidth and it was slaughtering my monthly allowance! avast doesn't noticably bother my system at all, though to be fair it coincides with me completely wiping my HD to get rid of a trojan ;0)

[Monkeyguy]

I'm getting a summer job at Tufts University in MA! I've lived in the same house for 21 years so this is going to be an exciting change!

[Fjorab_Teke]

Where in CA?

It's not 100% certain yet, but it's a pretty good chance. It's between LA and San Fran.

I think Sprint has a fairly decent coverage area. A lot of people who have AT&T have problems with it. Also I hate the iphone. (Apps are cool, yeah. Call quality and what it does to people, especially people who also have bluetooth, awful.) And I hate Apple's ad campaign and refuse to support lies.

Aww, I like my Bluetooth, it's useful in my car as my stereo has Bluetooth so I don't have to be a problematic driver if someone calls.
But my sister, brother, and one of my best friends all have AT&T and the iPhone, and the only complaint I've heard at all from anyone around here is that it doesn't pick up well indoors (eh, a potential problem, but also very common with cellphones in general). I do hate iTunes though. And ALL cellphone and computer companies lie in their stupid commercials.

Sprint's coverage is mediocre, in my experience. That's who I have, and it needs to change. I also am really itching to ditch my current phone. I'm going to be plopping out some money just because of the phone issue if nothing else.

Verizon does have the best coverage in the areas I need it in, and even one place that would be spiffy but not essential - as the ONLY carrier that supplies the area, a remote little northeast TN town in the middle of some mountains. But it's also very expensive, especially if I want to ditch fees for calling people I'd call often. If I did take Verizon, I'd get a Blackberry.

AT&T and the iPhone are looking more and more like they'll fit me the best personally. With several family members and a frequently-called friend already on there, I wouldn't have calling fees. And keeping my current number would keep home-area calls free too. The coverage area is much better than Sprint. Plus, aside from the cost of the iPhone, it's MUCH cheaper per month than the other two for us. Hm, currently $120+, versus $140 or $90. Yeah.

You do have a point with T-Mobile's coverage in CA though, but it's still not so great in KY and TN.

And if Sprint is shown to be lacking in the area we're likely to move, we won't have contract-breaking fees.