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By Hot Topic On October 12, 2009No CommentsLavasoft has updated its popular malware and spyware detection and removal tool Ad-Aware. Rather than a dramatic redo, version 8.1 builds on the improvements made in the previous version. The new version is faster, has better removal abilities, and introduces a behavioral detection engine.
Called Genotype, Ad-Aware’s heuristic-based behavioral detection engine isn’t explicitly called out in the interface. However, I noticed that files that had been flagged falsely as threats in earlier versions were no longer called out as such, and the Quick Scan was able to complete in about three minutes, as opposed to 10 minutes in the previous version. These are empirical observations, of course, but this version’s improvements should be easy to see for long-time users of Ad-Aware.
Removal techniques have also been improved. Lavasoft is calling the new system Neutralizer, although it’s not called out as such in the program interface. What users will see is a “family” of grouped similar threats, such as cookies, the category of the threat, and the action taken. The program defaults to the Recommended action, which means you need to click on the drop-down menu to the right of the listing to see what action will be taken on a per-threat basis. The big action buttons introduced in version 8 still reside at the bottom of the window, which feels further than necessary–it’d be better to have the action button closer to where the mouse already is, at the top of the window.
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By Hot Topic On October 12, 2009
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After months of collaboration on President Obama’s attempt to overhaul the nation’s healthcare system, the insurance industry plans to strike out against the effort today with a report warning that the typical family premium could rise over the next decade by $4,000 more than projected under current law.
The critique, coming one day before a key Senate committee vote on the legislation, sparked a sharp response from the Obama administration. It also signaled an end to the fragile detente between two central players in this year’s healthcare drama.
Industry officials said they intended to circulate the report on Capitol Hill and promote it in advertisements. That could complicate Democratic hopes for action on the legislation this week.
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By Hot Topic On October 12, 2009
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The hottest player in baseball’s postseason demonstrated just how vital a leadoff hitter is to a team. One of the coldest players showed just how damaging a single well-timed lead-off hit can be.
Colorado’s Carlos Gonzalez has been the best player in the National League Division Series. But Philadelphia’s Jimmy Rollins is a primary reason that the Phillies won Game 3 of the National League Division Series, 6-5 at Coors Field.
Philadelphia holds a 2-1 lead in the best-of-five series heading into Monday afternoon’s Game 4 at Coors Field (6:07 p.m. ET). In a pitching rematch of Game 1, Philadelphia’s Cliff Lee will face Colorado’s Ubaldo Jimenez. Lee pitched a complete game last Wednesday in a 5-1 Phillies victory and will be looking to close one series and move on to the next, against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
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By Hot Topic On October 12, 2009
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After conducting series of tests, the Los Angeles-based company reported that the new operating system takes one minute and 34 seconds to boot, thus 42 percent slower than Vista, which takes one minute and six seconds to start up.
The moot issue here is the start up point. iolo Technologies has taken the start point as the point where the system becomes fully usable, whereas Microsoft has measured the startup point from power button to the desktop.
iolo has stated that Window 7 is faster than Vista when its startup time to the desktop is measured, which is 40 seconds, but the new operating system loads slower than its predecessor to become fully usable.
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By Hot Topic On October 10, 2009
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It’s a craze that seems to know no bounds: since it went on sale in June 2007, more than 30m people have bought an iPhone and the number of applications that have been downloaded has recently broken through the two billion mark.
There are applications for everything: you can measure your knee’s range of motion with IGoniometer (59p), get subway maps for 33 cities around the world (including Cairo, Tokyo and Moscow) with Subway Supreme (£8.99), or turn your iPhone into a glass of beer with the iBeer Special (59p).
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By Hot Topic On October 10, 2009
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Amazon plans to start selling its Kindle reader in over 100 countries and territories on October 19, and the company has already started booking pre-orders for the device on its Web site.
Amazon is selling the Kindle with U.S. & International Wireless to customers in Asia, Africa, Europe, Australia and South America, for US$279 for a reader with a 6-inch display and the ability to wirelessly download books and other content globally, the company said.
The Kindle was earlier only available in the U.S. Amazon has been working with publishers for many months to build a vast selection of English language books available around the world, said Stephanie Mantello Ward, a spokeswoman for Amazon, in an e-mail on Wednesday.
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By Hot Topic On October 10, 2009
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High-definition three-dimensional TV is the future, or so Panasonic and Sony hope, as they seek to stem a slide in prices and re-energize a market slowed by the global recession.
The biggest problem the companies face, however, is staring them right in the face. Viewers will need to wear those goofy, ill-fitting glasses, just as they have to when watching 3-D movies in a theater. Without them, the screen looks nauseatingly blurry.
The expected high price of 3-D systems — the special television screens, glasses and Blu-ray DVD players — could also discourage all but home theater buffs.
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By Hot Topic On October 10, 2009
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Hewlett-Packard is taking on Apple in high-end laptops, introducing a notebook optimized for music, with with high-performance sound and graphics.
The HP Envy 15 Beats is the result of a partnership between HP and Beats Electronics, which develops headphones that improve sound quality of digital music. Beats was founded by rapper/producer Dr. Dre and Jimmy Lovine, chairman of Interscope Geffen A&M Records.
The Envy 15 Beats, the latest addition to HP’s Envy line, features a piano black, high gloss finish. The system comes with a pair of Beats headphones, and also includes Beats’ mixing software for professional and aspiring DJs.
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By Hot Topic On October 8, 2009
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A second shipment of H1N1 flu vaccine is headed to Minnesota next week, but state health officials have a message for all the people who are clamoring for it: Don’t call your clinic — they’ll call you.
The 30,000 doses will be the first H1N1 vaccine available to the general public here. But the vaccine is trickling in so slowly that, for at least the next two weeks, the Minnesota Department of Health will distribute it on a random basis to pediatric clinics across the state that care for the sickest of sick children. Officials will recommend that rather than allowing parents to line up their kids for shots, doctors decide which of their most fragile young patients should get the vaccine first, and call them in.
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By Hot Topic On October 7, 2009
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Here’s a surprise: Some of the healthiest foods may also be the most likely to cause food-borne illness.
That’s the conclusion in a report by the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI). The report shows leafy greens, sprouts, and berries are among the most prone to carry infections or toxins.
“We don’t recommend that consumers change their eating habits,” says Caroline Smith DeWaal, the CSPI’s head of food safety programs. Instead, the group is trying to point out vulnerabilities in the nation’s food safety system as it lobbies Congress to beef up enforcement.
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By Hot Topic On October 7, 2009
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FLORHAM PARK, N.J. – New York Jets rookie quarterback Mark Sanchez said Wednesday that he was fined $5,000 by the NFL for his low block on New Orleans linebacker Jonathan Vilma last weekend.
During Darren Sharper’s 99-yard interception return for a touchdown in the second quarter Sunday, Sanchez dived at the legs of Vilma, who was blocking on the play. Sanchez was assessed a 15-yard personal foul penalty for the hit.
Vilma took exception to the block, saying after the game the league should fine Sanchez. The league offices don’t confirm fines until Friday.
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