Nah, not really. But a small design-related victory of beloved Firefox took place a few days ago.
Microsoft decided to adopt the nifty little icon that Firefox uses to signify RSS and Atom feeds! (after much discussion, obviously) No more 
and 
buttons, guys, replace them as you see fit.
Many ask why bother adopt a default icon, since RSS and XML orange ones were ok, most people recognized them at once, and yada yada. Some of the reasons include the facts that RSS & XML are technical terms that naive users shouldn’t be obliged to know, while they concern specific technologies of live feeds and not the feature in general. Moreover, these acronyms are in English, restricting their language scope a lot.
So there! I liked that one better anyway.
Oh, my dear, dear McAfee Viruscan 4.35, how I miss you.
Oh, Windows Service Pack 2, how I loathe you with all the power of my fragile and tender heart.
After the recent (for me) upgrade to SP2, I discovered that my old, faithful installation of McAfee antivirus program did not work and crashed on the loading of Windows. Fear not, I said to myself, download the latest McAfee VirusScan demo and see if it works out for you! Thus, I downloaded McAfee VirusScan Enterprise 8.0i. Little did I know.
What does everyone do after a fresh antivirus installation? Update. During this process, I encountered more problems I’ve ever encountered with a program in my life.
The array of problems I encountered : (you know I love lists)
- When I clicked on “Update” option, a window came up, said that it was “connecting to server”. After a while (a long while), I got bored of limited connectivity and googled for “mcafee update problems“. It seems that to update new versions of McAfee, you have a) to subscribe/register to their site (outrageous, but passable) b) to use a complete web interface that is using pop-up windows (!) – the universal web surfer menace – to download and install engine upgrades and new virus definitions.
- Needless to say, their update web page does not work under Firefox 1.5 that I have installed. And if it does, Firefox automatically blocks pop-up windows. And knowing that, McAfee warns the users to “temporarily stop” the blocking to be able to download the updates. What were they thinking?
- After copying and pasting the (rather long) URL in Explorer (yuck), the update window found and downloaded 1 update to one of the suite’s programs, and 1 alone. There were others for the other programs, but you’re not warned, you have to check again after the upgrade. It randomly chooses what update to present to you? Maybe.
- After applying engine upgrades, the system warns that it must restart for the changes to have effect. Excuse me? When exactly did we return to 90’s? RESTART? Who restarts these days? During the last two days I’ve restarted my computer over 5 times for McAfee to be able to apply the oh-so-important engine upgrades.
- Along with the Security Suite, a nifty thing called “Privacy Service” or something like that is installed. That nifty thing starts happily along with Windows and requires a successful login to allow you to use the Net on your PC. The first time that I didn’t bother logging in, it prevented any net-related program from launching, Firefox included. Needless to say, it was the first thing I uninstalled from the suite.
- And we arrive at the mighty firewall…After I got tired of ZoneAlarm suspicious initiatives (others love it, I’m quite sceptical about it) I decided to give a try to McAfee built-in firewall. This loyal little thingy thought that it would be fun to warn me for possible intrusions by using an ugly pop-up window and a really (really) high-pitched bomb-dropping sound. The first time I heard it, I almost spilt my coffee, it’s ridiculously irritating. This thing went on and on, without me finding a secure way to prevent it.
- Did I mention the VirusScan? Oh, my precious. I was downloading something illegal at the time (sue me) using torrents, which contained a file named keygen.exe. So what did my nifty and loyal On-Demand Scanner did? It erased it at once, of course, warning me only after the removal of the particular file. So I had to download it again, shutting out the on-demand scanner just in case it wanted to play hard again.
No, I won’t uninstall it. I’ll keep it until the demo version (and my nerves) expire. Just to see where all this is going.
Don’t you think that commercial antivirus programs became increasingly irritating and suspiciously independent all of a sudden? That’s why I prefer AVG antivirus at work, it’s free, it’s lightweight, it’s updated almost daily and so easy to update and maintain! I suggest you give it a try, people, if you want to avoid commercial programs.
mcafee, antivirus, firewall, spyware
“Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” was much anticipated by many, fans and myself included. Having seen the grandiose (to say the least) trailer previously on cinema, I was really thrilled about how the new movie would look, sound and feel. And alas, I’m not (thank God!) really disappointed by the outcome.
The movie itself was more mature, more frightening and more, well, “adult” than any other Harry Potter movie I’ve seen. It offered a 3D graphics galore, as many of the scenes (especially outdoors) required the presence of a crowd (well, it’s about a Triwizard Challenge, what would you expect?) and the designers really did their best.
What was a surprise for me was the acting : the three main actors (Harry, Hermione and Ron) have matured, and believe it or not, they have made real progress with their acting skills. I especially liked the way the movie portrayed the eternal angst between boys and girls in the tender age of 14 : Harry’s line “They scare me as they grow older” is a typical.
The storyline was robust, with no obvious gaps or lapses, and in general the movie kept you riveted till the end. Sure, many may dislike the lighter intermission concerning the wizard prom, but we can’t jump from a semi-children movie to a full-scaled adventure in just one movie, can we?
It’s about time for the list:
Five Things I Loved :
- The more mature leading roles : Harry, Hermione and Ron at their (teenager) best.
- 3D graphics and overall photography : very quality work in this section.
- The script became more serious : the addition of a death (tada!) surprises (almost) pleasantly.
- Voldemort, in both of his forms, looks as frightening as he should look.
- The professors. Oh my, how I love those characters. And Ron’s twin brothers.
Five Things I’m Sceptical About :
- How the Harry Potter series treat the non-fans, non-readers of the book series. Many gaps.
- How Harry manages to stay alive even when an ACME anvil falls on his head. Even Coyote couldn’t escape that!
- How everything just “turns back to normal” always in the end of the movie. Well, almost.
- How Hermione fell for that cheese-head quidditch freak. Naaaaaah.
- The EA Games PC game that was based on the movie sucks. Hard. And I say that with the experience of all three previous games on my back.
All in all, the movie is a must-see for both Harry Potter fanatics and people that appreciate fantasy movies. Well done and well performed, it just keeps you in agony about what-the-heck will happen in the next movie.
(By the way, I see a greek flag burning there? Go figure, greek wizards is not a legend after all.)
harry potter, goblet of fire
