The aftermath of a failed upgrade
When, several months ago, I decided to upgrade my laptop with a more performing processor, I never thought that some time later I would have been forced to go back on my steps: the system was going well, everything worked as it should with no problems of sorts. And yet the idyl with the X9100 CPU has lasted just three months, whereupon the PC has started to misbehave forcing me to put hands on several internal components, to waste time and precious money in useless purchases before I was persuaded that in the end the upgrade had been a failure.
CPU upgrade, from T6400 to X9100. Because 3 GHz are way better than 2 GHz…
UPDATE: After a few months the CPU upgrade turned to be a remarkable failure. I advise anyone against this kind of practice and I invite you to read the post regarding my useless troubleshooting efforts.
I purchased my latest computer in absolute emergency conditions, and except for an annoying, sound-related issue when I extensively use the network (a fact for which I would be inclined to blame and damn Vista SP1) I’m satisfied with it until now. But being obliged to spend a limited budget obviously didn’t hinder me to upgrade the system main component, the CPU, overlapping to satisfaction the pleasure of having a fairly recent setup to let me use it in scenarios that are a little less retrograde than the ones I’m usually accustomed to.
New proactive test by AV-Comparatives: are false positives really that important?
The AV-Comparatives Austrian labs have just released their antivirus test for November. Following the usual practice of alternating (during the year) the analysis of the known malware detection rates and that on the antivirus software proactive capabilities, report n.24 follows the previous one related to the malware test-bed collected between January and August 2009 but, contrariwise to this last one, compares the same products to more than 23,000 new samples gathered within the week following the antivirus signatures update.
AV-Comparatives feels the pulse of the IT security
During the past weeks AV-Comparatives released the results of its latest antivirus software tests. Report n.23 follows the previous one released in May but it tackles, as the Austrian experts usually do, malware detection rates achieved by the antivirus programs when confronting a test bed of known threats.
AV-Comparatives tests antivirus software proactive defenses
With the usual punctuality from which I should learn something, at the end of May the Austrian labs of AV-Comparatives released the second part of the first antivirus comparative of 2009, comparing the previously tested security software with unknown threats for which there still is no specific signature. In such a scenery malware detection rates tend to drop drastically, and only the most advanced engines are able to succeed by obtaining the best results.
AV-Comparatives releases a new round of antivirus tests
After having crowned AVIRA AntiVir the best antivirus of year 2008, in these weeks the team of AV-Comparatives experts has returned to prove the security IT industry by arranging a new antivirus comparative. Report n.21 is the first made during 2009, follows the previous one released in November but unlike the latter aims at verifying the antivirus capability of detecting known viral samples.
Browser war: Firefox wins, IE loses, Chrome has finally a plan
Maybe the bolt from the blue of the Chrome launch didn’t brought an awful market share figure to the newcomer, but the convulsions and the undoubted evolutive acceleration set off by the release of the made-in-Google browser are reverberating with increasing strength on the new war to control the access port to the worldwide network. Currently numbers are still on Mozilla’s and its red panda side, but in future things will become more complicated when Google will have played one of its best cards to turn Chrome from an oddity for few into a conquering force for the mainstream market.
Parallel computing and GPGPU, the super-PC genesis between universal libraries and proprietary platforms
Far from slowing down because of the worldwide economic crisis, PC technology evolution (and particularly the videogaming peripherals one) continues to break records and Gigaflops, opening usage scenarios that was solely related to super-computers just a few years ago. Such scenarios are currently colliding with the opposite development of standards and API competing with each other, resulted from the desire of market supremacy or from the need to reach an agreement on a common computing platform.
AVIRA AntiVir is the best antivirus of the year
Are you constantly searching for a good antivirus, or better still the best antivirus currently on sale to stay away from the many dangers of that very dangerous place Internet has become? Here is a good chance: AV-Comparatives, the reference point for antimalware software testing, has proclaimed AVIRA AntiVir the winner of best antivirus of the year award.
AV-Comparatives releases the latest proactive tests results
AV-Comparatives, the Austrian team of experts dedicated to antivirus tests acknowledged as a reference point in the field, has published the second part of the mid-year comparative, an ideal addendum to the one already released in the past September. This time the aim is to evaluate the antimalware tools effectiveness against unknown threats, in a test scenario meant to prove the heuristic part and the generic markers of the on-demand scanning engines.
Browser war, Firefox at 20%. Google Chrome what?
After more than two months since the Chrome launch, the made-by-Google browser that should have revolutionized the whole market and the Internet perception itself among the users, the nowadays scenario is very much different from what the events anticipated then. Not only Chrome hasn’t been able to take a significant amount of netizens, but even its undoubted performance leadership will soon be called into question by the new releases from the competitors.
AV-Comparatives, the August tests are on-line
As is tradition at the end of summer, from the Austrian labs of Andreas Clementi and the analysts team behind AV-Comparatives come the updated comparative tests on 16 among the most known antivirus on the market. As a recognized industry standard for evaluating the effectiveness of antivirus solutions, the Clementi’s comparatives put in comparison security software against more than 2.3 millions of malware samples variously assorted, further providing useful indications on the capabilities of the programs to avoid false positives and the total scanning speed.
Google Chrome starts the Third Great Browser War
With the characteristic effect of a bolt from the blue, at the beginning of this week Mountain View has released the beta version of its browser, Google Chrome, joining the super-competitive market of software interfaces toward the possibilities of net economy and information society. Everybody talk about it, everybody express their own thoughts on the matter, but still no one has had the heart to define the event with its due name: Chrome, there’s no much to do about that, marks the beginning of a new browser war in a time in which the said browsers are the main framework of business and access to digital heritage of interconnected mankind.
Intel, AMD and NVIDIA at war for high performances graphics cards
Summertime, a lounge for the most vacationer populations but also an occasion for big preparations by the PC videogaming hardware companies, that sharpen their weapons and introduce innovations waiting to run for the users wallets during the incoming fall, the Christmas holidays and beyond. The future of the marked, in fact, foresees substantial news spread on a relatively long period of time, with the entrance in the conflict of a new protagonist and sceneries of unprecedented technological evolutions.
Links & Suggestions # 1: Orwell, dumb majors and bogus software
It’s a very rich dish for this first time of “Links & Suggestions“, a category that according to my purpose should become a chest containing those valuable URL addresses that could have been sources for news, analysis and anything else if only I had have the opportunity, the time and the will to engage myself firsthand.
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