Computer Technology Related

[Awakened Soul]

Dear Awakened Soul,

Thank you for your contribution - everything helps, and enthusiasts often have good ideas that others can use.

I have used Spybot and also another very good product called Ad-Aware.

http://www.lavasoft.com/

A-Squared came later and I found that it was more effective than the other two together. The advice previously was to first run Spybot and then Ad-Aware which mopped up the trojans that Spybot missed. I ran these on my sons PC's mostly. They are well educated in these matters, but children tend to use the sites that we don't use - games, etc. A-Squared mopped up more than both together.

I am not aware of any software that used more than one core of a CPU or 64 bit, but then again I don't install games and so on - I can see why they would want to use that power.  Games are horrendously resource intensive - one of my sons has installed a graphics card that fills half the PC and has two fans on it, and even then it struggles with some games, and his is a multi-core CPU PC.

The last time I played computer games was around 1987 - back then the games were more sort of mystery and puzzle solving. The game was called "Leisure Suit Larry and the Land of the Lounge Lizards" which got boring so I moved on to the Space Quest series which was about the adventures of a Space Janitor called "Roger Wilco".

They actually ran under a proper operating system - MSDOS

The original games where all text based like the online MUDD's.

Long before that, when I was in university about 35 years ago, the very first Arcade Game was launched called "Space Invaders" which they had in the students union bar.  The graphics were really crude, but I was one of the few that could take it round the clock. Then there was Galaxian - which I could also take round the clock, and Pac Man which I never did get the hang of

Anyway - so much for my mis-spent youth

The graphics card in my PC handles all the graphics I throw at it. The only thing that is pixellated in full screen mode are DVD's, Youtube Videos etc which is becoming an issue I need to address - probably by changing the graphics card.

In Love and Light,

Adrian.


 

Hi Adrian,

Yes I know Ad-Aware. But for some reason it stopped working and I didn't find out why. I also used both Ad-Aware and Spybot together and indeed one cleaned up stuff the other left. I usually first ran Ad-aware, then Spybot. It seems that both find files the other won't, no matter which you'll run first. I might try A-Squared myself.

Software that claims to utilize two cores is mostly audio/video related. Like the more serious professional applications. Steinberg Cubase has multicore support. Also, I get the feeling that with my dual core machine, I can have Spybot search for spyware and keep surfing or do other stuff at the same time. With a single core system, I couldn't do this without feeling that something was happening in the background, which is just an example.

Quite honestly I'm not interested in having the fastest pc at all. I might build a new pc with HDMI to build a media center pc that I can hook up to a flatscreen tv that I'm planning to buy. I'm thinking about making a nice sitting/viewing place in my living room that I can share with friends and watch some media together. I've been confronted recently by a friend with what an anti-social person I am and I'm looking to change that... so I see this sitting place as an investment in that aspect. I don't really need a tv for watching tv... I haven't had a tv for a few years now but do admit to like some movies and concerts I got on dvd (or streaming). But I get tired of watching all that on my pc monitor.

Funny you mention the games When I was younger, a friend of mine lived a few houses away. His father was basicly a millionaire and had his own computer company. He invented software that changed a lot of things in the computer industry. So they always had the latest stuff. When I walked in that house, I could basicly see what the future would bring us in terms of material equipment. They had a tough-screen hi-fi system, that, as far as I know, never got to be mainstream, probably because it was so expensive. It would look fancy even by todays standards and I'm talking about 20 years ago

They also had all the computer stuff. Indeed, I also saw the Space Invaders first hand, probably on an Atari 2600 or something similar. I've seen it all develop on the Commodore 64, Amiga, MSX, and finally the PC we got today. As a boy, I also played "Leisure Suit Larry" and actually guessed some of the questions right to get the girls naked, perhaps you remember what I mean. Being 33 now, it's insane how things have developed. Especially games. I can't believe I could ever get exited by seeing a couple of pink pixels

The only game I've played up until recently was the good old Quake, which basicly introduced internet gaming. People actually still play that game online. I don't think there's any other game that had such an impact on me, probably because it was such an extreme step into virtual reality. And.... I never got the hang of PacMan either. I actually tried it recently... I get to level 6 and that's it. there MUST be some way to beat the ghosts... they seem so stupid and so invincible at the same time. It's all ported to flash now: http://www.thepcmanwebsite.com/media/pacman_flash/


For your vidcard issue:

Perhaps a Geforce 7600 would be a very cheap solution to cover your graphical needs. They come in Silent versions too. I was thinking about buying one myself to replace my 6600 that has a fan.

[Adrian]

Dear Awakened Soul,

Yes some of those games bring back fond memories

But Quake and that genre was when games became very dark, very violent and very worrying.

And there are so very many of them now becoming increasingly violent and increasingly graphic - and parents will be giving them to their kids at Christmas.

You see when a child "plays" these ultra-violent "games", although they only consider it to be a game, their Subconscious Mind does not know the difference between "make-believe" and Reality.

And the Mind of a Child is many times more receptive to these impressions, because the brainwaves of a child are more towards the Alpha state - necessary to absorb large amounts of information quickly for survival.

These games have not arrived by chance. I do not wish to bring conspiracies in to an interesting and informative topic, but this is yet another case of social programming of the very worst and most insidious kind.

As for Video Cards - I would only ever use an NVidia card. I don't rate the ATI cards at all. The 7600 would be quite adequate with a decent screen - mine screen is 5 years old as well.

My first home "computer" was called a "Colour Genie" and was the first colour home console that connected to the TV. There was a competition in a national newspaper to win one.

I never read newspapers, but my friend was reading one and I saw it mentioned on the front page so I borrowed his paper and snipped out the competition entry. This was 35 years ago or so - I do not remember exactly.

Anyway - long story short - much to the ire of my friend whose paper I borrowed - I won the national competition  - I never had any doubt that I would actually

There was a few questions to answer followed by the usual slogan. Well - being in to technology I new the answers to the questions, and I wrote for the slogan:

"For business, learning or for leisure, Colour Genie Graphics are a pleasure".

Of course I didn't really think that, but they used the slogan in a national campaign anyway.

When it arrived it came with Donkey Kong and the Mario Brothers - which are still around I believe - they must be getting on a bit.

The only game I really wanted high graphics for was Flight Simulator. I have a private pilots license, so it was great to compare the realism to the real thing. It wasn't that great in the early days, but it got much better very quickly.

The most fun I have had with a "flight simulator" was a real one. A friend of mine was a technician who worked nights at Heathrow Airport maintaining the flight simulators. These things though cost £11M - that's $20M - even then. They were so realistic that a pilot could learn to fly the real thing - even though they cost about $1000 per hour to rent - it was much less than taking the real thing up.

So anyway myself and a friend would give this technician a few packs of cigarettes, and he let us fly the simulators all night.

I actually logged 33 hours on the Boeing 747 simulator and could "fly" it across the Atlantic and safely land it at LAX. In fact we once programmed in two engines on fire and a 60MPH cross-wind and I still got it down but blew a couple of tires and it skidded sideways - it was still survivable though

I also remember my first Sinclair Spectrum. now that was a machine - and the first one I programmed. I have an amateur radio license for which I had to do an exam in Morse code, but actually sending it was a bit tedious. It was mostly voice of course - but Morse enabled much longer distances. So my first program that I ran on the Spectrum was a more code sender so all you needed to do was type in the message and it was converted in to dots and dashes.

Anyway - enough reminiscing You probably really do think I had a misspent youth now

In Love and Light,

Adrian.

[melody]

Hello Awakened Soul,

You surely seem to know what you are doing with your computer to keep it functioning OK! I don’t have the time right now to try the things you suggested, but will keep them in mind. It is good to know that I can come back to this topic and find them here!

[melody]

Hello Adrian,

Is it the best to do the A–squared scan while not using the computer and having all the windows and programs closed? Or can one do the scan while surfing, writing and email or a Word document?

And BTW it sounds like you had an interesting youth! 

[Adrian]

Dear Nick,

Thank you very much for this  - very useful it is too.

You can absolutely guarantee that by this time next year Chrome will be festooned with add-ons, but they will all be useful, powerful and unobtrusive.

One of the great features of Chrome for me is the dynamic spell checker that works in any application. Because I type so much, so fast and can't actually type at all in the traditional sense, and always make a few typo's that I have to correct when I proof read it - the in-line spell checker is a real time saver.

if you spell a word wrong it is underlined in red. You them right-click the mouse, it displays the proper spelling which you select and away you go.

In Love and Light,

Adrian.

[melody]

Hello Adrian,

I downloaded Google Chrome. I like the speed with which it loads the pages. I like the thumb nail icons of often visited websites and the Bookmarks managing system

What I don’t understand is how does Chrome choose what to display on the Bookmarks bar. I don’t want those particular items displayed there that Chrome chose, and I am not sure whether I can choose myself what will appear there. So far, the same items are displayed regardless of pages I visited.

I also have some items attached to the IE bar which I use and I would miss if using only Chrome. I found myself switching between EI and Chrome depending on my need.

[Adrian]

Dear Melody,

There is a "star" right next to the address bar - if you are on a site that you wish to bookmark click the star and choose where to save it.

If you click the spanner on the right of the page, you can select the "Bookmarks Manager".

I have saved all my most frequently visited sites in the "Bookmarks Bar" which displays them across the top of the page, right under the Address Bar - this is an excellent feature.

Chrome is one of those programs where you keep finding things it can do.

In Love and Light,

Adrian.

[Adrian]

Dear Melody,

It really does not matter whether you close the programs or not. You can get the scan started and continue with what you wish to do next.

As for my youth - "interesting" is one way of describing it for sure I can honestly say I made the most of those days.

I was not brought up in a "privileged" family. It was a loving and stable but firm family, but I never received anything tangible towards my "future". Of course I got the usual things that kids then got but we were easily please - like a toy car every now and then These days it is the latest iPhone or Games Console.

My parents only accompanied me on the 3 mile walk to primary/elementary school once - on the first day when I was still 4 years. I had plenty of time to think and observe as I wandered to school and back each day. Of course in those days it was completely safe to do so - it would never happen now. I have taken my own sons to school and back every single day since they were 4 years - and still do - I have never missed a day doing that in 15 years.

The money I made as a teenager was from getting up at 5:00am, 7 days per week, and cycling 4.5 miles to deliver papers in all weathers.

But then again I soon learned that I could experience anything I wished for, so I did

In those days though life was much simpler - TV's were in black and white, and only two channels to watch, and telephones had dials on them.

As a teenager I spent most of my days out in the fields by the river - picking mushrooms in the Autumn/Fall. That may sound boring to modern youth, but to me it was Heaven.

In love and Light,

Adrian.

[melody]

Hello Adrian,

Thank you for your answer about A-squared.

What you describe about your youth sounds idyllic! It was a good exercise to walk those 6 miles every day, and you must have walked even more that than during the day, and then to do the cycling! You were lucky to be able to roam in the fields and commune with nature when you were still a child. That must have centered you a lot. The kids now are not centered at all.

Sounds like you had a full life of great experiences!

And you are a really dedicated parent!

[melody]

Hello Adrian,

I just discovered that you can actually drag and drop any bookmarked item in the Bookmarks right into the Bookmarks Bar. Neat! 

[Adrian]

Hello Melody,

At the time everything just seems "normal" because it is all we know.

It is not until we look back over our lives that we can clearly see how we have been "preparing" for Who we Are Now - and that means everyone.

Without being led in to technology for example - keeping in Mind I started out as a scientist - organic chemistry - I would not be able to offer the services today at this level for example. At the time it seemed bordering on insane to simply walk away from years of training and working towards ever "higher" qualifications, but when the "realisation" came I knew that it is what I must do, much to the horror of many people - not the least of which were my parents. The only person in fact not horrified was me

Everyone thought I had completely "lost it", especially when I was not going to "work" for someone, but create a national company - which everyone unanimously told me was "impossible at my age" and I should "learn my own station in life" - in fact many told me what I wanted to do was "impossible" simply because it had never been "done" before in that way or on that scale.

But I went ahead anyway and sold everything I owned - which wasn't much - to pay the rent on a tiny office in the back of this building on the high street.

The point is this:

It is so easy for people to remain in their "comfort zone", not take any "risks" and above all follow the expectations of others. So when "within" calls and directs us to where we need to be to fulfil the purpose of this incarnation, in 99.999% of people the call is ignored, and they stay in their comfort zone - and usually fail to get close to fulfilling the true reason for that incarnation.

But everyone reading this should know, beyond doubt, that we are never, ever guided towards doing anything that we are not equipped to do. The means by which to accomplish the mission will always arrive. It does not mean it will be "easy" - my life has never been easy and it certainly is not easy now - far from it - but when we do the things we are here to do, and we are passionate about it - nothing else matters and what seemed "impossible" becomes "normal", while others look on and simply cannot understand it, often mumbling words such as "lucky break" and so on, while they continue in the wrong direction.

The expectations of relations, peers and society is so great these days.

This is why I included a chapter in my book entitled "The Human Paradox".

We all start out in life, as children, in different circumstances, but our childhood circumstances are rarely "wrong" because our Higher Selves choose them - so they cannot possibly be "wrong".  In some cases the conditions endured by children may seem horrendous, but they are never "wrong".  It is what we make of those opportunities, how we deal with them, and how we allow ourselves to be guided by them that matters.

Those people "living their dream" and their "destiny" for this life are always the happy and successful ones.

There is a truly remarkable 16 year old girl singer, actor, dancer, music composer and producer from Nashville that I am sure you are all aware of - Miley Cyrus.

Miley Cyrus is a truly phenomenal example of someone who has remained totally grounded and true to herself and is living the dream, and living it to the maximum extent - not only for herself but for millions of young girls around the world.

She is an exceptional role model to other young girls, and a living example of what can be achieved by someone so young.

And she makes a lot of people happy which is what it is all about - because she is happy - she has so much real Energy.

Here real name given as a child was "Destiny Hope Cyrus" because her parents new she would achieve great things. And she lived up to her their expectations and her own.

Miley does not only "perform", she Lives every moment with passion, joy and sincerity.

All young people should study and be inspired by her. I can only hope that she can hold it all together and handle that level of fame at such a young age.  I think she can and will.

We are all here with a different yet equally important purpose. Trust me when I say that Miley found hers from a very young age, and she will continue make a huge difference in the lives of countless people.

Miley Cyrus is what I am talking about.

In Love and Light,

Adrian.

[melody]

Hello Adrian.

To tell you the truth I have no idea who Miley Cyrus is. She was probably brought to your attention by your teenage sons.  :-)I will google her.

You did make a remarkable life journey! Hats down to you!!   

Now, a computer question: Is it always important to do the Deep scan with A-squired? If one has not downloaded any new programs or documents would not a Quick or Smart Scan be enough? Or should it always be the deep scan because some programs download themselves without us knowing?

[Mina-Laura]

This is why I included a chapter in my book entitled "The Human Paradox".

We all start out in life, as children, in different circumstances, but our childhood circumstances are rarely "wrong" because our Higher Selves choose them - so they cannot possibly be "wrong".  In some cases the conditions endured by children may seem horrendous, but they are never "wrong".  It is what we make of those opportunities, how we deal with them, and how we allow ourselves to be guided by them that matters.

Those people "living their dream" and their "destiny" for this life are always the happy and successful ones.

There is a truly remarkable 16 year old girl singer, actor, dancer, music composer and producer from Nashville that I am sure you are all aware of - Miley Cyrus.

Miley Cyrus is a truly phenomenal example of someone who has remained totally grounded and true to herself and is living the dream, and living it to the maximum extent - not only for herself but for millions of young girls around the world.

She is an exceptional role model to other young girls, and a living example of what can be achieved by someone so young.

And she makes a lot of people happy which is what it is all about - because she is happy - she has so much real Energy.

Here real name given as a child was "Destiny Hope Cyrus" because her parents new she would achieve great things. And she lived up to her their expectations and her own.

Miley does not only "perform", she Lives every moment with passion, joy and sincerity.

All young people should study and be inspired by her. I can only hope that she can hold it all together and handle that level of fame at such a young age.  I think she can and will.

We are all here with a different yet equally important purpose. Trust me when I say that Miley found hers from a very young age, and she will continue make a huge difference in the lives of countless people.

Miley Cyrus is what I am talking about.

In Love and Light,

Adrian.

Yes Adrian

Miley is one of those examples that had a healthy family and was raised in love and never knew lack and she had the right guidance since she was a baby. Her father is very talented and a good family guy and clearly unselfish as he included her in his life and in his career./

It is indeed a good example on how to raise a family!!!

But I went ahead anyway and sold everything I owned - which wasn't much - to pay the rent on a tiny office in the back of this building on the high street.

Wow!! tell me were you a father at the time? single?



love - Laura

[Adrian]

Dear Melody,

To tell you the truth I have no idea who Miley Cyrus is. She was probably brought to your attention by your teenage sons.  :-)I will google her.

My teenage sons have have no idea who Miley Cyrus is either.

It is not their type of music - they are more like their Dad at their age - and now - rockers

My eldest son, Tristan, 18, has his own rock band called "Electronic Valium"

As for Miley Cyrus - perhaps I see in her a depth that others do not, but I do not mind admitting that she blows me away

And she does not "perform" - she lives, with passion, every moment, but her songs also often have deep meaning. If you don't know who she is now - you soon will. That young lady is going to make a big impact on the world.

Keep in mind that we all have a role to play. Mylie's role is as a role model, and a source of great Energy.

Synchronistically enough, I was thinking about this a week ago - endeavouring to determine just what it is she "has" exactly, and then she appeared as a guest on a TV show here called the "X-Factor" as if to help me. I like watching the X-Factor because it is a show that gives people the opportunity to live their singing dream.

Here are two songs which I think capture some of what she is about.

First the Energy of her X-Factor appearance. Keep in Mind that she is 16 and writes, arranges, produces and choreographs everything herself:

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=sdtsH1nYOsg

Actually the show was surreal because the other guest singer was Britney Spears. Miley just totally upstaged her - well actually Britney lip synched anyway. It is great to see Britney back though, and when interviews she came across as happy. Let's hope she has turned the corner.

Here is the other Miley Cyrus song that shows another side of her personality. She wrote this when her grandfather made his transition, and you will note from the words she wrote that she has very deep level of understanding of the reality of what she is singing, even at her tender age:

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=Meuldlcxa80

And we should all keep in Mind that there is no more powerful Energy in the Universe than Sound - Vibration.

Remember the name Miley Cyrus - she is going to be Huge. She is here for a reason.

You did make a remarkable life journey! Hats down to you!!   

The Life Journey of everyone is remarkable.  All we need ever do is recognise and Experience it, as well as only seeing the Positives.

Now, a computer question: Is it always important to do the Deep scan with A-squired? If one has not downloaded any new programs or documents would not a Quick or Smart Scan be enough? Or should it always be the deep scan because some programs download themselves without us knowing?

Regarding A-Squared. My suggestion would be to do a Quick Scan 6 days of the week, and a Deep Scan on day 7. The Quick Scan will get 99% of any trojans.

Always keep in Mind that even if you download a trojan, it cannot harm your PC unless you activate it through an install program, So awareness of the situations I have discussed along with common sense such as always delete emails with attachments you are not expecting without ever opening them.

Also keep in Mind that you can contract nasty viruses and trojans through MSN Messenger.

There is a group of malware that installs itself on to your PC, and then sends a contaminated file, usually with a file name that suggest a photo is being shared, to all the people on your MSN friends list. If they open the file the process repeats itself.

MSN is particularly dangerous because unlike spam, friends on MSN trust each other, and never expect to be sent a destructive virus by a friend.

One of my sons was caught out on this one, and his PC was so seriously disabled that it took me some time to even access it to locate the issue and wind back the system restore, by which time several of his best friends PC's had been wiped out.

One of my other sons was hit by an MSN malware that was not physically destructive, but automatically sent obscenities to all his friends  from his own account.

One piece of advice therefore is never, ever accept a file sent from any user - even if you know them unless you have actually confirmed with them that it is real.

In Love and Light,

Adrian.

[Adrian]

Dear Laura,

Miley is one of those examples that had a healthy family and was raised in love and never knew lack and she had the right guidance since she was a baby. Her father is very talented and a good family guy and clearly unselfish as he included her in his life and in his career./

It is indeed a good example on how to raise a family!!!

Absolutely.

But she still had to physically take the necessary actions. She has several siblings and step siblings that have not.

Wow!! tell me were you a father at the time? single?

Single yes but father no

In Love and Light,

Adrian.