Colin Jensen » colin jensen http://www.colinjensen.co.uk/blog Technology, Gadgets, Website Design and Development, Windows Mobile. Thu, 13 Aug 2009 17:02:16 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 Firefox 3 officially released http://www.colinjensen.co.uk/blog/web-related/firefox-3-officially-released http://www.colinjensen.co.uk/blog/web-related/firefox-3-officially-released#comments Mon, 23 Jun 2008 14:35:27 +0000 Colin Jensen http://www.colinjensen.co.uk/blog/?p=8

Some people are unaware that you don’t need to use Internet Explorer to browse the internet. There are even people out there who strictly use the AOL client (web browser) because it got installed when setting up their internet connection – Dam those AOL discs.

Another thing that amazes me is how some people type the website address in the Google, Yahoo or MSN live search box. The reason people get into this habit is because one of these providers has been set to the default homepage and it has always taken them to where they have wanted to go, so they stick to this method.

ANYWAY BACK TO FIREFOX

I would recommend anybody to install or upgrade to the latest version of Firefox. Firefox is more secure then Internet Explorer, Spyware and virus developers target Internet Explorer because it is the most popular browser world wide as it is installed on every Windows machine.

Reasons to use Firefox

  1. More secure.
  2. Thousands of add-ons available for every purpose, I would highly recommend AdBlock.
  3. Free!
  4. Faster at rendering pages then Internet Explorer.(People argue over this)
  5. Easy to install

Click here to download or read more about Firefox 3

There is a great article over at FlexBeta.net that gives 13 reasons why you should use Firefox.

Click here to view it – http://www.flexbeta.net/main/articles.php?action=show&id=32

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Ever since the launch of AVG8 some people on low end computers have suffered from sluggish internet browsing, this slow browsing is caused from the Web Shield that AVG8 installs.

The way I see it the Web Shield scans the websites you visit, checking the websites source code to see if there is any code that could be harmful.  Great idea! but when using Google it checks every website in the Google results! Meaning SLOW browsing and sometimes even the Web browser such as Internet explorer fails to respond.

Here is what Grisoft says about their Web Shield component.

“AVG 8.0’s patent-pending safe surfing and safe searching technology is designed to protect users of Internet Explorer and Firefox browsers against drive-by downloads from poisoned web pages and to flag dangerous search results in Google, Yahoo and MSN search engines.

Complementing the safe surfing and searching technology, the new Web Shield module scans files during download or exchange over ICQ or MSN instant messaging to ensure they are safe and free of malicious content.”

Taken from – http://www.grisoft.com/us.90627

Interestingly enough it is under the title “AVG 8.0: Tough on threats. Easy on you”.

I think we should rephrase that to  “AVG 8.0: Tough on computers. Extremely slow browsing for you”.

I would like to point out that if you have a high end computer you may not suffer as much from this problem. I would still recommend removing it as its very resource hungry.

Installing AVG Free 8 without the Web Shield

Yes, we could just disable the Web Shield in the AVG8 control panel but then AVG8 is always in Error state by showing this icon “AVG8 Error State” in the system tray.

  1. THIS IS IMPORTANT. If you have AVG8 installed then go to (This is for Windows XP users) Add/Remove programs in Control panel. (This is for Windows Vista users) Programs and Features in Control Panel. Select AVG Free 8.0 and click Uninstall/Change and follow the wizard to uninstall AVG8 – This may require restarting the computer.
  2. Download the latest installation from http://www.grisoft.cz/filedir/inst/avg_free_stf_en_8_100a1323.exe – (Latest installation as of 23/06/2008) or from http://free.grisoft.com/ww.download?prd=afe#tba2 – (Always has the latest download listed)
  3. Save the installation file as avg.exe in the root of the C:\. See Below AVG8
  4. Now we go to (Windows XP users) Start Menu and click Run. (Windows Vista users) Go to Start Menu -> in the “Start Search” box type Run. At the very top of the results under Programs you should see Run click it.
  5. A box should appear, copy and paste this “C:\avg.exe  /NOAVGTOOLBAR /REMOVE_FEATURE fea_AVG_SafeSurf /REMOVE_FEATURE fea_AVG_SafeSearch /ADD_FEATURE fea_AVG_EmailPlugins /ADD_FEATURE fea_AVG_EMC /ADD_FEATURE fea_AVG_Office_2000_plugin” excluding the speech marks into the box labelled up Open then click OK
  6. Follow the installation through, you will notice that it will be on “Custom Installation”. Click next continuously.
  7. Eventually AVG8 will be installed and will require configuring, you will be shown a wizard to set-up scheduled scans and to update your virus definitions. Follow this through and make sure everything is up to date.
  8. If you still have the icon “AVG8 Error State” in the system tray, double click it and see which components need updating.
  9. Once everything is up to date and functional you should see thisAVG8 With out web shield
  10. The system tray icon should look like this

Finished!

Share/Bookmark]]> http://www.colinjensen.co.uk/blog/tips-and-tricks/how-to-install-avg-8-without-the-web-shield/feed 0 Useful Cheat Sheets for PHP, MYSQL, HTML and more http://www.colinjensen.co.uk/blog/web-related/useful-cheat-sheets-for-php-sql-html-regex-mod_rewrite-etc http://www.colinjensen.co.uk/blog/web-related/useful-cheat-sheets-for-php-sql-html-regex-mod_rewrite-etc#comments Sun, 22 Jun 2008 19:27:59 +0000 Colin Jensen http://www.colinjensen.co.uk/blog/?p=6

How often do you search the internet to remember that PHP function, CSS declaration, mod_rewrite expression or MYSQL query syntax?

We all do it time to time, for example the date function in PHP.  I am always having to look at the PHP.net manual for the formatting options of the date function. It is a pain!

I recently came across these GREAT cheat sheets over at ILoveJackDaniels.com -  don’t let the domain name put you off.

You can simply print them off and pin them up next to you whilst you are programming.

Take a look below:

Many thanks to ILoveJackDaniels.com for creating such useful cheat sheets.

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