Free AVG saves the day | The outpost is secure
Well, the past weekend was annoying on a PC (#1) here at my buddy’s place in Nairobi, Kenya.
Ditto for a machine (#2) at his pal’s apartment. I’m so annoyed that I’m not even going to get into too much nitty gritty here as I have a lot of writing to do. Suffice to say, it’s very important that you use a top-notch (and updated) anti virus program to protect your PC from malicious programs. You’ll be shocked that the virus on machine #2 was eradicated after I installed Grisoft‘s Free AVG. I did this after an updated (and paid) version of Norton Anti Virus Professional 2004 failed miserably to squash it. Now, more than ever, I’m convinced that the techies at Grisoft really understand their core competency: Building kick-ass anti virus software.

The word on the street is that Norton (Symantec) has become too big (and unfocused) for their own good. Hence the quality of their products (firewall, anti virus) are not top-rated any more. There’s an old saying: The best things in life are free. OTOH, I also know from experience that “you get what you pay for.” In the case of Free AVG, you’re better off keeping your cash if the software is being used in a non-commercial manner. Don’t get me wrong…you will get a great deal of protection using Norton’s products. It’s just that I truly believe Grisoft has superior technology.

BTW, it appears that Grisoft just created a combo anti virus and firewall application called AVG plus Firewall Edition. I did not get a chance to take it for a spin. However, I’m already in love with Agnitum‘s Outpost Firewall Pro, which is by far the best firewall program in the Windows realm — and you can take that to the bank. You don’t believe me? Take a peek at the awards they’ve racked up. What’s scary is that their old, free download from 2002 would still put a lot of commercial firewall apps to shame.

I’m not kidding folks…the programmers at Agnitum are ingenious when it comes to building exceptional firewalls. Read what others are saying: Top 10 reviews | Sofotex.com | Download.com | Consumersearch.com | CyberCoyote.org. One familiar mantra from the above reviews is that Zone Alarm is more “popular” in North America whereas Agnitum is more well known in Europe. I’ve never cared too much about popularity when it comes to protecting my data, and neither should you.

Lost Dept.: Ou est Sonique?
Now, can anybody tell me where the heck Sonique disappeared to? Media Science’s awesome media player was under going some serious development, and those in the know were waiting for version 2 (see pic below) with the new Mantis engine, blah, blah, blah. Damn, more vapour ware I guess. This is worse than meeting a cute gal who promises to call you “soon.” I gave Sonique my undivided attention — right here on my desktop — and I get abandoned like this? LOL.

Well, the CIA aren’t the only peeps blessed with the ability to “find” people quickly. I have a cheap secret weapon right here on my PC: Google Search. After I entered “sonique media player” in my trusty Mozilla Firefox 1.5 search box, I was horrified by one particular result:

Sonique (media player) – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Sonique (media player) … Sonique was originally developed by Media Science, but was later sold to Lycos for $38.8 million USD (as reported by The New York …en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonique_(media_player) – 14k – Cached – Similar pages

Bloody hell, I forgot all about that since Lycos was never on my radar screen – even during the dot-com boom. OTOH, who can turn down US $39 million? Well, I hope the programmers went out and paid cash for a new red ferrari.

To make a sad story short, Soniqe is no more.
Goodbye forever, Sonique! I will never forget you.

{Note: OTOH = on the other hand | BTW = by the way}