Archive for December, 2009

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Thesis Theme Review

Monday, December 21st, 2009

Over the past few weeks I have been using the Thesis Theme from DIY Themes.  There is a lot of hype about the Thesis Theme.  After using it, I understand why.  Before buying the Thesis I was using free WordPress (WP) themes assuming it would perform just the same.  There are good free WP themes out there but the ones that I was using didn’t produce the results that I wanted.  I was only averaging one page view per visitor and that isn’t a lot.  I finally went ahead and bought Thesis and it was a good investment.

As soon as I installed Thesis, my traffic nearly doubled and my page views increased.  Then I started going through and transferring things from the Platinum SEO plug-in to the built in SEO (search engine optimization) of Thesis.  My traffic went up again, and now I’m averaging between 8 and 10 page views per visitor.

Thesis is a very versatile theme that’s easy to customize.  I’m not the greatest when it comes to coding and CSS but I didn’t have to be in order to customize my blog the way I wanted it.  There’s also a plug-in called Thesis OpenHook that is specifically designed for modifying Thesis.  I’ve installed the plug-in but haven’t had the opportunity to mess around on my practice blog.

The best thing about Thesis is the support forums.  I have browsed around the forums and found many resources.  If I have a question I know I can find the answer.  I haven’t read any of the tutorials yet but I will be later this week now that I have some spare time.

I’m extremely glad that I bought the Thesis Theme.  It did set me back $164 because I bought the developers package so I could use it on multiple blogs.  There is a personal option that costs $87 to use Thesis on one blog and to upgrade to the developers package it’s an extra $77.  I am an affiliate of DIY Themes and if you use my affiliate link, I will give you a discount after the 30-day trial period.  The discount details are as follows

  • Developers Package:  $34
  • Personal Option:  $15
  • Upgrade:  $10

If you purchase the Thesis Theme, you will not be disappointed.  I really see the difference in using a premium WordPress theme and a free theme.  I would have purchased the theme earlier if I knew the results it would produce.  To get the Thesis Theme using my affiliate link click here or click the sidebar banner. Send me an email through my Contact Form with an invoice number to receive the discount.

Microsoft Security Essentials Review

Thursday, December 10th, 2009

The following page has been moved to Software Knowledge.

A-squared Anti-Malware Review

Sunday, December 6th, 2009

There are many security programs on the internet but I only stick to ones that I know have the capabilities of protecting and removing malware from a computer.  The newest program that I have added to my arsenal is A-squared anti-malware.  About a month ago, I had a chance to get a free one-year trial of A-squared and I jumped at the chance to test it out.  I am extremely glad that I did.

A-squared was created by Emsisoft and has a free and paid version.  A-squared scans your PC for infections of trojans, viruses, spyware, adware, worms, bots, keyloggers and dialers.  A-squared uses two scanning engines, the A-squared anti-spyware and Ikarus anti-virus engine.  According to a test done in October by the famous Malware Research Group, A-squared scored a 99.8% detection rate and was the top product out of 21.  The results can be found here at Anti-Malware Reviews.

A-squared has a laundry list of features and instead of listing them I have provided a link that compares the various versions and can be found at A-squared features.  A-squared has a nice interface and is easy to navigate.  Here is a screenshot of the interface.

A-squared Interface

A-squared Interface

One of the most important things about an anti-malware program is updating.  A-squared is constantly updating the virus signatures and there have been times that it updated around 4-5 times in an hour.

A-squared has four types of scans, quick, smart, deep, and custom scan.  The quick scan was completed in less than two minutes.  The smart scan took an hour and twenty minutes to finish and the deep scan finished in two and a half hours.  The scan times can vary depending of memory installed, hard drive, and if the computer is infected or not.

One thing that really stood out to me was an article I read about Malwarebytes versus A-squared.  The article was written by Donna Buenaventura of Bright Hub and Calendar of Updates, she tested Malwarebytes and A-squared against 100 positive malware samples.  Malwarebytes was able to detect 58 out of 100 malware samples while A2 Free detected 92.  The article can be found here at Bright Hub.

I haven’t tested A-squared against any malware but I like the software.  I have been considering conducting tests again to determine how good security program is but don’t have the time right now.  The best thing about A-squared is it uses an anti-virus and anti-spyware engine so I don’t feel the need to install a standalone anti-virus.  If you have been considering A-squared, you can’t go wrong.  The detection rates are among the best and the program is lightweight.  I am glad that I had the opportunity to get a one-year trial of A-squared.

Upgrading to Windows 7

Sunday, December 6th, 2009

The other day I finally went ahead and upgraded my operating system from Windows Vista Home Premium to Windows 7 Home Premium. I’m not a huge fan of the Vista operating system and I was leery of Windows 7. About a month ago, one of my professors sent me an email about being able to upgrade to Windows 7 for $29.99. In order to get the upgrade a person needs to have a school email address, here is the link to the upgrade: Digital River.

A week ago, my co-worker called me and wanted me to set up her new computer she bought on Black Friday. I agreed to set the laptop up for her and got a look at Windows 7 and I really liked the look. Windows 7 has a very clean look to it and that’s what drew me in. I finally said hell with it and purchased the upgrade.

The whole process of downloading and upgrading Windows 7 took about 4 hours. One of my biggest concerns about upgrading was the possibility of losing my data and maybe some of the programs wouldn’t work. The upgrade went flawlessly, I didn’t lose any important documents, and all the programs seem to work fine. If you’re concerned about losing any documents just back them up.

When Windows 7 started, the chime was a sounded like something from the game Diablo. I thought that was cool. All of the security software worked but Windows Security Center alerted me about not having an antivirus installed but I run A-squared, which has a built in antivirus engine. Windows Vista never alerted me about not having an antivirus.
One of the new features I like about Windows 7 is the taskbar or Superbar. The old Windows taskbar was small and I didn’t care for it but the Superbar in Windows 7 is really nice. It’s easy to scroll to the open files and programs, when there is multiple browsers open it doesn’t take up as much space as before. When the items in the taskbar are highlighted and there is more than one instance, it will display all of them.

I mentioned earlier how clean I thought Windows 7 looked so I provided a screenshot of my desktop.

Screenshot of my desktop

Screenshot of my desktop

The background is one of the default desktop backgrounds and can be accessed by right clicking on the desktop and scrolling to personalize. This area lets you customize the look of Windows 7 by changing the theme, background, screensaver, icons, and more. If the themes are not suitable, it’s easy to go online and download a new one.

I haven’t really messed around with any other settings yet but I’m digging Windows 7. My favorite OS from Microsoft was XP and I can see myself liking this OS better then XP. If anyone knows of any tweaks, I would definitely like to know them.

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