Tony Brewer

I remember some of my tekkie-er friends talking about some of the social networking sites back in the day, about how they could keep up with friends and network quickly at the speed of broadband, but recently it seems that social networks have really become a tool of not just tech geeks, but many of my business associates and not just my friends, but their kids seem to be on myspace, facebook, and even using social news sites like digg on a regular basis.

I have to admit this is one of those tech ideas that I thought would never catch on with mainstream America, but it seems that it has taken over quickly as a must have communication tool. Very cool.

One of the biggest concerns any computer user should be concerned about (assuming that they use the computer to access the Internet) is to protect their computer from the invasion of malicious hackers and viruses.  In order to protect their computer from these threats, the computer should have some security software installed.  These kinds of security software packages can be really expensive, and there are so many different ones on the market that it can get confusing as to which one to get.  I’ve had problems in the past with the Symantec software deciding that my own email program was a malicious program and would not let me read my own email!  That was a real disappointment!  I paid a lot of money for that program and can’t even use it if I want to read my email!

Free Antivirus Software is available from the Cyberdefender Company at their website, cyberdefender.com.  Their free software package includes anti-spyware, anti-virus, anti-phishing, anti-spam, and an early detection network all for free!  The package is ad supported, which means that the user will see ads pop up, but the price is right – it’s free!

Cyberdefender is one of the leaders in Internet Security, and has had great reviews in ComputerWorld, and USA Today, so you know that it must have a pretty decent program going!

My brother makes his living from being the computer support guy for several local companies.  He is also the one I call for help when I can’t figure out what is going on with my computer.  (Yes, that has happened from time to time.)  What I think is really awesome about his ability to help is that he often uses remote control software to fix the problems without even leaving his house!  He simply accesses my computer via the Internet from his computer and pokes around and fixes what is wrong!

He has assured me that what he uses is completely safe and secure, and uses 256-bit encryption – the highest in its class so that I don’t need to worry about any hackers getting into my computer and messing with it.  The only thing he has needed me to do to help him out is to make sure that my computer is turned on and that I have authorized his access to my computer.  From time to time when he is working on it he has had to restart the computer, so I’ve had to be there to turn it back on again and reauthorize his access to it.  Other than that all I did was sit and watch the screen while it appeared to fix itself!  It was really amazing to watch!

We have a boat load of nieces and nephews that we always try to get Christmas presents for, even in these hard economic times when so many people are shortening their Christmas shopping lists. We strongly believe that Christmas is for the children as so many people do, so they are on top of our list. It is funny how when we periodically ask these nieces and nephews what they would like for Christmas we can pretty much guess that they will be asking for games. Not games as in the board games that we grew up playing, but games that they can play on their computers or gaming systems that most kids own these days.

So we are always on the look out for games that we can get them at a good price. Using the Internet makes this whole process a much easier one to tackle and I have just stumbled onto a great site at Gamehouse.com that has a great selection of all types of games at some very reasonable prices. I like to pass along good deals so I wanted to take a moment here and urge anyone looking for games to give this site a look see before buying anywhere else. Remember Christmas is only two short months away.

I have never really been into the whole Google Page Rank thing. For the longest time I wasn’t even aware of Page Rank issues and was surprised to find out how important this issue is to so many people and businesses. I am seeing what I believe to be a good amount of affordable seo services being offered all over the Internet. Personally I still don’t give a hoot about my Page Ranking on this blog, but I can understand how it can play havoc for so many people, so I’m glad that there are ways to improve your Page Ranking with the All Mighty Google folks.

And I really like the idea that some of these services are advertising that you don’t owe them a dime unless their services are successful, that is a nice guarantee to take advantage of and I’d like to see more of that type of guarentee for many more services online and off. I don’t think that I am alone here on that! Check out what Rankpop.com has to offer and see if they can help you with your Page Rank issues.