How's this for a kick in the gluteus maximus? You pay for anti-virus software, but it doesn't get rid of the virus, so the software-maker offers to remove the virus but wants to charge you several hundred dollars.
According to hundreds of complaints on a website launched by ConsumerAffairs, the worst offenders are Norton, McAfee and MyCleanPC. A Norton user, to take just one example, found he couldn't install the Norton program; his computer froze. Norton tech support told him that if he paid $155, they could get it installed. Another Norton customer was told it would cost her $300 to remove a virus. Another guy said his computer ran slowly for two years until he discovered that Norton was a resource hog. When he removed it and switched to the free program Avast, all went smoothly. (Bob refused to use Norton many years ago after numerous problems and said so publicly several times.)
Complaints from McAfee users were just as bad. A woman said she waited an hour for tech support and then was told she'd have to pay $249 to clean out her computer. Convinced she must have called the wrong number, she checked it again and says she did have the company's actual number.
Of course, we can't be sure who's telling the truth here. It's always possible that some of these stories are made up. Some may have called a number from a scammer's advertisement because it came up first in a Google search. However, we were present when this happened. McAfee wanted to charge our friend a few hundred dollars to clean out a virus that the software should have removed automatically.
The ConsumerAffairs site has no complaints about the anti-virus programs from Bullguard, Avira or Kaspersky. We saw no complaints on Avast, the free software we've often recommended. Besides the consumer reviews, you can get their buyers' guide at consumeraffairs.com/computers/antivirus-software/.
Homepage Ninja
We bookmark favorite web pages all the time, so our list can get cluttered. Here's how Joy keeps her favorite sites front and center. It's a free service called Homepage Ninja. Everything you bookmark goes on your own special web page.
Start by going to Homepage.ninja and checking off the sites you want from a list of popular ones. Joy checked off Facebook and Twitter. Then she started adding her own favorites. The fun part is, you can add your own photos. Joy added a photo of us to represent our own website, for example. Your page can be public or private and will have an address like homepage.ninja/JaneDoe; slug in your own name for "JaneDoe."
Off to the side is space for a list of temporary favorites. Say you were shopping for faux furs this month, but next month you don't care. Click "remove" when you're finished. There's room for a really long list.
The site also gives you space for a "to-do" list. If you get really clever, your "to-do" lists won't be for chores alone. You could have a separate list for movies you want to rent or groceries you want to buy.
Gizmos in Vegas
Here are a few items scheduled to appear at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week. We're sure you'll be able to see YouTube video demonstrations of them about the same time.
• The R2-D2 Moving Refrigerator means no more walking to the refrigerator to get your cold soda; it comes to you by remote control. Made by Haier, it's a faithful replica of the "droid" in the Star Wars movies. It's a little more than 3 feet high and can store six average cans. Its battery lasts two hours on a single charge. No U.S. pricing info yet, though it sells for about $8,300 in Japan.
• The HOM-BOT Turbo+ from LG is a robotic vacuum cleaner that comes with "augmented reality technology." In plain English, you can talk to it. If some areas need more cleaning than others, you can crack the whip -- "sweep harder" -- and it will obey.
• Smart TVs from LG will have a "magic zoom" that increases the size of text and pictures without distortion. (What does that caption say?) Also, find out what's happening on 10 of your favorite channels without leaving your current screen.
Internuts
• "Goldman Sachs 21 charts." Google that phrase to find 21 of what Goldman Sachs considers the world's most interesting business charts. We liked the chart listing the biggest companies in the world by market cap. Apple is No. 1, but didn't even make the top 20 before 2009. It's been No. 1 for the last five years.
• Norsecorp.com/resources/global-perspective tells you where cyberattacks are coming from and who's getting hit. By volume, most are from China. But as a percentage of the population, Iceland and Saudi Arabia are the leaders. Map.Norsecorp.com gives you a live view of ongoing attacks.
• "39 Amazing Facts for National Trivia Day." Today is National Trivia Day, so search on that phrase to see the truly trivial: Apple came out with a dorky line of clothing in 1986. In the ancient Code of Hammurabi, the first set of legal regulations known, bartenders who watered their beer were executed. A baby can cost parents 750 hours of missed sleep that first year. Google was originally named "BackRub." Richard Nixon was at Walt Disney World when he declared "I am not a crook." The Scots have a word for that panicky feeling you get when you're about to introduce someone whose name you can't remember: It's "tartle." Alaska is so big that 75 New Jerseys would fit inside it. (We're sure there's a plan to do this.)
The Deep Web
Most of the web is invisible to Google, according to an article in Popular Science. The so-called "Deep Web" is hidden behind password-protected sites, or sites you have to pay to enter, or sites that require special software to view. By some estimates, it's 500 times larger than the Web we see.
Deep into the Deep Web is the "Dark Web," where bad guys lurk. Here you can find drugs, false identities, counterfeit currencies, hit men, human organ suppliers and other illegal stuff. These use software such as Tor to mask websites so law enforcement can't find them. Going into a criminal chat room is strictly by invitation.
SundayMonday Business on 01/04/2016