Free Malware Tools

Malware, Spyware, Adware, whatever you want to call it. It boils down to software that invades your PC, without your knowing. Usual effects are: a slower pc experience, slow boot up, pop-ups, and in worse case scenarios: identity theft, keylogging, trojans that allow other malware in, etc..

I've had to deal with such malware quite often and have found the below list of Free applications very helpful. They are listed in no particular order and some of you may have others which should be on this list. If you do have other recommendations, I'd love to hear from you. We'll add them to the list.

FREE Malware Removal Tools

• Malwarebytes Anti-Malware
• SuperAntispyware
• Spotbot-S&D
• Ad-Aware Free Anniversary Edition
• Spyware Doctor
• F-Secure BlackLight - Rootkit removal
• VirusTotal - Online file scanning some experts may want to use
  
• Mal-Aware - designed to remove only Smitfraud such as personal antivirus, antivirus 2010, and other fraudulent products
  

The free versions listed are fully functional, though not as robust as some of the full versions. I usually use a combination of the above list, which does quite a good job of cleaning out malware on infected PCs. Do be careful when you remove software though, depending on which one you use, some applications may be falsely identified and removed. This could render your application useless. It's always good to know what is identified and make a list to make sure it does not contain software that you actually want.

This list does not contain Antivirus software, you can find a list of free Antivirus software in my previous post titled What Free Antivirus Do You Use? If you are looking for Tech Support help, you can contact me via my Computer Consulting site at Pixel Perfect Group LLC.

Those of you who do not feel comfortable with free versions may want to check out PCWorld's review of security suites.

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Get Your Domains

Where do you get your domains? Most of us have seen and know about GoDaddy by now, thanks to their Superbowl commercial that brought their name to the masses. Network Solutions used to be one of the biggest players in the Domain business, though they have been surpassed now.

If you wanted to get a Domain for yourself or business, where do you go? Here are some companies that I've come across, some with great pricing to draw you in and others that provide anything and everything for a business that is growing.

Hosting and Domain Registration

• 1and1
• GoDaddy
• Network Solutions
• DogByteDomains
• DomainMonster
• BlueFur (via Twitter)
• WestHost (via Twitter)

Free Domains and Hosts

• Freedomain
• TheFreeCountry
• Free-Name.org

I've got an account via 1and1, you'll help us out if out click and purchase from this banner here.


You can also find a list of Web Hosting companies via this link. To find newly available domain names, you can check JustDropped.com. Have you registered a domain recently? Who do you use to register your domain? Come back to check for updates to this list, or post your own hosts and registrars in the comments to be included in this list.

For additional links to frugal tips and tricks follow me on Twitter. If you would like to contribute to FrugalNYC in any way feel free to contact me via email. Click here to add FrugalNYC to your RSS reader or Subscribe to FrugalNYC by Email.

Google Maps Overlays

View Larger Map

Google Maps have become pretty ubiquitous. They are found everywhere and overlays are a very popular way to build on top of the existing google maps. This post will contain all map overlays I find. I'll keep this updated as I find more. If you know of more overlays, please let us know in the comments.

Weather Bonk - See Real Time weather on Google Map.
Bikely - Bicycling maps
The Movie Map - If you like google maps and you're a movie buff, you'll love The Movie Map. It contains filming locations. It doesn't look too fully developed to me, but then again I'm not much of a movie buff.
Zillow - Find your next home and check out the neighbors on this map.
Housing Maps - Google maps and craigslist housing listings
Google Maps Mania - Blog about Google Maps
PackageMapper - shows you a map of your FedEx, UPS, USPS package routes. Enter a carrier and a tracking number to see your package's progress plotted on the map. Sign in to enter a list of packages and see their current locations on a table or map.
Mizpee - When you gotta go... (You're curious, go on and click it ;)
Flickr Map - Flickr on a Map, this could become a time sink.


For some other map links here is a link to Lifehacker's list of non-Google map innovations. I'll be adding more map links as I come across them. If you know of other map mashups, let us know in the comments.

What Do You Use Your PC For?

So what do you actually use your computer for? That's the question I usually ask someone who wants a recommendation for a pc. I've been asked to recommend a pc to purchase many times. I usually answer by asking them what tasks they hope to perform, most people only have the very basic needs, which requires nothing more than a $400 entry level computer.

Personally, I typically use it for:

1. Watching DVDs
2. Watching Video Files
3. Internet Radio
4. Blogging
5. Web Browsing
6. Casual gaming (flash, card games, etc)
7. Writing
8. Spreadsheets
9. Paying bills online
   
10. Ripping and Burning DV from miniDV
    

For anyone interested in such a "basic" computer for email, web browsing and not much else, there is a sale at Best Buy this week (11/9-11/15/2008) for an eMachines Laptop with AMD Athlon 2650e. It comes with Windows Vista Basic and 1GB of RAM/160GB HD. Its not for everyone, but if you have a low budget and have very basic computing needs, this is a great deal.

So what do you use your computer for?

CLI File Transfers

I was recently asked if I knew of a way to download some pictures from a website without using a browser or using the right click to save a picture. I said sure, use wget! The wget program essentially acts like a web browser, but is used only to retrieve specific items via http or ftp, most often known as Web "protocols". It is a CLI (Command Line Interface) tool that can be used to automate many downloads. There is also a similar upload tool call wput.

Wget has many features that are harder to implement using a GUI, but I will not go into details here. You can read more about it from Wikipedia or from the online manual for version 1.11.4. You can do scripting and many command line only functions using this tool. To download Wget for Windows, click here. To download wput, click Here. An example of a great feature of wget is backing up a website, just type wget -m "http://websitehere" and you'll have a backup of your whole website! I've seen many tips on backing up your blog, by far, this is the easiest way I have found.

There is also another similar tool called cURL, which you can fine here. Do you use the command line for anything? Do you know what a command line is?

Longer Laptop Battery Life

Photo courtesy of Moria on Flickr

Laptops are becoming more and more popular today. Most of the growth in PC sales are laptops, no longer in desktops. With the current lithium-ion battery technology, there are some ways to make your battery last a little longer. Lithium-ion batteries have a shelf life, so they were made with an expiration date. These tips will help you get the longest shelf life instead of "early termination" from a good battery. Many people I have spoken to express their aggravation with laptop battery life. In response I tell them what I do, below are some ways I have personally made my laptop batteries last a little longer.

1. Don't leave your laptop plugged in all the time with the battery.
2. Drain your battery out from time to time, there is no memory effect, but it helps to use it fully.
3. Don't totally drain your battery, it needs a small trickle to charge.
4. If you have your laptop plugged in like a desktop, take the battery out. Charge it from time to time when you travel. Once a month should be enough.

Do you use a laptop? Have you had to replace your battery recently? Do you have other tips on using rechargeable batteries?

Ubuntu 8.10

Ubuntu 8.10 is out today. You can download a copy for yourself at http://www.ubuntu.com. If Ubuntu is not the Linux for you, then check out some of the other Linux Distros I've tried and liked. The Pre-release version has been out for a while, I have not tried it but will definitely get the 8.10 on the release date, today! For those of you who already use Ubuntu, you can update your current install with the following console command apt-get dist-upgrade.

I found and interesting article about the founder of the Ubuntu project on The Register.

Have you tried Linux? Have you tried Ubuntu? How do you like it? How do you compared it to OS X and Windows Vista or XP?

Interesting Twitters

This post will be regularly updated with twitters I find useful. I do not always follow these twitter accounts but I hope they will help those who are interested. I can't start without including my own Twitter account ;) To Search Twitter for any relevant key words, use Twitter Search in real time. Tweets with links by FrugalNYC.

• Tech: WordPress, AppleInc, GetFirefox, ZDNetBlogs, Spiceworks, Firefox Answers ,HTC, WebBasedApps, virtual_host, yanfosec, savemejames
  
• PC Purchase: Dell Outlet, Dell Small Biz Offers, Dell Home Offers
• Deals: Cheapcheapcheap, DaddyoDeals, Usbargains, Dealtaker, NeweggMall
  
• Cooking: Cookbook - get your short recipes, brokeassgourmet, gastronomer, Twecipe, List at Slashfood Blog, bananabreadnut
  
• Quotes: Inspirational Quotes, QuoteDropper, SayLessDoMore
  
• Frugality/Finance: Wisebread , kidscash, Tax_Tips, RICHHABITS
  
• Humor: Luckyshirt, DarthVader, FakeSarahPalin, Stephen Colbert, CobraCommander, smartoons, FierceUgly
• Bloggers: Zen Habits, amuhlou, katekashman, PenelopePince, Lifestyle_proj, AlexShalman, jayfrawley
• Productivity: RememberTheMilk(RTM), Unclutterer ,Collis, Lifehackorg
• Entertainment: Noradsanta, Heroes' greggrunberg, Heroes' breagrant
• Anime: qvvg
• Organics: WholeFoods
  
• Politics: BarackObama
  
• Social Media: GeekMommy
• News: 1010Wins, News_Weather, Newsherd
• Music: Comfortcomes, lastfm
  
• Happy People: Henie, wellnessforyou
  
• NYC: nyc_mom
• Job Hunting: jobshouts, The405Club, MIRIAMCI
• RealEstate: HeyAmaretto
• Delivery: DropForMe
• Cars: carmanuals
• Room Rentals: Roomorama
• Travel: Chicago_Hotels
• Freeware: Freeware Realm
• Photography: Hennartonline, lisanewton, photonconcepts, fotoblogger, incredimazing
• Buy / Sell / Swap: old_switcheroo
• TV: ThirteenNY
• Libraries: Queens_Library, AustinPublicLib, nypl, houstonlibrary, twittbraries
• Video Gaming: FrugalGaming
• Virtualization: virtnews
• Other: Consumer Affairs
  

Twitter Related services and software

• Twitter Chat Schedule - Google Doc format
• Exec Tweets - Tweets about all things IT
• One Forty - A list of all the Twitter Apps
• Act.ly - Tweet Change (twitter Activism)
• Klout - Twitter Analytics - a fun way to analyze the social web.
• Foller.me - Check out if the person tweeting is a Real person by looking at what they write about.
• Twitter Groups
• Twitter Homepage Status
• Twitter Blog - Watch out for the current Phishing scheme! (Jan 2009), DOS attack 8/6/09
• TweetDeck - A nice app to make Tweeting easier. Available for Windows, Mac and Linux (beta)
• Twitterfeed - I use this to send out automated tweets about new blog posts.
• Twhirl - like tweetdeck, but support other platforms as well.
• Twitterberry - I use this software from my blackberry. Wrote about it here and here
• Tweetgrid - Do multiple real-time searches of tweets. Works great! You can also use this to create groups.
  
• TweetReplies - get your twitter @replies sent to your email
• Twitter100 - See 100 of your followers at a glance! That's the link to mine
• Your Twitter Influence - Mine is linked here. Fill in @yourlink to get yours
• Blip.fm - Twitter for music playlists. Interesting concept, perhaps the Music Industry can make this a good tool to keep them in business.
• TwitPicGrid - Interesting addition to Tweet Grid
• iTweet - One of my current favorite twitter services, the other being tweetgrid :)
• Twitterific - Twitter client for your iPhone
• Tiny Twitter - A Twitter client for Java based Phones
• Twoof - Tweeting and gaming! What more can you ask for?
• NearbyTweets - Find People who use twitter nearby!
• Tweetlater - Busy people - Schedule your tweets!
• Contwext - Analyzes what you tweet about.
• analyzerReports - Analyze what someone tweets and other stats
• Twitter API wiki - useful Wiki for you programmers out there.
  
• Twtpoll - Take polls via social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook etc..
• Twit Robot - Automatic tweets.  Set them up and get more frequent tweets

Let me know if you find these helpful. If you would like to recommend other useful twitter related links, please leave me a comment. I hope you enjoyed this post. Thanks for visiting. Follow me on Twitter for additional links to Frugal tips and tricks. If you would like to contribute to Frugal NYC in any way, articles, ideas, posts, interesting links, advice, financial assistance, or anything else, feel free to contact me via email. Click here to add this to your RSS reader.