I have been around computers, almost from the start.  My first computer was the wildly successful Apple II+ (does anyone else remember the Bank Street Writer,) which was my main computer for close to ten years (including all of high school.)  In the time since those early days, one thing has always been apparent: no matter what level of sophistication computers may reach, someone is always going to be waiting to exploit the technology and cause harm in some way or another.  Back in those early days, most of the threats amounted to blunt objects, hurled at your disconnected desktop like a club.  As computers and their networks have become more sophisticated, however, so too have the dangers lurking all around us…and I am not referring to a Nigerian prince offering you a fortune.  Fortunately, through it all, there has been Symantec, and their flagship line of Norton tools.  For as long as I can remember, Norton has been available to protect you and your computer from dangers of all kind.  Today, we are going to take a look at their latest offering, Norton Internet Security 2009.

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I’ve been a Symantec Norton Internet Security/Anti-Virus Customer since 2002. I’ve used NAV as well as NIS for years and have liked the product(s), though they have had their challenges over the years. What I can say about them is that I haven’t gotten a virus yet; and when infections did come via e-mail, NAV/NIS stripped them out of any incoming messages or traffic. Thankfully, I’ve had a relatively clean home network.

Recently, I saw an article on ComputerWorld by Lisa Vaas, that spoke to the new beta of NIS 2009. I decided to download the software, install it, and see how things went. I was even fortunate enough to trade some mail with Lisa on how the software worked for her, how she liked it, etc.

I’ve got a write up on my experience coming, and its been a doosie! This has been going on for the last 2 weeks or so, and as many of you know, I’ve had to rebuild my PC 3 times over that time, partially due to hard drive trouble/replacement, partially due to, well…I’m getting ahead of myself. I don’t mean to tease (ok, yeah… I do) ;)  but this one is going to take a bit more to finish up than I was planning.

Stay tuned. I should having things finished up in the next few days. The results may surprise you!

I’ve been wondering lately if Microsoft needs a lesson in Software Development 101…

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been watching the fiasco that is Windows XP SP3 play out.  With so many problem reports hitting Microsoft, their Vendor-Partners, and eventually, the news, you would think that a little preventative medicine would have been applied to the situation. And honestly, it’s really making me wonder – did MS and their V-P’s do enough testing before kicking XP SP3 and Vista SP1 out the door?  With all of the crap that’s been hitting the blogosphere, it’s pretty obvious… Nope.

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