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Manage, tweak, and clean your PC with AnVir Task Manager Free

AnVir Task Manager Free Portable bundles together some powerful system maintenance tools in one portable package controlled by a single interface. It replaces Windows Task Manager, managing your startup menu, scanning for and removing viruses and malware, and even tweaking Windows settings by disabling unneeded processes and regularly cleaning up unnecessary files. Recent updates include improved traffic monitoring.

AnVir Task Manager is a substantial bundle with a 271MB download, which nevertheless would fit easily on nearly every portable storage device in use. Clicking the program's extracted executable file produced a dialog box offering two options, Run As Administrator (recommended) … Read more

Hey, want to online date an inmate?

Americans like to love, but also like to incarcerate.

Indeed, despite only enjoying 5 percent of the world's human beings, the United States seems to be home to almost a quarter of all the world's prisoners.

Who could not have imagined, then, that some hardy, enterprising soul would see in this population a market gap?

Please greet, therefore, Meet-An-Inmate.com. Actually, this site claims to have been "serving inmates since 1998," yet the service had somehow passed me by until today's Daily Mail brought its full glory to my attention.

Meet-An-Inmate allows you to peruse … Read more

The 404 992: Where we're getting to the bottom of this (podcast)

Did anyone else besides Jeff get teary-eyed yesterday watching Adele's performance at the Grammy Awards?

According to psychologist John Sloboda, there's a specific musical device called an "appoggiatura" that produces chills and a physiological reaction--in Jeff's case, a fist-clenching, hand-trembling faucet of man-tears.

On today's episode, we'll go around the table with the songs and movie scenes that pull at our heart strings, and why.

Gore tweaks climate call with '24 Hours of Reality'

Climate change activist, former vice president, and near-president Al Gore will present a 24-hour live Webcast--"24 Hours of Reality"--on September 14-15 that's meant to counteract what a statement about the event calls misinformation on global warming.

The Webcast consists of 24 back-to-back screenings of a new multimedia presentation by Gore, introduced live by presenters in 24 different parts of the world, and in 13 different languages. It heralds a new focus for Gore's nonprofit Alliance for Climate Protection, which is changing its name to The Climate Reality Project. Reads a statement on the Reality Project's Web site:

This campaign comes at a critical time. As the impacts of climate change are growing more prevalent, so is the resistance to finding the truth and implementing solutions. Just like the tobacco companies that spent decades in denial that smoking causes cancer, oil and coal companies are determined to sow denial and confusion about the science of climate change, ignore its impacts, and create apathy among our leaders. This event is the first step in a larger, multi-faceted campaign to tell the truth about the climate crisis and reject the misinformation we hear every day."

Operation: Shady RAT

AT&T will release three new BlackBerry phones running the new BlackBerry OS 7, AOL launches it own daily iPad-only magazine called Editions, and McAfee in a report in Vanity Fair reveals a new major hacking attack called "Operation: Shady RAT" that has been targeting government and private industry.

Links from Wednesday's episode of Loaded:

Operation: Shady RAT AT&T releases 3 new BlackBerrys Android users see rise in malware AOL releases 'Editions' iPad app Skype for iPad Twitter for iPad gets HTML5 Subscribe: iTunes (MP3) | iTunes (320x180) | iTunes (HD) | RSS (MP3) |&… Read more

Cluttered interface

Like its free counterpart, AnVir Task Manager Pro offers users a one-stop shop for managing their system's running processes and applications. After putting it to the test, we found very few discernible differences between the two.

The program's user interface is a bit overwhelming. It uses tabs to distinguish system categories, such as start-up, applications, processes, and services. Command buttons at the top of the window give you the ability to kill processes, block processes, free memory, and select a parent process. The bottom of the window details CPU, memory, and disk usage, but it's cluttered and … Read more

Computer health snapshot

Creating a snapshot of a computer's health, the AnVir Security Suite holds a microscope to every inch of a user's system. This program is so detailed that it will appeal to a wide swath of those interested in keeping viruses and spyware out of their lives.

This free 20-day trial displays everything with an easy-to-understand home screen. A simple list of programs, with their appropriate icons, is listed with a color code and percentage sign detailing how much of possible risk each holds. By clicking on these programs, users see its origination, where it is stored, and why, … Read more

Cluttered interface mars performance

AnVir Task Manager Free offers users a one-stop shop for managing your system's running processes and applications. While it certainly delivers the information it promises, it could really benefit from a more streamlined interface design.

Users will need to spend a little time taking in AnVir's user interface, because at first glance it's a bit overwhelming. It uses tabs to distinguish system categories, such as startup, applications, processes, and services. Command buttons at the top of the window give you the ability to kill processes, block processes, free memory, and select a parent process. The bottom of … Read more