Category Archives: IT

Free Antivirus For Mac

Macintosh, Security, Software, , , , , , ,

Avast! for Mac

You would be pretty naive to think that Apple Macs are bullet proof now. With their increasing popularity (which I love) they are becoming a bigger target for people to attack.

Therefore we recommend that you install some software (no need to pay) that will help keep you Mac protected…

With each new install of the Operating System Apple have been locking the system down and improving the security but it’s worthwhile loading some extra software so you don’t get caught out.

Sophos for Mac has been around for a while and generally works very well…. but another one you could try is Avast! Free Antivirus for Mac – see review here: https://uk.pcmag.com/antivirus/35311/avast-security-for-machttp://www.macworld.co.uk/macsoftware/reviews/?reviewid=3367786

Here’s a link to download: https://www.avast.com/en-gb/free-mac-security

Stay safe and happy computing!

Looking for a sub-£300 branded laptop – look no further than this!

Computers, Laptops, , ,
Fujitsu Lifebook AH530 Laptop
This is the option with 500GB Hard Disk and 4GB RAM

Fujitsu Lifebook AH530 Laptop

This is certainly one to keep in mind!

Fujitsu have been in the Laptop business for a very long time and although have regularly been overlooked due to other bigger brands being in the spotlight they are certainly not one to overlook.

This is currently available on eBuyer – http://www.ebuyer.com/341124-fujitsu-lifebook-ah530-laptop-vfy-ah530mp503gb for £299.

They also do the cheaper model with 350GB Hard Disk and 2GB RAM for £279.99 – http://www.ebuyer.com/341123-fujitsu-ah530-lifebook-laptop-vfy-ah530mp502gb

So, if you’re looking for a full size laptop, not a netbook, this is definitely one to consider and isn’t a great deal more expensive!

Please leave a comment if you have one of these, be good to hear some feedback!

Need a free text editor? – Check out Notepad ++

Software, , ,

Okay so it’s only available on Windows but then there are plenty of great editors already available for Linux and Mac so – what’s so great about this one you may ask.

Well – it’s free and what you get for the number of features available is tonnes of power and capability.

I know most dedicated web devs or programmers won’t necessarily be using Windows but for those who do try this out and let me know what you think.

I really do like it!

You can find it here: www.notepad-plus-plus.org

Microsoft Security Essentials – I recommend it over others!

IT, Security, , , , , ,

The first advantage of MSE is that it’s 100% free, and I would think most likely always will be… as it’s in Microsoft’s own interest to ensure that it’s client’s and customers are safe and secure whilst using their operating system!

The second advantage of it is that it’s going to be honed to the exact architecture and specific requirements of the OS.

Other things to mention are that it’s integrated directly with Windows/Microsoft update so virus definitions are updated automatically.

Basically the whole piece of software integrates beautifully with the Windows OS (Server versions also available!), it doesn’t slow the computer down unnecessarily and it doesn’t affect usage.

I’ve always said ‘why should you pay for software to protect you from viruses and malware, Microsoft should provide you with this protection’ and now they are finally doing that.

For personal, home and small business users this is perfect!

You can find the download link & more information here: http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/

No Drag’n’Drop in Disk Utility when booting from CD

IT, Macintosh, , , , , ,

The family Mac Mini has just been upgraded from having a 60GB HDD to a 500GB Drive. I went through the usual spiel of creating a disk image using Carbon Copy Cloner and saving that to an external drive.

We then removed the drive and put the new one in, booted from the original Mac OS X install CD that came with the Mac and attempted to restore the DMG that was on the external drive.

We selected the source (the image we had created) and then did as it said, attempt to drag and drop the destination drive to the field it told us to drag it to. But alas this wouldn’t happen.

After becoming increasingly frustrated I decided to do some power-Googling and it turned out that the 2006 year Mac Mini was supplied with an install DVD that had in fact got a bug – in that there was no way you could drag and drop with the graphical interface.

So this is where the following post came in useful – here!

Luckily you were still able to restore using Temerinal, huzzah! And if that link gets moved here it is for future:

Update: Using the asr function worked perfectly. Remember to first mount your image using Disc Utility on the Install DVD, then quit Disk Utility and go to Terminal (also on the DVD).

Type in “mount” to see the mounted disks and their /dev points.

I had to use the option –erase because without it, it would not copy (not enough disk space), but it may work either way for you. Now knowing that it works 100% perfect (and fairily fast for ~56GB restore image) I would recommend using –erase to erase the target disk before restoring.

asr restore –source [source dev entry] –target [target dev entry] –erase