Best Antivirus Program

I walked away from my computer for a few minutes the other day to fix something to eat in the kitchen.  A few minutes later I heard strange noises coming from the other room.  It was my computer!  All kinds of sound files were being randomly downloaded from the internet and played at loud volumes.  A computer virus had come in over the internet and taken over my computer.  I had Computer Associates antivirus software installed on the machine but their software did not put up much of a fight.  Although the computer was playing annoying sound files I was still able to access the internet and look for a better antivirus program.  I went straight to cnet.com and looked at their professional recommendations.  Their number one choice was a program called "The Shield Deluxe" from a company called PcSecurityShield.  I quickly downloaded the software and had it scan my computer.  It found about 14 infected files and was able to neutralize or delete them.  My computer returned to normal.  Continue reading more of this post 

MP3 Music

One company that has acknowledged the popularity of MP3 files and offers all of its online music in MP3 format is eMusic.com.  This is what really sets eMusic apart from the other major online music services such as Napster.com, iTunes, and MsnMusic.  These other online music services offer their music in various proprietary DRM file formats which require you to use special software to access the music and require you to go through special procedures (which are often lengthy and confusing) in order to transfer the music you have just purchased to an MP3 player or laptop.  Continue reading more of this post 

Making MP3 files from CDs is an easy process because the audio stays in the digital form. But what about older analog recordings like cassette tapes and records? Although the procedure is a little more complicated, converting other audio sources into MP3 files is not that difficult.

Almost all computers have soundcards that accept input from external sources. A typical sound card will have a microphone input and an auxiliary input which can be used to record sound from sources such as cassette players or radios.

These external sound sources are analog, which is defined as an electrical signal that is modulated smoothly and continuously. Digital audio slices the smooth waveform into discrete pieces – and each one is represented by a number. In order to get an analog signal into a digital computer, it must be processed by an analog to digital (A/D) converter.

The main limitation with low cost sound cards is their A/D converter. A budget sound card has a budget converter, Continue reading more of this post