Blog Update #80 – More Site Updates + EPD #8 Of WTF All Coming Later This Week

Dear Readers,

(Last Updated Sept 20, 2009 @ 6:00 pm EST)

Now You Can Follow The Computer Savvy Weblog Via Twitter: https://twitter.com/Computer_Savvy

This week Computer Savvy Weblog will be doing more site specific updates to make our blog easier to read as well as to find older posts.

I also want to let you guys know there will be another new episode #8 of Ding Dong Danny’s “WTF” feature as well as a new Scam watch feature. All coming later this week.

Later Days,

Remy “Se7en”

NPD Online Research Panel – Survey Site Review (September 2009)

Dear Readers,

Now You Can Follow The Computer Savvy Weblog Via Twitter: https://twitter.com/Computer_Savvy

It’s that time again…. survey website review time

Name: NPD Online Research Panel

Link: http://www.npdor.com/default.asp

Who is eligible: Canada, US

Type of Award or payment: (Cash and or Prizes)

Points or Cash normally earned per survey:  $0.00

Sign-up time: Fairly Short

How many Surveys to expect per week: 1-5

How Long to collect reward: Been with them 6 years earned: $100.00

Do they Spam you: No

Number of Survey received over 6 year since joining: Lost count

Overall rating: 2 out of 5 – This survey company is great if you are lucky. I have done a few very high paying  journal type surveys and they not only pay well. They payout really really fast. But like I said you have to be really lucky and they the surveys are very few and far between…

Till My Next Post,

Remy “Se7en”

LightSpeed Panel – Survey Site Review (September 2009)

Dear Readers,

Now You Can Follow The Computer Savvy Weblog Via Twitter: https://twitter.com/Computer_Savvy

It’s that time again…. survey website review time

Name: LightSpeed Panel

Link: http://us.lightspeedpanel.com/US/public/index.us?

Who is eligible: Canada, US and UK

Type of Award or payment: Sweepstakes / Points (Cash or Prizes)

Points or Cash normally earned per survey:: 5-600 points

Sign-up time: Really short

How many Surveys to expect per week: 1-15

How Long to collect reward: Been with them 6 years earned: $200.00

Do they Spam you: No

Number of Survey received over 6 year since joining: Lost count

Overall rating: 3 out of 5 – This survey company has kept on raising the number of LightSpeed points you need to cash in for Paypal money. It seems that ever few months. LightSpeed raises said point amount needed to get any payout at all. Now it seem not only do they pay out after many many surveys and points later. But now they now seem to pay out way faster then any survey club/site I have reviewed.

Till My Next Post,

Remy “Se7en”

WTF: So Many Free Virus Scan Programs To Choose From And Yet Still No Real Choice

EPD #5

Today, I am going to talk about an huge issue we all will encounter, of course that is if you give a damn about your computer well being and your files you have on that computer.

Well, what am I talking about ? Simple what virus scan program should I use ?

Well ok, not so easy I admit and I should know as this blog most of our posts are about free and paid virus scan programs…..

Now I get what you guys are probably thinking. This is just gonna be about self promotion of our blog nope.

Ok, so now lets talk about virus scan programs you have to choice from.

- AVG (Free)

- AVIRA (Free)

- AVAST Home (Free)

- PC Tools- Anti-Virus (Free Edition)

Well there you go….The above is pretty much all of your choices if you want to go free with your virus program.

So what should you choice ? and why,

Well the general guidelines are does the virus scan trust worthy and actually scan and update your computer.

• AVG Free Anti-Virus (Not really that trust worthy overall since the update from 7.5)

• AVIRA Free Anti-Virus (Great but there is that nag /ad screen)

• AVAST Free Home (Great If you understand how to use it)

• PC Tool: Anti-Virus (Great provided you don’t have a Dell computer and still has yet to be consistent quality on any of our PC’s for me)

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I know there are a lot of you guys that disagree with me. The main reason for this huge divide or gap is becuase some people. Ok a large sum of people can’t even get AVG Free Anti-Virus to work for them. But if you do AVG seems to be a great program. That is if you get it to scan update and not crash your computer.

Generally, I would advise AVIRA Free Anti-Virus very dependable. But it seems to put off many people becuase of the large ad/nag screen you get during some updates. Next up is AVAST Home (Free)  ok this program is really great. If you understand how it works and can read the scan reports and understand how to set it up for automatic scans.

The last general one people are drawn to is PC Tools: Anti-Virus (Free). This program is very new and appears to have gone up during AVG/Grisoft’s darkest days when they went from AVG 7.5 to AVG 8.0. Now this was a very smart move on PC Tool’s part mainly becuase AVG pretty much did not work for anyone during that time. So a lot of AVG users were swearing a lot and wondering why AVG/Grisoft tried to pull a free ALL IN ONE PROGRAM out of there hats. PC Tool’s now realizing people were so mad at AVG.

So PC Tool’s all of a sudden almost over night started to offer a free Virus scan program. Now PC Tool’s seemed to work pretty well at first and I was hooked on it. Then all of sudden everyday PC Tool’s virus scan caused a BSOD (Blue Screen Of Death) I later found out it was becuase I had a Dell Laptop. (Strange But very true)

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My Final Conclusion: Ok, now so my final thoughts on the matter of  free anti-virus programs ? We all need one so try out the main ones (meaning AVG, AVIRA, AVAST) and see what ones work on your computer with the most consistency and reliability. Basically make sure you can update it as well as it does an automatic scan every night. Now saying that I do recommend AVIRA and AVAST to by pass all the trial and error and frustration and know all virus programs have their weakness as well as there detection rate differences.

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Till The Next WTF Moment Hits Me,

Danny

Harris Poll Online – Survey Site Review (September 2009)

Dear Readers,

Now You Can Follow The Computer Savvy Weblog Via Twitter: https://twitter.com/Computer_Savvy

It’s that time again…. survey website review time

Name: Harris Poll Online

Link: http://www.harrispollonline.com/sweeps.asp

Who is eligible:  Anybody

Type of Award or payment: Points / Instant Prize / Sweepstakes /

Points or cash normally earned per survey: 0 -500

Sign-up time: Very Short

How many Surveys to expect per week: 0 ( I have received more )

How Long to collect reward: You’ll be long dead before you get the prize you really want, unless you are really lucky

Do they Spam you: No

Number of Survey received over 6 year since joining: 275

Overall rating: 1 out of 5 – They still have some really great prizes but just the lack of surveys and the unfair point values are more then a little bit insane :(

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Till Next Time,

Remy “Se7en”

Scam Watch: We Buy Your Used And Damaged Gold And Diamonds Scam

Dear Readers,

(Last Updated Sept 15, 2009 @ 6:16 pm EST)

Hello everyone… I’m back and this time with a fairly new FAD scam called the “We Buy Your Used And Damaged Gold And Diamonds Scam“

What is the “We Buy Your Used And Damaged Gold And Diamonds Scam” ?- This scam is all about mis-information and mis-direction and throw in a little bit of  laziness. The you got your formula for a massive world wide scam. This scam prays on people that are hard up or have way to much stuff they feel they need to liquidate said stuff for extra cash and fast.

Now, this scam is way more common then people think. Why do I say that ? Well simple there are a few reasons one the GOLD market is higher then many currency of the world. There is a demand for money fast as people lose there jobs, homes and health. There is also the convenience factor many of theses Gold and Diamond buyer claim to offer. Such as mail your gold and such away or even soem buyers will come straight to your house to take your Gold and Dimonds and appraise them right there..

The Problem with quick cash turn over…a lot of people are unaware that people are pressured in to making a deal with sales pressure being used such as the buyer saying “I can only offer this deal for the next 24 hours” “You are special and I will make you a better deal, because I like you.” other ways to pressure you are saying wow this Gold and such is not really worth anything or say it is only plated with metal instead of all a solid source of gold or silver. Which means a lot less money basically saying it is custom jewellery with a very thin layer of gold or silver. Which is very very common in cheaper gold and silver items.

Ways to prevent getting caught in this scam:

- Never send away anything worth any money Gold Jewelry or cash

- If you want or need to sell your gold or diamonds go into several stores to see who offers you the best price

- Never go alone to any buyer (Yous should always bring someone with you that has no vested interest in the sell..They will keep you honest of how good the deal really is.)

- If you have a gut feeling you are being taking for a ride…Leave the store and don’t come back.

- Ask friends or family where they went to sell their gold or diamonds and how it went.

If you guys have any question regarding this or any similar scam. Please to hesitate to comment or e-mail us @ computer.savvy@hotmail.com

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DISCLAIMER: The Computer Savvy Weblog has no control over the ads Google decides to display on our blog/site. Due  to the fact The Computer Savvy Weblog is using the free version of WordPress. Sorry for any inconvenience or possible mis-understandings this may of caused.

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Later Dayz,

Remy “Se7en”

Ipsos i-Say – Survey Site Review (September 2009)

Dear Readers,

Now You Can Follow The Computer Savvy Weblog Via Twitter: http://twitter.com/Computer_Savvy

It’s that time again…. survey website review time….

Name: Ipsos i-Say

Link: http://www.i-say.com/default.aspx

Who is eligible: Everyone

Type of Award or payment: Cash (points) / Instant Prize / Sweepstakes /

(50 point = $5.00 CDN) Must have 50 points = $5.00 CDN

Points or Cash normally earned per survey: 0-8 points

Sign-up time: Not Very Long

How many Surveys to expect per week: 0-5 ( I have received more )

How Long to collect reward: About 4 months for $ 5.00 up to 36 months for $100 -  doing it every week (Depending on reward you are looking to get)

Do they Spam you: No

Number of Survey received over 5 year since joining: Lost Count

Overall rating: 2 out of 5 – This site still is not at all balanced with almost all surveys no matter how long being worth 8 points. That being the main flaw related to this site. Ipsos has also has cut back so much on overall surveys this summer an almost 80% reduction of surveys.

WARNING: You must complete your profile as well as update it up to twice a year, To keep on getting surveys if you don’t they will just stop with out any warning.

Well that is all for now,

Remy “Se7en”

Blog Update #79 – More Site Updates This Week

Dear Readers,

(Last Updated Sept 13, 2009 @ 8:25 pm EST)

Now You Can Follow The Computer Savvy Weblog Via Twitter: https://twitter.com/Computer_Savvy

This week Computer Savvy Weblog will be doing more site specific updates to make our blog easier to read as well as to find older posts.

I also want to let you guys know there will be another new episode #7 of Ding Dong Danny’s “WTF” feature as well as a new Scam watch feature. All coming down the pipe later this week.

Later Days,

Remy “Se7en”

Survey Spot – Survey Site Review (September 2009)

Dear Readers,

Now You Can Follow The Computer Savvy Weblog Via Twitter: http://twitter.com/Computer_Savvy

It’s that time again…. survey website review time

Name: Survey Spot

Link: https://www.surveyspot.com/home.shtml

Who is eligible: US & Canada only

Type of Award or payment: Cash / Instant Prize / Sweepstakes /

(Must have Minimal of  $5.00 to claim)

Points or cash normally earned per survey: $0.00

Sign-up time: Not Very Long

How many Surveys to expect per week: 0-8 ( I have received more )

How Long to collect reward: A really long time….you get more rewards if you are a mother of younger children…

Do they Spam you: No

Number of Survey received over 5 year since joining: Lost Count

Overall rating: 2 out of 5 -You have to be really lucky to get surveys worth any money. There also seems to be a drastic reduction of surveys overall since the last time I reviewed this site back in March of 2009 . it also appears for mothers of younger children the overall score increases by one full point to a score of 3 out of 5 due to the fact there are many more surveys as well as rewards (Mothers tend to get better surveys and prizes overall)

Well that is all for now,

Remy “Se7en”

Opinion Outpost – Survey Site Review (September 2009)

Dear Readers,

Now You Can Follow The Computer Savvy Weblog Via Twitter: http://twitter.com/Computer_Savvy

It’s that time again…. survey website review time…ENJOY :)

Name: Opinion Outpost

Link: https://www.opinionoutpost.com/index.php

Who is eligible: Canada & US Only

Type of Award or payment: Cash (points) / Instant Prize / Sweepstakes / Donation

(10 point = $1.00 US) Must have 50 points = $5.00 US

Points normally earned per survey: 1-40 points

Sign-up time: Very Lengthy

How many Surveys to expect per week: 0-5 ( I have received more )

How Long to collect reward: About 3 months to 1 year…Doing all surveys sent to you in full (Sometimes it can take a lot longer, Depending on how much you want before you claim your cash.) (Example $20.00 )

Do they Spam you: No

Number of Survey received over 6 year since joining: 300

Overall rating: 4.5 out of 5 – Opinion outpost has fixed some of the  major time delay to receive your hard earned cash. But a lot of the surveys you will be unable to complete because you don’t qualify. But the ones you can answer in full expect between 10-40 points or $1 to $4 USD. I would give Opinion Outpost a perfect score if I received more paid surveys in which I actually qualified (POINTs)

WARNING: You must complete your profile as well as update it up to0 twice a year, To keep on getting surveys if you don’t they will just stop with out any warning.

Well that is all for now,

Se7en