Continues commitment to providing free basic protection for all PC users

Czech Republic – April 23, 2008 – AVG Technologies, a leading provider of Internet security software, will tomorrow release AVG Anti-Virus Free 8.0, the latest version of the company’s popular and widely-used free security software, which now incorporates protection against spyware through a new combined anti-virus and anti-spyware engine.

AVG Free provides basic protection against viruses and spyware, together with the safe-searching component of the company’s patent-pending LinkScanner® technology, incorporated into the new AVG Security Toolbar. The Free product does not include the proactive safe-surfing (“drive-by download” protection) of the full LinkScanner module that is included in the commercial AVG products, nor the protection against hackers, keyloggers, spam, phishing attacks, and malicious file downloads that can come through instant messaging and attachments from seemingly friendly sources. The free product also does not include the round-the-clock email support provided with the commercial products.

“With the release of AVG Free 8.0, we are underscoring our belief that all computer users, regardless of their computer usage needs, have the right to a safe and worry-free computing experience,” says Karel Obluk, chief technology officer at AVG Technologies. “However, it is important for users to remember that AVG Free does not protect against the full range of today’s web-borne threats. For complete protection, users should consider AVG’s commercial products, which scan for and block threats before they can infect the computer or disrupt the user experience.”

AVG Technologies released the 8.0 versions of its commercial products in February 2008. Home users can choose AVG’s full Internet Security suite, AVG Anti-Virus or AVG Anti-Virus plus Firewall, while business users can select networked versions of the Anti-Virus and Internet Security products as well as file- and email-server based Anti-Virus. Further information about AVG’s commercial products can be found on the company’s website at www.avg.com.

AVG Free 8.0 is intended for personal and non-commercial use on single computers running Windows 2000, XP or Vista. The product will be released initially in English, with Japanese following next week; other language versions are planned for release over the next several months. While AVG Technologies does not provide support for AVG Free 8.0, the company hosts a website and forum for user-driven support at http://free.avg.com. Interested users can download the software at this site or at third-party download sites such as CNet Download.com.

About AVG Technologies

www.avg.com
Founded in 1991 and headquartered in the Czech Republic, AVG is a leading international developer of Internet threat protection solutions for consumers, SMBs and small enterprises. AVG protects more than 70 million computer users around the world. The company has regional offices in North America and the United Kingdom, and employs some of the world’s leading experts in Internet security, specifically in the areas of threat research, analysis and detection. AVG’s award-winning products are distributed globally through resellers and over the Internet as well as via third parties through Software Development Kits (SDKs).

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Júlia Fedorová
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The pioneering bionic eye comprises a wireless video camera and transmitter mounted on a pair of glasses. The minicamera transmits images to a cellphone-sized computer in the patient’s pocket. This wireless computer transmits the processed images to an electronic minireceiver implanted behind the retina which transforms them into electrical impulses to the ganglion cells and through the optic nerve, to the brain’s visual cortex. This process is extremely speedy, so the patient perceives the images in real-time; otherwise, the “vestibular-ocular reflex” would trigger dizziness and sickness.

The patient can see rudimentary black and white images of motion, light and darkness. These surgeries are part of an international clinical trial of the technology, called Argus II retinal implant, which has already proven successful in restoring rudimentary vision in American patients who became blind because of age-related macular degeneration or retinitis pigmentosa, a hereditary disease.

“The camera is very, very small, and very low power, so it can go inside your eye and couple your eye movement to where the camera is. With the kind of missing information the brain can fill in, this field is really blossoming,” said Mark Humayun, Professor of Ophthalmology and Biomedical Engineering at the Doheny Eye Institute in Los Angeles, California, that also developed the technology.

“The devices were implanted successfully in both patients and they are recovering well from the operations. It is very special to be part of a program developing a totally new type of treatment for patients who would otherwise have no chance of visual improvement,” said Lyndon da Cruz, the consultant retinal surgeon and part of the surgery team.

Argus II retinal implant
The American team wishes to develop a camera as large as a pea, that could later be implanted inside the eyeball. This could turn into reality within the next 3 to 5 years. “When I go to the grandkids’ hockey game or soccer game I can see which direction the game is moving in. I can shoot baskets with my grandson, and I can see my granddaughter dancing across the stage,” Linda Moorfoot, one of a few American patients fitted with the current type of implant and who had been blind for 10 years, told Sky News.

Moorfoot’s implant has just 16 electrodes but the British patients received a higher-performance type, with 60 electrodes, that delivers clearer images. The producing company is also developing an implant with 1,000 electrodes, which would allow facial recognition. Indeed, this is just the beginning.

“The general public should not run away with the idea that this is going to be routine surgery for blind people in the immediate future because there is an enormous amount to learn,” said John Marshall, of St Thomas’ Hospital in London, and the British Retinitis Pigmentosa Society.

Article Source:
softpedia.com

Nashua, NH – NextComputing, manufacturers of high-performance mobile workstations and servers, introduces the next generation of extreme-performance, rugged, portable computers, the Vigor Evo HD. This new system is optimized to provide advanced computing power in rugged environments such as military field operations or oil and gas research sites.

The Vigor Evo HD is a “flextop,” a high-performance mobile system incorporating the company’s privately designed FleXtreme architecture. This architecture features open standards components, support for COTS software and hardware, best-in-breed multi-core processors, high-capacity storage, support for multiple operating systems, and multiple I/O functionality including PCI Express x16 slots. The Vigor Evo HD is a ruggedized version of NextComputing’s most powerful “flextop,” the NextDimension Evo HD. Both systems are designed for applications requiring the features of the most powerful desktop workstation in a portable form factor.

Bob Labadini, President and CTO of NextComputing, sees the design of the Vigor Evo HD as fulfilling a need within the “rugged portables” market for a higher-performing, flexible, smaller, and more portable solution than anything that is currently available.  “With the Vigor Evo, we have combined our experience in the deployable ruggedized market with the innovative architecture of the first line of flextop portable computers. The Vigor Evo brings to the market a number of firsts. For example, it is the first rugged portable to incorporate up to 8 processing cores from Intel or AMD, it incorporates the highest number of PCIe or PCI-X 64-bit slots, up to four, and the entire system is encased in an unsurpassed floating chassis which provides maximum shock and vibration absorption with no metal to metal contact,” relates Mr. Labadini.

About the size of a briefcase and weighing as little as 13.5 lbs., the Vigor Evo HD is the smallest and lightest, high-performance rugged portable to come to market. The chassis offers:

* a mounting kit, convenient for mobile environments such as humvees and helicopters
* modular processor boards which support up to (2) single, dual or quad-core AMD Opteron or Intel Xeon processors
* storage capacity that surpasses the leading ruggedized systems by offering up to (3) 3.5″ drives at 1TB each or (13) 200GB/7200RPM hard drives plus internal RAID 0, 1 and 0+1 capabilities
* superior graphics with up to (4) PCIe or PCI-X 64-bit slots for single or double width cards
* integrated 17″ LCD is covered by a disposable protective screen, featuring anti-glare, hardening, and optical enhancement coatings
* support for any COTS keyboard, allowing for the use of the latest rollup, portable, or ruggedized keyboards

Sounds like the Vigor Evo HD would hold up a wild LAN party, don’t you think?

Article Source:
www.hothardware.com