Slashdot pointed out today that AVG is scanning every link on every page you go to to “protect” you against malware. Not cool for webmasters who might have to pay extra for the bandwidth. To turn it off, follow the instructions in the AVG FAQ, which are pointed to on this blog, along with some other nice commentary on AVG Free 8.

I got in to work this morning to find a popup on my desktop saying that Apple Software Update wanted to install Safari 3.1. However, I don’t have Safari installed, so I’m unclear on how they figure this is an update. Various people linked from TechMeme share my confusion.

That said, ArsTechnica says that this browser is pretty good.

I pulled it down today and used it. For the most part, I was happy with it, but there were a couple of annoyances: for one, I kept trying to post to DailyKos, only to be told that my post had somehow become corrupted. I had to switch to IE to post successfully. Later on, I went to the Universal Thread, to find that most of my toolbar was missing.

Besides that, though, I was happy: everything responded well. It’s still something of a memory hog, though.

A post on ProFox pointed me to TrueCrypt, which not only creates encrypted drives, but also can hide other drives within it that cannot be compromised by the main password. Other ProFox posters reported that they used it for thumb drives, for example.

Ever wanted to open a command window in the folder you have open? How about creating a new folder without waiting for the right-click menu to populate? StExBar, from the creator of TortoiseSVN, promises to do this and more. I just installed it: I’ll let you know if things go differently than I expect.

Aaron Margosis recently raved about Windows PowerShell being the coolest technology Microsoft has shipped in a while. So, I decided to download it and give it a spin. I’ll keep you posted…

Scoble tells us that Google has announced Google Apps Premier Edition. They’re pricing it at $50/user/year, which sounds like a reasonable price for people like me, not just enterprises.

It’s free through the end of April, so get it while it’s hot!

Ed Felten asks if this program will ever swear at you.

import sys, sha

h = sha.new(sha.new(sys.argv[1]).digest()[:9]).digest()

if h.startswith(”abcdefghij”): print “Drat”

He doesn’t know either. That’s what makes CS fun. :-) (h/t Laura)

The Lilypond project explains what’s wrong with the state of music software today.

I mentioned a while ago that Microsoft had hired on the programmers behind Sysinternals.com. Aaron Margosis reports that Microsoft recently put the entire Sysinternals Suite up as a one-file download.

Grab them whether you think you’ll need them or not: sooner or later, you will. :-)