Soft District

These days the computers and the internet are used by billions of people every day, for all sorts of activities, so we can definitely say that they had become a part of our lives. Many years ago just a few people had access to the internet, but today almost everyone that has a computer also uses the internet. And the more you browse the internet, the more you have the risk of getting a virus or being under attacked by strange people that can get into your computer.

And that’s why it is very important to have a good antivirus software and also a Firewall. There are many programs that you can use, some being for free while others having prices of tens or hundreds of dollars.  Of course the best ones are also the most expensive, but luckily most of the big producers of antivirus software are also offering a free version that you can download and use.



So for today we’ll discuss about some free antivirus software and we’ll begin with the AVG Antivirus Free Edition 9.0. This is an award winning program that will meet your basic security needs. AVG is one of the leading producers in this domain (with around 110 million users worldwide), and they had always considered that anyone should benefit for the basic computer security absolutely free. So if you regularly browse the internet and download files, this is a good antivirus to have. It has the Link Scanner feature that will make sure that every web page that you visit is safe. Thanks to the antivirus and anti spyware protection, you won’t get and spread a virus, worm or Trojan horse (in most of the cases).

This program also has an enhanced virus scanner, that will perform a consistently and high speed virus scan, without affecting too much the performance of your computer. It is compatible with these operating systems: Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP and Windows 2000, so you can use it whether you have a new or and old computer (or laptop). And you can also use the automatic update to keep your protection in touch with the latest viruses and threads. This is just the basic, free version, so these are all the features that it offers. This should be quite enough for most of the simple, home users, but if you want more than this, you can buy one of the other 2 versions. First there is the AVG Antivirus 9.0 which now has a reduced price of 28 dollars, and there is also the AVG Internet Security 9.0 which costs now 44 dollars.



The full version of the AVG 9.0 has all the features that we mentioned earlier for the free version, and a few more others. It also has an online shield that lets you download and exchange files without risking of getting a virus and also an advanced anti rootkit protection which make sure that even the most complex hidden threats are kept out. It is known that the antivirus can be quite annoying when you are playing a game, and it begins to scan or to update, so this version also has a game mode, which keeps you safe without interrupting you while you are playing a video game. And it also has phishing protection, which checks if web pages are really what they appear to be. Besides all of these features, the 3^rd version (the AVG Internet Security 9.0) also has the AVG Identity Protection which keeps your private information safe from others and also an enhanced firewall, which prevents hackers from seeing into your PC. And finally it also has the anti spam feature, which blocks spammers and scammers from clogging your system. Least but not last, all of the three versions have free technical assistance whenever you need it.

So here was just an example of a good free antivirus software, but of course there are more others that can be found on the internet. So in case you know some other that are really good and worth downloading, tell us all about them. We wait for your comments and until then, have a nice day!

Magic Software Enterprises is an international software company which operates in the computer software domain, and which is ranked in the top Software 500 made by the Software Magazine. The international headquarters of the company is located in Or Yehuda, Israel, while the North American headquarters is located in Laguna Hills, Callifornia.

It also operates in Europe, and the European headquarters is in Houten, Netherlands. The company was founded in 1983 by David Assia and Yaki Dunietz, which were the former Charimen. Some of is products are: the uniPaaS Application Platform (formerly known as eDeveloper) and iBolt Integration Platform.



Magic Software Enterprises has the distinction of being the first company that was listed on both the NASDAQ and the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. The company introduced some rapid application development tools and also application deployment runtime technology many years ago, during the time of microcomputers (which had later on became personal computers). The company came with a totally different approach in building software compared to the traditional programming languages available at that time. This approach was described as a table driven rapid application paradigm, which was not similar to creating line by line programming code.

This approach is similar to pseudo code and it didn’t require any compiling or linking, and it allowed instantaneous debugging. Magic Software adapted its deployment architecture to incorporate distributed computing and the latest versions are compatible with many operating systems such as: Windows, Linux, Unix, I 5O S. it also supports databases like Oracle, MS-SQL, DB2 and Pervasive as well as ODBC drivers for those who prefer this environment (such as MySQL). The softwares also include batch, online and browser client and also deployment options such as desktop deployment, client server or internet.



Now let’s discuss a few words about the history of this company. as we said, it was founded in 1983 and it is originally from Israel. Over the last 20 years the company had reinvented itself often having a great success. It is a leading provider of business integration, deployment tools and application development, and it has many famous clients, from many domains. And some examples of companies that are using the products of Magic Software Enterprises are: Boeing, Burger King, GE Capital, Nestle and Panasonic. It also has strategic partnerships with companies like IBM, SAP AG or salesforce.com. it has around 500 employees all over the world, and as we said the headquarters is in Israel. But it operates in many other countries such as: USA, Japan, Thailand, the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, France, Hungary, India and others. When it was founded it was a spin off of the Mashov Computers company, and it was initially called MSE (Mashov Software Export) and it made software for the global market.

One of its programs, an application generator was called Magic. During the 80s it had grew thanks to the sales to the DOS and UNIX platforms and the GUI was all done for X Window. The name Magic Software Enterprises was given in 1991, and they still had the same acronym – MSE. This company was also the first one from Israel to go public on the NASDAQ.

So here were a few words about this company and its products. But if you want to find out more information, simply visit their official site.

The internet is a huge worldwide network, and it can be used for all sorts of purposes. For example you can search for any kind of information, from any domain that interests you. Or you can chat with friends and family, and also meet new people from all over the world…or you can play all sorts of free online games, or you can download music, pictures, movies, programs and anything you might want. In case you are interested in music editing, for today we’ll tell you more about a free music editing software.

And the program that we are going to choose is the Audacity. This is a free and easy to use program, which is available in many languages. It is an audio editor and recorder and it can be used with all the major operating systems : Windows, Mac OS X or GNU / Linux. You can use it to record live audio, and it can record through a microphone or a mixer , but it can also convert cassette tapes, minidisks and vinyl records into digital recording and CD-s. With some sound cards, it can also capture streaming audio. You can records from the microphone, from the line input or from other sources and it can dub over existing tracks to create a multi track recording. It can record up to 16 channels at the same time, and it also has level meters that can monitor the volume levels before, during and after the recording.

You can also import and edit all sorts of audio files, combine them with others and then export them into new formats. It can import WAV, AIFF, AU, MPEG audi and OGG Vorbis. Then you can export them into WAV, AIFF and even MP3 files. As a note, Audacity does not support WMA, AAC, or other proprietary or restricted  formats. With this program you can also edit files by cutting, copying, pasting or deleting and you can use  unlimited undo and redo, to go back any number of steps. It can edit really fast big files, and you can edit and mix an unlimited number of tracks.  When editing, use the drawing tool to modify individual sample points, and you can fade the volume up or down smoothly by using the envelope tool.



You can also add effects to your music, such as change the pitch without altering the tempo, or change the tempo without altering the pitch. You can also remove static noises, hiss, hum or other annoying background noises that are constant. You can modify the sound frequencies with the Equalization, with the FFT Filter and also with the Bass Boost effects. It even has professional tools such as compressor, amplify and normalize, which can adjust the volumes of a track. And among its other built in effects you will find: echo, phaser, wahwah and reverse.

The samples can be recorded and edited in 16 bit, 24 bit or 32 bit and you can record up to 969 khz. The sample rates and the files are converted by using high quality resampling and dithering. You can also mix tracks that have different sample rates or which are on a different format, and Audacity will convert them for you in real time. You can also add new effects to the program by using the LADSPA plug ins, and you can even create your own music by loading VST plug-ins for Windwos and Mac (with the optional VST enabler). For the specialists it even has a built in programming language, so that you can write new effects. For analysis of files you can use the spectrogram mode, and you can view the sound frequencies. It also has the Plot spectrogram function, which offers you a detailed frequency analysis. It is licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL), so it is absolutely free. It is also an open source software, which means that its source code is available for everyone that wants to study it or use it. From this category of open source software, there are many more other famous ones such as the Firefox Mozilla web browser, the Open Office program or the Linux based operating system – the Ubuntu.



Depending on the operating system that you are using it on, it has different requirements. For example for Windows 98 and ME it requires a minimum of 64 MB RAM and a processor of just 300 Mhz. For Windows 2000 and XP the minimum requirements are 128 MB RAM and 300 Mhz, for Windows Vista Home basic – 512 MB RAM and 1 Ghz processor speed, and finally for Windows Vista Home Premium / Business / Ultimate it requires a computer with at least 1 GB RAM and at least a speed of the processor of 1 Ghz.

So here was just an example of a free music editing software, but of course there are many more others on the internet. So in case you know some other that are really cool and worth trying, tell us all about them. Have a nice day!