Essential Pirate Gear

If you're going to be traveling the waters in these here stories you best be prepared, which means making sure you're swords are sharp and your pistols are loaded.  First thing first, if you are running Windows and I know you all are (with the exception of one and at the very most two) then you need the power of Security Essentials.

http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/

Unbelievably Microsoft has come out with a really solid and so far reliable free anti-virus/malware program.  Uninstall anything else you have, most likely it is left over Symantec or Mcafee from any number of ways.  If you need help with this send me an e-mail and I can go through it with you.  This is one of the few instances when you should use the Internet Explorer web browser.

I haven't found a good use for doing anything in Internet Explorer except downloading Security Essentials, which you have done by now right?  Right?  There's no reason in this day and age to not be surfing without protection.  Security Essentials is the Trojan Man of the Internet so practice safe browsing :-) .    Sure you can wrap it up but when you need something extra, which we'll need on our dangerous voyage, we need backup.

Not only do we need backup, we need to go on the offense and use the best tools we can.  This means using Chrome when browsing the Internet.

http://www.google.com/chrome/intl/en/landing_chrome.html?hl=en

If you aren't already running Chrome you need to stop what you are doing and install it now.  It is the sleekest, fastest, best supported web browser that I've encountered.  If you already have installed make sure you are running the latest version by clicking on the little wrench near the top right.

Go down and click on About Google Chrome

Make sure that it says you are up to date like below.  The version number may be different but that's the idea.  If you are using an old version you'll see a link to update instead of a green flag

Now you are using the most secure web browser and have a good solid automatically updated anti-virus that is leading the market right now, all for free and you don't even have the threat of a hanging if you use these.

Well speaking of hangings, you didn't come here to learn about what everybody else already knows.  You're here to find out what happens in the shadows and the thrill of getting lots of pirate booty.  Once you have all th goodies you'll need some way to enjoy them.  For videos you want the best overall player that will play any sort of movie whether on blue-ray, dvd, and every possible downloaded format.  Right now that player is Media Player Classic Home Cinema

http://mpc-hc.sourceforge.net/

This program may look small and simple but it packs quite a punch and has played everything I've ever thrown at it.  Over the next couple of posts we'll be scouring the Internet for the best places to score entertainment and this little guy will be your right hand man.

A close runner up would be VLC.  This program has been around for a number of years and is a great media player as well.  You can download it at http://www.videolan.org/vlc/  If you have it installed make sure you get the latest version and uninstall the old one.

Now that you have the essential gear, hoist the Jolly Roger and let's get ready to sail!