I am somewhat sad today. Today is the day I replaced my anti virus program from my long time favorite Avg anti virus . It was like having to say goodbye to an old friend. Why did I replace something that has proven itself to be dependable and reliable after all these years? It is because the latest version Version 8. Just isnt up to AVG's usual high standards. For starters the memory usage has increased dramatically. version 7.5 used to use about 2 megs while idle and version 8 uses over 30. Their new link scanner which seems like a good idea has caused slowdowns and browser crashes, and it has compatability issues with another favorite program I use called Threatfire from PCtools . A google search has revealed that I am not the only one having these problems. My search for a free replacement brought up many possibilities but the one that consistantly got good reviews was Avira free and I am pleased to say it has been working flawlessly. I must admit I miss my old friend and found comfort in seeing that AVG icon in the taskbar; ,so Avg please give us a nice lean new version of AVG free so I can once again welcome my old friend back into my system.

Ok lets talk about solar energy. I feel it is a resource that is far far underused. Think about this; if the roof of every house, apartment, and business was covered in solar panels I think it could change the world. You might be saying oh please how can that change the world, well curious readers let me tell you my thoughts on this. If every structure had solar panels on  it would reduce our energy needs ,true, but lets take it a step further. Say everyone of those buildings had their own battery storage array; now even when it is not very sunny they can have a reserve of power to make up the difference further reducing our energy needs and reliance on fossil fuels. Lets take another step;  say everyone was also tied into the energy grid and any energy they do not need gets transferred to the grid to get stored in big energy storage banks and shuffled around to those who have a need for it. Ok now that reduces our needs on fossil fuels even further, but we can take this another step further.Are you ready? say every house had an electric vehicle charging station and every apartment parking space had a charging station  and we all used electric vehicles for our day to day needs   nowthat would put a huge dent in our dependence on fossil fuels. Now what are some of the other benefits of such a system? It would spark a great deal of research and development into new solar panel and battery technologies making the panels more efficient and the batteries smaller and more powerful; which would also spark the development of new and better quick charging technologies. Which would give us vehicles which were more powerful and with a greatly increased range and the ability to charge them quickly from charging stations for improved practicality. Imagine this, school busses, city busses even the greyhound busses all with these high capacity  quick charging batteries  on board and high efficiency solar panels on their big flat roofs. Lets add to that the city utility vehicles, police and rescue vehicles even the postal service trucks all running on electric power. Now you might be saying surely you can't run all vehicles on  electric power what about those big diesel trucks? they have to be able to haul a lot of weight. Well electric engines have a lot of torque which is what those big rigs needs to get all that weight moving and hauling it uphill and most of the trailers have those long flat tops making the ideal spot for more solar panels and plenty of room underneath for energy storage.  "Ok ok I can see how that might work but what about trains? there is a lot of freight carried by trains." , you ask. Oh I wouldn't forget about trains. I love trains and would like to see a renewed interest in train travel.  Have you ever looked at train engines? Those big, wonderful, powerful diesel-ELECTRIC engines? why not make them electric only? Every car ( passenger and cargo) can have a energy storage array underneath and solar panels on top. When they are attached to the train they plug into the rest so the longer the train the more energy storage it has access to and the more panels for charging it can use. Lets not forget with all this new solar panel and battery technology being used there will also be a lot of research into making better electric motors. These will be smaller,lighter, more powerful and more efficient then anything we have today. The thought of a light weight two hundred horsepower electric motorcycle with a four hundred or more mile range just puts a smile on my face. We could be a country free of any dependencies on fossil fuels. We can have a greener future and most importantly our children can have a future where they don't have to worry about energy or global warming or even having to wear a mask just to be able to breathe when they go outside.