Today in Tech: Antivirus, Predictions, Resolutions & Internet's Birthday

Antivirus: you get what you pay for? A New York Times story on how anti-virus companies are struggling to fight ever-so-fast viruses refers to a study that looked at how fast anti-virus products adapt to new threats. Not fast enough, it seems. More interestingly, it turns out that two products which scored high in detection rates are both free: Avast & Emsisoft.

Predicting the future: Looking back at one's predictions is a favourite year end activity. We did ours: 7 Business Calls We Got Right  & Forbes India Portfolio delivers 27% returns over last year. They are for 2012. Things get more interesting if the time span is 10 years. In 2003, Wired published its gadgets wish list for 2013. Ten years down it checked if reality kept up with its predictions. The short answer: in some ways, yes. But the list is very interesting. My favorite is 'a handheld food scanner'.

New year resolutions: Google's Interactive Map seems to be a very interesting initiative except that I don't see too many entries outside US and Europe. There's nothing at all from India. I added one, and it didn't show up. Nevertheless, the map is worth a look. What I liked most is its auto translate feature.

Venturebeat has an interesting list of 25 apps to keep our new year resolutions. If you haven't made any, Mashable  has 8 suggestions. My favourites from the list: Clean your key board; Clean up your digital trail; Go paperless.

Intertnet turns 30: Telegraph quotes Chris Edwards, an electronics correspondent for Engineering and Technology magazine: "I don't think that anybody making that switch (packet switching) on the day would have realised the importance of what they were doing. But without it the internet and the World Wide Web as we know them could not have happened." Can you think of an equally revolutionary technology that companies and labs are working on today?

Also of interest

• Windows gains market share after six months of decline: Windows 8 grabs 1.64%, Windows 7 passes 45% | TheNextWeb
• Thieves break into Paris' flagship Apple store | AP
• Guy Kawasaki to Traditional Publishers: Your Days are Numbered | Forbes

The thoughts and opinions shared here are of the author.