Messages

51

Living Room / Re: Is it safe to try new freeware?

« on: April 15, 2006, 03:35 AM »

Yeah, I don't get it either. The code looked fine before I pasted it in. It's fixed now.

52

Living Room / Re: Is it safe to try new freeware?

« on: April 15, 2006, 03:27 AM »

I used an HTML to BBCode converter. Sorry, didn't check the URL's. I'll see if I can fixem.
http://javascript.ab.../library/blscr01.htm

53

Living Room / Re: Is it safe to try new freeware?

« on: April 15, 2006, 03:03 AM »

I didn't really set out to tell folks the absolute best ways to try new stuff out. I think my main thrust was to show that anyone can try stuff out with a few (freeware) precautions.

Maybe that doesn't come across well, but the info is there for those who might benefit.

Thanks for your sage input, as always, you cut to the chase.

54

Living Room / Re: I'm cleaning up a friends computer,what portable security freeware should i pack

« on: April 15, 2006, 02:59 AM »

Re-installing does seem the best bet.

But here's good resource for taking on the road.
http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

55

Living Room / Is it safe to try new freeware?

« on: April 15, 2006, 02:48 AM »

This is an article I plan to publish to an audience of 250,000. Comments / Critique appreciated.

Is it safe to try new freeware?

How do I safely try new freeware? Trying out new free software is sometimes risky. True freeware is typically safe to use. Sometimes greedy or misguided people don't tell you that free means free with added spyware or adware. If you've gotten your software from a trusted source, you won't typically have to go through a lot of preparation. I sometimes try out stuff that I don't really trust, and when that happens, I break out the big guns.

Always be protected

Some safety devices are always running on my PC.
* Firewall - NAT Router
* Anti-Virus - free versions
* Intrusion Detection - WinPatrol
* Anti-Spyware Detection - SpyCatcher Express

Many people recommend using a software firewall and hardware firewall in tandem. This let's you know when new programs try to "phone home" to access the web. Two good free software firewalls are ZoneAlarm and Kerio. I don't use them, but I probably should.

Preparing to install

Before installing a new freeware program I don't trust, I do the following to make sure I remove any spyware or adware I wasn't aware I had.

* Scan my PC with AdAware and SpyBot S&D
* Run a HijackThis log and save the log file somewhere safe
Note: HijackThis should be used with caution. Incorrect use can crash a PC or create a whole series of hard to fix problems.

The above scans give me some confidence that I am malware free before I start installing. After scanning, I also think it's a good idea to set a restore point or make a backup of the system.

Installing

* Run Total Uninstall and use it to monitor the installation the new freeware program.

Total Uninstall will allow me to uninstall the files and registry keys the new freeware program puts on my PC. It will work even if the program doesn't include it's own good uninstaller.

After trying out the software

I uninstall any software I don't want, I repeat the HiJackThis scan and compare it with the previous scan to see if anything unusual pops up. Then I might run the AdAware and SpyBot once again just to be safe. If I'm really paranoid, I might search for root kits with RootkitRevealer.

It ain't foolproof

These trials don't always go as planned. A freeware fanatic like me should keep good backups just in case something goes horribly wrong. A safer method to test software is to use a PC that is set up for testing software. This test PC would always start in a known good configuration that is backed up so that it can be restored to the same good configuration after testing. I've been told running new programs on a virtual machine also works well.

I hope some of these ideas or freeware programs help you out if you ever decide to download something off the beaten tracks.

56

Site/Forum Features / Re: DonationCredits Discussion

« on: April 06, 2006, 11:28 PM »

im preparing a little article on this.
the idea of micro-donations is not new, but i don't know of any other forum/community that has such a system for letting people easily exchange credits and donate to each other.  if anyone knows of any please let me know.

-mouser (April 06, 2006, 02:07 AM)

Hi Mouser,

As far as I know, you guys are uniquely unique, in this sytem and in many other ways. It's all good. Keep up the fantastic work you are doing.

I haven't been by lately and I don't expect to get any more free time. I've recently started an online job in addition to my normal 8 to 5 job. Whew!

Can you believe someone would pay me to be a support person by email? I couldn't believe it but I'll really believe it when I get my first paycheck. 

Oh well, enough about me. Who gets the credit for this great new Donation system? Huh?
Inquiring minds want to know ...

Have fun!

57

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: fSekrit in Clif Notes

« on: March 13, 2006, 01:02 AM »

wonderful -
and i'm glad you mentioned the find+undo stuff missing from fsekrit, as i had forgotten about those,
and now this should spur on f0dder to add those plus the other minor missing things he needs to add (including unicode) to make fsekrit the very best.  maybe wait a few days to give f0dder a chance to add them before publishing?

-mouser (March 12, 2006, 11:05 PM)

I was planning to publish on March 19th. I'll give him however much time he wants.

58

Mini-Reviews by Members / fSekrit in Clif Notes

« on: March 12, 2006, 10:54 PM »

Hi all,

In response to Mouser's suggestion that I take a look at fSekrit ...
https://www.donation...55.msg18579#msg18579

I'll be posting this in next week's newsletter. It's apparent to me that I've overlooked this application and it deserves all the praise it can get.

Here's a first draft.
http://freewarewiki.pbwiki.com/fSekrit

It was surprising to get a letter from my good friend Bill Webb about fSekrit. As usual, he has impeccable taste in software, and he's not afraid to tell you his opinions. LOL

I've got to work in a credit to the author in it. I'll do that soon.
Thanks for the great coding f0dder.


Have fun ya'll,

Clif

59

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: AllSnap

« on: March 12, 2006, 02:00 PM »

I didn't read far enough down. I'd only publish the top and point to the rest for details.

60

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: AllSnap

« on: March 12, 2006, 01:54 PM »

great newsletter cliff !  your newsletters get better every week.

btw you mention steganos locknote and not being able to get it to work on your windowsME machine.  you might want to check out f0dder's fSekrit on this site which is very similar: https://www.donation...r/fSekrit/index.html

-mouser (March 12, 2006, 01:45 PM)

That would be a great review for next week. May I publish it verbatim? I'd love to add some screenshots to as well.

Clif

61

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: AllSnap

« on: March 12, 2006, 01:17 PM »

Nope, no problem Cliff, please do. Publicity is always good (although it can bring server issues ) and it's good to know people like my mini-review.
Just one thing. After you post it, please post the link here!

-jgpaiva (March 04, 2006, 02:29 PM)

I posted the newsletter last night. I've got your review in the number one spot. So far, I've had 1500 page views as of 2pm EST and I expect another 3 or 4000 by the end of the week. I put two links to DC in the review and a link to this post.

But ... don't expect too many click though's. In my experience, people don't often investigate the sources.

Here are links to the newsletter:
http://freewarewiki....otesNewsletter060312 (permalink)
http://freewarewiki....ifsCurrentNewsletter (link for people outside my mailing list)

I also gave the review it's own page ... (standard procedure for me)
The link would be http://freewarewiki.pbwiki.com/AllSnap

If you have corrections or changes, I can still make them.

Have fun!

Clif

62

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: AllSnap

« on: March 04, 2006, 12:24 PM »

Hi jgpaiva,

I'd like to feature this in CNNL on Sunday. Any concerns?
I'll shorten it up a little and I'll include link to this thread and a Cody link.

63

Developer's Corner / Re: 18 Monospace fonts comparison screenshot

« on: March 04, 2006, 10:49 AM »

FYI: Source - FreewareWiki

Amp Font Viewer - preview, install, and uninstall fonts

Download - Freeware
reviewed by Chris, Dec 2005
comments?

Notes from Clif

Chris wrote me that this program is a "must have" for those of you who are into graphics and fonts.

Screenshot

larger image

Quote

This program is an easy to use but powerful font manager, which allows getting a quick overview of both installed and non installed fonts. It can install and uninstall fonts, and organize them in categories. Some of its features are:

    * Supports TrueType and OpenType fonts (Windows 2000/XP required for PostScript OpenType fonts)
    * Supports Type1 fonts (Windows 2000/XP required)
    * Installation of fonts from a folder (one by one or from a list).
    * Installation of fonts temporally (until the program is closed).
    * Deletion of installed fonts.
    * List of all installed fonts with several display options.
    * List of the fonts from a folder with several display options.
    * Several options for organizing fonts in categories and managing them.
    * It can print a list of all or some of the installed fonts with an example of each font.
    * Scratchpad area for testing the look of any font (installed or from a folder).
    * Dual English/Spanish version.

64

General Software Discussion / Re: SiteAdvisor - or do YOU like spam, spyware, & safety threats?

« on: March 04, 2006, 10:28 AM »

Almost forgot to mention. Since that article I've learned that SA will continue to offer a free service.
See http://freewarewiki....0205#SiteAdvisorNews

I also got a freebie from SA, a cool beta-tester T-shirt. 

65

General Software Discussion / Re: SiteAdvisor - or do YOU like spam, spyware, & safety threats?

« on: March 04, 2006, 10:20 AM »

Back in January, I wrote up a mini-review of SA. I have two versions of it.

SiteAdvisor - tells you what websites are not safe
reviewed by ClifNotes, Jan 2006

In the last issue of my newsletter, I happened to mention a blog from a service called SiteAdvisor. Two of you wrote in to ask me if it was safe. I've done some research and I will start recommending this very good service. In fact, I'm using it now myself.

The people who wrote in are correct in being concerned about this service. SiteAdvisor is an Internet Explorer toolbar and a Firefox extension you can download and install for free. SiteAdvisor tracks your web surfing and in return, they offer advice about the websites that appear in your web searches and the pages you actually load. I've been assured that this "tracking" by SiteAdvisor is completely anonymous and that it will never be sold to third party advertisers. This means that they can see where I'm surfing but they can't tell who I am when they are looking at their records.

Let's take a simple Google search for an example of what SiteAdvisor can do. Type in the word "screensaver" in Google and you'll see the screen below.

Screenshot - searching for screensavers

See larger image

Do you see the red "x" beside many of the entries. Notice that the entries for Screensaver.com are marked. I can confirm that this is a bad website. I wrote an article about it last year that warns people away from it. It gives me a bad feeling to see that Screensaver.com is a "sponsored" link at Google. The problem is that all the other search engines will give you nearly the same "sponsored" links. Who can you trust? SiteAdvisor can help us with that problem.

SiteAdvisor places red, yellow, or green icons beside the sites it knows about to help you make informed decisions about where you want to go online. It also includes a colored button in your web browser to tell you about the website you are currently browsing.

Right now this service is in a testing phase, but you can still try it out to see if you like it. I'm hoping that SiteAdvisor will continue to offer this service for free, once they are finished testing it.

Quote from SiteAdvisor.com

SiteAdvisor helps protect you from all kinds of Web-based security threats including spyware, adware, spam, viruses, browser-based attacks, phishing, online fraud and identity theft.
---

Source:
http://snipurl.com/IP_SiteAdvisor
http://freewarewiki....wiki.com/SiteAdvisor

66

Post New Requests Here / IDEA: Addition to ScreenShot Captor or stand-alone tool

« on: February 26, 2006, 01:55 AM »

I've using SC more and more. Two  suggestions.

1. Add "Sendto FTP" with preset FTP settings.
2. In the object capture, it'd be nice to be able to pick out individual pictures on a website.

Maybe a stand-alone tool for the above?

Right now I use a cool little tool to send stuff to my ftp sites.
http://freewarewiki.pbwiki.com/SendToFtp

It works inside the file panel in SC. That panel is one of my favorite features.

Have fun!

67

Found Deals and Discounts / Free premium website for one year - pbwiki.com

« on: February 08, 2006, 11:53 PM »

Free Offer from ClifNotes, Feb 2006

Notes from Clif

My pbwiki website was given to me free, no money, just a little work helping out here and there. Now I'm going to forward the favor and let you have a chance at a free wiki website like this one for an entire year.

Why would you want a free website that has the following features?

    * 1 Gb image and file space
    * Unlimited number of pages
    * no need to learn HTML
    * no advertisements on your pages
    * can be kept private or made public
    * is password protected on secure https servers
    * your friends can edit it if you give them a password

Tell me why you want it in a short email. I'll read the emails and decide who gets this $50 dollar value.
http://snipurl.com/EmailClif

I'll announce the winner on Feb 19th.

Why would I want to do this? I'm a nice guy, ask anyone. Seriously though, I want to share this great service with everyone.

Don't forget, a premium wiki at pbwiki is not your only option.

Anyone can sign up for a free wiki website with lots of cool features. It only takes a minute or two and you have your own website.

If you want to find out more about pbwiki websites, take the tour.
http://pbwiki.com/tour/1.html

68

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Form Letter Machine - soon to recieve a spotlight

« on: February 08, 2006, 12:58 AM »

I'd love it if you'd do that for me.

Mucho grasses

69

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Form Letter Machine - soon to recieve a spotlight

« on: February 08, 2006, 12:49 AM »

FLM has plenty of features already in place.

1. Add toolbar buttons for inserting functions / forms
2. Add wizards for noobs (and me!)

That's all ...

Oh, about the pbwiki offer, do you approve? Should I remove, repost?

70

Living Room / Re: Mouser's Software Reviewed

« on: February 07, 2006, 11:48 PM »

Hate DC apps? You've got to be kidding ... 

71

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Form Letter Machine - soon to recieve a spotlight

« on: February 07, 2006, 11:32 PM »

The infopackets article is out.

See it at http://infopackets.com

or direct link to full article:
http://www.infopacke...r_machine_review.htm

Have fun!

72

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Form Letter Machine - soon to recieve a spotlight

« on: February 06, 2006, 12:06 AM »

Oh, one little detail.

Email me at http://photobucket.c...otes/?action=contact

73

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Form Letter Machine - soon to recieve a spotlight

« on: February 06, 2006, 12:03 AM »

Hi Mouser,

Not only is my newsletter free, I'm going to extend to all DC users, the following offer. You may repost this if you wish.

Free Premium Wiki for one year
Free Offer from ClifNotes, Feb 2006

Notes from Clif

This website was given to me free, no money, just a little work helping out here and there. Now I'm going to return the favor and let you have a chance at a free wiki website like this one for an entire year.

Why would you want a free website that has the following features?

    * 1 Gb image and file space
    * Unlimited number of pages
    * no need to learn HTML
    * no advertisements on your pages
    * can be kept private or made public
    * is password protected on secure https servers
    * your friends can edit it if you give them a password

Tell me why you want it in a short email. I'll read the emails and decide who gets this $50 dollar value.

I'll announce the winner on Feb 19th.

Why would I want to do this? I'm a nice guy, ask anyone. Seriously though, I was offered a free premium wiki in addition to the one I have. I really don't need it and I want to share this great service with everyone.

Don't forget, a premium wiki at pbwiki is not your only option.

Anyone can sign up for a free wiki website with lots of cool features. It only takes a minute or two and you have your own website.

If you want to find out more about pbwiki websites, take the tour.
http://pbwiki.com/tour/1.html

74

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Form Letter Machine - soon to recieve a spotlight

« on: February 05, 2006, 11:50 PM »

Yep, infopackets is a cool newsletter, mine is much better naturally. 

I may be a little biased ...

Have fun!

75

Mini-Reviews by Members / Form Letter Machine - soon to receive a spotlight

« on: February 05, 2006, 02:40 PM »

Hi all,

I recently submitted a mini-review of FLM at (http://infopackets.com). It seems they like my quick and dirty reviews there, although I can't figure out why. LOL

Keep an eye out, I think it's due to come out next week sometime.

Kudos to the author!

Have fun!