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Last post Author Topic: MagicRAR Drive Press - worth anything?  (Read 35323 times)

Curt

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Re: MagicRAR Drive Press - worth anything?
« Reply #50 on: March 17, 2013, 06:50 PM »
sorry I posted too early, but I had lost track of time and my movie was suddenly beginning. What I was thinking, when the television commercials were showing and giving me time to think about this thread, was, that the reviews were suspicious - but I kept looking at the clock and decided I didn't have the time tonight to investigate any further. But right now I will not be surprised if none of the praising reviewers exist.

But you can still have a free key tonight, ehh... I assume! I haven't tried. I don't want it.

Zatronium

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Re: MagicRAR Drive Press - worth anything?
« Reply #51 on: March 18, 2013, 03:12 AM »
Hi Zatronium --

I've spoken to the author of Comprexx and he is in fact teamed up with the MagicRar folks -- so that's why you are noticing that it's the same underlying system.  They are created by same author.

Thanks for the info, glad to hear that it's not simply stolen. I actually enjoyed the CompreXX program a lot when I used it years ago. I switched over to 7-Zip because their UI had become less buggy and more functional than CompreXX. I honestly think this program could be a prime competitor in the compression niche with more fixes to the old code and some more updates to the UI. So it would be nice if Simon could pick up where MimarSinan left off instead of adding useless bloat to the program and renaming everything else "Simon King;" it just comes off as conceited and obnoxious.

This Drive Press thing is a gimmicky tool reminiscent of DriveSpace; the latter of which has already been considered obsolete for over a decade. Even if it does have any relevance, it's going to be considered obsolete again soon. Drive Press damages the drive to achieve space savings which may not even be realized on SSD controllers that already utilize compression. This simply isn't a good practice - especially with how rapidly SSD cost per GB is dropping. If it's really that much of an issue then you should buy an internal HDD instead, because you'll be spending more money due to the wear on your SSD regardless.
« Last Edit: March 18, 2013, 03:35 AM by Zatronium »

f0dder

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Re: MagicRAR Drive Press - worth anything?
« Reply #52 on: March 18, 2013, 09:42 AM »
Interesting development - thanks for the info, Zatronium, and thanks to mouser for the extra bit of investigation. So... SimonKing probably didn't write a single line of code, but just rebranded Comprexx? Cute.

I agree that one should not be using the gung-ho NTFS compression on an SSD - already written it in previous posts, but it doesn't hurt repeating :)
- carpe noctem

simonking

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Re: MagicRAR Drive Press - worth anything?
« Reply #53 on: March 31, 2013, 03:19 PM »
I am really glad to read that this latest round of paranoia has been deflated by other members of the forum before I became aware of it.

The fact remains that there appears to be a terrific amount of prejudice against MagicRAR - I chalk this up to jealousy and prefer to take it as a compliment.

I will not comment on whether I actually personally wrote any code on MagicRAR, but MagicRAR does bring the following significant enhancements over previous incarnations of the product:

Platform Compatibility:
* Brand new 64 bit support with unified 32bit-64bit installer
- Fully official Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8 support
* Dramatically enhanced shell namespace extension stability
- User Account Control compatibility
- New style Control Panel extensions

Brand New Features:
- Outlook Add-Ins for versions of Outlook newer than Outlook 2003
- Outlook Archive Previews
- Windows Explorer Archive Previews
* MagicRAR Drive Press
* Intelligent "Extract to Subfolders" which doesn't create superfluous top-level folders
* "Find Smallest Archive" Explorer right-click menu to determine the smallest possible archive objectively
- Right-click extraction support for EXE files
- Dramatically improved archive browsing speeds for archives that contain thousands of files within them

Brand New Plug-Ins:
- ZIPX compression/extraction with 256bit AES encryption
- VMware/Virtual PC virtual hard disk support
* Open source plug-in stack with installer integration
* The new InstallAware installer picks up contributions made to the GitHUB repo automatically without even needing to be rebuilt!

Not all changes are technical - some could be called business decisions, made in the better interests of our users:
- Online-activation-free serial key input
* Free serial key for the first 30 days
* Aggressive product give-aways

(*) Means the benefit is unique to MagicRAR as of this writing.

This is just a short list of what MagicRAR has improved above and over CompreXX.

For those brave enough to explore beyond the boundaries of their paranoia, I would suggest accessing (and maybe even contributing) to the open source MagicRAR repo at GitHUB. The repo contains a brief history document in addition to source code. For instance, MagicRAR's precedent CompreXX is clearly acknowledged in the repo history, as well as other precedents. None of this is secret or hidden from the public eye.

Under the guise of free speech, there are many on this forum who would publicly slander and defame MagicRAR, a perfectly legitimate product which is the culmination of nearly two decades of software engineering efforts. Clearly these individuals are very deluded and while they might feel comfortable under the cloak of anonymity that the Internet affords, I cannot help but wonder whether they sleep soundly at night.

Another such frequent attack now is the Drive Press angle - for the benefit of open minded folks, I have been using it on my SSDs ever since its first version (necessity is the mother of invention), and my SSDs are running beautifully, thank you very much! The claim that Drive Press has any kind of deleterious effect on SSDs is pure fiction and FUD.

wraith808

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Re: MagicRAR Drive Press - worth anything?
« Reply #54 on: March 31, 2013, 03:51 PM »
While I understand that you feel/have the need to address this latest round of discussions, I for one would appreciate it if your posts to do so would stay professional and refrain from utilizing pejoratives.

latest round of paranoia

For those brave enough to explore beyond the boundaries of their paranoia

Clearly these individuals are very deluded

None of that was necessary, and indeed, a post without those would have gone a ways towards gaining goodwill.  Instead, like many others when negative criticism is levied, the more base manners of defense come to light, including the losing way of debating of attacking the arguer rather than the argument.  And like those, no matter what truth may be in your post, your tone turns me away from your product and your company, even if I had need.

That's something that you might want to keep in mind in the future (and there is an edit button on the post if you want to correct such), especially when posting on DC.

simonking

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Re: MagicRAR Drive Press - worth anything?
« Reply #55 on: April 01, 2013, 03:20 AM »
While I understand that you feel/have the need to address this latest round of discussions, I for one would appreciate it if your posts to do so would stay professional and refrain from utilizing pejoratives.

latest round of paranoia

For those brave enough to explore beyond the boundaries of their paranoia

Clearly these individuals are very deluded

None of that was necessary, and indeed, a post without those would have gone a ways towards gaining goodwill.  Instead, like many others when negative criticism is levied, the more base manners of defense come to light, including the losing way of debating of attacking the arguer rather than the argument.  And like those, no matter what truth may be in your post, your tone turns me away from your product and your company, even if I had need.

That's something that you might want to keep in mind in the future (and there is an edit button on the post if you want to correct such), especially when posting on DC.

You make a good point, and please excuse me if I have overstepped my bounds. In my defense, please do allow me to paste the Wikipedia definitions for the exact words I have used, together with my rationale for using them:

Delusion: A delusion is a belief held with strong conviction despite superior evidence to the contrary.

As I have outlined repeatedly in this thread, there is ample public record on MagicRAR (most notably through the GitHUB repository, which is accessible easily through the MagicRAR download page) which refutes practically all of the negative assertions on MagicRAR in this thread. All of this falls under the "contrary superior evidence" category; the insistence of particular contributors to this forum despite this superiority of evidence cannot be called anything other than delusion.

Paranoia: Paranoid thinking typically includes persecutory beliefs, or beliefs of conspiracy concerning a perceived threat towards oneself.

The starter of this thread himself/herself was self-admittedly paranoid. Various assertions that are repeatedly made in this thread strongly suggest that MagicRAR or components of the MagicRAR suite will cause harm when this is not in fact the case. The threat is therefore not real but perceived. A lot of the negative feedback left on MagicRAR here definitely falls under conspiratorial thinking.

As such it appears to me that my usage of the above words is accurate by their Wikipedia definitions, and not pejorative. Clearly you disagree, which brings to mind a new kind of word:

Hypocrisy: Hypocrisy is the state of pretending to have virtues, moral or religious beliefs, principles, etc., that one does not actually have.

What I'm getting from you is that its OK for people to very unprofessionally attack MagicRAR under the guise of free speech, but it is not OK for MagicRAR to - let us assume unprofessionally for the sake of argument - try to set the record straight and protect its brand and product against completely baseless and demonstrably false accusations. In other words, DC tolerates attacks on products, but does not tolerate attacks on those attackers of products. Why this asymmetry?

mouser

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Re: MagicRAR Drive Press - worth anything?
« Reply #56 on: April 01, 2013, 05:35 AM »
I think it's probably time to wrap this thread up as we are all going around in circles..

barney

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Re: MagicRAR Drive Press - worth anything?
« Reply #57 on: April 01, 2013, 05:43 AM »
^+1.
It's occupying space, providing naught but frustration at best.

wraith808

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Re: MagicRAR Drive Press - worth anything?
« Reply #58 on: April 01, 2013, 07:25 AM »
I am really glad to read that this latest round of paranoia has been deflated by other members of the forum before I became aware of it.

Your quote, not mine.  So, with that in mind.

What I'm getting from you is that its OK for people to very unprofessionally attack MagicRAR under the guise of free speech, but it is not OK for MagicRAR to - let us assume unprofessionally for the sake of argument - try to set the record straight and protect its brand and product against completely baseless and demonstrably false accusations. In other words, DC tolerates attacks on products, but does not tolerate attacks on those attackers of products. Why this asymmetry?

This seems to be disingenuous.  As Mouser has asked us to wrap it up, it will be my last time posting.  But, all I was trying to do was to give you some advice.  Your pedantic response hasn't endeared you any more to myself, and I'm sure to anyone else.

Sometimes, the best thing to do is to say nothing.  It's hard.  It might have been what I should have done in the face of your post.  But I really wanted to make sure that for the future, you might see your two statements side by side... and perhaps come to the self-realization that though this exercise may have been rewarding in that you were able to give tit-for-tat, it was perhaps pyrrhic at best.

Thanks for your consideration.