Messages

376

Living Room / Re: Webroot SpySweeper scores 0% success rate in malware test ...

« on: April 08, 2006, 08:13 PM »

I've got Avast, CounterSpy, and TrojanHunter running in the background at all times.  Not counting the results of a full scan, the only one that's ever actually "caught" anything is Avast.  To tell the truth, I'm not sure what that says about the three programs.

377

Living Room / Re: Firm pitches $2,800 64GB USB Flash disk

« on: April 07, 2006, 08:29 AM »

The following is from WikiPedia.  Would the "wear factor" likely translate to a big negative for a potential user of this 64GB version?  What would you use it for?

http://en.wikipedia....h_memory#Limitations


"One limitation of flash memory is that although it can be read or programmed a byte or a word at a time in a random access fashion, it must be erased a "block" at a time. Starting with a freshly erased block, any byte within that block can be programmed. However, once a byte has been programmed, it cannot be changed again until the entire block is erased. In other words, flash memory (specifically NOR flash) offers random-access read and programming operations, but cannot offer random-access rewrite or erase operations. When compared to a hard disk drive, a further limitation is the fact that flash memory has a finite number of erase-write cycles (most commercially available EEPROM products are guaranteed to withstand 10^6 programming cycles,) so that care has to be taken when moving hard-drive based applications, such as operating systems, to flash-memory based devices such as CompactFlash. This effect is partially offset by some chip firmware or filesystem drivers by counting the writes and dynamically remapping the blocks in order to spread the write operations between the sectors, or by write verification and remapping to spare sectors in case of write failure."

378

General Software Discussion / Re: How necessary is a software firewall?

« on: April 04, 2006, 05:22 PM »

I see the same things being written about not needing a software firewall if you use a router.  I'm not very knowledgeable in this area, so it'll be interesting to see what others have to say.

Out of curiosity, I did the port scan test at Steve Gibson's site ( www.grc.com ), both with and without ZoneAlarm running.  The results were identical - all ports stealthed except for 113 (a special case).

How about programs on your computer "phoning home" without your knowledge.  I don't think the routers prevent that, do they?

379

Living Room / Re: DonationCoder.com has gone shareware, free licenses canceled, all apps cost $100

« on: April 01, 2006, 06:37 PM »

Now I need a diaper change.

380

General Software Discussion / Re: Foxit Reader (fast pdf reader alternative)

« on: March 30, 2006, 02:34 PM »

Hm, how can I tell when FR is updated? The page always seems the same, and I haven't been able to find a "news" or "changelog" anywhere. Might just be me who's dull.

I usually see a notice on alt.comp.freeware or fileforum.betanews.com

381

General Software Discussion / Re: Favorite Text Editor, a revisit

« on: March 23, 2006, 10:03 AM »

Have used UltraEdit for the past seven years.  It still meets my needs perfectly.  And no, it's not perfect.   

382

Living Room / Re: How long will it take you to adopt Windows Vista as your OS?

« on: March 20, 2006, 06:06 AM »

Is it just me that finds these comments slightly offensive?

It does take away from my enjoyment of the forum when I come across stuff like this.

383

Living Room / Re: How long will it take you to adopt Windows Vista as your OS?

« on: March 16, 2006, 04:43 PM »

What about GEM?

From 1985 thru 1990 an Atari ST was my only home computer.  GEM seemed pretty neat at the time - I probably wouldn't want to go back.   

Loved the Atari.

384

Living Room / Re: How long will it take you to adopt Windows Vista as your OS?

« on: March 14, 2006, 09:09 PM »

I usually wait a year or two after a new Windows version comes out before upgrading.  I'm pretty happy with XP, and not in any big hurry to change.

385

Best E-mail Client / Re: Any opinions on Courier email client?

« on: March 14, 2006, 12:00 PM »

I used Calypso for a couple years, switched to Courier several months ago.  I think it's fantastic!  In particular, I like the extensive filtering capabilities and overall configurability.  It doesn't crash or do unexpected things.  The documentation improved a lot between Calypso and Courier.  There's a large Calypso group on Yahoo and a Courier forum at http://www.windowsbbs.com

I like being able to preview incoming emails in text mode.

My wife and I really enjoy using Courier.  I'd encourage you to give it a try.

386

General Software Discussion / WebBuilder - Even I Could Use It!

« on: March 13, 2006, 12:48 PM »

I know there are lots of programs out there for creating and publishing websites without coding.  I'm not sure how many of them are idiotproof, affordable, bug-free, and have incredible support from the developer.  WebBuilder meets all of these criteria.

I know very little about html or websites, but was able to create a site with no problem at all, using WebBuilder.  My wife knows even less, and her site came out very nice as well.  Judging from the message traffic on the WebBuilder forum, dozens of other people have had outstanding results.  I can't recall seeing a dissatisfied customer.

Pablo, the developer, usually responds to messages within an hour.  He's happy to give detailed instructions to help you create the effects you want.  If your site doesn't look quite right, he'll visit it and offer suggestions.  Pablo will even study your source code to help fix whatever problems you might be having.  He'll also tell you when WebBuilder can't do something.

The cost is $29.95 and there's a free trial available.  WebBuilder is available here:  http://www.wysiwygwebbuilder.com



For those of you who understand it all, here's a list of the features.

WYSIWYG Web Builder features:
• No HTML knowledge needed!
• Drag and drop objects from the toolbox on the page: Text, Lines, Images, Marquees and Tables.
• Site Management. Easily add, edit, clone and structure your web pages from a single file.
• Customizable menus, toolbars, keyboard accelerators, dockable windows, tabs, autohide windows.
• Form layout object to create forms, including actions, hidden fields etc.
• Supports Form fields: Editbox, TextArea, Checkbox, Radiobutton, Combobox and Button.
• Rich text support: text object can contain different fonts, colors, links and sizes.
• Option to add custom HTML for each object (Before Tag, Inside Tag, After Tag).
• Custom HTML object to insert your own HTML or Javascripts.
• ActiveX, JAVA, Flash, Windows Media player, Quicktime, Real Audio and other Plug-In support.
• Publish your entire web site, a single page or a group of pages (to local drive or a web server)
• Easy Photo Gallery creation.
• Build-in Banner creator.
• Rollover images.
• Customize scrollbar colors for Microsoft Internet Explorer.
• Navigation bars
• Ready-to-use Javascripts
• Template support. Already more than 100 templates available!
• Support for Cascading Style Sheet positioning (layered layout)
• Insert Symbols (special characters).
• Verify links tool.
• Rotating Image component (useful for Ad Banners).
• Support for third-party add-ons, using the Web Builder Component Developers Kit.
• Import existing HTML pages.
• Hyperlink Style Sheet, to customize the colors/formatting of hyperlinks
• Show optional rulers.
• Page transitions in Page Properties.
• Inline Frame component (IFRAME)
• Go menu: easily create a drop-down navigation menus.
• Menubar: powerful menu script that can mimic complex menus found in popular GUI applications.
• Shape object (rectangles, rounded rectangles and ellipses).
• Embedded OLE component.
• Embedded page object. This allows you to re-use objects from other pages (master page concept)
• Multi-language support. Dutch and English available

387

General Software Discussion / Free Visual Studio 2005

« on: March 10, 2006, 07:35 AM »

Following copied directly from the announcement:



Get your complimentary ASP.NET 2.0 Development Pack.
Attend three webcasts, either live or on-demand, and you’ll receive*:

    * Microsoft® Visual Studio® 2005 Standard Edition (Not for Resale)
    * Five chapters of Programming ASP.NET 2.0 Core Reference, by Dino Esposito
    * A 30-day hosting account to try out your custom Web applications
    * Microsoft Developer Security DVD with how-tos, white papers, tools, webcasts, and code samples that demonstrate how to write more secure code
    * A 50% discount on a Microsoft Certified Professional Exam so you can add your new skills to your resume
    * A voucher that allows you to buy Visual Studio 2005 Professional Edition with an MSDN® Professional Subscription at renewal pricing (a $400 savings)

Altogether, this complimentary package has an estimated value of $400.




http://www.learn2asp.net/Campaign.aspx

388

Developer's Corner / Re: Lisp IDE

« on: February 24, 2006, 07:51 AM »

Here are the limitations of the free LispWorks Personal.  If that won't do, the next step up is $1100.00 US!


Please note that the LispWorks Personal Edition, distributed free of charge, has the following intentional limitations:

    * There is a heap size limit which, if exceeded, causes the image to exit. A warning is provided when the limit is approached.
    * There is a time limit of 5 hours for each session, after which the image is exited. You are warned after 4 hours of use.
    * The functions save-image, deliver, and load-all-patches are not available.
    * Initialization files are not loaded.
    * Layered product loading is not included i.e. CLIM, KnowledgeWorks, SQL/ODBC, and CORBA are not available.

389

General Software Discussion / Re: Best Executable Compressor Programs

« on: February 21, 2006, 09:41 AM »

Hi seedling,

I (attempt?) to encrypt my demos because there's still lots of data, formulas, and code in them that cost me hundreds of hours, and I don't see any reason to make it available.

I started with Armadillo, using the most basic level of protection.  It was cracked almost immediately.  After making daily visits to the private forum for a few months to see what people were talking about, I concluded that folks were tying themselves in knots, sticking all sorts of complex code into their apps to help Armadillo keep the crackers out - and it wasn't working.  Armadillo protection was being cracked within a few days.  The lead developer quit, and it didn't feel good.  So I tried something else (EXECryptor).

I haven't personally read of EXECryptor being cracked.  Where can I read more?

My applications open and run very fast, and don't seem to use an excessive number of CPU cycles.  Customers comment favorably on the speed and don't mention their other apps slowing down.  See this screenshot - my program open with a number of different windows displayed.  CPU is 2.  Look at CounterSpy (SunProtection) if you want a real hog.

http://mrainey.frees...laneous/MEProCPU.jpg


I don't think there is a perfect answer.  I haven't seen a good reason to ditch EXECryptor myself, but do appreciate your point of view.  Whatever works for you.

390

Living Room / Re: nutrasweet and diet soda a neurotoxin - new study and article

« on: February 13, 2006, 04:48 PM »

I get my food safety info primarily from the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI).  They're an extremely skeptical outfit, and very much oriented toward consumer safeguards and truth in labeling.

This is clearly an area, like politics and religion, where people have wide differences of opinion.




http://www.cspinet.o...g/new/200502141.html

Today we're talking about Splenda, which contains the artificial sweetener sucralose. The product itself appears to be safe. Unlike sugar and high-fructose corn syrup, it is low in calories and does not promote tooth decay.



http://www.cspinet.o...orts/chemcuisine.htm

Approved in the United States in 1998, sucralose — marketed as Splenda — is used in soft drinks, baked goods, ice cream, sweetener packets, and other products. It previously had been used in Canada, Europe, and elsewhere. Sucralose is safer than saccharin, acesulfame-K, and cyclamate. The manufacturer, McNeil Nutritionals, advertises Splenda as being "made from sugar, so it tastes like sugar." That statement may be literally true, but is misleading. In fact, the sweetener is a synthetic chemical that is made by chemically reacting sugar (sucrose) with chlorine. However, just because it is synthetic does not mean it is unsafe.

391

Living Room / Re: nutrasweet and diet soda a neurotoxin - new study and article

« on: February 13, 2006, 02:32 PM »

As far as I know, everybody agrees that Splenda is safe, plus it tastes fine.  Splenda is in one of the Pepsi diet colas, and maybe some others.

392

Developer's Corner / Re: VBA (Excel) - Natural Sort Add-In

« on: February 13, 2006, 07:01 AM »

No problem downloading.

393

Living Room / Re: Coding Horror blog has become must reading for programmers

« on: January 27, 2006, 06:03 PM »

I figured you might have mentioned him before, so I searched the forum for "Spolsky" before I posted.  No hits.

There's definitely a lot of ego floating around there.  We are the best of the best of the best, etc....

394

Living Room / Re: Coding Horror blog has become must reading for programmers

« on: January 27, 2006, 02:46 PM »

Look here for lots of good reading on software design - informative and often very funny.


http://www.joelonsof...are.com/Archive.html

395

General Software Discussion / Re: Which app stays open on your desktop all day?

« on: January 26, 2006, 08:38 PM »

Directory Opus, Classic Clipboard, Courier, Firefox, UltraEdit

396

General Software Discussion / Re: software i love

« on: January 24, 2006, 06:38 AM »

I took a look but don't have time to really put WanyWord through its paces.  I personally like the interface of Search much better, where all your options are visible all the time.  It looks to me like WanyWord has a lot of power, but taking advantage of it might be a bit of a pain.

Search comes with an editor that can be configured to open the found file and go to the first find (with surrounding lines).

Does WanyWord support true regular expression searches?  I couldn't find a mention in the Help file.

He does mention his competitors - apparently Search doesn't qualify (Search32 is a different program).

397

General Software Discussion / Re: does anyone of you believe in defragmentation programs?

« on: January 23, 2006, 01:59 PM »

Some more discussions.  I don't know enough about the topic to have a strong opinion.


http://www.networkco...?articleID=170702532

"I'm still not wild about defragging. Although some server configurations benefit from the increase in data integrity, reliability and performance defragging brings, today's faster drives and large volumes don't see a huge increase in speed from defragging."


http://www.techbuild...org/recipes/59201471

"While it was true that defragmenting helped older PCs, it no longer applies. Today we have 7200-RPM (rotations per minute) hard-disk drives with improved seek and latency times; many also contain an 8-MB cache buffer. Let's not forget Windows XP's ultra-efficient NTFS (NT File System). For PCs, servers, and workstations equipped with these innovations, defragmenting no longer makes much improvement, if any, to system performance."


http://www.pcworld.c...id,86934,pg,8,00.asp

"The PC World Test Center's tests reveal that defraggers don't actually improve performance. And Steve Gibson, president of PC consulting firm Gibson Research Corporation, confirmed our findings."

"The only reason we can see to use a defragger other than Windows' own is to make scheduling easier. (Windows' Disk Defragmenter has no built-in scheduler.)"

398

General Software Discussion / Re: does anyone of you believe in defragmentation programs?

« on: January 23, 2006, 11:04 AM »

Here are some snips from an article in the February 2006 issue of Smart Computing magazine.  They were using the Windows XP defragmenter for their testing.  The general conclusion is that the benefits of defragmenting are highly variable.


"Our general system tasks included a WinXP startup, Word launch, and Adobe Photoshop 7.0 launch. When we tested Disk Defragmenter’s effects on a specific fragmented file, we used a WMV (Windows Media Video) file that was broken into about 32,000 fragments.

As the results in our chart indicate, Disk Defragmenter does improve a drive’s performance, but it seemed like only files that were fragmented tended to benefit from Disk Defragmenter. For example, our first PC (with 41% fragmentation) averaged 24.55 seconds to load WinXP, but we only shaved 0.44 seconds off the average time when Disk Defragmenter reduced the level of fragmentation to 10%. Our second PC (with 15% fragmentation) averaged 33.81 seconds to start WinXP but then slowed to a 34.49-second average after we defragmented its hard drive.

Defragmenting specific files yielded more promising results. Our fragmented WMV file, located on a 60GB partition with 49% total fragmentation, loaded in an average of 1.81 seconds before defragmentation. After we ran Disk Defragmenter, the file opened in an average of 1.09 seconds.

The help Disk Defragmenter provides can vary according to which files are fragmented.

Defragmentation affects each PC differently. Variations in hardware (primarily the CPU and memory) can yield wide-ranging results, even if both drives have identical fragmentation levels."

399

General Software Discussion / Re: does anyone of you believe in defragmentation programs?

« on: January 23, 2006, 08:34 AM »

I recently read an article in Brian Livingston's "Windows Secrets Newsletter".  It was written by Woody Leonhard, author of " Windows XP Hacks & Mods For Dummies".  He maintains that the speed of today's drives make defragging pretty much a waste of time for the vast majority of users.

He says that data recovery might be more reliable with a defragged drive, and that IT people tell him backups are faster when unfragmented.

I defrag occasionally because old habits die hard, but can't really say I notice much of a difference in performance.

400

General Software Discussion / Re: Best Executable Compressor Programs

« on: January 14, 2006, 02:41 PM »

I use EXECryptor to protect and compress ( http://www.strongbit.com ).  It will prevent reverse engineering of an executable.  According to the crackers over at http://forum.exetools.com, nobody has broken the encryption yet.  I tried using the registration key feature of EXECryptor, but it was cracked pretty quickly.  Now I just gut the demos by removing a lot of code, then encrypt them.

EXECryptor compresses a 2 meg executable down to about 450k.  I haven't heard any complaints about compatibility or speed from my customers.

If you buy it, don't waste your time asking for help from the developer.  He never answers.