Recent Posts

1501

General Software Discussion / Re: windows 7 beta available for free Jan 9 (!)

« Last post by Darwin on January 09, 2009, 07:21 PM »

UPDATE - I just checked and Carol is correct. This note is now featured underneath the blurb about having listened to the userbase:

Thanks for your interest in the Windows 7 Beta. The volume has been phenomenal—we're in the process of adding more servers to handle the demand. We're sorry for the delay and we'll re-post the Beta as soon as we can ensure a quality download experience.

1502

General Software Discussion / Re: windows 7 beta available for free Jan 9 (!)

« Last post by Darwin on January 09, 2009, 07:19 PM »

The blog page has now removed all reference to 'come back this afternoon'

-Carol Haynes (January 09, 2009, 06:29 PM)

Damn! That means that I've been loading a cached copy for the past hour  

1503

Living Room / Re: Do you guys have any experience with routers? because i have some questions

« Last post by Darwin on January 09, 2009, 07:16 PM »

s long as I can keep Joe Public out of my data I don't mind if he grabs a little internet action over my WiFi if that's what turns him on.

-4wd (January 09, 2009, 05:44 PM)

  Point taken! Only compelling reason to keep someone from stealing your bandwidth is that in some US states what someone does with YOUR bandwidth is your responsibility ie the onus is on you to secure your network. Failure to do so leaves you vulnerable to prosecution for any criminal activities that are conducted using your bandwidth... I am not sure what the regs are WRT this in Canada, but I have this niggling feeling that they are the same. My big "thing" with security is my data, though - someone who can get on my network is in a position to start stealing my info. Identity theft, anyone? 

Quite right about the end being nigh with WPA-2. I don't actually know why I bothered to upgrade my hardware to support it (I did, about four months ago) given that it's "cracking" is likely imminent!

1504

Living Room / Re: Do you guys have any experience with routers? because i have some questions

« Last post by Darwin on January 09, 2009, 05:00 PM »

128bit WEP, MAC filtering, non-broadcast SSID, static IPs and the SPI firewall are a lot simpler and just as good - the idea is to keep Joe Public out, you've got no hope against someone who's determined to get in.

-4wd (January 09, 2009, 04:47 PM)

Very true - and pretty much what I was getting at WRT more rural locations being less risky than urban ones... WRT WEP vs WPA-2, you're quite right as well, my point was more that if you might as well use the highest level of encryption supported by your hardware. My understanding is that WEP is pretty much useless at keeping someone out, WPA can be cracked in minutes, and WPA-2 is secure. For now.

FWIW, I use static IPs, MAC filtering, and WPA-2. I don't hide my SSID, though I keep meaning to do it. DO note, however, that the pundits do not consider this worth the time or the effort, either.

I'm with 4wd on this, though - you really want to keep Joe Q. Public from stealing bandwidth, because a determined hacker will get in now matter what you do. To that end (keeping the 12 year old in the apartment above you out of your network), any/all of these "tricks" should be applied.

1505

General Software Discussion / Re: windows 7 beta available for free Jan 9 (!)

« Last post by Darwin on January 09, 2009, 04:43 PM »

According to this Lifehacker article, the whole thing has been put on hold while MS gets its server ready to dea with demand...

1506

Living Room / Re: Do you guys have any experience with routers? because i have some questions

« Last post by Darwin on January 09, 2009, 04:37 PM »

While I am running MAC filtering on my DLink WB-1310 router, it is a waste of time, according to the pundits. If your hardware supports it, you should be running WPA-2 encryption. Can't help you with network access monitoring software, but there is probably some rudimentary functionality for this built into the router browser interface. On D-Link, the default password is nothing - ie, you leave the field blank. Try this, along with 40wd's 1234 suggestion and see how you get on.

Depending on where you live, unauthorized access to your network is not a huge risk. Of course, if you live in an apartment building or in a very urban area it is a HUGE risk... if you live, as I do, in a fairly quiet area with good sized lots, the risk is small.

1507

General Software Discussion / Re: windows 7 beta available for free Jan 9 (!)

« Last post by Darwin on January 09, 2009, 04:12 PM »

2Darwin
Previously this page offered download links with possibility to choose versions according to language and 32/64 bits.

-fenixproductions (January 09, 2009, 03:47 PM)

Ah yes, you're right I was monitoring that page myself. I was thinking that maybe the beta coming soon notice meant that they were finally ready to start rolling it out...

1508

Developer's Corner / Re: Does anyone know if there is something “very useful” in IE8?

« Last post by Darwin on January 09, 2009, 03:28 PM »

Dang! That is weird!

1509

Developer's Corner / Re: Does anyone know if there is something “very useful” in IE8?

« Last post by Darwin on January 09, 2009, 03:02 PM »

For those very few sites that don't work in FF, I guess... personally I find it pointless, and just fire up an instance of IE instead. If an IE tab in FF crashes, doesn't it bring down the entire FF process?

-f0dder (January 09, 2009, 12:10 PM)

Indeed! Try opening the Win 7 site in Firefox 3 - crashes it each and every time. If I open it in an IETab, all is well...

EDIT: fixed quote

1510

General Software Discussion / Re: windows 7 beta available for free Jan 9 (!)

« Last post by Darwin on January 09, 2009, 02:52 PM »

It looks like there is nothing on:
 http://technet.micro...center/dd353205.aspx


Either they stopped due to server problems or counter got 2.5M.

-fenixproductions (January 09, 2009, 02:42 PM)

I just checked and got:

1511

General Software Discussion / Re: windows 7 beta available for free Jan 9 (!)

« Last post by Darwin on January 09, 2009, 02:08 PM »

I thought I saw 3pm mentioned somewhere.

-Dormouse (January 09, 2009, 02:03 PM)

First I've heard of it... midnight last night was posted in quite a few places yesterday (erroneously it turns out, obviously).

Come back the afternoon of January 9

is pretty vague... I had *hoped* it meant 12 pm PST... 

1512

General Software Discussion / Re: windows 7 beta available for free Jan 9 (!)

« Last post by Darwin on January 09, 2009, 02:01 PM »

Well... noon here on the wet coast (ie in the Pacific Time Zone) and no sign of a download link on the Win 7 page... yet!

1513

General Software Discussion / Re: windows 7 beta available for free Jan 9 (!)

« Last post by Darwin on January 09, 2009, 01:26 PM »

One thing of interest to note is that a 32-bit version of the beta is available. I *thought* that Win7 wasn't going to sihp in a 32-bit flavour (or am I thinking of the next version of Server 2008?).

1514

General Software Discussion / Re: windows 7 beta available for free Jan 9 (!)

« Last post by Darwin on January 09, 2009, 12:47 PM »

At some point FF's auto refesh got me to a login page (from the download link at the page cmpm directed us to). I logged in... to a Server Busy mesage 

1515

Older Newsletters / Re: --> Special Edition Newsletter for January 9th, 2009 - Codename "NANY APPS"

« Last post by Darwin on January 09, 2009, 09:50 AM »

Thanks for taking this on, Perry, and for the roundup that you posted. I had no idea that there were so many entries and of such high quality. I would have remained blissfully ignorant without your efforts!

1516

General Software Discussion / Re: WINDOWS 7 THREAD (ongoing)

« Last post by Darwin on January 08, 2009, 09:32 PM »

Ah... thanks for that, f0dder. I'd forgotten about the DRM thing, though I was following it in the period building toward Vista's release. I'm just hoping that Windows 7 will be a reasonably priced (ie under $200 for Ultimate) upgrade. I'm very happy with Vista, but if Win7 is all that people are saying it will be, I will simply have to have it, won't I?!

1517

General Software Discussion / Re: WINDOWS 7 THREAD (ongoing)

« Last post by Darwin on January 08, 2009, 06:09 PM »

If anyone can enlighten me from a less techie (layman) standpoint, I'd appreciate.  I believe it, I just don't understand it.

-superboyac (January 08, 2009, 06:02 PM)

I neither believe nore understand it...

When I bought my current computer in August 2008 it was with every intention of downgrading it to XP or 2k (if I couldn'tt get an XP disc). I set up Vista to burn the recovery discs before downgrading and I'm still running it. I like Vista and recently upgraded from 32 bit Home Premium to 64 bit Ultimate. It's as stable (if not more?) as XP or 2k and is snappier. Of course, XP or 2k could well be "snappier" on my setup but I'm not motivated to try. The ONLY thing that annoys me is that a very expensive piece of software that I use for work will not run under Vista (though a Vista compatible version is available... for a price), but I've got several notebooks all running XP Pro and/or 2k, and they're all networked together, so this is hardly a dealbreaker...

1518

Developer's Corner / Re: Does anyone know if there is something “very useful” in IE8?

« Last post by Darwin on January 08, 2009, 12:45 PM »

Why not use one of the FF3 add-ons that adds IE rendering support to individual FF tabs?

Example: IE Tab

EDIT: clarity... I hope! And spelling 

1519

General Software Discussion / Re: windows 7 beta available for free Jan 9 (!)

« Last post by Darwin on January 08, 2009, 12:42 PM »

Good point, Lashiec - don't why I didn't think of installing it into VirtualPC... I can then use my (soon to be extraneous) 250GB drive for more practical things, such as data backup!

1520

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Powerpoint shrinker

« Last post by Darwin on January 08, 2009, 12:30 PM »

Ah well... no joy there, patteo. If this product worked, I might be tempted to £ 14.95 ($27 CDN.) for it... However, not really worth playing around with if it's going to cost me €29.95 ($49 CDN.) - I am pretty quick at optimizing the size of ppt files manually...

1521

General Software Discussion / Re: windows 7 beta available for free Jan 9 (!)

« Last post by Darwin on January 08, 2009, 12:18 PM »

 

320GB 7200 rpm Seagate 7200.3 drive... 

1522

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Powerpoint shrinker

« Last post by Darwin on January 08, 2009, 12:17 PM »

Dunno! I haven't tried mine yet. I was *just* about to delete the e-mail when I thought to check the registration number and noticed it didn't have the ##... I'll install and see what happens. Better do it right away, eh?!

1523

General Software Discussion / Re: windows 7 beta available for free Jan 9 (!)

« Last post by Darwin on January 08, 2009, 10:55 AM »

I've got Server 2008 on a spare harddrive and was swapping it with my Vista install. Since I moved from 32 bit to 64 bit Vista I haven't bothered, though... I am seriously tempted to replace Server 2008 with Win 7 beta and give it a whirl.

Actually, I await with considerable impatience, the arrival of a newer, faster harddrive (Seagate Momentus 7200.3 20GB notebook drive) so wil probably install Win 7 on my current workhorse drive and play...

1524

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Powerpoint shrinker

« Last post by Darwin on January 08, 2009, 10:40 AM »

Just to note: I did request and receive a licence yesterday but hadn't bothered installing or trying to register the software. What I DID do yesterday was click on the link in the confirmation e-mail offering me the £ 14.95 upgrade to the commercial version. It took me to a site confirming the price and asking me to enter my details for payment. I didn't bother... today that link leads to the expired offer notification page I mentioned in the above post. Looks like they're mopping up, patteo! I still think that they should offer you a discount for alerting them to this - I could easily have purchased the software yesterday but didn't. You'll have saved them a bit of lost revenue by asking them about this.

PS Does the key that you received feature a double # sign? Mine doesn't...

EDIT: I can't spell 

1525

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Powerpoint shrinker

« Last post by Darwin on January 08, 2009, 10:35 AM »

  Thanks patteo! They didn't even offer you an upgrade price to salve the wound (not, I suppose, that it's their fault, per se... but a happy customer and all that!)? I suppose that if they'd offer you the £ 14.95 upgrade (that's roughly 50% off the full price of €29.95) to the full, commercial version, it might be "OK". Note, though, that clicking on the link leads to an "Expired, time limited offer" notificaiton (just checked), so you'd have to contact Support to request this...