Recent Posts

1551

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows Security Essentials

« Last post by Innuendo on October 12, 2009, 11:52 AM »

We really need more detail about how much of what was being scanned before deciding if 60hrs is too long.

-Stoic Joker (October 11, 2009, 07:02 PM)

I don't think we need more detail about what was being scanned as what were the run times of all other scanners, i.e. if every other scanner can do it in 13 hours or less (number pulled out of my butt), but MSE takes 60 hours then there's a problem. If, however, every other scanner takes 50-55 hours (pulled those numbers out from next to the other one) then I wouldn't think MSE's results would be excessive.

A more specific example would be comparing MSE's scan time to someone like Kaspersky. Kaspersky is one of the most thorough scanners in the business able to scan inside most archive files and if Kaspersky can scan the same files in a significantly shorter time then MSE's scanner is flawed.

Now, having said all that, MSE is effectively a v1.0 product. There are going to be lots of rough edges and maybe even a serious flaw or two, but everything should get smoothed out over time.

1552

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows Security Essentials

« Last post by Innuendo on October 12, 2009, 11:46 AM »

Depends if it resumes where it left off after a reboot.

-Carol Haynes (October 11, 2009, 11:36 AM)

And does it? I'm really asking a genuine question as I don't use MSE.

1553

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows vs. Mac: I'm starting to change.

« Last post by Innuendo on October 12, 2009, 11:44 AM »

In my view, no OS is really better than the other. Although using Windows may skew my opinion somewhat in its favour, I think that each OS has its strengths and its weaknesses, and, in the end, all of them are average.

-Lashiec (October 11, 2009, 05:22 PM)

Your view is correct. No OS is really better than the other when you look at the overall picture. Each OS has its advantages and disadvantages. However, Apple's commercials conveniently leave that part out. As a matter of fact, Apple's commercials leave out a LOT about OS X. Next time you see a Mac commercial pay close attention to what is said. Over 90% of the commercial is spent talking about Windows PCs and what Windows PCs do wrong. Very little is said about OS X's capabilities & after all these commercials we have yet to see a single screenshot of OS X or a list of what it can do. Why don't they show a person *using* a Mac and OS X to convince you to buy rather than just slam, insult, and sling mud at the competition?

Compare that to the commercial Microsoft has out right now for Windows 7. They show a little girl using Windows & making pretty cool multimedia presentations. I think the average person will see that and think, "Wow...so simple a child can do it" and probably just as importantly, what is conspicuously absent from their commercials? Insulting the competition. Microsoft? Taking the higher ground? Somebody's sized Satan for ice skates, for sure!

For those contemplating moving to a Mac don't let the Mac commercials influence your decision at all. The only information they impart is how Apple feels about Windows PCs and Microsoft. I think we all could guess what was on Apple's mind regarding that subject without the need for a multi-million dollar ad campaign.

OS X crashes just as much as Windows. There are just as many mysterious, "unfixable" problems on a Mac as there are on a Windows PC. If you want to switch because you like the way the OS works on a Mac better then great. Go forth and enjoy it. If you want to switch because you want a more reliable computer you may be disappointed.

1554

General Software Discussion / Re: Win7: Anyone else getting excited?

« Last post by Innuendo on October 12, 2009, 11:27 AM »

Looks like HP has gone to a tech job security program.  Like the hindrances are designed to discourage the owner of the box from opening it.

-MilesAhead (October 11, 2009, 01:37 PM)

Like most computer tech companies HP is always actively exploring ways to design their products so that any add-ons a person buys for their HP PC they have to buy it from them. Companies have been doing it since the beginning with their laptops and to a large extent the inside components of their desktop PCs (like proprietary PSUs and motherboards). I'm  surprised it's taken so long to implement this design philosophy in regards to external addons for desktop PCs as well.

1555

General Software Discussion / Re: Win7: Anyone else getting excited?

« Last post by Innuendo on October 12, 2009, 11:23 AM »

Isn't that pretty much what I said?

-Carol Haynes (October 11, 2009, 11:35 AM)

With all due respect, Carol, but no, it isn't.

You described the situation as things stand now. I just merely expounded upon your words and gave the reason why the situation is the way it is.

Sorry if I gave the impression of stepping on your toes. That wasn't my intent. I'm asked all the time about eSATA ports and why they don't work the way they were designed to work and I thought I'd explain that reason here in case anyone was curious.

1556

General Software Discussion / Re: Win7: Anyone else getting excited?

« Last post by Innuendo on October 11, 2009, 10:37 AM »

Whilst an eSATA dock would be very nice the majority of people would find a portable USB drive far more useful as every computer can use USB drives whereas relatively few computers have eSATA interfaces - and those that do (like one of my desktops) aren't brilliant at hot swapping drives.

-Carol Haynes (October 11, 2009, 04:24 AM)

No, they are not 'brilliant' by any stretch of the word. Your SATA drivers have to be aware of eSATA's hot-swap capability (a lot of driver versions aren't), your SATA controllers must be in AHCI mode (which most computers and motherboards ship with that setting disabled), if you run Windows your OS must have been installed with the option turned on or be prepared for much registry hijinx, and finally not all versions of available operating systems out there support it.

Contrast that with the USB way of just plug and go no matter how your hardware & software is set up and you'll see why most vendors stick with USB interfaces.

1557

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows Security Essentials

« Last post by Innuendo on October 11, 2009, 10:31 AM »

The scan time thing is by design. The intent being that the computer is still usable during the scan (which does take awhile...), instead of being completely crippled for a few hours like most of the main stream AV suites out there.

-Stoic Joker (October 11, 2009, 07:40 AM)

If that's by design then it should state that fact plainly before the operation starts. It's only polite behavior for a program to inform me of how long something is going to take if it is going to take over two and a half days (that's 60 hours) to complete.

Most people under normal circumstances will turn off the AV antics so they can get on with their lives.

And most people under normal circumstances upon starting an AV scan that informs them that the operation is going to take anywhere from 24 to 60 hours are going to quickly abort it so they can get on their lives. A scan time that long would definitely be what you would call an "AV antic" in my book. A lot of people don't leave their computers on 24/7 and anything over 8 hours is pushing it. Any of these people running MSE will never complete a full computer scan.

1558

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows Security Essentials

« Last post by Innuendo on October 11, 2009, 10:20 AM »

Not sure if it was something in the settings, but it only showed a partial list and went and took automatic action on a number of files that wasn't in the list, some of them being deleted and not quarantined, others being "cleaned" so there would be some difficulty in restoring them if you didn't have a backup.

-app103 (October 10, 2009, 10:37 PM)

Unacceptable behavior. Every file that the scanner wishes to 'fix' should be in a complete itemized list with a level of user interaction that lets me decide what to do with the file. This behavior of "automatic action" on their part results in the behavior of "automatic recommend against using" on my part.

The other thing that bothered me was how it listed what it found. It did it in groups according to they type of malware found in the file and there was only an option to take action on the entire group and not individual files.

Again, unacceptable behavior. I have files that most scanners find to be "evil" to one degree or another that I want to keep & if I wish to keep them that behavior shouldn't result in my having to keep software I would rather be cleansed.

Considering this experience, I will be returning to using Avira. Maybe I'll try MSE again in a few years when it's faster and asks permission before deleting/cleaning anything.

MS is obviously tailoring this effort towards people with little or no computer knowledge who have no desire to change that.

1559

General Software Discussion / Re: Win7: Anyone else getting excited?

« Last post by Innuendo on October 10, 2009, 09:17 PM »

I'm not into building systems so I generally get an HP since it's pretty good price/performance for what you can get at BestBuy(and I can return it in a few minutes if it's a lemon.)

-MilesAhead (October 10, 2009, 05:56 PM)

Most people's needs are served perfectly fine by Dells, HPs, Acers, etc. Custom-built PCs anymore are only for people who have specific needs (like gamers) or people who want the satisfaction of choosing every component and putting it all together themselves. For the rest of the world, just getting something from Dell or HP can save a ton of money.

Also disappointing is none of the otherwise pretty good deals seem to have Esata.  I hate opening boxes just to stick some card in that should already be there.

Esata has been disappointing all around. It just hasn't been taking off in popularity. Not a lot of motherboards come with that functionality.

1560

General Software Discussion / Re: Win7: Anyone else getting excited?

« Last post by Innuendo on October 10, 2009, 05:32 PM »

I realize now that I should have tried repairing my Vista installation to correct these issues. Live and learn) 

-Darwin (October 10, 2009, 10:45 AM)

Why repair today what Microsoft can repair for you tomorrow? 

1561

Living Room / Re: Best Laptop Input Device?

« Last post by Innuendo on October 10, 2009, 05:30 PM »

Oh wow! Thanks for the link,  Innuendo!

hmm.. wonder how the trackball is.. 

-Cloq (October 10, 2009, 04:54 PM)

I've never used one, but I would imagine that it would be high quality. If you are not familiar with Unicomp, they are the company that used to be the keyboard division of Lexmark which used to be the keyboard division of IBM.

1562

General Software Discussion / Re: Win7: Anyone else getting excited?

« Last post by Innuendo on October 10, 2009, 10:39 AM »

I heard that an upgrade to Win7 from Vista takes about 3.5 hours, but a clean install takes only about 20 minutes.

-Deozaan (October 05, 2009, 02:02 PM)

How long an upgrade takes is totally dependent on how much stuff you have installed on the OS you are upgrading. The Windows 7 upgrade installer examines the registry, backs up everything that isn't in a stock install, examines your installed apps, backs up everything that isn't in a stock install, installs a fresh copy of Windows 7, and then finally restores everything that it backed up from the registry & apps.

It can be a very time-consuming process, but I have performed a lot of upgrade installs during the beta cycle and so long as you uninstall first anything the Windows upgrade installer tells you to, chances are you're almost always going to have a 100% working system. I'd do an upgrade install, test things, and then wipe the drive and install everything fresh just to compare & I never once saw a difference in how anything behaved. MS finally got it right.

Old upgrade installers from MS just laid the new OS blindly over the top of the old one without much regard for the repurcussions. Windows 7's upgrade installer takes the time to analyze things and make things work the way they should, i.e. the upgrade installer finally after 20+ years works the way it should have in the first place.

1563

Living Room / Re: Best Laptop Input Device?

« Last post by Innuendo on October 08, 2009, 10:21 PM »

I would recommend a portable clip-on trackball. It seems clip-on trackballs have gone the way of the dodo (in the States that is).

-Cloq (October 08, 2009, 08:10 PM)

You can always buy a keyboard with an integrated trackball.

http://pckeyboards.s....yahoo.net/on10.html

1564

General Software Discussion / Re: Directory Opus 9

« Last post by Innuendo on October 08, 2009, 03:23 PM »

Got excited, but it ended there without an explanation of how to do it. I have the "Drives" toolbar, and I have messed around a bit, but can't find anything to get the right click on a drive button to open it in the right lister. Always brings up a context menu. Left click on a drive button will open that drive on whatever lister is focused.

-Lefax32 (October 08, 2009, 01:58 PM)

Directory Opus comes with a mountain of documentation, but unfortunately, Directory Opus comes with TWO mountains of functionality & the included documentation leaves a person wanting for more information sometimes than what is available at the author's web site.

I cannot help you with your problem directly as I am not a Directory Opus user, but there is a fine user support forum supported by other users that was started way back in the day to help with lapses in documentation such as this.

http://resource.dopus.com/

I am sure if you search over there in that forum your question is most likely already answered & you'll probably learn a lot of tips and tricks along the way.

1565

General Software Discussion / Enhance Winamp & Foobar 2000 functionality when running on Windows 7

« Last post by Innuendo on October 08, 2009, 03:14 PM »

Windows 7 is bringing a lot of new taskbar functionality to the table such as Jump Lists and progress dialogs being visible on taskbar icon backgrounds. Fortunately, thanks to two new plugins for Winamp and Foobar 2000 you don't have to wait for your favorite media player to release a new version to take advantage of some/all of this new functionality now.

Foobar 2000:

Homepage

Winamp:

Homepage

1566

General Software Discussion / Re: The quiet disappearance of the top two mp3 cataloging software.

« Last post by Innuendo on October 05, 2009, 08:59 PM »

I've always been curious about how people organize their classical music with both folder/file names, and id3 tags.  I've come across a couple of good methods on the web, but nothing that I've wanted to commit to.

-superboyac (October 05, 2009, 10:09 AM)

I'm afraid after you're done reading my drivel you'll still be curious about how people organize their classical music as I don't have much of that kind of music, but I can see how it could quickly become an ordeal trying to organize what with conductors, orchestras, composers, venues, etc.

1567

General Software Discussion / Re: I'm tired of being told.

« Last post by Innuendo on October 05, 2009, 08:46 PM »

Ouch. I think my jealousy impaired my brain function, mate.

-sajman99 (October 05, 2009, 10:47 AM)

Laugh...I just thought it was funny and couldn't resist teasing you. I have a relative is still on dial-up and whenever I have to go over to his house internet access is just excruciating.

1568

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows Security Essentials

« Last post by Innuendo on October 05, 2009, 08:44 PM »

I was just listening to a podcast by Leo LaPorte & Paul Thurrott earlier & they stated that while MSE has very good virus signatures it lacks any heuristic ability whatsoever. Heuristics, for those that aren't aware, is the part of the program that detects the bad stuff before the signatures get written. Without heuristics one is left vulnerable to 0-day exploits while waiting for a signature for a threat to be included in the daily download.

1569

General Software Discussion / Re: BlueScreenView by NirSoft - find driver causing blue screen

« Last post by Innuendo on October 05, 2009, 08:17 PM »

Seriously. Do they really need to issue new drivers as frequently as they are wont to do? I'm not a big fan of the 'perpetual beta' philosophy when it comes to software I pay for.

-40hz (October 05, 2009, 12:06 PM)

Sorry, but I'm an upgrade junkie. The more releases the better as far as I'm concerned.

1570

General Software Discussion / Re: I'm tired of being told.

« Last post by Innuendo on October 05, 2009, 10:32 AM »

I wish I could brag about my incredible connection too, but 'nuff said about that.

-sajman99 (October 04, 2009, 07:23 PM)

Fair enough.

Regardless, "holy crap" remains my mantra because I'm unlucky enough to not have a 10 meg connection.

Good job...resisted saying something about your connection for all of three sentences. 

1571

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows vs. Mac: I'm starting to change.

« Last post by Innuendo on October 05, 2009, 10:27 AM »

I know you're kidding, but people say it 9even if they know better, like me) just because it's a phrase that will be generally understood.  Just like the words "kleenex" or "xerox".  

-superboyac (October 05, 2009, 10:15 AM)

Yes...I say it although I know better, but because of all those Mac commercials it's what people know and understand because that's a distinction in definitions that Apple itself came up with...which is fine with me. Modern Macs these days seem more and more like computing appliances than personal computers. I can imagine a day when there'll be a sticker on the bottom of all Macs that states "No user-serviceable parts inside".

1572

General Software Discussion / Re: Any freeware alternatives to Faststone MaxView?

« Last post by Innuendo on October 05, 2009, 10:21 AM »

$30 but FREE 'today' only: http://www.giveawayo...m/fastpictureviewer/

It really is FAST 

-Curt (October 05, 2009, 05:56 AM)

Just what I need...another picture viewer.

But...but...it's free!

:: sigh ::  :: heads off to download ::

1573

General Software Discussion / Re: BlueScreenView by NirSoft - find driver causing blue screen

« Last post by Innuendo on October 05, 2009, 10:17 AM »

cmedia is here:
http://www.cmedia.com.tw/drivers.html

[edit] added corrected the version number
[edit2] there doesnt appear to be a more recent version, I presume it's related to the Realtek soundcard, which hasnt had any updates since I installed the already old driver from cd that came with it (2 years ago now I think..)

-tomos (October 04, 2009, 02:27 PM)

I'm a little confused, Tomos. You say there are CMedia audio drivers installed on your system, but keep saying you have a Realtek soundcard. Those are two different companies & a Realtek soundcard isn't going to use CMedia drivers.

Both companies, however, do most of their business with OEM manufacturers and due to agreements they have with PC and motherboard manufacturers some drivers for some soundcards never appear on the Realtek & CMedia sites. In these cases you have to go to the site of your computer or motherboard maker and download the drivers from there.

1574

General Software Discussion / Re: BlueScreenView by NirSoft - find driver causing blue screen

« Last post by Innuendo on October 05, 2009, 10:10 AM »

I've had numerous problems with RealTek High Definition Audio drivers at various times.

-40hz (October 04, 2009, 02:02 PM)

The good thing about Realtek is that they seem to take their audio drivers seriously. They are always releasing new driver versions so they seem to be serious about stomping bugs. If one driver version gives you a problem rest assured in a month or so there'll be a new version to try.

I wish other sound card manufacturers were so diligent in their releases.

1575

General Software Discussion / Re: The quiet disappearance of the top two mp3 cataloging software.

« Last post by Innuendo on October 05, 2009, 10:06 AM »

All right, you two...I'll work on writing something up. It'll be a while, though as I stopped after two sentences thinking to myself, "This is going to be way too long!".

And maybe, just maybe...by the time I've written it all up my journey will be over because as I write this I'm still searching for some answers to a couple questions. It's going to be more OpEd rather than HowTo, but I'm going to be covering my decision process step by step so people will at least get some information to make their own decisions.