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22951

General Software Discussion / Re: "The browser is the new OS" ...(really?)

« Last post by mouser on June 18, 2008, 10:15 AM »

how is webware proprietary when it uses open standards like HTML and ODF, and to a lesser extent, PDF?

Do not confuse the VIEWER being open source with the backend software and data being open source.

The browser, which is the device you use to interact with the web service may be open source, but with web services this is like saying your keyboard is open source.  It tells you nothing about the software and data actually doing the computation behind the scenes.

And even though many backend web services and tools are open source (wordpress, etc.), BUT even so that doesn't tell you anything about how you can access your data when it's stored on the company services.  If you're using a web-based mail program -- your mail is all stored on their company server.  It doesn't help you that your browser may be open source, that's meaningless.  An important question is, how easy is it to get at your data and move it to another service, and are you satisfied not having complete control over your data?  I'm not saying you shouldn't be satisfied with how things are now, i'm just saying that i personally do not like it.  I want to be in control of my data.  Personally i view this as more important than the issue of open source (should we call it "Open Data"?).  I can always write a replacement program if a proprietary piece of software goes rogue.. but if i can't move my data out of a company's web server then that leaves me in a precarious situation.

22952

Older Newsletters / Re: --> Newsletter for June 13th, 2008 - Codename "Programmapalooza"

« Last post by mouser on June 18, 2008, 09:45 AM »

Thanks for the encouragement.. sometimes it can be hard to get motivated to put together the newsletters.. knowing that people like them makes it worth while.

22953

General Software Discussion / Re: TrID file identifier

« Last post by mouser on June 18, 2008, 09:32 AM »

Congratulations Mark0 on the recent round of recognition that TriId has been getting.  Mentioned today in LifeHacker (http://lifehacker.co...h-unknown-extensions) but i've seen it praised in several places recently.  Lifehacker emphasizes how nice it is to provide a probability estimate of file id -- is that a new feature? I wish the antivirus programs would follow your lead and start doing this.

22954

General Software Discussion / Re: Firefox 3 Released

« Last post by mouser on June 18, 2008, 09:28 AM »

maybe we should post firefox 3 reviews we find:
http://cybernetnews....es-firefox-3-review/ - they like it a lot

22955

Living Room / Re: Looking for help identifying hidden domain owner...

« Last post by mouser on June 18, 2008, 09:26 AM »

cthorpe's comments are smart -- if they are a business, presumably they have to accept money somehow.  as deep throat said to woodward and bernstein: follow the money.

22956

Post New Requests Here / Re: Hide menu in Start Menu

« Last post by mouser on June 18, 2008, 09:03 AM »

Skrommel is on one of his coding snack binges i see 

22957

General Software Discussion / Re: FARR in PC World's "Tips and Reviews"

« Last post by mouser on June 18, 2008, 08:53 AM »

but not too busy to keep up with.

though if this is true i'd hate to see the forums she has trouble keeping up with!

22958

Find And Run Robot / Re: Tip: Htmlviewurl works for local files too! :)

« Last post by mouser on June 18, 2008, 08:53 AM »

right now safe are:
file:// style urls
and any file contents or html contents loaded via showfile or showhtml style commands.

but i suppose i should add localhost:// and 127.0.0.1:// urls to the list of addresses considered "sage" so that local web servers can be used in the unlikely even someone is doing something strange.

22959

Find And Run Robot / Re: Small request about FARR 2 (last version)

« Last post by mouser on June 18, 2008, 08:51 AM »

Merle,

so basically you are not saying you need it to functionally behave any differently, you justmiss the brief highlighting of the result before it is launched, is that right?  It's only the brief highlighting visual feedback that you are wanting back?

22960

Find And Run Robot / Re: Am I doing something wrong?

« Last post by mouser on June 18, 2008, 08:49 AM »

david and i talked about this "bug" over email -- it's not really a bug but a design of FARR to let farr work with multiple results in an alias.  so when you type a partial alias and hit enter, it completes the alias, shows you results, and lets you choose to launch from those results. 

but what seems clear is that if an alias only has 1 result, farr needs to be smarter about launching it and showing it's details, so that this extra step isn't needed.  sometimes the power features of farr make it take longer to realize that sometimes the simplest things take more steps than they need to.

i'll try to get this added for the next release this week.

22961

General Software Discussion / Re: FARR in PC World's "Tips and Reviews"

« Last post by mouser on June 18, 2008, 08:46 AM »

maybe this thread can be deleted?

i could do that.. or we could just delete your memory of it.. whatever is better for the health of the human race. 

22962

General Software Discussion / Re: FARR in PC World's "Tips and Reviews"

« Last post by mouser on June 18, 2008, 08:44 AM »

Laura has been very kind to DC and very conscientious about her write-ups of our software. 

22963

Find And Run Robot / Re: FARR 2.07.01: IE User Agent String contains bsalsa.com and extrat User-agent

« Last post by mouser on June 18, 2008, 08:43 AM »

fixed in release updated today (june 18,2008); the new release will also clear that value if a prior version of farr set it and didn't forget it.  so no need for manual registry editing.

22964

Find And Run Robot / Re: [bug report ?] concerning result filter

« Last post by mouser on June 18, 2008, 08:38 AM »

seems like a bug to me. i'll try to reproduce and figure out what's happening.

22965

Living Room / Re: What are your favorite gadgets and gizmos?

« Last post by mouser on June 18, 2008, 07:59 AM »

 

22966

General Software Discussion / Re: Firefox 3 Released

« Last post by mouser on June 18, 2008, 01:49 AM »

I'm thinking the best strategy is to wait a couple of weeks for the situation with Extensions to settle down. What do you think?

that's my plan as well.

22967

Living Room / Re: Spore Creature Creator Released - Make Cody Creature Contest!

« Last post by mouser on June 17, 2008, 10:49 PM »

Mizraim, your creature is cute 
justice, i can definitely see the relation to cody, but i'm not sure i'd want to be alone with that creature for fear of my life. 

22968

General Software Discussion / Re: "The browser is the new OS" ...(really?)

« Last post by mouser on June 17, 2008, 10:43 PM »

I guess zaine's post makes me want to underline why i surely hope that i am right and the people who believe the browser and thin client will take over are wrong.

For me, the idea of being dependent on a corporation to host my files and my applications is something i find very unappealing.  I do not want to move to web-based applications run on some corporation's server. I'm not a huge fan of google, and i don't like this trend to hosted and ad-supported webware.

I'm looking forward to the day where we all own our own software again, but where it is as ubiquitous, cross-platform and web-enabled as current web services are, and looking forward to an end to the ad-supported web services.

One of the tricks people always accused Microsoft of employing but which is a more widespread than microsoft is called "embrace and extend (and extinguish)":

"Embrace, extend and extinguish,"[1] also known as "Embrace, extend, and exterminate,"[2] is a phrase that the U.S. Department of Justice alleged[3] was used internally by Microsoft[4] to describe their strategy for entering product categories involving widely used standards, extending those standards with proprietary capabilities, and then using those differences to disadvantage its competitors."

The trick is to lock users into using a specific product and make it hard to move away.  Well the web services have figured out this game as well, and the fact that all your data is already on their servers and not transparently available to you (for the most part) makes it even easier.  I simply do not want to be dependent on corporations to hold all my data online.  It's not that i have paranoid thoughts that they are doing bad stuff with my data, it's that i want control of my stuff.  I don't want to be dependent on some corporation's marketing strategy to decide how i can access it and whether they want to let me move my data to some other competitor's service.

22969

Finished Programs / Re: AltTab Fingertips v1.3 - 14 Jan 08

« Last post by mouser on June 17, 2008, 07:56 PM »

Ryan of Cybernetnews wrote about AltTabs Fingertips

Cool! Congratulations Justice!!

(and nice catch Phil -- always a good feeling to see people on the forum looking out for each other )

22970

Living Room / Re: Spore Creature Creator Released - Make Cody Creature Contest!

« Last post by mouser on June 17, 2008, 06:13 PM »

i guess the download is not the full version; full version of the creature creator is $10.

so i'll reimburse the first 3 cody entrants (as well as the eventual winner) for the price of it.

22971

Find And Run Robot / Re: Tip: Htmlviewurl works for local files too! :)

« Last post by mouser on June 17, 2008, 05:51 PM »

nod5, it's a bug, it should allow it since it is in a local file. will fix in update for this week.

22972

Find And Run Robot / Re: FARR 2.07.01: IE User Agent String contains bsalsa.com and extrat User-agent

« Last post by mouser on June 17, 2008, 05:06 PM »

it's really an inexcusably and unusually poor decision by the authors of the embedded web browser components.

instructions on this thread: http://www.bsalsa.co...showthread.php?t=686

say that to reset it back to default you should just delete the registry values for:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\User Agent\Post Platform

22973

Find And Run Robot / Re: FARR 2.07.01: IE User Agent String contains bsalsa.com and extrat User-agent

« Last post by mouser on June 17, 2008, 05:02 PM »

you are right. i will fix for next release this week.

22974

Find And Run Robot / Re: FARR 2.07.01: IE User Agent String contains bsalsa.com and extrat User-agent

« Last post by mouser on June 17, 2008, 04:28 PM »

Is this thing the new embedded browser mentioned in the latest release of FARR?

yep.
i'm not doing it on purpose, and it should reset to default when you start up the real Internet Explorer.
i'm trying to get it to stop doing this (temporary) change, as it is annoying. actually i thought i had already removed it but i guess not?

can you guys try the latest and see if it still happens? https://www.donation...AndRunRobotSetup.exe

22975

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Let's Bundle Our Orders For Software995 Toolset

« Last post by mouser on June 17, 2008, 10:33 AM »

Before you make the final purchase, you might contact them and ask if they might be willing to make the bulk price-per-order discount available to dc members as a whole.  They'd still get the guaranteed purchases from you guys, plus a few more.