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28476

N.A.N.Y. Challenge 2007 / Phorp (Phone Home Robot Pro) - v1.00.01 - December 15th, 2006

« Last post by mouser on December 15, 2006, 08:21 PM »

Phorp (Phone Home Robot Pro)
Open source for Windows/Mac/*nix/etc. Comes with precompiled Windows binary.

v1.00.04 - December 31st, 2006

• Improved testapp.exe
• Fixed bug in hash checking
• Now includes a fun optional fake windows antivirus updater tray tool

WHAT IS PHORP?

Phone Home Robot Pro (phorp) is an open source program that runs on your pc or laptop, and periodically "phones home" to a server somewhere to check if it has been stolen, and gets instructions on what to do if it has been.

There are a lot of services you can buy that perform similarly to phorp, in that they connect regularly to a central server so that you can hopefully track them down when they are stolen.

In general, phorp is different from these services in that it attempts to be extremely lightweight and minimalistic, and in that there is
 no single service you need to subscribe to.

Instead, you can use your own web servers or ftp accounts as the home page for the program to phone home to and for you to leave instructions for.

It is extremely rare for a computer to actually be stolen or lost, so rather than installing a bloated program on your pc that tries to anticipate all the possible things you might need to be able to do if your pc is stolen, phorp works by checking a server for instructions from its master (you!).  Normally there will be nothing for it to do.

But, if your pc is stolen, you would upload some programs on your server for phorp to execute.  Assuming the instructions have been
 authenticated for security to prove that you uploaded them, they will be executed by phorp silently the next time it phones home.

What programs would you have phorp execute?  Well typically a good option might be to run a remote control program that would let you connect in and observe and control the pc.  Other choices might be to install a keylogger, or a program to erase all of your sensitive data.  The choice is up to you.


Download: Here.

Read:

• Overview: Here.
• Instructions: Here.
• ToDo: Here.

NOTE: I put the 'Pro' in the program name because you have to be am IT pro to figure out how to use this program currently   I plan to make a nice easier to use gui tray util for it later.  Right now it's a pure commandline tool you have to make sure runs automatically on your own.  Special thanks to Gothic for helping me get the Linux version working and helping organize the program.

28477

General Software Discussion / Re: Warning: FireFox renders slow like a turtle in a coma

« Last post by mouser on December 15, 2006, 06:44 PM »

i couldn't agree more about new tab opening - you said it well.  opening a new tab in IE is inexplicably slow to the point of being unusable.  i also love the options in the Tab Mix Plus extension.  1000x better than IE tabs.

28478

Official Announcements / DECEMBER SOFTWARE DRAWING RESULTS - MOSTLY POSTED

« Last post by mouser on December 15, 2006, 06:29 PM »

WINNERS OF THE DECEMBER 2006 FREE SOFTWARE GIVEAWAY

A huge thanks to all of the companies who donated software for us to give away, and made very generous discounts available for our members.  The discounts are still available throughout the month if you didn't win a copy in the drawing:

• Tidy Start Menu (50% discount)
• Vista Start Menu (50% discount)
• My Life Organized (50% discount)
• Surfulater (35% discount)
• Direct Access (30% discount)
• Axialis Icon Workshop
• Real World Icon Editor
• Microangelo Toolset

More information about this month's discounts can be found here and here.


Winners of 'Tidy Start Menu' (5):

• havanamike
• algasys
• lls
• kurtisnelson
• StarChild666

Winners of 'Vista Start Menu' (5):

• mwb1100
• shhurst
• tahoe93
• jvaudrey
• The_Doomer

Winners of 'My Life Organized' (5):

• fhayes
• PastorT
• gcremeri
• mandojean
• cjkawd

Winners of 'Direct Access' (5):

• Tekzel
• mrniceguy
• woodruff
• longrun
• running

Winners of 'Axialis Icon Workshop' (5):

• nagar
• Dirhael
• Scott
• Sugar
• Softland

Winners of 'Real World Icon Editor' (3):

• bunns7
• steeladept
• quesnel

Winners of 'Microangelo Toolset' (5):

• NewKreation
• pmcg
• TucknDar
• nigelfraser
• wallee

Winners of 'Surfulater' (0):

• To be determined by Surfulater author - winners will be updated here when chosen.
  

 
All winners are now being notified by email to their forum email address.  If you haven't received an email but your name is listed above, check spam filters and forum email address, and then mail [email protected] and let us know you never got any mail.  It can take a few days for companies to send you your serial number; if a few days pass and you haven't received it - send a reminder to the company email as noted in your winning notification email, or to us by replying to the email you received or to us directly.


Curious about how we award prizes?  See https://www.donation...dex.php?topic=1684.0 for a discussion about our custom prize optimizer utility. Winning something one month reduces your chances of winning the next month, and being helpful on the forum slightly increases your chances.

28479

General Software Discussion / Re: Warning: FireFox renders slow like a turtle in a coma

« Last post by mouser on December 15, 2006, 06:16 PM »

i'm guessing its some extension i have loaded since i have so many.. basically when i load a long thread i can see the page growing longer as it renders more and more of it.. can take several seconds to load a long thread..

i'll try disabling extensions to see if i can find the culprit - ff is great about letting you easily enable and disable them thankfully.

28480

Developer's Corner / Re: Joel Spolsky's Recent Essays Opposing Simplicity

« Last post by mouser on December 15, 2006, 05:57 PM »

Someone else today on same topic:
http://ryan-technora...2/on-simplicity.html

28481

Developer's Corner / Tweebox: Simple Wiki-like System Designed for Making Simple Interactive Stories

« Last post by mouser on December 15, 2006, 05:20 PM »

Have you ever read one of those "choose your own adventure" books?  On each page you can make a choice which takes you to a different page where the story continues..  Well here's a browser-based system that lets you make web-based interactive stories like that.

Twee is a simple markup language for TiddlyWikis. It was invented when Chris spilled water on his laptop's trackpad, which knocked it out of commission temporarily, and he still wanted to work on his TiddlyWiki. It's evolved into a language for creating interactive stories.
...
The easiest way to get started with Twee is to download Tweebox below. It's a compiler for Twee files that runs right in your Web browser. It also comes with an online manual that explains step-by-step how to write a story with Twee.
...
Jonah is a format for displaying interactive stories created with Twee. Like Twinkie, it is a stripped-down version of TiddlyWiki, but it goes even further — stripping away everything except the flow of your story. It's designed to look elegant but generic enough to suit almost any story, and comes with a set of macros designed to make writing interactive stories easy.

http://gimcrackd.com/etc/src/#Twee

The best way to get a feel for this tool is to check out a sample mini-story. I like the way each chioce adds more to the bottom of the page - you really get a feel of being in an interactive story rather than hopping from page to page.


from http://ajaxian.com/

28482

N.A.N.Y. Challenge 2007 / Re: File Revision Folder

« Last post by mouser on December 15, 2006, 05:10 PM »

I did not want to keep the revisions on the thumb drive, for my own saftey.

by safety i assume you mean that the point of this was to keep the backups on a separate drive in case the current drive fails.  that makes sense.

28483

N.A.N.Y. Challenge 2007 / Re: File Revision Folder

« Last post by mouser on December 15, 2006, 01:05 PM »

great idea..
i can think of one major feature that would be nice:
let user configure where to save revisions - especially in a subdirectory of current folder - i would even prefer that much by default.

ie you run it in a directory X and all revisions are saved automatically to X\Revisions\...

28484

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: 50% off StreamingStar Software

« Last post by mouser on December 15, 2006, 12:41 PM »

well to be clear - they didnt steal my code, and i have nothing against them for copying the basic functionality of url snooper.  my only gripe was they could have been a little less obvious about it and writen their own description/help instead of copying+pasting mine 

recording streaming .mov files is quite an accomplishment if they are doing it - sounds worth checking out; i know a lot of people have expressed a desire for a program that can do that..

28485

N.A.N.Y. Challenge 2007 / Re: Fixed Run Dialog - v0.96ß - December 15, 2006

« Last post by mouser on December 15, 2006, 11:54 AM »

Ruffnekk, my suggestion is that when you have a new release, edit the first post to update it with the new release info (you can leave the past release info below it).

For an example see: https://www.donation...dex.php?topic=1096.0

28486

Screenshot Captor / Re: Commentary on ScreenshotCaptor - 2.28.01

« Last post by mouser on December 15, 2006, 11:50 AM »

rounded corner (transparency) is on my list, i will bump it to the top as i think we all want that working.

i'm not sure what the 504 error is all about - have you configured the smtp info in the same way that your mail client is set up?

28487

Living Room / Re: I wish there was some way to Encrypt my bike so it won't be stolen

« Last post by mouser on December 15, 2006, 11:36 AM »

Gothic, rofl 

28488

N.A.N.Y. Challenge 2007 / Re: Fixed Run Dialog - v0.96ß - December 15, 2006

« Last post by mouser on December 15, 2006, 05:32 AM »

very nice 

28489

N.A.N.Y. Challenge 2007 / Re: License?

« Last post by mouser on December 15, 2006, 05:29 AM »

great question.  You might notice from my apps that i am license-ignorant.
I'd love to see someone with some knowledge of open source licenses and closed-source freeware licenses posts some suggestions.

28490

UrlSnooper / Re: Sniffing, but can't smell

« Last post by mouser on December 15, 2006, 04:40 AM »

Thanks for that extra info Carol, I'm going to put a note in url snooper help file about this.

28491

Find And Run Robot / FARR Progress Report..

« Last post by mouser on December 15, 2006, 04:39 AM »

I'm finally getting back into some farr coding..

I've finished adding the "adaptive history" feature long requested by nontroppo (and well advocated for by bleak_xmas here).

I think i've also decided how to implement folder finding and keyword modifiers, at least for now, and am going to try to finish those and then release.  I think iwhen i release with these 2 major new features i will mark this as v2.

Then we can take what we've been calling v2 discussion as v3 discussion, which I think is going to require a rewrite with a new kind of interface.  The vista start menu search is going to raise the bar i think for such tools, and i think we need to come up with something special for the next version.

28492

Find And Run Robot / Re: big, warm thank you to mouser

« Last post by mouser on December 15, 2006, 04:36 AM »

Thank you jeromg - keep your eyes open in the next week or so for a big new release.

28493

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Desktop Teleporter

« Last post by mouser on December 15, 2006, 04:29 AM »

you need to add some screenshots to that web page!
and then make yourself a pad file and submit it (we still need someone to write a nice tutorial on that),
and then add a donation link so people can donate to you..

28494

Developer's Corner / Radical Transparency in Web2.0 Publishing - Then+Now / Upsides+Risks

« Last post by mouser on December 15, 2006, 04:14 AM »

Chris Anderson's Article on "The Long Tail" and book of the same name was highly influential in taling about non-mainstream markets.

In a two part essay on this blog he talks about issues in transparency and collaborative editing of web 2.0 content:

Although I'm not promising we'll do all or even most of these things, here are some first thoughts on what a truly transparent media organization would do. (Some of these are based on my experience in open-sourcing my book research on this site, which worked great. Why not apply the same lessons to a magazine?)

Read Essay

from http://www.radaronline.com/

28495

Developer's Corner / Joel Spolsky's Recent Essays Opposing Simplicity

« Last post by mouser on December 15, 2006, 03:42 AM »

These days we here a lot about keeping things simple in software, in terms of user interfaces (I tend to think of Apple as one of the proponents of this basic approach to design).

Joel Spolsky is one of the best writers about software and his two latest long essays have discussed why this approach isn't always a good idea.  He argues for elegance but against simplicity.  Well worth reading:

On Simplicty - Read here..
On Elegance - Read here..

28496

N.A.N.Y. Challenge 2007 / Re: Nudone's Current Cody Mug Design for NANY Participants

« Last post by mouser on December 15, 2006, 03:02 AM »

No wonder he fell asleep -- he forgot to drink his coffee!

28497

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: 50% off StreamingStar Software

« Last post by mouser on December 14, 2006, 11:50 PM »

Just a note, not against their software, but they sell a program URL Helper which is a notorious copy of my URL Snooper program (they even stole the text directly word for word from my help manual for URL Snooper and used it for their webpage, though they may have changed it a bit recently)... So just be cautious when buying stuff from them.

28498

Official Announcements / Re: THE N.A.N.Y. CHALLENGE - New Apps For the New Year

« Last post by mouser on December 14, 2006, 11:27 PM »

The special NANY section where coders can post beta versions before deadline is now open, but until JAN 1 it will only be accessible by NANY participants.

It also contains a preview of the Cody mug design nudone did for all participants.

SO, now is the time to formally confirm you are still participating in NANY by posting a reply here or sending me a personal message via the forum (just click the little thought balloon to the left under by name), saying you are going to be submitting something, and i will give you access to this special forum section. 

28499

N.A.N.Y. Challenge 2007 / Cody Mug for NANY Participants

« Last post by mouser on December 14, 2006, 11:22 PM »

Here's the current design for the mug that all you NANY participants will be receiving:

28500

N.A.N.Y. Challenge 2007 / SAMPLE BETA POST: MySampleApp - v1.00.01 - December 14, 2006

« Last post by mouser on December 14, 2006, 10:41 PM »

This is a sample post to show how NANY authors should post about their programs.
Start a new thread in this section, use as the title of the post this format:  MyProgramName - v1.00.01 - December 14, 2006

Then the content of the post should describe the release, then the program, and attach the lastest version as a zip file to download.
And make sure you also attach a screenshot!

When you release a new version just edit your first post and update the release info (make sure you adjust title of thread as well), then uncheck your previous attachment of your zip file, and attach the new version.

We will also be providing web space for anyone who wants to make a full web page for their program.

Example program listing:

MySampleApp - v1.00.01 - December 14, 2006

• First public release.
• No features.

WHAT IT DOES:
This program doesn't do anything, it's just a sample.

SCREENSHOT:



PREVIOUS RELEASES:
MySampleApp - v1.00.00 - December 10, 2006

• Internal release.
• No features at all.