Recent Posts

301

Living Room / Re: Apple Rejecting Apps That Use Dropbox

« Last post by eleman on May 02, 2012, 05:20 PM »

Uh, don't take me as a fanboi, I wouldn't be caught dead owning an Apple product.

But I don't believe that Apple's policies constitute violations of anti-trust laws, because, as I said, there is a viable competition. Consumers have the very real and reasonable option of telling Apple "go forth and multiply".

What I'd concede, however, is that jailbreaking is technically a crime (violation of DMCA). That twists the concept of ownership.

So, if I were a US citizen, I'd be demanding the government to fix the intellectual property rights regime for good, instead of interfering in a single firm's policies. The disease is more deep-rooted. Focusing on symptoms won't do much good in the long run.

302

Living Room / Re: Apple Rejecting Apps That Use Dropbox

« Last post by eleman on May 02, 2012, 05:08 PM »

But there is a viable competition.
Apple has a dominant market position in only the market for "Apple products". Not in smartphones, not in laptops, not in desktops, and given market trends, not in tablets (at least not for long).
Do you really want government to intervene because Apple has a monopoly in producing iphones or ipads?
Apple is no more dominant in any product category than General Motors is dominant in cars.
But General Motors has a dominant market position in making Cadillacs. Should government intervene to foster competition?

303

Living Room / Re: Apple Rejecting Apps That Use Dropbox

« Last post by eleman on May 02, 2012, 04:44 PM »

Mine may be a technically ignorant rant but I don't see how Apple has a dominant position in any market. (OK, yes maybe in the tablets market, but it should be eroding fast, now that competition is really churning out android tablets).

Asking government intervene on Apple's policies is like saying "Daddy, Mike won't let me play with his ball."

The better (and more dignified) stance would be telling Apple (or Mike for that matter), take the gadget (or the ball), and use it for a "thoroughly personal" function.

There are other gadgets (and balls) you know.

304

General Software Discussion / Re: antivirus' negative impact on read/write/copy etc file speed

« Last post by eleman on April 30, 2012, 07:38 AM »

Check the secret message under the comic.

305

General Software Discussion / Re: free antivirus

« Last post by eleman on April 28, 2012, 05:43 PM »

or just use the VirusTotal Uploader

-Mark0 (April 28, 2012, 05:27 PM)

Here's a quick autohotkey script that makes virustotal uploader even more simple:

[Select]

^!v::  ; hotkey to call upload to virustotal.com function (ctrl-alt-v)
; virustotal uploader must be installed at "C:\Program Files\VirusTotalUploader2\VirusTotalUpload2.exe"
{
VirusFile := % gst()   ; assign full path of the selected file to a variable

Run, C:\Program Files\VirusTotalUploader2\VirusTotalUpload2.exe "%VirusFile%"
}
Return


gst() {   ; GetSelectedText or FilePath in Windows Explorer by Learning one
   IsClipEmpty := (Clipboard = "") ? 1 : 0
   if !IsClipEmpty {
      ClipboardBackup := ClipboardAll
      While !(Clipboard = "") {
         Clipboard =
         Sleep, 10
      }
   }
   Send, ^c
   ClipWait, 0.1
   ToReturn := Clipboard, Clipboard := ClipboardBackup
   if !IsClipEmpty
   ClipWait, 0.5, 1
   Return ToReturn
}
Return

press ctrl-alt-v with the file selected in windows explorer, and voila!
Here's the compiled script - 199.6 Kb

btw, virustotal uploader must be installed at "C:\Program Files\VirusTotalUploader2\VirusTotalUpload2.exe"

p.s.: I got the gst() function from someone else's script. I don't remember whom or where though.

306

General Software Discussion / Re: free antivirus

« Last post by eleman on April 28, 2012, 10:17 AM »

Free antivirus applications get less signature updates and (mostly) lack good heuristics. The first point is the worse.

-Tuxman (April 28, 2012, 10:07 AM)

I really hate going down the route of opposing all claims made by someone, and I really hate to be rude. But, in turn, please don't make unsubstantiated claims.

Nothing in the source you referred to claims that paid antivirus is in any way better than free ones, and certainly no reference to less signature updates and worse heuristics.
The report for 2011 seems to choose Kaspersky as the best of the bunch, but free ones also had very good scores, and in 2008, it seems Avira, a free solution, was the recipient of the same award.

I respectfully implore you to write a teeny bit more thought of and substantiated claims than a tea party supporter.

307

General Software Discussion / Re: free antivirus

« Last post by eleman on April 28, 2012, 10:03 AM »

There is.

-Tuxman (April 28, 2012, 09:56 AM)

Can't really see a statistically significant difference between avast, avg, avira (i.e. the adware brethren) and mcafee, panda, kaspersky etc. (i.e. the scareware bunch). Can you?

308

General Software Discussion / Re: free antivirus

« Last post by eleman on April 28, 2012, 09:54 AM »

Why do you want to save money on computer security? I'd bet paying for a good anti-virus solution will save you more money later.

-Tuxman (April 28, 2012, 09:38 AM)

If only there was a way to know that paid antivirus is better than free antivirus.

309

General Software Discussion / Re: Script to sort your Gmail messages by size using Google docs

« Last post by eleman on April 25, 2012, 11:27 AM »

BTW, google seems to increase gmail quotas from 7.5 to 10 GB, simultaneously with the google drive launch.

310

General Software Discussion / Re: Script to sort your Gmail messages by size using Google docs

« Last post by eleman on April 19, 2012, 06:32 PM »

weehaa... muchos fantasticos

Thanks a ton, wifey managed to fill her gmail account. This will make clean-up much easier.

311

General Software Discussion / Re: Auto click

« Last post by eleman on April 18, 2012, 06:01 AM »

Nope, it's not easy

I don't want to be active on that tab. I just want the tab remain open, but not be focused. So it's really more complicated than it seems.

Anyway, the solution to your problem may be the key to mine.

312

General Software Discussion / Re: Auto click

« Last post by eleman on April 18, 2012, 05:47 AM »

Nope, that's not my issue. I'll logon manually once in the morning. I want it to remain open afterwards. But the security crazed bankers don't allow the page to remain open if I don't click somewhere on the page every once in a while.

313

General Software Discussion / Re: Auto click

« Last post by eleman on April 18, 2012, 05:03 AM »

Don't be too harsh on yourself.

There is AutoScriptWriter included in AHK, you can try it without getting too intimate with the syntax.

Anyway, I am also looking for a solution to a problem similar to the one you described:

I would like to open my online banking page, and have it remain open. Bank IT staff being as always cautious for the most idiot in the pack, use JS to enforce some kind of timeout for the page. If only I had some way to automatically click on a link (i.e. check account balance) once every 5 minutes, I'd be able to overcome the timeout.

The fact is that I am not clever enough to write greasemonkey scripts 

314

Living Room / Re: MakeUseOf just lauded three (3) NANY 2012 products ...

« Last post by eleman on April 10, 2012, 04:52 AM »

Forgot the link in the bliss of ego massage? 

315

Living Room / Re: Xvid Video converter for Windows 7 x64 - any ideas?

« Last post by eleman on April 09, 2012, 08:05 AM »

Sorry but I am not going to dump a less than 1 year old BD home cinema system

-Carol Haynes (April 09, 2012, 07:57 AM)

Uh, I thought the new system was really new (i.e. one week old or so) so that you could give it back and get another one.

316

Living Room / Re: Xvid Video converter for Windows 7 x64 - any ideas?

« Last post by eleman on April 09, 2012, 06:20 AM »

Sorry in advance for taking your time with something other than the solution, but...

I wish you rather considered replacing the new unit with one playing all formats you require, rather than converting the files you have. You know, every conversion takes something away quality-wise.

As to your question: WinFF

317

General Software Discussion / Re: Text replacement app for Windows?

« Last post by eleman on April 09, 2012, 02:44 AM »

I also like breevy. It is also very handy in fixing common typos.
It also can go on with a single beep, instead of bugging the user with a pop-up.
Also I use the word also too much.

318

Living Room / Re: JustCloud.com: It's All Lies

« Last post by eleman on March 28, 2012, 06:07 AM »

Oh, how I yearn for the day people will finally get bored of cloud solutions.

Yeah, I know, mine is a useless comment 

319

General Software Discussion / Re: looking for a replacement for miranda

« Last post by eleman on March 10, 2012, 10:58 AM »

Pidgin?

-Ath (March 10, 2012, 10:50 AM)

I'd rather not use a software that requires a library set imported from another OS (i.e. gtk).
By definition, the lightweight gui requirement is not met.

Thanks for the suggestion though.

320

General Software Discussion / looking for a replacement for miranda

« Last post by eleman on March 10, 2012, 10:00 AM »

I use miranda to cater my MSN and GoogleTalk needs. But I must have been getting old, for day by day, the gazillions of options miranda offers look more of annoyances, rather than amusing capabilities and potential. Add on top the new version notifications received each week, and you have a not so happy user.

I know I can turn off new version notifications, but what if there comes an important security bug fix? I wouldn't want to miss it. But instead, the software annoys me each week about a trivial fix regarding gadu gadu, or something with emoticons in ICQ or so.

Anyway, lately miranda began to interfere with alt-tab functioning on my windows. Perhaps it is fixable with some kind of option hidden deep down somewhere. But I no longer have the energy to try.

So I'm shopping for a miranda replacement.

I just want two things:
1. basic googletalk and msn support (no video chat, no file transfer, just plain and simple 15 years old functionality, though I won't refuse a quality software just because it offers a couple of extra features)
2. a lightweight gui

lack of mirandesque maze of options would be a plus.

What would you recommend?

321

General Software Discussion / Re: Excel and third-party clipboard managers

« Last post by eleman on March 08, 2012, 01:14 PM »

I have no idea why you experience the problem, but here's my data on the matter, it may help you in the troubleshooting department:

clipx+excel from office 2003

no problems at all.

322

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows Desktop ---> web-page

« Last post by eleman on March 08, 2012, 07:44 AM »

It was called active desktop sometime in the late nineties I suppose

323

General Software Discussion / Re: move all files from all subfolders of a folder into one single folder

« Last post by eleman on March 06, 2012, 08:08 AM »

Search for * in the top folder of all sub-folders. Select all files retrieved in the search results. Cut them. Then paste them to your target folder.

You may want your search settings to look like the following:

324

General Software Discussion / Re: No more native Flash for Linux

« Last post by eleman on February 24, 2012, 10:03 AM »

Yeah, as if original flash is not buggy enough, let's all head for open source alternatives

325

General Software Discussion / Re: No more native Flash for Linux

« Last post by eleman on February 22, 2012, 02:30 PM »

One can only say good riddance about the demise of flash. I'm not sure if anyone will miss it.