Recent Posts

3401

Living Room / Re: What to do when you receive bootleg videos?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on May 17, 2008, 02:44 PM »

Yes - I managed to get the PayPal reps. name and employee number. I noted the call time/date and content of the response.

3402

Living Room / Re: Pirating abandoned content?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on May 17, 2008, 06:30 AM »

In the UK they often force academics (and many other professions) to not take part in 'other paid work'. Whether that would include academic writing I very much doubt but I am sure that UK universities would take a very dim view of lecturers extorting their students to the point of failing them if they don't purchase a brand new copy of their book.

I certainly had lecturers at university that based courses on texts they had written but you were free to take the course using your own lecture notes, other books or their books (and there were plenty of second/third and fourth hand copies knocking around in a variety dog-eared and other defaced states).

3403

Living Room / Re: What to do when you receive bootleg videos?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on May 17, 2008, 05:24 AM »

Followed this up with an email to the seller:

I am afraid I have had no choice but to leave negative feedback. You cannot argue that I have not tried to resolve this situation amicably and followed the correct procedures. I have already informed PayPal and eBay that I refuse to pay for a trackable delivery to return the illegal bootleg tapes to you. Why should I spend money to return illegal tapes to you? If you want the tapes back I am quite prepared to send them to you at your own expense (send me a large padded envelope with sufficient postage) and once the full refund is made I will put the tapes in the post to you. If I don't get a full refund on this basis I am going to take the tapes to the police with your address details and also report the incident to Trading Standards. It's up to you now but I refuse to be ripped off in this way. This is in no way a threat - this is a simple statement of what I am and am not prepared to put up with.

and got the following reply by return:

the simple fact is buyers a resonpsible for return costs if you do not return them within the deadline given you will lose all your money not something i want to happen to you but it will, as paypal will decide in my favour

this week has put me off ebay for good and im closing my account when my cuirrent listings run out

which somewhat shows the respect for PayPal and eBay she has! Presumably she will close her account and open another to carry on as usual (given that she now has three VERY negative feedbacks).

What she doesn't know is that I just telephoned PayPal and they have assured me that telling me to return the items was an error on their part and that they never expect fraudulent items to be returned. I apparently have to supply some form of verification that they are counterfeit and that the items have been destroyed. Looks like the cop shop after all to get some form of written confirmation. If I am feeling generous I will take her address along with me

3404

Living Room / Re: What to do when you receive bootleg videos?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on May 16, 2008, 11:42 PM »

Here is an update ...

I am so thoroughly pissed off that I thought I would post the correspondence so far from eBay so you can see how inept, illiterate and stupid they are:

My complaint on 15th May

I wish to report this order to you as I received bootleg VHS video copies from the seller. She is listing more copies of fake videos on eBay currently (including more copies of the rare tapes I ordered). I ordered in good faith as at the time she had a 100% positive feedback - however another user has since also reported counterfeit goods.

I feel very strongly that this sort of video piracy should be stopped on eBay and there are two issues I would like to raise before I consider returning the items:

1) If I send them back to the seller I no longer have any proof that they are counterfeit (and neither will eBay or PayPal) - it is simply my word against hers.

2) Why should I incur the costs of posting 3 VHS videos that are illegal copies in order to claim a refund under that PayPal guarantee scheme. Surely this policy is in place to resolve less 'cut and dry' issues?

Can you please advise me what to do now ?

I have already made a claim under the PayPal guarantee system (Case ID: XXXXXXX) but the seller is insisting I return the tapes to her at my own expense before she will issue a refund. PayPal have now sent me an email confirming the seller's wishes. However I don't see why I should PAY to send ILLEGAL goods back to the seller. Really I should be taking them to the nearest police station.

The response from PayPal doesn't really address any of the issues raised here.

eBay Response 16th May

Hello,

Thank you for your email regarding the Dear John VHS (item 290227322246)
you purchased from "yesiwon2". I understand you have already sent the
item back since you found out that it was a fake copy.

I'm sorry to hear this transaction is causing you much worries and
inconvenience. As an eBay member myself, I understand how you feel as
you tried to purchase this item in good faith and some problem came
along.

To assist you on this matter, I immediately checked our system and I see
that this listing ended on May 06, 2008, with a winning bid of £28.99
plus £3.20 postage fee.

I realise you would like to know what course of action you should take
now regarding this situation.

Please be informed that in situation such as this, we highly recommend
for both parties to communicate and try to come up with an agreement on
how the both of you could resolve the issue at hand. The best way to do
this is by directly calling "yesiwon2". We believe that contacting your
seller in addition to filing a dispute with PayPal, would be an
efficient way to hasten the resolution of this concern.

For your convenience, I've listed below the steps on how you could
request their phone number and email address:

1. Click "Advanced Search" in the top right-hand corner of the eBay
homepage.
2. Click "Find Contact Information".
3. Enter the item number for the relevant purchase. You can find the
item number in My eBay. Click "Search".

We'll then send you an automatic email with the seller's contact
details. Please be aware that we'll send the seller your contact details
at the same time. We feel it maintains trust and fairness on eBay if
members are made aware when other members request their contact
information.

Tip: If you have a Skype account, I would recommend that you use this as
a method in contacting your seller as Skype to Skype calls are free of
charges.

On the other hand, should you feel that you can't resolve this matter by
talking to "yesiwon2" or you were not able to resolve the issue with
your seller, the next step that you should take now is by reporting your
seller to PayPal so that they can take note of their account. Let me
remind you that you must do this within 45 days of payment.

If you are wondering why we are referring you to file a dispute via
PayPal's Resolution Centre, please be advised that since you have
processed your payment through PayPal, it will be easier for you to
recover your payment if you file a dispute with them.

As eBay works closely with PayPal to help buyers resolve problems
quickly and effectively, PayPal will investigate any complaint about a
sale where PayPal was used to send payment. To check how the item you
bought is covered under PayPal Buyer Protection, check the "Buy Safely"
section of the item page.

I want to help you in any way possible in filing a dispute with PayPal,
however, please know that as an eBay Customer Support representative, I
can't see your PayPal account.

For further assistance regarding this matter, you can log in to your
PayPal account and click the "Resolution Centre" subtab.

You can also contact PayPal, by clicking the "Contact Us" link at the
bottom of the PayPal homepage or by calling the PayPal Customer Service
Centre on:

08707 307 191

PayPal representatives are available from 6:00 a.m. until 10:00 p.m.
every day. National call rates apply.

Once you've already processed a dispute, you and the seller can
communicate via the Resolution Centre. In the event that weren't able to
resolve the situation within 20 days, you can escalate the dispute to a
PayPal claim.

Let me remind you that if 45 days have passed since your payment, you
won't be able to file a Buyer Protection claim with PayPal. However, we
encourage you to report this member to PayPal so they can make a note on
the seller's PayPal account.

Alternatively, if the item isn't covered by PayPal Buyer Protection, you
should file an "Item Significantly Not as Described" dispute in My eBay.
The eBay Dispute Console provides a structured and impartial way to
manage this type of problem with a seller. You must file a dispute
within 60 days of the end of the listing.

For more information on the dispute process, copy this link into a new
browser window:

http://pages.ebay.co...nr-snad-process.html

As for "yesiwon2", I assure you that I am equally concerned about
violations on the site and that your complaint has been noted. Buying
and selling in this community has always been meant to be pleasant
although it is unavoidable that bad situation like this hinders the
fulfillment of this experience.

We will investigate the seller involved in this transaction and will
take appropriate action following the completion of our investigation,
in accordance with the policies of eBay. However, please keep in mind
that due to eBay's privacy considerations that are in place to protect
us all, I am unable to provide you with specific details of regarding
the investigation or on the actions that were taken against another
members account.

I trust that this information has been useful to you. If you have any
further questions please do not hesitate to contact us again.

Kind regards,

Alexander Meadows
eBay Trust & Safety
____________________

Learn more about buying and selling safely on eBay. Visit the eBay
"Safety Centre" by clicking on the link at the bottom of the eBay
homepage.

My response on 16th May

I am sorry but my previous communication was obviously not read fully or carefully enough as the response I received did not answer the questions I asked and drew the wrong conclusion about the location of the bootleg items.

I HAVE NOT SENT the counterfeit tapes back to the seller (at least not yet) for two reasons:

1) Without the tapes I have no proof whatsoever that they are illegal bootleg copies - and neither do eBay or PayPal so any further investigation of fraud would be impossible because there would be no evidence. It would simply be my word against the seller.

2) The seller expects ME TO PAY FOR THE POSTAGE to return illegal fake items that she sent to me. I don't see why I should incur costs in trying to reclaim my money from fraud.

I have tried to communicate with the seller and she insists she will not refund my full payment until the tapes have been returned at my expense.

The seller having offered a refund on this basis PayPal, without any sort of investigation or evidence collection, suggests that I return the tapes AT MY OWN EXPENSE (and pay extra for a tracked service) to get a refund. There is no option in the resolution centre to continue a dialogue. For the two reasons stated above I AM NOT PREPARED TO PAY TO RETURN the tapes on this basis.

In fact given that the tapes are bootleg and I have been defrauded I am considering taking the tapes to the police to report the situation - in which case they will need the tapes as evidence.

Can you please give me considered advice as to how to progress my claim for a refund further WITHOUT having to send the tapes back to the seller first. Fake tapes should be taken out of circulation and not simply resold on eBay!

I am quite prepared to send the tapes to eBay or PayPal for investigation and then it is us to you to decide whether to return them to the seller or pass them to the police for possible prosecution but I am only prepared to do this on the basis that my postage costs will be met in addition to the claim for a full refund.

eBay response 17th May

Hello,

My name is Vaughn. Thank you for contacting eBay regarding your
account.

Please open an item not received dispute: My eBay, dispute console.

I'm sorry to hear you didn't receive your item or the item you received
was significantly different to how it was described in the listing.

There's a couple of steps you can take now:

1) Talk to the seller
2) Use the eBay Dispute Console (10-60 days from listing end date)

- Talk to the seller

At this stage, I recommend that you phone the seller and talk to them
about what's happened. These situations can often be resolved with a
friendly conversation. Here's how to request the seller's phone number:

1. Click "Advanced Search" at the top of the eBay homepage.
2. Click "Find Contact Information" on the left-hand side of the page.
3. Enter the item number for the relevant purchase. You can find the
item number in My eBay. Click "Search".

We'll then send you an automatic email with the seller's contact
details. Please be aware that we'll send the seller your contact details
at the same time. We feel it maintains trust and fairness on eBay if
members are made aware when other members request their contact
information.

- Use the eBay Dispute Console (10-60 days from listing end date)

If you can't resolve this by talking to the seller and your item doesn't
arrive, please file an "Item Not Received" or "Item Significantly Not as
Described" dispute in My eBay. You must file a dispute within 60 days of
the end of the listing.

The eBay Dispute Console provides a structured and impartial way to
manage this type of problem with a seller. For more information about
the dispute process, copy this link into a new browser window:

http://pages.ebay.co...nr-snad-process.html

What will eBay do about this seller?

Your complaint has been noted and, if appropriate, we will take action
against the seller to ensure eBay remains a fun, safe place to shop.
However, as it's important that eBay maintains member privacy, we can't
share details of the action we take.

I hope this information helps you to resolve this problem with the
seller. Please let us know if we can be of further assistance.

Thank you for taking the time to submit this information to eBay.

Regards,

Vaughn
eBay Customer Support

My response on 17th May

Please escalate this issue to someone who can actually read and is able to respond.

What is the point of writing to eBay to ask for help when you are totally incapable of reading and responding to the questions asked. My last email asked very specific questions and raised specific issues relating to criminal activity but you chose to ignore them and send me an irrelevant boilerplate standard answer.

This is my third email - this time I would like a response that doesn't consist of the usual automated drivel.

Please read my previous two emails and address the issues raised - I am not prepared to waste more of my life restating the questions.

If I don't get an adequate response from you within the next 2 working days (ie. by midnight Tuesday 20th May 2008) I will report the issue to my local trading standards office and also notify the police that eBay and PayPal both refuse to help deal with (or even investigate) illegal trading and video piracy issues.

3405

General Software Discussion / Re: Need system registry software.

« Last post by Carol Haynes on May 16, 2008, 04:36 PM »

YAWN ... FORMAT C: helps wonders when you have a bad registry

3406

Living Room / Re: Pirating abandoned content?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on May 16, 2008, 11:42 AM »

A few months ago I heard about a university professor, at GMU in Washington DC, that required students to purchase a textbook from him, that he wrote. He charged students a very high price for it, wouldn't allow them to buy it used, and the book included a label with the student's name and a serial number (how is that for anti-piracy!). If you didn't purchase the book, you could not pass the course. It was required! You couldn't even sell this book when you were done with it, because every student that took his course was in the same position that you were and couldn't buy it used.

It is quite possible that this teacher was making more off his book, by taking advantage of his students, than he was from teaching the course. People like that should die in an avalanche of used textbooks.

-app103 (May 16, 2008, 11:19 AM)

In the UK that wouldn't be allowed - it is tantamount to extortion and at least a huge conflict of interest. The best thing the students could do is boycott his course en masse until he gets sacked.

3407

Living Room / Re: Pirating abandoned content?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on May 16, 2008, 10:51 AM »

But what if the consumers are poor too - poor starving developers with poor starving uneducated sick malformed children & a granny in hospital vs poor starving uneducated tots with poor starving malnourished relatives, three of them in rehab. What is the right thing to do then? Will the penniless shantydwellers downgrade to a Hayes Accura 228 for a month and do the right thing or will everybody just... starve? Who will live and who will die? And will that ebook get read already!!?

-nosh (May 16, 2008, 09:10 AM)

Maybe they should all sell their laptops and plasma TVs and go and buy a burger! 

3408

Living Room / Re: Pirating abandoned content?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on May 15, 2008, 06:23 PM »

If you say that it's fine for a company to make such a restriction, then would it be ethical if a computer or car salesman told you that the computer you just bought could not be given to a friend or family member when it outlived it's usefulness for you?

-mouser (May 15, 2008, 11:35 AM)

It would if you knowingly signed a contract stipulating that condition.

-cranioscopical (May 15, 2008, 05:25 PM)

Actually you often do in a sense - lots of products only have warranties for the purchaser. Sell the item on and the warranty is void. In a sense that is the a similar situation.

3409

Living Room / Re: What to do when you receive bootleg videos?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on May 15, 2008, 12:19 PM »

That's why I wondered if the police could confirm the bootleg status of the tapes. My problem then is that they might want to retain them for evidence or just to take them out of circulation.

3410

General Software Discussion / Re: Xara Xtreme Pro and Magix Xtreme Graphic Designer.

« Last post by Carol Haynes on May 15, 2008, 10:08 AM »

I love the small print ... actually at first I thought it was bad pixels on my monitor 

3411

General Software Discussion / Re: Xara Xtreme Pro and Magix Xtreme Graphic Designer.

« Last post by Carol Haynes on May 15, 2008, 07:28 AM »

I am not sure but I think Ampa is correct.

As I understand it Xara (in the UK) as a company was acquired by Magix (in Germany) but continues to trade as Xara whilst making some of their technology available for inclusion in Magix Products.

Interestingly I just upgraded to Xara Xtreme Pro 4 and it comes with Magix Panorama Studio (even though there is a pano tool included in Xtreme Pro) it also includes MAGIX Xtreme Photo Designer 7 (as did Xtreme Pro v3.2).

It seems there is a lot of crossover between the two branded products - but I am not sure what the Magix suite is based on (I presume the standard Xtreme 3.2 but I can't be sure as I don't have a copy).

Does you Magix product have any copyright info on the Xara components (including dates) so that we can do a comparison. If you can't see anything under Help>About check the program folder and look in individual file properties.


Here is the press statement http://site.xara.com...eases/2007-01-30.asp

Doesn't help much though.

Just looking at the Magix website ... the products list seems to suggest that Xara Xtreme Pro is a separate product:

It also has to be said that the Xara branded products also come with a lot of extra content (clipart, templates and fonts) that don't appear to be included in the downloadable Magix products (at least not in full). As far as I know Xara only sells CD/DVD based 'physical' products and the downloadable versions they supply are stop gap versions (without the extra content) while you wait for the packaged product to arrive.

Just so that you know I am an affiliate with Xara (see my website Dales Computer Services in my signature) - though only because I know and recommend the software from personal use and experience.

3412

Living Room / Re: What to do when you receive bootleg videos?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on May 15, 2008, 06:25 AM »

Just out of interest and say if it's none of my business - I was curious as to what the series was?

-MikeMcLoughlin (May 15, 2008, 05:35 AM)

"Dear John" the UK version ... long out of print. Was due to be released on DVD but then withdrawn before release. Just a favourite comedy of the time.

Just do what paypal orders you to do, not what the seller suggests.

Do not have any further communication with the seller....only ebay & paypal.

Under no circumstances are you to ship the item back to the seller unless ORDERED by ebay or paypal, whether it is at your expense or not. Make sure it is an order and not merely a suggestion.

-app103 (May 15, 2008, 06:10 AM)

This is the problem I have now. The seller has responded to my PayPal claim saying she will issue a full refund if I return the tapes at my expense. Without any sort of investigation PayPal are now telling me that I should return the items using a trackable courier (expensive) and then I will have no proof that it was a bootleg. Why should I incur the costs to return illegal goods anyway?

The disputes panel on PayPal won't let me send any further messages - only the return shipping details.

I have now emailed PayPal and eBay customer services with my concerns and also quoted the claim reference.

At the moment I am tempted to bear the loss for the moment and simply report the whole thing to the police and possibly issue a lawsuit in the small claims court to recover the money.

3413

Living Room / Re: An idea for the forum regarding disclosure

« Last post by Carol Haynes on May 15, 2008, 06:15 AM »

Not sure whether replacing the name of the item with a graphic would be helpful for two reasons:

• if you want to check the legitimacy of a product it would be useful if it came up as a spam problem on the forum search
• if it is a spam problem there is no problem with search engines find the statement "XYZ spams" and broadcasting it to the world.

3414

Living Room / Re: What to do when you receive bootleg videos?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on May 15, 2008, 04:53 AM »

I am pretty sure she is engaging in selling fake videos deliberately.

The video set I ordered is very rare (you rarely even see them on eBay) but in the last two weeks she has been selling three separate sets of these videos plus she offered to replace my 'faulty' copy.

I had a response this morning through PayPal saying that she wants me to return the tapes (at my expense) before she will make a refund. I have now escalated it to a full claim under PayPal's guarantee system. They may well require proof that the  tapes are bootlegs so I don't want to send them back until there is a resolution - and she can damn well pay the postage.

If I have to get written proof that the tapes are fake anyone any idea who I can get to authenticate them and write a statement for PayPal. Presumably the police can do it but I can't think who else to ask given that VHS tapes have pretty much disappeared from the marketplace?

3415

Living Room / Re: What to do when you receive bootleg videos?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on May 14, 2008, 08:25 PM »

Thanks all - I have launched a claim via PayPal. Initially I will let the seller sort it out and report it formally to eBay and PayPal when I have my money back!

3416

Living Room / What to do when you receive bootleg videos?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on May 14, 2008, 06:27 PM »

I placed an order on UK eBay for a set of 3 hard to find VHS videos for a TV series. The series has never been released on DVD and the VHS tapes have been out of print for over 10 years and so they can be quite hard to find. Considering their age I paid a fairly high price but figured rarity value made them worth it to me.

The videos arrived and looked fine but I had some issues playing them. The first two tapes had sound that was either muffled or interrupted every couple of minutes by a couple of seconds of buzzing. The third tape cut off before the end of the final episode (and was definitely at the end of the tape as I could see the clear leadout tape). All three tapes had 'soft', slightly blown images but I figured that could be age related. The seller had a 100% positive rating (and a high number of transactions) so I wasn't especially worried about authenticity.

I began to worry when I looked at other items the seller had listed and found more copies of this rare series. Also a buyer had reported they had received bootleg VHS tapes since my purchase. I was even more worried when I got a friendly reply offering to replace the tapes.

How could the seller possibly have multiple sets of this rare collection?

Looking at the inlay covers (out of the case plastic) it is obvious that they are reasonable scanned versions of the originals but the paper stock is definitely wrong and the printing has slight banding (not visible without removing the inlay sheets and looking closely), which suggests an inkjet printer. The labels on the tapes themselves have a fuzzy quality the Paramount labels don't usually have.

Not really sure what to do now. I have demanded a refund and that if the seller wants the tapes back they can add to the refund sufficient payment to cover the return costs.

I don't like being a grass but should I be reporting this to eBay? If the seller is making a lot of money doing this should I also be reporting it elsewhere? Or should I simply put it down to experience, assuming I get a refund (which I will via PayPal if necessary) ?

What do people think?

3417

Living Room / Re: An idea for the forum regarding disclosure

« Last post by Carol Haynes on May 14, 2008, 01:12 PM »

Lot's of ideas (sorry got carried away) ...

How about having an extra "spam warning board" where spammers (and their products are named and shamed) in plain text (ie. no hyperlinks)?

Companies producing software who have affiliates abusing the system could be left there too until they deal with their errant affiliates - it then puts the ball in their court to get off the spamming list by blocking their spamming affiliates and making private contact and explaining what is going on. That way a private conversation could be used to resolve a situation. Any genuine companies will understand the issue and won't want to be identified as a potential spam source.

Finally how about a filter that blocks the posting of product homepage URLs that are listed in the "spam warning board". The filter could pop up a message when someone tries to recommend a product or post a link stating that the URL is banned and why (and therefore the current post needs to be edited before it can be posted). A URL spam list could be generated and updated automatically from the links posted on the 'spam warning' board.

These three steps would make legitimate companies take action against 3rd party spammers, make posting spam links a real nuisance for spammers and would hinder genuine users of the forums.


Actually this whole setup would make a great forum mod for general release.

Alternatively, how about adapting http://custom.simple...ds/index.php?mod=369 or http://custom.simple...s/index.php?mod=1095 to apply to newly registered non-donating users (I presume spammers don't donate?). Only allow them to move out of guest status (or whatever you want to call it) when they have been actively posting on the forums for a while (ie. restrict their ability to post active URLs until they have a sufficiently high legitimate post count). It would also have the benefit that users could be demoted until they prove themselves again!


A further idea is to use 'karma' built into the SMF forum. Award everyone some 'karma' when they sign up, allow it to increase microscopically for each legitimate post and set it to zero for spam posts so that they have to build their karma score again to be allowed to post URLs or images. (see http://custom.simple...s/index.php?mod=1007 ???)


Final idea ... how about making full posting priviledges restricted to donating members - ie. the number of donation credits in an account has to be kept above a limit to be allowed to post URLs or images? It wouldn't have to be a high limit to deter spammers ($2 would do) and wouldn't actually restrict people wanting to use the site beyond having to cut and past a link.

3418

General Software Discussion / Re: Firefox Extensions: Your favorite or most useful

« Last post by Carol Haynes on May 14, 2008, 10:14 AM »

There was a right click extension for 'open in reg editor' for Explorer (and therefore probably for Maxthon too).

See: http://www.petri.co....in_regedit_in_ie.htm

I tried it eons ago and it worked fine.

There seems to be something similar for Firefox (but I haven't tried it)

see http://www.softpedia...pen-In-RegEdit.shtml

or https://addons.mozil...S/firefox/addon/4478

Just tried the Firefox Extension and it seems to work fine.

3419

Living Room / Re: Do you collect anything?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on May 14, 2008, 06:42 AM »

Oh God where do I start ...

It isn't so much the collecting in my case it is the hoarding!

Even when I stop collecting things I can't bear to part with them.

Current collections:

• DVDs (getting ridiculous - can't bear not to complete sets too)
• Classical Music CDs
• Audio Books (digital downloads, CDs and audio cassettes)
• Piano Sheet Music
• Books (I could restock the local library - shelves double and triple stacked, growing piles all over the floor, not to mention dozens of boxes full in the roof space)
• Magazines - photography, computers, music, astronomy, science ....
• Rocks
• Computer Software (expensive and largely pointless)

Past collections that I can't throw out (but never look at):

• Classical LP records and cassettes
• VHS videos
• Rock climbing gear (I am still tempted but resist)
• Childrens books (I used to teach)
• Magazines - piles of the things that will never be opened again - mostly on my bedroom floor so I have to climb over them constantly
• Kitchen equipment
• Clothes and shoes ... things that either don't fit or are hideous ...

Other growing heaps of useless junk:

• Cardboard boxes
• Packing materials
• Old electronics
• Old computer parts

I'm afraid that lot barely scratches the surface - I think I am boardline compulsive!

3420

Living Room / Re: Sourceforge grief

« Last post by Carol Haynes on May 12, 2008, 10:25 AM »

Have you done a malware scan on your system?

3421

Living Room / Re: Windows XP SP3 due for release .... (don't hold your breath)

« Last post by Carol Haynes on May 12, 2008, 05:18 AM »

It's non destructive any way as it backs up the current TCPIP.SYS before patching. If you have a problem simply run the patch again to restore the original.

Anyway I have been using it with no problems for a while now.

3422

General Software Discussion / Re: Warning: Fresh Windows XP SP2 install does not get along with SP3 update

« Last post by Carol Haynes on May 11, 2008, 06:15 AM »

http://www.google.co...p;btnG=Google+Search

-kimmchii (May 11, 2008, 04:34 AM)

Yes but a slipstreamed version doesn't include the new windows setup included in the RTM version of Windows XP SP3 which has extra features which could be useful for a fresh installation (such as being able to install without a serial code or previous version installed for upgrades).

3423

General Software Discussion / Re: Warning: Fresh Windows XP SP2 install does not get along with SP3 update

« Last post by Carol Haynes on May 11, 2008, 03:29 AM »

Why not download and burn the ISO file of Windows XP SP3 and install from that ? See:

https://www.donation....msg112022#msg112022

Don't know whether this will solve the problem you describe (probably not) but it is certainly a quicker and cleaner way to do a fresh install of Windows with SP3.

As for the updates youa re having problems with what are they? Do they install correctly if you download them and install them manually?

3424

General Software Discussion / Re: MS Office Ultimate for only $59

« Last post by Carol Haynes on May 10, 2008, 02:02 PM »

Still going in Australia too, $75 but only until 15th of this month.  And it says faculty and staff can get it too.  www.itsnotcheating.com.au/

-Grorgy (May 09, 2008, 11:03 PM)

Also Italy and France are still going.

Interesting actually that Spain and UK have finished - I thought under the single market rules it was illegal to sell things in one country in the EU but not in others?

3425

Developer's Corner / Re: Questions...Before I get in legal trouble, I'd better ask around

« Last post by Carol Haynes on May 09, 2008, 07:26 PM »

Unrelated to the original question (but related to the collection you plan) ...

Is it possible to ensure that boot time apps like these are chosen that work with USB keyboards - or at least warn the user in the menu which ones have issues?

I have found that some of these products (sorry can't remember which now - but I think UBCD was one) won't boot without a PS2 keyboard connected. I just get a message saying that my BIOS isn't ACPI compliant which is rubbish because as soon as I find an old PS2 keyboard and plug it in there is not problem.