Recent Posts

351

Living Room / Re: What ya got, and how d'ya use it ...

« Last post by mrainey on July 22, 2006, 10:39 AM »

I have a Tosbiba A45-S150, P4-2.4, 1.25 GB RAM, 60GB HDD, XP Home - pretty much your basic laptop from a couple years ago.

Software I use the most:

UltraEdit
Excel 97
IBasic Professional
EXECryptor
Inno Setup Compiler
Firefox 1.5
SpamPal
Courier (email)
Classic Clipboard
Faststone Image Viewer
Outlook Express (newsgroup reader)
Kerio Personal Firewall
Avast Home
CounterSpy
Trojan Hunter
HTML Help Image Editor
JV16 PowerTools
Directory Opus
WinZip
Foxit Reader
Capture
Crap Cleaner
Windows Media Player
Bootit NG

352

General Software Discussion / Re: Need something to delete "undeletable" registry keys

« Last post by mrainey on July 21, 2006, 12:25 PM »

Oops, there's a free lite edition.

353

General Software Discussion / Re: Need something to delete "undeletable" registry keys

« Last post by mrainey on July 21, 2006, 12:15 PM »

$57.00 USD is a little steep for the average user.

354

Developer's Corner / Re: Joel On Software: "It's not about me!"

« Last post by mrainey on July 21, 2006, 12:08 PM »

I love to read his stuff, it's informative and witty.

But god, what an EGO!

355

Living Room / Re: Do you like/eat Sweet Potato?

« Last post by mrainey on July 20, 2006, 06:11 PM »

You can bake one just like a white potato, then slap some butter on.  It's sweeter and has more flavor, and is WAY more nutritious than a white potato.

Actually, you can cook them any way you'd cook a white potato.  Bake, mash, fry, grill - whatever.

They're not related botanically to white potatoes.

I'm a big fan.   

356

Living Room / Re: Do you like/eat Sweet Potato?

« Last post by mrainey on July 20, 2006, 06:41 AM »

They're very popular in the southeastern United States, where I live.  Taste great.

357

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows XP Myths

« Last post by mrainey on July 19, 2006, 02:38 PM »

my pc appears to working at the moment so i'll leave it well alone.

Good advice.

358

General Software Discussion / Re: Wow: Microsoft Acquires WinInternals/SysInternals!

« Last post by mrainey on July 19, 2006, 11:44 AM »

Steve Gibson collected the program files back in October.

http://www.GRC.com/m...ternals_07_18_06.zip

359

General Software Discussion / Re: Wow: Microsoft Acquires WinInternals/SysInternals!

« Last post by mrainey on July 19, 2006, 07:30 AM »

He has a free video available, the first in a coming series about his tools (the others will be $$).  It's just an overview, but very interesting.  In it, there's some mention of his relationship with Microsoft, from it's rocky start to current "lunch with the MS big shots".

Video is 100+ MB, but downloaded reasonably fast.

http://www.sysintern...nternals%20Tools.wmv

360

Developer's Corner / Re: A rant on syntax and verbosity, why ruby is not for me

« Last post by mrainey on July 15, 2006, 07:23 AM »

Lots of times I see "ten lines packed into one" code described as "elegant".

What does "elegant" really mean, in the context of programming?  Does it mean anything at all?

361

General Software Discussion / Clueless Product Manager

« Last post by mrainey on July 03, 2006, 04:06 PM »

"As a software development manager, A. Selvan sees his fair share of WTF's. Though most are suited for the likes of Dilbert comic strips, every now and then he'll come across a story that best fits here. Today I'd like to share one of these stories in the form of an email conversation between A. and the new Product Manager..."

    ______________________________________________________________________
    From: {Product Manager}
    Sent: Tuesday, March 28, 2006 8:41 AM
    To: A----- Selvan
    Cc: {Marketing Director}
    Subject: Software Version

    A-----,
    I've noticed that in several places (most prominently, Help-About),
    there is the product version, build number, etc. Please have your team
    remove this information in our next release.


It gets better.

http://thedailywtf.c...ms/thread/79265.aspx

362

Living Room / Re: SanDisk accused of "Shades of Sony Rootkit"

« Last post by mrainey on June 23, 2006, 03:10 PM »

From the U3 website:

"What is a U3 smart solution?

A U3 smart solution is one that travels with the user on a U3 smart USB flash drive. Once installed on the drive, the application can run on any computer—without further installation!"


All my applications are standalone executables that can be run from standard flash drives.  People have been using the term "portable applications" of late to describe programs like mine.

How do "portable applications" differ from "U3 smart solutions"?

363

Living Room / Re: So THIS is what the Titanic looked like going down?

« Last post by mrainey on June 20, 2006, 12:11 PM »

Sorry - am I the only one that thinks this is just another example of gross polution of the environment for the sake of cheap disposal of a ship?

It's being touted as an artificial reef that will become a fishing and diving paradise and thereby enrich the region to the tune of 90+ million every year.

So, maybe gross pollution of the environment to fatten some Florida wallets?

I wasn't aware of all the environmental problems associated with dismantling.  What CAN we do with these huge old ships?

364

Living Room / Re: So THIS is what the Titanic looked like going down?

« Last post by mrainey on June 20, 2006, 07:24 AM »

Seems like all that steel could have been put to better use, considering that the price of steel for manufacturing has gone out the roof.

365

Living Room / Re: SanDisk accused of "Shades of Sony Rootkit"

« Last post by mrainey on June 17, 2006, 11:01 AM »

What is this new U3 technology, anyway?

366

Living Room / Re: SanDisk accused of "Shades of Sony Rootkit"

« Last post by mrainey on June 16, 2006, 05:42 AM »

I got a kick out of the article he mentioned.  A company hired to test the security of a credit union network was able to gain access to password and login info by sprinkling trojan-containing USB flash drives in the parking lot and other employee areas.  Seems that the majority of them were soon found and plugged into credit union PC's.


http://www.darkreadi...amp;WT.svl=column1_1

367

General Software Discussion / Re: Do you use any GTD/calendar system to get organized?

« Last post by mrainey on June 13, 2006, 12:51 PM »

I'm retired.  Don't have a schedule.  Do what I want, when I want.   

368

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows VISTA review by Scot Finnie

« Last post by mrainey on June 13, 2006, 12:19 PM »

He's just a muppet with a web site...something anybody can accomplish with a few dollars a month.

His forum is one of my personal favorites.



From his website:

"I've been a journalist for over 20 years. I've worked on staff at several computer magazines or online publications, including PC/Computing, FamilyPC, ZDNet, and Windows Magazine. I've also written articles for CNET, PC Magazine, PC World, MacWeek, Byte, ComputerWorld, PC Today, Personal Computing, Computer Life, Popular Science, and Popular Mechanics. Feel free to review my online resume for details.

I'm not one of those ivory-tower computer magazine editors; I like to get my hands dirty with hardware and code—to actually test stuff. That “stuff” includes Windows and other desktop operating systems, broadband Internet services, networking hardware and software, security products, and a long list of applications, utilities, and devices. I've written on these topics in magazines and books for years. I also write about those topics regularly in my newsletter."

369

Living Room / Re: Intresting tad bit - MS Windows Genuine Advantage Phones Home Every day

« Last post by mrainey on June 09, 2006, 08:55 AM »

I don't know much about all this.  I was under the impression that my firewall (ZA Free) would notify me if an unauthorized program tried to phone home.  I checked, ZA is set to ask permission first before allowing WGA to send information.

It's obviously not that simple, is it?

370

Living Room / Re: Website for people to arrange (legal) trading of stuff

« Last post by mrainey on June 07, 2006, 08:43 AM »

No trading allowed with Freecycle.


" NO TRADING PLEASE. Go to your local trading organization for this. It can be quite fun. With Freecycle, though, there are no strings attached, just give it away now."


http://www.freecycle...manual/index_faq.htm

371

Living Room / Re: So....How many processes do you have running on startup and during normal usage

« Last post by mrainey on June 01, 2006, 10:46 AM »

With email and browser plus all security programs (4), i usually run around 40.

372

Living Room / Is Your Son a Computer Hacker?

« Last post by mrainey on May 30, 2006, 02:07 PM »

Thanks for the heads up.   


http://www.adequacy....12.2.42056.2147.html

373

Developer's Corner / Re: Can a program be reverse-engineered?

« Last post by mrainey on May 05, 2006, 12:29 PM »

This whole site appears to be dedicated to reverse engineering.


http://www.reteam.org/index.html


Oh, I see somebody beat me to it.  How do I delete a post?

374

Living Room / Re: Cool site with videos on how stuff gets made

« Last post by mrainey on May 04, 2006, 02:43 PM »

Collection of detailed videos about the making of Taylor guitars.


http://www.taylorgui...3%3a+The+Taylor+Neck

375

Developer's Corner / Re: 18 Monospace fonts comparison screenshot

« Last post by mrainey on May 04, 2006, 02:07 PM »

Consolas is here:

http://www.microsoft...3&DisplayLang=en


It says you need Visual Studio 2005, but it works fine for me without having VS.