Recent Posts

5176

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Norton Identity Safe -- Free Download

« Last post by IainB on June 01, 2012, 03:03 AM »

Just updated my post above with this:

...It is all quite thought-provoking.
Copied here is section 10 of the agreement (from OCR of image):

Spoiler

10 Privacy; Data Protection:
From time to time, the Software may collect certain information from the Device on which it is installed, which may include:
 
— Information on potential security risks as well as URLs of websites visited that the Software deems potentially fraudulent The URLs could contain personally identifiable information that a potentially fraudulent website is attempting to obtain without Your permission. This information is collected by Symantec for the purpose of delivering the functionalities of the software, and also for evaluating and improving the ability of Symantec’s products to detect malicious behavior, potentially fraudulent websites and other Internet security risks.

— URLs of websites visited as well as search keywords and search results only if the Norton Safe Web feature is enabled This information is collected by Symantec for the purpose of providing protection and of evaluating and advising You regarding potential threats and risks that may be associated with a particular Web site before You view it.
— Executable files and files that contain executable content that are identified as potential malware. including information on the actions taken by such files at the time of installation These files are submitted to Symantec using the Software’s automatic submission function The collected files could contain personally identifiable information that has been obtained by the malware without Your permission Files of this type are being collected by Symantec only for the purpose of improving the ability of Symantec’s products to detect malicious behavior Such automatic submission function may be deactivated after installation by following the instructions in the Documentation for applicable products.

— The name given to the Device during the initial setup of such Device. If collected, the name will be used by Symantec as an account name for the Device under which You may elect to receive additional services and/or under which You may use certain features of the Software. You may change such account name at any time after installation of the Software (recommended).
— Status information regarding installation and operation of the Software This information indicates to Symantec whether installation of the Software was successfully completed as well as whether the Software has encountered an error- The status information could contain personally identifiable information only if such information is included in the name of the file or folder encountered by the Software at the time of installation or error- The status information is collected by Symantec for the purpose of evaluating and improving Symantec’s product performance and installation success rate Symantec may also use this information to optimize its web-pages .

— Information contained in email messages that you send through the Software to Symantec to report as spam or as incorrectly identified as spam These email messages may contain personally identifiable information and will be sent to Symantec only with your permission. and will not be sent automatically If you send such messages to Symantec. Symantec will use them only for the purpose of improving the detection ability of Symantec’s antispam technology. Symantec will not correlate these files with any other personally identifiable information.
— Information contained in a report that You may choose to send through the Software to Symantec when the Software encounters a problem The report includes information regarding the status of both the Software and Your Device at the time that the Software encountered the problem The status information about Your Device may include the system language, country locale, and the operating system version for Your Device, as well as the processes running. their status and performance information, and data from files or folders that were open at the time the Software encountered the problem. The information could contain personally identifiable information if such information is included in, or is a part of the name of the files or folders open at the time the Software encountered the problem This information will be sent to Symantec only with Your permission. and will not be sent automatically. The information is collected by Symantec for the purpose of correcting the encountered problem and improving Symantec’s product performance. This information will not be correlated with any personally identifiable information.

— The Internet Protocol (lP) address and/or Media Access Control (MAC) address and the Machine ID of the computer on which the Software is installed to enable the Software to function and for license administration purposes .

— Other general, statistical information used for product analysis, and for improving product functionality.
In additon to the terms and conditions above, the following terms and conditions will also apply to Your use of the Software on mobile Devices :

— The Software may access the International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) in order to generate a hash that ensures anonymity The hash is used to analyze and aggregate equipment data for statistical purposes. The IMEI is not collected or stored by Symantec. This information is used for the purpose of identifying the telecommunications device eligible to receive Content Updates for the Prerelease Software This information will not be correlated with any other personally identifiable information, such as Your account information. Alter the service has terminated the data is retained in statistical form exclusively for internal research.

Unless it is expressly defined as optional. the collected information as set out above is necessary for the purpose of the functionality of Symantec’s products
Information may be transferred to the Symantec group in the United States or other countries that may have less protective data protection laws than the region in which You are situated (including the European Union) and may be accessible by Symantec employees or contractors exclusively to be used in accordance with the purposes described above For the same purposes the information may be shared with partners and vendors that process information on behalf of Symantec Symantec has taken steps so that the collected information. if transferred. receives an adequate level of protection
Subject to applicable laws, Symantec reserves the right to cooperate with any legal process and any law enforcement or other government inquiry related to your use of this Software This means that Symantec may provide documents and information relevant to a court subpoena or to a law enforcement or other government investigation. In order to promote awareness, detection and prevention of Internet security risks. Symantec may share certain information with research organizations and other security software vendors. Symantec may also use statistics derived from the information to track and publish reports on security risk trends by using the Software. You acknowledge and agree that Symantec may collect, transmit, store, disclose and analyze such information for these purposes.
CPS / IDS 1.0 / IE

In the doco somewhere it also says that it uses your unique CPU ID, or something, to hash/encrypt data.
NIS is your Friend...     

-IainB (May 30, 2012, 06:19 PM)

5177

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Norton Identity Safe -- Free Download

« Last post by IainB on June 01, 2012, 02:49 AM »

I uninstalled it and shifted over to Microsoft Security Essentials.  I had no problems removing Norton, no problems installing MSE, and no problems going back to Norton.
...MSE slowed my system down considerably compared to Norton.  And full system scans took more than 24 hours (with minimal computer use and no sleeping or hibernation).
Norton is not the same plodding, system killing beast it once was.

-cthorpe (June 01, 2012, 12:23 AM)

That's interesting.
Maybe Norton antivirus is only much-maligned by people like me who had some very nasty experiences with Norton in the old days, and it was a case of "once bitten, twice shy". (Norton Tools was very good though.)
Odd what you say about MSE - it has never seemed to slow down any of the 6 PCs I have installed it on. It seems to behave unobtrusively and seems quite fast.

5178

Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]

« Last post by IainB on June 01, 2012, 02:32 AM »

Yum. Wabbit.

5179

Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]

« Last post by IainB on May 31, 2012, 10:19 PM »

• I was coming home from work today and I saw a nun riding on a Clowns back. Now that’s just virgin on the ridiculous.
• Koreans have recently brought out their own vegetarian version of an instant noodle snack. It’s called Not Poodle.
• The Kama Sutra has announced a new sex position called The Delivery Guy: You stay in all day but nobody comes.
• Had a pelican curry in the local Indian restaurant last night - tasted good but the bill was enormous.
• London Met Police have advised that a truck has just overturned on the M1 motorway - the truck had been loaded with Vicks vapour rub. Police said there will be no congestion for eight hours.
• My mate dug a hole in the garden and filled it with water... I think he meant well.
• Just bought the wife a new bag and a belt for her birthday... the hoover works perfectly now.
• I was thinking, the human brain is such an amazing thing, but then it occurred to me – what’s telling me that? Bloody showoff.
• I hear that the credit crunch is even affecting fairgrounds. My friend’s a dodgems operator and he lost his job this morning. He’s suing for funfair dismissal.
• I met this girl last night who was a really ugly, I said "What’s your name? "Tuesday" she replied. I said, "That’s a strange name." She said, "Yeah, when I was born my mum and dad looked in the cot and said, "I think we’d better call it a day.""
• Manchester Police have advised that an elephant has been spotted doing a ton on the M62 motorway. They are advising motorists to treat it as a roundabout.

5180

General Software Discussion / Re: HowTo save an entire google "20% preview" book?

« Last post by IainB on May 30, 2012, 07:07 PM »

I have had no luck with doing this sort of thing so far, and would be interested in knowing of any workarounds.

5181

Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]

« Last post by IainB on May 30, 2012, 06:48 PM »

Obscene phonecall?:

The phone rings, at a married couple's house, and the wife answers.
 
Wife: Hello!

Caller: (with heavy breathing) "I bet you have a tight ars*h*le with no hair."
   
Wife: "Yes. Hang on a moment, he's watching TV.  Who shall I say is calling?"

5182

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Norton Identity Safe -- Free Download

« Last post by IainB on May 30, 2012, 06:19 PM »

Interesting Carl, not been my experience with recent Norton offerings but glad it works for you.

-Carol Haynes (May 30, 2012, 04:41 AM)

Give it time. Maybe he hasn't uninstalled it yet and tried to install another virus scanner...
Unfortunately, Norton stuff usually seems to leave hooks all over the system. And I mean hooks.

With that thought in mind, and getting back on topic: I installed and then uninstalled Norton Identity Safe, in a controlled environment with no Internet connection enabled, and monitored the install and the program's attempts to communication outwards. I also studied the agreement (it's an image) that you make with Norton when installing the NIS software. I shall post the agreement up here - cannot find it published on their site, so shall screen capture the details from the image at install.
It is all quite thought-provoking.
Copied here is section 10 of the agreement (from OCR of image):

Spoiler

10 Privacy; Data Protection:
From time to time, the Software may collect certain information from the Device on which it is installed, which may include:
 
— Information on potential security risks as well as URLs of websites visited that the Software deems potentially fraudulent The URLs could contain personally identifiable information that a potentially fraudulent website is attempting to obtain without Your permission. This information is collected by Symantec for the purpose of delivering the functionalities of the software, and also for evaluating and improving the ability of Symantec’s products to detect malicious behavior, potentially fraudulent websites and other Internet security risks.

— URLs of websites visited as well as search keywords and search results only if the Norton Safe Web feature is enabled This information is collected by Symantec for the purpose of providing protection and of evaluating and advising You regarding potential threats and risks that may be associated with a particular Web site before You view it.
— Executable files and files that contain executable content that are identified as potential malware. including information on the actions taken by such files at the time of installation These files are submitted to Symantec using the Software’s automatic submission function The collected files could contain personally identifiable information that has been obtained by the malware without Your permission Files of this type are being collected by Symantec only for the purpose of improving the ability of Symantec’s products to detect malicious behavior Such automatic submission function may be deactivated after installation by following the instructions in the Documentation for applicable products.

— The name given to the Device during the initial setup of such Device. If collected, the name will be used by Symantec as an account name for the Device under which You may elect to receive additional services and/or under which You may use certain features of the Software. You may change such account name at any time after installation of the Software (recommended).
— Status information regarding installation and operation of the Software This information indicates to Symantec whether installation of the Software was successfully completed as well as whether the Software has encountered an error- The status information could contain personally identifiable information only if such information is included in the name of the file or folder encountered by the Software at the time of installation or error- The status information is collected by Symantec for the purpose of evaluating and improving Symantec’s product performance and installation success rate Symantec may also use this information to optimize its web-pages .

— Information contained in email messages that you send through the Software to Symantec to report as spam or as incorrectly identified as spam These email messages may contain personally identifiable information and will be sent to Symantec only with your permission. and will not be sent automatically If you send such messages to Symantec. Symantec will use them only for the purpose of improving the detection ability of Symantec’s antispam technology. Symantec will not correlate these files with any other personally identifiable information.
— Information contained in a report that You may choose to send through the Software to Symantec when the Software encounters a problem The report includes information regarding the status of both the Software and Your Device at the time that the Software encountered the problem The status information about Your Device may include the system language, country locale, and the operating system version for Your Device, as well as the processes running. their status and performance information, and data from files or folders that were open at the time the Software encountered the problem. The information could contain personally identifiable information if such information is included in, or is a part of the name of the files or folders open at the time the Software encountered the problem This information will be sent to Symantec only with Your permission. and will not be sent automatically. The information is collected by Symantec for the purpose of correcting the encountered problem and improving Symantec’s product performance. This information will not be correlated with any personally identifiable information.

— The Internet Protocol (lP) address and/or Media Access Control (MAC) address and the Machine ID of the computer on which the Software is installed to enable the Software to function and for license administration purposes .

— Other general, statistical information used for product analysis, and for improving product functionality.
In additon to the terms and conditions above, the following terms and conditions will also apply to Your use of the Software on mobile Devices :

— The Software may access the International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) in order to generate a hash that ensures anonymity The hash is used to analyze and aggregate equipment data for statistical purposes. The IMEI is not collected or stored by Symantec. This information is used for the purpose of identifying the telecommunications device eligible to receive Content Updates for the Prerelease Software This information will not be correlated with any other personally identifiable information, such as Your account information. Alter the service has terminated the data is retained in statistical form exclusively for internal research.

Unless it is expressly defined as optional. the collected information as set out above is necessary for the purpose of the functionality of Symantec’s products
Information may be transferred to the Symantec group in the United States or other countries that may have less protective data protection laws than the region in which You are situated (including the European Union) and may be accessible by Symantec employees or contractors exclusively to be used in accordance with the purposes described above For the same purposes the information may be shared with partners and vendors that process information on behalf of Symantec Symantec has taken steps so that the collected information. if transferred. receives an adequate level of protection
Subject to applicable laws, Symantec reserves the right to cooperate with any legal process and any law enforcement or other government inquiry related to your use of this Software This means that Symantec may provide documents and information relevant to a court subpoena or to a law enforcement or other government investigation. In order to promote awareness, detection and prevention of Internet security risks. Symantec may share certain information with research organizations and other security software vendors. Symantec may also use statistics derived from the information to track and publish reports on security risk trends by using the Software. You acknowledge and agree that Symantec may collect, transmit, store, disclose and analyze such information for these purposes.
CPS / IDS 1.0 / IE

In the doco somewhere it also says that it uses your unique CPU ID, or something, to hash/encrypt data.
NIS is your Friend...     

5183

Living Room / Re: Preparing for the inevitable

« Last post by IainB on May 30, 2012, 06:02 PM »

AGAIN, This is for planning only. The only time I think negative thoughts is when on IRC engaging a particular admin ;-)

I saw what you did there.

-mouser (May 30, 2012, 04:18 AM)

I knew you would And that was your 29000th post!
....

-Josh (May 30, 2012, 04:47 AM)

Wow! That does seem like quite a large number of posts.

5184

Living Room / Re: Preparing for the inevitable

« Last post by IainB on May 30, 2012, 05:57 PM »

When I die, I want to ensure that all documents are available...

-Josh (May 30, 2012, 05:37 AM)

Planning ahead for the event is a rational idea, but have you also considered your needs after the event? How are you to access these documents?
I think that, by definition, you would have to be considering some kind of Cloud-based storage, search and retrieval service, but currently no-one seems to offer an ethereal kind of Cloud service. Well, I have googled it, and came up with a blank, anyway.   

5185

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Windows Firewall Control - Mini Review

« Last post by IainB on May 30, 2012, 05:47 PM »

@4wd: Thanks for spotting the version number error in my above post. I have corrected it.
I am still running W7FC (FREE) with the latest version of WFC, and the latter is unobtrusive and not too complicated, and I can confirm no apparent conflicts (which is what you had supposed).
I think there must have been something buggy about the older version that I had installed.

At the moment, my ignorance of the product and firewalls in general leaves me wondering why I might need WFC though.
I can see the need for me to use W7FC - which is why I use it - and I have trialled the PAID version as well, but found it a bit too complicated to use.
"Complicated" here means that I need to think carefully before taking any actions using the tool, to make sure that I understand what rule-changes will be effected by my confirming any instructions to the tool, and the implications of those changes.
To have to do this on-the-fly because of pop-up prompts from the tool is a real distraction from what I am concentrating on doing, and thus likely to be conducive to mistakes made in haste.

WFC does not seem to be obtrusive or "complicated" in this regard.

5186

General Software Discussion / Re: pretty cool photo retouch freebie at GAOTD

« Last post by IainB on May 30, 2012, 05:30 PM »

Thanks for this, @kunkel321. I have downloaded and installed the software. Looks potentially pretty useful. I shall try it out later.

Interesting: It looks as though SoftOrbits Photo Retoucher is the same thing as Photo Stamp Remover (both sold by SoftOrbits).
I noticed that, on registration, SoftOrbits Photo Retoucher described itself as "Photo Stamp Remover".
I googled the latter and came up with this link: Photo Stamp Remover 4.4
The properties of the .EXE file also show:

5187

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Cintanotes at Bitsdujour (soon!)

« Last post by IainB on May 30, 2012, 04:41 PM »

It all depends on what you want Cintanotes for.

Cintanotes is described on its site as:

A free, lightweight and user-friendly note taking application

(Which confuses me - why the paid licence then?)

If all you need is a note-taking tool, then it is one of many such tools.
I just checked for reference re Cintanotes on the discussion thread(s) at OutlinerSoftware.com for reference to Cintanotes, and on the crowd-sourced list maintained at EditGrid.
I updated the EditGrid list to include Cintanotes and that version reference and date (v1.6.1, 2012-04-24).

From what I found after evaluating Cintanotes some time back, it was a reasonably useful tool for note-taking (what it was designed for), but the current version being unable to incorporate images would seem to be an increasingly severe limitation for such applications in this day and age. The invention of the iPad has probably forced this into the public awareness.
@highend01 makes a similar point in a comparison with Evernote, in his comment mediately above.

For example, the mandatory (must-have) requirements that I currently place on PIMs (Personal Information Management tools) include:

• the ability to flexibly incorporate RTF, HTML and images.
• the ability to treat any text in those images as OCRed and searchable data.

The only desktop tool that I have so far encountered (and I've looked at all of those in the EditPad list, and some others not on the list) that meets these 2 criteria is Microsoft's OneNote. As regards OCR, OneNote makes a seriously good job of capturing text from any image with text in it, and immediately and intelligently incorporates that text into searches.

You can also select any image in OneNote and copy all text in the image to the Clipboard, to see the OCR'd data (which may have some unavoidable OCR scan errors in it). I now tend to photograph or scan important receipts, and sling them into OneNotes, so I can dispose of the paper. My primary record thus becomes the image, and I must have the capability to locate them by searching on the text they contain.

I think Evernote is the only cloud service that does the same (OCR text capture and search) for images. They probably know that this is currently a major competitive differential feature, which is presumably why they have so far carefully avoided enabling that capability in their desktop tool.
I rarely use Evernote though, because it does not meet my requirements. I need a desktop tool, but full Evernote functionality currently necessitates that you remain cloud-dependent to some extent, and I do not want that. It is lock-in.

(By the way, Qiqqa - which is a superb document and reference management system - provides a free tool that gives excellent OCR text capture and search, on the desktop, with cloud storage service if you want it. The constraint there is that, currently, the OCRed images have to be contained in .PDF files, but there is presumably no technical reason why they could not extend that to image files in general.)

5188

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: DVD Decrypter - DVD ripping tool - Mini-Review

« Last post by IainB on May 30, 2012, 04:36 AM »

...there's another little tool that's required but I can't remember the title off the top of my head (Fix VTS?)

-Target (May 30, 2012, 12:55 AM)

These are all the tools I have had recommended (not heard of Fix VTS before):

• BDLOT ISO Master       
• CDBurnerXP             
• CDex                   
• CODECs                 
• DeVeDe                 
• DoISO                   
• DVD Decrypter           
• DVD DiscInfo           
• DVD Genie               
• DVD Identifier         
• DVD Shrink             
• dvd43                   
• EasyDivX               
• ImgBurn                 
• InfraRecorder           
• ISO Recorder           
• ISO Toolkit 5.0         
• ISOpuzzle               
• MPEG Vid Wiz DVD       
• Old Toshiba DVD firmware
• RipIt4me               
• WinCDemu               
• WinX-DVD Author       

5189

Mini-Reviews by Members / DVD Decrypter - DVD ripping tool - Mini-Review

« Last post by IainB on May 29, 2012, 11:13 PM »

Basic Info

App Name	DVD Decrypter by dvddecrypter.org.uk
App URL	dvddecrypter.org.uk
App Version Reviewed	Freeware version 3.5.4.0 (final) - size 878Kb) Win32 msi installer (as at 2005-03-21)
Test System Specs	Installed and run on Windows 7-64 (Home Premium)
Supported OSes	Previous versions of Windows up to and including Windows 7-64 (Home Premium).
Support Methods	Refer to website: dvddecrypter.org.uk
Upgrade Policy	There are unlikely to be any upgrades. None required either. (There are other related tools also available.)
Trial Version Available?	This is an uncrippled FREE/trial version.
Pricing Scheme	(Not applicable.)

SCREENSHOT OF APP INTERFACE:
GUI of decryption in progress:


Introduction:
This is the original and still great DVD decrypting program. It inputs a DVD and outputs a full and decrypted copy of the DVD to a folder on your hard drive. Typically, the output folder would be up to about 7.2Gb in size.
It doesn't do any more than the decryption in DVD Shrink, but you would use this software for an extra and otherwise unnecessary step in backing up your DVDs when DVD Shrink cannot operate on the DVD. For example, (say) if it has trouble reading a DVD - such as when there is a small scratch. In those cases, sometimes DVD Decrypter can successfully read the disk. However it won't recover videos from deeply scratched DVDs.

Overview:
From Wikipedia:

DVD Decrypter is a software application for Microsoft Windows (including Windows 7 support) that can create backup disk images of the DVD-Video structure of DVDs. It can be used to image any DVD, but controversially it is especially useful for decrypting copy protected movies. The program can also record images to disc. Content Scrambling System (CSS) decrypting software (such as DVD Decrypter and AnyDVD) allows a region-specific DVD to be copied as an all-region DVD. It also removes Macrovision content protection, CSS, region codes, and user operation prohibition.
Legality in the United States
As DVD Decrypter facilitates the removal of copy restrictions, certain uses may be illegal under the United States Digital Millennium Copyright Act unless making copies which are covered under the Fair Use doctrine. In countries without similar laws there may not be any legal restrictions.
On June 6, 2005, the developer, Lightning UK!, announced[1] via the CD Freaks[2] website that he received a cease and desist letter from Macrovision.[3] He later stated it was within his best interests to comply with the letter, and stopped development of the program. By June 7, 2005, a mirror site was up,[4] which allowed people to download the final version (3.5.4.0). On November 27, 2005, Afterdawn.com, a Finnish website, announced that it complied with a letter received from Macrovision demanding that DVD Decrypter be taken down from its site. Shortly thereafter, an "original unofficial" mirror site with no connection to Lightning UK! reappeared.[4]
Under United States' Federal law, making a backup copy of a DVD-Video or an audio CD by a consumer is legal under fair use protection. This provision of United States law conflicts with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act prohibition of so-called "circumvention measures" of copy protections.
In the "321" case, Federal District Judge Susan Illston of the Northern District of California,[5] ruled that the backup copies made with software such as DVD Decrypter are legal but that distribution of the software used to make them is illegal.
In 2010 the Librarian of Congress instituted a DMCA exemption which protects circumvention of CSS protection under certain circumstances.[6] This exemption will expire in 2013.
The software was still legally available due to many countries not having such restrictions, but in November 2005, Macrovision acquired the intellectual property rights to the software, revoked all licenses of use for the software, and started sending cease-and-desist letters to distributors on the grounds of copyright infringement.[7]
On October 4, 2005, Lightning UK! continued the development of the burning engine used by DVD Decrypter in his new tool, ImgBurn.[8] ImgBurn, however, does not have the ability to circumvent copy protections of encrypted DVDs.
(Notes as at 23 April 2012 at 03:53.)

Who this app is designed for:
Anybody who:
(a) wants to rip a backup copy of their DVDs to their hard drive.
(b) wants to play their DVD on their computer, but who cannot do so without getting past the security lock of invasive advertising tools such as PC Friendly, or its newer form, the upgraded Interactual Player.

The Good:
An excellent tool for DVD ripping/backup to disk.
Typically takes about 30 mins. to rip a DVD - using DVD Shrink could typically take about 50 mins. to make a copy (I think that is if it is compressing as well).
Seems to perform its job very well. It runs unobtrusively and has no perceptible performance overhead.    

The needs improvement section:
(Not applicable.)

Why I think you should use this product:
If you need to rip a full decrypted backup copy of your DVDs, then this is a good tool to use.
If you need to get past the security lock of invasive advertising tools such as PC Friendly, or its newer form, the upgraded Interactual Player. (Also consider DVD Shrink for this.)

I'd recommend you use DVD Shrink if you want to make a compressed copy (typically up to about 4.3Gb in size).

How it compares to similar apps:
The website lists some links to alternatives and related systems:


Conclusions:
Superb. AAA+ rating.  
Does what it was designed to do, and very well.

Note:
I did this mini-review because I thought it might be helpful/useful for someone who had the same problem I had today.
I have used DVD Decrypter (and its relative, DVD Shrink) for years - to rip backups of my DVDs, but today I used DVD Decrypter for the first time to get around a blasted PC Friendly locked DVD that I wanted to be able to play/watch a full unencrypted copy of the video on my PC. I might back it up via DVD shrink later.

PC Friendly is anything but. It's rather like a borderline legal hijack virus, and it's an invasive (of privacy and PC) system, and anyway, it doesn't seem to work on Win7-64 and its "upgrade" Interactual Player website seems to be permanently down.
The software for PC Friendly is installed on the DVD, and you have to install it on the PC before the DVD is unlocked to read.
(Sheesh.)

5190

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Norton Identity Safe -- Free Download

« Last post by IainB on May 29, 2012, 04:42 PM »

...Check out CryptoTE at https://idlebox.net/2009/cryptote/

-PhilB66 (May 01, 2012, 07:31 AM)

Thanks for this link. I have downloaded and installed CryptoTE - which, by the way, stands for "Crypto Text Editor". Looks like a very nifty tabbed, multiple file container and .TXT file editing security tool. It uses Scintilla open source for the text editing part. On investigating Scintilla, I found a link to SciTE (Scintilla Text Editor) - which latter I am now also trialling as it says:

From: http://opensource.eb....com/SciTEInstaller/
What is SciTE?
SciTE, based on scintilla, is simply the best text and sourcecode editor out there.  It is essentially an advanced replacement for notepad - something for coders, scripters, and even the average, non-technical user.  It loads up pretty-much as fast as notepad which is a pretty good benchmark.  Install it and throw away notepad and every other text editor you might have had the misfortune to install.

SciTE is perfect as a:

•     html editor
•     xml editor
•     perl editor
•     text editor
•     php editor
•     code editor
•     python editor

You can even customise properties files to handle languages not included with the package.  It also works incredibly efficiently on huge files.  No more crashes or lockups because the file is too big.

The emboldened bit seemed a pretty big claim and I thought it worth testing to see if it was true!   

5191

Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]

« Last post by IainB on May 29, 2012, 01:39 PM »

A friend just sent me this link to product reviews for Veet for Men Hair Removal Gel Creme 200 ml, on Amazon:
here.

Silly.

5192

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Windows Firewall Control - Mini Review

« Last post by IainB on May 29, 2012, 01:19 PM »

There is also a third program, (other than TinyWall and WFN), that works a similar way but I cannot remember the name of it - I do know it only came out in the last 2-3 months so if I happen to find it again, I'll add it above.

-4wd (May 29, 2012, 02:31 AM)

Well, prompted by your review, and after a bit of hasty trialling today, so far I have tried these out:

• 1. Windows7 Firewall Control (FREE version): Been using this for a while now. I reckon it's very good. Probably dead simple to use for most users. My installation was uninstalled nice and easy by the PAID (nagware) version install.
• 2. Windows7 Firewall Control (PAID nagware version): Just quickly tried this out today. Bit more complicated to use (more options/decisions to take) than the FREE version. Uninstalls nice and easy.
• 3. TinyWall: I just quickly tried this out today. Probably a bit complicated to use for many users (more options/decisions to take). Not sure I like it (does not seem to be very intuitive). Devil of a job to uninstall. I think it left some damage judging by the state of my firewall just now, which I am still fixing as I write this. Maybe it was attributable to my ignorance/misuse of the thing.
• 4. Windows Firewall Notifier: Not a firewall control per se, but a useful notification tool. Probably a bit complicated to use for many users (more options/decisions to take). In use is annoying as heck and does not seem to be very intuitive. Uninstalls relatively easily via brute force.
• 5. Windows Firewall Control: Just quickly tried this out today. It seemed to silently install on my system - no evidence that anything had happened, though it was self-aware enough to ask me to change the filename back to wfc.exe before installing. I think the install file may have been corrupted, or something - didn't appear to do anything - and then I later noticed that it was there. Seemed like it could be a useful notification/control tool. Probably a bit too complicated to use for many users (more options/decisions to take). In use is annoying and does not seem to be very intuitive. Uninstalled it.
  EDIT: Just discovered I had an old version (v3.1.0.3) of Windows Firewall Control. Latest version is v3.3.0.1.

Ended up by:

• (a) renistalling Windows7 Firewall Control (FREE version).
• (b) giving up on fixing the damage done by all the Firewall rules changed (especially TinyWall) and going back to square one with the otherwise excellent Win7 Firewall by going to Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Windows Firewall and selecting Restore defaults.
• (c) Reinstalling latest version (v3.3.0.1) of Windows Firewall Control. Not sure whether this is redundant. Seemed to install without any conflicts with  W7FC, so far.[/b]
  

Phew!    

EDITED: 2012-05-30 1934hrs (NZT)

5193

Screenshot Captor / Re: Not capturing menus

« Last post by IainB on May 28, 2012, 10:41 PM »

Maybe the answer is don't use region select mode when trying to capture menus?
Or if you want to capture a bunch of the same regions with different menus, do a region capture first, then with each menu trigger a repeat-region capture, which doesn't require interaction so should capture the menus (as long as you dont use an ALT press in your hotkey).

-mouser (May 28, 2012, 09:48 PM)

Thanks @mouser - very helpful suggestion for me. I have cross posted it to Re: Ability to take screenshot of Admin windows? (Win7+UAC)
That could be a trouble/time-saver.

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Screenshot Captor / Re: Ability to take screenshot of Admin windows? (Win7+UAC)

« Last post by IainB on May 28, 2012, 10:37 PM »

This is a relevant post from another thread - Re: Not capturing menus:

Maybe the answer is don't use region select mode when trying to capture menus?
Or if you want to capture a bunch of the same regions with different menus, do a region capture first, then with each menu trigger a repeat-region capture, which doesn't require interaction so should capture the menus (as long as you dont use an ALT press in your hotkey).

-mouser (May 28, 2012, 09:48 PM)

Quite helpful that - "...trigger a repeat-region capture...". That would help me to avoid having to use a separate screen-clipping tool as per my above post, re capturing transient open drop-down menus.

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Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Windows Firewall Control - Mini Review

« Last post by IainB on May 28, 2012, 10:32 PM »

@4wd: Thanks for this. Is very interesting.  You have triggered the obsessive-compulsive software trialler in me. Methinks I shall have to take a look-see at WFC now...           

5196

General Software Discussion / Re: The best Automatic Organizer for documents and other files

« Last post by IainB on May 27, 2012, 06:03 PM »

There's an earlier thread on a similar topic to this that could be useful:
DONE: Check folder and tell me which PDFs are images (non-searchable)

@vevola: You might be interested in this.
I see you use Foxit and the "reference management" programme Mendeley Desktop.
I have recently started using another reference management programme called Qiqqa, having tried Zotero and Mendelay - I found the latter two did not meet my requirements.

I was blown away by Qiqqa though - it scans and indexes text-searchable PDF files and PDF files containing images - i.e., it OCRs any text in the images in the PDF files. I let Qiqqa loose on my library of about 650 PDF documents, and left it scanning and indexing the lot overnight.
It successfully OCRed and indexed all the imaged PDF files too. It seems quite intuitive to use and has lots of good features.

There's a good list and comparison of "reference management software" here: Comparison of reference management software

On the Qiqqa website, there is a good comparison between Qiqqa, EndNote, Zotero, and Mendelay, :  Qiqqa Features
The OCR capability stands out as a strength for Qiqqa.

-IainB (July 22, 2011, 11:30 AM)

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Screenshot Captor / Re: Ability to take screenshot of Admin windows? (Win7+UAC)

« Last post by IainB on May 27, 2012, 11:59 AM »

I have the UAC set to the lowest level. (OS is Win7-64 Home Premium.)
I just tested this now: Under this setting SSC seems to have no problem in:

• capturing full screenshots (PrtSc)
• capturing active window screenshots (Alt+PrtSc)

- of things such as (for example) Regedit windows.

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Screenshot Captor / Re: Ability to take screenshot of Admin windows? (Win7+UAC)

« Last post by IainB on May 26, 2012, 05:37 PM »

By "Admin", do you mean, for example, an active Control Panel Window?
Like this:


These don't seem to be a problem, though SSC sometimes can't seem to avoid getting some of the background in the isolated active window capture (Alt-PrtSc) - as in the screenshot above.
The only trouble I have had with SSC capturing things is when I want to capture a window plus an open drop-down menu whilst it is open. Sometimes activating SSC seems to persist in closing the menu you want to capture whilst it is open, so then I have learned to use the OneNote Screen Clip function, because it seems to "freeze" the menus and everything on the screen whilst you carry out the clip operation. I think it might be operating on a buffered image (copy) of the whole screen as taken at the point in time when you activate the clip function.
Here's an example of a menu-open one that I had to do with the OneNote clip function:

5199

General Software Discussion / Re: FORTRAN - All your problems will be solved.

« Last post by IainB on May 24, 2012, 06:59 PM »

@Edvard: Thanks for the interesting links!

5200

Living Room / Selection of FREE maths textbooks (.PDF format) available from bookboon.com

« Last post by IainB on May 23, 2012, 01:50 AM »

You might find that these maths textbooks are worth a look: http://bookboon.com/...extbooks/mathematics
I downloaded the whole collection (single .ZIP file of 62.4Mb).
They look pretty good.
The reason they are free is presumably because they are funded by advertising, because each document seems to be interspersed with embedded and relevant adverts containing hyperlinks (URLs). Each time you click on an ad, it will send links to your browser. The first time you click on an ad, the window below pops up - note the default is already selected for you, so don't be too hasty. This is an Adobe version of "OpenCandy", I guess, but it's not as invasive.

Some of the ads look as though they could potentially be quite useful.