Recent Posts

526

General Software Discussion / Re: The nightmare of the programmer languages

« Last post by Innuendo on January 26, 2014, 09:30 AM »

A quick search on the internet says that 0d1, 0d2, 0d3, and 0d4 are database files for a program called Omnis 5 circa 1989.

As far as I can discover, nothing else is known to have used those file extensions.

527

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Perfect Effects 8 Premium Edition for *FREE* until 28-Jan-2014

« Last post by Innuendo on January 25, 2014, 11:01 PM »

Great find!

Thank you, sir.

528

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: eM Client 70% off

« Last post by Innuendo on January 25, 2014, 10:56 PM »

I will give the guys at SoftMaker credit. Their office suite has been out for a long time and they keep giving their users free updates to eM client. I don't think every company would be generous enough to do that.

529

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: again: lifetime key for Outpost Security Suite Pro

« Last post by Innuendo on January 25, 2014, 10:52 PM »

I really want to buy this but with repeated web searches, reading many posts comparing security suites, Outpost Security Suite Pro performs poorly, is not recommended, and in reviews free alternatives score better. My question for you users of Outpost - why do you use it instead of some of the alternatives? I expect to pay for a quality product, but my research thus far hasn't supported buying the lifetime license.

-Joe Hone (January 20, 2014, 09:51 PM)

Outpost Security Suite hasn't always been great. Well, to be more specific, their firewall technology has always been without peer, but their AV has not always been up to par. They originally licensed their AV tech from Virusbuster, who didn't have a product that excelled in the marketplace. However, Agnitum bolstered their firewall to fill in a lot the weak spots of the AV and made great strides in bringing the AV component up to snuff.

In mid-August of 2012, though, Agnitum acquired the AV tech from Virusbuster and took the next 12 months to re-write and re-work the AV code, not submitting their product to testing sites till they were confident they had a product worth testing. The results speak for themselves:

http://www.virusbtn....b100/archive/summary

The new AV has gotten the coveted VB100 award the last two times it has been tested (every test since the release of the new AV). The firewall has already been critically lauded for its anti-leak protection so now both sides of the equation are now best in class.

So yeah, you're going to find lots of bad reviews of Outpost Security Suite on the internet, but I bet you can't find any bad reviews of version 9.0.

Regarding lifetime updates, I bought my lifetime license when version 6.5 had just been released. All these years later, version 9.0 is out and my license is still going strong. That's a lot of money saved.

530

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: MS Office 2013 US$9.95 Corporate/Enterprise Home Use Program - Mini-Review

« Last post by Innuendo on January 19, 2014, 08:38 PM »

Unfortunately I'm part of that tiny percentage... I use it daily, all  the time. So it would be a nuisance if it takes several steps to activate it.

-dr_andus (January 19, 2014, 06:17 PM)

All is not lost. I just did an experiment. I went to the View tab and right-clicked Split and selected "Add to Quick Access Toolbar" and bam! It will always be right there at the top left of the screen for you to use with one simple click.

I think some of these reviewers just fire a program up, play with it for an hour or so, and then call it a day.

531

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: MS Office 2013 US$9.95 Corporate/Enterprise Home Use Program - Mini-Review

« Last post by Innuendo on January 19, 2014, 05:23 PM »

Anyway, now that I do qualify, I'm still wondering about the value of upgrading from MS Office 2010 Pro to 2013 Pro.

-dr_andus (January 19, 2014, 03:58 PM)

Well, the value of getting the latest and greatest versions of Microsoft's flagship suite for $9.95 should count for something!

I've checked out a few reviews and on balance (including user comments), they are far from being overwhelmingly positive.

The biggest batch of negative feedback I've seen are the reviews over at Amazon, but once you cut out all the "I can't get it to download and install" and the "OMG! Amazon's not an authorized retailer so MS will not help you!" posts, you aren't left with a lot. True, there are some things MS has removed, but they are seldom-used features, IMHO. You can go over and read the article on Wikipedia about Office 2013 to see what has been removed.

I mostly use Word and Excel in Win7. It sounds like a lot of changes were made mostly to serve the Win8 environment.

One of the biggest changes were to 'whiten' the interface so one isn't as distracted by the UI when one tries to work. It's going to be up to personal taste as to whether you love or hate that decision. The other is that MS integrated SkyDrive with Office to more easily allow cloud operations.

I wasn't happy to see that they've removed the split screen feature from the scroll bar in Word. I use that feature daily.

Are you talking about the 'Split' function that is on the ribbon under the View tab in the Window section? The one that has the tooltip that says "See two sections of your document at the same time. This makes it easier to edit one section while editing another." If so, that feature is still there.

532

General Software Discussion / Re: How do I know what IFilters I have?

« Last post by Innuendo on January 19, 2014, 09:55 AM »

So weird that the TIFF IFilter is not enabled by default...or even that it's a setting one can toggle at all. Seems it'd be something rolled into the Windows Search/Index as an always-on feature.

One more thing I need to remember to do when doing a fresh install.

533

Living Room / Re: Evernote, the bug-ridden elephant.

« Last post by Innuendo on January 19, 2014, 09:48 AM »

wraith, that's a very good question & I'm not 100% sure yet what I'm looking to do, but working full-time, going to school full-time, and trying to balance things in my personal life too is proving to be quite a chore. I need to get things under control. Normally my INTJ-charged brain can easily cope with everything thrown my way, but I think I've reached computing capacity.

IainB, this is exactly the kind of information I was looking for. I'm extremely security-conscious as well so I will start with OneNote+SkyDrive and see where that leads me. The fact that I was able to get Office for a pittance due to this makes the decision a lot easier.

534

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: MS Office 2013 US$9.95 Corporate/Enterprise Home Use Program - Mini-Review

« Last post by Innuendo on January 19, 2014, 09:38 AM »

Like I said, I think it depends on the licensing agreement your organization has with Microsoft, but yes I was offered Visio Professional for $9.95 as well.

When I followed my "you've been approved" link, Office 2013 and Office Mac were listed, but there was also a Visio section down in the lower right-hand corner of the screen. As soon as I added Office to my cart a little dialog popped up that asked, "Would you like to add Visio to your cart, too?"

I've known about this program for years as well, but I've never paid too much attention to it because in the past I've never had a qualifying employer. You better believe I checked the box that asked "Would you like to be notified of future Microsoft Home Use Program offers?"

535

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: MS Office 2013 US$9.95 Corporate/Enterprise Home Use Program - Mini-Review

« Last post by Innuendo on January 18, 2014, 11:38 AM »

Thanks for this.

I'd known about the program in the past, but every email address I threw at it didn't qualify, but I stumbled across this thread the other day & thought since I just recently started a new job I'd give it a go again.

This time not only did I meet with success to qualify for Microsoft Office for $9.95, the web site also politely asked if I'd like to take advantage of purchasing Visio Professional 2013 (MSRP $499.95) as well. Since I could use Visio in my classes, I of course threw that in my cart, too. My suspicion is that what agreement your employer has with Microsoft will dictate whether or not you are offered Visio (or perhaps other Microsoft's products) for purchase as well.

As for the mini-review, I think leaving the "How it compares to other products" section empty was a mistake. At least mentioning competing products (both free and paid) would help readers who don't qualify for this excellent program. However, I'm not going to be too critical of a post that just saved me nearly $1,000. 

536

Living Room / Re: Evernote, the bug-ridden elephant.

« Last post by Innuendo on January 12, 2014, 11:08 AM »

I guess my question is...for someone who is contemplating using a product such as this for the first time and therefore has no existing investment in one particular platform which one should I hitch my wagon to?

Yes, I know all these solutions are not 100% reliable, but surely one of these companies seems to have a better handle on things than the others?

Recommendations welcome.

537

General Software Discussion / Re: In search of ... assistance with a tenacious BHO ...

« Last post by Innuendo on January 10, 2014, 07:24 AM »

Gone are the days when you could just run an AV scan once a month and you'd be good. The savvy internet user uses a multi-layer defense to protect their computer.

Of course, there are some people who'll click the 'Yes/OK' button on any darn dialog box that pops up on their screen. There's no helping those people.

538

Living Room / Re: Malware attack hits thousands of Yahoo users

« Last post by Innuendo on January 10, 2014, 07:19 AM »

x16wda was correct. The cow I was referring to was the AdMuncher icon that sits in the system tray. It eliminates the attack vector of banner ads quite handily.

But now after seeing that thread, I want a dinosaur. 

539

Living Room / Re: Malware attack hits thousands of Yahoo users

« Last post by Innuendo on January 07, 2014, 08:50 PM »

This thread is one of the reasons I think long and hard before ever disabling that little cow that sits down in my system tray.

540

General Software Discussion / Re: In search of ... assistance with a tenacious BHO ...

« Last post by Innuendo on January 07, 2014, 08:48 PM »

RE security - removing Java makes PC a lot more secure - but not everyone can do that (I've missed it once or twice in six months since I uninstalled, but it wasnt anything important).

-tomos (January 06, 2014, 04:48 AM)

You can eliminate nearly all of the attack vectors that affect Java by just disabling Java in the web browsers you use. You can then use it for desktop applications while nothing 'evil' from the net can slip in through a Java vulnerability.

541

General Software Discussion / Re: In search of ... assistance with a tenacious BHO ...

« Last post by Innuendo on January 05, 2014, 10:40 PM »

Yes, AV programs are horrible at this kind of thing. That's why when I asked my question I specifically asked what *security* software you are running.

Barney, regarding software that can detect outbound communications & the like, I suggest you take a look at Agnitum's offerings. Their security suite offers granular controls that you can enable so that you are alerted any time a component is changed/added to a trusted program (like an extension for Firefox) and other things. The 'leak' tests you hear about on the internet are designed to catch this 'piggy-backing' onto trusted programs and Agnitum's products always score highly.

I'd also be curious what version of Windows was infected and what level to which you had UAC set.

542

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Ad Muncher End of 2013 sale

« Last post by Innuendo on January 04, 2014, 01:47 PM »

Thanks for mentioning AdFender. I hadn't heard of it before.  I'm a lifetime AdMuncher license owner, but what with its program author (Murray) missing in action for over a year and no new version of the program for a year and a half I'm a little afraid for its future even if the signature author (Jeff) keeps saying the contrary.

AdFender doesn't seem to be as global as AdMuncher, but it seems to be moving in that direction what with IM and P2P programs being supported and since AdFender graciously tells you what port it is using, I'm sure you could slam 127.0.0.1:7070 into any program that provides a way to configure its proxy to reap ad-free benefits.

I've decided to disable AdMuncher for a while and give AdFender a go...time will tell how well that goes. Looks like it uses the same lists/signatures that AdBlock and its derivatives use, for better or worse.

543

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: eM Client 70% off

« Last post by Innuendo on January 04, 2014, 12:54 PM »

I've been looking at this program. It'd be nice to have access to Google Calendars next to my email.

I don't like that the lifetime license option is another $50 on top of whatever you pay for a Pro license, though.

544

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Code Sector software 50% off through January 7, 2014

« Last post by Innuendo on January 04, 2014, 12:15 PM »

I bought a deeply discounted license of TeraCopy years ago (I think it was only $6 or $7...a real steal) and xtabber calling their development 'inconsistent' is a very kind way of putting it.

He'll go so long without any kind of communication at all giving you the impression the software is all but dead and buried and....poof! There'll be a new update for download. One might think this software development thing was a second job for him...but I'm thinking it's probably more accurately a third or fourth.

545

General Software Discussion / Re: In search of ... assistance with a tenacious BHO ...

« Last post by Innuendo on January 04, 2014, 12:11 PM »

barney, if I may ask, what security software are you using that let this thing slip through?

Might be time to start looking for a replacement.

546

General Software Discussion / Re: Laptop Battery.

« Last post by Innuendo on January 04, 2014, 12:09 PM »

Isn't there usually an icon down in the system tray that shows whether you are on AC or battery?

547

General Software Discussion / Re: What's your preferred File Manager

« Last post by Innuendo on January 04, 2014, 12:08 PM »

I think, regarding Sanwhole Vole Explorer, that item 1.3 in Curt's screenshots is very telling:

"May I extend my service duration with another giveaway renew code?"

I don't think the term "lifetime license" means the same thing to the author that it does to the rest of us.

And finally, online activation for a file manager? Yuck.

548

General Software Discussion / Re: Firefox - new window - can you remember the google search you opened with

« Last post by Innuendo on January 01, 2014, 10:49 PM »

Miles, I've been using Findbar Tweak for a few months now & while it took a little getting used to I have come to rely on it & I love having all the instances of the term I'm searching for 'marked' in the vertical scroll bar area of the window.

There have been reports of some funky side-effects, but I must not do anything too weird or strenuous with my searches as I  haven't noticed any side-effects at all with my usage.

549

General Software Discussion / Re: Mind mapping software

« Last post by Innuendo on December 29, 2013, 10:36 AM »

Last time I tried to map my mind every program I tried hung with a "Re-calculating route..." message. 

550

General Software Discussion / Re: Linkman 8.80 released

« Last post by Innuendo on December 28, 2013, 12:55 PM »

It is true that Outertech is not very communicative with its users. E.g., there is no auto-update feature and no notification when updates are available.

-J-Mac (December 27, 2013, 12:22 PM)

So very true. I've never received a notice of updates, but when I've needed one it's always been on the OuterTech web site waiting for me and it's always fixed any problem I might have been having (usually a browser update breaking the extension).