Activity for November 6

Review - cFosSpeed
4.53 Build 1537 Beta (Aug 26, 2009)

this program does not encourage illegal downloading, bittorrent is used for many legal purposes,

I'm surprised such a comment would be left by the moderators, under no circumstances do the developers of this software support criminal activity,

not much to say really on the program itself,
very unstable i find, always being fixed, always in beta stage, and always at a point which is not for mainstream release,

be nice to once reach a point in time where this program isn't having something fixed. because from my perspective, there always bug fixing, always!!! reminds me of "Outpost Firewall" LOL
Review - Avi2Dvd
0.5 (Aug 21, 2009)

a brilliant program, been around for a while, not updated as much as i wished it was, but there you go,

this program is solid, and more importantly works with a high quality Encoder (HCEnc) and of course supports old versions of CCE (although HCEnc is preferred for low bit rate conversions)

don't get me wrong, ConvertXToDVD is good, but it is a trans-coder (FFMpeg and libavcodec) like many, so quality would never for the forseable future come close to what HCEnc can produce, (i don't feel that trans-coding would ever be as clean, crisp and sharp as a full fledged high quality encoder (CCE, HCEnc, Tmpgenc)

Avi2Dvd interface i agree is very messy now, go back to when it first came out it was acceptable to the current standards, but not anymore, the flags are way to cheesy now, and the whole GUI in general looks very cartoony,
because of the old and quite unuser friendly GUI I'm only giving 4 points not the full 5, however it still has it where it counts, if only the horrible GUI didn't hinder the program so much.

my eye at the moment is on "AVStoDVD", this program is quite good aswell, and again utilizes the wonderful HCEncoder, not as resilient as Avi2DVD, but definitely won't be long considering the excellent support it's getting, and the GUI is of course up to the current standards with some nice soft colors,

but for quality, i choose AVStoDVD, but i always have Avi2DVD on standby just in case i need it,
Review - UltraVNC
1.0.6.4 (Jul 10, 2009)

it's got some powerful features, but this software like many like it should only be used if you don't mind reading through the documentation, and even then you will still be left with many confused aspects,

The biggest confusion that I still read about in forum's, is the concept

"Server" and "Viewer"

A bit like remote desktop, Host & Client,

For the beginners it's quite amazing how these concepts are hard to grasp,
And like wise, the same issues can be seen in programs like "RealVNC" & "UltraVNC",

For the absolute beginner "TeamViewer" is the way to go,

Hopefully, Programs like "UltraVNC" will eventually go though a revolutionary GUI Rewrite,

Because there all based on the same theme, one can see so many similarities between them,

What they need is a new novice interface, or perhaps a driven wizard that guides the new user through the complex interface options that are given to the user,

Which is what "TeamViewer" has done, they have rewritten the entire GUI interface from scratch, and made it 21st century worthy,

"UltraVNC" and even "RealVNC" is still based on the old concepts, even the look, and the thinking behind the interface is till the old way's,

Programs like "TeamViewer", and "LogMeIn"
are the way forward, the complexities are still there, but hidden from the user, having a box open with 20 different settings is enough to put most people of, and the thing is, efficiency is the new way of thinking now, streamlining is the 21st century motto,

Programs like “UltraVNC” are so old looking, and require a huge amount of reading from the user to understand all of its options that are thrown into the users laps,

Don’t get me wrong, "UltraVNC" is a great program, and like many like it, gets the job done extremely well,

The problem is, with programs like “TeamViewer” showing what can be done, and makes "UltraVNC" look obsolete,

I feel like many does, that "RealVNC", and programs alike, really need to throw away there old thinking GUI concepts, and design a whole new GUI from scratch with streamline and efficiency being the prominent way of thinking,

But concepts aside, "UltraVNC" get's the job done well, and for its use, then max score had to be given,

but my advice, try "TeamViewer" 1st, if that doesn't do what your after, then and only then, try programs like "RealVNC" or "UltraVNC",
Review - KCleaner
0.17.0.26 (Jun 11, 2009)

it has to be said, why would one want to use a substandard tool,
there are so many applications that are available that do what this program does, and far more advance,

the number one program has to be,
http://www.ccleaner.com/

with ccleaner around, there is just no room for any new software to really be any kind of competition,

perhaps in time, this KCleaner will develop, but the name says it all in my opinion,

CCleaner
KCleaner

come on, who is the developer trying to kid, personally i feel this is some kind of attack against CCleaner, or maybe trying to steel some credit by playing with the name, either way, it shows dishonor, and a clear case of bad ethics.

as for the software in question, well given the nature of it's early development, what can be said, it's another cleaner, that does a terrible and unreiliable job at present because of it's early state of development,
perhaps in time it will become another good cleaner, but there are so many cleaner's at the moment, the question is, is there room for another one,

a bit like applications like "Tuneup Utilities", there are so many of these types of program's now, one doesn't no where to begin, although this is off topic......
Review - Nero
9.0.9.4b (Sep 29, 2008)

BLOATWARE!!!

nero seriously have lost there way, for people like many who wants to choose there individual applications for there task at hand, nero steps on that right,

yes one could argue that you can select what components you want to install, but that's not enough, behind the scenes nero still install huge amounts of files which taxes any system it installs to, further more it also installs applications that run on startup of the sytem aswell as services that also run in the background which can't be turned off unless a user knows advance windows functions, for example bringing up services manager and turning them off that way.

nero has taken on far to much, and they have destroyed what was once a great peice of software, the install takes forever, there installer is far from smart, if anything it barely does the job (i miss the days when NERO was installed using WinRAR installer.

for people that wants a all in one package, then nero is still not the right choice, it just asks to much from even the most powerful system on the market today, and the speed of loading most of these programs are terrible, for example there photo viewer, it takes over 4 seconds to load, irfanview loads in 0.2 seconds on my system, why, because nero has thousand's of files that make it function and they all have to be loaded, which leads onto the next issue, because of the many files that nero requires, it takes up massive amounts of space on any hard drive, gone are the days when nero only took 350+mb for full install, now your looking at over 1GB of data, if not more on any system.

and last but not least, is the very terrible update system, nero still downloads far more then it needs to, you would think that if only some of the programs needs updating, then nero would just download those files it needs, but no, nero will download a big massive update package that actually contains loads of files that are already on your system, so in fact, over half of the update package is not actually needed, as only a few of nero's applications needs updating, the rest of the files gets installed even though there only overwritting files that are actually the same versions. the reason why is because there is not much difference from a update package to a demo package.

nero has really lost there way, and like someone else has said, it started going wrong for them with the birth of nero 7, although i was still a nero user at that time, but when nero 8 came along with there new Index system (why o why do we need a index system when windows xp and above comes with it's own one, which is far easier, and a lot more efficient due to the fact that it's integrated with windows itself) things just got so bad, i finely had enough, the resources that nero package puts on one's system, and the amount of options in the installer applications that has to be adjusted is to much for any half decent computer user to have to put up with any more.

1 is not low enough, i give NERO a big fat 0 (ZERO),

nero has lost there way, and i don't think they are finding there true path any time soon.

although i am amazed, from a great product that was rated as the best burning suite, has gone to the worse package one could ever conceive, how the mighty has fallen.
Comment - Is AES encryption crackable?
9.0.9.4b (Nov 6, 2009 - 8:52 AM)

just in case anyone was wondering if there is a very powerful encrypter,

unfortunately i couldn't find one that was entirely free,
hopefully someone else could perhaps offer a free solution,

anyway this is one that is very cheap, and offers some very advance features,
https://www.cryptit.org/index.php?controller=home
Comment - Is AES encryption crackable?
9.0.9.4b (Nov 6, 2009 - 8:05 AM)

the one thing that's fascinating is how the U.S. government chose a less secured algorithm

"Serpent is a symmetric key block cipher which was a finalist in the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) contest, where it came second to "Rijndael. Serpent was designed by Ross Anderson, Eli Biham, and Lars Knudsen."

"Serpent was widely viewed as taking a more conservative approach to security than the other AES finalists, opting for a larger security margin: the designers deemed 16 rounds to be sufficient against known types of attack, but specified 32 rounds as insurance against future discoveries in cryptanalysis."

"Serpent" was designed for maximum possible security,
"Rijndael" was designed for a compromise between speed and security,

on average day computers "Serpent" should be the better choice (CPU resources is in abundant)
but on independent hardware, like small silicon microprocessor's that go in small electronic devices like security doors, and electronic key card readers would Opt for "Rijndael" because it requires a lot less CPU resources whilst still providing a high level of encryption, (small microprocessors are limited on RAW speed)

of course the government has to way in all the options when choosing the winner,
but everyone should remember that even though "Rijndael" was chosen by the U.S.,
the U.S. does not speak for other countries, many other countries would choose security over performance somewhat, and likewise others would choose performance over security.

so remember, when people tell you that "Rijndael" is the strongest AES method, there WRONG!,
"Serpent" is in fact the strongest with 32 Rounds as opposed to only 14 that "Rijndael" offers,
"Rijndael" is the best method when also taken in to account performance,
"Rijndael" is fast because it's only 14 Rounds MAX,
but when you consider that 9 rounds has been cracked, the 10th round is on the verge of being cracked, 14 rounds doesn't seem that far away......
perhaps choosing "Rijndael" may of been an unwise choice by the U.S.
unless of course...... this was there plan all along ........ conspiracy theory ..... lets stop there shall we.

if you really want to protect something that is top top secret, then "Rijndael" is fine, and holds up quite well, but to make full use of the 256bit Key, you MUST use a password that is about 30 Characters long, the biggest flaw in any encryption method is in fact the user, passwords that are too short brings out the fundamental flaws in all advance encryption systems, not sure why, something to-do with the mathematics i recall correctly.
Comment - Is AES encryption crackable?
9.0.9.4b (Nov 5, 2009 - 11:30 AM)

oh my word, this whole document is based on what if this and what if that,

can't stand theorists, all talk, no actual facts,

AES is crackable, i don't ever recall any government agency saying it wasn't?
if human made it, then human can break it, we have all heard this saying, question is, how long will it last up against technology that is now moving so fast forward

Hardware and software is becoming very powerful, it's difficult for an open source encryption method to be strong enough to be around for a couple of decades,
i can see some day, military encryption methods passing down to the public sector (military and top secret agencies have there own in-house developed encryption systems)

open source just doesn't attract the very best minds the world has in this particular field, the very best minds will want to commercialize it, and no government or people for that matter would go for it, part of the reason why JPEG2000 never really kicked off (to many license issue's)

AES has become so much in the lime light, it's got to the stage where the general public maybe safer using a different encryption method, one that isn't getting so much attention by would be attackers,
AES on it's own is becoming a concern, Multiple encryption is the way, 3 different algorithms running one after each other, now that would be strong, few technical issues, but definitely strong.
Comment - Q: How essential is Microsoft Security Essentials? A: Does your door have a lock?
9.0.9.4b (Sep 30, 2009 - 8:59 PM)

the title of this post is
"How essential is Microsoft Security Essentials? A: Does your door have a lock?"

it would of been nice to have some relevance to the topic subject,

the whole thing as gone on to some kind of mission statement, further more, there is quite a lot of assumptions in the above post,

i like the end sentence,
"For the consumer market, Security Essentials is the kind of product Microsoft should have released long ago. Is it good enough? That's the question millions of users will answer over the coming months."

well i say, windows XP is the kind of product that should of came out instead of windows 95, well yes. talk about stating the obvious, in fact i felt that all this mission statement has done,

it's very easy standing aside, throwing stones over the fence,
one could argue given the fact that there early flagship products like (win 95, and 98) were in heinside, a disaster, and if at that point microsoft released a statement about protection software,
we as a consumer would demand that they focus all there attention on sorting out there main products before attempting to enter another market,

it goes on to say that microsoft should protect there product from malicious attacks,
yes, and dvd's should be NOT be copied, police should stop all crimes from happening, and children all over the world should not be hurt in any way. well welcome to the real world. we can all say things like that,

it's all s***, Microsoft will never ever be able to stop there operating system from being damaged, hell with all the software that's available to protect operating system's, operating sysems still get damaged, everyone knows that the hole world is basically a cat and mouse game, defenders will design something new to protect, attackers will find a way to beat or get around the new defense, on and on we go,

to be honest with you, like i said the above statement is just that, a mission statement that had nothing to do with the title, and goes on about what microsoft should of done and what not, who is he anyway to talk about what they should be doing,

we buy a product for what it is, it's only human nature to get a product and become disappointed over time at it's failings, that's life, my PC takes about 2 minutes to boot up, how long, oh and my kettle takes 3 minutes to boil, big deal, that's life,

banks have been around for what, hundred... two hundred years, and guess what, they still get broken into, why because criminals get smarter too, kind of obvious really,
we blame the bank, well of course we do, why, human nature, we have to blame some one right!!!
and as we don;t have the gits that did the bank, well then we shout at the ban instead.
Comment - China to begin reviewing all song lyrics for 'inappropriate' content
9.0.9.4b (Sep 12, 2009 - 12:14 PM)

"goes against the basic principles established by the constitution"

constitution is applied only when it favors the government,

china is becoming very controlling over there people, in fact china has rewritten half of there history already, especially when it comes to there wars, and civil uprising's,

why is china becoming so controlling over there people, so much for freedom of speech,
and really that list above could mean anything, and everything, it's hardly self explanatory, interpretation is very error prone,
i can see china having a civil revolt in the near future,