Favorite Files

1. Skype for Windows

Recent Posts

1. 
   Review - Clipboard Help+Spell

   1.10.01 Beta (Jun 25, 2006)

   OK, so far we have a failed psychic (yizuman), and someone (Jose) who compares two applications that aren't really designed to do the same thing, with one of those applications lacking the very functionality blatantly pointed out in the name of this application (SPELL).
   
   Anyone want to jump in and point out that water is wetter than this application?
   
   EDIT: Sorry, you are right Jose, it seems that clcl is way better. No need for a useless spellchecker.

2. 
   Review - AVG Anti-Spyware Pro

   4.0.0.172 (Jun 24, 2006)

   The prior name was better... "ewido anti-malware". That name summed up what ewido does much better than the name "ewido anti-spyware" does. The ewido people say that before, people thought ewido was an anti-virus application (which it is not), so they changed the name. Well, now, won't people think it's just an anti-spyware application (which, again, it is not)? Yes, I know, all the other vendors are using the stupid "anti-spyware" moniker, so the choice is pretty much made up for them.
   
   In any case, version 4.0 is a significant improvement. The inteface still uses a stupid custom GUI, but at least it can be minimized the normal way now, and resized (though it doesn't remember its size/position--argh!).
   
   ewido 4.0 doesn't seem to kill my CPU nearly as much as 3.0 and 3.5 did. The background service and the GUI application seem to be quite memory hungry, though, taking 40-MB and 50-MB of private bytes each, respectively, on my system this moment.
   
   I can't comment on how well ewido detects malware, since I have none on my system. I will say that a huge detection database (circa 355,000) alone does not mean anything. If that's your standard of measure for which anti-malware solution is best, you're sadly mistaken.

3. 
   Review - GFI MailEssentials for Exchange/SMTP/Lotus

   12 Build 20060308 (Jun 23, 2006)

   This software changed my life. I was suicidal, and it set me free. It made me see the light. It made me find God.
   
   Today, I can do nothing but sing the praises of this, the finest software ever devised, nay, conceived. And we all owe the fine folks at BetaNews a hearty round of applause for featuring it.
   
   * False praise offered because if you rate a featured item below a 4, your comment will be quickly deleted.

4. 
   Review - Online Armor Personal Firewall Free Edition

   1.1.0.616 (Jun 20, 2006)

   Funny that someone would say "OA is a Host-based Internet Security Program (HIPS)". First of all, if that description were right, it would be a "HISP", not a "HIPS". Secondly, it is a HIPS, and HIPS stands for host-based intrustion prevention system ... and nothing else.
   
   Online Armor is OK, but there are better HIPS out there.

5. 
   Review - Central Brain Identifier

   8.0.0.8 Build 0606 Final (Jun 19, 2006)

   Slow, buggy, and unstable. Just like the pitbull who guards this comment section.

6. Comment - Exploit Surfaces for Unpatched IE Flaw

   8.0.0.8 Build 0606 Final (Mar 28, 2006 - 7:21 PM)

   But IE7 doesn't have spiffy extensions ;)
   
   Seriously though, MS had better hope that their new security is as good as they claim; expectations are high and if there's an exploit like this in the first few months, people are going to associate MS with "insecure".
   
   Before Ford started its 'quality is job 1' campaign, its name was something of a four-letter word to car owners ('found on road dead', 'fix or repair daily', etc. ;) They still haven't fully recovered their image...

7. Comment - Exploit Surfaces for Unpatched IE Flaw

   8.0.0.8 Build 0606 Final (Mar 28, 2006 - 7:11 PM)

   GoodThings2Life: "I never visit websites of a dubious nature" will not save you if (normally) innocent sites get hacked and the exploit uploaded to it.
   
   From http://blog.washingtonpo...ernet_explorer_f_1.html
   
   "According to a list obtained by Security Fix, hackers have infected at least 200 sites, many of which you would not normally expect to associate with such attacks (i.e., porn and pirated-software vendors). Among the victims are a regional business council in Connecticut, a couple of vacation resorts in Florida, a travel-reservation site, an online business consultancy, an insurance company, and a site featuring things to do at various cities across the country."

8. Comment - Third Party Offers Patch for IE Hole

   8.0.0.8 Build 0606 Final (Mar 28, 2006 - 7:06 PM)

   "most of you forget why MS created patch Tuesday."
   
   I thought it was because MS was sick of all the bad press every time a single patch became available (1 critical patch out of the blue = important breaking news report) and so made this a 'feature' (7 critical patches on a single day in a regular schedule = minor news report). Admittedly it was a pain for sysadmins to deal with a trickle of patches, but a regular weekly patch release would have been much better from a security POV. They even could have done it such that non-critical patches were only released once a month but had a separate weekly critical cycle. But they didn't.

9. Comment - Microsoft Releases Updated Vista Build

   8.0.0.8 Build 0606 Final (Mar 28, 2006 - 4:54 PM)

   "If Vista gets pushed to next year, MS has an incentive to push it further to August of next year, which will give it sufficient time to add the amazing WinFS."
   
   Hardware manufacturers are *howling mad* about the delays as it is. MS stockholders aren't much happier ;) Any further than January will result in heads rolling at MS. WinFS will have to wait for a bit (SP1? :)

10. Comment - Microsoft Releases Updated Vista Build

    8.0.0.8 Build 0606 Final (Mar 28, 2006 - 4:45 PM)

    >> Upgrading
    >
    > We'll see. I agree the ramp-up to Vista for pre-existing XP users will be slow. Of course new PC's will ship with Vista and corporations will /eventually/ move to Vista (after some wait and see period), so "Vista everywhere" I think is an inevitability, but it will be slow.
    
    Home users will in general take what they're given (XP for now, Vista in the future), but corporations have IT people who know about alternatives and accountants who can tell you how much more Microsoft costs (the M$ ad campaign "Get the Facts" being taken with a grain of salt ;)
    
    For a lot of companies, migrating to Vista will have to be justified compared to the status quo (XP, 2K and maybe even 98!) and Linux (and/or Apple for certain companies)