Favorite Files

1. 7-Zip (32-bit)
2. Adobe Reader SpeedUp
3. EZOutlookSync
4. Hamachi for Windows
5. LClock
6. phpDesigner 2008 Personal
7. Process Explorer
8. Skype for Windows
9. Vuze for Windows

Recent Posts

1. 
   Review - LClock

   1.60a (Aug 29, 2004)

   I too am puzzled by some of negative reviews. LClock is a very small application that consumes negligible system resources and serves only to make a nicer looking clock in the systray with a pop-up calendar. If you want more functionality at the cost of greater demands on your system, by all means use one of the alternatives out there.
   
   But for Pete's sake, judge it for its intent. I hope the developer is not discouraged by some of the irrational reviews that seem emotionally motivated.

2. 
   Review - Akti Planner

   1.12 Beta (Jul 26, 2004)

   agreed. this is demoware, not freeware.

3. 
   Review - phpMyAdmin

   2.6.0 Beta 2 (Jul 13, 2004)

   This is must-have software for anyone who creates database-backed websites using PHP and MySQL.

4. Comment - ICQ, Others Back New U3 USB Standard

   2.6.0 Beta 2 (Jan 9, 2005 - 5:26 PM)

   Current flash drives can handle around one million rewrite cycles. If you do the math, you'll find that applications saving backup copies of your work every ten minutes will not have an appreciable effect on the life expectancy of your drive. You'll be wanting a higher-capacity, faster drive before it wears out. You do need to look out for disk-intensive apps, though, and this is why portable firefox and portable thunderbird disable some features by default (such as disk caching, history information and the junk mail controls database). If I'm working on a lot of files, I drag the directory to the desktop and work from those, simply to speed up access times.
   
   Flash drives have become a commodity item, with 1GB drives available for $60. I view them as an important tool that I use freely, with a little bit of diligence. And naturally, any portable storage solution should be backed up regularly.

5. Comment - ICQ, Others Back New U3 USB Standard

   2.6.0 Beta 2 (Jan 7, 2005 - 12:49 PM)

   If an application is portable, it shouldn't need to leave anything on the host system, as is true for the three or four portable apps I use regularly. I have a hard time evisioning any persistent information that a portable app would be required to store in the registry. Frankly, application developers use registry keys way too much as it is, much like they tend to install every library as a system file, even though no other application will ever use them. I may be biased, though. I've hated the registry from the start. I want to know everything that's going on, which is one thing I miss from older, less capable OSes, in which everything related to an application was in the same directory.
   
   Regardless, this seems like a meaningless announcement to promote a few new software releases.

6. Comment - ICQ, Others Back New U3 USB Standard

   2.6.0 Beta 2 (Jan 7, 2005 - 11:33 AM)

   Applications can already be run from USB drives, and there are a number of apps packaged to be run from portable storage. If the program is self-contained to a single folder and doesn't need an installer that adds system dlls or make registry changes, then it usually can be run from a usb drive.
   
   For some examples, google Portable Firefox or EssentialPIM.

7. Comment - Microsoft Windows Exec Talks IE, Firefox

   2.6.0 Beta 2 (Nov 15, 2004 - 12:45 PM)

   It shows amazing chutzpah to ascribe some of MS's worst faults to their adversaries. Specifically, I'm referring to this quote:
   
   "Okay this is 1.0, I'm going to count on this and I'm going to expect some backwards compatibility for some time forward. And that has not been the hallmark of open source software in general. If you go look at OpenOffice for example, that's one of the things that has not proven out."
   
   Is he hoping that we have simply forgotton all the versions of MS Office that introduced new file formats which were incompatible with previous versions? Does he think we didn't care about all the phone calls and emails to other people to try to exchange documents in commonly-editable formats? Finally, we're offered a glimmer of hope when OpenOffice commits to an xml-based format that anyone can write software to interact with, while MS continues to obfuscate data created by their software, and he has the gall to make this statement? This isn't the pot calling the kettle black, this is the pot calling the kettle a pot.

8. Comment - NetFlix Lowers DVD Rental Pricing

   2.6.0 Beta 2 (Oct 25, 2004 - 1:10 PM)

   I live in Chicago where NetFlix has a warehouse. It used to be that if I returned a video, the following day NetFlix would acknowledge receipt and send out my next video. Thus, I was experiencing two business day return cycles. In the past few weeks, this seems to have changed. Now, NetFlix doesn't send out the new video for a couple of days. I'm wondering if this is a deliberate practice to offset their reduced prices.
   
   Also, last month they sent me a survey inquiring about typical return times. It seems to me that they are trying to throttle some subscribers back from quick swaps.