Activity for October 15

Review - AOL for Windows
9.5 Final (0.4337.148.1) (Oct 15, 2009)

Ugh. I can't believe they still make this. Not sure how much worse they can make it.
Review - Norton Removal Tool for Windows 2000/XP/Vista
2010.0.0.92 (Sep 12, 2009)

One of the few Symantec products i like...I use this program too often anymore.

McAfee does give trouble as well with removal (especially if you install IE8), but at least McAfee doesn't slow a system as much as Norton.

Symantec keeps swallowing other companies, then ruining the products they made. Norton was the big one.
Review - µTorrent for Windows
2.0 Build 16081 Beta (Aug 5, 2009)

Couldn't ask for anything better. Been using this since somewhere in the early 1.x's...
Review - AOL for Windows
9.5 Refresh Beta 13 (0.4337.89.1) (Aug 5, 2009)

It really isn't needed anymore...not only that, but it brought two fast systems (P4 3Ghz, 640MB RAM, and Pentium D, 2GB RAM) i tested it on to a crawl. Topspeed can be removed if you know where to look for the uninstaller (It's buried.)

As with another reviewer, this thing does make a mess. Failed installs are a pain in the butt to remove. (There's a reason i wrote an AOL removal tool to clean up all the various files/folders. There's also the countless reg entries left behind from DLL Registration...)
Review - RealPlayer for Windows
11.1 Build 6.0.14.895 (Mar 19, 2009)

You don't know how many systems i take this garbage off of.

What's even funnier is that new Dell systems come with this malware pre-installed...Not sure about HP/Acer/Compaq/Toshiba/Gateway/eMachines and such, but i wouldn't be surprised if it did. I think this junk might even be below the class that AOL is in...
Comment - Google to FCC: Apple and AT&T lied
11.1 Build 6.0.14.895 (Sep 18, 2009 - 4:25 PM)

My, what a surprise...this stuff probably happens all the time.

Anyway, rejection of apps like this shows why jail-breaking is a good thing...

The people with an iPhone likely don't care that it "duplicated the core dialer functionality of the iPhone.", or that they are doing it the "non-Apple" way. Apple should really stop caring about this sort of thing and give users more freedom.

In addition, Google Voice doesn't completely bypass AT&T (after all, the data needs to transfer somehow), so they really don't lose money.
Comment - DMCA protected video site Veoh from infringement, court rules
11.1 Build 6.0.14.895 (Sep 15, 2009 - 3:24 PM)

Hm, the DMCA actually protecting someone other than a copyright holder. All we ever hear about is someone getting sued for infringement and then paying up...

Would love to see more of these cases reported on.
Comment - Symantec launches Norton Security 10 and Quorum technology
11.1 Build 6.0.14.895 (Sep 11, 2009 - 11:27 PM)

I've never been a fan of Norton products. First one I ever used was SystemWorks 2001 on Windows 98. It worked fine, as long as you didn't set the utilities like System Doctor to run in the background. The Windows 3.1 version of Norton 4.0 runs great on my old AT system with a AMD-x586

After the DOS-based OS era though, Norton has been a disappointment. I tried NIS2005 and 2007, and a demo of 360, but sure enough, they made the system slow. Not even considering 2010. Now using free McAfee from Comcast, which isn't bad on resources except when updating (burns over 200MB of RAM during updates).

When I fix computers, so many people with slow systems ask what i did to fix them. Many times, its "Removed Norton". AVG, Antivir, NOD32, or MAfee always tend to run better.

Other Norton issues I've seen include Norton denying access to files for the malware i was trying to remove. The malware still ran fine, even though i couldn't touch the files. Thanks Norton for over complicating a simple task.
Comment - Cat-and-mouse game begins: Microsoft blacklists leaked Windows 7 key
11.1 Build 6.0.14.895 (Jul 31, 2009 - 1:30 PM)

Seeing that Windows is likely one of the most pirated programs of all time, it doesn't surprise me that the key was blocked. Problem is, you can't blacklist every key. Making software pirate-proof is almost impossible these days.

Also, if they think WGA will protect them, it's easily foiled with a line in the hosts file. (It worked in XP and vista anyway, don't have a system to format to try 7. No luck with it in Virtual PC).
Comment - Firefox hits 1 billion downloads!
11.1 Build 6.0.14.895 (Jul 31, 2009 - 1:04 PM)

When i fix computers, most systems i see have FF installed now. Over the past few years, i must have downloaded it several times.

I'm using 2.x right now (didn't upgrade because i can't find an IE theme for 3.5, currently have Looks Familiar theme on 2.0.0.20).

I'll admit, when i first installed it, i was skeptical it would beat IE. I'd installed it just to use the User Agent Switcher plug in for a website. Didn't plan on keeping it, but now i can't live without it!