Matthew's Profile

Member since March 24, 2005

  • Name

    Matthew Drury

  • Location:

    United States of America

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Recent Posts

  1. Review - AOL Explorer

    1.5 Build 1.5000.6 Beta (May 7, 2006)

    First off, AOL deserves every bit of bashing they get on these reviews. They've earned it. They've earned it as much as any company ever has.

    Like alot of companies out there, they are also learning NOT to screw around with a user's computer. Other companies like Sony and the DRM/Rootkit crap they pulled will also learn that a computer system belongs to the end-user. Getting sued by individuals as well as nations will eventually make these arrogant and greedy companies a little more respectful of the clients they are supposedly serving.

    I'm as big an AOL basher as there is - not because of the company but as a result of the number of systems I have needed to fix over the last 15 years - because of their total disregard for someone else's property.

    It was with a great deal of reluctance that I installed AOL Triton (Messenger) and AOL Explorer (their Browser).

    The installation was clear and open. Much to my surprise, it was fair and unlike earlier AOL installs that tried to hide 3rd party application installs, everything was out in the open. They asked questions like:

    A. Do you want the AOL Toolbar on IE
    B. Do you want to make AOL Explorer the default browser
    etc...

    AOL would NOT - I repeat... would NOT have done that a couple of years ago.

    Evaluating both the Browser installation PLUS AOL's reputation during this process - I'd have to say that they both passed with flying colors!

    I hope AOL continues to respect user rights and that many other companies follow suite.

    The Browser itself is exceptional and this evaluation is coming from someone with a great deal of distrust for AOL.

    One of AOL's past strength has been in the area of usability. They have always shined in this very important area.

    In fact and despite their past transgressions, usability and now integration to their other services is about as well done as I've seen on any browser. Kudos to AOL for pushing browser standards forward and giving users the feel of a desktop application (FAT Client) in a Browser interface.

    For users out their still leery of AOL's past, maybe it's time to give them another shot - I did...

    If using IE 6's rendering engine still concerns you from a security prespective - do look into Netscape, Opera and Firefox.

    Netscape can toggle between rendering pages using Firefox's engine (Gecko) and also does a great job of "skinning" the interface toward an enhance user experience. My hat goes off to them also.

    Opera uses it's own rendering engine and has been, imho, the browser interface leader and it's main innovator for many years. To Opera... users and browser developers have noticed what you've done over the last nearly 10 years - you can see the influence on these new browsers skins.

    Firefox, while lacking in a default esthetically pleasing color scheme (yeah - it's butt ugly), does a good job on security issues. Sad to say, this should be one of the most impotant criteria for selecting a browser and should be seriously considered (along with Opera) in ANY environment where security is a concern.

    I hope AOL continues to further improve the remarkable browser thay have put together and eventually add the same type of toggle switch Netscape has incorporated into their technology (Firefox/IE). I would certainly use AOL much more often if it used the Gecko Engine (or even licensed the Opera Engine - as does Macromedia's Dreamweaver).

  2. Review - Yahoo! Toolbar for Mozilla Firefox

    0.3b (Apr 8, 2005)

    This is absolutely terrific! Support not only for Firefox but for Linux too!

    As Open Source Technology in the form of Apps and OSes takes a stronger and tighter hold of user Desktops, it will be companies like Yahoo that have already psoitioned themselves into this Market and will continue to remain profitable. Smart, very smart.

  3. Comment - Gen. Clark: Sensitive Gov't. Documents Exposed by LimeWire

    0.3b (Jul 27, 2007 - 11:23 AM)

    I couldn't agree with you more on the subject of treason. This issue extends way past idiots who don't have the slightest clue on how to use the applications *they* themselves install on their systems.

    Like a dog chasing its' own tail, I find the focus on a specific type of application unnerving and a complete waste of time! It solves nothing!

    This issue represents a much larger one regarding secure Operating Systems, availability of source code for inspection, the type of hardware that should be allowed to integrate with secure systems and the clearly obvious indifference too many people in all branches of government regard security (unless it's against it's own people). This indifference should cost them in the same manner it would cost any one of us.

    Where is the government's list of approved secure OSes and applications? What steps have they taken to train it's people and safeguard digital information? The internet, email, p2p, spyware, etc.. have been around way too long for anyone in government to plead ignorance!

    We currently have a government that spends it's time spying on the american people (FBI now recruiting citizens to spy on eachother), illegally eavesdropping on telephone conversations, installing spyware (police) and even harassng people for taking photos of a building. The results have produced little. Yet, when government officials, contacts, friends and related others directly make classified documents available to the whole world, the "gun is blamed for the murder". This is such total BS!

    We have spent nearly 1 trillion dollars for defense! And now we're hearing that a software application that's been whined about for ages is the latest culprit against the government?! If computers are too complicated for the government to use - remove them!

    In addition to the security breaches already discussed in the article, this open "investigation" will now have everyone and their mother searchng and retrieving classified documents. This is another breach of security that has not gone unnoticed.

  4. Comment - Intel, Asus Show Off $200 Laptop

    0.3b (Jun 7, 2007 - 1:10 PM)

    Excellent! Thanks.

  5. Comment - Intel, Asus Show Off $200 Laptop

    0.3b (Jun 6, 2007 - 7:30 AM)

    Offering this unit through traditional retail channels to all consumers is a big plus and the specs seem pretty good:

    Windows XP or Linux - 802.11b/g WiFi, Ethernet, modem, webcam, mic, 512MB RAM and 4, 8 or 16GB flash drive storage. Apparently a 3 hour battery life.

    Full specs are still unavailable though it would be nice to see info on:
    USB (especially for plugging in larger portable drives), SVGA port, Keyboard/Mouse ports, CPU.

    Anyone know if Linux supports read/write to NTFS?

    At $200 though, this looks like a real winner and compares favorably to OLPC, Palm's Foleo and to a lesser extent... VIA's Nanobook.

  6. Comment - SanDisk, Microsoft Join to Replace U3

    0.3b (May 14, 2007 - 2:22 PM)

    Have to agree with the general consensus here... never saw much of an advantage to using U3 when portable apps are already widely available from so many other sources.

    For those not familiar with portable apps, a few links:

    http://www.portablefreeware.com
    http://portableapps.com/
    http://www.softpedia.com/get/PORTABLE-SOFTWARE/

  7. Comment - Iowans to Get $179.5 Million from Microsoft

    0.3b (Apr 19, 2007 - 10:28 AM)

    Not sure what the specifics on this case are... but here's an interesting tidbit...

    iRise, a company that developes project management software charges $250,000 to $1 million for their enterprise system (their starter kit is 40k). An amazing dollar amount but they have apparently built a successful business model on their solution+pricing structure.

    refs:
    1. http://www.irise.com/
    2. google: irise $250,000

    Anyone else know of other companies that charge 5-6 figures on software?