Search results for 'app:weblogs' matching tag 'software'

Spyware Blaster Database Update June 27 2012

siljaline — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 05:00:00 GMT

• 17 new IE CLSID's
• No new IE Restricted Zone entries
• No new entries for Mozilla
• 15350 total items in the database

Spyware Blaster Database Update June 16 2012

siljaline — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 05:00:00 GMT

• 15249 total items in database.
• 24 new IE CLSID's
• No new IE Restricted Zone Entries
• None for Mozilla

And a another reminder javacool software is now BrightFort

Spyware Blaster database updated May 23 2012

siljaline — Wed, 23 May 2012 05:00:00 GMT

• 15206 total items in database
• 29 new IE CLSID's
• No new IE Restricted site zone entries
• No new entries for Mozilla

It’s an oldie..

mikehall — Sun, 13 May 2012 05:00:00 GMT

.. but it works.

I was asked to scan and send by email a photo which was taken a few years ago. It had been in a glass frame, and when removed for scanning, tiny bits of the picture were left on the glass. It wasn’t too bad but I wanted to improve it

There were and still are five different photo viewer/editors installed.

Windows Live Gallery
Windows Photo viewer
Microsoft Office Picture Manager
Irfanview
XnView

All of them have the ability to change a photo in some way, even if it is only to correct the orientation. Some can do way more, but none of them have the capacity to remove scratches or crease marks from an old photo.

I was so sure that I had a photo editor which would do the above, and I do. It is called Photo Studio 5 by Arcsoft and I got it fro free with a Canon Lide 30 scanner back in 2003.

It installs and works perfectly in Windows 7 64-bit. The blemishes in the photo disappeared with just ONE click. How good is that?

Photo Studio 5 is no longer available but there is version 6.. http://www.arcsoft.com/photostudio/

Star struck for Windows 8

mikehall — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 05:00:00 GMT

I am by no means a full time astronomer but when I am out on my balcony at night, puffing away on my cigarette brand of choice, I like to look at the night sky.

Living on the edge of a city, I can’t see too many stars, but it is nice to be able to find out which ones I can see, and to be able to tell the difference between real stars, roving satellites and airplanes and the Ornge emergency helicopter service. I used to have this program running on XP and Vista, and it is a great little program.

It defaults to a view from somewhere in France, but you you can change the default for your location. Its free too. Here is a screenshot..

Not bad for a freebie program, eh. I like it. It is a pity that it doesn’t show meteor showers and Northern lights in real times. I wouldn’t have to go outside at all if it did.. As it is, it doesn’t show them in 3D or any D.

OK, so why have I resurrected Stellarium. Well, I booted into Windows 8 and was desperate to install something in a bid to make it more useful than it is and, having initially run the program, I realised that it would make a great addition to the Metro UI interface.

The downsides are that the ‘square’ it installs into the Metro interface is like any other non-Metro square, and like other Metro apps, you might need a screen with a longer diagonal measurement than 7” to be able to make out what is actually being shown.

The upside is that it runs full screen, has a slide out ‘charm’ bar which is not too responsive re sliding out, and there is no obvious way to shut Stellarium down other than to use the Alt + F4 combo.

Apart from its start icon. this program which has been around for some while now, has to be one of the all time great Metro apps, yes? You decide..

http://stellarium.org/

Compatibility and security issues..

mikehall — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 06:00:00 GMT

I knew a guy who always got lost whenever he ventured out in his car beyond his comfort zone. While his street hadn’t changed much, the road system beyond had and the 15 year old atlas map on the rear parcel shelf didn’t reflect the changes.

Similarly, I saw in MS Answers a guy who couldn’t get AutoRoute 2001 to install in Windows 7. There is no doubt in my mind that Windows 7 was doing him a favour. Not only have the roads changed, been added to over the last 11 years, even the shape of the coastline has changed. The East coast is getting washed away and the West coast is ever expanding. It may not be at too fast a rate but it is happening.

So what does this have to do with compatibility? Well, compatibility is based around using old tools to do jobs in an environment for which they were not designed to work.

Make no mistake, some of the older programs broke every rule in the code manuals such that they would work. File security and just general security were not close to paramount, and software authors did whatever needed to be done in order to get their software to run well enough that it would sell. Windows 9x was loosely written and allowed it, which didn’t help the cause.

Windows XP changed that, and Microsoft started to tighten up on security and file integrity as well as the ‘one license, one computer’ issue. It had to come. A considerable amount of backwards compatibility was built in, not enough for everything to work but enough that computers users with older programs could still use the stuff.

Time marched on, file breaching was taken to new levels, and users expected to be able to do more and in relative safety, so Microsoft upped the game in Vista and subsequently in Windows 7. Even now, there are loop-holes and there always will be if a computer user expects access to stuff outside of the confines of the case, but security and integrity are way improved over what we had before.

Unfortunately, that cuts a substantial amount of software out of the game. There is no mileage or profit in making changes to old software such that it will work in the secure modern environment, and opening the gates on Windows 7 to allow anything to work the is akin to knocking down the castle walls. With the walls gone, any ‘Lion’ in the locality can get in..

In the case of AutoRoute 2001 mentioned above, the user loses on two counts. First, he/she gets lost and secondly gets re-directed straight to the Lions territory where they are all lined up ready to pounce.

Long time computers users have at some point got used to using a warm fuzzy program which suited the needs to a treat, but there is more to making an older program work in the new environment than just inserting a line at the beginning of the program code which reads ‘Please work in Windows 7’. For the amount of work required, they are going to have to charge, and they have to make the top new and shiny as well or the customers will think that they have been hustled. Gone are the warm fuzzy features which endeared so much, to be replaced by ‘it used to be easier than this’ features.

Such is progress. Don’t blame the software guys. They were doing their best within the limitations of knowledge and what they had to work with re hardware and how the software interacted with it. They are still doing their best now even if it doesn’t seem that way.

The AMD System Monitor

mikehall — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 06:00:00 GMT

And yes, you do have to be running an AMD m’board.

Novelty value = 5. because it is more fun than a defragmenter..

So, what can you see?

if you click on ‘Details’ in each, you get even more info.

The CPU section opens into a graph with a sliding bar section for each core. You can watch the cores jump around, and the CPU frequency switches from medium high to high which shows that AMD Cool ‘n Quiet really does work..

The Graphics card section is not nearly as exciting, and if the utility was connected to you, they would be ready to pull the plug on you..

Arguably the most exciting part is Memory usage. It shows where Windows is using memory, what percentage of the total is being used, memory speed, and how much you didn’t need to buy but constitutes part of your bragging rights.

It is a great utility if you have dual monitors because you can park it on one where it is easily seen while pushing the computer into hard work on the other. With just one screen, all you get to see is the total resources hogged by the utility itself.

This is a must have utility if you have no life and are easily amused..

http://sites.amd.com/us/game/downloads/amd-system-monitor/Pages/overview.aspx

Graphic courtesy of Snag-It 10.0.2

Imagine Cup North East

Anonymous — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 06:00:00 GMT

For the last couple of weeks I've been helping behind the scenes with Imagine Cup North East. If you've never heard or the Imagine Cup it's an annual student competition run by Microsoft to build technology solutions to address real-world problems, and this year two great local organisations promoting digital industries, Codeworks and Sunderland Software City, have teamed up to run a regional heat.

This week students from Newcastle, Northumbria, Sunderland, Durham and Teesside universities and local colleges will be attending taster and information events (in Newcastle and Middlesbrough), where Microsoft's Ben Nunney will be on hand to discuss the finer points of the competiton.

The competition is a great opportunity for students to work on a project outside of their studies (looks good on the CV, etc) and it should be good fun too, with a 36 hour hack event later in the month. Of course there's also the possibility of a trip to the global finals in Australia to aim for too!

If you're a current student (or graduated in the last year) there's still time to get involved, and if you aren't eligible to take part, you should still be able to support the teams at a future NEBytes event. Head to the Imagine Cup North East site, the Facebook page, and follow @ImagineCupNE on Twitter to keep up with all the goings-on.

IE6 Migration Roadshow touring England

Anonymous — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 06:00:00 GMT

Please stop using IE6.

If you haven't yet, then you might want to attend one of these events. This comes direct from Microsoft...

We are thrilled to extend the invitation to you to attend our series of Internet Explorer 6 Migration Roadshow events!

With support for Windows XP coming to an end on the 8^th April 2014 and IE6 standing in so many people’s way of migration, what better time to start taking the leap to a more modern browser? Problem applications are all too often the blocker, so Microsoft have teamed up with Camwood, Citrix Systems and Quest Software, all application compatibility experts, to help jump-start your move.

Join us at a date below for a packed agenda discussing the technical challenges faced by IT departments when migrating their users off of IE6. We will establish:

·         Why you should go through the trouble of migrating;

·         How you go about identifying those problem applications;

·         What you can do about them.

There are a range of dates to choose from, each offering a slightly different spin and all promising to be thoroughly informative! Take your pick and use the links below to register with our partners.

Who, Where & When?
Tues 21^st February
Microsoft & Quest Software
Manchester United Football Ground (Old Trafford)
09:30 – 14:00 (+Stadium Tour!)
More Information & Registration

Thurs 22^nd March
Microsoft & Citrix Systems (Including newly acquired AppDNA)
Chalfont St. Peter (Easy access via the M40 & M25 as well as rail)
09:00 – 16:00
More Information & Registration

Tues 3^rd April
Microsoft & Camwood
London, Cardinal Place
More Information & Registration TBC

Thurs 19^th April
Microsoft & Quest Software
Reading Football Ground (Madejski Stadium)
09:30 – 14:00 (+Stadium Tour!)
More Information & Registration

On behalf of all the team at Microsoft, we hope to see you there!

In case you're wondering, I'm usually a Chrome user myself. I'm not one for adding multiple extensions to a browser, so I like the way that Chrome natively syncs my bookmarks, etc, and has Flash and PDF reading funtionality built right in. So that's IE6 and Adobe's Flash and Reader that I no longer use. Three birds, one stone.

Spyware Blaster Database Update Dec 22 | 2011

siljaline — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 06:00:00 GMT

Hi,

Total Items in the database • 14484
• No new IE CLSID's
• 56 New IE Restricted Sites
• No new entries for Mozilla

Ensure you enable full protection once you have fetched the download

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