Thursday, September 30, 2004

Browser catches fire

I finally tried the Preview version of the Mozilla Firefox browser.
I was impressed right from the word go. The first time I ran Firefox it detected which plugins were installed and retrieved updates for the compatible ones. I was really sorry there isn't a compatible version of PreBar out yet. It also asked where it should import bookmarks and settings from (as both IE and Mozilla were still on the machine). The browser is slick and fast, even on my old 500 MHz machine running Windows 98.

Wednesday, September 29, 2004

Over Amplified

I decided to try Amplify.com after reading a favorable review of it in PC Magazine. Amplify is supposed to help you capture and share parts of web pages which interest you.

I should have realized that wasn't for me when I saw that one of the requirements is Internet Explorer. Without asking, it installed itself in the startup group - a big no-no. It also had some major clashes with the GoogleBar.

Current status of Amplify.com: uninstalled.

Tuesday, September 28, 2004

Linux from my homeland

Here it is: Ubuntu Linux from South Africa. And a review on ExtremeTech.

Monday, September 27, 2004

Budget version of Windows

Russia gets budget version of Windows called Windows XP Starter Edition.

Bill and Steve are happy

Bill and Steve are happy at this news:
Reverse Migration: From Linux to Windows

Wednesday, September 22, 2004

SciTE!

With all my searching for a free text editor, I had never came across the SciTE editor. I guess that's good, because I may have been disappointed with SciTE as a mere text editor. I came across it packaged as an IDE in Scite4AutoIt3 with function lookups and other nice stuff for the freeware Windows scripting language AutoIt. Just to quickly plug AutoIt here - this is a powerful scripting language. I've used AutoIt scripts to configure Windows 98, 2000 and XP Test machines at work - automating repetitive tasks like setting Windows Explorer preferences or change the display settings. AutoIt is like DOS batch files on steroids.

Anyway, with the SciTE editor, which is based on Scintilla (yeah, I also was like "What?" at first), you have a really cool IDE for AutoIt. As well as keyword completion and syntax highlighting, there is also code folding, a feature I've only seen in Visual Studio .Net's IDE.

SciTE means Scintilla based Text Editor, according to SciTE for Windows Scripters.

And I thought Crimson Editor or JEdit were the ultimate in freeware text editors!

Saturday, September 18, 2004

Slipstreaming

One of the tools on the Windows Ultimate Boot CD site was AutoStreamer.

To "slipstream" is to apply a service pack to an Operating System installation CD, so when the OS is re-installed it already has the Service Pack. The process can be done "manually", but AutoStreamer automates the process.

I used AutoStreamer to slipstream Windows XP (SP1) to Windows XP Service Pack 2. The program required the original Windows XP CD (or the Windows XP CD copied to a directory on the hard-drive), and a full download of XP Service Pack 2. It didn't take long, as I already had Windows XP (SP1) in a directory on the hard-drive. Soon I had Windows XP with Service Pack 2 in ISO format ready for burning to a CD.

Give Windows the boot

Here's a good idea - a bootable Windows XP CD - Windows Ultimate Boot CD has tools and utilities for creating one.
They make use of Bart Preinstalled Environment, which I've mentioned before.

Thursday, September 16, 2004

Mozilla fixes and Firefox

Mozilla Firefox version 1.0 is due to be released soon. A preview release is available here.

My favorite browser, the more full-featured Mozilla browser suite has had a number of security updates in version 1.7.3 - see this article from news.com.

Wednesday, September 15, 2004

History, gone

After mentioning Pricelessware in a previous post as my favorite place to find freeware, I see that they have gone and changed the site. Previous years "pricelessware" no longer have links for downloading - doggone!

Tuesday, September 14, 2004

2nd to last straw

This was my second to last straw from McAfee Internet Security suite:

The McAfee anti-virus service has had a few hiccups updating itself in the past week. Then I got this message:



I tried to re-install it from the original CD. This hung-up Windows XP so bad I couldn't reboot or shutdown. So I had to press and hold the power button down until the PC shutdown. When I got it up again, McAfee Internet Security was fine.

My update subscription runs out early next year, but if this McAfee product carries on like this I might be buying the Norton Security Suite before then.

Friday, September 10, 2004

Email account bigger

MyWay.com have finally increased their free email account size from 6MB to 125MB. Although this is not as big as G(oogle) Mail's 1Gb, it is bigger than Yahoo's 100MB for free accounts.

Monday, September 06, 2004

New Moto Phone

I recently read about the upcoming Motorola A630 cellphone in Laptop Magazine .

This clamshell phone opens to reveal a QWERTY keypad, with a landscape mode screen.

Closed, with a standard phone keypad:


Opened to reveal the QWERTY keypad:


More in PhoneScoop

Free!

Just a quick link (depending on your connection speed of course) to my favorite Windows freeware site Pricelessware.

Sunday, September 05, 2004

Hi-tech Stalker

Police arrested a man they said tracked his ex-girlfriend's whereabouts by attaching a global positioning system to her car.

See this Associated Press article.

Friday, September 03, 2004

Bite the bullet

Well, I finally bit the update bullet, and upgraded my home PC to Windows XP Service Pack 2.

For a while I got the new Windows Security Center:



But then McAfee overrode it with its own:



Oh, well...

Thursday, September 02, 2004

Longhorn gets shorter

The next version of Windows is now due sooner due to Microsoft's dropping of features like WinFS, according to eWeek

Spyware Could Bug Windows XP SP2

From My Way News - existing spyware on your computer could mess with the installation of Windows XP Service Pack 2. It won't fix what's already broken...