Archive for: October 8, 2007

RapGet is a downloader with code recognition for such share servers as rapidshare de megaupload com slil ru and others
nbsp
Advantages of RapGet
a freeware
a small soft about 200 Kb
autodownloads from 67 free share services
a lot of simultanious downloads
multilingual support 48 languages
nbsp
Changes
Fixed rapidshare com
Added bigshare net

nLite is a GUI for permanent Windows component removal by your choice After removal there is an option to make bootable image ready for burning on cd or testing in virtual machines With nLite you will be able to have Windows installation which on install doesn 39 t include or even contain on cd unwanted components
nbsp
Changelog
new Password expiration Unattended option
upd Addons added Strings UpdateCabs and automatic i386 files detection for 64bit
upd KB937143 kb925398 direct integration
fix Argentina added to the Location setting
fix My Computer Context Menu tweaks
fix 1689 error during Intel textmode driver integration
fix x64 sp2 unattended IIS install was breaking installation
fix FIPS compliant
fix Win2k Iswow64 error on Slipstream Select
fix Shell HW Detection service can 39 t start
fix Network Monitor removal breaking Computer Browser in 2k3
rem Removed a few Visual Effects in Tweaks bsod at logon on German Windows
rem Removed Network DDE for Win2k hanging at saving settings

Hewlett-Packard and Dave Networks are prepping to launch their Next.TV Web venture later this week, which will include programming from National Lampoons and 49 other major content providers.

The offering will debut as an automatic Web update on HP consumer notebooks with Microsoft Vista, and will be accessible via the HP QuickPlay button. By early 2008, all consumer notebooks will come pre-installed with the updated HP QuickPlay and Next.TV.

National Lampoons is the first official channel announcement from Next.TV, though they expect to announce the rest of the lineup by week's end, said Rex Wong, Next.TV CEO.

For some reason, a recent lunchtime discussion here turned to highs and lows of Chevy Chase's career. Unfortunately, most were in agreement that is has skewed toward the lows, but perhaps re-living his National Lampoons glory c/o of Next.TV could change a few minds. No comment on the Van Wilder front.

I know, I know--I was tempted to laugh this one off, too, but let's just remember for a second who they're comparing themselves to. I don't say that in attempts to bring Apple down a few pegs--I've always preferred Apple's OSes to Windows'. I find OS X to be better designed, more logical, easier to use, and just nicer to look at than its Windows counterparts.

Rather, I bring it up to point out the fact that, just a decade ago, notions that Apple might be able to reinvent itself as a major player in the consumer electronics market were regularly laughed off. And now, in 2007, we've got other manufacturers vying for a piece of Apple's marketshare pie.

It's been about two decades since Amiga was a major player in the market--in fact, it's been a few years since they've issued a product. According to Download Squad, legal issues kept their OS4 from ever being released.

Still, without issuing any kind of, you know, details, the company is displaying a serious case of braggadocio, by stating to all who will listen that OS5 is going to rock the socks off of OSX.

Well, they did issue one detail, which is, admittedly pretty promising: the ability to scale to different hardware, allowing users to utilize the same OS with on, say, a handset as a PC.

China might be rolling out the welcome mat for the world's Olympians next year, but it is reportedly now giving the cold shoulder to RSS feeds.

Internet censorship in China is nothing new, but crafty Web surfers have been able to access certain blocked content via RSS feeds for quite some time. China has apparently caught on to this phenomenon, however, as mainland China BoingBoing readers reported on Saturday that they were not able to subscribe to any of the site's feeds.

Ars Technica readers have also had difficulty accessing Feedburner RSS feeds, and report that China has started blocking all incoming URLs that start with "feeds", "rss" or "blog". Ars offers some hints for getting around the blockades, though it warns that even if these options are successful, the load time will be significantly slower.

With the Olympics approaching and much of today's news content readily accessible on the Internet, it should be interesting to see if China's Web censorship affects coverage of the games. When I was in China in April, a majority of the mainstream news and e-mail sites were accessible and speed was not an issue. But certain blog sites like LiveJournal.com were blocked, so I wonder if sports bloggers will run into trouble posting from Beijing, or even getting press credentials in the first place.

While most current car models are focused on things like better fuel efficiency, the new Toyota Yaris has introduced an amenity long ignored by top car manufacturers: the roof-top shooting tentacle.

However, the update to the subcompact model, original introduced in spring of 2006, will only be available to Xbox 360 owners, as part of Yaris, a new free that can be downloaded via the Xbox Live service.

Alongside appearances in virtual universes like Second Life, the move toward video game advertising ("Advergame" is the buzzword) is another signpost for companies increasingly frustrated at technologies like DVR, which are making older television-based advertising models less and less relevant. Burger King, who helped pioneer the method, has sold some 3.5 million copies of their Sneak King Xbox game, for $3.99 a piece.

The monetization of the latter example is fairly straightforward, but will Toyota's free alternative really have a positive effect on the sale of real-world Yarises?

It's hard to know for certain, but man, I could really go for a flame-kissed Whopper, behind the driver's seat of my subcompact, right about now.

While I can't say I have need for this, being a.) old and b.) happily married, Webpoint Communications' new RingtoNumber service, launched Monday, may be of interest to the young 'uns out trolling Facebook for their next hookup.

While the personals ads in your local weekly often include a voice-mail number for a prospective beau/belle to leave a message, both RingtoNumber and the already-established Vumber will ring the call through to your phone via an anonymous proxy. Right now, I'd give the edge to the more-established Vumber, however. Here's why.

Here's the way anonymous or virtual numbers work: a caller dials the virtual number, possibly (415) 545-1345. That number then rings through to your actual number, which might be (919) 876-4534.

RingtoNumber seems like a cost-effective service; heck, the basic service is free. For that, you get a non-local number with a "shortcode" attached, that is keyed to your number. If you pay $4.99 a month, you'll get your own local number, with no shortcode and 200 minutes or forwarded calls. A $9.99 monthly plan includes unlimited forwarded minutes.

The advantage here is that you'll get a RingtoNumber widget to add to your MySpace, Facebook, or other Web page, which includes your number and shortcode, if you have one. With Vumber, you'll have to manually enter it. On the other hand, are you going to want to publish a phone number on your social-networking Web page? The only reason that Vumber seems more appealing is that RingtoNumber doesn't seem to solve that problem.

Right now, Vumber is offering a relatively comparable offer -- $9.95 buys you unlimited minutes and your own number, ...

McAfee and the NCSA (National Cyber Security Alliance) have teamed up for a study gauging the differences between Americans' opinions on computer security and their actual implementations of such apps on their machines.

There are a lot of interesting numbers to take away from the survey, and, as one might expect, given the nature of the groups who conducted it, the final consensus is that Americans aren't as secure as they should be.

Perhaps someone involved might be able to recommend a good suite...

Let's start with the not-altogether-too-surprising: 98-percent of Americans surveyed believe that it is important to keep their machines up-to-date.

More interestingly, 87-percent of Americans claim to have anti-virus protection installed on their PC--surprisingly, the number who actually have it installed is a bit higher, at 94-percent. However, only 51-percent have had such software updated in the past two weeks. As for those who have updated in the past month, the number bumps up just slightly to 52-percent.

Eight-one-percent of those surveyed have firewall software installed, but only 64-percent have it activated. The numbers drop off significantly in terms of users who have anti-spam and anti-phishing software installed, at 21- and 12-percent, respectively.

The full results of the survey can be viewed as a PDF, over at McAfee's site.

It's about time that television portrays geeks as intelligent crime-solving, myth-debunking, and super-heroic individuals. Sure, they still may not always get the girl in the end, but our favorite geeky TV shows know just how to make us laugh and crave for more.

The best geeky TV show, new to the fall line-up, has to be CBS' "The Big Bang Theory". It's about two roommates—Johnny Galecki as Leonard and Jim Parsons as Sheldon— who enjoy playing Klingon Boggle, alphabetize their cereal according to fiber content, host Superman movie marathons, and have way too many MySpace friends. Kaley Cuoco plays Penny, the hot chick from across the hall who works at The Cheesecake Factory and always smells of vanilla. It's a half-hour show that's on Monday nights at 8:30 pm. I can't wait for the next episode tonight!

But that's not all—I asked the PC Mag staff which shows are their favorites, as well as the 8 Geeky TV Shows They Miss. Check out Our 10 Favorite Geeky TV Shows story, including "Heroes" and "Bones", to see if you agree with our choices.

Just in case you needed another reason to love NetFlix, the DVD delivery service is taking on their most ambitious and admirable task to date: resurrecting Dana Carvey's career--or at least helping the guy pay the bills until the long-awaited Church Lady movie finally gets off the ground.

The comedian, who has largely been out of the limelight since the career that helped launch comedic classics like Wayne's World and Opportunity Knocks (granted, I haven't seen the latter since I was 10, but my memories remain fond, none the less) spiraled into Master of Disguise (which I caught on HBO at 24, to decidedly less positive results), will make a triumphant commercial return to the screen, this Friday and Saturday.

The video will be available as a free download, via Netflix's site, and will, "[feature] film clips from and Mr. Carvey's comedic take on 11 classics," including North by Northwest, Singin' in the Rain, and The Exorcist, the latter of which apparently involves Neil Young composing the theme song, "Little Girl with the Spinnin' Head."

Oh man, Young is going to regret the day he left Buffalo Springfield, in order to pursue a solo career. Take that, you haggard Canadian singer-songwriter.

The special is available via Netflix's Watch Now technology, beginning at 12:01 PST on Friday. In the meantime, we'll be pondering the sexiness of Bugs Bunny, when he used to dress up like a girl bunny.

"Britney Spears fears she will share Princess Diana's fate," according to a headline on msnbc.com this morning. If only there was some way to "tag" that thrilling tidbit and spin it out to the world's "citizen journalists" for some pithy commentary.

That day is here, as msnbc.com on Monday announced that is has acquired social news site Newsvine.com. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but similar deals, like eBay's acquisition of Stumbleupon, have brought in as much as $75 million. This is msnbc.com's first acqusition since its debut 11 years ago.

Newsvine combines news content from traditional media outlets like AP and ESPN with freelance material and user-driven story rankings. The deal will likely provide msnbc.com with more "community" aspects while giving Newsvine increased exposure via msnbc's user base. Newsvine is expected to remain an independent operation, according to msnbc.com.

Stay tuned for word on Britney's fate.

Firefox is a free open source web browser for Windows Linux and Mac OS X and is based on the Mozilla codebase It is small fast and easy to use and offers many advantages over Internet Explorer such as the ability to block pop up windows