Activity for November 1

Review - Mouse Stopper
0.6.751 Beta (Nov 1, 2011)

Well, you could buy this for $15.
OR you could download a free (as in "free beer" and as in "free speech") software mouse clipper (Hammer - an Application for Mouse MovEment Restriction) and use it instead.
Review - Calibre
0.7.45 (Feb 14, 2011)

I've started with FBreader for my e-book reading, but then i've discovered that FBreader developers are considering releasing a proprietary version with DRM support, so i've looked for alternatives. And found Calibre.
-1 for its habit of eating away free memory, but otherwise it does everything i wanted. And the part that allows you to read books is separate from the library manager, so you do not need to keep it open just to read.
Review - ClamWin Free Antivirus
0.96.5 (Dec 8, 2010)

-1 for not having real-time protection.

But only -1. Remember, that viruses don't just pop up from nowhere, they come through various directions called "attack vectors". ClamWin IS capable of countering them even without real-time protection.
It WILL scan files Firefox downloads.
It WILL scan e-mails you get in Thunderbird.
It CAN BE integrated into most applications that acquire files for you (browsers, e-mail clients, p2p clients, ftp clients etc).
It WILL NOT protect you if some piece of buggy software on your PC is vulnerable and downloads-and-executes malicious files.
It WILL NOT protect your if some piece of buggy software on your PC is vulnerable to buffer overflows and executes malicious code at remote attacker's whim (and no AV software will protect you from that kind of attack, by the way).
It WILL NOT protect you from your own stupidity (such as having AutoRun enabled for external storage devices).

Without RT protection this software is made for smart people. Not for dummies, who think that running some magical application will make them safe.

P.S. ClamWin is a port of Clam to Windows (and GNU/Linux version of Clam is much more capable). Therefore slandering Clam in particular and free security software in general is something only a fool would do.
Review - Sumatra PDF
1.1 (May 21, 2010)

For people with 500Mb-and-rising memory usage - OMG, people! Have you EVER heard of bugs or memory leaks? Now, it's still a good reason to rate it lower (such bugs are definitely nasty and they hurt the experience), but let's not mislead people by claiming that SumatraPDF is defective _by design_.

File a bug report.

Also, it should be noted that 1.0.1 fixed a lot of memory leaks, according to changelog. I guess someone DID file a bug report instead of whining.

Myself, i still thing there are some rough edges to SumatraPDF (such as uncomfortable view relocation when zooming), so i'll rate it 4. Not sure though whether it can be fixed without also fixing underlying pdf libraries.
Review - Vuze for Windows
4.3.0.2 (Nov 21, 2009)

2009.11.20 | Vuze 4.3.0.4

BUGFIX: UI | Prevent main window from popping up when adding a torrent and "Add Torrent Silently" set [TuxPaper]
BUGFIX: UI | Ensure that the correct progress reports are passed to listeners [Parg]
BUGFIX: UI | Fixed bug whereby the destruction of the torrent-open window was cancelling torrent download dialogs [Parg]
BUGFIX: UI | (OSX) Fixed bug where scrollers on some mice would cause table to blank [TuxPaper]
BUGFIX: UIvz | Handle magnet links within internal browser [TuxPaper]
BUGFIX: Plug | Improved the fallback lookup service by passing the all params [Parg]
BUGFIX: Plug | Verify that downloaded torrents are valid before passing to caller [Parg]

2009.11.19 | Vuze 4.3.0.2

FEATURE: Core | Support per-url config for http seeds and max_speed setting [Parg]
FEATURE: Plug | Start of a fallback magnet lookup service [Parg]
FEATURE: UI | Clicking on dock icon always opens main window [TuxPaper]

CHANGE: Core | Parse hex-encoded magnet URIs too [The 8472]
CHANGE: Core | Immediate-close option for tracker socket connections [Parg]
CHANGE: Core | Return IP address instead of DNS names for external seeds [Parg]
CHANGE: Core | Support more non-conformant RSS feed dates [Parg]
CHANGE: Core | Auto-speed bias towards min ping times rather than pure average [Parg]

BUGFIX: Core | Reverted socket handling to initial 1.6 fix status to fix with network binding/stall problems [Parg]
BUGFIX: Core | Added option to disable all IPv6 support and defaulted to 'disable' on OSX as some users experiencing crash when enabled [Parg]
BUGFIX: Plug | Don't cause all dht torrents to perform an 'announce' when 'pause-all' selected [Parg]
BUGFIX: Plug | Webplugin config section override was using the wrong variable prefix [Parg]
BUGFIX: UI | Fixed name column sort [TuxPaper]
BUGFIX: UI | (OSX) Fixed opening .vuze files when client isn't running [TuxPaper]
BUGFIX: UI | Fixed table view not loading (showing gray area) sometimes [TuxPaper]
BUGFIX: UI | (Windows) "Open Containing Folder" in default "folder association" app [TuxPaper]
BUGFIX: UI | (*nix) Fixed name column blanking [TuxPaper]
BUGFIX: UI | (OSX) Fixed Password option hanging UI [TuxPaper]
BUGFIX: UI | Fixed sidebar font sizes (mostly for *nix) [TuxPaper]
BUGFIX: UI | (OSX) Opening .torrent file when "Add Silently" is enable should no longer activate the main window [TuxPaper]
BUGFIX: UI | Fix losing cursor indication on Sashes (and other widgets) [TuxPaper]
BUGFIX: UI | Sidebar now accepts dropping torrents [TuxPaper]

I'm especially pleased with "CHANGE: Core | Parse hex-encoded magnet URIs too [The 8472]" - that's a fast reaction on ThePirateBay HEX-encoded magnet URI situation.

P.S. Reviewing 4.3.0.4, obviously.
P.P.S. Check the discussion tab above - it might open your eyes.
Comment - Why I chose iOS and Windows 8 development over Android
4.3.0.2 (Aug 1, 2011 - 8:32 AM)

"1 billion is a colossal number of Windows users"
"Microsoft already is firmly implanted in the desktop OS game and with Windows 7 effectively put to rest any potential competition. Microsoft has sold more than 400 million Windows 7 licenses in less than two years. This leads the way for Windows 8 to have a huge impact out of the gate."
...On desktops.
On mobile phones, smartphones, tablets etc you just get EVERYTHING different. That's the same problem Android-for-tablets had - even though you technically CAN take apps from smartphone version of Android and run them on a tablet, the UI is not tablet-made, etc. Windows will likely also have app compatibility problems, that is - desktop apps won't run on Windows Phone, etc. So i don't see how a desktop userbase would suddenly have any impact on phones/tablets.

"I believe Microsoft does a pretty dang good job of creating lots of documentation and sample code. The fact that Microsoft's core development tools are free for web and mobile development makes it really easy for devs to get into the ecosystem."
If you read carefully, you'll see that the license for these samples often forbids you quite a lot of things. Namely, it almost literally (but without naming it, using a generic "exclusive license" term, which is introduced right there) tells you that you may never EVER use these samples to write GPL'ed code. And the tools are free as in beer. They do make it easy to get into the ecosystem. But is that "easy" really easier than what the competitors offer? Also, do they make it easy to get OUT of the ecosystem?
"Microsoft is going to allow some apps for the OS to be developed using the widely known HTML5 and JavaScript programming languages"
"some" apps. Who or what decides which apps can and which can't be developed in that way?
And yes, this is very innovate. Before Windows 8 no one had the ability to write web-apps using HTML5 and JavaScript. Oh wait, Microsoft & IE-based devs didn't have it, everyone else did. Shame.
Comment - One week on Gmail has me pining for Outlook
4.3.0.2 (Jun 17, 2011 - 7:32 PM)

You can use IMAP to access GMail. Which means that you can use GMail with any e-mail client (even the ever-sucking Outlook can do that), nothing forces you to use GMail web interface.
Comment - Are you ready for the Kinect SDK?
4.3.0.2 (Jun 16, 2011 - 3:35 PM)

There's a fatal flaw in Kinect. And we all know it ( and no, it's not that flaw - http://drdobbs.com/windows/225701475 ).
Comment - Thunderbird Conversations: Alpha build brings threaded views
4.3.0.2 (Jun 6, 2011 - 9:59 AM)

Threaded view is currently available in Miramar and had been there for some time. "Thunderbird Conversations" will probably have to drop this feature before it reaches release stage (otherwise it will only duplicate built-in Thunderbird functionality).
Comment - Microsoft should bundle Sysinternals tools into Windows -- or should they?
4.3.0.2 (Jun 3, 2011 - 11:19 AM)

By the way, certain tampering-protection software (Themida comes in mind) refuses to run the programs they 'protect' (or will close them if already running) when certain drivers are loaded into the system. Sysinternals ProcessMonitor driver is among them. And guess what? Once it is loaded, it can't be unloaded. Only fixed by reboot.