Activity for August 17

Review - Nero
10.5.10300 (Oct 18, 2010)

full of crap, too many running files when rebooting windows,

and what's with the index system, windows indexing is fine, and operates on a low level (very resource friendly), nero indexing is very resource hungry, it maybe fast, but it comes at such a high cost.

Nero 7 with (custom install), is great, granted it requires a lot of things to be turned off, and nero scout has to be deactivated on first use, but nero 7 is great, nero 6 is easy to install and very slim, but it's missing some very important features like Blueray support, as well as some long lasting bugs that have plagued nero for a long time, bugs that were finally squashed for nero 7 release.

nero is trying to fulfil all requirements, but they are spreading there self too thin, the quality of these programs are so generic, and so many of the applications that come with nero would never be used..... the problem these companies have is that there product has reached a point where is can't be updated any further, it has reached it's maximum potential, there is no further room for improvement, nero has become ergonomically great.....
but how does a company survive..... how does a company continue to sell a product that can no longer be updated further....... there is only one way, start offering more....... go into uncharted territory, offer the customer more for there buck, change from a single application, too a suite of applications.

nero is a wonderful program......ON ITS OWN MERITS, but the company Ahead cannot survive on just there flagship,

i don't like what there doing, but as a person who understands that if you stand still you will be left behind in today's market, with the world of burning tools available for such low cost, if not for free such as (IMGBURN, CDBurnerXP), Ahead has no choice i can see but to expand there nero suite,

there biggest downfall is two fold.....

1. there installer setup is to inefficient, too slow, and very unclear, it also does not allow the user too turn off enough things for the user, many of the things installed are not mandatory, but yet still get installed without the users knowledge...... a more intuitive intelligent setup routine is needed.

2. the size, nero seems to be built from thousands of files, the footprint placed on the users system is unbelievable to see, full install of nero takes over 2GB of space on the harddrive, this has the downside of loading times, to load application off nero is very slow, but unsurprising considering how many files need to be loaded to get the application up and running, "Ahead" needs to think about compression, they need to compress there files with tools such as "PECompact" or put there loose files into a image, like a PAK file, which is how many large pc games come supplied, thousands of files are put into 1 file (uncompressed of course too avoid performance degradation)

nero is massive, but it doesn't have to be, ahead should start thinking about compressing there files, CPU's are so powerful, that mass decompression has hardly any effect on system performance these days.

i once long ago compressed nero full install (number 6 i believe) from 1.7GB down too 752MB (using PECompact) and nero worked fine,
Review - cFosSpeed
4.53 Build 1537 Beta (Aug 26, 2009)

this program does not encourage illegal downloading, bittorrent is used for many legal purposes,

I'm surprised such a comment would be left by the moderators, under no circumstances do the developers of this software support criminal activity,

not much to say really on the program itself,
very unstable i find, always being fixed, always in beta stage, and always at a point which is not for mainstream release,

be nice to once reach a point in time where this program isn't having something fixed. because from my perspective, there always bug fixing, always!!! reminds me of "Outpost Firewall" LOL
Review - Avi2Dvd
0.5 (Aug 21, 2009)

a brilliant program, been around for a while, not updated as much as i wished it was, but there you go,

this program is solid, and more importantly works with a high quality Encoder (HCEnc) and of course supports old versions of CCE (although HCEnc is preferred for low bit rate conversions)

don't get me wrong, ConvertXToDVD is good, but it is a trans-coder (FFMpeg and libavcodec) like many, so quality would never for the forseable future come close to what HCEnc can produce, (i don't feel that trans-coding would ever be as clean, crisp and sharp as a full fledged high quality encoder (CCE, HCEnc, Tmpgenc)

Avi2Dvd interface i agree is very messy now, go back to when it first came out it was acceptable to the current standards, but not anymore, the flags are way to cheesy now, and the whole GUI in general looks very cartoony,
because of the old and quite unuser friendly GUI I'm only giving 4 points not the full 5, however it still has it where it counts, if only the horrible GUI didn't hinder the program so much.

my eye at the moment is on "AVStoDVD", this program is quite good aswell, and again utilizes the wonderful HCEncoder, not as resilient as Avi2DVD, but definitely won't be long considering the excellent support it's getting, and the GUI is of course up to the current standards with some nice soft colors,

but for quality, i choose AVStoDVD, but i always have Avi2DVD on standby just in case i need it,
Review - UltraVNC
1.0.6.4 (Jul 10, 2009)

it's got some powerful features, but this software like many like it should only be used if you don't mind reading through the documentation, and even then you will still be left with many confused aspects,

The biggest confusion that I still read about in forum's, is the concept

"Server" and "Viewer"

A bit like remote desktop, Host & Client,

For the beginners it's quite amazing how these concepts are hard to grasp,
And like wise, the same issues can be seen in programs like "RealVNC" & "UltraVNC",

For the absolute beginner "TeamViewer" is the way to go,

Hopefully, Programs like "UltraVNC" will eventually go though a revolutionary GUI Rewrite,

Because there all based on the same theme, one can see so many similarities between them,

What they need is a new novice interface, or perhaps a driven wizard that guides the new user through the complex interface options that are given to the user,

Which is what "TeamViewer" has done, they have rewritten the entire GUI interface from scratch, and made it 21st century worthy,

"UltraVNC" and even "RealVNC" is still based on the old concepts, even the look, and the thinking behind the interface is till the old way's,

Programs like "TeamViewer", and "LogMeIn"
are the way forward, the complexities are still there, but hidden from the user, having a box open with 20 different settings is enough to put most people of, and the thing is, efficiency is the new way of thinking now, streamlining is the 21st century motto,

Programs like “UltraVNC” are so old looking, and require a huge amount of reading from the user to understand all of its options that are thrown into the users laps,

Don’t get me wrong, "UltraVNC" is a great program, and like many like it, gets the job done extremely well,

The problem is, with programs like “TeamViewer” showing what can be done, and makes "UltraVNC" look obsolete,

I feel like many does, that "RealVNC", and programs alike, really need to throw away there old thinking GUI concepts, and design a whole new GUI from scratch with streamline and efficiency being the prominent way of thinking,

But concepts aside, "UltraVNC" get's the job done well, and for its use, then max score had to be given,

but my advice, try "TeamViewer" 1st, if that doesn't do what your after, then and only then, try programs like "RealVNC" or "UltraVNC",
Review - KCleaner
0.17.0.26 (Jun 11, 2009)

it has to be said, why would one want to use a substandard tool,
there are so many applications that are available that do what this program does, and far more advance,

the number one program has to be,
http://www.ccleaner.com/

with ccleaner around, there is just no room for any new software to really be any kind of competition,

perhaps in time, this KCleaner will develop, but the name says it all in my opinion,

CCleaner
KCleaner

come on, who is the developer trying to kid, personally i feel this is some kind of attack against CCleaner, or maybe trying to steel some credit by playing with the name, either way, it shows dishonor, and a clear case of bad ethics.

as for the software in question, well given the nature of it's early development, what can be said, it's another cleaner, that does a terrible and unreiliable job at present because of it's early state of development,
perhaps in time it will become another good cleaner, but there are so many cleaner's at the moment, the question is, is there room for another one,

a bit like applications like "Tuneup Utilities", there are so many of these types of program's now, one doesn't no where to begin, although this is off topic......
Comment - Avidemux helps get video files into the right format
0.17.0.26 (Aug 17, 2011 - 10:49 AM)

a brilliant program, but it does still have some stability issues at times, also not the best for encoding (lacks multi-threading capability in parts, and where it does have it, not very good efficiency)

although that aside, for editing alone it is pretty good, but make sure you keep VirtualDub & VirtualDubMod around as it will be quite some time before those mentioned programs will not be needed anymore.
Comment - I want my Windows Update Rollup!
0.17.0.26 (Aug 14, 2011 - 7:25 AM)

i think the biggest issue with later OS's for most XP users is of course compatibility, there are many things that certain group of people do that requires applications that don't work (well at least) in newer OS's, and usually such programs are unique and no longer supported.

only other issue is hardware, 4gb of ram is really needed, and triple core CPU minimum..... and not forgetting (which in my experience is the biggest problem for most XP users) a DirectX 11 graphics card (or at least a 10.1) 10.0 card is no good due to the massive Texture memory demand put on it by Vista and 7even, DirectX 10.1 resolved this issue by releasing a few extra commands in the software that allowed a staggering increase in efficiency in 10

NOTE DirectX 10.1 efficiency was increased, but version 10 is still quite inefficient in practice...... DirectX 11 card is a must.
Comment - Want to know why cellular carriers are throttling your data?
0.17.0.26 (Aug 8, 2011 - 2:05 PM)

they knew this was going to happen, many communications experts and engineers was saying this several years ago, analysts were saying that mobile phone infrastructure in its current form can not handle high speed internet access on mobile devices..... this was 10 years ago, and as always those people (there were many from all corners of the world) were ignored....and here we are now.

I will never feel sorry for any one who throws themselves down the stairs, nor will I accept the problems they have now caused upon themselves.

they were warned, and they ignored! high-speed communication internet should never of gone on too mobile devices until the infrastructure technology base was ready.

because the technology is not there for such cases like this, there now going to have to pay in CASH to supplement the strain, there all going to be racing to try and fix the issue with technology that just wasn't designed for such loads...... another example of such human inefficiency (corporates ignoring analysts)
Comment - We want your Windows XP memories
0.17.0.26 (Aug 8, 2011 - 1:14 PM)

Windows XP Built on NT, it was a breakthrough in design, but XP did not have the great impact that MS would claim upon it’s release, when first starting employment at a internet cafe, like most internet cafes at the time had Win98 Second Edition, although i do remember experimenting with Windows Millennium for quite some time, but came to realize that Windows ME was no more than a cosmetic theme, a fancy yet even more error prone face lift to the already outdated Windows code base.

I remember the hype leading up to XP’s release and followed closely with online technical information being shared at the time which was surprisingly quite accurate thanks in part due to the fact that Microsoft was basing XP on a foundation they had already created previously “Windows 2000” which too had predecessors notably “Windows NT 3 & NT 4 Family” so it wasn’t as though XP was being rebuilt from the ground up (although there was some propaganda suggesting it was).

I already had some experience with windows 2000, which i found in some areas far superior to Windows 98 (ME), however although Windows 2000 had undeniable advantages over its 16 Bit counterpart (windows 95-98-ME) I found Windows 2000 had stability issues if too much software was installed, although I am aware that all OS’s have this inevitable problem, Windows 2000 was considerably worse dealing with a large footprint of software (but not surprising considering that Windows 2000 was a business OS and was not designed to handle Home User environments).
After XP was released, I immediately tried it out, almost instantly I could see the similarities too Windows 2000 (when ignoring the GUI theme of course).

Within a short space of time I could see the benefits of “Simple Networking” a feature that obviously for security reasons was not in Windows 2000, connecting client terminals to a server was so easy now.

Driver database, yes a new and well packaged driver database that at the time found so much of one’s hardware, the new Plug and Play system was finally given an overhaul by Microsoft developers, PnP was finally designed to be intelligent when it comes to decision making concerning 3rd party drivers.

Truth is, XP shares a lot of things with Windows 2000 when looking under the bonnet so to speak, only XP was redesigned for home use, meaning it had to be more rigid, more forgiving in user error’s, and far more tolerant when it comes to large software footprints...... this for me was the biggest downfall concerning XP’s early life, just like windows 2000, XP became extremely unreliable when too much (or in most cases the wrong kind) software was installed, XP was even more problematic than its predecessor Windows 2K, although this was largely due to the fact that so many software developers were only experienced with 16 bit OS’s (many did not officially support windows 2000 NT) it didn’t take much for badly written software to break XP (especially applications that required to some extent staying present in the background).

For myself XP was not really an OS of choice until Service Pack 1 was released, Windows XP suddenly became far more tolerant and rigid after SP1, and thanks to the redesign of the memory system in XP, far less slow down even after long session’s of use before resets, of course software developers were also learning too, and new type of installers and better type of coding was starting to show, again increasing XP’s stability even further.

However by the time SP2 was released (introducing for the first time built in firewall), the driver database in XP was already showing its age, and then SP3 came out, but not really helping some of the fundamental issues which were becoming quite well known, No basic SATA support, meaning SATA dos driver must be supplied before windows can be installed to a SATA hard drive, because Windows XP cannot see SATA hard drives in a low level environments such is when installing XP for the first time, the other issue is the outdated Driver Database, even basic hardware like some USB mouse, or Network LAN cards would not be recognized, I have even witnessed USB MP3 players/Digital Cameras/Memory sticks not being recognized by Windows XP because the equipment in question uses a different method of communication, something the newer OS’s doesn’t have issue with.

Although it should be said that the above issue regarding the Driver Database is not new, the same thing occurred with windows 2000, although Windows 2000 driver database was even worse due mainly impart that 3rd party developers did not support Windows 2000 period. The fact is this same issue will always continue to be a problem with Windows OS’s, because barring some kind of hotfix requirement needed to the driver database, Updates or Service packs does not upgrade the driver database on Windows OS’s, so the problems above will eventually effect even OS’s like VISTA and 7even alike, it’s just a matter of time.

The one last issue of course Direct 10/11, XP’s foundation can’t be moved to the newer platform, DirectX 10 may of been....disappointing, 11 is not, and as soon as software (game) ENGINES are upgraded to DirectX 11, it will be another unavoidable fact that XP must be let go.
So what keeps XP alive now, most game still work with DirectX 9, a large portion of people still can’t afford a good decent DirectX 11 graphics card a top midrange card is about £150, for some a lot of money. It must be said that VISTA and 7even needs a DX10.1/11 card, the texture memory used on a DX9 card will be very high just sitting on the desktop in VISTA and 7even due to the cards missing some important features needed.

Compatibility, although MS again tried their best to maintain compatibility, the actual results were even worse than XP working with DOS games, VISTA+ being completely rewritten has effectively caused many problems getting older programs to work, especially small insignificant applications, but yet the kind of applications needed by many users.

this is unfinished unfortunately and is only my 3rd draft, but I have become to busy lately, sorry.

I wasn't go to share this, but.....well I have.
Comment - UK finally makes ripping your own DVDs and CDs legal
0.17.0.26 (Aug 5, 2011 - 9:58 AM)

can't help notice that the mention of bluray hasn't been commented on..... perhaps they feel that ripping such disks still could be prevented in the near future which would make such a point moot.
I must admit the bluray protection system is fighting hard and fast (Anydvd and DVDFab are constantly updating there software to circumvent the bluray mechanisms)

hopefully bluray will be done through an amendment to the above law.