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The free version of Trillian is called Trillian Basic and is available here.

That's how many Spybot found on my father's machine after I installed it this past weekend. And the funny thing was he was initially less concerned about the malware that IE had silently allowed to install on his machine than the constant popups that IE allowed. I used Spybot to rid him of the malware and installed Firefox to 1) make sure he wouldn't get nearly as much malware in the future and 2) block all those popups. He's really happy now.

There are several programs out there that will auto-split tracks for you; some of them will also encode to mp3 or other formats as well. RIP Vinyl (available at download.com) is an inexpensive Windows program that will automagically split tracks up based on the silence between them, and you can change a whole bunch of other settings as well. I don't know if there's anything there's anything like that for Linux, but Audio Companion seems like a good bet for Mac OS X, or CD Spin Doctor if you have Toast Titanium 6.

I've wanted to convert my record collection into mp3s for a while now, and after doing a few albums for friends manually using Peak, I would recommed the auto-splitting recording programs. If the industry was really serious about DRM, they'd release all music on vinyl and movies on film since it's so much more difficult to encode analog sources.

Rip Vinyl works well for encoding vinyl, helps insert track breaks and things like that. Very simple program.

For comparaison, morpheus has been downloaded 128 million times, and Internet Explorer (free with a copy of WindowsXP) was selling at 17 million copies per 2 months

Using "Mailwasher" downloaded for free from http://www.download.com/, I was able to reduce my daily spam load from about 120/day to practacally 0. It took about 3 weeks of adding to, and editing a blacklist of source email addresses every other day, and automatically sending back "unknown user" service messages to blacklisted addressed. (Aparently, spambots pay attention to these messages.)

The effects were noticable in a week, substantial at the end of the next week, and complete within a month. After that, I discontinued running MailWasher, and haven't received any spam since (several months).

I didn't lose any messages I wanted, but it killed all the spam.

Download.com is definitely a big problem.

On their download page for Azureus there is an editor's note saying that it contains spyware, and about half of the comments say that it installed malware on their computers. Probably the half that actually downloaded it from CNet.

And, it's not just people who haven't bothered (or are unable) to upgrade, some to this day are intentionally inflicting such an atrocity upon themselves.

It's not just themselves their inflicting such pain, it's also the the web development community trying to push web standards, their biggest opposition being NS4 users.

Sygate's Personal Firewall and TightVNC.

I log on to my parent's PC via TightVNC at least once a week. So much easier than fixing things over the phone or IM.

Dr.E

So why don't you download ObjectDock? It's a free OSX-ish dock for Windows.

I used it for a bit, but in the end I prefered the lower-overhead of the standard Windows shell.

There are several sites that carry a wide variety of music from independant artists.

There's dmusic.com, Musician MP3, Sound Click, Vitaminic, CNet Music, and even modarchive.com, Just to name a few. There's a bunch of other sites to get music from independant artists so there is no need to even use P2P to share RIAA music let alone purchase it.

This would be the proper way to protest the RIAA. If everyone did this, they would see their profits fall and at the same time, see that file swapping is way down, then they would have no choice but to confirm that they're really the ones to blame for the decreased sales. The biggest challenge is trying to get people that love the "Cookie Cutter Boy/Girl Bands" to switch over.

aah, phone unlocking.

Greatest thing ever, IMHO. I'm both a Cingular and ATT customer at the moment. (long story short)
I have 3 differnt phones (and rotate like girls rotate through shoes). All my phones are unlocked so it doesn't matter if I pop my cingular SIM into the ATT phone.

Going international? Not a problem with calls (prepaid sim as the parent said).

So, how to unlock?

Firstly, IS IT ILLEGAL? I don't think so. Technically, even if "free", you paid for the phone when you signed the contract. I'm locked in for the 12-24+ months with ATT/Cingular. The phone locking scheme is to prevent me from using my Cingular branded Motorola V400 with ATT- and ATT hopes I'll buy a V600 instead (but no, i'm paying 7 bucks tax for the "free" phone.
This article from oreillynet.com says its not too

I've only unlocked Nokia phones so far. So, if its nokia, download from cnet here.

insatall, find imei by punching in #*06#. Put that IMEI into the code generator. Turn off phone, take out sim card. Turn on phone again. Now, you need to punch in the unlock code generated from the program. DO NOT SCREW UP THE UNLOCK CODE! I WILL NOT BE RESPONSIBLE IF YOU PERMANENTLY LOCK YOUR PHONE. IF YOUR AFRAID YOU MIGHT SCREW IT UP, THEN DON'T EVEN TRY.

moving on. Once your phone is unlocked, it can be used with ANY carrier. That's right. ANY carrier. To prove my point, I have ATT on my Cingular branded V400 and a Cingular Sim on my ATT branded Nokia.

Happy unlocking!
Grump

Enough with the damn popups. SP2 blocks popups. The Google toolbar blocks popups. The Yahoo toolbar blocks pop-ups. Noton blocks popups. Download.com lists 253 popup blockers. Search results

In all the lawsuits that the RIAA has filed so far, there's been some logical basis for their case - and it's usually something like "People our using our stuff without our permission; make them stop." There's some logic in that: the RIAA makes its profit off of intellectual property that people are getting off KaZaa for free. There would be no such logic in the case that you're describing.

I don't believe that RIAA is as fanatical as the /. crowd tend to think. The RIAA is constantly looking out for their bottom line at the expense of "free information," but I don't think that they're as fanatically against free content as you think. I'm sure they don't love the idea (they're selling the stuff; free content can make bought content less desirable), but you don't see anybody suing, say, purevolume or music.download.com because they have no case and because, in many cases, the labels providing free content are members of the RIAA.

The logic RIAA's arguments have of course been slanted towards their point of view, and "knowing better" is probably defined as "being able to profit and not get in trouble," but there is some logic there, and it would say that a lawsuit wouldn't benefit the RIAA or its members.

I say this, by the way, not as some nutty corporate sympathizer but as someone who's starting a little indie record label that's giving out music for free. There are certainly a lot of problems with the music industry, but you paint labels as totally evil corporate suits. They're certainly interested in the bottom line, but that doesn't make them out-and-out jerks.

By the way, IndyMediaWatch guy, INAL, but if you're the plantiff in a lawsuit and you lose, I don't think that's really a problem - it's not like you'll be fined; it's just that the defendant wouldn't be punished or anything. You have a problem when you lose and you're the defendant.

The fourth spyware tool I use is Bazooka Spyware Scanner. While it won't actually clean any spyware it detects a TON of stuff missed by Ad-aware and Spybot and does it in about .1 seconds on modern PC's. It then links you to precise step by step instructions on how to clean the infection. The stuff Bazooka finds is typically stuff you have to reboot into safe mode in order to clean.

Nobody disputes that IE can view everything on the web. The issue at hand was whether it's an option that can be seriously considered by people in the know. If you had said "That's an exaggeration; there are some sites where IE is the only option." I feel quite confident that your comment would have been left alone. (god, I can't believe I'm defending Slashdot - not only that but claiming that its readers are reasonable people...)

Who in their right mind would say that IE is superior to Mozilla UI wise?

I'm glad you said that because it redeems my opinion of you. Nevertheless, there are plenty of people willing to say all kinds of stupid things; try reading some of the negative user reviews of Firefox at download.com.

I set you as foe previous to this little incident; mostly because you're also a friend-of-a-friend so I see everything you say and I've seen you say some things that I thought were pretty stupid. You're back to neutral, and I will read what you say in the future more carefully.

I haven't really customized my firewalls. All the software I use is free.

Win2k: AVG, Ad-Aware, SpyBot - Search and Destroy, Spyware Blaster

Linux: nada

Try this miraculous Peridot generated alterative

I haven't played with it much but it seems to do what it says (which is to record any audio playing on your Mac.)

Strange... Firefox takes me here.

Please research these things before you post and don't just go out bashing MS without constructive evidence!! ;-)

sigs are overrated

Firefox has a similar link-up with Google. Just type "buggy inscure browser" in the URL bar and it takes you to this page.

It seems fromt the reviews that the punters are very impressed with the product.

Heh, first result when i tried the firefox googlebar: http://www.download.com/3302-2356_4-10148260.html? pn=2&fb=0/

type "buggy insecure browser" into firefox sends me here.

The comments on that page sum it all up. I'm suprised google is pandering to the dwindling IE users.

i tried 'buggy insecure browser' in the firefox address bar and it took me here: http://www.download.com/3302-2356_4-10148260.html? pn=2&fb=0 (ie6sp1)

Typing the same into Firefox's location bar, or I'm-Feeling-Lucky-ing it from google.co.uk, leads to http://www.download.com/3302-2356_4-10148260.html? pn=2&fb=0 - Google's search technology is good.

Hehe. Starup Monitor is a TSR that loads up on startup itself! It does look pretty darn useful though. At the moment, I'm using Startup Mechanic. Same deal, but it doesn't run as a process, it's a standalone program that you run once in a while when you suspect something weird going on. Good for those who want to run as little processes as possible.

Windoze 9x/ME/2000/XP PC + New high speed cable connection + No firewall + No anti-spyware + No anti-virus + Kazza = The Killer CombinationTM!

Seriously folks, get yourself a decent firewall, don't trust Internet Connection Firewall in Windows XP, get anti-virus, get Spybot, and DITCH IE!

;)

http://www.download.com/Music-Master/3000-2196_4-1 0306583.html?tag=stbc.gp

The negative review are stacking up for Go Music, let's add some to Music Master too.

Look at the user comments at download.com. The newest comments are shown first, which are users warning about the GPL theft and bundled spyware. Then there's a LOT of REALLY HAPPY users.

Three different users actually say "This must be the best Thing in the world. Now my life is excelent!"

"This is a great program, works well and easy My roommate and I both use this program and we think it's stupendous! Would recommend this to anyone"

"I'm using only best well-tested soft, and here it is."

"The speed is shocking"

"It id very-very-very and one million more times very NICE stuff i ever had" ... and so on.

The entire happy part of the user base seem to apply bad punctuation and similar spalling erors ;)

You can access EXT3 partitions via some utilites in Windows; through it's not suported directly.
Try a search on http://www.download.com/ ; there were a few there but i can't recall their names.

here. It's an mp3.

Alright, unofficial anti-IE drive! We need 1000 scathing hellfire reviews at download.com! Semi-unbridled sorta hate need not apply.

Good luck, do your worst! :D

We need to get up to around 1,080 reviews on download.com (ie 1,000 more than there were before the campaign started). Currently at 1,040, so if you haven't done a review yet, please add one!

http://www.download.com/3302-2356_4-10299359.html

This has nothing to do with machine learning, but would come in handy for people checking multiple email accounts. Or, like me, use PopFile and filter email into multiple folders based on classification.

What I'd like to see is to be able to configure which folders get an audible (or visual) alert. Customizing which sounds go with each folder might be cool, but on/off control is the main thing. I'd rather not be interrupted when something classified as spam or trash (based on blacklist) comes in, but don't mind if it's likely to be from a customer.

My $.02

Slim browser uses IE and has tabbed browsing
Popup Stopper Kills off popups quite well.
I dont give a flying f*** about mouse gestures. If you're too lazy to use the buttons at the top, or keyboard shortcuts. Then lack of mouse gestures is the least of your problems

no, we bash ie because it's crap. the only reason it loads anything faster (or boots faster) is that it's always open and always running (unless you're using a mac). and it's simply not possible to use ie your whole life without getting spyware on your box. run ad-aware or spybot search & destroy. you'll be surprised exactly how much spyware is on your system.
while ie might load faster (because you can't get rid of it), it still doesn't have basic functionality that other browsers have. tabbed browsing? nope. not even w/ sp2 (that isn't out yet). popup blocking? 2.5 years after the fact. way to go ie.
and what "features and support" does ie have that mozilla doesn't? it's hard to beat open-source software on support, since it's a community effort to begin with...
bottom line - even with good browsing habits ie is still crap - as is all microsoft's products.

no, we bash ie because it's crap. the only reason it loads anything faster (or boots faster) is that it's always open and always running (unless you're using a mac). and it's simply not possible to use ie your whole life without getting spyware on your box. run ad-aware or spybot search & destroy. you'll be surprised exactly how much spyware is on your system.
while ie might load faster (because you can't get rid of it), it still doesn't have basic functionality that other browsers have. tabbed browsing? nope. not even w/ sp2 (that isn't out yet). popup blocking? 2.5 years after the fact. way to go ie.
and what "features and support" does ie have that mozilla doesn't? it's hard to beat open-source software on support, since it's a community effort to begin with...
bottom line - even with good browsing habits ie is still crap - as is all microsoft's products.

The more spyware/malware laws we get the better. It's so frustrating trying to use a computer with tons of spyware and spyware trojans. Ugh. And they say the average PC has 28 spyware programs running on it! This needs to stop.
It took me about 8 hours to clean out a friends computer the other day. He had about 15 viruses all installing spyware daily.
Here's some suggestions for cleaning your computer:

Grisoft's AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition - this is key. Free auto-updates too
http://www.grisoft.com/us/us_dwnl_free.php

Lavasoft's Ad-Aware - run it every so often, and always be sure to update it manually.
http://www.download.com/3000-2144-10045910.html?pa rt=69274&subj=dlpage&tag=button

CWShredder - removes only a few trojans that give you tons of ads, but does a better job of fully removing them than ad-aware.
http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/downloads.html

Spybot-Search & Destroy - Similar to Ad-Aware. You should run both.
http://download.com.com/3000-8022-10122137.html

Here are some more for you:

besonic
mp3.de
soundclick
garageband
france mp3
vitaminic(free + pay)
Washington Post (yup)
Online Rock
Peoplesound
Download.com from the old mp3.com's new owners
Emusic (pay)
Artistlaunch

I am rather disappointed by the quality of this article:
"I just got a new computer with a Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy 2 card with amazing sound and music capabilities. For example, theres support for 24-bit EAX Advanced HD sound,"

What the fuck is 24 bit EAX Advanced HD Sound? Its not a feature, its a fucking marketing term. EAX may loosely refer to 3D Audio features but the author clearly doesn't know what he's on about.

Firstly let me get something off my chest - creative fucked ME over. my Soundblaster Audigy, a "24 bit" card is nothing of the sort. It only plays 16 bit sounds. Apparently it can (in hardware) mix 24 bit sound down to 16 bit, bypassing the windows functions that do the same, nonetheless marketed to me as a 24 bit card. So of course this means the card is completely useless if bought specifically for audio work.

Also my mate bought a soundblaster live, one of the selling points was that the "liveware" could be upgraded, providing more features/effects/whatever. His original cd came with liveware 3.0, since then (well last time I checked) creative have not bothered updating the SBLive liveware, which is a bit naughty.

Their drivers are SHIT, check this, this and this.

The last link hints on having the same FUCKED UP driver problems that I have been having: the original driver off the cd will install, but none of their updates off their website work. I have been through all the tech support and they have even sent me out a new driver cd (for free) but those drivers wont install. Creative seem to have some sort of fucked up hardware detection routine in the driver installation for every drivers apart from the ones on the original cd, and this hardware detection always tanks stating "No creative product found in this computer. Please ensure it is installed properly."

My mate has a soundblaster live and when he went from win 98 to winXP his SBLive just completely refused to work, with all the drivers from creatives website claiming that he had not soundblaster installed. The CHEEK! If only creative would allow MS' hardware detection to do the work, rather than have their FUCKED UP BUGGY hardware detection fail to find legitimate hardware. My mate now uses unofficial drivers for his soundcard that *arent even written* by creative. This was the only way he could get his sound card (that he paid 180 pounds 5 years ago for) to work.

Once I gave up on getting any semblence of modern drivers working, I moved onto getting 3d audio working in games. Like fuck was that going to work. Every game I tried refused to recognise the existence of EAX hardware. In every game without fail, the EAX option would be unselected. This was particularly galling with halo.

In the end I uninstalled my SB Audigy and used my onboard 5.1 surround. Which is recognised by games, shock horror! Admittedly when theres about 10 people firing at once in halo the sound gets choppy, but at least I have surround.

Also we have to ask about the quality of onboard effects on the soundblaster live. The reverbs are so shit and tinny that you cannot possibly use the for any audio application. This belies their claim that their soundcards are good for musicians.

Finally we have to ask: is the lack of decent 3d support due to game developers not being bothered, or is it due to the 3d support/hardware accelerated sound support being in such a perilous state?

I tend towards the latter. The author of the article states:
"Creative Labs has a virtual monopoly, due at least in part to aggressive techniques such as lawsuits or buyouts to take care of most potential competitors....Fortunately, even without competitive market pressures, Creative Labs has developed high quality audio hardware."

Also, linux projects that support windows and linux don't count ;)

Allright, then they don't count for Linux either, right? No GIMP, no OpenOffice, etc ;)

For starters, pricelessware is a great resource. There's also a LOT of stuff up on Download.com.

Download.com Music (mistaken by some for the new MP3.com)

Not to be mistaken for CNet's mp3.com.com.

Which does, of course, exist, but is not redirected to Download.com Music.

Have experimentally uploaded a track by MEME vs XAN to see how it works but at the moment it seems the link is screwed. Maybe it'll work later.

Not sure where they are going with this as it is extremely basic but I would have loved to be able to specify a Creative Commons license as I was adding the song...

ps. If you are impatient to hear my track anyway you can get Meme Vs Xan - 24 - immediately from Loca Downloads

The recently launched service is not the revised MP3.com -- it's the new music.download.com.

Aside from all this talk about lossy compression, some of you might want to know that CNET has recently launched music.download.com as a substitute for previous users of MP3.com to release their music.

I previously had an MP3.com account, and after I got the notification that the service was going down, I got an e-mail, along with the rest of us, from CNET announcing that they where going to set up a service like MP3.com.

CNET Downloads.com Music will still have artist pages with your photo, bio, song listings, etc. You can only upload 192kbps stereo MP3s (which is unfortunate because I was hoping for OGGs as well, but they need to do that for their streaming software).

It's still in the beta stage now. It should go public in "a few short weeks", but if you are an artist you can sign up now and start submitting your files. So, not only is the MP3.com archive not lost, but a similar service is comming back as well.

CNET does a good job with most of their sites. I use download.com almost as much as I use Freshmeat. I look forward to seeing how they handle this baby.

As opposed to how the Windows community wastes resources by re-inventing the wheel again and again and again?
Or how hardware manufactures waste resources by re-inventing harddrives again and again or again?
Or how you waste resources by writing redundant posts instead of helping GNOME and KDE unite their source code?

People like you just don't get it.

Not really. There are tons of free programs for Windows. If they aren't being actively ported from Linux as is the case with the various projects indexed in the GNUWinII Project then it is part of the free/shareware market. Just do a search at download.com or something.

That is a ridiculous scheme, doomed to failiure. I quake thinking some might want to do as "unsucessful" as Commander Keen!

I agree, those games were very successful and furthermore, successfully marketed through shareware. But those games were so well done, they could have gone through any distribution route with success (IMO). How many people actually pay for WinZip? Nero? Trillian? Or the bevy of shareware apps available from places like download.com?

I think shareware is a good way for under-funded and small developers to get their work out there, but the parent is right, I also think their work is only purchased by a very small percentage of those that use it, and a cracked copy is used by everyone that can get their hands on it.

Mark