EraseTemp 3.4.1.3 XP/Vista/Win7
Posted by William in Geek Toys, System Tool on February 4, 2009
This is an interesting tool that Madhur Kapoor brought us via his blog, whoismadhur.com. The tool is EraseTemp by No Design software. EraseTemp will automatically delete old temp files from your computer, and I know your saying there are scripts and tools to do this already but EraseTemp is designed to run from command line interface (CLI) so it can be used as a scheduled task within Windows Task Scheduler. The CLI switches are fairly simple but flexible, and they are as follows.
Evolution of the blog.
Posted by William in Blog, Site Updates on February 4, 2009
I have been making small changes to the blog over the last few weeks. The first being I have been looking for a new host for the site. After three hosts I have found one I think may work, but only testing and time will tell. The second is to update the design for the site (though I have a working update now, I am still working on my own custom work that I hope to finish someday. The third and largest change is to remove all the old WoW posts and clean up the tags and categories. Only after that can I think about how to drive traffic to the site. Oh well one step at a time they say… so enjoy!
Vista User Account Control By Norton Labs
This has to be one of the greatest tools to date made to improve Vista and it’s day to day usage. It makes UAC usable and bearable!
Vista User Account Control
User Account Control (UAC) is a new security feature in Microsoft Windows Vista that changes the architecture of the access token creation process and prevents users from logging on with full administrative rights.
While the intent of this feature may have been enhanced security, all too often users need administrative rights for tasks like installing/updating programs, and many software applications need access to run properly.
The User Account Control tool has been designed to replace the Vista UAC, to simultaneously make your system more secure while significantly improving user-friendliness.
By default, any application launched by an administrator is running with a filtered, standard user access token. When the administrator attempts to perform a task, the UAC prompts the user to approve the action. This can lead to poor user experiences because the prompts can be slow to display, and appear frequently and without warning. What’s more, because the UAC may give a false sense of security since other processes can still access the desktop, it actually raises security concerns.
The net effect is that many users find the UAC security clearance and prompting process annoying, especially those who are a computer’s only user and have all the latest Norton Internet Security software installed and updated.
The User Account Control tool will collect user input as well as information on applications causing prompts. The data will be processed to improve the comprehensiveness and robustness of the white list, which will be updatable while running the tool online.
User Access Control – Vista User Account Control – UAC | Norton Labs
*Gasp* Gas Below $3.00
Well it has been a while, but gas prices in Dallas have dropped below $3.00 per gallon. All I can say is WOW!
Sysinternals’ Desktops
Posted by William in Dual Screen, Gamer Wife, Geek Toys, Microsoft, Ummm OK on August 24, 2008
Microsoft’s Sysinternals team, who is already know for their work writing some the THE best tools around for system administration and has added a new gem to their crown. Desktops 1.0. It is an ultralight weight tool that allows you to swap between four desktops by hotkey or mouse click.
The Good
- The tool is very light weight only being one file and is a whopping 118,824 bytes, no DLLs or other files are needed.
- It works well with multi-monitor systems creating it’s virtual desktops that spanned both monitors.
The Bad
- There do not seem to be any major issues, other then it would not allow me to open a second copy of firefox in one of other desktops.
Microsoft description of the tool is:
Desktops allows you to organize your applications on up to four virtual desktops. Read email on one, browse the web on the second, and do work in your productivity software on the third, without the clutter of the windows you’re not using. After you configure hotkeys for switching desktops, you can create and switch desktops either by clicking on the tray icon to open a desktop preview and switching window, or by using the hotkeys
People, Places and Things
Money Laundering, WoW and Symantec
There have been several sites that have posted about how, according to Symantec claimed that World of Warcraft would be used by the “bad guys” to launder money. I was confused by knowing Blizzard’s stance on Real Money Transactions (RMT, the illegal purchasing of in game currency with real money by a third “unauthorized” party ) and microtransactions (legal exchange of real money for in game items or game currency) I found this a bit odd, so I search for the report and found it. A bit of digging found this:
Many PVWs (persistent virtual world) and MMOGs allow players to conduct real-money transactions (RMTs) in virtual worlds. Players
can use credit cards or other payment methods to purchase virtual credits and then exchange those credits
with players in other countries, where they may be withdrawn back into local currencies. These RMTs give
rise to a de facto international monetary system. There are even exchanges in place for trading (virtual)
currency across virtual worlds or different games.
This is the text imply’s that the maker of the games allows the RMTs but if follow the footnote and read the referred story:
http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/06/14/100255&tid=209
We learn that is third party services (services not allowed under the blizzard TOS and EULA), not the game it’s self. To be honest this type of transaction could occur in almost any online community (I.e. EBay, craigslist) that allows persons to list items for sale.
Symantec is partly correct but the money laundering threat is not really in the game but in the third party RMT sites.
Gaming with your spouse?
Posted by William in Gamer Wife, WoW on September 21, 2007
I have had several friends tell me that is it great that my wife and I game together, but there is a dark side! She is a stay-at-home mom so she has more free time then I do, and because of that she had more time to level her toons. I have no real issue with it but there are time where she will want to work on them together (my shaman and her warrior for example), but even if we were, she would sneak ahead of me by a few levels. On the other hand her main (A Hunter) beat me to 70 by almost 5 months much like you see in the below comic by Penny Arcade! It does a great job summing up how I felt after she hit 70 in World of Warcraft, leaving me in the dust.
Stupid, Stupid, Dumb, Dumb or How to lose $10K in one day
This is old news but at the start of the month seem that Zeuzo sold his account for 7,000 Euro (7,000 Euros = 9,709.70 U.S. dollars). On that account was a rogue who’s gear includes the legendary sword set Twin Blades of Azzinoth, 4/5 Tier 6, and many other Hyjal/BT loots. The new owner has transferred to Kazzak under the name Shaks. Now a few thing are, that I have not been able to find any proof of the sale, nor that the account is banned, but after looking at the talent spec, I am 99% sure both the account sold and it is now banned.
DisplayFusion
Posted by William in Dual Screen on September 11, 2007
Well I was surfing around and found this tidbit, it is called Display Fusion.
Here are just a few of the things you can do with DisplayFusion:
- Set a different desktop background on each monitor (either a picture or solid colour)
- Set a desktop background that spans all monitors (either a picture or colour)
- Integrated Flickr image search & download
- Drag maximized windows by their title bars to other screens
- Easily manage application windows with HotKeys:
- Move windows to the next monitor
- Move windows to the next monitor and maximize them
- Move windows to centre of the screen
- Move windows to centre of the screen and size it to 75% of the work area
- Tile windows along the top, bottom, left or right side
- Maximize windows so that they span all monitors
The idea of integrating with Flickr both interest me and scares me, I am not a Flickr user so I have no photos to pull from but I know a few people who have great desktop shots there that this would work great with.
I did not install it, as I no longer have two monitors on the same PC as I have pointed out before.