Free software every day

[gonwk]

For those folks who mess around with Creating Websites or Blogs ... Grab this Freebie pronto ...

Sothink JavaScript Web Scroller is a robust and easy creator of horizontal and vertical scrollers.

G!

[gonwk]

Hi dr_ml,

Miles already took care of you ... sorry I was out getting stuff ready for dying the Easter Eggs.

G!

[dr_ml422]

I understand now. Thnx Miles. Yes maybe one of the other fellas can jump in and give some more light to the subject. When my hand is almost forced, but not late as I did in the past, I'll just have to step into the AM like everyone else. That's technology for you, especially computers. I'm still waiting for the SSD drives to come down as that too is the next generation hardware leap.

[MilesAhead]

No, Minefield is just the codename for this Firefox pre-release. It's Firefox but it has a round "bomb" icon instead of the usual FF icon. I still don't know where they are going with all these releases but I guess this is the one with JavaScript JIT built in or something? That's supposed to soup up the speed I guess. I think when it's released it will be Firefox 3.6. Anyway, when I do about:config it shows JIT enabled for content. What the "chrome" stuff is I have no clue, but it was recommended to leave it at disabled by somebody.


The 64 bit comes in with the ram because with a 32 bit CPU pointers for memory locations are 32 bit. That's 4 * 1024 * 1024 possible permuations, or 4 GB that can be "pointed to" or addressed using the processor. If you subtract out the mapped in memory, like where your video gets mapped into the address space, and other stuff, you have 3 GB and change.

On 64 bit OS with 64 bit processor, the pointers are 64 bit. Here's an HP layout of 64 bit address space:

http://www.docs.hp.com/en/B3782-90716/ch04s01.html

How much Intel/AMD Windows64 can use for what I'll leave to the hw guys to explain since they are actually building systems and I'll usually take experience over theory.

Maybe Chewy has a few good ref. links.

[dr_ml422]

Oh so Minefield is a totally different browser altogether huh. I thought it was a feature added to FF 3.08. This Virus scanner is just a built in download scanner? I misinterpreted your post prolyy. I thought it was a built in AV proggie you could launch to scan your PC for any Viruses etc...

I'm a lil lost as to what more Ram has to do w/64 bit as opposed to 32 bit. I thought you could add as much Ram as you wanted to a build and that coupled w/a faster CPU would increase speed and efficiency. Can you just give me a quick pull up as to why the above 4 GB Ram will not be conducive to 32 bit XP? Thnx.

Btw, that JV Power Tools is something else. Talk about detail. I haven't the slightest clue as to what should be deleted or not. I'll read the Read ME text n their How To Guide they have online. It's definitely prolly a great app. once you know how to safely use it.

I see another build coming in the near future to accommodate all this 64 bit stuff. Right now just like you suggested all my apps. are XP 32 bit compatible so I will leave what's not broken.

[MilesAhead]

Minefield is just the name for 3.6 pre-release. You can get nightly builds here:

http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/nightly/latest-trunk/

Now the update through the Help=>Check for updates works so I just check every day an it auto updates. I'm using it as my default browser. The scan during download I didn't add in, so it must be built in. So far the only wrinkle is I'm trying to figure out how to get GigaGet to work on W7. It works fine with it on Vista64. I don't think you get the virus scan with GigaGet by default but there may be a setting to use an external scanner.

This Minefield is awesome!! The only hassles I encountered were due to trying to get back FF 2.x profile stuff and the format has changed. So if you are using a single profile for all FF instances, once you go 3.x don't try to go back to 2.x or load a profile from 2.x using MozBackup.

My old Bookmark Sync & Sort doesn't work with it, but I found a new AddOn that works better with more options called SyncPlaces. If you have an FTP account you can sync bookmarks and passwords to your private storage. Plus it can sort bookmarks before sending etc.. All my old AddOns like Uppity and AutoCopy work if you use Mr Tech Toolkit AddOn. And of course NoScript, FlashGot and SecureLogin work.

afa W7/Vista goes there's a lot to it for the average surfer. The main benefit is graphics, themes, effects. You can hang onto to XP for a bit but eventually the 64 bit Address Space is going to take over. Plus drivers for XP for new hardware will get scarce. On your present hardware if you keep things plain to maximize performance then I see no reason to go crazy fixing stuff that isn't broken. But as new PCs come out anything over a few hundred bucks is going to have more than 4 GB ram. And Vista64 does work.

I got Vista 32 bit before SP1 came out and a lot of the hassle is stupid stuff like turning UAC off, killing services or setting them to manual to reduce HD hogging, and cleaning off trial software crud. Vista64 with SP1 had most of the services set by default how I had mine tuned. I think by the time W7 comes out a lot of the user feedback will tell them that not everyone has a degree in computer science that wants to use a PC. It should improve.

Hard to guess what the difference will be as to Premium vs. Ultimate and all that.
Right now I'm keeping my 64 bit machine running Vista64 SP1. It's running fine so I don't see the need to break it. I use VistaGlazz so I can put some nice themes on. Doesn't have Superbar but I fake it by removing the labels from the Taskbar icons.

I guess aside from the bells and whistles and video, the drivers and the memory space will be the factors pushing everyone to go 64 bit. When I look through the stuff on Best Buy I have to get down to around $300 for just a tower/keyboard before the PC has less than 4 GB. $700 towers are coming with quadcore and 8 GB ram. You need to run 64 bit on the next generation. Will take awhile for 64 bit native software but 16 bit to 32 bit was the same way. It will get there. We just need forward thinking big companies to provide some Free 64 bit Programming Platforms for Windows(hint)

[dr_ml422]

I'll checkout Audacity n what it does. This Minefield Firefox beta is this a addon or a beta version of FF w/a built in AV? That would be awesome. That's what I suggested in a way for you to try n come up with. Some type of AV or w/e that can either be a .exe or some type of add-on w/the capacity to get upgraded w/out it messing w/our os n taking up space etc...? If they came up w/that I would prolly chuck my AV.

What's your take on why Bill G. n M$ just don't come out w/a great killer finished product? Doesn't make sense to me at all. Right now unless this Windows 7 is really something to jump up about I don't see any reason to leave XP Home, unless of course certain popular Apps. or Hardware down the line will definitely require a upgrade.

[MilesAhead]

I saw RichCopy on a blog and I think that link was to MS but I also got it from Softpedia. Sometimes it's just faster to download again than lob the file over to the other machine. The weird thing about it is though, when you go to install it, it asks which folder to unpack to. Inside that folder is the setup program. But, after you "install" it, don't delete that folder. When it runs it accesses that folder for some reason I can't figure out. If you delete the folder it will say "attempting to use a resource that doesn't exist" or some crap. But for a zillion small files over a network it's good to have. I did a custom install of W7 so I had a Windows.old with about 206,000 files in it!! Needless to say, the shell forgot about it when I tried to drag & drop. This RichCopy starts copying right away and multithreaded. Maybe on really precious files it might be risky but for tons of stuff you don't want to discard yet, it may be the only good way to move it over the Lan.

by the way have you tried Minefield Firefox beta? Seems to have a built in virus scan on the download, if you use the default download manager. I don't know how good it is, but maybe better than nothing.

edit: btw you can pick up audacity from

https://www.videohelp.com

I used it a few times in the past. I think it's open source.

[dr_ml422]

@ gonwk I heard of Audacity. Is that freeware, and if so where do you go download it from? Thnx.

@ Miles I googled RichCopy and saw some sites I didn't know have it except for tech@M$ and Softpedia. Which one did you download it fom that's reputable n safe? I don't know about Softpedia anymore. Thnx. I'm also leary about anything M$, especially if it has to be installed. For the sake of Pete, why can't they get their $hit straight already. Past point of ridiculous.

[gonwk]

@ gonwk Is Reezaa MP3 Converter 4.6.0 any better than Burrrn? You mean it converts to MP# or burns MP# or both? If you want a nice App. for converting to MP# get CDex. It's great. Simple to use. Also Like I suggested Copyto DVD is a excellent app. for creating Audio CDs n burning any audio or video formats. I will renew my key when the time comes. ...

Hi dr_ml,

Long time no talk ... you must be Busy ... that is probably why you are keeping out of mischief.

Anyway, I am a Sucker for Freeware to try different applications ... just to play around and compare ...

I like using Audacity ... or old Belight ... much more dependable and easy!

I was curious about that one because there was only one Virus Scanner reporting a Funny deal about the program ... like in VirusTotal 31/32 out of Scanners did NOT report anything on it. So, I am "Guessing" the one that catches something "Might be" false positive!!!

Thanks!

G!

[MilesAhead]

Speakin' of freebies, a lot of you guys probably already use this, but I'm just now trying RichCopy. One thing I did find bad about Paragon Backup is if you exclude a large tree of files, it's going to spend like an hour telling you which files it's not going to back up.. then maybe 40 minutes doing the actual backup. So now I'm back to moving the big clump off first, then doing the backup. Explorer just forgot about what I wanted to copy over the network. Too many thousands of files for it to think about. This RichCopy just starts copying right away, like a multithreaded xcopy.

Anyway, I put a note on the Paragon Backup forum since the reason I laid out another $40 was to get the folder exclusion feature. Granted it works fine if you're excluding 5 DVD images. Not so great if you have a Windows.old you really don't want included in the backup set!!! Sheesh!!!

[dr_ml422]

Yes it got that way w/1 of rule 19's proggies. I should of went w/the other 1 which was lil more as they kept it simple even though it gets updated. The one I have I had to write to author n request that they take out a option that they implemented to mine that was useless to me. Now they come out w/options to it which is ridiculous. Instead of coming out w/new app. for specific function. Anything too bundled, like a Nero just ends up no good.

Tell you the truth only bundled to a degree software that's pretty decent is CopyToDVD which w/Audio n DVD is pretty simple n user friendly w/nice easy to read interface. The color coded menus and files is awesome.

[MilesAhead]

Thnx Miles. I downloaded it. I also recall it being suggested either on Major Geeks or The Elder Geek. Just like it says. Sometimes newer not better.

I hear you. Sometimes software hits a point where it's just about perfect for what it does, then feature creep insinuates itself into the product.

[dr_ml422]

Thnx Miles. I downloaded it. I also recall it being suggested either on Major Geeks or The Elder Geek. Just like it says. Sometimes newer not better.

[MilesAhead]

on jv16PowerTools mine shows file version 1.3
iirc it was the one recommended on Gizmo's 46 best XP downloads

ERNUNT is free and also the same author has NTREGOPT.

The only thing I don't like about ERUNT is the Readme file is tough to slog through. Esp. the different disaster recovery scenarios. Might be a good idea to synthesize it and put the condensed info on a page with a boot disc that lets you get at the NTFS partition to restore the registry. It's good software though. I never remember it hosing my system unless I messed up.

The main tricky part is drive letter reassignment. The backup makes a dos executable in each folder to run the restore of the registry. If you boot from a CD where the drive letter of the Windows partition is changed then you need a text editor to edit the file to correct drive letter. It's not that difficult but everything seems harder when the PC won't boot normally. If the machine will boot in safe mode then you can change to the folder and run the batch.