Archive for the ‘Software’ Category
Darko on June 18th, 2008
With a new application framework entering open beta early next year, eBay is working to build a kind of ‘open’ market for both developers and vendors to earn money, as a key eBay developer told Techachino Tuesday.
A private beta of eBay’s Project Echo will commence in Q4 2008, limited to participation among five ISVs including research tools provider Terapeak and CRM service provider Hosted Support. That will be followed by an open beta early next year and commercial availability by mid-year. This news Tuesday from Kumar Kandaswamy, senior director for platform strategy of the eBay Developers Program, in a briefing for Techachino.
“There’s been a lot of talk in the industry about ‘opening up’ this and that,” Kandaswamy said. “But we have two points of differentiation. One is simplicity. The other is that developers can make real money with us.”
Project Echo’s public beta will be open to all interested developers, the senior manager told us, with just a couple of provisos: “First, all [developers] must be willing to provide 30-day free trials of their products, both during and after the beta. Second, they must clearly call out the subscription price of their software for sellers.”
Through Project Echo, developers will be able to integrate their existing applications directly into Selling Manager and Selling Manager Pro, two eBay applications that already count some 700,000 eBay sellers as subscribers, Kandaswamy told us. That should enable sellers to subscribe to and start using their tools directly on eBay’s site.
Historically, sellers interested in trying out new third-party applications have had to go to a special section of the site known as Solutions Directory, and then click over to the ISVs’ sites.
Kandaswamy also acknowledged that eBay faces growing competition from other Web sites in luring application developers.
eBay is accessed by literally millions of buyers and sellers worldwide, according to the strategy manager. At the moment, there’s a push within the company for the creation of new and sophisticated tools that can help sellers do a better job of marketing their wares.
But eBay has already attracted some 70,000 third-party developers since the launch of the Developers Program eight years ago, he noted. Moreover, much of eBay’s traction with developers has happened over the past year, with 50,000 of those developers hopping aboard just since then.
A total of 4,800 of the 12,000 third-party applications built for eBay have been created over the past 12 months, he elaborated.
One of the latest third-party applications built for eBay assesses the buying behavior of individual buyers, in order to make recommendations to sellers about which buyers they should target. Another leverages current market data to help guide sellers in making decisions about which products in their inventories to focus on, and what prices to charge, Kandaswamy said.
He credited the recent expansion of eBay’s development environment for much of the growth in application development activity.
Instead of being limited to .NET and PHP, as in the past, eBay developers can now work in JavaScript, Flash, and Flex, as well. Meanwhile, eBay has also added integration interfaces for SOAP and XML.
Aside from a Web-based SOA platform for application integration, Project Echo also calls for the “opening up” to third-party developers of several APIs — including “eBay Client Alert” — that were previously available only to internal developers.
Darko on April 9th, 2008
Microsoft has released an integrated version of its Forefront enterprise security software into beta. The release, code-named “Stirling,” integrates with Microsoft Exchange Server, Sharepoint and Office Communications Systems, displaying its status on a single dashboard.
Microsoft has unveiled the public beta of its Forefront enterprise security product, known as “Stirling.”
This is a single product that delivers coordinated protection across desktop and server applications and the network edge. It comes with a single dashboard that shows all the systems protected by Stirling.
“Stirling covers the end points, Microsoft Exchange Server, Sharepoint and Office Communications Systems, which is Internet messaging, and the Threat Management Gateway,” Paul Bryan, Microsoft’s director of Forefront security products, told TechNewsWorld.
“Threat Management Gateway” is the name of the next version of Microsoft’s Internet Security & Acceleration (ISA) Server. This is scheduled for release next year, Bryan said.
Stirling also provides dynamic responses to emerging threats. Its technologies act as a distributed system and share information with each other so they can correlate security information to identify previously unknown or complex threats.
System administrators can configure Stirling’s protection technologies to dynamically respond to these threats.
If, for example, a previously unknown piece of malware infects a computer, the servers and desktops it connects to will check to see what it is doing and why, and will inform the network edge security part of Forefront, which will deal with the affected machine.
Stirling is integrated tightly with Active Directory, Windows 2008 Server, Windows Vista, Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS), Windows Rights Management Services (RMS), Network Access Protection (NAP), Windows CardSpace, Microsoft Forefront, Identity Lifecycle Manager, Microsoft Systems Center and Microsoft Office.
Tight integration at the back end means users “can quickly and easily set up your system for administration and set up policies,” Bryan said.
Protection against malware and spam as well as content filtering and firewall services are also integrated into Stirling.
Policy enforcement is simplified. If, for example, your policy forbids forwarding a particular document to unauthorized recipients but somebody forwards it anyway, the system will not let the unauthorized recipient read or open the document.
Integration with NAP lets administrators control network access by machine or by user.
Companies who use outside staff or contractors will find this helpful: When a contractor or consultant tries to hook into the enterprise’s network, the network “will check the device to ensure it meets the enterprise’s criteria and conforms to its policies before it allows it onto the network,” Bryan said.
Networks can be preconfigured to automatically upload patches or other applications the contractor’s device will need to meet the enterprise’s criteria.
Stirling has a single management console across client, server and network edge security. This will work with Microsoft System Center or other existing consoles in an enterprise, Bryan said.
“Customers are looking for ways to get overall visibility, lower total cost of ownership and lower complexity,” Bryan added. “We’re bringing together security in a unique way with a full set of offerings.”
Darko on April 5th, 2008
The final beta of the Firefox 3.0 web browser is now available, and Mozilla will move on to the release candidate stage by freezing changes as early as next week.
With 750 changes from its predecessor, Mozilla has claimed that security, stability and web compatibility have been improved, and suggested that Firefox 3, which is based on the new Gecko 1.9 web-rendering platform, will be the fastest-ever version of the browser.
The new beta includes fixes for memory problems that have been plaguing users, as well as a blocking system that will prevent the showing of pages that are known to be forgeries.
Anti-malware code is also being built in, and parents will have the option of blocking certain content.
Other improvements include automatic shutting down of outdated and insecure plug-ins, and easier removal of third-party applications.
The new browser is expected to go out on final release in June, but Mozilla is adamant that it will not be tied down to a release schedule if it means putting out buggy code.
You can get Beta 5 here and the release notes here.
Darko on March 28th, 2008
Lately, i’ve downloading lots of FLV files off of multiple websites. I have both K-lite and VLC installed on my laptop, witch pretty much does the trick.
Today, i wanted to play an FLV file in Windows Media Player 11, but as you might have noticed, WMP does not support FLV playback. So here’s what i did:
To play FLV files, we need to have a splitter because of the way it encodes two streams. I chose the FLV Splitter from the Guliverkli2 project.
1- Download the Splitter, you’ll have to register the file manually.
2-Place the “FLVSplitter.ax” file in your preferred directory, i chose c:\windows
3-Launch the Run service, and run the following line:
regsvr32 C:\WINDOWS\FLVSplitter.ax
Congratulation, Windows Media Player 11 now supports FLV playback on your PC
P.S: The Guliverkli2 project provides support for many other file types then FLV, includin: ogg, mov, rm…..Make sure to check it out
Darko on March 21st, 2008
I have used GreatNews: The intelligent RSS reader for over a year, and this application never failed me. GreatNews runs immediately and doesn’t require any special runtime environments.it’s a portable application.
With “Auto-discovery” Adding feeds to GreatNews is very simple, all you need to have is the link to the website and the reader will automatically find all the feeds offered by the website and give you the option to choose your preferred one.
Here’s a list of GreatNews Features(from the official website):
* Channel Statistics shows your top 10 most or least visited channels.
* Use labels to organize your articles. With just a single click, all items with the same label can be listed as if they are under the same folder. You can also use labelsto customize article exports.
* With Search Channels, you can type in stock symbol to track the latest news about the company via Yahoo Company News. Or use keywords to monitor latest blog comments via Feedster, MSN and Flickr
* Support all major feed formats, including RSS 0.9x, 1.0(rdf), 2.0, Atom 0.30 and 1.0. Support popular extensions like dublin core, content:encoding etc.
* Integrated internet browser, with tabs and popup blocking. Working closely with default browser like Firefox.
* With Import/Export wizard, you can import/export all channel subscriptions in a single step.
* Export rss articles to rss 2.0 format. You can also customize the export by selecting channel/group/label, and/or applying filters.
* Bloglines.com integration
Read everywhere at Bloglines.com, but read twice as fast at your desk.
* Full text search with keyword highlights.
* 100% Unicode support. Displays international languages on the same page. Use any languages anywhere in GreatNews, including Search, Label and News watch.
* “Channel Organizer” helps organize channel subscriptions in one place. Use “Find Channel” to locate your subscriptions quickly.
* Support HTTP Conditional GETs and gzip/deflate encoding to reduce bandwidth consumption.
* Track Comment function automatically updates articles with latest comments.
* BlogThis function to post directly to your blogging service. Support popular blogging tools like w.Bloggar, Zoundry and Windows Live Writer.
GreatNews: Official Website - Direct Download
Darko on March 21st, 2008
The popular BitTorrent tracking site Mininova announced the development of a new online video streaming service latest project in cooperation with a Dutch university development team. The service will offer Mininova users users the chance to videos streamed from .torrent files.
The first beta release of this software will be invitation-only for a small group of Mininova members, with no indication when it will be moved to open beta status.
The Open Source “swarmplayer” which is used for the video streaming service is developed in collaboration with the Tribler team from the Technical University Delft and Free University Amsterdam. Tribler is also working together with the BBC and several other European broadcasters, and they recently received a $19 million grant for P2P research from the European Union.
According to Mininova, the service will only work with the “featured” torrents, which lists all the distributors taking part in Mininova’s content distribution platform..
A check of Mininova’s current list of so-called “features” appears to include some very familiar names, including The Bourne Ultimatum, Ratatouille, and American Gangster — titles whose licensed status from their respective studios does not appear evident.
Though the legality of the site’s operations and services remains questionable, record and movie associations have had very little luck attempting to shut down Mininova thus far.
Mininova already has a music streaming feature for their content distribution platform, based on the Java applet developed by Bitlet
Mininova is listed among the 50 most visited websites on the Internet and has nearly 30 million unique visitors a month.
The site is looking for people to beta test the service, say Erik, one of the admins: “We are looking for people who would like to be in the first testing group who test the software, report suggestions and bugs you find.”
If you would like to join, reply to their blog post here.
Darko on March 12th, 2008
Since the moment i got my 1 GB Flash Memory stick, i began to gather all the portable applications i can find. Usually these applications are not marketed as portable, but you can easily figure it out by renaming the installation directory and running the application, if it run properly then it’s a portable application.
Here’s a list of free portable applications that every IT guy should have on his flash memory at all time.
PortableApps.com’s has a very nice list of portable application, here’s my favorite:
DesktopApps’s Simple and portable applications:
- menuApp - a menu based application launcher.
- audioApp - for all your one-click muting needs.
- monitorApp - a small system resource monitor.
- imageApp - a digital image viewer.
Windows Sysinternals’s (formerly Sysinternals) portable system monitoring software:
- Process Monitor - real-time monitoring of file system, Registry and process/thread activity
- RegMon - Sysinternals.com - Monitors all modifications on the registry
- DiskMon - Monitors all modifications and traffic on the hard drives
- FileMon - Monitors all modifications and traffic on files
- TcpView - Monitors all traffic incoming and outcoming from the system
All of the following application are 100% portable:
i will keep updating this list, every time i find a new portable application
Darko on January 27th, 2008
Truecrypt is one of the most vital tools that any geek should have.
TrueCrypt is a software system for establishing and maintaining an on-the-fly-encrypted volume (data storage device). On-the-fly encryption means that data are automatically encrypted or decrypted right before they are loaded or saved, without any user intervention. In plain English, Truecrypt will create encrypted drives that you can mount hide your data and dismount in just a few seconds.
Run the program and click on Create Volume
-Select the “Create a standard TrueCrypt volume”
-Select the path and filename of the new drive
-Selecting the encryption algorithm is a very simple. TrueCrypt Can crypt your data with 8 different algorithms, but any of the algorithms will offer you high level protection. Here’s an interesting excerpt I found about what algorithm to choose:
First of all, if speed is your thing than you need to seriously
consider the container type. File containers will typically be slower
than entire encrypted partitions. A *lot* slower in some cases. This
decision alone will have a much bigger impact on throughput than
algorithm choice.
That said, speed comparisons are going to be system dependant and
arbitrary. Any flat comparison might be misleading. And I think the
differences are going to be so minute in the real world that they’re
insignificant. I’ll offer a specific opinion later on, but first some
examples of why they’re arbitrary.
Key size shouldn’t directly directly impact speed, but it may change
the algorithm’s “rank” among its constituents from a 32 bit to a 64 bit
environment.
Your specific usage can also affect speed. Encryption almost always
takes more clock cycles than decryption. For some algorithms the
difference is more pronounced. If your activity is more “write
oriented” you might want to consider an algorithm with a
better encrypt/decrypt “ratio”.
There’s a lot of other little gotchas that might make one algorithm
perform better than another on your system, and with your usage. But if
you really *must* know which algorithms are considered “faster”…
Rijndael (AES) and Twofish are two of the best performers on a
“standardized” Pentium Pro, in a standardized implementation. Twofish
is slightly faster at encryption, but Rijndael takes the checkered in
key setup. I think overall, Rijndael would be the “winner” in a
standard usage scenario. CAST is not so far behind these two. I’d say
you’d be good with any of the three. On the other end, 3DES is probably
going to be one of the slowest.
FWIW, if you get down to the nitpicking “what if” of the thing, Twofish
is thought to be slightly more secure than Rijndael too.
So select the one you prefer
-Choose the drive size. This depends on the amount of data you want to hold inside the drive. I recommand that before selecting the size, put all the applications and data you want to store on the drive inside a folder and select the size of the drive based on the size of that folder. You might want to have a bit of free space for future modifications. So if the folder size is 20 MB, create a 30 MB drive…..
-Selecting a password is the most important task. You need to have a strong password, that can be immuned to brute force attacks and any kind of decrypting methods. The password should have letters(a b c), characters(!@#) and numbers (1 2 3).
-Now, all you have to do is format the drive
Of course there are many more options you can try but that the quick way to do it.
I should also mention that Truecrypt has lots of command line options and is a completly portable application
TrueCrypt: Official Website
Downloads Page
Direct Links to latest stable version - 4.3a:
Windows Vista/XP/2000/2003
Linux distributions:
OpenSuSE 10.2 x86
OpenSuSE 10.3 x86
Ubuntu 6.06 LTS x86
Ubuntu 7.04 x86
Ubuntu 7.04 x64 (64-bit)
Ubuntu 7.10 x86
Ubuntu 7.10 x64 (64-bit)
Source Code
Darko on January 2nd, 2008
I recently set Windows XP SP2 to Auto-update with me selecting witch updates to install. I usually let windows download and install everything on it’s own, but the purpose of my move was so that i can make a backup of all the updates and burn them on a cd, for future use.
Well, today the updater alerted me that there’s 15 new updates ready to be installed, looking through the list i found the package KB905474, witch is the infamous WGA tool used by Microsoft to determine if the copy is genuine or not. I hesitated to install the package, then said what the heck, what harm could it do. BIG MISTAKE!!!!
I use instantly notified that my windows XP copy is not genuine, now remember folks, i’m working on an HP compaq nx9010 with “Designed for Windows XP” sticker on the front and a Windows xp serial number on the back. Well, apparently the serial number has been blacklisted and now i was stuck with this stupid popup offering me to “become genuine”.
At this point i had two options:
1-Right click the WGA tray icon, and select “change notification settings”, then select “Don’t notify me again”, and “Yes I know this voids me from product support”
2-Stop or delete the whole WGA tool
Well, needless to say i opted for the second choice and here’s what i did
Start > Run > regedit > go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\ Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\Notify > delete the WGALOGON folder and restart
After restarting everything returned to normal and i’m happy to announce that i’m back downloading updates
Darko on January 2nd, 2008
Have you noticed any of the following symptoms on your computer:
A new toolbars in your Internet Browser that you didn’t install
Your browser has been crashing without any justification
Your browser home page has changed on its own
…Then you most probably have spyware/adware on your PC
Spyware can be easily installed on computer simply by surfing through the web, witch leaves lots of system vulnerable to their attacks. They can be used to track user behavior online, redirect users to specific websites, launch ads directly in the desktop.
Spybot Search & Destroy searches the computer for +100000 different type of adware and spyware that hijacked the system.The application is well supported and updates are constantly available.
In edition to the ability of scanning computers for malware, Spybot has a function called Immunize that will help prevent any future attack by blocking all possible exploits.
Spybot is a dangerous tool, as good as it is, it can have some very destructive side-effect, this tool should be used by people who know what they’re doing, and please don’t take any action that might not fully understand it’s implications. With that being said i believe that this is a very important tool that every real geek and every IT person should have with him at all time
Spybot Search & Destroy: Official Website
Spybot Search & Destroy 1.5.1.15 : Direct Download
Spybot Search & Destroy Latest Update to install Offline : Direct Download
