Interesting Software and System News

[Lisandro]

Free Utility Cuts Cost of Printing

Printing drafts of documents results in a lot of wasted paper. It's not only the paper cost; it's a waste of trees and energy as well. PrintFile is a free utility that reduces this cost by allowing you to print multiple logical pages on a single physical page, a technique known as "n-up" printing, a feature that is available on some modern printers. PrintFile is actually a full featured spooling print manager that can process plain text, PostScript, Encapsulated PostScript (EPS) and binary formats. Note that many of these functions are handled perfectly well by Windows, so the only real reason you would install it would be for the n-up printing. However, for many folks whose printers don't have an in-built n-up feature, this is sufficient reason in itself. I also note that the program has not been updated for some years. Thanks to subscriber Manuel Nuno Alçada for the suggestion. Freeware, All Windows versions up to XP, 198KB. http://lerup.com/printfile/

From Gizmo's newsletter: http://techsupportalert.com/issues/al_current.htm

[Lisandro]

Add Sticky Notes to Web Pages or Anything Else

Subscriber Christian Hess Araya writes "Gizmo in issue #149 you mentioned the Firefox extension Internote that allows you to attach notes to webpages so that when you revisit the page the sticky note is automatically displayed. I'd like to let you know about Stickies [1], a free utility, will let you do the very same thing, not limited to webpages but to *any* open window. That makes it so much more useful, IMHO." When I first received this message from Christian I wasn't sure that Stickies would display a note when you re-visited a webpage but it sure does - it remembers the window title. Freeware, Windows 95 and later, 953KB
http://www.zhornsoftware.co.uk/stickies/

From Gizmo's newsletter: http://techsupportalert.com/issues/al_current.htm

[Lisandro]

An Alternative to the Late, Lamented AutoPatcher

Last month I told you how Microsoft had forced the closure of AutoPatcher, a free service that allowed users to download all Windows Updates since SP2 in a single file. This prompted subscriber Paul Lawrence to write "Gizmo there is an alternative to AutoPatcher, called Offline Update [1]. I believe it is more like the current project that Autopatcher.com has started working on that will download updates directly from Microsoft. This should avoid any potential legal problems. It works by creating an .ISO file to burn to disk so you can distribute the updates to other computers. I tried it on my other computer with a fresh XP install. The executables ran smoothly and the update process worked like a charm! Then I ran Microsoft Update Online to see how well it did. I only had 10 updates that I had to download at that point, an excellent result. The only major con I see is the initial download is quite large which may be a problem for people with only dial-up. You can download the program here [2]." Thanks to the many other subscribers who also suggested Offline Update.
[1] http://www.heise-security.co.uk/articles/80682/0
[2] http://www.heise.de/ct/projekte/offlineupdate/download_uk.shtml

From Gizmo's newsletter: http://techsupportalert.com/issues/al_current.htm

[bob3160]

Leopard has more 'Wow!' than Vista

A quote from Adrian Kingsley-Hughes:
“Leopard looks like it beats Vista in the “Wow!” department.”

[bob3160]

Digital media ethics: it's personal
My personal slant on this is that maybe the RIAA ought to be sued for trying to
eliminate the "fair use doctrine". 
What are your feelings ?

[bob3160]

Where are the “Top Secret” Leopard features that Steve Jobs promised?

Part of the reason for this headline:

Yay, woohoo, Leopard has finally been announced! Two and a half years after the release of Tiger, that’s an almost Microsoft-esque timeframe by Apple’s standards. You’d expect Leopard to be something special, and, with 300 plus improvements, it must be. However, since Steve’s announcement 14 months ago of “top secret” new features, nothing has materialized to fit that billing. And it’s reasonable that the fans are feeling a little bit let down.

[oldman]

Well, to expect people to buy extra copies for travel, different players, etc is just plain silly. Even M$ allows for a backup copy.

It may be an interesting legal battle.

[bob3160]

Microsoft claims it is not party to patent claims against Linux        (I wonder)

How far will we have to dig before the truth actually surfaces

[oldman]

Where are the “Top Secret” Leopard features that Steve Jobs promised?

Part of the reason for this headline:

Yay, woohoo, Leopard has finally been announced! Two and a half years after the release of Tiger, that’s an almost Microsoft-esque timeframe by Apple’s standards. You’d expect Leopard to be something special, and, with 300 plus improvements, it must be. However, since Steve’s announcement 14 months ago of “top secret” new features, nothing has materialized to fit that billing. And it’s reasonable that the fans are feeling a little bit let down.

Maybe another trick learned from B.G. . After all they where once close.  

[bob3160]

Where are the “Top Secret” Leopard features that Steve Jobs promised?

Part of the reason for this headline:

Yay, woohoo, Leopard has finally been announced! Two and a half years after the release of Tiger, that’s an almost Microsoft-esque timeframe by Apple’s standards. You’d expect Leopard to be something special, and, with 300 plus improvements, it must be. However, since Steve’s announcement 14 months ago of “top secret” new features, nothing has materialized to fit that billing. And it’s reasonable that the fans are feeling a little bit let down.

Maybe another trick learned from B.G. . After all they where once close. 

Very very true....
Unfortunately, none of us need dirty tricks regardless of where they come from. 

[szc]

Where are the “Top Secret” Leopard features that Steve Jobs promised?

Part of the reason for this headline:

Yay, woohoo, Leopard has finally been announced! Two and a half years after the release of Tiger, that’s an almost Microsoft-esque timeframe by Apple’s standards. You’d expect Leopard to be something special, and, with 300 plus improvements, it must be. However, since Steve’s announcement 14 months ago of “top secret” new features, nothing has materialized to fit that billing. And it’s reasonable that the fans are feeling a little bit let down.

To tell the truth I have no clue what this guy is talking about in his article. This same character wrote another article also posted by Bob in this thread... it looked like he was "wow"-ed. All of a sudden he changed his mind...

EDIT: adding link: http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=19387.msg257044#msg257044

I personally am not disappointed at all. Whatever you get with Leopard is at least million light years ahead of any "feature" you get with Vista. However, I am little disappointed... with Vista. They ripped me off and they gave me nothing but a headache with this crappy OS.

Leopard may not have all features included they planned in the beginning, but all those that are inside are more than enough. Of course there is "only" 300+ new features which BTW work, nothing like Vista's crappy effects that just slows down even most powerful computers. I am sure that even if Apple included 600+ new features, there would always be at least one person to find something "that's not right". That's how it will always be... thanks God I started to listen to my 19 years long lasting computer experience and common sense, rather than letting articles like this one influence my decisions what to buy and what not.

[neal62]

Teenager claims to have easy iPod touch jailbreak. See HERE

[bob3160]

Sasha,

To tell the truth I have no clue what this guy is talking about in his article. This same character wrote another article also posted by Bob in this thread... it looked like he was "wow"-ed. All of a sudden he changed his mind...

The article was actually written by Chris Howard and you'll find it at:
http://www.applematters.com/index.php/section/comments/sorry-children-leopards-top-secret-features-arent-real/
Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, who I quoted, only wrote a small synopsis of Chris Howard's article.

I know you love your new apple.    I'm not knocking it I'm just passing along information and pointing out that under the covers,
the "Big Boys" are pretty much the same.

[szc]

I know Bob, I didn't mean you meant anything wrong, no way. It's just when I see people complaining about something they don't and will not use, I'm starting to think, what's the point of them complaining then ? And they will always find something regardless of how good or bad product ends up... even if it's perfectly perfect without even one single glitch (impossible of course), they will search and search until they find something that can give them an idea about writing a new article.

It's really not about loving my new Mac, although I really love it otherwise I wouldn't buy it (I spent few months visiting Apple store here and there before I made my final decision), but about why people are still complaining when nothing in this World is perfect nor it will ever be. Just find something you like and use it... leave other people to decide what's best for them... but it looks like they don't play by these rules. 

[bob3160]

How to Spot an E-Mail Scam
Excellent picture essay. Especially for less experienced computer users.