Interesting Software and System News

[Chris Thomas]

@ bob

Thanks for bringing Device Doctor to my notice!

Finally a free Driver Update Software

[Jab13]

A great way to keep your drivers updated.  The price is also right. 

Thanks Bob, this looks pretty neat, I'll have to try it out!   

[mkis]

Google Buzz Explained


Google today announced a new service, Google Buzz, that automatically brings social networking into Gmail and the rest of the Google-sphere.
Whether or not you're big on social networking sites like Twitter or Facebook, Google Buzz offers a somewhat new and intriguing approach.

A long-time Google user, I was let down by Google Share when trying to transfer access to various documents in Google Docs using the tools that Google had provided. The documents copied through almost unreadable, well unusable, that is, when they did go through. Before long I found the server had gone down so access was no longer available for the poor recipient of my intended share. Looking up the problem revealed that the Server going down was a common issue and seemingly not resolvable - from Google's end anyway. I had done a test run sending the documents to one of my email addresses and the first attempts had gone through so I went ahead. This was Friday afternoon. I find out early the following week that the transfer had failed. When I checked was when I found the Server down. It stayed down until I no longer checked. Sad fact. Tell me, is this just me, or are there people out there having success with Google Share. I'd like to know. I haven't deserted Google over this, but I have returned to using Google Docs only as a repository for files to be published and for files to be stored.

[bob3160]

I'm not having any problems with Google docs and use it as a repository for some of my files.
here's just one example:
https://docs.google.com/uc?id=0B-vSic0iJgyeZTJjMTVkMzAtM2RjYy00OWY0LTk0OWUtZDRmNzg0ODM2Njll&export=download&hl=en

[Marc57]

Microsoft halts Windows Update distribution of security fix after blue-screen reports


Microsoft has removed one group of patches it released as part of this week’s Patch Tuesday — MS10-015 (KB977165) – from its Windows Update service until it can investigate reports by some users that it is causing havoc with their PCs.


http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=5250

[YoKenny]

@ Marc57

No BSODs for me on XP Pro.

Update (February 12): Microsoft security experts say that some of the problems may be due to prior malware infestations on Windows users’ machines, as my colleague Ed Bott notes. The Softies are continuing their investigation.

Nothing I have seen suggests this is truly a widespread problem. Given that several hundred million people have downloaded this update, even a tiny fraction of a percent would result in thousands of affected systems.

http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=1764&tag=col1;post-1764

[bob3160]

No problem here on 3 Windows 7 systems.

[mkis]

I'm not having any problems with Google docs and use it as a repository for some of my files.
here's just one example:
https://docs.google.com/uc?id=0B-vSic0iJgyeZTJjMTVkMzAtM2RjYy00OWY0LTk0OWUtZDRmNzg0ODM2Njll&export=download&hl=en

yes Google Docs is fine for me too. Its when I use Share - the program sends an email to the recipient and that person is then able to access Google docs files that I have allowed them access to, and in this case they were also allowed edit and save privileges. It didn't work, not so much as I would feel confident to use it again some time. I think the time would be better spent looking at Dropbox.

[bob3160]

Photoshop in the Clouds and totally Free.

[mkis]

Giveaway of the Day - 10 hrs 46 mins to run
http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/

Easeus Data Recovery Wizard

I have the program on the old computer but have never needed to use. Wont hurt to add to the pair of identical computers I currently use (with avast 5). Given time, I can set up a few tests to trial the software.


Edit - okay I get the following message with install -

We strongly recommend never installing Data Recovery Wizard on the same drive that you want to recover data from. Installation to the same drive will cause a permanent data loss and less chance to restore.

Current installation path: C:\Program Files\EASEUS\EASEUS Data Recovery Wizard 5.0.1

Continue to Install?

---------

So I install program to current installation path - and when needed (say, for client), hook the drive that needs data to be recovered from to this drive, either as slave or inside enclosure, or whatever means at hand.

[polonus]

Hi malware fighters and those in need of a reliable ram defragmenter proggie:
RAM Def 2.71 get the download from http://majorgeeks.com/RAM_Def_d2195.html
normal mode silent mode and tray mode on the desktop
Experienced some slow ups with page loads in Google Chrome and Flock consuming intermittently a lot of CPU (according to me a Adobe Flash problem, blocking Flash load cures a lot of it in Flock)

polonus

[YoKenny]

@  polonus

I would not use RAM Def 2.71 that was released 2003-04-10 on a modern system.

I do use MemInfo:
http://www.carthagosoft.net/meminfo.htm

[mkis]

Not bad though - ram def - I tried on rambus system (circa 2001).
Set it with only 256 ram and running Chrome, Office 2003 and avast 5, so only 73mb was left for usage. Immediately doubled my available physical memory. Plus I seemed to have got a very neat uninstall when I removed the program, using its own uninstaller.

Then loaded meminfo. Nice.
Very much like the way it utilises Task Manager. So I will keep this in my sys tray as a ram monitor.

[DavidR]

Personally I can't see why RAM needs to be defragged, it doesn't suffer the same issues as a fixed hard disk when heavily fragmented. Certainly not with modern systems and RAM.

This is the same as SSD Solid State Disks in a way, which they don't believe need to be defragged; not only that but there is supposed to be a life to SSDs and defrags potentially shorten that life.

How to defrag RAM, reboot, done.
For me I really see no need to even contemplate defragging RAM as all locations are addressed in RAM and it isn't as if like the hard disk it has to spin to multiple locations for the data, which is the true problem with HDD fragmentation.

[Omid Farhang]

I'm totally agree with David. and again Agree with doing reboot, it's what I do every 1 or 2 day(s), it works! I've not ever felt defragging RAM have any impact on performance.