Software
Google Chrome (Web Browser) and IE8 Beta 2 Review
Today I tested 2 different beta browsers. Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2, and Google Chrome.
Finally browsers are starting to evolve at a faster rate. Firefox 3’s “awesome bar” has become a must have feature that other browsers are working to clone and CSS support is starting to not suck quite as bad.
So first is Google’s new browser “Google Chrome”. It’s a mashup of Safari and Firefox, and wow is it fast. I mean things that work slowly on my site on a crappy laptop work much faster with this new browser. Google, being smarter than Microsoft, has opted to keep the browser open source and let a community of people develop it just like Firefox. This means, that though there are currently no extensions for the browser, there will be.
Firefox is the best browser because in it’s core it complies to standards, and then it lets people extend the functionality of the browser in a zillion different ways with add-ons. So now that Google has come along with a similar product, and they have sped up page loads and JavaScript execution.
Google Chrome has a coupe of slick new features, like clicking Shift+Esc will open a “task manager” just for the browser. It shows you the memory and cpu usage of each tab and process like flash. You can then end those processes. They extend this further by making each tab it’s own “sandbox” where one tab does not effect the others. So if a tab crashes, none of your other tabs will crash. That alone is worth the prices of admission.
Another plus for me was how right out of the box I didn’t need to install any plugins. Flash worked, the DivX player worked, Java worked. My thought is that they just copied the plugins directly from my Firefox install and are able to use the same files. I also dig the “new tab” thing showing links and screenshots of all your most visited pages.
Web Developer Note: Acid2 Test = Perfect, Acid3 Test = 77% (Firefox only gets 57%).
I haven’t had any crashes with this beta browser yet either, which is very odd. It wasn’t able to load my OGM movies, but then again, on my x64 vista it took me an hour of dicking with Firefox to get those to load, due to the badly made plugin installer that doesn’t understand how to install itself in a “portable browser”. In Firefox when an OGM movie doesn’t load it often crashes the entire browser.
Both Google and Microsoft have added features to their browser that we will refer to as “porn mode” since it lets you browse the internet with out leaving records of where you have been. This is helpful since with the new way address bar’s are working you can almost always find your way back to someplace you have previously been.
So next I was going to give my personal views on Internet Explorer 8 beta 2, however when I tried to install it on vista x64 I was told that this operating system is not supported.
For shame Microsoft. Even if it’s 32 bit you can still make a 32 bit program run just fine. I am amazingly disappointed by this. Especially since this is your second beta. So instead of talking about their new features I will go off of what I have read about it.
Basically Microsoft has taken their “copy a good idea and make it better” to heart, and have taken to copying such features as the awesome bar and improving it by listing the URL next to the site name that it finds.
Now, I love copying and improving. So many people bitch about things getting stolen from one thing and stuck in another, but that’s what allows us to evolve. Why re-invent the wheel? Just make it last longer and not go flat.
What I want is for them to “copy” the CSS support from other browsers to their browser, because though all computer guys and web designers (real designers, who don’t use FrontPage) will use Firefox or another standard compliant browser. End users will still use whatever their computer comes with that has the word internet on it.
I run a website where I would think people would be smart enough to use Firefox, yet 80% of my traffic is from Internet Explorer. Now I will forgive you all for it since a large majority of you are at schools and offices where you cannot install things.
All Microsoft needs to do to stop being hated by web developers is 3 things:
1) Proper CSS3 support. I mean seriously you are talking in your blog and writeups about how you fully support CSS2.1 now, but who cares. I want CSS3 so I can start making vertical lines and have drop shadows under my text.
2) Open Extension format. I realize that Microsoft doesn’t like open source, and I respect that as a developer. However you can just make a SDK for add-ons, since most of the best “features” of Firefox are only there because we have added them of our own accord.
3) Remove Active-X. I don’t care how many websites use it. Those sites have ways for people to view their content in other browsers. This is the main reason people get infected with the old trick: “You are infected with spyware. Click here to remove”. Then it installs a program that adds more spyware while pretending to remove some of it.
Right now IE8 is still a beta, and browser betas are lousy. The Firefox 3 beta was garbage at supporting already existing things like JavaScript and plugins. So all I can do right now is hope that Microsoft will pull their head out of their ass and do the 3 things I listed. Then I will not have to spend an extra 3 hours on every new page I design just trying to make an Internet Explorer workaround for some positioning bug.
For now, Firefox is still king. However I foresee Google adding extensions and other web applications and then becoming the best browser. It’s already faster and doesn’t crash.
Download: Google Chrome | IE8 Beta 2
How To > Gain Full System Access to Windows
So you want way more power over your windows machine than you probably should have:
As a smartass and a computer guy I like to know all sorts of sneaky ways to get things done. So when I find out about a quick way to get more power over a windows system in only a min or two, I listen, test and then share. Now I can think of many reasons why you would want to have system access to a machine, but in this tutorial lets just say you forget the passwords to all your administrator accounts. Don’t laugh, I have met countless people who have done so back when I was fixing computers for a living. In this case you have 3 options:
1) Download a linux based NTFS password changer and burn to cd. This works well however the terminology will probably confuse people since it’s all about finding and editing the Hive of a SAM file.
2) Call a local computer company to fix. Doing this they will probably just do step 1 if they know what they are doing, if they don’t they will try to login to Administrator in safe mode and in failing to do so will convince you that they need to erase you computer.
3) Turn your non-admin account or guest account into a hardcore system account and simply change the password.
We will follow choice 3. It’s super easy and I have tested it myself. In my usual fashion I will keep this short without a lot of excess text, because then if you understand it, it’s short enough to remember without having to reference back!
1) Start > Run > cmd.exe > type: at 12:03 /interactive “cmd.exe” (replace 12:03 with a time 2 mins from now). > close command prompt
2) New command prompt will open, when it does > Hit CTRL+ALT+DEL > find explorer.exe and End Process.
3) At command prompt type: cd.. > type: explorer.exe
If you have never done this before it may take a few seconds to create a new profile, but then you will see the user System in the start menu as user name.
Be warned, this account is scary powerful, this is basically root on a windows machine. So try not to delete any important system files etc..
How To > Speed Up Firefox For Smartasses
Some people like the for dummies books, for me… It’s too much worthless information to look through. I just want a 5 second tutorial and a blood cheat sheet. Besides you are most likely a very smart person since you are browsing my site AND using firefox if you clicked on this article. So I am not going to bother explaining what each of the below values are, if you don’t know and want to, google them.
Open new tab > Enter about:config in address bar > you are now at a hard core settings page. You will notice that if you start typing it eliminates your choices to narrow your search so just Copy and Paste the names I list below. Some of the following items will be listed in your firefox, and some of them you will not be able to find AT ALL, so if it exists change the number, if it doesn’t > Right click and choose Create New. I will list the names and the values to put in below (FYI: For creating New items, if it’s true/false choose boolean and if it’s a number choose integer.. that’s it, edit or create the values and restart your browser, it will be faster.
- browser.cache.memory.capacity - 65536
- ui.submenuDelay - 0
- nglayout.initialpaint.delay - 0
- content.switch.threshold - 750000
- content.interrupt.parsing - True
- network.http.pipelining - True
- network.http.pipelining.maxrequests - 8
- network.http.proxy.pipelining - True
- network.dns.disableIPv6 - True
- content.interrupt.parsing - True
- content.max.tokenizing.time - 2250000
- content.notify.interval - 750000
- content.notify.ontimer - True
- content.notify.backoffcount - 5
Explains > BitTorrent Basics
The Smartass Explains BitTorrent
For me for the past few years I have simply accepted bittorrent as the only efficient way to download files. Yet everyday I meet people who don’t know what it is, or who think using Kazaa is the way to go. Since I don’t want to explain it to every person individually anymore I am going to give you the who, what, when, where, why and how.
BitTorrent is a Peer-to-Peer file sharing protocol that doesn’t suck. It was invented by Bram Cohen. It has been around for awhile and will continue to be around for awhile because of the method it uses to transfer files. A torrent file is basically just a text file that describes some data. It cuts it into hundreds of segments and memorizes how to put those segments back together again. Because a torrent file is such a tiny file people use it to describe vast quantities of files (example: an entire 60 disk Rolling Stones discography is only a 280k torrent file).
The torrent file doesn’t require the data to be on a server anywhere. Instead it relies on the people who are both leeching it and seeding it to provide the data for everybody else. The websites you typically get torrents off of are called Trackers. Basically the tracker, like it’s namesake keeps track of people who are uploading and downloading the file. So when you start downloading one of the other people downloading is now also uploading you a little chunk of data. After a minute you have a few pieces and might just start uploading those pieces to other people. This is all kept track of on the tracker.
In the end you need at least 1 person seeding (at least for awhile), to get a complete copy of the item. However there always seems to be somebody who will seed a torrent forever.
Now there are many different programs you can get that will allow you to download these torrent files, and there are literately thousands of trackers on the web that you can find files at. Choosing one is based on your operating system however I will recommend uTorrent to those on PC’s, and Azureus to those not. There is however a catch to Azureus. It is coded for Java, so it tends to be a memory hog. It has more features than any other client though. Also beware of version 3.0, perhaps read up on it to see if it’s safe, because it is VERY different than their 2.5 version, and seems like it wants to please the bigshots.
Legal issues: Well there are many different things you can legally download with Bittorrent, it started first as a way to distribute Anime Fansubs, and then went to Linux distributions. Both valid legal reasons. I however am not here to preach to you about copyright laws and you can make your own choices as to what files to download. That being said I recommend when you get a torrent client that you also download some kind of IP blocker that updates from a global list. Peer Guardian is very effective if you are using uTorrent and if you are Using Azureus, then you can probably just download the SafePeer Plugin. Don’t misquote me, these are not bullet proof, and though it may protect you from movie studios with a quota, it won’t protect you from FBI Agents with one.
At this point and until a new, better distribution protocol comes out, Bittorrent is the best. The legal issues with it will only fuel it’s popularity and all the biggest sites have been sued and are STILL up and running because the biggest sites aren’t even trackers, they are search engines that point to files on other people’s trackers. Besides, the most popular trackers are all private, invite only trackers that seem to escape legal harm. Or they are like The Pirate Bay which keeps an archive of all their legal threats on their website for all to see.
Summary: Download a client, familiarize yourself with the terminology (seed, tracker, ratio, port forwarding, rss) and start downloading things using the most effective p2p solution that has ever existed. Or just use it for something simple like sticking the EZTV RSS feed that’s on this site into your torrent client and telling it to download all your favorite TV Shows in HD with no commercials only 2 hours after they air!
- Best Search Engines
- BTJunkie
- ISOHunt
- TorrentSpy
- MiniNova
- DiGG Torrents (modified google)
- Best Private Trackers
- OiNK
- Anime Yume
- Blackcats-Games
- Demonoid
- BitME
- PodTropolis
- Other Helpful Resources
- Port Forwarding***(to do BT right, open a port first)
- EZTV RSS Feed
- Proxy Judge
Article Author: The Smartass
Source: Brain Power
How To > Perform a Clean Install of Windows Vista Upgrade
Ok so Microsoft decided to screw it’s customer’s over on the upgrade versions of windows vista. They figured that unlike previous OS’s they have released, this time they would NOT allow you to do a clean install with it. The ONLY way to you can do the actual upgrade is to first install XP and get it working before you install Vista. Well this presents many problems.
Clean installs are ALWAYS better, and not only that but if you bought an upgrade you can’t upgrade good versions of XP. to reasonably priced versions of Vista. See if you own Windows XP Pro and you go out and but Windows Vista Home Premium, it will not let you upgrade, and there is no way the store you bought it from will take it back.
So here’s the solution.
- Back up your stuff
- Erase your drive (or make new partition)
- Install Windows Vista Upgrade WITHOUT A SERIAL # (it’s easy to do, just tell the install you will enter it later)
- DO NOT TRY TO ACTIVATE
- Restart computer, now reinstall Vista using your upgrade serial #
Trust me, this is a MUCH better solution than trying to upgrade it or return it.
.7z - What the @#$% is That?
You know what a zip file is right? They are great for storing data in 1 little file that you can download online. Well .zip was great 10 years ago, but it’s compression has never really improved. So we need something that can compress data better. In the ago of big-ass hard drives this seems like a trivial thing, however it’s not because the place you are getting these files is the internet. You want your files to download super fast and I want to use less space, and transfer less data from my server.
This is where .7z files come in. They started with a program called 7-Zip, there are many other programs that support .7z noww though because these little badboys can compress the hell out of things. It is my format of choice for compression. Though sadly is not known world wide, so I have stuck to using zip files where possible. Well at this point I want to host things on my server again, and I am low on space, so I am going to be using Bittorrent and 7-Zip files a lot.
Ok, so it compresses a lot right, well you don’t care, you don’t want to have to download another archival program right? I didn’t either, but I caved in and now this is the only one I use, because not only does it support .7z and .zip but it can extract just about anything .rar’s .msi files (microsoft installation’s), ISO’s, tar, deb etc.. The list goes on.
Lastly it’s FREE. I mean WinRAR now supports most of the same files as 7-Zip, however WinRAR is not free.
This is why I use 7-Zip and this is what I will be compressing files in that are on this website, so now you can’t come bitchin’ at me that you can’t use the weird .7z files on this site.
Download 7-Zip
Wikipedia Entry
Article Author: The Smartass
Source: Brain Power
Last Updated: 2.22.07
Skip Windows Vista Activation
Ok so Microsoft and automatic updates have managed to fix the retarded bug they had that allowed people to tack years onto their 30 day activation period simply by setting your bios clock ahead before install and back after.
So now what can you do to help microsoft fix another bug you ask? Well, I’ll tell you for educational purposes of course. If there are any questions about this method, I did not write the article, and am not responsible for it’s contents. Please see bottom for Source and Author for questions.
1. Install Windows Vista Ultimate edition (or other edition) without product key.
2. Windows Vista needs to be applied with 2099-ReArm trick, so that the counter of minutes to no activation required period will not return to normal after reboot. Click on Start Orb button.
3. Select All Programs, then Accessories.
4. Right click on Command Prompt, then select Run as Administrator (A).
5. If User Account Control (UAC) prompt a warning message, click on Continue.
6. In the command prompt, type date and press Enter. You will see the following:
Microsoft Windows [Version 6.0.6000]
Copyright (c) 2006 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
C:\Windows\system32>date
Current date: 12/19/2006 Thursday
Enter new date:
7. Enter 12/31/2099 (December 31, 2099).
8. Next, type cscript slmgr.vbs -rearm. You will see something like the following:
C:\Windows\system32>cscript slmgr.vbs -rearm
Microsoft (R) Windows Script Host Version 5.7
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
The command completed successfully.
To make the change effectively, please restart the system.
9. Then reset the date of the system to current date again by typing date again. You will see the following:
Microsoft Windows [Version 6.0.6000]
Copyright (c) 2006 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
C:\Windows\system32>date
Current date: 12/31/2099 Thursday
Enter new date:
10. Type in current date, i.e. 12/19/2006.
11. Exit from command prompt, but do not restart the computer.
12. Download StopTimer.zip torrent(If you don’t know what a torrent is you have another thing you need to learn…) From the Pirate bay, where I am sure it will not be removed.
13. Extract the downloaded archive file into a folder. It should contains Vista test crack.exe and timerstop.sys.
14. Execute or run the Vista test crack.exe by right click on Vista test crack.exe, and select Run as Administrator (A).
15. Optional: Press in Test button, and it will pop up a message says 4 timers are stopped. At this time, the counter should be freezed, Check with slmgr.vbs -dlv command, with the minutes left should be the same after a few minutes interval. If its the case, continue with the following steps to run the crack every startup.
16. In the Vista test crack window, click on Install button. You will be prompted with Service installed message if everything is done properly and correctly. The crack will copy the patched stoptimer.sys to system folder and install a new service named timerstop to stop kernel-mode timers in spsys.sys system file.
17. Exit from the crack, and restart the computer.
18. The hacking is basically done. Next few steps to to verify that the activation grace period built-in countdown timer is actually stopped and disable the timers from working properly, and make sure that the crack is installed properly. After restart, log on to Windows Vista. Run for a few minutes.
19. Press on Windows + R keys.
20. Type slmgr.vbs -dlv to check the time left to activate Windows Vista. If the time left is 43200 minutes thats mean the crack is successful.
Article Author: LK, Cho
Source: keznews.com
Last Updated: 12.26.06
Remove Windows Vista Activation
UPDATE: Please read NEW method post on 12.26 named “Skip Windows Vista Activation”
Ok, here’s a funny thing I discovered. The retail copy of vista (build 6000, leaked by Bill Gates himself)
1) doesn’t require a serial number to be entered at the time you install
2) gives you 30 days to activate…
However using a very ol’ skool trick (Setting your bios clock to 2099, and disconnecting your network so that it doesn’t synchronize time with internet when you first login, then resetting and fixing bios clock) you can get virtually Unlimited days to activate vista.
There are some other ways to get around it, people have setup an activation server using vmware that will let you activate etc.. however that would be altering windows and I just don’t know that it’s worth doing unless you are really hard up for an education. With the 30 day trick you can still get all the windows update and everything seems to work just great.
NOTE: If you do this the performance tester will mark your “last test” as 2099. So to do another performance test you will have to change your windows clock temporarily to a minute or so after it says the last test in 2099 was.
Article Author: The Smartass
Source: Brain Power
Last Updated: 12.26.06
Make Windows Vista Less Annoying
Ok, so Windows Vista. It’s pretty slick. However in trying to protect stupid users from their own shadows, they went a bit far.
Vista has a few things that are VERY annoying. 1 of them is called User Access Control (or UAC). It doesn’t give administrators administrative rights until they click on a prompt to get it. Fine, I’ll deal…. It’s only one time right? Nope…. It’s every bloody time you ever open an installation etc…
So first to Eliminate UAC
Click Windows Key + R (to open run menu) -> type msconfig -> Click Tools -> Highlight Disable UAC -> Click Launch
Stop Windows Defender
before you exist msconfig click over to startup tab and uncheck Windows Defender, then click on services tab, sort by name and uncheck windows defender there as well….
Disable DEP (Data Execution Protection)
Click Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> RIGHT CLICK Command Prompt -> Click Run as Administrator -> (Click Allow if it asks you..) -> at the command prompt type: bcdedit.exe /set {current} nx AlwaysOff
Remove Security Center Notifications
Control Panel -> Double Click Security Center -> Click Change the way Security Center alerts me -> Select I do not want notification messages from Security Center. (note… only do this, don’t disable the service because when I did, i had tons of odd problems with shutdown and startup)
Make network icon animated
Right click icon -> Click Turn on activity animation
Ok, after you restart virtually all the annoying prompts are disabled. Things that are still annoying but I haven’t yet figured out how to fix, if you know how to then please post a comment and I will update the post:
uTorrent port forwarding
Ok, I figured this out, but it took me a couple hours of annoying trial and error. For some reason in Vista uTorrent ignores whatever port you choose a different range without asking. After trying to force all sorts of ways to get it to my port I caved in and set it to theirs. I will only give brief descriptions since if you are using uTorrent I assume you have a clue.
1) Hardset your ip to a local address (192.168.0.2 or something) and Open uTorrent and start downloading something
2) Press Win Key + R (run) -> type cmd -> type netstat -an -> look for the ports that people are connecting to. For me it was from 62300 - 63400. I don’t know if this range was chosen at random or if this is what yours will be as well.
3) Go into your router and tell your router to open tcp ports from 62300 - 65000 (go over because it seems to keep going higher if you keep monitoring) and save
4) Go into uTorrent Preferences -> Click connections -> set port to 62300 (or whatever something in your range was)
5) Uncheck UPnP and randomize port if they are checked
6) Click advanced -> Highlight net.bind_ip -> type 192.168.0.2 (or whatever you hardset your local ip to) -> click set
7) Make sure your software firewall also has the range or the utorrent program allowed to pass…
WOOHOO! Problem Solved
Concurrent connections… Ok so if you use file sharing you want to have a ton of concurrent connections. XP limited you to 10 to “try to stop the rapid spreading of worms”, well Vista limits low end versions to 3 and high end versions to 10. This is obnoxious and won’t give you full performance when file sharing. For XP you can download a patch at: www.lvllord.de. For vista… not sure yet
So far this is all that has annoyed me. The rest of the system seems really solid and well put together, though I’m sure I will find more things in the future.
Article Author: The Smartass
Sources: Trial and Error
Last Updated: 12.25.06
Get Photoshop CS3, for Free From Adobe
Wow, how cool is this. I downloaded Photoshop CS3 from Adobe for free. In fact I didn’t even make an account on their website. I logged in using the BugMeNot plugin for firefox (or just go to bugmenot.com. It downloaded at a bloody fast 989k per second! and was done in 3 minutes.
Then being that it only gave me a 2 day trial, I decided I might not have enough time to try all the new features so I went into the \Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS3\AMT folder and renamed the file called application.sif to application.sif.bak, and now the trial period seems to be gone. (Look, I was just helping them find a security problem that will be fixed before they make a final release… I am not encouraging you to try this)
I will of course remove it after I have tried all the new features, but I must say Bravo Adobe for your wonderful beta experience.
Article Author: The Smartass
Sources: Adobe.com and Trial and Error
Last Updated: 12.17.06
Download Firefox 2 and IE 7
So, did you know that you can now get released non-beta versions of Internet Explorer 7, and Firefox 2.0 !!!!!!!!!!!
That’s right folks, get the most out of your web browsing and get both (so that when you use ie tab in firefox you get new ie7 tab!
Yes sadly, Internet Explorer 7 though it’s very shiny it did nothing much to improve it’s support for css & other standards, but that’s life and now that it’s released I’ll take what I can get.
Firefox 2.0 on the other hand is fantastic and all of my add-ons work except 2 of them: TabsMixPlus and Fasterfox. Fasterfox is no longer needed, but TabsMixPlus is missed, however all you really need to do is learn to hold the alt key when doing things. Say you type in the search box, hold Alt and click Enter and it will load it in new tab. Or hold alt and click on a link and it will open in new tab etc… Good stuff