Software on Me, Myself, and Technology

Is DRM worth it?

Wed, 02 May 2007 20:20:40 +0000

So, you are the producer/publisher of a content. You want to make money of it. As much money as possible. You are wondering if you must use DRM or not.

First question

It might be obvious but, at first, ask yourself : “Why do I want to use DRM on my content ?”. To fight piracy or illegal copies ? Bad answer ! Your goal is NOT to fight piracy ! Your goal is to earn money. Lot of money. If you could make more money with the help of piracy, would you still fight it ? Of course not. So keep in my mind that you want to use DRM to make more money of your content. Nothing else.

Acrobat Reader Actually Reads, with Voice!

Mon, 26 Feb 2007 13:20:30 +0000

PDF documents are very familiar among the computer users especially those from the educational field. Sometimes, a large quantity of educational information is stored in this file format rather than the usual Doc or RTF document. In this case, working with Acrobat Reader has become mandatory. Being just a viewer, not an editor like Word, means that it should be easier to work with.

In my opinion, it is. However, many people do not feel too comfortable using Acrobat Reader and the pdf file format. Some complain that the loading time takes to much, other feel no confidence to work with a text document without being able to edit it and finally there are those who get confused when trying to download a pdf document using a web browser, find out that the document actually opens within the browserâ€™s window.

A Windows Vista Zero-Day Exploit Costs $50,000

Mon, 18 Dec 2006 22:43:13 +0000

$50,000 for a Windows Vista zero-day exploit. The 0-day exploits have not been released in the wild but are, instead, made an integer part of the underground Internet commerce. The Proof of Concept code for an exploit affecting Microsoft’s latest operating system can cost as much as $50.000.

As far, neither the exploit nor the PoC for Windows Vista have been submitted to an independent evaluation process. In this context, the authenticity of the Windows Vista 0-day exploit has not been confirmed from any sources aside from its creators. Microsoft has, as yet, failed to issue an official comment.

Java 6 Released

Wed, 13 Dec 2006 19:12:35 +0000

Java SE 6 is the current major release of the Java SE platform. Sun endeavors to foster the highest level of transparency and collaboration on the platform with the Java community through Project JDK 6, resulting in the following key features:

Get it here.

VideoLan Client 0.8.6 Final

Mon, 11 Dec 2006 01:08:15 +0000

Building on feedback from the 29 million downloads of VLC media player 0.8.5, we bring you version 0.8.6 with many bugfixes, as well as a couple of new features we think you will truly enjoy. Most prominent are probably Windows Media Video 9 and Flash Video. Other important changes are improved H.264 decoding, better Windows Unicode support, a Fullscreen controller and Apple Remote support for Mac OS X.

Have a look here for the full list of changes.

AV-Comparatives Nov 2006 Retrospective Test

Wed, 06 Dec 2006 09:16:33 +0000

AV-Comparatives

On this site you will find independent comparatives of Anti-Virus software. All products listed in our comparatives are already a selection of some very good anti-virus products. In order to get tested by us, companies must fulfill various conditions and minimum requirements..

The following products were used in the last comparative (with best possible settings):
Look into the online results to determine the exact version number.
Avast! Professional Edition 4.7
AVG Professional 7.1
AVIRA AntiVir Personal Edition Premium 7.01
BitDefender Professional Plus 9.5
Dr.Web for Windows 95-XP 4.33.2
ESET NOD32 Anti-Virus 2.51.26
F-Prot for Windows 3.16f
F-Secure Anti-Virus 6.12
G DATA AntiVirusKit (AVK) 16.0.7
Kaspersky Anti-Virus 6.0
McAfee VirusScan 11.0
Norman Virus Control 5.81
Symantec Norton Anti-Virus 12.2
TrustPort Antivirus Workstation 2.0
VBA32 Workstation 3.11.0

Vista Launched at the Burj Al Arab – Dubai

Tue, 21 Nov 2006 20:31:59 +0000

The most luxurious hotel in the world was the stage where Microsoft launches Windows Vista, the Office 2007 System and Exchange Server 2007. The three Microsoft products were released with both English and Arabic language support.

â€œWindows Vista and the 2007 Microsoft Office system are among Microsoftâ€™s most significant product innovations, representing years of research and development,â€ said Mr. Ali Faramawy, Vice President Microsoft Europe, Middle East & Africa and Regional Vice President, Microsoft Middle East & Africa. â€œThese products will help businesses overcome the challenges of our increasingly information-saturated world, enhancing the way people collaborate, communicate, protect and manage content, and find, use and share information.â€

WinDVD v8

Wed, 08 Nov 2006 22:07:47 +0000

The world’s #1 DVD and video playback software, with over 175 million copies sold worldwide. Enjoy crystal-clear, smooth playback of your standard and High-Def video and audio. Whether you’re a movie buff, frequent flyer, or just like to watch video clips, WinDVD 8 gives you the best digital entertainment experience.

More info here.

New releases..

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 21:34:01 +0000

Two new releases this week:

Nvidia Drivers v93.71 (Official)

Adobe Acrobat v8 (Reader, Professional)

Windows Media Player 11 Final Released!

Tue, 31 Oct 2006 08:10:14 +0000

So microsoft is on a release spree! First it was Internet Explorer 7 and now WMP11. And Vista is gonna RTM this month only! Anyway find out more about WMP11 here.

Nero CD-DVD Speed 4.7.0.0 released!

Sun, 29 Oct 2006 23:47:58 +0000

This is a small (just in size, not in features) tool bundled with the Nero Burning Rom application. It’s used for benchmarking and doing quality scans of the burnt media. A must have IMHO.
Changes

Added Advanced Disc Quality test for certain BenQ drives
Following parameters are measured:
CD: E11,E21,E31,E12,E22,E32,BLER,Jitter
DVD: 1-5 PIE,PIE,PIF,POE,POF,Jitter
Disc Quality test:
Jitter can be reported with recent LiteOn drives
Added CLV and P-CAV settings for BenQ drives (CD scanning)