April 17, 2010

RIAA, MPAA and others outline anti-piracy plan

By Jose Vilches, TechSpot.com
Published: April 16, 2010, 2:25 PM EST

Just days after the U.S. Government published a piracy study that pointed out the questionable methods used by some entities to estimate monetary losses from copyright infringement, the RIAA, MPAA and several others are using those same statistics to get a new anti-piracy campaign approved. Details of their Joint Strategic Plan submitted to the US Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator have been released, and it makes for an interesting read.

The submission (PDF) starts off citing how the rampant theft of intellectual property is harming the entertainment industry as well as the United States as a whole, and calls for new solutions to make meaningful inroads into the problem. Proposed methods include everything from bandwidth shaping and throttling, to site blocking and even encouraging users to install anti-piracy software on their own machines that would detect and potentially erase infringing content.

Other non-technological solutions include an educational program for online advertisers, financial payment services providers and the general public to spread awareness of how piracy affects the industry. They also suggest customs officials inquire travelers about any infringing content they — willingly or not — are bringing through the border (Like ripped movies on your laptop, the music on your portable player and the book you were reading on the plane).

The document goes on to mention ways of pressuring other countries into toughening up their IP protection laws, and funding new enforcement programs (at the taxpayer's expense) for the FBI and Department of Homeland Security to pro-actively prevent the leaking of summer blockbusters ahead of their debut. Of course, this is nothing more order cheap viagra than recommendations, but it serves to show how adamant these organizations are in protecting their business model.

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Enable Windows 7’s Hidden “God Mode”

Enable Windows 7's Hidden "God Mode"

By Matthew DeCarlo on January 11, 2010

As indicated by enthusiasts around the Web, there is a simple way to access a hidden "God Mode" in Windows 7 and Vista. With a name like that, your expectations might be a little high — and no, Windows is not secretly invincible — but the trick is awesome nevertheless.

"God Mode" simply provides users with a centralized Control Panel for all of Windows' settings, from changing your desktop background to setting up a VPN or partitioning your hard drive. In all, there are nearly 50 categories and most have several entries.

It's almost comical how simple it is to access it:

Create a new folder. Anywhere is fine, I created one on my desktop .
Rename the folder to: God Mode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C} *Note: The "God Mode" chunk can be called anything you want.
The default folder icon will change to a online viagra canada target=”_top” onclick=”adlinkMouseClick(event,this,3);”>Control Panel icon, and you can open it to view all of the settings.

User reports suggest that it may crash Windows Vista 64-bit , so proceed with caution. For what it's worth, I've successfully used the "feature" on Windows 7 Home Premium and Ultimate 64-bit.

As an additional note, having the undocumented feature disclosed all over the Web, Microsoft has decided to be more open about it admitting similar commands have been available even before Vista. They have also revealed other text strings that create similar "God Mode" folders, a list is available here .

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Change Your Wallpaper on Windows 7 Starter

By Matthew DeCarlo on March 25, 2010
Editor: Jose Vilches

Few people would argue that Windows 7 is a great step forward for the platform — but those folks probably don't use the Starter edition. Anyone who is stuck with it will know that this entry-level variant of Microsoft's operating system is swathed in red tape, and is a real bummer to use beyond browsing the Web or checking your email.

Aimed at netbooks and other proprietary systems, it's the most diluted version of Windows 7 with many basic features missing. Among them are the Aero Glass interface, fast user switching, DVD playback, multi-display support, as well as personalization options, such as the ability to change desktop backgrounds, window colors, or sound schemes.

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Most of the excluded features won't really hinder the use of a netbook. After all, few ship with DVD drives or have multiple users anyway, but staring at a bright blue Windows logo for the lifespan of your system is torture. Hell, even Windows 3.1 lets you set a desktop background, and thanks to a number of free utilities, so will Windows 7 Starter.

There are many workarounds online, but we recommend the one provided by Oceanis, which you can download here. Extract and run the program, and reboot upon completion. You should see a new image and message on your desktop, giving credence to Oceanis.

Run the utility and click Browse to select a directory of images. Not only will you be able to define one wallpaper, but you can also select several of them for a slideshow, which can be configured to rotate in various intervals, ranging from a minute to a day.

It's worth noting that a new process called "WallPaperAgent.exe" will run at all times, but it only consumes about 900K of system memory (visiting TechSpot via IE consumes over 30,000k for comparison).

If it's an issue, you can end the process and the custom wallpaper seems to remain intact for that session, but the process is launched again after a reboot and if you cripple the executable (C:\Program Files\Oceanis\SystemSetting\WallPaperAgent.exe) the program won't function properly.

Likewise, uninstalling Oceanis' background changer utility will revert your desktop background to the default Windows 7 wallpaper. It's truly a minor "annoyance" all things considered, and most people would happily sacrifice a smidgen of RAM in exchange for a custom wallpaper.

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Six Obscure Web Browsers You Might Love

By Matthew DeCarlo on April 16, 2010
Editor: Julio Franco

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It used to be that Firefox, Opera and others were the "alternative" Web browsers, but in an age of forced ballot screens that's not entirely accurate. In fact, one could say that the more experienced a user is the further and faster they run from Internet Explorer.

Excluding the "big five" you're undoubtedly familiar with (IE, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, and Safari), there are many little-known browsers that are potentially even more suitable for your needs, no matter how basic or advanced.

This week we are taking a look at six truly alternative browsers and what separates them from the rest of the pack. This is far from an all-inclusive list, and we'd love to hear if you happen to be using any of these yourself or perhaps there's yet another unheard of browser that we missed. In alphabetical order, the browsers:

Arora

Platforms: Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, BSD, Haiku
Engine: WebKit

Why you care: Arora is an open source, cross-platform program that has a sensible feature set for the average user, such as built-in ad blocking, private browsing, session management and anything else you might expect from a basic browser. It's a worthy alternative to Chrome (it's based on the same WebKit engine) if you're interested in a lightweight solution but want something not branded by Google.

Download: Windows, Mac OS X, more

Camino

Platforms: Mac OS X
Engine: Based on Gecko, written in Objective-C Cocoa

Why you care: Camino's on a mission to provide the best possible browsing experience for OS X users, and it has integrated support for many of the operating system's services, such as Keychain, Bonjour, and Growl. Considering its specialized feature set, it's certainly a worthwhile replacement for Safari, Firefox or any other browser you might be using on your Mac.

Download: online purchase viagra OS X 10.4 or later, more

Flock

Platforms: Windows, Mac OS X, Linux
Engine: Gecko, Firefox codebase

Why you care: Flock has integrated features for popular social media services out of the box, including Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, YouTube, Flickr, Blogger, Gmail, and Yahoo Mail. Additionally, it's based on Firefox, so you should be familiar with it from the get-go. Some advanced users might still prefer Firefox along with an army of add-ons, but Flock could be useful for less tech savvy socialites.

Download: Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, more

K-Meleon

Platforms: Windows
Engine: Gecko

Why you care: K-Meleon's interface is extremely customizable and it uses a Windows native interface making it easy on system resources. You can consider this the Camino for Windows. Further optimized and portable derivatives are available, including one that claims it is the least resource intensive browser for Windows that uses an up-to-date rendering engine.

Download: Windows, more

Maxthon

Platforms: Windows
Engine: Trident

Why you care: Extremely popular in China, the browser has even received funding from well-known investors to continue its development. Maxthon crams a ton of features into the base install (sort of like Opera) without sacrificing the compatibility of IE's Trident rendering engine. Version 3.0 (currently in alpha) can switch between both Trident and WebKit to render Web pages.

Download: Windows, more

Pale Moon

Platforms: Windows
Engine: Gecko, Firefox codebase

Why you care: It's a Windows-optimized clone of Firefox that could offer you a slight performance boost — up to 25% on some SunSpider rendering and scripting tests they claim, while using less system memory. The speed gains come without a catch, since the browser should work with most of your Firefox extensions. In fact, it should automatically detect and make use of your existing Firefox profile upon installation, so it's a hassle-free "migration."

Download: Windows, more