Author Archives: NeoSmart Technologies

Solved the IE7 Bug!

Posted on by NeoSmart Technologies
3

NeoSmart Beta Testers have just solved the infamous IE7 bug where middle-clicking on a link sometimes opens it in both a new tab and the current tab!

Attempting to contact Microsoft as I post here, but, go figure, MS Connect Feedback is down :(

Will update this post soon!

UPDATE!!!

We got the bug up!

See the bug report at MS Connect Bug Report
You need to have access to the Official IE7/Vista beta program to view it..

Note: If you get a server error, refresh the page a couple of times.. MS Connect is having issues :(

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The DRM Alliances

Posted on by NeoSmart Technologies
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Before you get any ideas, this is not your traditional Anti/Pro-DRM Post. This is a neutral analysis of the top-dogs and where they stand. NeoSmart Technologies is proud to unveil our latest research project: an in-depth look at where the big names in technology and entertainment stand when it comes down to the nitty-gritty.

When a choice has to be made, no excuses or delays accepted, what will they choose? The only clear element is the options themselves: will they choose the industry or the consumer? Will they uphold the basic and unalienable rights of music listeners, video watchers, TiVo Rippers, and software-geeks everywhere; or will they staunchly support the industry that has worked so hard to bring these products to the market, and attempt to help them in their never-dying endeavor for greater riches and more prosperous returns?

Our research team is hard at work. A web-interface is in the make, sources are being carefully checked & verified, one after the other; soon a tentative list of companies on both sides will be out; will you be satisfied with your favorite corporations’ choice, or will one of you have to re-evaluate their priorities before something gives?

Uninstalling Internet Explorer 7 Beta

Posted on by NeoSmart Technologies
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If you were unlucky enough to break your IE7 install (via a repair of Windows or a failed install), you can get it fixed in two easy steps!

  1. Download this file and save it as C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe (obviously changing C:\ with the drive letter of your XP Partition…)
  2. After overwriting the existing IE7 iexplore.exe with iexplore6.exe from the link above, re-run the Internet Explorer 7 installer.. It should not bother you about having already installed IE7!

Should that fail, you have to use this much longer method; but it is guaranteed to work.

  1. Get either WinRAR or PowerArchiver. I recommend the latter.
  2. Right-click on the IE7 installer, and extract it to a folder (using WinRAR or PA)
  3. Browse to Update\Update.inf
  4. Open it in WordPad
  5. In update.inf remove the section that says [Prerequisite]
  6. Save changes, BUT DO NOT EXIT.
  7. Press ctrl+z to undo, BUT DO NOT SAVE
  8. Run Update\Update.exe
  9. The very nanosecond that Update.exe shows up, save the WordPad document.
  10. If everything went fine (as far as you saving at the right times), IE7 will reinstall and fix itself. If not, redo the steps above. Make sure that when you launch IE7 Installer, [Prerequisite] & Co. are erased, and right after launching the installer, they are available.
  11. Feel free to uninstall IE7 via the Add/Remove CP or keep it. It will work either way.

Firefox Download Conspiracy

Posted on by NeoSmart Technologies
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I’m sure that many will take offense at this post, so before I say anything more, let me just clarify my stance on the browser-battle (again).

  1. I used IE 6 for about two months, then switched promptly to what was then known as Phoenix (which I had been using before off and on). IE 6 just did not have the cutting edge technology that I was looking for.
  2. I stuck with Phoenix/Firebird/Firefox throughout the years, trying out Avast, Opera, Maxthon, SlimView, and the rest.
  3. IE 7 Beta seemed to be what I was looking for, but it was too buggy, so I’m still on Firefox. I love Firefox, I just think there is major room for improvement.

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Something Weird is Going On..

Posted on by NeoSmart Technologies
4

Something is wrong with the world…

Sony becomes an enemy of entertainment fans,
Apple is disappointing its fanboys left and right;
Microsoft is willing to trade $$$ for happiness (not even theirs!!!);
Firefox is cheating on its download counts,
US patent office thinks anti-gravity is real and now,
and we’re left here wondering WTF happened…

OK, i figured it out: trade your iPod for an iRiver, your Firefox for IE7, your iMac for a Dell, your PPC for a Whitebox, and you will have achieved eternal happiness !!!!!!

I’m gonna go patent this now… =P

————————–

If you are wondering… the above is in response to MS trying to implement P2P, and attempting to PAY Apple to be able to stream from an iPod to the XBox 360, Apple’s response is basically ‘shove it,’ and then they talk about releasing an update that stops the iPod from synchronizing with anything. Firefox fakes download counts (well, not actually fakes, but goes to extreme measure sot stretch.. more on that later), and the US Patent Office patents an ‘anti-gravity’ device, breaking their own law that states very clearly ‘to not allow patents that disagree with the laws of physics….’

What the hell is going on????

Office 12 vs. OpenOffice.org

Posted on by NeoSmart Technologies
1

Well, today it became official, the Office12 Beta is about to begin. NeoSmart has just been accepted, and will try his very best to break it… (Let’s hope its a challenge, don’t want a program too easily broken..) Anyway, at NeoSmart we got a sneak preview of Office12 with Pre-Release Build 12.0.3111.1011, and though it is covered by the NDA, I think we’ll be safe giving you a few reasons why OpenOffice.org v2 will not be stealing the show (not this year, sorry).

We have been testing OO.org since its pre-beta stages, downloading the latest builds and CVS when available, and overall, we have been impressed.

  1. Office 12 has a brand new look to it. From the PDC Screenshots (same build we’re running here) you can see all the new-fangled buttons and ribbons and tabs. Its hard to get used to, especially if you are a hard-core Office user, but from what we can gather, its biggest theme seems to be making things available. You highlight some text, and it intelligently realizes the tools that you will need, making it by far the simplest Office-Environment program we have ever seen.
  2. Though the pre-release of Office 12 that we are testing is sluggish, all previous versions of Office have been very spontaneous (on modern hardware, without spyware, etc. obviously) especially when compared to OO.org v1, which was plagued by sick and slow Java code. Though OO.org v2 has done away with most Java, it seems that the code beneath all the spotless glamor is still dirty, it has some of the same tell-tale symptoms that v1 had.
  3. Office 12 is pure power. The new and *completely* redesigned Excel and Access are centered purely around productivity and giving you the tools that you need. Outlook 12 includes a new extra sidebar whose sole purpose is keeping all your information available at once.
  4. Office 12 may cost money, but then again, most businesses aren’t expecting to get their company’s software platform up to scratch free-of-charge. Most expect to have to pay, and in exchange they get the results of years of planning and engineering from one of the biggest R&D around.
  5. Office 12 will most likely forever ship in some limited form or the other with new PCs. 98%+ of all OEM PCs ship with Works + Word. In contrast, almost none ship with OO.org.
  6. OpenOffice.org is made by Sun. Office 12 is made by Microsoft. OpenOffice.org is made largely (though most likely reluctantly) for the Linux crowd. Office 12 is Microsoft for Windows. Microsoft has all the Windows Code at its disposal, and everything can be integrated smoothly and cleanly, without worries.
  7. Office 12 looks cool. You may think it does not matter, but its actually one of the most important marketing ploys known to man. No one will buy software that looks like it was made for Windows 3.1.1, but Office 12 looks modern.

Despite what it looks like, we are quite impartial, and wish OO.org the best. We will continue to test it and submit bugs to Sun in an ongoing effort to improve the quality of software everywhere, just as we will the Office 12 Beta; but in this case, we have a clear winner.

Sony DRM: A WMD in the Wrong Hands

Posted on by NeoSmart Technologies
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It’s only been mere seconds since my last post, but this was too good to give up: A new trojan is out and it takes advantage of Sony’s malicious rootkit to hide its files via the prefix ‘$sys$’.

I think this is the ultimate proof that Sony has gone too far. ‘They were trying to protect their interests.’ Sure they were (I’m being sarcastic, in case you couldn’t tell) but there are limits. Various conventions throughout history have outlawed the use of WMDs. Weapons of Mass Destruction. Why? I mean, there has to be a reason that the US doesn’t nuke the terrorists, or vice versa; and there is. SALT I & II resulted in strategic WMD reductions for the US and USSR. Sony’s rootkits are practically in violation of the Geneva Convention as well…

I think the UN should step in… Now Japan has WMDs too.. Interesting.. WMDs make things too easy, drive the casualties too high, and overall are a just one big disaster. It takes little to no effort to achieve widespread chaos and destruction, and there is almost no preventive measure. Well, its official. Sony’s rootkit is a WMD. Since its release, it has been used by BMG-Sony for their shady protection schemes, WoW hackers, rumors abound that CS hackers use it as well, and now Virii and Trojan writers.

It is undetectable by any traditional spyware and Antivirus software, making it near impossible to clear your PC out. Rootkits are like cheats in AOE. They make an epic battle between good and evil all the more bloody and cheap. Spawning Cobras that can wreak havoc on Town Centers in minutes is not fun, its cheap, its evil, and its most certainly below the belt.

Payware…

Posted on by NeoSmart Technologies
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It seems that I may have coined a new word :)!
Payware
I’m surprised its not already mainstream, I mean, come on, it fits the mold. Shareware, Spyware, Freeware, Adware….. I could write a mathematical formula for those names! Anyway, since it makes sense (for those of you who still did not get it: -ware is used to describe any SOFTware, and since for you give $$$ for those, they are hereby called payware.. DUH). It seems to now be quite a popular word! Another NeoSmart touchdown! :)

This is supposed to be a short post, kinda to give you guys a break from the heavier content of the previous posts, but, you know us, we can never be nice ;)
Come back in a couple of hours, we still have (give me a minute to count here…) 7 or 8 controversial topics to discuss here…

Sony & DRM

Posted on by NeoSmart Technologies
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When I first heard about the Sony rootkits, I figured it was a bit of unobtrusive software that people had found just to complain about.
Where I currently reside, there are no Sony CDs, so I had not a chance to test it, and I figured that it would brew over soon, and there would be no need to mention it, especially seeing as bloggers world wide were covering this topic and ripping it from head to toe. But you know me, and you know NeoSmart Technologies: we like the ingenious stuff. The dirt that, without trying, is presented as wrapping paper.

What am I talking about?! Well, I figured that while everyone was discussing how evil Sony’s rootkits were, and how we can use to our benefit, sorry, how it can be used against us in WoW and CS, I’d look at something bigger and more important: what this means for Sony.
No, I am not talking about Lawsuits (though if you are interested, and reside in California or New York you can join the litigation suit!) those are plenty and too obvious. Sony has taken things too far, and in doing so, they have literally buried themselves alive.

Is it just me, or does anyone else seem to recall that Sony makes Playstation??? And that Sony is in a deadly neck-to-neck race with Microsoft and their XBox 360? Don’t worry if you forgot, apparently Sony’s President, and all of his PR staff have forgotten as well. It goes further than this….
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Grub Install Disk

Posted on by NeoSmart Technologies
1

If I seem a bit happy today, here is why: two days ago we started and finshed our ‘Repairing the MBR without Formatting’ Whitepaper. Basically it tells you the only way (never before discovered) to repair a FUBAR’d MBR without losing any data.
From there we went on to discovering our next project: a bootable Grub install disk/wizard. It will:

  1. Make fixing the MBR a lot easier (removes all Linux related steps);
  2. Make reinstalling Grub for *nix users a simple thing… No more rescue mode

Currently I’m working on this project with some very kind members from another forum, and the research half of R&D is going very smooth. I am personally very pleased with out progress, and we should have a beta out within a fortnight!