Category Archives: Software

Vista Gets It: Symlinks at Last!

Posted on by NeoSmart Technologies
11

OK, we take our last post back, Vista does have several exciting features to blog home about (and guys, for the last time, that comment’s what they call sarcasm!) one of which is the much requested “Symlinks” feature. It’s been in practically every other operating system for the past decade+ and is one of the most essential time-saving devices ever to be implemented. For those of you (Windows-dwelling creatures) that don’t know what a symlink is yet, here’s the Wikipedia definition.

Symlinks save tons of space by making files “pretend” to exist where they don’t, but even more importantly is the time they save by allowing you to create/reference a static filepath in all your programs – then have that “file” redirect to the real deal, no matter how often it changes. If you’re a web-dev kinda guy, think of it as mod_rewrite for your hard drive, without the PCRE libraries though… (come to think of it, the first OS to implement regex into symlinks has my vote!)

Continue reading →

Microsoft Murders Max

Posted on by NeoSmart Technologies
17

Well, it’s official at any rate. Contrary to what you’ve heard, Windows Vista will not be shipping with any of the original technologies, features, capabilities, or subsystems originally promised (and for those of you that really couldn’t tell: it’s called sarcasm!). First it was the real Aero – complete visual control over one’s system. Amazing graphics, sidebars that were a part of the Windows Core, Aero Diamond. Then it was NGSCB and its amazing security features – not DRM, but total privacy control; your privacy. Monad. Last we heard, it was WinFS, the king-pin feature that was promised to change the way you think of data… And now the last one is gone: Microsoft Max is dead.

Microsoft Max was a “virtual photo albums and distributing them online in a peer-to-peer fashion.” But it was more than just a sharing tool, it, in-keeping with the original Longhorn “tradition” provided a different way of looking at the data stored on your drive. Microsoft Max + WinFS would have been a formidable duo, but alas, it was not to be. For example, “3D Mantle View” (pictured above), treated albums as individual items. It provide a way to visually “stack” these and photos on top and around each other in ways that pertained to the way you actually used them – visualization of information movement.

Continue reading →

Dynamic (PHP-Driven) CSS Style-Sheets & Web Design

Posted on by Mahmoud Al-Qudsi
8

Can you imagine running a website with hundreds of pages off pure, static, html? Without a single bit of server-side code? No PHP, Perl, Ruby, or even SHTML? What about a site with hundreds of thousands of pages? or millions? Of course not. So why do you put up with static CSS files then?!

Not only is Web 2.0 not just about looks, it’s also originally about clean code and putting the power of design in the hands of the coder. We have no idea why it’s taken so long for this to get through, but for some reason, people still aren’t getting it. Dynamic web languages exist for a reason. Use them. Everywhere.

It’s not difficult, as a matter of fact, it’s down-right easy. It let’s you work magic with your stylesheets, makes changing settings and certain aspects down-right simple, and above all, puts you in complete control of how your data display’s on end-user PCs.

Continue reading →

WordPress-in-the-Name Issues

Posted on by NeoSmart Technologies
4

The inevitable has happened, WordPress has gotten too big for its supporters’ boots. Copyright issues have always (respectfully) existed, but now it’s witch-hunt time. As always, these things are rarely directly-sponsored by the actual copyright holders but rather by a gang of loyal zealots errr fans. They tend to cause unwarranted panic and anger, and normally carry things far overboard — certainly more than their creators intended.

This time it’s WordPress bloggers on the rampage, and by the looks of it, they’e making a far bigger deal out of things than they need to. According to Lorelle, at the moment just anyone that has the term “WordPress” in their domain name (not title) needs to get rid of it. Immediately.

Continue reading →

Internet Explorer 7 RTM Released

Posted on by NeoSmart Technologies
Reply

Internet Explorer 7 has gone gold! Microsoft has just made available the (long-rumored) RTM build 5730 of Internet Explorer 7, or else Yahoo! has got its hands on it some other way. According to our sources, Yahoo! has the latest (RTM) version of IE7 up on its website, complete in all its RTM glory – but with all that Yahoo! bloatware bundled along for the ride.

Curious. Microsoft makes available the latest version of its much-anticipated web browser – but only gives it Yahoo!, it’s direct competitor, for bundling with Yahoo! search and services… Just doesn’t seem right to us.

Maybe we’re not reading it the right way, but we don’t like this any more than you do, so we’ve taken the liberty of “depackaging” the bloatware: for our reader that are interested, here’re several download links to the actual Internet Explorer 7 RTM installer without the Yahoo! bloat:

Torrent (please have mercy on our bandwidth!)
Direct Download (only if you really have to!)

At the moment Internet Explorer 7.0.5730.11 is only available to users of Windows 2000, XP, MCE, and 2003. It is unclear whether or not it will be made available as a hotfix/update to Windows Vista RC1/RC2; but it is not possible to install this package on Vista — no matter how hard you try. This is the real deal, Internet Explorer 7 RTM is finally here, let the reviews pour forth!

[digg story]

EasyBCD 1.5: Multi/Dual-Boot Vista, Linux, Mac OS X, & BSD!

Posted on by NeoSmart Technologies
72

Important! Upgrade immediately and read the docs to make it work!!!

We’ve done it! NeoSmart Technologies has built a better mousetrap, and it’s a beauty. EasyBCD 1.5 is the first and only application to allow users of Microsoft’s new OS complete compatibility with any other OS they might be using! It doesn’t make a difference if it’s Mac OS X or Linux, BSD or Unix; EasyBCD 1.5 means you can boot into it! For too long have Vista’s beta testers been locked-in to Windows simply because nothing else can be easily booted into, but not anymore!

Windows Vista’s new bootmanager is a double-edged sword. It’s one of the most powerful booting scripts in existence, and a far cry from the very limiting boot.ini of legacy Windows operating systems. But at the same time, Microsoft shows its disregard for other simultaneously installed operating systems. It overwrites the MBR without a second thought, and doesn’t provide any means for users of alternate operating systems and boot managers to use their old system. That’s where EasyBCD 1.5 comes in!

Continue reading →

Vista & Longhorn Server’s “Improved” Security

Posted on by NeoSmart Technologies
13

“Windows Vista is the most secure Windows ever!” — or so Microsoft claims. That’s not much of a boast however, I mean, if an operating system doesn’t get more secure as it progresses and evolves, there is certainly something fishy going on. So we weren’t too impressed by those claims in particular. But that doesn’t mean Vista isn’t actually secure (especially when compared to the competition). In fact, Windows Vista’s end-user security is down-right excellent, as we reviewed it back when RC1 came out.

“So what’s the problem?” Windows “Longhorn” Server is!

Continue reading →

YouTube Today, Digg Tomorrow?

Posted on by NeoSmart Technologies
2

So YouTube is gone. Google “snapped it up” as everyone is calling one of Google’s biggest all-stock buy-outs to date. It wouldn’t surprise us if 2006 became known as the “Year of the Mergers” with all of the big corporate buy-outs, merges, and transfers. But as always, yesterday’s today’s news makes people ask “What next?”

If we had to guess, we’d say Digg. All the tell-tale signs of Digg scrambling for the last dollar are there, and just like YouTube, it has a pattern. But in order to talk about Digg, you have to take a look at YouTube first.

Continue reading →

Zune, Microsoft, & DRM: What’s all the Fuss About?

Posted on by NeoSmart Technologies
25

Someone help us out here. Since when does a bit of news about ‘crippled’ wi-fi activity and slightly-restricted file-sharing on a device make us lose all self-respect and denounce the product as hopeless?

Are we the only ones that how that every single MP3/Audio player to date has been successfully stripped of its firmware, souped-up, then published as a how-to on the web? But all that is besides the point: there is no evidence right now that indicates the need for anything as drastic.

Continue reading →

An Argument for Full Disclosure

Posted on by NeoSmart Technologies
Reply

NeoSmart Technologies is a big proponent of Full Disclosure when dealing with security vulnerabilities. Many coders and general online denizens think that’s not a very nice thing to do – that it creates more harm than it helps; but if you look at the alternatives it becomes obvious that not only is Full Disclosure not an extreme view/course of action but rather the only real middle ground there is for dealing with 0-day flaws.

When a person, group, or company discovers a security flaw in a product or service, they have a range of means to communicate this flaw to the outside world. On one side of the scale, most companies explicitly ask that such discoveries be treated with the utmost confidence and not spoken of until they have released a patch. Then you have Full Disclosure wherein the finders reveal any and all associated information, exploits, fixes, and workarounds. At the the very other end are the self-beneficiaries that attempt to sell or else use the exploits for their own self-aggrandizement.

Continue reading →