The NeoSmart DevNet Initiative

NeoSmart Technologies is pleased to announce the logical next-step in our contributions to the tech community by the establishment of the NeoSmart DevNet project.

NeoSmart DevNet is a new effort on behalf of NST to reach out and lend a helping hand to other software developers by providing a number of tools, libraries, and frameworks that we’ve developed over the last several years to address certain commonly-encountered issues in a generic-yet-customizable manner.

Basically, DevNet is an attempt at getting software developers to spend more time on developing their applications verses worrying about the stuff that they need to get there. Unlike other developer resources on the internet, the goal of DevNet is to provide complete working subsystems and frameworks to developers, almost entirely doing away with the need for supplemental coding and code-monkey work.

For instance, the first of our DevNet projects to be released is a scriptable graphical HTTP/FTP downloader. The NeoSmart Downloader (NST Downloader) is intended to be drop-in solution for anyone looking to add the ability to download and run components from the internet to their software projects. All interfacing with the NST Downloader is done via command-line arguments, making it language-agnostic and dead-simple to use.

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Windows 7 FactsCentral

As a first-step in our coverage of Windows 7, we’ve created the Windows 7 FactsCentral site, accessible either via our wiki or through the following direct link:
http://win7.neosmart.net/

The Windows 7 FactsCentral site is intended to be a one-stop information center, where info about available builds, verified facts regarding Windows 7, etc. are available in encyclopedia format (verses the chronological article-nature of posts here on The NeoSmart Files).

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Introducing NeoSmart Coverage of Windows 7

Press Notice: NeoSmart Technologies will by providing blow-by-blow reports regarding the next version of Windows, as the facts come in.

As always, NeoSmart Technologies remains committed to providing accurate and verifiable information from trustworthy sources. We’re also dedicated to providing reports/articles regarding content that our readers deem important and newsworthy; so you’ll always be able to find the latest accurate information regarding the Microsoft’s next OS at The NeoSmart Files.

January 2008 Update

There’s been a lot going on so far at NeoSmart Technologies, and 2008 is shaping up to be an exciting year… Yes, January is almost over; so, no, this isn’t a New Year’s resolutions list. The thing about New Year’s resolutions is that they’re almost always left unfulfilled. But that doesn’t mean we can’t share the good times, does it? Here’s some stuff to look forward to out of NST’s camp in the coming days/weeks/months:

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Server Move Completed – NeoSmart Technologies Fully Optimized!

We’ve been working on moving to a new server all week, and we’ve just finished the transition. Best of all, we’ve switched to the new servers without any downtime in-between. Our new server is a 1.86 GHz Core 2 Duo and with 3GB of DDR2 RAM – all thanks to the awesome guys and gals at Lunarpages, the best host there is.

A lot of work has gone into this transition in hopes of raising the performance – and more importantly, the reliability – of our server. In the past year (since we first started our hosting with LP), we’ve gone from several million hits a month to dozens of millions, and our old server took quite a hit. To that end, we’ve focused on deploying lightweight and highly-optimized code all around; hopefully there will be no more un-expected downtime… ever.

Our current software setup is very complicated, but hopefully it’ll take us all the way to 0.00 minutes of downtime – that’s our goal! We have multiple application servers and programs running in the background each doing what they best – instead of the traditional have-the-web-server-do-it-all way. At the moment, we currently have a software stack comprising of a tightly-knit mesh of these products:

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iReboot 1.0 Released

NeoSmart Technologies is proud to announce the release of iReboot 1.0 – our first “helper app” for EasyBCD. iReboot is a minimalistic (taking up only 400KB of memory!) taskbar utility that lets you intelligently choose which operating system you’d like to reboot into.

iReboot interfaces with the Vista BCD (so the Vista bootloader is a requirement) and sets the operating system your PC will boot into the next time you restart. Instead of pressing Start | Shutdown | Restart and waiting 10 minutes for Windows to shutdown, your BIOS to post, then racing to select the right operating system from the bootloader before it times out; you just install iReboot, right-click your taskbar and pick the OS you want to boot into – then go out, get a cup of coffee, come back and find it already there.

iReboot, like all other NeoSmart Technologies’ projects and services, is freeware. If you’d like to donate to ensure continued development and help us cover our mounting expenses, please do so (the donation tracker is right there in the sidebar).

And, without further ado, the download link:

Download iReboot 1.0

[support] [beta thread]

CompleteRSS 1.1 Released

If you’ve been wondering why the lack of activity, well, now you know. CompleteRSS 1.1 has just been released; and we’re almost done with EasyBCD 1.61 (actually, we’re done) and we have another program we’ll be releasing in one form or the other sometime soon (as in 24-hours-soon).

CompleteRSS 1.1 fixes an elusive bug that rendered the_excerpt() useless, and a host of other compatibility issues with other plugins that incorrectly access the RSS action hook in WordPress.

Download CompleteRSS 1.1

Redirecting External Links to Old Downloads

We’re trying something new with our rewrite rules, and will be redirecting links from non-NeoSmart sites for older versions of our programs to the download page for the latest program.

For instance, if a Slashdot post is pointing to EasyBCD 1.5 setup file directly, it will be redirected to the EasyBCD download page where the user will have a choice of downloading the very newest version of EasyBCD or an older version if they so choose.

We were a bit hesitant to mess around with incoming links (technically, it isn’t linkjacking since they’re all our links to begin with, but it’s dangerously close!), but the number of direct download links to old versions of EasyBCD from external sites is dangerously high – especially when newer versions contain patches for many serious issues that have arisen over time.

External links to the newest version will never be redirected. We like hotlinking, just so long as proper credit is given; and since there is no danger in a Digg post containing a direct link to EasyBCD 1.6 (which is the newest at the time of this post), it would go ahead and download directly, no intervention whatsoever.

We hope this is a good idea that will protect people from out-of-date articles and links. It’s important to be up to date no matter what software your using, and with system utilities it’s a hundred times more essential that you use the latest version available from the get-go.

Please let us know what you think, our goal is to keep our readers, members, and users alike informed, safe, sound, and happy. So post away!