Advanced SearchUser Name Paul_Vail_674
Member Since 2002-01-01
Total number of Feedback Posts: 44
Total number of comments: 41
Last 10 Feedback Posts by Paul_Vail_674 [ Search for All ]
MacScan 2.4.1 (Mac OS X)
For years, we've been watching this program in its various incarnations. We have yet to see the developer actually post what they consider 'spyware'. There are available keystroke recorders and commercial screen capture programs that can be used to spy on user activity (monitorer, etc.), so there can be reason to use a scanning package like this. But the author continues to remain vague about what exactly his tool seeks out, and screen shots of some interface indicating x number of spyware found is meaningless here. I so want to help this guy shake the Mac world by the shoulder so we can stop being so smug about our current lack of serious threats -- but his crafty self-promotion, lack of transparency and continuing lack of detail about the software gives me pause. This program has been renamed and reversioned over the years, so one can't easily follow his historical trail on VT. His friends (or alter egos) have posted and played up the package, including past ranking padding. And he won't disclose sufficient info to asuage other people's concerns. Does this package go beyond finding monitorer on a Mac? Does it recognize the VT tracking cookie as 'spyware'? Does it recognize network serial queires by Adobe, Quark, MS or other apps as 'spyware'? Does it recognize macro viri for Office as spyware? Does it report apps that phone home as spyware? Does it consider open ports like 80/443, 20/21, 22 and functioning services for web/ftp/ssh and alike 'spyware'? The ad on his website suggests that the user might have administrative or remote control software installed and operating without the user's authentication -- that's bull. Timbuktu, Apple Remote Desktop and alike REQUIRE authentication to either install or activate. We still see this company as selling FUD for $25 a pop -- and it feels not quite right. Once again, I want Nick to sell his package, but he so needs to get away from the FUD on his website and in this product, and offer far more transparency in terms of what this app sees as 'spyware', and how it defeats/isolates/removes such for the user. This package -- if it were to mature -- could be useful in educating users about security issues ANY computer represents. Needs some significant tuning in the marketing. Until then, I have to counsel my customers to STAY AWAY from products that require one to install them BEFORE you can know what they do. Ick. [alert admin]
Read Comments (1) | More Info | 25 of 26 users found this helpful
Thursday, May 24 2007 @ 07:03 AM PDT
ClamXav 1.0.7b (Mac OS X)
I need a tool that can identify and quarantine suspect files. As a sysadmin, I don't need something to give me flashy graphics, nor do I need something that will do harm to my systems. ClamAV is that tool. This frontend is simple, straight-forward and appears to work. It offers me a variety of options such as a progress bar (I don't use it), quar. folders for suspect files, and updates for definitions. The only failure I've seen (in a beta product, mind you) is that some of our systems go to sleep after a specified time. ClamXav was still running when this occurred. Unfortunately, it did not resume its run when the system awoke. It wasn't aware that it had idled. It was completely responsive (stop scan, access to prefs, quit politely, etc.) -- but if it had some capacity to remember where it left off and to resume a scan, that would be nice. A clean, uncluttered and intelligently-simple interface devoid of unnecessary graphics while still being visually accessible is a big plus. Thanks much to the developer. [alert admin]
Post a comment | More Info | 4 of 4 users found this helpful
Tuesday, March 06 2007 @ 05:14 AM PST
Parallels Desktop 2.5 Build 3170.0 (Mac OS X)
I'm interested in trying Parallels, but having invested in VirtualPC and its predecessors over the last 7 years, buying at full price to run Windows on my mac only for web browser (we do web development -- our only need for a Wintel machine), I'd just as soon get to try the 'cool stuff' economically. Boot camp works fine for us, but only for XP/Vista. Parallels advertises the opportunity to run XP, Vista, ME, 98 and other flavors, without the reboot. Very attractive. Many have complained about non-existant tech support. Knowing that some on VT protest out of habit, or may have poor communication skills that could lead to being 'ignored', we visited their website and wrote directly, asking if there was a competitive upgrade pricing. Didn't get an immediate reply. If one is ADD, that could be frustrating. But within two days, a representative CALLED me back to answer my question (and then some), and EMAILED me back upon my request with full information, including the suggestion that the online website was the most expensive way to go, suggesting that I look at other online vendors for some savings. The rep from the actual company offered suggestions for a cost-savings option around their own shopping cart. That seems like a pretty decent level of customer support to me -- and I will buy Parallels as a result. Sometimes companies drop the ball, but sometimes it's in how they are approached that results in how we are handled. [alert admin]
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Monday, February 19 2007 @ 06:22 AM PST
Phoner 1.77 (Mac OS X)
I stumbled across this cute little item when seeking a way to record telephone calls. Previously, I've used an iMic plugged into a phone headset along with Audio Hijack Pro. I'd love to be able to use this to take the modem 'off hook' and record current phone calls (via AHP). It may be able to do this -- but unfortunately, I can't contact the developer to purchase and explore this further. His website has gone away, and his paypal account is inactive. Is he still alive? [alert admin]
Tuesday, February 13 2007 @ 06:42 PM PST
Debtinator 2.0.2 (Mac OS X)
This is a fabulous program to help one visualize their debt, and take action against it. Certain leaders may think we can live on debt forever, but for the rest of Americans, getting out of debt is one of the few things that can truly make you 'free'. This can help you achieve that payoff sooner -- and if you take the 'suggestions' seriously, you CAN pay off that slavery. the only suggestion/complaint I have is that the graphs section needs to have the labels on the outside of the axis, not on the inside -- 'though it doesn't make the graph any less meaningful. it would be cool if one could specify the max values and major intervals. I've only tried the demo mode (that won't let you into the prefs section), so perhaps this feature is built in. For a one-trick pony, and for the many folks who need to face the fact that they may not realize what debt is doing to their financial health, this shareware is a powerful little horse. Intuit better look out -- this tool should have been in Quicken six years ago and they still can't grow their product in a meaningful way. Nicely done. BTW -- read the documentation in the Help file. More developers would do well to explain the expected use of their apps this way. The $15 is something you'd blow on a pizze or twelve-pack, so it might be the best meal you skip in some time. [alert admin]
Post a comment | More Info | 4 of 4 users found this helpful
Monday, February 12 2007 @ 09:41 AM PST
Toast Titanium 8.0 (Mac OS X)
Nice bump up from prior versions 
I am impressed. Rarely do I bother to purchase software before the x.1 release, just to avoid the most glaring bugs. Toast 8 has shown to be exceptionally robust in its abilities to burn what I throw at it. The interface is clean, the progress bar a big step up from v6, and I've been nothing but happy burning CDs (data), audio CDs, DVDs, DVD-DL on my external lacie firewire drive. My only complaint is that I could not find a decent upgrade discount. But I'm jumping more than one version, so even the cost of the software is nothing compared to the ease-of-use in making my data backups. The cost of the software is offset in the first hour of time trying to reproduce lost files if I didn't make frequent backups. I have not yet tried to burn a DVD from my eyeTV library, but that's next on my list of trial to-dos. Elgato says this package should work great alongside their eyeTV 2 software for making discs of the shows I capture. That, too, would make the software a bargain. [alert admin]
Read Comments (1) | More Info | 1 of 1 users found this helpful
Saturday, February 10 2007 @ 05:04 PM PST
Wusage 6.0p23 (Mac OS 9)
The above link fails. Try this: http://www.boutell.com/wusage/download.html [alert admin]
Saturday, November 11 2006 @ 04:34 AM PST
Advanced Web Ranking 4.7.1 (Mac OS X)
I do a fair bit of SEO when I am building sites for customers (not after they are built, usually). This product has been very useful for me to gauge effects my coding has on keyword and various search engine rankings relative to competitive sites. I find the reports thorough, particularly where it stores in a database every analysis so I can take snapshops in time of benefit or mistakes in my code and my SEO work. Being able to upload HTML copies of each report to a server is a blessing, too. I'm not sure what folks need in an assessment tool for SEO, but this thing is FAR better than paying some SEO company to 'optimize' ones website. It doesn't crash, it does what the adverts claim, and the developers have been receptive to both new ideas and teaching users (me) where to find the features I need. [alert admin]
Saturday, October 07 2006 @ 06:09 AM PDT
BBEdit 8.5 (Mac OS X)
I've been a rabid fan of BBEdit for years. Having developed Glossary (Clippings) add-ons and promoted it to my clients and staff. I wasn't sure how it could get better, but code folding is almost worth the upgrade. Almost. There are issues and items with 8.5 that should give the user of 8.2.6 or earlier pause. One of them is speed. 8.5 is noticably slower on my PB867, where typing can significantly lag behind my fumble fingers by one or two seconds, or longer. Launching is a bit slower, than 8.2.6 (and a lot slower than v6), but no worse than GraphicConverter and not nearly as bad as large apps like Word or Photoshop or Canvas. There are a number of interface changes made, but not uniformally throughout the app. For instance, opening via FTP presents a new dialog layout. I'm not certain it is any more efficient than the old layout. And if you want to see the old layout, simply use the Save-to-FTP command. The old interface is still used for this command. Why not be consistant? For me, the old GUI was perfectly fine. I don't need eye-candy to work with a program, but I do seek consistency. It makes me feel like the coder(s) have paid attention to visible details as well as the more important details under the hood. It appears that 8.5 is truly a transitioning product, and future releases may well clean up dialogs, commands, and other odd behavior 8.5 has introduced. At least, that's my <b>hope</b>. As a universal release, it's slowness might only be apparent on PowerPC-based systems. As for functionality, the code-folding alone is NOT worth the upgrade from 8.2.6 at the price of what appears to be some additional attention to the PowerPC side of things. I'd recommend buying the upgrade if you are moving to an Intel-based system, but hang on to what is working well for you on your PowerPC Mac. [alert admin]
Post a comment | More Info | 6 of 6 users found this helpful
Saturday, October 07 2006 @ 05:48 AM PDT
Intuit Quicken 2006 15.0.4 (Mac OS X)
Updater works fine, bug fixes welcomed. 
This is actually a review of the latest release, not the incompetent computer users struggling with .hqx (a very reliable file wrapper, by the way). Downloaded and converted the .hqx to .dmg with Stuffit (another maligned program that does exactly what it should, but suffers from a lack of eye candy sufficient for the graphically-addicted here). Opened the .dmg (here's a hint: try double-clicking on it with the mouse). Installed without complaint in well under a minute. Newer version reports itself as 15.0.4 -R5. Crashing upon editing entries for stocks seems to have gone away. Naturally, it is too soon to tell if other bugs are out. One remaining headache is that Quicken still can only do stocks to the fourth decimal place. Some shares are broken down to the fifth, so Quicken introduces rounding errors. It'd be appreciated if Intuit could fix this (I've been asking for over 3 years and versions now). It is, after all, an accounting program so math kind of matters. One star off for that. The rest -- works as advertised. Pity people can't eval the software based on what it does, rather than their unfamiliarity with their computers. The point-n-click mac-mac crowd: you are why Windows users don't take this platform seriously for the excellent computer it is. [alert admin]
Read Comments (3) | More Info | 2 of 10 users found this helpful
Thursday, September 07 2006 @ 06:48 AM PDT
Last 10 Comments by Paul_Vail_674 [ Search for All ]
Are they not even trying to improve it??????
I have to say I'm in the same boat with Canvas -- once a stellar product for design and illustration, it's latest owners are following suit with such former great products such as Webstar. Latest releases don't address long-standing bugs, add in new buggy features, or simply wither on the vine. I guess that's software evolution -- does anyone have recommendations for good inexpensive CAD software? I'm looking at CADintosh, but no…
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Sunday, April 29 2007 @ 05:49 AM PDT
If Forbes is your measure of a person, then golly, ya got me :)
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Tuesday, March 06 2007 @ 03:37 PM PST
Nah. I doubt someone who didn't actually try the product would bother to understand my post. Do you understand my post?
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Tuesday, March 06 2007 @ 03:35 PM PST
Whatever became of writing down serials? Is that part of the problem here -- the purchaser of the software might have as much to do with his own issues as the developer? I don't know the facts, so I'll leave this open for now, but I have not had issues with the developer to date. I am very happy with Vuescan for my needs.
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Sunday, March 04 2007 @ 06:11 PM PST
Read other posts by this person 'Ancient Boii Tribe'. He or she is a few fries short of a happy meal. Difficult to take their assessment with any kind of seriousness.
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Monday, February 26 2007 @ 06:57 AM PST
Nice bump up from prior versions
Burning data captures by eyeTV2 could not be simplier with Toast 8. Exceptional ability to pick the desires shows from within the eyeTV2 Recordings interface, click on the Toast button (launches Toast), options to create menus, edit episode or show titles from within Toast, manage other burn options, determine how much can fit on the disc, and burn. It's truly simple. Great way to archive shows that don't need to be on…
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Saturday, February 10 2007 @ 05:28 PM PST
Roxio stonewalls paid customers over buggy software
it would be useful if you outlined the bugs yourself. I've played with this for a while now, and I've not discovered any bugs to date. Then again, I use eyeTV and not TiVo. I think a one-star rating is a little slanted for a product that does all this can, properly, save for what is not its exact first purpose. As I read the tivo posts on the roxio site, then went…
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Saturday, February 10 2007 @ 05:16 PM PST
switchers
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Friday, December 29 2006 @ 06:47 PM PST
Lighten up. VT's comment forms are a problem in many browsers. It's common for the submit button to freeze a browser, so one doesn't know if the comment took or not.
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Monday, December 11 2006 @ 07:23 AM PST
Perhaps the scanner itself is broken? Without functional software to test, you can't blame the developer. Without documented communication protocols, the developer can't help you. Get on the manufacturer to give the developer what he needs before you 'rate' a package.
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Sunday, November 19 2006 @ 09:10 AM PST
