Theory Patch » Software Reviews

The Definition of Irony

admin — Thu, 06 May 2010 22:22:34 +0000

For about a month now I had been suffering through slo-o-ow shutdown speeds on my work computer. It would take roughly 15-45 minutes for my computer to turn off. That's uh... way too fucking long. Anyways, per a colleagues recommendation I removed Window's Internet Explorer 8 feature, then re-enabled it. That is basically the equivalent of uninstalling Internet Explorer 8 and reinstalling. After doing that my shutdown speed has gone back to normal.

I believe that Windows checks to see if any policy settings need to be applied while you are shutting down your computer. I'm fairly certain that this check runs in Internet Explorer 8. Does anyone else find it mildly ironic that Internet Explorer 8 broke my Windows Shutdown process? Has Microsoft really fallen that far behind in browser development..?

Wow.

Poynt; an app for your smartphone

Kevin — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 21:05:10 +0000

Have you ever wished that you could get directions to local movies, restaurants, and other businesses from your phone? Ever wish you could figure out who the hell keeps calling you at 3 a.m. from a phone number you don't recognize? How about checking your phone to find out which gas station has the cheapest gas in relation to your current position? You can do all of that and more with poynt. I have it installed on my Blackberry and it's one of the most useful free applications that I have. It's simple to use. You search for businesses near your current position using GPS. Then, you map directions to these places using Google Maps or Blackberry Maps. It works as advertised, and is very useful. I had no idea how handy it would be until I started using it. If this sparks your interest check it out here! (I believe this runs on iPhones as well)

R.U.S.E. beta free on Steam!

Kevin — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 02:03:36 +0000

Looking for an RTS that plays like a mix between Risk and Command and Conquer? Log onto your Steam account now and download the free beta version of R.U.S.E. I spent several hours playing last night and I think this is going to shape up to be a sweet game. Here's a few things that I liked..

The battlefield is a miniature model set in the center of a command room. When you zoom out you see life size people, or you can zoom in to see your units on the field.
You only have to worry about generating one resource, cash, to purchase your units and buildings.
The game plays at the right pace, not too fast to be a micromanagement battle, and not too slow to put you to sleep.
The game has 'ruse' cards that can be played throughout the match to add interesting effects!

Check the game out now! Head here!

Network Lights

Kevin — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 20:42:04 +0000

Network lights is a simple program that turns your Num Lock and Scroll Lock keys into network activity status indicators. Blinking lights on your keyboard that let you know network traffic is flowing, how fun!

Get it here!

Internet Exploder 8

Kevin — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 19:16:28 +0000

On the fifth day, God looked man in the eye and said, "Though shalt not enjoy browsing the internet." Then God gave man a windows update that pushed Internet Explorer 8 to man's PC. Man struggled for thousands of years attempting to browse the internet with IE8. However, every third web-site the program would become unresponsive until man had to close the program with ctrl+alt+delete. Many men have had their faith falter and have begun to worship false Gods.

Many have turned to the Fox God of Fire. This God offers the ability to the people to worship in the way that they choose. The Fire God accepts many different beliefs through a questionable plug-in system that is not to be trusted. It is said that the Fire God will often burn it's cultist alive for pleasure.

Some favor the Chrome God of Spoils. This God promises wealth and security to all who worship it. The Chrome God favors shiny silver statues of itself, and it's followers offer sacrifices to these statues. The God of Chrome is very crafty, and has taken full advantage of it's brain washed followers. They offer up their life savings to the Chrome God. Many of the followers dress in tattered and worn clothes, while Chrome always wears expensive jewels.

Though they are granted an increase in browser performance by these false Gods, they know not what horrible strings are attached. If you use these false browsers you will die. God will strike you down and send you straight to the fiery depths of hell. Do not lose your faith, or you will be punished.

Panda Cloud Antivirus

Kevin — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 05:31:49 +0000

I've recently borrowed back my laptop from my younger sister. She had fallen victim to some nasty malware on her laptop, so I loaned her mine while I worked on hers. After getting it back I decided to start out with a fresh image of my own. For antivirus this time around, I chose Panda Cloud Antivirus. I've known about Panda for several months now. I would have started using it earlier but the program did not support Windows Vista or Windows 7 until recently. Panda works a little bit differently compared to most antivirus programs that we have become accustomed to. While most antivirus programs download a set of virus definitions and then filter through all the files on your computer comparing them to these definitions, Panda does this in real-time by off loading most of it's processing to servers over the internet. Without getting too technical, this means two things for you. First, your computer will run faster because Panda uses less than typical system resources to run. Secondly, you should be protected from new viruses as they emerge at a faster rate than with a traditional antivirus program. Now this method of malware protection sounds golden in theory, however I am not sure how effective it is yet. It is still a fairly new product, but I think it has a lot of potential. The best part about it, is that right now you can get it for free from http://www.cloudantivirus.com/. Just be sure to uninstall any old antivirus programs first as they may conflict.

What I like:

Fast download and install of the client (Around 5 min. total for me)
Easy to understand user interface
Automatically detects and removes malware
Automatically updates
Small footprint on system
Offloads scanning to the internet
Reporting tab that displays types of threats detected

What I don't like:

It hasn't been around long and not sure on it's reliability yet
Rotten eggs

Secunia Personal Software Inspector

Kevin — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 21:13:42 +0000

"The Secunia PSI is ready to locate, assess, and assist you with patching the insecure programs installed on your PC that expose you to security threats."

The prior is the welcoming message to the Secunia control console and it describes exactly what the program does. It scans your systems installed programs and finds out which are current and which are not.

Why would you want to do this?

Out of date programs are often a security risk and attackers can use them as open door ways to your machine.
Developers typically make their products run more efficiently in later versions
New features can be added to later versions of software

If you are interested in finding out if your programs are secure head here and download Secunia PSI.

Spotlight: Real-Time Systems Analyses

Kevin — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 00:00:52 +0000

Spotlight is a program that monitors the overall performance of your PC. The nice thing about it is that it has many different views available to collect information. For example, the default loading screen bundles great information such as processor usage, memory usage, hard drive space available, page files written, etc. It makes this information pop by implementing well placed icons that change colors when performance is below a threshold (which can be changed). Another noteable feature is that you can view information however you please. There's the home screen which provides an overall view of your system and different charts that can keep track of performance over time.

Right now we've been using this at work to keep an eye on the performance of some of our servers. I am still in the process of learning how to have it monitor automatically to create perfomance baselines. If this supports Windows 7 I will be trying it out at home soon.

If you are interested, head here to download your free copy.

Super f4

Kevin — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 17:03:24 +0000

What is it?

Super f4 is a small footprint program that allows you to kill applications at lightning like speeds. If you press Alt+f4 it gives you a skull and cross bones cursor, then you can click on the program that you want to kill with it. If you press ctrl+alt+f4 it will close the foreground process.

Why would I want it?

When you end a process through task manager, you aren't really killing it. It's more of an asking it politely to clean up and close. If you use Super f4 instead it kills it much faster.

Are there any downsides?

Yes. I've killed my windows explorer (the program that puts the start menu at the bottom of your screen and displays your icons) several times on accident already. A simple fix though... press ctrl+alt+delete, start task manager, and then launch windows explorer.

Where can I get it?

http://code.google.com/p/superf4/

HostsMan

Kevin — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 01:02:22 +0000

Ok, for this post we will have to go over a little bit of background information. HostsMan is a program that helps you easily edit your hosts file. So, what is a hosts file? A hosts file is something that windows uses to quickly resolve url's to their respective ip addresses. For example, when you type www.google.com in your web-browser that is converted to an ip. The computer then uses that ip to navigate off to google's servers. Ok... so that's what a hosts file is. Now what the hells is HostsMan?

HostsMan allows you to edit this host file and block certain hosts if they aren't wanted. For example, you could add known porn web-sites to your block lists. Also, you can use HostsMan to sync with host files online. I didn't do any manual editing of my hosts file, but I did chose to sync with some that HostsMan. As a result a lot of ads, and pop-up windows pop us as "page cannot be displayed". So I don't have to view annoying ads before they are automatically blocked by HostsMan. HostsMan also includes a "server" component to their software that is supposed to improve web browsing performance. I am not sure how that part works, I don't use it myself.

If you want to take it for a spin, head here.