Re: What To Get

1

Recommend XnView over IrfanView. It's prettier and more user-friendly.

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2

Every thread is a Real Doll thread to you, isn't it?

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3

I don't get it.

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4

"Prettier"

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5

Open Office actually works? I don't want to have to buy any of that crazy expensive office software when I get a new computer.

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6

It works well (you can download it and try it now), but file conversion, though good, isn't perfect between OO and MS Office. (I haven't used it in a couple of years, but think this is still true.)

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7

Pay for MS Office if you use Office a lot. OO is comparatively slow, which will be irritating if you are a heavy user. This is based on OO 2.0 beta, IIRC. Also, if you primarily use the word processor, you might look at AbiWord. A stand alone program - you'd imagine it would be less bloated.

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8

Also, my favorite freeware program ever is SlickRun. It's a little "magic words" program, and it's lovely.

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9

Soulseek is pretty amazing for peer-to-peer software. You can select entire folders for downloading, and thus can easily download 6-8 albums, or even box sets, overnight with a broadband connection. You can also download collections of mp3s like "pitchfork's top 50 singles of 2005" that people compile themselves. Or, so I have heard.

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10

9:overnight? You need to check your provider. I, umm, know people who can do 4-5 albums an hour.

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11

Test:with browser open, three windows

Glider - One Day ay a Time - 2006 - post-rock/indie, 224S, 68 mb = 10 minutes

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12

oh, for ftp, filezilla is pretty good.

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13

How does filezilla compare to CuteFTP?

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14

ncftp is the best ftp program I have ever used.

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15

I haven't used ncFTP, but filezilla is much better than cuteFTP. I used cute until it got bloated, then switched to simpleFTP until the same thing happened. Filezilla is pleasantly simple.

Henley's list is good, but I can't help taking a few potshots:

- Software firewalls suck pretty bad. In my experience they cause more problems than they solve (XP's seems mostly harmless). Just buy a $20 router. You'll generally never have an exposed address when you're on the road; you might as well just set up your home connection properly.

- Trillian was very bloated and crash-prone the last time I tried it. Gaim's UI sucks. Honestly, there wasn't a great IM client on the PC last time I looked.

- My copy of Azureus has some memory leaks, but it has I2P and Tor functionality integrated. And it pioneered the trackerless/DHT torrent method. AND it's cross-platform.

- Oink's is a great site, but it's invite-only, so this recommendation isn't very helpful. Big Coward's right, though: Soulseek is great. Not for the technology, which is kind of outdated, but for the user base, which has great taste.

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16

(can you tell that I'm overcompensating for being stranded in Mac land, where I know nothing?)

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17

- Software firewalls suck pretty bad

Does this extend to ipfw, iptables, etc?

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18

Of course not! That's the software that the hardware firewall should be running. I'm still not a fan of running the firewall on the client, though. Your OS obviously shouldn't listen on unused ports, but otherwise...

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19

But aren't most people (who use wireless at home, for example) behind a router anyway? If a software firewall isn't interfering with anything (and the latest versions of ZoneAlarm haven't caused me any trouble), why not use it?

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20

I suppose that if you're using wireless that's (probably?) true, but lots of people still connect directly. I would be, if we hadn't gotten a router so my roommate can use wireless.

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21

Yeah, I agree with the "get a router" advice. I'm just wondering if Tom think software firewalls are actively bad, as opposed to just a poor substitute. One of the nice things about the software firewalls is that they also monitor outgoing traffic and alert you if, say, some piece of spyware is trying to connect from your pc.

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22

OpenOffice does work, though it is worth getting the very latest version (2.01, possibly 2.02). It needs more memory than MSO to work as fast. It doesn't have pretty balloon comments (there are comments, but they are not so pretty). There are other ragged edges. It doesn'tunderstand MSD Office macros (though the Sun version, Star Office, comes with a conversion tool). But it is very solid, has better style handling than any version of MSO I have used, exports to PDF, and costs no more than about three hours' fiddling and cursing as you turn off all the automation features.

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23

Yeah, "buy a router" is the advice I gave my sister, but I also made sure she had XP's software firewall running. Defense in depth.

Trillian is incredibly crash-prone, but that's fairly recent (with 3.1) I believe. I used to love it, but now it makes me sad. Still use it, though, because there isn't anything better. On the Mac, we've got Fire and Adium which are pretty sweet.

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24

While a lot of the software on that list is financially free, most of it isn't open source, and even less of it is free as in liberty. Still, not a bad start.

As for firewalls a software firewall even if you have a router. It will protect you from all the other computers on your home network. I.e. if your friend comes over with a laptop and hops on your net, he is behind your router and so you have no defense against him except your pc's firewall. Likewise, if your kids are downloading junk and infect their computers, you don't want their stupidity to be catching.

My home LAN has several computers on it behind a firewall/router. They all have some firewalling going on.

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25

The BugMeNot plugin for the FireFox browser is pretty darn nice.

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26

I forgot to ask - are there any good free replacements for SnagIt to do screen capture?

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27

Tripp: There are others who are much better situated to offer you advice, but I'll offer mine, anyway: I like mwsnap.

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28

The bug-me-not plugin hasn't worked for me since I upgraded to FF 1.5. This happen to anyone else? I loved that thing, so much easier than going to the website.

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29

The plugin has been updated and should work again-just download the update.

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30

Other good FF plugins include Greasemonkey, Nuke Anything, and Flashblock.

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31

I have had zero problems with Trillian, although I do have to switch to the normal AIM client to do file transfers.

It would never occur to me that I needed a third-party program to replace "alt-tab."

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32

Or I guess it would be second-party, now that I look more closely.

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33

Oh, the Powertools alt-tab switcher is rad. It makes going between Firefox windows a snap, and if someone IMs me something that I don't feel like responding to, I can usually just read it in the switcher thumbnail.

Do you use Trillian Pro? With any plugins? (Not to drag this thread down into a Trillian tech-support fest.)

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34

It makes going between Firefox windows a snap

I did not understand that this was difficult.

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35

Curse my imprecision.

Going between windows was not difficult. Determining the correct window to stop at is now easier.

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36

Another reason to run a software firewall.

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37

Matt, I'm not clear on why you have multiple windows of Firefox open at all. Isn't that the point of tabs?

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38

-gg-d -- You're one to talk when it's fairly difficult to read your blog without using multiple windows.

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39

And again, isn't that the point of tabs?

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40

If I click on one of your "Comments" links with the control key depressed, FireFox will open the comments thread in both a popup window and a new tab. Is this what you are thinking about? Because it does not seem useful to me.

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41

Why are you holding down the "control" key?

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42

to make the link open in a new tab o.c.

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43

Huh, I don't need to do that. I use the TabMix extension, so maybe that's it, because I do see an option to control that behavior there.

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44

I do see an option to control that behavior there.

That would be my problem, that I failed to notice that option. Thanks for the tech support!

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45

The thing about software firewalls is that they're generally unnecessary if you can avoid doing stupid stuff. There simply aren't that many zero day worms affecting consumer software (if you exclude IM worms and other application-level flaws; a firewall won't save you from those, anyway). Most vulnerabilities these days are some variety of trojan ("Spyware detected! Click OK to remove!") or, more recently, problems with Microsoft libraries that allow malicious websites to do nasty things. Again, nothing that a firewall can protect you from.

Software firewalls protect consumers from a very small class of worms -- stuff like Zotob. If you're behind a router, know not to open unexpected attachments, and don't have untrusted users on your LAN (e.g. kids), I don't see much reason to run one. They cause a slight hit in network and system performance, and the badly-written ones can cause very weird, unpredictable problems that your nephew/niece/sibling/child will find irritating to track down (trust me). XP's firewall is fine, and I don't turn it off, but I think hardware solutions are really the way to go.

I'll admit that knowing when your software is sending info out is a nice feature. But I don't think it's worth the trouble (nor is it 100% reliable -- you need to dig out a packet sniffer to be sure).

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46

Did you follow the link in 36, Tom? (Not arguing, but you'll find it interesting, I think.)

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47

Yup. Saw that when I was googling around for shmoocon stuff. It's not a huge deal, I don't think -- my reading is that it just means you might be on an ad-hoc WLAN when you don't think you're connected to anything. Since most of us probably use WLANs all the time, I'm not too worried about its practical effect (although it *is* a nasty, stupid flaw, and MS ought to fix it).

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48

37: For some things I use tabs, for others, windows. F'rinstance, if I'm reading a blog and see and interesting link, I'll open it in a tab behind the current one. But if I'm reading a blog and also have a work related web page open, I'll use another window for that. I guess I kind of treat each window as a cluster of related tabs.

Bloglines also, by default, opens new windows and I've gotten used to that.

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49

Matt, I'm not clear on why you have multiple windows of Firefox open at all. Isn't that the point of tabs?

If there's one page I want to be able to switch to immdiately, but multiple pages I also want to see, I'll open the multiple pages in one window and that single page in another and then every time I press alt-tab I can get to that one page quickly. I do this when, say, I'm writing a blog post and cutting and pasting from more than one source.

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