User Profile for ActionAmerica.org

eMail Bounce Handler X 3.4.3 (Mac OS X)

If only....  

If only spammers would use such a tool, to handle bounces. Unfortunately, only a few bother. However, my experience seems to indicate that a very, very small amount of spammers actually do remove addresses of bounced email from their lists.

I use Bouncer for Entourage to automatically bounce all of the spam that SpamSieve finds, once an hour. I have set up special "Postmaster" email accounts, for Bouncer to use, so the bounced email comes from postmaster@somedomain.com, just like real bounces.

When I began using Bouncer, I saw about a 10% drop in quarantined email, over about 3 months. Then, my spam stabilized and slowly began to climb, as before. When I was traveling for several months, I was using a costly wireless connection and turned off Bouncer for that time. After several months, my spam had begun to grow in number, somewhat faster. Upon returning home and turning Bouncer back on, I noticed the same 10% drop, over about 3 months, that I had seen previously.

This leads me to believe that at least a very few spammers do use a tool like Bounce Handler. In a perfect world, every spammer would use something like Bounce Handler... Correct that... In a perfect world, spammers would be charged with a felony and forced to pay the costs that identifying and deleting all of their garbage, costs their victims.

Until we get such legislation in place, all that we can do is to hope that more spammers will use tools like Bounce Handler and lobby software developers to implement "Spam Filters That Fight Back". That's a spam filter that repeatedly pings (up to 20 times) the web sites referred to in spam and sends repeated nonsense email (up to 20 emails) to the email addresses referred to in spam. If only a small percentage of email users were to use such a product, the spammers sites would crash from the load, without it being able to be classed a DDOS attack. After all, only 20 hits from one computer does not constitute a denial of service. But a million computers doing the same thing would bring the spammers servers to their knees. Then consider that even if some slick lawyer were to come up with a way to class it as a DDOS attack, what jury would convict a user, for helping to crash a spammer's servers? Think about it...

I hope that spammers, who use Macs, will download and use Bounce Handler. But, since they don't respond to unsubscribe requests, either, I don't have much hope of that happening. After all, spammers are among the lowest form of life on the planet - just below lawyers and only ever so slightly above most politicians. [alert admin]

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Tuesday, December 11 2007 @ 07:21 PM PST

Symantec NAV/SAV virus def Dec 7 (Mac OS X)

Good product for PCs, but why use it on a Mac?  

I saw this product on the weekly update and felt that I had to comment. I have used Symantec anti-virus products on PC's, in the past and found them to be well above average products, with timely updates.

However, it amazes me that anyone would use any anti-virus product on a Mac. It's not that there is no possibility that a Mac will ever get a virus. It is however, extremely unlikely. Combine that with the facts that 1) NO OS-X virus has ever been found in the wild, 2) all Mac anti-virus programs are, at best, only fair at finding PC viruses and 3) anti-virus products are more likely than most other types of programs, to cause problems with ANY OS and it means that running any anti-virus program on a Mac is 1) far more likely to cause problems, than find a Mac virus and 2) somewhat more likely to cause problems, than find a PC virus.

Just a thought... [alert admin]

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Saturday, December 08 2007 @ 10:01 AM PST

DRM Dumpster 1.5.2 (Mac OS X)

Saves YOUR time. Start it and leave.  

DRM Dumpster doesn't speed up the process of removing the not to be sufficiently d@#ned DRM, but rather, automates the process, so you can be free to do other things, while it completes at a normal pace. In order to stay legal, it simply automates the process of burning DRMed material to CDRW and then reading it back in MP3 or AAC format. It formats a CDRW, burns some DRMed music, reads back to AAC or MP3 format and repeats the process till all DRMed music is converted. It simply automates the manual process, so you can be doing other things. I set it up and went to bed. In the morning, my entire collection of DRMed material had been converted. I am quite pleased with the result. That said, I would gladly pay for a product that would bypass writing to CDRW and simply remove the DRM from the original file, even if that is not "CONSIDERED" legal. Sometimes, there is a marked difference between what is considered LEGAL and what really is RIGHT. It's a shame that the greedy artists and music companies want to treat our purchased music as simply something which belongs to them and to which they "ALLOW" use, only under their terms. At least DRM Dumpster works and it fills the gap, till someone is brave enough to face the ire of the music industry and create a straight forward DRM removal product. Oh, yes. Don't forget to turn "Check for updates automatically" back on, in iTunes, after you are finished using DRM Dumpster. You may also want to turn off "access for assistive devices," in the Universal Access preferences, after you are done, too. DRM Dumpster is a useful product that does exactly what it says and nothing more. There are few commercial products that you can say that about. For that reason, I strongly recommend it. [alert admin]

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Sunday, July 08 2007 @ 02:25 PM PDT

TV Tracker 3.00 (Mac OS X)

Problems may end on Sept. 1, 2007  

I have used this widget for some time and have encountered some of the problems discussed here. As a widget developer myself, I actually managed to solve some of them, for my personal use. But, all of these problems may soon go away - permanently. The TV Tracker widget currently gets its TV listings data from Zap2it Labs, which has announced that it is discontinuing its service, as of September 1, 2007. In the past, the TV Tracker widget used a different listings provider, so I hope that they will go back to that one, before the Zap2it Labs discontinues its service. Actually, though I am not sure, I think that they used to parse a web listing, but changed to Zap2it, because the source web site was always changing, which required changes to the widget. At least, that's my understanding. Interestingly, I have noticed certain significant slow downs and even failures to download data in the TV Tracker widget, since that Zap2it Labs announcement. Also, this has created a lot of discussion on home theater boards, around the net. The loss of that data from Zap2it Labs, represents a great loss to the home theater community, as several other Mac and PC products also use that data. I hope that some company will move in to fill the Zap2it Labs gap. [alert admin]

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Sunday, July 08 2007 @ 12:38 PM PDT

MacProgramGuide 0.54 (Mac OS X)

Probable answer to some problems  

Although I have not used this application, I have used a widget that, like this app, gets its TV listings data from Zap2it Labs, which has announced that it is discontinuing its service, as of September 1, 2007. I have noticed certain significant slow downs and even failures to download data in the TV Tracker widget, since that Zap2it Labs announcement. This has created a lot of discussion on home theater boards, around the net. The loss of that data from Zap2it Labs, represents a great loss to the home theater community. I hope that some company will move in to fill the Zap2it Labs gap, but if MacProgrammingGuide does not find a new listings provider before September 1, 2007, then in all likelihood this product, like the TV Tracker widget, will not function after that. [alert admin]

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Sunday, July 08 2007 @ 12:06 PM PDT

Safari Extender 1.6.6 (Mac OS X)

Crashes Safari when you attempt to add a tab  

Extender offers some neat features that would be really helpful, if they would just work without crashing Safari. Unfortunately, after using Extender for about two weeks, I have positively traced the cause of a series of recent Safari crashes to the the Extender plugin. How many times have you closed a tab and then come back later and opened a new one? If you're running the Extender plugin, you can't do that (at least not on an Intel Mac). You see, with Extender loaded, when you have two or more tabs open, if you close the right-most tab and then right-click on the tab bar, as you would, if you were preparing to open another tab, Safari crashes EVERY TIME. This only happens if you close the right-most tab. Closing a middle or the left-most tab does not cause this crash. Also, if you do one of several other actions within Safari, before attempting to open a new tab, it will not crash Safari. But, EVERY TIME you close the right-most tab and then right-click on the tab bar, without any intervening Safari actions, Safari will crash. Removing the Extender plugin, resolved the problem. Reinstalling the Extender plugin, re-introduced the problem. Although Extender offers some neat functionality that Safari is lacking, this tab problem is such a basic flaw that I cannot recommend it. Even if you don't use tabs, just the presence of such a basic flaw suggests that there are likely other problems, hiding just below the surface. Since I had to remove Extender, I can't tell you if there are any other problems with it. [alert admin]

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Tuesday, April 03 2007 @ 07:52 PM PDT

AirPort Radar 1.1.2b4 (Mac OS X)

Intel Version now works great!  

The Intel version now appears to work as well as the old G4 version. This was one of the first widgets that I ever downloaded for my old G4. It was great then and it's great now. When the Intel Macs first came out, there was a time when the widget wouldn't work, but with this latest Beta version for Intel Macs, it appears that they have got all of the Intel related bugs out of the program. During the time when they were fixing the Intel-related problems, I tried AIr Traffic Control, but it didn't give me nearly as much info as Airport Radar. But then, that could have been because the authors of that widget were fixing it, too. I really don't know. Now that Airport Radar has been upgraded to Intel compatibility and it does everything that I need and more, there is no reason for me to look at any further releases of Air Traffic Control, so I really can't say. I like the interface of Airport Radar much better than Air Traffic Control. It tells you more, is less space. The only thing that the Intel version lacks that is in the G4 version, is the ability to set the scan interval. By narrowing the scan interval, you can use the G4 version to easily find hotspots, while mobile. I could have really used that feature at the airport the other day, while waiting for my wife's plane. I knew that they had wireless all over the airport, but it's hard to find such a spot in the waiting areas. I eventually found a hotspot, where I could check the flight arrival time (Flight Tracker widget). I had driven past that very small hotspot several times. With the G4 widget, set to a very frequent scan, that wouldn't have happened. You certainly wouldn't want to leave the scan interval set that narrow all the time. But, for mobile scanning (sometimes called WAR Driving) such an option is very helpful. As a frequent traveler, I find Airport Radar to be an invaluable and reliable tool. I just wish that they would put the scan interval into the Intel version. If you own a laptop and use it outside of your office and home, then you must have Airport Radar. Since it is freeware, it would be cheap at half the price. 8^) [alert admin]

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Sunday, January 21 2007 @ 07:26 PM PST

PodTube 2.0 (Mac OS X)

I would try it, but there is no demo. Not cool.  

I would try it, but there is no demo. Not cool. When I am considering any shareware, no demo equals no possible purchase. That applies even to products that I have seen running on someone else's computer and may be otherwise impressed with. That's because failing to offer a demo (even a highly crippled demo) tells a whole lot about the company's attitude toward the customer and customer servoce. It shouts, "We don't care. We just want your money." That may not have been the company's intention. But, that's the message that it sends. Until a demo is available, I will look elsewhere. [alert admin]

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Thursday, January 18 2007 @ 01:42 PM PST

SteerMouse 3.5 (Mac OS X)

Good, but not worth $20  

I tried SteerMouse for the trial period and although it provided some welcome features, they were mostly features that are free in other products. But, it is missing some really important features that can be found in commercial products, such as the Kensington mouse driver. In particular, although SteerMouse offers a few middle button options that Apple does not offer, those features are rudimentary and certainly don't justify even the lowest purchase price. Also, there are also several free mouse accellerator tools available that do what that part of SteerMouse does. In short, its features are of a level commonly found in freeware or donationware, but are certainly not up to the level of shareware. Note that I am not opposed to paying a fair price for a good product. I have no problem with paying sizable sums for commercial products like Photoshop, Dreamweaver or MS-Office or lesser sums for shareware products like Amadeus, Wiretap Pro or SpamSieve. I just want the product to be worth what I pay and SteerMouse is not yet worth $20. The first thing that one notices is that instead of using a real preference panel, their preference panel simply contains only one icon that opens a separate application, when clicked. That's the kind of cheesy thing that I would expect to see in freeware. Somehow, when I see something like that as soon as I open a piece of shareware, it doesn't give me a warm fuzzy feeling. In this case, that trepidation was born out in the lack of any unique or outstanding features. The one feature that I have not found in any but the commercial mouse drivers, that would enhance SteerMouse to the level of shareware and justify the $20 charge, is the ability to pupup a menu of customizable keystrokes. For example, on my old Kensington mouse, I could pop up a menu of predetermined keystrokes that would allow me to open a new Safari tab (CMD-T), close a tab (CMD-W) or make Safari text larger (CMD-+) or smaller (CMD-minus). In Entourage, I could use that popup to create a keystroke menu to identify the highlighted email as either spam (CMD-CTRL-S) or good (CMD-CTRL-G) or run any one of several other scripts that were activated by one or more keystrokes. With such a feature, the center button would become really usefull and such a driver would be worth $20. But, without some such outstanding feature, SteerMouse leaves one wondering what they think is worth even $5, let alone $20. It's a good start, but not up to shareware standards. I'll watch for future releases that may correct these issues. But until then, watch is all that I will do with SteerMouse. [alert admin]

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Saturday, January 13 2007 @ 03:59 PM PST

AirPort Radar 1.1.1 (Mac OS X)

Don't try this version on Core 2 Duo (Get the beta)  

If you are running on an Intel processor, don't waste your time with this or earlier versions. Go to the developer site and download the Intel Beta version. I have used earlier versions of Airport Radar on a G4 processor and was very pleased with it. I just tried to load it onto my MB Pro and the version that I had been running on my G4 didn't seem to understand that it was even in the Widgets folder. So, I came to VT and downloaded what I thought was the latest version and that one displayed some data, but alternately doubled the data and failed to display power levels. As a last resort, I went to the developer site and found that they had a Beta version for Intel processors. That one seems to work fine, as far as I can tell in just a few minutes. [alert admin]

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Friday, December 01 2006 @ 01:12 AM PST

3.8.1 crashes after Security Update  

Same here. Amadeus 3.8.1 crashes immediately after launch on systems that have the latest Apple Security Update. As each system got around to being updated, Amadeus 3.8.1 began crashing on that system. I have temporarily reverted to Amadeus 3.7.2 and it works fine, even after the Security Update. Bummer. 3.8.1 was so much better.

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Saturday, March 26 2005 @ 10:10 PM PST

Dazzle Compact Flash Reader Won't  

Same exact problem. Pictures come in fine off of the card, when downloaded through the camera, but same data is corrupted, when downloaded through the Dazzle* CF reader. Symptom (JPG files): horizontal banding of photos - light and dark and off color.

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Tuesday, May 04 2004 @ 01:16 PM PDT