Date: 09/20/06 (Computer Geeks)    Keywords: software

I've been trying to play FreeSpace 2 with my gamepad (a Logitech Dual Action) and I can't seem to get the dratted thing to work, no matter what I do.

The profiler software has a FreeSpace2 profile - that doesn't work. Nor does binding the gamepad keys to the in game keyboard commands with the profiler software work (ie, button1=h). Nor does running the gamepad without the profiler software seem to help.

The gamepad works (it's bindable natively under Hitman: Blood Money anyway) and this is just driving me up a wall. Has anyone had a similar problem in the past? How did you solve it?

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computergeeks/980713.html

Date: 09/21/06 (Computer Help)    Keywords: software

I can't seem to capture a frame from DVD, and can't find any free (or even budget-friendly) software to do it. A lot of DVD player programs have a screen capture feature, but they all cost money, and I'd like to find a freeware version if at all possible.

Any ideas?

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computer_help/688784.html

Date: 09/24/06 (Computer Help)    Keywords: software, asp, virus, web, spyware, google

*cross-posted*

So I'm trying to reinstall iTunes and I'm having a lot of problems with it.

All the support sites for the software point back to eachother. Here's what the error message is that I'm getting.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v74/enflamedphoenix/1.png

So I googled that and saw that it's an issue with installshield. So I go to the installshield site at http://consumer.installshield.com/kb.asp?id=Q110641 and see how to fix the problem. So I go to the place where you fix the problem and follow the instructions at http://consumer.installshield.com/kb.asp?id=Q108322.

Ironically enough, that causes the original error again. After the first error in iTunes shows up, I get this error: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v74/enflamedphoenix/2.png

I've uninstalled iTunes and Quicktime. I've used spybot and adaware and antivir to check for spyware or viruses. I've registered files per the installshield website. I've used Windows Installer to delete any quicktime or itunes installer files. I just can't seem to get it to work. I don't know what else to do. I would like to be able to use my ipod haha

If anyone has any advice for me to try?

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computer_help/690778.html

Date: 09/24/06 (Computer Help)    Keywords: software

I recently formatted my harddisk and reinstalled Windows on my PC. Everything is running just fine, only the audio driver is giving me headaches.

The device manager tells me the "audioncontroller for multimedia" is missing. I have a SiS 7012 audio device and got drivers for it without a problem from the 'net. I tried three different sources, beginning of course with sis.com, but it just won't install. Windows tells me it doesn't find the correct software and when I install it manually from the file, the setup is interrupted by two failure messages:

"-536870397" and then "Fail to install audio driver for Windows XP. Setup will exit."

I already surfed around for answers and got told to install the chipset drivers for my motherboard first. They worked like a charm. But the audiodriver still won't install. Anyone got any ideas?

Crossposted to tech_support and computerhelp

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computer_help/691447.html

Date: 09/26/06 (Security)    Keywords: software, security

Update repairs a serious security hole that cybercrooks have been using to drop malicious software onto Windows PCs.

Source: http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-6119752.html

Date: 09/27/06 (Security)    Keywords: software, security, spyware, microsoft

Security rival says Microsoft is withholding spyware APIs for Windows update, but software giant denies it.

Source: http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-6120219.html

Date: 10/02/06 (Java Web)    Keywords: software, microsoft

Microsoft introduced on Sept. 27 the public beta of its System Center Data Protection Manager version 2 at the Storage Decisions conference in New York. It is built upon Microsoft’s DPM (Data Protection Manager) 2006 which is the Microsoft’s first storage software (released last October). System Center Data Protection Manager version 2 will enable customers to [...]

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/microsoft-makes-inroads-in-data-storage-replication-market/

Date: 10/02/06 (Java Web)    Keywords: software, microsoft

Microsoft Corp. has sued an anonymous computer hacker whose free program FairUse4WM allows users to copy digital movies and songs by bypassing a software protection (DRM) built into the company’s Media player. Microsoft charges that the hacker with alias “Viodentia” has illegally obtained proprietary source code (of Microsoft) to create FairUse4WM. The lawsuit seeks a permanent injunction [...]

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/microsoft-sues-fairuse4m-windows-media-drm-remover-author/

Date: 10/02/06 (Java Web)    Keywords: software, technology, security

Remote XT technology, a UK firm designed a cell phone security system which sets off a high pitch scream, permanently locks the handset and finally wipes all data if the cell phone is stolen. They hope it will halt the spiraling rise (190% increase) in phone theft. The Remote XT technology works by installing software onto [...]

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/screaming-cell-phones-just-what-the-doctor-ordered/

Date: 10/02/06 (Open Source)    Keywords: templates, software, microsoft

Open Office is one of the most popular open source projects around. It has about 50 million users, the software supports dozens of languages, and it replicates (free) all the major functions of Microsoft Office. But since announcing its contest for templates and clipart the reaction has been one of crickets chirping. Gerry Singleton, co-leader of [...]

Source: http://blogs.zdnet.com/open-source/?p=801

Date: 10/03/06 (Security)    Keywords: software, web

Flaw in how Net phone software handles Web links could enable an attacker to launch arbitrary code on some Macs.

Source: http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-6122390.html

Date: 10/06/06 (WebDesign)    Keywords: software, web

In June I designed a gallery website for a local photographer. At the time it was discussed that she would want to make ongoing changes to the site, small text amends and swapping-out images in her portfolio, and I assured that it would be a simple process. I asked, as I always do, if she would be interested in learning to use the software to update her own site and she said no, that she would rely on me to make any changes for her.

When she agreed the quote for the site, I sent her a copy of our terms and conditions which clearly state:

After work on the client's web-site has been ceased, **** will not be held responsible for the maintenance, monitoring or upkeep of said site unless otherwise agreed in writing.

A couple of weeks ago she called me and asked me to cost up how much 16 new pages to add to the gallery would be. When I sent her the quote for the new pages, she didn't reply to my email, so I assumed she was (as I suggested) getting quotes from other companies.

Then last week she called me and asked me to make some changes to her pricelist 'as a favour'. I said that of course I would make the changes, but naturally there would be a charge for doing so. She asked how much and I told her that we had discussed our hourly rate at our initial meeting and that changes to the site were charged at our usual hourly rate, with a minimum fee of £10 per amendment. This is the same arrangement I use for ALL my clients (I currently maintain 63 websites) and have never had any mis-communication before.

Today, her husband called me. He told me that 'all the other web design companies he'd obtained quotes from had included the price of maintenance in their prices' and that he had just assumed we were doing the same'.

Does anyone here (UK-based or other) quote on this basis? And, if so, how the hell can you give a quote based on a contract that may extend indefinitely and incur infinite workhours???!!

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/webdesign/1174978.html

Date: 10/11/06 (Security)    Keywords: software

The number of vulnerabilities found in software will jump this year, experts say--but there's a silver lining.

Source: http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-6124541.html

Date: 10/11/06 (Security)    Keywords: software, security

Business software giant will add severity ratings to its security bulletins, helping customers prioritize patching.

Source: http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-6124739.html

Date: 10/11/06 (Application Development)    Keywords: software, linux

Newly released software is designed to help bridge two widely used Linux user interfaces, KDE and GNOME.

Source: http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9593_22-6124905.html

Date: 10/12/06 (IT Professionals)    Keywords: programming, software, security, microsoft

Are any of you familiar with the Microsoft Shared Computer Toolkit? It's a handy little tool from Microsoft that allows you to optimize a user profile for shared usage, or as we've found, for stations or kiosks that need to perform a very specific task. We primarily use it as a means to prevent Windows from accumulating profiles as AD users log in - part of the toolkit is Windows Disk Protection, which saves redirects all "writes" to the Windows partition to a seperate partition, then simply discards the changes upon a reboot.

I work at a university computer lab with approximately 4000 users connected to a school-wide Active Directory domain forest. Part of the predicament we are having is Administrator access. See, to even get into the door you have to be a computer science major, so these kids are a little more intelligent than your standard computer user. As CS majors, they're required to write programming assignments using Visual Studio and god knows how many debuggers. We fear that while one student uses his computer all night to further his research, another student is writing and installing a rootkit or a keylogger, another is serving porno movies he downloaded from Bittorrent, yet another is using his administrative rights to steal his peer's homework assignments, and another is logging everyone out with the shutdown command so he can build a botnet. As such, we've denied them Administrator rights.

If you can imagine hell, it's getting 30GB of specialized software to run in anything but Administrator mode. Students can't install it themselves, so we have to install it on an image and deploy it to a set of computers using Ghost. We use the Toolkit to facilitate this, as it automatically saves Microsoft Updates and is capable of running a maintenance script of our choosing when it runs (which calls another script on a network share). However, we have students and professors screaming at us to give us Administrator rights on the machines, and we're trying our damndest to provide that to them. My questions for all of you are as follows:

As Administrator, the student would have full access to the hard drives, including the folder which holds the Toolkit. It holds that even if we lock the folder down with permissions, ownership, and security, another Administrator can just reverse all that an unlock it. Is there any way around this, so that only ONE administrator can modify ownership and permissions for a folder?

They can modify our maintenance scripts to run whatever they want, provided they disable or save changes to the drive with the toolkit first. I'm vaguely aware that Group Policy can forbid access to certain programs, but I've never used it. How simple is it to set up? Does that apply to EVERY profile created on the machine, including our own?

We're specifically eyeballing Faronics Deep Freeze to replace the SCT if necessary, but the free SCT appears to do all we need it to do. If you've used both, which did you prefer?

If you were in my situation, realistically how would you accomplish this? Assume you have roughly 200 identical computer shared between 4000 users in an Active Directory environment. You don't control the domain controller, but you have full control over a specific OU on the controller. We're simply looking for a way to allow Administrator access without the student saving any changes to the Windows Partition.

Thanks for your help!

~Elliot

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/itprofessionals/44673.html

Date: 10/12/06 (IT Professionals)    Keywords: software, sql, web

Hi all.

Im new to the community. Quick intro is needed I guess:

Im a 24 year old student from the North East of England, currently studying computing for business at Northumbria University.

Im now on my 3rd year and I have been on my work placement for about 3 months. Its great. Three lads sitting in a room, supporting an entire companies I.T resources.

My job is also to maintain and improve upon a piece of inhouse software called TrackIT. It pretty much keeps track of all telesales activity within the entire company. They sell training to other companies such as water and eletricity.

Anyhoo!

TrackIT, is wrote in that lovely language visual basic 6. Now I know nothing about visual basic 6, but im done a pretty good job so far. My education was within Visual Basic.NET, but that education left alot to be desired.

So my issue is this:

I know this is probably a really simple question and YES I have looked on every website I can find, and used every text book I can get my hands on.

Im astounded I cant find this anywhere.

I very simple need to take the value which has been selected inside a datacombobox, and send it as a string to an SQL statement. The result of which would be a filtered datagrid.

I did a test with a message Box saying, "MsgBox (dcFilterCompanyName.Item.Text)", because that code wasnt working.

Am I being completely stupid thinking that piece of code would return the value selected in the datacombo?

If I am, then can someone please tell me what code to use to retreive the value selected?

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/itprofessionals/44969.html

Date: 10/13/06 (Open Source)    Keywords: software

Once the software is all installed, a pop-up console comes up when you click on a phishing link, showing not just the URL but the host server of the offending site. You can then report it by clicking a check box.

Source: http://blogs.zdnet.com/open-source/?p=815

Date: 10/13/06 (Open Source)    Keywords: software, linux

Portland, the software, is a set of common interfaces for GNOME and KDE, the leading desktop Linux GUIs. Debian, Fedora, OpenSUSE. Red Flag and Xandros are all going to ship Portland with their next releases.

Source: http://blogs.zdnet.com/open-source/?p=813

Date: 10/14/06 (Computer Help)    Keywords: programming, software

I have been offered work on programming the Python half of a motion capture project using World Viz's Vizard software. I downloaded a trial copy of the software until my employer gets me a license for the full version. As I am running through the tutorial, my processor runs between 0% and 4% usage. As soon as I run the script, though, my processor seems to get bogged down by the 3D graphics and maxes out at 100%. My frame rate is under 5fps, sometimes dropping even below 1fps! In wireframe mode I can get it up to about 15 or 20fps.

I run Windows XP Home on a MSI K8N Neo Platinum motherboard, AMD Athlon 64 3000+ processor, 1GB of DDR333 clocking at 166Mhz(?), and my graphics card is an older Radeon 7500 64MDDR.

Would upgrading my video card take some (or all) of this load off of my processor and allow me to move freely through my 3D environment?

If so, can somebody suggest a good graphics card for gaming/development? My only requirement used to be dual-display support, but now with programming/3D modelling I realize I'm going to need a bigger punch.

Any help appreciated.


(Cross-posted to gamedevelopers and Computerhelp)

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computer_help/696145.html