artiss.blog

Category: Life

Random thoughts on life

  • Spammers are really, really stupid #2

    In some effort to keep my comments under control, all have to be authorised by myself before appearing.

    Recently I received a comment against my “Adobe Acrobat Reader Vs Foxit Reader” post. It was a reasonable enough query…

    Hello guys, I need to edit the watermark of a PDF document. How can I do it?

    Imagine my surprise, without having had the chance to authorise this, to receive a follow up comment 2 minutes later…

    I have been using the Magic PDF software for editing watermark of a PDF document. Check it out at http://www.magic-PDF.com. albert

    Yes, that’s right, someone is adding questions to blogs, which they’re then answering, in some half-arsed attempt to promote their website and/or product. The link doesn’t come with an affiliate link, so I can only assume that this has come from the website owners themselves.

    The other giveaway is that, although they used different email addresses, both comments came from the same IP address.

    Not surprisingly, I’m not the first to be spammed by them.

    Stand up Magic PDF and take a bow. If you’d like to get in touch, feel free.

  • Get my Top 10 Freeware programs!

    Thanks to the nice people at RadarSync, my top 10 freeware programs are available to download in a single pack. A bit like Google Pack. But less Googley.

  • Google Chrome OS

    Google Chrome LogoFirst of all, let me start by saying that I don’t normally blog about technology stories that are already being plastered everywhere, including the BBC news page. However, in this case, I’m so excited about the story that I feel the need to comment.

    Google has announced – finally – that it’s working on an OS to compete with Windows.

    Here are the points you need to know…

    • It’s initially aimed at Netbooks, but will eventually work it’s way onto PC’s.
    • It will be compatible with both x86 and ARM processors
    • It will take a matter of seconds to boot up
    • It is designed around internet use and will be easy to use with a clean interface
    • Security will be at it’s heart, with Google hoping for a virus and spyware free experience
    • It will be separate to Android, it’s mobile platform
    • The OS is expected to be launched in the middle of next year
    • It will be Open Source, and the source code is likely to be made available later this year

    Roll on next summer!

  • Software reviews and how not to request them!

    Now, I don’t mind being asked to review products – indeed I positively ask for it. However, as it’s a free service, I would at least expect a little bit of effort from those making the request.

    So, step forward Digiarty Software, who asked me to review their two latest products – a free iPod media converter and a free DVD to iPod ripper. Which would be good, if I actually owned an iPod. Besides, the email missed one essential detail – any kind of link to the product or their website. A quick “Google” found it though.

    Having said that, lines in the email such as “Here May I request a review of  these software on your web?” doesn’t bode well. Was I really sent an email from “Sophia”? (curiously, it was a Sophia who contacted me to review EASEUS software a while ago. Hmmm)

    Now, their website is very professional, which always makes me wonder why software is being given away free, especially when I can see they have an affiliate program. In this case, they also sell commercial software, which is their money maker. However, there’s something about them that doesn’t sit right.

    There are spelling and grammatical errors throughout the site and their “Privacy Policy” page has obviously been ripped from the Intel website. Unless they meant to write…

    This policy covers the Intel Corporate website and is applicable worldwide.

    Their is no reference to where they are based, although the site contains many examples of “broken English”. Who would buy from a site with such a lack of identity? Indeed, when installing the software the copyright notice makes mention of being “protected by United Kingdom copyright laws”. This is then followed up by “The sole owner of this product is Digiarty Software, Inc.” I didn’t think that UK companies used the “Inc.” suffix?

    So, next thing to do – look up the website in popular “checkers”. First up, the McAfee Site Advisor. This shows no problems with the downloads, and a contact country of the US. Next, Browser Defender shows much the same, but this time the US is identified as the location of the server. However, the contact is rather different.

    HanZhicai
    ZhiCai (softsupport@vip.sina.com)
    +86.2885258636

    I wish I knew where this contact information was sourced from, because a WHOIS lookup doesn’t provide anything of use (the contact information appears to be protected). However, the above name doesn’t appear on other sites, making reference to the aforementioned software.

    Sorry, but I’m not going any further. If I’m going to download and install some “free” software, I need to be able to feel the source is trustworthy. In this case, I don’t.

  • Would anyone like to try…?

    Ok, it’s been a few months in development and finally my new Social Bookmark plugin is near completion.

    If anybody would like to help test it – and, hence, get an early release for their WordPress blog – please get in touch.

    You can see an example below this post entry – it adds a series of social bookmarks to your posts and pages. You can control which ones are displayed, and which icons are used. You can also add them to your RSS feed.