New Software, haemphyst's Picks - FYI

I have been a fan of MediaMonkey for I can't even say how long... It's free, it's stable, it works with my iPos Classic 160GB. The newest version, however, has been a bit problematic for me, trying to get it play Apple Lossless files. I've been through forums and user groups, and you name it, for literally HOURS on end, and I have one PC that I cannot get to function as desired. It'll play MP3, no issue, but I abhor MP3 playback!

I'll continue using dBPowerAmp for all ripping services, I happily pay the $5 (each) a year for that one's M4A plug-ins and CDDB functions, (the BEST tagging I have ever found!) and the AccurateRip feature assures me of a clean extraction, no matter the quality of the CD or it's surface; it will run multiple instances on a single PC (one for each optical device you have on the PC) it will happily rip to a network destination (some don't like to) so I can literally rip up to 9CDs simultaneously to my network server... but in searching for a new player, I stumbled upon Foobar2000, and for grins, I installed it.

I was going to get really PO'd, it didn't like M4A... Gave me an error, saying the file was corrupted. Well, I knew it WASN'T. They would play fine everywhere else. I didn't give up... Took me about 6 seconds on the home page to find the Components tab, and right there was the ALAC Decoder... Downloaded, unzipped the DLL to the C:\Program Files\foobar2000\components folder, and re-launched. BING!

A little poking lets you make the interface window look like... well, pretty much anything. It can be made to upsample (if your audio device supports higher bit-rate outputs) for output to a higher quality DAC via optical, coax, or USB. (See "Musiland" on The Bay) Converts from any supported format to any OTHER supported format, VERY low CPU and RAM usage... It also supports iPos; say goodbye to Apple pukeware!

So there's that one.

The second software "combo" I'd like to mention is Firefox. I hear you all saying "That's not new..." No, it isn't. The new PLUG-INS are!

Plug in one:
NoScript. Invaluable in preventing WindowsAntiVirusPro2009 (and others of it's style) infections. Nearly all of these "ransomware" "scareware" or "rogue anti-virus" applications get into your computer via scripts. This simple plug in prevents them from running automatically! You have the option of running them or not... You can tell the software to forever ignore one page, such as the12volt.com or google.com, as examples.

Plug in two: IETab. THIS one is AWESOME! We all know that Firefox does not always generate a page the same way that IE7 or 8 does... Most programmers code for M$... They do. After adding this guy, right clicking any link will provide you with a new option: "Open Link in IE Tab". It then opens that link IN FIREFOX, but AS AN IE PAGE! Still retaining all of the safety and speed of Firefox, adding the compatibility of IE, and still under the security blanket of NoScript! I even ran Windows Update in Firefox!

I was reading an article in my email recently mentioning that over 300,000 webpages are KNOWN to be covertly hijacked! The owner of the pages don't even know they are infected! Over 500,000 UNIQUE PAGES AND/OR SITES were found to be hijacked in the last year. I charge 2 hours of labor to remove these malwares, some others charge FAR more. (My understanding is that BestBuy charges $300.00 just to tell you that you're infected!) The infections CAN get so bad that a wipe and reload of Windows is necessary on occasion!

Firefox with these two plug-ins feels to me to be as clean and as safe and secure as you can be, in the Windows environment. Reasonably transparent, too! (Of course if you REALLY want to be immune to Windows BS and viruses, run Ubuntu. I recommend 9.04, not the latest release 9.10)

Anyway, there y'all go! Dave's on the lookout for all of you!

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It all reminds me of something that Molière once said to Guy de Maupassant at a café in Vienna: "That's nice. You should write it down."