THIS...... I LIKE

We all know Music/Video/Software theft is a crime. Only today Virgin Media made it into the news by announcing it will be working with the "British Phonographic Industry" (BPI) to stamp out illegal downloaders.


Its refreshing to see then, that the very same level of corporates who are doing their very best to stamp out this kind of illegal activity. Have been busted for running pirated software on four of their servers.

How were they found out you wonder?

"An IT department employee requested assistance for the use of a product called Ideal Migration. When technical support looked into the case, they discovered that the key used to activate the software was a pirated version".

From Zeropaid

I wonder what illegal software Mr Branson has on his virgin network.

Heroes - Season 2

I guess most of the people here have already seen the first season of Heroes on Sci-Fi or some dodgy alternative (namely torrents). I for one absolutely loved it.

For dodgy people (or those living in the US), there's not long now till Season 2 starts (September 24). I can't wait, I just hope it's not another "Lost" where it starts to lose the plot - literally, and you can't be doing with watching it any more.



Prison Break is also starting over in the good old UK on September 24. Looks like its back to sitting in front of the TV.

Broken
In the space of 2 weeks my personal laptpo has died twice, the first time due to installing some software whih knackered the registry rendering the machine completely 'kin useless, the second time I dropped it and it didnt work afterwards.

I work in IT, and have done for almost 10 years now, so I have to be my own (and my familys') IT guy. That also means I can't take my machine to someone and tell them

Not sure what's wrong, it just happened

...like everyone tells me,

Trust me, nobody working in IT believes people who say that. We may say "OK" but that's just so we can get on and fix the problem/s.

Death 1
I managed to use a piece of software called GetDataBack by Runtime Software. This software can read even the most dead of dead hard drives, and get hundreds of photos (of Leah) back. Just because I work in IT and tell everyone and their dog to back up their hard drive doesn't mean I do it.....

Death 2
I learned my lesson from death 1 and backed up my data, although admittedly, didn;t have that much time to put much on to lose in the first place.

So I am now on the 3rd install and have decided to;

A - Take a backup/clone of my laptop in it's current state
B - Save the applications I regard as essential on a USB Drive.
C - List them here for reference as well as


My Essential Apps.

1. MOST IMPORTANT - Drivers for your machine - remember you might not get internet access after a crash
2. Firefox Mozilla - Internet Browser
3. Smart Bookmarks Bar for Firefox (Hides text on the bookmarks toolbar thus allowing more bookmarks).
4. Media Players - Video Lan & K-Lite Codec Pack (Media Player Classic) (Free)
   
5. Burst Bit Torrent Client (Free) - Others available
   
6. Download Accelerator Plus (DAP) Free or Commercial
7. Winrar (Free - Nagscreen)
   
8. Quickpar - (Free) - Geek Alert
   
9. Foxit PDF Reader - Small file and doesn't take over your machine like Adobe Reader (Free)
   

I know I'm missing a lot, these are just the essentials I need to get me started, additionally I would also have. (Links are to free/opensource versions)

• Office Suite (MS Office or Open Office),
• Imaging Software (Photoshop, GIMP or Paint.net),
• Web suite (Dreamweaver or Nvu),
• Ipod Synchronisation (Anapod Explorer or YamIpod or iTunes if you must)

and many several others.

Links
- 1 - 2 -

Newsgroups

Newsgroups are (apart from IRC) probably the oldest form of file sharing / downloading / P2P(ish) I know of.

I've used newsgroups as long as I've used computers, back in the days of outlook express newsgroups I had access to 20,000+ newsgroups although they weren't brilliant.

About 5 years ago when I moved up to broadband with Pipex, I had access to their newsgroups, again more than 20,000 and again not brilliant,
I then tried out Easynews, the first difference being I had to pay (Yes Lee, Pay !!!!) for this, $9.98 per month for 4Gb usage per month, however there were more groups and the retention was 30 odd days, the retention meant the files stayed on the servers longer and therefore had better availability for everyone.

Over the years the price has stayed the same, but the usage increased to 6Gb, 10Gb and now 20Gb per month.

I have not had a single problem with Easynews. the search pages are great, the Zip Manager is great and all in all, I would and have recommended him to anyone.

NOW...
I read on NewZbin, Giganews, a similar service had a retention of 120 days, which they have now increased to 200 days.

they also have a different levels of usage plans

• Bronze - 2Gb/Month for $7.99
• Sliver - 25Gb/Month for $12.99
• Platinum -Unlimited/Month for $24.99
• Diamond - Unlimited/Month (plus SSL) for $29.99 ($19.99 for first Month)

I'm not, and never have been sure of the legal implications of newsgroups, you can download all types of files from newsgroups as you can with torrents etc, I guess the difference being you are not uploading files, which made P2P illegal.

I am not yet tempted, unlimited access and longer retention just mean my broadband connection get hammered more, giving the ISPs more reason and justification for limiting & throttling my download speed.