eMusings

I suppose most readers have at least 1 GB (if not more) RAM installed. And would really find a quick-responding RAM disk a real boon. You can use the disk to store volatile information like your browser’s temporary files. I use it as a temporary download store because if any of the files are infected by a virus it takes just one reboot to erase the disk’s contents. I also use a shared RAM disk at work to exchange files with colleagues. Without the hassle of setting up individually shared folders.

So far I was using the QSoft RAM disk free edition which is based on a Microsoft VisualBasic proof-of-concept. The QSoft free version installs as a Windows device driver (Windows 2000 onwards). But is limited to a maximum size of 64 MB. Regardless of the system RAM installed on your computer. Even the RAM disk format is limited to FAT16.

It has been over 3 years since I downloaded the original driver. And a search while preparing this post found the shareware version has been enhanced considerably. But the freeware version is no longer available (the URL points to a non-existent link). Oddly enough my search for the URL also turned up a QSoft RAM disk Enterprise v5 3 1 5 Win2kXP2k3 torrent for

With a new computer running Windows Vista and with 2 GB RAM, I decided I could do with a RAM Disk upgrade. But the FAT16 was disappointing. And then a stroke of luck. I learned about another wholly free Windows Vista-compatible RAM Disk driver from Gavotte complete with a configuration GUI. The new driver supports FAT16 through NTFS drive formatting. And has no real limitations on RAM disk size. Which is calculated at 64 MB of RAM disk per 256 MB of system RAM installed. The upper RAM Disk install limit is 3 GB (which assumes you have 12+ GB of system RAM). Pretty extreme for most personal computers and work stations. Even the diehard gamers I know rarely have more than 8 GB installed.

After you download and extract the RAM disk files. The click on ramdisk.exe to install the disk driver (Vista users should right click the EXE and choose ‘Run as Administrator’). Once the SYS driver has installed, you can configure RAM disk parameters including drive size, drive letter (default = R) and media type: RAM Drive, Fixed Media (default) or Removable Media (simulates a floppy).

The GUI lets you uninstall (aka remove) a RAM disk. But you can also load an image file into RAM either after starting or on boot up through an autoexec.bat argument. More configuration choices including registry editing are available online.

There are also browser enhancements happening. I have almost completely discarded Maxthon as the wrapper is showing its age. IE7 pure is actually faster at rendering web pages than Maxthon 1.6.x. And unfortunately the rebuilt Maxthon 2 is exceedingly buggy. As someone who believed in this browser (sorry Blood Chen) the delivered form is most disappointing.

In comparison I don’t really expect that much of TheWorld. But it does what is has to do and is much safer to use that the standard IE7. Somewhere between my first sighting (version 1.5.x in July). And the current 2.0.6.1, the developers added a multi-threaded (up to 10 streams) download manager. In the latest TheWorld 2.0.6.1 version, the download manager now supports Metalinks. The ad filtering too has improved. As has Vista integration and Sun Java virtual machine compatibility. And even as the developers are correcting the more obvious language errors in the interface. TheWorld forums still remain (rather inexplicably) limited to Chinese.

The new Opera 9.5 Beta with the Kestrel rendering engine is awesome. I’m still testing it out. But in the meantime make sure to download a copy. On average this Beta is updated weekly. Check the Opera Desktop Team blog for details of changes plus download links for Windows, Mac and Linux.

And Firefox 3 (Gran Paradiso) Alpha is definitely worth a look too. But instead of downloading and installing a Beta. Do instead use the Portable Firefox 3 setup. With an integrated updater script. That is less messy and more accurate than the traditional update method.

That’s it for now. Happy browsing. And Stay Safe!

If we’re gonna start playing the Blame Game folks regarding zero updates to this blog since July 2007. Then you gotta understand that running your company is a lot tougher than you would have thought

All those responsibilities sure age a cat faster than Tom ‘n Jerry toons would have us believe! After dealing with clients who (because of the email/text-chat only medium?) seem less receptive to ideas than I thought previously. And often some really thick developers. I now understand why Bill Gates visions for Windows never seem part of the delivered product.

All this text is attempting top justify why the very last thing I wanna do when I get home is get (again) on the Net. Download cool software. And review it. Actually parts I and II are easy. It’s Part III that needs the mental focus so lacking in the late evening. “So how was your day, honey?” pipes the wife. And all she gets is a vacant-eyed drooler looking back :p

After owning multiple USB sticks, I’ve discovered a keen interest in portable software. Although I actually use these portable apps more often on the Windows desktop than on my sticks. This growing fascination with portable apps is because its so easy to back ‘em up. Or migrate them between multiple computers. Without any of the usual Windows install-tweak-backup settings-uninstall jazz!

Almost all the apps I use like the Firefox browser to surf the web. Thunderbird email client to check and send mail. FileZilla FTP client to transfer files to and from remote computers. WinSCP for secure file management between remote servers and my desktop file. And even the Q10 text editor (with speller) I’m composing this column in. Are available as portable apps.

The best place for free portable software applications. Including a launcher for your memory stick. Is the Portable Apps web site. If you have the bandwidth and want a pre-packaged Portable Apps Suite that includes a web browser, email client, office suite, calendar/scheduler, instant messaging client, antivirus, sudoku game, backup utility and integrated menu, all pre-configured to work portably. Just drop it on your portable device and you’re ready to go.

Wikipedia too has a really informative page all about portable applications along with a list of portable applications (bit out of date). And here are links to 100 (free) potable applications.

If you don’t mind a little Walk on the Wilder Side of the Internet, there are torrents aplenty offering popular commercial software converted into portable format. I found a WinAmp portable with a burn to CD option. As well as Adobe Photoshop CS3 Portable, Adobe Dreamweaver CS3 Portable. And even Microsoft Office 7 AI (all-in-one) Portable. The Thinstall application virtualization software launcher used to prepare these builds takes an activated desktop version complete with serial number and combines all its files into a single large (average >275 MB) file.

Pendrive offers links to Portable Opera, Komposer (a free Front Page alternate web editor) and uTorrent among other apps. Although I fail to see why uTorrent needs to be portable-ized tiny as it is!

Q10 is a free full-screen text editor. That’s available in a portable version complete with spell checker. And strangely isn’t included on the various portable app sites. Q10′s interface is minimalistic in the extreme. And reminds me of ye olde Norton Editor. packaged as single executable, all you have to do is launch it and start writing.

Of course there are some key differences. NE wasn’t sound-enabled. As you type in Q10 there’s a sound of a typewriter keys. And Enter generates a para return noise. Although there’s no end of line bell sound. Having transitioned directly from manual typewriters to PC-based word processors, I am clue less on how electronic word-processors sounded.

But don’t take my word for it. Get a copy for yourself today. The full screen can seem disconcerting at first. And the feature set isn’t as complete as Notepad++ or my favorite NoteTab Pro. But its a pretty good tool for the price. Or rather lack of one And after using it I hope you will appreciate my painstaking approach to this blog post: all URLs in this post were added one character at a time. Click the following link for more on Q10 (version 1.2.21 with speller) capabilities plus download links.

That’s it for now. More (possibly if you keep your fingers crossed) later. Stay Safe ‘n Secure.

Regular readers of this column are aware of Maxthon. An incomparable (or so I though) Internet Explorer browser wrapper. Yes, I’m aware that fans of the competitive AvantBrowser exist. But somehow I have never liked AvantBrowser. Always considering it a very poor upgrade of the original MyIE wrapper code.

The Maxthon 2 Beta release in 2006 began well. But as with many other collaborative efforts seemed to include just about every feature you need in a web browser and then some. A rich-feature set is great. But the fastest way to erode user base is by developing a resource hog. Then my limiting the more useful features to paying customers. I’m aware of the difficulties trading browser reach for revenue. But with Microsoft, the Mozilla Foundation, Opera, and more recently Apple, in the race. The day of the paid browser is over. Especially since the big three (or was that four) between them make for a great browsing experience.

Take this columnist as an example. I used to be a die-hard MyIE and later Maxthon fan because they extended Internet Explorer in ways Microsoft (then) pooh-poohed. Opera was cool, but not quite (then and now) a contender as there are many web sites developed only for Internet Explorer. These may, in a pinch, work with Firefox. And possibly even the standards compliant Safari 3. But often have menus and navigation aids incompatible with Opera’s rendering engine.

And then arrived Internet Explorer 7 with pop-up blocking, a tabbed interface, better security features, an optimized rendering engine and wonders of wonders improved resource use. Informal tests viewing the same URLs with IE7 and Maxthon 2 (in separate sessions) revealed that IE7 used 17-20% less system resources; especially when minimized. And so from Maxthon I switched allegiances back to IE7. And continued to use FireFox chiefly because of its Scrapbook page content organizer (the IE7 plug-in IE7Pro captures pages as images which isn’t as usable). Opera soldiers on with its great cache handling that seems to speed up my Rasterwerks Phosphor game playing.

And then a few weeks ago I chanced upon TheWorld. This free browser wrapper for Windows (Windows 98/ME/2000/XP/2003/Vista) originating from China, claims to be only the second browser to support IE7-style threaded browsing. So I put it to a little test by opening exactly the same URLs in both browsers after flushing each’s cache. And checking the resource use. IE7 clocked in at 71.74 MB (maximized) and 6.05 MB minimized. TheWorld at 44.90 MB and 4.91 MB respectively did better. But with a cheat: TheWorld minimizes to the System Tray. Internet Explorer 7 requires a third-party software like TrayIt. After installing the latter, IE7′s minimum resource use dropped to 2.08 MB!

This apart, TheWorld 2 (version 2.0.4.9) is quite feature-rich. And includes almost every Maxthon feature and then some. It sure scores over the competition with its integrated download manager supporting resume. So unlike downloading software with IE7 that requires two clicks and one page refresh. Masochists can, optionally of course, select either Internet Explorer 7′s download manager with all its accompanying hoopla. Or use a 3rd-party download manager of their choice.

TheWorld supposedly supports Maxthon add-ins. But I was unable to test this out. Alternatively you can download TheWorld-specific plugins. The two plugins are found most useful were SysState that in the status bar displays site ping speed, network bandwidth, site IP, available Windows memory and CPU load. The second SiteInfo adds the site’s Google PageRank to the status bar. There are also skins.

I expect as the word spreads about TheWorld, it will become easier to mix ‘n match add-ins. Proof is in the pudding, because from a Chinese-only forum, a new sparely populated English forum has sprouted on the developer’s site.

Of course some IE7 features like QuickTabs that display thumbnails of open sites isn’t well implemented in TheWorld. Here the TabList uses the same icon but lists only the page titles! To learn more about what TheWorld2 supports, do read TheWorld Browser Update Log. Take my word that this is a great software. And download TheWorld2 for yourself.

That’s for this week. More the next time I post. Stay Safe!

Hey you! Apple Safari 3 for Windows is the new browser in town. Safari is upgraded with enhanced Windows-specific features and complete web standards compliance. Making it only the third browser (after Opera 9.20 and Mozilla Firefox Gran Paradiso (aka Firefox 3) Beta) to render the Acid 2 test flawlessly. Overall Safari 3 for Windows really impresses me. This in spite of the obvious (and odious?) comparisons with Mozilla Firefox.

You have to remember that Safari 3 Beta for Windows is constantly evolving. As I discovered while putting the finishing touches to this review. So the version tested (Safari 3.0.2) will probably be updated by several consecutive releases by the time you read this review.

Compatibility-wise Safari 3 for Windows runs fine on Windows XP SP2 (32- and 64-bit versions). And on Vista Home and Business Premium editions. But fails outright on Windows Server SP1 with consistent memory address read errors! This despite swapping out the 2 GB DDR1 RAM with another piece from a different batch.

Safari 3 Beta for Windows was released on 6/11/07 and within hours browser exploitation hacks were discovered. Apple released an updated version 3 days later on 6/14/07. Luckily I run Windows XP English, and haven’t had to experience the instability that XP Multi language users seem to experience. But I still managed to crash Safari several times. The first when visiting a secure (https) site and attempting to print the screen contents to PDF Creator. The second (no, I didn’t learn my lesson) was direct to the printer. The third and most recent was attempting to download a Safari for Windows plugin. Oddly during each crash, Safari continued to work in the background even I couldn’t get rid of the annoying, on-screen debug or exit dialog box or open new tabs.

The browser defaults to a cool brushed metal surface that I find soothing. Even as other commentators feel its dated in this ear of Vista’s liquid Aero interface). Since user attention remains focused on the page viewed. Instead of the browser skin. But menus are still a bit confusing for this Windows user. The developers have included the Firefox shortcuts Ctrl+T to open a new tab. But have skipped the URL suffix shortcuts.

Safari 3 also lacks Session Restore in the Firefox (good) or Internet Explorer 7 (fair) mould. Instead you either choose to save all open Tabs as a single bookmark (as in Firefox and Internet Explorer 7). Or you can view the History for previous sessions organized by date from the History menu. I think Apple slipped up on the user interface here. The History session sub-menu displays page titles for sites visited in ascending order. That’s fine if you typically browse 10 sites a session. But when browsing over 40-50 sites being presented with this huge scrolling list is unnerving. I also wish that each history link opened in a new tab instead of the active tab.

Actually this open in active tab phenomenon occurs across Safari 3 for Windows! Here I was inside my web mail account. And decided to view my bookmarks. In both Firefox and Internet Explorer, bookmarks (or Favorites) bar opens separate from the active tab. But Apple’s all-in-one interface opens everything in the active tab. Which is soo Netscape 3′ish. But the History > Page Snapback (Ctrl+Alt+P) feature redeems the browser. Letting you switch between the previous and current pages. There’s a separate menu item to mark pages for snapback too. But this setting doesn’t persist beyond the active session.

Safari is somewhat secure. When its private browsing feature’s enabled, nothing is recorded for browsing and search history, cache and downloads. Only the back and forward buttons work. But while you can remember user names and passwords, unlike Firefox there’s no Master Password. And despite a check box to enable saving names and passwords, the Edit button was grayed out. The Reset Safari option that’s similar to Firefox’s Clear Private Data will selectively clear browsing history, cache, cookies, passwords, et cetera. Pop up blocking is quite effective. I run all browsers past sex sites where there are layered pop-up and pop under advertising windows. Safari 3 for Windows did no better or worse than Firefox or Internet Explorer. The best browser for visiting such ad-centric sites remains Opera.

The version tested also didn’t display Favicons in either the active tab. Or for saved bookmarks. And because Apple delights in being contrary-wise, the tab close button is on the left instead of the right like Firefox and Internet Explorer. Too often I accidentally closed tabs when trying to grab and move their position. And no matter what I tried I couldn’t get the mouse wheel click function to work.

To open links in a new tab you have to press Ctrl while clicking a link. Or you drag a link into the tab bar area to open it in a new tab. There’s also limited menu bar customization. In this context limited is the add-in options Apple provides. And in the Beta I couldn’t remove any of the default buttons. But I could move them horizontally within the bar. And all the pop open message and setting windows are independent of the browser. So you can keep on surfing even as you customize settings. Although I wonder why I need such a feature

The inline find is cool. And goes beyond the usual highlight. An shadowed slowly blinking pop-up box appears in-page around text that best matches your search term. Other instances are highlighted in white. Overall the feature implementation is way better than the competition.

There’s RSS support built-in. But the link opens in a conventional tab or window. And Safari 2 add-ins are incompatible with this version. The sole ‘cool’ feature is a slider to change the displayed feed derails in an in-tab side bar. There’s also a download manager built in. And an Activity window so you can view page rendering status. As for the claim of Safari 3 for Windows being the fastest web browser on any platform. I can’t comment about Mac and Linux. But on Windows XP, Safari 3 performed much than Firefox (crawled), Internet Explorer 7 (timed out) and Opera (stop-start-timeout) on a slow 52 kbps dial up connection when opening the GMail home page.

I think this’ enough invitation for you to download and use Safari 3 Beta for Windows.

Stay Safe and Secure!

On March 25, 2007 I extolled the virtues of IE7Pro. This free Internet Explorer 7 extender added features like enhanced tab handling, customizable Ad & Flash blocking. Along with URL aliasing that links a case-sensitive keyword to a URL. Along with tracking opened tabs across browsing sessions. And Super Drag ‘n Drop where you click on, then drag a hyper link to open in new tab.

The version I had originally installed worked fault-free. Then I became ambitious and decided to frequently update my version with the developer’s new releases. Of of which introduced Internet Explorer 6 support. And I think that was the app’s undoing.

IE7 became very unstable. And would crash without provocation. When it felt like. And no, my tab history would vanish as well. The browser would restart with its default 1 open blank tab view only to crash a few seconds later again.

At first I put the crashing down to an improperly-tested Windows or IE7-specific update (which Microsoft seems to often release daily). But every single PC with a recently updated IE7Pro (supporting IE6 & IE7) installed was equally unstable!

So we gave this software the boot. And went back to working with the free Maxthon IE6/7 extender wrapper.

Adios! More another day