the finger-keyboard synapse - November 2005 Archives

November 2005

Everything but nickname changing (20:09) - In case you missed the announcement or the web site news, 1.7 Beta 2 was released today. As noted previously, this version features the "Without a Trace" capability so that you can run BitWise from a removable disk and leave no trace of it on the host computer. (Without any 3rd party utilities!) Interestingly, someone on Slashdot today started a thread about the "perfect" IM client. I personally find Slashdot's message board to be impossible to use and terribly unfriendly,... | 1 Comments

Catching up on IM news after Thanksgiving (20:35) - I was reading the news that piled up over the last week or so, and found a couple of interesting articles that I wanted to share/discuss. The first article is about AOL moving their next-generation AIM (aka Triton) out of beta status. I guess what I found most interesting is that it talks about their tabbed IMs and their improved file transfer support. Well gee AOL, welcome to the club (finally!). I'm actually more interested in the level of ads...

I'm thankful for running BitWise "Without a Trace" (11:10) - First of all, Happy Thanksgiving to everyone in the United States! In honor of the American holiday, I wanted to announce something new for the next version of BitWise that we can all be thankful for. :) After reading again about some new USB drives that allow you to run programs "without a trace" on any computer, I realized it would be pretty easy to allow BitWise to work this way, without even needing to use any of these 3rd...

From the City of Constellations (20:37) - Today can be best summed up by a picture: Amarantine is not Enya's finest work (that award still goes to The Memory of Trees, at least for now), but as a whole it is one of her stronger albums. There are more above-average tracks than usual, but nothing that really stands out from her collective works. Nonetheless, I'm not complaining... Amarantine is a beautiful musical journey that will be in my daily rotation for quite some time. If you haven't...

XCP fiasco not just Sony's fault (10:44) - This flap over the XCP copy protection on certain Sony CDs has been prevalent in today's news, both in mainstream and technology-based outlets. A few BitWise users have sent various links to me the past couple of weeks, though in most cases I've been following this one pretty closely already. I haven't posted yet because I didn't really have anything new to say, and what's the point of being a broken record? However, I do have something to say now... | 1 Comments

BitWise, not BotWise (19:54) - I'm almost afraid to say this publicly, but for various reasons I need to use IM systems other than BitWise. [Dramatic pause while you recover from your shock.] You can only imagine my horror this morning when I received this message on AIM from AOLSystemMsg: "AIM added a new AIM Bots group to your Buddy List. Send IMs to moviefone and shoppingbuddy for great holiday flicks and gift ideas. (To remove 'em, just right-click and delete!)" Yes, I really want... | 2 Comments

BitWise discussed in The Mac ReviewCast Episode #29 podcast (16:48) - As far as I know, this is a first: BitWise has been discussed in an online podcast. It's not a review per se; it sounds more like someone saw the site and just talked about BitWise as it is presented on the web site. Even still, very cool! You can listen to the podcast here: http://www.macreviewcast.com/?p=74 BitWise is discussed from 11:18 to 12:07....

Toss those UDP router forwarding entries (13:48) - With BitWise 1.0.6.5, we began making BitWise easier to set up in terms of direct connections by incorporating "TCP Punching" technology that allows BitWise to make connections automatically through routers that support this technique. While it's not as widely supported as we had hoped, it will still make BitWise easier to use for a lot of people. Unfortunately, this technology doesn't do anything for UDP data, meaning that voice chat still requires manual configuration of routers and firewalls. Last night,...

We can play the version leap game too (16:13) - With the release of 1.0.6.5 today, I got to thinking... why are we stuck with these low 1.0-ish versions? Then I realized, we're not! We can use whatever darn version numbers we want. Ever since the beginning, our versions have had an extra digit beyond what most normal version schemes have. For example, our first update to 1.0 was 1.0.1, not 1.1. This was a choice made for mostly historical reasons. If you look at our version history, you'll see... | 1 Comments

New Professional "User Activity Log" (11:05) - Today we have unveiled a new feature for BitWise Professional Networks that allows Network administrators to view user activity on their BitWise Network. The log shows when users change their status, including their IP address when they first log in. The logs are archived for one full month and then deleted, but you can download the data for long-term storage. This additional service is included at no additional charge in BitWise Professional.... | 2 Comments

DRM, audio CDs, rootkits, and exposure (20:48) - Last year, I complained about DRM and not being able to rip an audio CD that I purchased for my own enjoyment. I do not share via P2P. I am not a criminal and don't appreciate being treated like one. A few months ago, I learned that you can avoid the DRM software on audio CDs by not allowing the audio CD hybrids to auto-play in Windows. Thus the DRM code is not loaded and the CD can be ripped... | 1 Comments

Thou shalt not steal my focus (17:21) - One of the few remaining bugs in BitWise that classified as "thorn in our side" has, at long last, been squished. On Windows, new windows would steal focus for a split second and then drop into the background (unless the "steal focus" preference was enable, of course). This had all sorts of nasty side effects, including dumping people out of full-screen games, closing any open window menus, randomly stealing a keypress here and there, etc. After taking what must be... | 2 Comments

FUD isn't FUD when it's true: rootkits spreading via AIM (14:09) - The other day, I was reading an eWeek article entitled Researchers Say Automated IM Worm Is Inevitable about the supposed inevitable wide-spread attack coming over one of the large public IM networks. While the large public networks have been in the news a lot recently about small-scale worms and other problems, even I was a bit skeptical, thinking that this was mostly just spreading FUD (fear, uncertainty, doubt). Today's news showed me that it wasn't FUD after all: Worm with... | 1 Comments