August 17, 2004
Remaining Dependently Independent
Remaining Dependently Independent
India's IT Minister calls patriotic Indians to switch to .IN mail domains, but the path to salvation is very rocky. Also, ePrompter update, Trillian 3 Beta registration, avoiding Bagle.AC, Maxthon musings, and more...
As India celebrated it 57th Independence Day, the morning (news) papers were full of how far we've come. Mr Dayanidhi Maran, Minister of Information Technology hopes all e-nabled Indians will substitute their .com or .net email IDs with a (patriotic?) .in domain.
I decided to see how to get this blog registered with such a domain. But Oyveh! More problems than solutions, Mr Maran! The sole registrar for the .IN domain is the Government of India's National Informatics Center who have a remarkably obtuse (for the 21st Century) web site. You go in circles to locate the relevant information with almost every link opening in a new window. Soon I had a clutter of separate tabs littering my Maxthon browser window.
Well, amidst all the wordiness I found that .IN hosts need to be "registered with NCST (National Center for Software Technology) and the site must be hosted on (an) NIC server." Although .IN domain is (technically) restricted to ISPs, there's IND.IN for individuals. Domain registration costs Rs 1500 (approx $33) for 2 years or Rs 1000 (approx. $20) for 1 year and Rs 750 (approx $16) for annual renewal. However, individuals need to suffix at least 2 numerals to their required domain name.
I'm not sure if I want be "01freeloader.ind.in" and prefer "freeloader.ind.in" which is simpler for visitors to remember. To register there's a very detailed form that requires not just your organization name??? But the application needs to be submitted on letterhead. And in this e-nabled age, payment is still limited to demand drafts!
I think for now I'll retain my free sub-domain until NCST decides that it'll emulate other domain registrars and offer an online payment option too.
So (sadly) putting my waning patriotic fervor aside, I decided to review whats new on the Internet software front. First up is another Beta update for ePrompter 2.0 SR1 Beta 12 (EPX 1.0.50.0). This updated release checks mail on AOL, AltaVista, Earthlink, Email.com, Hotmail, Juno, Lycos, Mail.com, Mindspring, MSN, Netscape, POP3, Rediffmail, USA, Yahoo, ZDNetOneBox. As well other POP3/IMAP-enabled email domains. However it's (still) lacking Google Mail (GMail) support.
There early hints that a new Trillian 3 release is somewhere around the corner. The developers are inviting Beta testers. But there's no guarantees your request will be accepted. However if as a Trillian Basic (free) user you've envied Trillian Pro users, Release 3 might just allow you to test the software before deciding to buy it.
Meanwhile the Cerulean Studios forums are replete with feature wish lists. What I would like most importantly would be uninterrupted sign-ons to instant messaging (IM) services like Yahoo (which is very unstable with Trillian). An ability to login to multiple identities on the same service. And defining an MSN-like public handle (name) for Yahoo and AOL that still don't support this feature.
Meanwhile my top file download software, FreeDownloadManager has been updated to v1.0. The changes are essentially a collection of bug-fixes. Including resolving the FDM plug-in for Opera and Firefox that caused both browsers to crash.
On the anti-spyware front there's Ad-Aware SE Personal 1.03 that's free for individual use. This stripped-down version of Ad-Aware 6 Pro/Plus is a lot faster than the full version. But speed comes at a cost as the Ad-Watch utility is unavailable. Nor can you customize the startup scan settings. But you can change the program's look using add-on skins. There's the default light blue, a rather bilious golden yellow, a gray and a deep blue.
There's also a new Maxthon 1.0.0220 Beta available. Besides the usual bug fixes, this version improves and enhances pop-up blocking to also detect and disable floating ads. You can now also remove plugins. Or choose to load a specific plugin only after a web page has been fully rendered.
The first time you run Maxthon, you can select your operating mode: Simple (like MSIE), Advanced (MyIE2) and Feature-Rich. Or customize specific feature load options. If you have a yen for command-line type configuration changes, Maxthon's recently introduced an editable XML configuration file. Use the free Microsoft XML Notepad; a free simple XML editor. More details and a download link are available here.
When you upgrade to Maxthon x.220 from MyIE2 or a previous Maxthon Beta, don't install the new version over the previous one. Instead after backing up your configuration files, plugins and skins, uninstall the older build first. Otherwise you can look forward to instability and accelerating resource use.
If you are into DVDs and region-based restrictions bug you major, do checkout DVD43. This integrates into Windows to override CSS copy-protection. DVD43 1.4 is the free version, although there's a newer pay-to-use build too. And if you want a good DVD ripper, checkout the free DVD Decrypter.
I spent most of this morning using this software to convert a region-specific instructional video to one that's compatible with my DVD player. DVD Decrypter includes a DVD burner utility so you can rip and copy content on-th-fly. And if you have space limitations, you can also configure each ripped chapter and cell to be restricted to a specific file size. Like 650 MB so the DVD contents will fit onto multiple CD-Rs. The software's still free. So get a copy while you can.
And finally, stay alert for another nasty: Bagle.AC. This memory-resident, mass-mailing Bagle worm variant uses a Trojan downloader with an HTML script to propagate. Using its own SMTP engine, the worm sends email with a spoofed sender's name and message with a .ZIP file attachment. The worm attempts to replicate via network shares, and also targets registry entries and mutexes associated with its rival NETSKY worm. The safest way to avoid it is not open an email attachments without first reading the message body. And if you must view the attachment save it to a disk folder and scan it first with the free Stinger scanner.
That's it for this week. Stay Safe!
Click Here to Email Me
The first time you run Maxthon, you can select your operating mode: Simple (like MSIE), Advanced (MyIE2) and Feature-Rich. Or customize specific feature load options. If you have a yen for command-line type configuration changes, Maxthon's recently introduced an editable XML configuration file. Use the free Microsoft XML Notepad; a free simple XML editor. More details and a download link are available here.
When you upgrade to Maxthon x.220 from MyIE2 or a previous Maxthon Beta, don't install the new version over the previous one. Instead after backing up your configuration files, plugins and skins, uninstall the older build first. Otherwise you can look forward to instability and accelerating resource use.
If you are into DVDs and region-based restrictions bug you major, do checkout DVD43. This integrates into Windows to override CSS copy-protection. DVD43 1.4 is the free version, although there's a newer pay-to-use build too. And if you want a good DVD ripper, checkout the free DVD Decrypter.
I spent most of this morning using this software to convert a region-specific instructional video to one that's compatible with my DVD player. DVD Decrypter includes a DVD burner utility so you can rip and copy content on-th-fly. And if you have space limitations, you can also configure each ripped chapter and cell to be restricted to a specific file size. Like 650 MB so the DVD contents will fit onto multiple CD-Rs. The software's still free. So get a copy while you can.
And finally, stay alert for another nasty: Bagle.AC. This memory-resident, mass-mailing Bagle worm variant uses a Trojan downloader with an HTML script to propagate. Using its own SMTP engine, the worm sends email with a spoofed sender's name and message with a .ZIP file attachment. The worm attempts to replicate via network shares, and also targets registry entries and mutexes associated with its rival NETSKY worm. The safest way to avoid it is not open an email attachments without first reading the message body. And if you must view the attachment save it to a disk folder and scan it first with the free Stinger scanner.
That's it for this week. Stay Safe!
Click Here to Email Me
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