Scribbled on January 18th, 2009
After almost a full year of using this personal project as a neat TeamSpeak addon, I decided it was about time to tidy it up a bit and release it into the world.
TeamSpeak Extra is an add-on written in Borland/CodeGear Delphi for the purpose of expanding the scope of features that TeamSpeak already has. It does that in a way that improves productivity and eliminates the needless hassle for frequent TeamSpeak users, and Administrators as well (such as myself) when public behavior needs to be moderated.
If anybody is interested, head on to ts.burex.net and grab a copy.
Scribbled on January 12th, 2009
It seems like yesterday when I was staring at some weird Alpha Longhorn XP-lookalike 
screenshots before Vista shipped, and now I'm trying out Windows 7, Microsoft's newest OS that was supposed to be called Blackcomb. Time does fly, especially in the IT world.
Before I write a few lines of my own, I would like to write some about other people's piece of minds. The first comments I heard about Windows 7 were about it being way better than Windows Vista. Fair enough, but the overall look and the low-end system base are practically the same as Vista's, only slightly modified. Why all the love all of a sudden? Once again, this behavior attributes to the typical SP1 or Windows 1.2 craze that mandates that no Microsoft product is perfect before the first service pack or the next minor version is released. I would like to quote Paul Thurrot on this one (interpreted, since I heard this on his podcast):
Windows 7 is basically Vista 1.3, and I don't know what's all this about the sudden change of heart.
Now, even though Windows 7 is just a simple upgrade, it does boast some very neat features that I really dig. Native biometric device support, better Bluetooth support, the new taskbar (although it can be improved), taskbar context menus, ribbon interfaces, 
better connectivity, UAC that actually does it's job without nagging (hell yeah, finally!), faster boot times, Libraries, new and redesigned control panel items, better theme support, automated wallpaper shuffling, Windows Action Center, better gaming integration, Aero Peek, more intuitive device managing through "Devices And Printers", Gadgets that don't need to be placed on a sidebar, recovery disk support (finally...), improved Paint 
, new Windows Media Center, automated window maximizing/resizing, and etc. etc. There's really much more than this list, but these are the first ones that caught my eye. One more thing though... Windows Explorer is WAY more fast and MUCH more responsive! I haven't experienced any lagging or lockups at all, it's just that good! Kudos, Microsoft!
What I do hate about Windows 7 is fortunately small enough to fit on a list... The OOBE
(out of the box) experience is still very yucky (seriously, if someone cashes out >200$ for a version of Windows, you'd better give them a more friendlier welcome than the dull and boring Welcome Center!), there are still some Control Panel applets that open in separate window dialogs (WHY!?), the taskbar can't be set to always allow grouping and display window titles at the same time (again... why!?), and I still think that Aero is not used enough for graphic effects that could enhance the overall user experience (no, I'm not talking about the retarded Compiz Fusion Linux youtube videos where windows randomly stretch and fly around, but the usual stuff - non agressive, yet pleasant, user friendly and non time consuming animations). No crashes or problems so far, so the list ends here. Sure, further improvements could find their spot in this new version, but like I (and many more others) have already said, this is Windows Vista 1.3.
If you want to see some screenshots of Windows 7, take a peek in my gallery.
Also, if you want to try this baby out yourself, here are the download links and links where you can get your very own Windows 7 beta key:
32bit Windows 7 ISO
64bit Windows 7 ISO
Windows 7 beta 1 download page (scroll down, and select your version and language)
DON'T just click on the first two links, since you'll most probably get an error! Google Chrome reported that "the file is too big" when trying to access the first two URLs... in a hidden message! (what the hell?) Anyway, just paste the URL in your favorite download manager, such as FlashGet, and off you go!
Scribbled on January 1st, 2009
Well, now that you only have 2 years left to live, I would like to grasp this rare opportunity to wish you all a Happy New Year! Just think of all the things that can kill you in 2009.! If you are still getting ideas that you will survive, there’s always the global financial crisis that will make you sell your internal organs for bandwidth, or that 5 eyed monster hiding in your closet (you know the one I’m talking about)…
Enough emo thougts… Enjoy your alcoholic beverages and leftover Christmas candy before the holidays come to an end, I know I will!
Scribbled on January 1st, 2009
Yeah, you did. In fact, it is pretty nice to have a scapegoat for every crappy mistake you make. I know it would be easy to have an object to blame for everything from diarrhea to global warming and avoid the truth or responsibility, but it appears that something like that already exists, and it’s not George Bush, it’s Windows Vista.
Who started the rumor? Don’t know – don’t care. Who is afraid of the new interface and animated Windows? Pretty much everybody. Who gets on my nerves? People who actually believe everything they hear from a “I couldn’t install Vista on my 10 year old hardware because of lack of manufacturer support, so it must suck” Microsoft conspiracy theoretic…
The following comic (yes, I drew a comic) is actually a true story that happened about a week or two ago. It fails so hard, that I couldn’t describe it in words.
In case anybody is wondering if the second character of this story was really serious, let me break it to you now… he’s DEAD SERIOUS. In fact, he was so pissed that he lost all his personal pics and porn from his overheating & malfunctioning 80GB Maxtor piece of crap, that he actually SMASHED his Vista DVD out of rage, thinking it was to blame!
If you are interested, here is another list you can use to blame stuff on:
Global Warming, The Jews, the failing economy, Sarah Palin, communism, a jammed elevator, a bad yoghurt bottle, your mom, Mondays, those meddling kids, MegaMan…
Scribbled on December 28th, 2008
Just noticed that my laptop CPU fan is turning on way too often, and the CPU usage is never below 30% (which is a lot, especially if running on a mobile machine). The culprit is “audiodg.exe” – a Windows native process in charge for sound in Windows. Killing it is no option, since it will also kill any sound output/input as well.
The most common cause of this benign process becoming a CPU slurper is “Audio enhancements”. In the Sound module (inside Control Panel), there should be a checkbox to “Disable all audio enhancements” for Sound output devices (such as “bass boost” or
similar) and Sound input devices (such as microphone echo cancellation)… Check those boxes and confirm with OK, and the CPU usage should drop dramatically.
Although some enhancements do work properly, they are surely not designed with any humble thoughts on CPU cycle usage. It’s a shame, really. One thing though: “Microphone boost” is not officially an audio enhancement and does not cause these kinds of problems. (Which is very fortunate, since the default microphone amplifying level is pathetic)
Scribbled on December 24th, 2008
Tis' Christmas eve y'all! No snow around here, but the usual atmosphere is kicking in... The state wide TV stations aren't broadcasting anything interesting since they're clamped on the orthodox calendar, and according to it, Christmas is somewhere in January... The neighboring predominantly catholic country of Croatia *is* in the Christmas spirit, but for some reason, I just can't watch 40 oltar boys singing about "thy Lord" over and over again. So that settles the public entertainment factor for this season...
This year's official xmas eve dinner made me get sleepy at 8PM, which is pathetic, at least for the guy who usually goes to bed at 4-5AM, so I'll hold up at least for an hour or so until I crash like a drunk chipmunk...
To make this semi-sleepy post at least a little bit entertaining, here's a LightScribe DVD I made with my new laptop:
Ba da bum - tiss... Yes, it’s the man - himself. If you speak his name, you won’t be getting your Christmas presents tomorrow…
Scribbled on December 16th, 2008
While doing some research about the currently active root nameservers on the Internet, the obvious end-of-the-world question popped up - "What if they went offline?" - the answer is even more obvious - panic, loss of monetary funds, inability to lurk Facebook profiles, etc. would quickly arise, thus setting a short timed ultimatum for the people in charge... What to do?
The servers themselves can rarely die all at once, since they are distributed across the world while redundancy is maintained, also they are running only BIND (or NSD), so the only attack on these kinds of data centers would only be possible through a DDoS method. A tiny number of these kinds of attacks has been registered, but a few of them were powerful enough to knock a significant count of these servers...
What I knew: These servers are serious business. They are hosted on only the finest and in most protected environments available. A few of them are maintained by the US military and the US Defense Information Systems Agency, so an attack attempt on any of them would be a pretty good reason to declare insanity on the offending party. If any attack should take place, the country of origin will do anything in their power to apprehend the attacker and neutralize him.
What I found out: According to Mark Hall (some guy from the US Defense Department), not only will the US retaliate when any of these attacks are initiated, but is fully prepared to physically remove the threat if the attacking country refuses to cooperate, and if it is impossible to produce any other peaceful disconnection procedure. We're talking real high explosive here, and I quote:
The Department of Defense is prepared, based on the authority of the president, to launch a cyber counterattack or an actual bombing of an attack source.
Wow... Well, as much as I would like to see the face on a no-life basement geek while getting his botnet DoS attack interrupted by a low-charge air to surface missile, I do hope that nobody attempts to cripple the world wide web in any way, since (fortunately) people are willing to keep it free and active, no matter what. Say what you want about US attack policies, but I would pull the trigger myself on the bastard who can even think of distinguishing the most free network on the face of the planet, and beyond.
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After almost a full year of using this personal project as a neat TeamSpeak addon, I decided it was about time to tidy it up a bit and release it into the world.
