mike hawkins - thinking out loud

A disk defragger is, possibly, not one of the sexiest types of application - but I have long held the belief that it is of great importance - in terms of the stability and performance of my network's machines.  Enter...Perfectdisk.

For a long time DiskKeeper was the only serious player in town and I used it both on my home network, and in the business environment - it is a good product.  But having tried PerfectDisk my allegiance has shifted completely.  This product ticks all the boxes for this type of software - allowing those of us who love to play with settings to tinker, but perfect for a novice who just wants to click 'accept' to the default settings offered during installation.

Pros:
Very simple set-up, un-intrusive, low system overheads, truly set and
forget. Does a very good job of defragmentating drives and keeping them
defragged. Stable in both XP and Vista environments. Priced sensibly.
Ideal for inexperienced and pro.

Cons:
After months of using this product - I have nothing negative to say.

Summary:
PerfectDisk is a superb product. I have used defragmentation software
for many years, primarily DiskKeeper, and as an experienced user feel
able to comment. My comment would be that this is a fantastic product!
I have taken DiskKeeper's software off my small home network, and
replaced with PerfectDisk and here is why:

• Ease of set-up
• Less intrusive
• Lower overheads
• Truly set and forget
• Seemingly does a better job of defragmentation
• Stable
• Well priced

DiskKeeper is not a bad product - PerfectDisk, in my opinion, is just that bit better!

Download the software here - PerfectDisk

I subscribe to a newsletter from SecurityProNews and occasionally it throws in a little gem.  Today was one of those days.

It contained a link to a piece of software that had I had not spotted before which goes by the name of Predator.

Free, for personal use, predator is a USB key solution that locks your PC when the drive is removed.  After installation, which is quick and simple, you are prompted for a password - from this a digital key is generated and saved to the USB drive.

When Predator is running (you can choose to run at start-up, or not) the stick is necessary for the computer to be usable. If removed mid-session the screen is blanked (it now supports multiple monitors), Ctrl-Alt-Del and other keyboard and mouse activity is disabled.

Put the drive back, and the PC is ready to go immediately.  No tiresome password needed.  So why did we enter a password at install?  In the case of the key going missing - through theft or carelessness - the password enables you to regain access to the machine.  Cleverly, whilst the key is in place, the software frequently re-writes new keys to the USB drive and locally - meaning that if the stick is stolen - the key will not be valid by the time it is re-inserted by the thief.

Predator works as stated - and is, as mentioned free for personal use.

Written by Montpellier Informatique it is downloadable here - and is worth a try if you have a need for a solution of this kind.  Vista users note that it needs to be installed using Administrator privileges.

It was only a matter of time – but probably a bit sooner than Microsoft expected or wanted.  The signs have been there for a while, as Google have increasingly moved towards software development and the launch of Chrome was a clear signal.  Now it’s official – a Google OS.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/86b864c0-6b87-11de-9320-00144feabdc0.html?nclick_check=1

Nice concise guide for those who want to use Live Writer more extensively – post to other content types etc.  Works.

Step by step guide to configuring Windows Live Writer to post to Drupal | Technacular

A clear and concise piece on using the Adobe RAW importer to create an interesting effect.

RAW Creativity