When you do a full scan with Security Essentials, it'll get through the majority of the scan (maybe 75-80%) and then just stop on one file for minutes at a time. I was baffled by this for the longest time, but I just discovered today what's really going on.
As a user of Security Essentials, you're automatically a "member" of Microsoft SpyNet, which is Microsoft's Googlesque program for collecting file and system information for purposes of malware prevention. Essentially, it's collecting as much information as possible about the programs and possible malware you have on your computer so it can create a better antivirus product. That sounds reasonable; you get to use Security Essentials for free while they get some non-vital information about your computer and its files.
However, this requires a fair amount of bandwidth to send all this information...and this is what causes it to freeze. If you don't have a great internet connection, you're definitely going to experience the slowdown. The next time it freezes during a scan, turn off your internet connection and watch the scan resume almost instantaneously.
For information on what information Security Essentials collects, see the privacy agreement.
6.25.2010
How to remove the Autodesk educational product watermark/plot stamp (AutoCAD, Inventor, etc.)
Disclaimer: The information in this blog post is for educational purposes only. If you decide to break any product's EULA (End User License Agreement), which you will be doing if you follow this guide and don't have a proper license of the product, it is your own choice and you are solely responsible/liable, not myself or anyone else.
Using an Autodesk educational product marks each drawing file so that when you go to print, you see a "Produced by an Autodesk Educational Product" or "For Educational Use Only" watermark in the margins of the plot. This is a bad joke...even blood-sucking Microsoft doesn't put any restrictions on the free educational software they distribute.
If you're using AutoCAD and happen to have a normal (non-educational) copy handy, you can just export the drawing as a .dxf (using the DXFOUT command), import the .dxf (using the DXFIN command), and save it as a .dwg. Alternatively, you can create a new drawing, insert the educational drawing as an xref, bind it, and explode the resulting block. Both of these methods will remove the watermark forever. However, they only work if you have a non-educational version of AutoCAD and obviously won't work for Inventor.
Most effective and universal method:
Since this educational infection only affects plots...
1. Plot the drawing as a PDF file using either the built-in PDF driver or a third party PDF printer (I like PDFill).
2. Edit the PDF file using a free tool like PDF-XChange Viewer and put white rectangles over top of the watermarks, effectively erasing them (or just delete the text itself if you have access to software that can truly edit the PDF).
3. Plot the PDF file.
It's a hassle, but it's the only way when all you have handy is an educational version.
Using an Autodesk educational product marks each drawing file so that when you go to print, you see a "Produced by an Autodesk Educational Product" or "For Educational Use Only" watermark in the margins of the plot. This is a bad joke...even blood-sucking Microsoft doesn't put any restrictions on the free educational software they distribute.
If you're using AutoCAD and happen to have a normal (non-educational) copy handy, you can just export the drawing as a .dxf (using the DXFOUT command), import the .dxf (using the DXFIN command), and save it as a .dwg. Alternatively, you can create a new drawing, insert the educational drawing as an xref, bind it, and explode the resulting block. Both of these methods will remove the watermark forever. However, they only work if you have a non-educational version of AutoCAD and obviously won't work for Inventor.
Most effective and universal method:
Since this educational infection only affects plots...
1. Plot the drawing as a PDF file using either the built-in PDF driver or a third party PDF printer (I like PDFill).
2. Edit the PDF file using a free tool like PDF-XChange Viewer and put white rectangles over top of the watermarks, effectively erasing them (or just delete the text itself if you have access to software that can truly edit the PDF).
3. Plot the PDF file.
It's a hassle, but it's the only way when all you have handy is an educational version.
6.24.2010
VLC media player can play video game music!
EDIT: As of version 1.1.5, VLC definitely supports video game music. GME support is now included by default in the Windows binaries.
I was thinking about writing a video game music plugin for VLC this Summer using the Game_Music_Emu (a.k.a. libgme) library. Libgme decodes pretty much all video game music formats (AY, GBS, GYM, HES, KSS, NSF/NSFE, SAP, SPC, and VGM/VGZ), so it's a perfect candidate. I did a quick search and found this and only this: http://www.videolan.org/.../gme_8cpp.html. There's also a corresponding --enable-gme switch in the configure script, but other than that there's no evidence that VLC plays video game music at all. So it appears that someone else has already written such a plugin and that VLC can play video game music if compiled properly.
I was able to compile the latest VLC source code (the new and improved 1.1.0), but could not get the gme plugin to work. There's an additional configure switch --with-gme-tree= that expects a path to a compiled libgme.a (required). The libgme from Ubuntu repositories (sudo apt-get install libgme-dev) provides the shared object libgme.so. Compiling libgme from scratch also provides libgme.so. VLC will not accept this so I'm at a standstill.
If you are trying to compile VLC 1.1.0 on Ubuntu, I can at least tell you this much:
1. Remove all traces of previous versions. If you still have previous versions installed when you go to run the newly compiled VLC, you will get an error preventing it from running.
sudo apt-get purge vlc
sudo apt-get autoremove
2. Install dependencies:
sudo apt-get build-dep vlc
sudo apt-get install libxcb* libx11-xcb lua5.1
3. Download and compile.
wget http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/vlc/1.1.0/vlc-1.1.0.tar.bz2
tar -xjf vlc-1.1.0.tar.bz2
cd vlc-1.1.0
./configure
make
sudo make install
I was not able to get the Lua part to work so you can use the --disable-lua switch if needed.
Forum post, for reference: http://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=78168
Please reply if you know how to compile VLC with gme support!! I really hope I can get it working so I can stop using crappy Audacious once and for all.
I was thinking about writing a video game music plugin for VLC this Summer using the Game_Music_Emu (a.k.a. libgme) library. Libgme decodes pretty much all video game music formats (AY, GBS, GYM, HES, KSS, NSF/NSFE, SAP, SPC, and VGM/VGZ), so it's a perfect candidate. I did a quick search and found this and only this: http://www.videolan.org/.../gme_8cpp.html. There's also a corresponding --enable-gme switch in the configure script, but other than that there's no evidence that VLC plays video game music at all. So it appears that someone else has already written such a plugin and that VLC can play video game music if compiled properly.
I was able to compile the latest VLC source code (the new and improved 1.1.0), but could not get the gme plugin to work. There's an additional configure switch --with-gme-tree= that expects a path to a compiled libgme.a (required). The libgme from Ubuntu repositories (sudo apt-get install libgme-dev) provides the shared object libgme.so. Compiling libgme from scratch also provides libgme.so. VLC will not accept this so I'm at a standstill.
If you are trying to compile VLC 1.1.0 on Ubuntu, I can at least tell you this much:
1. Remove all traces of previous versions. If you still have previous versions installed when you go to run the newly compiled VLC, you will get an error preventing it from running.
sudo apt-get purge vlc
sudo apt-get autoremove
2. Install dependencies:
sudo apt-get build-dep vlc
sudo apt-get install libxcb* libx11-xcb lua5.1
3. Download and compile.
wget http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/vlc/1.1.0/vlc-1.1.0.tar.bz2
tar -xjf vlc-1.1.0.tar.bz2
cd vlc-1.1.0
./configure
make
sudo make install
I was not able to get the Lua part to work so you can use the --disable-lua switch if needed.
Forum post, for reference: http://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=78168
Please reply if you know how to compile VLC with gme support!! I really hope I can get it working so I can stop using crappy Audacious once and for all.
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