These are my links for August 4th through August 14th:

• PresetsHeaven –
• Squidoo –
• AppGraphix.com – iPhone/ iPod Touch/ iPad App Icon, Tab Bar Icon, Logo Design
• 1dl.us – all-in-one webtool
• Google Wave RIP – birth to death in what, 2 months? Only the Microsoft Kin can beat that!

I am getting so sick of this thorn-in-the-side, supposed copy-protection program. I really really wish software producers would not be so lazy about copy protection and find a better way rather than schluffing it off to this inept third party program.

In the last few months I have had troubles with Command and Conquer 3 in that you can’t use a Microsoft application called Process Explorer at any time before running it. If you HAVE, it will give you an error when trying to start the game, until you reboot. There is no other way to clear the error except to reboot, and not run the legitimate Microsoft application again.

I would think Microsoft would be pissed off about this. I am pissed off enough for the both of us. I hate having to reboot, especially for this arbitrariness.

This isn’t the only error, I get random other ones from Securom all the time. Either balking at other system utilities I run, or about virtual drives, or network drives, or wearing yellow feathers in a purple cap while dancing a jig.

Now I try to play the demo of Overlord, and I get the same damn message.

Googling Securom and Process Explorer shows that they’ve pissed off thousands of other people.

Please, game producers, I hate to break it to ya, but your games and apps are being copied and played despite Securom. The only thing this program does is piss off people that actually legitimately pay for these games. Even before you release your precious software, the net floods with replacement executables which are stripped of any copy protection you so diligently paid for. Oh, how do I know, you say? Because I have to use these stripped executables TO BE ABLE TO PLAY THE DAMN GAME I PAID FOR WITHOUT JUMPING THROUGH FRICKIN HOOPS!

update: While searching a bit more, I found out that a dutiful member of the Sysinternals forum (the software group that originally made Process Explorer and were bought out by Microsoft) whipped a “hider” program for Process Explorer’s services. I’ll admit I was surprised Process Explorer left a residual driver after running, which is what is detected by Securom. This worked perfectly with the Overlord demo. Thanks, throx!

Slipping under the radar last week, the venerable freeware image viewer IrfanView has come out with version number 4.00.

Ever since ACDSee jumped the shark and became a bloated spyware-laden clunky mess, I have been using this gem. It’s been many years and not so many updates, but IrfanView always worked well for me. Especially for organization (for which I lack the genes), it performs marvelously.

The new version seems to address some Vista compatibility, along with some feature tweaks and minor bug fixes. Honestly, I think I was using version 2.98 before this, so it can’t have been that buggy for me to use one version for so long.

Don’t forget to download the plugin pack right along with it. It isn’t necessary, but most of the plugins are super handy.