Tried Newsbin Pro again to see how it coped under Vista to get newsgroup headers and download attachments.

The first newsgroup I tried had a huge number of headers to download and would have taken too long. Subscribed to a newsgroup with fewer headers, at.binaries.rubbish.music or something similar, it downloaded headers for a while and then fell over in a wobbly heap. Restarted Newsbin Pro and as it isn’t a registered version I have to enter the NNTP server name and login details each time Newsbin is started. Repeated the test with a different newsgroup with even fewer headers which this time it did complete. Downloaded an attached file and before it had finished Newsbin fell over again. If I can get a serial number for it, and therefore all of the setup details will be saved, then I’ll give it another shot. Otherwise good riddance.

The version of Forte Agent I installed, v4.1 or around that number, was another trial version and as this appears to work I uninstalled that version and installed version 1.93 which must be about 6 years old but I have a serial number for that. It installed OK, subscribed to several newsgroups, downloaded the headers OK and then some attached music files OK.

I downloaded a lump of code awhile back that’s supposed to allow you to ‘retrieve lost passwords’. My oh my that sounds dodgy. Of course I couldn’t get it to do much without some documentation which I have just found, as its got an interface from hell with very scary titled controls. If I shuffle my fingers over the keyboard in the right way I should be able to ‘get’ passwords for all of the users of that PC and if I’m correct, anything within shooting distance of a wi-fi router. This is going to be tricky to set-up, just like getting AJAX to dynamically update a web page.

Within the software there’s another option to do something called ARP Poison Routing – APR – which allows a PC to ’see’ all data between a target and host server. To get this to work the listening PC does need both the MAC and IP addresses of both the host and target PC’s. The APR function then poisons the cache of the target by forcing a cache update, with heaven knows what, and then the path is re-routed so that the middle machine forwards traffic to and from host and target. You need the WinPcap packet sniffer bound to your NIC. This is vicious stuff.

Joke of the day

‘What do Grateful Dead fans say when the drugs run out? What’s this bloody awful music’

We have a couple of guys here pounding the heart out of QA Run to regression test some applications.

Till recently they were convinced they were doing system testing. Its taken them ages to get these scripts working but at last they do.

To manually regression test the application I have just been told takes 15 minutes which isn’t long and you would think if it can be manually regression tested so quickly then why bother spending lord knows how many weeks getting an automated test script to work. Dunno, doesn’t make much sense to me.

The automated test script also takes 2 hours to run. That’s 8 times longer than manually regression testing it. Daft. (I just hope no automatic test tool scripters read this nonsense coz they’ll hate it. Ed.)

Quote of the day

‘I am returning this otherwise good typing paper to you because someone has printed gibberish all over it and put your name at the top’ an English Professor at Ohio University

Had a go at installing iTunes 7.1.1 on Vista and it appeared to work even though the Apple site doesn’t say it’s Vista compatible.

Downloaded a podcast and played that back from beginning to end and that was OK. iTunes did a search and found some music that must have been on the PC when I bought it and added it to the library OK. Haven’t ripped a CD yet.

Downloaded the latest version of Forte Agent, which also didn’t say it was Vista compatible, and that installed OK. Pointed it at my news server, subscribed to a music newsgroup, downloaded the headers and then downloaded a single track, which played back OK. Got iTunes to import that track which it did OK and was able to play the track in iTunes.

Tried the Newsbin Pro newsgroup reader which downloaded and installed OK. Pointed that at the news server and subscribed to a couple of newsgroups. Tried to download the headers but nothing happened. Don’t know if that is a Vista induced problem, or a Newsbin problem. Its been awhile since I’ve used Newsbin and I remember it ‘worked’ in a slightly odd way, or at least that is what I thought with my twisted logic. Or it could just be a bit of my own gross incompetence that failed to get it to download the headers. May have another go at that later.

I’ve been subscribing to a lot of podcasts recently and several have been really good but a lot do sound like you are overhearing a private telephone conversation. And I’m not just talking about the sound quality. They need heavy editing but that is unlikely to happen.

Quote of the day

‘You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club’ Jack London (1876-1916)