vbs to exe or not to exe

This week at work I had a request to write a script that would compare two files. Each file would contain a simple list of IP addresses. The user wanted the script to compare the two files and if the IP address existed in both files then create a third file (output file) and add the common IP address to the output file.

I wrote the script in vbs (Visual Basic Script). It worked as requested but I didn’t want to give the user a vbs script and then have to give them direction on how to run the script from command line. “Go to a DOS prompt, navigate to the directory, type cscript blah blah blah…”

I then turned to google to help me find a way to turn a vbs script to an exe. I found many hits and many applications that failed upon me trying their demo version but then I ran across ScriptCryptor Compiler which is on the website www.abyssmedia.com.

I gave the demo a try and it worked perfectly. I decided to go ahead and buy the product which was $54.00. Since I paid for this out of my pocket, I was hoping it would be cheaper but then again other products I tried that didn’t work were even more expensive. I installed the product, put in my license key and then I turned my vbs into an exe (BAM!), gave it to the user and their feedback was….”it works great and that it would save them tons of time”. ScriptCryptor Compiler also converts Java scripts into exe so all in all $54.00 isn’t that bad. I think this product will see a lot more use from me going forward. Thanks Abyss Media!

ScriptCryptor Compiler

http://www.abyssmedia.com/scriptcryptor/?gclid=CNvUy6yT0ZMCFQ0Bswod72NsiQ

(Description of ScriptCryptor from their website) ScriptCryptor lets you quickly produce standalone, royalty free applications from your VBS or JS files. VBScript or JScript files will be converted into EXE files, the source of your scripts will be encrypted with Blowfish algorithm. Once converted, they cannot be modified or viewed by other users.

 

-Chris

 

Vista Tip: Windows Vista Time Travel / System Protection (Video)

How to use Windows Vista System Protection / Restore points to go back in time and recoevr your OS or your data. Presented by Keith from DGPodcast.com

Vista Tip: How to customize the Sidebar and Gadgets (Video)

This video demonstrates how to customize the Windows Vista Sidebar and Gadgets. Presented by the fine folks over at DGPodcast.com

Vista Tip: Windows Vista SP1 Install (Video)

Keith from DGPodcast.com installs Windows Vista SP1. 

Podcast: Deliciously Geeky – Episode 72 – Rant Mania

 Download: Episode 72

This week Greg, Chris, and Keith discuss spindles, disk imaging, Secunia PSI (Personal Software Inspector), Twitter, Teletwitter, Twhirl, the movies, and much much more…

Links:

NVIDIA jumps onboard Windows 7 bandwagon early

DriveImage XML Backup Software 

Partimage – More disk cloning

Clonezilla – PC and Server Drive Imaging – deployment.

Secunia PSI (Personal Software Inspector)

Twhirl

Free Software Pick: Cobian Backup Amanita

I decided to get off my back end and automate the backup of our critical data, you know pictures, e-mails, etc.  I decided to take a hard look at the “FREE” category, but I was perfectly prepared to invest in some backup software if need be. Well Cobian backup was free and I can’t think of a single feature that would drive me to go out and purchase a backup product at this point. Cobian does everything I want.

It’s interface is clean and straight forward, you name the backup job, you set some key attributes, like to include subdirectories or not. Tell it what kind of backup you want, in this case I opted for a “Full” backup, and how many copies to keep.  Then you click files, select the files or folder you want to backup, and the the location you want to store your backup.  Click the schedule screen – and you get a great selection there as well:

Once set, Cobian will live in the system tray and keep your files backed up on a regular scheduled. 

One key feature during installation is the ability to setup a “service” account, to run backup in the background. It makes accessing network storage on a different computer much easier.  You may have to synchronize the backup service account on all your computers, but it works nicely in the end.

This is a an awesome little backup package that I can not believe is not getting more coverage in the windows world, or that the author is not charging some nominal fee for.

Enjoy,

-Keith

First Seven Minutes of Speed Racer at yahoo.com

WOW – I really had no desire to see Speed Racer, then I watched the first seven minutes of it at yahoo.  I think maybe I want to see it now. Check it out:

http://movies.yahoo.com/feature/speedracer.html?showVideo=1

-Keith

Twitter, TeleTwitter, Twhirl – Why is it so addictive?

Twitter is something I have played with on and off, and in the last round I find myself very very addicted to it.  The question is why?  Its not chat, but it is. Its not SMS, but it is.  What the heck is it?   Well I have thought about all of these questions a lot and I think Twitter really is a different kind of chat, with two distinct advantages:

1. You choose the people, not the channel. If you value what a given person says, then you add them to your list and watch what they say, but you never chase people around various chat channels.  You build your own personal chat channel by “following” the people you want to see.

2. Its not real time. Tweets as they are called, are small text messages that are sent to the twitter servers and then redistributed to everyone “following” you. It sounds a little like everyone is being stalked, doesn’t it.  Anyway, the fact that all of this takes time and that twitter pages don’t just update immediately means that people are careful about the text they choose to send, and in many cases they follow the directive of the sight, “What are you doing right now?” to send their personal missive. It makes the value of the messages much higher in many cases.

That all said, once you get a addicted to twitter, you will need a good client, as the web site just does not keep up in my opinion.

For windows check out Teletwitter, and for Mac or Windows check out Twhirl (you will need to install Adobe Air to make it work).

Enjoy, and don’t say I did not warn you about the addiction thing.  Oh, and Chris assures me he is working on a twelve step program for twitter.

-Keith

P.S. Twitter me.

Much better and they would add Ironman to the list of Sex, Drugs, and Rock-n-Roll

My two eldest sons and I went to see Ironman last night.  It more than likely helps if you grew up on a healthy dose of marvel comics and perhaps encountered the Ironman storey at least once before.  However, even if you did not and you enjoy a good action adventure, you will likely enjoy Ironman. 

Lets run down the list:

- Story: Excellent: Check

- Acting: Excellent: Check

- Dragging Scenes: Just one: Acceptable

- Sound Track: Excellent: Check

- Special Effects: Super Excellent: Double Check

- Theater Experience: Sucked Seawater: Can’t blame movie for that

So top line, this is a movie worth forking some money over for. Now the question is when?  If you have an excellent theater near you that will give you a better experience than your system at home – go see it – its worth full price.  If you have a sucky little theater near you and your system at home rocks – wait for the DVD or BluRay disk. 

-Keith

P.S.  Dear MPIAA / Hollywood / anyone that is trying to force me into the movie theater.  If you really want people to value the Movie Theater experience go enforce some kind of experience level and rate the theaters. (I could hear the rattle of projector during the entire movie, the sound was too soft, and there was a green line running threw the picture).  

For goodness sake, the theaters that arguing against digital are going to have to face the Dolby THX music and HD experience.   I can not believe a theater and Hollywood, can’t not put together an affordable solution that uses digital BluRay disks to ship the content to the theaters. Ship the darn things via Fedex or UPS or whatever.  I say this because I know one of the reasons that theaters will not go digital is the cost of the bandwidth to get the content.  Well lets face it, there is a lot bandwidth in a postal truck filled with BluRay disks.   And come on theater people, a good HD DLP does NOT cost that much anymore.  (AND – BluRay disks are thin, they ship cheap compared to the reels.)

Bottom line Hollywood, don’t expect people to leave the house for a crappy experience at the theater, and then don’t be surprise if some people grab early copies off of bitorent to have  great experience at the same time at home.  NO stealing content is not right, but dear Hollywood – remove the excuses  – please – for the love of all things possibly still good in the movie going experience. 

-Keith again

한어 웝사이트

I was in Korean for one year (which I loved) and I have always been fascinated by the Korean people, their culture and their language. A friend of mine at work (Steve R) shared this site with me and I just love it. It’s geared around the Korean language Hungul. I’m sure I will be spending some time here getting reacquainted with their alphabet and words.

It’s neat that you can get a free translation of English to Korean words and on top of that you can cut and paste the Hungul word. That’s how I made the title for this posting. It translates to “Korean language web site” (If I cut and pasted correctly).

http://www.zkorean.com/

enjoy,

-Chris

Vista Tip: Windows Wallpaper (Video)

Spice up the Windows Background with the sample pictures, and backup the wallpaper you find and set using “Set as Background”.   Presented by Keith from DGPodcast.com

Free software Pick: Debut Video Capture Software

Ok, so you want to capture some video – Desktop, webcam, or something else. You also want it to like work, and by work I mean the little things, like sound and video staying in sync. And of course you probably are hoping the software won’t cost a bundle and while were at it, lets ask the impossible and hope that it supports multiple video formats, like say WMV, MP4, AVI, etc….

Well guess what, Debut from NCH does all of this and for the oh so low cost of FREE. 

In fact this little gem runs well on Vista or XP, a nice touch.  This software is so good, that I actually find my self looking for software to buy from NCH just to thank them for making a great product.  Unfortunately for NCH, my search found another free product I plan to play with called Zulu DJ. 

Anyway, check it out and try give our friends at NCH some business. 

 

-Keith

Security apps may get a false positive from XP SP3

I am a big fan of staying patched, and this blog was one of many to advertise the availability of SP3. But its pretty clear that people are facing issues with SP3 (Not all by any means), but its worth noting that SP3 is causing some security apps to get a false positive, get the full story at Windows Secrets:

https://windowssecrets.com/2008/05/22/02-XP-SP3-triggers-false-positives-in-security-apps

In addition, some HP users with AMD processors are having problems multiple reboots – this was reported by patch watch from Windows Secrets and others.  SP2 will be supported for about another two years, so don’t feel rushed to install SP3, but put it on the calendar for sometime in the next twelve months.  Its always good to avoid last minute updates in my opinion.

-Keith

Vista Tip: Windows Update (Video)

Set Windows Update to update everything in Windows Vista. (Well everthing it can update.)   Demoed by Keith from DGPodcast.com

Vista Tip: Add the default icons to the desktop (Video)

Add the default icons to the Vista Desktop. Presented by Keith from dgpodcast.com