Bastards

I am always happy when someone chooses to distribute my software. If nothing else they often host software install themselfs and thus they lower load on my own server. Everybody wins. Usually.

Bastards at IrcFast (no, I will not include their link) decided to bundle VHD Attach with Babylon toolbar and something called Coupish. I view both those packages as borderline spyware. And I would never bundle my program with them. If you install VHD Attach and you are not careful, you will soon be looking for removal procedure. Let’s just get it in clear: THIS IS NOT ENDORSED NOR BUNDLED BY ME.

Are they doing anything illegal? No, license I selected is quite permissive and it does allow for almost anything. As long as software is intact anyone can bundle it as much as they want. And even if I had it under any other license I am not sure it would matter. Those idiots would bundle it anyhow.

I can only do one thing. I can warn everybody to stay clear of this site.

VHD Attach 3.61

Nothing much here. Just a single bug fix that makes VHD Attach work properly on German Windows. :)

Update from within application or from web site.

KulenDayz 2012

For next three days Beli Manastir will host crème de la crème of Croatian IT community. Whoever comes there can expect a lot of quality lectures delivered by people all around world. And that will be mixed with huge amounts of fun and mingling.

For all community members sessions are free while other pay nominal fee. Post conference events do require additional payment but they are well worth it.

Unfortunately this year everybody will have to live without me present and no session will hold my ramblings. But do not worry, next year I am back. :)

P.S. If you see Bernard, give him a hug - this conference is his baby and every year he puts enormous amounts of love and energy into it.

Fingerprint Logon in Windows 8

As I installed Windows 8 I was very happy to see that my Authentec AES2810 fingerprint reader got installed by default.

My happiness didn’t last too long. As I went to record my fingerprints I was greeted with “The selected fingerprint reader has no management application installed”. In Windows 7 that application got installed via Windows Update alongside reader’s driver. In Windows 8 they decided driver alone is enough. Which idiot arrived to that conclusion is left for discussion. In any case, my fingerprint reader was useless.

If everything else fails, go to manufacturer - AuthenTec was kind enough to offer their Protector Suite 2012 for download. Installing it allowed me to use fingerprints once more. It is not ideal situation since that program is limited version (unless you upgrade) and it includes way more than one needs for simple logon. But it does work.

Pimsleur Scam

Well, I probably had it coming for a long time…

While browsing on net I got an add for Pimsleur language course. Yes, it was full of nonsense statements but it was cheap. Just $10 for 4 CDs with introductory course. And I thought why not.

Got my CDs. Determined that their course is average at best and that Spanish cook I had in my company was much better source. So I forgot about it.

That is until a few days ago when I was sorting through credit card charges on unrelated issue. I was surprised when I noticed strange $64 charge under name of “STR*LANGUAGE LEARN LEV2”. That made me pull out even older bills and here is what I saw:

2012-08-14  STR*LANGUAGE LEARN LEV2 866-362-3822   $64.00
2012-07-15  STR*LANGUAGE LEARN LEV2 866-362-3822   $64.00
2012-06-10  STR*LANGUAGE LEARN BASIC 866-362-3822  $64.00
2012-05-11  STR*LANGUAGE LEARN BASIC 866-362-3822  $64.00
2012-04-11  STR*LANGUAGE LEARN BASIC 866-362-3822  $64.00
2012-02-10  STR*LANGUAGE LEARN INTRO 866-774-4754   $9.95

I have been getting charged for a while. Yes, I should have noticed it before.

In my defense, I had lot of charges those months. I was in middle of moving around States and paper statements from my company were going to my old address in Croatia. I did have access via Android app but with lot of charges, these were just missed.

Simply put: I was stupid and careless.

I double-checked my e-mails and no, I haven’t ordered anything more than introduction course. They did send me some stuff via mail but I threw this out with other spam. I never authorized them for any kind of subscription. However, they did have my credit card information so they felt welcome to use it.

Sorting things out with my credit card company will take some time. For start I reported unauthorized charges and canceled the card. Real pain in the ass since I had lot of stuff on that card but it was really only thing I could do. One dishonest company can really ruin your day.

P.S. No, at time of ordering, Google search for Pimsleur scam didn’t return anything in first result page…

P.P.S. Do notice how they didn’t start charging immediately. They waited for one more month just to avoid early detection.