The Great Defrag Shootout XXV: UnityPro Disk Idle Optimiser Pro 4.0

Disk Idle Optimiser Pro 4.0 from UnityPro software is not a defrag utility in the conventional sense of the word. It's more like a control panel tweak. It allows you to control some built-in aspects of Microsoft Windows XP that normally just happen (or not) in the background.
I installed this utility after downloading it over 2 weeks ago. Since then I have not noticed any fundamental change in the way my laptop boots up or works. On the other hand it hasn't degraded either. Either way, the impact on a well-organised system is unlikely to be major. But as tweaks go, it isn't going to slow down your system, and it has the potential of keeping your system better organised by allowing it to "optimise" the files used during boot-up and in the "prefetch" cache.
It's an addition to your existing system, and once the settings have been changed it seems safe to uninstall it, since it only tweaked the Windows registry anyway. If you are using a defrag utility that controls the prefetch file (such as PerfectDisk), don't bother with this utility since it won't make any difference anyway.
The download page explains what is done, and why. There is nothing to see, and it would be quite tricky to measure what impact it has. As a result, this review gets neither a thumbs up or down. But I have kept a copy on my system, and not uninstalled it. I intend to use it on systems where I have not purchased PerfectDisk.

The Great Defrag Shootout: Part I | II | III | IV | V | VI | VII | VIII | IX | X | XI | XII | XIII | XIV | XV | XVI | XVII | XVIII | XIX | XX | XXI | XXII | XXIII | XXIV | XXV | XXVI | XXVII | XXVIII | XXIX| winner | all | why

BarclayCard Bungles Again

BarclayCard must have been having a bad hair day. In response to my previous post about their illegal activities, they further bungled and got their information wrong AGAIN.
Their response is quite interesting, because it displays a complete lack of concern about the privacy of their customers, and effectively admits that they have broken the law in a number of ways. To quote, in part:

This organization has sourced consumer data from many sources over many years; some examples of sources:

• Historical Voters Rolls
• Deeds Office property ownership databases
• Company ownership databases from the registrar of companies
• Home Affairs

It is a violation of the Electoral Act to use the voters rolls for anything other than the conduct of elections and/or election campaigns. I was told this by an IEC official. So they are either lying or breaking the law.
The Deeds Office information was never intended for marketing purposes, and in any case my deeds processing hasn't been completed yet. If this practice is not illegal it is certainly unethical.
Since when does Home Affairs make the residential addresses of all South African citizens available for public scrutiny and use? How do they justify this in terms of the Right to Privacy enshrined in the constitution? The mind boggles. I wonder if any bribes were paid?
Then the bank changes feet: "The information provided regarding ETL was not correct. Your information was sourced from Effective Intelligence." Actually it wasn't. I spoke to David van der Merwe from Effective Intelligence on 084-875-4201. He confirmed that EI already has my name and my wife's names on their Do Not Contact database, and he stated that they did not supply the information to BarclayCard. He blamed "P-Cubed".
So not only does BarclayCard admit to supplying me with the wrong information, they do it AGAIN. The mind boggles once more. To what level of incompetence and confusion does this organisation stoop? Have they no idea about the ECT Act and what it means for their organisation? Finally they refer to www.optout.co.za, which is another marketing database maintained by "P-Cubed". I have written to them to find out if they were responsible for supplying my name, and where they obtained it from.

It turns out that "P-Cubed" is a database subsidiary of the Experian credit bureau. This becomes even more unethical, because credit bureaus are not supposed to be involved in direct marketing because of the obvious conflict of interest, and because it violates the Credit Bureau Association Code of Conduct, especially with regard to privacy of data.

Part I: BarclayCard Breaks the Law | Part II: BarclayCard Bungles Again | Part III: BarclayCard and P:Cubed - more ducking and diving | Part IV: Finally! BarclayCard Apologises | BlueBean sucks - Shaun Dewberry's blog

BarclayCard Breaks the Law

Banks love to give the impression they are ethical and beyond reproach. After all, we trust them with our money. But they are just as slimy as any other business when it comes to marketing.
In July I received a marketing letter promoting BarclayCard in the mail. I send an email to them asking how they obtained my details. Reference number EC: C07E5E2C. They responded and said it was ETL Solutions, a company I have contacted before. ETL denies this, saying they have not provided them with any details at all, and they had probably obtained the details from a rival company, Effective Intelligence. I have contacted them on 021-674-0372 twice, and have yet to receive a response. I was promised the first time that Marché Kilgour would return my call. I have since found out that their fax number is 021 671 5554 or 086-610-7583 and their other phone number is 021 670 7720.
To make matters worse, ETL has provided BarclayCard/ABSA with its "do not contact" list on a regular basis, which includes my details (added on 12-Sep-2006) and my wife's details (added 29-Nov-2004). These details are also supplied weekly to the Direct Marketing Association, which maintains a Do Not Contact List.
I requested a letter of apology from BarclayCard: it's in the mail, and has been for 2 months. I also asked them again for the source of my contact details. This second request has been ignored. So the picture that is emerging is not good:

• They obtained my contact details without my permission
• They failed to check it against the Do Not Contact list, thereby exposing themselves to prosecution in terms of the ECT Act
• They lied about the source of the details, don't know where it came from, again exposing themselves to ECT Act prosecution.
  
• They promised to send me a letter of apology, which has not arrived
• They ignored further correspondence.

This kind of gross incompetence makes me wonder what kind of service I would get from them if I actually had one of their credit cards. I think not.
Update: Effective Intelligence finally got back to me, and claimed that they already had me on their Do Not Contact list, and in any case they didn't supply the information to BarclayCard. They pointed a finger at "P-Cubed". See BarclayCard Bungles Again

Part I: BarclayCard Breaks the Law | Part II: BarclayCard Bungles Again | Part III: BarclayCard and P:Cubed - more ducking and diving | Part IV: Finally! BarclayCard Apologises

Is Your Anti-Virus Program Working?

Everyone has an Anti-Virus program installed on their PC these days, but is it working? Many malware programs target well known anti-virus programs and attempt to disable them. I recently discovered a freeware program that safely detects whether your AV program is actually working. Its called the UnityPro Anti-Virus Tester.
In 1990 the European Institute for Computer Antivirus Research (EICAR) created a test file that should be detected by every AV program. The freeware tester tests whether your AV program is running by creating a test file when you ask it to. If your AV program doesn't detect this new file, it either sucks or it isn't working.
I tried it on my computer and was reassured that at least my NOD32 program was running. If the test fails on your PC, then your AV program needs some immediate attention.

Make Contig Easier to Use

Contig is a fast command-line defrag utility, and provides a quick way to defragment a single file or folder. With a simple addition to the registry you can use it to defragment an entire folder, by right-clicking on the folder name and selecting "Contig Defrag Folder". This will open a command prompt and execute the contig command, as shown here.
In order for this to work, you need to download and install Contig, copying it into the c:\windows\system32 folder. Next, use notepad and paste the following text into a blank notepad file:

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\contig]
@="Contig Defrag Folder"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\contig\command]
@="cmd.exe /k contig.exe \"%L\\*.*\" -v -s"

Save this as "contig.reg" and then double-click on the file to add the commands to the windows registry. Select a folder, right-click on it and test the "Contig Defrag Folder" menu entry.

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JkDefrag Gets a Fresh Look

JkDefrag has been a work in progress for some time now, and I only discovered it in the last few months. I have been using it ever since, and version 3.16 is both stable and usable.
But Jeroen Kessels has been hard at work, making constant improvements and fixing problems. Starting at version 3.17 and continuing though 3.24, he has added a new analysis method and finally an icon. If you like testing software, try downloading the latest version, but he has suggested that casual users hold back for a few weeks until the new version(s) stabilise. This program is getting better all the time.

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The Great Defrag Shootout XXIV: Puran Defrag 1.1

Puran Defrag 1.1 is a new application, and aims to be fast and efficient. It has a minimal interface, as shown here. A useful option in Windows allows you to right-click on any file or folder and request a defrag of the selected item. Another option allows you to reboot the PC, do a defrag, and then either reboot again or shut down. This is not the same as a boot time defrag, but it goes some way to solving the problem of trying to defrag files that are in use.
My biggest problem with this program is that it is so minimal that it doesn't tell you what files it is busy with, and it isn't thorough so it ignored some of my particularly badly fragmented files. Even when I used the right-click option on the file itself, the progress bar went to 99% and then I was told the defrag was finished, but there were still plenty of fragments in the file. During the defrag process it uses a lot of processing power, so don't try to do other things at the same time.
There are no documented command line options for this program, so you can't schedule a defrag. There is also no boot time defrag available, so it won't help to use it when trying to defrag key system files or the MFT. I can't recommend this program because it isn't thorough enough. It also managed to freeze a Windows 2000 Server machine when I ran it there. It's still early days (version 1.1 was only the second release of the package) and the program may improve over time.
Update: I downloaded version 2.0, which is no longer free, but costs $14.95. You can try it for 30 executions before buying it. Don't bother. I used SQL Server to create a single large compressed backup file with 171000 fragments. There were also 227 other fragmented items on the drive. After a "complete" defrag the large file had exactly the same number of fragments, and there are still 45 fragmented items on the drive, as shown by the yellow image above from JkDefrag in analyse mode. Not good for a commercial product; WDD did marginally better.
Update: The support guys at Puran Software sent me a beta version of PD 3.0, which performs correctly on massively fragmented files. The product is starting to look pretty mature, and is much more user friendly than the WDD that ships with Vista. I will do another test when 3.0 ships, and expect it to get a "Thumbs Up" rating.
Update 30 October: Version 3.0 is now available, and it is a great product, better than Diskeeper 2008 Home in my opinion.
Update 10 December 2007: Version 4.0 is even better than 3.0, and I can thoroughly recommend it.

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Happy Birthday, Mom

If Ruth Edwards was still alive she would have turned 75 today, if my maths is correct. I have been listening to a brilliant audio book called "New Psycho-Cybernetics" and it has given me a fresh appreciation for the things my parents got right in parenting me. Thanks, mom!