Finally 64-bit drivers for Canon CanoScan 4200F

Canon just released Vista compatible 32-bit and 64-bit drivers for my CanoScan 4200F scanner. The old 32-bit drivers didn't work on Vista (and there were no 64-bit drivers available previously). What's also good, is that the 64-bit drivers also work fine on Windows XP x64 Edition :-)

The drivers are available from the American Canon website (they aren't up on the European site at the moment).

Just what the f*** is NMIndexStoreSvr.exe for?

It eats my CPU, it eats my memory, it eats my hard drive and it evens likes to hang on the shut down of my computer.

It also quite fun playing 720p video content with this process running, as well as any games!

Now it has just decided to crash on me... what fun!

So, I check the startup entries in Spybot, and search the registry, but the stupid app is nowhere to be found in the startup entries, and yet its there every time I turn my computer on!

So I use Process Explorer to track the bugger down. It turns out its part of... Nero! Its description is "Nero Home". Strange, since I don't have Nero Home installed. So in the end I renamed the file to some expletives, and now (gasp) I can use my computer again ;-)

Now Blu-ray "cracked"

First success of decrypting a Blu-ray disc reported :)

Microsoft giving away 1000 copies of Vista and Office 2007 (UK only)

The competition (aimed at developers) opened at 5:30pm, so in likelihood all copies are gone by now - but worth a try, no? ;) It didn't seem to have very much publicity for some reason, which is only a good thing :)

I've made my entry already and I'll let you know if I actually get anything :P

Alternatively if you are a UK student you can now get licences for the Vista Business Upgrade and Office 2007 at "reasonable" prices from the Student Select program (they for some reason don't have the actual CDs yet though!)

Using Visual Studio is fun!

I think only the Visual Studio IDE dev team could make their software do crap like the following without actually crashing.



Hmm...