With an absolute ton of free software like Limewire and websites like Keepvid nowadays, I’ve gotta be blunt: the only reason I can see people turning to Videoraptor — basically one-third of RS Audials’ triangle of software — is its no-spyware guarantee.  It’s up to you whether that’s worth the price.  However, let’s have a closer look at Tunebite and Radiotracker, RS Audials One talk for DRM-Protection breaker and Internet Radio recorder, respectively.

The GUI is a very interesting one: there is a different colour scheme for every piece of software.  There is a uniquely shaped window, and three tabs on the side for Radiotracker, Videoraptor, and Tunebite.  The tabs are links to the program, which then opens up on the main side of the screen.  An interesting, unique layout — although it does take a while to load.

Tunebite was impressive.  I was a bit skeptical about how well it would work initially: although it wasn’t able to convert SpiralFrog’s .wma files, it was able to crack one of iTunes’ .m4p files into a 256kbps .mp3 file.  Unfortunately, Tunebite’s video converting function didn’t work as smoothly as its audio conversion: I tried converting a .m4v video I purchased off iTunes, and although it captured audio perfectly, only a few random frames of the video were caught — although I will mention that this could likely be due to the fact that I didn’t pay much attention to the configuration it told me to change in iTunes.  In my defense, that dialog box never popped back up, so I wasn’t able to discover what needed to be fixed or altered.

Arguably, the most interesting part of RS Audials One has to be Radiotracker.  Radiotracker basically allows you to input an artist, album, or song that you want to record from Internet radio streams.  Radiotracker will then scan over a couple of thousand of radio stations (my average use had around 3,400).  This is perfectly legal: however, it does take a good while longer to find the tracks that you want.  Radiotracker was generally every accurate about when to start and stop recording — on occasion, it would have ended too late or cut off too early, but those are just minor mishaps that can be easily fixed.

For $69.99, I’ll admit RS Audials One is a bit of a stretch.  For a less illegal version of Limewire, an arguably mediocre DRM-breaker, and an impressive radio-recording piece of software, I think RS Audials One can be skipped and you could consider Radiotracker on its own for $39.90 (still a bit expensive, no?).  As for the RS Audials website, I know it looks a bit sketchy, but it’s quite helpful in regards to sales information.

Keyloggers.  Spyware.  Data corruption.

Nowadays, these three words strike fear into hearts of users everywhere.  However, I will direct this article towards the organizations – such as schools, libraries, Internet cafes, as well as even corporations.  These behemoths serve a multitude of users daily – ranging from a couple hundred at a local library, to several thousand at a popular university.  The chances of having a careless user download rogue spyware or a bad egg installing keyloggers are insanely high – in fact, a rumour that I myself had caught flying around was that an organization I attended had been infected with keyloggers.  The rumour was dispelled when a friend of mine informed me that the organization used Deep Freeze – which then sparked the question: What is Deep Freeze?

Deep Freeze is an intelligent solution that offers absolute system integrity, according to its creator, Faronics.

Faronics Deep Freeze helps eliminate workstation damage and downtime by making computer configurations indestructible. Once Deep Freeze is installed on a workstation, any changes made to the computer—regardless of whether they are accidental or malicious—are never permanent. Deep Freeze provides immediate immunity from many of the problems that plague computers today—accidental system misconfiguration, malicious software activity, and incidental system degradation.

Deep Freeze ensures computers are absolutely bulletproof, even when users have full access to system software and settings. Users get to enjoy a pristine and unrestricted computing experience, while IT personnel are freed from tedious helpdesk requests.

Source: http://www.faronics.com/html/deepfreeze.asp

Basically, a computer (or workstation) is programmed to retain certain programs – for example, Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft Word 2007, but otherwise is reformatted everytime the system reboots.  Sure, that means that everyone’s documents stored in My Documents will be deleted besides the Sample Pictures.  But, that also means that if the system gets infected, it will also be removed as soon as the computer is rebooted.  This is what I would consider an ideal solution to most organizations’ problems with system integrity.

If you’re a home user reading this and contemplating getting Deep Freeze, I would think twice – although the chances of you accidentally installing spyware are still high, I think that it would be impractical for you to sacrifice your computing experience for paranoia.  Addressing keyloggers, no one would be silly enough to install a keylogger on themselves (besides, there would be no point to that).  However, for organizations that can’t afford to leak information, or organizations that treasure the security and trust of their users (such as libraries), I think this is a great big picture piece of software.  Heck, it gained my trust.

For more information and case studies, please visit Faronics’ web page for Deep Freeze:

http://www.faronics.com/html/deepfreeze.asp