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XPFixation -- The Essential Windows XP Whoring Tool

by jcwren (Prior)
on Jun 30, 2002 at 21:06 UTC ( [id://178414]=CUFP: print w/replies, xml ) Need Help??

Contrary to what some may tell you, your XP is important. "How important is it?", you may ask. Try on par with personal hygiene, a 6 figure income, and a desirous member of whatever sex you prefer on your arm. That's right, we're talking *serious* importance here. Overclocking case-modding "I've got neon!" personal-RAID-5-array stuff. If you're not concerned about your XP, you're either dead, or, well... dead.

Now that we've got that established, Twitching Monks Software Productions is proud to introduce the latest member in it's popular line of XP whoring tools, XPFixation.

XPFixation is a Windows (yes, Windows. You Linux users can just punch out right now, and don't bother with the 'chute until you hit the ground. This is Windows. Pure flag-waving, apple pie and baseball hometown parade Bill-Gates-Rocks! Windows "I ♥ BSoD" type software*) tool tray icon that monitors XP changes, and upon an XP change (may they ever only be positive, unless your name is BUU), changes the icon, plays a WAV file (of your choice, no less. Windows is about choices, you know), puts it in a 10 entry history list, and should you hover your most excellent MS optical mouse over the icon, displays a tool tip showing the XP value, the amount it changed, and the time and date.

"Why in the h311 would I want something like this on my machine?" is a frequently asked (and ignored) question. Simple. You may have a Windows machine without Perl (...). You may have to use a Windows machine at the office, and not have access to your server at home running xluke_repwalker.pl. Should that be the case, XPFixation will let you keep a real-time eye on your XP. Because XP *is* important (see paragraph 1). Or maybe you just don't have enough icons in your tool tray, and you need something to fill up space. I dunno.

XPFixation is to XP what MS Office is to document processing. If it doesn't do it, you don't *need* to do it (well, unless we add it to a future version. TMSP tries to think of everything, but when you've only got 6 brain cells left... You get the idea). Icons, sounds, tool tips, configuration menus... Even an About box! And all for free! All written in glorious purportedly bug-free pure Win32API C code, like Dog and nature intended. None of this MFC/STL/ATL bloatware here (small footprint. Less than 256MB RAM and 10GB disk space required. Should run on any 2Ghz or faster Pentium IV).

"Jeez, this product sounds great! Where to I get it!?". Right here, or http://tinymicros.com/xpfixation, if you like your links spelled out for you. Installation instructions are on this page, and so simple even <insert inept monk nick here> could install it.

XPFixation is known to run on WinXP, Win2K, and Win95. If someone reports that it runs correctly on NT4, Win98, and WinME correctly, those will be added to the list of tested platforms.

TMSP's line of XP whoring tools also include xluke_repwalker.pl, xstatswhore.pl, Stats Whoring - The VXML Way, and The Stats Pages.

(This program is not available in the code section because binary uploads are not supported. Source will be available soon. Blame ar0n for it being in CUFP, it was his idea.)

* TMSP runs Linux, Debian, FreeBSD, Mac OS X, Windows and CP/M, and is fully non-OS-bigot compliant under The Uniform OS Operating Guide, Section 8, Paragraph 1, "Anyone who thinks OS <Insert OS Here> sucks has no idea what they're talking about, and is an un-informed stupid-head. Excepting VMS, of course."

--Chris

e-mail jcwren

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
(zdog) Re: XPFixation -- The Essential Windows XP Whoring Tool
by zdog (Priest) on Jun 30, 2002 at 22:52 UTC
    Cool stuff, jc. It's good to see that you have your priorities straight about XP and all. But if you don't mind, this is more of a reply to ar0n. :-)

    How is this a "Cool Use For Perl"?! Where's the Perl? I want Perl now! I blame ar0n. ;-)

    Uhh.. thank you, and have a nice day, I guess.

    Zenon Zabinski | zdog | zdog@perlmonk.org

      $SECTION->{title} .= ' Monks';

      I really think this'd be the best place to put, simply because it doesn't fit anywhere else. It's not Perl code, it's not a discussion of the Perl Monks website, and it's not a craft.

      Judging by jc's coding style, I suppose we could put it in Obfuscation. Or we could just start a new section: XP-Whoring Tools

Re: XPFixation -- The Essential Windows XP Whoring Tool
by theorbtwo (Prior) on Jun 30, 2002 at 21:45 UTC

    LOL!

    It'd be nice, BTW, to actualy display the delta instead of just a (up|down)arrow. And quite a bit more work. Nice, though, to write this in C instead of Perl -- perl is even more bloaty then MFC for this kind of stuff.


    We are using here a powerful strategy of synthesis: wishful thinking. -- The Wizard Book

(jcwren) Re: XPFixation -- New Version 1.4! </AOL>
by jcwren (Prior) on Jul 06, 2002 at 14:59 UTC

    Version 1.4 of XPFixation is now available.

    Besides several bug fixes in 1.2 and 1.3, the major change in 1.4 is that username and password are no longer required. Instead, in the configuration dialog, you provide your home node ID. This solves several problems, two of which are bad username/password combinations, and people with stupid characters in their nicks.

    This was possible because jaybonci made a change to the XP XML ticker that causes 'votesleft' to be set to -1 if you are not the owner of the node (which was the only reason that node was protected in the first place). I further modified the code so that a node ID could be passed instead of a user name. This allows XPFixation to only need your home node ID to track XP changes. It also means that you can track someone elses XP changes, although why you'd want to is beyond me...

    Since mt2k had such a freakout about having his password in the registry, V1.4 automatically deletes the now unused username and password registry keys on startup. You will need to enter the configuration dialog to set up your home node ID.

    The default refresh interval is now 300 seconds (5 minutes) instead of 60 seconds, which was really too often. If you're an existing user, you might consider changing from 60 seconds to at least 180 or so. Helping reduce load on the monastery is a Good Thing. And realistically, unless you're Ovid or BUU, your XP doesn't go up or down that fast (respectively).

    Slightly more detailed information on the changes, and the V1.4 download are available at http://tinymicros.com/xpfixation.

    --Chris

    e-mail jcwren

      Much better ;)

      Honestly, yes I sort of freaked out, and this is much better. Besides, now I can track BUU's XP level! *evil, evil grin*

XPFixation -- One Security 'feature'
by mt2k (Hermit) on Jul 05, 2002 at 06:37 UTC
    Just to exploit one little security problem with XPFixation, I have created the XPFixation Exploit program.

    IT just demonstrates one small problem... it's a 1.34 MB file, so you may have to be patient if you are on a dial up connection speed. Also, please note that this program is 100% safe... run it with a virus scanner, firewall, and anything else you can think of!

    My main point being, that some kind of encryption scheme or anything to improve security should be implemented...

    Update: I have now thrown together a perl script that does the same thing, plus gives you the option of deleting the XPFixation info from your computer. Here it is:

    #!/usr/bin/perl -w use strict; use Win32::TieRegistry; $Registry->{"HKEY_CURRENT_USER\\Software\\XPFixation"} or die "XPFixation is not configured on this machine.\n"; (my $user = $Registry->{"HKEY_CURRENT_USER\\Software\\XPFixation\\User +name"} and my $pass = $Registry->{"HKEY_CURRENT_USER\\Software\\XPFixation\\Pas +sword"}) or die "The XPFixation configuration has been tampered with.\n" . "Cannot display account information.\n"; print qq| The configuration for XPFixation has been found on your machine. PerlMonks Account Information: ------------------------------ Username: $user Password: $pass Delete this info from your computer? (Y/N) |; if (<STDIN> =~ /^y/i) { delete $Registry->{"HKEY_CURRENT_USER\\Software\\XPFixation\\"} or die "Unable to delete this information from your computer!\n"; die "Your PerlMonks account information has been successfully remove +d.\n"; } else { die "Your PerlMonks account information has NOT been removed.\n"; }

      From the documentation:

      Username, password, etc are stored in the registry, under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\XPFixation, in plain text.

      It's much easier to use 'regedit' or 'regedt32' to view or remove this information, which is why I mentioned the key it was stored under.

      --Chris

      e-mail jcwren

        Disclaimer: I am posting this as a reply because I am apparently being ignored by jcwren, so don't downvote me for posting something that should have been sent as a /msg.

        For starters, I did not mean to sound like I am bashing the program (XPFixation). I think a lot of the tools available on the site concerning PerlMonks are really hip and cool, including XPFixation.

        Also, it's not like I am scared that some monk is going to write a program to snoop the registry values and send them via e-mail or anything... and even if someone did, I only use my PerlMonks password for PerlMonks, so the most damage they could do is login and yell at people in the chatterbox, resulting in a series of downvotes. (Ack! Please, nobody think of this!)

        And even though I actually stated it was for 'security' reasons, I think it is really just for an additional feature to the program... how many programs store 'sensitive' information in plain text? It would be great to see some kind of protection (even if it is mild) added to the program.

        So I apologize if I sounded rude or against all of the work you put into XPFixation! It was programmed in C, so I can't really comment on the programming (as I lack the skills of the C language). Besides, knowing that I am losing XP all of the time is helpful. ;)

Re: XPFixation -- The Essential Windows XP Whoring Tool
by elwarren (Priest) on Jul 03, 2002 at 15:40 UTC
    Does this use LWP or Win32::InternetExplorer? It seems to be logging my IE session out as I click between nodes, causing me to log back in every time I try to vote...
Re: XPFixation -- The Essential Windows XP Whoring Tool
by skaryzgik (Novice) on Sep 06, 2015 at 20:55 UTC
    Found this from Selected Best Nodes. This looks fun! I have installed it in Windows Seven and it seems to be working. Next time my xp changes, I'll let you know if the sounds work. Then you can add it to the versions of Windows it has been tested with. :-)

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