It looks InstallAware may cripple your Internet Explorer setting a low value in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings, ReceiveTimeout. It could be set to 10000 (10 seconds), and that will make Internet Explorer timeout and  show its very little informative "Page cannot be displayed" message (it never says why it wasn't able to load the page, if it was a timeout, an unreachable address or whatever).

When I wrote the QC entry about Datasnap 2010 HTTP client missing proxy support, I marked it as a bug. It was later changed by a sysop to an "enhancement request". That simple change shows why Delphi is in the actual state. It's a problem of mindset. Embarcadero people still lack the mindset to deliver applications made for the 2010s.

I have republished some of the Canon FD manual I own, because www.canonfd.com looks no longer available. Whoever is interested can find the manuals here

I have not all the material that was once available on Christian Rollinger's Canon FD documentation project site, and I am still publishing what I have. If someone have some of the material not available here, please send me and I'll share it here.

I started to inspect what the hell Corel Standby Service is used for and why. It is started in the registry Run section at startup.

Iit scans your hard disk - yes, exactly - and then build a list of dlls in a file called StandbyList.dat in the PSP X3 folder. The filename is recorded in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Corel\Standby\1.0\ImageLists\PaintShop Photo Pro registry key. It keeps on scanning the same files over and over. Sometimes it loads a DLL, probably to read resources.

Lately I started a new sport. After each installation, I hunt and kill all the useless processes that too many applications runs at startup without a good reason. Although Delphi is in the pack too (why does it starts BlackfishSQL without asking?), today I'll examine Corel Paint Shop Pro X3. I've been using PSP since version four or five - and it was a good small program for image editing. Now in the Corel's hands it entered the "bloatware" category fully - and adopted tha bad behaviour to install several processes running all the time without asking the user. The latest setup, fully luser compliant, asks only the destination folder.

I've complained a lot about the security (or better, lack of) of Datasnap 2010. The usual answer was that I was wrong, and anyway filters could be used to implement it. Now Bob Swart - who wrote the Delphi 2010 Datasnap white paper - filed two QC entries about Datasnap security. The first asking for HTTPS support, the other reporting a serious performance issue when using filters.

On December 8th, a holiday in Italy, we woke up early in Geneva to visit the CERN centre.  After a rainy day spent visiting Geneva, the Moon was shining in the sky, telling us that beside some remaining clouds, it was going to be a sunny day. The CERN laboratories are nearby Geneva airport, just outside the city, and if it was not for some roadworks that forced us to find alternative paths playing with the GPS - finally we arrived in front of Building 33, the CERN reception. Outside, on the other side of the road, the Globe of Reasearch and Innovation marks the spot, telling this is not just the usual campus.

Our booked visit was beginning at 10, but my colleague Dario happen to be friend of a physicist working there, thereby we were invited to have breakfast with him. While waiting for him we bought some souvenirs of the visit, including the helmets used while accessing the instruments.

We met Matteo, and he guided us along the labyrinthic corridors of CERN to the self-service area to have breakfast. The CERN is a small, cosmopolitan citadel, people coming from all Europe and beyond.

We spent breakfast discussing Matteo's work - a study on how to predict how instruments become radioactive with use, and thereby how to dispose of them correctly. Although CERN is the place where the World Wide Web was born, we were more interested in its main reaseach area, particle physics. I studied Physics at the university, and although later turned to IT, I always kept a strong interest in Physics.

In the "global" market of today, with the Internet enabling you to sell you software everywhere in the world, you may think great care would be given to localization tools. Delphi ones reached a barely usable state in Delphi 7, and you may think BorCodeDero could only improve it since then. No. They did and still are doing the best to ensure Delphi can't localize applications by itself.

After a long time, I've released a new version of the Message Compiler Editor. This release comes with a setup and a help file. Only minor changes has been made to the editor, now comments are written to the message text file, the options dialog is shown before each compilation, and the OutputBase parameter is now supported. Manifest file are not supported - support is planned for version 3.

Message Compiler Editor is available here.