Browsercraft Companion Suite for IE

[Sietse Fliege]

Browsercraft Companion Suite for Internet Explorer

Requirements:
Windows 98/ME/2000/XP/2003
Internet Explorer 5.5+ (including MSXML parser 3.0+).

Note: It says freeware, but I also saw: for the first 5000 downloads

http://www.browsercraft.com/

+ An advanced XML User Interface Development Language (XUDL)
supporting over 150 XML commands (properties and methods) to control
both the graphical interface and Internet Explorer. XML commands may
be embedded in standard HTML script for powerful web-based application
development.
+ Eight new browser applications incorporated into a simple 2.2mb
download.
+ Dozens of utilities that stop popups and animations, block ads,
construct toolbars, edit web pages, capture content, fill forms,
manage logins, build RSS portals, develop macros, email toolbars, 27
search engines, hit highlighting, chat and much, much more.
+ Five new toolbars added to Internet Explorer including search and
navigation, editing, personalization, tabbed browsing, and instant
help and tutorials.
+ Unique, second browser window for innovative applications including
mouse sensitive toolbar help, help anywhere on the web, web portals,
TV-like remote controls, live chat, status messaging, and dual window
navigation.
+ Five new browser "favorites" types including images, archived web
pages, zip files, RSS subscriptions, and macros.
+ A new drag and drop "work area" for Windows Explorer.
+ Toolbar creation facility to help users create and email custom
toolbars without any programming or XML file editing.
+ For enterprise-wide deployments, daily application refreshing
through remote XML transfer.
+ New XP and Office 2003 Icons, tear-off menus and toolbars, easy and
advanced mode operations, display controls, and complete keyboard
accessibility.
+ A revolutionary freeware* XML upgrade for Internet Explorer 5.5 and
higher and Windows 98/ME/2000/XP/2003.
+ This is NOT ad ware, Internet tracking, hidden popup, or snooping
software BUT an exciting and powerful FREE upgrade for Internet
Explorer!.

We honor your registry! Browsercraft Companion Suite provides a detailed
log file listing all file copying and registry updates made during the
installation process. After installation, please refer to the
installation log file available under the Windows Start > Browsercraft
menu.

Hosts file update. Browsercraft Companion Suite will automatically
update your computer's "Hosts" file for blocking Internet ads. If you
decide to uninstall the program, your original Hosts file will
automatically be restored. If you do not want this file updated please,
check the "custom" installation and uncheck the Hosts file option

 

[BillR]

Browsercraft Companion Suite for Internet Explorer

Requirements:
Windows 98/ME/2000/XP/2003
Internet Explorer 5.5+ (including MSXML parser 3.0+).

Note: It says freeware, but I also saw: for the first 5000 downloads

http://www.browsercraft.com/

<Snip>
Looks interesting. Downloading 2.2mb right now. Freeware foootnote
does say available for a limited time.

BillR

 

[Hansen]

Hi.

Excuse me, but I can't just overlook this!

Browsercraft Companion Suite for Internet Explorer

Note: It says freeware, but I also saw: for the first 5000 downloads

I consider this spam. It's a typical spammer-arguement. You wish me to go to
your site and download your software so you can earn money by selling my
e-mail-adress or something.

+ This is NOT ad ware, Internet tracking, hidden popup, or snooping

Yeah right! Easy to say when only 3-4% of computer-owners are powerusers and
knows of these and/or know how to remove them..

You are now in my spam-filter!

 

[Sietse Fliege]

Hi.

Excuse me, but I can't just overlook this!

Consider yourself excused.

I consider this spam. It's a typical spammer-arguement. You wish me
to go to your site and download your software so you can earn money
by selling my e-mail-adress or something.

Bugger! You saw right through me! :-(

Yeah right! Easy to say when only 3-4% of computer-owners are
powerusers and knows of these and/or know how to remove them..

Interesting stats! Thanks!

You are now in my spam-filter!

It seems then that I can do nothing for you. *g*

 

[omega]

Bugger! You saw right through me! :-(

AHA!!!

This whole time, Sietse, where you've been contributing to ACF, and with
those numerous fine freeware suggestions... now it is revealed... it has
all amounted to but devious steps... in your wicked master plan. Culminating
at last in this... your ploy to have us visit someone's web site, where you
will be hiding and poised... to at last harvest from your efforts, and
pursue your long-awaited desire... email-address collecting.

I should have known! All right, Sietse, you had us fooled for a long time.
But no longer! Your sinister plan has been exposed!

 

[Steven Burn]

AHA!!!

This whole time, Sietse, where you've been contributing to ACF, and with
those numerous fine freeware suggestions... now it is revealed... it has
all amounted to but devious steps... in your wicked master plan. Culminating
at last in this... your ploy to have us visit someone's web site, where you
will be hiding and poised... to at last harvest from your efforts, and
pursue your long-awaited desire... email-address collecting.

I should have known! All right, Sietse, you had us fooled for a long time.
But no longer! Your sinister plan has been exposed!

</snip>

Karen.... why does the way you've worded that, sound like something out of
Scooby? ;o)

--

Regards

Steven Burn
Ur I.T. Mate Group
www.it-mate.co.uk

Keeping it FREE!

Disclaimer:
I know I'm probably wrong, I just like taking part ;o)

 

[omega]

AHA!!!

This whole time, Sietse, where you've been contributing to ACF, and with
those numerous fine freeware suggestions... now it is revealed... it has
all amounted to but devious steps... in your wicked master plan.

[...]

Karen.... why does the way you've worded that, sound like something out of
Scooby? ;o)

You mean the cartoon? Heh! Now it's me that's busted. Well...I never claimed
to be free of child-level needs. And OH, I want to watch cartoons NOWWWWWW.

 

[=?ISO-8859-1?Q?=BBQ=AB?=]

AHA!!!

This whole time, Sietse, where you've been contributing to ACF,
and with those numerous fine freeware suggestions... now it is
revealed... it has all amounted to but devious steps... in your
wicked master plan. Culminating at last in this... your ploy to
have us visit someone's web site, where you will be hiding and
poised... to at last harvest from your efforts, and pursue your
long-awaited desire... email-address collecting.

I should have known! All right, Sietse, you had us fooled for a
long time. But no longer! Your sinister plan has been exposed!

AAAAAARRRRGGGGH! It's too late for me, as Sietse has been able to
read my e-mail address in each of my posts to a.c.f over the years.
And I do get spam at this address, which proves conclusively that
Sietse is only here to harvest addresses!

(I guess it's at this point that Fred removes Sietse's mask, only to
reveal that it's really ... Genna Reeney!)

--
»Q« It's is not, it isn't ain't, and it's it's, not its, if you
mean it is. If you don't, it's its. Then too, it's hers.
It isn't her's. It isn't our's either. It's ours, and
likewise yours and theirs.
-- Oxford University Press, Edpress News

 

[Steven Burn]

You mean the cartoon? Heh! Now it's me that's busted. Well...I never claimed
to be free of child-level needs. And OH, I want to watch cartoons NOWWWWWW.

</snip>

hehe, can't really say nowt....... I love Scooby too ;o)

--

Regards

Steven Burn
Ur I.T. Mate Group
www.it-mate.co.uk

Keeping it FREE!

Disclaimer:
I know I'm probably wrong, I just like taking part ;o)

 

[DC]

(I guess it's at this point that Fred removes Sietse's mask, only to
reveal that it's really ... Genna Reeney!)

ROTFLMAO! Excellent. }:OD

 

[Steven Burn]

(I guess it's at this point that Fred removes Sietse's mask, only to
reveal that it's really ... Genna Reeney!)

</snip>

errr....... who?

--

Regards

Steven Burn
Ur I.T. Mate Group
www.it-mate.co.uk

Keeping it FREE!

Disclaimer:
I know I'm probably wrong, I just like taking part ;o)

 

[omega]

AAAAAARRRRGGGGH! It's too late for me, as Sietse has been able to
read my e-mail address in each of my posts to a.c.f over the years.
And I do get spam at this address, which proves conclusively that
Sietse is only here to harvest addresses!

(I guess it's at this point that Fred removes Sietse's mask, only to
reveal that it's really ... Genna Reeney!)

Heheeheh! What a perfect ending!!
(I laughed so hard, I think I scared the neighbors.)

 

[Hansen]

Hi.

This whole time, Sietse, where you've been contributing to ACF, and
with those numerous fine freeware suggestions... now it is

Well, erhm.. I guess I was a bit fast on making conclusions here.. And a
search in google of course gave me a lot of results where Sieste Fliege gave
lots and lots of useful info to other ppl in here..

I apologize and have learned by my mistake.

(The internet just made me a better man )

 

[omega]

Well, erhm.. I guess I was a bit fast on making conclusions here.. And a
search in google of course gave me a lot of results where Sieste Fliege gave
lots and lots of useful info to other ppl in here..

I apologize and have learned by my mistake.

(The internet just made me a better man )

You were right in that shareware & spyware & adware developers sometimes
attempt to use this group as an advertising board. I'm glad you found out
that Sietse is furthest point there is, from anything to do with that.

(Although we did learn some interesting things about him recently. For
instance, solved the Riddle as to why the volume of Sietse posts picked
up right around the time Geena's appearances dropped off... )

 

[Sietse Fliege]

(The internet just made me a better man )

And it just solved my longstanding identity crisis. ;-)

 

[Ray]

Hello,

My name is Ray and I work for Browsercraft. I am sorry you believe
Browsercraft Companion Suite is a hidden "spammer software" or
"spyware". Some facts you need to know about our software:

1) We do not collect any personal information when you download and
use our software. NO REGISTRATION FORM is presented at anytime during
both the download process and installation. We do not collect our
user's email addresses.

2) We have removed the 5,000 initial download limit. After over
10,000 downloads our software is still free.

3) We have an anonymous shout box where users may submit questions
without submitting their email addresses.

4) We have a detailed privacy statement posted on our website stating
we do not monitor, capture, distribute, or record your private
information (all we capture is your IP address for web site
monitoring).

5) We are working for complete Truste Certification (completion by
1/15/04).

6) We have a dedicated privacy officer avaliable to answer your
questions via both email or telephone.


I sorry our website gave you the preception that we were marketing
spyware. We are a small company, trying to get our software
recognized. Please consider downloading BCS and see for yourself.
Give us feedback. Test our support. We are good guys.

Thank you
Ray
Browsercraft
(e-mail address removed)

 

[H.M.A. (Dick) Hazeleger]

Hello,

My name is Ray and I work for Browsercraft. I am sorry you believe
Browsercraft Companion Suite is a hidden "spammer software" or
"spyware". Some facts you need to know about our software:

1) We do not collect any personal information when you download and
use our software. NO REGISTRATION FORM is presented at anytime during
both the download process and installation. We do not collect our
user's email addresses.

2) We have removed the 5,000 initial download limit. After over
10,000 downloads our software is still free.

3) We have an anonymous shout box where users may submit questions
without submitting their email addresses.

4) We have a detailed privacy statement posted on our website stating
we do not monitor, capture, distribute, or record your private
information (all we capture is your IP address for web site
monitoring).

5) We are working for complete Truste Certification (completion by
1/15/04).

6) We have a dedicated privacy officer avaliable to answer your
questions via both email or telephone.


I sorry our website gave you the preception that we were marketing
spyware. We are a small company, trying to get our software
recognized. Please consider downloading BCS and see for yourself.
Give us feedback. Test our support. We are good guys.

Thank you
Ray
Browsercraft
(e-mail address removed)

Hi Ray,

Re 1: Nor any other user data (identifiable or not) during operation of
this IE upgrade?

Re 5: Don't know whether THAT is exactly a recommendation: Many
untrustworthy companies have such
a Truste seal approval... Perhaps it is better to let your
program's users speak (for instance here in acf).

Remarkable: You advise people to download anti-spyware software and
check their computer with it. Now, how about sniffing your program for
let's say two months or so? Just to check and double check (and perhaps
even triple check ).

Get me right, Ray, I am in no way offensive to your product or
company... I just want to know what I might expect... and I am one of
those guys who will sniff a program for as long as it takes to either
proof it's clean, or to proof that there is something fishy about it...

Now, being American, you know the saying "there ain't such a thing as a
free lunch", especially not from a commercial company... so I am
curious to learn what is in it for Browsercraft?

Regards
Dick Hazeleger,
The Hare's Lair website
Dedicated to (on-line)
security and privacy
http://www.hazeleger.net

 

[John Corliss]

Hello,

My name is Ray and I work for Browsercraft. I am sorry you believe
Browsercraft Companion Suite is a hidden "spammer software" or
"spyware". Some facts you need to know about our software:

1) We do not collect any personal information when you download and
use our software. NO REGISTRATION FORM is presented at anytime during
both the download process and installation. We do not collect our
user's email addresses.

2) We have removed the 5,000 initial download limit. After over
10,000 downloads our software is still free.

3) We have an anonymous shout box where users may submit questions
without submitting their email addresses.

4) We have a detailed privacy statement posted on our website stating
we do not monitor, capture, distribute, or record your private
information (all we capture is your IP address for web site
monitoring).

5) We are working for complete Truste Certification (completion by
1/15/04).

6) We have a dedicated privacy officer avaliable to answer your
questions via both email or telephone.


I sorry our website gave you the preception that we were marketing
spyware. We are a small company, trying to get our software
recognized. Please consider downloading BCS and see for yourself.
Give us feedback. Test our support. We are good guys.

Thank you
Ray
Browsercraft
(e-mail address removed)

Ray,
The one thing that gives me pause (and it always does when this
happens) is that when I go to your site, all I see is the word
"Redirection....." on an otherwise blank, white page until I turn off
my proxies. I presume this is what you are refering to in 4) and it
may be what Hanson was (unnecessarily) worried about.

I like these capabilities of your software:

"...filters content including popup windows, ads, animations and
allows you to edit and markup web page as you browse without ever
leaving Internet Explorer."

"The built-in RSS support makes it easy to subscribe and access news
feeds from around the world."

On the other hand, I don't like the following for security reasons:

"Browsercraft Companion Suite freeware version represents the next
generation in Web browser technology. Built with XML technology at its
core and installed as a browser upgrade for Internet Explorer"

then:

"XML commands may be embedded in standard HTML script for powerful
web-based application development"

Fu** web-based applications. The industry is trying to move to renting
software (euphemistically called "moving to a service based fee
structure") rather than allowing you to use it indefinitely once
you've installed it. When this kind of shit becomes prevelant along
with "Trusted Computing" blocking the use of any software other than
what the WINTELAMD consortium allows you to use, computing will slowly
grow to be just as George Orwell described it in 1984:

Currently I can't turn off my cable modem unless I unplug it. It's
just a matter of time until all computers are always on and connected,
and turning them off will be a crime against the state.

"'Smith!' screamed the shrewish voice from the telescreen. '6079 Smith
W.! Yes, you! Bend lower, please! You can do better than that. You're
not trying. Lower, please!'"

 

[Aaron]

Hello Dick

in
I'm not too sure about what's going on here but....

I will install your program later tonight, and will run a few checks on
it.... connections will be sniffed and analyzed

So in other words there is no evidence that it's spyware at all?
All the other points you raise about what's in it for browsercraft would
apply equally to many other freeware that are often posted here, I don't
see anything special about this software to be overly suspicious. And
your points about Etrust seem irrelevant.

As far as I can see, the only thing that offended some people was that
initially download was restricted to 1000 users (er..do we have a name
for that? Maybe limitedownware? ), which granted is annoying, but from
there to leap to the charge or suspicion of spyware seems strange. If
anything Ray has jumped the gun in starting this thread, though your
(Dick's) tone in my view is somwhat hostile (I could be reading you
wrong) to someone whose product is not even proven to be spyware.

In fact,all i can see is one poster who mentioned it was just a scheme to
collect emails to send spam, but that doesn't make sense, since in such a
scheme, you wouldn't restrict downloads. Not to mention that software
that require you to register via email is often posted here anyway and
considered acceptable by many if not most.

I think Ray has gone out of his way to clarify that Browsercraft isn't
one of the bad guys (with the restriction of downloadeds removed as a
bonus!), and this is more than we can say for most of the other software
routinely posted here.
check their computer with it. Now, how about sniffing your program for
let's say two months or so? Just to check and double check (and perhaps
even triple check ).

I know you are on a crusade to force everyone to do packet sniffing, but
this isn't the time or the place.




Aaron (my email is not munged!)

 

[Ray]

John,

Thank you for responding to my post. Let me respond to your
additional points:

The one thing that gives me pause (and it always does when this
happens) is that when I go to your site, all I see is the word
"Redirection....." on an otherwise blank, white page until I turn off
my proxies. I presume this is what you are refering to in 4) and it
may be what Hanson was (unnecessarily) worried about.

This is a good point. Our web site was created to support multiple
languages. By default, it redirects to www.browsercraft.com/english.
This is an easy change to add a "Enter Here" front page. Thanks.

On the other hand, I don't like the following for security reasons:

"Browsercraft Companion Suite freeware version represents the next
generation in Web browser technology. Built with XML technology at its
core and installed as a browser upgrade for Internet Explorer"

then:

"XML commands may be embedded in standard HTML script for powerful
web-based application development"

Fu** web-based applications. The industry is trying to move to renting
software (euphemistically called "moving to a service based fee
structure") rather than allowing you to use it indefinitely once
you've installed it. When this kind of shit becomes prevelant along
with "Trusted Computing" blocking the use of any software other than
what the WINTELAMD consortium allows you to use, computing will slowly
grow to be just as George Orwell described it in 1984:

Currently I can't turn off my cable modem unless I unplug it. It's
just a matter of time until all computers are always on and connected,
and turning them off will be a crime against the state.

"'Smith!' screamed the shrewish voice from the telescreen. '6079 Smith
W.! Yes, you! Bend lower, please! You can do better than that. You're
not trying. Lower, please!'"

Concerning embedding XML in HTML, this is exactly what other advanced
browsers are doing including Mozilla Firebird. We provide the ability
for users to turn this feature off and describe the program
communication in detail in our privacy statement. I understand your
concern "moving to a service based fee structure". Our software will
always be free to private individuals - we do not sell rental software
or subscriptions. We are only focused selling solutions to
corporations and government organizations.

Ray
Browsercraft