Ben Myers...

On Mon, 21 Jul 2008 10:57:58 +1200, Tom Cole
wrote:

On Sun, 20 Jul 2008 14:52:16 -0500, journey wrote:

On Sun, 20 Jul 2008 14:09:11 -0500, RnR wrote:

On Sun, 20 Jul 2008 05:37:36 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

On Jul 19, 3:46*pm, Ben Myers
wrote:
Got an email back from Steve Gibson. *He said that his SpinRite page now has a
correct spelling for my name. *It does... Ben

On Fri, 18 Jul 2008 03:40:34 -0700 (PDT), wrote:
Can't Gibson Research spell...or is this a different Ben M. ?

http://www.grc.com/spinrite.htm

p_z

He must read here...Steve, your products are bloated and expensive.

I use Avast and Kerio's free firewall. I wouldn't consider buying from
anyone as money oriented as you.

Spinrite isn't a firewall or virus checker. Its a hard drive
diagnostic and it's been around for ages so I know it's tried and
tested. I agree on the surface it's expensive but considering what it
does and how long it's been around, it might be worth every penny.
I believe those in the business use this software as one of their
tools.

I'd like to try SpinRite's post-disaster recovery on my Maxtor drive
that went bad, but there doesn't seem to be a trial version. I don't
mind shelling out money for good software but the price is a little
steep for me considering I can't check it out first. Maybe there is a
trial someplace and I'm just missing it.

There's not a trial version, but Steve Gibson offers a 30 day
no-questions-asked money back guarantee. See
http://www.grc.com/sr/faq.htm "Why is there no trial demonstration for
SpinRite?"

Thanks Tom and RnR for pointing out the 30 day money back guarantee. I
would like to try it on my Maxtor drive that had the problems. Usually
I e-mail the developer and ask for a free or reduced license in
exchange for an honest review, and I have been granted a lot of free
licenses from that and also for being one of the most active beta
testers of some programs. Before trying SpinRite with the money back
guarantee I have to be clear with myself that I intend on keeping the
product if I find it to be of value. Considering that I have about
8-10 other external drives that are showing their age it might
worthwhile to have SpinRite esp. since it seems highly regarded.

perhaps he confused Steve Gibson with Peter Norton.
that's the first thing that came to my mind when i read it.


William R. Walsh wrote:
Hi!

He must read here...Steve, your products are bloated and expensive.

What in the world are you talking about? Most of his products are
freeware, and all of them have a very small footprint.

I use Avast and Kerio's free firewall. I wouldn't consider buying
from anyone as money oriented as you.

GRC doesn't sell any firewall or anti-virus software. The last I knew,
they did recommend using ZoneAlarm (something I have mixed feelings
about) but that was it.

William

On Jul 20, 11:03*pm, RnR wrote:
On Sun, 20 Jul 2008 22:23:07 -0400, Ben Myers



wrote:
On Sun, 20 Jul 2008 17:42:43 -0500, RnR wrote:

On Sun, 20 Jul 2008 14:10:49 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

SNIP
My point was...I don't use (and avoid) *Gibson's products and gave
examples of such.

Ok very bad example. *You picked on the wrong title which weakened
your arguement considerably. *The reason for this is Spinrite has been
around for ages (not many other software can claim this) and it is
specialty type software. *What I mean is most people won't know how to
use it nor need it very often but if you consider what it can do and
what is your data worth to you, you might understand. * I won't argue
about other Gibson products due to my lack of knowledge on them but
next time you should be more careful for software examples. *Of all
software, you picked on the wrong one g * but your point is noted.
Personally I'd like to see a demo version but he addresses this on his
site and his counter is a 30 day money back guarantee so I guess you
could buy it and try it and if it doesn't work, in theory get your
money back.

Sheesh! *Steve Gibson is not more of a money grubber than the rest of us. *And
certainly a small enough operation so as not to be placed in the same category
as McAfee or Symantec, who happily take your money when you order, pay and
download their product and who do not respond to your requests for help when the
installation of the product you just bought fails and falls on its head. *For
this reason, I absolutely cannot recommend buying anything but the store-bought
versions of their products. * Whether to even use their products or not is a
whole 'nother thread, the likes of which I have seen many times before.

SpinRite sure has been around for ages. *Not quite as long as me, but mid-90s
says that it has legs... Ben Myers

Ben, *I didn't say he was a money grubber. *That was the OP. * I tried
to explain the pricing for Spinrite to the OP. * Perhaps the only
thing I said less complimentary was I wish Gibson had a demo version
or such but I did explain why he does not. *I understand both points
of view. * I'm not about to say anything negative about a product that
has stood the test of time. * I hope you didn't take me to call Steve
Gibson a money grubber because nothing could be further from the
truth. *

First of all...I never said "money grubber".
I believe spinrite should be more available at a reasonable cost.
I once emailed Mr. Gibson and said if he made spinrite's price more
affordable he would make up his profit on volume of sales. (no reply)
I also do not care for Zone Alarm.

True. I used the phrase "money grubber" earlier in this thread.

How Gibson chooses to run his business is his problem. He may not think he has
a product that would sell in higher volume if the price was lower. Honestly, I
agree with him. SpinRite is a niche product, plain and simple. It is not for
the run-of-the-mill average desktop computer owner. It is fine for techie
geeks, which are still in a small minority in the vast galaxy that is the
computer business.

Zone Alarm is not Steve's... Ben Myers


On Mon, 21 Jul 2008 09:38:00 -0700 (PDT), wrote:
SNIP

First of all...I never said "money grubber".
I believe spinrite should be more available at a reasonable cost.
I once emailed Mr. Gibson and said if he made spinrite's price more
affordable he would make up his profit on volume of sales. (no reply)
I also do not care for Zone Alarm.

"JayB" wrote in message
...
perhaps he confused Steve Gibson with Peter Norton.
that's the first thing that came to my mind when i read it.




Is that the same guy who has a software removal tool with his name on it?




heh

On Mon, 21 Jul 2008 10:09:11 -0400, Ben Myers
wrote:

I, too, was taking exception to the OP's statement. Let me pour more gasoline
on this fire. I do not know which of Steve Gibson's "other" products give the
OP heartburn. I went to Steve's web site again. At least nowadays, Steve has
exactly one commercial product available: SpinRite. He provides a lot of free
and handy-dandy tools to assess computer and network security. He undoubtedly
sells his services and those of his employees. This is hardly the profile of a
company or person who rips people off by selling shoddy software at a high
price.


Frankly I have a hard time believing any author is a money grubber if
his/her software has been around so long and has out lasted a lot of
the competition as is the case of Spinrite. I've been around the pc
world for about 21 years (actually more) and the internet almost from
when "Al Gore" invented the internet (I ran a bbs prior) and I can
recall Spinrite almost that far back... certainly long before XP.
And you are right, Steve does offer free software on his site. In
fact I forgot which but one caught my eye (I think it is a newer
software of his).

On Mon, 21 Jul 2008 09:59:12 -0500, journey wrote:

On Mon, 21 Jul 2008 10:57:58 +1200, Tom Cole
wrote:

On Sun, 20 Jul 2008 14:52:16 -0500, journey wrote:

On Sun, 20 Jul 2008 14:09:11 -0500, RnR wrote:

On Sun, 20 Jul 2008 05:37:36 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

On Jul 19, 3:46*pm, Ben Myers
wrote:
Got an email back from Steve Gibson. *He said that his SpinRite page now has a
correct spelling for my name. *It does... Ben

On Fri, 18 Jul 2008 03:40:34 -0700 (PDT), wrote:
Can't Gibson Research spell...or is this a different Ben M. ?

http://www.grc.com/spinrite.htm

p_z

He must read here...Steve, your products are bloated and expensive.

I use Avast and Kerio's free firewall. I wouldn't consider buying from
anyone as money oriented as you.

Spinrite isn't a firewall or virus checker. Its a hard drive
diagnostic and it's been around for ages so I know it's tried and
tested. I agree on the surface it's expensive but considering what it
does and how long it's been around, it might be worth every penny.
I believe those in the business use this software as one of their
tools.

I'd like to try SpinRite's post-disaster recovery on my Maxtor drive
that went bad, but there doesn't seem to be a trial version. I don't
mind shelling out money for good software but the price is a little
steep for me considering I can't check it out first. Maybe there is a
trial someplace and I'm just missing it.

There's not a trial version, but Steve Gibson offers a 30 day
no-questions-asked money back guarantee. See
http://www.grc.com/sr/faq.htm "Why is there no trial demonstration for
SpinRite?"

Thanks Tom and RnR for pointing out the 30 day money back guarantee. I
would like to try it on my Maxtor drive that had the problems. Usually
I e-mail the developer and ask for a free or reduced license in
exchange for an honest review, and I have been granted a lot of free
licenses from that and also for being one of the most active beta
testers of some programs. Before trying SpinRite with the money back
guarantee I have to be clear with myself that I intend on keeping the
product if I find it to be of value. Considering that I have about
8-10 other external drives that are showing their age it might
worthwhile to have SpinRite esp. since it seems highly regarded.

Journey, You should be aware that because SpinRite is a DOS application,
it does *not* work well with external drives (e.g. USB or FireWire
connected). You should be prepared to remove the drive from the
enclosure and connect it directly to a motherboard or HD controller
board for best (fastest) results.

On Mon, 21 Jul 2008 09:59:12 -0500, journey wrote:

On Mon, 21 Jul 2008 10:57:58 +1200, Tom Cole
wrote:

On Sun, 20 Jul 2008 14:52:16 -0500, journey wrote:

On Sun, 20 Jul 2008 14:09:11 -0500, RnR wrote:

On Sun, 20 Jul 2008 05:37:36 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

On Jul 19, 3:46*pm, Ben Myers
wrote:
Got an email back from Steve Gibson. *He said that his SpinRite page now has a
correct spelling for my name. *It does... Ben

On Fri, 18 Jul 2008 03:40:34 -0700 (PDT), wrote:
Can't Gibson Research spell...or is this a different Ben M. ?

http://www.grc.com/spinrite.htm

p_z

He must read here...Steve, your products are bloated and expensive.

I use Avast and Kerio's free firewall. I wouldn't consider buying from
anyone as money oriented as you.

Spinrite isn't a firewall or virus checker. Its a hard drive
diagnostic and it's been around for ages so I know it's tried and
tested. I agree on the surface it's expensive but considering what it
does and how long it's been around, it might be worth every penny.
I believe those in the business use this software as one of their
tools.

I'd like to try SpinRite's post-disaster recovery on my Maxtor drive
that went bad, but there doesn't seem to be a trial version. I don't
mind shelling out money for good software but the price is a little
steep for me considering I can't check it out first. Maybe there is a
trial someplace and I'm just missing it.

There's not a trial version, but Steve Gibson offers a 30 day
no-questions-asked money back guarantee. See
http://www.grc.com/sr/faq.htm "Why is there no trial demonstration for
SpinRite?"

Thanks Tom and RnR for pointing out the 30 day money back guarantee. I
would like to try it on my Maxtor drive that had the problems. Usually
I e-mail the developer and ask for a free or reduced license in
exchange for an honest review, and I have been granted a lot of free
licenses from that and also for being one of the most active beta
testers of some programs. Before trying SpinRite with the money back
guarantee I have to be clear with myself that I intend on keeping the
product if I find it to be of value. Considering that I have about
8-10 other external drives that are showing their age it might
worthwhile to have SpinRite esp. since it seems highly regarded.


Honestly I can't think of many that have been around as long. Perhaps
there are but regardless Spinrite is a valuable tool and if you
consider what recovery firms charge to recover your data, Spinrite is
a bargain g. Of course if you back up "often" then perhaps
Spinrite isn't necessary????

---- but maybe I should consider it for my new pc business because
lately I'm in the pc repair/improvement business thanks to my
inlaws... I never realized how valuable my pc knowledge is ...
REALLY but I won't make any money because I spend too much time
tweaking after the fix :-(

On Mon, 21 Jul 2008 09:38:00 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

On Jul 20, 11:03*pm, RnR wrote:
On Sun, 20 Jul 2008 22:23:07 -0400, Ben Myers



wrote:
On Sun, 20 Jul 2008 17:42:43 -0500, RnR wrote:

On Sun, 20 Jul 2008 14:10:49 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

SNIP
My point was...I don't use (and avoid) *Gibson's products and gave
examples of such.

Ok very bad example. *You picked on the wrong title which weakened
your arguement considerably. *The reason for this is Spinrite has been
around for ages (not many other software can claim this) and it is
specialty type software. *What I mean is most people won't know how to
use it nor need it very often but if you consider what it can do and
what is your data worth to you, you might understand. * I won't argue
about other Gibson products due to my lack of knowledge on them but
next time you should be more careful for software examples. *Of all
software, you picked on the wrong one g * but your point is noted.
Personally I'd like to see a demo version but he addresses this on his
site and his counter is a 30 day money back guarantee so I guess you
could buy it and try it and if it doesn't work, in theory get your
money back.

Sheesh! *Steve Gibson is not more of a money grubber than the rest of us. *And
certainly a small enough operation so as not to be placed in the same category
as McAfee or Symantec, who happily take your money when you order, pay and
download their product and who do not respond to your requests for help when the
installation of the product you just bought fails and falls on its head. *For
this reason, I absolutely cannot recommend buying anything but the store-bought
versions of their products. * Whether to even use their products or not is a
whole 'nother thread, the likes of which I have seen many times before.

SpinRite sure has been around for ages. *Not quite as long as me, but mid-90s
says that it has legs... Ben Myers

Ben, *I didn't say he was a money grubber. *That was the OP. * I tried
to explain the pricing for Spinrite to the OP. * Perhaps the only
thing I said less complimentary was I wish Gibson had a demo version
or such but I did explain why he does not. *I understand both points
of view. * I'm not about to say anything negative about a product that
has stood the test of time. * I hope you didn't take me to call Steve
Gibson a money grubber because nothing could be further from the
truth. *

First of all...I never said "money grubber".
I believe spinrite should be more available at a reasonable cost.
I once emailed Mr. Gibson and said if he made spinrite's price more
affordable he would make up his profit on volume of sales. (no reply)
I also do not care for Zone Alarm.


Right, you said his "products are bloated and expensive" so those
words were paraphrased as "money grubber" ? Do you know what data
recovery costs today vs. the cost of Spinrite ? As I said before,
you picked a poor choice of software to make your argument... actually
VERY POOR choice of software would be a better description.

disclaimer: I have no connection to Steve Gibson or his software.

On Mon, 21 Jul 2008 13:52:17 -0500, "S.Lewis"
wrote:


"JayB" wrote in message
...
perhaps he confused Steve Gibson with Peter Norton.
that's the first thing that came to my mind when i read it.




Is that the same guy who has a software removal tool with his name on it?



Yes and an excellent point. I doubt I would have objected if he used
Norton as his example.

Speaking of the removal tool.... I had to remove Norton Internet
Security today at my sisterinlaw's pc and even with a good uninstaller
(goes into registry) the thing had to have the removal tool to get all
the registry entries out. What bs but luckily I knew immediately
what to do when I saw the uninstaller didn't do the job completely.