Buds Biased Utils Report, 11

Bud's Biased Utils Report #11 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Damnit. I'm running late. Again. I used to be so good at this, everything was typed up way ahead of time. Hell I was one of the FEW things in NWR actually done before the very last second possible. Let me give you some advice. And trust me on this. Call your parents. Call them often. At least once a week, maybe twice. Talk to them. I know it's going to hurt, but if you don't they're going to complain. They're going to complain you never call. They're going to complain they never hear from you. And then the inevidable will happen - they're going to want to see you. And then you'll be stuck - no simple phone call will get you out of it. You're going to have to sit down and spend time with them. Experience the joy of listening to rambling stories that don't seem to have any point to them. And unlike the telephone, you can't just feign some interest and ignore most of it. Yeah, I know what you're thinking, and YES I have a point. Because I'm stuck visiting my folks, and thats why this is late. I'm also stuck on my old 486, which doesn't even have enough room to run Word. So anyways I'm kind of fustrated (I love my parents but they are damn ANNOYING at times), and the math you see below is last minute math from an Arts student... so if I fucked anything up my apologies in advance. Alright. My rambling is over with. Fifty percent of you probably skipped it anyways.. for the rest... HAHA! <g>. Anyhow it's report #11 for me, which means all groups which I've reviewed since report #1 have a score out of one hundred, once you discount Report #9 which was guest authors. So we're going to take a look back and see how each group has faired over the past few months since I started doing this report. I'll total it out of 100, give my views, etc. This weeks score is included in that total btw. NOTE: I've left out groups who have been added since the start of the report. That means quite a few - TRPS, SCUM, VRS, MFD, SDM, etc won't be one here. Entity is now defunct so it's missing as well. Premiere is missing as their comeback added them to the report late. Disclaimer: It's BIASED moron. My opinion. So don't send me a bunch of mail & messages bitching about this or that. If you don't like it... SCREW YOU =] Rankings: Groups get a score out of 10. Points are given for amount of releases, but QUALITY titles will give a group a much higher score. Nukes for duping, broken releases and just plain CRAP will lower a groups score. However on the occasion that a title is nuked which I don't feel should have been, MY OWN JUDGEMENT TAKES PRECEDENCE. Cuz I'm writing this. Groups can also get points for any other reason I see fit. Week: Week is based from 02/14/99 to 02/20/99. I'm in the EST time zone so dates/times run according to it. Groups: (In no particular order) ▄ ▀▀██▄ ▄ ▄ ▄ ▀█▄ ▀█▌▀█▄ ▐ ▄█▀ ▄▄██▌ A Group ▐█▌ ▐▌ ▐█ █▌▐█▌ ▄█▀ █ That Gives ▄██▌▄▀ ▄██▌▀██▌ ██ ▐▌ Slightly ▀███ ▀███ ▀█ ▐███▄▄ █ Less Than ▐█▌ ▐█▌ ▐▌ ▀██▀ ▀▄ A Fuck. ▀ ▀ ▀ ▀ -XeN PIRATES WITH ATTITUDE: Releases: CodeSoft_4_10_B_CRACKED-PWA Intergraph.Geomedia.WebMap.02.00.05.00-PWA Intergraph.Geomedia.WebMap.02.00.05.00-PWA Intergraph.InRoads.Survey.07.01.03.00-PWA Intergraph.InterPlot.Digital.Print.Room.09.00.01.07.for.NT-PWA Intergraph.Image.Scape.Edit.02.00.00.00-PWA CheckPoint_firewall_V4.0_Win9x_NT-PWA Intergraph.InterPlot.Client.09.00.01.07.for.NT.9x-PWA More activity via intergraph releases this week, also a dongle crack in CodeSoft. CheckPoint Firewall is a top-notch app.. hmm not much else to say, I don't actually use any of this stuff. Their total score suprised me, and it isn't reflective of their quality... idle periods hurt their total. But remember that these totals don't mean all that much. Total: 7/10 Total to date: 43/100 ▄───── ▄▄▄ ────────── ▄▄█▓▄ ─── ▄ ─ ▄▓▄ ░ ▀ ▄█████▓ ▄▄███▄ ▄▀▀████▌ ▄█████▄ ▀ ▓███▀ ▀▄██████▄▀█▌ ▐████▐▓▀ ▀███▓ ▓███▌ ▐▓█▀ ▀██▌▐▓ ▀ ▀▓▀▓▌ ▐███▌ ▐█████▄▄▀ ▀█▄ ▄▓█▓ █▓▄ █▌▀▄▄████▓ ▀██▓▀▀ ▀ ▀▀▀▀ ▀ ■▄ ▐▓ ▀▀▓█▀ ■▄──────+ The Corporation +─ ▀▄ ─gas!─■ THE CORPORATION: Releases: Dialogic.T1.Spy.for.CT.Media.Server-CORP TreeViewX.v3.0-CORP MyrmecoX.v2.0-CORP WinX.Component.Library-CORP Meeting.Room.Manager.98-CORP Sybase.PowerDesigner.v.6.1.WarehouseArchitect-CORP Sybase.PowerDesigner.v.6.1.ProcessAnalyst-CORP Dialogic.BoardWatch.SNMP.v2.0.NT-CORP Dialogic.System.Software.and.SDK.v2.0.NT-CORP Pantone.Colordrive.v.1.5-CORP Another fairly impressive week for CORP. Argue if you want that a lot of their releases come off the web, the end user doesn't give a shit, and neither do I. Good work with the Protoview and Dialogic stuff. Big news for CORP this week is an alliance between them and UCF. Even if UCF is not as strong as it's former self, this can only help CORP, taking the pressure off its own crackers. Should equal more releases, we shall see. Total: 8/10 Total to date: 72/100 . )\_______)\__)\_______)\_______ . . __/ __ _/ _/ ____/ ___/ . . \__ / _\ \_____ \ ___/__ : . :/ \ \ / \ / \| : |\___/ /___/_____ /___ /| : | \_/_____/\____ /_____/___/_____/ | :...`---\_____\/----/_flr_/---/_p^D_/--' RISE: Releases: VIRTUAL.GIBBS.V5.05.FINAL.CRACKED-RiSE KODAK.PICTURE.EASY.v3.1-RiSE Two good releases from RISE this week, although with all their recent additions I was hoping for a bit more. Still, nice titles, Picture Easy is more to my taste.... as for the total to date, again with RISE some idle periods hurt, but that doesn't reflect the overall quality of the group, which is one of the best in the scene. Total: 7/10 Total to date: 59/100 ▄██▀███▀▀ ▀ ▄█ ┌- ▓██ ▀▀ ▀▀▀ ────-──-─-─ ▀▀▀ -──-──-──┐ : ▀▀▀██▄▀███▀▀▀▀▀██▄ ▄██▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀██▄ ░│ ▀▀███▓ ███ ███ ▓██ ███ ███ ▓██ ▓██ ███ ░: : ███ ███ ███ ███▀▀▀ ▓██ ███ ███▀▀▀ . │░ ███ ██▓ ██▓ ███ ██▓ ███ ███ ███ ▓███▀▀ : ▓██▄██▀▄███▄▀██▄███ ▀██▄███ ███ ███ : ▄ ▄▄ ▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄ roy███ ███ ███ ─┘ ▀▄ ███ ███ ██▓ ▀▄ ███ ▀▀▀▀▀▀ ▀██▓ ▀█ SIEGE: Releases: PANOPTICUM.FIRE.V1.0.FOR.ADOBE.PHOTOSHOP-SiEGE BENTLEY.SELECT.SERVER.V07.00.00.19-SiEGE BENTLEY.MODEL.SERVER.PUBLISHER.VIEWER.APPLETS.V01.00.01.11-SiEGE WEB.TRENDS.PRO.SUITE.V3.0A-SiEGE DIGIMATION.GROW.V1.30D.FOR.3DSMAX.FIX-SiEGE AUTODESK.SURVEY.FOR.LAND.DEVELOPMENT.DESKTOP-SiEGE AUTODESK.CIVIL.DESIGN.FOR.LAND.DEVELOPMENT.DESKTOP-SiEGE AUTODESK.AUTOCAD.LAND.DEVELOPMENT.DESKTOP-SiEGE ARCHER.ANIMATION.PRODUCTION.SYSTEM.V1.0-SiEGE VIDEO.FINESSE.V1.01.FOR.ADOBE.PREMIERE-SiEGE DIGIMATION.DIGIPEOPLE.V1.01D.CRACK.FIX-SiEGE Another week with SGE dominating the arts applications. Two fixes for Weapon rel's of Digimation stuff will solve headaches for some people. It is nice to see something other than art this week, including some CAD titles from Autodesk (SGE has always excelled at CAD apps), Bentley titles, and Webtrends Pro Suite. With the movements of RISE and CORP recently, SGE is definately going to need to step up competition with these sorts of apps to remain dominant, and this week they've suceeded. Total: 8/10 Total to date: 76/100 ──────────────────────────────────[XX/XX]─ ▄██ ▄▄▄ ░ ▄▄▄▄▄▄ ▄▄▄▄ ▄▄▄▄▄▄ ▄▄▄▄ ▄▄▄▄ █▓█ █▓█ ▒ ██▀ █▓█ █ █▓█ ██ █▓█ █ ███ ██ █▓ █▒█ █▒█ █░█ ▀▀ ▄█ █▒█ ██ █▒█ █ ▄▄▄ ██▄▄ ▄██▀██▄ ▀ █▒█▀▀▀ ██ █░█ ██ ▄▄█ █▓█ ██ ▄▄ █▒█ █▓█ ▓ █▓█ ░ █▓█ █░█ ██ ░ █▓█ █▒█ ██ █▓ ███ █▒█ ▒ ███ ▬▀█████▀▄██ ▒ ▀█████▀ ▀████ ─── ██▀ ░ ──────────────── ▓ ───── sikos ─ X-FORCE: Releases: C-FORGE_V1.1-12_COMMERCIAL_FOR_LINUX-XFORCE ORACLE_WEBDB_BETA2-XFORCE Linux... well I can't test it so no points, I do realize many scene members (and most sites, at least those worth mentioning) run it... and a beta. Yay. What else can I say but fallen dynasty? Despite my jokes about ClipForce and such, many of us remember a time when XF dominated the art scene, and much of the utils scene in general. Alas, that is no more. They've passed the art torch over to SGE, and are now pretty much stuck on life support. Don't expect to see a resurgance any time soon, save some kind of miracle. Total: 1/10 Total to date: 40/100 /\______/| ___/\_ _/ ______ :|; . __/\ ____/\ __| // %%%\____ \ |__:_\__ \/ ~~ :\_ | __/%%%% iii_/ :| \\_ \ ;| \_ |____/ \iiiii :::\__ ; _/ | \\_ : // | \\_ | \\_::: \____/---|____/____/_______/-|____/kaz SHOCK: Releases: IRIS.Antivirus.Plus.v22.17-SHOCK Scan.Shop.v1.1.6-SHOCK Report.Shop.v1.1.6-SHOCK Math.h.Plus.Plus.v6.1.6-SHOCK Internet.Design.Shop.98.Gold.v4.20-SHOCK IRIS.Macro.Defender.v1.0-SHOCK Form.Shop.v1.1.6-SHOCK XBuilder.v2.0-SHOCK Genuine.Fractals.v2.0-SHOCK Genuine.Fractals.PrintPro.v1.0-SHOCK Vertigo.QuickSpace.v1.3.1.for.PhotoShop-SHOCK Day.Timer.Organizer.2000.v4.0.04.Network.Edition-SHOCK ClearFax.Universal.v1.3-SHOCK BullsEye.Pro.v1.5b-SHOCK ACE.Structural.Max.Pack.v1.98.for.AutoCAD-SHOCK ACE.Industrial.Max.Pack.v1.98.for.FastCAD-SHOCK ACE.Hatch.Plus.v1.98.for.FelixCAD-SHOCK ACE.House.Exteriors.v1.98.for.DynaCADD.REPACK-SHOCK ACE.Details.Galore.v1.98.for.Visio.IntelliCAD-SHOCK Palladio.X.v2.2-SHOCK DynaCADD.98-SHOCK SHK gets into a few areas they aren't normally active in this past week. They put out some entries into the CAD field with Ditek's DynaCADD, as well as Palladio X, and some little plugins from cADD-ONs Inc. Only DynaCADD really stands out amongst their CAD enteries... we also saw a bit of stuff for Photoshop, a little less suprising but still not normally a strong point for this team... could be some more of this stuff in the future. Total: 7/10 Total to date: 69/100 . ▄▄▄ ▄▄▄ ▄▄▄ .▀████▀▀▀██▄ ████▀▀██▌▐██▀▀▀▀ --- .------. : ████ ███ ▐███ ███ . | ████ ▐███ ███▀ ███ : | ████ ███ ▐███ ▄███ ███▄ . : | ████▀▀▀▀▀ ██▓█ ▀███▄▄██▓▀ . .▄▓███▄ ▀███▌ ▀▀ PRESENTS : | : : [xx/xx]. '---.-------PENTIUM FORCE TEAM-- ---- - -' PENTIUM FORCE TEAM: Releases: Micropath.2000.v5.0.18.Beta-PFT DBA.Advantage.1.30-PFT Word.Magic.Tools.Professional.1.15-PFT StarTeam.Virtual.Team.Server.3.02.SR1-PFT StarTeam.Professional.3.02.SR1-PFT Actuate.Report.Server.v3.2.2.for.WinNT-PFT Actuate.Developers.Workbench.v3.2.2-PFT ColdFusion.Server.Enterprise.4.01.Beta.3-PFT Loadrunner.5.01-PFT Industrial.Automation.Servers.1.1.with.OPC.2.1-PFT ProClarity.1.0.v4.0-PFT DataSocket.2.1.ActiveX.Control.1.0-PFT Asymetrix.Librarian.6.1.WinNT-PFT OnTime.Enterprise_4.66.WinNT-PFT Ascent.Storage.4.11.017.WinNT-PFT Lookout.3.8-PFT HiQ.4.1-PFT Virtual.Bench.Suite.2.1.2-PFT Robo.Help.HTML.Edition.7.0-PFT Network.Informant.2.1-PFT Service.IT.4.31.Workgroup.Edition.Fix-PFT Service.IT.4.31.Workgroup.Edition-PFT AimIT.3.0.Workgroup.Edition-PFT ControlIT.4.5.Workgrop.Edition-PFT Another big release megs wise, so-so release wise. A few Starbase apps, more beta software from Allaire, not bad. ServieIT, AimIT and ControlIT are nice titles, they've been available retail for a little while now... Due to my "vacation" of sorts I didn't get to check out as much as I would have liked, but what I did look over gave a good impression. Total: 8/10 Total to date: 71/100 ▄ ▄ ▄ ▄ ▄▄▓▀▀ ▄ ▄▄█▀▀██▓▄ ▄▄▄█▀▀▓▄▄ ▄▄▄▄▄ ▄▄▄▄▄ ▐██▓▌ ▄▄▄▄ ▐█▓█ ▐▓██▌ ▐▓██▌ ███▓ ▓██▌ ███▓ ▓██ ▓▄ ▓██▌ ███▓ ▓██▌ ▐██▓▌ ▐██▓ ▐█▓▌▐██▓ ██▓▌▐███▓ ████▓ ▀▀▀▀ ███▓ ██▓ ▐█▓█ ▀▀▀▀▀ ▄██▓▀ mg ▀ ▀▀▀▀████▓▌ ▀▀ ██▓▀ ▀ ▀▀▀▀▀▀ ▀ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ ▀▀▓▀ ▀ ▀▀ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ ▀ :: <LEGENDS NEVER DiE> ::: <o4 * 2880> :: ▄ ▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄ ▄ LEGENDS NEVER DIE: Releases: BORLAND.C.PLUS.PLUS.BUILDER.v4.0.PROFESSIONAL-LND INFORMIX_DYNAMIC_SERVER_7.30_TC7_WORKGROUP-LND MECHSOFT_PROFI_V6.2_AUTOCAD_R14-LND INFORMIX_DYNAMIC_SERVER_7.30_TC7_STANDARD-LND AUTODESK_MAPGUIDE_SERVER_4.0-LND PTC_PRO_3DPAINT_RELEASE_20-LND PTC_PRO_PLASTIC_ADVISOR_CRACKFIX-LND ARCHICAD_V6.0_TEAMWORK_EDITION_RELEASE_2-LND PTC_PRO_FLY-THROUGH_RELEASE_20-LND VOICE.XPRESS.ADVANCED.V2.0-LND DEPTH.OF.FIELD.PRO.V1.20.3DSMAX.PLUGIN-LND MICROSOFT.MONEY.99.PERSONAL.AND.BUSINESS-LND ZEMAX_OPTICAL_DESIGN_V7.2-LND Here's where I have my fun. Right off the bat, I have to say good work on CPP Builder 4. There's no denying that it's a great title, and several groups were going after it. Some other nice stuff as well... Autodesk MapGuide server being one. Now on the down side... a FIX for PLASTIC ADVISOR?!? You couldn't even make that crap work in the first place??? What WERE you thinking!!?? This week also saw the usual selection of of ripped ISO's and borrowed work from LND... now I don't really care about stolen serials anymore, simply because I don't really care about LND as a group anymore... no one really takes them seriously, Grad doesn't even seem to. So the Informix titles.. yer wolcome guys. :) The best thing here is Voice Xpress Advanced 2.0, which they ripped from RBSiSO - now if you remember, LND also released Voice Xpress Pro 2.02, which was also ripped from an ISO. If LND had of bothered researching these titles they would have noticed ADVANCED is the same as PRO, only PRO has MORE FEATURES! So way to go LND, you basically just duped yourselves. The quality here is just amazing! <G> Even not giving points for the usual amount of CRAP with an -LND tag on it, they still had a good week. Grad's had some idea about going ISO only, so who knows where the group will go in the future... but if they go ISO only, we'll miss all those ISO rips!! Noooo!! ;) Total: 7/10 Total to date: 59/100 .__________. [xx/xx/98] \_ ___ ) Da ToP oF Da LiNe! .___. ===/ _/ /=======================/ /===== .:/ _____/__./(___.____/\.______./ /_____. :/ /__/ . ) . )____ ) _ ) / __ ) /__/ / / / / // __ / /__/ / /___/: .:/ /__/__/__/__/(______\____ /__/_____ /MO =/__/========================\/========\/=== = THE PINNACLES OF RELEASING (C) PNC 95-98 = PINNACLE: Releases: ConfigSafe.v2.0.NetWork.Edition-PNC RingCentral.Fax.v4.4-PNC RoboHelp.Office.7.00.139-PNC Vantive.Client.v1.0-PNC Actuate.Administrator.Desktop.v3.2.1-PNC Crosstie.v2.02.02-PNC Oracle.RDB.WebAgent.v3.0.WinNT-PNC ETABS.v6.22.5.Suite-PNC Impact.Fax.Broadcast.v2.10-PNC Impact.Fax.Pro.v3.16-PNC Hmmm time to get me a new PNC diz, since it's 99 now. ;P Well PNC has gone from nearly dead to a steady releasing team, with Kirk Hammit currently at the helm while Zima Man gets some shit together or something like that. This week saw some more of Black Ice's Impact Fax series (which I personally think sucks), a minor version of RoboHelp Office... nicest thing here is ConfigSafe 2, which is on my waiting list under stuff to test... but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt on it till I get the chance. _______________ ____________ ____________ \_ ___ \_ ___ \ ___ \_ _/ l/ / l/ / l/ / \______ / / / /____ / /| ======\________/\__________/[om]\________/== d(*)d D r i n k O r D i e 1 9 9 8 d(*)d ===================== [ DOD * xx-xxx-98 ] == DRINK OR DIE: Releases: BestCrypt.v6.06-DOD DOD is one of my favorite groups, I've said that over and over... they are kinda idle here, but thats alright. There's a big difference between DOD idle, and say, XF idle. When DOD releases, it's still good quality mainstream apps. And while I recognize the importance of specialization, my own personal bias drives my preferences, and that seems to frequently bring me to titles DOD have put out. Still, a couple weeks of no releasing hurt DOD, as they scored no points for two consecutive weeks. Total: 2/10 Total to date: 44/100 _______________________________[xx/xx] \_ _ \_ ____/_ _ \_ ____/ |_\ ___/ / _/ ___)/ _/ ___) | \___ \ / | \_ | \ | \ | \ : \ : \ \___| /___ \____ \___ \___ \___ \ ====|__/===\__/===\__/==\__/==\__/==\__/ REBELS: WE MAKE ALL DAYS PARTY DAYS >> RELEASING WITHOUT PERMISSION << REBELS: Releases: Turbo.Tourney.4.0-RBS Wedding.Magic.v3.0.7-RBS Sniffer.Pro.v2.5.FINAL-RBS WhereIsIt.v2.00.B2.CRACKED-RBS Adobe.Acrobat.Exchange_4.0.BETA4-RBS OMNICRACK_RELEASE_22-RBS Electronic_Assistant_Pro_v2.5-RBS Here we are, the final group who has been on the list since the very beginning. This is more the type of week I expect from RBS, although I could have done without the Wedding app. Still a nice week, some good titles... what more can ya want? :) Total: 7/10 Total to date: 54/100 Quote of the Week: <[grind]> i will rape myself Jeez Grind is just FULL of great quotes :) Oh yeah no disk count on titles since I got lazy (lazier). Now for my breakdown on the scores. For the week, PFT and SGE took top marks, but other groups were missing, such as PRM, TRPS, MFD, etc, in order to keep the workload down, as well as to keep some continuity. The Total to date scores should be taken with a grain of salt. There's no doubt however that the over 70 category represents three of the top groups in the utils scene today. They got high marks through consistancy and good quality. Still, groups such as RISE and DOD wind up with lower scores even though there's no doubt that they are just as formidable. Being a weekly report, and seeing that only 10 weeks of scoring are compiled here, results in some variance as to what groups are actually worth... besides which, scores don't mean all that much if a few weeks from now someone does Win2k Final or something... let the releases speak for themselves. But have fun! Next week some new groups may find themselves on the list. Not too sure. Whatever... I'm done here for this week. On a final note, ripping Dennis Leary, cuz I just had this conversation online a few minutes ago.... why the FUCK can't I get a cup of coffee flavoured coffee anymore? And what the FUCK is "Royal Blend" flavour... to the assholes at Second Cup Canada... FUCK YOU! Bring back normal coffee, and sell some normal fucking donuts. - Bud