The unofficial Shadow Defender Support Thread.

The unofficial Shadow Defender Support Thread

Tony has been missing in action...

 

I've often thought that the issues might be "political" as well as "personal" but I just don't know! because I have not been able to have a meaningful conversation with Tony about it and without asking a direct question (which I regard as rude and "risky" because of our cultural and language differences, perspectives and understandings). I don't want to appear accusative, patronizing or overly critical and particularly when I know Tony is a one person developer and is probably very busy.
This "impasse" is a major problem though in the successful development of Shadow Defender and without continuity of communication "threads", the software is diminished. I've expressed my thoughts about this to Tony in depth but didn't really receive a satisfactory reply, just an explanation about the language problems etc.
Maybe basic meaningful support is there and that this is Tony's limit of expression and possibly my own communications are "too much" to deal with in a satisfactory manner for him.
Imagine (If you are not Chinese) developing a new complex, state of the art software, then going into a busy Chinese forum and conversing deeply about it when you are not conversant with that language or culture. It doesn't make the software code that you are holding in your hand less valid but the difficulty in communication will slow down or maybe even stop the development of that software code-wise and as a marketable product because some things (that are not in the code) are missing. What is absolutely necessary is the developers fluid, transparent, communication with the user-ship and potential user-ship which will feedback into the development of the product, which then will lead on to user confidence and support, and (if it is a great software) success both financially and personally, for the developer.
Without these essential components users ability to bond with the developer/development is hindered and therefore the marketable potential that the code has is not realized and the whole project may be damaged by that missing aspect.
I cite Ronen Tzur and Sandboxie as a model of good developer/development.
Communication, transparency and fluidity of development/communication is essential in the development of security software which will be successful, have a large active following and a good market.

Patrick (ex Shadow Defender forum global moderator)

 

sdmod, all of those points are so on the mark. The way I see it, considering that several of us have received email replies from Tony over the past two months (if not the past two weeks), there is that potential for support and future development which not too long ago we thought was gone for good.

TS

 

Don't any of you guys have a friend or a friend of friend who is chinese and in IT? What we need is a chinese conversant with IT security who can act as a go between. Surely between us we can find someone. Even a student at university. Buy him a copy of Shadow defender to familiarize himself and then get him to liase with tony. Worth a thought.

 

I wrote to Shadow Defender support email 2 days ago with a "problem" with the software and got a reply from a Tony asking what the problem was. Don't know if it's the same Tony or not

 

Thank you for the update dtexas, it's good to know that someone is still there offering support. I hope they're busy working on an SSD compatible version as promised!

 

Second email from "Tony" He said that a version is under development for Win 8 and SSD. Who knows what the real story is. Maybe all is alright with SD

 

It almost makes me wanna hope again!

 

We got to believe! After a year of desperately searching for (and trying) many 'SD alternatives' I just haven't been able to find anything out there that (imho) is anywhere near as good. I even tried SandboxIE and while it's a very cool app I much prefer SD's operation, convenience, and overall system responsiveness.

TS

 

With supposably the real "Tony" back in action, working on a new version of Shadow Defender and answering e-mails
I just wish he could log into "Wilders" and make a statement (post) about the future of SD as well as a brief explanation
of his disappearance/lack of communication for so long. Just would make me feel a whole lot better about the situation.

 

+1+1+1+1+1

I heard of something like this a while back, when I was searching for traces of Tony within Chinese forums. Obviously it has never been verified one way or another. People just love rumours though.

Judging from his length of absence he could have been in jail after all. This could explain his evident reluctance to come forward and explain what has happened durin the last 2.5 years.

Where Tony and SD is concerned I don't know what to think or believe anymore...

 

Kudos to you sir

 

Thanks!

 

Re the lack of any posting on Wilders by Tony, I have been informed (by someone who frequently travels to China) that there is selective internet censorship by the Peoples Republic of China! So that may have a bearing on this issue (as well as his non-responsiveness to some email contact attempts while others continue to receive email replies from him).

TS

Edit: Being curious as to how the PROC controls internet access, I found the following article which may be of interest to some of you... -http://uncut.indexoncensorship.org/2012/08/china-internet-censorship/-

 

I enabled password control in SD version 1.1.0.325.Even i if type the correct password,randomly it says invalid password.Has anyone experienced this?

 

What a funny thing! Oh, You believe in such a funny thing. Just check the WS forum please. So many employees from Qihoo, Kingsoft, Tencent made post in this forum every day.

Do u think the guys from Kingsoft PC doctor made their post from US? LOL

 

I need a link to 1.1.0.325 64 bit.

TIA

 

I suggest that you look here
and here

Please excuse google translation

 

http://www.mediafire.com/?k803c8qk739fy2o

 

I must say, i 've been using version .131 for some days now and it's been perfectly stable. Very pleased...

Anyway, it could be worse than Tony disappearing. Imagine if SD had online activation and together with Tony, the activation server disappeared too! God how i hate online activations. Thank God SD has offline!

 

Amen to that.

 

Just a question, can i run SD on Win8 x64? anyone tried already?

 

I tried in my computer (Win8 RP x32) both .325 and 331 versions and the external devices aren't recognized.

The error shown in device manager is: "Windows cannot load the device driver for this hardware because a previous instance of the device driver is still in memory. (Code 38 )

 

ok thanks for the info

 

Not working.....I still need a link.

TIA