John Mauldin writes about an intriguing new book by his friend Andy Kessler called The End of Medicine, subtitled "How Silicon Valley (and Naked Mice) Will Reboot Your Doctor."
What happens when you go to the doctor today? He uses a stethoscope to listen to your heart, looks down your throat and ears, and asks you questions. These were all 19th-century technologies, with some minor updates. X-rays? 80 years or more ago.
Medicine today is focused on fixing what ails you. If you have heart problems, let's put in a stent or repair a valve. Lipitor to help control your cholesterol. Chemotherapy to deal with your cancer, if we can't cut it out.
In short, we spend $1.5 trillion just in the US on trying to fix what goes wrong, and precious little on preventing things from going wrong. Health-conscious people try to eat right, exercise, take supplements, have regular check-ups, and avoid things that are bad for us; but if there is a problem, we go to the doctor to get it fixed.
That is going to change, and it is going to change at an even faster pace than did our cellular phone service. It will come one innovation, one small step at a time; but in 10 years, 15 at the outside, we will be more focused on preventing illness than fixing it.
Your front-line doctor is going to be displaced by technology. It is going to be one of the most massive disruptions in history.
Thursday, July 27, 2006
UFOs at NASA?
The search for proof of the existence of UFOs landed Gary McKinnon in a world of trouble.
After allegedly hacking into NASA websites -- where he says he found images of what looked like extraterrestrial spaceships -- the 40-year-old Briton faces extradition to the United States from his North London home. If convicted, McKinnon could receive a 70-year prison term and up to $2 million in fines.
[from frwr-news, 7/15/06]
After allegedly hacking into NASA websites -- where he says he found images of what looked like extraterrestrial spaceships -- the 40-year-old Briton faces extradition to the United States from his North London home. If convicted, McKinnon could receive a 70-year prison term and up to $2 million in fines.
[from frwr-news, 7/15/06]
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
put your unused computer time to use
Researcher David Baker believes the key to an AIDS vaccine or a cure for cancer may be that old PC sitting under a layer of dust in your closet or the one on your desk doing little else but running a screen saver. Those outdated or idle computers may be just what Baker needs to turn his ideas into scientific breakthroughs.
Baker, 43, a professor of biochemistry at the University of Washington, realized about two years ago that he didn't have access to the computing horsepower needed for his research — nor the money to buy time on supercomputers elsewhere.
So he turned to the kindness — and the computers — of strangers.
Using software made popular in a massive yet so far fruitless search for intelligent life beyond Earth, he and his research team are tapping the computing power of tens of thousands of PCs whose owners are donating spare computer time to chop away at scientific problems over the internet.
Baker's Rosetta@home project is attracting PC users who like the idea of helping find a cure for cancer and admire the way Baker has involved regular people in his research that aims to predict how protein structures unfold at the atomic level.
"We're getting these volunteer virtual communities popping up that are doing wonderful things," Baker said. "People like to get together for good causes."
Baker's work could one day lead to cures to diseases from cancer to Alzheimer's. The project takes a more direct approach to other diseases, including the search for an HIV vaccine. In that case, his team hopes to develop a way to help the body recognize critical parts of the virus' proteins so that it can no longer hide from the body's immune system.
-- Donna Blankinship, Associated Press
Baker, 43, a professor of biochemistry at the University of Washington, realized about two years ago that he didn't have access to the computing horsepower needed for his research — nor the money to buy time on supercomputers elsewhere.
So he turned to the kindness — and the computers — of strangers.
Using software made popular in a massive yet so far fruitless search for intelligent life beyond Earth, he and his research team are tapping the computing power of tens of thousands of PCs whose owners are donating spare computer time to chop away at scientific problems over the internet.
Baker's Rosetta@home project is attracting PC users who like the idea of helping find a cure for cancer and admire the way Baker has involved regular people in his research that aims to predict how protein structures unfold at the atomic level.
"We're getting these volunteer virtual communities popping up that are doing wonderful things," Baker said. "People like to get together for good causes."
Baker's work could one day lead to cures to diseases from cancer to Alzheimer's. The project takes a more direct approach to other diseases, including the search for an HIV vaccine. In that case, his team hopes to develop a way to help the body recognize critical parts of the virus' proteins so that it can no longer hide from the body's immune system.
-- Donna Blankinship, Associated Press
Monday, July 10, 2006
fans keep Star Trek alive
Paul Sieber was wearing a "Star Trek" uniform in the deep Virginia woods when he found himself surrounded by a leathery-looking gang.
Fortunately, the ruffians were dressed up as Klingons, and Sieber, with a cigarette dangling from his mouth, was preparing to film them with a $6,000 digital video camera. At times like this, Sieber, writer and director of "Starship Farragut," must come to grips with the obvious — not all Klingons are trained actors — and bellow, "Quiet on the set!"
From these Virginia woods to the Scottish Highlands, "Star Trek" fans are filling the void left in a galaxy that has lost "Star Trek." For the first time in nearly two decades, television spinoffs from the original 1960s "Star Trek" series have ended, so fans are banding together to make episodes.
Fan films have been around for years, particularly those related to the "Star Wars" movies. But they now can be downloaded from the Web, and modern computer graphics lend them surprising special effects. And as long as no one is profiting from the work, Paramount, owner of the to "Star Trek" rights, has been tolerant. (Its executives declined to comment.)
Up to two dozen of these fan-made "Star Trek" projects are in various stages of completion, depending what you count as a full-fledged production. Dutch and Belgian fans are filming an episode; there is a Scottish production in the works at www.ussintrepid.org.uk.
There is a group in Los Angeles that has filmed more than 40 episodes, according to its Web site (www.hiddenfrontier.com), and has explored gay themes that the original series never imagined. Episodes by a group in Austin, Texas, at www.starshipexeter.com, feature a ship whose crew had the misfortune of being turned into salt in an episode of the original "Star Trek," but now has been repopulated by Texans.
"I think the networks — Paramount, CBS — I don't think they're giving the fans the 'Trek' they're looking for," said Sieber, a 40-year-old engineer who likens his "Star Trek" project, at www.starshipfarragut.com, to "online community theater."
"The fans are saying, 'Look, if we can't get what we want on television, the technology is out there for us to do it ourselves,' " he added.
And viewers are responding. One series, at www.newvoyages.com, and based in Ticonderoga, N.Y., boasts of 30 million downloads. It has become so popular that Walter Koenig, the actor who played Chekov in the original "Star Trek," is guest-starring in an episode, and George Takei, who played Sulu, is scheduled to shoot one this year. D.C. Fontana, a writer from the original "Star Trek" series, has written a script.
-- Danny Hakim, New York Times
Fortunately, the ruffians were dressed up as Klingons, and Sieber, with a cigarette dangling from his mouth, was preparing to film them with a $6,000 digital video camera. At times like this, Sieber, writer and director of "Starship Farragut," must come to grips with the obvious — not all Klingons are trained actors — and bellow, "Quiet on the set!"
From these Virginia woods to the Scottish Highlands, "Star Trek" fans are filling the void left in a galaxy that has lost "Star Trek." For the first time in nearly two decades, television spinoffs from the original 1960s "Star Trek" series have ended, so fans are banding together to make episodes.
Fan films have been around for years, particularly those related to the "Star Wars" movies. But they now can be downloaded from the Web, and modern computer graphics lend them surprising special effects. And as long as no one is profiting from the work, Paramount, owner of the to "Star Trek" rights, has been tolerant. (Its executives declined to comment.)
Up to two dozen of these fan-made "Star Trek" projects are in various stages of completion, depending what you count as a full-fledged production. Dutch and Belgian fans are filming an episode; there is a Scottish production in the works at www.ussintrepid.org.uk.
There is a group in Los Angeles that has filmed more than 40 episodes, according to its Web site (www.hiddenfrontier.com), and has explored gay themes that the original series never imagined. Episodes by a group in Austin, Texas, at www.starshipexeter.com, feature a ship whose crew had the misfortune of being turned into salt in an episode of the original "Star Trek," but now has been repopulated by Texans.
"I think the networks — Paramount, CBS — I don't think they're giving the fans the 'Trek' they're looking for," said Sieber, a 40-year-old engineer who likens his "Star Trek" project, at www.starshipfarragut.com, to "online community theater."
"The fans are saying, 'Look, if we can't get what we want on television, the technology is out there for us to do it ourselves,' " he added.
And viewers are responding. One series, at www.newvoyages.com, and based in Ticonderoga, N.Y., boasts of 30 million downloads. It has become so popular that Walter Koenig, the actor who played Chekov in the original "Star Trek," is guest-starring in an episode, and George Takei, who played Sulu, is scheduled to shoot one this year. D.C. Fontana, a writer from the original "Star Trek" series, has written a script.
-- Danny Hakim, New York Times
Who Killed The Electric Car?
[7/8/07] Tesla: The Next Generation. Tesla Motors, based in Silicon Valley, recently began selling its first production car, the Roadster. Beyond its stylish looks, Tesla's top selling points are downright revolutionary: There's absolutely no gasoline. The car is 100% electric. This isn't a hybrid, folks. It can go roughly 221 miles on a single 3.5-hour charge. Zero to 60 MPH in 3.9 seconds, enough to put many Ferraris to shame. Top speed is 125 MPH. The base price -- $109,000 -- isn't for the squeamish, but cheaper models are on the way.
[1/8/07] Unlike hybrid gas-electric offerings from Toyota, Honda, and Ford, the Volt promises to be truly unique -- the first commercial car not powered by the internal combustion engine.
[8/30/06] A new breed of electric car poses an attractive alternative for drivers tired of pricey gas
[7/10/06] Chris Paine's ode ode to General Motors' EV1, an electric car whose brief promise of a future free from dependence on gasoline and its choking by-products was rudely crushed, leaving devoted EV1 owners so devastated that a group of them staged a mock funeral.
Paine was one such owner (executive producer Dean Devlin was another), and if he's hell-bent on finding a conspiracy behind the rise and fall of the EV1 he's also decent enough to allow that a naturally occurring perfect storm of broad-based consumer boneheadedness, corporate bad faith, shortsighted governance and general resistance to change might also have been to blame.
Paine begins in 1990, when car-clogged California's smog crisis, coupled with the fact that GM had recently unveiled the prototype for a workable electric car, prompted the state's Air Resources Board to pass a radical resolution: the Zero Emissions Mandate. It required that within eight years, two percent of all cars sold in California had to be emissions-free, and that the percentage was to reach 10 by 2003. The EV1 was the commercial version of the unfortunately named Impact, which was developed at the behest of notorious CEO Roger Smith (the "Roger" of Michael Moore's 1989 ROGER AND ME) after a custom-built "sun racer" built by GM engineers won the 1987 World Solar Challenge race.
EV1s began rolling into dealerships in California and Arizona in December 1996. The quiet, snazzy-looking two-seater got between 70 and 120 miles to a charge, but was available for lease only; prospective buyers endured long waits, vague delivery dates and intrusive interviews. And they still loved their cars, from celebrities like Tom Hanks, who talked up his on Late Night with David Letterman to Peter Horton, whose EV1 wound up as the last one in private hands.
Paine argues persuasively that as a corporate entity, GM undermined the EV1 at every turn, then cut back production after claiming there was no consumer demand. When leases came due, GM repossessed the cars and crushed them.
He also marshals extensive evidence that the automotive and petroleum industries banded together to force the Zero Emissions Mandate's repeal; that the Reagan and Bush administrations systematically dismantled federal policies supporting fuel economy, conservationism, and alternative fuel sources instituted by President Carter during the '70s gas crisis; and that hidebound automakers poisoned mainstream consumers against the very idea of electric cars by exploiting bigger-is-better status consciousness, resistance to government interference (the same interference that mandated seat belts, air bags and safety glass), and suspicions that tree-hugging sissies wanted to force everyone to drive mingy little golf carts.
Impassioned, unwieldy and padded with celebrity interviews, Paine's documentary ends on a surprisingly upbeat note, suggesting that America's "addiction to oil" is complex and deep-rooted but not hopeless, given the collective will to find a solution. — Maitland McDonagh
[6/26/06] Silicon Valley is trying to do something Detroit couldn't -- build an electric car that people will buy. Start-up Tesla Motors is using money from investors including Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin to build a sports car you can plug into the wall.
[1/8/07] Unlike hybrid gas-electric offerings from Toyota, Honda, and Ford, the Volt promises to be truly unique -- the first commercial car not powered by the internal combustion engine.
[8/30/06] A new breed of electric car poses an attractive alternative for drivers tired of pricey gas
[7/10/06] Chris Paine's ode ode to General Motors' EV1, an electric car whose brief promise of a future free from dependence on gasoline and its choking by-products was rudely crushed, leaving devoted EV1 owners so devastated that a group of them staged a mock funeral.
Paine was one such owner (executive producer Dean Devlin was another), and if he's hell-bent on finding a conspiracy behind the rise and fall of the EV1 he's also decent enough to allow that a naturally occurring perfect storm of broad-based consumer boneheadedness, corporate bad faith, shortsighted governance and general resistance to change might also have been to blame.
Paine begins in 1990, when car-clogged California's smog crisis, coupled with the fact that GM had recently unveiled the prototype for a workable electric car, prompted the state's Air Resources Board to pass a radical resolution: the Zero Emissions Mandate. It required that within eight years, two percent of all cars sold in California had to be emissions-free, and that the percentage was to reach 10 by 2003. The EV1 was the commercial version of the unfortunately named Impact, which was developed at the behest of notorious CEO Roger Smith (the "Roger" of Michael Moore's 1989 ROGER AND ME) after a custom-built "sun racer" built by GM engineers won the 1987 World Solar Challenge race.
EV1s began rolling into dealerships in California and Arizona in December 1996. The quiet, snazzy-looking two-seater got between 70 and 120 miles to a charge, but was available for lease only; prospective buyers endured long waits, vague delivery dates and intrusive interviews. And they still loved their cars, from celebrities like Tom Hanks, who talked up his on Late Night with David Letterman to Peter Horton, whose EV1 wound up as the last one in private hands.
Paine argues persuasively that as a corporate entity, GM undermined the EV1 at every turn, then cut back production after claiming there was no consumer demand. When leases came due, GM repossessed the cars and crushed them.
He also marshals extensive evidence that the automotive and petroleum industries banded together to force the Zero Emissions Mandate's repeal; that the Reagan and Bush administrations systematically dismantled federal policies supporting fuel economy, conservationism, and alternative fuel sources instituted by President Carter during the '70s gas crisis; and that hidebound automakers poisoned mainstream consumers against the very idea of electric cars by exploiting bigger-is-better status consciousness, resistance to government interference (the same interference that mandated seat belts, air bags and safety glass), and suspicions that tree-hugging sissies wanted to force everyone to drive mingy little golf carts.
Impassioned, unwieldy and padded with celebrity interviews, Paine's documentary ends on a surprisingly upbeat note, suggesting that America's "addiction to oil" is complex and deep-rooted but not hopeless, given the collective will to find a solution. — Maitland McDonagh
[6/26/06] Silicon Valley is trying to do something Detroit couldn't -- build an electric car that people will buy. Start-up Tesla Motors is using money from investors including Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin to build a sports car you can plug into the wall.
BASIC
[6/23/10 frwr_news] Just BASIC is a programming language for the Windows operating system. It is completely free and it is suitable for creating all kinds of applications for business, industry, education and entertainment. Just BASIC borrows many features from our popular commercial product Liberty BASIC.
[3/11/07] FreeBASIC - as the name suggests - is a free, open-source, 32-bit, MS-QuickBASIC's syntax-compatible compiler, that adds new features such as pointers, unsigned data types, inline-assembly and many others.
[7/10/06] GW-BASIC was once the main language used on home computers and is still useful in learning the fundamentals of computer programming and smaller utility programs.
You can get GWBASIC 3.23, GW-BASIC Manual, Compiler, tutorials, examples and games courtesy of KindlyRat.
[frwr-news, 7/6/06]
Actually though, I like QBasic (and the commercial QuickBasic) much better.
[9/9/06 frwr-news] It is possible to develop GUI applications with well known BASIC syntax in a modern fashion. KBASIC comes with truly Java-like object orientation and backward support for VB6 and QBasic, as it is 100% syntax compatible.
[3/11/07] FreeBASIC - as the name suggests - is a free, open-source, 32-bit, MS-QuickBASIC's syntax-compatible compiler, that adds new features such as pointers, unsigned data types, inline-assembly and many others.
[7/10/06] GW-BASIC was once the main language used on home computers and is still useful in learning the fundamentals of computer programming and smaller utility programs.
You can get GWBASIC 3.23, GW-BASIC Manual, Compiler, tutorials, examples and games courtesy of KindlyRat.
[frwr-news, 7/6/06]
Actually though, I like QBasic (and the commercial QuickBasic) much better.
[9/9/06 frwr-news] It is possible to develop GUI applications with well known BASIC syntax in a modern fashion. KBASIC comes with truly Java-like object orientation and backward support for VB6 and QBasic, as it is 100% syntax compatible.
Friday, July 07, 2006
A Virtual Keyboard
Women seem to carry their entire house in their purse. Most gals can usually whip out a band-aid, assorted make-up products, tissues, and of course, a wallet and cell phone, but how about a keyboard? Perhaps a techie like me could. I admit, in addition to the aforementioned items, I usually have my PlayStation Portable (PSP) along with some spare games, digital camera, and extra memory sticks. No my purse isn’t that big, and I don’t actually carry around a humungous keyboard with me. I’m talking about a virtual keyboard that’s about the size of a pack of gum - no joke!
The iTECH Bluetooth Laser Virtual Keyboard has a red plastic window where a projection module uses a red diode laser to emit a keyboard template. The holographic optical element used to display the virtual keyboard then produces a full-size keyboard image onto your desk, or any other flat surface (with no protrusions over 1mm), and allows you to type wherever you are. It will make simulated key click sounds as your fingers press the virtual keys and break the laser, so it will sound like you’re typing.
-- Alison Stewart, MidWeek, June 16, 2006
The iTECH Bluetooth Laser Virtual Keyboard has a red plastic window where a projection module uses a red diode laser to emit a keyboard template. The holographic optical element used to display the virtual keyboard then produces a full-size keyboard image onto your desk, or any other flat surface (with no protrusions over 1mm), and allows you to type wherever you are. It will make simulated key click sounds as your fingers press the virtual keys and break the laser, so it will sound like you’re typing.
-- Alison Stewart, MidWeek, June 16, 2006
Wednesday, July 05, 2006
WebReaper
WebReaper is web crawler or spider, which can work its way through a website, downloading pages, pictures and objects that it finds so that they can be viewed locally, without needing to be connected to the internet. [from frwr-news]
I tried it on my Yahoo fantasy basketball league and it worked pretty decently, though it didn't support the popup windows and crawled only so far.
I tried it on my Yahoo fantasy basketball league and it worked pretty decently, though it didn't support the popup windows and crawled only so far.
Saturday, June 03, 2006
PC World's Info Centers
Doing product research? Wondering about spyware, Windows, and other major technology topics? Provisioning your small business or home office? Our Info Centers are your one-stop shop for everything you need: reviews, charts, how-to's, articles, downloads, and pricing info on the products and topics that most interest you.
-- from frwr-news
-- from frwr-news
Monday, May 29, 2006
Kid's Programming Language
KPL stands for Kid’s Programming Language. KPL makes it easy for kids to learn computer programming. KPL makes it fun, too, by making it especially easy to program computer games, with cool graphics and sound. KPL is not just for games - it can be used for teaching many different subjects. KPL's emphasis on games is based on the belief that learning is best when learning is fun. KPL's success around the world - which is substantial but still just getting started - is proof that this approach works.
-- from frwr-news
-- from frwr-news
Segway to the rescue
Thieves used to break into as many as five cars a week in the parking garage at Los Angeles' Union Station. Then the Metropolitan Transportation Authority came up with a simple solution: They put a security officer on a Segway Human Transporter.
"The first day that one of the security officers was on the device was pretty much the last day there was a break-in," said Robin Blair, a transportation planning manager for the MTA, which owns about 19 Segways.
"The first day that one of the security officers was on the device was pretty much the last day there was a break-in," said Robin Blair, a transportation planning manager for the MTA, which owns about 19 Segways.
Sunday, May 14, 2006
Computer Drop-off Event on hold
THE BIANNUAL Computer Drop-off Event involving the Hawaii Computers for Kids Program, CompUSA, Lenox Metals, and the City and County of Honolulu is on hold indefinitely, after the state Department of Health informed the sponsors that commercially generated cathode ray tubes no longer can be dumped into city landfills.
Saturday, May 06, 2006
Adobe Photoshop Album Starter Edition
Discover the basics of digital photography with Adobe® Photoshop® Album Starter Edition software, the free software that makes it easier than ever to view, find, fix, and share your photos. It's fast, easy, and best of all — it's free!
[frwr-news, 5/2/06]
[frwr-news, 5/2/06]
Friday, May 05, 2006
amazing water bridge!
Water Bridge in Germany.... What a feat!
Six years, 500 million euros, 918 meters long.......now this is engineering!
This is a channel-bridge over the River Elbe and joins the former East and West Germany, as part of the unification project. It is located in the city of Magdeburg, near Berlin. The photo was taken on the day of inauguration.
To those who appreciate engineering projects, here's a puzzle for you armchair engineers and physicists. Did that bridge have to be designed to withstand the additional weight of ship and barge traffic, or just the weight of the water?
Answer:
It only needs to be designed to withstand the weight of the water!
Why? A ship always displaces an amount of water that weighs the same as the ship, regardless of how heavily a ship may be loaded.
Remember your high school physics, and the fly in an enclosed bottle project? Similarly, the super sensitive scale proved that it didn't make any difference whether the fly was sitting on the bottom, walking up the side, or flying around. The bottle, air, and fly were a single unit of mass and always weighed the same.
Six years, 500 million euros, 918 meters long.......now this is engineering!
This is a channel-bridge over the River Elbe and joins the former East and West Germany, as part of the unification project. It is located in the city of Magdeburg, near Berlin. The photo was taken on the day of inauguration.
To those who appreciate engineering projects, here's a puzzle for you armchair engineers and physicists. Did that bridge have to be designed to withstand the additional weight of ship and barge traffic, or just the weight of the water?
Answer:
It only needs to be designed to withstand the weight of the water!
Why? A ship always displaces an amount of water that weighs the same as the ship, regardless of how heavily a ship may be loaded.
Remember your high school physics, and the fly in an enclosed bottle project? Similarly, the super sensitive scale proved that it didn't make any difference whether the fly was sitting on the bottom, walking up the side, or flying around. The bottle, air, and fly were a single unit of mass and always weighed the same.
Thursday, May 04, 2006
YouTube.com
Though it debuted only five months ago, YouTube.com attracts 6 million visitors each day to watch two-minute video clips that amount to the Internet's version of "America's Funniest Home Videos" meets "American Idol." Every day, users stock the site with 35,000 homemade videos of lip-syncing, dancing, silly animation and commentaries on any topic, all of which are commented on and rated by viewers.
Tuesday, May 02, 2006
Going Wireless With RangeMax
If you don’t already have a wireless network setup in your home or office, chances are you’re probably searching for a good solution. Throughout the years I’ve used countless wireless routers both at home and work, but my favorite, and the latest to go through Click Chick’s careful scrutiny is the NetGear RangeMax Wireless Router (Model WPN824).
As soon as I plugged everything in and configured the router and computer, I immediately noticed how powerful the signal strength was no matter where I took my laptop.
-- Alison Stewart, MidWeek, 4/14/06
As soon as I plugged everything in and configured the router and computer, I immediately noticed how powerful the signal strength was no matter where I took my laptop.
-- Alison Stewart, MidWeek, 4/14/06
Friday, April 21, 2006
email better than dope?
A British study commissioned by Hewlett Packard found that a nonstop barrage of email can cause a greater loss of IQ than smoking a small amount of marijuana. Workers who constantly break away from tasks to react to incoming emails and phone messages suffer an average loss of 10 IQ points, the equivalent of missing a whole night's sleep and more than double the 4- point drop from marijuana.
Thursday, April 20, 2006
Apple turns 30
Apple Computer Inc. turned 30 on April Fool's Day.
It was three decades ago when a pair of prank-loving college dropouts, who also shared an interest in electronics, created computer circuit boards in a Cupertino garage, named the product Apple I and sold it to a local computer store.
It was three decades ago when a pair of prank-loving college dropouts, who also shared an interest in electronics, created computer circuit boards in a Cupertino garage, named the product Apple I and sold it to a local computer store.
Tuesday, April 18, 2006
free (and legal) music and videos
iMesh recently launched a new service that enables users to share about 15 million free songs and videos with P2P file sharing that is 100 percent legal. More than 2 million are original, high-quality songs licensed from the record labels. iMesh is able to do this because of an agreement it signed with digital music distributor MusicNet to supply it with songs. MusicNet’s collection includes inventory from Virgin, HMV, Yahoo! and AOL.
CD-R burnout
Popular CD-R and CD-RW discs used to 'burn' digital photographs, videos and songs for the long haul seem to have a crucial shortcoming, says an IBM information storage expert. The discs, unlike pressed compact discs used for professionally produced music and video recordings, typically last only two to five years.
-- from AARP Bulletin, March 2006
Digital Dave responds.
-- from AARP Bulletin, March 2006
Digital Dave responds.
Saturday, March 25, 2006
Microsoft Origami
Thursday, March 16, 2006
internet growth
the growth of the Internet in the U.S. has stalled. Despite cheaper prices and faster speeds, analysts expect uptake to creep just one percentage point this year, to 65%, and to only 67% by 2009.
Sunday, March 12, 2006
bndmod.exe
This was another annoying virus. [see log on 11/9/05] Panda found it but didn't remove it. And I couldn't delete it manually even in safe mode. AntiVir apparently got rid of some other viruses but bndmod.exe was still there. MoveOnBoot didn't work (couldn't even see the file). Finally I tried a WindowsME boot disk and that worked and I could delete the file.
Saturday, March 11, 2006
Battle of the Microchip Giants
The greatest, nastiest, costliest and most enduring feud in Silicon Valley — and in all of high-tech — is the 30-year-old fight between Intel Corp. and Advanced Micro Devices. What makes it particularly memorable — and bitter — is that it deals not only with products and markets but with friendships, personal animosities, even paternal loyalties.
Friday, March 10, 2006
Friday, March 03, 2006
What We Don't Know?
In a special collection of articles published beginning 1 July 2005, Science Magazine and its online companion sites celebrate the journal's 125th anniversary with a look forward -- at the most compelling puzzles and questions facing scientists today. A special, free news feature in Science explores 125 big questions that face scientific inquiry over the next quarter-century. [from Cool Tricks and Trinkets]
The Good Earth
Frontier Multimedia presents their second show, "The Good Earth." It's a view of Earth from space - seen from a range of satellites, the space shuttle, and the International Space Station. The views are sometimes beautiful - such as clouds streaming past South Georgia Island - and sometimes bizarre, such as the alien landscape of Lake Disappointment, or the inland Mali delta. [from Cool Tricks and Trinkets]
save on ink
[3/3/06] On the face of it, the logic of buying refilled ink cartridges seems pretty obvious. A new HP 26A cartridge, for use in about two dozen Hewlett-Packard printers, costs $29 at Staples. Buy a $21 Staples-brand remanufactured unit and you save 28 percent. Go to Cartridge World and you pay $18.39, a 37 percent discount.
Walgreens is installing cartridge refilling machines in the photo department of 1,500 of its 5,120 drugstores. Office Depot is testing the same kiosks in Charlotte, N.C., and Minneapolis. These machines, called the Ink-O-Dem, cost about $40,000 and can refill a cartridge in about 2.5 minutes. "We cut out the middlemen," said Harry Nicodem, chief executive of TonerHead, the maker of the kiosk.
The automation gives Walgreens a price advantage: its HP 26A is $14.50. (You can also refill one yourself at home and, after you scrub the ink from your hands, save even more, 65 percent.)
End of story, right? You would go for the cheaper alternatives. But saving money is not just a matter of finding the lowest price. Two recent studies suggest that the more important consideration is the price per page printed, a number that is affected by the quality of a refilled cartridge.
Hewlett-Packard executives argue that you are wasting your money with refills, which is what you might expect the company to say. Manufacturers have a lot riding on a business model in which they sell ink cartridges that can cost a third of what the printer did.
The company has a point. QualityLogic, a Moorpark, Calif., test laboratory found that while new Hewlett-Packard cartridges had a 2 percent failure rate, 70 percent of remanufactured units did not last as long as promised. Hewlett commissioned the study, but Consumer Reports magazine came to a similar conclusion last May. Testers there found that in almost all cases, the refilled cartridges cost as much or more when evaluated on their per-page output.
* * *
[10/30/04] you can get refilled ink cartridges here
Walgreens is installing cartridge refilling machines in the photo department of 1,500 of its 5,120 drugstores. Office Depot is testing the same kiosks in Charlotte, N.C., and Minneapolis. These machines, called the Ink-O-Dem, cost about $40,000 and can refill a cartridge in about 2.5 minutes. "We cut out the middlemen," said Harry Nicodem, chief executive of TonerHead, the maker of the kiosk.
The automation gives Walgreens a price advantage: its HP 26A is $14.50. (You can also refill one yourself at home and, after you scrub the ink from your hands, save even more, 65 percent.)
End of story, right? You would go for the cheaper alternatives. But saving money is not just a matter of finding the lowest price. Two recent studies suggest that the more important consideration is the price per page printed, a number that is affected by the quality of a refilled cartridge.
Hewlett-Packard executives argue that you are wasting your money with refills, which is what you might expect the company to say. Manufacturers have a lot riding on a business model in which they sell ink cartridges that can cost a third of what the printer did.
The company has a point. QualityLogic, a Moorpark, Calif., test laboratory found that while new Hewlett-Packard cartridges had a 2 percent failure rate, 70 percent of remanufactured units did not last as long as promised. Hewlett commissioned the study, but Consumer Reports magazine came to a similar conclusion last May. Testers there found that in almost all cases, the refilled cartridges cost as much or more when evaluated on their per-page output.
* * *
[10/30/04] you can get refilled ink cartridges here
Sunday, February 26, 2006
Free Utilities
[7/26/10 frwr_news 8/6/09] Partition Wizard Home Edition is a free partition manager designed by MT Solution Ltd. It supports 32/64 bit Windows Operating System including Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7. Home users can perform complicated partition operations by using this powerful but free partition manager to manage their hard disk partition such as Resizing partitions, Copying partitions, Create partition, Delete partition, Format partition, Convert partition, Explore partition, Hide partition, Change drive letter, Set active partition and Partition Recovery.
[7/22/10 frwr_news] Snowbird is a simple file-searching utility that seems to be a bit faster than the regular Windows Explorer search.
[7/18/10] A couple of promising-sounding utilities from the 7/29/09 frwr_news.
Auslogics Registry Cleaner v1.5.11.155 - 2208 KB
Keeping the Registry clean and error-free is the key to optimal computer performance. Auslogics Registry Cleaner will help you get rid of registry errors and make your computer as fast as ever, all of this for FREE.
Virtual CloneDrive v5.4.3.2 - 1516 KB
Virtual CloneDrive works and behaves just like a physical CD/DVD drive, however it exists only virtually. Image files generated with CloneDVD or CloneCD can be mounted onto a virtual drive from your hard-disk or from a network drive and used in the same manner as inserting them into a normal CD/DVD drive.
[6/9/10] Partition Assistant Home Edition is completely FREE partition manager software. It allows you to manage partition, redistribute disk space easily, and you can use it to perform more complicated partition operations on your hard disk, which like the commercial Partition Magic.
[6/8/10] DirGraph provides a graphical view of the space used by your files and directories. It allows you to navigate around this view - zooming in to see greater detail and zooming out to see the bigger picture. [see my separate entry for more]
[1/23/10 frwr-news] EASEUS Partition Master Professional is comprehensive hard disk partition management tool and system partition optimization software; it can let you enjoy all the powerful basic and advanced partition functions for Windows XP/Vista/Windows 7 32/64 bit users.
[7/1/09 frwr-news] ImageScaler - "I wrote this program because I've got tired of the poor quality image scaling (i.e. resizing) in image manipulation programs like: PhotoShop, PaintShopPro, Picture Publisher, ACDSee etc. which only offer the crappy bicubic algorithm."
[4/18/09 frwr-news] Paragon Hard Disk Manager Special Edition v8.5 -
Partitioning, cloning, backup, defragging, recovery: managing your hard drive throughout its life normally requires many different functions, and a library of tools. But there is another way. Install Paragon Hard Disk Manager 8.5 SE and you'll get all the most useful hard drive tools collected together in a single, easy-to-use interface. [3/25/12 - no longer offered, so see next paragraph]
[3/25/12 frwr-news] Paragon Partition Manager 11 Free Edition v11 - 43041 KB
Partitioning is not for amateurs. That is why millions of people have
trusted our safe, stable technology and professional software solutions for
over 15 years. Our latest 11 version easily organizes your hard drive and
redistributes free space to enhance system performance.
[12/26/08 frwr-news] Unknown Device Identifier enables you to identify the yellow question mark labeled Unknown Devices in Device Manager. And reports you a detailed summary for the manufacturer name, OEM name, device type, device model and even the exact name of the unknown devices. With the collected information, you might contact your hardware manufacturer for support or search the Internet for the corresponding driver with a simple click.
[7/1/12 frwr-news] Undelete 360 v2.15 - 2697 KB
Powerful but easy to use data recovery software that can restore files and
folders lost due to virus attacks, human errors, software or hardware
failures.
Software supports recovery of files deleted from computers, flash drives,
cameras, and any other data storage. With an optimized algorithm and smart
built-in cache system, the tool has incredibly fast scan of hard drives.
Operating system: Windows 2000 / XP / VISTA / Windows 7 / 2003 or 2008
Server.
[12/22/07 frwr-news] Glary Undelete is a free and easy-to-use yet powerful file undelete solution for FAT and NTFS file systems. It will bring back files emptied from the Recycle Bin, in a DOS window, from Windows Explorer with the SHIFT key held down. It will even recover files that have been deleted by bugs, crashes and viruses!
Glary Undelete works under Win 95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP/2003/Vista operating systems. The program supports all Windows file systems for hard and floppy drives including FAT12/16/32,NTFS/NTFS5 and image recovery from CompactFlash, SmartMedia, MultiMedia and Secure Digital cards.
Absolute Uninstaller is similar to standard Windows Add/Remove program but more powerful.The standard Add/Remove program can't uninstall applications completely which often leaves broken registry keys ,unnecessary files on the hard disk.The more junk files your computer have ,the slower it runs. Uninstall Manager can wipe off all the junk files clearly in seconds.It offers a more user-friendly way to remove unneeded applications and to improve your computer efficiency.
[11/11/07 frwr-news] filehippo.com is a good source of freebie utilities
[10/7/07 frwr-news] Drive Rescue is a program for exploring your hard disk, and locating lost files on it. The idea for this program originated from processing a disk with Scandisk--which suddenly contained no data. Since off-the-shelf Windows methods could not recover any of it, this program was successfully created.
[9/14/07 frwr-news] Undeletion Wizard is a file undeletion program for windows. It can recover (undelete) deleted files from your hard disk. Currently Undeletion Wizard supports undeletion only from fat 32 partitions. It can search your hard disk for undeletable files. Advanced Search options allows you to search deleted files by specifying their file names (whole or part) or by their extensions. Undeletion Wizard can also undelete files from deleted directories. It can scan recursively your disk's directory structure.
[1/17/07 frwr-news] Slawdog AquiMem is a small utility for Windows 95-XP that allows you to defragment your system's physical memory. Have you ever noticed that it is nearly impossible to keep your computer running over a week without a crash or system slowdown occuring? Defragmenting RAM is necessary to keep the operating system stable and healthy without the constant need to reboot.
Slawdog AquiMem's purpose is to regain that lost memory and make it available to the application again. This is done by instructing the operating system to remove portions of unused memory and relocating it to the hard drive swap file.
[11/12/06 frwr-news] Ultimate Data Recovery will quickly and easily recover deleted files emptied from the Windows Recycle Bin, or lost due to the format or corruption of a hard drive, virus or trojan infection, unexpected system shutdown or software failure
[11/12/06 frwr-news] Cute Partition Manager (CPM) is an advanced hard disk partition management utility. Using Cute Partition Manager, you can easily add, edit, delete and manage the partitions in your computer.
[11/1/06 frwr-news] Directory Lister will create a file listing the files in your directories. Or simply try
[10/27/06 frwr-news] DriverMax is a new program which allows you to easily reinstall all your Windows drivers. No more searching for rare drivers on discs or on the web or inserting one installation CD after the other. Simply export all your current drivers (or just the ones that work ok) to a folder or a compressed file. After reinstalling Windows you will have everything in one place! [for Vista and XP]
[9/27/06 frwr-news] SoftPerfect File Recovery is a free and useful tool to restore accidentally deleted files from hard and floppy disks, USB flash drives, CF and SD cards and other storage media. It supports the popular file systems such as FAT12, FAT16, FAT32, NTFS and NTFS5 with compression and encryption. If your important files disappeared and you can’t find them in the recycle bin, try this software product and get the files back to life. Easy to use, no installation is required.
[9/20/06 junk mail] Registry Defender is a complimentary and easy to use program that can scan for and correct problems in your computers registry. Correcting such problems can provide benefits such as:
[9/10/06] What is gone is gone? Far from it! Avira UnErase recovers data that have been deleted from the hard drive – either accidentally or as a result of a virus infection, an uninstaller or defective software. The danger of important data being lost forever is averted with Avira UnErase.
[9/01/06 frwr-news] Floppy Image v1.5.2 - 135 KB. Creates image files of floppy disks and back (for backup, storage or transfer). You can choose to save the image file compressed, uncompressed or as a self-extracting exe file. You can also add descriptions to your image files.
Floppy Image Creator v1.4.1 - 244 KB
This program allows you to make an exact image of a floppy disk and save it to a file, and of course restore the image to disk when ever required. It is especially useful for making backups of system and/or boot disks.
[8/11/06 frwr-news] AntiCrash a system utility that’s designed to free memory and prevents Windows from crashing. Primarily, the program works by monitoring every application running in the background. It goes further by displaying processor threads, DLL files and other system items you won't ordinarily find in the Control-Alt-Delete menu.
Making Windows more stable must be one of the holy grails of programming. AntiCrash, its designed to spare you from countless boot-ups. Essentially, it provides access to several functions and tasks that tend not to crash the operating system. It controls memory threads and virtually forces commands to reach the system Kernel. AntiCrash is completely multi-threaded, allowing you to work with applications without the usual instabilities and grinding slowdowns.
This utility use an ‘Application Protection Engine’ that can potentially repair problem applications or system files. For example, it automatically fixes annoying memory links that slow your system.
[I'm using it now and it seems to have somewhat improved the slowdown of my system so far. But maybe it's coincidence because it did slow down the second day.]
[7/27/06 frwr-news] With Double Driver you can view which drivers are installed in your system and you can backup the drivers you choose, save and print the drivers list, and more.
(Unfortunately, it found nothing on my Windows ME system)
[6/16/06] What Abexo Free Registry Cleaner? A.F. Registry Cleaner is a utility software to make your computer run smoother and faster. What is registry? Registry is a database where Windows and programs store their data. Why do I need to clean the registry? When data changes i.e. you delete a file, the registry doesn't remove the invalid data, thus in this case a reference to a non-existent file remains in the registry. As the registry gets filled with invalid data, Windows and programs consume more system resources to search the database for any data. Therefore your computer gets slower and slower. [haven't tried it yet, frwr-news, 6/11/06]
[6/16/06] ADRC Data Recovery Tools contains a collection of DIY recovery tools that supports a wide variety drives and file systems.
The software incorporates extremely simple GUI with novice users in mind. The software zooms in to do only critical recovery functions with minimum complexity. It gives you full control to undelete files, disk image back up, restore a backup image, copy files from hard disk with bad sectors, disk cloning, backup, edit and restore your boot parameters. [frwr-news, 6/13/06]
[6/1/06] Driver Magician Lite identifies all the hardware in the system, extracts their associated drivers from the hard disk and backs them up to a location of your choice. Then when you format and reinstall/upgrade your operating system, you can restore all the "saved" drivers just as if you had the original driver diskettes in your hands. [frwr-news, 2006-06-02]
[5/6/06] Apparently Partition Logic now supports resizing [frwr-news, 4/25/06]
[2/24/06] HDClone Free Edition enables you to move the content from an entire hard drive to another, larger one. The program installs itself on a bootable floppy or CD, and include it`s own operating system, so it runs completely independent from Windows. Once HDClone has created the bootable floppy or CD for you, you can use it to boot your computer and copy the drive content to the new (installed) drive, using a graphical interface. The free version is perfectly suitable to upgrade your existing drive to a larger one. It supports IDE/ATA/SATA hard disks and is able to copy up to 300 MB/min. The software does not recognize a USB mouse or keyboard (after boot), so you need to connect a non-USB mouse and keyboard to operate the copy interface. License: Freeware Windows: 98/ME/2000/XP [from frwr-news]
[11/6/05] Partition Logic is a free alternative to Partition Magic. One big drawback is that it doesn't look like it supports resizing. - frwr-news, 11/5/05
[7/22/10 frwr_news] Snowbird is a simple file-searching utility that seems to be a bit faster than the regular Windows Explorer search.
[7/18/10] A couple of promising-sounding utilities from the 7/29/09 frwr_news.
Auslogics Registry Cleaner v1.5.11.155 - 2208 KB
Keeping the Registry clean and error-free is the key to optimal computer performance. Auslogics Registry Cleaner will help you get rid of registry errors and make your computer as fast as ever, all of this for FREE.
Virtual CloneDrive v5.4.3.2 - 1516 KB
Virtual CloneDrive works and behaves just like a physical CD/DVD drive, however it exists only virtually. Image files generated with CloneDVD or CloneCD can be mounted onto a virtual drive from your hard-disk or from a network drive and used in the same manner as inserting them into a normal CD/DVD drive.
[6/9/10] Partition Assistant Home Edition is completely FREE partition manager software. It allows you to manage partition, redistribute disk space easily, and you can use it to perform more complicated partition operations on your hard disk, which like the commercial Partition Magic.
[6/8/10] DirGraph provides a graphical view of the space used by your files and directories. It allows you to navigate around this view - zooming in to see greater detail and zooming out to see the bigger picture. [see my separate entry for more]
[1/23/10 frwr-news] EASEUS Partition Master Professional is comprehensive hard disk partition management tool and system partition optimization software; it can let you enjoy all the powerful basic and advanced partition functions for Windows XP/Vista/Windows 7 32/64 bit users.
[7/1/09 frwr-news] ImageScaler - "I wrote this program because I've got tired of the poor quality image scaling (i.e. resizing) in image manipulation programs like: PhotoShop, PaintShopPro, Picture Publisher, ACDSee etc. which only offer the crappy bicubic algorithm."
[4/18/09 frwr-news] Paragon Hard Disk Manager Special Edition v8.5 -
Partitioning, cloning, backup, defragging, recovery: managing your hard drive throughout its life normally requires many different functions, and a library of tools. But there is another way. Install Paragon Hard Disk Manager 8.5 SE and you'll get all the most useful hard drive tools collected together in a single, easy-to-use interface. [3/25/12 - no longer offered, so see next paragraph]
[3/25/12 frwr-news] Paragon Partition Manager 11 Free Edition v11 - 43041 KB
Partitioning is not for amateurs. That is why millions of people have
trusted our safe, stable technology and professional software solutions for
over 15 years. Our latest 11 version easily organizes your hard drive and
redistributes free space to enhance system performance.
[12/26/08 frwr-news] Unknown Device Identifier enables you to identify the yellow question mark labeled Unknown Devices in Device Manager. And reports you a detailed summary for the manufacturer name, OEM name, device type, device model and even the exact name of the unknown devices. With the collected information, you might contact your hardware manufacturer for support or search the Internet for the corresponding driver with a simple click.
[7/1/12 frwr-news] Undelete 360 v2.15 - 2697 KB
Powerful but easy to use data recovery software that can restore files and
folders lost due to virus attacks, human errors, software or hardware
failures.
Software supports recovery of files deleted from computers, flash drives,
cameras, and any other data storage. With an optimized algorithm and smart
built-in cache system, the tool has incredibly fast scan of hard drives.
Operating system: Windows 2000 / XP / VISTA / Windows 7 / 2003 or 2008
Server.
[12/22/07 frwr-news] Glary Undelete is a free and easy-to-use yet powerful file undelete solution for FAT and NTFS file systems. It will bring back files emptied from the Recycle Bin, in a DOS window, from Windows Explorer with the SHIFT key held down. It will even recover files that have been deleted by bugs, crashes and viruses!
Glary Undelete works under Win 95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP/2003/Vista operating systems. The program supports all Windows file systems for hard and floppy drives including FAT12/16/32,NTFS/NTFS5 and image recovery from CompactFlash, SmartMedia, MultiMedia and Secure Digital cards.
Absolute Uninstaller is similar to standard Windows Add/Remove program but more powerful.The standard Add/Remove program can't uninstall applications completely which often leaves broken registry keys ,unnecessary files on the hard disk.The more junk files your computer have ,the slower it runs. Uninstall Manager can wipe off all the junk files clearly in seconds.It offers a more user-friendly way to remove unneeded applications and to improve your computer efficiency.
[11/11/07 frwr-news] filehippo.com is a good source of freebie utilities
[10/7/07 frwr-news] Drive Rescue is a program for exploring your hard disk, and locating lost files on it. The idea for this program originated from processing a disk with Scandisk--which suddenly contained no data. Since off-the-shelf Windows methods could not recover any of it, this program was successfully created.
[9/14/07 frwr-news] Undeletion Wizard is a file undeletion program for windows. It can recover (undelete) deleted files from your hard disk. Currently Undeletion Wizard supports undeletion only from fat 32 partitions. It can search your hard disk for undeletable files. Advanced Search options allows you to search deleted files by specifying their file names (whole or part) or by their extensions. Undeletion Wizard can also undelete files from deleted directories. It can scan recursively your disk's directory structure.
[1/17/07 frwr-news] Slawdog AquiMem is a small utility for Windows 95-XP that allows you to defragment your system's physical memory. Have you ever noticed that it is nearly impossible to keep your computer running over a week without a crash or system slowdown occuring? Defragmenting RAM is necessary to keep the operating system stable and healthy without the constant need to reboot.
Slawdog AquiMem's purpose is to regain that lost memory and make it available to the application again. This is done by instructing the operating system to remove portions of unused memory and relocating it to the hard drive swap file.
[11/12/06 frwr-news] Ultimate Data Recovery will quickly and easily recover deleted files emptied from the Windows Recycle Bin, or lost due to the format or corruption of a hard drive, virus or trojan infection, unexpected system shutdown or software failure
[11/12/06 frwr-news] Cute Partition Manager (CPM) is an advanced hard disk partition management utility. Using Cute Partition Manager, you can easily add, edit, delete and manage the partitions in your computer.
[11/1/06 frwr-news] Directory Lister will create a file listing the files in your directories. Or simply try
[10/31/06 frwr-news] Regular use of computer makes the registry fragmented and cluttered with obsolete and invalid data. Fix My Registry software keeps this critical part of your PC in perfect condition.Start --> Run --> cmd cd \your_directory_here tree /f > All_Files.txt
[10/27/06 frwr-news] DriverMax is a new program which allows you to easily reinstall all your Windows drivers. No more searching for rare drivers on discs or on the web or inserting one installation CD after the other. Simply export all your current drivers (or just the ones that work ok) to a folder or a compressed file. After reinstalling Windows you will have everything in one place! [for Vista and XP]
[9/27/06 frwr-news] SoftPerfect File Recovery is a free and useful tool to restore accidentally deleted files from hard and floppy disks, USB flash drives, CF and SD cards and other storage media. It supports the popular file systems such as FAT12, FAT16, FAT32, NTFS and NTFS5 with compression and encryption. If your important files disappeared and you can’t find them in the recycle bin, try this software product and get the files back to life. Easy to use, no installation is required.
[9/20/06 junk mail] Registry Defender is a complimentary and easy to use program that can scan for and correct problems in your computers registry. Correcting such problems can provide benefits such as:
- Faster Computer Speeds
- Faster Computer Startup (Boot)
- Fewer Computer Crashes and Internet Freezes
- Fewer Computer Crashes
- Fewer Trojans and Spyware
[9/10/06] What is gone is gone? Far from it! Avira UnErase recovers data that have been deleted from the hard drive – either accidentally or as a result of a virus infection, an uninstaller or defective software. The danger of important data being lost forever is averted with Avira UnErase.
[9/01/06 frwr-news] Floppy Image v1.5.2 - 135 KB. Creates image files of floppy disks and back (for backup, storage or transfer). You can choose to save the image file compressed, uncompressed or as a self-extracting exe file. You can also add descriptions to your image files.
Floppy Image Creator v1.4.1 - 244 KB
This program allows you to make an exact image of a floppy disk and save it to a file, and of course restore the image to disk when ever required. It is especially useful for making backups of system and/or boot disks.
[8/11/06 frwr-news] AntiCrash a system utility that’s designed to free memory and prevents Windows from crashing. Primarily, the program works by monitoring every application running in the background. It goes further by displaying processor threads, DLL files and other system items you won't ordinarily find in the Control-Alt-Delete menu.
Making Windows more stable must be one of the holy grails of programming. AntiCrash, its designed to spare you from countless boot-ups. Essentially, it provides access to several functions and tasks that tend not to crash the operating system. It controls memory threads and virtually forces commands to reach the system Kernel. AntiCrash is completely multi-threaded, allowing you to work with applications without the usual instabilities and grinding slowdowns.
This utility use an ‘Application Protection Engine’ that can potentially repair problem applications or system files. For example, it automatically fixes annoying memory links that slow your system.
[I'm using it now and it seems to have somewhat improved the slowdown of my system so far. But maybe it's coincidence because it did slow down the second day.]
[7/27/06 frwr-news] With Double Driver you can view which drivers are installed in your system and you can backup the drivers you choose, save and print the drivers list, and more.
(Unfortunately, it found nothing on my Windows ME system)
[6/16/06] What Abexo Free Registry Cleaner? A.F. Registry Cleaner is a utility software to make your computer run smoother and faster. What is registry? Registry is a database where Windows and programs store their data. Why do I need to clean the registry? When data changes i.e. you delete a file, the registry doesn't remove the invalid data, thus in this case a reference to a non-existent file remains in the registry. As the registry gets filled with invalid data, Windows and programs consume more system resources to search the database for any data. Therefore your computer gets slower and slower. [haven't tried it yet, frwr-news, 6/11/06]
[6/16/06] ADRC Data Recovery Tools contains a collection of DIY recovery tools that supports a wide variety drives and file systems.
The software incorporates extremely simple GUI with novice users in mind. The software zooms in to do only critical recovery functions with minimum complexity. It gives you full control to undelete files, disk image back up, restore a backup image, copy files from hard disk with bad sectors, disk cloning, backup, edit and restore your boot parameters. [frwr-news, 6/13/06]
[6/1/06] Driver Magician Lite identifies all the hardware in the system, extracts their associated drivers from the hard disk and backs them up to a location of your choice. Then when you format and reinstall/upgrade your operating system, you can restore all the "saved" drivers just as if you had the original driver diskettes in your hands. [frwr-news, 2006-06-02]
[5/6/06] Apparently Partition Logic now supports resizing [frwr-news, 4/25/06]
[2/24/06] HDClone Free Edition enables you to move the content from an entire hard drive to another, larger one. The program installs itself on a bootable floppy or CD, and include it`s own operating system, so it runs completely independent from Windows. Once HDClone has created the bootable floppy or CD for you, you can use it to boot your computer and copy the drive content to the new (installed) drive, using a graphical interface. The free version is perfectly suitable to upgrade your existing drive to a larger one. It supports IDE/ATA/SATA hard disks and is able to copy up to 300 MB/min. The software does not recognize a USB mouse or keyboard (after boot), so you need to connect a non-USB mouse and keyboard to operate the copy interface. License: Freeware Windows: 98/ME/2000/XP [from frwr-news]
[11/6/05] Partition Logic is a free alternative to Partition Magic. One big drawback is that it doesn't look like it supports resizing. - frwr-news, 11/5/05
Tuesday, February 14, 2006
size does matter
A research team led by Syracuse University biologist Scott Pitnick found that in bat species where the females are promiscuous, the males boasting the largest testicles also had the smallest brains. Conversely, where the females were faithful, the males had smaller testes and larger brains.
"It turns out size does matter," said Pitnick, whose findings were published in December in "Proceedings of the Royal Society: Biological Science," an online journal.
"It turns out size does matter," said Pitnick, whose findings were published in December in "Proceedings of the Royal Society: Biological Science," an online journal.
looking for something?
The number of online searches in the U.S. soared to nearly 5.1 billion searches in December from 3.3 billion a year earlier, despite just a slight uptick in the total number of Americans connecting to the Internet, according to Nielsen/NetRatings.
The number of Internet users in the U.S. rose merely 3 percent year-on-year in December to 207 million people.
The number of Internet users in the U.S. rose merely 3 percent year-on-year in December to 207 million people.
more traffic than Google
The Internet has a rising star whose name isn't Google. Just over 2 years old, MySpace now has 2 1/2 times the traffic of Google Inc., and it quickly eclipsed Friendster as the top social-networking site where users build larger and larger circles of friends.
-- from frwr-news (of all places)
-- from frwr-news (of all places)
Homemade Wind Power
is wind power something that could become feasible on an individual home basis? Will you ever see turbines mounted on the roofs of your town? The answer, surprisingly, may be yes, if a small company in the president's home state has anything to say about it.
Sometime this month, Plano, Texas-based Mag-Wind Co. LLC will install the first of its five pre-production model rooftop turbines. The customer: Fort Worth real estate developer Ross Perot, Jr., who is putting one atop his office building in downtown Dallas.
Sometime this month, Plano, Texas-based Mag-Wind Co. LLC will install the first of its five pre-production model rooftop turbines. The customer: Fort Worth real estate developer Ross Perot, Jr., who is putting one atop his office building in downtown Dallas.
Monday, February 13, 2006
digital cameras
My digital cameras are quite old. My Sony Mavica (with floppy!) still works but the picture isn't that clear. My other camera is a Fuji FinePix 1400Zoom which takes sharper pictures but seems to be flakey with the power often shutting down. (Maybe it needs newer batteries, but they test OK.)
Anyway it may be soon time for a new camera. I'd like to get a camera with a 10x or better zoom (since that's what my Sony has), but those are pretty expensive. Maybe I'll try for a a cheaper camera for general use.
Anyway, I'm writing this because I see that the Fuji FinePix F10 has won the Digital Imaging Websites Association's Platinum Award as "Best Digital Amateur Camera".
Here's a review. It has a 3x optical zoom and has a video function. It uses an XD Picture card and an NP-120 Lithium-Ion battery. The price? Amazon lists it at $289.99 (sold and shipped by TigerDirect). That's actually kind of higher than I was looking for because I can get a higher zoom camera for not much more.
Anyway it may be soon time for a new camera. I'd like to get a camera with a 10x or better zoom (since that's what my Sony has), but those are pretty expensive. Maybe I'll try for a a cheaper camera for general use.
Anyway, I'm writing this because I see that the Fuji FinePix F10 has won the Digital Imaging Websites Association's Platinum Award as "Best Digital Amateur Camera".
Here's a review. It has a 3x optical zoom and has a video function. It uses an XD Picture card and an NP-120 Lithium-Ion battery. The price? Amazon lists it at $289.99 (sold and shipped by TigerDirect). That's actually kind of higher than I was looking for because I can get a higher zoom camera for not much more.
Sunday, February 12, 2006
metapad
I've been using editpad for a while as a text editor replacement for notepad. The main problem with notepad is that it has a size limitation. The other main limitation for me is that it doesn't allow one to change the background color (though I see now that it does allow one to change the font).
EditPad fixes that problem, however, the "old" editpad has a bug where linebreaks occasionally appear mysteriously in large files. The newer version, EditPad Lite, fixes this bug, but highlights URLs which is a feature not always desirable to me.
I'm trying out metapad (as mentioned on frwr-news). It seems to handle both of these problems OK. The only quirk I notice so far (on my 1 minute of trying it out) is that that text begins one column over from the left.
Actually, looking again at EditPad Lite, I see I can turn off the syntax coloring for html documents. OK, maybe I'll stick with EditPad Lite then.
EditPad fixes that problem, however, the "old" editpad has a bug where linebreaks occasionally appear mysteriously in large files. The newer version, EditPad Lite, fixes this bug, but highlights URLs which is a feature not always desirable to me.
I'm trying out metapad (as mentioned on frwr-news). It seems to handle both of these problems OK. The only quirk I notice so far (on my 1 minute of trying it out) is that that text begins one column over from the left.
Actually, looking again at EditPad Lite, I see I can turn off the syntax coloring for html documents. OK, maybe I'll stick with EditPad Lite then.
Friday, February 03, 2006
Ubunto Linux
Recently a new version of Linux has been climbing the rankings of users'preferences: Ubuntu.
Promoted and supported by Canonical Ltd., it is named after an ancient African word, meaning "humanity to others."
- from frwr_news
[5/14/08 frwr_news] Wubi is an officially supported Ubuntu installer for Windows users that can bring you to the Linux world with a single click. Wubi allows you to install and uninstall Ubuntu as any other Windows application, in a simple and safe way.
[1/20/09] After about like four hours for the wubi install, nothing happened on reboot. I found out wubi doesn't support Windows ME.
Promoted and supported by Canonical Ltd., it is named after an ancient African word, meaning "humanity to others."
- from frwr_news
[5/14/08 frwr_news] Wubi is an officially supported Ubuntu installer for Windows users that can bring you to the Linux world with a single click. Wubi allows you to install and uninstall Ubuntu as any other Windows application, in a simple and safe way.
[1/20/09] After about like four hours for the wubi install, nothing happened on reboot. I found out wubi doesn't support Windows ME.
Saturday, January 28, 2006
Apple introduces Intel-powered Macs
The buzzwords for the 2006 technology outlook fly thick and fast in nerd circles: high-definition DVD. A la carte TV shows from the Internet. Windows Vista.
Most of these goodies will take time to reach the masses. One, however, has already arrived, six months ahead of schedule: Apple Computer's switch to Intel chips for its Macintosh computers.
The first such retrofitted model, the iMac, went on sale this month. Like the existing iMac model, which remains available, the new one is a sleek, thin, snow-white flat-panel screen with no actual computer box; the guts of the computer are hidden inside. The new iMac, like the old, is virus-free, spyware-free and gorgeous to behold. It still has a built-in camera for live Internet videoconferences, still can record DVDs, still comes with a remote for controlling music, photo slideshows and DVD playback from across the room, and still has built-in Bluetooth and Wi-Fi wireless networking. Even the price is the same: $1,300 for the 17-inch model, $1,700 for the 20-incher.
But now there's Intel inside.
Most of these goodies will take time to reach the masses. One, however, has already arrived, six months ahead of schedule: Apple Computer's switch to Intel chips for its Macintosh computers.
The first such retrofitted model, the iMac, went on sale this month. Like the existing iMac model, which remains available, the new one is a sleek, thin, snow-white flat-panel screen with no actual computer box; the guts of the computer are hidden inside. The new iMac, like the old, is virus-free, spyware-free and gorgeous to behold. It still has a built-in camera for live Internet videoconferences, still can record DVDs, still comes with a remote for controlling music, photo slideshows and DVD playback from across the room, and still has built-in Bluetooth and Wi-Fi wireless networking. Even the price is the same: $1,300 for the 17-inch model, $1,700 for the 20-incher.
But now there's Intel inside.
Saturday, January 14, 2006
Intel Leaps Ahead
Intel Corp., whose marketing made its computer chips a household name, is changing its logo for the first time in 37 years.
The dropped ``e'' in Intel will be shed in favor of a swoop around the company's name with the tag line ``Leap Ahead.'' The ``Intel Inside'' phrase, a fixture since 1991, will be dropped, Santa Clara, California-based Intel said yesterday.
The dropped ``e'' in Intel will be shed in favor of a swoop around the company's name with the tag line ``Leap Ahead.'' The ``Intel Inside'' phrase, a fixture since 1991, will be dropped, Santa Clara, California-based Intel said yesterday.
Remote-Controlled Humans
Back in the late '90s, scientists at Tokyo University perfected a remote-control device that allowed them to manipulate cockroaches. The device, which was surgically implanted on the insect's back, sent impulses through electrodes that had replaced the host's antennae. It allowed researchers to direct the roach along a specific path, forward or backward, left or right. The tiny backpack also could be fitted with a micro-camera, to create a highly mobile probe that could go where people can't--into the rubble to search for earthquake victims, for example; or under a door to spy on a competitor's marketing meeting.
Those who read about this technological "advance" at the time probably wondered how long it would take before something similar was attempted with people. Not long at all, as it turns out. The first remote-control experiments with humans are here.
Those who read about this technological "advance" at the time probably wondered how long it would take before something similar was attempted with people. Not long at all, as it turns out. The first remote-control experiments with humans are here.
Friday, January 13, 2006
Friday, January 06, 2006
Congress sets 2009 deadline for digital TV
Digital television offers the promise of super-sharp pictures and better sound, and there's now a firm deadline for broadcasters to complete the transition to all-digital signals. Legislation passed by the Senate on Wednesday would require broadcasters to end their traditional analog transmissions by Feb. 17, 2009, and send their signals digitally.
Friday, December 30, 2005
Chinese language under attack
The Chinese written language has survived thousands of years of turmoil and foreign invasion. It survived the transition from classical Chinese to the modern, simplified version, and it even survived the deadening slogans of Maoist propaganda. But it has never suffered anything quite like the indignities of the latest threat.
Friday, December 23, 2005
Storing Photos Online
There have been several place that I've used (or seen others use) to place their photos on the internet
One of the first I tried was photopoint which is now out of business. That's where I won my Fuji camera.
Another early one was webshots. I still have some photos there, but I haven't used it for new photos lately.
Then there is Yahoo! I'm using this as my stand-by for quick uploads of photos.
Lately, I've been uploading the photos to imageshack and then creating webpages linking the photos stored there.
I even used myspace.com and added photos to my blog (though the photos were uploaded to imageshack). Come to think of it, I probably could do that here on blogger too.
(For example, here's a pretty neat graphic that Brian posted as a comment on Bob's myspace.)
The Kodak Gallery seems to be popular with some people I know.
Now the latest one I'm looking at is flickr, which is now part of Yahoo!
[7/20/07] Yahoo photos will be closing on 9/20/07 and is being supplanted by flickr. Flickr is now the second most popular photo site trailing photobucket, which apparently leads by a mile. Yahoo is allowing users to transfer their photos to flickr as well as shutterfly, photobucket, Kodak Gallery, snapfish.
One of the first I tried was photopoint which is now out of business. That's where I won my Fuji camera.
Another early one was webshots. I still have some photos there, but I haven't used it for new photos lately.
Then there is Yahoo! I'm using this as my stand-by for quick uploads of photos.
Lately, I've been uploading the photos to imageshack and then creating webpages linking the photos stored there.
I even used myspace.com and added photos to my blog (though the photos were uploaded to imageshack). Come to think of it, I probably could do that here on blogger too.
(For example, here's a pretty neat graphic that Brian posted as a comment on Bob's myspace.)
The Kodak Gallery seems to be popular with some people I know.
Now the latest one I'm looking at is flickr, which is now part of Yahoo!
[7/20/07] Yahoo photos will be closing on 9/20/07 and is being supplanted by flickr. Flickr is now the second most popular photo site trailing photobucket, which apparently leads by a mile. Yahoo is allowing users to transfer their photos to flickr as well as shutterfly, photobucket, Kodak Gallery, snapfish.
The Google Plan
The invention of the personal computer marked the first revolution in the way business is conducted. The advent of the Internet was the second. Google's expansion is the third.
It is by no means the end of the story, though. Ultimately, the original Google search engine, the Gmail, the Appliances, the virtual office--all of these may amount to the least of the company's accomplishments.
So, what does this brave new future envisioned by the young Turks at Google actually look like?
It is by no means the end of the story, though. Ultimately, the original Google search engine, the Gmail, the Appliances, the virtual office--all of these may amount to the least of the company's accomplishments.
So, what does this brave new future envisioned by the young Turks at Google actually look like?
Thursday, December 22, 2005
Restore deleted files
Restore files which are deleted from the recycle bin
or deleted while holding down the Shift key by
mistake.
Conversely, this program has another function that
makes it almost impossible to restore all deleted
files.
You can use it after deletion of confidential
documents, embarrassing files and so on.
http://www.sofotex.com/Restoration-download_L9327.html
-- from frwr-news
or deleted while holding down the Shift key by
mistake.
Conversely, this program has another function that
makes it almost impossible to restore all deleted
files.
You can use it after deletion of confidential
documents, embarrassing files and so on.
http://www.sofotex.com/Restoration-download_L9327.html
-- from frwr-news
Sunday, December 18, 2005
Thursday, December 15, 2005
Uncyclopedia
The Uncyclopedia is the greatest achievement of mankind at the height of his splendor.
Or alternatively -- Uncyclopedia, "the content-free encyclopedia that anyone can edit", is a parody of Wikipedia, although Uncyclopedia claims the reverse.
So what is Wikipedia? (Wilde wilde wicked) Wikipedia (also spelt "Wikipaedia" and sometimes they get all snooty and use one of these things, "æ" like this:"Wikipædia"), is a tragic parody of Uncyclopedia, although Wikipedia claims the reverse.
-- Uncyclopedia reference from Cool Tricks and Trinkets #344
Or alternatively -- Uncyclopedia, "the content-free encyclopedia that anyone can edit", is a parody of Wikipedia, although Uncyclopedia claims the reverse.
So what is Wikipedia? (Wilde wilde wicked) Wikipedia (also spelt "Wikipaedia" and sometimes they get all snooty and use one of these things, "æ" like this:"Wikipædia"), is a tragic parody of Uncyclopedia, although Wikipedia claims the reverse.
-- Uncyclopedia reference from Cool Tricks and Trinkets #344
Monday, December 12, 2005
Internet Explorer Headers and Footers
If you print a web page from Internet Explorer, you get a header with the window title and a footer with the url. To disable this, go to page setup and wipe out all the codes in those fields.
To find out what the codes mean, put the cursor in the field and press F1. Want to put them back? The defaults are
header: &w&bPage &p of &P T
footer: &u&b&d
To find out what the codes mean, put the cursor in the field and press F1. Want to put them back? The defaults are
header: &w&bPage &p of &P T
footer: &u&b&d
Saturday, December 10, 2005
What's the password?
Keep forgetting your passwords? One way would be to save them in a file on your computer. (I've been using bouncer software for that purpose for a while. I don't see it available now, but I see some similar programs available on the net.) But what happens if you're not on your computer? Or worse, if you computer crashes?
Lately, I've been using passwordsafe.com for saving my passwords on the internet. It's been around for a while, so I assume it's relatively secure. Of course, nothing is completely hacker-proof.
Lately, I've been using passwordsafe.com for saving my passwords on the internet. It's been around for a while, so I assume it's relatively secure. Of course, nothing is completely hacker-proof.
Thursday, December 08, 2005
Saturday, November 26, 2005
YPOPS
This background utility allows you to read Yahoo mail from your Outlook Express (or other pop mail client).
-- from WinXPNews #167
-- from WinXPNews #167
Monday, November 21, 2005
Chinese Practice
[from the author] I wrote Chinese Practice when I started to study Chinese and couldn't find any program that would offer the features I needed. Since that time I keep to update it with things that come handy as one slowly (in my case really too slowly) moves from beginning to intermediate phase. Chinese Practice is free and always will be including all the lessons published on this site, but I will not translate my own lessons anymore.
-- from frwr-news
-- from frwr-news
Wednesday, November 16, 2005
Can Wi-Fi be stopped?
As you might expect, the cellular industry is less than happy to see the spread of Wi-Fi technology that threatens to make their systems obsolete--at least in urban areas. Not only does Wi-Fi do more, and usually faster, it's generally free or available for very little money. That's a tough combination to beat.
Monday, November 14, 2005
AOL unveils free Web TV
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Time Warner Inc.'s AOL said on Monday it planned to launch a free Internet television service by early 2006, in one of the technology and media industry's most ambitious designs to reach TV viewers online.
Yahoo Inc. (Research) and Google Inc. (Research) threaten to bypass traditional media outlets by linking computer users with TV shows online, striking partnerships with programmers or creating content. What they lack AOL now possess in abundance -- the shows themselves.
In its first year, in an exclusive deal, the advertising-supported service, In2TV, will feature approximately 3,400 hours of programming from 4,800 episodes spanning 100 series of Warner Bros.-produced shows from the past.
They include past prime time hits "Welcome Back Kotter," "Growing Pains" and "Kung Fu" organized under six channels divided by comedy, drama, animation, action, classic and superhero/villain genres. Two more channels may launch in 2006.
-- talked about on cnbc
Yahoo Inc. (Research) and Google Inc. (Research) threaten to bypass traditional media outlets by linking computer users with TV shows online, striking partnerships with programmers or creating content. What they lack AOL now possess in abundance -- the shows themselves.
In its first year, in an exclusive deal, the advertising-supported service, In2TV, will feature approximately 3,400 hours of programming from 4,800 episodes spanning 100 series of Warner Bros.-produced shows from the past.
They include past prime time hits "Welcome Back Kotter," "Growing Pains" and "Kung Fu" organized under six channels divided by comedy, drama, animation, action, classic and superhero/villain genres. Two more channels may launch in 2006.
-- talked about on cnbc
Monday, November 07, 2005
Woot.com
Here's an interesting e-commerce site, woot.com. At the rate they're going, they're not about to put ebay, amazon, or even overstock.com out of business. They sell one (1) item per day and, according to their faq, are anticipating profitability by 2043. I think they're modest (another word for lying) and are already profitable.
-- fool.com story
-- fool.com story
Saturday, November 05, 2005
Monday, October 24, 2005
Microsoft Office substitutes
[12/10/14 frwr-news] Yeah, I guess it's free because it's now called Softmaker FreeOffice.
And I guess I never wrote it here, but OpenOffice has branched out to become LibreOffice. What's the difference?
[3/29/12] Apparently Softmaker Office is now free?
SoftMaker Office is a complete and full-featured office that comes with a word processor, a spreadsheet, and a presentation-graphics program. This is a fully-functional, non-crippled, not time-limited version...totally free of charge, without any obligations.
Works on Windows 7, Vista, Windows XP, and Windows 2000.
The complete office suite for Windows and Linux as a free download.
Free registration: http://www.softmakeroffice.com/register_en.htm
[9/29/08] Softmaker Office looks pretty good (just from the pictures). The 2008 version is pay, but the 2006 is still free [non-free version mentioned in frwr-news]
[8/21/08] Suggested web-based applications are Google Docs, Thinkfree Online, Zoho Office
[4/6/08] Here's one that I haven't tested called tiny USB office. It's under 2.5 MB, so it should fit easily on your USB drive. [via frwr-news]
[10/8/07] I took a look at Polar Office [via frwr-news]. It looks like it's old software which is now free because not that many people were buying it. Old is fine with me, but I couldn't import my Excel 97 spreadsheet, so I won't be using it.
[9/20/07] IBM is now offering Symphony for free
[7/28/06] Google Spreadsheets in beta looks like it has good potential, but it doesn't look like it'll have full Excel functionality any time soon.
[7/10/06] Multimedia Office from Plata Software sounds like something new. But it's pretty much just the packaging of Open Office with some other freeware multimedia programs. The Open Office version used is 2.0 and it looks improved from the last time I checked (though maybe a little slow). [from frwr-news, 6/30/06]
[12/22/05] SSuite Personal Office looked promising. But when I tried to open an Excel document, nothing appeared. And when I tried to open a .doc file, that option doesn't appear. [link from frwr-news]
[1/11/09] From another post from frwr_news, I tried the Advanced Edition 2.2. I tried to open my Excel files created in Office 97 and I got an "unable to open file" message. Maybe it works fine for newer Excel files (?), but I believe OpenOffice and Google Documents opens these files without error. And in fact to double-check, I just uploaded the file the errored in ssuite to google documents and it uploaded OK.
[10/24/05] The most popular one seems to be OpenOffice.
But I liked 602PC Suite better in the short time I tried it.
I wasn't overly impressed with EasyOffice though it got a good review at download.com.
Writely looks like an interesting online word processor.
gOFFICE looks like an interesting online office suite.
-- inspired from the article Microsoft Hits 30 <!- starbulletin 10/10/05 -->
And I guess I never wrote it here, but OpenOffice has branched out to become LibreOffice. What's the difference?
[3/29/12] Apparently Softmaker Office is now free?
SoftMaker Office is a complete and full-featured office that comes with a word processor, a spreadsheet, and a presentation-graphics program. This is a fully-functional, non-crippled, not time-limited version...totally free of charge, without any obligations.
Works on Windows 7, Vista, Windows XP, and Windows 2000.
The complete office suite for Windows and Linux as a free download.
Free registration: http://www.softmakeroffice.com/register_en.htm
[9/29/08] Softmaker Office looks pretty good (just from the pictures). The 2008 version is pay, but the 2006 is still free [non-free version mentioned in frwr-news]
[8/21/08] Suggested web-based applications are Google Docs, Thinkfree Online, Zoho Office
[4/6/08] Here's one that I haven't tested called tiny USB office. It's under 2.5 MB, so it should fit easily on your USB drive. [via frwr-news]
[10/8/07] I took a look at Polar Office [via frwr-news]. It looks like it's old software which is now free because not that many people were buying it. Old is fine with me, but I couldn't import my Excel 97 spreadsheet, so I won't be using it.
[9/20/07] IBM is now offering Symphony for free
[7/28/06] Google Spreadsheets in beta looks like it has good potential, but it doesn't look like it'll have full Excel functionality any time soon.
[7/10/06] Multimedia Office from Plata Software sounds like something new. But it's pretty much just the packaging of Open Office with some other freeware multimedia programs. The Open Office version used is 2.0 and it looks improved from the last time I checked (though maybe a little slow). [from frwr-news, 6/30/06]
[12/22/05] SSuite Personal Office looked promising. But when I tried to open an Excel document, nothing appeared. And when I tried to open a .doc file, that option doesn't appear. [link from frwr-news]
[1/11/09] From another post from frwr_news, I tried the Advanced Edition 2.2. I tried to open my Excel files created in Office 97 and I got an "unable to open file" message. Maybe it works fine for newer Excel files (?), but I believe OpenOffice and Google Documents opens these files without error. And in fact to double-check, I just uploaded the file the errored in ssuite to google documents and it uploaded OK.
[10/24/05] The most popular one seems to be OpenOffice.
But I liked 602PC Suite better in the short time I tried it.
I wasn't overly impressed with EasyOffice though it got a good review at download.com.
Writely looks like an interesting online word processor.
gOFFICE looks like an interesting online office suite.
-- inspired from the article Microsoft Hits 30 <!- starbulletin 10/10/05 -->
Saturday, October 22, 2005
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
online file storage
[1/15/14] Box.com offering 50 GB for IOS
[6/3/11] AVG Livekive gives you 5 GB.
[5/15/11] Noticed Amazon Cloud Drive gives you 5 GB. But Skydrive is up to 25 GB.
[6/22/10] Backing up your hard drive has never been easier or less expensive. You can either buy an external hard drive (we like the LaCie Rugged 500 Gigabyte model that retails for $139 on NewEgg.com), or rent virtual backup space via companies like Dropbox.com, Mozy and iDrive. I personally use Dropbox. Any file I create I save to a Dropbox folder on my computer. While I work away, the document is being saved to a virtual server. The best part? I can access all the files on my computer from any machine, anywhere.
[7/11/10] Trying out dropbox. Quite easy to use. Acts just like another folder on your computer. Trying out idrive too. Seems more like mozy as it does scheduled backups. Both offer 2GB free.
[7/9/09] Digital Slob features dropbox which offers 2GB free which allows you to put virtual folders on the internet to share with other computers
[6/12/09] l4rge is now working again. And so is the website access which never worked before. We'll see when the ads start popping up.
[6/10/09] With diino going away (the free version anyway), I tried l4rge. It has massive file storage [15 GB]. FTP worked, but for some reason the web access don't work. No problem. I wanted to use it for storage anyway.
But now, when I tried today, I can't log on. Maybe they're gone now. So I tried another search and wound up with teradepot which gives you like 10GB. But I can't figure out how to do multiple uploads and apparently the files are erased after a period of time.
[3/3/09] Here's one I found while searching for free online file storage. Adrive gives you 50GB! However the free version has some ads. And the file dates aren't preserved (like diino). Seems to upload pretty fast.
[2/1/09] A site called drop.io allows you to upload and share on the Net anything up to 100 MB in size for free, and provides password protection for access to that data. Also, assuming what you want to store or share is faxable, it allows you to send and receive up to 20 pages at a time FOR FREE without a fax machine. Finally, a toll-free bridge from your computer's desktop to the nation's engine of commerce (which remains technologically stuck in 1989).
[6/12/08] I'm finally trying out mozy after they sent me an email that they have a new version out. It's kind of different and kind of neat. It runs in the background and backs up your system automatically every day. You can choose what you want to backup. One things that's nice is that it's smart enough to know how to back up your email from Outlook Express. It can only backup 2GB on the free account though. It's $4.95 per month for unlimited space.
[5/20/08] While doing a search on the web, I came across 4shared.com which gives you 5 GB. Seems to upload pretty fast.
[4/9/08] Windows Live Skydrive gives you 5GB <!- found while looking for gdrive -->
[2/11/08] Another one is Mediamax.
[12/10/07] I'm trying out diino [via frwr-news] which gives 2 GB free and after getting used to it, I find that I like it the best so far. It works with a client in which you can drag and drop files. File transfer speed isn't the fastest though.
[6/26/07] I notice esnips is now offering 5 GB.
[3/28/07] xdrive has been bought out by AOL and offers 5 GB. Unfortunately, they didn't give it to me when I signed up. Mozy offers 2 GB but requires software and works only on XP and up.
[11/12/06] Box.net is mentioned over in the Hardware Junkies MSN group. They give you 1 GB and seems more responsive than the sites I tried before.
Still waiting for gdrive (google drive). Haven't tried gmail drive yet.
[12/25/05] I'm trying esnips (tip from brknews of all places) which give you 1GB of storage. It seems a little clunky and doesn't allow folder inside folders. One large file (mia.htm) errored out. Another one seemed to upload OK.
[10/22/05] Here's another one, streamload.com (from Bill Husted's column in the 10/9/05 starbulletin.)
[10/19/05] I tried a couple of places. Flipdrive seems OK, though I had trouble uploading using IE. It worked fine with FireFox. A mainstream solution is Yahoo! Briefcase. I just tried it and had no problems. Flipdrive gives you 25 MB. Yahoo! Briefcase gives you 30 MB.
[10/18/05] How about free online file storage? You know places you can back up your files to some hard drive somewhere on the internet? Freewebspace.net mentions six of these places.
If you just want to save photos, I've been using imageshack. Another one I've tried is imageshare.biz (though this one leaves a little "hosted by" message at the bottom). There are a bunch of others that I haven't tried yet.
[6/3/11] AVG Livekive gives you 5 GB.
[5/15/11] Noticed Amazon Cloud Drive gives you 5 GB. But Skydrive is up to 25 GB.
[6/22/10] Backing up your hard drive has never been easier or less expensive. You can either buy an external hard drive (we like the LaCie Rugged 500 Gigabyte model that retails for $139 on NewEgg.com), or rent virtual backup space via companies like Dropbox.com, Mozy and iDrive. I personally use Dropbox. Any file I create I save to a Dropbox folder on my computer. While I work away, the document is being saved to a virtual server. The best part? I can access all the files on my computer from any machine, anywhere.
[7/11/10] Trying out dropbox. Quite easy to use. Acts just like another folder on your computer. Trying out idrive too. Seems more like mozy as it does scheduled backups. Both offer 2GB free.
[7/9/09] Digital Slob features dropbox which offers 2GB free which allows you to put virtual folders on the internet to share with other computers
[6/12/09] l4rge is now working again. And so is the website access which never worked before. We'll see when the ads start popping up.
[6/10/09] With diino going away (the free version anyway), I tried l4rge. It has massive file storage [15 GB]. FTP worked, but for some reason the web access don't work. No problem. I wanted to use it for storage anyway.
But now, when I tried today, I can't log on. Maybe they're gone now. So I tried another search and wound up with teradepot which gives you like 10GB. But I can't figure out how to do multiple uploads and apparently the files are erased after a period of time.
[3/3/09] Here's one I found while searching for free online file storage. Adrive gives you 50GB! However the free version has some ads. And the file dates aren't preserved (like diino). Seems to upload pretty fast.
[2/1/09] A site called drop.io allows you to upload and share on the Net anything up to 100 MB in size for free, and provides password protection for access to that data. Also, assuming what you want to store or share is faxable, it allows you to send and receive up to 20 pages at a time FOR FREE without a fax machine. Finally, a toll-free bridge from your computer's desktop to the nation's engine of commerce (which remains technologically stuck in 1989).
[6/12/08] I'm finally trying out mozy after they sent me an email that they have a new version out. It's kind of different and kind of neat. It runs in the background and backs up your system automatically every day. You can choose what you want to backup. One things that's nice is that it's smart enough to know how to back up your email from Outlook Express. It can only backup 2GB on the free account though. It's $4.95 per month for unlimited space.
[5/20/08] While doing a search on the web, I came across 4shared.com which gives you 5 GB. Seems to upload pretty fast.
[4/9/08] Windows Live Skydrive gives you 5GB <!- found while looking for gdrive -->
[2/11/08] Another one is Mediamax.
[12/10/07] I'm trying out diino [via frwr-news] which gives 2 GB free and after getting used to it, I find that I like it the best so far. It works with a client in which you can drag and drop files. File transfer speed isn't the fastest though.
[6/26/07] I notice esnips is now offering 5 GB.
[3/28/07] xdrive has been bought out by AOL and offers 5 GB. Unfortunately, they didn't give it to me when I signed up. Mozy offers 2 GB but requires software and works only on XP and up.
[11/12/06] Box.net is mentioned over in the Hardware Junkies MSN group. They give you 1 GB and seems more responsive than the sites I tried before.
Still waiting for gdrive (google drive). Haven't tried gmail drive yet.
[12/25/05] I'm trying esnips (tip from brknews of all places) which give you 1GB of storage. It seems a little clunky and doesn't allow folder inside folders. One large file (mia.htm) errored out. Another one seemed to upload OK.
[10/22/05] Here's another one, streamload.com (from Bill Husted's column in the 10/9/05 starbulletin.)
If you just want to save photos, I've been using imageshack. Another one I've tried is imageshare.biz (though this one leaves a little "hosted by" message at the bottom). There are a bunch of others that I haven't tried yet.
Tuesday, October 18, 2005
Windows Vista
Saturday, October 15, 2005
Blingo
What is Blingo? It's like google but with prizes. Actually it uses the google engine, so you'll get the same results. But with the added possibility of winning a prize.
In addition, if you add me as a blingo friend, if I win then you win. (For some reason, I had trouble accessing this option from Internet Explorer, but it seemed to work fine using FireFox.)
- from On Computers by Joy and Bob Schwabach
* * *
Here's the invitation, so we can all start winning prizes!
Join Blingo Friends with Me
Blingo is a new search engine that gives away prizes every day
like Sony PlayStation Portables, Apple iPods, Visa gift cards,
a year of free movies from Netflix, and more.
By joining Blingo Friends you can invite your friends to use
Blingo, and when one of them wins a prize you win the same prize.
That means if one of your friends wins an iPod, you win one too.
Just click this link to join Blingo Friends (it only takes 15
seconds), or copy it and paste it into your browser:
http://www.blingo.com/friends?ref=PuEjR1cZskkJCRoZnTZp0acQtwA
Thanks,
Mike and Blingo
--
Blingo
http://www.blingo.com
In addition, if you add me as a blingo friend, if I win then you win. (For some reason, I had trouble accessing this option from Internet Explorer, but it seemed to work fine using FireFox.)
- from On Computers by Joy and Bob Schwabach
* * *
Here's the invitation, so we can all start winning prizes!
Join Blingo Friends with Me
Blingo is a new search engine that gives away prizes every day
like Sony PlayStation Portables, Apple iPods, Visa gift cards,
a year of free movies from Netflix, and more.
By joining Blingo Friends you can invite your friends to use
Blingo, and when one of them wins a prize you win the same prize.
That means if one of your friends wins an iPod, you win one too.
Just click this link to join Blingo Friends (it only takes 15
seconds), or copy it and paste it into your browser:
http://www.blingo.com/friends?ref=PuEjR1cZskkJCRoZnTZp0acQtwA
Thanks,
Mike and Blingo
--
Blingo
http://www.blingo.com
Thursday, October 13, 2005
Borland Museum
Borland has made available free of charge its classic programming languages Turbo Pascal and Turbo C.
Tuesday, October 11, 2005
glad you called
Desperate? Nobody calling you?
Diane will call anybody in the U.S. or Canada
-- from Tricks and Trinkets #371
Diane will call anybody in the U.S. or Canada
-- from Tricks and Trinkets #371
Tuesday, October 04, 2005
Calculator.com
Looking to calculate something? Chances are you'll find an appropriate calculator at calculator.com
- from frwr-news, 2/15/05
- from frwr-news, 2/15/05
Monday, October 03, 2005
Xena and Gabrielle
Astronomers on Mauna Kea who found a possible 10th planet on the edge of our solar system have made another discovery -- it has a moon.
Using the W.M. Keck Observatory, a team of astronomers spotted a faint object trailing next to it on Sept. 10.
The new planet has been temporarily nicknamed Xena after a "warrior princess" character on a television show, so the moon is being called Gabrielle, after a sidekick of the television warrior, the Keck Observatory said.
Using the W.M. Keck Observatory, a team of astronomers spotted a faint object trailing next to it on Sept. 10.
The new planet has been temporarily nicknamed Xena after a "warrior princess" character on a television show, so the moon is being called Gabrielle, after a sidekick of the television warrior, the Keck Observatory said.
Sunday, September 25, 2005
NerdTV
NerdTV is a new weekly online TV show from PBS.org technology columnist Robert X. Cringely. NerdTV is essentially Charlie Rose for geeks - a one-hour interview show with a single guest from the world of technology. Guests like Sun Microsystems co-founder Bill Joy or Apple computer inventor Steve Wozniak are household names if your household is nerdy enough, but as historical figures and geniuses in their own right, they have plenty to say to ALL of us.
Saturday, September 24, 2005
Dictionaraoke
I thought this site was rather clever. You know those audio samples from the online dictionaries? Dictionaraoke combines them with background music to recreate popular songs.
-- from Tricks and Trinkets 369
-- from Tricks and Trinkets 369
Friday, September 23, 2005
ethanol is finding new life
A week ago, Benjamin Kleber was spending $3.39 a gallon at a gasoline station in Maryland when he noticed an obscure decal on his minivan.
"It's this sticker about the size of a business card that's stuck on the side of the gas flap that I never really paid attention to," said Mr. Kleber, a 25-year-old electrical engineer for a government contractor. The decal said he could be using E85, a fuel cocktail that consists mostly of grain alcohol, or corn-based ethanol, with a splash of gasoline.
<!- starbulletin 9/10/05 -->
"It's this sticker about the size of a business card that's stuck on the side of the gas flap that I never really paid attention to," said Mr. Kleber, a 25-year-old electrical engineer for a government contractor. The decal said he could be using E85, a fuel cocktail that consists mostly of grain alcohol, or corn-based ethanol, with a splash of gasoline.
<!- starbulletin 9/10/05 -->
Wireless Security
Some folks will tell you that it's impossible to attain an acceptable level of security on wireless networks and you should just stick with cables, inconvenience and all. Some companies and government agencies have banned wireless networking as a matter of policy. Should you just give up on wireless, too?
Friday, September 16, 2005
Ram Idle / FreeRAM
[2/18/05] My computer (HP Pavilion running Windows ME) slows down and occasionally locks up if I run too many programs on it. I suspect it's because it's using up too much memory which is not being reclaimed.
I noticed in freeware news a program called RAM Idle which is supposed to free up memory when it becomes too low. I had tried another program which didn't seem to help much. We'll see how this one goes.
[9/15/05] Windows ME still slowed down even with RAM Idle. It may not strictly be a RAM problem. But I'm now trying another one called FreeRAM XP Pro.
I noticed in freeware news a program called RAM Idle which is supposed to free up memory when it becomes too low. I had tried another program which didn't seem to help much. We'll see how this one goes.
[9/15/05] Windows ME still slowed down even with RAM Idle. It may not strictly be a RAM problem. But I'm now trying another one called FreeRAM XP Pro.
Wednesday, September 07, 2005
250 miles per gallon?
How about 500 mpg?
* * *
Just as shade-tree mechanics made an industry out of boosting the power of automobile engines, engineers and tinkerers now modify hybrid cars to get amazing gas mileage.
While the typical showroom Toyota Prius hybrid, regarded as one of the best hybrids on the market, can get in the range of 45 miles per gallon, depending on the type of driving, modified plug-in models of the Prius have gotten three to four times better gas mileage.
The fast-growing cottage industry of modifying hybrid cars into plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) is gaining such popularity that the city of Austin, Texas, has announced plans to set aside $1 million to help people buy these new plug-in hybrids.
* * *
George Westphal's sky-blue 1985 Nissan Sentra has braved two decades of harsh winters in Pearl River, N.Y. - and looks it. Rust spots the hood. Door hinges creak. A thick stripe of duct tape holds a cracked dashboard together.
But inside, this unassuming old car holds some hidden surprises. Behind the fuel door, where a thirsty black hole used to be, is a three-pronged plug. Pop the trunk open and eight lead-acid batteries reveal themselves, aligned neatly in two rows. Where the engine used to be are two more batteries, along with a platform of wires and electronic casings. Sit behind the wheel to find an amp meter and a battery indicator in place of fuel and oil-pressure gauges. Westphal's ex-gasoline drinker has taken on a new identity as a purely electric car - and he did the conversion himself.
With gasoline prices soaring - in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, they went well above $4 in some states this week - drivers are taking a new interest in electric cars.
* * *
Just as shade-tree mechanics made an industry out of boosting the power of automobile engines, engineers and tinkerers now modify hybrid cars to get amazing gas mileage.
While the typical showroom Toyota Prius hybrid, regarded as one of the best hybrids on the market, can get in the range of 45 miles per gallon, depending on the type of driving, modified plug-in models of the Prius have gotten three to four times better gas mileage.
The fast-growing cottage industry of modifying hybrid cars into plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) is gaining such popularity that the city of Austin, Texas, has announced plans to set aside $1 million to help people buy these new plug-in hybrids.
* * *
George Westphal's sky-blue 1985 Nissan Sentra has braved two decades of harsh winters in Pearl River, N.Y. - and looks it. Rust spots the hood. Door hinges creak. A thick stripe of duct tape holds a cracked dashboard together.
But inside, this unassuming old car holds some hidden surprises. Behind the fuel door, where a thirsty black hole used to be, is a three-pronged plug. Pop the trunk open and eight lead-acid batteries reveal themselves, aligned neatly in two rows. Where the engine used to be are two more batteries, along with a platform of wires and electronic casings. Sit behind the wheel to find an amp meter and a battery indicator in place of fuel and oil-pressure gauges. Westphal's ex-gasoline drinker has taken on a new identity as a purely electric car - and he did the conversion himself.
With gasoline prices soaring - in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, they went well above $4 in some states this week - drivers are taking a new interest in electric cars.
Tuesday, August 30, 2005
classic computers (they're old)
[8/22/05] Engadget 1985: the latest in 1985 technology
[8/30/05] Dinosaur sightings: old-school computer hardware (from WinXP News 191)
[9/2/05] How It Works... The Computer (from Cool Tricks and Trinkets #366)
[8/30/05] Dinosaur sightings: old-school computer hardware (from WinXP News 191)
[9/2/05] How It Works... The Computer (from Cool Tricks and Trinkets #366)
Sunday, August 28, 2005
free email and internet services
[3/29/06] Mail2Web is a service that allows you to read your pop mail from any web browser
[8/28/05] Yeah, you know there's plenty of free email addresses out there, but there's still some free internet services too (on a limited basis).
[8/28/05] Yeah, you know there's plenty of free email addresses out there, but there's still some free internet services too (on a limited basis).
Friday, August 26, 2005
internet slang dictionary
Internet slang consists of slang and acronyms that users have created as an effort to save keystrokes. Terms have originated from various sources including Bulletin Boards, AIM, Yahoo, IRC, Chat Rooms, Email, Cell Phone Text Messaging, and some even as far back as World War II.
Internet Slang is also called AOL speak, AOLese, AOLbonics, netspeak, or leetspeak (although leetspeak tradionialy involves replacing letters with numbers and is reserved for games). While it does save keystrokes, netspeak can prove very hard to read. Below is a list of some 890 user submitted internet slang terms and acronyms.
-- from Cool Tricks and Trinkets #365
Internet Slang is also called AOL speak, AOLese, AOLbonics, netspeak, or leetspeak (although leetspeak tradionialy involves replacing letters with numbers and is reserved for games). While it does save keystrokes, netspeak can prove very hard to read. Below is a list of some 890 user submitted internet slang terms and acronyms.
-- from Cool Tricks and Trinkets #365
Wednesday, August 24, 2005
bugmenot.com
Want to see what's on a registered site? You might be able to pick up a password at bugmenot.com.
-- from On Computers, Bob & Joy Schwabach, MidWeek, 8/17/05
-- from On Computers, Bob & Joy Schwabach, MidWeek, 8/17/05
Tuesday, August 23, 2005
Using RSS
Many of us scan the Internet daily for business or pleasure. I sometimes read up to a dozen technology sites in course of the day to keep up on the latest products and to gather ideas for this column.
Fortunately there's a solution for hard core Web surfers at hand in a new technology called RSS, aka Really Simple Syndication. It's essentially a software program that anyone can download for free and install to make Web sites easier to scan. Really Simple Syndication (RSS) provides a simple way to monitor fresh content.
Fortunately there's a solution for hard core Web surfers at hand in a new technology called RSS, aka Really Simple Syndication. It's essentially a software program that anyone can download for free and install to make Web sites easier to scan. Really Simple Syndication (RSS) provides a simple way to monitor fresh content.
Friday, August 19, 2005
Intel to switch technology
For the first time in five years, Intel Corp. will make a major change in the plumbing of its chips by switching to a new design that promises better performance and lower power consumption than today's Pentium 4.
Beams, Rays, and Streams
The greatest beams, lasers, death rays and photon streams in movie history
-- from Cool Tricks and Trinkets
-- from Cool Tricks and Trinkets
Thursday, August 18, 2005
recording streaming audio
[6/3/06] I tried Solway's Internet TV and Radio player [from frwr-news]. It plays, but the recording is barely audible.
[5/29/06] Freecorder does exactly as it sounds -- it is an easy-to-use FREE software program that lets you record sounds on your PC. The benefits: Records what you hear from your speakers, Saves recordings as MP3 files, Easy to use. [frwr-news, 5/10/06]
[4/7/06] Here's another one to try: MP3myMP3 Recorder (saves any audio you hear on your computer straight to mp3 or wav. IF YOU CAN HEAR IT, YOU CAN RECORD IT!) [from frwr-news 5/30/05]
[1/29/06] Here's an easy way to do it, XstreamRadio, an integrated radio player and MP3 recorder. However it probably doesn't have the stations I want. Especially now that kccn1420am has become a pay-per-listen. Actually it looks like it's no longer on the net? [5/29/06 - no it's KKEA 1420 now known as sportsradio]
[8/18/05] One of my future projects in mind is to record streaming audio off the internet.
I haven't tried too hard yet, but I'm saving some links to try for future reference.
Hi-Q Recorder is free sound recording software to record streaming audio, Internet radio, webcasts, music, meetings, classes, seminars, convert LP's, records, tapes and a lot more. It's an MP3 sound recorder to record anything you can hear!
[10/27/09] Finally (four years later) tried Hi-Q recorder after seeing again in the frwr-news list. I like it. You can adjust sound quality and volume. The major problem is that the free version doesn't support scheduled or timed recordings. Gasp, I'm even considering paying money for the full version to get that feature.
[5/29/06] Freecorder does exactly as it sounds -- it is an easy-to-use FREE software program that lets you record sounds on your PC. The benefits: Records what you hear from your speakers, Saves recordings as MP3 files, Easy to use. [frwr-news, 5/10/06]
[4/7/06] Here's another one to try: MP3myMP3 Recorder (saves any audio you hear on your computer straight to mp3 or wav. IF YOU CAN HEAR IT, YOU CAN RECORD IT!) [from frwr-news 5/30/05]
[1/29/06] Here's an easy way to do it, XstreamRadio, an integrated radio player and MP3 recorder. However it probably doesn't have the stations I want. Especially now that kccn1420am has become a pay-per-listen. Actually it looks like it's no longer on the net? [5/29/06 - no it's KKEA 1420 now known as sportsradio]
[8/18/05] One of my future projects in mind is to record streaming audio off the internet.
I haven't tried too hard yet, but I'm saving some links to try for future reference.
Hi-Q Recorder is free sound recording software to record streaming audio, Internet radio, webcasts, music, meetings, classes, seminars, convert LP's, records, tapes and a lot more. It's an MP3 sound recorder to record anything you can hear!
[10/27/09] Finally (four years later) tried Hi-Q recorder after seeing again in the frwr-news list. I like it. You can adjust sound quality and volume. The major problem is that the free version doesn't support scheduled or timed recordings. Gasp, I'm even considering paying money for the full version to get that feature.
Monday, August 15, 2005
Windows Media Center 2005
[12/13/06] OK, I tried to set up my WMC computer again because my neighbor June wanted to borrow a computer and I remembered to try the fix that Vern emailed to me. And it worked.
In case the fix disappears from the web, here it is:
[9/15/05] Maybe I should just build my own PVR [lifehacker link from Tricks and Trinkets]
[8/15/05] No, my WMC still ain't working right. When I tried to check the link to restore my DVD/CD drives, I see the link isn't active any more. I'm using it to try to try to troubleshoot my screwy DSL connection and I notice I don't see any network connections anywhere. Even after running the networking wizard, no My Network Connections (or whatever it is) appears. I think my best best is to try to get the DVD/CD drive working and restore the whole thing.
Maybe it's something like this problem mentioned at LockerGnome.
[5/2/05] The WinXPNews guys try out Windows Media Center 2005.
* * *
[10/19/04] So a few months after I get my Media Center and after weeks of frustration (the thing still ain't working right), Microsoft comes out with a 2005 edition (I got the review site from WinXPNews.)
It supports two things I missed in the 2004 version: the ability to save shows to DVD and support for watching one channel while recording another. I would have expected it to be in the beginning, since that's what a VCR does.
It states that HP will support the upgrade. I'll have to go look. But first I want to get my current one working.
How is it worked out so far? Not as well as I had hoped.
The first thing is the picture was very harsh. The tuner card puts out a overly bright picture that is harsh to the eyes. The harsh effect may be made worse by a slow frame rate.
Secondly, as mentioned above, it doesn't natively burn to DVD. There was an application that is supposed to do it, but it kept locking up while trying to edit the video. I finally was able to burn a DVD of a volleyball game. The picture looked OK, but the frame rate was annoyingly choppy.
After searching the internet, I plunked down $80 for CyberMedia Power Director which is supposed to import the propriety ms-dvr format and burn to DVD. But the thing wouldn't install.
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&th=543170ce65235f18&rnum=5
After much mucking around, I got it to install by uninstalling that first application. Power Director would still seem to lock up but not as badly as the first app. So I finally was able to edit a video, but when I tried to burn the DVD, the DVD drive was missing on the system!
I think the DVD (and CD) drive was affecting by the uninstalling of the first program. I was able to get it recognized by deleting a couple of items from the registry, but then it disappeared again when I ran Power Director.
Ugh.
I think I'm going to try to partition the drive and install WMC from scratch. But first I have to create the install CDs since the system doesn't come with any.
Stay tuned.
* * *
11/28/04
I'm going to try to get the DVD drive working again. Except I don't remember exactly what I did to get it working the last time.
Looking on google again, I seem to recall it involved editing the lower filter on some registry key.
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&selm=058801c32e74%24916debd0%24a601280a%40phx.gbl
http://www.hp.com/cgi-bin/cposupport/ccsearch/getdoc?doc=bph07162
See in particular step 8. I think I'll try that and see if the DVD drive reappears. Once I get to to reappear I will try to create the system restore CD drives. Then I will try partition the drive and install a fresh system to experiment on.
In case the fix disappears from the web, here it is:
You may access the system registry by running the Registry Editor. To do that, simply go Start>Run and type "regedit" in the Run dialog box.
Once you are in the registry editor, you can navigate through the registry as you would for a regular windows directory.
To access the two specified keys, click on the following folders situated on the left hand side, in the specified order.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
SYSTEM
CurrentControlSet
Control
Class
{4D36E965-E325 -11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}
Once you have opened the last folder, you should see two keys on the right hand side ("Upperfilters" and "Lowerfilters") which you may select and then delete by right clicking and selecting "Delete".
Alternatively, you could search for these keys instead of manually navigating to their locations. To do so, go Edit>Find and type either "Upperfilters" or "Lowerfilters" in the search field.
If you are unable to find these registry keys, it may be that they do not exist on your system. In such a case, this fix will probably not work for you.
[9/15/05] Maybe I should just build my own PVR [lifehacker link from Tricks and Trinkets]
[8/15/05] No, my WMC still ain't working right. When I tried to check the link to restore my DVD/CD drives, I see the link isn't active any more. I'm using it to try to try to troubleshoot my screwy DSL connection and I notice I don't see any network connections anywhere. Even after running the networking wizard, no My Network Connections (or whatever it is) appears. I think my best best is to try to get the DVD/CD drive working and restore the whole thing.
Maybe it's something like this problem mentioned at LockerGnome.
[5/2/05] The WinXPNews guys try out Windows Media Center 2005.
* * *
[10/19/04] So a few months after I get my Media Center and after weeks of frustration (the thing still ain't working right), Microsoft comes out with a 2005 edition (I got the review site from WinXPNews.)
It supports two things I missed in the 2004 version: the ability to save shows to DVD and support for watching one channel while recording another. I would have expected it to be in the beginning, since that's what a VCR does.
It states that HP will support the upgrade. I'll have to go look. But first I want to get my current one working.
How is it worked out so far? Not as well as I had hoped.
The first thing is the picture was very harsh. The tuner card puts out a overly bright picture that is harsh to the eyes. The harsh effect may be made worse by a slow frame rate.
Secondly, as mentioned above, it doesn't natively burn to DVD. There was an application that is supposed to do it, but it kept locking up while trying to edit the video. I finally was able to burn a DVD of a volleyball game. The picture looked OK, but the frame rate was annoyingly choppy.
After searching the internet, I plunked down $80 for CyberMedia Power Director which is supposed to import the propriety ms-dvr format and burn to DVD. But the thing wouldn't install.
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&th=543170ce65235f18&rnum=5
After much mucking around, I got it to install by uninstalling that first application. Power Director would still seem to lock up but not as badly as the first app. So I finally was able to edit a video, but when I tried to burn the DVD, the DVD drive was missing on the system!
I think the DVD (and CD) drive was affecting by the uninstalling of the first program. I was able to get it recognized by deleting a couple of items from the registry, but then it disappeared again when I ran Power Director.
Ugh.
I think I'm going to try to partition the drive and install WMC from scratch. But first I have to create the install CDs since the system doesn't come with any.
Stay tuned.
* * *
11/28/04
I'm going to try to get the DVD drive working again. Except I don't remember exactly what I did to get it working the last time.
Looking on google again, I seem to recall it involved editing the lower filter on some registry key.
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&selm=058801c32e74%24916debd0%24a601280a%40phx.gbl
http://www.hp.com/cgi-bin/cposupport/ccsearch/getdoc?doc=bph07162
See in particular step 8. I think I'll try that and see if the DVD drive reappears. Once I get to to reappear I will try to create the system restore CD drives. Then I will try partition the drive and install a fresh system to experiment on.
DSL connection problems
[8/7/05] There's something odd going on with my computer. All of a sudden it stopped connecting to the internet. I traced back the connection to the hub (which is connected to the DSL modem) and everything looks OK to me. I reset (unplugged and plugged back) the modem and hub. I hooked up one of my other computers to the hub (with a different cable) and it connected to the internet. So apparently the problem is either with the computer or the cable connected to the hub.
However when I connected the cable directly to the DSL modem, the connection worked. So evidently the cable and the computer are OK. Beats me what's going on.
I think the next thing I could try is to bring this computer over to where the other computer is and see if it connects using the same cable as the computer. If it doesn't then I'll know it's something odd going on with the computer. Funny though. It was working all this time.
[8/15/05 AM] It looks to me that it's a problem with Verizon. I tried two other computers using and not using the hub and they all had problems connecting eventually. I first suspected that Windows ME was at fault because my WMC computer seemed to connect better. But then later even that lost connection. As I'm typing this, I'm now (Monday AM) on a newly installed ME on my HP computer (on a new partition) and the connection has been working from about 3:00 AM to now (5:00 AM). It also worked about this time on Sunday morning, then died later that morning after I went back to sleep. I'm still getting only about 500 kpbs on the connection though. But I'll take it.
[8/15/05] Later that same morning, the verizon tech called, a nice lady named Raynella from California. My connection was still up when she called, but she ran some tests anyway. Everything looked OK from her end, but my speed seemed a little slow (like 600 kpbs). Then we switched to my other computer (Paula) and the speed ramped up to like 1.1 mbps. So my first computer became the suspect. But then the connection died again. Since the connection tested OK when we first tried, Raynella thought the problem was with my computers. But I maintained that wasn't necessarily the case since it would be unusual to have two computer having the same problem. (Not to mention my third (WMC) computer which I had tried earlier.)
Anyway, she agreed to send out a tech saying maybe it might be my modem. Scheduled for tomorrow morning.
Later that afternoon, the guy from Hawaiian Telcom surprisingly came early. (Another pleasant guy.) My DSL was still down. I told him the problem was intermittant and I hooked up WMC to show him. I think it worked at first but died a little later. He checked the line and it looked fine. But he went to retrieve his test modem and laptop to double-check. Luckily for me, the connection was dead on him too. So they can't blame my equipment any more. He made a call to the mainland. In the meantime, I hooked up his computer to WMC and tried. It didn't work. But while he was on hold (for quite a while), the connection finally took just before they answered his call. And I got pretty good speed from the infospeed and midco tests. Anyway they're going to try to change my circuit or rebuild my circuit (whatever that means) to see if that helps. I hope it works because I think we've eliminated the computers (the problem occured on three of my computers and the guy's laptop), the hub (the problem occurs even when plugged directly into the modem), the network cables (the problem occurs on both network cables that plugg into the modem), ZoneAlarm (if the connection works it also works with ZoneAlarm running) and the modem (the problem occured on his modem too). Don't know what else is left. Maybe the phone cord?
After the guy left, I plugged back my modem after it cooled off and still got no connection. So I don't think it's a overheated modem problem. I'm typing this on a dialup connection. Stay tuned.
[8/17/05]
connection seems to be working at 730 28,27 ms (ping)
slowing down again at 1030 68,69 ms w/ some time outs
but still connecting
1039 27 mixed with 69 trouble connecting (marginal)
[8/18/05]
302 - default gateway 4.16.84.1
getting 27,14,28,27,14,14 (good)
sleep
845am still looking good
851 spoke too soon, slow again
907 looks good again
908 bad again
913 ok again
915 bad again
1133 ok
1134 bad again
1146 ok
1149 bad
1152 ok
1154 bad
517 working
520 bad
628 working (yahoo is down)
down later
[8/19]
230 working fine
705 still good
nap
856 still good
1240 hey still working!
[9/15/05] So what was the problem? The Verizon guy was supposed to reset my connection or something. But when they called back a couple of days later, I still had the problem. I asked the tech guy who I asked how he would get an IP address. He said there were various ways and I told him I was using IPCONFIG. That seemed to trigger something and he told me to use IPCONFIG and ping the gateway. I was getting lost packets once in a while and the ping time was slow. After that he found that there were a lot of people with connection problems and they thought that the problem was an overloaded switch which was to be replaced. It seemed to get a little better after that but was still sporadic. Then a day or so after that, the problem went away. So it was a problem on their end after all.
The good news is when I called them to see if I could get credit for the lost service, their computer was down. So they're going to give me a month of credit (or was it two) when I was hoping for a week. I'll take it.
[4/20/10] - I don't think I ever got that credit
However when I connected the cable directly to the DSL modem, the connection worked. So evidently the cable and the computer are OK. Beats me what's going on.
I think the next thing I could try is to bring this computer over to where the other computer is and see if it connects using the same cable as the computer. If it doesn't then I'll know it's something odd going on with the computer. Funny though. It was working all this time.
[8/15/05 AM] It looks to me that it's a problem with Verizon. I tried two other computers using and not using the hub and they all had problems connecting eventually. I first suspected that Windows ME was at fault because my WMC computer seemed to connect better. But then later even that lost connection. As I'm typing this, I'm now (Monday AM) on a newly installed ME on my HP computer (on a new partition) and the connection has been working from about 3:00 AM to now (5:00 AM). It also worked about this time on Sunday morning, then died later that morning after I went back to sleep. I'm still getting only about 500 kpbs on the connection though. But I'll take it.
[8/15/05] Later that same morning, the verizon tech called, a nice lady named Raynella from California. My connection was still up when she called, but she ran some tests anyway. Everything looked OK from her end, but my speed seemed a little slow (like 600 kpbs). Then we switched to my other computer (Paula) and the speed ramped up to like 1.1 mbps. So my first computer became the suspect. But then the connection died again. Since the connection tested OK when we first tried, Raynella thought the problem was with my computers. But I maintained that wasn't necessarily the case since it would be unusual to have two computer having the same problem. (Not to mention my third (WMC) computer which I had tried earlier.)
Anyway, she agreed to send out a tech saying maybe it might be my modem. Scheduled for tomorrow morning.
Later that afternoon, the guy from Hawaiian Telcom surprisingly came early. (Another pleasant guy.) My DSL was still down. I told him the problem was intermittant and I hooked up WMC to show him. I think it worked at first but died a little later. He checked the line and it looked fine. But he went to retrieve his test modem and laptop to double-check. Luckily for me, the connection was dead on him too. So they can't blame my equipment any more. He made a call to the mainland. In the meantime, I hooked up his computer to WMC and tried. It didn't work. But while he was on hold (for quite a while), the connection finally took just before they answered his call. And I got pretty good speed from the infospeed and midco tests. Anyway they're going to try to change my circuit or rebuild my circuit (whatever that means) to see if that helps. I hope it works because I think we've eliminated the computers (the problem occured on three of my computers and the guy's laptop), the hub (the problem occurs even when plugged directly into the modem), the network cables (the problem occurs on both network cables that plugg into the modem), ZoneAlarm (if the connection works it also works with ZoneAlarm running) and the modem (the problem occured on his modem too). Don't know what else is left. Maybe the phone cord?
After the guy left, I plugged back my modem after it cooled off and still got no connection. So I don't think it's a overheated modem problem. I'm typing this on a dialup connection. Stay tuned.
[8/17/05]
connection seems to be working at 730 28,27 ms (ping)
slowing down again at 1030 68,69 ms w/ some time outs
but still connecting
1039 27 mixed with 69 trouble connecting (marginal)
[8/18/05]
302 - default gateway 4.16.84.1
getting 27,14,28,27,14,14 (good)
sleep
845am still looking good
851 spoke too soon, slow again
907 looks good again
908 bad again
913 ok again
915 bad again
1133 ok
1134 bad again
1146 ok
1149 bad
1152 ok
1154 bad
517 working
520 bad
628 working (yahoo is down)
down later
[8/19]
230 working fine
705 still good
nap
856 still good
1240 hey still working!
[9/15/05] So what was the problem? The Verizon guy was supposed to reset my connection or something. But when they called back a couple of days later, I still had the problem. I asked the tech guy who I asked how he would get an IP address. He said there were various ways and I told him I was using IPCONFIG. That seemed to trigger something and he told me to use IPCONFIG and ping the gateway. I was getting lost packets once in a while and the ping time was slow. After that he found that there were a lot of people with connection problems and they thought that the problem was an overloaded switch which was to be replaced. It seemed to get a little better after that but was still sporadic. Then a day or so after that, the problem went away. So it was a problem on their end after all.
The good news is when I called them to see if I could get credit for the lost service, their computer was down. So they're going to give me a month of credit (or was it two) when I was hoping for a week. I'll take it.
[4/20/10] - I don't think I ever got that credit
automated backup
I've been looking for backup program to do automatic backups at a scheduled time. Cobian Backup looks like it might fit the bill. Haven't tried it yet though.
[12/7/07] Replicator v3.5.3 - 2097 KB
Automatically backup files, directories, even entire drives! Karen's Replicator copies selected files from one drive/folder to another. Source and Destination folders can reside anywhere on your network.
[11/22/09/frwr-news 3/6/09] EZBack-it-up is a personal file backup utility. It is designed to be very easy to learn and use. It is not an archival tool that compresses all your files and folders into one file, but instead, it copies your data to a destination of your choice where you can readily access your backed up files any time you need. All directory structure is preserved and you can optionally choose to delete files from the target that are not in the source. EZBack-it-up includes a built-in scheduler, command-line switches, logging functionality, and more.
[11/26/09/frwr-news 11/18/09] FBackup is a free backup software for both personal and commercial use. It protects your important data by backing it up automatically to any USB/Firewire device, local or network location. The backed up data can be either compressed (using standard zip compression) or an exact copy of the original files.
[3/7/10 frwr_news] GFI Backup 2009 allows you to back up all your important documents, photos, music, emails and program settings using a simple but smart wizard-driven interface to nearly every storage device (including local and external disk drives, LAN, CD/DVD, removable devices, remote FTP servers, etc.). Download and use GFI Backup 2009 today - a FREE easy-to-use backup software solution, designed for secure backups of all your important data.
[3/15/10 frwr_news 2010-03-02] Handy Backup is an easy-to-use backup program, with user-friendly interface designed for automatic backup and synchronizing of critical data. Handy Backup copies, saves and restores your files, accidentally lost through system errors, hardware failures, viruses, laptop theft etc.
[7/4/10 frwr_news] Zback - portable backup and synchronize tool for Windows 9x, 2000, XP, Vista, Win7.
[12/7/07] Replicator v3.5.3 - 2097 KB
Automatically backup files, directories, even entire drives! Karen's Replicator copies selected files from one drive/folder to another. Source and Destination folders can reside anywhere on your network.
[11/22/09/frwr-news 3/6/09] EZBack-it-up is a personal file backup utility. It is designed to be very easy to learn and use. It is not an archival tool that compresses all your files and folders into one file, but instead, it copies your data to a destination of your choice where you can readily access your backed up files any time you need. All directory structure is preserved and you can optionally choose to delete files from the target that are not in the source. EZBack-it-up includes a built-in scheduler, command-line switches, logging functionality, and more.
[11/26/09/frwr-news 11/18/09] FBackup is a free backup software for both personal and commercial use. It protects your important data by backing it up automatically to any USB/Firewire device, local or network location. The backed up data can be either compressed (using standard zip compression) or an exact copy of the original files.
[3/7/10 frwr_news] GFI Backup 2009 allows you to back up all your important documents, photos, music, emails and program settings using a simple but smart wizard-driven interface to nearly every storage device (including local and external disk drives, LAN, CD/DVD, removable devices, remote FTP servers, etc.). Download and use GFI Backup 2009 today - a FREE easy-to-use backup software solution, designed for secure backups of all your important data.
[3/15/10 frwr_news 2010-03-02] Handy Backup is an easy-to-use backup program, with user-friendly interface designed for automatic backup and synchronizing of critical data. Handy Backup copies, saves and restores your files, accidentally lost through system errors, hardware failures, viruses, laptop theft etc.
[7/4/10 frwr_news] Zback - portable backup and synchronize tool for Windows 9x, 2000, XP, Vista, Win7.
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