Archive for October, 2006
Tuesday, October 31st, 2006
SaySwap offers games, cheats and tips
One of the founders of MySpace has backed an interactive online video gaming community allowing users to trade games, swap cheats and share tips and thoughts via blogs.
Los Angeles-based SaySwap, which claims to be the first social network for gamers, uses a virtual currency based on trading tokens to exchange games.
MySpace founder Brad Greenspan is backing the new venture through his LiveUniverse company established to nurture video, entertainment and social networking properties.
Mark Elfenbein, chief executive at SaySwap, said: “I had become frustrated with the lack of good titles at game rental stores and the steep $50+ cost of new games.
Read more: vnunet.com
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Tuesday, October 31st, 2006
The paucity of security technology on current computers has frightened people in the wake of highly publicized thefts, such as the VA laptop pilfering earlier this year.
Seagate is hoping to change that at Storage Networking World in Orlando, Fla., this week.
The hard disk drive (HDD) maker today unveiled DriveTrust, a new package of security software that includes such safeguards as file and full disk encryption to render data unreadable by users who boot up a machine and don’t have a password, as well as multi-factor user authentication.
Security experts often say that the best kind of security is a multi-layered approach that includes several safety features to lock down data.
The logic behind this is that if a hacker or perpetrator get past one line of defense, a second steps up to protect the assets on a computer.
With DriveTrust, Seagate is applying that multi-layer approach, said Scott Shimomura, senior product manager at Seagate.
DriveTrust blends hardware-based security with a programming platform that lets computer makers add security applications to shield all drive data at all times.
“This is a new concept to think of… hard drives as a development platform, where ISVs [independent software vendors] have the ability to write applications that speak to the security functionality within the drive,” Shimomura said.
Full article: internetnews.com
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Tuesday, October 31st, 2006
Microsoft claimed on Monday that it was forced to change the way it enforces its software licensing, after detecting evidence of widespread use of unlicensed copies of Office.
As many as a third of Office packages could be unlicensed, the company said.
The figures came from to Michala Alexander, Microsoft’s head of anti-piracy, who told ZDNet UK that the figure of 33 percent is for UK users. It is the percentage of people who voluntarily registered to use Office Genuine Advantage (OGA) and found that they did not have a genuine copy of Office.
“It is a very high percentage when you consider that the rate for Windows is just 12 percent,” said Alexander. “And when you consider that the BSA’s (Business Software Alliance) figure for all software is 27 percent.”
Read more: ZDNet UK
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Tuesday, October 31st, 2006
HandyFind is a faster, friendlier way to find words in documents and web pages. It finds words as you type so you’ll find what you’re looking for as soon as you enter enough letters. After using HandyFind for a short time, you’ll find it such a quick way to get around that you start using it for navigating documents as well as just searching.
Features
:: Find as you type in Internet Explorer, Notepad, Excel, Microsoft Word and more
:: Much less cumbersome than the regular Find dialog
:: Instantly jump to the next occurrence of your currently selected text or repeat previous searches
:: “Click” on hyperlinks with your keyboard
HandyFind is free.
Download: HandyFind 2.0.5 | Screenshots Windows 2000, Windows XP, or Windows NT
Posted in Misc | No Comments »
Monday, October 30th, 2006
MonitorInfoView is a small utility that displays essential information about your monitor: manufacture week/year, monitor manufacturer, monitor model, supported display modes, and more…
The information is extracted from the EDID (”Extended display identification data”) records stored on your computer.
You can also view the monitor information of multiple computers on your network, if you login to these computers with administrator rights.
This utility is released as freeware.
Download: MonitorInfoView 1.00 Windows 2000/XP/2003
Posted in Tools | No Comments »
Monday, October 30th, 2006
Bloggers asked to show solidarity with oppressed web users
Amnesty International has called on the world’s bloggers to stand up for freedom of expression on the internet.
The human rights organisation believes that fundamental rights, particularly freedom of expression and privacy, are under threat from governments that want to control what citizens say and what information they can access.
Amnesty’s call comes as internet industry players prepare to gather at the Internet Governance Forum in Athens this week to discuss the future of the internet.
The organisation’s action coincides with an appeal on behalf of a blogger in Iran who was detained earlier this month. Kianoosh Sanjari was arrested while reporting on clashes between security forces and supporters of Shia cleric Ayatollah Boroujerdi.
Full article: vnunet.com
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Monday, October 30th, 2006
MyDiskServer is a small Java application that you run on the computer you wish to host files from. It requires no installation and can be launched by a single click.
Launch MyDiskServer (You will need to install the latest Java Runtime Environment to launch MyDiskServer.)
After configuring MyDiskServer and registering an identity, you can access your files from anywhere online by returning to this web site and clicking your identity, which will be listed on the right. Help with configuring MyDiskServer.
Share your documents securely, stream your music collection, share your photos with friends or even host a personal web site. MyDisk and the Host Yourself Network makes sharing files on your computer easy.
Download: MyDiskServer
Posted in p2p | No Comments »
Monday, October 30th, 2006
Portable TVs are evolving and moving into the digital age, not least with the help of 3G data streaming to push programming to mobile phones. However, Virgin has taken a different approach: a technology called DAB-IP. You might be familiar with DAB, which is a standard for digital radio, but what the heck does it have to do with telly?
Well, it’s not as strange as it sounds. DAB is a digital system, so you can send pretty much any information via a DAB signal. This is something BT’s Movio subsidiary has taken advantage of - it’s added an IP layer to the DAB transmission. Jargon aside, it means it can be used to stream TV through to handsets or any suitably equipped receiver. And because it uses the same protocols as the internet, the same content can be streamed there too.
That said, there are some limitations. The DAB radio stations have priority, so there’s less bandwidth available for the TV transmissions. It’s lucky, in a way, that currently there are only four channels available: BBC One, ITV1, Channel 4 and E4. However, Channel 4 isn’t transmitted live as the other three channels are.
Interestingly, the European Union is promoting mobile television and the intended frequency it wants to use is what is called the L band for DAB radio. This is a frequency that hasn’t been used to date and the UK is looking at opening it up next year. However, this band requires more transmitters than the current technology, but the advantage is that the devices themselves can have built in powered antennae.
Full Review: reghardware.co.uk
Posted in News | No Comments »
Monday, October 30th, 2006
RSS Builder is an easy to use program to create RSS news feeds and podcasts for your web site. It provides a simple interface that lets you add topics, links, content, and enclosures, then publish the RSS (v2.0) feed to your web server, using the built-in FTP client.
For publishers, RSS Builder is a great way to make information available such as news, headlines, updates, and audio. If you have information to share, RSS is the answer! And the nice thing is that, using RSS Builder, making your own RSS feeds is very simple!
RSS Builder is freeware!
Download: RSS Builder 2.1.8 | Screenshots
Posted in Web/internet | No Comments »
Monday, October 30th, 2006
The download tackles a problem that has plagued the notebooks for the past four months
Apple has issued an update designed to address the lingering problem of unexpected shutdowns of its MacBook notebooks.
The MacBook SMC Firmware Update 1.1, released for download on Thursday, tackles a problem that has plagued the notebooks for the past four months.
Apple advises people to install the software on all MacBook systems, including those that have received warranty repair.
Read more: ZDNet UK
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Sunday, October 29th, 2006
Downtube is a tool that helps download videos from YouTube in an easy and intuitive way. You can save your videos in “Flash format” and then convert them into more common formats.
The graphical interface was made originally for Windows, however in brief it will be available for Linux, FreeBSD and even Mac OS X. All the versions will have the same quality and easiness of use.
Downtube is available in 3 languages: English, Spanish and Portuguese.
Download: Downtube 2.0 Windows 2000/XP/2003 and Linux (Wine)
Posted in Audio/Media/Video | No Comments »
Sunday, October 29th, 2006
DesktopSaver is a lightweight system tray application that tracks your Windows desktop icons over time. If your icon positions are disturbed by an application crash or resolution change DesktopSaver can restore their original positions in a single click.
Download: DesktopSaver 2.0.3 Windows 2000/XP
Posted in Desktop | No Comments »
Sunday, October 29th, 2006
Phoinix is a Nintendo Gameboy emulator for the Palm Computing Platform. It converts your business handheld into a fun machine.
Download: Phoinix, Gameboy Emulator for Palm OS
Posted in Pocket PC/PDA | No Comments »
Sunday, October 29th, 2006
Back in 1998 there was one consumer Windows OS release tier, just like in 1995. Come 2001, there were two: Home and Professional. In 2007, there will be four: Home Basic, Home Premium, Ultimate, and Business (I’ve left out Enterprise since it is a volume licensing product). Of the four editions, Home Basic is decidedly feature light. It will lack the bells and whistles of the fancier consumer tiers, which means no Media Center functionality and no Aero Glass, among other things.
Is it a fundamentally flawed product? Acer is talking openly about what many OEMs are privately expressing frustration over: the weak value proposition offered by Windows Vista Home Basic. The many-headed hydra that is Vista has at least one gimp head, according to complaints.
If you ask Jim Wong, senior corporate VP at Acer, Microsoft has crippled Home Basic so thoroughly that it is essentially just an excuse to wring more money out of OEMs. Wong told PC Pro that “Premium is the real Vista,” drilling home his view that Home Basic is a lemon that consumers will shun entirely. The real problem, Wong says, is that “[OEMs] have to pay more [for Home Premium] but users are not going to pay more.” This, he says, will result in a 1-2 percent increase in the cost of manufacturing a new PC, and Wong insists that the OEMs will have to eat that cost rather than pass it on to consumers. He did not elaborate why this cost cannot be passed on to consumers.
Full article: Ars Technica
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Saturday, October 28th, 2006
Legacy hardware difficulties caused multiple outages this week, affecting many bloggers
Internet search giant Google has apologised for a series of “unplanned outages” on its Blogger site over the past week.
Google’s blogging service experienced five outages, both planned and unplanned, due to “power failures, fileserver trouble, and wonky network hardware”, according to Pete Hopkins, a Google programmer and blogger.
Major Blogger troubles began on Saturday with an outage that lasted more than three hours, caused by the failure of both a “critical component and its backup”, according to the Blogger Status blog.
Hopkins wrote: “Blogger had a significant number of unplanned outages this last week (forgive me my euphemisms?) and a handful of planned ones to clean up from the unplanned ones.”
Read more: ZDNet UK
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Saturday, October 28th, 2006
VividDesktop allows you to have multiple virtual desktops on the one screen within Windows. Create desktops and switch between them at the click of a mouse.
Download: VividDesktop 1.0.0
Posted in Desktop | No Comments »
Saturday, October 28th, 2006
Webmasters redirecting users, encouraging removal of program
A grassroots effort by web developers is targeting users of adware program Zango and drawing a sharp response from the application’s creator.
The campaign, apparently started by adult webmaster resource site Greenguy and Jim, centres around webmasters installing a script on their web page that detects Zango and redirects the user to a page warning them about the application.
The page, which has a large red biohazard sign next to the words “Zango Warning”, tells users that their PCs have been “infected with ZangoSearch”. The site warns users that the application may try to log keystrokes and mouse movements and then says “We as a whole, believe this is a scourge that needs to be fought at the grassroots level. When you allowed this toolbar to be installed on your PC, you inadvertently agreed to allow Zango to do this to you.” Beneath the warning is a detailed description of how to remove Zango from a PC.
Full story: vnunet.com
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Saturday, October 28th, 2006
FileAnalyser lists your fixed disk after file types. Before the analysis it can be determined whether the entire fixed disk or only individual drives is to be read in. Subsequently, all file types in groups are listed such as screensaver, mp3, Cliparts, Help -, Text -, to Multimedia files etc.. Likewise to be displayed 0-Byte-Dateien, temporary and backup files. This is very meaningful for the deletion of unnecessary files. All files can be renamed directly in the program, delete, to shift or copy. Also the definition of new groups of files is possible. Over the Button preview opens a window, in which text files as well as pictures in the formats GIF, JPG or BMP can be displayed
Platforms: Windows 95, 98, Me, NT, 2000 and XP
Download: FileAnalyser 1.312
Posted in Tools | No Comments »
Saturday, October 28th, 2006
MERGE is a freeware graphic utility for overlaying two images in any relative position prior to saving the result to a file. You can merge the two images in many different ways. No need to worry about relative positioning or image size/scaling differences.
Batch merge files from a directory with a single image file of your choice.
Useful to watermark all your images in just one hit.
Here are the main features of MERGE:
?¢‚Äî?† Merge whole pictures with adjustable blending modes.
?¢‚Äî?† Fade out one image and fade in the other image towards the edge of the final picture.
?¢‚Äî?† Batch Merge files with a single image - useful for watermarking your favorite images.
?¢‚Äî?† Type up to ten lines of text of any font, size and color and merge it with an image.
?¢‚Äî?† Smoothly blend in just part of a source image to the final result.
?¢‚Äî?† Using the clipboard: copy back result back to a source image and rescale or reposition it for remerging. This results in ineresting effects.
?¢‚Äî?† Set any relative positioning of the images on top, side by side or overlapping. See an example of a quadrant merge.
?¢‚Äî?† The image formats for loading and saving are BMP,JPEG,PNG,TIF,TGA,PCX.
Download: MERGE 1.9 Win 95,98,NT4,2000,XP
Posted in IMAGE/PHOTO Editor | No Comments »
