Archive for February, 2007
Monday, February 26th, 2007
‘Get your bits and bytes here… ‘
itTorrent is using its software to launch a download site - called the BitTorrent Entertainment Network - that will distribute more than 5,000 titles from digital movies, TV shows, games and other media.
In the battle for the nascent online video market, BitTorrent could be a competitor, thanks to its existing reputation for speedy file distribution.
It also has an established user base it says numbers 135 million - which could immediately pit it against some of the sector’s heavyweights, including Brightcove, Joost (a new P2P service started by the founders of Kazaa and Skype) and YouTube. Joost recently partnered with some big entertainment companies, such as Viacom.
Despite the reputation of BitTorrent’s software for helping people illegally share millions of unauthorised video files, company managers have convinced studios such as 20th Century Fox, Lions Gate and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios that the company comes to Hollywood with a laurel branch in its hands.
Full article: silicon.com
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Monday, February 26th, 2007
As businesses and consumers grapple with Microsoft’s new operating system, Windows Vista, one question is increasingly being asked. Why is it so much more expensive to buy Vista in the UK than the US?
Anger over the issue has prompted an e-petition on a government website that acts as a forum for public petitions. In less than a day it had collected over 1,000 signatures with a regular stream of people signing up throughout Friday morning.
The petition is posted on the 10 Downing Street section of the government site and will be sent to the prime minister’s office after it closes on 20 April. It calls on Tony Blair to put pressure on Microsoft, “to stop them overcharging the UK for its Vista operating system”.
Full story: ZDNet UK
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Sunday, February 25th, 2007
DesktopPlayer records your desktop complete with mouse movement and creates an executable (.EXE) containing the screen capture.
Recordings can include live video (webcam) and sound. Playback and record functions can be paused by pressing the pause-key on your keyboard.
This is an excellent and easy-to-use program to demonstrate “how-this-error-occured”.
Note: It is possible to record a new audio track for alternate languages (dubbing mode).
Download: DesktopPlayer 2.13
Posted in Desktop | No Comments »
Saturday, February 24th, 2007
UK users appeal to Tony Blair to end pricing inequality
Over 1,000 people have signed an online petition asking UK prime minister Tony Blair to use his influence to press for more equal pricing of Microsoft’s Windows Vista operating system.
The petition is found on the government’s ePetition website and has drawn a quick response.
Read more: vnunet.com
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Saturday, February 24th, 2007
Another day, another lawsuit against Microsoft. This time, a company known as Office Live, LLC has filed a trademark infringement suit against the Redmond giant claiming the obvious: Microsoft stole their name for its own Office Live service.
Office Live, LLC offers professional advice to a variety of professionals. The company is responsible for web sites such as lawofficelive.com, autoofficelive.com, realtorsofficelive.com, doctorsofficelive.com, and my personal favorite, psychologistsofficelive.com.
Full story: Ars Technica
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Friday, February 23rd, 2007
With KishKish Lie Detector you can detect the stress level of the person you talking with over Skype.
KishKish Lie Detector offers you a tool to detect the stress level of the person you talking with over Skype. With the use of KishKish Lie Detector you can monitor in real-time the stress level of the person you talked with. This allows you to gage the level of stress and modify your questions in real time. Freeware.
Download: KishKish Lie Detector 1.2.0.39
Posted in VoIP | No Comments »
Friday, February 23rd, 2007
KishKish SAM is a simple voice answering machine for Skype users.
When you are away from your PC and there is no one to answer your incoming Skype calls, KishKish SAM will pick up the call, play a greeting message and the “all-time classic beep”, so the calling party will leave a voice recorded message.
Now SAM does even more! SAM will play a Video Greeting of your choosing while recording the voice message. And for your business you can record all your Skype conversations for later reference.
Additional Features
· Enhanced user interface
· Simple installation
· Straight forward configuration
· User interface localization
· Voicemails can be recorded in CD quality and stored as MP3 files
· ‘Play all New Message’ with the hit of one button
· Configurable text & voice greeting messages
· Configurable global answering mode: Enable or Disable
· Configurable answering On or Off for Skype’s online mode
· Configurable delay before answering incoming calls
· Configurable voice message recording duration (0 to 10 hours)
· Option for a separate set of configurations for non-buddy callers
· Notification of operational status using changing icons in the system tray
· Detailed voice message information: Caller name, Skype online status, time of call, duration, new/heard icon
· Run multiple instance of SAM under different Windows users
No Spyware / No Adware
Download: KishKish SAM 4.0.0.7 | Screenshots
Posted in VoIP | No Comments »
Friday, February 23rd, 2007
pcBaseline is a software program created to consolidate the tracking of vital aspects of your computer into one software solution. pcBaseline allows you to create baselines (or snapshots) of vital aspects of your computer. A baseline can be defined as a set of critical observations or data used for comparison. The key to pcBaseline is that it allows you to compare baselines of vital aspects of your computer to the current state. By comparing a baseline to the current state you are able to track changes to your computer.
Using pcBaseline gives you the ability to create baselines of vital aspects of your computer. By creating baselines you are storing a wealth of knowledge about your computer. This knowledge can be used to help track down the cause of behavioral changes to your computer such as increased pop-up ads and slower performance caused by more running processes. By comparing the current state to a baseline, you can efficiently track the changes made on your computer and deal with these changes as you see fit.
pcBaseline is not a service or a constantly running/monitoring background process. This prevents pcBaseline from tying up system resources and allows you to use pcBaseline without worrying about taking a performance hit with your computer.
Download: pcBaseline 1.0.3
Posted in Utilities | No Comments »
Friday, February 23rd, 2007
Microsoft won?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t allow its consumer editions of Vista onto virtualization engines, so goodbye Mac.
Cooperation between Microsoft and Apple may not have been all it was cracked up to be if Windows Vista is not allowed on Macs in all its forms, an analyst said Thursday.
Full story: Red Herring{TAGS}
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Friday, February 23rd, 2007
GSpot is a video codec identification utility.
Features
?¢‚Äî¬è Establishes what video codecs (audio and video) are required to play an AVI file.
?¢‚Äî¬è Determines whether these codecs are installed on your system.
?¢‚Äî¬è Isolates problems associated with these codecs.
?¢‚Äî¬è Simple operation - Basic use: “File > Open”, then read results
?¢‚Äî¬è Identifies download induced problems (truncated files, “cooked” files, etc.)
?¢‚Äî¬è Shows framerate, duration, aspect ratio, bitrates, AVI structure info, and more.
?¢‚Äî¬è Displays and allows editing of RIFF info (title, etc); displays “hidden” ASCII info.
?¢‚Äî¬è Drag and Drop and “Send To” support, multi-file (batch) processing support
?¢‚Äî¬è Copy/Paste or text export GSpot information - format is user configurable.
?¢‚Äî¬è Built-in database of 350 video and 150 audio codec types
?¢‚Äî¬è Advanced UI including “dual-mode” and hyperlinked “persistent” tool tips
?¢‚Äî¬è Full support for OGG media files as well as AVI stream formats
?¢‚Äî¬è Identification (only) of non-AVI files (.mpg, .mov, .qt, .rm, .swf, .wmv, .asf, etc.)
?¢‚Äî¬è Supports VFW, ACM, DirectShow and DMO codec types (audio and video)
?¢‚Äî¬è Win95/98/ME/NT/2K/XP/Vista
?¢‚Äî¬è No Install (optional), No spyware, No advertising, No registration
?¢‚Äî¬è Free
Download: GSpot 2.70a
Posted in Audio/Media/Video | No Comments »
Friday, February 23rd, 2007
Five years and 3,000,000+ downloads since the first release, Evrsoft brings you First Page 2006, the highly anticipated HTML editing software. Evrsoft First Page 2006 gives you unsurpassed freedom to create and edit web documents with absolute code control.
The latest version includes hundreds of new features and bug fixes. First Page 2006 now includes full support for HTML, XHTML, PHP, ASP, Cold Fusion, Javascript, CSS, SSI and Perl.
FirstPage 2006 is designed for professional web development. Create, Edit and deploy websites with absolute ease and precision. The integrated tools empower web developers to develop standards-based web documents, quickly and easily.
Download: Evrsoft First Page 2006 3.0 Windows 2000/XP
Posted in Misc | No Comments »
Friday, February 23rd, 2007
Download Microsoft Reader today and you’ll instantly enjoy the freedom of reading any of the thousands of available Microsoft Reader eBooks on an unmatched variety of devices!
Microsoft Reader is compatible with most Windows-based PCs and laptops.
Download: Microsoft Reader 2.1.1 Windows-based PCs, laptops, and Pocket PC
Posted in Microsoft | No Comments »
Friday, February 23rd, 2007
MySQL Administrator is a powerful visual administration console that enables you to easily administer your MySQL environment and gain significantly better visibility into how your databases are operating. MySQL Administrator now integrates database management and maintenance into a single, seamless environment, with a clear and intuitive graphical user interface. By using MySQL Administrator you will be able to:
- Achieve higher database availability through improved management
- Reduce errors through visual database administration
- Lower database administration costs through improved productivity
- Deliver a more secure environment through easier privilege management
MySQL Administrator enables developers and DBAs to easily perform all the command line operations visually including configuring servers, administering users, and dynamically monitoring database health. Other common administrative tasks such as monitoring replication status, backup and restore, and viewing logs can also be performed through the MySQL Administrator graphical console.
Download: MySQL GUI Tools 5.0-r9a Windows, Mac OS X, Linux
Posted in Scripts/MySQL | No Comments »
Friday, February 23rd, 2007
From Russia without love
Security watchers have discovered a string of malicious websites that install Trojan code, allowing hackers to compromise end-user banking credentials for more than 50 financial institutions and ecommerce websites.
Thousands of surfers a day are falling victim to the sophisticated attack, net security firm Websense warns.
The websites are hosted in Germany, England, and Estonia, and use a round robin DNS, resolving to five unique IP addresses that change on each occasion. Each site hosts the same code, exploiting the MS06-014 vulnerability in a bid to install a Trojan downloader without end-user interaction.
Full story: The Register
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Friday, February 23rd, 2007
Alcatel-Lucent in the money over MP3 tech…
A federal jury in San Diego has ordered Microsoft to pay $1.5bn to Alcatel-Lucent in a patent dispute over MP3 audio technology used in Windows.
In its verdict, the jury assessed damages based on each Windows PC sold since May 2003. The case could have broader implications, should Alcatel-Lucent pursue claims against other companies that use the widespread MP3 technology.
An Alcatel-Lucent representative praised the ruling. “We made strong arguments supporting our view, and we’re pleased with the court’s decision,” said a spokeswoman.
In a statement, Microsoft deputy general counsel Tom Burt said the software titan believes the verdict “is completely unsupported by the law or the facts”.
He added: “We will seek relief from the trial court, and if necessary, appeal.”
Full story: silicon.com
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Thursday, February 22nd, 2007
Cisco has dropped its lawsuit over Apple’s planned use of the iPhone trademark in its forthcoming handset. Wednesday night the two companies issued a joint statement that they had resolved the dispute.
The agreement leaves both firms free to use the iPhone trademark on their products throughout the world, according to the statement. Both Apple and Cisco said they acknowledge each other’s trademark ownership rights and will dismiss any pending action over its use.
Read more: internetnews.com
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Thursday, February 22nd, 2007
Fuzzy Duck RSS Reader is a freeware RSS, ATOM and RDF news reader. Simple, fast and extremly small, this reader is designed to sit on your desktop and give you the latest headlines and descriptions from all of your news feeds.
Features
- Offline mode
- Print feature
- Sticks to the edges of your screen
- Now has display settings so the feed window can look just right for you!!
- Set feeds to only display their headings
- Import OPML lists
Download: Fuzzy Duck RSS Reader 1.5
Posted in Web/internet | No Comments »
Thursday, February 22nd, 2007
The new AOL OpenRide software helps you do what you want online in fewer clicks and fewer hassles. No more jumping from one window to the next - everything you need is right there the moment you need it.
OpenRide is more than just a browser. The dynamic four-pane design will help save you time with these great new features:
• Time-saving features like tabbed browsing, thumbnail previews, and sneak peeks of emails and attachments.
• A new all-in-one Media Center that lets you enjoy video, music and pictures faster and with less hassles.
• Access your pop3 emails from the OpenRide Mail pane. Each of your email accounts are kept in separate folders, and you don’t have to sign in to each account to switch back and forth to manage them all.
• The panes in OpenRide automatically resize to your current activity. However, you can also resize them with the Dynasizer tool so you’re always in control of your online experience.
Download: AOL OpenRide 1.5.13.1 Beta 4 Windows XP/Vista
Posted in Misc | No Comments »
Thursday, February 22nd, 2007
Don’t expect Microsoft to stand pat in a video-sharing sector dominated by Google’s YouTube.
A week after a test version of Microsoft’s video site, Soapbox, went live, the company sized up at least one potential acquisition target, sources say. Last month, executives from MSN toured the Los Angeles headquarters of video-sharing site Revver, according to multiple sources. Rob Bennett, MSN’s general manager of Entertainment and Video services, confirmed that a meeting occurred but declined to discuss specifics.
“MSN was there looking to see whether any of Revver’s technology or staff could be rolled into Soapbox,” said one source familiar with the talks between the companies.
Full story: CNET News.com
Posted in News | No Comments »
