Intrigued? Don't be.
But do read on...
http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=842&tag=nl.e622
Lenovo's Q3 to soar, outperform in 2008
|
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Lenovo are predicting a big year ahead.
Funny, since the T60 has been the least reliable Thinkpad ever made, with returns for everything from the screen to the keyboard to the tracker to the wireless card (almost as flaky as the T40's) to the mainboard itself.
The T61 has fared better, although it looks cheaply constructed when placed beside an IBM Thinkpad.
Funny, since the T60 has been the least reliable Thinkpad ever made, with returns for everything from the screen to the keyboard to the tracker to the wireless card (almost as flaky as the T40's) to the mainboard itself.
The T61 has fared better, although it looks cheaply constructed when placed beside an IBM Thinkpad.
Major news for the filesharing community
|
European Court Decides FileSharers Should Stay Anonymous
European file-sharers were given a huge legal boost today, as the European Court of Justice declared that EU law does not allow Internet Service Providers to be forced to reveal the personal details of people accused of file sharing.
Telefonica, Spain’s largest telecom operator successfully argued that the law only required it to reveal the identities of those accused of a criminal offense and that sharing of music was a civil issue.
The European Court of Justice agreed with Telefonica in its dispute with the Spanish music rights holders association Promusicae. In order to start civil proceedings, Promusicae had asked for the names of Telefonica subscribers, who allegedly infringed copyrighted material by using KaZaA.
The court said that: “Community law does not require the member states, in order to ensure the effective protection of copyright, to lay down an obligation to disclose personal data in the context of civil proceedings.”
This ruling is a huge victory for EU filesharers, whose privacy is now backed by a ruling from the European Court. For ISPs this should be a huge relief as well, and they can finally put their time and effort in working for their customers, instead of against them.
The tide is changing for European filesharers. Last week we reported that the data protection commissioner in Switzerland criticized the infamous anti-piracy tracking outfit Logistep for helping to breach the privacy of filesharers. A few days before that decision, Greens EFA, a coalition of two political parties that currently have 42 seats in the European parliament, launched a pro-filesharing campaign named “I Wouldn’t Steal”.
Reprinted with(out) the kind permission of torrentfreak.com ;-)
Posted by Jim, via email
Older Software Versions
|
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Following on from the Older Freeware Versions post, here is another site for older versions of software - so old they call it "abandonware".
This is one of the sites you can go to when you want software like:
This is one of the sites you can go to when you want software like:
- Turbo Vision
- Norton Ghost
- Lemmings
- dBXL
The New Dreambox is on the way
|
Coming in March 2008? Maybe not...
Here's the blurb:
The DM 8000 provides pure state of the art technology: two CI slots, two DVB-S2 tuners (MPEG-4) plus two additional slots for twin tuners, which are freely selectable via plug & play depending on the reception path preferred (satellite, cable, terrestrial). In addition, the box provides a reader for CF and SD cards.
The rear panel of the Linux box provides two Scart sockets, an S-Video output as well as an HDMI and a YUV connection (up to 1080i), complemented by two USB interfaces. An additional USB connection is provided on the front panel. Of course, the box also comes equipped with a 100 Mbit full duplex network connection.
Recording and archiving of HD material is no problem at all with the Dream DM 8000. It can be optionally retrofitted with a hard drive (SATA support) as well as with a DVD burner. A Mini PCI slot as well as the large OLED display round off the full range of features.
Now when it is coming? Unveiled in May 2006, Dream-Multimedia have been frustrated by licensing problems pushing the release date further and further out. The latest is that it will be on the market in June for about €800. Until then, you'll just have to pay for SkyHD :(
Date and Time Properties - when Auto syncing doesn't work
|
Friday, January 25, 2008
Has anyone else noticed that the "Automatically synchronize with an internet time server" function doesn't work?
It seems that time.widows.com and time.nist.gov have been up and down (mostly down) of late.
Here's what to do to fix it:
Quick solution:
Longer solution:
Edit the registry to include a few servers
Go to HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\DateTime\Servers and add a few new string values for the following services that are confirmed to work as of today (25/01/2008):
Not such a pressing issue, but if like me you have several machines on your desk at work all showing different times you might find this a godsend - especially if you have to do a lot of testing that requires you to read through logs that are date/time stamped. Imagine having to do a time differential on every log comparison!
It seems that time.widows.com and time.nist.gov have been up and down (mostly down) of late.
Here's what to do to fix it:
Quick solution:
- Go to Date and Time properties
- go to the internet time tab
- in the Server combo-box type "europe.pool.ntp.org" click "Apply" and then "Update"
- provided that the server is up the update will be successful
Longer solution:
Edit the registry to include a few servers
Go to HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\DateTime\Servers and add a few new string values for the following services that are confirmed to work as of today (25/01/2008):
Not such a pressing issue, but if like me you have several machines on your desk at work all showing different times you might find this a godsend - especially if you have to do a lot of testing that requires you to read through logs that are date/time stamped. Imagine having to do a time differential on every log comparison!
Google and the quest for the answer to life, the universe and everything
|
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Google's Search for the Universal Search
Google sows the seeds of its own destruction by thriving...?
Meanwhile, IBM goes down the pan
Google sows the seeds of its own destruction by thriving...?
Meanwhile, IBM goes down the pan
| App of the day: |
|
DVDVideoSoft News
|
DVDVideoSoft News |
| YouTube Download does not work any more Posted: 24 Jan 2008 10:38 AM CST YouTube has just changed their video files hosting routine. So our YouTube download programs stop working. As for us we worked hard and already today we have fixed the problem and updated all YouTube related software. If you use the following programs, please download and reinstall them: P.S. Special thanks to FREEBIRDX! Our forum member who informed us about this problem first in his post “YouTube download does not work any more “. |
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Inbox too full?  Subscribe to the feed version of DVDVideoSoft News in a feed reader. | |
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The care and keeping of laptops and batteries
|
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Question: from msk6261
Do you destroy the "memory life" of a rechargable battery when you leave it plugged in all the time? Is it best to let the battery drain and recharge on a regular basis? Is it OK to almost always have the notebook plugged in? What is the best practice for keeping the longevity of the battery time and overall battery life?
Answer:
It depends what you mean by "memory life". There are two types of memory associated with notebook batteries:
a) the type of memory that prevents a battery from physically taking charge
b) the "digital memory" deterioration that causes notebooks' charge level calibration to get progressively less and less accurate
Type a) affects only NiMh/NiCd battery types, whereas type b) affects pretty much all battery types where the laptop monitors charge levels - including those of Li-on batteries.
The resulting effect of digital memory loss is that your notebook's power meter misreads the charge level in the battery, reporting the wrong % charge remaining figure to you in your taskbar and, reporting the same to your power management program!
Over time this inaccuracy may get greater until eventually your battery is virtually useless.
Note that some notebook manufacturers provide better power mangement than others: Dell, IBM/Lenovo and Toshiba seemed to suffer a great deal from this problem. They seem to all have one thing in common: once the battery is charged they don't stop charging and switch to AC power. Instead, they continue to run off battery power while charging, resulting in continuous charge/discharge of the battery. This is exceptionally bad as far as power meter calibration goes! There are dozens of Thinkpads owned by my employer that have very little battery life as a result of this flip-flopping of charge/discharge. You can identify this problem if your power meter reports 100%, 99%, 100%, 99%, 98%, 99%, 100% etc. over a period of just a few minutes.
Some laptops will respond to the detection of a battery becoming fully charged by cutting off charging and running from AC while plugged in. This will help to extend the life of the battery (yes, Li-Ons too, they have a limited number of full discharges during their lifetime).
Even if your laptop manages charging better, you will still find your power meter goes out of calibration over time. Although it is not recommended to regularly fully discharge your battery, you should periodically fully discharge it and fully charge it (don't leave the battery for an extended period with no charge in it). This will allow proper calibration of the power management program and ensure that the power meter gives a more accurate reading. It is important to do this whenever you notice a deterioration in the normal operating time of your battery - if you leave it too late then you will never get close to the times you once did. Note: this has nothing to do with Ni-MH/Ni-Cd battery memory loss! Although it will work for them too, for a different reason.
For Mac users:
OS 9 and OS X comes with a digital memory reset function to get around the calibration problem (reset NVRAM or something like that). Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be such a utility available from other laptop manufacturers
You can read everything you need to know about (li-on) battery care at:
http://www.rm.com/_RMVirtual/Media/Downloads/Lithium_Ion_Batteries_Care.doc
http://www.batteryuniversity.com/parttwo-34.htm
also try:
http://monkeyfilter.com/link.php/7094
http://www.laptop-battery.org/batterytips.html
and http://www.macintouch.com/laptopbatt.html (for Mac users)
Hope this helps.
Do you destroy the "memory life" of a rechargable battery when you leave it plugged in all the time? Is it best to let the battery drain and recharge on a regular basis? Is it OK to almost always have the notebook plugged in? What is the best practice for keeping the longevity of the battery time and overall battery life?
Answer:
It depends what you mean by "memory life". There are two types of memory associated with notebook batteries:
a) the type of memory that prevents a battery from physically taking charge
b) the "digital memory" deterioration that causes notebooks' charge level calibration to get progressively less and less accurate
Type a) affects only NiMh/NiCd battery types, whereas type b) affects pretty much all battery types where the laptop monitors charge levels - including those of Li-on batteries.
The resulting effect of digital memory loss is that your notebook's power meter misreads the charge level in the battery, reporting the wrong % charge remaining figure to you in your taskbar and, reporting the same to your power management program!
Over time this inaccuracy may get greater until eventually your battery is virtually useless.
Note that some notebook manufacturers provide better power mangement than others: Dell, IBM/Lenovo and Toshiba seemed to suffer a great deal from this problem. They seem to all have one thing in common: once the battery is charged they don't stop charging and switch to AC power. Instead, they continue to run off battery power while charging, resulting in continuous charge/discharge of the battery. This is exceptionally bad as far as power meter calibration goes! There are dozens of Thinkpads owned by my employer that have very little battery life as a result of this flip-flopping of charge/discharge. You can identify this problem if your power meter reports 100%, 99%, 100%, 99%, 98%, 99%, 100% etc. over a period of just a few minutes.
Some laptops will respond to the detection of a battery becoming fully charged by cutting off charging and running from AC while plugged in. This will help to extend the life of the battery (yes, Li-Ons too, they have a limited number of full discharges during their lifetime).
Even if your laptop manages charging better, you will still find your power meter goes out of calibration over time. Although it is not recommended to regularly fully discharge your battery, you should periodically fully discharge it and fully charge it (don't leave the battery for an extended period with no charge in it). This will allow proper calibration of the power management program and ensure that the power meter gives a more accurate reading. It is important to do this whenever you notice a deterioration in the normal operating time of your battery - if you leave it too late then you will never get close to the times you once did. Note: this has nothing to do with Ni-MH/Ni-Cd battery memory loss! Although it will work for them too, for a different reason.
For Mac users:
OS 9 and OS X comes with a digital memory reset function to get around the calibration problem (reset NVRAM or something like that). Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be such a utility available from other laptop manufacturers
You can read everything you need to know about (li-on) battery care at:
http://www.rm.com/_RMVirtual/Media/Downloads/Lithium_Ion_Batteries_Care.doc
http://www.batteryuniversity.com/parttwo-34.htm
also try:
http://monkeyfilter.com/link.php/7094
http://www.laptop-battery.org/batterytips.html
and http://www.macintouch.com/laptopbatt.html (for Mac users)
Hope this helps.
DVDVideoSoft News
|
Monday, January 21, 2008
DVDVideoSoft News |
| Posted: 21 Jan 2008 11:11 AM CST Hello all! This is the first post in our blog this year and we have lots of news. Find more details below. |
| Posted: 21 Jan 2008 11:10 AM CST Visit and bookmark the following link:http://www.dvdvideosoft.com/forums/index.php. Make it the home page for your browser Here you can ask questions, get answers from real people, and share your insights and experience. Everybody is invited! We hope that this forum will become your favorite place to find and share information about video related tasks and software. We will do our best to make this true. |
| Posted: 21 Jan 2008 11:10 AM CST I’d like to draw your special attention to the update of Free Video Dub. In this version we implemented the scene search algorithm. It reduces the time you need to find and delete unwanted scenes from your video. We hope that you will like it! |
| Posted: 21 Jan 2008 11:09 AM CST Thanks to Doc King you can see our software in action: http://blog.stanking.org. He used our Free Video to JPG Converter to extract a frame every 10 seconds from the original video file and then Free Video to Flash Converter to make a smaller file to post in his blog. Your stories or live example of using our software is greatly appreciated. Do not hesitate to write us, we will post it on our site! |
| Posted: 21 Jan 2008 11:09 AM CST Today we have just updated all our software. 3GP Converter: Deutsch, Portuguese (Brazil) Plus, all programs are available in Japanese now! |
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| Inbox too full? Subscribe to the feed version of DVDVideoSoft News in a feed reader. | |
| If you prefer to unsubscribe via postal mail, write to: DVDVideoSoft News, c/o FeedBurner, 20 W Kinzie, 9th Floor, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
Check out the new music hardware
|
Saturday, January 19, 2008
The Samsung YP-P2 delivers 20mW per channel sound.
The iPod Touch delivers ???mW per channel - which means no more than 20mW /ch. (see how Apple neglect to provide us with the meaningful technical specs)
My old Cowon iAudio U3 spits out nasty 30mW /ch. - leaving the opposition in the shade, but it's been superceded by the U5 - and there's a bevvy of new lovelies to go with it on the
Cowon site.
If you don't have one, you're not a real audiophile ;-)
Then get yourself some proper headphones.
Whether you have one or not, you should get yourself a copy of JetAudio posthaste.
The iPod Touch delivers ???mW per channel - which means no more than 20mW /ch. (see how Apple neglect to provide us with the meaningful technical specs)
My old Cowon iAudio U3 spits out nasty 30mW /ch. - leaving the opposition in the shade, but it's been superceded by the U5 - and there's a bevvy of new lovelies to go with it on the
Cowon site.
If you don't have one, you're not a real audiophile ;-)
Then get yourself some proper headphones.
Whether you have one or not, you should get yourself a copy of JetAudio posthaste.
Lightning DOES strike in the same place twice... in Dell's case
|
Friday, January 18, 2008
Dell laptops in electric shock shocker read original article
We've discovered a worrying new feature in some Dell laptops: if you touch them, you may get an electric shock. This discharge can vary in strength from a gentle tingle to a sudden jolt. Disturbingly, you could also be shocked when connecting printers, PDAs and other peripherals to the offending laptops.
Referred by Jim
We've discovered a worrying new feature in some Dell laptops: if you touch them, you may get an electric shock. This discharge can vary in strength from a gentle tingle to a sudden jolt. Disturbingly, you could also be shocked when connecting printers, PDAs and other peripherals to the offending laptops.
Referred by Jim
I'm thinking of upgrading my hard drive
|
Well, my trusty laptop has a 100GB HDD, but it's always getting full... You know, holiday pics and movies, downloaded movies, all my ripped music - all that stuff Sony and Apple want to DRM-ify to death. Anyway, whatever it's full of, a good 80% of it is used up - and we all know how Windows needs space to breathe. I archive stuff onto my 500GB external drive and make the odd DVD backup, but I'd love a big capacity HDD.
I was looking on SVP, Pixmania, Dabs and Komplett and couldn't really find anything big enough. And then I found this
Seeing as this will probably never come into fruition, this will have to do instead.
I was looking on SVP, Pixmania, Dabs and Komplett and couldn't really find anything big enough. And then I found this
Seeing as this will probably never come into fruition, this will have to do instead.
| These drives will slot into the first 1TB notebook by |  |
Of course, all this was made possible by the good people at Hitachi, who have to be one of the best hardware manufacturers of them all. They even made the Raptor great. |  |
IBM programmers
|
Monday, January 14, 2008
Things must be improving at IBM. Mediocrity has been achieved.
How To Become a Hacker
|
Tuesday, January 08, 2008
Here's an article by Eric Steven Raymond that offers advice on how to win friends and influence
people - provided they're hackers.
It includes links to such illuminating pieces as The HTML Hell page, containing such memorable paragraphs as:
"Surfers learn quickly that for every ten 'under construction' signs that go up, maybe two will ever come down before the heat-death of the Universe. This is stupid. HTML is not rocket science and prototyping pages is not a slow process. Anybody who can't find the time to clean the construction signs off their pages should yank them and take up a hobby better matched to their abilities, like (say) drooling, or staring at the wall."
Not to mention, the enlightening Loginataka (there, I just mentioned it):
"The true Way to the Knowledge of the Source is not the timid and footling way of the Student, but the Divine Foolery of the Hacker. Hack, then; strive against Mighty Problems, have joy in thy Striving, and let the Crashes fall where they may (maintaining the while, for the Good of thy Karma, a Rigorous Backup Policy)".
Read on... if you dare.
people - provided they're hackers.
It includes links to such illuminating pieces as The HTML Hell page, containing such memorable paragraphs as:
"Surfers learn quickly that for every ten 'under construction' signs that go up, maybe two will ever come down before the heat-death of the Universe. This is stupid. HTML is not rocket science and prototyping pages is not a slow process. Anybody who can't find the time to clean the construction signs off their pages should yank them and take up a hobby better matched to their abilities, like (say) drooling, or staring at the wall."
Not to mention, the enlightening Loginataka (there, I just mentioned it):
"The true Way to the Knowledge of the Source is not the timid and footling way of the Student, but the Divine Foolery of the Hacker. Hack, then; strive against Mighty Problems, have joy in thy Striving, and let the Crashes fall where they may (maintaining the while, for the Good of thy Karma, a Rigorous Backup Policy)".
Read on... if you dare.
Older Freeware versions
|
Monday, January 07, 2008
Some more sites to get some older versions of shareware programs, mostly free.
http://pricelessware.org/thelist/index.htm
http://www.oldversion.com/
http://www.old-versions.net/
http://pricelessware.org/thelist/index.htm
http://www.oldversion.com/
http://www.old-versions.net/
jQuery: Where have you been all my life?
|
Friday, January 04, 2008
Any developer who has spent an age arseing around with nasty old JavaScript will appreciate this tool.
PC World plunges to new depths
|
While negative press piles up on PC World's doormat, they obviously forgot to pay the electric bill buried somewhere underneath the thousands of letters of complaint from angry customers.
Anyone who visited their Irish site up until this morning will have seen the notice "account suspended due to non-payment" where the site used to be. Now it looks like PC World got reconnected - their site is up again (sort of... it's under construction). I wonder if they got charged a reconnection fee? ;-)
Here is a small sample of the unrest from around the blog-o-sphere:
Anyone who visited their Irish site up until this morning will have seen the notice "account suspended due to non-payment" where the site used to be. Now it looks like PC World got reconnected - their site is up again (sort of... it's under construction). I wonder if they got charged a reconnection fee? ;-)
Here is a small sample of the unrest from around the blog-o-sphere:
Lenovo to be released into the wild
|
Thursday, January 03, 2008
Have you read the news shocker on TechRepublic?
Lenovo is about to take on the home user laptop market by storm with such innovative features as:
Lenovo is about to take on the home user laptop market by storm with such innovative features as:
- cloth covered case
- red coloured case
- Chinese government spyware (probably)
SyncBackSE
|
Wednesday, January 02, 2008
For anyone looking for a great backup utility, try:
SyncBackSE
It rocks. It's not free, but well worth the money.
There is a freeware edition, but SE is worth the cash.
^---^
oo
>_<
SyncBackSE
It rocks. It's not free, but well worth the money.
There is a freeware edition, but SE is worth the cash.
^---^
oo
>_<
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