The TDK 440N 4X DVD burner we bought 4 or 5 years ago finally died. It served us well, burning hundreds of DVDs and CDs until finally just wearing out. The TDK drive was a steal at around $120, and it wasn’t too picky about blank media. Rarely did it produce [...]
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )An ad-supported version of Microsoft Works 9 is now available for free according to reports. However, no download link is currently available.
Ok, this isn’t very interesting — especially while no download link is available…and there are probably better free options…not to mention free online applications like Zoho and Google Docs & Spreadsheet. [...]
In Ten Things Your IT Department Won’t Tell You, the Wall Street Journal explains why our IT departments lock down our computers — and offers up some ways to get around those barriers. Topics include: How To Clear Your Tracks On Your Work Laptop, How To Visit The Web Sites Your Company Blocks, and How [...]
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Three good — and free — anti-virus programs:
Avira AntiVir PersonalEdition Classic
Active Virus Shield from AOL
AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition
We use Avira, and it seems to work just fine. You don’t have to pay for the latest and greatest commercial anti-virus program to be adequately protected. As long as you’re running (and updating) [...]
A 3 month Consumerist.com sting operation netted video evidence of one Geek Squad employee copying porn files from a customer computer. Consumerist refused to name the employee, instead blaming the company. A few other whistle blowers have reported similar shenanigans. But now that Geek Squad is finally taking steps to stop the file [...]
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )TV networks are finding it difficult to keep new fall shows under wraps:
At least half a dozen highly anticipated broadcast network fall pilots have been leaked online. Copies of NBC’s “Bionic Woman,†ABC’s “Pushing Daisies,†The CW’s “Reaper†and several other shows were available Friday for illegal download on sites such as Torrent Spy, The [...]
Chore Wars is a little hard to describe. From the site:
Chore Wars lets you claim experience points for household chores. By getting a few people in your house or workplace to sign up, you can assign experience point rewards to individual chores, and see how quickly each of you levels up.
Dungeons and Dragons meets [...]
The Microsoft Beginner Developer Learning Center is a free resource for beginning programmers with little or no experience:
Welcome to the Beginner Developer Learning Center - a centralized learning environment specifically targeted to beginning programmers. Here you’ll find a rich array of learning content that starts with the very basics, and guides you through step-by-step to [...]
Jimmy Wales, the creator of online encyclopedia Wikipedia, is working on an open source search engine:
The new site, due to launch by the end of 2007, will combine human-assisted editing with computer-controlled searches. Earlier this year Wales’ commercial startup company, Wikia, purchased the rights to web crawler platform Grub.
Grub users download a program which makes [...]
Displaying a black background requires less energy than displaying a white background. That’s the idea behind Blackle, anyway. Ok, it’s jut a Google search page with a black background, but a few points are awarded for cleverness. And while black backgrounds aren’t going to save the planet, some people do find dark [...]
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Linksys home networkig products are well known, with a pretty good reputation for reliability and quality. So it makes less than perfect sense that Cisco, which bought Linksys four years ago, is ditching the name in favor of it’s own brand. The fact that the average consumer (outside of the enterprise) hasn’t a [...]
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )YouTube has plans to begin blocking copyrighted content by September:
Google Inc.’s YouTube hopes recognition technology will be in place in September to stop the posting of copyrighted videos on the popular Web site, a lawyer Friday told a judge presiding over copyright lawsuits.
The lawyer, Philip S. Beck, told U.S. District Judge Louis L. Stanton in [...]
Mashable has posted a bookmark-worthy guide to 80+ online storage and file sharing sites. As I’ve mentioned before, I use Mozy.com for online backup of crucial files.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Tomorrow at noon, CBS will broadcast a video game tournament as a sporting event, a first for a US broadcast network.
CBS sports will be airing an hour long special on the Louisville circuit stop of The World Series of Video Games, Presented by Intel, the world circuit of video game tournaments.
The special is set [...]
Only2Clicks.com is a simplified and customizable start page. The site features screen shots to go with each link, and tabs for easy organization. Only2Clicks looks like a great way to organize a core group of bookmarks, even if you don’t set the site as your home page.
Only2Clicks.com
Firefox seems to be getting more slow, bloaty and buggy with each release. Recent odd behavior includes all links on a page, and all buttons on the program itself going dead (including back, refresh, tabs, etc.). I’m running version 2.0.0.5, and all the bugginess began very recently. However, the bloat and sluggishness [...]
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Larry Dignan at ZDnet ordered the $150 Medison laptop that has bloggers buzzing today. We assume this laptop is a scam, and don’t have $150 to throw away. However, we’ll definitely be jumping on the bandwagon if this turns out to be legit. But don’t count on it — even a laptop [...]
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )What’s Steve’s beef with buttons ?
Buttons have long been a hot-button issue for Apple’s CEO. Bruce Tognazzini, a former user-interface expert at Apple who joined the company in 1978, says Mr. Jobs was adamant that the keyboard for the original Macintosh not include “up,” “down,” “right” and “left” keys that allow users to move the [...]
Joost has already signed up one million beta users, reports TVSquad. Co-founder Niklas Zennström is quoted as saying the service could go public by the end of the year.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Computer Shopper offers a guide to building a decent PC for $250. The parts are better than you think — ATHLON 64 3400+, 1 GB of RAM, 80 GB hard drive.
You may be able to buy a computer pre-built for around the same money, but probably not with the [...]
last100 has a roundup of 8 newish tv over ip applications. The only one I’ve used is Joost, which is very impressive.
As always, try InviteShare for an invite to many of these beta sites.
No posts yesterday…we were too busy reading the book-which-shall-not-be-named. We can’t think of anything more unneccesary* than a review of the fastest selling book in history, so we’ll just say: good read.
* True — J.K. and her publishers overreacted to the few early (and spoiler-free) reviews. Most authors would kill for a [...]
From BetaMax to BeOS, CNET UK looks at the losers of the format wars.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )One Laptop Per Child ramps up for production. From The Register:
The One Laptop per Child project has started production, with the first children in the developing world expected to receive their computers in October this year.
The ultimate aim is to get the device down to $100, though the initial run will cost $176, according [...]
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