Friday, September 07, 2007
Increase Windows Vista Speed and Performance with ReadyBoost
If you ask someone knowledgeable with computers about how to speed up your PC, it's likely that they'll recommend adding extra RAM in order to boost performance. More RAM lets you put more programs on stand-by so they'll be ready to go when you need them.
A new feature introduced in Windows Vista mimics the performance-enhancing effects of more system memory without you needing to unscrew the back of your desktop or laptop to install more RAM.
Instead, Windows ReadyBoost lets you use a USB flash drive or SD (secure digital) memory card as additional memory (up to 4GB). Just stick it into the appropriate slot, and an AutoPlay dialog will open up asking whether you want to speed up your system with the inserted device.
If Autoplay doesn't appear, try right-clicking on the drive or card, select properties, and look under the ReadyBoost tab. Then you'll be able to select how much space on the device you want to allocate for ReadyBoost.
ReadyBoost might not work for all USB drives and memory cards. Only those that have fast-enough read/write speeds will be compatible.
Labels: Technology
Want a Grooveshark Music Sharing Invite?
The music sharing community Grooveshark has gone into beta, and we have 5 invites to give away.
Grooveshark lets you listen free to any song in their database, and if you like it, you can download it without any DRM restrictions for $0.99. You can even get paid for uploading tracks from your music collection. The only catch is that you need to install a helper application called Sharkbyte to access any of the services.
So, if you want an invite, leave your email address in the comments below.
Labels: Technology
P2P File Sharing May Leave You Vulnerable to Identity Theft and Fraud
P2P file sharing sounds like a good deal with free and easy access to the latest movies, music, and TV shows, but don't rush in without making sure your computer is secure.
Since the point of P2P is to share files from person-to-person, applications like LimeWire, Soulseek, and KaZaA can leave sensitive, private documents open to public access. In one case, a Seattle man downloaded "federal tax returns, student financial aid applications and credit reports that had been stored electronically."
He then used this information to apply for credit cards online and bought more than $73,000 worth of electronics (iPods, hard drives, etc.). Then, he resold them for a profit.
At least 83 file sharers were victimized by him.
So don't become a victim of P2P identity theft and fraud. Make sure that the folders on your computer that are publically shared don't contain any personal information. To be extra secure, it's also recommended that you keep these documents on a separate hard drive or a USB key.
The alternative may be more costly than you signed up for.
Labels: Technology
Request an Invite to the Delicious 2.0 Preview
Yahoo's social bookmarking service Del.icio.us has a new name (no more dots) along with a new design. The new Delicious service, as it is now called, has been completely rewritten and features new sorting options, bulk tag editing, a new search engine, and more.
Want to see what all the fuss is about? Then request an invite to the Delicious preview.
Screenshot credit: TechCrunch
Labels: Technology
Are You Having Windows Live Writer 2008/Beta 3 Plug-in Compatibility Problems?
Windows Live Writer Beta 3 is a big improvement over previous releases, adding in support for image uploading to Picasweb for Blogger blogs, XHTML support, and a new insert video feature.
But if you are upgrading from an existing installation, you might experience problems getting your plug-ins to work under Beta 3. The new version of the popular blog editor is installed under the Windows Live directory (C:\Program Files\Windows Live\Writer), not C:\Program Files\Windows Live Writer like it was before. As a result, you may need to copy over your Plugins folder to the new directory.
If that still doesn't solve the problem, try uninstalling Live Writer and then install Beta 3 again. Finally, re-install your recalcitrant plug-ins.
I ran into a problem getting the Insert Picture Post plugin to work after upgrading, and going through the above steps seemed to solve the problem. Although, with the new Picasaweb support, you may no longer need to use the Picture Post plugin, which uploads photos directly to your Flickr account.
Labels: Technology
Thursday, September 06, 2007
Scan your Computer for Insecure, Outdated Software Programs
Virus makers are constantly finding new ways of compromising your computer so it's important to update the software that you have installed. New versions of software programs are usually safer to use and have been patched to prevent intruders from hijacking them for nefarious purposes.
But with dozens and even hundreds of programs installed on a typical PC, how do you go about making sure that outdated and insecure software has been upgraded?
Try using the free Secunia Personal Software Inspector (PSI), which scans your computer for software and classifies it as either Insecure, End-of-Life, or Up-to-Date. The best part is that the inspector provides you with direct download links to updated versions of insecure and end-of-life programs.
The Secunia PSI checks the meta-data of executable and library files (.exe, .dll, and .ocx files) to determine the version numbers of the programs you have installed. Then it contacts the Secunia servers to see if the software is up-to-date.
Labels: Technology
Steve Jobs: "Is $100 Enough to Silence iPhone Complaints?"
After cutting the price of the 8GB iPhone by $200 yesterday and receiving a torrent of angry complaints from iPhone owners, Steve Jobs has announced that existing iPhone owners will receive a $100 Apple store credit.
The price cut comes only 2 months after the iPhone's release and is intended to help Apple "go for it" this holiday season.
More details on how to actually claim your credit will be posted next week.
However, if you only bought an iPhone within the last two weeks, you may be able to get an actual cash refund. According to Apple's return policy, you have 14 days to return any purchases for a full refund minus a 10% restocking fee.
Job's letter follows:
Labels: Technology
Is Your BitTorrent Download Slow Because of This?
Probably not yet, but that may soon change
A new "feature" introduced by the makers of Bitcomet may be responsible for slowing down your BitTorrent downloads. The torrent creator in Bitcomet generates padding files that let Bitcomet users download files from multiple sources (ed2k, ftp, etc.), not just from other users in their BitTorrent swarm.
But this feature doesn't help anyone using a different client like Azureus or µTorrent which don't support multi-source downloads. Instead, it may add 3-10% to the total file size that you will need to download. This isn't a big problem if you are downloading an MP3 album that is less than 100 MB, but it becomes a significant time waster when you are talking about a 1 GB+ DVD movie rip.
One way around this is to manually select and stop the downloading of these padding files. In µTorrent, you would look under the Files tab of the torrent, highlight the padding files, right-click them, and select Don't Download. There doesn't seem to be an automated way to stop it.
Related: Is your ISP throttling your BitTorrent P2P downloads?
Labels: Technology
XMG Image Offers Powerful Photo Sharing and Editing; The Next Flickr?
XMG Image combines an online photo sharing service with a wide range of image editing capabilities, making it something like a cross between Flickr and Microsoft Paint. The interface is powered by AJAX so it's may be redundant to say that it's extremely slick.
You can upload photos either as a single, a batch, or even compressed as a ZIP archive. They even make it easy to switch from Flickr with an import feature. Then tag your photos as you wish.
Once uploaded, you can easily edit your photos with the ability to rotate, crop, add special effects, and enhance. Sharing images is easy with pre-generated link code suitable for posting on a blog, Facebook, forum, or MySpace profile.
A free account lets you store up to 200 MB of images with 10 GB of bandwidth. Paid accounts give you more space and bandwidth as well as additional editing features.
Overall, XMG Image is an impressive newcomer to the crowded online photo sharing space. It's easy to use and has a rich user experience. If XMG Image doesn't get to the level of Flickr in popularity, it won't be for lack of eye-candy and features.
Labels: Technology
Reduce Unwanted Background Noise on Skype Phone Calls
Skype phone calls are generally crisp and clear if you have sufficient bandwidth, but there are times when you may be making a call from a cafe or other public area where there are noisy children, cars honking, or other unwanted background noises.
To reduce the effect of this background noise, you can use SoliCall, which works with Skype, Google Talk, Yahoo Messenger, and other Internet telephone software to improve voice and audio quality. It works both to reduce noise coming from your end of the call as well as incoming calls.
For best performance, let the software analyze a sample of your voice so it can focus on minimizing other noises.
You can also record phone conversations using SoliCall.
Labels: Technology
Wednesday, September 05, 2007
Facebook Stalking Gets Easier; Search Member Profiles on Google
In a month or so, it may get easier to stalk people on Facebook.
Facebook will be opening up their profiles to the public, letting search engines like Google and Yahoo index users' pages. They say that the "public search listings" will only contain minimal personal information like the name and profile picture of a Facebook member. Only members who are 18+ will be affected, but members can change their privacy settings to hide their profile.
But if you can't wait an extra month, you can get started right now since over 109,000 Facebook pages have already been indexed by Google. Just start on page 5 of the search results to see some profile pages.
To see the actual profile page, click on the Cached link. Otherwise, you'll be taken to a login page.
In case anyone took me seriously, I don't advocate Facebook or any kind of stalking, but I am concerned about the loss of privacy this latest move implies. Facebook was built on the idea of a closed network that protected users' privacy, but that has slowly changed over time. The right way of implementing the change is to ask users' permission first (opt-in instead of opt-out) before making their profiles publically accessible.
Labels: Technology
Find and Delete Duplicate Files on your Computer
Duplicate files make searching through files on your hard drive a confusing task, increase clutter and disorganization, and take up disk space that could be used for other purposes.
Duplicate Cleaner helps you locate and delete duplicate files on your PC. It comes with many flexible search parameters so you can customize searches for certain file types, for files with the same size, name, or date, or that have a minimum or maximum file size.
For those with a large music collection, you can use the program to search in the metadata of MP3, WMA, and OGG music files for files with the same artist, title, or album. This is a big help if you haven't been too discriminating in downloading music online.
Labels: Technology
Are You Human?: The Simplest CAPTCHA in the World
Are you human?
That's the basic question that any CAPTCHA seeks to answer by getting you to complete tasks that computers find difficult. Like typing the series of letters you see on the screen (used by many sites for registration) or adding two numbers together that some blogs use to moderate comments.
The thing that annoys me about most CAPTCHAs is that they're more difficult than they have to be to separate human from machine so I was thrilled to come across the CAPTCHA used by PassPack, an online password manager similar to Clipperz.
Take a look:
It reads: "Just click the black square to continue, thanks."
Isn't it the simplest CAPTCHA that you've ever seen?
Thanks to Tara Kelly, founder of PassPack for the tip! Although we didn't use it as intended.
Labels: Technology
Tuesday, September 04, 2007
Store Passwords and Private Information Securely Online
Too many passwords to remember? Don't trust Internet Explorer or Firefox to store them securely?
You might be interested in trying out Clipperz, which stores your passwords, logins, and other confidential information securely online. The most powerful way to use the service is to create "direct logins" so you can access any online service requiring an account with one click of a mouse.
Clipperz stores login information on "cards", which you create by clicking the Clipperz bookmarklet when you are on the login page of a site. You'll receive some code that you have to paste into Clipperz, and you will be prompted to enter your login information. The video explains the whole process more clearly.
Once that's done, you can get one-click access to any site you desire.
You can also integrate Clipperz directly into your browser if you're using Firefox or Opera. The compact version can be accessed as a sidebar in your browser.
Labels: Technology
Watch Any YouTube Video on Your Mobile Phone
YouTube has a mobile version of its video sharing service, but it doesn't let you watch any video you want. Only the most popular or highly rated videos can be accessed from your mobile phone.
To remedy this serious omission, you can use Mofonow, which lets you convert YouTube videos to a format suited to viewing on your phone. Just supply the URL of the video.
You can also upload your own videos to convert. Supported file types include AVI, MOV, WMV, FLV, and 3GP. Flickr image conversion is also available.
The only downside is that you have to convert YouTube videos from your computer before you can view them on your phone. But if the video is a long one, you can just submit it for conversion to Mofonow and watch it later at work or wherever you are outside.
Although if you don't care about watching any video in particular, you can always visit Mofoyo for an extensive archive of videos that have already been converted by other users. Mofoyo stores all the converted videos so there are already thousands of videos that you can watch.
Labels: Technology
Monday, September 03, 2007
Online Movie and TV Watching for the Undecided Video Pirate
Podnix may appeal to that segment of the online movie pirate market that likes to randomly skip from video to video.
The video site collects and categorizes movies, anime/manga, cartoons, TV shows, and music videos. Within each category, it puts all the video links on one page in alphabetical order so you can easily scroll and see exactly which episode of Prison Break (for instance) that Podnix has been able to snag.
It makes for a messy, but also quick, way of determining if the video you are looking for is listed. And if you don't know what to watch next, you can just click on another link and hope serendipity delivers. That may be the most unique, if unintended, feature of Podnix.
Helpfully, an "info" link is included next to each link so if you don't know what 12 oz. Mouse is about, you won't be mystified for long. More recognizable names like West Wing, Doctor Who, and Heroes are also represented and tend to dominate the site.
Labels: Technology
Remove Junk, Trial Software Programs from Your New PC Computer
Nowadays, when you first start up your computer, you are likely to be greeted with dozens of colorful icons on your desktop asking you to sign up for trial offers from the likes of America Online, Earthlink, Google, and other software makers.
Sure, you can manually uninstall all of these junk programs, but why should you have to when a program called PC Decrapifier will do it for you. The free program gets its name from the fact that the junk software that comes pre-loaded on new computers are often referred to as "craplets".
To get started clearing out these craplets, all you need to do is start PC Decrapifier, create a restore point (just in case you remove something that you shouldn't), and then select the programs that you want to remove.
So free up some screen real estate by removing those MusicMatch, AOL, Norton, "Get High Speed Internet!", and QuickBooks Trial icons from your desktop.
PC Decrapifier works on both Windows XP and Vista.
Labels: Technology
Shorten URLs for Beautiful Emails and Blog Posts
When you send a friend a link to a funny video or a cool website, you might end up with a horrifically long URL that gets chopped up when your friend opens your email later. Or if you post a long URL on your blog, it may get hidden by other elements of your blog, or it might run over and block some of them.
You don't want that to happen, which is where services like urlBeach come in. Just paste in a long and ugly URL, click the "shrink" button, and get back a nice and beautiful URL that redirects to your original destination.
For instance, you can reach Digital Alchemy using http://urlbeach.com/1f1e9d instead of http://www.digitalalchemy.tv.
Of course, the classic service to use to shorten URLs is TinyURL, but it isn't as cleanly designed as urlBeach..
Labels: Technology
A Better Way to View Flickr Photos
Flickriver takes the infinite scroll/river of news approach that Google Reader uses to display RSS feeds and applies it to Flickr photos. What you get is the ability to view thousands of photos without ever needing to hit the next button or wait for a new photo to load.
The Google analogy also applies to how you navigate photos. Hit j/k to go to the next/previous photo. You can also scroll faster by hitting page down; photos will keep loading in the background so you can keep scrolling down the page and see new photos.
Flickr photos can be viewed by user, interestingness, tag, and group. These aren't the tiny thumbnails you're probably used to, but large images that let you appreciate each photo's intricacies. This also reduces the amount of clicking you need to do.
All in all, Flickriver makes for a different and better way to view Flickr photos.
Labels: Technology
Sunday, September 02, 2007
Download Command & Conquer (C&C) Gold for Free
In celebration of the 12th anniversary of Command & Conquer Gold's (C&C Gold) release, Electronic Arts is releasing a free download of the classic game, which is compatible with Windows XP.
C&C is a real-time strategy/first-person shooter game that deals with two factions looking to control the future of the world (what else). Two downloads are available, representing the two sides (GDI and Nod).
The game is packaged as an ISO, so you'll either need to burn it to CD with software like Nero, or mount it on a virtual drive.
Labels: Technology
