Archive for January, 2005

A year ago, I would have said that Open Sources does not have a chance to threaten Microsoft with the home user. FireFox, Thunderbird, and now OpenOffice have changed my mind. OpenOffice.org 2.0, the open-source office suite sponsored by Sun Microsystems Inc., is getting closer to reality.

The latest prebeta edition, OpenOffice.org Snapshot Build 1.9.m74. Snapshot builds showing the progress on our way towards OpenOffice.org 2.0 will be released every two weeks. This build is feature-complete and reveals an office suite that includes a personal DBMS (database management system) and improved Microsoft Office file compatibility.

Here is the real big thing. Microsoft Office, with which OpenOffice is often compared, comes with the Access database. Starting with 2.0, however, OpenOffice will include the open-source HSQL database engine.

HSQL is a Java-based database. It is an SQL (structured query language) DBMS engine that’s also designed for use with JDBC (Java DataBase Connect). As such, it’s a database designer tool, not an office-worker tool.

To make HSQL useful to office-users, OpenOffice 2.0 will include a user-friendly front end, OpenOffice Base. With this, users can access existing dBASE, Microsoft Access and MySQL databases, among others. It also can be used to create databases. OpenOffice Base also includes easy-to-use report, form and query creation wizards.

This tweak stops FireFox looking at the IPv6 port, and speeds up readering between web pages.

Open Firefox..type about:config

look for :Network.dns.disableIPv6

Double click to to toggle it to ‘true’ and then restart Firefox. You should notice a speed increase, page to page.

Lexus cars may be vulnerable to viruses that infect them via mobile phones. Landcruiser 100 models LX470 and LS430 have been discovered with infected operating systems that transfer within a range of 15 feet.

‘If infected mobile devices are scary, just thinking about an infected onboard computer..,’ said Eugene Kaspersky, head of anti-virus research at Russian firm Kaspersky. ‘We do know that car manufacturers are integrating existing operating systems into their onboard computers (take the Fiat and Microsoft deal, for instance).’”

AuditMyPC.com is a Web site that offers a host of free services designed to help you to secure your PC.

Using readily available diagnostic tools and your Internet connection, the AuditMyPC.com site will tell you exactly what security holes you have open, Windows patches that you are missing, spyware that is installed, ports that are open (and which viruses take advantage of which open port), and a host of other useful information.”

EveryVideoGame.com Those who read this site know that I love the free stuff. This is a perfect site that shows the power and freedom of the internet.

This site allows you to play any NES game you wish via your web-browser. Basically they have a Java class that loads the ROM for you from their site, only downside is there is no sound. Check it out and enjoy the games of your childhood.

Free File Home – Your Link to Free Online FilingFor millions of eligible taxpayers this year, there is Free File. Free File is online tax preparation and electronic filing through a partnership agreement between the IRS and the Free File Alliance, LLC. In other words, you can e-file… free.

BitTorrent is a protocol designed for transferring files. It is peer-to-peer in nature, as users connect to each other directly to send and receive portions of the file. Since you are downloading the file from multiple sources, you need a place to start. You start the process with a .torrent file, this is also called a Meta File. You can think of this as instructions on how to get the file and put it together. Once you get this file, you can open it with a Bittorrent client, and start downloading.

So how do you find these Meta files? The best way to find Torrents is to first find a great Torrent search site. I love TorrentSpy.com. TorrentSpy allows users to Search for these Meta files, and download them. There is also a FireFox plugin that adds TorrentSpy to the Search box.

I you looking for a little more juice from your browsing experience, try “AT YOUR OWN RISK” a FireFox build optimized for your processor. I am currently using the M3 build that is optimized for the P4 and have noticed an over all improvement it page refresh time.

The M3 builds are optimized for:

• AMD Opteron, AMD Athlon FX , AMD Athlon 64, AMD Sempron (3100+) , Intel Xeon, Intel Pentium M, Intel Pentium 4, Intel Celeron D, and Intel Celeron (1.7GHz – 2.8GHz)
  

Try it out at www.moox.ws. Tell me what you think.

The wait is over, but I think I will wait some more. The long awaited eXeem is out in beta and ready to P2P. This is a new Peer-To-Peer program, which is based on the BitTorrent idea. eXeem eliminates the need for trackers as nodes in the program will be taking their role. eXeem also features easy publication of files to the network as well as a rating and comments system.

The problem is that eXeem says that it contains NO SPYWARE, but my Anti-Spyware tool had a small stroke blocking toolbars and other junk. eXeem is free and is ad-supported. eXeem is currently still in its beta testing phase, which means that the network might not be completely stable yet.

Bottom line is that it works, and has promise, but downloader beware.

Update: eXeem Lite is out, without the spyware. Find it at: www.exlite.net

Why bop around the internet when the internet could come to you. Several of your favorite sites, including bigbrains, have RSS or Feeds that can you set up to deliver the scoop to your doorstep like the morning paper.

RSS feeds are a spam-free, quick and efficient way to read news and weblogs. To get the most out of newsfeeds, you need a powerful aggregator, though, that lets you organize, search, categorize and use news items just like emails RSS feeds are a spam-free, quick and efficient way to read news and weblogs. To get the most out of newsfeeds, you need a powerful aggregator, though, that lets you organize, search, categorize and use news items just like emails.

First you need a reader or “Aggregator”, I like ThunderBird but also recommend:

• Newz Crawler
• SharpReader
• FeedDemon
• Bloglines
• NewsGator Online Services
• intraVnews
• NewsGator

To get started, Try out the the bigBrains Feed “http://www.bigbrains.com/bigbrains.rdf” with ThunderBirds RSS Basics.

If you have ever tried to send a big file to someone and faced size limitations, I have the site for you. You send it allows you to send ginormous files to any one for free. Ok, your not really send them the file, your are uploading to a secure server, and the recipient receives a email with a link. This by passes all the mail box problems, also the download is much more efficient.

Key Benefits:

- Easy of Use: 3 simple steps on one web page! No account nor files to maintain.

- Safety: Your data goes to who you want it to and nobody else.

- Send Large Files Up to 1000MB (1GB).

- Fast data transfer.

- Data is Encrypted HTTPS session.

- www.YouSendIt.com is completely free.

A company called Streamload is willing to give you 10GB online storage – for free. Yes, you heard that right, for free. In an effort to compete with larger companies that offer online homes for digital photographs, and other huge systems like those of Google’s Gmail service, Streamload is offering consumers a free 10-gigabyte online storage locker for multimedia files. Streamload believes that even the average person can benefit well from their free storage.

‘It seems to have come to appeal not only to the hard-core early adopters, but to mainstream users. It’s no longer a novelty to have an MP3 player, and even having a place online to store MP3 files so you can fill up your iPod on the road has become more common.’ – Streamload chief executive Steve Iverson.

Streamload’s service also allows its customers to share files stored on the system, but has guards in place to prevent the swapping of pirated content. The free offer will go into effect on Monday, but there is a catch or two. “

Picasa: Photo management software, free from Google. Find, edit, share photos.: “A free software download from Google.

Picasa is software that helps you instantly find, edit and share all the pictures on your PC. Every time you open Picasa, it automatically locates all your pictures (even ones you forgot you had) and sorts them into visual albums organized by date with folder names you know. You can drag and drop to arrange your albums and make labels to create new groups. Picasa makes sure your pictures are always organized.”

So you have heard of movies on the internet, kids grabbing music, software and other digital media. File sharing was the one of the primary tasks the Internet was created. Today files can be shared person to person in a fairly anonymous way. First with Napster, then later with Kazaa and eDonky, and now Bittorrent.

Back in the day, us old school nerds, used FTP and other protocols. Napster change all that with P2P, or Peer To Peer, that allows one computer to share data with another with out server. The innovation came in with the slick interface, that allowed grandpa to grab songs just as fast as third year MIT student.

Kazaa improved on napsters design, and so did a dozen other P2P file sharing programs. The protocols are well published and understood, there is great open source projects out their, and lets just say, the Genie is out of the bottle. The RIAA and other regulatory bodies have no hope on stopping it. I will not comment on it legality, but as a technology, it is a break through.

So, now to Bittorrent. It is more of a standard then a tool like Kazaa and eDonky. This technology allows you to download different bits of a file from different people. The really cool part is that you can share the bits that you have, before you have the whole file. You also down load the file in a nonlinear method, so you get a bit here and a bit there, and like a puzzle it gets put together for you. Using bittorrent is not as easy to use as some other P2P methods, but the results are incredible.

I will start posting how to’s in the days and weeks to come. Till then here are some sites to get you started.

Bittorrent Home Page

Shareaza

Call For Help Torrent Tracker

Torrent Spy check out the FireFox pluging

High Hat Torrent Site List

WinRAR You will need this

DivX codec

Xvid codec

Techconnect Magazine – TCTools: Longhorn Transformation Pack 8: “With Longhorn Transformation Pack you can transform your Windows XP into the upcoming Longhorn (the new Windows edition from Microsoft). This is version 8 and includes support for Windows XP Service Pack 2 as well as a lot of other enhancements. “

The Web portal introduced its MSN Toolbar Suite in a beta, or test version, on Monday. The software lets people search the contents of their hard drive, including Microsoft Outlook e-mail, calendar items, contacts and Office documents. It also lets them navigate the Web with MSN’s proprietary search technology, released last month, from points within e-mail and within Windows.

I am currently running both MSN Toolbar Suite and Google Desktop Search, and I like both. Google wins on helping find what I am looking for, but MSN has a boat load of cool features. MSN Toolbars Autofill is the best of its kind out there. Look at both and see which one is best for you.

For more info goto:

SLATE and MSN and Yahoo

Tired of Bliss, the STANDARD Windows XP look and feel? Energy Blue is a new theme for Tablet PC and and WinXP Media Center Edition 2005. This installer alows the rest of the Windows world to enjoy the theme for the select few. Even if you don’t like the theme the wallpaper is still a nice change

Get it Now

The new 2TB (2048GB) “?card,” developed by Taiwan’s Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) and seven local-industry players, is now waiting for marketable solutions to be developed, based on the initial specifications established in early October. The developers have formed the Mu-Card Alliance to promote the new standard.

On 16 December 2004 Microsoft announced its acquisition of Giant Company Software, Inc., a provider of anti-spyware and Internet security products. The company started working on incorporating Giant’s technology into a new product, called Microsoft Windows Anti-Spyware. The first beta of this new product is available for download from today.

The beta software scans a user’s PC to locate spyware and other software threats and enable customers to remove them. It is available for Windows 2000 and later, including Windows XP Home Edition and Windows XP Pro.

According to the Beta webpage, ‘the technology helps protect Windows users from spyware and other potentially unwanted software. Known spyware on your PC can be detected and removed. This helps reduce negative effects caused by spyware including slow PC performance, annoying pop-up ads, unwanted changes to Internet settings, and unauthorized use of your private information. Continuous protection improves Internet browsing safety by guarding over 50 ways spyware can enter your PC.

Free avast! 4 Home Edition – Free antivirus software – free virus protection for home PC: “Free avast! 4 Home Edition”

Avast Home Edition is a free antivirus software for home, non-commercial use. It scans for viruses, worms, and Trojan horses. Avast scans on demand – with skinnable simple interface, during boot time, and on access. It protects e-mail, instant messengers, and P2P clients. It maintains virus chest. True incremental updates (well under 100KB) based on iAVS technology update virus definition at least twice a week.

Version 4.5.523 includes a new Network Shield, improved e-mail, P2P, and IM protection, archive operation, and it’s available now in English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish.

Note: Users need to register at the developer’s site to obtain the free license key.

“If two graphics cards in one system are too expensive or simply not fast enough, Gigabyte’s new 3D1 board may be worth a serious look. Sources told Tom’s Hardware Guide, that the company prepares to launch a dual-GPU card Friday, saying that it will ‘revise the VGA performance ranking’.

1The card integrates two Nvidia GeForce 6600 GT graphics processors and is the first 6600 GT card on the market to offer a total of 256 MByte DDR 3 memory and 256 Mbit of memory bandwidth, according to the manufacturer. The card is cooled by two on-board fans.

The 3D1′s two processors communicate through Nvidia’s SLI interface and achieved 14,293 points in 3DMark2003, sources at Gigabyte said. This would not only be almost twice the performance of a regular 6600 GT card, but also more than ATI’s Radeon X850 XT Platinum Edition, which achieved in Gigabyte’s test environment 13,271 points and Nvidia’s GeForce 6800 Ultra, which posted 12,680 points. “

Google Desktop Search Download: “# Find your email, files, web history and chats instantly

# View web pages you’ve seen, even when you’re not online

# Search as easily as you do on Google

Google has released a new Google Desktop Search tool today that allows people to scan their computers for information in the same way they use Google to search the web.

“This is what I think is one of our our more exciting announcements this fall,” said Marissa Mayer, Google’s director of consumer web products. “Our users have been asking for this. They say, ‘Google is great, but why can’t I search my computer the same way?’”

The tool is remarkable for its power yet simplicity. Rather than create a standalone application, Google Desktop Search seamlessly blends into Google itself. Those using the tool see a new “Desktop” link on the Google home page and search results page. Selecting this link brings back results found on their own computers.

In particular, the tool indexes the full text of:

* Email within Outlook or Outlook Express (notes, contacts, journal and to do list items are not included, nor are emails in the Deleted Items folder)

* Microsoft Word, Excel & PowerPoint files

* AOL Instant Messenger chats

* Web pages viewed online in Internet Explorer or any HTML file saved to your computer

* Plain text files

The tool also indexes the text within the file names of image in JPEG or GIF formats, giving it rudimentary image search capabilities. File names of Adobe Acrobat PDF content and names of some other file types are also indexed. Full text indexing of information in these files is NOT done.

Unlike with Gmail or regular Google searches, ads are not shown with desktop search results or content viewed through desktop search.