GeekyTech

Easter & Cloud Software

2008-03-20T10:42:00.000-07:00

I like to think a lot and draw connections between things. The pending release of Ubuntu along with continued enhancements of Google Apps along with Easter made a thought pop into my head.

Jesus allegedly died on Good Friday, and on Easter Sunday he rose from the dead and floated off into the Clouds (heaven) right?

Well perhaps this weekend would be a good opportunity for Good Christians (and everyone else) to do the same thing with their use of applications.

Take some time this long weekend to experiment with applications that exist in the Cloud, move away from the current old school desktop office applications which tie you down to this mundance existance.

Google Apps including their Spreadsheet, Word Processor and Presentation applications will allow you to work with all of your documents online, through your browser (Internet Explorer or Firefox), from any computer that is online. You can import existing documents, you can easily redownload them again, export to PDF, even share and collaborate with others.

The future is in the cloud, don't be afraid! Give it a try!

If you can get comfortable with using these application, and you move the majority of your working documents, email, etc, into the cloud, then you have the freedom to use whatever operating system you want, you can get out from under Microsoft and being to use free, open source software like Linux. When you're shackled to Microsoft Office, that's not an easy decision to make.

Nokia n800 Internet Tablet Overview

2008-02-17T21:30:00.000-08:00

This article will provide an overview of Nokia's n800 Internet Table device with my opinions based on several days of use.

First off, what is the Nokia n800?

I suppose you might call it a PDA, or a Pocket PC, basically it's a tiny computer that can fit in your pocket...

Features:
Hardware
Small Form-Factor 75x144x13mm
800 x 480 Resolution Touchscreen
128MB Built-in Memory, SDRAM Support (providing up to 2x8GB (16GB) of Memory Expansion)
Built-in Wifi & Bluetooth Support
Camera
FM Receiver

Software
Runs Linux, Nokia's "OS2008"
Firefox-based Web Browser
Skype
Google Talk Internet Chat
Tons of Available Free Software

What can you do with the n800?
Basically it can do pretty much anything your PC can do...

You can surf the web, the browser works really well, it's quick, also has Flash support. I'd say 95%+ of the web sites I've visited have rendered and worked totally fine. I can play Scrabulous on Facebook! :)
I've also used Skype and it works great as well, both speakers and Microphone are built-in, or you can use the supplied earbud/microphone combo which is also included.
I've installed a eBook reader, so you can use it like a book.
You can listen to the radio, or if you prefer, podcasts...

Best part. This little beauty is only $229CDN right now at Tiger Direct.ca Think of it like a much more flexible and powerful iPod touch :)

Modding a Wii

2007-12-19T23:02:00.000-08:00

Well, looks like my boys are getting a wii shortly, so time for me to get up to speed on the modding scene and share what I've found...

First off, my old modding guy, Gary from OPA is nowhere to be found, his shop Games In the Beaches has been gone since August 2007, and I can't find any up to date contact info for him...?

So I've found a new guy, based in Brampton, Bovaird & Dixie Rd area. $130 for the current version of the Wii, this is for the d2ckey mod chip - http://www.d2ckey.com/

I've just read an article on how to 'backup' Wii games - http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/471073 - Seems a little dated perhaps, but the funny part is, apparently there are only 4 models of DVD-ROM drive that will work trying to rip Wii DVD's, I happened to have a small stack of CD/R, DVD/R drives on a shelf downstairs that I'd pulled out of older machines that I was throwing away, and guess what? I have one of the LG drives!! This is good news, so it should be fairly straight forward to just rent games from Rogers Video and make copies :)

I'll post up some additional comments/videos after we've got the Wii happening...

The First Help Desk Call

2007-10-14T23:09:00.001-07:00

GPS

2007-10-09T17:43:00.000-07:00

I've wanted a GPS for years now... I've always gotten a kick out of map software, making routes, playing with Google Earth, finally saw a really good deal on a GPS unit and picked one up.

Just played with it by going for a quick drive tonight, it works great. Using Microsoft Streets & Trips 2006, it provens both textual and spoken directions, very cool! I can't wait to go on a road trip now! :)

tasklist and taskkill XP Command Line

2007-07-12T23:22:00.000-07:00

Way back in the day, when I was working at Merrill Lynch, I was introduced to some Unix utilities, ps and kill. I would use these utilities to identify processes on the traders workstations that were hung, and terminate them.

Windows has had a graphical way to do this for a while, and there were Windows versions of these utilities that came with the resource kit - tslist.exe and kill.exe.

While working on a recent project I needed a way to tell if a process was running, if so, then kill it, so I was digging around to get copies of these utilities when I discovered that XP now has new versions of these utilities built in!

tasklist and taskkill

They basically have the same role as those other command-line utilities! Try them out, open a Command Prompt and run 'em, tasklist shows you your list of running processes (sort of like Task Manager), and then taskkill can be passed a process ID or program name and it will terminate the process.

GDrive Shell Extension

2007-07-12T23:19:00.000-07:00

http://www.viksoe.dk/code/gmail.htm

This is a super cool little app - freeware, easy to install.

Once installed, it creates a 'GDrive', basically it's a interface that appears under 'My Computer' that links into your Google Mail account, letting you drag 'n drop files in there.

So you could install this at home, and at work and it's a super easy way to transfer files back & forth!

More Nintendo DS Hacking Info

2007-06-25T18:08:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures I took for a friend who I recently helped out w/ a Revolution R4. Someone might find these useful...

These are a follow-up to a previous article Hacking the Nintendo DS

Also, here's a great site with lots of info on Nintendo DS ROMS

Techie Cheat Sheets

2007-06-14T09:03:00.000-07:00

Our Favorite Cheat Sheets from Whatis.com

This is impressive! For anyone who needs a little help, or wants to explore little shortcuts etc, you should check out this link... Dozens and Dozens of Cheat Sheets - Printable lists of hotkeys/etc organized in categories... Find the applications you use most, print out the sheets, use them until you memorize the commands, WHAMMO! Quick & Easy productivity boost!

Some New Gear at Home

2007-05-31T20:59:00.001-07:00

Picked up some new Gear from Tiger Direct this week...

First off, have been having some fairly continuous outages on my Internet connection over the past few weeks, rebooting my D-Link Wireless-G Storage Router seemed to resolve the problem. The router wasn't that old, but doesn't have a firmware update available, so what can you do???

I decided to get something a little better, decided on Linksys as a manufacturer this time... Model # is WRT54GL - ($93.99)They're a little more expense than the other brands, but the fact that they're owned by Cisco made my feel good about this... Another neat feature - the Firmware was released as Open Source, and therefore there are a variety of 3rd party, different versions available... Anyhow, I've had the new unit fired up for about 24 hours now and it's working great.

Next up, when I was in the Tiger store to pick up the router, I saw they had this multi-function printer/scanner Lexmark x1290 unit on sale for $69... Hmmm... Lexmark, good brand... They have some even better deals on the website, one with some free paper and ink, another w/ a 2GB USB drive... Crazy!

Did some research on it last night, seemed to be a half-decent unit and for that price, you can't go wrong...

Anyhow, the drivers on the CD were only for XP, so ended up installing and then uninstalling those, pulled down the Vista drivers from the Lexmark site, and installed those, so far so good, working like a charm, I've already scanned and uploaded some old pics from a high school yearbook.

Dell Ubuntu PCs

2007-05-24T17:52:00.000-07:00

Dell PCs Featuring Ubuntu
Well here they are... This story has been bouncing around for a few months now, Dell announced they would begin offering PCs with Linux (Ubuntu) preinstalled. Anyhow, here they are, they look pretty yummy...

Dimension E520N (Core 2 Duo E4300, 1GB RAM, 250GB HD) $599USD
Inspiron E1505N Laptop (Pentium T2080, 512MB, 80GB HD) $599USD
XPS 410 N (Core 2 Duo E4300, 1GB RAM, 250GB HD) $849USD

This is a pivotal moment for Linux, I think the trend is unstoppable. Microsoft is scared of Linux, and they should be...

Microsoft Popfly - New Web-Based 'Mashup' Application Development Interface

2007-05-20T09:59:00.000-07:00

Microsoft Popfly

This looks pretty cool, I haven't dug into it too much, but sounds like a really cool tool to easily build your own web-based applications using data from various web sites, mashing it together and doing interesting things with it... It's just in Beta at the moment, but will be worth keeping an eye on...

Hacking the Nintendo DS

2007-05-14T14:56:00.000-07:00

My son asked for a Nintendo DS (aka NDS) for his birthday, so here's a quick rundown of how to hack it up so you don't actually have fork out hundreds of dollars on games...

Quickly, what is a DS?

<- Here's a picture, it's basically Nintendo's latest 'Gameboy', a portable , handheld gaming unit. Feature-wise it's pretty cool:

Built-in WiFi, allows you to download some games, and play certain games vs. other NDS users.
2 screens, the lower of which is a touch screen, some unique gameplay elements.
About a 400-500 English, US-released games out so far.
Backwards compatible, plays Gamebox Advance games

Ok, so a neat little toy, retails for $150.

Alright, so how to hack-it-up.

1) Visit http://www.gamersection.ca - I found this site just via Google, but it seemed pretty slick, and I read a few external reviews, so I bit the bullet, and it was fine, paid via PayPal, shipping was quick, packaging very professional.

2) I purchased the R4DS - (Official site - ) For $40USD + Shipping, this is essentially a cartridge into which you can plug a MicroSD card. A MicroSD card is just like an SD card that you probably have for you digital camera, only it's smaller... About the size of your pinky finger nail. You download games (ROMs), stick them onto the MicroSD card, pop the MicroSD card into the R4DS, and pop the R4DS into the NintendoDS! :^)

3) Downloading the Games - Check out your favorite BitTorrent tracker site - I like PirateBay and MiniNova - and search on NDS. The games are all there - I downloaded a single .RAR file that contained hundreds of games.

4) Setting up the MicroSD Card - I purchased a Kingston 1GB MicroSD Card from TigerDirect ($23.99). It comes w/ a SD Card adapter, basically an SD Card that the MicroSD card fits into. So you pop that into an SD Card reader - most new PC's have them built-in, you can get one for $20 or so... Anyhow, you then transfer over the software that comes w/ the R4, just drag & drop that into the root of the SD, and then - You literally just copy the games onto the MicroSD card and you're good to go.

5) How does it look on the NDS? The NDS starts up and you have 3 icons, the first takes you to a game menu, all the games you have loaded on the MicroSD are displayed, you scroll through them pick the one you want and hit A to load it. The 2nd icon starts up a 'homebrew' application called MoonShell, which is a mediaplayer application, I guess you can play Movies & MP3's and stuff - haven't played with that yet.

Anyhow, so there you go, with about $80 once the dust settles and perhaps an hour to download the games and set everything up, you're good to go... Enjoy!

Zonbu to Roll Out $99 Linux-Based Computer This Summer

2007-05-07T14:33:00.000-07:00

Cheap PC: Zonbu to Roll Out $99 Linux-Based Computer This Summer - Gizmodo - This is a fascinating story, not so much about the specifics of this particular unit, but because it shows what's possible, and gives us an inkling of what will be possible in another year or two...

Part of the 'catch' of this offer is that in addition to the $99, you pay $25/mo to connect to the Zonbu servers to store data there, however, big online companies like Google, Yahoo or Amazon wouldn't have to charge for that, so it seems like the free or nearly free PC is really just over the horizon now... f'ing brilliant!

Nokia N800 Internet Tablet

2007-05-06T19:45:00.000-07:00

Nokia N800 Internet Tablet Main Page

Check out this little baby...

800x600 Resolution, runs the Opera Browser, 3 x 6 " - WIFI enabled... This is the little device you can curl up on the couch or in bed w/ a surf the weeb...

Latest words on Ubuntu/Linux

2007-04-29T20:10:00.000-07:00

Well I'm still thoroughly enjoying my new passion of farting around with Ubuntu... If you're somewhat technical, or at least adventurous, I'd strongly recommend you give Ubuntu a shot...

Latest stuff I've done - Installed the Beryl Window Manager Interface - It let's you do really, really cool stuff like have a wicked rotating 3D desktop, and have your windows 'burn up' when you close them - here's a screen shot.

Aside from some Eye Candy though, I just am really digging the whole concept of Linux, and especially Ubuntu.

Here are some of the reasons why fundamentally it just feels 'right' to me...

- The project isn't tied to one particular person, the whole concept of open source, and of community and shared participation is altruistic and good.
- The frequent, regularly scheduled releases are great... Why wait 4 years between operating system upgrades? Ubuntu comes out every 6 months.
- Free. Ok, so I've never been a big fan of paying for software, but to not be forced to pay, but to be able to legally have free software, that's great!
- Integrated application installation/upgrades - This is really cool. Not only do the base operating system components install automatically, but all the other software you need does as well. You just go into the Add/Remove Programs, or Package Manager, select an application and go, it's installed for you, no manually having to hunt around, download stuff, answer a dozen prompts of the directory it's going to go in (like who cares?), it just installs... Bam!
- Performance - I haven't done any direct comparisons, but Ubuntu really flies on this P4 machine, no complaints at all.

It seems I'm not the only way being recently wooed by Ubuntu, here's a couple of other bloggers, who around the same time are getting jiggy w/ Linux...

http://makingtheswitch.wordpress.com/

http://thelinuxconvert.wordpress.com/

Why not join the revolution and we can all learn together! I think my old laptop will be next in line for the conversion! :)

F*ckin' Loving Feisty...

2007-04-22T20:27:00.000-07:00

I installed Feisty Fawn (Ubuntu Linux v7.04) on a half-decent machine tonight (P4 2.8Ghz 1GB Ram), and it's flying!... The install only took about 20 minutes, including repartioning the HD. It's taken me another hour (while doing some other stuff and playing), to get my MP3's playing, get connected up to my other PC and stuff... Anyhow, it rocks... I was loving it before when I was just running on on a crappy old box, now running it on a half-decent machine, I'm more impressed, I can't imagine how quick it would run on a brand-spanking-new box...?

Free and Easy Remote Access with VNC Reverse Connections » Raymond.CC Blog

2007-04-10T19:49:00.000-07:00

Free and Easy Remote Access with VNC Reverse Connections » Raymond.CC Blog - Just in case Crossloop goes away, this is a pretty decent alternative, you still have to have some knowhow at one end of the connection, but at least avoids having to get your client to have to port forward their router or anything...

A few weeks with Ubuntu

2007-04-09T21:16:00.000-07:00

I've now been using Ubuntu Linux part-time, on a secondary system for a few weeks, it's been a very educational experience, some positives, some criticisms, here are some comments...

Installing Software using Packages - This is one area where Ubuntu really kicks butt over Windows... It's like 'Add/Remove Programs', except instead of just allowing you to UNINSTALL existing apps, or add/remove Windows Components, it plugs you into a whole world of Open Source applications. If you see something you want, just click it, the system will automatically download & install the application for you... Brilliant! You can do this from the GUI, or from the Command-Line.

MP3's - Strangely Ubuntu doesn't ship w/ MP3 support, I guess it's a licensing issue, the MP3 format is copywrited or something, anyhow, it was a bit of a chore, but after installing a few packages, you're good to go... I'm using XMMS now, basically a Linux WinAMP clone.

PPTP VPN - I tried and tried but wasn't able to get the PPTP VPN connected, will have to spend some more time on this as clearly if I want to use Linux as a desktop replacement at home, I need to be able to VPN to the office. I think my original attempts failed because this unit was behind 2 home routers, it's now just behind one, and the PPTP utility seemed to get a little farther, will do some more tshooting on this later...

Internet Explorer - One of the web-applications I have to use does a browser check and won't allow you to login unless you're running IE... Guess what? Using Wine (a Linux implementation of the Windows APO), along w/ some canned installation scripts, you can actually install and run IE 6 inside Linux! Totally cool! So I'm able to run IE if I want and therefore use this Web-app... Very cool!

Performance / XUBUNTU - I'm running UBUNTU (v6.10) on a P3 w/ 256mb of RAM, and the performance hasn't been stellar, it works, but it takes quite a while to boot, opening Firefox takes about 20 seconds and it's generally pretty sluggish, was expecting it to be relatively snappy. Anyhow, there is a less intensive distribution of Ubuntu available called Xubuntu. I was thinking I'd have to start from scratch to try this out, but it turns out it's actually available as a Package, so I installed it tonight (required 85 dependent packages, but these all automatically get selected and installed - w/o a reboot!). Then I just had to logout and re-login again chosing this Desktop in the Session option, and whammo, I'm now running the Xubuntu desktop... It does seem to improve the responsiveness of the system...

I still have to explore some other elements of my functionality, like burning CD's, and things like that... But I'm certainly able to chill out, use this machine to surf the web, listen to music, download stuff (using BitTorrent), connect to my Windows PC, and more, so I'm pleasantly suprised and very bullish about next steps... I'm really eager to install the latest Ubuntu which comes out later this month (v7.4), on a new system (desktop, or perhaps Laptop), and see how it performs...

10 Reasons Why People Older than 30 Need To Register for Facebook

2007-04-08T07:10:00.000-07:00

If you're reading this post, chances are you're over 30 and you've heard someone talking about Facebook. You've possibly never heard about it before, don't know what it is, don't understand it, you've heard of MySpace, but don't really know what that is either. You've possibly heard about Web 2.0, or Social Networking, but don't really understand what those thing means either.

It's Ok!, no problem! Relax, grab a coffee and I'll explain why Facebook is important, so you can get over your apprehension and jump into some new tools that will make you life better!

First off, a quick introduction from Wikipedia on what Facebook is:

Facebook is an English-language social networking website. It was originally developed for college and university students but has since been made available to anyone with an email address. People may then select to join one or more participating networks, such as a high school, place of employment, or geographic region.
As of February 2007, the website had the largest number of registered users among college-focused sites with over 18 million members worldwide (also from non-collegiate networks).[1]
Facebook is the number one site for photos, ahead of public sites such as Flickr, with over 6 million photos uploaded daily,[2] and is the sixth most visited site in the United States.[2]
The name of the site refers to the paper facebooks that colleges and prepatory schools give to incoming students, faculty, and staff depicting members of the campus community.

Social networking, just means that the whole purpose of the site is to get users to interact with one another. The users ARE the content. Sounds sort of like McLuhan, but it's true, and it's the new paradigm of the web.

So, on to why you should get involved.

1. You're too busy to keep in touch with all of your friends and family.

We all have only 24 hours a day, and despite the fact that technology promises to automate manual tasks and give us more time, most people I know are just as 'busy' as ever, finding it difficult to find time for important things. Our waking hours are filling with long commutes, working long hours, helping kids with homework, and many other mundane tasks. Few people have the time to send individual, personalized email to friends, make phone calls, or even less likely, to go visiting. Facebook will allow you to establish connections with all of your friends, and then quickly and easily keep in touch with everyone using some of the key features of the site, like sharing photos, posting messages to one-another, organizing events, and more.

2. You've lost touch with friends you knew from school, college, or an old job.

Throughout our lives, we make great friends, and then when we move on to the next phase of our life, or move to a new city or country, it is incredibly difficult to maintain these relationships. Facebook remove time and space as barriers to communication. When users register with facebook, they enter in which schools they attended, past jobs, and other profile information. This will help you to connect with old friends, and for old friends to find and connect with you. Within a few days, I can almost guarantee that you'll be back in touch with good friends whom you haven't communicated in years!

3. Your kids are using facebook, don't fall behind.

Depending on how old your kids are, they very well may already be on facebook. They probably have dozens or hundreds of connections to friends and maintain status information, post pictures and posts to the site. Here's an easy way to keep up with what they're up to.

4. Facebook is free.

No need to worry about providing credit-card information or anything like that. Facebook is advertiser supported, and the millions of users are driving an enormous amount of traffic to the site. I'd be surprised if facebook isn't snapped up by Google, Yahoo or Microsoft within the next year. The big boys want access to your eyeballs.

5. Facebook is easy to use.

You won't have to read a users guide or anything, you don't have to be a programmer. If you can compose and send an email, you can use facebook!

6. Facebook will be a stepping-stone to future technologies.

This point is part of an important philosophy that I strongly support. The rate of change of technology continues to increase. Technology is already a key part of most peoples lives, it's not going away, and the Web will continue to be the medium for exciting new tools and technologies that will impact our lives. Facebook is certain to become an important part of pop culture in the second half of this decade. Can you imagine not having watched MTV in the 80's and 90's? If you dismiss Facebook as something 'for the kids', you're putting another nail in your own coffin. Don't be afraid of change and technology, you can imbrace it and take advantage of it. Within the next 5 years, something even better will come along, but if you haven't seen, or used a tool like Facebook, or if you don't understand these concepts, you'll be left behind, get ready to be that old cynical guy in the coffee shop complaining about modernity.

7. Relationships make us feel happy, facebook helps us to foster and expand our relationships.

I understand that people have three psychology needs: To feel choiceful, capable and connected. Facebook helps you to stay connected and to strengthen those connections with people who are important to you. This makes a good technology and a worthwhile technology in the same way that a cell phone helps you stay connected.

8. Facebook is an easy way to upload photos from your picture phone.

This is, of course, a less philosophical reason, but a tangible one. Many people I know have picture phones, but find it a pain to get the pictures out of the phone and into some usable form. Assuming that you have the ability to email pictures from you phone (check with your service provider for details), you can simply email your photos from your mobile phone to facebook and they're immediately published to your site for your friends to see, comment on, download, print, share, whatever. Facebook and a mobile phone can turn you into an instant international photo journalist. This is an incredibly powerful feature!

9. Facebook is fun.

Surfing through facebook, following connections, viewing pictures and comments is addictive and just plain fun. I think it can compete with television, with video games, hey even poker! Give it a try and see for yourself!

10. Facebook is hitting critical mass, you don't want to get left behind.

In the past several months since Facebook opened it's site beyond university kids, it seems there has been an incredible spike in popularity. Facebook is hitting critical mass and becoming the site to be on. Most likely you've already ignored one or two invitations, you've been too busy, or cynical, or skeptical about this site. If you continue to avoid the site, you may find that many of friends get plugged in and you'll feel like many of their conversations begin to feel like an inside joke. What's stopping you or holding you back? Get into the new in group...

I'd be very interested in hearing your comments on the site, the technology, what's good about it, what could be improved, etc. Happy FACEBOOKING!

Pipes - Easy way to make your OWN customized RSS Feeds

2007-04-01T06:51:00.000-07:00

Pipes: Rewire the web - I've wanted to write this blog for an audience that isn't necessarily that Technical, but is interested in technology and wants to learn more, and find ways to use cool technology to improve how they use their PC's, etc. This particular piece of tech is a little on the geeky side... If you've been keeping up, then you're now using Google Reader, or some other RSS reader, if so, then you're ready to check out Pipes... I was a little daunted at first, but again, push yourself, dive in and try it out... Pipes is a tool that lets you aggregate and manipulate RSS feeds, so you can basically customize or Mash Up the RSS feeds that you're subscribed to, make them do what you want them to... Pipes offers a really slick flash interface, you drag and drop various programming objects, add parameters and define the flow of data. It's very cool, I'm just starting to play with it, but I'm sure I will start using it more and more to really tune all your feeds so I'm getting exactly what I want into my reader, maximizing the efficiency of my data consumption interface :)

Whispers About Stealth Startup Vutool

2007-03-30T10:36:00.000-07:00

Whispers About Stealth Startup Vutool - Check out this article, this sounds like something that I've sort of dreamed and talked about for quite some time... This start-up is basically greating a Google Earth, but from street level, capturing high-resolution images of street-level... There's talk that they've been acquired by Google and that Google plan to integrate this with Google Earth. Given how Google typically work, they'd open-up the API for this - so then imagine what the hackers will add into this, imagine playing hide-and-seek in a city, cops & robbers, etc... Doing virtual drive-throughs of a long-distance trip to a new city... Amazing stuff...

Ubuntu! Installed! The whole story!

2007-03-06T13:57:00.000-08:00

Given that I've got this brutal head cold, I canceled playing indoor soccer last night and stayed home and geeked it out.

Here's the story of how I installed Linux onto a spare PC, to co-exist with an existing Windows XP Professional installation.

1) It was about 6:00pm or so when I got started, and this is literally starting from zero, didn't even have the ISO or anything yet.

2) Decided it would be best to get the partitioning out of the way before attempting the installation, and I found there was a gparted ( the Gnome Partion Editor) LiveCD available, this means you download an ISO (disk image), burn it onto a Blank CD, and then your computer will boot up (start-up) off of this CD, taking you into an environment where you can adjust the partitions (sections) of your harddrive.

3) Started downloading ISO's for both Ubuntu 6.10 (Edgy Eft), and the Live CD for GParted - found these on MiniNova (BitTorrent search engine)

4) The gparted ISO was only about 50MB, so it finished relatively quickly, so I burned it and got started.

5) It booted-up just fine, answered a few prompts at the command-line (just defaults - on keyboard layout, etc), and was taken into a Linux GUI, launched the utility and was very easily able to reconfigure the existing hard drive partition, and create the new ones... To be honest, I haven't had to think about partitioning drives in AGES, but I had lots of experience doing stuff like this a decade or so ago, so it was no problem. The utility was graphical, able to drag the partitions to the desired sizes, etc.. So I actually ended up with 4 partitions:
1 - The original which was resized from 40GB down to ~ 13GB
2 - The next would be for Linux (formatted as type ext3) - 14GB
3 - Linux Swap partition (Linux holds it's swap file / virtual memory - on a seperate partition) - 1GB
4 - A FAT32 partition, accessible from both OS's - I can hold shared data here - 10GB
Once this was all defined, I clicked go, the whole process took about 15-20 minutes to complete, and worked like a charm! All good, ready to proceed w/ installing ubuntu!

6) I encountered a problem on this step - I was unable to get the Ubuntu 6.10 LiveCD to properly boot into the installation... It did get as far as the initial screen, but after choosing to install, it would go away for about 5-10 minutes and then start returning errors something like hdb: timeout waiting for DMA

I googled around, didn't find a real solution, but did understand that hdb means the 2nd drive on the primary IDE controller, so in this case, that meant my CD-ROM drive, so it was having trouble reading from the CD. Now I've used this CD-ROM drive to install XP, and quite a number of kids software on this machine, so I was skeptical that the drive was bad. I burned the disk at 24x, so perhaps that was the issue... I didn't really feel like burning another CD, and I had a few spare drives kicking around, so I swapped out the CD-ROM drive for a DVD Burner from another machine, that worked! (Problem #1)

7) The Ubuntu LiveCD basically boots you up into the Linux GUI environment, without touching your existing HD, it came up, looked fine, and you've got an 'Install' icon on the desktop.

8) I proceeded to run the install - first time though it strangely died when trying to set the Time Zone (of all things!), the dialog box somehow just got hung-up, and I wasn't able to click Next, Back or Cancel, I ended up having to launch a console and just started killing processes until I found the right one... (Problem #2)

9) After that strange issue, the install went ahead according to hoyle, it took quite a while, I'd say at least an hour (P3, 256MB of RAM, 40GB HD) to copy all of the files... I just chilled and watched an episode of the DiggNation... video podcast

10) After the install, I wasn't too suprised that Ubuntu hadn't detected the NIC in the machine, despite it being a 3COM Etherlink III (3C509), I had played around w/ a USB-key distribution of Linux on this machine before and had troubleshooted this problem before, so I knew that I could just modprobe 3c509 to get it to sort of detect/load the module, and then add 3c509 into the modules file to actually have it load on each boot-up... This has worked fine, so I'm networking :) (Problem #3)

11) Once this was all taken care of, I played around a bit, surfed the weeb, installed the google toolbar, which all works great, I've got my bookmarks & all, I'm a happy camper.

12) Ran the Ubuntu updates next, there were over 100, keep in mind that these aren't just OS updates, but updates for all of the software in the distribution, Open Office, etc... Kind of a cool concept! I kicked this off and then went to bed.

13) In the morning, the updates had finished, but, (Problem #4), the 'task bar' was gone... I had a single copy of Firefox running, but I couldn't launch anything else or even shutdown... I tried ctrl-alt-delete, no go... I hit the power button the PC - this got an effect, brought up a shutdown menu, but clicking Shutdown didn't do anything either, had to do a hard reset.

14) Since then, the PC is working fine, I have to admit, I'm not thrilled with the performance, I know it's just a P3 w/ 256MB of RAM, but despite that I haven't actually benchmarked it, I think XP actually runs faster than Linux on this machine... For example, it takes about 2 minutes for the system to boot to the login screen, and Firefox takes close to 20 seconds to open! I'm planning to post this to some Ubuntu forum, request some general performance tweaking suggestions...

15) So I'll be playing around with this system for a while, try to get it to do all the things I can do with my primary PC and then consider making the switch!

Really Neat Desktop Interface Experiment

2007-03-05T20:45:00.001-08:00

This is pretty neat... Not necessarily something that I could see myself using, but very cool to watch

Time to Try out Linux?

2007-03-01T20:57:00.000-08:00

Why do I run Windows XP on my Home PC?

What do I really use my Home PC for?

Could I do all of that better, easier, faster, if I was running Linux instead?

Here's a list of the stuff I use my home PC for and point-by-point whether Linux can do it or not...

Work Stuff

- First off now that I'm only 20 minutes from the office, it's not as big of a deal for me to have a completely 100% functioning Work PC at home, but certainly it would be frustrating to have to go into the office because I couldn't do something at home... That said, here's what I need on my home PC in order to work.

E-Mail - Certainly I can't run Microsoft Outlook in Linux, but with Exchange 2003 Outlook Web Access, that would give me 90% of what I would need.
Office Applications - I've just taken a quick look at Google Docs & Spreadsheets, it's Google's attempt to provide Office Productivity applications over the web, (lookout Microsoft), anyhow, this could potentially be used to edit Word docs and Excel spreadsheets, there is also the Open Office suite of desktop apps... but how about products like Visio, MS Project, etc... I don't use these as often, but I think I'd have a tougher time finding a way to natively work with these formats on a Linux box.
VPN - I'm not sure about this one - I imagine it must be doable, but I've never done it before, establish an L2TP or PPTP connection from a Linux box... Will have to try it I guess...
Remote Desktop - In order to connect to servers to perform administration/troubleshooting, etc. I know this exists as I've used it with a quick test install of Ubuntu I did once.

Home Stuff
Internet Surfing - By far the activity most performed on my home PC - 'Surfing the Weeb', so Firefox would be the beast, with the Google Toolbar installed, I'm sure I'd be a very happy camper in the Linux world.

Downloading Music & Videos - I mostly use BitTorrent, and I'm sure there are perfectly good BitTorrent clients for Linux, but how about other P2P clients? I've no idea... I use Soulseek and LimeWire, I don't know if these are available, but as long as there is some other decent P2P apps I'm sure I'd be happy.

Burning CDs and DVDs - I use Nero currently, but as long as I can make Audio CD's and burn Data & ISO's to CD's and DVD's, I'm happy, will have to find an app to do this though.

Managing iPod - There isn't a native version of iTunes for Linux, somewhat suprising, you wouldn't think Apple would want to give someone a reason to keep Windows, but I suppose they'd prefer to to go Mac right? That being said, iTunes isn't actually required for an iPod, as long as there is an app that will download podcasts for me and synch w/ the iPod, I'm a happy camper.

Managing RAZr Mobile Phone - This isn't really a bigger, I could certainly install this app on another PC, but it's nice to be able to pull pictures off of the RAZr, load up wallpaper/ringtones/etc.

Listening to Music - Yes, Linux can play MP3's.

Acting as a Store for Media Files accessed by XBOX - XBOX can access the files via FTP, Linux can also run as an SMB Server, so no problem here.

Games - For the most part just Spider Solitaire, pathetic eh? I have an XBOX so who needs PC Games? Not an issue.

Image Viewing / Editing - I've done a bit of playing around with Windows Movie Maker which is pretty wild, perhaps there is something decent in this regard for Linux, but I would imagine it's not as polished... Photo Editing won't be an issue, there's some great Linux software - Gimp, etc, that can do that...

... Ok, so it appears that I'd probably have to spend in the neighborhood of 20-30 hours doing the install then researching and trying out a variety of the 'best of breed' tools for Linux in order to replace my Windows desktop, so perhaps the question would be then, Why? Why bother? Why go through all of the effort simply to CHANGE?

Pros - Most if not ALL of the software would be legitamate, free or Open Source software, no licenses to pay for, no software piracy.
- Learn more about Linux and Linux applications, good to know from a support perspective
- Supposedly better performance, better stability, better security, although I'm reasonably satisfied with the performance, stability and security of my existing setup (So, it's a Maybe?)

Cons - Time, a lot of time to do the install/config/tweaking
- Relearning a bunch of new apps that essentially just do what I can already do.

I think what I might do is to try out a new version of the UBUNTU installer which integrates with the Windows XP Bootloader, and then loads up a virtual disk image off the HD, so sort of a weird combination of a LiveCD, and VMWare in a way, anyhow, maybe I'll try this on one of my spare machines, and try to get some of the questions above answered before taking the plunge and migrating over my primary PC.... Comments?

Microsoft Live Labs: Photosynth

2007-02-27T10:44:00.000-08:00

Microsoft Live Labs: Photosynth - This is COOL with a Capital C O O L ! It's hard to describe, you really have to just check it out - Here's Microsoft's own description...

The Photosynth Technology Preview is a taste of the newest - and, we hope, most exciting - way to view photos on a computer. Our software takes a large collection of photos of a place or an object, analyzes them for similarities, and then displays the photos in a reconstructed three-dimensional space, showing you how each one relates to the next.
In our collections, you can access gigabytes of photos in seconds, view a scene from nearly any angle, find similar photos with a single click, and zoom in to make the smallest detail as big as your monitor.

Logitech Harmony Remote

2007-02-26T20:05:00.000-08:00

This is my latest 'tech' purchase. The Logitech Harmony Remote H659... Designed to be a UNIVERSAL remote, and then some... The Logitech line of Harmony remotes ranges in price from about $150, that's about what mine ran me, up to over $500 for the crazy models... What seperates this from your average, $20-$30 Universal Remote?

- You plug it into your PC, it has a USB connection and Software that steps you through the configuration process, Wizard-style

- It has 'Activities' buttons, for instance 'Watch a Movie', this will automatically: Turn on your TV, Turn on your DVD Player, Turn on your A/V Receiver, set to the right inputs. Then you hit the OFF button, and it turns everything off... Like Macros sort-of... Very cool!

- It has a 'HELP' feature, that steps you through troubleshooting if things aren't working the way you expect.

- There's a lot of custom configuration you can do, so far I'm very pleased with it... No problems getting it to control my ExpressVu Set Top Box/PVR, my LiteON DVD Recorder, Toshiba TV and Technics Receiver...

Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 Product Information

2007-02-20T19:12:00.000-08:00

Microsoft have released Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 - Basically their version of VMWare, for free... This lets you load up multiple 'Virtual' computers and run them on your PC... Cool stuff - This is a great way to test out new or different operating systems on your PC (Like Linux) without having to worry about messing up your primary configuration....

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/virtualpc/default.mspx

Google Reader

2007-02-20T13:19:00.000-08:00

If you're reading this blog, then potentially you might be interested in this tool... As my web-reading habits begin to change, and as the concept of blogging and RSS becomes more mainstream, I find I'm reading more and more blogs and/or RSS-accessible content and therefore, I'm really in need to migrating myself from having to manually check a bunch of different web sites and look for new content, to having a central, aggregated application where I can read everything...

RSS Readers and aggregators are nothing new! Not at all, it's just that I haven't really NEEDED one until now...

Since I use so many different PC's, I'm always on the lookout for a web-based tool, something that will centralize this... A client-side application isn't going to work for me, I want something I can check out from home, from work, from wherever...

Google Reader seems to do the trick... I'm just now going to start populating it, but SUBSCRIBING to the RSS Feeds of the various blogs or RSS-accessible sites that I read, but once I've finished that process, then I can simply hit my Google Reader page and bam, read through all of the articles in one spot and avoid wasting time clicking through hitting blogs which haven't been updated (like Jason Bonney's).

You can check it out at http://www.google.com/reader

Mmmm.... My new phone?

2007-01-23T17:20:00.000-08:00

Ooh... Sexy! Looks sort of like a Blackberry, but, it actually runs a Microsoft OS... It's a smart phone w/ a 1.3 megapixel camera, email, internet, yada yada... Only $199 w/ a 3 year plan from Bell Mobility... I don't think I'm due a hardware upgrade for another couple of months, but when I'm due this will be one to evaluate for sure...

A Robot that can build a HOUSE!

2007-01-17T10:37:00.000-08:00

Robo-builder threatens the brickie - Newspaper Edition - Times Online - Check this article out - how cool is this?

It's not just a rumor anymore - introducting the iPhone

2007-01-16T21:46:00.000-08:00

Apple - iPhone - Internet - Based on (1) the hype that surrounded this for years now, and (2) spending 5 minutes checking out the web site, I have a sneaking suspicion that this will be another revolutionary device with as powerful of an impact as the iPod. If you're at all interested in technology, or have a mobile phone, ok, so that's everyone, then you should at least take 5 minutes and check out some of the really slick Flash demos available on the iPhone site and see how this interface works, OMFG is it ever slick...

Big wide screen, touch screen, Internet, E-Mail, iPod, Photos, etc, etc...

It just seems so freaking intuitive and just plain COOL... I think I want one! I'm afraid to ask how much it'll cost and I've only had my RAZR for a year... ;^)

My Google Toolbar Button

2007-01-02T22:10:00.000-08:00

Haha... Google is the absolute shiznit... I just whipped up my very own Custom Google Toolbar button... You don't believe me do you?

If you're not already running the Google Toolbar, then do it... Like NOW! It's awesome... And then, click here, to add my very own Toolbar button, you can link right to my blog and see the latest post titles in a drop down list, updated automatically for you... Hahaha... Yeah baby... Yeah!

Want to make your OWN Google Toolbar button... Seriously, if you're tech savvy, and you're not afraid of XML and sample code, you can whip it up in like 10 or 15 minutes tops...

Continue your education here grasshopper...
http://www.google.com/tools/toolbar/buttons/apis/index.html

P2P Soulseek - Oldie but Goodie!

2007-01-01T21:15:00.000-08:00

I'm always being asked about how to download music, well here's another gem!

Soulseek - http://www.slsknet.org/

This app has been around for quite some time, I originally downloaded and used it years ago, anyway, it's still around, flying under the radar, avoiding the type of publicity that got Napster and the like shutdown, but nonetheless providing a great platform for getting MP3s.

Why use this over another tool, what makes it different? Here's my opinion:

1) The tool seems to be quite popular in underground & euro circles, meaning you get a different range of music available than what you might find in Limewire for instance.

2) One feature which I really like is the 'Download Containing Folder' option, most times when I'm getting music, I want the whole album if possible, typically if it's a New album, I'll search for it on Mininova or The Pirate Bay and get it w/ a BitTorrent, but for older albums, and certainly less popular ones, BitTorrent isn't a great solution. This feature lets you grab the whole folder of songs, most times, this means you're getting the whole album (assuming the user has all of the songs from the album in the same folder.

3) There's a nice little built-in "Things I Like" Recommendations feature. You put in the names of bands that you like, and click Get Recommendations and you get a list of Recommended bands...

4) It's Free

5) It's not Adware/Spyware/etc.

6) It has some other features like Forums, etc, but I haven't really used those...

Anyhow, hopefully this will help you fill up that shiny new iPod you got for Christmas you greedy so-and-so!

New Blogger BETA

2006-12-13T20:24:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I've upgraded my blog to the new version... So what? I barely see any difference at all... The posting interface seems identical... A few minor differences to the layout of the dashboard, I suppose I have to find a 'Whats New?' page or something...

You've got to be shitting me...

2006-12-13T18:29:00.000-08:00

Take a good look at this bad boy... Yes, that's right, you can bring your iPod to the bathroom with you and tuck into a podcast while you take a dump... Brilliant... The Atech iCarta Stereo Dock... Only $95.99 from Tiger Direct.

Crosstalk - Excellent Software for Remote Control / Helping Users

2006-12-07T09:14:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Santos for the tip on this one - very handy little application for Remote Control / Remote Assistance, this is what Remote Assistance in Windows XP should have been - works through a Firewall, through NAT, works brilliantly actually, and it's free (currently), although clearly this organization has to develop some type of revenue model, currently no advertising or anything... Check out the web site, read the FAQ, and give it a try, in 2 minutes you can be connected up and screen sharing - based on VNC technology...

http://www.crossloop.com

Vista, Office, Exchange! Holy Shnikees!

2006-12-05T18:28:00.000-08:00

Attended Microsoft's LAUNCH 2007 event in Toronto today. All in all, a pretty good event. Some good information about Vista (Microsoft's newest Desktop OS, the replacement for XP), Office 2007, and Exchange 2007.

Here's the official website for the site... Suprisingly, for me, the best part of the whole day was actually the guest keynote speaker Micheal Treacy, who really said nothing specifically about Microsoft software, but delivered a very compelling presentation about building a business structure to achieve succesful growth - outstanding, very powerful, I'm going to grab both of his books... A streaming video of the keynote (and all the presentations) will be available via the event web site:

http://www.microsoft.com/canada/anewdayevent/resources/default.aspx

Was hoping for an eval copy of Vista, Office, et all, but no joy...

Cheap 108mb Wireless Router + Storage!

2006-10-27T06:23:00.000-07:00

Check this out - www.Tigerdirect.ca is offering the DLINK DI-624S unit for $49, less a $15 rebate... It's your standard Wireless Router, *BUT* it has 2 USB ports for connecting external USB harddrives and it'll share them out! I snapped one up, don't have a USB disk to connect at the moment to test it out - but could be a very cheap way to essentially set up a SERVER at home that you can then connect your XBOX, other PC's, LAPTOP to, etc... Download all your movies & music there, keep your PC hard drive free for applications, etc...

Internet Explorer 7: RELEASED

2006-10-19T12:41:00.000-07:00

Internet Explorer 7: Home - Well IE7 is out... for real... I'd strongly recommend upgrading from IE 6, and if you decide it ain't the shiznet, then give up and go Firefox... Scroll down, or check the archives for a video going over some of the cool features...

Exchange 2003 Mobile Features

2006-10-12T19:25:00.000-07:00

Ok, so it's not the latest and greatest news, but I finally had a chance to check out the Exchange 2003 mobile features, and now I'm synching my PocketPC to my Outlook over WiFi - not quite Blackberry, but we're getting there! also Outlook Mobile Access, which is like Outlook Web Access, but a super-slimmed-down text version, perfect for mobile phones / PocketPC's... If your company already has Outlook Web Access, try hitting the same address, but putting in oma instead of exchange after the hostname, that's the default address or Outlook Mobile Access... It should work great and give you quick/easy access to read your messages using any web-enabled mobile phone.

Microsoft Opens Beta On WYSIWYG Blog-Writing Tool

2006-09-03T22:31:00.000-07:00

Microsoft Opens Beta On WYSIWYG Blog-Writing Tool - Windows News by InformationWeek

Check it out - I originally looked for a Windows app to do my blogging with, but didn't come up with anything decent... I haven't tried this out yet, but will check it out and post a review

Kam VedBrat : How To: Podcasting with Windows Vista

2006-08-18T15:28:00.000-07:00

Kam VedBrat : How To: Podcasting with Windows Vista

Nice little article - I'd just found the feature in the IE7 feed "Automatically Download Attached Files", sounds intriguing! I'm going to find out specifically which tags it will download - Could this feature be used to download .torrents into a folder as well? Hmm?

Google Toolbar v4

2006-08-14T22:20:00.000-07:00

You gotsta check out the new Google Toolbar v4 - It takes about 30 seconds to download and install, some REALLY awesome features

- New button library - search you favorite sites
- Bookmarks that you save into the toolbar and then can access from any computer you login to!
- Search suggestions
- More!

I think Microsoft seriously owes Google a thank you, if it wasn't for the Google Toolbar I think I would have switched to Firefox ages ago...

uTorrent

2006-08-01T21:33:00.000-07:00

Ok, another CamStudio demo for you...

How would you like to see how quick and easy it is to download a BitTorrent client, search for and start downloading an Album?

It's dead easy, and I'll show you how...

Here's some additional info/links for you...

The Technology - What is BitTorrent?
The Software - uTorrent Download Page
The Search Engine - MiniNova
The Band - The Charlatans UK

By the way, this time I added a little 'Title' to my video using Windows Movie Maker, and also Saved it out of Movie Maker as a .WMV, which greatly reduced the size, down from 240mb to 13mb, and then uploaded it to Google Video... Total time required from start to finish, about 30 minutes... (Started just before midnight, it's 12:35 as I type this...)

Video Demo of IE7 BETA3

2006-08-01T20:49:00.000-07:00

Continuing in the vein of offering cool tech tips, I'm always looking at, and experimenting with new technologies to share with everyone.

The latest toy I've downloaded and tried out is called Cam Studio. This product allows you to make a video screen capture. It's great for creating a demo or tutorial of how to use a program, or do something with your PC, and it will record audio from the microphone at the same time.

I've used the software to create a quick (3 minute) demo of Internet Explorer 7 BETA 3. I've then uploaded it to Google Video and embedded here... Now this is my first shot at this, and you'll find there are 2 main problems that I need to correct:

1) The Audio is a little low, but you can turn up your speakers to compensate
2) The resolution gets shot via the upload to Google Video, so it's quite blurry, the next CamStudio video I make will be at a much lower resolution, I think 400x300 should still end up fairly viewable.

Alexa.com

2006-07-19T19:03:00.000-07:00

I remember hearing about this site a while back - I think there was even a plug-in for IE that would give you the ranking... Anyhow, if you've never visited Alexa , it's interesting to check out... You can find out things like, what are the most visited web sites by Country, Canada for instance (eliminating duplicates):

1. Yahoo
2. Google
3. MSN
4. Live.com (New Microsoft site)
5. MySpace
6. eBay
7. Wikipedia
8. YouTube
9. Government of Canada (Yawn...)
10. Blogger
11. Microsoft Corp.
12. CNN
13. Passport.net
14. Craigslist
15. Amazon
16. MLS Online (House shopping anyone?)
17. BBC Newsline Ticker
18. Canada.com
19. Flickr
20. Go

Interesting that both CNN and the BBC outrank any Canadian news source...

DHTML Lemmings by crisp - Menu

2006-07-11T18:40:00.000-07:00

DHTML Lemmings by crisp - Menu

Check it out, the old original Lemmings game converted into a playable web version... YEAH!!!

Flash - Animator vs. Animation

2006-07-11T18:25:00.000-07:00

Flash � Animator vs. Animation This is a really fun little Flash Animation of a stick man drawn in Flash fighting against the animator who created him...

Google Trends

2006-07-05T08:52:00.000-07:00

Google Trends - Another very neat tool from Google. Check trends regarding popularity of search terms, see the most popular cities, etc... Very neat...

No sex please, robot, just clean the floor - Sunday Times - Times Online

2006-06-21T06:39:00.000-07:00

No sex please, robot, just clean the floor - Sunday Times - Times Online

Cool article....

Podcasts | CBC Radio

2006-06-06T12:08:00.000-07:00

Podcasts CBC Radio

CBC Radio is now making a number of their shows available in Podcast format - I've just subscribed to Ideas, Quirks & Quarks, and Radio 3....

Pizza Pizza Online Ordering

2006-05-18T14:16:00.000-07:00

I am a geek... I just ordered Pizza Online...

Pizza Pizza: Welcome to Pizza Pizza

Del.icio.us

2006-05-16T18:49:00.000-07:00

This is a really cool web site! I had heard about it before, but hadn't taken the time to check it out... Let me try to explain it.

http://del.icio.us/ (beside being a pretty cool URL), is a site that you register for, and then use it to store all of your favorite web sites. It's sort of like a centralized spot for all of your favorites & bookmarks. You can add a few quick buttons to your browser, one for 'post to del.icio.us', one for 'my del.icio.us'.

For each link to add, you can add a series of tags, or keywords, then you can also find other sites that other users have tagged with the same keywords.

You can also add your friends to your network, and surf through their URL's as well, also share your favorites, or post your favorites to your friends.

My del.icio.us account name is 'johnwaltca', so check it out, and add me to your network!

Cheers!

HelloMOTO!

2006-05-09T19:32:00.000-07:00

I did a hardware upgrade w/ Bell Mobility this week, grabbed the sexy Motorola RAZR V3C, it's a very slim, compact flip phone w/ Bluetooth and built-in Camera, Speakerphone, voicedial, etc, etc...

Excellent toy, strongly recommended...

Despite being an existing customer, I was able to negotiate the same deal as the current 'Mother's Day Special', so I got the phone for $99 including a Bluetooth Headset!

Very pleased... :)

PortableApps.com | Your Digital Life, Anywhere�

2006-05-04T05:56:00.000-07:00

PortableApps.com Your Digital Life, Anywhere�

This is a cool site, seems there is a whole new concept that is become very popular, the 'Portable App', applications that don't need to be 'Installed', very cool, so you can load all of these onto a USB memory stick and carry them with you, then plug them in wherever you are and use them them...

Firefox, Filezilla, Thunderbird, etc, etc, etc....

Handy programs to put on a USB stick. at SnapFiles.com

2006-04-25T19:08:00.000-07:00

Handy programs to put on a USB stick. at SnapFiles.com
This is some seriously handy stuff... A group of 19 little freeware utilities that do not require installation that you can fire onto a USB disk and then be able to access from anywhere... Utilities include photo editing, iPod mgmt, packet sniffer, HW/SW Audit, Whois, HTTP/FTP Servers, E-Mail, and more, very cool!

iLounge - All things iPod, iTunes and beyond

2006-03-21T09:55:00.000-08:00

All things iPod, iTunes and beyond iLounge - Thanks to Marcus for forwarding this along, iLounge appears to be the shiznit when it comes to iPod sites... Unfortunately I haven't had a chance to explore it, but it comes with a hearty recommendation from Marcus, who is a longtime iPod user...

iTrip - Griffin Technology

2006-02-17T20:35:00.000-08:00

iTrip - Griffin Technology

This little unit looks pretty handy, it's an FM Transmitter for the iPod, you can select the station, so an easy way to be able to transmit and rebroadcast your iPod without requiring any cables, so you can bring the soundtrack to the party, or the car or whatever... There's a car version available that's also a charger, connects in through the cigarette lighter (Isn't that a hillarious commentary on our society that the way that we get power in our cars is still from a device designed to light a cigarette... Ha!)

FREEWARE Streaming Radio Application

2006-02-15T19:58:00.000-08:00

This is a beauty little program, my buddy Steve Maragos told me about it... It's a cynch to download and install, and then it comes with a wack of pre-configured radio stations, broadcasting in decent 128-bit MP3 quality...

Big freakin' deal right? I know Internet radio is old news, how about having your radio station RECORDING, to individually saved and named MP3 files? Oooh? I've got your attention now?

http://www.screamer-radio.com/

I installed it last night, and actually left it running over night and through the day, on an Eighties station, and check out the list of tracks I ended up with...

Sweet.... - Here's the link to the Download page... http://www.screamer-radio.com/download.php

38 Special - Caught Up In You [1982]
A-Ha - Take On Me [1985]
A-Ha - The Sun Always Shines On TV [1985]
ABC - The Look Of Love (Part One) [1982]
Adam Ant - Goody Two Shoes [1982]
After The Fire (Falco) - Der Kommissar [1982]
Air Supply - All Out Of Love [1980]
Air Supply - Making Love Out Of Nothing [1983]
Air Supply - The One That You Love [1981]
Animotion - Obession [1984]
Aretha Franklin And George Michael - I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me) [1987]
Asia - Don't Cry [1983]
Asia - Heat Of The Moment [1982]
Asia - The Smile Has Left Your Eyes [1983]
Asia - Wildest Dreams [1982]
Bananarama - I Heard A Rumour [1987]
Bananarama - Venus [1986]
Belinda Carlisle - Heaven Is A Place On Earth [1987]
Berlin - No More Words [1984]
Billy Idol - Dancing With Myself [1980]
Billy Idol - Mony Mony (Live) [1983][1]
Billy Ocean - Caribbean Queen (No More Love On The Run) [1984]
Billy Ocean - Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Car [1988]
Billy Ocean - Loverboy [1985]
Billy Ocean - There'll Be Sad Songs (To Make You Cry) [1986]
Billy Ocean - When the Going Gets Tough, The Tough Get Going [1986]
Billy Squier - Don't Say You Love Me [1989]
Billy Squier - Everybody Wants You [1982]
Blondie - Call Me [1980]
Blondie - Rapture [1980]
Blondie - The Tide Is High [1981]
Bobby McFerrin - Don't Worry, Be Happy [1988]
Bonnie Tyler - Total Eclipse Of The Heart [1983]
Boston - Amanda [1986]
Breathe - Hands To Heaven [1987]
Bronski Beat - Smalltown Boy [1984]
Bruce Hornsby And The Range - The Way It Is [1986]
Cameo - Word Up [1986]
Cheap Trick - The Flame [1988]
Chris De Burgh - The Lady In Red [1987]
Christopher Cross - Sailing [1980]
Crowded House - Don't Dream It's Over [1987][1]
Culture Club - Do You Really Want To Hurt Me [1983]
Cutting Crew - (I Just) Died In Your Arms [1986]
Cyndi Lauper - Time After Time [1983]
Dan Fogelberg - Longer [1980]
Debbie Gibson - Lost In Your Eyes [1989]
Deniece Williams - Let's Hear It For The Boy [1984]
Depeche Mode - Personal Jesus (Single Edit) [1989]
Devo - Whip It [1980]
Dexy's Midnight Runners - Come On Eileen [1982]
Diana Ross - Upside Down [1980]
Dolly Parton - 9 To 5 [1981]
Duran Duran - Notorious [1986]
Duran Duran - Rio [1982]
Eddie Money - Take Me Home Tonight [1986]
Eddy Grant - Electric Avenue [1983]
Erasure - Sometimes [1986]
Eurythmics - Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This) [1983]
Expose - Point Of No Return [1987]
Expose - Seasons Change [1988]
Falco - Rock Me Amadeus [1985]
Fine Young Cannibals - Good Thing [1987]
Foreigner - I Want To Know What Love Is [1984]
Gary Numan - Cars [1980]
Genesis - Invisible Touch [1986]
Glass Tiger - Don't Forget Me (When I'm Gone) [1986]
Glenn Frey - The Heat Is On [1985]
Gloria Estefan - Don't Wanna Lose You [1989]
Golden Earring - Twilight Zone [1982]
Grateful Dead - Touch Of Grey [1987]
Greg Kihn Band - Jeopardy [1983]
Hall And Oates - Kiss On My List [1981]
Hall And Oates - You Make My Dreams [1980][1]
Herbie Hancock - Rockit [1983]
Howard Jones - Things Can Only Get Better [1985]
Huey Lewis And The News - If This Is It [1983]
Huey Lewis And The News - Stuck With You [1986]
Huey Lewis And The News - The Power Of Love [1985]
INXS - Need You Tonight [1987]
Irene Cara - Fame [1980]
Jan Hammer - Miami Vice Theme [1985]
Joe Cocker And Jennifer Warnes - Up Where We Belong [1982]
Joe Jackson - Steppin' Out [1982]
Joe Walsh - A Life Of Illusion [1981]
John Lennon - (Just Like) Starting Over [1980]
John Parr - St Elmo's Fire (Man In Motion) [1985]
John Waite - Missing You [1984]
Johnny Hates Jazz - Shattered Dreams [1988]
Journey - Open Arms [1982]
Juice Newton - Queen Of Hearts [1981]
Junior - Mama Used To Say [1982]
Kajagoogoo - Too Shy [1982]
Katrina And The Waves - Walking On Sunshine [1985]
KC And The Sunshine Band - Please Don't Go [1980]
Kenny Loggins - Danger Zone [1986]
Kim Carnes - Bette Davis Eyes [1981]
Kim Wilde - Kids In America [1981]
Kim Wilde - You Keep Me Hangin' On [1987]
Kool And The Gang - Celebration [1981]
Kool And The Gang - Get Down On It [1982]
Kool And The Gang - Ladies Night [1980]
Laura Branigan - Gloria [1982]
Laura Branigan - Self Control [1984]
Level 42 - Lessons In Love [1986]
Level 42 - Something About You [1985]
Lionel Richie - Truly [1982]
Lipps, Inc - Funkytown [1980]
Lisette Melendez - Together Forever [1990]
Lobos - La Bamba [1987]
Madness - Our House [1982]
Madonna - Holiday [1983]
Martika - Toy Soldiers [1989]
Men At Work - Down Under [1983]
Men At Work - Who Can It Be Now [1982]
Men Without Hats - The Safety Dance [1983]
Michael Sembello - Maniac [1983]
Mick Jagger - Just Another Night [1985]
Mike And The Mechanics - The Living Years [1988]
Mr Mister - Broken Wings [1985]
Mr Mister - Kyrie [1986]

Nayobe - Please Don't Go [1984]
New Kids On The Block - Hangin' Tough [1989]
New Order - Bizarre Love Triangle [1986]
New Order - Blue Monday (Radio Edit) [1988]
Night Ranger - Sister Christian [1983]
Noel - Silent Morning [1987]
Oingo Boingo - Weird Science [1985]
OMD - If You Leave [1986]
Pat Benatar - Love Is A Battlefield [1983]
Patti LaBelle And Michael McDonald - On My Own [1986]
Paula Abdul - Straight Up [1988]
Peter Gabriel - Sledgehammer [1986]
Peter Godwin - Baby's In The Mountains (12'' Version) [1983]
Phil Collins - In The Air Tonight [1981]
Phil Collins - One More Night [1985]
Pink Floyd - Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2) [1980]
Pointer Sisters - He's So Shy [1980]
Poison - Every Rose Has Its Thorn [1988]
Pretty Poison - Catch Me (I'm Falling) [1988]
Quarterflash - Harden My Heart [1982]
Queen - Another One Bites The Dust [1980]
Queen And David Bowie - Under Pressure [1981]
Rainbow - Stone Cold [1982]
Ray Parker Jr - The Other Woman [1982]
REM - Orange Crush [1988]
REO Speedwagon - Can't Fight This Feeling [1985]
Richard Marx - Hold On To The Nights [1988]
Richard Marx - Right Here Waiting [1989]
Rick James - Super Freak (Part 1) [1981]
Rick Springfield - I've Done Everything For You [1981]
Rick Springfield - Jessie's Girl [1981]
Robbie Nevil - C'Est La Vie [1987]
Robert Palmer - Addicted To Love [1986]
Rod Stewart - Downtown Train [1989]
Rush - New World Man [1982]
Scorpions - No One Like You [1982]
Sergio Mendes - Never Gonna Let You Go [1983]
Shannon - Let The Music Play (Remix) [1984]
Shannon - Let The Music Play [1983]
Sheena Easton - Strut [1984]
Sheila E - The Glamorous Life [1984]
Simple Minds - Don't You (Forget About Me) [1981]
Simple Minds - Don't You Forget About Me (12'' Mix) [1986]
Simply Red - Holding Back The Years [1986]
Simply Red - Money's Too Tight (To Mention) [1985]
Smokey Robinson - Being With You [1981]
Soft Cell - Tainted Love Where Did Our Love Go (12'' Version) [1981]
Soft Cell - Tainted Love [1981]
Spandau Ballet - Gold [1983]
Spandau Ballet - True [1983]
Spinners - Working My Way Back To You (Forgive Me, Girl) [1980]
Starship - Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now [1987]
Starship - Sara [1986]
Starship - We Built This City [1985]
Stray Cats - Rock This Town [1982]
Survivor - Burning Heart [1986]
Survivor - The Search Is Over [1984]
Swing Out Sister - Breakout [1986]
Talking Heads - Burning Down The House [1983]
Talking Heads - Road To Nowhere [1985]
Tears For Fears - Everybody Wants To Rule The World [1984]
Tears For Fears - Head Over Heels [1985]
Tears For Fears - Shout (12'' Mix) [1985]
Tears For Fears - Shout [1985]
Tears For Fears - Sowing The Seeds Of Love [1989]
Technotronic - Pump Up The Jam [1989]
Terence Trent D'Arby - Wishing Well [1988]
The Alan Parsons Project - Eye In The Sky [1982]
The Bangles - A Hazy Shade Of Winter (Remix) [1987]
The Bangles - A Hazy Shade Of Winter [1987]
The Bangles - Eternal Flame [1989]
The Bangles - Walk Like An Egyptian [1986]
The Bee Gees - You Win Again [1987]
The Cars - Drive [1987]
The Communards - Don't Leave Me This Way [1986]
The Cover Girls - Show Me [1986]
The Cure - Fascination Street [1989]
The Fixx - One Thing Leads To Another [1983]
The Gap Band - You Dropped A Bomb On Me [1982]
The Go-Go's - We Got The Beat [1981]
The Human League - Don't You Want Me [1981]
The J Geils Band - Centerfold [1982]
The Moody Blues - The Voice [1981]
The Outfield - Your Love [1985]
The Plimsouls - A Million Miles Away [1983]
The Pointer Sisters - Jump (For My Love) [1984]
The Power Station - Some Like It Hot [1985]
The Pretenders - Back On The Chain Gang [1982]
The Psychedelic Furs - Pretty In Pink [1986]
The Romantics - Talking In Your Sleep [1984]
The Smiths - This Charming Man [1983]
The SOS Band - Take Your Time (Do It Right), Part 1 [1980]
The Steve Miller Band - Abracadabra [1982]
The Tubes - She's A Beauty [1983]
Thomas Dolby - She Blinded Me With Science [1982]
Thompson Twins - Hold Me Now [1984]
Thompson Twins - If You Were Here [1983]
Tiffany - Could've Been [1987]
Tiffany - I Think We're Alone Now [1987]
Tina Turner - What's Love Got To Do With It [1984]
Tommy Tutone - 867-5309 (Jenny) [1982]
Toto - Africa [1983]
Toto - Rosanna [1982]
Trio - Da Da Da (I Don't Love You You Don't Love Me Aha Aha Aha) [1982]
U2 - With Or Without You [1987]
Ultravox - Dancing With Tears In My Eyes [1984]
Van Halen - Why Can't This Be Love [1986]
Visage - Fade To Grey (12'' Version) [1980]
Wang Chung - Everybody Have Fun Tonight [1986]
Warrant - Heaven [1989]
Wham - Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go [1984]
Whitesnake - Here I Go Again [1987]
Will To Power - Baby, I Love Your Way Freebird Medley (Free Baby) [1988]
Will To Power - Dreamin' [1988]
Yaz - Situation [1982]
Yes - Owner Of A Lonely Heart [1984]
ZZ Top - Sleeping Bag [1985]

Smartphone Review by CNET.

2006-02-13T13:51:00.000-08:00

HP iPaq hw6900 Reviews. Smartphones Reviews by CNET. Ok, so we're all familiar with mobile phones, and blackberries, and GPS's and Camera Phones, big deal...

I think we're still really in the infancy of delivering on the promise of the ultimate mobile gadget, but nonetheless I still find it fascinating to watch the progress.

Read the full review of the details, but this latest PocketPC, the HW6900, from HP has the following features:

4.6 x 2.8 x 0.7 inches
6.4 Oz
Mobile Phone w/ Quad Band support - meaning it works pretty much anywhere in the world
Speakerphone
Full Qwerty Keyboard
WiFi & Bluetooth
Windows Mobile 2005 - so you get Internet Explorer, Office, etc
1.3 Megapixel Camera w/ Video recording capability
GPS receiver & Navigation software
416MHz CPU
128MB of Flash + 64MB SDRAM

Nothing new about any of these individual features, but awesome to see them all together released by a prominent manufacturer...

No pricing available yet, but it's a newer version of the hw6515, which goes for about $600USD...

By applying the laws of accelerating returns, and based on the typical way these things work, it's fair to expect that we'll all be able to get a device like this, with even BETTER functionality, smaller, lighter and for about $200-$300 within a few years... Geek it up!

Internet Explorer 7: Beta 2 Preview

2006-02-01T05:52:00.000-08:00

Internet Explorer 7: Beta 2 Preview

Check it out, Microsoft has released an open BETA 2 release of the latest version of Internet Explorer. It takes on some of the features that have debuted in some other popular rival browsers (Firefox, Opera, etc)...

KurzweilAI.net - A Dialog on Reincarnation

2006-01-15T00:02:00.000-08:00

KurzweilAI.net

This is really cool... I first became away of this guy, Ray Kurzweil as he was briefly interviewed in a sidebar in a Wired Magazine I was reading... Anyhow, he is a brilliant guy, an amazing inventor and a futurist... And this is a neat little read discussing reincarnation / physical immortality, etc...

Using BitTorrent to get Movies...

2006-01-14T22:55:00.000-08:00

Ok, so here's the skinny on the best way at the moment for getting movies off the net for free, I'll try to make this fairly straight forward...

1) Download & Install a BitTorrent Client - I like ABC, there are other quite popular BitTorrent clients out there, but ABC works well, is quick and easy to use...
DOWNLOAD HERE - http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/pingpong-abc/ABC-win32-v3.1.exe?download, the install is fairly straight forward, you can prob. leave most of the defaults. Once it's install, you will want to change the default port (if you're using Rogers as your ISP) - Within ABC, from the File menu, choose Preferences, select Network, and then enter 1720 as the Port, click Ok.

2) Open up a Port on your Router - If your PC is behind a Router, you will need to log into it and open up the Port that you'll use in ABC. I can't really give you detailed instructions on how to do this as it'd be different for every make/model of router. Once you've logged in, look for a section called 'NAT' or 'APPLICATIONS' or something like that, for Protocol, if it asks for TCP or UDP, just choose both, and for Port, I'd recommend 1720, this isn't the default, but Rogers is filtering the default port so using 1720 ensures you get faster speeds.

3) Visit a decent BitTorrent tracker site - My personal fav at the moment is Mininova, but I think Torrent Spy and Pirate Bay are also decent... You can search on titles of movies from here, and if you find one you like click the appropriate link and you'll be prompted on what to do with the .torrent file, just choose 'Open', and this should open automatically within ABC and you'll see that it's downloading... You can track the progress is ABC, once it's done, enjoy! Keep in mind that these web sites WILL come and go, so always check around for new sites, where can you find them? Read more below...

Here are some decent links/tutorials you might want to check out for more learning/info...

VCD Quality - http://www.vcdquality.com/ - This is a great site that tracks new 'RELEASES', if you're desperate to get a movie BEFORE it comes out on DVD, checking this site and checking the reviews of a particular release is useful so you can try to find a Screener of suitable quality worth downloading... Once you've found one that seems to be Ok, search the tracker site for that particular release (by including the type of release and name of the group in your query).

BitTorrent Tutorial - http://wiki.theppn.org/index.php/BitTorrent_Tutorial - Move info on BitTorrent, includes info on several other BitTorrent clients...

Zero Paid - http://www.zeropaid.com/ - This is an all around good site to follow info and trends on Peer-2-Peer (P2P) file sharing... Forums, links to site, tutorials, etc...

* If you've downloaded a movie, but when you try to play it you don't hear any sound, or you can't see the video, or Windows Media Player gives you some type of Codec error, you probably need to get DIVX or XVID or some Audio Codec. I'd recommend you get a Codec Pack, it'll probably have everything you need... Something like this: http://www.divx-digest.com/software/acemega_codec.html

** WARNING ** - Always beware when you start to get into downloading software off the net, especially if it's grey area stuff that you be wary, make sure your Anti-Virus and Anti-Spyware software is installed, working and up-to-date!

Free XBOX 360? Come on... Joking?

2006-01-14T22:44:00.000-08:00

Ok, so you've heard of the iPod thing, fair enough, no biggie... How about getting an XBOX 360 for Free?.

Through the Freebie Authority site, I found a link to this place. They are quite similar to Gratis, who run the Free iPod site, they have a variety of offers, the one that tweaked my interest is the XBOX 360...

You need to get -8- referrals, 3 more than the 5 required for the iPod, but clearly, the XBOX 360 is an even more valuable item (and I imagine shipping would be more too!).

I haven't been in a hurry to jump into this, as:

I wanted to get my iPod sorted out (should be done now!)
I'm still quite happy with my v1 XBOX.
I'll want to get a mod chip for the XBOX 360 and they won't be out for a while...

I've seen some of the XBOX 360 games, they do look great - Project Gotham Racing 3, and Call of Duty 2 and they look absolutely gorgeous! I checked them out at Best Buy... The 360 comes with Wireless controllers which is cool, and all the games are in High Definition, so they'll look glorious on a proper HD set...

Anyhow, if/when I get around to moving forward and actually looking to get my 8 referrals, I'll post the status & updates here! Giddyup!

How do I download movies/music/games?

2006-01-06T13:19:00.000-08:00

This is one of the most common questions I get, and I intend to write a series of articles/tutorials that will introduce a typical web surfer to HOW us real Geeks get all this great stuff...

The two things to keep in mind:

1) You WILL have to learn some stuff... You will get frustrated the odd time, but it's really a journey like anything else, no pain, no gain...

2) Change is the only constant. The psuedo-underground world of Internet Piracy is always shifting a change. As technologies mature they become so succesful that they attract attention from the authorities and sooner or later get shutdown or change, but just as certain is that something new will replace it... So whether it be Napster or Kazaa or Limewire or SuprNova or whatever, don't expect to learn one thing and have it work for ever... Rest assured though, once you've learned a few things dealing with the changes will be easy :)

If you do manage to learn the things you need to learn, you'll be able to get pretty much any album you want, any movie you want, any game or application you want, quickly and easily...

So if all this interests you - Go do some homework, learn about Bittorrent (don't download a client or anything yet, just google on it and read a little bit), and also go ahead and download WinRAR, it's a file compression technology (like zip)... You're going to need it too...

Sharp XLMP60 - Great micro system...

2006-01-04T18:38:00.000-08:00

I was in the market for either a new set of speakers, or perhaps a CD changer that supported MP3's in order to improve my main stereo system in my living room.

I checked Best Buy, they had a few set of bookshelf speakers, starting at $79/pair and up... I listened to them, they sounded good...

I looked around at Best Buy, Future Shop, couldn't even find any component CD changers, I'm sure they're still being made, but they certainly aren't prominant in retail... Lots of DVD players, recorders, etc, but no MP3 CD Changers.

I checked out Costco, and this is where I found this little beauty! The Sharp XLMP60. It's a Micro system, as you can see in the picture, you have the main unit with AM/FM, and CD, it holds 5 disks and supports MP3 and WMA. You can fit up to about 150 songs on an MP3 CD, so thats up to about 750 songs! It has a crisp sound, sure it's not going to shake the windows like a big ass pair of floor speakers, but it fills the room no problem... Now the kicker... Guess how much this was? $299? nope! $199? nope! Only $99!!! crazy! I'd recommend this to anyone as either a second system, or for a kitchen, or dorm room, perfect little unit, great price!

Here's a link to the Sharp site for some more info:
http://www.sharp.ca/products/index.asp?cat=40&id=558

Free PDF

2005-12-12T11:48:00.000-08:00

PDF is a universal document format, essentially used as an electronic piece of paper. It's a way to turn typical office documents into an universally viewable, uneditable, print-only format. The PDF Viewer (Adobe Acrobat Viewer) has always been a free download from Adobe...

Historically, the only way to CREATE a PDF, was to purchase the full version of Adobe Acrobat, which is roughly $600!!!

Over the past few years, some open source projects have been developing an alternative, free method.

Recently, CutePDF PDF Writer 2.5 has pulled all this together and provided an easy to download, snap to install tool to allow you to create PDF's FOR FREE! It's fantastic, I've used it on several PC's, recommend it to clients, check it out!

Official Web Site, Download Link: http://www.cutepdf.com/Products/CutePDF/writer.asp

HOW TO:
- It's a simple, 2 step process to install:
1) Click the link above, then download and install the 'Free Converter' (GPL Ghostscript - this is the plumbing behind the scenes that does the actual PDF creation),
2) then download & install the 'Free Download',

Now you can then create PDF's by PRINTING from any application, and instead of chosing your standard printer, choose the Cute PDF Writer, and you'll be prompted for where to save, and what to name the PDF!