Today is an exciting day for Windows enthusiasts.  Windows 7 is  a great OS, but Windows 8 is a much more radical overhaul of the Windows operating system and goes much further than Windows 7 did in terms of creating a new interface and new features.

If you want to get a good peak at Windows 8, Microsoft will be releasing the Windows 8 Consumer Preview (Windows 8 Beta) today.  Download links for the Windows 8 Consumer Preview will be available in the Windows 8 Download Center as soon as they become available, so head on over to Windows 8 News for more.

On the site, there’s a new Windows 8 Consumer Preview board where you can share your experiences with the latest build.  If you need more help with Windows 8, please use the Windows 8 Help forum and sub-forums.

To register with the Windows 8 forums yet, then click here.

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Attracting a woman is not a very complicated science. And I dare say every woman likes to be chased so her true charm can shine. So if you can better understand women and know some arts of seduction, you are sure to be popular with women. Below are some seduction tips accompanied by some useful software for you to become a master seducer!

How to Pick Up Women in Nightclubs —— Be Sociable!

Women would like to date a man who has social value. You need not to do great deeds to prove your social value. Just a smile or a warm greeting is good enough for women to evaluate your social value. And Nightclub is the greatest testing platform to test your social value, also the most desirable place to pick up women. ‘How to Pick Up Women in Nightclubs’ is a useful guide for you to develop your social skills. It will tell you how to capture a woman’s attention, how to talk to women. It also impart the step-by-step procedures from saying a simple“hello” to more intimate matters.

Free Joke Book —— Be Humorous!

Women would like to date a man who has a generous sense of humor. Learn to laugh at yourself and learn to tell funny jokes. “Free Joke Book” is a joke e-book with 40 pages of Blonde jokes, Redneck Jokes, Sports jokes, Bar jokes etc etc.

Subliminal Blaster —— Be Confident!

As a female, I can say for sure: we love confident and charismatic men. Try to be a charismatic “alpha male” and you’ll be irresistable. You can develop these qualities with the help of sublimianl messages which can train your subconscious mind. Subliminal Blaster flashes messages on your computer screen that have the power to reprogram your mind. Please don’t be skeptical about what I say. It really works. Simply by letting a message run on your computer and you can improve your confidence. If you still hesitate to believe me, you can check out Wikepedia for research on “Subliminal Messages”

MB Free Palmistry —— Be tactical

Women don’t want men to think they’re easy to get because no woman wants to be thought of as a slut. So if you want to touch her or have some touches with a hidden intimacy motive, Palm reading is a good place to begin with. No need to be an expert Palm reader, just use some jargons and she’ll believe you. However, the tactic could work better if you can make a pointed comment. MB Free Palmistry is an effective tool based on the art of Palmistry. You can use it to practice your Palm reading skills or just learn some jargons. Moreover, you can know more about the woman through her interaction.

AllMyNotes Organizer ——Be Mindful

To be a master seducer, you need to be attentive of the targeted woman’s information, like the birthday date, hobbies, favorite books, music and food. The more you know about her, the more she will appreciate you. As a seducer, you certainly communicated with a lot of women. As a result, you need to remember a lot of information. So you need an awesome note organizer. Here comes AllMyNotes Organizer which can store information about your girls and everything about your seduction relationships clear and organized in your computer.

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I’ve been using an amazing computer program from DVBlogic in my home for just over a year that has transformed the way we watch tv within our household.  I have a very connected home and since 2007 all of my music, videos, dvds, blu-rays and photos have been stored on a central machine.

Now with DVBlogic DVBLink I’ve been able to add live and recorded tv to this equation, which are now shared not only within my home but also online, allowing me to watch any of my shows through a browser or on my iPad or iPhone 4.

Initially I had DVBlogic running on a Windows Home Server, but in the last year my ‘server’ machine has been running Windows 7 to reduce costs as I ditched WHS when I realised the new version would still not have Media Center integrated (I now have one machine storing the files and connected to my main TV, rather than one machine storing the files via WHS and a second running Windows 7 Media Center connected to a TV).

The diagram below best shows how DVBlogic works:

My ‘server’ is represented by the PC on the left, which is connected to my main TV.  Within this machine I have 4x Hauppauge  WinTV-Nova-HD-S2 TV cards each taking a feed from my Satellite.  DVBLogic’s TVSource product uses these cards and makes both the SD and HD channels available within Windows Media Center with full support e.g. guide listings, live tv, pausing tv, scheduled recordings etc etc.

My Four TV cards allow me to watch or record up to four channels at once.  There’s no limit on how many cards can be added and DVBLink TVSource even allows different types of cards to be mixed i.e. Satellite, Cable and Terrestrial TV channels can all be used together as DVBLink intelligently merges these channels.   TV cards that aren’t directly supported by Media Center such as DVB-C cards can also be used via DVBLink TVSource.

The real power of TVSource is unlocked though, when it is combined with DVBLink Network Pack which is depicted by the right-hand side of the diagram above.  Network Pack allows the tv cards on your PC to be shared with other devices including other Windows Media Centers. Without Network Pack if you wanted to watch live TV on other Media Centers, then each media center needed to have its own tv cards installed.  Now, TV cards installed on one PC are shared with other PCs.

In my household for instance, we have 4 Media Centers each running W7MC.  Network Pack serves up 4 virtual tuners for each of these machines, so across my home we can record and watch up to four shows at once.  So in room 1 we could be watching BBC1 HD and recording Sky 1, in room 2 my daughter could be watching BabyTV and in room 3 I could be recording the football – i.e. up to four channels streamed from one PC to the others.  Network Pack also manages tuner sharing so if two or more rooms are actually watching the same channel at the same time, only one tuner is used rather than two.  Using Recorded TV Manager 3, any recordings made are copied over to the ‘server’ allowing them to be watched from any machine at a later date.

UPNP enabled clients such as Sony Playstation 3 and almost any internet connected device such as ipads and iphones are also supported. Streaming live tv requires a reasonably powered PC, but if you find your PC struggling then there are settings available to reduce the picture quality.   The software is so fantastic that you can even use the online service to schedule recordings that you’ve realised you’ve forgotten or are going to miss because you are running late.

All of this costs just over 40 euros; an amazingly low price for such a great piece of software that is constantly being updated by the developers.  If you have more than one PC in your home or just want to be able to watch your TV online then investing in DVBlink is a no-brainer.  If you’re not sure if DVBLink is right for you, then you can try the product out free for 30 days.

More: DVBLogic

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If you like Microsoft Office 2010, but you would like to try something else. Or maybe you don’t like Microsoft Office and want to try something else, here are three Office Suite Alternatives that you can use to do the same work that Microsoft office does.

Softmaker 2010

The first MS Office alternative is SoftMaker Office 2010. This suite reads and writes Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files – and costs a lot less than  Microsoft Office. It can be used at home or in business.  It is faster than MS Office 2010, and reliable.

	TextMaker 2010, a  word processor that reads and writes Microsoft Word files easily.
	PlanMaker 2010, an Excel-compatible spreadsheet.
	SoftMaker Presentations 2010, the PowerPoint presentation like graphics program.
	BasicMaker 2010, a scripting language and environment that lets you automate recurring tasks.

SoftMaker Office 2010 is available for only € 69.95, or  $79.95.

[SoftMaker.com]

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Libre Office

LibreOffice is the free Open Source personal productivity suite. Users can install this on a Windows, Macintosh, or Linux platform. This program gives you six feature-rich applications for all your document production and data processing needs: Writer, Calc, Impress, Draw, Math and Base. Help and support, and documentation is freely available from a large, dedicated community of users, contributors and developers.

• It is  easy to personalize – Microsoft Office users will find the switch easy and painless, with a familiar look and feel.
• It is compatible with all major competitors’ file formats. You can easily import files from Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint and many other formats.

[Download Link]

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Zoho

The two previous applications were similar in that you downloaded and installed the application. But Zoho is different because you do the work on the cloud. Zoho provides an integrated portfolio of online applications for businesses. It has more than 20 different applications that operate different services like Collaboration, Business and Productivity applications. Because the applications are cloud based, they require nothing more than a browser.

[Zoho.com]

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Summary

There is no need to use Microsoft Office because there are alternatives to the production system that Microsoft has created. Some must be download; while others  operate on the cloud.

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Time really does seem to fly, Windows 95 seems to be a bleak memory now when you think back to it, but what about Windows 1.0. Yes number 1, the very first attempt at creating the foundations for what we now see on nearly every desktop in the world.

It was on this day, 20 November 25 years ago that Microsoft had their first stab at creating a multi-tasking graphical user interface to run on desktops. Of course it resembled nothing like what it is today. However you may find it has one or two things in common with some other Windows OS’s now that I think about it.

For a start it was two years late, finally shipping on November 20th 1985 when Bill Gates himself announced it at the Plaza Hotel in New York. It was the next big thing, it was cool, it was graphical, it was going to put those Apple systems to shame, which was purely text based at the time.

Windows 1.0 was the birthplace of actual “windows” on your computers, up until now all files and documents were purely text based, where as Windows arranged them into, well , windows….. this was the big step forward.

Of course Microsoft were laughed at for a while, it wasn’t exactly a looker and it wasn’t jam packed full of features. There was no recycle bin in sight and the Windows couldn’t even overlap. However, some early versions of Windows 1 came bundled with Microsoft Word and Excel, something you’d never see anymore. The program list may look somewhat familiar to you though, a good few of these have managed to survive the tests of time and are still running on your brand new Windows 7 OS today.

Supplied programs included the Calculator, Calendar, Cardfile, Clipboard viewer, Click, Control Panel, Notepad, Paint, Reversi, Terminal and Write.

Microsoft may have hit a few bumps in the road since Windows 1 was released, but since then things have all gone up hill, Microsoft is now one of the biggest companies in the world and its OS is running on 90% of desktops around the world, and all after 25 short years.

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The latest Microsoft Press book “Troubleshooting Windows 7 Inside Out” will be available to buy within two weeks and it’s been written by one of the editors/regular contributors here at you’re favourite Internet website, ConnectedInternet.co.uk.

You can still download a free sample chapter from the book HERE, in which you can find out about the core Windows 7 files and folders, how to repair specific files within the operating system and how to create a slipstreamed install DVD that includes Service Pack 1!

Now we have some even more exciting news.  Starting on Monday 18th October 2010 and running for a period of one week we have a fantastic and exclusive competition for readers of www.windows7news.com and www.ghacks.net, so scoot over there to enter on Monday.

We’ll be giving away three copies of the book in paperback and ten copies of the eBook!  PLUS!  Every winner and runner up will also receive an eBook of The Windows 7 Power Users Guide by the same author as a bonus prize.

That’s a whopping 52 prizes on Windows7News.com and gHacks.net!

Check www.windows7news.com and www.ghacks.net on Monday for full details of the competition and how you can enter to win.

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There’s been huge amounts of speculation about exactly when Microsoft would officially unveil Windows Phone 7 but now we finally have the date.  At a pre-announced event in New York City on October 11th, the company has said this will be the launch date after all.

Several technology bloggers, including Paul Thurrott, had said that October 11th wouldn’t be the date as Microsoft had an event in New York this time every year.  People after this began talking about October 25th.

The event will be held at the Microsoft Technology Center and kick off at 3pm EST.   There will be a five minute keynote, a 20 minute presentation on the new smartphone OS and finally an hour of practical demonstrations and Q&As with staff from T-Mobile.

This is a very exciting launch for Microsoft and for phone consumers and it’s guaranteed to reinvigorate the smartphone market, giving both Apple and Google something to worry about at the same time.  What will make it harder for Apple and Google in the run up to the all important Christmas sales period is the reported $1bn that Microsoft are throwing at promoting Windows Phone 7 worldwide.

It will be interesting to see how the new OS is received by the press and how well the launch goes as smartphone manufacturers have yet to officially announce any products and negotiations with carriers are still ongoing.

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Asp.Net

For more information see:   Microsoft

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Microsoft’s two cash cows are the Operating Systems and the Office Suite. So it is curious when Steve Ballmer at the recent D8 convention criticized  Google for having multiple operating systems for its mobile devices. Is Microsoft above such criticism itself? Hardly.

Microsoft is no stranger to multiple Operating systems  in the market place. If you count all of the Windows OS’s still in play there are several. Windows XP, Vista, Windows7, and all the flavors of each one. Add the Server OS collection, Server 2003, Server 2008  and you have a few more.

But Ballmer was only referring to mobile OS. But even there, in the mobile market,  Microsoft is not without it share of duplicate OS. Consider this chart:

Microsoft has 6 Mobile Operating Systems

Exactly what is with Microsoft multiplying the mobile OS SKUs? Isn’t  just one or two choices better and won’t it result in less PC maker and customer confusion? Maybe not. Because on the mobile front,  the apparent thinking in Redmond seems to be that specialization and additional choices will provide mobile device makers  a greater number of options.

However, the place where Microsoft is consolidating its OS story happens to be on the Windows Embedded Compact front. The majority of the six mobile OS’S run a variety of different versions of the Embedded Compact/Embedded CE framework. With Windows Embedded Compact / Windows Embedded CE, the OS is running on the lowest level platform that Microsoft uses to build its phone and mobile device operating systems.

The consolidation does not end there. Take their development tools. Microsoft is working to bring its various offerings together. The tool sets in question are Visual Studio 2010, Silverlight and the XNA platform. So next year, when the Windows Embedded Handheld 7 platform ships, the underlying tool set will be the same as the Windows Phone 7 tool set.

Source: Microsoft

Windows Mobile

Zdnet

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You know what it’s like when you’re sitting on really great news for several months but you can’t tell anyone?  Well after a long period of frustration I can now officially announce that I’ve been signed by Microsoft Press to write “Troubleshooting Windows 7 Inside Out”.  The new book will be out in October this year.

This book will compliment my own Windows 7 Power Users Guide, which is still available to buy in paperback and as an eBook.  It will talk readers through every aspect of preventing, diagnosing and fixing problems with Windows 7.

For this I’ve drawn on years of providing IT support for Windows users.  The book will follow a similar style to the Windows 7 Power Users Guide and take you through everything from the basics of preventing problems from occurring and understanding how to fix simple problems, to complex troubleshooting for advanced users, and the most complex Windows problems.

Microsoft Press say of the book…

You’re beyond the basics, so dive right in and troubleshoot Windows 7 — from the inside out! This supremely organized reference packs hundreds of prevention tips, troubleshooting techniques, and recovery tools. It’s all muscle and no fluff. Discover how the experts keep their Windows 7-based systems running smoothly — and challenge yourself to new levels of mastery.

• Use quick and simple guides to prevent problems such as data loss and identity theft
• Get the very best out of Windows 7’s built-in features
• Make your own quick fixes to the most common problems
• Handle viruses and other threats, and get tips to help protect against cyber-crime
• Learn advanced troubleshooting techniques by understanding how Windows 7 works
• Use step-by-step guides to diagnose and repair system and hardware issues
• Recover and restore the operating system — and your files — in the event of a disaster
• Use power utilities built into Windows 7 for performance, maintenance, and advanced diagnostics
• Get a companion eBook and additional content online

For readers who might wonder if writing for Microsoft Press could affect my objectivity here, I would like to reassure you that I will continue to criticise and take the mickey out of Apple given at least the smallest opportunity, and I’ll be happy to praise Microsoft products for as long as they continue to be excellent.  So normal service shall continue.  Seriously though, when Microsoft makes a cock-up I’m always more than happy to criticise them for it, and that won’t change either.

The book is available from Amazon for pre-order now in the US for $39.99, UK £30.99 and in other countries around the world, in Europe it is retailing at around €34.99.  The Windows 7 Power Users Guide is available now to buy as an eBook or in paperback from only £3.99 here.

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Ok … If they can build a nuclear bomb, a missile offensive system, desperately work to become a 4th world country, and anger just about everyone in the civilized world, why stop there? They are on a roll. North Korea should develop an Operating System. It makes sense. Well, that is just what they have done.

Red-Star Linux

Red Star is the Linux like Operating system with a Windows7 GUI. It also has an OpenOffice like office suite, and a FireFox like browser named My Country. Other features include an e-mail client called Pigeon. Also developed by North Korea software engineers are a firewall called Pyongyang Fortress and an antivirus program called Woodpecker. These are just the kind of programs every dictatorship needs.

The Red Star GUI Desktop

The configuration requires, at a minimum, an ultra modern Pentium III 800-MHz CPU (a state of the art CPU around 10 years ago), plus 256MB of RAM and 3GB of hard disk space.  Installation is fast; it takes only 15 minutes, and the Korean language is the only available language for users. One more thing, the clock on the bottom right shows two time years. One the standard Gregorian calendar and Juche Idea, in North Korean in which 2010 is the year 99.

The FireFox look alike

Stability is a problem for Red Star and users still prefer Vista or WindowsXP. The cost of the OS is $5.00. It even comes with a Readme file which goes with the install disc; and there is even a quote from the dictator, Kim Jong-il, about how important it is for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to have its own Linux-based operating system compatible with Korean traditions.

Source: North Korea’s “secret cyber-weapon”: brand new Red Star OS

Source: The Posting from the Russian Web site, aushen-rus journal brought forth the information.

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Okay, so it looks like Microsoft has finally done something right. Window Phone 7 Series is a disaster of a name but a great mobile OS that, surprisingly, brings a refreshing breath of fresh air to the mobile OS market. It approaches the mobile OS from a completely different perspective and succeeds at it with a lot of elegance and class. This goes to show what pressure can do to a company. The good things that pressure can do that is. This was Microsoft’s do or die moment when it came their mobile business and they are most certainly not dying any time soon.

What Microsoft has done, in my opinion, is take every good thing about the latest wave of mobile OS’ and rethought how people should interact with small screened devices that take advantage of a high-resolution touchscreen. The first thing that strikes me about WinPho 7 is its complete break from the desktop OS influence. WinPho 7 does not look anything like Windows 7 and thank God for that.

It is also clean break from the legacy (what legacy?) of the horrible, horrible Windows Mobile OS. I mean it was such an eyesore that it took HTC that long to cover it all up on their HTC HD2. But they can’t do that anymore because Microsoft has ensured that users have a standard experience throughout. This is something I really appreciate as an average user and I am sure developers appreciate this as well. Ask any major Android developer how crazy it is supporting their apps through custom Android deployments on multiple major phones. They can’t ignore it and it takes time away from developing their apps forward.

The iPhone OS, as well as the Android, still reminds me of traditional OS with their app icons and one screen apps. Windows Phone brings a lot of innovative thinking to the fray and their multi-screen spanning super-apps like the Music+Video hub. They are panoramic apps that are very Zune-like (especially the Music+Video one, of course!) and they make see Windows Phone as achieving something that Apple has been aiming at all this while — a truly consumer computing experience where the consumer does not see anything that is remotely low level.

The home screen and the way it works especially reminds me of this. Those big squares with their basic colors and minimal displays remind me of real life desktops where objects are familiar and they usually do one thing and they do that very well. The ability to pin things to the homescreen is also something very welcome. It is how a consumer device should be — show me the most relevant thing in a format that does not make me squint. Make it nice, big, bold and non-flashy.

The non-flashy nature of the OS impresses me a lot. It is actually what makes it so very refreshing to me — it does not hurt my eyes and reminds of very futuristic things. It is sort of like the change from Vaio to a MacBook — you go from flashy to the clean and aesthetic. Yes, the irony of that comparison is not lost on me but I stick to it.

So is Apple’s OS flashy? No, not on its own. But when compared to the really staid and simple home screen of Windows Phone, I’d say it looks unnecessarily prettified. Time to turn to minimalism again. I do not want to stare at my phone all the time. I want to glance at it and from that brief glance I want to know — the weather, the time, the latest updates of a pinned contact and some more. Doing away with everything and displaying only the information is really what it is all about in my opinion and I really like that.

We don’t know what surprises iPhone OS 4.0 has in store for us, we believe it will be big (more on that soon) but I sure hope that Apple makes its case against this new adversary. The ginormous App Store will surely tilt things in Apple’s favor for quite some time to come but not forever.

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Now many users are envious of that pretty impressive dock that you will find on Macs. Several people have said that Microsoft copied Apple with the new taskbar that they introduced into their latest operating system, Windows 7. While I personally think this new dock is a great addition to the OS and it has some important differences, some people may insist that it’s Apples idea so Apples dock is just better!

The new Windows 7 taskbar

Well here is how you can add the Mac OS dock to any Windows Machine Running XP, Vista and Windows 7.

There is a great application that you can download called RocketDock, and what’s truly great about this is the fact that it’s completely free.

It’s very simple to use, just click here to download it and then install.

You then get your dock up and running by either double clicking the “RocketDock” desktop icon or go to all programs and launch RocketDock.

You will then see the Dock pop up complete with the nice bubble zoom effect that’s also present on the Mac OS Dock.

In a way it’s also very like the Windows 7 dock. To add programs to the dock, simply drag a desktop icon or shortcut to the dock and it will automatically fit in and pin itself there. To remove them simply drag them out.

RocketDock

By going into the settings you will find lots of options from positioning the dock to the different themes available for it, so you can customise it exactly how you want. You can also change the mouse over effect and icon size, there’s lots of settings in there for you to mess around with.

It’s a great little program and you can set it to run at start up and also have it set to overlay everything so you can use it just like on the Mac, and as I said it’s completely free!

Click here to visit RocketDock and Download it

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Micrsoft’s next version of Outlook, Outlook 2010, will have social updates built right into it. This would enable the users to keep a tab on the social updates of their contacts. Whilst there have been multiple plugins for Outlook that tie Microsoft’s mail client to various social networks, this is going to be the first time for these features to be built into the application itself. This feature is called Social Connector and currently pulls information and updates from LinkedIn, Facebook and MySpace. Twitter is conspicuously missing but no conspiracy theories have been reported yet. It will just be added later in all likelihood.

There’s actually already a project like this in the market and it is one that Microsoft actually thought of buying at one point, some two years back. This is a social email project called Xobni and the funny part here is that this is also a plugin for Outlook and not an email client unto itself. With the latest social features taken into account, Outlook is thus actually starting to resemble one of its plugins.

The main purpose of such features inside an email client is to make it easier for the user. Email is as it is an old way of communicating that is just passé in today’s world of real time communication. And the mail client is pretty much a dead box of communiqués that are already old when they are downloaded to the computer. So by having an email client that is connected to the social networks, that dead old place can be made much more useful. Especially in situations when you are composing emails. If you knew your best-friend’s dog had passed away moments ago, you would’ve avoided emailing the cute doggie site you just found out about. And other such faux pas.

The bottom line here is that the web is going real time and social and communication applications like mail clients are especially burdened with keeping up with that trend. Besides, it also help people feel connected and find out relevant information. For example, hyper local news has never been the same after Twitter came on the the scene and that has actually helped out a lot of people. From avoiding traffic jams to being the first to break a major local story, social networks have completely changed the way we communicate.

Social Connector will (thankfully) be compatible with pat versions of Outlook, so those who do not want to upgrade don’t have to feel left behind. This is especially true for enterprise players — businesses are far too slow to administrate IT changes as major as browsers and mail clients. This can be really frustrating for major software vendors like Microsoft — you can’t not think of your biggest clients and yet to keep them in mind you have to slow down advancements. Sad situation really.

Currently, the beta version of the Social Connector features seems to crash prone. Several complaints from users all over the place make that part really clear. For some, Outlook actually stopped working altogether after Social Connector was installed.

The comparison between social connector and Xobni is actually hard to avoid because they do the exact same things. Whilst the logical reasoning would say that a built-in feature would render similar plugins redundant, Xobni might still have the upper hand at this point. Its has an extremely (extremely) loyal user base, it has a faster mail search function than Outlook’s own search and the dev team plans to eventually expand it to other mail clients. Xobni has so far been downloaded over 4 million times. However, the final release of Social Connector might change all of this. So we’ll just have to wait and see.

[read]

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The browser ballot screen for European users of XP, Vista and Windows 7 has finally been revealed by Microsoft, and will be rolled out to users across the EU via Windows Update from 1st March.

This comes about because of an anti-trust case instigated by Opera about the ‘unfair’ bundling of Internet Explorer with Windows.  Late in 2009 Microsoft proposed a ballot screen for Windows users, though the EU didn’t agree in time for the initial rollout of Windows 7.

The update will see Internet Explorer unpinned from the Start Menu and Taskbar of users’ PCs, and a list of browsers presented “in random order” that people can choose to download and install.

Anybody choosing Internet Explorer will simply see their icons reinstated.

This all seems straightforward enough on the face of it, but it is certain to confuse a great many users who just think of Internet Explorer as “the internet” and who may never have heard of these other browsers.  The information provided for each browser may be of use to some people in making an informed choice, but a great many people will be sat scratching their heads wondering what’s going on and why they suddenly can’t get to their email any more.

The winners in this ballot screen are sure to be Microsoft (as people will already recognise the IE icon and gravitate towards it) and Google (due to their brand recognition).  It remains to be seen if this will have any positive effect for other browsers, especially Opera.

On the whole though any competition in the browser market is a good thing and can only encourage innovation which is hugely beneficial to end users.  I am concerned however where it will end if this is successful… a ballot screen for your media player, free CD/DVD burner, search facility?

It could all get very messy indeed.

Source: Microsoft

Windows browser ballot screen revealed, rolls out in March is a post from Connected Internet - tech, mobile and gaming news. - Updated daily with the latest news, tips, tweaks, social networking, wordpress tips & tweaks, windows optimization help and more.. Visit Connected Internet - tech, mobile and gaming news. for more articles.

Hackers are regularly the reason behind any unplanned activities on our computers. We’ve all had our fair share of viruses, malware, worms, trojans and rootkits. Not to mention the host of other infections we’ve had that we never knew about and may well still be lurking on your old PC downstairs in the basement.

Well this year at the Pwn2Own contest held at the CanSecWest security conference in Vancouver, starting on March 24th 2010, hackers will be fighting against each other for a change, not to steal each others credit card numbers or log in details. But instead to see who can break into computers running Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP and Mac OS X Snow Leopard via browser-related security holes.

But not only will they be trying to break into your desktops, but now the event organisers, Pwn2Own have added a new mobile phone platform category, including the iPhone 3GS and Blackberry’s. The main sponsor of the Pwn2Own contest, TippingPoint Zero Day Initiative (ZDI) is offering no less than $100,000 in prizes to the hackers who manage to break into the respective browsers and devices.

In keeping with tradition the first portion of the event will attempt to bring to light the current security posture of market-leading web browser and operating system pairings. The multifaceted web browser continues to occupy a critical presence on the client-side attack surface

Said researcher Araon Portnoy from Tippingpoint’s security group.

The second portion of Pwn2Own 2010 offers bounties for vulnerabilities affecting mobile phones. The increased presence and capabilities of smart phones has brought with it the same security issues and attention traditionally reserved for non hand-held platforms

The hacking contest will last for 3 days, where hackers will have a chance to break into the most popular operating systems including Windows 7, Windows Vista and XP, not to mention Snow Leopard OSX using the 4 most popular browsers. Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Safari, Firefox. There is $40,000 reserved in prizes for browser hacks alone.

In Day 1, hackers will attempt to hack Internet Explorer 8 on Windows 7, Firefox 3 on Windows 7, Google Chrome 4 on Windows 7 and Apple Safari 4 on MacOS X Snow Leopard. Day 2 will have hackers target IE7 on Windows Vista, Firefox 3 on Windows Vista, Google Chrome 4 on Windows Vista and Apple Safari 4 on MacOS X Snow Leopard. In day 3, the following browsers will serve as targets for attacks: IE7 on Windows XP, Firefox 3 on Windows XP, Google Chrome 4 on Windows XP and Apple Safari 4 on MacOS X Snow Leopard.

“$60,000 of the total $100,000 cash prize pool is allotted to the mobile phone portion of the contest, each target is worth $15,000. A successful hack on these targets must result in code execution with little to no user-interaction. Expect updates on the rules as the contest approaches. The current target list is as follows: Apple iPhone 3GS, RIM Blackberry Bold 9700, a Nokia device running Symbian S60 (likely the E62), a Motorola phone running Android (likely the Droid),”

So this must be what the hackers are training for all year, but please guys, stop practicing on me and I think some of our fellow readers would prefer if you left them in peace as well!

Source:

Softpedia

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It seems that Microsoft will never be able to get rid of hardware and driver compatibility issues that haunt the users after the release of its OSes. This has been a case with the Windows 9x series of operating systems. Even after the release of its most feature packed and redesigned OS the problem persists.

A number of Windows 7 users are facing problems while trying to connect their existing printer or MFD to their PC after installing Windows 7. Users who have relatively older models are more likely to face this problem. According to the major printer manufacturers, the majority of the existing MFDs and printers will work with Windows 7 if the users try the drivers meant for Vista.

Those who are upgrading their PC from Vista to Windows 7 and have drivers for Vista already installed may not suffer from driver issues and the Windows 7 installation disc may include the drivers for his printer. However, this depends on the model and manufacturer. According to Microsoft, such a user should keep his printer or MFD connected to the PC while the upgrade process runs. If the Windows 7 disc does not contain the required printer drivers, the user needs to check at the website of the printer manufacturer for Windows 7 drivers.

In case someone fails to obtain Windows 7 compliant drivers for his MFD, the only option for him would be to use the Vista drivers. Microsoft has listed a number of printers and MFDs in its site that will work under windows 7 using the Vista drivers. As an alternative, one can try running the installation under compatibility mode for Vista. The compatibility mode also works with PCs running Vista with Service packs.

If the Vista compatibility mode does not work, as is the case with some of the HP printers, the users can try adding the printer drivers manually. The Windows Add Printer Wizard utility can be used in this context. However, things can get a bit tricky if the printer is connected to a LAN. In that case one needs to instruct the wizard that he is installing a local device. The person needs to select LPT1 port and after the driver gets installed the port settings need to be changed to quite an extent.

In case someone’s MFD or printer refuses to work with Windows Vista drivers he can opt for Windows 7 UPD or universal printer driver. However, the printer needs to be compatible with either PostScript or PDL. The companies like Xerox, Ricoh and HP provide OS specific PostScript and PCL drivers for their products. The HP UPDs do not work with other models at all. However, a UPD may not support the advanced features of a printer. The inkjet and entry level laser printers mostly do not use Postscript or PCL. For the owners of these printers the best option is searching the web for a Windows 7 compatible printer driver. The users can look up in the online forums and gadget blog sites for suggestion if all the aforesaid options fail.

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The majority of the computer users suffer from a common problem worldwide. They find their PCs slowing down over prolonged use and this happens to the users who take care of their computer too. This occurs mainly because of data fragmentation. The hard disk stores data on several sections in a scattered way and when the data gets split into various sectors of the drive, the hard disk spends more time in fetching them, resulting in slower performance. Defragmentation is a remedy to this problem. While Windows has a built in defragmentation utility it is not very effective. Diskeeper has a range of applications that are useful for hard disk maintenance.

Recently it has announced the availability of Diskeeper 2010 software. According to the company this software can resist 85% fragmentation in the Windows based PCs. As a result the need for scheduled hard disk defrag becomes unnecessary. Diskeeper makes use of IntelliWrite technology and it optimizes data write and read speeds. Besides, the hard disk is spared from excessive wear and tear and its longevity improves significantly.

As of now, Diskeeper is offering the software as a trial that can be used for free for a month. The company claims that the 2010 version of Diskeeper offers enhanced and faster performance than its predecessors. The users would be able to notice performance differences while using applications like AutoCAD and Photoshop that require big disk files. However, Diskeeper 2010 requires a small memory footprint and hence the users of slower systems need not worry about reduced performance in their PCs.

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In my post ‘10 Simple Ways To Speedup Windows 7‘, I covered some easy ways to make Windows 7 faster.  If you’re looking for even more speed from your Windows 7 PC, then here are more ways to speed up Windows 7:

Speedup External Hard Drives

Write caching is disabled for external drives by default in Windows, so that you can remove external drives without losing any data.  Enabling write caching will provide a significant performance increase for external drives:

1. Click Start and type “Device Manager” and open Device Manager
2. Expand “Disk drives” and right-click your external hard drive and select Properties
3. click the “Policies” tab and click “Optimize for performance”
4. Check “Enable write caching on the device” and “Turn off Windows write-cache buffer flushing on the device” then click Ok
5. Reboot to apply changes

Increase SATA Disk Performance

Enabling write caching will also improve SATA hard drive performance

1. Follow steps 1 to 3 above, but select your SATA drives
2. Only check “Enable write caching on the device” and then click Ok
3. Reboot to apply changes

Faster Menus & Mouse

Reduce the amount of time it takes for menus to appear:.

1. Click Start and type “regedit”  and open the Registry Editor
2. Left-click on the expandable arrow next to HKEY_CURRENT_USER and expand the Control Panel folder, and then select “Desktop”
3. On the right hand side find “MenuShowDelay” and doubleclick it. Reduce the value to any number between 400 (default) and 1 – the lower the number the smaller the delay in ms between clicking on a menu and the action occuring
4. Now below Desktop on the left select “Mouse”.  On the right hand side find “MouseHoverTime” and doubleclick and chose a low number for faster mouseovers
5. Reboot

Disable Thumbnail Previews

Windows 7′s thumbnail preview feature takes up a lot of resources just to show a few small images rather than folder icons.  To disable the thumbnail previews:

1. Open Computer and click on “Organise” in the menu and select “Folder and Search” options
2. Click on the “View” tab and in the “Files and Folders” options check the “Always show icons, never thumbnails” option
3. Click “Apply” and then OK

Faster Windows 7 Taskbar

Another registry tweak that will reduce the amount of resources used to create your Windows 7 Taskbar Thumbnail previews:

1. Click Start and type “regedit”  and open the Registry Editor
2. Left-click on the expandable arrow next to “HKEY_CURRENT_USER” and then “Software” and expand until you get to the Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced folder
3. Right click on Advanced and select “New DWORD”, then enter the following value: “ThumbnailLivePreviewHoverTime”
4. Right click on “ThumbnailLivePreviewHoverTime” and select “Modify”.  Choose “Decimal Base” and enter your new number in milliseconds.  A good number to use is 200.
5. Select “Ok” and then reboot

If you’re looking for more Windows 7 tips then don’t forget to check out Windows 7 Tips, who also have a great forum for Windows 7 Help.

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Computer viruses have evolved at an alarmingly remarkable fashion. Despite the best protection, viruses and trojans still infect your PC making your computer using experience quite a hell. To battle these malicious viruses today’s PC user has a wide array of antivirus options. Some of them offer free services however, the best ones are always accompanied by a price tag.

One of the antivirus software that comes under the ‘best’ category is McAfee. McAfee has been in the computer business since the 1980’s and today its antivirus program is nothing less than exceptional. But as mentioned earlier, nothing this good comes for free… until now.  McAfee is currently offering a remarkable antivirus package with a free one year license!

The package is called Virus Scan Plus and can be downloaded here. You can use it for an entire 12 months before you pay for anything.

To get started visit this page and click “Download Trial” button.

This will lead you to a page where you can create your account. After filling up the details click “I Agree”

After processing your order you will be prompted to a page where you can download Mcafee VirusScan Plus 2010 free security software with free license for 12 months.

The package protects your system by numerous methods:

• Safe Search, Safe Surf: McAfee® SiteAdvisor™ adds ratings to websites to help you avoid online dangers.
• Home License Subscription Service: Automatically delivers the latest software features and threat updates and lets you easily manage security subscriptions for all your PCs.
• Stops Viruses: Blocks and removes viruses and even stops them before they even get to your PC.
• Stops Hackers: Protects and conceals your computer from hackers.
• Blocks Spyware: Blocks spyware before it installs on your computer and removes existing spyware.
• Improves PC Health: Cleans clutter off your computer so it stays healthy and secure.

Virus Scan Plus includes an antivirus feature, antispyware feature, firewall feature, and a website safety ratings feature. Deals like these from companies such as McAfee are, to say the least, rare. So hurry up and download Virus Scan Plus before the offer ends!

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Ever since Apple decided to discard its PowerPC series of CPUs in favor of Intel dual core processors, the efforts to run Windows on Macintosh based machines have gained momentum. Apart from Apple’s own Boot camp utility that gave the previous generation Macintosh users run XP, veteran users swear by the convenience offered by VMware. Recently VMware Fusion made available a new update with notable updates and fixes.

The users who have used earlier versions of VMware had to deal with a fair number of teething troubles. However, the new release addresses most of the glitches successfully. The new version 3.0 of VMware Fusion is speedier and offers a noticeable performance boost. The team behind the development of VMware Fusion also optimized the application for Apple’s latest OS named Snow Leopard. The advanced architecture of the OS and its compatibility with 64-bit kernel has helped the team to fine tune the application.

Macs are generally known for their superior graphics capabilities and the latest version of VMware is equipped with Direct X 9.0c and OpenGL 2.1. What this means is that the gamers will now be able to play the new Windows games on Macs smoothly. Now the application allows the user to share the contents of Windows with those of Mac. A feature called Mac Finder is immensely helpful in this context. Initial tests have shown that Windows 7 runs smoothly on Mac under VMware Fusion. Its affordable price tag of $79.99 is likely to find favor with the majority of the Mac users.

For more information please click here

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After a long wait and prolonged beta testing Microsoft has finally released Windows 7, touted as the ultimate next generation OS. Apart from fixing the performance and security glitches of its predecessor Vista, the new OS has also been shipped with a spanking new media player. Windows media player 12 sports several new playback and network sharing features that are supposed to give the users thrilling multimedia experience. It has got a cool and sleek looking interface.

The library feature of Windows 7 exists in WMP 12 as well. Therefore, the application will search for music files in a virtual folder named music library. It is actually a folder consisting of various user made folders placed in the hard drive. The OS deals with music consolidation in this case, in lieu of the media player itself. WMP 12 also has a video library that is identical to the music library. The major improvement in the video playback department is that WMP12 features native support for popular and widely used video formats like h264 and Xvid. The users no longer need to use third party codecs for playing those files on their computers.

WMP 12 also supports sideshow even though it should not be compared to a standalone photo organizer. If you have a number of digital media players syncing them with WMP 12 is a cakewalk. The users find media browsing in their home or office network a cumbersome will love the network sharing features of WMP12. Streaming music and video over a home network is fairly easy and straightforward. It works perfectly with the editions of Windows Vista too.

It seems that Microsoft has concentrated on improving the video handling capabilities of WMP 12 more than the audio. In a Windows 7 based PC, the users can take the help of hardware decoding. It means that WMP 12 can utilize the graphics card for video playback while the majority of media players still consume CPU resources for the job.

With WMP 12, creating a playlist and adding files to it is as easy as it gets. Thereafter, one can send the playlist to portable media players as well as MTP devices. If a media player does not recognize a particular audio file, WMP tries to convert it. Usual features like CD ripping, Internet radio and TV recording are all there in the application. Even if one does not use WMP, he can benefit from it if he possesses a MTP player. The MTP drivers in a PC are handled by WMP.

However, Microsoft has given the application a real boost in the performance section. Earlier versions of WMP earned brickbats from the users for their resource guzzling nature. Surprisingly enough, WMP 12 consumes less CPU resources. In fact, running the application on low speed net books would not be a problem. It is likely to find favor with those Windows users who prefer third party media players like VLC player or Win-Amp. From the early tests, WMP 12 has emerged a winner and with gradual penetration of Windows 7 worldwide it is likely to grab a major user base.

WMP 12 Makes Its Debut With A Plethora Of Useful Features is a post from Connected Internet - tech, mobile and gaming news. - Updated daily with the latest news, tips, tweaks, social networking, wordpress tips & tweaks, windows optimization help and more.. Visit Connected Internet - tech, mobile and gaming news. for more articles.

The number of digital media players available on the internet is countless. Usually so many features are packed in that music accessibility is replaced as the first priority but something else. Today we explore a media player, Soundbase, the simplicity of which makes it a pleasure to use.

The setup file for Soundbase is only ~7 MB large. The interface is very user-friendly and novices will catch on quire easily. The first run will ask you to add your music folder. Soundbase will instantly built its library, unlike other player which take quite some time to complete the process.

Soundbase can play many popular audio formats (MP3, OGG, APE, FLAC) and enables you to convert not only individual songs, but entire albums:

The user can also copy albums to different locations and rip/burn discs.

In conclusion, Soundbase is a user-friendly digital media player which, while packing many modern features, keeps it simple to access your music.

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Windows 7 finally launched and things looked great. Test drive any lappie with the new OS installed and you’ll just itch to upgrade every existing machine you have. Even netbooks! Yes folks, even these relatively underpowered laughingstocks of the gaming world can run Windows 7.  What’s amazing is that a netbook on Seven can feel much faster than a CoreDuo on Vista.

Now your big question is: when you will upgrade your dodgy XP machines.

Microsoft made it very easy for Vista users. All you do is plug in the disc and run UPGRADE. It isn’t so simple for the XP loyalists who abhorred the trainwreck that was Vista . If you look at the fine print on that glossy windows 7 box, you’ll discover quite a few things that can make your head steam.

1. Windows XP users can’t upgrade to Windows 7 directly. Check out the stats on the box. Microsoft explicitly makes it clear that any XP iteration, from Home basic to Professional can’t make the upgrade. The recommended mode is to do a clean install (which is not so bad- you end up with a faster PC!) and overwrite all programs. The downer is that you’ll spend hours of brewing coffee reinstalling every app needed by your office. And settings migration can be a pain! The average office PC has at least 20 apps (including Virtua Girl) and network settings that can be vexing to reinstall. The official excuse is that Seven contains many brand new tweaks that are incompatible with XP. Yeah right.

2. But There’s A Workaround. And it may make Bill Gates richer. And the secret is this: simply buy a copy of Vista. Once you install Vista over XP, you preserve all the apps and settings. From here you can the UPGRADE to Windows 7!  Isn’t that marvy? For the economically minded, that may sound a tad foolish because it’s like you’re paying twice the price just to get at Seven. But don’t fret. Put on your blackhat and be a pirate for just 20 minutes of your life. BORROW a copy of Vista from a friend and upgrade from there. Technically, that isn’t stealing because you don’t even have to crack or activate Vista. You’re just using it to upgrade.

Happy upgrading!

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According to Livescribe, the digital pen manufacturer which has been enthralling the users over the years by its wide array of digitally built pens, have reportedly stated that it will be incorporating a brand new 4GB Pulse Smartpen model to its already famous series of Pulse lecture-recording digital pens. The startling revelation from the digital pen manufacturer i.e. Livescribe will add another feather to their cap who is best known for producing digitally enhanced pens.

Sources revealed that Livescribe had already incorporated Mac support and now it has introduced an updated software that makes the pens compatible with that of Windows 7. The newest technology from Livescribe will thereby provide its users with a wide array of facilities and features. The newly launched 4GB Pulse from Livescribe can hold at least 400 hours of audio, a feature that has certainly gained a considerable amount of attention from the digital pen users. Sources revealed that this newest technology on the block i.e.4GB Pulse will be available at a price of $199. The cost of 2GB Pulse has been reportedly cut down to $169. Livescribe has been seen promoting their newly launched products at their official website.

THe digital pen manufacturing honcho have also decided to expand the territory from where people can get hold of these pens. Other than selling the newly launched 4GB Pulse via Amazon.com and Target, the company has reportedly decided to start selling their latest product at Best Buy, and certain selected Apple stores. The digital pens will be available from the month of November. No wonder that 4GB Pulse is all set to woe its users via its exquisite features, technologically enhanced mechanism and user compatibility all coming within an affordable price.

For more information click here

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We recommend! Click Here to Turbo Charge your PC and internet

I’ve been using Windows 7 for many months now and I think it’s a great OS that works well on nearly any PC.  However, you can still have more speed…..If you want to make your Windows 7 PC run even faster or if you want to tweak Windows 7 then you could follow my 10 Simple Ways To Speedup Windows 7, or an even easier way is to use one of these 7 Free Tweakers For Windows 7, which make it easy for even novice users to speedup Windows 7.

Windows 7 Manager

Windows 7 Manager is my favourite Windows 7 tweaker as it just does so much.  Using the simple wizard and helpful guide, you can very quickly optimize, tweak, secure and cleanup Windows 7.  It’s free for 15 days, which should be enough for most users.

More: Windows 7 Manager

Windows 7 Little Tweaker

Windows 7 Little Tweaker is a very small utility that lets you tweak some normally hard to get features within Windows 7 such as disabling low disk space warnings, speeding up thumbnail previews and turning off UAC prompts.  32-bit only

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EnhanceMySe7en Free

65MB in size, but comes with many options include registry and disk cleaning tools. EnhanceMySe7en works on 32-bit and 64-bit systems.

More: EnhanceMySe7en

Giga Tweaker

Gigatweaker tweaks Windows 7 and Windows Vista.  Very fast with built-in Startup Manager and Uninstall Manager.

More: Gigatweaker

XDN Tweaker

Recommended for the average user, without the huge amount of tweaks that most users don’t need.  Features some interesting tweaks and a well designed interface.

More: XDN Tweaker

Ultimate Windows Tweaker

Very, very small at 345KB but still packs a lot in – over 150 tweaks and settings in fact.  Works with Windows 7 and Vista, both 32-bit and 64-bit flavours.

More: Ultimate Windows Tweaker

Vispa

Vispa is an excellent utility for tweaking Windows 7 and Windows Vista security settings.  If you’re looking a very simple tweaking utility with literally on/off options, then Vispa is for you.

More: Vispa

If you’re looking for more Windows 7 Tweaks, then check out the Windows 7 Forum.

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Have you ordered Windows 7 yet?  I’ve been using it on my main machines now for ten months and I’d never go back to Vista.  One of the best improvements in Windows 7 is the taskbar, which allows you to access open applications and documents quickly.

7stacks is a great addon for Windows 7 that adds even more functionality to the Windows 7 Taskbar and adds the ability to add ‘stacks’ of icons to the Windows 7 Taskbar, allowing you to further tidy up the clutter on your machine.  One neat way to use 7Stacks is to browse the files in a folder quickly.  With 7stacks, just create a stack to that document’s folder, and open that document in a couple of clicks.

Key Features:

• In 7 and Vista, 7stacks uses Aero, making the stacks look like part of Windows itself.
• Browse subfolders within a stack, just like in OS X Snow Leopard.
• 3 different styles of stacks: Normal, Grid, and Menu
• Normal displays a stack of icons vertically, with a text description next to it.
• Grid displays a “squarish” grid of icons only; useful when displaying a large number of items like document folders.
• Menu displays a cascading menu of items, with a very small icon and a name next to it. Hover over subfolders to browse inside those folders.
• In Windows 7, create a new stack by right-clicking on any stack and selecting “Create New Stack” from the JumpList entry.In Menu mode, 7stacks doesn’t even need to be in a toolbar. You can use it right from your desktop, or any other folder.
• Pin up to 10 different stacks on the Windows 7 taskbar

More: 7Stacks

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According to the sources, Microsoft has revealed that it has finished working on the development of its XP mode thereby enabling indows 7 users to run the programs which were previously not compatible with the new operating system. This startling revelation from the software giant was declared on last Thursday.

In a statement released on Thursday, the software company declared that it had finalized the code for the “XP mode”. According to the sources, the free software will be available from October 22, the same day where Microsoft will release Windows 7. Although Microsoft believes that certain applications of XP are compatible with Windows 7, the introduction of XP mode will serve as an added benefit so that SMBs can migrate safely in order to run Windows 7 without facing any hassles.

Microsoft had announced earlier in the month of April that it will be offering the XP mode to the users. The basic aim is to make business in a smaller scale, but with the introduction of the “XP mode” the worn out programs will now be compatible with the Windows 7.

In order to run Windows 7 XP Mode, the users should have either Windows XP Professional or Windows 7 Enterprise or Windows 7 Ultimate installed in their PC. Only then the XP mode can be enabled in your computer. Moreover, the processor which are capable of hardware virtualization is a must along with the AMD-V turned on.

The launch of the Windows 7 XP Mode is scheduled to happen on October 22nd. This new introduction is hence a sigh of relief for all those users whose PC’S were not compatible with the old programs.

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Charts and diagrams created on computers have almost completely substituted the ones made by hand. Especially in Powerpoint presentations, we try to incorporate various diagrams such as flowcharts, pie charts, and/or schematics.

Only a few programs exist which enable the user to make such diagrams while offering speed and convenience. Probably all of these programs carry a price tag for instance, Microsoft Visio. When will the time come for a freeware to come by which offers all the tools that could ever be needed to form diagrams?

That time is now – say hello to Dia.

For all the features that Dia packs, the setup file to be downloaded is considerably small: ~17 MB.

Before installation, system compatibility should be checked. Apart from some minor hardware requirements, Dia currently requires either Windows or Linux. There are different downloads for each operating system, so take care which one you download.

After installation, the main window can be opened up which looks like this:

Since the popular use of such programs is creating flowcharts, the default option has been set so (visible at the left part of the screenshot above).

The shapes of flowchart boxes are conveniently located below; either shape can be selected and then drawn on the graph on the right. As an example, I made a very basic flowchart using three different box shapes and using straight lines to join them; the effort hardly took me three minutes and the result was exactly what I wanted:

Even though I was a first time user, I was easily able to figure out the right buttons to click; the user-friendliness of this open-sourced freeware is truly remarkable.

Having a keen interest in electronics, I successfully represented a simple circuit by drawing it on Dia’s graph. Here is how the result looked like:

Images and icons can also be thrown in with our diagrams, simply by dragging them onto the graph. Their position can then be adjusted accordingly, to enhance the effectiveness of our diagram.

Of course, apart from flowcharts and circuit sketches, the number of diagram formats Dia offers is quite impressive. Here is a screenshot of the other options available in the drop down menu of flowcharts:

This list includes almost all possible types of structures. Dia is your free one-stop-shop for diagrams of all kinds. It should definitely be a tool in any presentation-maker’s arsenal.

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Microsoft have this afternoon released their new free anti-virus software, Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) on the internet.

This software is based on their award-winning ForeFront corporate anti-virus engine and includes additional features not seen in other anti-virus packages such as only performing scheduled scans when you’re not using your PC.

On the website Microsoft describe their new product thus…

Microsoft Security Essentials provides real-time protection for your home PC that guards against viruses, spyware, and other malicious software.

Microsoft Security Essentials is a free* download from Microsoft that is simple to install, easy to use, and always kept up to date so you can be assured your PC is protected by the latest technology. It’s easy to tell if your PC is secure — when you’re green, you’re good. It’s that simple.

Microsoft Security Essentials runs quietly and efficiently in the background so that you are free to use your Windows-based PC the way you want—without interruptions or long computer wait times.

Their previous foray into anti-virus software, OneCare, was both a public-relations and a protection disaster.  It will come as no surprise to anyone then that they’ve got a mountain to climb to win hearts and minds this time.

We can certainly expect MSE to feature first in the anti-virus ballot screen when you install Windows 7, and in my mind this will be no bad thing.  I can thoroughly recommend MSE, I’ve been using it for a while now, and you can download it here.

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Jaded mobile warriors shouldn’t expect stellar computing speed from dinky netbooks powered by the diminutive Atom CPU. These chips simply fail to keep pace with their Core2Duo counterparts (unless the Core2Duo is hobbled by Vista and the Netbook is fueled by Ubuntu) . That notwithstanding, I’m sure some of you wondered… which of these cute little lappies could be the fastest to date… and which may potentially serve as a primary laptop replacement?

The standard netbook comes with either an Intel Atom N270 1.6 Ghz or an Intel Atom N280 Ghz. There’s not much of a speed difference between either. You can run MS Office off both with a grin on your face. Don’t bother with Photoshop though. Rendering some large pictures can take as long as microwaving a cup of java.

Since netbooks can’t be differentiated in terms of it’s CPU,  the next best thing to analyze would be the  clock frequency of its Front-Side Bus or FSB. Not all Intel Atom N280 or N270s CPUs are clocked similarly. Many are clocked lower than the others. With this stark difference, we can judge netbook speed and decide which blazest the fastest trail.

Let’s take a look at the FSB specs of today’s popular netbook offerings:

• Samsung NC20 – 1.30GHz VIA Nano ULV U2250, 800MHz FSB
• G X120 – Intel Atom Processor N270, 1.6GHz, 533MHz FSB
• Eee PC 1000HE – Intel Atom N280 1.66GHz, 667MHz
• Eee PC 900 – Intel Celeron 600MHz, 533MHz
• MSI Wind U120 – 533 MHz Intel Atom N270 1.60 GHz, 533 FSB
• Lenovo IdeaPad S10 – Intel Atom N270 1.60 GHz, 533 MHz FSB
• Acer Aspire One D150 – Intel Atom N280 1.66GHz, 667 MHz FSB
• HP Mini 2140 – Intel Atom N270 1.6GHz, 533 MHz FSB

These  specs easily reveal which among the Netbooks might be the fastest. With most chips clocked at 1.66Ghz, the only other factor that can up the speed ante is the FSB. The list reveals that the  Eee PC 1000HE and Acer Aspire One D150 blaze the fastest trail at 667Mhz. That means faster access to memory and other subcomponents!

I personally love the eeePC 1000HE. I purchased it months ago to replace my eeePC 900 and compliment the Core2Duo Compaq. It’s fast- really fast on XP. But with Windows7 installed on it, its stability and speed practically doubled!

Go Asus!

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Facebook now has 300 million users. I’m guessing that like me, there are at least a few that also use Twitter.

If there are better ways to Tweet than via web browser, it stands to reason that done right, a Facebook client app would appeal to some of us as a better way to skin that cat. I love the social aspect of Facebook, but I do not care one whiff for the apps. I just want to keep on top of what my friends are up to, share something with them from time to time, and occasionally make use of the chat feature.

So when I was looking at Twitter client apps a couple of weeks ago I made a concerted effort to see if there was an integrated Facebook/Twitter client that was great at doing both. I tried to limit it to apps that are multi-platform, and not just tied to one operating system. Here is what I found:

• AlertThingy AlertThingy is an Adobe AIR app. It supports Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and Flickr. It does not display the posting client on Twitter or Facebook, for those of you interested in what software your friends are using. It’s also very slow with Facebook updates. Slow as in hours. A little buggy too when it comes to Facebook. My notes say I can’t comment on friend’s updates, but I was unable to check that just now because AlertThingy wouldn’t allow me to connect to Facebook at all. Verdict: 1 out of 5
• OrSiSo Another AIR app. Again, doesn’t display posting client info. Window resize broken, as in can’t resize it smaller, only larger. Facebook view is huge, and as far as I can tell, no way to display Twitter and Facebook in adjacent panes, you need to toggle between the two. Better than AlertThingy, but not by much. Verdict: 2 out of 5
• Skimmer Skimmer is another AIR app, and this one is trying to be different than the pack. The problem is, the pack all displays somewhat similar behavior because that is what works. Again, no posting client info. My notes for Skimmer say that it does not have the ability to post to Facebook, doesn’t use Facebook profile photo for updates, and has no option for multi-pane view. I had to refer to my notes, because installing it again to write this article it didn’t work at all. I’ll be generous with the score. Verdict: 1 out of 5


Um, what is this mess?

• Seesmic Another AIR app, Seesmic pretty much does what it advertises: it allows you to integrate your Facebook and Twitter experience into one app. Small gripes aside (no posting client info and not the greatest HUD), it pretty much delivers, if unspectacularly. Hate to damn it with faint praise, but it does the job. Seesmic is pretty early on in development, and since it is from the people who brought us the excellent Twhirl Twitter client, it bears watching. Verdict: 3 out of 5
• Yoono Yoono is a Firefox extension, and a standalone app available for Windows and Mac OS X. It uses the Mozilla technology XULRunner, probably explaining why they have both PC and Mac versions- development overhead was low. Yoono actually works pretty good, and I have a short list of about a dozen things that would make it perfect. Unfortunately, unlike every other integrated client developer I emailed or tweeted, Yoono never responded to my suggestion. Kind of suggests they don’t care what the user thinks. Anyway, Yoono is pretty solid and I would suggest giving it a try. Small gripes, but the only big one I have is how often it interacts with Facebook out of the client window, either creating it’s own browser window or using your default web browser. Verdict: 3 1/2 out of 5
• TweetDeck This Adobe AIR app would not have been the winner of this roundup unless last week’s update hadn’t addressed most of the issues I had with it. Tweetdeck is almost the perfect combined Facebook/Twitter client app, and if they continue working on it the way they have been, it will be. Not any real issues with it’s Twitter or Facebook functionality. Wish you could combine panes into a single pane, but I’m sure they will add that later. Not sure if Facebook chat is in the current version, not seeing it. Really nice application that does exactly what you need it to. This is the one to try if you don’t download any of the others Verdict: 4 out of 5

Social networking client apps are a fast moving target. The current state is still rough, but is catching up. Mixero will soon integrate Facebook, and will be one to keep an eye on. For now, I recommend Tweetdeck as the most complete integrated solution.

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I spent a good chunk of time last week looking for an integrated Twitter/Facebook app that did everything I wanted it too. Most of these apps still need some time in the oven, and I never found one that, in it’s current state, was exactly what I was looking for.

What I did find was the ultimate Twitter client. Mixero. It’s in invite-only beta now, but read to the end of the article and you’ll find out how to get your hands on Mixero and an invitation code to make it work.

Mixero is an Adobe AIR app, so amongst Windows, Mac and Linux users, no one is excluded. Adobe AIR Twitter apps are a dime a dozen, right? Sometimes it feels like AIR was created with the sole purpose of delivering Twitter clients. What sets Mixero apart from excellent AIR Twitter clients that everyone is already using like Twhirl and Tweetdeck?

• Groups Ok, Tweetdeck does groups too, but Mixero’s implementation is better. Mixero consists of a center column, where your accounts and selected groups or invididuals are shown as icons.

  Mixero has a left and right panel, which function a bit like cocoa drawers in Mac OS X. The left panel shows the timeline or search that you have selected. The right panel shows the users you are following and the groups you’ve created. Let’s look at the right panel a little closer.

  

  Mixero active column and left panel

  The right panel display a Contacts tab and a Channels tab. The Contacts tab shows all the users you are following. You can create groups to sort them. You can add individual users and groups to the active list (the center column) and switch between them seamlessly. Mixero has a nice interface for filtering out the noise and getting exactly what you want, from who you want it from. You can create your own custom channels, or join the existing IRC-style channels already on Twitter.

  

  Mixero with both panels open

  OK, Tweetdeck has groups, and you can do pretty much the same thing, right?

  In Tweetdeck you can create groups and display them in their own pane. The problem is, all those panes make Tweetdeck really big. Tweetdeck is an excellent application, don’t get me wrong. There is a lot to like about Tweetdeck. However, Tweetdeck can take over your desktop in a hurry. I am looking for a more compact solution that does it all, but doesn’t get in the way on my desktop. Mixero’s approach does everything you need it to in a widget sized desktop app. It’s beautiful.

• Avatar mode and inconification Another brilliant feature is the way Mixero notifies you of incoming tweets. Most Twitter apps get hidden, and when there is a new tweet the app chimes and brings up a HUD notifying you what just happened.
  

  Mixero in avatar mode

  Mixero has a different approach. Instead of hiding the app, you click the Mixero pinwheel button, or select avatar mode in the options. This iconifies Mixero on your desktop when you either click the pinwheel or bring another window into focus. This icon, or icons if you have groups added to your active column, floats above your other windows, so it’s always in view. It also shows the unread tweet count for iconified groups. Hover over a tweet count balloon to show a preview of the latest tweet in that group, or click to bring Mixero back into focus. Brilliant.

Add to that really good filtering, pleasant interface and sane resource usage by the app, and Mixero has my vote as a Killer App. I’m not a big Twitter guy, but I like Mixero so much it makes me want to use Twitter more.

My list of desired features is short: I would like some appearance options, and I would also like an audio notification for new tweets, not just replies and direct messages. Other than that, they’ve pretty much nailed it.

After speaking with Mixero this weekend on Twitter, I found out that Facebook support is coming soon! If the feature set is good, then Mixero is in position to have not only the best Twitter client going, but the best integrated Facebook/Twitter solution as well. Follow Mixero on Twitter to stay up to speed on Mixero developments.

The folks at Mixero were also kind enough to offer me an invitation code for Connected Internet readers. Want to see why I like this app so much? Install Adobe AIR first, if you aren’t already using it. It’s available for Windows, Mac and Linux. Then head over and download Mixero. Use the invitation code “connectedinternet” when you launch it, and see why I think Mixero is Twitter’s Killer App.

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One of Vista’s best features, allegedly, was Readyboost. Plug in a 1GB to 4GB thumb drive and the system goes stellar because it reads data on fast flash  memory before consulting with the pagefile. This was especially true when accessing large swathes of contiguous data. Promoters of Windows Vista said that gains from readyboost would be apparent in:

• Starting up. The flash drive would cut down start up time by some 10 to 30%
• Shutdown. The flashdrive would eliminate the need to read hard drive data prior to turning off leading to quicker blank screens
• Application data access. The flashdrive should keep paged information handy allowing those who manipulate large Photoshop files or Audition data to see results quicker and faster.

That was all in theory of course. For some reason, my real world experience with Windows Vista’s readyboost pointed to grimacingly different outcomes.  Speeds remained the same, and shockingly, some applications even slowed down. Bottomline was, the system never improved a great deal. If there was any improvement,  the same was marginal that productivity barely benefited from it.

The Readyboost of Windows 7 is  a radically different animal from the Readyboost of Windows Vista. I was initially skeptical of having to waste a dedicated USB drive to the 2nd generation readyboost, but I’m glad I tried. With a Sandisk Cruzer 4GB, I reactived readyboost of the Windows 7 platform and ran the system through its paces for a week. The change delighted me. Startup never improved, but shutdown and application data access was consistently quicker. For instance, I noted that shutdown consistently shaved off 4 seconds with the thumbdrive plugged in.

Adobe Audition witnessed some delightful results as well. I normally play with very large soundfiles that take 60MB to 120MB of hardisk space. One’s patience is certainly tried handling such processing. Anything that can cut down the processing time was welcome. I tried Readyboost.

The result made me grin. Readyboost consistently shaved some 20% off the handling of such large files of varying sizes. The speed drop is apparent when I unplugged the USB drive.

Oh, and need I mention that the same goes for Doc, CDR, and other large files? Readyboost finally makes a difference, not just for tech junkies who rejoice at marginal gains in figures- but also for laymen who want to experience that seat-of-the-pants improvement.

If you’re on Windows 7, get out there and buy the fastest flash drive you can. The results will delight you!

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MicroSoft SilverLight is touted to be the web developers next big thing for the web based multimedia/interactive market. It features a lot of time saving features as well as a framework that allows the developer to concentrate more on how to make his/her web visitors online experience better and memorable. Till now Adobe’s Flash had ruled the roost unchallenged by anyone and I know that’s it been around long enough to be considered the industry standard when it comes to making multimedia based websites.

Its for this reason that many developers would like to migrate their existing Flash based content to the newer SilverLight platform there are many cool Flash apps and functions that developers wished they could reuse in their SilverLight products today that wish gets answered.

SilverX is a small free software that converts Flash movies from SWF format to Silverlight ready solutions. It supports all versions and formats of Flash from ver. 5 to 10 and converts Flash movies to Silverlight 3 solutions for Visual Studio 2008 or Expression Blend 3. All the user has to do is select the input SWF file , choose an output directory, and hit `Convert’ to get a newly converted SilverLight solution.

While im sure that the developer will need to learn a lot of new tricks in order to use SilverLigt effectively. There’s no denying that with the help of this little tool, their lives just got a little bit easier and now they no longer need to start from scratch when it comes to reusing apps, videos, and perhaps even whole sites that they’ve made in Flash.

Check out these features of SilverX:

SilverX supports all basic Flash features: vector primitives, images, texts and animations, so almost all Flash movie resources get accurately converted to Silverlight.

• Vector graphics
• Solid fills
• Bitmap fills
• Linear gradient fills
• Radial gradient fills
• Bitmaps (JPEG/PNG): all bitmaps are converted to PNG format
• Line styles
• Static texts
• Dynamic texts
• HTML texts
• Shape tweening/morphing
• Animations: show/hide object, matrix transformations, color transformations

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If you are a regular user of Facebook and like to interact with your friends and family members through Facebook chat then Gabtastik is what you need.

Gabtastik is a site specific browser that acts like a desktop client for Webchat. What that means is that if you use web based chat applications like Facebook Chat and Google talk you no longer need to burden your browser with having to host it.

Gabtastik will allow you to keep your chat sessions out of your regular webs browser and will use a minimum when it comes to screen area and system resources. This means if your chat session crashes for some reason it no longer will take down the rest of your browser with it.  Just go back to the facebook login page if you want to use other facebook features.

With Gabtastik you also will the get the option to set the window display level as well as other settings such as window opacity. The simple and intuitive display means that you can rapidly toggle between supported chat services without missing a beat.

Gabtastik lets you keep chat sessions open on your Windows desktop outside of your regular web browser, using minimal screen real estate and system memory. The small memory imprint also means that you wont have that bulky feel you get when normally using a web based chat service via your browser, the response of the application is quiet impressive.

The software is currently in its first release and bugs are bound to be found, thankfully though even with its 0.21 version tag the app tends to be stable.
The software currently supports Windows XP (with .NET 2.0), Windows Vista and OSX , it also requires that you have the flash player installed and that you have your chat accounts ready. (the OSX version also supports Meebo and Hahlo.com at the time of writing)

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You got 5Mbps broadband. You’ve tweaked your XP modem settings. But websites still crawl like turtles on a lazy summer day. Is it a virus? Nah. It could be a DNS problem.

For the uninitiated, DNS (Domain Name Service) transforms a domain name such as connectedinternet.co.uk into standard IP that your computer comprehends. By tweaking some DNS settings you can easily get a speed boost on your laptop.

You probably know that your ISP operates least two DNS servers through which you tunnel into the internet, These DNS parameters are populated realtime by your ISP via DHCP. Is that greek? Don’t fret. All you have to know is that DHCP assigns networking parameters in the background, IP address, subnet mask, default gateway, dns servers.)  The problem is that due to congestion of numerous surfers going online, your ISP DNS servers might crunch to a stop?

The key, then to attain blissful Internet browsing is to apply for an alternate DNS. Simply replace your default DNS settings with better DNS servers and you may may resolve domain names faster than what you get with your ISP.

The question now is where you can find these alternatives. For starters, check out http://www.opendns.com. It doesn’t matter whether you’re on AOL or MSN. Whatever DNS your ISP uses, this site will provide you with ip addresses to use and thereby enjoy superior DNS servers.  Don’t restrict yourself to just this site. Google can unearth alternatives to OpenDNS.

Get down to business. Visit http://www.opendns.com and obtain the ip address of two dns servers.  Within windows open the control panel, fire up on “Network connections” and check out your your network connection;  right click on your connection and select properties, in the next window select “use the following DNS server addresses” now enter the two ip addresses here.  If you want to change back to your ISPs DNS servers at a later time select “Obtain DNS server address automatically”. Do the change and bam! You’ll find yourself blazing a long.

Happy surfing!

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It is always great to have an all in one solution for actions that you continuously do on a daily basis and WinToolBox seems to be a step in the right direction to achieve that goal of being that `One Place App’.

WinToolBox is a freeware utility programs that claims to be the best all in one application tool k for your everyday PC use. The program features a number of useful utilities that are easily accessed via  tabbed interface on one screen so that you have no worries of having a multi window app cluttering your screen and yet its designed to be small enough that it can be run off portable drives

Amongst other things, WinToolBox features a program launcher, a screen capture utility, a color picker, Easy access to installed printer,fonts and many others too.

For me the most used function was the screen capture utility. It gives an instant preview of the screen being captured  and allows for options such as choosing to capture the whole or part of a screen.

The second option I liked was the program launcher option. The launcher creates shortcuts to programs that you frequently use and  lets you access all of them within WinToolBox, which makes the start menu nearly obsolete.

The last option I frequently used was the fonts viewer/installer function. Apart from giving you a shortcut to the fonts folder for easy installation of fonts, the app also allows  you to select fonts installed on your PC and actually lets you preview them with  color and size of your choice.

The are many other options to be utilized too, take a look for yourself and see if they come in handy for you!.

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Now that I’ve evaluated Mac web browsers twice in the last year, it seemed like a good idea to take a closer look at some of the Windows web browsing options for the 90%+ Connected Internet readers who aren’t Mac users.

In the past, web browsing options were more limited on Windows, despite the massive majority of installed users. Windows never has been a hotbed for developer interest, at least in the area of freeware. However, I was guessing that Mozilla and Webkit have been around long enough now that Windows developers had finally gotten around to creating some alternatives to the brand name browsers, and I was right.

Four rendering engines are represented. Opera uses it’s own proprietary engine, Presto. The rest fall into three categories: Trident (IE), Mozilla and Webkit. For those of you coming to the party late, Mozilla is the codebase that traces it’s roots back to Netscape and is more commonly associated with Firefox these days. Webkit is Apple’s implementation of the khtml engine from the KDE desktop environment for X.

Lunascape is unique in that it incorporates Trident, Mozilla, and Webkit, allowing the user to change rendering engines to suit their browsing. If you prefer Webkit, but a certain site works better in Trident, not a problem with Lunascape, and no need for multiple browsers. A solid idea in theory, we’ll see how it works in practice.

The competitors:

Mozilla based browsers:
• Firefox 3.5.2
• Flock 2.5 -the original social browser
• Wyzo 3.0.3 -new Mozilla browser, claims to increase download speed
• K-meleon
• Blackbird African-American biased web browser. The divisive browser. This is an article all by itself, but in a nutshell, it’s Firefox with a dark theme, a news ticker and a grim reminder about the state of race relations in the United States.

Webkit based browsers:
• Safari 4.0.2
• Chrome 3.0.196 -Google’s new entry into the field

Trident based browsers:
• Internet Explorer 8
• Maxthon

The tests used are:

• V8 Suite Suite of javascript benchmarks
• Acid 3 Tests standards compliance
• Crab Test Flash performance
• Slickspeed Runs a gamut of javascript benchmarks, MooTools used for this eval.

V8 Suite benchmark results

Chrome scored best here, as it did on the Mac Shootout!, in fact even better than in the Mac shootout. Safari posted second, as it did in the Mac Shootout!, with a score that was very close to the Mac number it set. This is good news for Windows users, as Chrome and Safari, using technology that originated on the Mac platform, perform as well or better on Windows.

The rest of the results are about the same, with the Mozilla derivatives and Opera not doing so well, and with Internet Explorer and it’s associates scraping the bottom.

Acid3 Test results

The Acid3 test is a gauge of html standards compliance. Theoretically, if you write good markup, your web page should appear the same to everyone, regardless of web browser. Unfortunately, there is no shortage of sucky web browsers, and web developers need to include targeted markup to address some of the shortcomings of web browsers. Ok, I’ll quit beating around the bush: Internet Explorer is a horrible, non-standards compliant piece of crap. If you’re using it, go find a new browser.

Webkit browsers, as they did on the Mac, aced standards compliance with 100s across the board. Browsers based on newer revisions of Mozilla almost made it. Opera scored in the 80s, which is strange because on the Mac it nailed a 100. Older Mozilla browsers can claim superiority over IE based offerings, which scored a pathetic 6-13 out of 100.

Crab Flash Test results

Flash performance numbers were pretty even. The two exceptions were K-meleon and Lunascape running Webkit with uninspiring numbers.

MooTools Javascript Framework benchmark results

Safari continues it’s javascript dominance with a first place here. In second, Opera scores much better on Windows than on Mac, almost halving it’s benchmark time. Chrome and Lunascape running the Gecko engine are in the middle of the pack, followed by the rest of the Mozilla derivatives. Internet Explorer and it’s cousins post (surprise!) pretty poorly, with K-meleon also finishing with the losers.

Not included in the Windows version of the Web Browser Shootout! are the AVE and 15 tab tests, which measure cpu utilization of the web browser. The reason for this is that there aren’t any Windows PCs here at the Lankton Casa. Only Mac and Unix boxen here. This evaluation was run in a virtual machine on an 8 core Mac Pro with 14 gigs of ram. Since I have no way to reliably track an individual Windows process’ cpu utilization in Mac OS, and the cpu utilization numbers that Windows Task Manager reported were too similar for all browsers (80-99% most of the time), I discounted the tests.

What is the state of the web browser on the world’s most used operating system?

Excellent.

Like I said in the Mac Shootout!, performance is not the only criteria in selecting your web browser. I would gladly give up some points on a javascript benchmark to gain features that are useful to me.

Lunascape is an interesting choice, because it allows you to select from the three predominant html rendering engines. I see this appealing more to developers who work on the Windows platform than Joe User, but it’s a nice browser.

The Webkit browsers are just as great on Windows as they are on a Mac. Chrome could very well become the dominant browser in a short time. I liked it very much, better on Windows than on the Mac. That is probably because there are more options on the Mac, and I am accustomed to them. On Windows, where the options are a little more limited, Chrome really stands out. I have to declare it the winner of this Shootout!.

Apple’s Safari is a world beater, both on Mac and PC. Don’t be afraid to use Safari just because it comes from the Mac world. It is an outstanding browser; the PC version no less than the Mac version. From no browser to industry leader in six years. Good job Apple, you’re runner up.

Opera is very good on a PC and should be included for consideration. Honorable mention.

The only bad choice for the Windows surfer is Internet Explorer or anything based on Trident. The only reason to run IE is if it is your only option. The only reason this browser still exists is the ActiveX plugin architecture, which gives Windows sysadmins a means to regulate what their users can and can’t do in their web browsers. That is it’s only selling point, as it flat out sucks as a web browser.

You can’t make too big a mistake going with any Mozilla or Webkit based browser. Go find one with features you like and enjoy a better web surfing experience.

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I’ve never been a fan of most Norton products. The last time I installed a Symantec Suite was 2007. Despite my poor experiences with their products since 2001, I hoped against hope that their latest offering would make a difference. So I installed System Works 2007 and Internet Security 2007 which promised me unparalleled system security and speed gains.It didn’t. Instead, the two suites added 2 minutes to my boot up time, 4 minutes to my shutdown, and pestered me with constant lags during the loading of games and apps.  I could brew a cup of coffee while age of empires II loaded with Norton Internet Security running.

Bummer.

That was the last straw. I ran the uninstall program, waved good riddance… but…  Symantec refused to go. Traces remained. The directory and registry entries stuck like leeches to a bleeding man.

After a vindictive format, I shifted to Eset. The Eset romance blossomed and no sexy virus scanner had me looking their way for months. I was faithful. I love Eset. And I planned to remain a fan unless I ever shifted to a Mac.

Now it’s 2 years hence. I was browsing download.com and came across a startling review.  It had to do with Norton!

From all appearances,  Symantec Corporation  finally listened to the armada of disgruntled subscribers and introduced an ultra lightweight security suite in the form of Symantec Internet Security 2009.  Unlike its predecessors which occupied hundreds of megabytes of space, took tens of minutes to install, and choked the system, the new iteration played the role of The Invisible Man.

NIS2009 was not only the Invisible Man, it was also Superman (pygmy version). The software installed in less than a minute. It barely added to boot up times. And all applications loaded as though there were no virus scanners installed. I was impressed. Prior to trying NIS2009, only Eset provided such speedy performance.

I don’t now how effective the scan engine is as I am still testing this, but from all I’ve seen so far, I may just go back to NIS once again. This is the product that Norton should have unveiled in 1999. Had they done so, they would have soundly trashed Mcafee, Kapersky and AVG.

I ran a couple of tests. Check out the stats:

Without NIS2009

Startup: 35 sec

Load Word: 13 sec

Load Photoshop: 29 sec

Process 8MB Audition File: 2mins

Load Left4Dead: 1.5 mins

Shutdown Windows: 9 sec

With NIS2009

Startup: 37 sec

Load Word: 13 sec

Load Photoshop: 25 sec

Process 8MB Audition File: 2mins

Load Left4Dead: 1.7 mins

Shutdown Windows: 12 sec

My test system involved a Compaq Presario 2.0 Ghz, 3 GB, 240GB HDD and GeForce GO video card. It’s the average PC by today’s standrds and it’s apparent from the stats that Norton Internet Security is very forgiving even to mediocre hardware. Imagine its performance on screaming quadcores or Intel I7? That would be one sweet deal.

Right now as I muse potential migration back to NIS 2009, my other laptop glares at me accusingly. Eset Business Edition is installed and its startup screen whispers “Don’t go…”

Should I? Should I not? I’m undecided as of the moment. NIS offers spanking speed with install-and-forget capabilities. I also love its interface- very intuitive.  Then, there were attempts by hackers to insinuate code that would ‘register’ trial copies of Norton. It worked for a while, but Norton defeated the hacks days later. That’s reassuring

Eset Business Edition, on the other hand, is likewise no slowpoke. It barred all viruses 100% since day one.  Not a single infection hit mission critical systems. However, I’ve noticed that upgrades to the interface and general modules have been few and far between. Hackers have also compromised it, making trialware versions fully registered. If they can do that to competent Eset, I fear the day that a virus comes in an disables  Eset fully.

What would you do?

Norton Internet Security 2009 Finally Kicks Ass is a post from Connected Internet - tech, mobile and gaming news. - Updated daily with the latest news, tips, tweaks, social networking, wordpress tips & tweaks, windows optimization help and more.. Visit Connected Internet - tech, mobile and gaming news. for more articles.

I’m hoping that MicroSoft has learnt enough from its previous OS ventures to make Windows 7 the best operating since XP .Its claimed that the new OS is indeed powerful however most will agree that its more complex to handle too.

Its rare that you’ll find the manufacturer of any retail OS that allows you full access to tweak aspects that are basically `under the hood’. Stardock’s Tweak7 (beta) system enhancement software helps configure and tweak Windows 7 so that you can customize and tweak the OS to meet your personal demands by improving performance.

Unlike other system performance software for Windows, Tweak7 actually will notify you of enhancements that can improve your OS’and these intelligent recommendations can easily be implemented via an easy to use single click command that makes these usually daunting and complex system changes into easy ones.

Whats even better is Tweak7 is very safe to use too. Relying on Microsoft’s system restore feature, any changes that are made to your OS can be easily rolled back thus letting you freely experiment with different settings without corrupting the OS and your overall computer.

So in a nutshell Stardock the developers have made an application that can optimize the way your system works along with increased performance while, at the same time, making it easy enough for the non-techie/average user to safely use while delving into the insides of the new Windows 7 OS.

Here are the features currently found in this Beta release of Tweak7:

• Security (User Access Control) Management
• Start-Up Manager
• Recommendations
• Performance Optimization
• Internet Optimization
• Process Identification
• Assessment Comparison
• Cost of Use and Carbon Footprint Analysis

Configure and Tweak Windows 7 with Tweak7 is a post from Connected Internet - tech, mobile and gaming news. - Updated daily with the latest news, tips, tweaks, social networking, wordpress tips & tweaks, windows optimization help and more.. Visit Connected Internet - tech, mobile and gaming news. for more articles.

As someone who writes a lot of posts I simply love it when a service or software comes by that simply does what it says `on the box.’ FreeVideoCutter is just that!

FreeVideoCutter is a free downloadable software that simply requires that you have the file available on your hard disk , after that all you need to do is click on `open video’ choose the video file of choice, and then you’ll be given 2 bars with sliders, the top slider with yellow highlights that sets the beginning position while the bottom slider with green highlights take cares of the end position. Choose both beginning and end positions and then just hit `save video’. Honestly it can’t get simpler than that.

Of course like all good software there’s an options area that allows you to choose how precise you want your video clip to be i.e from where do you want to start cutting it from and exactly where do you want to end and another option to Enable/Disable video thumbnails which is very useful especially if you’re cutting clips from very large files – with thumbnails on the whole system would slow down to a crawl.

You also have the option to choose which format you’d like to save your clip in. It supports all the popular ones including MPEG, DivX, FlashVideo (FLV), WMV, MOV and you even have the option of saving audio data from a video file into an MP3 file! Add to this the fact that the software claims to be 100% secure and spyware free and you have a winner!

How to Cut and Split your Video files into small size is a post from Connected Internet - tech, mobile and gaming news. - Updated daily with the latest news, tips, tweaks, social networking, wordpress tips & tweaks, windows optimization help and more.. Visit Connected Internet - tech, mobile and gaming news. for more articles.