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All About Folding. / Passed HowdyDuty and moved into first place
« on: August 15, 2019, 06:34:39 AM »
Long climb to catch up and pass HowdyDuty!
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2
All About Folding. / Moved into 2nd place
« on: October 23, 2013, 06:50:41 PM »
Just to bring this topic back from the dead.....I am now in second place!
3
General Hardware / Creative Sound Blaster Recon3D
« on: April 21, 2012, 04:05:54 PM »
I'm looking for a new sound card for gaming...tired of the onboard sound. Has anybody tried the new Creative Sound Blaster Recon3D?
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Operating Systems & Software / Cool software if you reinstall your OS lots
« on: April 27, 2009, 03:05:18 PM »
This cool software package will install all the common little apps, codecs etc that we all must run down after reinstalling Windows.
Smart Install
Smart Install
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Operating Systems & Software / New Star Trek Desktop
« on: April 24, 2009, 01:40:15 PM »
Desktop wallpaper and icons...some are very detailed.
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General Hardware / Boxee
« on: March 07, 2009, 12:37:31 PM »
Has anybody played with Boxee yet? For those that have not heard of Boxee....it lets you record TV shows over the internet and play them on your TV as well as your photo and MP3 collection plus a ton more stuff. The have a Mac version ( most are using Apple TV hardware) and a Linux version. I was thinking of tossing together a Linux version using some old HP 933 mhz mini PCs (toaster style)I have. If I like it I was thinking of buying the $249 Apple TV and doing the hardware hack to install a larger HD.
Boxee Forum for more info
Boxee Forum for more info
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Operating Systems & Software / Windows 7
« on: February 23, 2009, 05:10:57 PM »
I have been running Windows 7 on a couple of machines for the past month. I first started out running them in a VM then ended up just installing them as I was quite please with the early results of my VM testing. My early thoughts are...Very Vista like...more like a Vista lite with a service pack that a new OS.
Pros
- Boots to the desk top and uses less then 500 MB of Ram (same system with Vista takes 1.2 GB of Ram to boot to the desktop)
- I like the startup slash screen :-)
-Bitlocker now protects removable devices but I use TrueCrypt so its not really a feature for me.
Cons
- Lame Maclike Dock. Default view makes it hard to tell if it is an app or a data file or what it is. Maybe this will get better once I get used to it.
As far as speed goes...seems about the same as a Vista SP1 box on apps etc but it does feel snappier just clicking around and copying files etc...could be the extra ram available.
Just my early thoughts.
Pros
- Boots to the desk top and uses less then 500 MB of Ram (same system with Vista takes 1.2 GB of Ram to boot to the desktop)
- I like the startup slash screen :-)
-Bitlocker now protects removable devices but I use TrueCrypt so its not really a feature for me.
Cons
- Lame Maclike Dock. Default view makes it hard to tell if it is an app or a data file or what it is. Maybe this will get better once I get used to it.
As far as speed goes...seems about the same as a Vista SP1 box on apps etc but it does feel snappier just clicking around and copying files etc...could be the extra ram available.
Just my early thoughts.
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General Hardware / Working the dual quad cores
« on: January 19, 2009, 01:04:47 PM »
Check out these CPUs working...
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All About Folding. / 3rd Place
« on: January 02, 2009, 11:59:26 PM »
I see that I have moved into 3rd place....it was a long haul to get there.
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Operating Systems & Software / Portable Apps
« on: October 26, 2008, 08:08:10 PM »
For those of us that have to travel to fix different machines there is a cool family of free applications called portable apps. They all fit on an old thumb drive and you have access to some cool software tools that do not require installation.
Portable Apps
Portable Apps
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Operating Systems & Software / Make ISO boot from USB
« on: October 02, 2008, 04:22:07 PM »
Cool little tool that will make any ISO into a bootable USB device. I install Backtracks 3 on mine...works great.
ISO Bootable USB Keys
ISO Bootable USB Keys
13
Operating Systems & Software / Block ads or sites
« on: September 30, 2008, 06:32:19 PM »
Found a cool little trick that will block ads from being displayed in your web browser when surfing the internet. It can also be used to block porn sites etc. You replace your Hosts file with the one that you download from this site...
Host Replacement
Following these simple steps for a Windows XP box...
1) Download the replacement Hosts file from the link above and save it to your desktop.
2) Navigate to the Host file (In XP it is C:\windows\system32\drivers\etc
3) Locate the file HOST....RENAME it host.original (so you can undo the change if you need to)
4) Copy the Host you downloaded in step 1 into C:\windows\system32\drivers\etc
5) Rename the Host file from Host.txt to just Host (you will have to have your windows file view options set to show file extensions)
6) Restart your web browser (works with all browsers) and surf without ads.
This trick works because when you surf the web your system looks to the host file to see if the site is listed rather than have to do a DNS lookup. If you look at the replacement host file you will see lots of domains/site and they now all point to 127.0.0.1 which is your local machine so when a web site calls for an ad that is listed in your host file it will look locally for it rather than getting the ad online. As you don't have the ad content on your machine it will not display anything in the ad space. You can update the host file every few months as new entries are added or you can manual add any sites that you would personally like to block. Be sure you take care when editing this file as if you have a single . in your host file (root of the internet) then all your websurfing will be redirected to your machine!!!!
Host Replacement
Following these simple steps for a Windows XP box...
1) Download the replacement Hosts file from the link above and save it to your desktop.
2) Navigate to the Host file (In XP it is C:\windows\system32\drivers\etc
3) Locate the file HOST....RENAME it host.original (so you can undo the change if you need to)
4) Copy the Host you downloaded in step 1 into C:\windows\system32\drivers\etc
5) Rename the Host file from Host.txt to just Host (you will have to have your windows file view options set to show file extensions)
6) Restart your web browser (works with all browsers) and surf without ads.
This trick works because when you surf the web your system looks to the host file to see if the site is listed rather than have to do a DNS lookup. If you look at the replacement host file you will see lots of domains/site and they now all point to 127.0.0.1 which is your local machine so when a web site calls for an ad that is listed in your host file it will look locally for it rather than getting the ad online. As you don't have the ad content on your machine it will not display anything in the ad space. You can update the host file every few months as new entries are added or you can manual add any sites that you would personally like to block. Be sure you take care when editing this file as if you have a single . in your host file (root of the internet) then all your websurfing will be redirected to your machine!!!!
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General Hardware / Nokia N95
« on: September 14, 2008, 06:25:25 PM »
I'm thinking of dumping my Blackberry and getting the Nokia N95....5 MP camera, wifi, gps etc. Anybody have this phone?
15
General Hardware / Ironkey
« on: September 05, 2008, 10:28:13 AM »
I purchased an Ironkey about 2 months ago and have been using in daily since then. While this USB thumb drive is expensive it offers levels of security not found anywhere else.
Some of its key features -
1) Solid metal case with the inside filled with epoxy (you can drive your car over this baby).
2) Waterproof
3) Tamper proof - enter the unlock passphrase incorrectly 10 times and the unit self destructs (this eliminated brute force attacks).
4) On board Firefox browser (you have you bookmarks with you all the time as well as secure sign on etc)
5) Private Tor network that is noticeable faster than the public tor sites I have used.
Negatives -
1) At $300 for the 8 GB stick it is expensive
2) Limited Mac and Linux support ( IUbuntu on my personal computer and I can unlock the IronKey but have no access to the onboard Firefox or the Tor)
Check it out here.... Ironkey
There is only one retailer in Canada for this item at the present time... FrontierPC
Some of its key features -
1) Solid metal case with the inside filled with epoxy (you can drive your car over this baby).
2) Waterproof
3) Tamper proof - enter the unlock passphrase incorrectly 10 times and the unit self destructs (this eliminated brute force attacks).
4) On board Firefox browser (you have you bookmarks with you all the time as well as secure sign on etc)
5) Private Tor network that is noticeable faster than the public tor sites I have used.
Negatives -
1) At $300 for the 8 GB stick it is expensive
2) Limited Mac and Linux support ( IUbuntu on my personal computer and I can unlock the IronKey but have no access to the onboard Firefox or the Tor)
Check it out here.... Ironkey
There is only one retailer in Canada for this item at the present time... FrontierPC