geeky tutorials, tips, guides and reviews
Browsing around Deviant Art I found some of the best looking Super Mario icons I have seen in a long long time. With all the Super Smash Bros Brawl I’ve been playing in the past few weeks – looks like Nintendo is invading my desktop too.
Another awesome detail about these icons are they were all designed by hand by a fantastic Deviant Art artist, ph03nyX. Download them for yourself and make your own desktop look like the Mushroom Kingdom!
I have been using Windows Vista for some time, and sure – it does have a few quirks that make me want to beat myself over the head with my keyboard. Overall though, 85% of the time, I have to say I am pretty happy with it. I am at least as happy as I was with Windows XP. Here are three of the best programs I have found that have just added a little more icing to the Vista cake.
This program makes it a quick and easy job to browse through the shadow copies of your files created by the Windows Vista volume shadow copy service. Without, it is kind of hard to hunt down an exact file backup, but with it – it gives you a familiar interface to find all your backed up files. I would still recommend backing up using other means, but this is just one more nice Vista addition to have handy.
Tired of how your default Windows Vista logon screen looks? This free download will allow you to change that background picture you see on the logon screen to whatever you desire. They also have several you can download and use too. Sure, this is just an eye candy improvement, but we all like for things to look nice, right?
This tool, used with Vista Media Center, is an application designed to remove any and all commercials from the video that you record. I have used it a number of times for the various cable shows I watch and it has yet to let me down. Might just set it up to work overnight, so it doesn’t get in the way of your day to day work.
For some more applications to make the Vista experience better, check out Ave’s Vista Stuff. There are a handful of neat little application there that will add a few more perks to your shinny new OS.
Last night I recorded the replay of Tin Man on the SciFi Channel (really good show, if you haven’t seen it yet). This was also my first real test of recording something using Vista’s Media Center.
I have to say it went pretty smoothly going through the manual controls but I had only one issue come up. After words – I decided I wanted to cutout the commercials. After doing a little searching I found Lifextender.
Here is how the creator explains how it works:
Lifextender is pretty simple. It scans the directory that Media Center records TV to every X minutes for new TV shows. All new TV shows are queued up to be analyzed and scanned for annoying commercials. After a show has been analyzed, a new file is created from the original with commercials cut out, around 3/4 the original size. The original show is then replaced by the new, commercial-free show. Rinse and repeat.
Does it work? Well I plan on starting it up tonight and letting it work through the night. From some of the other reviews I have seen I have high hopes, but I’ll let you know if I run into any issues – of course.
When I last left you – I gave you a few of the things I could think of when it comes to naming the things that Windows Vista – Microsoft’s latest OS. Today I’m ready to bring you back up again with a few positives, and all around good details about the Vista experience.
The start menu is kinda like shoving everything in a junk drawer and leaving the most important stuff on top. I don’t say that as a bad thing, personally I like my junk drawers. I’ve used search on Vista in the past week more than I probably ever used it in Windows XP ever.
The Favorite Links in the folder view is probably my next favorite feature. I like keeping more than a few folders handy at all times and this does beat the left side menus that the previous version of the OS had.
While we are in my profile folder, the saved searches is nice too. As I said before, this is the first OS I’ve actually bothered to use search with all that much and I like it. Continue Reading →
I think the world has seen enough over the top Vista bashing. I did want to share some of my bad experiences for others though. I have to say I am amazed by reading the press that I didn’t have more problems than I did. If you believe what a number of reviewers and tech minds would have to believe you would think that Vista was about as useful to you as a newspaper is to a homeless man in the rain.
User Account Control in Vista is annoying, but not driving me crazy yet.
The only device I had trouble with getting to work with Vista was my old Logitech keyboard. Other than that though, all my other gadgets seem to have worked the first time around.
Had to finally upgrade my old version of NoteTab Pro to the newest version (actually ended up buying NoteTab Std cause it got the job done for me. Continue Reading →
For those of you watching my recent twittering, you probably noticed that I ordered myself a new PC. The one thing that made me really reluctant about moving from my old 3 or 4 year old previous Windows XP machine was Windows Vista. I have heard so many horror stories on the Web how could somebody not be scared?
After spending some time with it last night though I have to say it is not that bad. Sure, there is room for improvement – but think about any previous Windows version. It is never “right” when you pull it out of the box. It takes a lot of tweaking, love, tossing midgets at it and affection before you get it the way you want it to be. Continue Reading →
No, that’s not an offer to dance but one of the best desktop OS (operating systems) out there today that runs on Linux instead of Windows. Interested?
Good because this article is about the process of installing Ubuntu Linux right along-side Windows XP Pro, my expectations and what actually happened. Egads, you say! Are you nuts? No, in spite of the rumors I’m quite sane and if you read on you’ll see why.
Been keeping up with the latest news on the Vista home front? All the bugs that are beginning to come out in the light? Again? Hear the horror stories about the costs of the upgrades? The extra hardware that’s needed to make sure that Vista will run like it’s advertised? It can be intimidating to say the least. Well read on gentle readers as I have a sound solution for you and your computer. The sweet part of it? All it’ll cost you is a little time. That’s right, it’s free!
What Are You Talking About Ubun-who?
Now, before you start the nay-saying, let me explain. Linux (of which Ubuntu is a distribution or distro) is based on what’s called Open Source Software. It’s not proprietary like Windows which allows it to be free for everyone to use as they wish. An entire global community works together on many variations of Linux. Each one has it’s followers like Ubuntu which this article will follow.
Some might say that “you’ll get what you pay for and if it’s free, it isn’t going to be much good!” Wrong again! I’m here to tell you that what you get with Ubuntu is a full-featured, rich operating system that will blow your mind away.
Follow along as I work my way through the process of installing Ubuntu’s Ver. 7.04 (Feisty Fawn) along-side Windows XP Pro on my desktop PC, what I expected from it and what I end up with. I’ll include what you’ll need to accomplish this task so easily that you’ll wonder what you were nervous about in the first place.To be honest with you, I was terrified that I’d screw up my PC if I tried to monkey around with it. But to my absolute amazement, it all went smoothly.
Getting Yourself Ready and Started
I downloaded the ISO file from Ubuntu’s website, burned it to a CD and checked it to make sure the image was a good burn. Keep in mind that an ISO file should be burned as slowly as possible for it to work properly. I also downloaded an ISO image of an app called GParted (free for download) for future use. More on this later.
Now, this is where your details might differ slightly from mine but no worries, mate! It’s all gonna work out.
I have 2 hard drives mounted in my PC. One was for storage and the other for apps and all that other junk that we accumulate over time. I also have 2 external hard drives connected by USB. Yes, I have a lot of junk!
I chose to install Ubuntu on one of my internal drives because I had moved all my files to the external ones. So, I had one to play with. You can install Ubuntu on the same drive as Windows if you wish. It will happily co-exist there with Windows and you can boot to either at anytime.
Next, you’ll read about how easy the installation went, any issues realized and what I wind up with.
Article by Scott Wilson – Scott has been involved with PC’s, operating systems and web development for around 6 years. Once he figured out how to turn a computer on he’s never been quite able to turn it back off again. He’s been continually adding to a weblog to help pass on information relating to the world wide web. You can find out more about Scott and his work at MerlinsMinute.com.
Now historically I haven’t been a person that does a lot of “link blogging” because most of the time I scan over these entries just like you might be doing now. Personally I like the meat and potatoes! Side dishes only throw me off.
With that said, I am willing to give anything a shot at least once – so let the linkman cometh and bring his mighty linking pleasures to you all.
+ Chris is Breaking Up With Vista – Heck, I haven’t even gotten to meet her yet. Does make me feel a little better for not jumping off the deep end as soon as Vista came out.
+ 60 Reasons Why Web Hosts Suck – Number 14 has to be my favorite. Reason number 61 should be “because they don’t listen to the Web Hosting Show”.
+ Eric gets a good subdomain on tumblr. Maybe I should give that service a shot too?
+ Should you pod-vertise? Should I pod-vertise? I think it is awesome that “podcast-related advertising is set to quintuple over the next five years” but I am not going to count my chickens before they start laying eggs.
+ Send me your most wanted Firefox extensions, themes, services – anything and everything you want to get out of that little browser, make it known. I have been having fun answer some requests via Firefox Facts and I am getting ready to (within the next few days) to list some questions I couldn’t find answers for.
Other Worthy Linkage:
I never really stopped to think about it till now, but it is true. Windows XP is not my real operating system on my computer – Firefox is! Over the past few years it seems like more and more of my Windows programs are getting replaced by Online alternatives.
Another five or ten years down the road, it will not matter if you are running Windows, Apple or a flavor of Linux. With the way everything is moving to the Web – all you will need is a good browser to access it all from. Need a few examples?
How Can I Check My E-mail Online?
Personally I use Yahoo! Mail to do this, but there are a number of other choices out there. If I wasn’t using Yahoo! Mail – I would probably be using Gmail. Maybe if Google rolls out a premium service – I might switch. Now Webmail is great because it allows you to keep track of, respond to and check your E-mail no matter what computer you are using. As long as you have a browser and a Internet connection – you should be OK.
How Can I Write Documents or Edit Text Online?
Google Docs and Spreadsheets comes into play here. It is a very nice and basic backbone of an office suit. Sure you might not get all the bells and whistles just yet, but who needs ‘em? Since Firefox 2 came out I have been using the spell checker like nobody’s business as well. No need for a text editor to make sure I spelled things correctly before I post. Running my Web sites with WordPress, I can also save drafts of articles that I am not yet ready to make public yet too.
Need a Calendar to Keep Up With Dates?
There are a slew of Online calenders to help you keep up with important dates and schedules. I was trying to decide myself a few weeks back about which one to use, but I finally decided to go with Google’s calendar application.
How Can I Read my RSS Feeds Online?
Oh man, when it comes to ways to read your RSS feeds Online there is no end. There are countless start pages that can do this for you and dedicated RSS feed reader services like Bloglines and Rojo. I have tried just about all of them – and found myself most happy with the Google Reader. There is just so much that you can do with it to make it your own.
What About All My Other Tasks?
Now that I have all of the basic tasks that one might need to do on a day to day basis, I’ll talk about some of the other applications that you can move Online to use.
Need Online Instant Messaging? Try Meebo!
Need Saved Links and Bookmarks? Try Del.icio.us!
Need Remote PC Access? Try Log Me In!
Need Something to Watch? Try YouTube!
Have any other suggestions for Online application replacement? Leave a comment and let me know!
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Mitch Keeler is nothing more than your average Joe trying to leave his mark on the world though both his professional work and his online projects, articles, podcasts and more.
