Bandwidth Speeds Explained

You might wonder why your internet speeds are advertised, and maybe even tested at 25Mb/s, but you only seem to be able to download at a little over 2MB/s at best. I've got the answer, and show you how to figure what download speeds you should be really getting.

Read more : Comments(0) : Share : Feb 11, 2010

Does Doublemyspeed.com work?

Commercials have started playing on the radio for a website called Doublemyspeed.com which claims to drastically improve the speed of your PC (double it, if you will). Any program that makes large claims like that or has a large advertising campaign is always one to be skeptical of.

I installed it on a virtual machine to determine what this program was about, and if it was even safe to install on your PC.

Click Read More for the full report.

Read more : Comments(2) : Share : Jan 04, 2010

Windows 7 Tips

Windows 7 has a lot of new hidden features that not everyone knows about. Here is a small list of neat tricks that you may find useful. Some may be more common-knowledge than others, but all may find them useful. Please feel free to add things to the list. Without further delay... Windows 7 101.

Read more : Comments(0) : Share : Nov 19, 2009

PS3 and computer monitors

I had to do some research on this, because it was kinda killin me. The PS3 supports HDMI output, which is "uncompressed data transfer of video", and has advantages over the other output formats. The PS3 also supports high-definition output.

The problem is, many of us don't have a HDTV. But, a larger number of us do have computer monitors with DVI inputs. My question was, if the PS3 could hook up to a computer monitor with a HDMI -> DVI cable, and seeing them around I wanted to make sure there weren't 2 standards.

Fortunatly, it seems that you CAN hook up your PS3 to your computer monitor. I'm fairly certain this should work, though, I can't be certain as to the acutal resolution that will be displayed. Assuming it will display the max the monitor can support, it will probably look better on your computer monitor than your standard television, even if your computer monitor is smaller (again, can't be certain, no proof, only theory).

Sources:
"Also, the vast majority are no longer just for TV and HDTV (DVB). They can also be used as a computer monitor with a VGA/DVI signal, although resolution support can vary widely."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid_crystal_display_television

"5) HDMI is compatible with DVI, which means it will allow connection to PCs"
"The big difference between HDMI and DVI is that HDMI transfers the video and audio signal. DVI only carries the video signal."
http://tv.about.com/od/hdtv/a/hdmidvihdcp.htm

Additional resources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVI
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HDMI

Read more : Comments(0) : Share : Sep 23, 2006

Vista Review

So, I dove in and installed the first release candidate of Vista. It's not the devils incarnate that some might like you to believe. It's pretty smooth, although some may not see the advantages to the new OS.

Hardware:
P4 2.8Ghz w/ HT
512mb PC3200 RAM
Mobility Radeon 9600 128mb

Installing was pretty simple. Throw in the DVD and either start the install from windows, or restart and boot from the DVD. Vista said I didn't meet the requirements to upgrade, but I didn't have to reformat. It copied my old files and settings to a different folder, and then installed Vista, so nothing was lost. I did backup my things before all this though, just to be safe.

Once you're in, you're greeted by the welcoming center, which has icons for various tasks. Only a couple things didn't work as "plug and play", and that was my sound and mouse touchpad. After installing video drivers, which were surprisingly available from ATI, I was also able to use the Aero interface. Sound I was also able to get to work after installing the appropriate drivers.

Attempting to install drivers for my touchpad gave interesting results. At first the installation said I needed Windows XP/2000 to install, and then exited. Vista came up and said the installation failed, and asked if I would like to try again with recommended settings, and so I did, and it installed. Upon restarting though, Vista told me there was a known issue with the touchpad I installed, and even attempted to find a solution, but alas, none is to be found.

The security is a bit bothersome, in that just about every time a program wants to run, a popup will come up asking if it’s ok for it to run. I have yet to find how, or if, I could turn this elevated level of protection down.

The performance was very acceptable, although, with just Windows and a couple of programs, a great portion of my RAM was used. I haven’t bothered to figure out what I could turn off or disable to free up resources.

I liked the way the navigation of folder has changed, and it is much quicker to bounce around between folders. I also like the options for managing images, and the programs Vista includes for organizing and editing images.

Vista includes extensive parental controls which allow parents to track and control everything a user does from webpage’s visited to programs run.

Vista comes with a nifty screen-capture program which many may find easy to use, although may be hard to break the habit of going into paint.

Alt-tab has a nice overhaul which shows a preview of the open windows. I discovered that holding the control key before letting go of tab, and then alt, will keep the window selection open.

Windows also offers a fancier version of it, which is accessible by pressing windows key and tab, and you can cycle through the windows with tab, the arrow keys, or the scroll wheel of the mouse. Once again, pressing control will allow you to let go of all the keys to keep it on the screen. You can also use the mouse to click any window visible in this selection.

With the Aero interface on, window animations are very smooth and graceful. When a window is maximized, the title bar will loose its transparency effect though. The transparency color can be chosen from the theme settings control panel. Logging in and out, and the transition to and from screensaver are done gracefully with a fade to black and back transition.

Vista includes extensive hardware monitoring features, so you know exactly what is being used, what’s hold up the system, etc… It also offers many monitoring tools including reliability monitor which will (ideally) allow you to see upcoming hardware failures, or see what is failing. It could also be used to see what piece of hardware is the bottleneck.

Overall, Vista is a nice improvement upon XP, though it is nothing earth shattering to the naked eye, or in the short-term. I’m sure over time as more applications get released for it, and more people use it, we will see the true advantages of Vista.

All Screens

Read more : Comments(1) : Share : Sep 15, 2006

Vista RC1 Open

You can now download WIndows Vista RC1 (Release Canidiate 1) for free from Microsofts website, or order it on DVD for $3. I am installing it now on my laptop, and I should have a full review in the near future.

Please rememeber that it is still beta and unsupported by Microsoft and many software vendors, so if it causes some programs to stop functioning properly, your SOL.

Link: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/getready/preview.mspx

Read more : Comments(0) : Share : Sep 14, 2006

100gb iPod

Seriously now, nothing bugs me more than iPods, particuarly ones that pass the 20gb barrier.

I have a PSP, and I'd say I'm the average college student, though I'm not a huge audio-phile. As far as technology goes, my day is fairly simple on this campus. If i'm not in front of a computer, I'm probably busy doing something else, such as class, hanging with friends, or something like that.

It's it wrong to assume that the average person is much the same? Maybe some people travel, such as commuters, highschoolers riding the bus, or those who travel the world for a living. But is that demographic really large enough to account for the number of mass-storage iPods?

If you ask me, it's not. The ones who travel to school on a bus return home later that day, certainly not enough time to watch 10gb of video. Ok, so we'll span that across a week, so you don't have to update every day, but that's still pushing it.

I think those who have large travel times on a plane can use a couple feature-length videos, but I suppose they have laptops anyway.

So maybe you use it as a primary storage device for your music, movies, and such. Seems kinda insecure to me. Knowing data-loss first-hand, I know the importance of backing up data. It's too easy for an iPod to get lost, stolen, damaged, or corrupted. I'm not ready to put that kinda risk in 60gb of data.

So, I want to know, who's using these iPods, when do you get to use all that space, and how much are you acutally using? Please reply, and get your friends to reply, thanks.

Read more : Comments(0) : Share : Sep 12, 2006

Private Folder 1.0

So, if you're a dilligent computer user, your computer has all the latest updates from Microsoft. Belive it or not, that can be a bad thing sometimes, because they will include software that really isn't "good". One of these is Windows Genunine Advantage, which makes sure you have a legitimate copy of Windows, and "phones home" from time to time.

ANYWAY, if you were smart enough to not download WGA, and still want Private Folder 1.0, just search google for "private folder 1.0" and like the 4th result is all jibberish, but is indeed the direct download link for the program ;)

What is Private Folder 1.0?
PF is a small program which lets you create a password-protected, encrypted folder to hide private stuff from prying eyes. Use with caution, as there is no way to recover the data if you forget the password.

Read more : Comments(0) : Share : Jul 10, 2006

DynDNS

I had someone ask me if there was a guide to setting up DynDNS, so I decided to make this.

  1. First, sign up there, and then log in.
  2. Under DNS Services, click Dynamic DNS
    • Here there is a bunch of useful information about setting up Dynamic DNS, which may interest and benifit you to read.
  3. Click "Add Dynamic DNS".
  4. Hostname: This is what your domain URL will be. The first part you can enter in whatever you want. Then you must select from the dropdown the 2nd part of the domain.
  5. The IP address is (or should be) automatically detected, and in most cases, can be left alone.
  6. Check the "enable wildcard" box.
  7. Leave Mail Exchanger stuff blank.
  8. Click add host
In a few minutes, the domain should be working. Note, that for complete functionality of a server (which would be the primary use of such a domain), you need to setup your router properly. Also, this should go without saying, but you can not be using a proxy to do this either.

Perhaps in the future, I'll make a more detailed guide on setting up your own personal full-featured web server.

Read more : Comments(0) : Share : May 22, 2006

Rhapsody

Rhapsody is a music service, with a monthly fee. Their unlimited subscription plan is $10 a month, and grants you unlimited access to all of their music.

Granted, you can't put the music on your portable device with this plan, but you can log in at *ANY* computer with a web browser and internet connection, and get full access to all of the music. Play any song as many times as you want.

They also have "radio stations" available. These aren't your traditional radio station however. These radio stations are more akin to enormous playlists. You click play, and it will randomly select a song programmed by Rhapsody for that genre/station.

It also has a bit of a “smart random” so you won’t hear the same song again for a set period of time, and also won’t hear from the same artist more than so many times in a set period of time (numbers that I once found on Rhapsody.com but no longer know where they are).

You also have the ability to skip songs you don’t like, or simply don’t feel like listening to. This can be dangerous however, not only is there a limit of somewhere around 20-something skips in a somewhere around 30mins, you will also try to skip songs on your FM radio in your car.

The radio is a nice way to discover new songs as well. Also, not all songs played on the radio will be available for you to play “on demand”.

You can also download the tracks to your computer, but they are in .wma format and use DRM technology (which can be more than a hassle).

If you want just a little bit more, you can get the “To Go” service for $15 a month, which allows you to transfer unlimited amounts of music to your portable music device at no extra charge. Sadly, iPod is not supported by Rhapsody as of now, and you’ll have to buy the tracks to put them on your iPod.

Let’s compare this to iTunes. Assuming you get the $15 plan… that’s about 15 iTunes songs in a month. How many do you buy in a month? Probably more than 15, that’s hardly a full album. So, in the first month, if you get more than one album, you’re already saving money.

You can also cruse around, and listen to songs before you put them on your portable, and see if you will even like the song. It also beats the illegal networks, because there is virtually no download time, and you always get a good high-quality song. No spoofs, no poor rips.

The downside is, once you cancel Rhapsody (which, you probably will be too addicted to do so), all your music is gone.

Read more : Comments(0) : Share : May 21, 2006

Windows XP Tip #2

Download the program "Tweak UI" (Downloadable from here). Install it and then run it.

Double click explorer on the left, then click shortcut. Here you have the option to change how shortcut icons appear. I prefer to turn them off all-together, it makes your desktop look much nicer.

Read more : Comments(0) : Share : May 14, 2006

Windows XP Tip #1

One of the features of Windows XP I never fully understood, was the option for it to automatically restart when it crashes. regardless of why this is default, here is how to fix it:

1. Right click "My Computer" and go to properties.
2. Select the "Advanced Tab".
3. Under "Startup and Recovery" click the settings button (it's the 3rd settings button).
4. Find the checkbox for "Automatically Restart" and clear it. Click Ok, then click Ok again to close those windows.

Now, instead, you will get the "Blue Screen of Death", which provides valuable debugging information. Here are the key things which you will want to write down:

-The error message at the top in all caps (i.e. IRQL_EQUAL_OR_LESS_THAN")
-Any filename mentioned (i.e. nv4.sys)
-The numbers at the bottom (i.e. 0x0000008E). Generally the first set is fine.

Put all that into Google or give it to a computer professional to help troubleshoot the problem.

Read more : Comments(0) : Share : May 14, 2006