Archive for August, 2007

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Pano Logic’s Pano: virtual XP or Vista in a box

August 27, 2007

Check it CIOs, Pano Logic just announced their new Pano virtualization device which brings XP and Vista to your users without the need of a PC. According to the feisty startup, their new virtualization solution can cut your Total Cost of Ownership by 70% for a promised savings of $3,200 per desktop over three years. While you can ace the desktop PC, you’ll still have to make the initial investment of $20 per month per device (one per user) with perpetual licenses available. The Pano device has no CPU, memory, operating system or drivers — at least not in the way those items are typically perceived by your IT staff. A “Pano Logic chip” manages the virtualization. In other words: no client-side malware or hiccups for fewer deskside visits — everything is managed centrally from your VMWare Server installation. The device does pack the required jacks for a VGA display (up to 1600 x 1200 pixels supported), USB keyboard and Mouse (3x total USB), 10/100Mbps Ethernet, and a pair of mini-jacks for audio in/out. Of course, the system is entirely dependent upon lickity quick, uncongested pipes so if you’re sporting a latency above 5-ms, you can forget about Pano’s virtualization. Check out the business minded, ass-end of the Pano after the break.

[Via PCMag]

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Looking for a nice GPS unit under $500

August 25, 2007

My wife and I are looking to pick up a nice GPS unit, and one that could be easily mounted in both of our vehicles at any point in time. Does anyone have any ideas or any ones to check out or ones to stay away from?

I’m real excited to get a GPS. I’ve been wanting one for quite awhile now. In fact, it would have really helped us last night when we left my company party in Tyngsboro MA and was stuck on Interstate 495 in a complete parking lot of traffic. I had to call a friend from work and get directions on getting back to Route 2 from 495 after hitting exit 32.

Regardless, I’ve been doing some research and I am really interested in the TomTom offerings, especially the TomTom ONE XL. It is only around $350, has a 4.3″ touch screen, maps of the US and Canada, real-time traffic services, etc etc.

Does anyone have any suggestions? For right now, I’ll keep looking.

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Convert .bin files to .iso files

August 25, 2007

Ever download a .bin/.cue file(s) and want to burn it to CD/DVD but do not have Nero? No fret… I found a great utility to convert .bin files to .iso files. It’s called Bin2Iso, and can be found here, on WeetHet’s Tips and tricks site.

It converted a 300MB .bin file to .iso in less than 20 seconds.

Enjoy!

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Ubuntu to get xorg.conf GUI!

August 18, 2007

I gave up on my Ubuntu install a few weeks ago when I couldn’t get my dual monitors to work. It was such a pain in the ass! I spent countless hours researching online, editing my xorg.conf file (and restoring after my X didn’t come back up!) and still I couldn’t get my second monitor to recognize. Well now I am excited for the new version of Ubuntu 7.10, to be released soon!

Check out the article here!

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Restart XP (or Vista) without restarting your BIOS!

August 17, 2007

This has been posted everywhere… but it’s too damn cool to pass up. Thanks <codejacked>!

Restarting Windows Vista

A modern PC with Vista Home Edition takes about one and a half minutes to boot. An older machine with XP is about the same. That’s 30 seconds for the PC itself (the BIOS) to boot up, plus a minute for the Windows operating system to boot. Sometimes, you need to reboot Windows (e.g. when installing new software), but there is no need to restart BIOS, too. However, the default is to reboot both. (That’s called doing a “cold boot,” rather than a “warm boot.”) There’s a trick that works on both XP and Vista to get it to do a warm boot instead, thus saving you 30 seconds per cycle.

The trick is to hold down the SHIFT key when invoking the restart.

Windows Vista: Select Start, then hover over the right arrow that is to the right of the padlock icon until the pop-up menu appears that contains “restart” as one of it’s choices. Hold down the SHIFT key while clicking on the “restart” choice.

Windows XP: Select Start. Select “Shut Down…”. Change the drop-down combo box under “What do you want the computer to do?” to “Restart”. Hold down the SHIFT key while clicking on the “OK” button.

Restarting Windows XP

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Interested in a new PDA?

August 14, 2007

I don’t know about you, I’ve been ready to ditch my Razr and switch to a mobile device for a long time now. My last PDA (believe this or not) was a HP iPaq 2750! Let’s just say it’s been collecting dust under my desk for some time now.

Whether it’s a Blackberry or a Windows Mobile device, anything is better than what I got. Which is about nothing.

Anyway, I came across this nice listing of the Top 10 Cell Phone/PDA’s on the market today. Take a look. It is broken down by ratings, and each item is reviewed quite well.

Personally? I won’t be in the market for one of these for a few months, but I think I’m getting a Verizon Treo 755p. But who knows… I’m sure something else will grab my eye when the time comes.

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Complete Web 2.0 Directory

August 14, 2007

This is quite fascinating.

A complete Web2.0 directory (logos and all) which features what is the latest and greatest apps ou tthere. Some of the graphics are amazing. You could spend all day here if you want, I’ve already spent over an hour here!

LINK: Go2Web20.net

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Cool Firefox plugin that notifies you when a website is available again

August 14, 2007

Ok, maybe that title didn’t make sense. So I’ll let the Firefox Add-on page explain:

Have you ever tried accessing a website and it didn’t respond? Of course you have. We all have! Mr Uptime is an extension to your Firefox browser that will keep trying to reach that website in the background while you continue surfing on other websites. When the website is accessible again, Mr Uptime will let you know. You can also use Mr Uptime when a website responds but doesn’t load correctly.

Get notified when an unavailable website starts to work again!

Download this plugin

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The Most Expensive 10MB in History!

August 12, 2007

Here’s a throwback to enjoy… :)

(click to enlarge)

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Convert any files without software

August 12, 2007

I came across this excellent post from Raymond, which may I add is an excellent blog I recently started reading daily.

What he speaks of is true… when you want to convert say, a .wav to an .mp3 file, and you currently don’t have a tool to do that, a google search yields a bunch of shit programs (most of them bundled with spyware). Who wants all these programs on their PC? I can admit, I have some conversion programs (such as ConverXtToDVD, Tunebite, yadda yadda yadda) which do the job, but if you’re looking free and painless, then check out:

Convert WAV to MP3
Maximum File Size: 100MB
Converted Files Storage Time: 24 hours
Immediate Download Converted Files: NO (Download link sent to email)
Bulk Conversion: YES (If same format)
Resize Converted Image: NO
Output Format: 53

Convert AVI to MPG
Maximum File Size: 150MB
Converted Files Storage Time: 24 hours
Immediate Download Converted Files: YES
Bulk Conversion: NO
Resize Converted Image: YES
Output Format: 179

I’m currently not sure if Media-Convert works with protected music, I believe it does not. But check those out if you want a quick and painless way to convert certain file formats.

A lot of formats are supported. Main formats are :

  • Raw text, HTML, XHTML, Microsoft Word, RTF, PDF, PS, Open Office, Star Writer, Pocket Word, Word Perfect
  • CSV, dBase, Microsoft Excel, Pocket Excel, Lotus 123, Quattro Pro, Star Calc, Open Office spreadsheet
  • MathML, Star Math, Open Office math
  • Microsoft Powerpoint, Star Impress, Open Office presentation
  • Why use Media-Convert ?

  • No software installation, Media-Convert let you read all kind of documents.
  • Convert files, for example to read all Open Office files with Microsoft Office
    or convert files into universal formats like Adobe PDF, PS (PostScript) or CSV to print, fax ou simply read them on any computer, without special software.
  • Insert a PDF into your web page by converting it into an SWF Flash file.
  • Export easily Microsoft Access database to an Excel table.
  • Capture a website as an image.
  • Encode a text with UTF-8 codes or with one of 900 other charsets.
  • Learn morse code with the text to morse converter ;-)