Do I need a new processor for XP Mode???

With the information coming out about Windows 7’s ability to run XP applications in a virtual environment (which sounds awesome BTW) I was concerned that once again I would need to upgrade my PC or at least my processor since this new virtual XP Mode would need hardware virtualization which is only supported on certain AMD and Intel processors. Though this tool was not originally written to demonstrate this information it does it all so well, as most of Steve Gibson utilities do. Instead of googling the information and cross referencing charts you can just download the GRC application called securable to see if your current processor supports Hardware Virtualization. Thanks to Paul Thurrot for passing this information along during the Windows Weekly podcast http://wiki.twit.tv/wiki/Windows_Weekly_107 and to Steve Gibson for his wonderful utilities and super useful information he provides weekly during his podcast called Security Now……and yes my processor supports Hardware Virtualization.

-Chris

iPhone or iPod Touch – Delete eMail Tip

I’ve had an iPod Touch for some time now and I fall more in love with it every day. The other day while checking my email I accidentally ran across what I would assume is a feature. My normal operation for checking my email is enabling the wireless and then tapping on the email application. The application starts, downloads my new mail, if any, and displays my email in a normal one column and multi-row fashion. I then read who the email is from, the subject and then I make a determination whether I want to read it or delete it.

 

Many times it is spam so I just slide my finger on the right side of the email display line and a delete button appears. I can then press this “delete” button to delete the email. This works ok but if I have a lot to delete many times when I slide my finger to make the delete button appear the device will read that as an “open the email” gesture and opens the email. I then have to close the email and slide my finger to the right again and hope the delete button appears. I wish there was a way to select multiple emails to delete……well there is.

 

As I said, I stumble across this feature but since doing so I use it quite often. With your email application showing, just tap toward the top of the screen. For example, tap to the right of the time at the top of the application. The emails are then shifted to the right a little and a select circle is then available on the front of each email along the left side of the screen. I can then quickly scan each email and then tap on the ones I know I want to delete and now tap the delete icon at the bottom of the screen. I could also move them to a folder by using the other “move” option.

 

Well, that’s it. I know super simple but effective. This tip may be publicly known for many but I have yet to hear anyone talk about it so I thought I would share.

Enjoy!

-Chris

WinMerge

One of my main drivers for this podcast/blog is to share the knowledge I have with our audience. Many times while at work I’m presented with this question.

Are these two files the same?

If not, what are the differences?

This week, I was exposed to a pretty cool tool that compares two files and graphically shows you the difference. You even have the option to merge the two files. Did I mention that this is a freeware tool? Thanks Mike Reid for sharing this tool with me.

Per the website http://www.winmerge.org/ WinMerge is an Open Source (GPL) visual text file differencing and merging tool for Windows. It is highly useful for determining what has changed between project versions, and then merging changes between versions.

Keep on Geeking !!!

-Chris

Genius or MixView

I’m sitting here in the waiting room …waiting and thinking about the differences between Zune’s 3.0 mixview and iTunes 8.0 Genius. Though they have similarities I really feel the two features to be quite different, though most people are comparing them to be like features.

Zune’s mixview to me is more of a music discovery mechanism mixed with a dash of social goodness. If you go to mix view you can see bands that have some simularities to the band or artist you are listening to. By branching out to these other bands you get a chance to listen to the sample of that artist songs that are on the Zune Market. You can even view other Zune users that listen to the groups you are exploring and see other groups they are listening to. The interface is slick but all in all I the music discovery piece is not very appealing.

The iTunes genius is named correctly. With a song selected or playing you can engage Genius to create you a play list based on the seed song you have select. By default it create a list of 25 songs. Everytime I have used it it had created an awesome play list. Since it uses the songs in my library it’s obviously groups I like. One neat thing is that 90% of the play list I know very well. The other songs are not as familar to me, so they are intoducing me to my own music. On the right side of iTunes you have the Genius side bar which recommends songs on iTunes that you don’t have by the artist you have select. That is very clever and sneaky. I have a large music collect and now instead of it taking me 20 minutes to create a play list it takes me 2 seconds.

Both Zune and iTunes do a great job, I just think iTunes is a little more practical

-Chris

The Levelator

Finding the optimal levels for a podcast or a song can be tricky. During my Zen search for the best tricks to make podcasts sound great, I ran across this utility that takes the guess work out of it all. And when it comes to UI (User Interface) I don’t think there could be a simpler one. Once you have your Wave or AIFF file ready, just drag and drop onto the programs interface. Levelator then processes the file and gives you the best output it can. It leaves the original file and creates a new one with the same name as the original but it adds “.output” to the file name. I mainly work with wave files and it has been extremely helpful.

The programs runs on Windows, Linux and OS/X, so on the O/S side it has all its bases covered.

Please check it out, a very useful tool. – http://www.conversationsnetwork.org/levelator

Below I have included a before and after picture of a song I processed to give you an indication of what it is doing.

-Chris

 

 

Have no Fear 2.0.2 is Here

Well I’m loving the new 2.0.1 software for my iPod Touch but with all things there must be a Ying and Yang. Every since I upgrade my Touch has taken on a new life with applications. Generally speaking the applications on the Touch have been very stable and work extremely well. What I did loose was some of the basic functionality of the Touch. My Touch refuses to keep the correct time. Normally it is a day or two off, if not more. Also my Touch has become the worse video device I have yet to use. It appears the device doesn’t even know it is playing a video and after about 45 seconds it will dim the screen and after that it will shut off. So I have to constantly touch the screen on my Touch to keep it from going to sleep. Is that why they call it is “touch”?

When I got home this evening I figure I would restore my Touch and see if that helped. To my amazement I ran across that Apple had release a new update 2.0.2. Yeah!!! Saints be praised!!! Will this be the answer? I guess time will only tell. I told my Touch to restore anyway and to load the new update. The entire process probably took me 3 hours….Yes, I said 3 hours. I have the 16 GB Touch. Not sure if that is normal but it is what I’m use to with the latest upgrades.

So if you feel brave and are experiencing bugs rush out and get your 2.0.2 update. Maybe this time Apple will get it right, I doubt it…but maybe.

-Chris

An Apple a Day

Wow! This has been an Apple update kind of week and it is only Monday. On 03 Aug 08 (Sunday) I downloaded the iTunes update 7.7.1.11. On 04 Aug 08 (Monday) I downloaded and installed Apple Software Update 2.1.1. Right after I installed the Apple Software Update I connect my iPod Touch and checked for an update and there was an update ready: 2.0.1. So obviously, I downloaded and installed the update. All the updates mentioned installed with no hiccups and the iPod Touch is up and running well. The iPod Touch download was a hefty 246.7 MB. It looks as though the update is mainly bug fixes. I guess it will take a few days to see if 2.0.1 is more stable and if any of the little bugs have really been fixed. So far my date and time are correct which is normally thrown off a couple of days whenever I sync.

Overall, right now I’m finding my iPod Touch to be more useful and fun to have around. I wish it could be on the Edge or 3G network like the iPhone but wireless will do.

 

 

-Chris

Rocking The Zune Headphones

I recently traded in my old Sony headphones for a pair of the new Zune headphones. For $40.00 I must admit they are very nice.

Their level of “attention to detail” is mind blowing. For example they put magnets in the rear of each headphone to help them draw toward each other which keeps them from tangling up. Instead of a plastic or rubber coating to the wire they cover all exposed wiring with a fabric material which gives it a unique look and also keeps tangling at a minimum.

The sound is awesome too! It had very good bass response, which is a must. They are the “in your ear” type headphone so they have good passive sound isolation.

I think for 40 bones they are excellent and I highly recommend them. Maybe the people that design the headphones will take over the Zune software design department…very soon.

-Chris
This entire post was constructed on my Apple iPod Touch…talk about geeky!

Monkey Ball on the Touch 2.0

Well my exposure to the new 2.0 software on the Touch continues and what an adventure it has been. As soon as I upgraded I wanted to try one of the new applications so I bought the popular Sega © Monkey Ball. The game looks like it could be fun but when I tried to sync with my Touch, iTunes would just say “The application “Monkey Ball” was not installed on the iPod “Touch iPod” because an unknown error occurred (0xE8000013)”. I reported that problem to Apple today and all they could say (via their web site/iTunes) was the problem was noted but if I wanted support I would have to go to the application developer. Well isn’t that just great!!! The problem seems to be a sync’ing issue not the applications running. Apple is getting very good at pointing the finger at someone else these days.

So I went to the Sega website and created an account and look in their FAQs and forums. They recommended I reset my iPod Touch and I did but it didn’t solve anything. They then recommended I open a ticket but for the life of me I couldn’t find a link on their site on how or where I could do that. I would have had better luck finding gold at the end of a rainbow.

 

I was just about to give up when I remembered someone said that iTunes remembers your application purchases and that you can download them more than once with no extra charge. Well, I figure downloading straight to the iPod Touch might help me out installing Monkey Ball. Well, I did download it directly and it runs fine. So as I expected, it is not the application developers problem it was an Apples iTunes sync’ing issue, so much for their help on that problem.

Well, I played Monkey Ball for the first time and it looks great and is very tough to play. I sure it will be a little easier once I get the hang of play a game I tilt to navigate.

All in all, I’m loving the Touch 2.0 software and the applications….when they sync correctly

-Chris

iPod Touch after 2.0 upgrade

Yes, believe it or not I finally got my iPod Touch upgraded. I waited until Saturday morning around 09:00 CST and I fired iTunes back up and connected my Touch. It notified me an upgrade was available for $9.95. I proceeded to learn more about the purchased and agreed to the price. It downloaded the upgrade and notified me that the process could take around to 30 minutes, which it did. The software downloaded, it backed up my Touch and then performed the upgrade which took no more than 10 minutes. The upgrade process then reloaded my settings, music and podcasts, which took around 20 minutes. I was then a proud owner of an iPod Touch running 2.0 software.

Well, the big change was that I could load applications. One of the big new applications that they demo’ed at Apple was Monkey Balls which was a game developed by Sega. I went to the iTunes store and purchased Monkey Balls ($9.95), it down loaded and then when it installed/sync’ed on my Touch it told me “The application “Monkey Ball” was not installed on the iPod “Touch iPod” because an unknown error occurred (0xE8000013).” Great!!! I haven’t been a iPod Touch 2.0 user for 5 minutes and already I’m having trouble. Weird to, I don’t find an easy way to alert Apple on this issue and to get their assistance.

Not giving up I tried a free application called Twitterific, which down loaded and installed/sync’ed fine. And the application is awesome, fun to use and is very useful. Ok, at this point I’m hook!

Later while out and about and on the wireless network in public I still wanted a game, I bought Marble Mash straight from iTunes using the Touch interface. The game is simple, cute and fun to play. I wasn’t sure if balancing the Touch to let a virtual marble roll around the screen would be realistic but it is, very realistic!!!

One quirk that I have always had on the Touch is that it fails miserably at keeping the correct time. 7 times out of 10 it has the wrong date and 9 times out of 10 it has the wrong time. For example, right now it is Sunday 13^th of July at 01:47 AM (I know wicked early) and my Touch says it is Wednesday 9^th of July at 07:15 AM. So not just a little off, it is wicked wrong!!!

 

So the score so far is:

Initial upgrade process:             F

Finally working upgrade process:         B

First Game (Monkey Balls):            F

First Non-Game App (Twitterific):        A

2^nd Game attempt (Marble Mash):        A

Ability to keep sync’ed date & time:        F

 

I’ll keep you abreast of the situation as the saga continues to unfold.

-Chris

Look but Don’t “Touch”…..2.0

Today is a monumental day. The new iPhone were released at 08:00 with the new 2.0 software. While watching Leo Laporte’s Live StreamCast it sounds like the lines for the new iPhones were moving extremely slow and that many users were being told they could take their iPhone home and register them later. Though the iPhone is appealing the idea of a being a prisoner to a contract does not fancy me at all. Being a lover of music and video and general internet consumption I bought an iPod Touch last year. I bought the iPod Touch 16 GB model. Overall, I have been extremely happy with the Touch except when they offered the upgrade to version 1.1.4 at a premium of $19.95. Oh the nerve of Apple, Steve Job and any other that had hand in that decision. People can buy an iPod Nano and get updates for free but when they purchase an iPod Touch that is not bound to contracts and Apple figures they can extort monies from the faithful iPod Touch users during upgrade time. Their attitude toward the iPod Touch community makes me very livid.

I have cool down from the upgrade to 1.1.4 and now 2.0 is upon us and once again following suite with their greedy plan, iPod Touch users can upgrade but only at a price of $9.95. Wow thanks Steve Job, bless you and all your mafia ways. One thing I forgot to mention earlier, iPhone users got to upgrade to 1.1.4 and also to 2.0 software for……FREE. This makes it very obvious that iPod Touch users are being segregated and punished for their alignment to a product.

Ok ok, I decided to pay my money to the Apple mafia for protection and upgrade my iPod Touch to 2.0. Instead of getting updated software and good support, I get a run around and hassled. I upgraded my iTunes to version 7.7 first thing this morning. After doing so, iTunes doesn’t see my iPod Touch. Please remember I didn’t upgrade my Touch yet so that means the new iTunes is not very compatible with the iPod Touch. After working today and coming back this evening I gave iTunes another go with my Touch and low and behold it finally sees it. iTunes even tells me there is a new update (2.0) ready for purchase. I clicked on the update which brought up the following window.

OK, I click “Learn More” to carry me to the iTunes Store which should walk me through purchasing, downloading, installing the new 2.0 software. I clicked it and it did carry me to the iTunes store but it was the home page which gave me no options to purchase anything other than music. I disconnected and reconnected my iPod Touch a few times, reboot my machine and every time I got the same thing. Then after 30 to 45 minutes of trying to get the upgrade, iTunes now tells me the following.

Oh great, now the 2.0 upgrade that existed a few minutes ago doesn’t exist at all now. Oh I must have been taking drugs. I can accept that a company is having volumes problems but why can’t they pass that information on to the users so the users more informed and understand. Heck, twitter does it and their user base is growing. I just don’t understand why the Apple web site and/or their pop ups can’t say

 

I listened to some podcast today that were giving Apple the easy out of, “oh things are always tough the first day out like this”, “There no way they can anticipate the load they would receive”. Well I’m tired of people making excuses for Apple. They are a big company trying to become bigger. They need to get their act together. They didn’t know how many users were coming; bull crap! They should have an idea of how many user they currently have. Sounds like the majority of the people in line are the iPhone 1.0 users and I’m sure the new price attracted some new comers. If this same scenario had happen to Windows the press would be having a field day.

This all leads me back to the iPod Touch. I’m being charge for this experience and this is what I get! Come on, I wish all the iPod Touch users would drive by Steve Job’s house and throw their Touch iPods in his front yard with a tag that says I’m going to buy a Zune. Granted the Zunes are not perfect and even their software has a lot of let downs but they are the next runner up in my eyes.

-Chris

Dock Envy

ObjectDock from StarDock

I know the MAC lovers have a cool dock but the Windows’ task bar just isn’t a good comparison. I ran across this program the other day and I think I have fallen in love. As stated on the website http://www.stardock.com/products/objectdock/index.asp “ObjectDock™ is a program that enables users to organize their shortcuts, programs and running tasks into an attractive and fun animated Dock.”

 

The dock runs on Vista, so I downloaded and installed it. Immediately I had a dock with animated icons that zoomed to life as I moused over them. This program gives Vista some panache that it should had out the box. It is easy to use and configure, within minutes after installing it I had already added icons to my dock for Twhirl and Skype. The program is free but they also have a Plus version that is $19.95 and obviously has more features. After running the free version for a while I will probably give the Plus version a look.

 

My super clean desktop with my newly installed object dock

 

I little closer look at my dock with my recently added Skype icon.

 

Cheers!

-Chris

Hey! Unlocker the Blocker Please

Have you ever tried to delete a file or a folder and been told by Windows “Cannot delete Folder: It is being used by another person or program” or “Cannot delete file: Access is denied“? Well, normally this means that the file or folder is in use by the system or another program but how do you know which program? Good question! I introduce to you UNLOCKER http://ccollomb.free.fr/unlocker/ . This handy little freeware program will allow you to see what programs are keeping you from removing or deleting the file, heck it will even let you unlock it from the grips of that naughty program so you can delete it. Sometimes you might not want to delete the file but just want to move it. Unlocker would do the trick here as well.

The creator of this app seems very forth coming with information and with the acknowledgement that his program is not the only one around. It looks like it could be very helpful and possibly versatile then some of the other programs that do similar things. Give the site a visit and read through the very simple explanation of the application and some of the FAQ’s.

Good luck and Good Geeking!!!

-Chris

 

Lord of the Synergy

I was introduced to a software application today that is just too. It may not be for everyone but in my work environment it fits perfectly. All the people in my group at work have a desktop workstation with dual monitors and since we attend so many meetings we also have a laptop which is docked on our desk when we are not in meetings. When at my desk, I normally have my laptop’s lid closed since I usually don’t bounce back and forth between mouse and keyboards. This leads me to the application SYNERGY. Synergy allows me to use one mouse and keyboard on both computers. When the application is configured and running on both computers it allows me to slide my mouse from my far right monitor all the way to my laptop monitor (seamlessly). When the pointer is on my laptop then the keyboard is active for the laptop. From a visual perspective it looks as if I have three monitors on my desk. You can even cut and paste between the different computers also! The program is not limited to two computers. It appears that you can configure the program for at least four computers. Below I have included a picture I created that will hopefully give you an idea of what my desktop at work looks like. The application also works with different operating systems and did I forget to mention the app is free. You can make a donation if you like but there is no charge for the software.

Thanks to Synergy, I will now have more monitor real estate and processing power now that I will be using my laptop more.

BIG thanks to Steve & Mike for sharing this cool app with me. I think I will be using it daily. Please give it a try if it seems applicable in your environment.

 

http://synergy2.sourceforge.net/

 

 

-Chris

Sleipnir – Domo arigato

I ran across a new web browser this weekend. I know, I know!!! Another web browser…Yes

Why not, at work I use IE6 & Fire Fox Beta 3 and at home I use IE 7 and Safari.

To be a geek means keeping your eyes open for the next big thing or even the next “better” thing.

If you’re feeling wild and spunky then give this Japanese web browser a try. One of the things that caught my eye was that this web browser can use both the Trident (Internet Explorer) and Gecko (Firefox) engines. This means that Sleipnir can act as an emulator for both browsers. Just that alone makes me want to try it.

I’ve just down loaded it and I’m going to give it a run around the internet block. Please do the same and send us some feedback on how it did or did not work for you.

 

Here’s a screen shot from Sleipnir running on my (32-Bit) Vista Machine

Here is an excerpt from the Sleipnir web site (http://www.fenrir-inc.com/us/sleipnir/)

Sleipnir is designed to be a highly customizable browser that you can configure to suit your individual needs. With Sleipnir, you can create your ideal browser by changing the design, skin, and visual appearance. You can also add custom functionality to Sleipnir with a wide range of plugins and user scripts. Users love Seipnir for its unique blend of high-performance and customizability!

 

Remember….Keep your eyes open!!!

-Chris