Hasta La Gadget!

This article was written on January 01, 2007 by CyberNet.

We’ve mentioned Calgoo here and there; first in August when their “First Draft” was released, and more recently in October when their “Second Draft” was released. It’s a desktop application for your Google Calendar. We were skeptical of Calgoo for privacy reasons that were outlined when we wrote about their first draft.  Since then it appears they have spent a considerable amount of time working on improving, and establishing themselves. Synchronization is a big key these days which appears why Calgoo is attempting to enter the desktop synchronization market. It interacts with your Google Calendar so that you can check your calendar on your computer as well as online.  This makes it simple to check from anywhere.

Three weeks ago, we got an email from them letting us know that their Third Draft has been released.  The big new feature with this release is that the new Calgoo will allow you to “collect, aggregate, view and share calendars from multiple sources, including websites, Google and Outlook. At last you will be able to manage all of your schedules in one place and Calgoo will be able to take the next big step forward.” If you’d like to download their latest version, click here. It appears they’ve put quite a bit of work into this next release. We’re still not completely satisfied with their user interface, so hopefully that will be something they focus on for their fourth draft.

 Calgoo may not be right for everyone, and if you’re an iPod user, you can take advantage of the built-in calendar without needing Outlook. One of our users pdedecker has put together an application called iPodCALsync (screenshot to the right) that you could use to synchronize your iPod with Google Calendar.  Of course, you wouldn’t be able to edit your calendar from your iPod, it would be “view-only.” It’s not 100% stable yet, but definitely worth the try. You can enter up to 5 calendars to be synchronized on your iPod. I’m sure pdedecker would appreciate feedback, so if you decide to download it, let him know what you think (or if you come across any errors)in our Forum for this topic. You can download iPodCAL sync here or here.

Copyright © 2014 CyberNetNews.com

The game inFamous: Second Son is coming on quick, readied for the PlayStation 4 exclusively by Sony Computer Entertainment and developed by Sucker Punch Productions. This past week a super-secret … Continue reading

This article was written on May 05, 2007 by CyberNet.

Windows Vista ships with DirectX 10 (DX10) which is something a lot of gamers look forward to getting their hands on. Unfortunately for XP users DX10 is only available on the Vista operating system because of changes made in the graphics API as well as the drivers. DirectX 10 does provide some noticeable benefits that will make the upgrade worth it for gamers, and some of these benefits according to IGN are:

• Standardized hardware requirements: Microsoft made the hardware requirements for a DX10 compatible graphics card pretty strict, which means there will be fewer differences between GPU manufacturers. The result should be less GPU hardware crashes!
• Less bottlenecks in game execution: The API for DX10 has been made a lot less computationally intensive. This opens a lot of doors for developers because they can use the CPU for other things, such as adding more objects (trees, cars, etc…), make more realistic animations, or improve the artificial intelligence used. 
• Better shader effects: DX10 has a Geometry shader that is capable of adding more advanced visual effects including real-time Displacement Mapping, Motion Blur, Point-Sprite generation from points, and Stencil Shadow Extrusion.
• Unified GPU architecture : DirectX 9 graphics cards have separate pixel and vertex processors, which cannot be processed simultaneously. For example, you could have the computer caught up on processing vertex units while the pixel unit processors in the video card are idle, which needlessly bottlenecks performance. However, in DX10 graphics cards the GPU will be able to handle vertex, geometry and pixel shaders all at once without having to wait for the others to complete.

Are the graphics that much better in DirectX 10? IGN also had a graphical comparison of DirectX 9 and 10 for the Microsoft Flight Simulator X game that is supposed to be released later this year. You’ll see the comparison of the two pictured to the left (click on it to see a fullsize version). The DirectX 10 obviously does a much better job providing the little details that make the scenery look more real, such as the sun rays and textured water. Of course you will also have to get their hands on a DirectX 10 graphics card in order to enjoy all of the graphical goodness that is promised.

While some of you might be upset the Microsoft didn’t make a DirectX 10 for XP, you have to look at both sides of the story. Sure it would have benefited all of the current XP users, but Microsoft would have probably put so much time into making DX10 compatible that they would have had to charge for the upgrade anyway. Not only that, but every time there is a new operating system that is released there has to be plenty of benefits for users to upgrade, and this is a big benefit for gamers.

Wikipedia currently has a list of games that are going to be released with DirectX 10 support, and many will still support DirectX 9 for those not wanting to make the upgrade to Vista. In time I’m sure game developers will begin phasing out the support for DX 9 because games do need to stay on the bleeding edge of graphics in order to catch the attention of gamers.

There is one “DirectX 10” solution available for XP users that “Mr. Defeatable” pointed out in a tip, but it isn’t developed by Microsoft. It’s called the Alky Project and there is currently a preview version available for those that want to give it a shot. Here is what the developer says about the project:

As a fitting start to this blog, I’m proud to release a preview of our Alky compatibility libraries for Microsoft DirectX 10 enabled games. These libraries allow the use of DirectX 10 games on platforms other than Windows Vista, and increase hardware compatibility even on Vista, by compiling Geometry Shaders down to native machine code for execution where hardware isn’t capable of running it. No longer will you have to upgrade your OS and video card(s) to play the latest games.

I’m a little skeptical at what these libraries can actually do, and very curious as to whether this adds a lot of extra processing to the CPU. It will also be interesting to watch the progress of the project to see if Microsoft tries to shut it down.

Copyright © 2014 CyberNetNews.com

This article was written on August 17, 2006 by CyberNet.

Whenever someone asks me for a good free antivirus the first one I always recommend is AVG. I used if for several years and it never let me down. By putting a free antivirus solution on the computer for people I never have to worry about them being unprotected, because most people I know don’t care when their antivirus subscriptions end.

Luckily most of the computers I setup AVG on are for families who own only one computer. Why is that a big deal? TMCnet said that they started receiving a message from their Free AVG saying they were using the antivirus against their terms. The window, pictured above, states:

Dear AVG user!

You may not be aware that you might be using your AVG Anti-Virus Free in conflict with our License Agreement. AVG Anti-Virus Free is for private, non-commercial, single home computer use only.

We are certain that you appreciate not only the attractive price but especially the additional features of our AVG Network Edition.

Take advantage of our special offer now and keep your data safe!

BECOME LEGAL

I had never noticed anywhere in the terms that had said AVG was only for a single computer. They must be tracking the IP addresses of their users and if they receive more than one request from the same IP address then they assume you are violating their license.

Looking through the license agreement I found the spot that says “You must not use the program in a network or on more than one computer.” If I was still using Free AVG I wouldn’t be forking out the money…instead I would head on over to Avast! They say that “avast! 4 Home Edition can only be used by home users that do NOT use their computer for profit.” I didn’t see anything about a single computer only. AVG is making Avast look awfully appealing now!

Copyright © 2014 CyberNetNews.com

There’s a game by the name of “Disney Magic Castle: My Happy Life” out in Japan this season that’s headed – soon – to the United States with a different … Continue reading