This article was written on September 25, 2006 by CyberNet.
I had been wondering for quite some time what the actual size difference was between the Office 2007 Ribbon and the Office 2003 toolbars. There is no better way to do the comparison than to put the two side-by-side.
As you can see in the screenshot above the Ribbon is obviously larger even when you have 3 rows of toolbars open in Office 2003. I measured the difference to be about 20 pixels but in Office 2003 I typically only have 1 row of toolbars…which measures in at a 72 pixel difference.
However, with the latest release of Office 2007 Beta 2 TR I have setup the Ribbon to auto-minimize itself. That means I actually save 20 pixels by using the Ribbon! The minimize feature is great because most of the commands that I need are now located on the right-click menu anyway.
Sometimes I miss having the toolbars flowing all around my window but the Ribbon also has a place in my heart now. 🙂
This week the folks at Sony have updated the Android and iOS PlayStation App, bringing about closer connections with the live video universe straight away. Under the guise of a … Continue reading
This article was written on October 31, 2006 by CyberNet.
Tracking Down Great Software For You!
The holidays are coming up and wouldn’t it be nice to know how many days there are until they arrive? To keep track of those upcoming events you should get Timeleft. It will give you a countdown so that you can see how many years, months, days, hours, minutes, and seconds are left until the event.
Timeleft is free but there is also a paid version available. The main difference is that the free version only lets you have one countdown clock while the paid version will give you an unlimited number. For many people one should be enough but a few years back I decided to purchase the software because they offer free lifetime upgrades, something that is very rare for a software company. For that reason I figured it would be well worth my money and it has been. At the time I only paid $16 for it but it has gone up a little bit to $20 for a single license. Still, for lifetime upgrades that is a bargain.
The free version also lets you have one reminder, clock, sticker, timer, and stopwatch so it is a pretty comprehensive utility. I find it to be both useful and entertaining being able to do the countdowns. I don’t use other portions of the program that much, like the stopwatch, but I have found the timer to be helpful. When you stick something in the oven you no longer have to walk over to see how long is left before it has finished cooking, because the timer can be sitting right on your desktop!
The idea for Timeleft is simple: let people keep track of their most valuable thing, time! It does just that but it does it very well.
Ever the keyboard app-creating developers looking for another road into the iOS world of typing, SwiftKey has revealed an app called SwiftKey Note today, ready for one-shot saving of ideas. … Continue reading
This article was written on March 27, 2012 by CyberNet.
One of the capabilities I love in Google Chrome is that it can sync most of my data across all of my browsers. It does a really good job of making sure my extensions, preferences, themes, bookmarks, passwords, and more are always available to me no matter which computer I’m on. The concern you might obviously have with doing something like that is how secure is your information?
By default Google will encrypt the passwords it syncs, but that’s all they will encrypt. Things like your history, bookmarks, and everything else is all stored on their servers without being encrypted first. That’s easy to fix though! If you take a look at your sync settings in Chrome there is an option to Encrypt all synced data instead of just encrypting your passwords. There is really no reason for you to not turn it on, because the data being synced is so small in size that any kind of performance hit from doing this would be negligible.
While in the settings you can also choose to set the encryption password to be something other than the password to your Google Account. If you really want to sync your data but want the most security possible these two settings are probably things you want to change.
It would appear that the idea of capturing every single thing you do – aka “life logging” has permeated the likes of Samsung. They’ve had an app leak today that’s … Continue reading
This week the folk at Facebook have taken a giant step forward in creating a new way for internet-based companies to represent themselves in app form. Instead of creating an … Continue reading
This article was written on May 04, 2012 by CyberNet.
In XBMC one of the things that is probably the most important is to get the software hooked up to your personal media. This includes media from all of your various collections like videos, pictures, and music. If you’re new to XBMC you’ll probably be better off adding your first source or two through the XBMC interface, but after that you can make the changes a little more quickly by directly updating the appropriate configuration file. So we will show you both ways.
We will even take things a step further and explain how you can have all your XBMC instances share the same configuration file. With that in place anytime you add a new source to the configuration file that same source will be added to any XBMC instance using that file.
Note that our tutorials below are going to focus on videos, but a similar process can also be applied to music and pictures.
Adding Sources in XBMC
Here are the steps you need to follow if you want to add your media to XBMC through the built-in interface.
Go to Videos -> Files -> Add Videos
XBMC will let you add sources in one of two ways:
Click the Browse button and browse for your media based on the type of source:
If you know the path to your media source you can just enter it in manually: Highlight the None option and press Enter: Enter in the path and select Done:
Enter a name for your media source at the bottom of the window and press Enter:
Select the type of media the folder contains so that it can scrape information from the Internet for each of the files contained within the folder:
Adding Sources in the Config File
If you have a ton of folders that you want added to XBMC then using the interface above may not be the most efficient and practical method. You can speed things up a bit by editing the configuration file directly. For starters go ahead and close out of XBMC, and then navigate to your profile folder:
Mac: ~/Library/Application Support/XBMC/userdata/
Windows: %appdata%\XBMC\userdata\
Once in your profile directory find and open up the sources.xml file. If the file doesn’t already exist I recommend adding a source in the XBMC interface first so that you can see what the structure of the file looks like. When it comes to videos you’ll be adding nodes in the <video> section of the file that look like this:
In my particular case this will create a source pointing to a shared SMB/Samba/CIFS folder for movies that I had set up. You can also use paths to local folders or any of the supported source types.
There is one caveat that I should mention about adding media directly through the sources XML file. While any changes you make to the file should be reflected in XBMC once you restart the app you’ll still need to go in and update the type of videos contained in the source. Here’s what you need to do:
In XBMC go the Videos -> Files
Highlight the source you just added, and then open the context menu by pressing “C” on the keyboard. Then select the Change Content option:
Now you can choose the type of media contained in the source (TV shows, movies, music videos):
Sharing One Config File
How about we take a look at sharing the XML file now that you have already familiarized yourself with the file itself. The process is pretty simple, and for a more detailed explanation I will refer you to our guide on sharing configuration files in XBMC.
For more experienced users I will point out that all you need to do is add the following lines to your advancedsettings.xml file:
Just update the path with the shared location of the sources.xml file. Repeat this process for every instance of XBMC you have running in your house and they should all pick up any sources that you add or remove.
After doing all of this may need to run through the steps mentioned above for setting the content type on each of the sources since that’s not configurable through the sources.xml file, but that’s just a minor step.
XBMC: Build Your Own HTPC Our extensive guide on the hardware we chose for our home theater PCs (HTPCs), the cost, and some tips on choosing the hardware for your own HTPC.
XBMC: Prepare and Optimize Windows 7 A helpful list of tips to optimize the performance of Windows 7 so that the system is able to offer as many resources to XBMC as it can.
XBMC: IR Receiver and Remote (Harmony, Xbox 360, and More) If you want your HTPC to operate like a set-top box you’ll definitely want to get a remote control configured, and for me this was a critical step so that I wouldn’t have to be concerned about less tech-savvy users trying to use my TV.
XBMC: Installing Skins How to tweak the appearance of XBMC so that it looks the way you want it to.
XBMC: Custom Home Screen Menu Backgrounds Make the backgrounds of your chosen skin/theme a little more interesting by having it flip through artwork from your favorite TV shows and movies.
XBMC: Dynamic Weather Backgrounds If you’re using the Aeon MQ 3 theme you can have it use dynamic wallpapers that change based on the time of day and current weather conditions.
XBMC: SMB on Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion) I use a Mac to serve up files to my XBMC instances running on Windows, and so my preferred protocol for sharing files is SMB. This guide explains how you can get a XBMC-compatible version of SMB running on Mac OS X 10.7 Lion.
XBMC: Adding Media Sources Learn how to add your media to XBMC and turn on the appropriate content scrapers.
XBMC: Troubleshoot Buffering Issues Trying to troubleshoot buffer issues in XBMC can be quite a pain, and so I lay out some of the most common culprits.
XBMC: Stream Hulu, Food Network, and More Thanks to add-ons you can stream videos from some of your favorite sources including Hulu, Food Network, HGTV, TWiT, and more.
XBMC: AirPlay on Windows Send videos from your iOS device to any XBMC instance with very little configuration.
XBMC: Web Interface and Chrome Extension As long as you are on the same network as your XBMC box you can control it from any browser using the built-in web interface, or you can install a Chrome extension to make it even easier.
XBMC: iPhone and iPad Remote If you own an iPhone or iPad you can enjoy one of the best XBMC remote control experiences I’ve seen, and it will only cost you a few bucks.
XBMC: Free and Official iOS Remote for XBMC Released This is the free and official XBMC remote control iOS app (optimized for both the iPhone and iPad). It will let you easily control all of the XBMC instances in your house as long as they are all on the same network.
This article was written on September 24, 2007 by CyberNet.
Microsoft Monday
A few weeks ago for our Microsoft Monday feature, we posted an article titled “Little Known Facts about Bill Gates.” While we all know Bill Gates as the King of Microsoft, there were still some things many people didn’t know – like his SAT score was 1590 and the top score for the test is 1600. Continuing on the same theme of Bill Gates, today we’re going to take a look inside his house with some photos and facts.
First, for starters, Bill Gates’ house is in Medina, Washington on a 5.12 acre lot and overlooks Lake Washington. According to Wikipedia, Bill originally bought the land back in 1988 for a measly $2 million, and the mansion was built over seven years. By 1995 it was complete. As you can imagine, this is one wired house filled with new technology.
View of the house from the air:
One of the most interesting things you’d experience if you lived in this house is that you wear a pin containing a microchip which acts as your ID. When you walk into a room, lighting, sound, and temp controls are customized for you. Any high resolution display that you walk by will know that you’re there, and your favorite art is displayed. And if you’re getting a phone call, only the phone nearest to you will ring. This is all thanks to the pin with the microchip.
Now we’ll take a look at some of the rooms in this house:
Library
If you were to peek inside the domed library, you’d find two “secret” bookcases with one of them containing a bar. Here you could sit in front of the fireplace and admire the Codex Leicester belonging to Leonardo da Vinci. Gates paid $30.8 million for it back in 1994.
Pool House
The pool building is 3,900 square feet and has a 17 foot by 60 foot swimming pool. While you’re swimming, you can listen to your favorite music underwater with the underwater music system.
Reception Hall
This is where Gates plays hosts to VIP’s and other social events. The room features a large video wall made up of 24 individual screens measuring 40 inches each. At 2,300 feet, this room is capable of holding up to 200 people for a cocktail party, or 150 people for a sit-down dinner.
–Random Facts–
The house is 50,000 square feet
In 2005, the house and land were assessed at $200 million
Annually, Gates pays nearly $1 million dollars in taxes for the property
Over 64 km of optical fiber was used in the house
300 workers at one time were working on the house – 104 of them were electricians
Every door handle in the house was custom made and cost $2,000 each
There are no visible electric outlets in the house
Additional rooms in the house:
Trampoline Room I’m not quite sure why you’d need a trampoline room, but I suppose when you’re Bill Gates and you’re the richest man in the world, you can have nearly anything you want. Part of his exercise facilities includes a trampoline room with a 20 foot ceiling.
Formal Dining Room Should Bill have 24 of his closest friends coming over for dinner, they can dine in his formal dining room in front of the fireplace. It’s on the third floor and has plenty of windows so that guests can enjoy the view. It’s 1,000 square feet.
Underground Garage Apparently Gates likes to park his cars underground. Part of this mansion is a 6,300 square foot underground garage. This is only one of three garages that are on the property, and it’s got room for 10+ cars.
–Random Facts–
Hidden cameras are all over the property
Floor sensors can track you – up to 6 inches
As Gates is on his way home from work, he can fill his tub with water to his desired temp so it’s ready when he gets home
Woodwork in this house (which is abundant) is flawless
There are glass windows galore, and 7 varieties of stone were used to build the house
The actual “living” space is modest
All flooring is heated including the driveway and sidewalks
Much of the house is built underground into a hill so it looks smaller than it is
–Additional Pictures–
–Virtual Video Tour–
–Wrapping it up–
So there you have it, a look inside the mansion of Bill Gates. Anybody want to swap houses with Bill? If you want more information about some of the rooms in the house, this virtual tour from U.S. News (while old) is an excellent source. Just click on the part of the house you’re wanting to learn more about.
This afternoon the folks at HTC have let it be known that their original 90-day window for the full update of the HTC One to Android 4.4 KitKat will be … Continue reading
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Timeleft is free but there is also a paid version available. The 
The pool building is 3,900 square feet and has a 17 foot by 60 foot swimming pool. While you’re swimming, you can listen to your favorite music underwater with the underwater music system.
