Hasta La Gadget!

This article was written on January 08, 2007 by CyberNet.

Yesterday Bill Gates announced to some of the CES attendees some features that will be part of the Windows Extras. One of the new features that really stood out to me was the Windows DreamScene which allows you to add videos (MPEG and WMV) to your desktop to give an extremely unique experience. This is truly something that I would love to be able to do because it adds another dimension to your Windows desktop. There is one thing though…it requires Windows Aero to be enabled which means your graphics card needs to support it. If you don’t have Windows Aero you’ll be able to position stationary images on your desktop for a more customized experience…but it doesn’t quite stack up to the videos. Checkout this video that Microsoft posted on their new Windows Vista Ultimate site:

I had used Windows Vista RC2 for several months as my primary operating system. Within the last week I finally decided to take the plunge back to Windows XP. There are several reasons that I did this, but the biggest is that my primary PC did not support Windows Aero. Without having Windows Aero I think users will lose out on “the ultimate” (no pun intended) Vista experience. There are several things, like Flip-3D and the new DreamScene, that normal users will never be able to experience without upgrading their PC’s. The transparency that can also be enabled around the Windows is something that I can live without, but some of the features that go along with Aero take away from the “wow factor” that undoubtedly impresses people.

Now what about the theme that non-Aero users get to use? It is called Windows Vista Basic and it isn’t exactly to my liking either. It is a light blue theme that can be seen in screenshots that I have taken over the past few months like this one. I wouldn’t say that it is horrible, but Microsoft offers no color choices like users had when Windows XP was released (blue, silver, or olive). Color adjustments can be made if you enable Aero in Windows Vista, but then again your graphical hardware needs to support it.

Not being able to use Aero isn’t the only reason that Vista isn’t installed on my computers. The last release that I was able to get my hands on from Microsoft was Vista RC2 which was by far the most improved release at the time. As time went on, and I installed more and more of my favorite software, I started receiving various prompts of important Windows services crashing and having to be restarted. Then while submitting a crash report it would tell me that this was a known bug and has been fixed in the final release of Vista. That’s great to know, but that doesn’t help me at that time because I am still stuck with a pre-release version that doesn’t have a patch available to fix the problem. I managed to work through a lot of small issues like this enough to continue using Vista for several months.

Now I’m sure that the result of some of the crashes is not directly a result of the operating system, and has more to do with me installing a bunch of my “XP only” applications. Applications are slowly shifting towards officially becoming Vista compatible, but there are still so many that have not released updates or patches to make sure their programs work correctly. For example, iTunes works great for me in Vista…except when it tries to update my Podcasts. That will cause the whole application to freeze up. That was really hard to troubleshoot at first, trying to figure out why iTunes would freeze every time it started. I’ve stumbled upon several other applications (especially screencasting software) that initially appears to work great, but after digging a little deeper you’ll find that it might not be as perfect as you thought.

To review software on the site I also find myself installing and uninstalling things frequently. Windows XP never had that much of an issue with that happening, but then again, the applications I were testing were designed to work with Windows XP. In Vista I found my PC becoming slower and slower over time until it got so slow that I felt like my computer was 160MHz instead of 1.6GHz. Vista has slightly different folder structures (especially for user’s profiles) so the uninstallation process of the applications would probably silently receive errors that would eventually lead to the demise of my Vista installation.

So what do I miss from Vista now that I am back to XP? Search! Vista has an astonishing search system built-in throughout the operating system. Finding files, folders, and just about anything else has never been so quick and easy. One prime example of this is in the Control Panel where you can start typing the name of an option you are looking to change and it will return a list of Control Panel results that match the option you want to change. With Vista’s search engine you are also able to instantly search other Vista PC’s since everything gets indexed…so the results are near instantaneous.

Secondly, I miss the Windows Update feature. I never opened Internet Explorer (well, maybe when testing for website compatibility but that’s it) because Windows Updates were performed through the Control Panel rather than through the browser. Not that I go to the Windows Update site often, but it was nice not having to open a different Web browser just to see if there were any optional updates that were worth while.

The thumbnails and preview feature in Vista was also a really great and something I already find myself missing terribly. It would always give me a sneak peak at a PowerPoint presentation, an image, or a text file…all without ever having to open the document or picture. Vista also doesn’t create those dreaded “thumbs.db” files which quickly become annoying in XP if you want to use thumbnails in your folders.

There are a lot more features that I have fallen in love with in Vista, but I’ll save that for my review. Hopefully I am able to write that review on a PC with Aero enabled because then I will be able to share a better experience that involves a larger array of features. Will I ever go back to Vista? There is no doubt in my mind that I will, but it probably won’t be until some of the software developers release updates to their applications which should happen shortly after the January 30th consumer launch. Not only that but I am going to hold off until I purchase a new laptop (hopefully later this year) that can handle the graphical demands of Aero, and to me that is very important. At that time I’m sure all of my favorite software will work flawlessly on Vista, and the hardware will be much more compatible as well. Vista is a great operating system, but I think they should have put some more focus on making features for the non-Aero theme as well. Of course, almost all new computers will be able to support Aero so it isn’t that big of a deal since a lot of consumers wouldn’t go out to purchase Vista separately. Since I plan on upgrading our laptops soon there is no sense in going out to upgrade the operating system separately, so we’re going to hold off for a little while.

Copyright © 2013 CyberNetNews.com

Video game fan filmmaker Infectious Designer has posted a fan film based on the upcoming game Watch Dogs. The six-minute short features Watch Dogs protagonist hacker Aiden Pearce moving about the open-world environment taking on random objectives as he sees fit. It also features “Hacker Girl,” representing another game player. Together the two cooperate–and then […]

This article was written on October 27, 2006 by CyberNet.

Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) has become world renowned as a big pain in the butt. It isn’t really the people who are pirating Windows that are complaining about how bad it is…instead it is the people who legally purchase Windows and Microsoft tells them that their operating system is pirated. In fact, the whole WGA thing turned out so well that Microsoft had to give users the necessary information to remove WGA!

Just when we thought Microsoft had learned from what it had done comes Office Genuine Advantage (OGA). So what does this entail? Here is what PCWorld explains:

The company’s Office Genuine Advantage (OGA) program will require mandatory validation of Office software starting October 27, the software vendor quietly disclosed today. After that date, any Office Online templates downloaded from within the Office 2007 Microsoft Office System applications will require validation of legitimacy.

Similarly, starting in January, users of Office Update will have to validate the legitimacy of their Office software before they can use the service, Microsoft added.

Yep, it is supposed to start today. I downloaded a few templates using my legal pre-release copy of Office 2007 and I wasn’t prompted for any kind of check. I’m not sure if my Office 2007 has already been validated without me knowing but I would think that it would be just like downloading software off of Microsoft’s site where you have to go through a whole process each time that you try to download something.

So while you are celebrating the release of Firefox 2 this weekend maybe you should take an extra drink to celebrate prepare for the Genuine Advantage woes we have ahead of us. 😉

Copyright © 2013 CyberNetNews.com

Steve Ballmer’s announcement that he would retire from Microsoft came as something of a surprise, and left many wondering whether his eventual exit is voluntary. Thanks to an interview with the outgoing CEO at the Wall Street Journal, we now know that it is — although it’s coming after intense pressure. Ballmer explains that the company board of directors has been pushing him to speed up Microsoft’s transformation into a devices and services company ever since January. By May, he decided that his own way of thinking was slowing down the transition; he was the “pattern” that had to break. New leadership might reshape the company at a faster pace, Ballmer says. While the success of his strategy will depend heavily on just who takes the reins next year, it’s clear that the chief executive is willing to sacrifice a lot to keep Microsoft healthy… including himself.

Filed under: Cellphones, Misc, Software, Microsoft

Comments

Via: Business Insider

Source: Wall Street Journal

This article was written on August 18, 2011 by CyberNet.

Areca Backup is one of the few backup utilities that I’ve seen that runs on both Windows and Linux operating systems. Like most backup utilities you can choose what files you want to backup and where you want to send them to, which includes backing up the files to an FTP/SFTP server. You can also have the the backup zipped to help save some space.

Here are some of the features the developer highlights:

• Archives compression (Zip & Zip64 format)
• Archives encryption (AES128 & AES256 encryption algorithms)
• Storage on local hard drive, network drive, USB key, FTP, FTPs (with implicit and explicit SSL / TLS) or SFTP server
• Source file filters (by extension, subdirectory, regular expression, size, date, status, with AND/OR/NOT logical operators)
• Incremental, differential and full backup support
• Support for delta backup (store only modified parts of your files)
• Archives merges : You can merge contiguous archives into one single archive to save storage space.
• As of date recovery : Areca allows you to recover your archives (or single files) as of a specific date.
• Transaction mechanism : All critical processes (such as backups or merges) are transactional. This guarantees your backups’ integrity.
• Backup reports : Areca generates backup reports that can be stored on your disk or sent by email.
• Post backup scripts : Areca can launch shell scripts after backup.
• Files permissions, symbolic links and named pipes can be stored and recovered. (Linux only)

Areca Backup is developed using Java which is likely why it is available for both Windows and Linux. I generally stay away from Java apps, but I haven’t seen a backup utility this powerful for Linux before so I thought it was worth mentioning.

Areca Backup Homepage (Windows/Linux; Freeware)

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