0xy Network coordinates

Windows 8 Wallpaper

2011-09-17T12:53:00.001-07:00

Windows Loader v2.0.6 by daz

2011-09-17T12:34:00.001-07:00

Windows Loader v2.0.6
The safe and easy way to activate Windows.

About

This is the loader application that's used by millions of people worldwide, well known for passing Microsoft's WAT (Windows Activation Technologies) and is arguably the safest Windows activation exploit ever created. The application itself injects a SLIC (System Licensed Internal Code) into your system before Windows boots; this is what fools Windows into thinking it's genuine.

Features
Can be run as a standalone application
Works well with all system languages
Custom OEM information can be installed
Argument support for silent installs
Can be used for pre-activation
Application integrity checking
Custom error handling
Support for hidden partitions and complex setups
Can work alongside Linux's GRUB or any other boot manager
Works with TrueCrypt and many other types of hard drive encryption applications
Add your own certificates and serials externally
Offers certificate and serial installation only for users with an existing SLIC 2.1
Automated system profiling (The application matches everything up for you)

The rundown
Compatible with Windows 7 SP1 and all system updates ✔ check
Will run on x86 and x64 systems ✔ check
No core system files get modified ✔ check
No extra processes are run so you have nothing eating at your RAM ✔ check
All key parts of the exploit are encrypted with a custom encryption ✔ check
The exploit runs before Windows so it's harder for Microsoft to prevent ✔ check
The exploit patches all necessary tables making activation look authentic ✔ check
The application will select the best profile for your system during installation ✔ check
Each and every user has a unique version of the exploit installed on his/her system ✔ check

Supported operating systems
Windows 7 Ultimate
Windows 7 Ultimate E
Windows 7 Professional
Windows 7 Professional E
Windows 7 Home Premium
Windows 7 Home Premium E
Windows 7 Home Basic
Windows 7 Starter
Windows 7 Starter E
Windows Vista Ultimate
Windows Vista Business
Windows Vista Business N
Windows Vista Home Premium
Windows Vista Home Basic
Windows Vista Home Basic N
Windows Vista Starter
Windows Server 2008 Enterprise
Windows Server 2008 Enterprise (without Hyper-V)
Windows Server 2008 Foundation
Windows Server 2008 Standard
Windows Small Business Server 2008
Windows Storage Server 2008 Standard
Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise
Windows Server 2008 R2 Foundation
Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard
Windows Small Business Server 2011 Standard
Note: You must be running build 7600 or greater for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2.
Note: I don't recommend using any of the Windows 7 E editions.
Note: Windows 7 N editions will only be supported when OEM SLP serials leak.

Application integrity checking?

Hover your mouse over the green, amber or red icon to see detailed application information.

Note: Even if the icon is green someone might have found a way around the protection system so it's worth checking that the applications path is always the same as the location from which you launched the application. You should also check that the MD5 matches the MD5 found online.

Virus scanner results

All virus scanner detection's are a false-positive. Simply turn off your anti-virus while installing the loader.

Download
Dowload link 1 (datafilehost.com)
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Version 2.0.6 (08/21/2011)
* Added a new GRLDR version
* Fixed the ignore existing SLIC option
* Added Stone Home Premium serial
* Added Itautec Home Basic serial
* Added Stone and Itautec SLIC's and certificates
* Cleaned up serials for all Windows Server editions
* Other minor tweaks and fixes

Version 2.0.5 (08/02/2011)
* Added a new GRLDR version
* Added a new option to patch all OEM table ID's
* Added CCE, Chuangzhicheng and Crea SLIC's and certificates
* Added CCE Windows 7 Professional serial
* Added KSystems and Crea Windows 7 Starter serials
* Changed the way partitions are identified which should fix boot issues for systems with hidden OS partitions

Version 2.0.4 (06/26/2011)
* Added a new GRLDR version
* Recoded around 30% of the application so that the UI can always remain displayed
* Added progress indicators
* Added LG Starter serial
* Added HP and IBM Windows Small Business Server 2011 Standard serials
* Added Kraftway and Philco Home Premium serials
* Added Philco profile
* Other minor tweaks and fixes

Version 2.0.3 (05/27/2011)
* Added a new GRLDR version
* Removed the prompt to ignore invalid SLIC's and have made the setting apply for Samsung systems only
* Other minor tweaks and fixes

Version 2.0.2 (05/23/2011)
* Added a new GRLDR version
* Added TAROX Ultimate, Professional, Home Premium and Starter serials
* Fixed a bug that caused the wrong certificate to be dumped on some machines
* Added a prompt to ignore the existing SLIC on a system if the SLIC is invalid
* Other minor tweaks and fixes

Version 2.0.1 (05/09/2011)
* Added a new GRLDR version
* Added TAROX and Vestel SLIC's
* Added Positivo and Kraftway Home Basic serials
* Enhanced the installation of GRLDR
* Enhanced the dump option so that it will now dump the certificate and serial as well as the SLIC
* Other minor tweaks and fixes

Version 2.0.0 (04/05/2011)
* Fixed a bug that could cause the application to crash
* Fixed unicode character input for OEM information editing
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MD5: d1b952982f13a8bddd90456d3f6b7ad0
SHA-1: d4ce5da73c7d6634e179d6c979c83cd18253ec0c

Note: The hashes are for the executable file and not the zip file.

Help and support can be found here (link)

Want to thank me?
Then just hit the thanks button on this post!

Globe questions NTC rules on 3G frequency auction

2009-04-12T03:09:00.000-07:00

Mobile telco giant Globe Telecom on Thursday questioned the regulators’ plan to exclude qualified 3G (third-generation) communications firms from participating in the auction of the fifth remaining 3G frequency spectrum.

It would seem that the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), according to Globe, is favoring the entry of new players by blocking off current 3G frequency holders from the spectrum assignment process.

The frequency band 1965 to 1975 megahertz (MHz), 2155 to 2165 MHz or 1890 to 1900MHz/1970 to 1980MHz have been made available by the regulators for assignment. The NTC wants to bar existing 3G frequency holders and their affiliates from applying for the last license.

Globe, according to regulatory affairs head Froilan Castelo, opposes this, saying the cellular firm cannot be lawfully disqualified from applying for the remaining frequency band. “How can the best-qualified be disqualified?” asked the Globe lawyer.

The NTC conducted a public hearing in January for this purpose. In that hearing, it was stated that the proposed rules for bidding out the remaining 3G frequency are a continuation of the 2005 circular issued for the same purpose. Only four frequency slots were awarded.

Castelo opined that if the NTC considers the proposed rules as a continuation of its 2005 promulgation—where four out of the nine firms were deemed qualified to apply for 3G frequencies—then only the same four qualifiers should be allowed to join the auction.

But since Connectivity Unlimited Resource Enterprise Inc. (Cure) was acquired by Smart Communications Inc. last year, there remain only three possible assig-nees—Globe, Smart and Digitel Mobile Philippines Inc. “As a continuation of the 3G spectrum assignment memorandum circular of 2005, the five applicants disqualified then are still disqualified now. Since Globe, Smart and Digitel are existing 3G spectrum assignees, now disqualified under the draft rules, it would appear that the entire telecommunications industry at large is effectively restricted from gaining access to the remaining 3G spectrum and from utilizing the same for public service,” said Castelo.

Globe added that the consequence of the so-called continuation is the disqualification of existing telcos, “presumably in favor of a new player or two.”

Express Telecom, which did not apply a 3G license in the previous occasion, is now actively pursuing a comeback, openly declaring its intention to be a 3G player.

Not surprisingly, Express Telecom favored the NTC draft rules and even told the commission that it wants previously disqualified 3G applicants—Bayan Telecommunications Inc., AZ Communications, Multimedia Telephony Inc., Pacific Wireless and Next Mobile Inc.—to be excluded from the new frequency assignment process.

Globe said that even if new applicants will still be entertained, they will be hard-pressed to use the cellular spectrum. Globe cited the case of Cure, which never sustained viable operations since its 3G spectrum assignment in January 2006. “Cure was eventually acquired by Smart last year, alleviating its pressure to cope with commercial dues. On the side, it is alarming to note that the said acquisition resulted in an unfairly disproportionate allocation of 3G frequencies among incumbents—25Mhz for Smart and only 10Mhz each for Globe and Digitel,” said Castelo.

The cellular firm said there are other ways of fostering a competitive environment other than adding new players to an already fiercely competitive industry. Globe urged the NTC to keep the remaining 3G radio frequencies within grasp of companies which have truly proven their ability to make the best use of the scarce resource.

“Hence, there should be no outright disqualification of existing 3G spectrum assignees; rather, a qualification process evolved from the one employed in 2005 to cull out the best qualified ought to be applied on the very same current assignees. The most sensible track for the assignment of the remaining 3G frequencies is to allow the qualified parties to face off-ideally in a beauty contest, but in open tender if necessary should demand exceed supply,” said Castelo.

Globe said it has invested over $250 million into 3G mobile and broadband technologies and services since 2006. As of October 2008, Globe has more than 1,800 3G cellsites, extending its 3G footprint across 66 of the 79 provinces.

It had applied for additional 3G spectrum twice last year. On March 5, it requested the NTC to be assigned the 825-845/870-890 MHz band to expedite 3G service deployment in rural areas. On May 16, Globe applied for the same 3G frequencies that are the subject of the current draft circular in order to increase capacity for higher 3G HSDPA (high-speed data packet access) transmission rates.

3G Standards

2009-04-12T03:08:00.002-07:00

The dream of 3G is to unify the world's mobile computing devices through a single, worldwide radio transmission standard. Imagine being able to go anywhere in the world secure in the knowledge that your mobile phone is compatible with the local system, a scenario known as "global roaming". Unfortunately, the process of unifying the numerous international standards has proved to be extremely difficult. After difficult negotiation, a 3G "standard" called IMT-2000 emerged as a rather unsatisfactory compromise. IMT-2000, in fact, represents several incompatible standards lumped together under one banner. The hope of IMT-2000 is that phones using these different standards will be able to move seamlessly between all networks, thus providing global roaming.

The rather fragmented nature of IMT-2000 has resulted in a proliferation of confusion acronyms (e.g., TDMA, UMTS, EDGE) often referred to as "alphabet soup". Possibly the most important acronym to remember is "UMTS": this is the 3G standard for Europe and Japan.

UMTS is the successor to the current ultra-successful GSM mobile phone standard in Europe. UMTS is being very heavily sold as the 3G standard (some sources use the terms "3G" and "UMTS" synonymously, though this is really not correct and just adds to the confusion).

The main global competitor to UMTS is CDMA2000, the 3G standard developed in the U.S. by Qualcomm. UMTS and CDMA2000 look set to battle it out for global supremacy. However, other less-publicised standards will not let those two have it all their own way. It is hoped that the following guide will act as a roadmap through the confusing subject of 3G standards. Let's start by stepping back a "G"...

GPRS and 3G Wireless Networks

2009-04-12T03:08:00.001-07:00

Abstract:
The Mobile Cellular Systems have evolved very rapidly in the past few years. Starting from the First Generation Systems which supported only speech we now have systems which offer varied kind of services like audio-video, Internet access, facsimile etc. In this report, fist of all an introduction to Mobile cellular concepts is presented. This is followed by discussion of GPRS and UMTS (Third Generation) Cellular Systems in greater detail. The architecture of both the systems is discussed in detail.

Telecom Carriers Unveils 3G Network Construction Plans

2009-04-12T03:05:00.000-07:00

BEIJING, Apr 10, 2009 (SinoCast Daily Business Beat via COMTEX) -- CHUFF | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- Top executives for China's three integrated telecom carriers disclosed their 3G network construction progress and plans for the near future at the 2009 Mobile Communication Industry Summit Forum on April 9.
China Unicom Vice President Zhang Fan said that the company aims to achieve seamless switch between 3G and 2G networks. The 2G network, which has been upgraded, will undertake the traditional voice business. As for the 3G network, all base stations will be deployed with high-speed downlink packages access (HSDPA) and high-speed uplink packet access (HSUPA), with down-link speeds up to 14.4Mbit/s and up-link speeds up to 5.76Mbit/s.

Zheng Qibao, general manager for China Telecom strategy division, forecasted that the telecom operator's investment in base stations will leap 80% by the end of July 2009. Taking over the CDMA business in July 2008, China telecom saw its mobile phone subscribers increase 1.7 million in this February.

China Mobile plans to build approximately 140,000 TD-SCDMA new base stations in 2009-2011. The TD-SCDMA network is expected to cover 70% of the country at the end of 2009 and cover all Chinese cities at 2011-end. Totally, the number of TD-SCDMA base stations will top 160,000 by then.

Sprint's new ads stress savings, 3G network

2009-04-12T03:04:00.001-07:00

Last month, I celebrated the fact that Sprint was killing its bizarre ad campaign with CEO Dan Hesse. Reader response to the blog was divided--some readers said they liked the ads, while others shared my joy. A Sprint spokesperson even chimed in to say that the ads "ranked among the best wireless ads in recent months for memorability."

Sprint also was good enough to send me its press release for two new TV, billboard, and Internet ad campaigns. The first, which (surprise!) features the Palm Pre (at least someone gets to touch it), revolves around Sprint's Now Network, aka the carrier's wireless broadband network. The central message appears to be the breadth of Sprint's network and the services, information and communication available on it. The campaign launched April 6.

You can see the video on YouTube and Sprint has launched a "Sprint Now widget" that gives you a taste of the campaign. On the widget is a treasure trove of random facts that will fascinate the trivia buff.

You'll find everything from Sprint-related factoids, such as how many text messages are being sent to the carrier's network, to the very non-Sprint-related, such as how many babies are being born right now. You'll also find completely useless information, such as how many people are stuck in elevators are this moment.

From the start, I found the widget utterly compelling, even if it was a little much for the eyes to take in at once. Why you need all the little people walking over the various tiles (see the widget), I don't know.

Yet, I dare to say that it could influence people to switch to Sprint. While it doesn't tell you why Sprint is better, it can get you excited about technology, communication, and the speed at which the two are conveyed. Bunker types may find it frightening, but that's a fair trade-off. You can download the widget if you wish, and I'm certain it will be available on the Pre once the phone goes on sale.

In another series of ads, which launched April 3, the emphasis is on saving money in a tight economy. According to Sprint's press release, "Sprint continues to emphasize that individuals and families can save a great deal on their wireless bills if they switch to Sprint from AT&T or Verizon." Perhaps you can't save by switching from T-Mobile.

I'll have to catch the full campaigns for my final verdict, but as long as I'm not watching Hesse walk through a black-and-white New York City (with the occasional Sprint yellow), I think it's an improvement. The San Francisco-based agency Goodby, Silverstein & Partners produced both campaigns.

T-Mobile expands its 3G network

2009-04-12T03:03:00.000-07:00

T-Mobile USA plans to have more than 20 markets lit with 3G coverage when it begins selling the first ever Google Android phone in October. But will it be enough to entice smartphone consumers to choose the HTC Dream over the iPhone 3G or even the BlackBerry Bold?

The verdict is still out on that one.

Even though the Android-based HTC Dream hasn't been officially announced, most people believe it will support 3G speeds when T-Mobile unveils it next week. And given the fact that it will compete head-to-head with Apple's iPhone 3G and newer versions of Research in Motion's BlackBerry devices, it really needs to be 3G.

The biggest problem for T-Mobile has been its nearly nonexistent 3G network. T-Mobile launched its 3G service in New York in May. Since then, it has added service in 12 other markets including, Austin,Texas, Baltimore, Boston, Dallas, Houston, Las Vegas, Miami, Minneapolis, Phoenix, Portland, Ore., San Antonio, and San Diego.

And on Thursday T-Mobile said it would expand its 3G coverage from 13 markets to 27 markets by the end of the year. The expansion will provide 3G access to more than two-thirds of T-Mobile's current customer base, the company said. T-Mobile also plans to keep expanding coverage in 2009.

By mid-October, when the HTC Dream hits the market, the company will expand 3G coverage to additional markets including, Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, Orlando, Fla., Philadelphia, Sacramento, Calif., San Francisco, and Seattle. And by the end of the year, six more markets will get 3G: Birmingham, Ala., Denver, Detroit, Kansas City, Memphis, Tenn., and Tampa, Fla.

Getting the 3G service up and running in as many markets as possible is key to T-Mobile's overall strategy. But even with the planned network expansion, T-Mobile will still be woefully behind its competitors when it comes to its 3G coverage.

Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel have the largest 3G footprints. AT&T plans to have 3G deployed in 350 markets by the end of the year, but it has still been criticized for not having enough of its network covered with 3G to satisfy some iPhone 3G users. T-Mobile's lack of 3G coverage could lead customers--even those who are hot to try an Android phone--willing to wait for a different Android handset on another carrier's network.

3G phone network standards vary by carrier

2009-04-12T03:02:00.001-07:00

If you’re among the growing number of Americans using the Web or e-mail on your phone, the quality of that experience depends on your cell phone company's data network. Wireless carriers all make similar promises of blazingly fast mobile Internet, even more so now with 3G, or third-generation, wireless.

A speedy network with a strong signal brings faster-loading Web pages, quick e-mail delivery and smoother video streams on the go. Of course, sluggish data speeds and lousy network coverage means you'll likely wait until you get to work or home before jumping online via computer.

So what are the differences between the mobile Internet technologies and networks of AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Sprint and T-Mobile, the four major carriers in the United States?

T-Mobile Launches 3G Modem

2009-04-12T03:00:00.001-07:00

Catering to users who want a constant cellular connection to their laptops, T-Mobile has unveiled its new WebConnect USB Laptop Stick. According to the Seattle Times, the USB stick modem is equipped with up to 8GB of storage capacity, has a slot for a micro SD card and comes with a SIM card.

The portable modem enables users to connect to the Web from their laptop using T-Mobile's 3G network or Wi-Fi. In addition, the WebConnect USB Laptop Stick includes T-Mobile Connection Manager software which automatically detects the best means of connectivity for the user, says CNET News. The device also features tri-band 3G connectivity making it usable when a user is traveling abroad. It's also compatible with GPRS/EDGE so users will still be able to connect to the Web when in an area without 3G.

T-Mobile's WebConnect USB Laptop Stick will be available today in select T-Mobile retail stores. The device by itself costs $250, $100 with a one-year service contract, or $50 with a two-year service contract. The monthly plan runs $60 for 5GB of wireless data.

Why 3G?

2009-04-12T02:57:00.000-07:00

3G provides accelerated data speeds and simultaneous voice and data capabilities for an amazing wireless voice and data experience.

Access CV for faster on-demand viewing of high quality video clips from your favorite TV shows, news, sport and weather
Surf the wireless Internet faster and significantly lower your wait for page loads
Download files and access email faster from favorite providers like Yahoo!, MSN, and AOL.
Multi-task while you are on a call—search for movies times, look up directions, or send messages.
Get more done with faster access to email and internet. AT&T LaptopConnect gives you the power of the AT&T network while you’re on the go
How fast is AT&T’s mobile broadband 3G network?

AT&T offers the nation’s fastest 3G network. 3G speeds for supported devices deliver:

Typical download speeds of 700 Kbps—1.7 Mbps
Typical upload speeds of 500 Kbps—1.2 Mbps

Technology
The AT&T 3G network uses HSDPA/UMTS technology (High Speed Downlink Packet Access/Universal Mobile Telephone System), which makes it possible to enjoy a variety of feature-rich wireless services. It also gives AT&T the advantage of offering simultaneous voice and data services. That means you can talk and use the Internet at the same time. How's that for multitasking?

Availability
Check the coverage viewer for mobile broadband 3G coverage in your area.

Disclaimer: 3G network not available in all areas

Disclaimer: Referenced speeds require an HSDPA 3.6Mbps / HSUPA capable device with Receive Diversity and/or Equalizer. BroadbandConnect speed claims based on our network tests without compression using 3MB data files. 3G devices not enabled with HSUPA support typical upload speeds of 220-320kbps based on our network tests without compression using 500KB data files for upload. Actual throughput speed varies.

AT&T Mobile 3G Network to Support Blazing 20 Mbps Speeds

2009-04-12T02:55:00.000-07:00

Those on AT&T who are not enjoying the carrier's speeds on connectivity may have the possible summer launch of a new iPhone to thank. Ma Bell is supposedly performing massive network upgrades in preparation for a possible June iPhone launch according to Gizmodo. According to the report, AT&T may up its current network speeds of 7.2Mbps on the 3G mobile data network to 14.4 Mbps, with some coverage areas to receive an upgrade to 10 Mbps.

In addition to increasing the data speed, the carrier is said to be switching its data from the 1900 MHz frequency to the 850 MHz frequency. The 850 MHz frequency is credited for holding better signal strength and can operate better in densely populated areas with buildings and trees.

3G services expected to boost economy

2009-04-12T02:54:00.000-07:00

For operators, the issuance of 3G licenses means the beginning of a new round market competition; for equipment suppliers, it means there will be a huge investment cake worth RMB280 billion yuan in the future three years; for subscribers, 3G means the bandwidth of cell phone surfing will be sharply increased and the charge will be cheaper and cheaper. For 3G itself, 3G is a service market. Both the construction and operation of 3G will promote a new development for telecommunication manufacturers.

Wen Jiabao, Premier of State Council, stated when delivering government work report on The 2nd Session of The 11th National People's Congress on March, 5th that technological R&D and industrialization shall be supported and promoted, including such aspects as new energy, biology, medicine, 3G mobile communication, 3-network integration, energy conservation and environmental protection. Before it, only after one week that State Council Executive Meeting approved the initiation of 3G licenses, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of P.R.C. (MIIT) issued 3G licenses to three major operators promptly.

In the early January, MIIT announced that China Mobile Communications Corporation (China Mobile) had been approved to add TD-SCDMA-based 3G business operating permission, China Telecommunications Corporation (China Telecom) had been approved to add CDMA2000-based 3G business operating permission, and China United Network Communications Corporation Limited (China Unicom) had been approved to add WCDMA-based 3G business operating permission.

For operators, the issuance of 3G licenses means the beginning of a new round market competition; for equipment suppliers, it means there will be a huge cake in the market; for subscribers, 3G means the bandwidth of cell phone surfing will be sharply increased and the charge will be cheaper and cheaper. What's more important, under the current international financial crisis, 3G construction will not only benefit expanding domestic demand and promoting economic stable and rapid development, but also benefit expediting industrial enterprises' structural adjustment and industrial competitiveness upgrade.

Drive RMB2 trillion yuan social investment

Li Yizhong, Minister of MIIT, once revealed that in accordance with their own development plans of the telecom operators approved to operating 3G licenses, around RMB280 billion yuan is planned to directly invest on 3G in 2009 and 2010. Experts analyst that 3G construction could promote the shape-up of such a communication industrial chain that includes 3G network construction, terminal equipment manufacture, operating service and information service. In the future three years, it will even drive the social investment worth nearly RMB2 trillion yuan and drive China's GDP up 0.5 to 1 percent.

Our reporter learned that since the beginning of this round of telecom reorganization, for the sake of taking positive position in the future 3G operation, the three major operators had finished the upgrade and capacity expansion of the current network and the equipment public bidding successively. Besides the former initiated TD network construction, China Unicom is expediting the internal test on the first batch of WCDMA trial network in such eight cities as Shanghai, Shenzhen, Foshan, Liuzhou, Zhengzhou, Baoding, Wuhan and Wuxi. In this month, China Unicom will officially conduct WCDMA equipment public bidding, and the first batch of WCDMA network will be officially opened in May. According to plans, China Unicom will finish the network distribution in big cities before the mid-2009, and realize the network operation in middle-and-above-level cities before the end of 2009.

Due to technologies, the speed on upgrading and transforming China Telecom's CDMA network will be faster. Industrial experts estimated that China Telecom would be such an operator that could provide overall 3G services the earliest, and the time of upgrade from current CDMA network to 3G-version CDMA2000 only need one month. An insider in Guangdong China Telecom revealed that Guangdong China Telecom would have a mature capacity on issuing 3G numbers by the mid of this year.

"Operators will turn their focus on trying their best to construct 3G network. And the situation of the operators in the future five to ten years will depend on the competitive strength in 3G era. Therefore, under this network construction strategy, it is very likely that operators will take short time and high quality as a goal, not dragging but seeking for quick success." This will play a huge promoting role in the overall telecom industrial chain and national economy development. Liu Yunjie, Director of Science & Technology Committee of China Unicom, believed that the 3G license issuance in China will even play a huge promoting role in the global stagnant market.

Zeng Jianqiu, Professor and Doctoral Advisor of Economics and Management School of Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, believed that the driving of 3G demand will be a continuous course and unlikely to invest several hundred billion Renminbi all at once. Issuing 3G mobile communication licenses will exert significant function in driving domestic demand, optimize the competitive structure in telecommunication market and advancing the maturity of TD-SCDMA industrial chain. Speaking in such an aspect, 3G doesn't play industrial cards but national cards. Under the challenge to global economic development, 3G will become a powerful weapon to resist international financial crisis.

3G demand will be released gradually

Zeng Jianqiu also expressed that the driving of 3G demand will be a continuous course, especially in the big country China, to promote 3G networks comprehensively needs several years. Meanwhile, the driving of 3G has a chain relation. 3G itself is a service market. The 3G construction and operation will enable telecom manufacturers have a new development. 3G will play a positive role in driving domestic demand, including promoting the development of China's 3G and global 3G. With the official issuance of 3G licenses in China, telecom operators, equipment manufacturers, cell phone manufacturers and even investors in share market are all itching to share the cake. Seen from the experience of overseas 3G operations, 3G network investment construction will drive the growth of telecom equipment manufacturers' revenue, and the promotion of 3G business will enhance operators' ARPU and their business expansion capacity in some extent. Some consumers expressed that although the 3G operation cost in the early stage is relatively higher, and the price is possibly higher, with the rapid growth of the group using cell phone to surf in the internet, the competition of the three major operators will be fiercer, and the charge on mobile data business will be lower and lower.

Meanwhile, while China's three major operators are expediting 3G network construction, they will also make full efforts to fasten the development of 3G business to let 3G be used widely in terms of education, art, science, office, entertainment, communications, business, work, daily life, health care, first-aid treatment and disaster relief. Therefore, with the new impact of 3G on the consumption mode of information era, compared with the consumption demand stimulated by 3G constructions, the investment scale for the construction only takes up a small part.

Lv Tingjie, Dean of Economics and Management School of Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, expressed that the year of 2009 mainly focuses on the fundamental infrastructure construction. Various application developments have an exploring course, so the promotion speed will be low. It is estimated that the blowout growth of 3G application will emerge in the second half of 2009 or in the early of 2010.

CDMA 3G Variants (in the IMT-2000 Family)

2009-04-12T02:53:00.002-07:00

In this section we cover the following
:: cdma2000
:: cdma2000 1X-EV-DO
:: cdma2000 1X-EV-DV
:: cdma2000 3X

CDMA aficionados are rigorously promoting a technically benign upgrade of existing cdmaOne (IS-95) CDMA networks to faster cdma2000 technology, a CDMA 3G standard that they say can provide the same level of 3G service claimed by W-CDMA/UMTS promoters. There are various types of cdma2000 types, explained below.

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cdma2000 1X
The 1xEV specification was developed by the Third Generation Partnership Project 2 (3GPP2), a partnership consisting of five telecomnunications standards bodies: CWTS in China, ARIB and TTC in Japan, TTA in Korea and TIA in North America.It is also known as High Rate Packet Data Air Interface Specification. It delivers 3G-like services up to 140 kbps peak rate while occupying a very small amount of spectrum (1.25 MHz per carrier), protecting this precious resource for operators.

cdma2000 1X EV-DO
1X EV-DO, also called 1X-EV Phase One, is an enhancement that puts voice and data on separate channels in order to provide data delivery at 2.4Mbit/s. It was developed by the Third Generation Partnership Project 2 (3GPP2), a partnership consisting of five telecomnunications standards bodies. Also known as High Rate Packet Data Air Interface.

cdma2000 1X EV-DV
EV-DV, or 1X-EV Phase Two with promises of data speeds ranging from 3Mbps to 5Mbps. As many as eight proposals have been submitted to standards committee 3GPP2 for the design of EV-DV

cdma2000 3X
CDMA2000 3x is an ITU-approved, IMT-2000 (3G) standard. It is part of what the ITU has termed IMT-2000 CDMA MC. It uses 5 Mhz spectrum (3x 1.25 Mhz channels) to give speeds of around 2-4 Mbps.

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This first phase of cdma2000 - variously called 1XRTT, 3G1X, or just plain 1X - is designed to double current voice capacity and support always-on data transmission speeds 10 times faster than typically available today, some 153.6 kbps on both the forward and reverse links.

Handset standby times also increase by up to 50%. Users will also be able to benefit from enterprise and consumer applications requiring more bandwidth, including personal information management, telemetry, corporate intranet access, video conferencing, gaming and music on demand.

The increase in voice and data capacity stems inter alia from advances in modulation algorithms, new IP backbones, and new chipsets that support up to 32 simultaneous users on a single chip, a four-fold increase over the previous generation.

While the cdma2000 specification allows for an evolutionary migration to later advances in cdma2000 that use core IP networks and voice-over-IP, the current 1X migration requires relatively modest hardware and software upgrades to existing cdmaOne infrastructure. Even then, operators can upgrade to 1X without having to implement it throughout their entire cdmaOne network, which means they can upgrade certain hotspots that require voice capacity enhancements or higher data speeds.

The strategy also aims to reduce technological risks by phased enhancements of networks with medium rate data services, and then later evolve to higher rate data services so as to avoid uncertainties of ROI that currently cloud the UMTS 3G vision.

cdma2000 can be deployed in existing spectrums such as 1900MHz along with an existing cdmaOne system, overlaying its new feature set and increased capacity on the existing cdmaOne networks. Most importantly, it uses existing (and paid for) 1.25 MHz spectrum.

Handsets using cdma2000 technology will also be backward compatible to the existing cdmaOne networks, so current handsets and features will operate over next generation networks providing continued access both at home and while roaming. Operators who deploy 3G with 1X will still have roaming with worldwide CDMA operators on their cdmaOne networks. Dual mode handsets that allow TDMA/cdma2000 interoperability may also augment the business case for a move by TDMA operators to cdma2000.

The flexible migration from cdmaOne provides a series of upgrades leading to cdma2000's increased voice capacity and Megabit 3G data rates, allowing each operator to upgrade when its individual market requirements dictate without significantly upgrading infrastructure or purchasing new spectrum.

IMT-2000

2009-04-12T02:53:00.001-07:00

In all, these technologies fall under the ITUs generic name of IMT-2000 (International Mobile Telecommunications 2000). But when the ITU tried to unify and standardise 3G technologies, no consensus was reached. There were thus five terrestrial standards developed as part of the IMT-2000 program. Instead, depending on where in the world 3G will be implemented, the 3G standard will be based on CDMA variants cdma2000 or W-CDMA.

CDMA (See our CDMA section)

2009-04-12T02:52:00.000-07:00

The new 3G services are almost all flavours of technolgies based on the generic name, CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access). CDMA is a digital wireless technology that allows multiple users to share radio frequencies at the same time without interfering with each other. A telephone or data call is assigned a unique code that distinguishes it from others and and since the signals hop among different frequencies.
Current 2G services using the original CDMA "IS-95" technology are know as cdmaOne. 3G services will use new high-speed versions of CDMA called W-CDMA, or its competing technology, cdma2000. (More on CDMA)

3G Overview

2009-04-12T02:50:00.000-07:00

:: 3G Defined
3G (Third Generation) is a generic name for a set of mobile technologies set to be launched by the end of 2001 which use a host of high-tech infrastructure networks, handsets, base stations, switches and other equipment to allow mobiles to offer high-speed Internet access, data, video and CD-quality music services.
Data speeds in 3G networks should be show speeds of to up to 2 Megabits per second, an increase on current technology.

:: 2G/2.5G Defined
GSM for example is a 2G technology. It uses TDMA technology, proving data speeds of 9.6kbps/14.4kbps. The packet radio upgrade to GSM, called GPRS, can have speeds of up to 114kbps. GPRS an interim technology towards 3G, and hence is known as 2.5G. GSM might go the same way as the older first generation (1G) NMT and AMPS networks in 8-15 years because of the use of newer and better UMTS technology (More on GSM) ; (More on GPRS)

The 10 Most and Least Affordable Cities in the US

2009-02-22T08:08:00.000-08:00

The National Association of Home Builders has released their Housing Opportunity Index covering the most and least affordable cities in the country. Here's a quick rundown of the top 10 metropolitan areas with a population over 500,000.
View Larger Map
Ten Least Affordable Cities
1. New York-White Plains-Wayne, NY-NJ2. San Francisco-San mateo-Redwood City, CA3. Nassau-Suffolk, NY4. Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale, CA5. Miami-Miami Beach-Kendall, FL6. Santa Ana-Anaheim-Irvine, CA7. El Paso, TX8. Newark-Union, NJ-PA9. Honolulu, HI10. Seattle-Bellevue-Everett, WA
Ten Most Affordable Cities
1. Indianapolis-Carmel, IN2. Warren-Troy-Farmington Hills, MI3. Youngstown-Warren-Boardman, OH-PA4. Detroit-Livonia-Dearborn, MI5. Grand Rapids-Wyoming, MI6. Syracuse, NY7. Dayton, OH8. Akron, OH9. Cleveland-Elyria-Mentor, OH10. Scranton-Wilkes-Barre, PA
If the big city isn't your thing, you may be more interested in checking into the most and least affordable cities under 500,000:
Ten Least Affordable Cities with a Population Under 500,000
1. San Luis Obispo-Paso Robles, CA2. Ocean City, NJ3. Santa Cruz-Watsonville, CA4. Napa, CA5. Flagstaff, AZ6. Medford, OR7. Bend, OR8. Mount Vernon-Anacortes, WA9. St. George, UT10. Laredo, TX
Ten Most Affordable Cities with a Population Under 500,000
1. Lansing-East Lansing, MI2. Sandusky, OH3. Lima, OH4. Springfield, OH5. Bay City, MI6. Battle Creek, MI7. Canton-Massillon, OH8. Saginaw-Saginaw Township North, MI9. Utica-Rome, NY10. Binghamton, NY
For more fun stats brought to you by NAHB and Wells Fargo, be sure to head to the official Housing Opportunity Index page below. For a slightly different take, check out last year's guide to the best US cities to live, work, and play. Let's hear how the NAHB's list matches up to your expectations (good god, Ohio!) in the comments.
NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index (HOI) [via Consumerist]

Belt-Clip Your Cellphone for Better Battery Life

2009-02-22T08:06:00.000-08:00

Former Valleywag consigliere Paul Boutin offers up a handful of great, low-tech fixes to your high-tech gadget issues. One of them involves getting your cellphone away from your warm pocket to boost its battery life.

Photo by hsiqueira.

If you're planning to be away from your charger for a stretch, Boutin finds evidence that keeping your phone on a belt clip, away from your 98.6 body oven, or in a hotel fridge overnight, can actually get you a bit more juice.

"Cellphone batteries do indeed last a bit longer if kept cool," says Isidor Buchanan, editor of the Battery University Web site. The 98.6-degree body heat of a human, transmitted through a cloth pocket to a cellphone inside, is enough to speed up chemical processes inside the phone's battery. That makes it run down faster. To keep the phone cooler, carry it in your purse or on your belt.

Most of the other low-tech work-arounds for gadget issues in the New York Times article have been covered here before, including:

Amplifying your keyless entry/car key fob with your head
Drying out soaked gadgets with rice
Boost your wireless signal with homemade wifi extender
Boutin recommends straight-up liquor or Listerine for CD cleaning; we've previously recommended bananas, toothpaste, and Pledge for similar results.
Saving your crashed hard drive in the freezer.

One (relatively) new and notable technique the article suggests for getting more ink out of wasteful cartridges is using a hair dryer:

"The heat from the hair dryer heats the thick ink, and helps it to flow through the tiny nozzles in the cartridge," says Alex Cox, a software engineer in Seattle. "When the cartridge is almost dead, those nozzles are often nearly clogged with dried ink, so helping the ink to flow will let more ink out of the nozzles." The hair dryer trick can squeeze a few more pages out of a cartridge after the printer declares it is empty.

So even if some (okay, most) of this advice seems familiar, the article makes for a great forward or print-out for family and friends always hitting you up for a little gadget triage. Got a favorite low-tech save for seemingly Ph. D problems? Share it in the comments.

Low-Tech Fixes for High-Tech Problems [New York Times]

Five Best Windows System Tray Applications

2009-02-02T05:34:00.000-08:00

The Windows system tray can be so much more than a parking lot for programs you don't want cluttering up your task bar. Read on to see the five most popular tray tools readers can't live without.

Earlier this week we asked you to share your favorite applications system tray applications, with an emphasis on applications that exist primarily in the tray. It was a broader topic to be sure but you replied in force and we've compiled a list of the top five contenders for the crown of best system tray application.

UltraMon
It speaks of the popularity of multi-monitor setups that UltraMon is such a popular system tray application. UltraMon is so feature packed it's nearly impossible to take a single screenshot that captures the usefulness of the application. The most obvious feature UltraMon add from the system tray is the addition of two buttons to the title bar of all open applications. The two buttons you see in the screenshot here—the dual triangles and the box with the arrow in it—allow you to instantly expand a window across all monitors or reduce it to one and to sling a window from one monitor to another with out having to drag or resize. That feature alone is invaluable when you're dealing with dozens of windows across multiple screens, but that barely scratches the surface. UltraMon allows you to create custom shortcuts so applications will always end up the size you specify on the screen you want. You can set up multi-monitor friendly screensavers and wallpaper with Ultramon and enable the Smart Taskbar—a tool that extends your taskbar space across all available monitors. UltraMon isn't free—nor is the $40 price tag pocket change in the current economy—but for users in a multi-monitor environment it would be tough to get more value for your money.

Taskbar Shuffle
Taskbar Shuffle has the distinction of being not only a popular application in this Hive Five but also the only application that actually acts upon the system tray itself. After installing Taskbar Shuffle, you can indulge your inner—and slightly obsessive compulsive—nerd to your hearts content arranging and rearranging the items on your taskbar and system tray. If you've ever been annoyed as hell that somehow an application icon you really want visible in the system tray somehow keeps ending up tucked out of sight, Taskbar Shuffle is a free and effective solution for liberating your programs from their cement shoes. In addition to the obvious and useful program dragging, you can also close applications by clicking their taskbar button with the middle mouse button, tweak the way Windows groups similar taskbar buttons, and assign a keyboard hotkey to keep you from accidentally shuffling things around with some furious productivity-fueled clicking. As an added bonus, Taskbar Shuffle works with the aforementioned multi-monitor Smart Taskbar provided by UltraMon.

AutoHotKey
AutoHotkey is a macro-scripting tool with scripts that—when running—reside in the system tray. The strongest selling point of AutoHotkey is that the scripting language it uses is extremely accessible to new users—especially those with no programming experience. You can use AutoHotkey to do everything from creating simple time-saving typing macros—turning every typed instance of btw into by the way, for example— to creating complex applications, like our very own Texter. Additionally you can also create simple interfaces to allow user input into the scripts and even save your AutoHotkey scripts as executables to use them as portable applications or send them to friends. If all of that seems a bit overwhelming check out our guide to turning any action into a keyboard shortcut—an excellent guide to getting started with AutoHotkey. If you're not interested in writing your own scripts that doesn't mean you can't take advantage of the excellent scripts others have written—check out the posts we've written about AutoHotkey scripts and browse the Scripts section of the AutoHotkey community forum to find scripts.

Digsby
If you're looking to cut down on the number of programs cluttering up your system tray and taskbar, Digsby combines the functionality of many separate applications into one. Once configured, Digsby allows you to chat with friends on AIM, MSN, Yahoo Chat, ICQ, Google Talk, Jabber, and Facebook Chat. Additionally you can receive notifications and check email accounts including popular services like Gmail, Hotmail, or any service that supports IMAP or POP. Right from the overview box in Digsby you can mark emails as read or flag them as spam. As if combing most popular chat platforms and email services together wasn't enough to sell most people, Digsby also supports alerts and updates on popular social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Myspace and LinkedIn. From both a time and screen-space saving aspect Digsby is a gem.

Dropbox
Dropbox is a remote file storage and syncing service. The magic behind Dropbox may reside on a distant server, but the convenience sits in the system tray as an always available link to your Dropbox sync folder. Anything you need to access from a remote location can be dragged into the Dropbox sync folder and within moments it will be uploaded to your Dropbox account. Readers have raved about Dropbox since we offered invites to the beta test last summer; thankfully it's no longer in beta, so anyone can sign up. By far the biggest selling point is the dead simple file syncing and the ample-for-most-purposes free 2GB of remote storage. Many readers have noted that thanks to the speed and simplicity of Dropbox they have forgone toting their files around on flash drives. To take Dropbox beyond simply syncing copies of your TPS Reports check out how to use it to sync your Firefox installations and how to use it as the ultimate password syncer.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now that you've seen the top five applications that bring joy to your fellow readers' system trays, it's time to vote on which one is to be crowned King of the Tray.

If you have your own system tray treasures and tips to share, sound off in the comments below!

The Best New Windows 7 Keyboard Shortcuts

2009-01-17T09:12:00.000-08:00

No matter what OS you use, keyboard shortcuts are a one-way ticket to enhanced productivity (plus you look awesome to friends and colleagues); Windows 7 has more cool new shortcuts than you can shake a stick at.

Windows 7 boasts a lot of great new shortcuts, but I'm focusing on several of my favorites. Check out the video above for a closer look. For those of you who prefer text to video, here are all of the shortcuts I highlighted:

Win+Home: Clear all but the active window
Win+Space: All windows become transparent so you can see through to the desktop
Win+Up arrow: Maximize the active window
Win+Down arrow: Minimize the window/Restore the window if it's maximized
Win+Left/Right arrows: Dock the window to each side of the monitor (If you've got dual monitors, adding Shift to the mix (e.g., Win+Shift+Right arrow) will move the window to the adjacent monitor.)
Win+T: Focus and scroll through items on the taskbar.
Win+P: Adjust presentation settings for your display
Win+(+/-): Zoom in/out
Shift+Click a taskbar item: Open a new instance of that application

Got a favorite shortcut of your own now that you've installed the Windows 7 Beta? Let's hear about it in the comments. (Apologies for the poor video quality... tried something new, but clearly it didn't work out.)

Windows 7 Shortcuts Enables the Best Win7 Shortcuts in XP or Vista

2009-01-17T09:08:00.000-08:00

Windows only: If you like the look of Windows 7's great new keyboard shortcuts but aren't planning to upgrade for a while, Windows 7 Shortcuts enables some of the best Win7 shortcuts for XP and Vista.

Windows 7 Shortcuts was submitted by Lifehacker reader Rupert and was written in one of our favorite scripting languages, AutoHotkey. Right now, Windows 7 Shortcuts supports the following keyboard shortcuts:

Included:
Win+Left/Right arrows: Dock the window to each side of the monitor
Win+Up arrow: Maximize the active window
Win+Down arrow: Minimize the window/Restore the window if it's maximized

Partially Included
Win+Space: Note from the developer: AHK won't allow multiple windows to be made transparent easily. Therefore, I've changed it to make the active window transparent until it is released.

If you're an AHK user, you can grab the source and paste it into the script you use daily. If not, download the EXE by clicking the Download link above.

Windows 7 Shortcuts is a free download, Windows only.

HyperSnap-DX 6.40.02

2009-01-17T09:06:00.000-08:00

2009.01.13 HyperSnap 6.40.01 released

Updated user interface with several "skins" to choose from on the "Options" menu - "Application Look".

Image tabs may be configured to be positioned above or below the image area, have different colors and properties. Right-click on a tab displays a short menu to close or save an image and to customize the tabs.

Corrected auto-scroll to work with Google Chrome browser.

Added File/Save command to the menu (in addition to "Save As..." that was always there)

Moved "Close All" command from Window to File menu.

Corrected a bug that caused sometimes HyperSnap to print multiple copies of an image, when only one copy print was requested.

Automatic capture processing, such as converting to black & white, substituting colors, adding a shade or frame, inserting stamps - will turned off and you need to manually turn it on when you exit and restart HyperSnap. If you do need to preserve these options at all times, add "-ra" command line option to the shortcut you use to start HyperSnap (see online help, "Command line usage" chapter).

HyperSnap-DX 6.40.02

Windows Update

2009-01-14T08:29:00.000-08:00

Microsoft makes the second release candidate of Windows XP Service Pack 3 publicly available for testing purposes. If you're feeling like giving your XP some early adopter love, run a registry modification program to install SP3 RC1 via Windows Update. But be warned the release notes are kinda "eh." Update: Or just download it directly from here. Tx, Prospero!

Windows XP Service Pack 3 and Vista SP1 Now on Windows Update

2009-01-14T08:28:00.000-08:00

Windows only: We know it's kind of pathetic to get all excited about something as mundane as a service pack—yet here we are, hearts all a-patter because XP SP3 and Vista SP1 have been unleashed on Windows Update and at the Microsoft Download Center. Get thee to patching your PC! Why should you? Our complete field guide to XP Service Pack 3 holds all the answers.

Windows Search 4.0 Available on Windows Update

2009-01-14T08:27:00.000-08:00

Windows only: Windows Search 4.0, an updated version of the desktop/web search tool that was introduced with Vista, is now officially available for Windows XP and Vista through Windows Update. As was the case with the technical preview, Windows Search 4.0 boasts faster and deeper indexing, better handling of email cataloging, support for encrypted documents, and a new system tray interface. Windows Search 4.0 is free and being rolled out gradually, but you can grab it manually from a link at this page.

See Your System's Upgrades with WinUpdatesList

2009-01-14T08:26:00.000-08:00

Windows only: WinUpdatesList, a free utility for Windows, lets you see what updates your system has grabbed during its existence, and provides quick links to Microsoft Knowledge Base articles related to each one. Why would you use this instead of heading to the Windows Update server, you ask? If you're without internet and want to see which update borked your system, perhaps, or if you want to pre-download and slipstream updates into a custom-made Windows install CD. Since it's a self-contained app, no real installation is required, so use and discard at your discretion. WinUpdatesList is a free download for Windows systems (except Vista).

How to uninstall Internet Explorer 7

2009-01-14T08:24:00.000-08:00

Luckily, you can remove IE7 from your Windows XP PC using Control Panel's "Add/Remove Programs." Nice to know it's not more permanently glommed onto Windows' innards.

Download of the Day: IE7Pro (Windows)

2009-01-14T08:23:00.000-08:00

Windows only: Freeware Internet Explorer add-on IE7Pro adds several features - such as crash recovery, mouse gestures, ad filters, and more - to Internet Explorer 7.

Naturally, if you can use Firefox, that'd be our first recommendation if you want any of these features. Our second recommendation would be Opera. Finally, if you refuse the alternatives, no matter your strange and twisted reasons, IE7Pro's crash recovery alone is worth the download (I don't know how I lived without session saving in Firefox). For more tools to build up Internet Explorer to make it more like Firefox, check out ieSpell and Inline Search. IE7Pro is freeware, Internet Explorer 7 only (Windows). — Adam Pash

IE7Pro [via Google Operating System]

Download of the Day: Internet Explorer 7 Release Candidate (Windows)

2009-01-14T08:21:00.000-08:00

Microsoft takes Internet Explorer 7 out of beta and makes the release candidate of IE 7 available for download this morning. The 'softies say:

The RC1 build includes improvements in performance, stability, security, and application compatibility. You may not notice many visible changes from the Beta 3 release; all we did was listen to your feedback, fix bugs that you reported, and make final adjustments to our CSS support.
The RC installation requires not one but TWO restarts (it uninstalls any existing IE7 version first), plus it does a virtual pat-down and "validates" your copy of Windows AND it runs the Malicious Software Removal tool to make sure all's kosher on your PC. After all that, you're exhausted, but the new version does have a much speedier startup. IE7 RC is a free download, Windows only. Thanks, Stone! — Gina Trapani

Internet Explorer 7 [Microsoft via IEBlog]

IE Alias Adds Address Bar Shortcuts to Internet Explorer

2009-01-14T08:20:00.000-08:00

Windows only: Add Firefox-style address bar shortcuts with IE Alias, a free add-on for Internet Explorer 7. While address bar alias shortcuts—as in typing "lh" to get to Lifehacker.com—have been available in packages such as IE7Pro (original post), IE Alias' tool adds the nifty ability to open multiple URLs with the same shortcut, giving Internet Explorer the same kind of "Open All in Tabs" convenience of, well, Firefox. IE Alias is a free download for Windows systems and Internet Explorer 7 only.

Temporarily Disable Flash in Internet Explorer with Toggle Flash

2009-01-14T08:19:00.000-08:00

Windows/IE7 only: Nothing's better than heading to a web page to find some information and being greeted with a slow-loading, over-the-top Flash intro, right? For distracting, crash-causing, or otherwise troublesome animated pages, Toggle Flash, a free Internet Explorer 7 add-on, soothes the pain pretty quickly. Once you've installed the toolbar button, a single click turns off Flash functionality in the background; click again, hit refresh, and the videos, animations, and other Flash elements return. It's small, it uses no background memory, and it just works. Toggle Flash is a free download for Windows systems and Internet Explorer 7 only; hit either link below for help getting the button to show up on your toolbar.

Windows internet explorer 7 Drops Windows Validation

2009-01-14T08:02:00.000-08:00

Microsoft removed the Windows Genuine Advantage validation requirement from Internet Explorer 7 late last week and re-released it as a "High Priority" update. It might just be a move to increase IE7's share of the browser market, but those trying to run the browser on virtual machines, or side-by-side with IE 6, might avoid a few headaches. Those unhappy with the unexpected upgrade can still remove IE7 in the Control Panel through "Add/Remove Programs."

Windows Update Downloader Makes Slipstreaming Updates Simple

2009-01-14T08:00:00.000-08:00

Windows only: Free utility Windows Updates Downloader is a seriously convenient tool for anyone starting over with a fresh Windows re-installation (such as a slipstreamed XP installation with SP3 pre-loaded), or anyone who wants to make their updates portable for later installation. Once installed, you have to point the app at an "Update List" for Windows XP or Vista (or Office 2003, if that's installed). Hitting "+" doesn't seem to point to the right page, which is here. Once the list is loaded, you can grab any of Microsoft's current updates as executable packages, easily plugged into a slipstreaming tool or run by themselves on a system that needs it. Perfect for managing big updates on multiple systems, and saving wait-and-download time on a re-installation. Windows Updates Downloader is a free download for Windows systems only.

PIM Backup Backs Up Windows Mobile Data

2009-01-14T07:59:00.000-08:00

Windows Mobile only: The free PIM Backup utility makes backup copies of your appointments, call logs, contacts, messages, speed dials, tasks, and even folders and file types you specify. PIM Backup jobs run manually or on a schedule you set. While traveling and far away from my home computer, PIM Backup saved me from a big headache when I had to hard reset my Windows Mobile phone: with all my personal data backed up on the removable mini SD card in the phone, the time from hard reset to restored data was less than 10 minutes. We've covered how to back up your Windows Mobile device's content to the web with DashWire, but PIM Backup comes in handy for file backup without using your handheld's data connection. PIM Backup is a free download for Windows Mobile 6/5/2003SE.

Disable Windows Vista's User Account Control with TweakUAC

2009-01-14T07:53:00.000-08:00

Windows Vista only: You're installing a bunch of software, and Windows Vista's "Need your permission to continue" prompts are driving you mad. You already know how to disable User Account Control and its annoying prompts, but that method requires a restart. New utility TweakUAC can "quiet" Vista's permission prompts temporarily without the restart while you tool around with Vista's innards, and re-enable them with a click. TweakUAC is a free download for Vista only.

Customize Windows XP and Vista with VistaTweaker

2009-01-14T07:51:00.000-08:00

Windows only: Freeware app VistaTweaker makes customizing Windows a breeze. Very similar to the previously-mentioned Vispa, VistaTweaker has easier to navigate menus and can be used (with limited functionality) in Windows XP. VistaTweaker's interface is grouped in easy to navigate tabs with categories for: system, UI, IE, software, network, and performance. What makes VistaTweaker particularly convenient is that each "tweak" has a detailed description of exactly what it does.

If you haven't already tweaked your system with Vispa, VistaTweaker looks to be a simpler utility to accomplish the same tasks. Somewhat annoyingly, VistaTweaker does not yet indicate which tweaks are specific to Vista (though it is promised in the next release). VistaTweaker is a free, stand-alone executable for Windows XP and Vista currently in beta. Thanks, GHETTO CHiLD!

Get Virtual Desktops on Vista

2009-01-14T07:46:00.000-08:00

Windows Vista only: Microsoft still hasn't updated Windows XP PowerToys for Vista, but you can still get multiple desktops with the free Vista Virtual Desktop Manager beta. Once the software's installed, use key combo's to navigate the desktops, which are mighty pretty with Vista's super-duper video capabilities:

* Windows Key + Z - Show the fullscreen "switcher"
* Windows Key + W - Pop up the window menu for the active window
* Windows Key + Numpad 1...9 - Switch to the corresponding desktop, if it exists
* Windows Key + Arrow Down/Right - Switch to the next desktop
* Windows Key + Arrow Up/Left - Switch to the previous desktop

The beta isn't completely stable just yet, so do proceed with caution. The Vista Virtual Desktops Manager is a free download for Windows Vista only.

XP Stays Alive till 2010

2009-01-14T07:45:00.000-08:00

Today Microsoft announces that they will extend the amount of time manufacturers can ship low cost PCs with Windows XP until 2010. Clearly someone in Redmond is reading Lifehacker.

Windows XP's Availability Extended Until May 2009

2009-01-14T07:44:00.000-08:00

Presumably due to its popularity—and Vista's low adoption rates—Microsoft has extended Windows XP's life from January till May of 2009. The BBC reports that hardware firms will be able to get XP licenses delivered up until May 30, 2009, instead of January 30, the original cutoff date.

Install the Windows Vista Sidebar in XP

2009-01-14T07:42:00.000-08:00

Windows only: If you're in no hurry to adopt Windows Vista but you've taken a shine to the Vista Sidebar, Joshoon over at Deviant Art has uploaded a port of the actual application to Windows XP. Using a combination of resources such as Alky for Applications, a Windows Vista to XP compatibility client, and the sidebar extracted from Vista the port allows XP users to run Vista Sidebar. Users can grab additional sidebar gadgets directly from Microsoft and experience the same functionality as they would with the sidebar on a Vista system. If you're running Windows XP and looking for something to round out real estate on your widescreen monitor this might just be it. For other sidebar candidates and general Vista goodness, check out how to get the best features of Vista in XP. The Windows Vista Sidebar pack is free, Windows XP only.

Add Vista-like taskbar window previews to Windows XP

2009-01-14T07:41:00.000-08:00

Free software Visual Tooltip can give you Vista's pretty taskbar window previews in XP.
The How-To Geek site details how to tweak Visual ToolTip so it displays a thumbnail when you mouse over a window's entry on the taskbar. Looks like a no-Vista-needed way to quickly locate the window you need with a swipe of the mouse. — Gina Trapani

Windows XP Lives

2009-01-14T07:40:00.000-08:00

Rumors that Microsoft would release Windows XP Service Pack 3 this week aren't true; but if you're feeling adventurous, the folks in Redmond did make the second release candidate of XP SP3 available for download today. [via]

Use Vista cursors in XP

2009-01-14T07:38:00.000-08:00

Looking to spruce up the look of Windows XP? Installing the Vista cursor theme is an easy way to do so, and the Alan Le weblog demonstrates the simple process. After downloading and unzipping the cursors, right click on install.inf and select install. You can then go into Mouse Properties and change your cursor theme. The change is subtle, but nice. Not ready to make the switch to Vista? Here are a few ways you can get Vista's look and feel in XP. Thanks, Dylan!

Dual boot Windows XP on a pre-installed Vista PC

2009-01-14T07:37:00.000-08:00

You just got a new PC with Windows Vista pre-installed, and you want to dual-boot Windows XP for old programs - or just nostalgia's sake. You already know how to dual-boot Windows Vista on your XP machine, but you can also set up Windows XP to boot from a separate partition on your Vista PC.

First you'll need to repartition your hard drive inside Vista, install Windows XP on that new partition, and then use previously-mentioned VistaBootPro to set up your bootloader. A poster at the ProNetworks forum has the detailed rundown, along with helpful screenshots. —Gina Trapani

Install Windows XP in a Dual Boot with Pre-installed Windows Vista [ProNetworks]

Windows XP Tips

2009-01-14T07:36:00.000-08:00

Yahoo! News offers up their top 10 Windows XP tips of all time. They've covered a wide range of topics from display tips to bits on how to increase disk space and performance.

This tip is one of our favorites because it always works. Running in the background of Windows are scores of services, small processes used by Windows and many Windows applications. The thing is, you don't need all these services — especially for applications you never use — and many of them actually slow your PC down.
Top 10 Windows XP Tips Of All Time [Yahoo! News]

Fireclip Brings Mac-Like Web Clipping to Firefox

2009-01-13T09:39:00.000-08:00

Windows/Mac/Linux (Firefox): Fireclip, a free plug-in that monitors specific sections of web pages, puts the at-a-glance convenience of the OS X widget screen in a Firefox tab.

Using Fireclip is darned easy. Activate with a shortcut (Alt+Q) or from the Tools menu, and its sidebar pops out. Hit "Select Clip," and you can mouse around to see the pre-defined sections of the page. Click once, and you'll be asked to re-size your selection with the familiar two-directional arrows at the edges of your area. Double-click inside the area, and it's locked in:

You don't have to be precise at all with your selections, so leave any dead space or visual cues you want around the edges. Opening Fireclip's page with the same shortcut gives you a space you can re-arrange however you'd like with your clips:

So, okay, Fireclip actually works and all, but what use would it be to the average surfer? Amit Agarwal's screencast of Fireclip might explain it better than my words:

Fireclip is a free download, works wherever Firefox does. I encountered a recurring pop-up ad while launching the clips page, but wasn't sure whether it was Fireclip itself or one of my clips.

Google Quick Search Like Quicksilver from Google

2009-01-13T09:38:00.000-08:00

Mac OS X only: We've been crazy about Quicksilver—a free application launcher for Macs—for years now. Today Google is releasing a new search-and-launch application called Google Quick Search developed by Nicholas Jitkoff, the developer of Quicksilver.

Like Quicksilver, Google Quick Search not only searches for and launches files and applications—it also can drill down into content and perform context-specific actions. So, for example, Google Quick Search indexes my Address Book contacts; if I perform a quick search to pull up my contact card, I can hit Tab to drill down into possible actions to perform—like composing an email or starting an IM chat.

Google Quick Search integrates with Spotlight, so it's not reinventing the wheel, either. Where it really covers new ground, however, is its integration with Google search. Much like the previously mentioned Google Mobile iPhone App, Google Quick Search offers as-you-type search results from both your desktop and the web. It features quick and easy site-specific searches (also just like Google Mobile for iPhone), indexes items from your Google account (Google Docs and Picasa Web Albums, for now, but presumably more to come), and even offers handy keyboard shortcuts to quickly start a new site-search (for example, invoke Google Quick Search and hit Cmd-3 for Wikipedia).

The application is currently just a prototype, so expect to see some rough edges. That said, in my experience with it so far, it's been smooth and responsive for such an early release. It's feature set isn't up to the level you'd expect from Quicksilver, but it's a great start, and an exciting application to keep an eye on. Google Quick Search is a free download, Mac OS X only. Best of all: It's open source—just like Google Chrome. If you give it a try, let's hear what you think in the comments.

Revealed: the environmental impact of Google searches

2009-01-11T08:21:00.000-08:00

Performing two Google searches from a desktop computer can generate about the same amount of carbon dioxide as boiling a kettle for a cup of tea, according to new research.

While millions of people tap into Google without considering the environment, a typical search generates about 7g of CO2 Boiling a kettle generates about 15g. “Google operates huge data centres around the world that consume a great deal of power,” said Alex Wissner-Gross, a Harvard University physicist whose research on the environmental impact of computing is due out soon. “A Google search has a definite environmental impact.”

Google is secretive about its energy consumption and carbon footprint. It also refuses to divulge the locations of its data centres. However, with more than 200m internet searches estimated globally daily, the electricity consumption and greenhouse gas emissions caused by computers and the internet is provoking concern. A recent report by Gartner, the industry analysts, said the global IT industry generated as much greenhouse gas as the world’s airlines - about 2% of global CO2 emissions. “Data centres are among the most energy-intensive facilities imaginable,” said Evan Mills, a scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California. Banks of servers storing billions of web pages require power.

Related Links
How you can help reduce the footprint of the Web
Though Google says it is in the forefront of green computing, its search engine generates high levels of CO2 because of the way it operates. When you type in a Google search for, say, “energy saving tips”, your request doesn’t go to just one server. It goes to several competing against each other.

It may even be sent to servers thousands of miles apart. Google’s infrastructure sends you data from whichever produces the answer fastest. The system minimises delays but raises energy consumption. Google has servers in the US, Europe, Japan and China.

Wissner-Gross has submitted his research for publication by the US Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and has also set up a website www.CO2stats.com. “Google are very efficient but their primary concern is to make searches fast and that means they have a lot of extra capacity that burns energy,” he said.

Google said: “We are among the most efficient of all internet search providers.”

Wissner-Gross has also calculated the CO2 emissions caused by individual use of the internet. His research indicates that viewing a simple web page generates about 0.02g of CO2 per second. This rises tenfold to about 0.2g of CO2 a second when viewing a website with complex images, animations or videos.

A separate estimate from John Buckley, managing director of carbonfootprint.com, a British environmental consultancy, puts the CO2 emissions of a Google search at between 1g and 10g, depending on whether you have to start your PC or not. Simply running a PC generates between 40g and 80g per hour, he says. of CO2 Chris Goodall, author of Ten Technologies to Save the Planet, estimates the carbon emissions of a Google search at 7g to 10g (assuming 15 minutes’ computer use).

Nicholas Carr, author of The Big Switch, Rewiring the World, has calculated that maintaining a character (known as an avatar) in the Second Life virtual reality game, requires 1,752 kilowatt hours of electricity per year. That is almost as much used by the average Brazilian.

“It’s not an unreasonable comparison,” said Liam Newcombe, an expert on data centres at the British Computer Society. “It tells us how much energy westerners use on entertainment versus the energy poverty in some countries.”

Though energy consumption by computers is growing - and the rate of growth is increasing - Newcombe argues that what matters most is the type of usage.

If your internet use is in place of more energy-intensive activities, such as driving your car to the shops, that’s good. But if it is adding activities and energy consumption that would not otherwise happen, that may pose problems.

Newcombe cites Second Life and Twitter, a rapidly growing website whose 3m users post millions of messages a month. Last week Stephen Fry, the TV presenter, was posting “tweets” from New Zealand, imparting such vital information as “Arrived in Queenstown. Hurrah. Full of bungy jumping and ‘activewear’ shops”, and “Honestly. NZ weather makes UK look stable and clement”.

Jonathan Ross was Twittering even more, with posts such as “Am going to muck out the pigs. It will be cold, but I’m not the type to go on about it” and “Am now back indoors and have put on fleecy tracksuit and two pairs of socks”. Ross also made various “tweets” trying to ascertain whether Jeremy Clarkson was a Twitter user or not. Yesterday the Top Gear presenter cleared up the matter, saying: “I am not a twit. And Jonathan Ross is.”

Such internet phenomena are not simply fun and hot air, Newcombe warns: the boom in such services has a carbon cost.

Boost Performance by Checking IDE Drive Transfer Mode

2009-01-08T07:07:00.000-08:00

If you're struggling with decreased performance on a Windows based machine, it's a simple fix to check to make sure your IDE drives aren't operating in a slower, ineffective transfer mode.

When fresh from the box—or your workbench— your computer should have had all it's IDE drives set in Direct Memory Access mode. This is a far speedier method of disk access than Programmed Input/Output mode. The technical side of the two modes is dense but let it suffice: DMA is a the fast and preferred method and PIO mode is the slower method Windows defaults to after having six redundancy checks fail. Things like power outages, doing a hard reset and other disk interruptions can cause these errors. Your Windows box may be operating in the slower transfer mode because mistakenly thinks that your system is unstable or that there is something wrong with your disks. The fix for your computer downshifting into PIO mode is simple. Go to your Control Panel, click on the System icon, open up your Device Manager and pull up the properties for your Primary and Secondary IDE channels. Under the Advanced settings tab you'll be able to set the Transfer Mode to "DMA if available". Reboot and you should be in business. MakeUseOf has a full step by step guide with screenshots if you'd like a visual reference.

gOS 3.1

2009-01-08T07:06:00.000-08:00

gOS, the Ubuntu-derived Linux desktop that's focused squarely on Google products and other webapps, has updated with newer versions of its core products, including the Windows-app-running WINE, Firefox 3, and support for newer Google Gadgets.

If gOS is new to you, check out Adam's tour of its monstrous webapp powers. Along with some pretty refined theming and taskbar implementation of the standard Ubuntu look, gOS can run as a fully-fledged Linux system in itself.

gOS 3.1 is a free download, requires an x86-based computer with 256MB of RAM to run or install.

Bulk Edit Tags on Delicious

2009-01-06T08:55:00.000-08:00

It's tucked away, but bookmarking site Del.icio.us now offers bulk tag editing (in, of course, beta) for group tagging/un-tagging and sharing/un-sharing. Helpful stuff, especially for pesky tag typos. Thanks Gergo!

iTunes May Drop Most Copy Protection, Vary Prices

2009-01-06T08:54:00.002-08:00

The good news: CNET has sources saying the three largest music labels will allow Apple to offer music downloads free of copy-protection. And the bad news might not be that bad.

In exchange for the DRM-free tracks, Apple will reportedly allow labels to push three tiers of pricing. Older songs from the archives will likely get cheaper than 99 cents, songs that are newer and "midline" (i.e. not big hits) will inhabit the familiar 99 cent mark, and newer, bigger hits will fetch higher, unnamed dollar amounts.

If announced at the Macworld conference today—which our gadget-obsessed cousins at Gizmodo are, of course, covering live—there could also be over-the-air 3G downloads coming to iPhone owners, and DRM dropped from everything in the iTunes store on launch. As Greg Sandoval at CNET points out, though, that leaves a question mark on tracks already purchased through iTunes.

Will variable, DRM-free pricing make you a (new or returning) iTunes customer? Tell us your take in the comments.

Why Your Self-Handicapping Excuses Don't Work (And How to Fix Them)

2009-01-06T08:54:00.001-08:00

The New York Times takes a revealing look at self-handicapping excuses—like "I barely slept the night before the test"—and why we create them, as well as the extremely unlikely chance that anyone else buys them.

The short version of the research and studies cited is that we all do it, in varying amounts, to protect our fragile egos. It's a two-way victory: If you ace a project, you did great despite your car having trouble, your cat dying, being sick, and not having hardly heard the initial presentation. If not, well, hey, you know why.

If you're a regular self-handicapper, though, you can grow too attached to whatever you use without knowing it, whether it's alcohol, rule-defying, sleep-deprivation, or whatever convenience you cling to. Those who study self-handicapping, though, offer a seemingly devious way to go at it another way and benefit—namely, get someone else to deliver your excuses:

In a recent study, James C. McElroy of Iowa State University and J. Michael Crant of Notre Dame had 246 adults evaluate the behavior of characters in several workplace anecdotes. The participants’ impressions of a character began to sour after the second time the person cited a handicap.

“What happens here is that if you do it often, observers attribute your performance to you, but begin to view it as part of your disposition, i.e., you’re a whiner,” Dr. McElroy wrote in an e-mail message. “But you can avoid this happening if someone else does the handicapping for you, and surprisingly enough, even if they do it often.”

Which cliched excuses and handicapping preambles do you wish you could banish, whether in yourself or co-workers? Let's hear your take on pre-emptive defeat in the comments. Photo by pattista.

10 Things To Do When You Are Losing RSS Subscribers

2009-01-06T08:50:00.001-08:00

Today, the blog set a new RSS milestone and broke 44K readers for the first time. RSS going up is something we all like to see. However, what do you do when your RSS is going down? This guest post by Steven York of SEOpher has the answers. You can subscribe to Steven’s RSS feed here.

While it can be argued that watching your statistics is a mild form of madness (and counter productive as discussed at Problogger), if you care about making it as a blogger you have to care about your metrics. I strongly believe that your RSS feed is one of the biggest indications as to whether your blog is growing or not; visitors come and go like the tides but people subscribing to your feed indicates quality of content.

So what do you do if you see your RSS figures dropping? Well there are a few good ways to take a step back and work out where you’re going wrong. Here is my 10 step guide to rescuing your blog:

1. Is It Just a One Time Drop?

About a dozen times this year the number of subscribers to my feed has dropped by 500 or so overnight; for a super-sized blog with 25,000 subs that isn’t so much an issue, when I have 700 it’s rather noticeable. The first thing to do is not panic - you won’t have actually lost these subscribers it’s more likely to be a glitch with Feedburner or something, so just sit back and maybe write some killer content to ensure tomorrow is a new high.

2. Are You Actively Writing?

Sometimes taking a break from blogging is enough to see a small but steady decline in subscribers; fortunately this is the easiest one to resolve - just start writing again! Your readers will pick up again. If you’ve got a mailing list then it’s worth broadcasting that you’re writing again.

3. Is There Any Interactivity?

One of the biggest problems people face with their blogs is involving the reader. Posts that offer little more than a narrative on events/news within the niche don’t give the user any reason to hang around, whereas asking your readers questions or inviting feedback will help ensure your RSS feed doesn’t decrease.

4. Look at your latest content - can someone learn anything from it?

Have a look back over the past month of blog posts and ask yourself whether readers would learn anything from them? One of the biggest factors for ensuring readers return is offering them useful advice - whatever your niche, if you can ensure the reader goes away with something new then there’s every chance that they’ll come back.

5. This Point Could Literally Save Your Life

Not really, but it highlights one of the most crucial aspects of blogging and attracting an audience - writing sensationalist titles. You could be writing killer content but if you’re not selling it with the title then people aren’t interested in reading it. If people aren’t reading it, they’re certainly not subscribing to read more of it… See what I’m saying? Be descriptive and sexy in your titles and you’ll see an improvement in subscribers.

6. Run a Competition!

Ask people to subscribe via Email to your RSS feed - then using Feedburner you can get a spreadsheet of all confirmed Email subscribers; after a predetermined period of time you can randomly pick a winner. This will encourage feed subscriptions and if you follow rules 3, 4 and 5 you should be able to convert a few users. Remember, you don’t necessarily have to give away money - if you’ve got a skill you could market that as a prize. Hell, a day of my time as a consultant is comfortably $500 and that’s not a bad prize in itself. Be creative! Talk to friends, see if anyone has anything they want plugged…

7. Collaborate with Other Bloggers

Sharing readers can be a great way to increase your blog’s reach so if you’ve got friends within the niche talk to them, see if you can come to some arrangement about cross-promoting the blogs. Having guest authors raises the profile of your site and you get to share visitors - some of them might subscribe to your list too.

8. Be Honest, Be Personal and Challenge Yourself

One of the things I hate most about reading blogs is how impersonal some are; sometimes all you seem to read are loosely disguised promotions of affiliate campaigns and brags of success - to really connect to the average reader you need to be humble. Sure aspirational posts are good but I find it really hard to connect with some of the superstars because the amount of money they earn (John included) is just astronomical. These superstars can be bold about such things because they CAN earn that much. You’re probably not one of them, so be humble and honest and your readers will reward you with their attention.

9. Boast About The Things That You Do Well - But Be Constructive

If your subscribers are waining a little then it might be worth boasting about something you’ve done well (earned $1000 in one month blogging? Then explain how!). People want to read pieces of content with achievable goals, so explain exactly how you got there and you’ll attract readers. Reached #1 for a specific popular search term? Been front-paged on Digg? Mentioned in mainstream press? It’s a little like blowing your own trumpet but as bloggers we have to!

10. Last Resort, Speak To a Few of Your Readers

If all else fails and you’re still losing subscribers then it’s time to get back in touch; speak to a few subscribers you do have and ask what content they would like to see more of. It’s sometimes hard to put yourself directly in the shoes of your readers so speak to them - they’re just normal people like you! They won’t bite. Ask what content they like, what they don’t like etc. You might find the answers a little surprising. Canvas enough opinion (maybe even post a poll on your blog) and you should get an idea of what content works best for your readers - meaning you can cater to it a little closer to get your blog back to fighting weight.

Tabhunter Adds Faster Tab Switching to Firefox

2009-01-05T20:27:00.000-08:00

Firefox only (Windows/Mac/Linux): The Tabhunter Firefox extension adds quick keyboard-based tab switching to Firefox—sort of like Launchy for Firefox tabs. Just invoke Tabhunter, start typing, and Tabhunter searches for a match through all your tabs.

Tabhunter searches only the titles of your open pages, but the search is very fast and works as advertised. You can invoke Tabhunter from the keyboard (Ctrl+Alt+T by default), start typing, and find the tab you want more quickly than you can likely switch over to your mouse and back.

Granted, Tabhunter is decidedly for keyboard shortcut lovers, but if you fall in that group and you regularly have a browser full o' tabs, it's a great extension. Tabhunter is a free download, works wherever Firefox does. If you're not quite into the idea, I've always liked previously mentioned LastTab for boosting my tab-switching skills. Unfortunately it's been buggy for me ever since Firefox 3, so Tabhunter is a welcome entry. Either way, your mileage may vary. Let's hear what you prefer in the comments.

Stanza Turns Your iPhone into a Kindle

2009-01-05T20:24:00.000-08:00

iPhone/iPod touch only: If recession budgeting meant choosing an iPhone/iPod touch over a Kindle when the dust cleared this holiday season, you're in luck: Stanza is a free and fantastic ebook reader for your iPhone.

The free application comes pre-loaded with several sources for downloading free or public domain books (including the entire Project Gutenberg library), so you can easily download books like The Art of War, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, or Walden in just a few seconds without spending a dime.

However, if you want to get new books, Stanza also comes with a bookstore with which you can purchase popular new titles as well. Prices range from $8 to $15 based on the books I browsed. The reader itself is fully customizable, so if you don't like the standard black text on white background look, you can just as easily pick something that suits you. Stanza is a free download for the iPhone or iPod touch.

If you can't imagine reading from your iPhone or iPod touch in public, consider turning your iPhone into a Moleskine book so it still appears to onlookers like you're reading dead-tree style.

The most vulnerable to hackers to crack the 500 network password

2009-01-05T20:19:00.000-08:00

People just started using a password, not long, it was found that many people use the same password repeatedly, even misspelled also ran the same password. In fact, precisely because of people's passwords can be set up by speculation, most hackers will use the following form commonly used passwords. From the 500 most commonly used passwords, you can see the safety awareness of how weak the person is dangerous. If you see in the table their own commonly used passwords, quickly replaced it. We should know that every password listed below are at least hundreds of other people used.
some interesting password, they show people trying to express themselves smart, but people can also be small smart unpredictable ... ... to look at the following interesting Password:

ncc1701: Galaxia No. ships enterprises.

thx1138: George Lucas first film's name, it is a student work on the earlier re-production.

qazwsx: classic left-hand side of the keyboard letters.

666666:6 months 6

ou812: Van Halen album 1988 album's title.

8675309: Tommy Tutone band's 1982 song mentioned a figure.

It is said that there are about 1 / 9 of at least the following used a password, and there are 1 / 50 people who used the top 20 worst password.

Watch it, the password is not case-sensitive via:

NO

Top 1-100

Top 101-200

Top 201-300

Top 301-400

Top 401-500

1

123456

porsche

firebird

prince

Rosebud

2

password

guitar

butter

beach

jaguar

3

12345678

chelsea

united

amateur

great

4

1234

black

turtle

7777777

cool

5

pussy

diamond

steelers

muffin

cooper

6

12345

nascar

tiffany

redsox

1313

7

dragon

jackson

zxcvbn

star

Scorpio

8

qwerty

cameron

tomcat

testing

mountain

9

696969

654321

golf

shannon

madison

10

mustang

computer

bond007

murphy

987654

11

letmein

amanda

bear

frank

brazil

12

baseball

wizard

tiger

hannah

lauren

13

master

xxxxxxxx

doctor

dave

japan

14

michael

money

gateway

eagle1

naked

15

football

phoenix

gators

11111

squirt

16

shadow

mickey

angel

mother

stars

17

monkey

bailey

junior

nathan

apple

18

abc123

knight

thx1138

raiders

alexis

19

pass

iceman

porno

steve

aaaa

20

fuckme

tigers

badboy

forever

bonnie

21

6969

purple

debbie

angela

peaches

22

jordan

andrea

spider

viper

jasmine

23

harley

horny

melissa

ou812

kevin

24

ranger

dakota

booger

jake

matt

25

iwantu

aaaaaa

1212

lovers

qwertyui

26

jennifer

player

flyers

suckit

danielle

27

hunter

sunshine

fish

gregory

beaver

28

fuck

morgan

porn

buddy

4321

29

2000

starwars

matrix

whatever

4128

30

test

boomer

teens

young

runner

31

batman

cowboys

scooby

nicholas

swimming

32

trustno1

edward

jason

lucky

dolphin

33

thomas

charles

walter

helpme

gordon

34

tigger

girls

cumshot

jackie

casper

35

robert

booboo

boston

monica

stupid

36

access

coffee

Braves

midnight

shit

37

love

xxxxxx

yankee

college

saturn

38

buster

bulldog

lover

baby

gemini

39

1234567

ncc1701

barney

cunt

apples

40

soccer

rabbit

victor

brian

august

41

hockey

peanut

tucker

mark

3333

42

killer

john

princess

StarTrek

canada

43

george

johnny

mercedes

sierra

blazer

44

sexy

Gandalf

5150

leather

cumming

45

andrew

Spanky

doggie

232323

hunting

46

charlie

winter

ZZZZZZ

4444

kitty

47

superman

brandy

gunner

beavis

rainbow

48

asshole

compaq

horney

bigcock

112233

49

fuckyou

carlos

bubba

happy

arthur

50

dallas

tennis

2112

sophie

cream

51

jessica

james

fred

ladies

calvin

52

panties

mike

johnson

naughty

shaved

53

pepper

brandon

xxxxx

giants

surfer

54

1111

fender

tits

booty

Samson

55

austin

anthony

member

blonde

kelly

56

william

blowme

boobs

fucked

paul

57

daniel

ferrari

donald

golden

mine

58

golfer

cookie

bigdaddy

0

king

59

summer

chicken

Bronco

fire

racing

60

heather

maverick

penis

sandra

5555

61

hammer

chicago

voyager

Pookie

eagle

62

yankees

joseph

rangers

packers

hentai

63

joshua

diablo

birdie

einstein

newyork

64

maggie

sexsex

trouble

dolphins

little

65

biteme

hardcore

white

0

Redwings

66

enter

666666

TopGun

chevy

smith

67

ashley

willie

bigtits

winston

sticky

68

thunder

welcome

bitches

warrior

cocacola

69

cowboy

chris

green

sammy

animal

70

silver

panther

super

slut

Broncos

71

richard

yamaha

qazwsx

8675309

private

72

fucker

justin

magic

zxcvbnm

skippy

73

orange

banana

lakers

nipples

marvin

74

merlin

driver

rachel

power

blondes

75

michelle

marine

slayer

victoria

enjoy

76

corvette

angels

scott

asdfgh

girl

77

bigdog

fishing

2222

vagina

apollo

78

cheese

david

asdf

toyota

parker

79

matthew

maddog

video

travis

qwert

80

121212

hooters

london

hotdog

time

81

patrick

wilson

7777

paris

sydney

82

martin

butthead

Marlboro

rock

women

83

freedom

dennis

Srinivas

xxxx

voodoo

84

ginger

fucking

internet

extreme

magnum

85

blowjob

captain

action

redskins

juice

86

nicole

bigdick

carter

erotic

abgrtyu

87

sparky

chester

jasper

dirty

777777

88

yellow

smokey

monster

ford

dreams

89

camaro

xavier

teresa

freddy

maxwell

90

secret

steven

jeremy

arsenal

music

91

dick

viking

11111111

access14

rush2112

92

falcon

snoopy

bill

wolf

russia

93

taylor

blue

crystal

nipple

scorpion

94

111111

eagles

peter

ILOVEYOU

rebecca

95

131313

winner

pussies

alex

tester

96

123123

samantha

cock

florida

mistress

97

bitch

house

beer

eric

phantom

98

hello

miller

rocket

legend

billy

99

scooter

flower

theman

movie

6666

100

please

jack

oliver

success

albert

Make Your Own SAD Light Box

2009-01-04T08:34:00.001-08:00

Boris wanted to build a light box for his sister, who suffers from Seasons Affective Disorder, a disorder brought on by lack of exposure to bright light in darker winter climates.

My sister suffers from seasonal affective disorder, also known as winter depression. A commonly prescribed therapy is light therapy - about thirty minutes of bright light in the morning. Bright in this context means more than 10 000 Lumens. You can of course buy commercial light-boxes, but I wanted to construct one by myself.

He neglects to point out that commercial light boxes can run $200+ and that building you own is a really economical choice. By repurposing a wooden filing box from Ikea, buying some compact fluorescent bulbs and some basic light sockets he was able to craft a very serviceable light box for his sister that exceeded the 10,000 Lumen requirement by nearly 6,000 Lumens.

Stanza Turns Your iPhone into a Kindle

2009-01-04T08:31:00.000-08:00

Bookmarklet Add-on Stand-ins for Google Chrome

2009-01-02T08:26:00.001-08:00

The ReadWriteWeb blog bemoans the lack of browser extension support in Google Chrome (so far), and offers a list of handy bookmarklets that can tide you over for now.

From Gmail This, to Dictionary, to Delicious 'marklets, this collection looks a lot like our top 10 useful bookmarklets. Of course, bookmarklets don't take up the memory or require installation like add-ons do, so these are worth dragging to your Firefox toolbar as well.

Display Your Unread Message Count in the Gmail Favicon

2009-01-01T08:22:00.000-08:00

Firefox with Greasemonkey: The Gmail Unread Message Count in Favicon Greasemonkey user script displays your unread message count on the Gmail site favicon.

If you're not familiar with the concept of the favicon, it's the small icon that appears next to the address bar or in the tab and helps identify which sites are open in which tab (like the little 'lh' that Lifehacker uses as its favicon). With this script installed, the favicon gets even more useful by showing your unread count in addition to identifying which tab holds your Gmail account. The unread number glows brighter with each new message you receive, and it maxes out at 10. The improved favicon is a perfect compliment to the previously mentioned FaviconizeTab extension, which strips all the text from tabs so all you're left with is the favicon, but I also wouldn't be surprised to see this incorporated in Better Gmail sometime in the future (it's very similar to the already included Show Inbox Count First script).

It's a simple little script, but it's a brilliant tweak. Gmail Unread Message Count in Favicon is a free download, requires Firefox and the Greasemonkey extension.

The Great 2008 Reader Poll Results Recap

2008-12-29T03:57:00.000-08:00

Lifehacker readers are nothing if not smart and opinionated. Let's take a look back at what you had to say about 2008's biggest tech questions in the top 12 reader polls we ran this year.

Photo by ldcross.

While we ran dozens of polls this past year, these are the top 12 questions that got the most responses in total in 2008. Click on each question to read more about the question at hand and see the percentages other responses received.

We asked:
What's your Linux distribution of choice?
49% of you said:
Ubuntu (10,606 out of 21,536 votes)

We asked:
Is Google Chrome with extensions enough to get you to switch?
28% of you said:
Hells yeah. Those separate tabbed processes are killer, and as soon as I can customize the browser with extensions, I"m in. (4,078 out of 14,454 votes)

We asked:
Do multiple or widescreen monitor(s) make you more productive?
69% of you said:
Multiple Monitors (8,608 out of 12,455 votes)

We asked:
Where's your Windows taskbar?
60% of you said:
Bottom (7,052 out of 11,682 votes)

We asked:
Which feature has you most eager to try Windows 7?
33% of you said:
The souped-up taskbar (3,647 out of 11,123 votes)

We asked:
Location awareness: Is it cool or creepy?
54% of you said:
Creepy. (4,641 out of 8,641 votes)

We asked:
If you had the choice, would you opt into a four-day workweek?
80% of you said:
Heck yes! I"d save money on gas, get more done in a day, AND get a three-day weekend every week. (6,880 out of 8,556 votes)

We asked:
What kind of server are you running at home?
29% of you said:
Straight-up Linux/Unix, run from a command line. (2,117 out of 7,218 votes)

We asked:
What's the best smartphone operating system you've used?
35% of you said:
iPhone 2.0 (2,477 out of 7,075 votes)

We asked:
Do you run an antivirus app on your Mac?
42% of you said:
Never have, and I don't plan on starting. (2,972 out of 7,032 votes)

We asked:
Are you living beyond your means?
49% of you said:
No (3,337 out of 6,806 votes)

We asked:
How long does it take your computer to boot to the login screen?
33% of you said:
30-60 seconds (2,204 out of 6,698 votes)

Special thanks to the fine folks at PollDaddy who power our on-site polls.

What poll questions and answers do you want to see run on these pages? We're taking requests—suggest away in the comments.

Greenshot Captures and Annotes Screenshots

2008-12-29T03:54:00.000-08:00

Windows only: Greenshot is a lightweight, open source, and portable screen-capture tool.

The executable and supporting .dll files weigh in at 464KB, making Greenshot a rather lightweight tool and well suited for a flash-drive toolkit. You can generate screen captures by a variety of methods including using the print-screen button as a hot key and activating the main menu from the system tray where you can capture by region, freehand cropping, etc. Greenshot can be set to send your crops directly to a printer, open for editing, or to be saved. The file naming convention is userspecifiedword_YYYY-MM-DD_HH-MM-SS, typical for screen-capture tools and entirely practical. Once you have captured an image you can add text and shapes such as arrows to draw attention or a bright red box to isolate. One curiously lacking feature is the ability to crop after the initial capture. You can use the freehand-capture tool to carefully grab the area you want when getting the initial capture, but once you are in the actual editing stage there appears to be no method to crop. For another excellent, free, and portable screen-capture tool check out FastStone Capture. Greenshot is open source, Windows only.Thanks Ryan!

Erase Your Browsing Tracks by Editing Your Index.dat Files

2008-12-29T03:51:00.000-08:00

Windows only: Index.dat Suite is an index file editor that allows you to selectively edit or completely erase the contents of index.dat files on your computer.

Why edit the index.dat? When you browse the web, your computer leaves more traces behind than just the cookies and history file. Erasing your browser history and cookies from within Internet Explorer still leaves behind the index.dat file hidden away. On top of retaining an extensive list of the sites you have visited, it can also expose plain text passwords. Index.dat Suite is a free application that lets you examine the contents of index.dat files in a human friendly format and selectively export and erase the entries you find. For additional help sweeping your virtual trail clean, check out MRU Blaster.

Top 10 Ways to Repurpose Your Old iPod

2008-12-29T03:48:00.000-08:00

You just got a new iPod or other music player over the holidays, and your older iPod looks like Craigslist fodder. Here are at least 10 reasons to re-consider its worthiness.

In general, we're asking anyone thinking about ditching their older iPod to consider what it truly is—a super-slim, substantial storage device, from which you can do, well, just about anything you'd do with a USB or external drive, with a convenient tiny screen and headphone jack attached. So we've compiled ten of our best tools for making the most of an older iPod below. Read on, plug in your tried-and-true iPod, and get creative. Photo by ZabriskiePoint.

10. Make it a flash card player
Whether you're prepping for a presentation or cramming for a test, your iPod can be a much more convenient way to carry your memory-boosting flash cards around than trying to cram a whole deck of 3x5s in your pocket. Mac OSX Hints has a through guide to transforming Keynote slides into iPod-ready picture slides, but any slide presentation maker that can export slides to picture files can create a folder that you simply sync up to your iPod. Your mileage will vary with your screen size and clarity, but for straight-up words, it's a handy hack. Steve Rubel's Micro Persuasion blog details a similar spin on using your iPod as a presentation tool.

9. Instant stereo, just add speakers
No matter how old your iPod, it's still a pretty efficient music holder and player. If you're hesitant to shell out big cash for a full-fledged stereo system, your trusty iPod is a great hub for your music. CNET details why you should give your iPod speakers, noting the benefits of simultaneously ditching your actual-plastic CDs—or at least putting them deep into storage—and simplifying your music life through the power of "Shuffle." It's not a solution for audiophiles, but it is the start of a no-hassle, instant-on system for any room in the house.

8. Your portable drinks/recipe/Wikipedia reference
Next time your dinner party or casual chat session turns into a debate about what happened to the star of A Christmas Story or how to properly make a sidecar, pull out your spare iPod and put the details to rest. The fully-fledged Encyclopodia project can put the majority of Wikipedia's useful articles on your iPod without messing up its main functions. iPod Bartender puts just what you think it might into your player, and those who don't like printing or lugging a laptop into their kitchen just for recipe reference should take a look at PodGourmet.

7. Make it your backup drive
Simple, but supremely useful, enabling and using an iPod's "Disk Mode"—basically opening up for use as a USB drive—pays off in a number of ways. After speeding up your iPod drive with disk defragging, you can boot your Mac from it, use it with most any Windows backup program that lets you choose a save location, automatically back up your Mac home folder with iPodBackup, and generally stash away anything you want on one of the most space-optimized drives around.

6. Free it from iTunes' grasp
If you live in a world of Windows systems and you're sick of being tied down to iTunes and its memory-hogging tendencies, you don't have to live with it. Back in 2006, Adam showed us how to make a self-sustaining iPod using the free vPod software. vPod's author notes that the tool for directly adding your music doesn't work with the newer firmwares available for most iPods since iTunes upgraded beyond 7.3, but for an older unit that's been gathering dust, that's probably not an issue. For a newer spin on no-iTunes-required, take a look at Adam's newer iPod independence guide, or check out SharePod, Songbird, MediaMonkey a try. And then there's Floola, in a class by itself because it can run directly from your iPod and transfer songs on and off it.

5. Make a stand-alone, bootable XP computer from it
Sure, you can carry around the portable versions of your favorite Windows apps on your iPod's drive, but you can ensure absolutely nothing gets changed on your friends' and relatives' PCs by booting your own Windows system from your iPod. Gina detailed the process using an XP installation CD and the MojoPac software. The no-restrictions version isn't free ($29.99 for a license), but there's a free version that gives you a virtual XP desktop—and that might be just what you need.

4. Load it up with games
Apple's iTunes store offers up games for both older video iPods and the newer iPod touch models, but if you're just looking for a little airport time-killing, why pay for your games, or feel forced into an upgrade? Install iPod Linux on nearly any iPod, and you'll be able to play games on your iPod for free. The previously screenshot-toured Rockbox also brings games onto your older music box, but the open-source Linux installation is a bit easier, and the games seem a bit more appealing.

3. Give it a new look with iPodWizard
If you've got any iPod other than a second or third generation nano, the iPod classic, or the iPod touch, you can give it a new look and feel while keeping its basic controls in place. The free application iPodWizard does it with style, as we've shown you in our walkthrough and screenshot tour. Your friend/frenemy may have the hotter new gear, but only your iPod isn't sport the same old OS-X-lite look.

2. Turn it into an ultimate go-anywhere tool
Shelling out cash for larger jump drives when you've already got an iPod with a minimum of 4GB available isn't necessary. Gina put together a list of apps, files, and tools for putting your life on a portable drive, and these days, the average iPod can hold all that, your music, and probably a sizable batch of video files and photos with it. If, for example, you're never quite sure if you'll have access to a working copy of Microsoft Office when you need it, a full copy of OpenOffice.org 3.0 is available in a no-install, portable version that fits snugly into your little take-everywhere drive, as are plenty of other PortableApps.

1. Make a serious upgrade with RockBox
Until you've taken the plunge and put Rockbox's new, improved firmware on your older iPod, you haven't seen the significant rebirth a seemingly dated device can undergo. Apple gave you a device that can play music, and maybe display photos or videos as well, but RockBox gives you games ranging from Sudoku to Doom, a calculator, a timer, much greater control over your files from your device, support for a wider range of music files, and much more. Check out our screenshot tour of RockBox 3.0, then go and grab the RockboxUtility for Windows, Mac, or Linux systems.

What do you plan to do with your older iPod, or what have you done in the past when you got an upgrade? Tell us your reuse and renovation stories in the comments.

Video MobileConverter Formats Flicks for Small Screen

2008-12-24T07:45:00.000-08:00

Windows only: BitTorrent super-host The Pirate Bay claims its ViO MobileConverter tool reduces nearly any video's size by 20 percent and converts it for mobile devices faster than anything else. Let's see about that.
Why the speed and quality test? Simply because ViO, with all the nuance of the typical Pirate Bay communication, claims this on its home page:
Converts virtually any web video format file into a file that’s 100% compatible with your portable media device, compressing it up to 20% of its original size without any reduction in image quality. ViO converts your media faster than any tool on the market today.
I decided to try out ViO on converting a DiVx-formatted episode of Mad Men ("The Benefactor" from season two, in case you're a fan) for my iPod touch. I'd previously been using the free version of Freez iPod Converter, which, while somewhat wonky and rough, got the job done faster and at acceptable quality faster than anything else I'd tried. I used Robin Keir's timer to clock the conversion speed.
So! Here's the results of plugging in a 350MB, 45-minute AVI file into Freez and letting fly with the default settings (which converts to MP4):
Freez iPod Converter
Conversion time: 7 minutes, 10 secondsFinished size: 251 MBQuality: Good, easily watch-able, only the same quirks as were present in the original.Screenshot:
I then ran ViO through the same process, plugging in the AVI file and asking it to convert to an MP4 for the iPhone (same video screen as iPod touch):
ViO
Conversion time: 7 minutes, 7 secondsFinished size: 54.7 MBQuality: Lots of pixel "ghosting" (blocky pieces left behind when scene jumps), general muddiness to multi-color scenes. Like a YouTube video that nobody selected "High Quality" or "HD" for.Screenshot:
I then realized that ViO's "Advanced Options," tucked away by default, let you change pretty much anything and everything about the finished product, including a target file size.
So I set ViO to re-encode that video to a 251MB MP4 file, and it instantly upped the video bitrate and other features. Here's the results of that second pass:
ViO (Take Two)
Conversion time: 7 minutes 10 secondsFinished size: 181MBQuality: Noticeably better than the first run, with no detectable ghosting. A small bit of jerky-ness when characters are moving quickly or scenes jump-cut (especially in well-lit situations), but watch-able.Screenshot:
So there you have it. ViO did—despite my wishes, even—make a smaller video file than Freez in the same amount of time, reducing its final size by about 30 percent with only a small amount of detectable difference. Given its more polished, somewhat easier-to-grasp interface and the huge range of devices it can convert for—HTC, Samsung, LG, Nokia, Apple, and many more devices are covered—it's definitely worth checking out.
ViO Video MobileConverter is a free download for Windows systems only. Make sure to watch for the toolbar option if you don't want a browser add-on; it's checked for installation by default.

Download Free Computer-Generated Christmas MP3s

2008-12-24T07:42:00.000-08:00

Load up your iTunes playlist with some holiday cheer but save a few bucks in the process with almost 20 classic holiday recordings that are available as a free download from the Garritan music community.
The Garritan Community Christmas album includes tunes from O Holy Night to Auld Lang Syne. What's most interesting is how they were recorded:
A community of musicians from all over the world met on the Garritan community forum and agreed to submit their own recordings of holiday music, to be freely distributed. Each of these orchestral recordings were made not with large live orchestras in vast recording studios at huge expense, but rather were created by a single person working on their own desktop or laptop computer. What they have in common is the use of Garritan libraries representing software musical instruments based on samples of real instruments.
Preview the tunes on-site before you download, then grab the entire album (with art) to add to your collection for free.
Garritan Christmas Music Player [via Pogue's Posts]

Boost Your PowerPoint Skills Inside PowerPoint 2007

2008-12-23T06:13:00.000-08:00

Are you decent with a bulleted list in PowerPoint 2007, but need to get a bit more creative? You can learn how to pull off a few useful effects right inside the program.

Microsoft's Office Online team provides eight instructional PowerPoint templates that teach you how to pull off the effects demonstrated inside them. They'll show you where to click, what to enter, and you don't have to switch between instructional videos or text and your app. 3D shapes and graphs, backgrounds, process graphics, and more are free for the download.

Ubuntu Distributor Wants to Overhaul Linux Desktop Notifications

2008-12-23T06:12:00.000-08:00

Canonical, the parent company behind the popular Ubuntu Linux system, wants to implement a new (and vaguely Mac-ish) method of user notification in Ubuntu's next release.

You can check out a demonstration of the new notifications in action at Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth's blog post. As noted by Ars, the goal is to provide a more user-friendly experience for anyone jumping onto Linux, and give the desktop's pings and blips a uniform look and feel, as opposed to the multitude of notification apps and tools that use the free D-Bus protocol in a variety of ways.

That's potentially a really good thing for dedicated Ubuntu users. But, as Ars Technica points out, it also means generally forcing users into using a 3D compositing system like Compiz, which often means (at least for NVIDIA video cards) enabling non-open-source drivers. As always, things can easily change between now and Ubuntu 9.04 (due out April 2004), but it's an intriguing discussion going on.

Internet Explorer Backup Zips Up All Your IE Settings

2008-12-23T06:10:00.000-08:00

Windows only: If you never want to have to tweak Internet Explorer's settings again—and there are many, many settings—Backrex Internet Explorer Backup has you covered.

The small, step-by-step backup program grabs everything from Internet Explorer 6 or 7, including cookies, add-ons, auto-complete entries, connection settings, and, of course, your favorites .You back it all up to a zip file that's compressed and, if you'd like, password-protected, and can restore settings in the same click-by-click fashion. The app doesn't support the Internet Explorer 8 betas from what I can tell, but that may be on the way.

BackRex Internet Explorer is a free download for Windows systems only.

Google Pack updates: better screensaver, new AV and spyware apps

2008-12-20T07:55:00.000-08:00

Google's updated their previously-posted Windows software package, Google Pack.

Changes to the Pack address our biggest initial complaint: that the original AV software, free for six months, would nag you for pay-for updates after the trial was over. Now Google's included the no-nag, no pay-for-updates-needed Norton Security Scan antivirus and PC Tools' Spyware Doctor Starter Edition. We're still fans of Ad-Aware for spyware scanning and ClamWin AV, but hey - at least GOOG's new choices are free.

Also, the screensaver (which was our favorite part) now supports photo feed slideshows, like from Flickr. Neat! — Gina Trapani

Google's new mobile search

2008-12-20T07:54:00.000-08:00

Google has unveiled a redesigned mobile search interface with an emphasis on varied result types.

Rather than giving you choices for your search type (e.g., web, images, local listings), the new mobile search automatically searches across different Google search types and gives you a short list of results for each. The idea behind the new interface is to let you get the information you want with the least amount of click-work (useful for any mobile app). The results vary based on your search terms, so search results for Lifehacker start out with web pages, while a search for cat starts with stocks, cute images, then web pages. What do you think, mobile users, love it or lump it? Give us your thoughts in the comments. — Adam Pash

Google Mobile Search

Google SMS adds flight info

2008-12-20T07:51:00.000-08:00

We've long been fans of using Google SMS to fetch information from our phones. Now we can use it to retrieve airline numbers and flight status.

Just text your flight number to GOOGLE (466453) and in short order you'll receive a message listing arrival/departure times, flight status and even the airline's phone number. If you need only the latter, just text the airline's name. Of course, you can still use Google SMS to get driving directions, stock quotes and tons of other useful info. This is just a bit of extra icing on that already yummy cake. — Rick Broida

Google webapp keyboard shortcuts

2008-12-20T07:48:00.000-08:00

The Smallwire blog comes up with a handy reference for Google-lovin' mouse-avoiders: a keyboard shortcut roundup for Google Mail, Google Calendar, Google Reader, Writely, Google Video and Google Maps. Good stuff. — Gina Trapani

Google homepage goes mobile

2008-12-20T07:43:00.000-08:00

Google has just announced that your Google homepage is now available for your mobile device:

Anyone who's ever tried to browse the web on their cell phone knows that it isn't always the best user experience. That's why I'm excited to tell you about Google Mobile Personalized Home. We've designed a way for you to view the things that you really care about, from your Gmail inbox to news headlines, weather, stock quotes, and feeds (Atom or RSS). The interface is optimized for small screens, and we've arranged things so you don't have to click on a bunch of links to locate what you're after - your personalized content appears on top, right where it should be.
Nothing too heady here - it's Google Homepage for your mobile. Pretty cool, though.

Google homepage modules bonanza

2008-12-20T07:42:00.000-08:00

Back in December when Google added widgets to their personalized homepage, there weren't very many mini-apps to choose from. Google.com/ig users will be happy to know GOOG's added a bunch more modules to their directory.

Some of the more interesting ones include a music player, note-taker, slang translator, torrent search, Netflix queue info, Hangman, an SMS reminder service and a Bloglines notifier. If Google provided permanent links to each of these modules, I'd link 'em, but alas, they don't. Warning: word on the street is these modules can slow down the homepage load time.

Add live TV to your Google homepage

2008-12-20T07:40:00.000-08:00

A new gadget streams live TV right to your Google personalized homepage.

The Live TV gadget - which requires the Windows Media plugin to work (booo) - lets you watch UK and US news, entertainment, kids programming, movies, educational, sports, music and financial channels for free. Now you're really not going to do that thing you need to get done when you open your web browser. — Gina Trapani

Watch Live TV on your Google Homepage [Google Gadgets via Dumb Little Man]

Google Homepage adds thumbnail view of RSS feeds

2008-12-20T07:39:00.000-08:00

Google Personalized Homepage lovers will be happy to see that Google has added quick previews to RSS feed widgets.

As you can see in the screenshot, feed items can now be expanded by clicking the plus sign (+) next to the title. The preview includes all of the text of the feed along with embedded images. While you probably wouldn't want to keep up with all of your reading this way (I'd suggest Google Reader for that), this nice new feature looks like a good way to keep an eye on a couple of your most important feeds wherever you are. — Adam Pash

Google Homepage adds personalized tabs

2008-12-20T07:35:00.000-08:00

The very popular Google Homepage has just added the ability to add and personalize your own tabs.

The tabs are actually very cool. After clicking the "Add a tab" link, you can name your new tab, then drag and drop any of your Google Homepage modules back and forth between any of your tabs (you can't reorder your tabs, unfortunately). This control lets you organize and compartmentalize homepage components in very useful ways, and should also allow you to add or try out a lot more modules. I don't personally use Google Homepage, but I know that a lot of our readers do. Then again, it's features like this that make a service much more tempting to pick up. Let us know about your Google Homepage use in the comments. — Adam Pash

Google Calendar adds homepage module and calendar publishing

2008-12-20T07:32:00.000-08:00

Google Calendar is making it easier to access your calendar outside of the Gcal homepage, with two new features: a Google Homepage module and Gcal integration with any web site.

The homepage module is nice, but it's not like we haven't seen something like it before. The bigger of the two new features, publishing your calendar, is definitely a nice addition to Gcal, and Google's Event Publisher Guide should make it easy for anyone to do just that. I had no idea that the E.M.G. (Everybody's Mad for Google?) band released a new album on the 12th! Thanks Michael! — Adam Pash

Add keyword-based tabs to Google homepage

2008-12-20T07:29:00.000-08:00

Google Personalized Homepage just added a new feature: the ability to auto-populate a new tab of content based on a keyword.
Click on the add a tab link and make sure "I'm feeling lucky" is checked. You won't be so lucky with the keywords "life hack" or "lifehacker" but "Mac" filled up a tab with good content. — Gina Trapani

Google Image Search Adds Search-by-Style Options

2008-12-20T07:22:00.000-08:00

Today Google adds clip art and line drawings to their image search criteria, in addition to photos and faces.

To restrict your search to either line drawings, clip art, photos, or faces, choose the style criteria from the drop-down on an image results page. (Alternately you can add the right parameter to your search URL to set up a keyword quick search; for line drawings, for example, it's &imgtype=lineart.) Check out a cool example search for Celtic art line drawings. For more Google search fun, check out our top 10 obscure Google search tricks.

David Pogue's Best Photography Tricks (and Ours)

2008-12-19T07:58:00.000-08:00

Tech columnist David Pogue pulls out "The Best Photography Tricks of All Time" for anyone shooting digital, including the crafty use of a lampshade:

It turns out that the threads at the top of just about any lamp—the place where the lampshade screws on—are precisely the same diameter as a tripod mount! In a pinch, you can whip off the lampshade, screw on the camera, and presto: You've got a rock-steady indoor tripod.

His other tips—always half-pressing the shutter button to reduce camera lag, getting a limited depth of field, forcing the flash on outdoors, and exploiting the "magic hour"—are all good reading for anyone new to shooting, especially to memory cards instead of film. We thought we'd add a few of our own collected tips from over the years to round things out a bit:

Exhale and pull elbows in for steady shots: Especially if you're not rocking a vibration-control lens on a DSLR rig, this body-steadying practice can make all the difference for no-flash shots.
Use the Unsharp Mask/Smart Sharpen for crisper shots: Photojojo explains how to use Photoshop (and similar photo editing tools) to get finer contrast on digital camera pics. Our commenters wisely point out, however, that the Smart Sharpen tool in Photoshop CS1 and later is the way to go.
Deal with shooting in direct light: Because you, and your subjects, can't always get up at the hour just after dawn, Digital Photography School explains how to work with, and around, a hard sun.
Get behind something to shoot more candidly: As Rick pointed out (taken from Digital Photography School's tips), it's hard to walk around with a lens pointed and not be noticed. For more candid shots, try shooting over someone's shoulder, or shooting through or around something that you don't mind being in the actual photograph for a voyeuristic effect—tree branches, window frames, and the like.
Get a cheap, DIY lens hood or flash filter: A lens hood—like the kind you can print yourself—prevents glare, flare, and other light tricks beaming in from just around your lens edges. Similarly, a piece of white coffee filter can work wonders for diffusing your flash, giving bar shots and other low-light situations a much mellower light.
If you had only one tip to give a newcomer to digital photography, what would it be? Step up the chalkboard in the comments. Photo by ssh.

Detect Forgotten Attachments Before You Send That Email

2008-12-19T07:56:00.001-08:00

New VB scripter Troy modified a script for Outlook that lets him know when he's forgotten an attachment on an email (not counting his company logo).

Troy writes:
I started a new job back in July, and had to fill out a form to get access to a client’s network. Unfortunately I sent the email without the form. As part of my new job I had been working on learning VBScript, so this was the perfect opportunity to test my skills. With a little searching I was able to find an example of what I needed, and tweaked it to account for my signature’s company logo.
In short, Troy modified a script Jack Stowage originally posted in the comments here to work for him. Since he attaches his company logo in his outgoing message signature, this version of the script lets you set a base messages attachment number (in his case, one logo file) and compare from there. So if he sends a message with the word "attach" in it and it only has one file attached (the logo)? Outlook pops up the notification shown above.

(Gmail users, you can also have this feature by enabling it in Gmail Labs.)

Hit the link below to grab a copy of the VB script for Outlook, and get the instructions for setting it up yourself. Congratulations to Troy! He's earned himself a signed copy of our latest book, Upgrade Your Life. Here's how you can win one yourself by sharing your best timesaver of the year.

My English studies

2008-12-18T20:40:00.000-08:00

I have been learning English for more than twenty years. Recalling my English studies, I would like to share some good ways and some frustrations with you.
First, I am independent in English studies. Instead of waiting for the teacher to explain, I try to find the patterns and rules on my own.
Second, I am an active English learner. I never wait for a chance using English. I look for such a chance, and create an language environment by myself. I am willing to make mistakes and not afraid of losing face.
Try your best to enjoy the pleasure of English studies, bear in mind that "frustration gets you nowhere".

Help For Elderly People

2008-12-18T20:03:00.001-08:00

It is reported that China has stepped into an aging society. As the aging of the population quickens, the number of elderly people is becoming very large. Therefore, it is necessary to find good ways to deal with the problem.
According to traditional Chinese moral values, it is the sons or daughters who should take the responsibility of caring for their elderly parents. The youth should not only look after their elderly parents in material terms but also understand their loneliness and do their best to spend more time with them.
But because the family plan has been carried out for many years in China, it is a common picture that a young couple has to support four elderly parents. This trend will reach its peak in coming years. The government is responsible for guaranteeing the basic living standards of the elderly and safeguard（保护）their legitimate（合法的）rights and interests and establish a multi-level old-age insurance system.

Microsoft sues cybersquatters

2008-12-18T09:57:00.000-08:00

SOFTWARE GIANT Microsoft has decided to drag a group of US cyber squatters into court to stop them using variations of its name in their scams.

Vole has also sorted out a domain-infringement settlement with the Dyslexic Domain Company in Blighty and two US civil lawsuits filed against cyber squatters in Salt Lake City and Los Angeles.

The various organisations have used names like winowslivemessenger.com and www.micr0soft.co.uk which are often used when the user is a bit under the weather or typing too quickly. The cybersquatter makes cash by selling advertising on the page, or even selling the name back to the company whose name it resembles.

Vole has been on the hunt for cyber squatters lately. Instead of paying them off it is calling in the courts. So far it has reclaimed more than 1,100 infringing domain names in six months.

The men in grey suits at Microsoft reckon that such sites confuse visitors who are trying to reach a genuine company.

This can only stuff up corporate brands and reputations, not to mention the user who gets to see bogus adverts.

Latest in Volish sights are Maltuzi which Microsoft claims registers large blocks of domain names, some of which infringe on its intellectual property rights.

Sule Garba, Darin Grabowski and Yi Ning have been named as defendants in the case of 217 domains which have Microsoft variations in the title. When Vole called foul on the site they found that the three had hidden their names during the registration process to avoid detection.

Vole has filed a civil lawsuit in state court in Seattle against 54 unnamed defendants to determine the identities of people infringing on Microsoft trademarks. µ

L'Inq
Computerworld

New Bushs Boot camp and download

2008-12-17T05:40:00.000-08:00

http://www.t-enterprise.co.uk/flashgame/flashgames/bushbootcamp.swf
Here's a new Flash Game from T-Enterprise about Bush dodging shoes.
Players of Bush's Boot Camp take on the role of a gun-toting security agent, and must shoot shoes out of the air before they can hit the hapless president.
Click Start, then click the guns and shoot the shoes, not the president.

Google Web Toolkit(GWT) v1.5.3 - Google Web

2008-12-16T20:37:00.000-08:00

Google Web Toolkit (GWT) is an open source Java software development framework that makes writing AJAX applications like Google Maps and Gmail easy for developers who don't speak browser quirks as a second language. Writing dynamic web applications today is a tedious and error-prone process; you spend 90% of your time working around subtle incompatibilities between web browsers and platforms, and JavaScript's lack of modularity makes sharing, testing, and reusing AJAX components difficult and fragile.

GWT lets you avoid many of these headaches while offering your users the same dynamic, standards-compliant experience. You write your front end in the Java programming language, and the GWT compiler converts your Java classes to browser-compliant JavaScript and HTML.

Release Notes for 1.5.3
Fixed Issues
RPC requests no longer fail on the embedded Android web browser
Leaf TreeItems now line up with their non-leaf siblings
Removing the last child node from a TreeItem no longer creates extra margins on the left
HTTPRequest no longer uses POST instead of GET on some IE installs because of incorrect XHR selection
Compiler now uses a more reliable check to prevent methods with local variables from being inlined
getAbsoluteTop()/Left() can no longer return non-integral values
Time.valueOf() no longer fails to parse "08:00:00" or incorrectly accepts "0xC:0xB:0xA".

Update：http://code.google.com/intl/zh-CN/webtoolkit/releases/release-notes-1....
Official Network：http://code.google.com/webtoolkit

Official download：
Windows：http://google-web-toolkit.googlecode.com/files/gwt-windows-1.5.3.zip
Mac OS X：http://google-web-toolkit.googlecode.com/files/gwt-windows-1.5.3.zip
Linux：http://google-web-toolkit.googlecode.com/files/gwt-linux-1.5.3.tar.bz2

iPhone 3G Unlocked, Free Unlock Software By End of Year

2008-12-16T09:29:00.001-08:00

The jolly band of hackers known as the iPhone Dev Team have successfully unlocked the iPhone 3G for use on unsupported GSM networks. Right now they've simply confirmed the 3G unlock, but according the the Dev Team blog post, a free unlocking software should be available by New Year's Eve. [via]

Firefox Mobile Slated for Symbian Phones in April

2008-12-16T09:28:00.001-08:00

Mozilla engineer Christian Sejersen announced today that Firefox Mobile (codename Fennec) will be released for Symbian phones by the end of April, 2009—complete with full browsing features. The bad news: Sejersen says we shouldn't plan on seeing Firefox Mobile on the iPhone, BlackBerrys, or Android any time soon due to "technical or licensing reasons." If you're curious about what Firefox Mobile will offer once it's released, check out our screenshot tour of Fennec. [via]

Top Ten Wordpress Security Tips

2008-12-16T09:26:00.000-08:00

Below are 10 security tips that you can easily implement on your WordPress blog. Please share one or more life-savers you use permanently to help protect yourself from WordPress security issues.

1. Upgrade Wordpress - In general, keeping your Wordpress installation up to date is a great way to avoid known problems. Do note that the lastest version, especially in the case of major upgrades, may cause more problems then it resolves.

2. WordPress Version - The tag in your header.php that displays your current version of wordpress. Since everyone knows your wordpress version this way, your blog is prone to hackers if you have not upgraded to the new version.

3. WordPress Username - Every hacker knows Wordpress has a user “admin” with god-like administration privileges. Slow the hackers down by removing the “admin” user. Create a Wordpress user with admin privileges using the administration interface. Log out of Wordpress and log back in with the new user. Delete the admin user. The new admin user should be different than your normal post author.

4. WordPress Password - Are you still logging into your wp-admin page with the same default password that was emailed to you? If so, CHANGE IT! That password is only 6 characters and just numbers and letters. Make it complex and more than 10 characters if you can. Also, try not to use words, make it a nice jumble of letters, numbers, and symbols.

5. Prevent Directory Listing - In many Wordpress installations it is possible to view a list of installed plugins by navigating to the /wp-content/plugins/ directory. This is not a good idea as known plugin vulnerabilities can than be easily exploited. Add an empty default index file, such as index.html, to the directory. You can also protect it using an .htaccess file assuming you’re using Apache.

6. Protect Your WP-Admin Folder - You can protect your Wordpress admin folder by allowing access to it from a defined set of IP addresses. Everything else will bring up a Forbidden error message. So if you only access your blog from one or two places routinely, it’s worth implementing. Also, you’re supposed to create a new .htaccess file inside your wp-admin folder, not replace the one at the root of your blog.

7. Protect From Search Engines - There is no need to have all of your filesWordpress files indexed by Google, so it’s best to block them in your robots.txt file. Add the following line to your list:Disallow: /wp-*

8. Install Login Lockdown WordPress Plugin - This plugin records the IP address and timestamp of every failed WordPress login attempt. If more than a certain number of attempts are detected within a short period of time from the same IP range, then the login function is disabled for all requests from that range.

9. Install WordPress Database Backup Plugin - You always have to take regular backups of your file directories as well as the database. WordPress Database Backup plugin creates backups of your core WordPress tables as well as other tables of your choice in the same database.

10. Install Wordpress Security Scan Plugin - The WP Security Scan plugin attempts to both to audit your blog security and to implement many of the suggestions mentioned above.

Killer Add-ons Make Songbird So Much Better

2008-12-15T19:37:00.000-08:00

Like Firefox, the open source media player Songbird is a pretty neat alternative to a big-name competitor on its own, but the ability to extend it through add-ons is what really makes it boss.

We considered the release candidate of the potential "iTunes killer"—Songbird a sloppy mess, then backed up a bit when it's 1.0 release was official. Now we're geeked to show you a few add-ons that make Songbird a great place to organize your MP3s, iTunes purchases, iPods, and whatever else you listen to.

The suggested pack
Songbird's developers chose wisely when it came to the extensions it recommends installing when you first load Songbird. iPod Device Support, QuickTime Playback and Windows Media Playback give owners of protected files, and iPods, access to their tunes with few hitches. Shoutcast Radio and Last.fm integrate nicely as streaming players, and Concerts tells you whenever an artist you dig in your library is swinging by town to play a live gig. Last, but certainly not least, mashTape gives you all kinds of web-driven contextual content on your played artist, putting artist info, news, photos, and videos from a wide variety of popular sources—Flickr, YouTube, Wikipedia, Digg, etc.—in your bottom tray. All worthy of installation, and, in some cases, hard to imagine music browsing without.

LyricMaster
LyricMaster smartly hunts down the lyrics for any song playing in Songbird, whether in the file's metadata or through Mashtape's search. If it gets a match, it puts them in a skinny right-hand window; if not, it offers a pre-formatted Google search for your song, which you can copy the results of and paste directly into the song file. Pretty straight-forward, but seriously helpful, too.

Seeqpod

Those familiar with Seeqpod's find-and-stream MP3 search engine can smile at its seamless Songbird integration. A search bar and results listing pops open in a new tab, and you can queue up over-the-net tracks or download them directly to your library or specific playlists. Downloads head into your standard Songbird downloads window, and, well, that's it—it just works, and it expands your library exponentially, assuming you're down with the kind of quasi-legality involved.

MediaFlow

If you're a fan of iTunes/OS X's CoverFlow style, with album art flipping by as you play and switch tracks, this is its Songbird near-equivalent. There's a few bugs and performance tweaks still to be worked out, but it basically delivers on the promise of big, flip-sliding pictures. If you're going to install this, it's best to also install the FocusTrack extension to get instant album art updates as you switch tracks.

Last.fm Album Art
If your library looks pretty barren in MediaFlow, let Last.fm's vast database do the heavy digital image lifting for you. This extension shows the album art that the music-sharing service has on file for whatever you're playing in the lower-left. It (unfortunately) doesn't let you grab and save that art for metadata implanting, but makes for a light-weight way to keep your visual field stocked in your media player.

The Exorcist
As a long-time iTunes user, this is the add-on your long-suffering editor is probably most excited about. The Exorcist adds two views to your media listing options, Ghost Tracks and Duplicate Tracks, that do exactly what you'd hope—list songs referenced in your library without a related media file, and list any songs that seem to be similar in file size or metadata. Better still, those views show you the full path of duplicate files, and offer buttons to just clear out all duplicates or find your missing tracks.

Pause/Play/Stop Buttons
If a single play/pause button just doesn't do it for you, you can add a stop button that looks built-in with this tiny, helpful extension. Not the sexiest of extensions, for sure, but a good indicator of the Firefox-like potential to customize Songbird to whatever shape you want it in—once more add-ons make the list and get updated.

What Sonbird add-ons are you enjoying alongside your music? What functionality would you love to see someone code up for a weekend project? Tell us your add-on ideas in the comments.

Wikipedia Officially Launches Mobile Version

2008-12-15T19:35:00.000-08:00

Popular user-edited online encyclopedia Wikipedia has finally released a mobile-friendly version of the web site at mobile.wikipedia.org.

The site offers a trimmed down version of Wikipedia proper, supports 14 languages, and even has a mysterious Spoken Wikipedia setting that—though currently not enabled, may presumably one day read Wikipedia articles to you.

We've seen plenty of tools for making Wikipedia friendlier for your mobile device, including the previously mentioned Wikipanion iPhone app, Encyclopedia for jailbroken iPhones, Wikipedia-va-SMS app GoLive Mobile, and webapp SnapAsk, but a lot of people will be thrilled with the official offering. It's not a terribly advanced mobile webapp at this point, but it does break down Wikipedia articles into a nice, readable format for your small screen, which is plenty as a start. If you give it a go, let's hear your thoughts—including what else you'd like to see from Wikipedia Mobile—in the comments.

UPDATE: It looks like the mobile interface might not be as new as we thought, though this is the first time we've covered it.

Most Popular Free Windows Downloads of 2008

2008-12-15T19:33:00.000-08:00

In the past year we've highlighted hundreds of Windows apps aimed at making your life easier, boosting your computer productivity, and powering up your PC.

For those of you who weren't able to keep up, here's a look back at the most popular Windows downloads of 2008.

Keep in mind that this list is based on the popularity of posts we've published in 2008 only, regardless of the original release date of the app. Many were brand new this year, while others were solid updates to popular software. Here's the full run-down of the 12 most popular Windows downloads of 2008:

Firefox 3 Is Released, We Download
Firefox 3 was easily one of the biggest events in software in 2008 regardless of what platform you run. We may be well on the way to Firefox 3.1 now, but if you're looking to brush up on your Firefox 3 chops, be sure to check out the top 10 Firefox 3 features and our power user's guide to Firefox 3.

Mojo Downloads Music from Your Friends' iTunes Libraries Over the Internet
Mojo makes it easy to download music from your friends' iTunes libraries over the internet. Mojo comes in both free and premium flavors, but the free version offers plenty of functionality for the money. If you're just getting started with Mojo, check out our guide to using Mojo.

Free PDF to Word Doc Converter Does What It Sounds Like
It's easy to convert or print Microsoft Word documents to PDF, but what about when you want to go the other way around? The aptly named Free PDF to Word Doc Converter does exactly that. (Original post)

OurTunes Grabs Music from Shared iTunes Libraries
If the limitations on Mojo aren't for you, the open-source classic ourTunes—which downloads music from any shared iTunes library on your network—made a comeback earlier this year, as a new developer took up the reigns and continues to release updates. (Original post)

CCleaner Clears the Crap from Your PC
The popular PC colonic CCleaner (the first 'C' stands for Crap) pushed out a 2.0 release earlier this year and you were quick to update and enjoy the crap cleaning goodies. (Original post)

AVG Free Anti-Virus 2008
AVG Free Anti-Virus 2008 hit the streets in May, and the application that you voted the best antivirus applications for Windows was unsurprisingly popular. (Original post)

Windows Vista Service Pack 1
Microsoft released the first major service pack for Vista, Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (x64 version), in March, and you were eager to download and update to the latest and greatest from Redmond. (Original post)

Hotspot Shield Gets Around US-Only Blocks and Content Filtering
Looking to protect your browsing privacy or access US-only content from outside the US? HotSpot Shield received a lot of attention in '08 from users looking to do that and more. (Original post)

Quick Media Converter Easily Converts Media to Any Format
Quick Media Converter converts virtually any media file (audio or video) from one format to another. The application has an emphasis on simplicity: Just drag and drop a file you want to convert onto the app, click the icon of the device you're converting for, and let Quick Media Converter take care of the rest. (Original post)

DExposE2 Brings OS X's Expose to Windows
Freeware application DExposE2 is a clone of Mac OS X's Expose feature for Windows XP and Vista, providing an attractive, innovative interface for switching and managing windows in Windows. Check out the original post to see a video DExposE2 in action.

Dropbox Instantly Syncs Files Across the Internet
Instantaneous file syncing was huge in 2008, with free, cross-platform application Dropbox leading the pack. Dropbox boasts web-based version control, fast and instant syncs, and a dead-simple setup. Among other things, Dropbox makes for the perfect password syncer. (Original post)

Executor Challenges Launchy, Impresses
Open-source application Launchy has long been a favorite of savvy keyboarders looking for quick app launching in Windows, but a saucy newcomer called Executor hit the ground running when it was released earlier this year. Check out our original post for a more detailed rundown of what makes Executor so impressive.

Sharepod Frees Your iPod from iTunes
Want to free yourself from the shackles of iTunes but still want full functionality from your iPod? Sharepod is a lightweight iTunes alternative that runs directly from your iPod, so it's with you whenever and wherever you plug in your player. (Original post)

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Whether or not your favorite Windows download of '08 won out in the popularity contest, let's hear more about your favorite download of the year in the comments.

Raw snake villagers living on beer and eat with relish addiction (map)

2008-12-15T07:11:00.000-08:00

Snake watch on Shen, also Ganchi? Some people dare! Yesterday, Zhumadian City Station Hu Wang Miao Xiang Village, and many villagers reporters on the scene witnessed the 41-year-old villager Wen-de-hi Lianpi raw live snakes. Of those days, people numb scalp, the fine hair on the body upright.

10 o'clock yesterday, heard the text-hi-de-site to perform live to eat snakes, the homes yard Wai will be packed with people. Wen Lin Chu-hi-de house from the two plastic bottles, which more than 30 cm long snake clearly visible. He said that this was a snake-earth, plain areas is the most poisonous snake, known as "seven-step down," the two are now in Tiaoyi hibernation, the basic loss of power. But for the sake of security reasons, he was ready to understand the poison. Performing before the text intended to de-hi out a bottle of beer. He said that due to heavy Xingqi snakes, plus they are not peeled live to eat this thing, I better teeth is not enough light, but also drink a few beers. He stressed that their extraction from raw snakes, even the belt swallow meat together. The beginning of the show, see the text-de-hi to cut plastic bottles with scissors, scissors with a snap snake-heads, and then with one hand and hold the snake Qicun, Ye Zhao tail with one hand, stroking up and down a few, and then ask for a favor Snakeheads bite, Jiaosui go after the pharynx. The loss of the head of the snake-body in the land-hi-de-wen of the hands of non-stop swing curly. Even after the beer drunk, the de-hi to eat, "addiction" big fat, big relish to a stuttering, mouth from time to time out of the remnants of snake blood. "Ga Ga bang bang" sound Jiaosui so that the villagers stunned onlookers, some people Wuzhuo Lian Jing De, the two Mother is unable to control, up vomitus in the side. A few minutes later, the snakes will even de-hi belt meat organs and even disappeared, leaving only the hands of non-stop swing of the tail. We asked him how the taste? He said that the relatively fresh, delicious. "A little fishy, but other than the meat more delicious." Moon Hee-young and Germany are also afraid of snakes, but a pack of cigarettes in order to bets that would eat a live snake, since out of control, is now addicted to eating snakes. His 8-year-old son, to see him twice a live snake to eat the "competent", is also itching mouth, his son has been eating a live 8-earth snake. Moon said that raw live snakes for 10 years, his body good, too Shabing did not cause gastrointestinal discomfort, his son is also very good. For this particular hobby, Zhumadian City First People's Hospital, director of digestive internal medicine physician, said Tian-Ming Wang, Wen-de-hi raw live snake is a special case, may be suffering from nervous system symptoms of the special, called "rustic food disease", leaving him with ordinary people Different. However, this approach does not promote, as snakes who live in the body and may be in possession of certain parasites may be eaten raw, infected, the parasites of parasites in the liver, kidney, part of the cause organ failure. In addition, the gall bladder are still toxic to the body against. Source: Oriental Daily News reporter Wang Yaocheng this correspondent Wang Jiancheng / Ventura

A Dao of Web Design

2008-12-14T23:15:00.000-08:00

What Zen was to the 70’s (most famously with motorcycle maintenance), the Tao Te Ching was to the 90’s. From Piglet and Pooh to Physics and back, many have sought sense in applying the Tao Te Ching to something (the Tao of Physics), or something to the Tao Te Ching (the Tao of Pooh). It can be a cheap trick, but lately it has struck me that there is more than a little to be understood about web design by looking through the prism of the Tao.
Daoism is a philosophy, like Buddhism, a way of living, of being in the world, which stems from a text of great antiquity, the Tao Te Ching, whose 81 “chapters” enigmatically sweep across human experience, but with a strong common theme, that of harmony.
For the last couple of years, for better or worse, my life has revolved more than a little around style sheets. I write software, tutorials, and guides for them; I’ve answered too many questions to count about them on newsgroups and via email; I’ve fought for their adoption with The Web Standards Project. And slowly I’ve come to understand web design entirely differently because of them, and to see a strong association between design and the Tao.
What I sense is a real tension between the web as we know it, and the web as it would be. It’s the tension between an existing medium, the printed page, and its child, the web. And it’s time to really understand the relationship between the parent and the child, and to let the child go its own way in the world.
Same old new medium?“Well established hierarchies are not easily uprooted;Closely held beliefs are not easily released;So ritual enthralls generation after generation.”Tao Te Ching; 38 Ritual
If you’ve never watched early television programs, it’s instructive viewing. Television was at that time often referred to as “radio with pictures”, and that’s a pretty accurate description. Much of television followed the format of popular radio at that time. Indeed programs like the Tonight Show, with its variants found on virtually every channel in the world (featuring a band, the talk to the camera host, and seated guests), or the news, with the suited sober news reader, remain as traces of the medium television grew out of. A palimpsest of media past.
Think too of the first music videos (a few of us might be at least that old). Essentially the band miming themselves playing a song. Riveting.
When a new medium borrows from an existing one, some of what it borrows makes sense, but much of the borrowing is thoughtless, “ritual”, and often constrains the new medium. Over time, the new medium develops its own conventions, throwing off existing conventions that don’t make sense.
If you ever get the chance to watch early television drama you’ll find a strong example of this. Because radio required a voice – over to describe what listeners couldn’t see, early television drama often featured a voice over, describing what viewers could. It’s a simple but striking example of what happens when a new medium develops out of an existing one.
The web is a new medium, although it has emerged from the medium of printing, whose skills, design language and conventions strongly influence it. Yet it is often too shaped by that from which it sprang. “Killer Web Sites” are usually those which tame the wildness of the web, constraining pages as if they were made of paper – Desktop Publishing for the Web. This conservatism is natural, “closely held beliefs are not easily released”, but it is time to move on, to embrace the web as its own medium. It’s time to throw out the rituals of the printed page, and to engage the medium of the web and its own nature.
This is not for a moment to say we should abandon the wisdom of hundreds of years of printing and thousands of years of writing. But we need to understand which of these lessons are appropriate for the web, and which mere rituals.
Controlling Web PagesThe Sage
“... accepts the ebb and flow of things,Nurtures them, but does not own them,”Tao Te Ching; 2 Abstraction
Spend some time on web design newgroups or mailing lists, and you’ll find some common words and ideas repeated time after time. Question after question, of course, is “how do I?”. But beneath questions like “how do I make my pages look the same on every platform” and “how can I make my fonts appear identical on the Macintosh and Windows” is an underlying question – “how do I control the user’s browser?” Indeed, the word control turns up with surprising frequency.
Underpinning all this is the belief that designers are controllers (think about the implications of the term “pixel mechanic”). Designers want to override the wishes of users, and the choices that they have made about their viewing experience (by “fixing” font size, for instance). Designers want to second guess platform differences, caused by different logical resolutions (for instance the Macintosh’s 72dpi, versus the standard Windows 96dpi). Designers are all-knowing, and will not tolerate anything less than a rendering on every browser that is pixel perfect with the rendering on their own machine.
Of course, this exaggerates the case, but not greatly. A very strong example of this is the often expressed disappointment of developers when they learn that style sheets are not “DTP for the web”. And if you are a Mac user, you will be acutely aware of just how many really major sites abuse style sheets to make their pages illegible. Chances are they are using points as a measure of font size. Underlying this choice is the “designer is controller” philosophy.
Where does this idea come from? I believe it flows from the medium of print. In print the designer is god. An enormous industry has emerged from WYSIWYG, and many of the web’s designers are grounded in the beliefs and practices, the ritual of that medium. As designers we need to rethink this role, to abandon control, and seek a new relationship with the page.
Why does it matter?“A newborn is soft and tender,A crone, hard and stiff.Plants and animals, in life, are supple and succulent;In death, withered and dry.So softness and tenderness are attributes of life,And hardness and stiffness, attributes of death.”Tao Te Ching; 76 Flexibility
Perhaps the inability to “control” a page is a limitation, a bug of the web. When we come from the WYSIWYG world, our initial instinct is to think so. I admit that it was my first response, and a belief that was a long time in going. But I no longer feel that it is a limitation, I see it as a strength of a new medium.
Let’s look at this through the other end of the microscope. The fact we can control a paper page is really a limitation of that medium. You can think – we can fix the size of text – or you can think – the size of text is unalterable. You can think – the dimensions of a page can be controlled – or – the dimensions of a page can’t be altered. These are simply facts of the medium.
And they aren’t necessarily good facts, especially for the reader. If the reader’s eye sight isn’t that of a well sighted person, chances are the choice the designer made is too small to comfortably read without some kind of magnification. If the reader is in a confined space, a train to work, an airplane, the broadsheet newspaper is too large. And there is little the reader can do about this.
The control which designers know in the print medium, and often desire in the web medium, is simply a function of the limitation of the printed page. We should embrace the fact that the web doesn’t have the same constraints, and design for this flexibility. But first, we must “accept the ebb and flow of things”.
Adaptability is Accessibility“The best of man is like water,Which benefits all things, and does not contend with them,Which flows in places that others disdain,Where it is in harmony with the Way.”Tao Te Ching; 8 Water
There are those who think that dao is fatalistic. A simplistic reading is that one should wander, without plan, allowing for things to happen and to respond to them. I think of it as saying we should not be fixed in our outlook, with goals far ahead, rather we should be adaptable, not fixed in our views or direction.
“As observing detail is clarity,So maintaining flexibility is strength;Use the light but shed no light,So that you do yourself no harm,But embrace clarity.“Tao Te Ching; 52 Clarity
The flexibility I’ve talked about so far I think of as “adaptability“. Everything I’ve said so far could be summarized as: make pages which are adaptable. Make pages which are accessible, regardless of the browser, platform or screen that your reader chooses or must use to access your pages. This means pages which are legible regardless of screen resolution or size, or number of colors (and remember too that pages may be printed, or read aloud by reading software, or read using braille browsers). This means pages which adapt to the needs of a reader, whose eyesight is less than perfect, and who wishes to read pages with a very large font size.
Designing adaptable pages is designing accessible pages. And perhaps the great promise of the web, far from fulfilled as yet, is accessibility, regardless of difficulties, to information. It’s an important belief of the World Wide Web Consortium, and is becoming an imperative of web design, as web pages will be required by law to provide universal access, just as building codes around the world require access to buildings.
It sounds an impossibility, designing the universal page. Perhaps now it remains an aspiration, with browsers so broken, and many of the devices through which we will access the web in their infancy, or not yet born. But there is a lot we can do now which will set the foundations for pages which adapt to the users wishes and needs, and so will be accessible.
The Way“The Way is shaped by use,But then the shape is lost.Do not hold fast to shapesBut let sensation flow into the worldAs a river courses down to the sea.”Tao Te Ching; 32 Shapes
So what can be done to design for adaptability, and so accessibility? Firstly, there are a couple of ways of thinking which might be helpful. Then I have some practical suggestions about steps you can take to avoid making your pages inaccessible.
Firstly, think about what your pages do, not what they look like. Let your design flow from the services which they will provide to your users, rather than from some overarching idea of what you want pages to look like. Let form follow function, rather than trying to take a particular design and make it “work”.
A cornerstone of this idea is to separate the content and its appearance. You’ve probably heard this a hundred times, but it is perhaps the most important step you can take. Let’s look at a simple example. On a page there is some text which is italicized. Why is it italicized? It might be for emphasis. It might be a citation. It might be a foreign word used in English. In traditional publishing, the form follows from function. The advantage of web publishing is we can make explicit what is implicit in the appearance on paper. If the reason for italics is emphasis, why mark up your page with the element? Use the element, and so browsers other than PC based web browsers can handle the element appropriately.
On the larger scale, don’t use HTML for presentation. No or , and other presentational elements. Where HTML provides an appropriate element, use it. Where it doesn’t, use classes. And of course, use style sheets for your presentational information. It’s time to look to the future, not cling to the past.
If you use style sheets properly, to suggest the appearance of a page, not to control the appearance of a page, and you don’t rely on your style sheet to convey information, then your pages will “work” fine in any browser, past or future. Browsers which don’t support style sheets simply present pages that look a little on the plain side. Our biggest concern is browsers which have buggy style sheets support. Today this is an issue. Not too long from now, it won’t be much of an issue. For now, you can limit yourself to a subset of CSS which is well enough supported, and still have more presentational effect than using presentational HTML. I’ve written quite a bit about this elsewhere, so I won’t repeat myself here.
In practical terms, there are some things you should and some things you shouldn’t do when designing style sheets that will impact on the adaptability of your pages. Above all, don’t rely on any aspect of style sheets to work in order for a page to be accessible. Absolute units, like pixels and points are to be avoided (if that comes as a surprise, read on), and color needs to be used carefully, and never relied on.
FontsTypically, a Windows, Macintosh, or other system will have only a handful of fonts installed. There is little overlap between the default installed fonts on these various systems. Already with many browsers, and increasingly in the future, readers will be able to decide on the fonts they want to view web pages with. With CSS, you can suggest a number of fonts, and cover as many bases as possible. But don’t rely on a font being available regardless of how common it is.
More important still is font size. You may be aware that the same font, at the same point size on a Macintosh “looks smaller” than on most Windows machines. In a nutshell, this is because the “logical resolution” of a Macintosh is 72dpi, while the Windows default is 96dpi. The implications of this are significant. Firstly, it guarantees that it is essentially impossible to have text look identical on Macintoshes and Windows based systems. But if you embrace the adaptability philosophy it doesn’t matter.
What? If you are concerned about exactly how a web page appears this is a sign that you are still aren’t thinking about adaptive pages. One of the most significant accessibility issues is font size. Small fonts are more difficult to read. For those of us with good eyesight, it can come as a shock that a significant percentage of the population has trouble reading anything below 14 point times on paper. Screens are less readable than paper, because of their lower resolution.
Does that mean the minimum point size we should use is 14 pts? That doesn’t help those whose sight is even less strong. So what is the minimum point size we should use? None. Don’t use points. This allows readers to choose the font size which suits them. The same goes even for pixels. Because of logical resolution differences, a pixel on one platform is not a pixel on another.
You can still suggest larger font sizes for headings and other elements. CSS provides several ways of suggesting the size of text in such a way as to aid adaptability. We’ll look at just one to get an idea.
With CSS you can specify font size as a percentage of the font size of a parent element. For example, headings are inside the BODY of the page. If you don’t set a size for the text in the BODY, then the text of the BODY will be the size that the reader has chosen as their default size. Already we are aiding adaptability of our page, simply by doing nothing!
You might say “but the text looks too big” if I just leave it like that. Make it smaller then. But in your browser. And your readers will then have the option to make it bigger or smaller in their browsers too, depending on their tastes, or their needs.
We can make headings and other elements stand out using font size by specifying that headings of level 1 should be say 30% larger than the body text, level 2 should be 25% larger, and so on. Now, regardless of the size that the user chooses for their main text, headings will be scaled to be proportionally bigger than the main text. Similarly text can be scaled to be smaller than the body text, however, this can give rise to situations where the text can be illegibly small, so use with caution.
We’ve done very little really, just avoided using absolute font sizes, and used proportional sizes for headings, and we’ve already made our pages much more adaptable and accessible.
LayoutsMargins, page widths and indentation are all aspects of page design which can aid readability. The web presents difficulties for the designer with each of these. Browser windows can be resized, thereby changing the page size. Different web devices (web TV, high resolution monitors, PDAs) have different minimum and maximum window sizes. As with fixed font sizes, fixed page layout can lead to accessbility problems on the web.
As with fonts, layout aspects of a page can be designed using percentages to create adaptable pages. Margins can be specified as a percentage of the width of the element which contains them.
Using percentages (or other relative values) to specify page layout in CSS automatically creates adaptive pages. As browser windows widen and narrow, the layout of an element adapts to maintain the same proportions, and so the whole page layout adapts. Readers can choose the window size they find appropriate to their needs.
Margins, text indentation and other layout aspects can also be specified in relation to the size of the text they contain, using the em unit for specifying margins, text indentation and other layout aspects. If you specify
p {margin – left: 1.5em}you are saying that the left magin of paragraphs should be 1.5 times the height of the font of that paragraph. So, when a user adjusts their font size to make a page more legible, the margin increases proportionally, and if they adjust it to make it smaller, the margin adapts again.
ColorsThe web is by and large a more colorful medium than the printed page. Color is cheaper on the web. Color can be ornamental, can help to establish a visual identity, and can have practical value (red might draw attention to important information). But color poses difficulties to accessibility as well.
Did you know that in many countries (if not all) people with red green color blindness are unable to obtain an aircraft pilot’s license? That is, regardless of any other ability, because warning information is almost invariably conveyed using red for danger and green for safety. It’s a shame that warning lights aren’t simply adaptable.
Do your web pages exclude people in a similar way? It would be a shame, as in the near future most web browsers will provide simple ways for readers to adjust the color of elements on a web page, via user style sheets, which can override your style sheets. (You can do this now with IE5 Macintosh edition.)
How to avoid these problems? Use style sheets, rather than the HTML element. And avoid relying on color combinations to alone convey meaning.
The Journey“Yet a tree broader than a man can embrace is born of a tiny shoot;A dam greater than a river can overflow starts with a clod of earth;A journey of a thousand miles begins at the spot under one’s feet.”Tao Te Ching; 64a. Care at the Beginning
Changing our ways of thinking and acting isn’t easy. “Closely held beliefs are not easily released”. But I’ve come slowly to realize that much of what I took for granted needed to be reassessed. Judging by what I see and read and the conversations I’ve had, the email I’ve read over the last couple of years, many hold these beliefs closely, and need to rethink them too.
Now is the time for the medium of the web to outgrow its origins in the printed page. Not to abandon so much wisdom and experience, but to also chart its own course, where appropriate.
The web’s greatest strength, I believe, is often seen as a limitation, as a defect. It is the nature of the web to be flexible, and it should be our role as designers and developers to embrace this flexibility, and produce pages which, by being flexible, are accessible to all.The journey begins by letting go of control, and becoming flexible.

Which Top Apps Have the Most Security Holes?

2008-12-14T23:12:00.001-08:00

Some of the most-used applications on Windows today are also some of the most vulnerable to security flaws. And it's often the user's fault.

A list compiled by enterprise application whitelisting vendor Bit9 found that 12 of the most popular consumer applications are being used despite having vulnerabilities that could make for compromised systems or stolen data.

The rankings -- ordered by number of vulnerabilities -- include Mozilla Firefox, Apple's (NASDAQ: AAPL) iTunes, QuickTime and Safari Browser and Adobe's (NASDAQ: ADBE) Flash and Acrobat. Antivirus utilities didn't escape mention, with products from Symantec's (NASDAQ: SYMC) Norton family and from Trend Micro making an appearance. Also on the list were virtualization offerings from VMware (NYSE: VMW) and Citrix Systems (NASDAQ: CTXS).

Top popular apps with vulnerabilities
Application Affected Versions
1. Mozilla Firefox 3.x, 2.x
2. Adobe Flash & Acrobat Flash: 10.0- 10.0.12.36 and 9.0- 9.0.151.0
Acrobat: 8.1.2, 8.1.1
3. EMC VMware Player, Workstation and other products ESXi 3.5 or earlier
Workstation 5.5.x
Player 2.0.x & 1.0.x
ACE 2.0.x & 1.0.x
4. Sun Java Runtime Environment (JRE) Version 6 Update 6
5. Apple Quicktime, Safari & iTunes Quicktime: 7.5.5
Safari: 6.0.5.20B iTunes: 3.2, 3.1.2
6. Symantec Norton products 2.7.0.1
7. Trend Micro OfficeScan 8.0 SP1 before build 2439
8.0 SP1 Patch 1 before build 3087
8. Citrix Deterministic Network Enhancer (DNE), Access Gateway, Presentation Server DNE 2.21.7.233- 3.21.7.17464
Access Gateway 4.5.7
Presentation Server 4.5
9. Aurigma Image Uploader, Lycos FileUploader 4.6.17.0, 4.5.70.0, 4.5.126.0
10. Skype 3.6.0.248
11. Yahoo! Assistant 3.6
12. Microsoft Window Live Messenger 4.7 & 5.1
Source: Bit9

But Harry Sverdlove, Bit9's CTO, told InternetNews.com that the real fault generally doesn't lie with the products' vendors themselves, most of whom have fixes available for the security holes.

"The vendors update their patches, but end users often don't install these," Sverdlove said.

For enterprises, the fact spells trouble -- especially since many of these apps slip in without IT knowing. Additionally, the news comes as businesses face growing security threats, punctuated by a slew of recent data breaches, while also contending sharply reduced spending on IT projects.

Bit9's solution is whitelisting -- like having a guard dog. It will not allow anyone into the house until its master tells it that person is accepted. And, even then, it will sit on watch, eyeing a visitor.

"Even if you don't update or patch your application, as long as you have a whitelist, malware can come in but it can't execute," Bit9's Sverdlove said. "And we alert the IT administrators so that they can take action."

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However, whitelisting is not a panacea, Gerry Egan, director of product management at antivirus vendor Symantec, told InternetNews.com. But neither is blacklisting, which takes the alternate approach by maintaining a list of applications to keep out.

"Where whitelisting breaks down is the same place blacklisting breaks down -- there are files used by a few people because they're new or for a niche application, and they aren't popular enough for their signatures to be recognized by whitelisting or blacklisting applications," he said.

Symantec has incorporated some whitelisting technology in its Norton 2009 products, released in September, and is working on a reputation-based technology, Egan added.

This will work similarly to the rating method on Amazon.com and eBay, where products and sellers receive a rating by users, and users' comments about them are published. Symantec is thinking about leveraging its installed user base to calculate the reputation of applications, Egan said.

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"We, as a vendor, will say 'X number of people have downloaded this application in the past couple of hours and this is what they say, so here's its rating," he said.

Symantec is betting that this will make for strong protection against new, unsecured applications that have not been around long enough for blacklisting or whitelisting techniques to recognize their signatures, he added.

Both Bit9's Sverdlove and Symantec's Egan agree that whitelisting helps keep out or control polymorphic malware.

Ultimately, though, both Bit9's Sverdlove and Symantec's Egan said that it's critical that end-user applications be patched and managed centrally by the IT department.

"Relying on the user to download or install a patch or make conscious decisions about safety contributes to a breakdown of the process," Egan said. "Also, the user shouldn't have to be knowledgeable about security."

iTunes

MorphThing Creates Celebrity Face Mashups

2008-12-14T19:16:00.000-08:00

If you're looking for something fun to goof off with this weekend, look no further than MorphThing. Finally you'll know what the love child of Hillary Swank and Jack Nicholson would look like.

Or for that matter you can find out what you and any other celebrity or uploaded portrait would look like as a morphed image. The lead image for this post was an unholy mashup of my face and that of Heather Graham's, which shall hence forth insist on being called by it's stage name: Jasather.

MorphThing is a bit more precise than other simple image morphers online. Instead of simply using a basic image blend to layer one photo over the other, you actually go through a process after uploading each image to identify important features. Using a dot system, you assign place markers to prominent features like the edges of the eyes, lips, and face. The image at right is an example of how you would place the dots on lips to mark the center and boundaries. The dot system is actually pretty accurate, when I purpose messed with the placement of the eyes on my test image— putting the dots for the upper lid above the eye brow for instance— the results were rather horrific. If you don't want to upload your own images, there are thousands of predefined images in the database allowing you to morph celebrities to your hearts content. Never again will you wonder what a Brangilina actually looks like! MorphThing is free to play with, but requires a basic login (no email verification required) for uploading personal images.