(Tucson) phone directory on CD

(This is not new, but I know a lot of people are not aware of it...)

A CD-ROM version of the Tucson White and Yellow Pages directory is available free by calling 1-877-2-GET-DEX (1-877-243-8339)...some might be available in some Albertsons, Fry's, Kmart and Osco stores...


(Versions of other cities might be available, also.)

girls gettin' (more) geeky

After seeing a post from GamerEdie, I thought to share these:

"American women are now ahead of men in activities ranging from streaming on network TV websites, frequent DVR use and casual gaming to participation in social media such as MySpace and Facebook...70% played a PC game in the last month...Among teen girls and young women 12-24, 82% participated and among those 40+, 66% played PC games...Top handhelds and consoles for girls and women were: Sony PS2, Game Boy, Xbox, Nintendo 64 and DS. Women were also more likely to have a Sony PSP than men...African-American women are particularly engaged in console games, with two-in-three participating..."
(http://lifestyle.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=12483)

Femma Geeks Take Charge

No one should be surprised: I remember being aware of many similar reports and predictions YEARS AGO. Those who SHOULD have been marketing to them, and planning to, have chosen to ignore their potential customers...again.

Google Turns Out the Lights

Google turned the lights out. Now it's your turn - Earth Hour.

Google users in the United States will notice today that we "turned the lights out" on the Google.com homepage as a gesture to raise awareness of a worldwide energy conservation effort called Earth Hour. As to why we don't do this permanently - it saves no energy; modern displays use the same amount of power regardless of what they display. However, you can do something to reduce the energy consumption of your home PC by joining the Climate Savers Computing Initiative.

On Saturday, March 29, 2008, Earth Hour invites people around the world to turn off their lights for one hour – from 8:00pm to 9:00pm in their local time zone. On this day, cities around the world, including Copenhagen, Chicago, Melbourne, Dubai, and Tel Aviv, will hold events to acknowledge their commitment to energy conservation.

Given our company's commitment to environmental awareness and energy efficiency, we strongly support the Earth Hour campaign, and have darkened our homepage today to help spread awareness of what we hope will be a highly successful global event.

Why did Google choose this specific organization?We believe in doing our part to help combat climate change, and found the Earth Hour initiative to be a timely, important event. Further, we think the "lights out" idea's individual-centered nature is something that millions of people worldwide can participate in. In short, we really like it. So we did something about it.

How can I get Google to do something similar for my organization or project? We welcome your ideas on how we can become more socially and environmentally responsible. Although we can't guarantee either a placement on the Google homepage or even a response to every query, we do read every email we receive and welcome your ideas of organizations that you believe we should feature. If you'd like to submit a proposal, please send it to us at proposals@google.com.

The Apple Mac Book Air Unboxed

We unboxed the Mac Book Air during the Ustream.TV broadcast. You can view it at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/techtalkradio

Space Shuttle ISS Fly By

Wow...I remember when the Air Force One flew into David Monthan Air Force Base a few years ago. It was thrilling to see the plane which represented the highest office in America on final approach. I was on the rooftop of the old Arizona Honda building with my good friend Tom Matte who owned the place and we tried all morning to spot the plane. At the end of the Morning Show shift, we had noticed a plane flying along the edge of the Catalina Mountains. I grabbed the super powerful binoculars we had and saw the outline of the 747. As we watched the plane continue to desend and head towards Marana, it turned and began its final approach over Tucson. It was hair standing on the back of the neck as the majestic aircraft flew over our heads. It was pretty damn cool to watch.

I just had another one of those moments in the skies above tucson as the International Space Station and shuttle took a flight over the city. I had been scanning the skies for about 10 minutes when I saw a light moving across the sky, no flashing beacon, no landing light, and it was going at quite a clip. Behind it, moving at about the same velocity was a fainter light,moving along the same path. It was visable for about 3 minutes and soon was out of sight. Seeing it though was a thrill. There is still time to check it out, Thursday will be another 3 min pass. Check out the website at http://spaceflight1.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/cities/view.cgi?country=United_States&region=Arizona&city=Tucson

Andy

Recycling Event in Tucson

Tucson-based Nextrio and the Arizona Small Business Association are hosting a computer-recycling event...

Anyone with an old computer, monitor, printer or piece of network equipment can bring it to the Crossroads Shopping Center, 4811 E.
Grant Road, for disposal. Pima Computer Recycling will refurbish salvageable computers and donate them to charity.

The service, on April 10 (Thursday) between 8 a.m. and 12:30 p.m., is free and donations are tax-deductible. More information is available at www.nextrio.com/clean.

Wordpress 2.5 Update

Has anyone heard the official release date of Wordpress 2.5? It was officially supposed to be released March 10 then was pushed back another week to March 17. I have downloaded the "beta" version. A client of ours wants to integrate a blog to their website so I was going to attempt to use it, but started searching to find out when the "official" download was going to be released and found no information. Anybody know? If you "stumble" upon it, send us the link!

Updates to the Website

We've made some updates to the TechtalkRadio Website! Our Faq page is now posted and will be adding some of the most frequently asked questions about the show. Have one for us? Shoot away. Also, The contact page now has a form for sending us a note. Wally Kniaz now has his bio info posted on the about us page.

More features and changes coming!

Digsby Opens Public Beta With a Ton of New Features!

Digsby, the Instant Messenger & social network manager program that has been in private beta for the pc, released its public beta today. (soon to be adding support for Mac OS X and Linix!)

But todays release brought a slew upgrades and additional features to boot! Support for Twitter has been added, as well as:
* Added audio/video chat across IM networks
* Added inline spell checking in English with more languages coming soon
* Added a “Listening To” status to show what song is playing in Winamp or iTunes
* Added Block/Unblock to the right click menu of a buddy and the dropdown menu in an IM window
* Added preferences for what Digsby should do when running full screen applications like games

For a complete list of features and to view the evolution of this program, check out the changelog Digsby's website.

Be sure to let us know about your experience with this uber tool!

"easter eggs"

I was looking into the subject for our upcoming (radio) show...feel free to suggest any: call into the show, and/or e-mail us...DVDs, computer programs, devices, whatever!

HP Blackbird Video

Posted the HP Blackbird Video on Website and right
here on the Blog. Noticed we said the system had a
Intel Core 2 duo Extreme, the correction is a Core 2 Extreme
Processor. This is a Core2 Quad system. Sorry for picking on
you Scott but couldn't help it!

Vista Service Pack 1 - Available for Download

Everyday about 1pm I get a text message sent to me about what's new in Tech. So, today's "Tech Tip" was "A major package of updates and security fixes for Microsoft's Windows Vista operating system will be available for download." I thought it would be at least a couple of days.

I immediately went on Ustream to see if Andy was randomly broadcasting. I browsed around some other tech show to see if anybody might be talking about it.

I stumbled upon "The Tech Buzz" where they actually called Microsoft to find out if the Service Pack was available. They told them that it was available. They are doing an official install of Vista Service Pack 1. It took them about 45 minutes to install it.

If anybody is interested in downloading Vista Service Pack 1, here is the link:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=b0c7136d-5ebb-413b-89c9-cb3d06d12674&DisplayLang=en

If you install it, let us know how it goes and if you had any issues!

Good Luck!

Windows Vista Service Pack 1...realeased!

Check it out...Vista SP1 is here!

StarGate Worlds MMO to ‘open the Gate’ for SG-1 fans

By DDTechGuy
Many fans of the Star Gate SG-1 series are getting their first glimpses of a new chapter in the SG franchise. One that will literally fulfill personal fantasies all around: The ability to step through a Stargate; flow through a wormhole and onto strange new worlds!

Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment announced early in 2006 that work had begun on a new MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) based on the hit Sci-Fi television series StarGate SG:1…the fans and the critics immediately caught the vision and have been talking about it ever since.

For the next two years CME began building its dream team, adding developers, coders, marketing and P.R. reps, and gathered investors; while at the same time began developing a new online community to breathe life into this venture.

The producers of SGW began tossing kindling into the smoldering fire again around the beginning of this year with contests to win cash and get your own image scanned into the game.

New trailers have been showing up during the television shows, online and now, with the release of the latest DVD in the SG:1 series, Stargate: The Ark of Truth, comes more teasers, including one of the “Comedy Line Countdown” commercials, made by fans and uploaded to the SGW YouTube website. (This is my personal favorite è “Oiling myself…”


I’ll be watching – and participating in – the forums closely for breaking information on the release of this MMORPG and begging for a chance to beta test this beautiful and exciting new chapter in the Stargate saga…so stay tuned!

Perks to the Job

There really are certain perks of doing a Technology Radio Show, Running a Website and hosting segments on tech for the local CBS Affiliate. With some of those perks comes responsibilities, such as making sure stuff gets back to manufacturers on time so they can send them out to other reviewers, editors and the lot. There are also deadlines with Radio and TV and we have to fit all the stuff in we can within a reasonable amount of time. Sometimes, we have to pull ourselves away from testing the stuff out and jot our thoughts down on One Note or Google Doc just so that we don't get to far behind. So, with the perks comes work.

Early this morning, FedEx showed up at the door with a nice new padded envelope which contained one of the latest digital cameras from Casio. The EX-Z80 is a colorful digital camera with a huge LCD screen on the back for viewing. Gone is the eye viewfinder so they can fit as much screen on this baby as possible. I have to say, even though we are looking at a Hot Pink digital camera, its brushed metal and nice corners with compact size make this easy to handle.

There are many options with this and over the next couple of days we'll play around with it, take some shots and put together some thoughts on this camera. We'll also snap some more shots for you of the camera and some shots from the Casio EX-Z80 to take a look at. Office Depot is going to print up a couple of the images in Large format for us and we will be shutterbugs for the next week or two. By The Way, Office Depot is handling large format printing and can tackle just about anything you need. Make sure you consider them for your next special job.

Ok, but now..we have something very strange that has happened in the TechtalkRadio studio. I left late this afternoon for a meeting with our producer Carol. Driving around Tucson on a Friday afternoon can get rather hectic and while I had thought I would be back around 5:30, it was more like 6:30. Gloria met me outside and we went in and had a nice fish dinner, while watching A Fish Called Wanda. Ironic as that is.

After the movie I told her I needed to get some work done in the studio and fix a website that is giving me flash problems. I opened the door and there in the back of the studio was a strange large metal crate. I called for gloria if she had seen this huge beast of a roadie style crate and she was oblivious to it. The girls were not here and left before I did. What was this mysterious crate and how did it get in the studio. I haven't opened it yet..but the temptation is killing me.

I'll have more tommorow.

MMOCOD?

This tidbit was posted recently By Brick On MLGpro.com:

"A Massively Multiplayer Online Call of Duty?! Word on the street (according to IGN and other sources) is that mega-developer Activision is seriously considering such a venture.

With its recent acquisition of Blizzard, Activision thinks it may finally be in a place to enter the MMO market successfully, stating that past attempts have been failures in that they were financial losers or gained low profit margins.

So, as IGN puts it, would you play a CoD MMO?"

No webcast March 12

There are scheduling conflicts...

Did you know...? - MS PowerPoint Viewer 2007 loads Vista fonts on your XP machine?

That's right font fans! Kevin Purdy has a featured article on Lifehacker.com (click on the title of this post to go there) where he details how to get those cool Vista fonts LEGALLY loaded on your XP machine.
For those who just want to get down to biz, here's the d/l for PPT Viewer 2007 from Microsoft.
Enjoy!
DD

Today Was on Rocky and Sue

Greetings from Tucson, This morning I was on the Rocky and Sue morning show (WKRZ-FM) from Wilkes Barre PA and did a segment highlighting the Archos 705 WiFi, ShoZu.com and the wave bye bye to Windows XP set for June 30th. This farewell to Xp does not mean your XP will stop working, just that Windows will no longer be available for sale. Microsoft will still support XP through mid April 2009. If you are thinking you would like to get a system and want to get it installed with XP, some manufacturers will sell you a system with XP, you want to do it before June 30th. You can listen to the segment with the awesome morning duo here
wkrz031108.mp3

I then went over to KOLD and did the TV segment where we featured the BlueX Watch and Headphones. Jenny misplaced her MP3 Shuffle and we talked about some options for replacement including the RCA Jet which is also a Bluetooth compatible MP3 device, great for those that want to work out! We'll have the video posted at TechtalkRadio.com later today.

We also showed the Wacom Bamboo tablet which retails for about 79.00.

iTunes is Working Now!

About a month ago I logged onto iTunes and found that for some reason we had not had any updates to iTunes since September of last year! I tried to adjust the code, rewrite the XML and even reverse engineer some coding to get the thing to update. I just didn't have any luck in this.

Today I finally decided to delve into this and figure out what was going wrong. Having the site through Feedburner has been no problem at all and as a matter of fact, whenever I adjusted the iTunes Feed, my Feedburner would generate RSS errors. Arggg.

After trolling the web, I found some really good sites with RSS and XML examples and was able to re-write the Channel information for our podcast.

Here are a couple of good links I found:
http://www.devshed.com/c/a/XML/How-to-Set-Up-Podcasting-and-Vodcasting/2/

http://www.podcast411.com/howto_1.html

I have since been able to update the Channel Info, waiting on the graphic to refresh, and now the updates are appearing in iTunes again. Feedburner is also returning a Valid feed.
To Subscribe to our iTunes Feed:
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=121593668

How would you like Internet in the Car?

BMW is planning to have Internet in the Car? While we saw this technology at CES, BMW has integration into its future models planned as a factory option.

Check out the Video from CNET TV's Brian Cooley
http://www.cnettv.com/9742-1_53-32463.html

New Additions to the TechtalkRadio WebPage

We've added a few items! First off, thanks for everybody who hung out with on Sunday Afternoon on Ustream.TV. We had a great time taking calls and chatting on just about everything. Hopefully we provided some useful information for the 7 hours that we broadcast.

Also, thanks for the Gotcast/andytaylor votes, we're moving up slowly but surely and our goal is to get Andy into the Top10.

We've added the Alienware ALX review on the website http://www.techtalkradio.com/reviews/alienwarealx.htm

To go along with the review you will find some pics of carols last few minutes with the system, was she doing some bench test? checking last minute specs? No...she was fragging in Call of Duty 4! New Weblinks from Sundays show have been posted as well as . Thanks to Slick, Carol and DD for your great post! Looking forward to a new week with some new gadgets and a big welcome to listeners to Rocky and Sue in the Morning on WKRZ-FM Wilkes Barre PA!

$30,000 Dream PC Giveaway

PC World Announces Dream PC Contest

Our editors have picked their favorite components and have created a $30,000 computer that you can win! Entering is a breeze.

Ever dreamed of building your own PC from scratch? If money were no object, you'd probably build the biggest, baddest, best PC. Well, that's what we're doing--only we're giving it away when we're done! PC World's editors are picking their favorite components to custom-build the ultimate desktop computer, and you could win it!


Become a registered PC World member today and enter to win the Dream PC (estimated value $30,000): Sign up today for PCWorld.com and click My Account and then Member Benefits to enter.


If you are already a PC World member, just sign in and click on My Account and then member benefits.


No purchase necessary to enter or win. Void where prohibited. The Dream PC Giveaway is open to residents of the United States (excluding Puerto Rico) and Canada (excluding Quebec) who are at least 13 years of age and are registered members of PCWorld.com at the time of entry. The Giveaway opens 1/22/08 and ends 3/31/08. One entry per person. The Giveaway is subject to the Official Rules. Read the complete Official Rules.


Parts for the Dream PC provided by Tiger Direct.


Dream PC Prize Description & Estimated Retail Value
System Components


GIGABYTE 3D Mercury GZ-FW1CA-AJS Silver Aluminum ATX Full Tower

Computer Case: $399
Custom Case Painting by Gary Berg - $1500
OCZ ProXStream 1000 watt power supply - $299.99
2 Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9775 Processors - $2600
Intel D5400XS "Skulltrail" dual-CPU Motherboard - $500
4 Kingston KVR800D2D4F5/2G 800MHz 2GB FB DIMMs- $520
2 EVGA GeForce 8800 Ultra Video Card - $1259.98
2 OCZ 64GB internal solid state disks (SSD) - $3,000.00
Adaptec RAID 3405 adapter card - $390
âCheetah 15K.5 SAS 3Gb/s 300-GB Hard Drives - ST3300655SS - $3,931.20
2 LG Super Multi GGW-H10NI BD burner HD DVD reader- $1,999.98
Ultra Internal 3.5" Floppy Drive w/Multi Card Reader Black - $29.99
Cables Unlimited UV Reactive Mode Kit with Dual Tube UV CCFL Lights, Fans, Floppy Cable and ATA133 Cable - $26.99
Vantec UV Reactive Motherboard Slot Protector - Green - $4.99 (PCIe)
Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-1800 PCIe NTSC/ATSC/QAM tuner - $149
Emu 1616M PCI Sound card and breakout box (studio quality inputs and A/D, D/A, surround via digital) - $599
Display
3 NEC LCD2490WUXi-BK 24.1" Widescreen LCD Monitor - $3,866.97
Three monitor mounting system from 9xmedia - $1000
External Peripherals and Components
Iomega UltraMax Pro eSATA 1.5TB - $504
APC Back-UPS RS 1500VA LCD - 249.95
Logitech diNovo Edge Keyboard - $199.99
Logitech MX AirTM Rechargeable Cordless Air Mouse - $149.99
Logitech Z-5500 THX Certified 5.1 500-watt Dolby Digital & DTS Hardware Decoding Speaker System - 209.99
Canon Pixma MP970 Printer - $299.99
Icemat Siberia Headphones/mic - $79
Saitek X2 Flight control system - $119.95
Xbox 360 Gamepad controller - $39.95
Software
Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007 - $629.99
Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate 64 - $379
Microsoft Windows XP SP2 - $249.99
Adobe Master Collection CS3 - $2,750.99
EA Crysis - $49.99
Microsoft Flight Simulator X Deluxe - $59.99
Call of Duty 4 - $59.99
Half Life 2: Orange Box - $61.99
Battlefield 2142 Deluxe Edition - $30.99
Kaspersky Internet Security 7.0 - 73.99
System Commander 9 - $69.95
Acronis True Image Home $49.95
Miscellaneous
OCZ Freeze Thermal Compound - $5.99
Labor for building and troubleshooting -- 100 hrs at $50/hr - $5,000


TOTAL ESTIMATED RETAIL VALUE: $30,924.76

Very Funny Ads.com

Thanks Slick!

Very Funny Ads is a website about - you guessed it - very funny ads. The TV Commercials you see are some of the funniest from around the world. They are adding new spots all the time, so keep going back. Visit them now at www.veryfunnyads.com.

Here's my favorite: http://veryfunnyads.com/ads/25504.html

What's yours?

How to Find Out What Graphics Card You Have

Step 1:

Click on "Start".

Step 2:

Within the "start" menu click on "Run". Run can typically be found on the right beneath "Search".

Step 3:

Once you have clicked on "Run" a small window will appear. Inside of the box in the small window type in "dxdiag". Be sure to type in dxdiag without using quotation marks. Once you have typed in "dxdiag" click on "OK".

Step 4:

The DirectX Diagnostic Tools window will open now. At the top of this window there will be quite a few tabs. Click on the "Display" tab.

Step 5:

Within the Display tab you will see information about your graphics card directly under "Device".

Call of Duty 4

Well, even though we had to send back the Alienware ALX this week... I'm still pretty excited about getting my computer back. (Thanks Andy). So far I've installed ONLY the stuff I absolutely need on it. With that being said, I'm still able to run Call of Duty 4 on the computer with a NVIDIA GeForce 6600 and 1GB Memory and with my settings on low, the game does not run bad at all.

I still wouldn't mind getting another gig of memory in this thing until I get a new computer which I really need. The Dell I have is now 5 years old. Think it's about time for a new one.

Anybody have some DDR memory laying around they want to sell me?

viewer-submitted parodies of Discovery Channel shows

"You Spoof Discovery: The ultimate viewer-submitted low-cost high-quality extremely entertaining Discovery parody special hosted by Mike Rowe of Dirty Jobs, who also narrates the series American Chopper, American Hot Rod and Deadliest Catch".

Phish Attempt - They Can work a PC but can they spell?

I received this email earlier this morning and while normally would delete it, had to share it. I am not perfect, far from it in the spelling department but this was pretty funny. Check out the wonderful job this phisher did on the word tried. What else did they miss?

Awesome View of the Flight Deck of a Jet, 360 degree

http://www.gillesvidal.com/blogpano/cockpit1.htm

This is one heck of a View! Taken inside an Airbus Passenger Jet.

GrandCentral: receive calls and post voicemail with your blog

Just in case you aren't a Blogger/Blogspot user with a dashboard; and/or you missed this on the Blogger update page:

With GrandCentral, a free service from Google, you can receive phone calls and post voicemails right on your blog. Though GrandCentral is currently in a private beta test, bloggers can skip the wait and get a free account immediately. Sign up now

New Features

We're always looking for new features to add to the site. We integrated the Ustream.TV Chat onto the page (It's a popup) and allows you to chat in our Ustream Chat. I could have set up a website chat on Wyldryde (I did) but then on Sundays we would have two different chats? Not sure what the best way to go is? Thoughts, Suggestions?

Also added the Blog headlines to the front page of the site. I have to post them manually unless anybody knows how to just grab the headlines off the feed.

Will be doing the Morning Show with Rocky and Sue at WKRZ in Wilkes Barre PA. We'll talk about some cool new tech. I am going to send Rocky a list of possible things to talk about and see what he likes for the listeners. They are great people and have known them for over 15 years!
I'm hoping we can start doing other radio shows around the country and share some cool info on all this tech stuff! I'll keep ya posted.

Andy

iPhone gets third-party support

Adam Pash reports on Lifehacker that "Today, Steve Jobs and the folks at Apple have announced their official support for third-party applications along with Enterprise support for push email and calendars, Activesync and Exchange support..."
This is an extension of the earlier report concerning support for Microsoft's Exchange server...MORE

Apple iPhone WILL support MS Exchange, ActiveSync, and more...

As reported by Will on IntoMobile's site, "As expected at today's Apple iPhone Software Roadmap press event in Cupertino, Apple has announced that they will be rolling out a host of new business features with the next firmware update. We can look forward to native Microsoft Exchange support with ActiveSync, push email, contact synchronization, 802.1x security compatibility, Cisco IPsec VPN support, and remote wipe!"
FULL STORY HERE.

DVD Ripper - Back up DVD's Fast and Free - Part I

DVD Rip Automates One-Click DVD Ripping
From lifehacker.com — "Windows only: Sick of scratched, skippy DVDs, I put together a simple AutoHotkey script that automated DVD rips in conjunction with a freeware application called DVD Shrink. I've since gone back and drastically improved the original DVD Rip application complete with options and improved automation..."
See part II for more info and details.
DDTechGuy

My DVD ripping experience...Backup your DVD's fast and free! Part II

So, after grabbing the scripted file from Part I, I had to d/l DVD Shrink before DVD Ripper would work (not a surprise, stated clearly on the Lifehacker page below) and after spending less than two minutes setting up I was rippin' the first DVD. (an 87 minute independantly published DVD of a conference I recently attended).

Now the author says: "Windows only: Rip and back up any DVD to your hard drive with DVD Rip, a freeware Windows application that automates the entire DVD-to-hard-drive backup process. All you need to do is insert your DVD, run DVD Rip, and let it take care of the rest. "

And he's not kidding!

The first time you run the automation program you will need to tell it where you want your root directory created for the files to rip to their individual folders for easy access later. (Note: these are all the .vob and .ifo files)

But before you go grab a stack of your DVD's to back up to your hard drive there are a couple of things you need to know up front:

1. After you insert your DVD and run the ripping program, you'll be asked to name your file.
2. Depending on your cpu speed, the amount of RAM you have and the speed of your DVD drive, in a few moments the files will be exactly where you expect them to be.
3. At this point you will be asked to insert a DVD-R so you can make a back up copy of your DVD. (The authors intent is to be able to view the back up and not chance harming your original) You can just remove your original DVD and hit cancel and be done.

But then you'll need something to PLAY the files on your hard drive and Media Player Classic is just thing to use. (open the Video_TS.IFO to start the DVD menu)

And so far, the only hitch I've hit is when the DVD is just TOO BIG to fit on a standard DVD disc ("automatically" that is...you can pop into the menu and remove unneeded/unwanted extra's; like spanish and/or french subtitles, extra commentaries, etc, to make the copy smaller...albeit less complete) -- Now I have a Dual Layer DVD +/- R/RW, I've just not purchased any DL DVD discs to write to yet...but I will. And I'll post here if that solves the problem.

Internet Explorer 8 beta for developers out TODAY!

Wow...you are hearing about this HERE FIRST!
IE8 beta is available for download and the complete story from the IE team at Microsoft is here!
Check it out...

Game On: PVK2 (Pirates, Vikings and Knights II)

I'm currently beta testing: PVK2: a Half Life 2 mod...below is a teaser video; check it out!



More pics and full review in the making...stay tuned!

maximize Internet Explorer

On our radio show, we had talked about how to configure Internet Explorer so it always opens maximized. We received calls with suggestions, and I wanted to post links to articles in our blog. After reviewing the Microsoft website, I sent a message to them (via their website)...

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

--- Original Message ---
Subject : I cannot find an article

QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS
Message: I am seeking an article on how to configure Internet Explorer so it opens in a maximized position, but one does not seem to exist...

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

From: "Microsoft Online Customer Service"
Subject: RE: SRX1060333998ID - I cannot find an article

Hello,

Thank you for contacting Microsoft Customer Service.

I understand that you would like to obtain an article where you can know as how to configure Internet Explorer page so that the page opens with a maximized page. I will assist you regarding this.

As there is no article regarding this, I suggest you to follow the below steps mentioned in Method 1 or 2, to accomplish your task of opening up a maximized Internet Explorer page:

1. Open Internet Explorer.

2. Click one of the window corners and drag it out to completely fill your screen. (Do not use the Maximize button to maximize the window).

3. In Internet Explorer 6, press and hold down either "Ctrl" or "Shift", Select "Exit" from the "File" menu. (Use the Close button in Internet Explorer 7).

Now when you launch Internet Explorer, it should open in a full window. If it opens in the same small window, repeat the steps but hold down the opposite key in step 3, that is either "Ctrl" or "Shift".

Method 2:

1. Close all the windows that are opened.
2. Open "My Computer"
3. Open "C" drive > "Program Files" > "Internet Explorer"
4. In this folder, right-mouse click on "iexplorer.exe" (or iexplorer). Now, a popup menu will appear
5. Select "Copy" from the menu. Close the window
6. Right mouse click on desktop. A menu will appear.
7. Select "Paste Shortcut" from the menu. A shortcut will be pasted on the desktop.
8. Right mouse click on the shortcut > select "Properties".
9. Select Shortcut tab, select "Maximized" in the "Run" field
10. Click on "Apply" and "OK"
11. Restart your Internet Explorer page.

I hope the above answers your question. Should you have any other concern, please write back to us.

Thank you,

Sam
Microsoft Customer Service Representative

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

It's great that I received a response, but I still think they should write an article about it...

camera (and web) images

Tom called the radio show about digital photography, and we discussed format preferences...here's what I think I know:

There are two basic kinds of computer graphics: raster (composed of pixels), and vector (composed of paths).

Most of the time it is best to use the vector format for all type, line art, and illustrations. Bitmaps are considered best for photos or images...

Vector graphics are best suited for page layout, type, line art, or illustrations. You can increase and decrease the size of vector images to any degree and your lines will remain crisp and sharp, both on screen and in print. The primary disadvantage is that they're unsuitable for producing photo-realistic imagery. They tend to have a cartoon-like appearance.

At this time, the most common and accepted format for vector images on the Web is Shockwave Flash (SWF). Another standard for vector images on the Web is SVG

Due to the nature of vector images, they are best converted to GIF or PNG format for use on the Web.

Raster images are more commonly called bitmap images. A bitmap image is composed of pixels. Pixels can be of differing colors. Most bitmap formats are TIFF, PCX, and BMP.

Consider using...

For web pages:
GIF - Graphics Interchange Format - The GIF format uses compression for smaller files and faster downloads.
JPEG - Joint Photographic Experts Group - the JPEG compression can be "lossy"...save the image using no compression or "lossless" compression and make JPEG copies from it.

For printed documents:
TIFF - Tagged-Image File Format - Used for bitmaps only. The TIFF format is supported by virtually all graphics applications.
EPS - Encapsulated PostScript - A file format used for both vector graphics and bitmaps. EPS files are unique in that you can use them for vector graphics, bitmap images, and type.

http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/aboutgraphics/a/bitmapvector.htm

http://www.sketchpad.net/basics1.htm

can't burn CDs

"Kathy" called the radio show about her problems creating CDs: her Dell computer crashes during the burning process...

There could be problems and/or incompatibilities with: the software, the hardware, and/or the operating system.

Recently, my problems were due to blank CDs I had purchased years ago. I cannot burn standard audio CD files to these disks from a computer with a DVD/CD burner, but am able to using the CD burner of a different computer.

There CAN BE incompatibilities between some DVD/CD burners and blanks. If you check the documentation of the recorder/computer, and the burning software, they might recommend a specific manufacturer (and type) of blank.

Some manufacturers that are considered to produce quality media are:
Imation
Kodak (BASF)
Sony
and TDK (3M/Pioneer/Yamaha).

Also, see CD Freaks.com