Saturday, January 31, 2009

Google search sputtered

I like to have backups...spares...alternative plans. Today, I realized have allowed myself to become much too trusting...again.

This morning, I dragged myself over to one of my computers to search for...something...it really doesn't matter what it is. I'm sure I'm no different than others who are too lazy to look in whatever they use for bookmarks, and find it easier and quicker to search for a website and webpage they want. Google has become my default "spell-checker", as well...

ALL of the results from Google showed, "This site may harm your computer". All links available from the searches would not allow me to move forward to the websites. I thought that it must be something I was doing: my browsers have been up for a very long time. But, it was happening on both of my computers. Well...I haven't restarted them in a very long time...so I did. Same problem. Could it be my internet service provider? I have long suspected problems with their service...I only use them because I can't afford a different one.

Then I noticed that on Twitter that I wasn't the only technology related media personality that had the problem (I suspect the reason his post beat mine is because I was troubleshooting, and he wasn't). I was in no rush to learn what had happened...I went back to being ill with influenza.

Later, I found Google's explanation: an update had caused the problem. I think we can all empathize with them. I can't imagine anyone not updating, upgrading, or installing something that did not work correctly...and/or made what was working cease to.

What really bothered me about me was I had been so conditioned, I forgot that Yahoo! has a search engine!

With that in mind:
Wikipedia has a list of search engines...
visit Search Engine Watch to try to stay on top of the latest search news...
and, allow me to suggest we use meta-search engines ("...a search tool that sends user requests to several other search engines and/or databases and aggregates the results into a single list or displays them according to their source...").

Thursday, January 29, 2009

CES 2010 - More Room for Apple Products

We received this Press Release this Morning from the Consumer Electronics Association, It leads me to wonder if Manfacturers that support Apple products are looking for a new place to show products, there has been much talk on the future of MacWorld, could this be a sign of changing times?

2010 INTERNATIONAL CES iLOUNGE PAVILION SELLS OUT IN RECORD TIME; SPACE QUADRUPLED TO ACCOMMODATE CUSTOMER DEMAND

2010 CES iLounge Pavilion to Feature Largest Display of iPod, iPhone
and Mac Technologies in Show History

Arlington, Va., January 29, 2009 – The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA)® today announced that the iLounge® Pavilion, a unified iPod®, Phone® and Mac® exhibition area at the 2010 International CES®, has quadrupled in size since its official launch last week. The iLounge Pavilion, co-sponsored by CEA and iLounge.com, will feature manufacturers and retailers of iPod and iPhone accessories, related products and services, and based on requests from vendors, will now grow to include leading Mac developers and retailers as well. Owned and produced by CEA, the 2010 International CES, the world’s largest tradeshow for consumer technology, is scheduled for January 7-10, 2010 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

“We have received an incredible response from companies interested in exhibiting in the iLounge Pavilion at the 2010 International CES,” said Karen Chupka, senior vice president, events and conferences, CEA. “In fact, the original space allocated for the pavilion sold out in less than one week – a CES show record - and we’ve quadrupled the space to accommodate the overwhelming demand. This exciting new CES Pavilion brings momentum to the consumer technology industry and reinforces the International CES as the global hub for the latest innovative technologies.”

“Leading Apple developers and retailers are excited to have such an outstanding stage at the 2010 International CES,” said Jeremy Horwitz, editor-in-chief, iLounge. “Whether they're showing off iPod accessories, iPhone applications, or the latest and coolest new Mac products, they know that they'll find the world's largest audience at this great new pavilion.”
The iLounge Pavilion, originally floored with 4,000 net square feet of exhibit space which sold out in the first week following the launch, has increased to 18,000 net square feet. Exhibiting companies in the 2010 CES iLounge Pavilion, which will be housed in the Las Vegas Convention Center, South Hall 2, include Griffin Technology, Mobis Technology, Pro Clip USA, Scosche, Incase Designs, Incipio Technologies, iSkin and GelaSkins.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

traffic cameras broadcast video at all times

(Just a reminder that no one should be surprised that privacy can be at a minimum...)

Some photo enforcement cameras (used to catch speeders) are streaming video. Do you know where the video is going to, and who has access to it?...

CameraFRAUD.com is reporting that Redflex Traffic Systems can scan license plates of every vehicle that passes the cameras.

Some agencies are using vehicles that can scan the license plates of cars ahead of them. After scanning, the license can be compared against databases to determine if the vehicle is being sought for...

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DD Tests Win7beta on an old Dell Latitude D810

Just thought someone would like to know that I dropped the beta DVD I made into the drive of my 4 to 5 year old Dell Latitude D810. Booted. Ran Full install and was AT DESKTOP and running Win7beta in less than 30 mins!

Not a single driver was requested...So something MUST be busted, right?

Nope. (At least I haven't found it yet)

Win7beta immediately went online and d/l'd the update for itself...two clicks and two minutes later I was able to join the laptop to my network domain (I'm the ITGuy at Southwest) and was crusin' the WIRELESS system without a hitch.

Another couple of clicks and I've got the company's enterprise antivirus running (not a single complaint about version issues from Trend Micro's Officescan) and no noticable performance hit. (will check on that more during an acutal scan)

All the "comes with" programs I've tried so far have only barked at me a couple of times about my security habits and seems to be learning quickly when to pipe up and when to shut up! LOL But over all, not a hitch. (What's the catch? When's the other shoe gonna drop?)

So now I'm at my HOME...popped open the laptop...signed in. Click the wireless icon in the tray, there's more wireless networks available then I've ever seen before in my neighborhood! And my secure router at the top of the list - click - passkey - internet. Bam!

I think I'll blog about this and/or try World of Warcraft (from my portable USB drive) next! :)

Diamond Dave
Catch the TTR gang at:
http://www.techtalkradio.com/blogger
http://www.techtalkradio.com/forum
http://ustream.tv/channel/techtalkradio (6pm Wed eve's/9am Sunday mornings; PST)

Monday, January 26, 2009

Star Wars Real Storm Trooper Hoodie By Marc Ecko


It's part of The Stars Wars Collection...

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Thursday, January 22, 2009

Day One and I decided to install the Windows 7 Beta. I am not normally into running beta's however have heard some great things about Windows 7 I decided to give it a try. The ISO I installed from the Beta site was just over 3GB in size and downloaded easily. Once I had it I used the Roxio 2009 to take the ISO and create a Bootable DVD.

We installed it on:
Intel Core i7 Motherboard DX58SO
Intel Core i7 Extreme Processor
6GB Kingston DDR3 HyperX 1066 Memory
Seagate 300GB SATA
ATI Radion 4850 512MB
Creative Labs X-FI Titanium
Cooler Master Haf932
Cooler Master V8 CPU Cooler
Cooler Master Ultimate 900w Power Supply

We decided to obviously go with the 64bit install to make use of the memory and see if the issues we had run into with the XP64 Bit version at release would be prevalent with the Beta U7.

Install took about 2.5 hours as we partitions and formatted (Had Windows 7 handle that) and ran through the install process. In set up we had the option to choose a Home Network, Business Network and Public Computer install. We have chosen the Home Group which will allow us to connect and share with other home users in the Home Group.

We have another XP Pro Machine and a Vista Machine on the Network and will check the functionality of this network which seems to be on the surface, similar to the Network Setup when connecting to the Xbox Live Network?

We did not notice any glitches with install which can usuallly be experienced with Beta Installs. We were also able to setup the included Internet Explorer 8 which has a nice new menu feature and was very responsive to the system.

While we are testing this on a Upper End spec system, it has performed flawless through set up. The Famous UAC control was easily located and gave us the option to how we want the User Account Control to respond when Downloading, Installing, Etc. We adjusted the UAC by going into the Control Panel, User Accounts and Family Safety and then the User Account you want to manage. An option pops up that will allow you to adjust the settings.

We visited the Adobe site and Downloaded and installed the Flash Player, No Issues which then showed us the Flash on our Website. There was no prompting that we should download this feature but can assume this will be changed in the full release of Windows 7.

We did notice the sound was choppy with the WDM drivers under Windows 7 so we took the gamble and visited the Creative Labs site where we downloaded the Titanium Drivers Only and fixed the choppy sound on Internet Playback.

We installed iTunes and again, experienced no issues at present. We will atempt to install NOD32 AV and Office, which we hear may have some install issues with the Beta build which is Build 7000.

One issue that will take some getting used to for me is the inability to change out the Menu to the Classic Start Menu. We attempted to located it but read various Web Postings that the Classic Menu Option was not included and getting used to the XP/Vista style task menu may speed up use. I am sure I can get use to this.

There are some customization options for the Menu which allow you to pin programs not only to the Start Menu but also to the Taskbar itself and easily select the screen orientation for the Menu. I didn't the Gadget Sidebar with this install, a menu offered the Desktop Gadget Gallery however, I would rather not see this feature, and on first look it is not run by default. I like what
I see so far, we'll report on more later.

Andy

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Monday, January 19, 2009

CoolerMaster schwag

Slick posted this video showing the Schwag he got

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Fatal1ty at CES 2009 with TechtalkRadio

We talked with Power Gamer Fatal1ty at the Consumer Electronics Show 2009

Google Notebook to become stagnant

Soon, Google Notebook will no longer be improved...


You can export notebooks to Google Docs, which I recommend you do...now (just to be safe).

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If you can afford it, take a look at Microsoft OneNote.

I've been using Evernote ever since it was in beta, and am prepared to recommend it. After it is installed on a computer, a portable version can be installed to a USB drive. It syncs to a web interface, and can also be accessed via mobile devices. [New update, January 23:] Evernote has developed a Google Notebook import tool...

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Zoho Notebook is attempting to allow Google Notebooks to be imported...

To export your Google Notebook as Atom via Google Notebook's interface:
Step 1: Click Manage notebooks on the left hand side.
Step 2: Click export on which notebook you want to export.
Step 3: Click Atom...you will be prompted to save a file. Save that file to your disk.

To import/upload your notebooks from Google Notebook into Zoho Notebook:
Step 4: click Browse or Choose file button provided to select the saved file.
Step 5: Click Import.

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Wednesday, January 14, 2009

TechtalkRadio in the Dell Studios Suite During CES2009

A Video shot in the Dell Suite during CES 2009 at the Palms

Monday, January 12, 2009

Slick chats with the NonSociety Girls

The NonSociety Girls chat with Slick from TechtalkRadio.Com during the Consumer Electronics Show 2009

new 2 TB memory card format

There are various formats for memory cards. SD memory cards can have capacities up to 2 GB. I use them in my computers, portable digital assistants, cameras, and telephones.

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I knew the day would come when I would need to seriously consider "the next format"...that day always comes. I have a tablet PC that would not read 1 GB SD cards...until I updated the BIOS. When necessary, I had been using USB card readers to access memory cards (that my computers would not).

At ShowStoppers (at CES), Kingston gave to me an 8 GB SDHC card. I have found that my readers don't work with SDHC cards. Time to go shopping...

The SD High-Capacity (SDHC) cards go up to 32GB, and:
"SDHC-enabled products accommodate SDHC memory cards and are backward compatible with SD memory cards. Data on SDHC cards is protected even if inserted in an incompatible device. SDHC cards also work in standard SD slots with a firmware upgrade."

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Beyond SDHC, SDXC (eXtended Capacity) memory cards are coming: up to 2 terabytes (TB) of storage per card...that could be 100 HD movies per card.

I was thinking about allowing myself to "fall in love" with blu-ray. But now...

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Saturday, January 10, 2009

CES Here we Come!

The Consumer Electronics Show 2009 Kicks off this week and TechtalkRadio will be there Covering the New Announcements, Events and Products! Check out the Video's that will be
posted in the Video Gallery and be sure to tune in for the Live Webcast from Showstoppers on Thursday 5pm Pacific and Sunday from CES Show Floor at 8am Pacific!

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Monday, January 5, 2009

restoring/recovering files

There was a question about how to restore files in Windows...

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If the file is in the Recycle Bin, it can be easily restored from there:
open the Recycle Bin...
select the file(s) to restore...
restore the file(s)...
and, when you are done, close the Recycle Bin window.

I found a (Windows 2000) description at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows2000/en/advanced/help/recycle_bin.htm

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If you have the Business, Enterprise, or Ultimate versions of Windows Vista you can try to restore a previous version...or shadow copy...of the file.

"Previous versions are either backup copies—copies of files and folders that you back up by using the Back Up Files wizard, or shadow copies—copies of files and folders that Windows automatically saves as part of a restore point....

"Right-click the file or folder, and then click Restore previous versions..."


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If the file was "deleted" from the hard drive, you can consider software that will try to help you recover the file. There's a lot of these products available...at the moment, I don't have any that I can recommend over others.

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