फॉर सहित'एस ऎंड giggles

Howdy there my fellow readers. I’ve yet to bring you guy’s awesome stories about my interesting life. However, I constantly bring you answers to your questions, regarding your technology issues.

I’ve been taking some time off of from “blogging”. Due to the fact of me being sick, and vomiting everywhere.

Now, today’s blog is going to be more DIY (Do it yourself). Let’s get started, shall we?

• · I’ve got three, fully functional computers lying around at my place. I was wondering what I could do with them? I’m not very technical, but I’m willing to try doing various things. I really don’t want to throw these computers away. I paid so much for them a couple of years ago. It feels like I’ve wasted my money if I do that.

Hi there! Because you don’t know what you could do makes thing a whole lot tougher. You could buy a new chassis make one of your PC’s a home entertainment system. That of course is going to force you into purchase a new video card, a new sound card, possibly RAM. (The reason वही you’d buy a new chassis is because most of regular chassis’s are either really ugly, or really big)
If you’d like to continue on that idea, I’d recommend you buying new hard drivers for your second computer. Around 500GB would enough. The more, the merrier ;)
What you’re going to do with the other PC, is that you’re going to set up a NAS. (Network Attached-Storage)
Basically, your home entertainment pc is going to connect to the NAS, in order to get all of the content that you have. Good idea right?
I’ll post a link to a guide further down.

• · Hi! I have a question regarding home media PC’s. I’m wondering if you could recommend any good software’s to run on a home brew media center computer? (I’m running windows XP)

I’m sorry to say that, there haven’t really been that many programs made for the home entertainment systems. I would of course advise you to upgrade to Vista, in order to get the Media Center. However, if you wish to stay in XP, I’d recommend you getting Windows XP Media Center Edition. You can probably buy an OEM version of a website. Like TigerTV.
I’m really not very familiar with Vista / XP MCE Media Center equivalents.
Sorry to leave you with no answers, but don’t forget to download CODECS. I’ll post links down below.

• · Hi! I have a newly born child that loves to play with my things. I was wondering whether or not there was a software that could keep her from continuously deleting my files. I have a MAC, PC and an XBOX 360. It should hopefully keep her entertained.

Howdy! It makes me happy that you introduce her to technology at such a young age.
To answer your question, I’m really not aware of any software that basically blocks all keyboard and mouse functions. To keep her busy, just download Bob the builder, or The Flintstones. (The piratebay is better than sex for parents with infants)

· I have a question on installing software. Installing software on the Mac is so easy, why doesn’t Linux do the same thing, since it’s both based on Unix?

Linux is NOT fully based on Unix. There are some parts that are, but Linux is mostly based on BSD.
Yes, they both have the command line, and yes, you can double click and install software. But the programmers don’t really put in much on the install interface. Why? We don’t know. I guess they want people to think that Linux is an underground hacking OS. Or they maybe would like to keep it that way, so that unwanted software stays out?! Who knows. I hope they fix that with the upcoming Ubuntu. That’s the real thing that keeps people from having Ubuntu. That’s what keeps me from having ubuntu!

• · Everyone I know keeps ranting on me for using Internet Explorer. They all use Firefox. Is there a reason why I should switch to Firefox, instead of staying with Internet Explorer?

Extensions and security!
Read this interesting “review” on them both.
http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-10442_7-6656808-1.html

• · I have an Apple TV. Do I have to have my computer on all of the time in order to view my content, or can I shut it down? Can I download content straight onto it? Can I connect it onto my TiVO, because I have films I’d like to save.

1. No! You don’t have to leave your computer on all of the time. When it synchronizes with iTunes, it downloads the content of the library and saves it on its hard drive.

2. With the new firmware that’s coming in two weeks you can. But for now, you can’t. Possibly podcasts.

3. No you can’t! The Apple TV hasn’t got a video capturing function. You could be better of getting a video capturing card for your PC and transfer it that way. Good luck!

• · Hi! I’ve noticed that the new motherboards are coming out with two lan ports. Is there really any use for that? Thanks

The reason why there are two Ethernet ports is because one port is for incoming, and one for outgoing. So, by connecting that to your router, you ought to be getting faster internet. Also, it should save you system resources (that’s at least what I’ve been told).

NAS: http://www.crn.com/white-box/172901595

Codec: 64bit system: http://www.softpedia.com/get/Multimedia/Video/Codec-Packs-Video-Codecs/VistaCodecs-x64Components.shtml

Codec: x86/x32bit http://fileforum.betanews.com/download/Vista_Codec_Package/1159994557/1

Hi! If you’ve read my blogs at all, you probably know that I scout around the net trying to find questions to answer. Yes, that’s how bored I am. None the less.
I’m scouting on YouTube and a lot of forums. So, feel free to email me.

· Hi! I’ve seen on a couple of thumb drives that are marked as “capable of ready boost”. Now I’m wondering, what is ready boost, and how does it work with Windows Vista. And what can I benefit from it being capable of it?

How ready boosts works is that it stores cache on a thumb drive, to make windows start up 80 to 100 times faster. That’s remarkably noticeable when going into hibernation. It stores temporary yet crucial files on, and when being a solid state drive, it takes less time to get information off of it.

(No moving parts, unlike hard drives that have to read and look for info)
Ready boost can in some cases be used as a back-up ram source. But as a home user, you shouldn’t be worried about that too much. It’s more for pro graphics designers and hard core gamers.
You can read more about ready boost on Microsoft’s website. Go to
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/features/details/readyboost.mspx

• I’m thinking of installing Linux on my computer. I have no idea on what to expect and what distributions I should be considering. Could you help me?

I’m wondering why you want to switch to Linux? Is it because it’s free and you find yourself tired of constantly updating windows, or do you want to try it out for funnsies?
If both, you should be considering Ubuntu. It’s the most user friendly Linux distribution so far.
If you just want to have an OS on your multimedia box, try kubuntu. It’s like Window Media Center, but cooler and much more power full.
You should go to YouTube and try searching for various distrobutions and see if you find an interface that you like. Note that you have to be willing to live in a command world. Just to install a file, you have to use the command, no double clicks and you’re done! No, No! If your installation is on your desktop, you have to type in
Sudo /home/username/desktop/filename.version.cpumode.run

(Sudo is super –user. Like administrator on windows)

· Back in the day I used to make my own Ethernet cables. I used to make 10/100. Now, I’ve upgraded my routers and my computer’s. Now, I’d like to make gigabit cables. Got any suggestions!?

First and foremost, I’d like to say that it’s awesome that you do things DIY!
How ever, it will cost you more to make your own cables. But, since you already make your own, you probably don’t care. Nowadays, I don’t remember whether or not today’s network cards are capable of handling CAT6 cables, or are we still stuck at CAT5? (CAT5e is also capable of gigabit) From what I’ve seen and talked to a couple of friends, CAT6 cables the ones you have to choose to make. Check with your computer manufacturer if it supports CAT6, otherwise you don’t have a choice than to continue using 10/100. I’m thinking that the reason you want that is that you want faster transfer speeds on your लोcal network, or you just want to impress a friend?

• I have and old iMac G3 computer, with 512 ram and 20 Gigs of hard drive. I’m wonder, what can I do with it? Can I put Linux on it?

Hi! If I were you, I would set up a local server. Because we use a couple of computers, so having all our movies and music on one place would be awesome. To accomplish that you’ll need to buy an external hard drive. I don’t know whether or not external hard drives support panther. But if you like that idea, check with local computer stores. The other thing you can do is that you could sell it on eBay?! Who knows how many Mac fanatics miss the old system. You could maybe get a $200. It’s a long shot, but it’s free to put up ads.
Yes, you can run Linux on it। Ubuntu, due to it being based on Debian and having an awesome x86 processor capability. Hopefully you won’t experience any lag. 7.10 For the win!

• I’ve got a DirecTiVo at home. How could I get the TV shows off of my TiVo to my iMac?

Since you’re a Mac users, there’s pretty much nothing you can do. Some people have tried hacking it and SSH-ing in!
Although, you could purchase a USB-TV tuner, then connect your TiVo to record the raw material to the drive. The other way is that you crack open the box, pull out the hard drive and re jumper it to a slave, then connecting it to a pc. That will of course void your warranty. But, if you’re like me, the “warranty voided if sticker removed” is just a way of saying –“You’re a loser if you don’t put LED’s on me”

I hope these answers will help you!

Bani.free@gmail.com if you have questions!

I am thou helper

I haven’t really been doing that much lately. I’ve been abusing YouTube all day long. I’ve been getting numerous 404 errors. This is probably due to the DDos attacks. Oh, surprised. So, I’ve stumbled upon a lot of technically related questions that haven’t been answered. The major online “web stations” are too busy making shows, and not answering questions, so I’ve decided to answer them… without permission. EVUHL!

• · Hi! Is there are way I could connect my PS3 or my Wii to my LCD screen using a component cable? (DVI). And if so, how? Would I be losing any quality? What are the pros and cons? Thanks

Well sir, excellent question. I’m surprised that this hasn’t been answered, due to it being a very common question. Not very many geeks कैन afford big ass screen. Shocking, but true. Now, I doubt the quality would be very good. The Wii doesn’t support 720p, and with its lame graphics, so you won’t be enjoying your screen full capability. But it all comes down to the quality of the cables. (Let’s use that as a comfort). Now, I’m not saying that you should be heading off to the nearest radio shack to purchase monster cables. No, No! I think you should study very well. Read reviews, tips & trick online. From my personal experience, I’ve used a TV tuner card. It worked surprisingly well. I however used the very first Playstation, so I wasn’t expecting much. That said. You could experience as much as .5 sec delay using the Tuner card mothod. Which is much! I recommend you reading online, and talk to the sales people over at Best Buy or Costco. Try asking for HDMI TO DVI.

• · Is there a reason to get a 1080p TV, when all of my content is going to be 720i?

That’s a tough question. It depends on whether or not you buy/rent movies. Almost all blu-ray movies are made for 1080p. HD is often made for 720i. If you’ve been online at all these past weeks, you’ve probably read somewhere that HD is slowly stepping down from its thrown, and declare itself defeated. Betamax all over again. Back on topic. Some TVs have good “up scaling” chips, which allows you to view a 720i video in full 1080p. That great isn’t it? Yeah, it ought to be. Because it’ll pretty force you to take on yet another mortgage. But my suggestion is, if you’re going for a high end TV, and you own a PS3, or a blu-ray player -> go for the 1080p. Otherwise, it’ll work just as well for you if you choose 720i. (Cheaper as well, not a significantly humongous, enormous difference in the quality!^^)

• · Question regarding the iPod sound output. Is there a way for me to determen the sound quality of a podcast? And also, what are my options when it comes down to the audio codec’s?

When you’re editing your podcast, in your editing software you ought to have a “sound sequencer”. Press on that tab. Then you will see something called a master track. That’s the overall sound output and volume. When played, if the bars are green and sometimes yellow... that’s a good sign. But if they turn red, you’ll pretty much have a lousy and noisy sound track, making people not subscribing to your podcast.
When exporting the video, you should always export in .mov . It’s the Mac/iPod standard. Every version of iTunes can convert a regular .mov file into an iPod play-able format. You should put more effort in getting the sound to sound as “slick” as possible, while trying to save space and effort on the video part. Because the iPod’s have what? 2 or 3 inch screens. So, don’t worry about that. The resolution is the only thing you should keep in mind. Go to the apple’s iPod site, and check out the screen resolutions, and export the files to the one that has the biggest resolution. It’ll eliminate problems on your part, and you’ll only have 2 copies of your show. One master track that is hopefully hi-def ;), and one that is the “made for iPod”. (Tip, choose the iPod touch resolution. If it says “70x90”, then reverse the numbers place to “90x70”. Because the touch plays it wide)

• · I’m trying to hook up a mac mini to a 50 inch screen. I can’t seem to find the perfect resolution. It’s either too zoomed in, or too small for it. What can I do?

It can either be that your TV doesn’t “do” more than 2 different resolutions, or that you have to manually configure your TV, through Its settings. Usually “menu” on the remote, then head over to the “TV settings”, or “Incoming signals” preferences. I really can’t help you, because I really haven’t had problems with the mac mini. Must be because I don’t own a 50” screen.

• · Is there a free, or “moderately” priced video editing software that has semi-professional capabilities? With transitions and effects? Thanks

Avid Free DV is a free video editing software from the company that brought you such softwares as – Avid express. What else have they done? Never the less. There aren’t that many video editing softwares that I’m aware of. Most of them are high end. Sony Vegas, Adobe Premiere etc.
Try Googleing “Open source video editing” and see what kind of results you’ll get.
Open source means that it’s free. The program is opened for people to modify as they wish, which broadens up its capabilities.

I hope you learnt something today. Email me over at bani.free@gmail.com if you’d like to get your question answered.

News that really don't matter to me! COPY RIGHT VIOLATION!

As a newly formed blogger, I really can’t make up my mind on what topic’s to write about.
Heck, I can’t even decide on how it should bring attention to my two blog posts.
I was thinking that I could write two a day. Not every day, obviously. Every other day.

Though, I have one thing in mind. I shall from now on be writing my blogs late at night. It really makes me creative (it makes me feel that).

Now, let’s begin.

• MacWorld is in a couple of days. Five days to be more specific.

Apple has actually revealed one computer. It’s a high end one. Darn expensive one. It’s got two high end quad core processors. 2 Gigs of ram. 500Gigs of hard drive space. The graphics card is well. Good, in a Mac boys eyes. However, if you’ve been a pc user for quite some time, the graphic doesn’t astonish your.

How will MacWorld affect me? Well, as most of you know… I’ve been waiting to buy an iPhone. Thought’s of going to London to purchase an iPhone have occurred. I’ve even found companies that send stuff from the states to other countries. However, it would cost me $536. Going to London would cost me $500. Except hotel that is. Now, back to MacWorld. There have been rumors saying that the iPhone 2.0 is coming. With 3G. I bet it’s going to cost as much as the iPhone did in the beginning. It’ll probably be worth it.

• The OLPC is getting dual-boot support.

C-Net has reported that the OLPC project announced that it is going to allow dual booting Windows and Linux. The main cause is yet unknown. But somehow, the OLPC project feels that the Asus EEE laptop is a huge competitor. Together with Microsoft, I think the OLPC could really bring something to the world. Really shake up things at Mr. Asus and Mr. Intel’s offices in Asia.

• Google is spreading – The operating system – Android – shown at CES

It’s currently based on Linux. (Open source UNIX system). They haven’t mentioned when it’s finally going to run the final Google platform, but there have been speculations that it’s going to be released during the summer. Google is going to have a tough time. A lot of companies are going to release things the summer of 08, SO GOOGLE! WATCH OUT!

Side note, Windows mobile 7 is probably going to get released.

Sebastian

Helping Consumers - Technology problems

Hi everybody!
To try and reach various groups of people, I'll be trying to answer computer and consumer questions. Inspired by a lot of bloggers, I decided to have a shot at it...
So, instead of forcing people to come up with questions (some are really stupid) I've been scouting the net for some questions that aren’t out of my league. (I'm obviously not saying that questions are stupid, but if you email and ask what a shortcut is, I'll be fucking pissed).
So, after spending a couple of hours just randomly searching the Google for computer questions, I came across this one:

• My cable bill is pretty expensive, and I've been meaning to try out something new. I've been living with TiVo for quite a while now. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy it but I've read on the internet that apple has a product which allows you to watch TV shows on your TV, totally synced with the computer. Is that true, and in that case, what should I buy, and would I save money?

What you’re talking about is something called Apple TV. The basic idea behind it is – You buy content of the iTunes store, like TV shows, movies and or music videos, downloading the content onto your computer, and then streaming it from your computer to the box. Pretty much as a transmitter. It doesn’t have a DVD player nor a fully functional USB port ( people have hacked the ATP in order to get it working), so if you’re planning on stripping down your home entertainment system, and to replace everything with an aTV, then you’re pretty much forced to set up a home media server for all your content. I’ll explain how to do that in a later blog post.
The purpose of the media server is, you store all your media files, including ripped and converted DVD films, so that you don’t waste computer power and hard drive space on that.
The other thing you should be thinking of – How much TV do you watch? If you watch like 2 -3 shows per night, it’ll cost you a whole lot. One TV show on iTunes costs approximately two dollars. Which according to my math, correct me if I’m wrong ends up at a rate of 6 dollars per day.
Do not fear my child. You have – AMAZON. Yes, you can buy TV shows of Amazon.com. Unfortunately it does not come pre encoded for the Apple TV, but you have Google to find free converters. There are more of these sorts of things, but apple seems to be the easiest to set up.

• · I recently purchased a computer. Everything worked fine until the first reboot.
  It keeps on saying that an ACPI device is found, but it couldn’t find any drivers for it.
  It even says it has found something called ATi Smbus. What is that? Could it be a virus? Should I format my hard drive?
  

I find it very weird that the computer says it can’t find drivers for the ACPI. ACPI basically stands for “advanced configuration power interface”. Simplified -> How your computer is going to use the power more sufficiently. Like if your computer is set to “high performance” in the control panel. It will use more power to feed the components. These things may have occurred when windows vista (?) updated itself and the drivers were outdated. (A driver is a code which lets the operating system talk to a thing in your computer. Sometimes these drivers can be poorly written, and often buggy.) I suggest you going to your motherboard manufacturers website and download the latest drivers.
ATi smbus… It’s a tough one. From my experience it a PCI card that allows you to send S-Video or HDMI from your computer to your TV-set. Basically the same issue here. Poorly written driver, or just plain simple incompatibility from Microsoft’s side. You have an ATI card, so what you need to do is that you need to go to the control panel, click on the “add and remove programs”. Double click on everything that has ATI in front of it and install the new drivers. If you’re feeling insecure about these things, call the store that sold you these things. They should be held responsible if anything goes wrong ( which is highly unlikely)

• Sometimes when I start my computer, it says “BOOT DISK FAILURE”! What should I do?

There isn’t much to than to return the hard drive and demand a new one because the one that you were sold is broken. However, if you’ve had it for years… that’s a typical thing to happen. What the computer basically is saying –“I CAN’T BOOT FROM THIS DEVICE! PLEASE TURN ME OF AND PUT IN A HARD DRIVE THAT WILL ALLOW ME TO START UP”. Booting up means to start up! A computer needs something to boot of of, in order to function. I recommend you to buy a hard drive fan. And, you know what works for me? I turn of the computer’s power supply – pull out the power cable that goes from the computer to the hard drive and switch it with the CD-Rom. So It goes – Former HDD cable goes to CD-ROM, and CD-ROM cable to Hard drive. (That is if you have IDE). If you have a SATA or a E-sata, you have no other choice than to try to back up your data and return the drive or buy a new one because the current one won’t hold.

got any questions? Mail them to bani.free@gmail.com

First blogpost

Why, hello there my dearly beloved readers!

This is obviously a blog, which I will use to collect dark forces, in order to execute my vicious plan.
I will not reveal the plan, until I… well. ‘Til I get sponsored. Maaaybe *awesomeness*

So, these blogs are going to be all about news and crazy shit that’s happening in the world.
I’ll be focusing on technology, which I will refer to as “snuggums”.

Well, why stall you and let’s go straight to celebrity news, shall we!?

• The golden globe “gala” CANCELLED!

Why? Well, the WGA have been on strike due to the fact of that they want more money for their work. This is reasonable, in a sense of that we don’t have to suffer from it. I mean, let’s get serious here. Yes, it’s so friggin’ expensive to buy a show. Yes, I do not live in America, so I can’t enjoy ABC, and NBC and what not. (side note, thank god for that anyway. Fuck reality shows. I don’t want to watch snotty bitches complain about not having chardonnay, and crystal on their b-day party. Seriously, you’re 16 years old. You shouldn’t be thinking of alcohol… you should be thinking of losing your virginity to a douche). Back on track. The real reason why they are cancelling is that sponsors have backed up, thanks to the threats from the writers, which claim that they will “picket the event”. -Reuters

• · Mariah Carey – “I’d rather sing with a pig”

The world renown artist Mariah Carey told Inside Hollywood that she’d rather sing with a pig, than together with Jennifer Lopez. She doesn’t really say if there have been any feuds between the girls, but I’m personally hoping that it all settles for the best (NOT! Slow day in news. )

• · Microsoft’s founder Bill Gates retires – Held his last keynote speech at CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in Las Vegas

He has been working since he was 17 years old. Dropped out of Harvard to persuade his dream – To make “one billion dollars”, and frankly, he has achieved that. There isn’t that much to write about, except. Bill, you were an icon. You had a dream – you followed it and you are where you are. Even though you fucked Jobs, you’re still an icon

I’m also planning on reporting on the iPhone firmware unlock, and rumors about 1.1.3

Still, the iPhone 1.1.2 firmware is NOT unlockable. You can still Jailbreak it (meaning, hack it to install third-party software), but not being able to call from it (an expensive iPod touch, with camera and better safari)

Hope this was worth your time, and peace out!