Hey… Doc loves a freebie, especially a good one that’ll point out shortcomings in security and performance. So, it’s taken Symantec years to rehabilitate its name, and I read a review that really amazed me: Not in a good way either. AnandK (a regular reviewer at The Windows Club) wrote a review of this free tool made by Symantec, which you can read here: http://www.thewindowsclub.com/trust-norton-pc-checkup-tool In short, not good at all: It finds &ld...
Just read an interesting article about how things are really changing. Apple and other big players have their own venues to announce product launches and MS appears to be taking that route as well. Microsoft said it decided to pull out of the show after the January 2012 because it no longer fits company needs and its timing does not always mesh with product announcements.“We asked, ‘Are we doing something because it’s the right thing to do, or because it’s the way we’ve...
Tonight starts the celebration of Hanukkah. There have been several Forum posts, some humorous and some serious about the holiday. This is just a simple blessing to you folks…. May your homes and lives be filled with light and love. My thoughts turn to the people who have gone, and those who are ill, in pain and finding little if any help or relief. To everyone, but especially to these folks I wish light and love… I wish I could change your su...
No secret – I love to ‘edit’ photos. Another secret? Not everyone can afford Photoshop and various plugins to create ‘amazing’ art. Well, You might not create “amazing art”, but you will be able to do fun things to those holiday photos which you’re probably about to start shooting… How about a free piece of editing software which offers: Frames Change size You can add texts and other items while editing with PhotoScape Auto Contrast ...
gHacks has just published this giveaway. The great thing about is (yes, free and unlimited) but it’s very easy to use without having to worry about frame rate, etc. as M. Brinkmann points out in his excellent review here: http://www.ghacks.net/2011/12/19/hd-video-converter-factory-pro-3-review-giveaway/?_m=3n%2e0038%2e373%2ehj0ao01hy5%2edls The software has a dark interface, and offers up essentially any file type to any file type conversion with a nice progress window...
If you’ve been looking for a program to replace Windows Media Center which performs all its functions and is highly customizable, you’ve got to take a look at Media Portal . It has Main areas: My Music, My Videos, My Pictures and my Weather. It’ll play all the file types WMC does, and do it your way via slews of plug-ins. You can create your own playlists and Watch Live TV or schedule and record Play videos, movies and DVDs Browse EPG and upcoming pr...
The way SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) stands now, it’s not very good at all. While lawmakers like Rep. Lamar Smith (TX) would have you believe that the Act will be used only to target rogue/pirate websites selling or giving IP protected content away, the truth is that SOPA can be used (and probably will be) to the detriment of web development, start up businesses, new browsers and cause destabilization of the web itself. “The ends” (to stop piracy/theft...
MS will not ask. They’re killing all previous versions of IE. You can read about it here: http://windowsteamblog.com/ie/b/ie/archive/2011/12/15/ie-to-start-automatic-upgrades-across-windows-xp-windows-vista-and-windows-7.aspx “Today we are sharing our plan to automatically upgrade Windows customers to the latest version of Internet Explorer available for their PC. This is an important step in helping to move the Web forward. We will start in January for customers in Au...
Tuesday, the NTSB called for this complete ban: “Federal officials on Tuesday called for a nationwide ban on the use of personal electronic devices while driving—including talking on the phone, as well as sending and reading text messages. The recommendation, from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), came out of a board meeting intended to evaluate an August 2010 multi-vehicle accident in Missouri caused by a distracted driver. "More than 3,0...
Good news! No .NET updates. In this update, there are 13 security bulletins fixing a total of 19 different vulnerabilities affecting various Microsoft products. The majority of security patches have been released for Microsoft’s Windows operating system and Microsoft Office, with a cumulative security update released for Internet Explorer as well. For a discussion of each individual update, visit: http://www.ghacks.net/2011/12/14/microsoft-r...
Not identified publicly yet, but very severe apparently this virus forced a hospital system wide computer shutdown to new admissions. Life threatening emergencies were admitted by filling out forms by hand. Minor cases were sent elsewhere. The two hospitals in the system were both affected. Labs and imaging results were hand transported from X-Ray, and the laboratories to the various Nursing Units. The computers were shut down rapidly, because of fear of sp...
This is one of the holiday periods where we see saddening pictures on our t.v. and computer screens. We are reminded of the misfortune of others… many, many others. It breaks our hearts. We want so much to help, but are wary of scams. This is not an appeal to give. I do what I can and don't talk about it. I believe the truest form of giving is anonymous at both ends. So... We all know about the phishing schemes and how they work around disasters, etc. I've written enough abo...
Couple of reasons for posting this: The first? Well, I know you can take photos with an iPhone (and others), and an iPad 2 (and beyond), as well as other tablets, I just didn’t know it’s coming into its own as a special form of photography. The second? There’s going to be a creativeLive webcast with Jack Hollingsworth for a fun look at the ever-expanding world of iPhone Photography (or iPhoneography). If you love shooting, processing and sharing images wi...
You’ve heard me (and Wizard1956) recommend Revo Uninstaller many times in referencing tools to do a far more complete job of removing software to enable problem free re-installation of Stardock products. Well, Martin Brinkmann (journalist and owner of Ghacks.net ) has secured a number of licenses (19) to distribute to readers who comment on Revo Uninstaller Pro. The comments are posted with his review of the software, which is favorable with some exception...
Microsoft has revealed that the first public release of it’s Windows 8 OS Beta 1 will be in late February, 2012. Also, the new MS App App Store was also previewed in San Francisco, yesterday. Apparently all apps released during the Beta testing will be free. "We won't be supporting paid apps on our transaction platform during Beta," Microsoft said. "We will hold off on the release of platform transaction support in a future milestone. Beta will help test and reinforce ...