GMail Notifier for Firefox

I have for some time used a GMail notifier from Google which loaded at startup and told you when you had a new message, now I always have Firefox open and I came across this addon today, it sits in the status bar of your Firefox browser and when you receive a message a little window like the one in the image above shows with details of where it came from and the message text, an advantage over the system tray notifier that I have been using, is tha ability to click the message and the message loading.

 

Not only is this good for notifing, you can also get a full rundown of your mailbox by hovering over the area at the bottom right of the window, this gives you details on labels and a list of all unread mail.

 

 

You can download it now from: http://www.longfocus.com/firefox/gmanager/

Simon North

Shot.Co.Nr

Shot.Co.Nr is a free service that lets you get a very small URL redirect with only an ad at the bottom

Quote “This site alows you to create a short URL that can be effectively used instead of a long URL. Enter a long URL in the textbox below and click “Make Short” to create a short URL. Once you create a short URL, you can not only access the URL you have shortened but almost any page in the site by appending the path after the short URL.” (taken from Shot.Co.Nr)

http://shot.co.nr/?r=9q (Google)

Overall 4/5

Gabe Morris

YouOS

YouOS is a very interesting thing… It lets you run an operating system whilst online. So if you are going on a business trip where you need data, yet do not have a laptop, you can store and share your data with whomever.

I find this very helpful when I need to write an essay, so I can have a spare copy. There are literally thousands of mini-programs you can easily add to your YouOS machine, such as YouMSN which lets you talk to your MSN buddies with YouOS.

I cannot say that YouOS is without its faults though. It is slow and takes up alot of CPU %. YouOS also can crash your web browser sometimes if you are doing to much at once. And I had trouble changing my long, confusing, and annoying password (the equivalent of 643uvg24895m72)

Other than the problems it has, I think that YouOS really shows off Web 2.0 with this remarkable achievement!

Speed 3/5

Design 4/5

Bitty Browser speed 5/5

Overall 4/5

Gabe Morris

£28,328.07 for a desktop computer

One of my mates had a bit of fun on Dell today building a desktop for £28,328.07, thats about US $54,600.00. The specification of this beast, well it’s

• Two Quad Core Intel® Xeon® X5355 (2.66GHz,1333MHz,2×4MB Cache) 750W Processor
• 32GB DDR2 533 Quad Channel FBD Memory (8×4GB) [This was over £21,000 for 8 4GB chips
• 512MB nVidia Quadro FX4500 DUAL Graphics Card
• 750GB (7,200rpm) SATA II Hard Drive
• 2 x 160GB (10,000rpm) SATA Hard Drive with NCQ
• 16X DVD+/-RW + 48X CD-ROM Drives

There was no monitor included, they did through in a keyboard and mouse with it. The reason why it was so expensive is because of the memory.

Just if you are interested, adding all the accessories like monitor and software, it cost £31,668.61 (about $63,000).

And for all this you don’t even get Windows Vista Pre-Installed. Tut Tut Tut.

If you still dont believe me then there is a screenshot below you can take a look at:

Anyone thinking of buying one?

 

Simon North, 2nd March 2007

Which Operating System to Choose

Hello. I have decided to make this post about operating systems. There are many to choose from, Linux, Apple, Windows, BSD, and of course free versions of DOS….

 

MicroSoft Windows Vista 

“…and we are releasing our own, and better Windows Operating system, Windows 3.0!”

No doubt MicroSoft has had a monopoly on the computing industry since I was born. Ever since Windows 3.0, there first major success after seperating from IBM all those years ago. But enough of the history of MicroSoft, this part is about Windows Vista.

Windows Vista is the successor of Windows XP which was no doubt a disaster, though it did have its good points. Windows Vista features Windows Aero, which makes windows transparent and pictures flawless. Though the fact that it is based off of Apple’s OS is questionable… But anywho, you can resize pictures to any size you want and they should not have pixel distortion (like when you zoom in with digital zoom). Vista also features ‘widgets’ which are mini-programs that run in the background and help you with small things, such as finding the local weather or showing the latest stock quotes. This is called Windows Gadgets, it was no doubt inspired by Yahoo Widgets and Kapsules (which I shall be doing a review on soon). Another awesome feature of Vista is

‘Windows Flip’ which when you press CTRL + WinKey + Tab it flips through the windows in real time, basically if you have a video playing it will still be playing in real time with the sound. I find this much funner than the ordinary ALT + Tab which doesn’t show you as much of the screen nor uses the power of Windows Aero. The next great feature is that Windows FireWall actually scans both incoming and outgoing things!!!! Windows Media Player 11 is basically WMP 10 with cooler graphics. I don’t thinkI should discuss Internet Explorer 7 but I will. It is slow, large, and a clunker. And it looks kinda odd. Windows Update has been updated to run perfectly in the backround so it will not annoy you if you tell it to download all updates =[)

Price: $99 - $500

 

Linux 

Mess with the best… Die like the rest!

Ah Linux, there are so many things to say about you, because there are so many distrobutions. So I will be brief, and to the point. Linux is the safest of all the operating systems except maybe DOS. It has very limited downloads and support. The main browser in Linux is FireFox. There are 2 types of Linux, USB/CD boot disks and harddrive based, a popular USB/CD one is FeatherLinux.

It has become very popular recently because of its small size (128MB). Check it out here. For normal distros Suse, Fedora, and Ubuntu are the most popular (Suse here) (Fedora here) (Ubuntu here). All of them have different software, different looks, different sizes. The only thing that unites Linux is the kernel, other than that they are entirely different operating systems. Summary of Linux: Small, most times has a terminal to execute commands, and secure. 

Price: FREE!

 

Apple OSX 

I know very little of Apple operating systems, but I can still give descriptions and summaries of it.

• Native support by all libraries and frameworks for 64-bit applications, allowing 64-bit Carbon and Cocoa applications. Existing 32-bit applications using those libraries and frameworks will continue to run without the need for emulation or translation.
• Time Machine: an automated backup utility which allows the user to restore any file that has been deleted, misplaced or replaced by another version of a file. A video of how the time machine works can be found here. This video was demonstrated in the 2006 Worldwide developers conference.
• The Complete Package: Front Row and Photo Booth, currently only available with the purchase of a new Mac, will be included with Leopard.
• Spaces: an implementation of “virtual desktops” (individually called “spaces”) for Mac OS X, allowing users to have multiple desktops per user and be able to place certain applications and windows in a desktop.^[9] Users can organize certain Spaces for certain applications (i.e., one for work-related tasks and one for entertainment) and switch between them. Exposé will work inside Spaces, allowing the user to see at a glance all desktops on one screen.)
• Upgrades to Spotlight, including advanced search options such as Boolean operators and the ability to search other computers (with permissions).
• Core Animation: a technology that allows a developer to create complex animations while specifying only a “start” and a “goal” space. The main benefit of Core Animation is to enable developers to create complex animations with small amounts of program code.
• Universal access: significant improvements to applications including VoiceOver, along with increased support for Braille, closed captioning and a new text-to-speech engine.
• Enhancements to Mail including the additions of RSS feeds, Stationery, Notes, and to-dos. To-dos use a system-wide service that is available to all applications.
• Dashboard enhancements, including Webclip, a feature that allows users to turn a part of any web page into a live Dashboard widget, and Dashcode to help developers code widgets.
• iChat enhancements, including multiple logins, animated icons, and tabbed chats, similar to features present in Gaim, Adium and the iChat plugin Chax; iChat Theater, allowing users to incorporate images from iPhoto, presentations from Keynote, and videos from QuickTime into chats; and Backdrops, which are similar to chroma keys, but use a real-time difference matte technique which does not require a green or blue screen. iChat will also implement desktop sharing, a feature previously available with Apple Remote Desktop.

(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mac_OS_X_v10.5)

Which one? If you need regular updates and alot of software, Vista

Need to make videos and photos? Apple

Need security? Linux

 

Gabe Morris

Some images have been taken from the owners site and hosted on our server, if for any reason you do not want these images hosted please contact us. Thankyou.

Belarc Advisor Review

Belarc Advisor produces an indepth report about what is on your computer in extreme detail, for example, not only does it list all of the hardware and software but it also tells you serial numbers and licence codes.

The data is exported into a html document so can be viewed in any web browser and can be printed. It tells you everything you need to know including:

• Operating System
• System Model
• Processor
• Main Circuit Board
• Drives
• Memory (Including what is installed in each slot)
• Locak Drive Volumes
• Network Drives
• Users
• Printers
• Controllers
• Display
• Bus Adapters
• Multimedia
• Comminucations
• Virus Protection
• Other Devices
• Hotfixes
• Software Licences
• Software Versions (A list of all the software installed on your system and the version)

So, as you can see you get a lot of information about your system that can help massively. If you have lost your Office or Windows code or whatever other software that uses a serial code, you can retrieve it with this program, you can also find out your IP address, default gateway etc. It tells you how much space you have left on your drives as well as telling you what your bios is and even how the computer is enclosed (desktop or tower). Impressive, you can download it now from: http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html, and best of all it is 100% free.

Overall score: 8/10

It isn’t the most attractive program and did stop presponding whilst checking the computer.

 

Simon North, 28th February 2007

Flock

Flock is a very interesting and unusual web browser… It is based on what a lot of people do, not off of what the CEO of Nokia uses the web for, but the average user. It does this in several ways… One being blog posting. Flock helps you easily use its integrated blog posting tool to post on your blog! This blog post is posted with Flock, and it is great! It lets you post to Blogger, LiveJournal, MySpace, TypePad, and WordPress!

Or if you don’t blog, do you store pictures online? Flock lets you do that too! By using either of the 2 most popular services PhotoBucket and Flickr. It even comes with a picture toolbar so you can drag-n-drop!

As with most FireFox based browsers, Flock has integrated RSS support. It also has that little search box in the top right hand corner of the screen so you can search the web.

Oh and I almost forgot another feature! Flock lets you share your bookmarks online with services like Del.Ic.Ious and Shadows!!!! How cool is that? Your blog isn’t getting enough unique hits? Star the page and share it with the world!

Smurfy isn’t it?

Speed 5/5

Design 4/5

Socialness 10/5!!!!!!

Security 4/5

Looks 4/5

Extention Compatibility 3/5 (several extentions have been redesigned specifically for Flock such as DownThemAll)

Gabe Morris

technorati tags:browser, secure, browsers, free, web, social, socialness, blog, blogs, firefox, based, easy, smurfy

Blogged with Flock

Snag It 8.2.1

SnagIt from TechSmith, is the world’s leading screenshot application, bringing many features from a simple task as pressing Print Screen. If you are just a standard user who doesn’t really need to take advanced screenshots just use Print Screen button and paste the image into an application.

However, if you do take screenshots alot, then this will make your work a lot easier. The application is packed with features, most of which you might not use, but at least they are there if you need them.

The application starts with a dashboard where you can decide on what you want to take as the screenshot (a region, window, full screen, scrolling window, object etc.)

You simply click the icon and then you will get a red rectangle, you then hover over the area you want until the red rectangle is around the component and click. The image is then ready for you to edit. From the edit window you can use editing tools like the ones found in paint as well as magnifying, adding a watermark, border, caption, you can resize, trim, rotate and flip as well as change the colour depth and adding hotspots to your images. You can also change the image format and print, email, catalog, ftp or Instant Message the image as well as exporting it to Microsoft Office Applications.

As I said above this program is aimed at frequent screenshotters, you don’t really need it for basic screenshoting. If you are using Windows Vista a new accessory has been added called ‘Snipping Tool’ which allows you to take a screenshot of a portion of the screen.

So, my overall opinion of Snag It, a great application with a multitude of features which make screenshotting much easier. But at £20 ($40), is it really worth it, you simply have to press PrintScreen on your keyboard and you’ve got a screenshot.

 

Simon North, 27th February 2007

FileWind 500MB hosting

FileWind is a great free service that lets you host 500MB for absolutely no cost, not many ads, no download caps, and no multiple-page-downloads.
FileWind lets you host almost any file type except: php, cgi, htaccess, pl, com, scr, htm, html

Overall 5/5
Download speed 5/5
Ads 4/5
MPD? No
Quick Upload? Yes

(MPD is where you have to go to more than 1 page to download the file)
[MPD = Multiple Page Downloads]

Gabe Morris

CCleaner

CCleaner is a free junk cleaner. It cleans out broken DLLs, invalid files, registry problems, etc.
It also fixes “issues”, which I find very helpful.
It can fix/clean the following things:
* Internet Explorer
- Temporary File Cache.
- URL History.
- Cookies.
- Hidden Index.dat files.
- Last download file location.
* Firefox
- Temporary File Cache.
- URL History.
- Cookies.
- Download manager.
* Recycle Bin
* Clipboard
* Windows Temporary files
* Windows Log files.
* Recent Documents (on the Start Menu).
* Run history (on the Start Menu).
* Windows XP Search Assistant history.
* Windows XP old Prefetch data.
* Windows memory dumps after crashes.
* Chkdsk file fragments.

Advanced Options allow cleaning of:

* Menu Order cache
* Tray Notifications Cache
* Window Size and Location Cache
* User Assist history
* IIS Log Files
* Custom Folders

Application Cleaning:
As well as cleaning up old files and settings left by standard Windows components, CCleaner also cleans temporary files and recent file lists for many applications. Including:

* Firefox, Opera, Media Player, eMule, Kazaa, Google Toolbar, Netscape, Office XP, Nero, Adobe Acrobat, WinRAR, WinAce, WinZip and more… (I do not reccomend you download any of the P2P programs as they are illegal…. At least where I am)

Registry Issue Cleaning:
CCleaner uses an advanced Registry to check for problems and inconsistencies in your registry. It can check the following:

* File Extensions
* ActiveX Controls
* ClassIDs
* ProgIDs
* Uninstallers
* Shared DLLs
* Fonts
* Help File references
* Application Paths
* Icons
* Invalid Shortcuts and more…

File Erasing:
CCleaner offers secure file erasing by overwriting the files, then deleting them. Making it literally impossible to recover the data so be careful!

Multiple Languages:
Thanks to the translators, CCleaner is available in 31 different languages:

English, Albanian, Arabic, Catalan, Chinese (Simp), Chinese (Trad), Czech/Slovak, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, Galician, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Portuguese (Brazilian), Romanian, Russian, Serbian Cyrillic, Serbian Latin, Spanish, Swedish and Turkish.

Summary: CCleaner is a great, fairly small program, that runs fast, and works well on Vista.

Overall I rate CCleaner 4/5
Speed 5/5
Design 4/5
Name 1/5
Download Size 5/5
Program Size 5/5

Gabe Morris