Get Your Game On With the Summer Steam Sale!

Looking for deals on games, check out the limited time sale at Steam!

Steam Sale Kicks Off With Huge PC Game Deals

“The PC game download service Steam has launched its annual summer sale, starting with huge discounts on popular games such as Portal 2 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.

Every day through July 23, Steam will offer 24-hour discounts on a batch of new PC games. Today’s deals include Modern Warfare 3 ($30 instead of $60), Portal 2 ($5 instead of $15), Terraria ($2.50 instead of $10), and Legend of Grimrock ($6 instead of $15).

In addition to the daily 24-hour deals, Steam will be running ‘Flash Sales’ on shorter time cycles. The deals available at the time of this posting include Mafia II ($7.50 instead of $30) and Deus Ex: Human Revolution ($7.50 instead of $30).

Other games will also be discounted through the sale period. Now is a good time, for example, if you’ve been meaning to try classics such as Counter-Strike ($5) or Left 4 Dead 2 ($10), or the recent critically-acclaimed Walking Dead game ($19). Bundle deals are also available from individual publishers such as THQ, whose 15-game collection is now selling for $50 instead of $311.”

How the Mighty Have Fallen! Digg Bought for a Mere 1/2 a Mil

Digg was once the “darling” of bidders and potential buyers, there was a time that it was being considered for sale at $200 Million in 2008 by suitor Google. Now, after alienating its uswers and changing itself so much that no one wanted to use it, it is being sold for a mere 1/2 million.

Once a Social Media Star, Digg Sells for $500,000

“Digg Inc., a social-media pioneer once valued at more than $160 million, is selling for the deeply discounted price of about $500,000, three people familiar with the matter said.

The buyer is New York technology development firm Betaworks, which is attempting to revive a news-sharing site that was outmaneuvered by Facebook Inc. FB -0.52% and Twitter Inc.

Digg confirmed Thursday it sold its brand, website and technology to Betaworks. The price is a pittance for a company that raised $45 million from prominent investors including Facebook investor Greylock Partners, LinkedIn Inc. LNKD +3.40% founder Reid Hoffman, and venture capitalist Marc Andreessen.

Digg received higher offers from bidders that included technology and publishing companies and start-ups but ultimately decided Betaworks had the best plan for reviving its brand, these people said. In May, Washington Post Co. hired 15 members of Digg’s engineering team—more than half of the company’s overall staff—for its SocialCode digital media subsidiary.

Betaworks is acquiring a website that still has a well known brand and sizable audience of more than 7 million visitors per month as of May, according to comScore.

Digg was once one of the most promising start-ups in Silicon Valley. The website was founded in 2004 as a way for consumers to put together their own collections of news and other Internet content, rather than relying on the choices made by newspaper editors.

Digg users would post links on the site’s home page, then others would vote on their choices, determining the prominence of the stories they posted.”

More Stupid User Tricks!

I know, you guys just LOVE “Stupid User Tricks!” Well, here’s some more for you!

Keep in mind, these are REAL, I’m not making these up!


Customer: “I received the software update you sent, but I am still getting the same error message.”
Tech Support: “Did you install the update?”
Customer: “No. Oh, am I supposed to install it to get it to work?”


Customer: “I clicked ‘Remove Pending Deals’ and now the pending deal is gone!”


Customer: “Do I have to be online to backup online?”


Customer: “How many pins does a sixteen-pin cable have?”


Customer: “I have a message on my screen that says: ‘Disk Full’. What can that be?”
Tech Support: “Maybe your disk is full.”
Customer: “Hmmm. OK.”


But, wait, there’s more, check this link:

Stupid User Tricks

Geek Software of the Week: WinMerge!

WinMergeHow cool is this? A Windows merging tool that is Open Source (and therefore FREE!) Check it out!

The WinMerge Open Source Project

“WinMerge is an Open Source differencing and merging tool for Windows. WinMerge can compare both folders and files, presenting differences in a visual text format that is easy to understand and handle.

WinMerge is highly useful for determining what has changed between project versions, and then merging changes between versions. WinMerge can be used as an external differencing/merging tool or as a standalone application.”

Yahoo Hacked, 450,000 Passwords Compromised

Yahoo has been seriously compromised. If you have an account, change your password NOW!

Yahoo hacked, 450,000 passwords posted online

“(CNN) — Hackers posted online what they say is login information for more than 450,000 Yahoo users.

The hack, which of course was conducted anonymously, was meant to be a warning, according to the Web page where the documents were dumped.

‘We hope that the parties responsible for managing the security of this subdomain will take this as a wake-up call, and not as a threat,’ a note on the page said. ‘There have been many security holes exploited in Web servers belonging to Yahoo! Inc. that have caused far greater damage than our disclosure. Please do not take them lightly.’

The statement adds that the ‘subdomain and vulnerable parameters’ that were used to hack the site were not posted ‘to avoid further damage.’

The Web page where the data was dumped was offline for much of Thursday morning.

The accounts that were hacked appear to be those of users of Yahoo Voice, according to the Twitter feed of Web-security firm TrustedSec.

The service allows users to make online voice and video calls to other computers or, for a fee, telephones.

Perhaps due to the similarity of the names, some reports Thursday were saying it was users of Yahoo Voices who were affected.”

Super Price on a Dropbox Alternative

You know I LOVE Dropbox! I use it for everything… but I have yet to sign up for the premium services. Now there is an alternative that I may give serious thought to! UNLIMITED storage for $2.00 per month! Wow!

https://onlinestoragesolution.com/

“OLS-CS offers you unlimited online storage, unlimited users, an advanced web based file manager, mobile access, real network drives, all the advanced tools like ftp, fxp and rsync, plus full featured web hosting with unlimited domains, email and database access. The whole cloud for just $2 per month when you signup for 2 years.

The award winning Ajaxplorer Web File Manager is integrated into our online storage service. Here is what you can expect with the file manager:

  • Drag and Drop Uploading
  • Drag and Drop Between Folders Inside The Application
  • Public File Sharing with and without a password
  • Shared Folder Collaboration
  • User Management
  • Permission Management
  • Customized Views
  • Media Streaming
  • File Editing
  • Advanced external application file viewing and editing”

DrBill.TV #247 – Video – “The Tossled Hair Phred-less Edition”

New version of Audacity out, upgrade to Windows 8 Pro for $39.99, DNSChanger victims to lose Internet on, July 9th, GSotW: Linux: Zorin OS, check the Open Printing Database: will your printer work with Linux? GSotW: KeyTweak, Thunderbird is doomed!

Links that pertain to this Netcast:

TechPodcasts Network

Blubrry Network

Open Printing Database

KeyTweak


Start the Video Netcast in the Blubrry Video Player above by
clicking on the “Play” Button in the center of the screen.

(Click on the buttons below to Stream the Netcast in your “format of choice”)
Streaming M4V Audio





Streaming MP3 Audio

Streaming Ogg Audio

Download M4V Download WebM Download MP3 Download Ogg
(Right-Click on any link above, and select “Save As…” to save the Netcast on your PC.)

Available on YouTube at: https://youtu.be/xN9LXm41dpI

Available on Vimeo at: https://vimeo.com/45393636


DrBill.TV #247 – Audio – “The Tossled Hair Phred-less Edition”

New version of Audacity out, upgrade to Windows 8 Pro for $39.99, DNSChanger victims to lose Internet on, July 9th, GSotW: Linux: Zorin OS, check the Open Printing Database: will your printer work with Linux? GSotW: KeyTweak, Thunderbird is doomed!

Links that pertain to this Netcast:

TechPodcasts Network

Blubrry Network

Open Printing Database

KeyTweak


Start the Video Netcast in the Blubrry Video Player above by
clicking on the “Play” Button in the center of the screen.

(Click on the buttons below to Stream the Netcast in your “format of choice”)
Streaming M4V Audio





Streaming MP3 Audio

Streaming Ogg Audio

Download M4V Download WebM Download MP3 Download Ogg
(Right-Click on any link above, and select “Save As…” to save the Netcast on your PC.)

Available on YouTube at: https://youtu.be/xN9LXm41dpI

Available on Vimeo at: https://vimeo.com/45393636


Thunderbird is Doomed!

If you like Mozilla’s E-Mail client, this is REALLY bad news!

So, That’s It For Thunderbird

“Mozilla is not ‘stopping’ Thunderbird development, it has just decided that: ‘continued innovation on Thunderbird is not the best use of our resources given our ambitious organizational goals.’ And it’s pulling people off the project. But it’s not stopping? Right.

This, according to a letter shared with ‘Mozillians’ ahead of the official announcement to be revealed on Monday. Recipients were asked not to share the letter, blog or tweet about the news until then, but obviously someone out there didn’t agree with that plan.

While it’s sure to upset some diehards, it’s a move that makes sense, given that Thunderbird, an open source Outlook competitor, is desktop software in a world that has been rapidly moving to mobile and web. Mozilla itself has been ramping up efforts in these areas as of late, with the recent introductions of its ‘boot-to-gecko’ OS (now ‘Firefox OS’), for example, as well as a new web-based code editor called Thimble, ‘Junior,’ a Webkit-based browser for iPad, its Firefox mobile web browser, of course, and more.

The timing of the Thunderbird announcement is kind of funny, though, since it was barely a month ago that Mozilla was touting the release of a new version of the software which introduced options for large file sharing and the ability to create personalized email addresses. Now, it seems that the company’s focus will be mainly on security and stability, not new features.

On Monday, the company will post details of Thunderbird’s proposed governance model here, to complement the forthcoming blog post from Mozilla Foundation Chair Mitchell Baker.

Although the letter makes it sound like the reassignments from Thunderbird to other projects would be new changes, people started moving off of Thunderbird in January. And as for any hopes that the ‘community’ of Thunderbird contributors will rise up to fill in the gaps once those folks are gone…well, don’t hold your breath on that one.”

Geek Software of the Week: KeyTweak!

KeyTweakKeyTweak is a simple utility that allows users to redefine their keyboard input signals. The functionality is made possible by a registry value first documented in Windows 2000, but also present in Windows NT 4.0. and included in XP, Vista and Windows 7.

KeyTweak Download Location

How Does It Work?

“Simply put, KeyTweak is just a front-end interface for editing a particular registry key. Microsoft did the low-level heavy lifting by creating this registry key. KeyTweak makes the editing of it a little less geeky.

Your keyboard communicates with your computer typically through a PS/2 port or a USB port. The data sent by your keyboard is referred to as Scan Codes. When you press a key, the ‘make’ scan code for that key is received by your computer’s i8042 controller chip. When you release a key, the ‘break’ scan code is sent. Prior to Windows 2000, device drivers had to be written to modify scan codes. Happily, Microsoft incorporated this feature into their operating system, thereby allowing fools like you and me to hack our registry and change the values to anything we see fit.”

1 201 202 203 204 205 394