Dr. Bill | The Computer Curmudgeon
Join Dr. Bill as he examines the wild and wacky world of the web, computers, and all things geeky! Hot Tech Tips, Tech News, and Geek Culture are examined… with plenty of good humor as well!
Wow! Fifty years ago TODAY the Sputnik satellite was launched by the Soviet Union, thus starting the “Space Race!” It also fueled the explosion in science fiction and all things geeky! A big day for a science nut, sci fi nut, and Star Trek fan like myself! Here’s to “Sport-nik!” (Shameless reference to the “Do the Cosmonaut-y” video!) Who would have thought that a basketball sized ball that beeped would lead to so much!
Well, the operating system itself is not impressive… what do you expect?
Windows Vista SP1 beta lacks ‘wow’
“If you’ve been waiting for Windows Vista SP1 to come out before you make the leap to the new operating system, don’t, says Microsoft. Microsoft’s Pete McKiernan, a senior product manager for Windows, told CNET News.com that one of the purposes of a service pack is to include all the patches that have been released in one package. Windows Vista SP1 will have that, but little else for the home user. Unlike the buzz surrounding Windows XP SP2, Windows Vista SP1 won’t include a new version of Internet Explorer, and won’t include any new features that are considered must haves. Most of the enhancements within Windows Vista SP1 are under the hood and for enterprise customers. In short, Windows Vista SP1 lacks ‘wow.’ Currently, Microsoft is beta-testing the Windows Vista Service Pack 1 on about 12,000 machines worldwide. As the beta continues, more users will be invited, but the numbers will not match the estimated 5 million that tried the operating system prior to RTM (release to manufacturing) last summer.”
Wow! You have to click on the link below and check out the photos of this “model rocket!” It is a real 21 foot replica of the Star Wars X-Wing ship… and it really flies! Zowie!
“Andy Woerner and his crazy rocketeer friends have built a 21-foot long X-Wing model that can actually fly. Yes, this is a real X-Wing powered by four solid-fuel rocket engines complete with radio-controlled moving wings. It blasts off in California next week, and we talked with Andy about the project, and how they expect it will do.”
Fifteen days and counting until Ubuntu 7.10 is out! And, now you watch the clock “tick by” everyday on the sidebar (to the right in the light blue area, near the bottom) on the first page of the web site… right here! Stay tuned!
This is a great utility if you have a bunch of photos from your digital camera, and you need to size them all down to use them on the web! Your cool FIVE pixel digital camera will take HUGE shots… and you need them to be reduced to a more “web-friendly” size!
“Fotosizer is a freeware batch image resizer tool. It resizes your photos in just 3 easy steps – 1. Photo selection, 2. select resize settings, then 3. Start the resize! Increasingly, sharing photos on the internet is becoming more and more popular. Photos, represented as JPEG files from digital cameras, taken at high resolutions are far too large to send over the Internet, with some photos ending up at 5 mega bytes. Uploading one photo to a photo sharing website is fine, but 10, 20, or even more, this can take forever, especially on a dial-up connection. With Fotosizer, you can shrink JPEG image files, along with other supported formats, and dramatically reduce internet transfer times, enabling you to quickly and easily prepare your image collections to be published on the web. Help unlock the photos from your digital camera. Use Fotosizer to batch resize your photos making it easier and faster to email to friends, upload to photo sharing websites or upload to websites that offer photo printing services. Fotosizer lets you resize in 3 easy steps, allowing you to choose the photos you want to resize, the dimensions, and where you want to save the new photos.”
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Dr. Bill Podcast – 105 – (09/29/07)
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Dr. Bill tries (desparately) to entertain you! A new Gamemaster Segment, and Ben’s got nut’in (again!) The Tech news of the week… very cool Geek Software of the Week for you VMware admins, and other cool and geeky things!
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A very geeky show today! How to save videos off YouTube, how to use CCleaner, two Geek Culture segments, and a review of Revision3’s new ‘Tekzilla’ show!
This week’s GSotW may have a limited audience… but if you are a VMware System Administrator (like I am) you will find this is a powerful FREE tool in your “tool belt!”
Veeam FastSCP 2.0 for VMware ESX Server
“Veeam FastSCP (Fast & Secure Copy) facilitates the deployment and simplifies backup of virtual machines(VMs) on VMware ESX server. Veeam FastSCP is a fast, secure and easy-to-use tool to perform file management in ESX environment. FastSCP allows a user to copy files from ESX to Windows, Windows to ESX or ESX to ESX. This is the most natural way to deliver an ISO file to ESX Server, make a backup copy of an existing virtual machine (VM) or copy VMs and templates between ESX servers. FastSCP ensures security by using a one-time password feature and works over 6 times faster than SCP.
Features and Benefits:
Multi-ESX management
The user can work with multiple ESX servers at the same time within a single interface. Switching between servers doesn’t require re-entering login/password or specifying the server’s IP.
ESX to ESX direct copy
FastSCP allows a user to copy files directly between ESX servers and within one ESX Server. Copying is fast and secure and doesn’t require any configuration or setup.
Complete file management and Windows integration
FastSCP allows you to work with ESX servers just like you work with files and folders in Windows. Now it doesn’t make any difference to a user whether to copy files to ESX or to a desktop. FastSCP supports both Drag n’ Drop and Copy & Paste.”
Yep… Yahoo is phasing out it’s podcast directory. Not that it has been very good.
Yahoo to Stop Podcasts, Unlimited Music’s Future in Doubt
“In a banner along the top of its Web page, Yahoo notified users of its podcast service today that it will be shutting down that service on October 31. This as TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington discovered the company has scheduled a priority meeting of its senior executives, including CEO Jerry Yang and President Susan Decker, for tomorrow morning. This afternoon, Yahoo felt the need to prepare customers – and perhaps investors – for tomorrow’s news, by giving it the best spin possible early on. ‘Today we’re planning some changes that also have our user and customer experiences in mind,’ reads a message on Yahoo’s corporate blog from entertainment and video head Vince Broady, entitled, ‘Finding Focus in Hollywood.’ ‘We are streamlining the structure of one portion of our Santa Monica presence – our entertainment division – with a vision of offering a more integrated entertainment experience. That means we’ll be creating more synergies between our music, games, movies, TV, and omg! properties, making them more personal and engaging for entertainment hounds.'”
Is Vista catching on? Apparently not! Microsoft has been pressured into continuing to sell Windows XP!
Five More Months Tacked Onto XP Availability Roadmap
“Apparently bending to pressure from partner OEMs who continue to report customers continuing to demand Windows XP, Microsoft decided this morning to extend the availability of the older operating system series to the retail channel and to partners from January to June 2008, as it maintains availability to system builders clear through to January 2009. The move comes several months after Dell reported it would continue offering Windows XP as an option for its systems as long as it could. However, another possible contributing factor could be the company’s plan for XP Service Pack 3. A check of the company’s service pack roadmap today shows the company has only tentative faith in its ability to produce SP3 by as late as next June.”