TechLifeBlogged

Lets just say you had to be here to get this one.

Tags: canter, gnomedex

The un-official comic of the blogosphere.
bLaugh.com
Tags: blaugh, comics

At least in Washington.
http://feeds.pirillo.com/ChrisPirillo?m=1008
Tags: gnomedex, rss

Despite having to get up at the ungodly hour of 4 a.m. PDT I've made to Seattle! Actually I've been here long enough to grab a sandwich down in Pikes Place Market and find out where the conference center is. Also picked up a Seahawks sweatshirt that I've been wanting for a long time (hell being a Seahawks fan in a different NFL city).
Anyway, just a quick post to let everyone know I'm alive. I just read on Chris' blog that reports are coming in saying the airports are borked so im glad to be here. If you're a Gnomedexer I hope to see you tonight!
I'm off to go check out the Space Needle unless I accidentally  find a pub selling Guinness before I get there. :o)
Tags: gnomedex, seattle

Microsoft has a new utility called Network Diagnostics for Windows XP (xpnetdiag). The utility analyzes information about your network connectivity to help troubleshoot some of the most common connection problems encountered in a home networking environment. (Support Document: KB914440)
The Network Diagnostics for Windows XP tool analyzes the following tests:
* IP Configuration Test
* Default Gateway Test
* Winsock Test
* DNS Test
* Firewall Test
* Internet Connectivity Validation Test
Download xpnetdiag
Tags: windows, xp, windowsxp, xpnetdiag, networking

USAToday: "There's so much stuff on the International Space Station that it blocks access to storage cabinets, fills up rooms and makes losing objects easy. And the overflow is about to get worse. NASA plans to have space shuttle Discovery drop off 5,000 pounds of supplies next week. The shuttle will leave behind more than it takes away."
Crazy.
Tags: nasa, shuttle, trash

USAToday: "Researchers scouring swamps in the heart of Borneo island have discovered a venomous species of snake that can change its skin color, the conservation group WWF announced Tuesday."
The Kapuas Mud Snake is a little over a foot and a half long. Also, they've found 361 new animal and plant species in the last 10 years.
Tags: kappus, snake, chameleon, colors

Despite heat, sand and bombs, enterprising soldiers in Iraq are cobbling together networks to create small ISP. Called Hajjinets, they hook into foreign ISPs via satellite links and provide near 24-hour service for about 20-30 people.

A typical Hajjinet is built and maintained by one or two soldiers and can provide nearly 24-hour internet access (until the region is stabilized and electrical lines can be installed, generators must occasionally be powered down for maintenance). Most Hajjinets are small, serving between 20 and 30 troops, but ISPs serving as many as 300 are known to exist. In a country wracked by war, where even the capital city receives only intermittent electricity, where people's lives are in constant peril, and where even basic necessities are scarce, this is no small victory.

Spread the word: If you know someone currently serving, ask them to pass this link on to their computer guy. We can't help anyone if we don't know who they are.

Post to the Forums: If you have a question or can answer one, please post the forums. It will greatly help us build a knowledge base that everyone can draw from.

Write an Article: Have a story on how you set up your network? Know an interesting way to do something? Want to show off some of the work your guys have been doing? Submit it and we'll get it posted.

Donate Un-Used Hardware: Rotating back to the States and have a bunch of equipment that you don't want to ship home? Give it to another unit. If you have some gear collecting dust and would like to send a care package? Post it to the forums, I'm sure someone could use it. (Please no offers for cash donations).

It seems there are issues if you have Windows Media Center extenders installed and then install Windows Live OneCare. Here are a couple documents that should help you out:
* How to enable Windows Media Center Extenders on systems that have Windows Live OneCare installed
* How to enable Windows Media Connect on systems that have Windows Live OneCare installed
* How to configure a firewall for Windows Media Center Extenders
Tags: windows, mce, onecare, firewall, extender
[via:Aaron Stebner]

Just in time for Independence Day, Digital Photography School is out with a new article: How to Photograph Fireworks. So go brush up on your techniques there's only a week left! Have any tips to add? Put them in the comments below.
Tags: photography, fireworks

If you are an Xbox  gamer you might want to check out these Prima guides. Prima Guides can help you through a game with tips, maps, hints, and strategies.
Microsoft just released some new ones. They tend to and and delete them so grab 'em while you can.

JUST POSTED:
NFL Head Coach: Cards Season
NFL Head Coach: The Off Season

STILL AVAILABLE:
AND1 Streetball
The Godfather: The Game
Tags: xbox, xbox360, 360, microsoft, pdf, prima, guides
[via]

And we're back! The yo-yo that is the Google index has seen fit to find all my pages again.

Tags: google, index, ehlist, statistics

This is a smart idea. Creating customer kiosks where where there aren't really many tasks just check in and check baggage. Why not use Linux? Cheap and quickly deployable. The county library near my house runs Windows and it doesn't make sense. All they do is have a browser so the users can find books and do some research. A browser is pretty easy to figure out and is OS agnostic. I doubt customers would even know or care.
From Desktop Linux could take off at airports:
"Desktop Linux will likely be most successful in situations where the number of applications can be limited to an easy-to-use few, such as in call-center workstations, or in self-service airport check-in terminals"
Tags: desktop, linux, kiosk

Here's a handy little Firefox extension that you can add to your tool bar. It's called Send Link Button. With it installed, any time you are on a web page you would like to send to a friend just click the button and an email will be created in your default email program with the title of the web page in the subject line and the URL pasted into the body of the message.
Send Link Button
Tags: mozilla, firefox, extension, email
[via]

Microsoft has axed WinFS. It was supposed to be the next hottest file system based on SQL Server technology. Could have been interesting if it ever got of the ground.
Microsoft Axes WinFS
Tags: microsoft, winfs, sql

Tags: solar, thermal, gmail, email

Tags: feedburner, fan, gogle, adsense, freedbacking

The July/August issue of American Photo magazine features the Fujifilm Finepix E900 as the Digital Compact Camera of the Year. Consumer reports this month rates this camera a 'best buy'.
Anyone have one? Let me know what you think.
Tags: photography, camera, fujifilm, e900

Tags: blog, design, css, geocoding, google

Tags: transcoder, audio, video, google, sitemaps, free

USAToday: "Toshiba said Thursday it will start selling the world's first recorders for the HD DVD high-definition video disc next month."
Called RD-A1, the recorder will have an HD DVD burner and a one-terabyte hard disk. RD-A1 will be able to record and store up to 130 hours of HD broadcasts
MSRP: $3,470
Yeah...at $3000+ don't expect reviews from me anytime soon! Unless Toshiba wants to send one over :o)
Tags: toshiba, hddvd, hd, rda1

Tags: voip, ieee, lightening, adsense, firefox, linux, ubuntu

Hungry? Don't know what to make from what's on hand? Then check out Cookin' With Google!
Enter a couple of items, choose your category and click Grab A Recipe

Categories:
* General
* Vegan/Vegetarian
* WorldWide Cuisine
* Atkins Diet
* Diabetic
* Seafood
* Crockpot

* Try searching for both items plural and singular. Searching for avocado apple gives very different results from avocados apples.
* Sometimes if you enter too many items you’ll narrow down your search too much. Try starting your search with just two or three ingredients.
* Try tossing in a cooking-related word, like broil or sautee. Conversely if you want to avoid certain words you can also exclude them; try excluding words like fry or lard.
Tags: google, search, cooking, recipe

"Beta is not Bostonian for better"
Tags: beta, quote

USAToday: "Rather than depending on insects or even the wind for pollination, scientists have discovered that a type of orchid in China, actually fertilizes itself. The orchid defies gravity to twist the male part of its flower into the necessary shape to fertilize the female one."
Yeah...I think there's a joke in there somewhere...
Tags: orchid, science, china

Oh, Don't Forget is a little service that just works.
Put in your (or someone else's) mobile phone number, the time you want the message to go and the text you want to send. You can use Now if you want it to go right away or set it to some date in the future.
Tags: reminder, rails, web2

Tags: google, mozilla, firefox, cheat, index

IBM takes the speed crown at least for now. A little silicon-germanium (SiGe), some cryogenic freezing (451 degrees below zero Fahrenheit (4.5 Kelvin or -268.5 degrees Celsius)) and presto a 500 GHz chip! They're going for THz.
Article: IBM accelerates silicon to more than 500 GHz
Tags: IBM, chip, sige, speed, silicon

Things are looking a little better: 162. At least its up from 68. Still can't figure out what's up.
Results 1 - 10 of about 162 from www.techlifeweb.com for . (0.48 seconds) 
Tags: google, index

A flaw has been found in the Bluetooth stack on various Toshiba, Dell, Asus, Sony and other brands of laptops. The flaw could enable someone who knows how to exploit it to cause a 'blue screen of death' via Bluetooth.
Now, granted, the person would have to be within about 1 meters of their prey but I can see someone quietly sipping their latte at Starbucks and causing lots of havoc at the same time.
Article: Bluetooth flaw found in laptops
Tags: bluetooth, bsod, flaw, hack

Slashdot: Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have completed a prototype device that can block digital cameras. The team in the Interactive and Intelligent Computing division of the Georgia Tech College of Computing used off-the-shelf equipment (camera-mounted sensors, lighting equipment, a projector and a computer) to scan for, find and neutralize digital cameras.
Tags: photography, digital, surveillance

Tags: gtd, yahoo, lifehacks, reading

Google is working an a system that listens to what you are watching on tv. It then compares that sound samples against an audio database so it can identify what you are watching. The hope is that they can then present you will relevant ads or create social networks with like minded people.
Using a computer to capture ambient sound in the room, the system can identify a show based on only 5 seconds of audio.
BBC News: Google listens to screen routine
Tags: google, audio, ambient

Yikes...I've 'lost' another page in the index since this morning!

Nice.
Tags: google, index, statistics

My friend Randy posted this morning that Google's index is on the up tic. I've been noticing this too and I was just about to jump over to his site to throw in my 2 cents when I happened to check my Eh List feed:
http://ehlist.ca/show/5760/20060619
68 pages!

And just the other day (Saturday)..714!
http://ehlist.ca/show/5760/20060617

wtf Google?

The Eh List is pretty cool if you haven't heard of it. The Eh List collects statistics about your blog from all around the blogosphere.It goes out on a regular basis and figures out what the other search sites know about your blog and summarizes it for you.
Tags: google, index, ehlist, statistics

For a few thousand dollars, including travel expenses, a pair of Italian filmmakers have created a 93-minute movie, Nuovi Comizi D'Amore (New Love Meetings), with a Nokia N90 camera-smartphone.
Tags: film, photography, nokia, n90, movie, smartphone
[via:PalmBlvd]

TechNewsWorld reports that about 86 percent of email is spam. I haven't looked at the numbers where I work in a while but I'd say it's about that. Even higher over the weekend.
Article: Spam Accounts for Most E-Mail Traffic
Tags: spam, email

Tags: sleep, insomnia, 43folders

It seems, at least in the US, that people with lower incomes are choosing DSL as their broadband of choice.

According to a recent report published by Leichtman Research Group, about 21 percent of households earning an annual income of between $30,000 and $75,000 a year subscribe to DSL. About 18 percent of these households subscribe to cable. By contrast, 37 percent of all households with annual household incomes over $75,000 subscribe to cable broadband and 27 percent subscribe to DSL.

Barb Bowman has a nice write up on the Media Center included in Vista Beta 2. She includes some times on the new features. Worth checking out.
Community: Windows Media Center
Tags: windows, vista, mce

Tags: fun, paper, airplane, diy, howto

How cool is this? "Plug compatible with any standard USB charging cable. The Inflight USB Power unit plugs into the passenger seat audio jack and outputs regulated power to the attached USB charging cable/connector."
Little on the high side at $35US but I'd say worth it if you're on a long flight. There are other models and adapters.
Inflight USB Power Unit
Tags: usb, power, inflight, audio, jack
[via:ChrisPirillo]

Tags: excel, cancel, advertising, adwords, adsense, howto

Are you a fan of the PBS series American Experience? Did you know they are available as a podcast? Cool.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/podcasts.html

Subscribe and get AMERICAN EXPERIENCE stories to go! Or find these podcasts on iTunes by searching for
AMERICAN EXPERIENCE
Tags: pbs, american+experience, itunes, podcast

Goooooaaaaaal. Google Joins Nike and Mozilla for Soccer Fix
InternetNews.com - USA
... Google and Mozilla have officially released a new browser extension for the Mozilla Firefox 1.5.x browser that directly links the browser with the Joga.com ...
Tags: soccer, football, nike, mozilla, firefox, joga

If you are even vaguely interested in marketing and the Internet I suggest you read Hugh Macleod's recent post: The Corporate Wine Blogging Manifesto
This entry is basically a rough draft of something he's putting together for non net-savvy wine people. His goal is an attempt to explain taking the conversation to the people. I'd say it applies to anyone with something to sell.
Rock on Hugh.
Tags: stormhoek, wine, hughtrain, blogging

Brian Livingston is out with a new Windows Secrets newsletter with an article titled: Genuine Advantage is Microsoft spyware.
He states, "Windows Genuine Advantage — the controversial program Microsoft auto-installed as a "critical security update" on many PCs starting on Apr. 25 — not only causes problems for many users but has now been proven to send personally identifiable information back to Redmond every 24 hours."

Reasons:
1. Lack of disclosure before installation
2. Transmits data to a central computer
3. Downloads other software and morphs itself
4. Cannot easily be uninstalled

I encourage you to read the article.
Tags: microsoft, windows, spyware, wga

ZDNet: "Bill Gates is transitioning out of his full-time role at Microsoft, the software giant that's been under pressure due to a sagging stock price, competition from Google and nagging delays in the Vista operating system."

Interesting but I don't think it will much matter. He is definitely a known face and voice for the company but how much is he directing the mission?
Tags: microsoft, gates

This is pretty cool. A meteoroid hit the Moon's Sea of Clouds (Mare Nubium) with 17 billion joules of kinetic energy — roughly the same as 4 tons of TNT. The video was caught with a 10-inch telescope and you can clearly see it.
Read more and watch the video: A Meteoroid Hits the Moon
Audio
Tags: science, nasa, moon, video, meteroid

Blogger has a nice 'plugin' that lets you see links from other sites to your post. This feature takes advantage of Google's blog search engine to pull in the links.
Hey, Blogger folks...It's broken.
Here is a screenshot of a post On Blogger, By Google itself (official google blog), of the latest entry for Picasa Web Albums. See, at the bottom, no links:

Now, here is a post seconds later from Google's Blog Search page showing 10 of 34 links!
Broken.
Tags: google, blogger, blogsearch, search, blog

About time they put that $2.6 billion to good use!

EBay said that it would add a "Skype Me" button to certain categories of listings, allowing prospective buyers to contact sellers directly through the Internet phone service it acquired last year for $2.6 billion.

Google has updated my favorite photo organization software, Picasa. Along with the new version and your Google account, you'll get 250MB of web space to upload your files. You can then arrange them into albums, add labels, etc.
Picasa itself gets some new features as well. You can now view by the folder hierarchy on your hard disk. Just like the web function,  Album collections can now be created. This version is only available to Web Albums users.
On the web, in the settings, you can select whether you want the RSS feed to your public photos to show (on by default) and whether you want people to be able to download your photos via Picasa (also on by default).
People will have to decide whether to use Flickr or Picasa Albums. It really depends on what you want to do. For the casual Flickr user like me, the Picasa albums are exciting because you can create albums. The free version of Flickr only lets you create 3 sets which is a drag but I understand it. Flickr limits your uploads per month with no end in sight whereas Google says 250MB and that's it. $25US per year will get you 6GB if you want it.
If you want to see how it in action, I threw together a quick album of pictures from a recent excursion to Universal Studios Hollywood: My Universal Studios Picasa Album
Tags: google, picasa, flickr, photography
[via:InsideGoogle]

OPML Support is a new extension for Firefox that lets you import and export OPML files to the Firefox bookmarks manager. When you import OPML the extension turn the links into live bookmarks. You use the same extension to get all you Live Bookmarks back out into an OPML file you can send to others or import into another tool.

Tags: opml, firefox, mozilla, rss
[via]

I told you this would be done sooner or later.
As I mentioned the other day, Microsoft is recommending you wait and order the DVD so they don't take down the 'net with Vista downloads. Well now there is a new site called Windows Vista Torrent that you can use to download Vista Beta 2 using BitTorrent.
What you need:
* I recommend uTorrent for downloading BitTorrent files as I think it is pretty straight forward to use and is easier than the original software from the makers of BitTorrent.
* Next, be sure to go register at Microsoft's Get Ready site for the Beta so you get a key. The key will let you install 10 copies of the beta.
* Then got to VistaTorrent.com and start your download.
Be sure to leave your client open for a while after you finish downloading so you can share. Be a good netizen and help others who've helped you.
* Finally, run a program like MD5 against your downloaded .iso file and make sure it matches 4B6641731977D390838B24A0C300D1C6
Tags: microsoft, windows, vista, beta, download, bittorrent
[via]

Wow. Robert is moving to Podtech. Podtech better get some new servers and bandwidth because I can't even pull up the site and I'm reading this as Sunday news before the bulk of the 'sphere finds out on Monday!
Tags: scoble, podtech, microsoft, scobelizer
[via:rssblog,scobelizer]

Tags: photography, crop, image

Tags: MCE, KB920076, Windows, Blogging, Traffic

Chris Pirillo posted a chat session log from a discussion with Microsoft's Aaron Coldiron re: Windows Vista downloads. Aaron gives some interesting facts: Keys are being given out 10 times faster than the product can be downloaded and that this is the biggest download event in history.
Two points Aaron wanted to make clear:
1. MS is pushing the download as fast as they can and are reaching Internet thresholds. Aaron: "if we increased our bandwidth any further there’s a possibility of taking down the Internet - people might have problems with World Cup viewing, etc." (emphasis mine)
2. If you can wait, order the DVD. The cost is just to cover media and you will get RC1 if you buy it and register. Just go to the GetReady web site and go through order process there.

When asked about BitTorrent he said "I really wish we could do it, but we can’t. If someone [seeds or downloads a torrent] we can’t guarantee that they’ve got an unaltered copy, etc."

Tags: microsoft, windows, vista, chat, bittorrent

Tags: linux, windows, ubuntu, vista, knowledge, bitcomet, utorrent, bittorrent

Hans has pictures of his journey installing Vista B2 on a MacBook Pro.
Pictures from Installing Vista Beta 2 on MacBook Pro
Tags: microsoft, apple, windows, vista, mac, macbook

A new plugin for Windows Media Center called Big Screen Photos will let you view Flickr photos from within Windows Media Center. It works with both Windows XP and Vista.
Currently in Beta, the features include..
* Browse and View your flickr™ Photo’s (and everyone elses) directly from flickr online
* Browse and Search Groups, Photosets, Tags, People and more to find what you want.
* Access Detailed User and Photo Information and drill down on metadata.
* UI Theme Support - change the appearance of Big Screen Portal with over 5 inbuilt color themes.

Tags: mce, flickr, windows, yahoo, winxp, windowsvista, vista
[via:Aaron Stebner]

From time to time I browse the Windows Media Center Group on Google. Seems a common complaint is trouble burning DVDs from with MCE. Personally, my media center box is just viewed by me as a PC with media center ability. In other words, I use good tools like Nero for burning DVDs when needed.
If you are one of those that want to burn DVDs from within MCE you might want to have a look a Matt Goyer's blog post today. He out lines the following steps to help you get back up and running:

* Uninstall the Sonic Solutions burn engine: Start->Control Panel->Add or Remove Programs->Add/Remove Windows Components. Uncheck the box next to Sonic DVD and CD Burning and click Next.
* Reboot.
* Reinstall the Sonic Solutions burn engine: Start->Control Panel->Add or Remove Programs->Add/Remove Windows Components. Check the box next to Sonic DVD and CD Burning and click Next. *If there are errors finding the required files (CD2 is requested), perform a Search on the file names and then Browse to the folder containing each required file.
* Reboot.

Worth a try.
Tags: sonic, dvd, mce, windows, media, winxp
[via:Matt Goyer]
My Windows Media Center Tips and Tweaks

I mentioned before that Windows Vista is available today. I gave out the wrong download site. You should go to Windows Vista Preview page and log in with your Passport account. You'll then get an email with your product key and a like to the download site.
I also suggest using Internet Explorer for the download. I still haven't been able to get it but I got further with IE than Firefox.
Tags: microsoft, windows, vista, beta

It's finally out. Good luck getting it today. Now if MS would use bittorrent....no worries, surely someone will help them to it shortly.
Windows Vista Beta 2
Tags: windows, vista, beta

Tags: network, monitor, dude

Tags: google, crawler

If you want a quick way to check when Google's crawler last visited your site, go to Google and enter in the search box: cache:mysiteurl where mysiteurl is the actual address of your page like cache:www.techlifeweb.com The resulting page will have something like this screen grab at the top telling you when the page was cached by Google. In my case, CSS overwrite the results but a quick right click - view page source will show me the info I need.

Tags: google, search, cache, crawler

If you've got the right Linksys router you can flash it and add some interesting features. Lifehacker goes through the steps in this article titled: Hack Attack: Turn your $60 router into a $600 router
Tags: hack, router, wifi, lifehacker

Starting today, Xbox 360 users can upgrade their systems with 125 new or improved features. The update is available through the Xbox Live network. Some of the enhancements include:
Xbox Live Marketplace Enhancements
* The new background download manager gives you the ability to queue up and download six high definition items at a time, such as playable game demos, Xbox Live Arcade games, music videos, and movie trailers while actively playing games or browsing the dashboard. As an added benefit, if you engage in multiplayer gameplay while downloads are in process, the new background download manager will automatically pause the download queue until the multiplayer session is complete, ensuring a continuously optimal gameplay experience.
* Updated Xbox Live Marketplace menus makes it easier for you to find and store all of your gaming and entertainment content. This includes the addition of new menus for media and entertainment content, as well as enhanced menus making it easier for you to find what's new in each section as well as a quick view at all downloads by category.
* Full remote control features for Xbox Live Marketplace videos allow you to fast forward and rewind at various speeds (2X-16X) during all videos downloaded from Marketplace.

Music Player Improvements
* Custom background music now continues to play without interruption during game loads and when transitioning from game to game or disc content.
* During music play, the music playback screen now showcase the artist, song title, and time remaining on the song along with a visualizer showing which song on the playlist or album is currently playing.

DVD Movie Playback Upgrades
* DVD movie bookmarking now allows you to pause a movie at any point, put in a game for gameplay and return to the movie at the exact point it left off.
* Improved DVD movie playback for a smoother, higher quality viewing experience, including additional VGA support.

You can see the entire list of 125 here: Xbox 360 Spring Release Features
Tags: xbox, 360, xbox360, games, gaming

If you're a Mac user you might want to check out these Firefox builds from Neil Lee. There 3 differend builds that have been optimized for the G4, G5 and Intel Mac.
Optimized Firefox 1.5.0.4 for G4, G5, and Intel
Tags: mozilla, firefox, browser, mac
[via]

Tags: window, xp, windowsxp, winxp

Nikkei Electronics reports on a new system for streaming video. m-View, developed by Momentum Technology allows an ordinary camcorder and laptop to become a mobile video streaming solution.
The wireless 2.4GHz transmitter is attached to a video camera, which then sends the audio and video images taken by the camera to a receiver, which is attached to a PC via a USB analog-to-digital converter. The laptop then serves up the stream to the web. The transmitter transmits in 25fps PAL format, 760x576.
Not sure at this time if it will be available in North America.


Tags: video, camcorder, wireless
[via: lostremote]

Both products now stand a 1.5.0.4. Mostly Security fixes. Notes on the Firefox fixes here and Thunderbird fixes here.
Click Help - Check for Updates if your products haven't already gone through auto update.
Tags: mozilla, firefox, thunderbird, security, browser

Aaron Stebner's back with another solution for cases where your setup setting up your XBox 360 media center extender fails. Generally, the problem arises when something else has hosed your .Net framework set up. Aaron's instructions will help you solve that.
Aaron Stebner: Another possible solution if Windows Media Center Xbox 360 PC setup crashes when launched
Tags: mce, windows, extender, xbox, 360, xbox360

Over on ZDNet, Ed Bott posted a write up this morning about Windows Vista's Media Center.
Vista Media Center: Ready for the living room?
Tags: microsoft, windows, vista, mce

How about web2glue? I can stick my flickr feed into my blog along side my del.icio.us tags. How? web2glue of course!
Tags: web2glue, rss, feeds