TechLifeBlogged

Microsoft has released an addition to its line up of Prima Guides. I've mentioned the guides for Madden 07 NFL. Now they have one for Lego: Star Wars II.

Lost in a particularly difficult level? Can't figure out how to beat that one boss? Wish you knew how to unlock that last character? Prima has you covered with guides for all your favorite Xbox® titles. The world's leading publisher of official game guides and the exclusive guide publisher for Microsoft®, Prima continues to dominate the field it created in 1990 by providing the highest quality game guides available. Get the best tips, maps, hints, and strategies from Prima's experts, and take your gaming further than you ever thought possible.

Flight Simulator X Trial Version includes two airports, three missions, and three different aircraft. All of the missions take place at St. Maarten in the Caribbean.
Tags: microsoft, flight, simulator, trial, free

Tags: colbert, humor, on notice

USAToday: More than 100 million Americans, or three out of every five Internet users, viewed video online in July.

Want a free month of Blockbuster Video? Go here and enter code friend1.
Note: Offer ends 5 Oct 2006
Tags: blockbuster, video, deal, friends and family

On Besting Adwords, Randy has a run down of the various on-line and feed based advertisers. I haven't tried all the one's he has but I definitely agree with his conclusions.
Besting Adwords: Online Ad Networks
Tags: blog, rss, advertising, adsense, adwords, marketing

In case you missed it, Netscape will now host your video files.

1. Only upload videos that are yours for the uploading.
2. There is no time limit on your videos.
3. All videos must be 150MBs or smaller and either a .mpg, .mpeg, .mov, .avi, .mp4, or .m4v file.
4. There is no limit on the number of videos you can upload.
5. You can syndicate videos on your website or download original copies of the video.
Video FAQ
Netscape Video Standards

Tags: html, editor, web, design, real time

Tags: mozilla, firefox, browser, greasemonkey, google, calendar, security, https

VLC media player is a free cross-platform media player that supports a large number of multimedia formats, without the need for additional codecs. You can also use it as a streaming server.
VLC Media player comes in the following flavors:
* Windows
* Mac OS X
* BeOS
* Debian GNU/Linux
* Ubuntu Linux
* Mandriva Linux
* Fedora Core
* Familiar Linux
* YOPY/Linupy
* Zaurus
* SUSE Linux
* Red Hat Linux
* WinCE / PocketPC
* Slackware Linux
* ALT Linux
Tags: windows, media, codec, player, linux, audio, video, stream
[via: Jon's Geek stuff]

Tags: trevor hoffman, san diego, padres, saves 479, baseball, mlb

Over on ZDNet Russell Shaw is working on uncovering why Apple has recently been sending c & d  letters to podcasters like Podcast Ready.
He figured there are three groups of reasons:

Apple itself is seeking a Trademark for "IPodcast."
Apple has been experiencing some significant difficulties getting final approval from the USPTO for the iPod trademark.
Finally, Apple has trademark applications on file for significantly expanding the iPod brand beyond devices, to other merchandise.

I have a couple blogs. I use the same tool, Qumana, to write my posts and ping both Technorati and Ice Rocket. Ice Rocket seems to pick up my posts fairly quickly for all blogs. Technorati has updated quickly on all blogs except this one. No new posts have been entered for TechLifeBlogged in Technorati for the last 68 days. That is despite pinging them even at other times.
Tags: qumana, ice rocket, technorati, tagging, blogging

San Jose State University has apparently decided to block all Skype use on campus. It is speculated that the reasoning has something to do with whatever contracts the university has with its telecom provider. Of course, students are probably routing around the telco anyway because they all carry cell phones. My guess is that they don't want the potential network overhead of Skype use.
Tags: university, san jose, ban, skype, telco
[via: TechDirt]

To heck with diets...just get yourself a new HP camera!
Slimming photos with HP digital cameras
Tags: photography, hp, camera, slim, diet

Tags: ubuntu, active directory, microsoft, how-to

Nice! NiMH batteries with a cap that pops off and have a USB port inside. Then you plug them into your USB port and the recharge off your PC or laptop. I think these would be cool for travelers. I have a USB adapter to recharge my Archos but have to carry a little NiMH chager separate for my camera.

Tags: usb, battery, nimh, rechargable
[via:BoingBoing]

Well, looks like it's Toshiba's turn for the pain. So far no explosions or people hurt. The problem has been fixed and batteries manufactured since June 1, 2006 are not affected by this problem.

If you have any of the following models, go to the Toshiba Battery Exchange Program Information page for how to proceed.

Note: The links below are Technorati links. Rather than have the post go on forever and list everything twice I figured I'd just convert the model number to tags. Two birds, 1 stone. Thanks Qumana!
SATELLITE Models:
Tags: M50-S418TD, M55-S135, M55-S1351, M55-S325, M55-S3251, M55-S2253, M55-S3262, M55-S1352, M55-S2252, M50-S4182TD, M55-S139, M55-S1391, M55-S329, M55-S3291, M55-S3292, M55-S3293, M55-S3294, M50-S5181TD, M55-S141, M55-S1412, M55-S351, M55-S3511, M55-S331, M55-S3311, M55-S3312, M55-S3313, M55-S321, M55-S3314, M55-S3315, M55-S3512, A105-S171, A105-S1711, A105-S271, A105-S2001, A100-ST3211, A100-S2211TD, M105-S322, A105-S2719, A105-S215TD, M50-S5182TD, A100-S8111TD, M100-ST5111, A105-S4014, A105-S4012, A105-S4011, A105-S4004, A105-S4002, A105-S4001, A105-S2111, A105-S2101, A105-S2091, M105-SP381, A100-SP471, M100-ST5211, A100-ST8211, A100-S2311TD, M105-S3014, A105-S4041, A105-S4031, M55-S1001, A105-S4024, A105-S4144, A105-S4104, A105-S4094, A105-S4074, A105-S2121, A105-S4051, M105-S3064, M105-S3051, M105-S3041, M105-S3031, M105-S1011, M105-SP1011, A105-S4174, A105-S4164, M105-S3074, M105-S1031, M105-S1041, A105-S4154, A105-S4034, A105-S4054, M105-S3084, A105-S4214, A105-S4204, A105-S4211, A105-S4201, A105-S4092, A105-S2141, A105-S4084, A105-S4184, A105-S4194, M105-S1021, A105-S4102, A105-S4124, A105-S4114, A105-S4132, A105-S4134, A105-S2131, A105-S4064, M105-S3021, M105-S3012, M105-S3011, M105-S3004, M105-S3002, M105-S3001, A105-S4022, A105-S4021, A105-S2081, A105-S2071, A105-S2061, A105-S2051, A105-S2041, A105-S2031, A105-S2021, A105-S2011, A105-S2711, A105-S1014, A105-S1013, A105-S361, A105-S3611, A105-S1712, A105-S2714, A105-S2715, A105-S2712, A105-S2713, A105-S2716, A105-S2717, A105-S101, A105-S1012
TECRA Models:
Tags: A6-S513, A6-EZ6311, A6-EZ6312, A6-ST3512, A7-S612, A6-S713, A7-ST5112, A6-ST3112, A6, A7-S712
Tags: toshiba, tecra, satellite, battery, recall, sony, information
[via: Engadget]

Picasa, my favorite tool for managing photos, has had a huge upgrade. Highlighted in this release are:
Share photos online
Nested Folder View
Save Changes to Disk
Improved import
Screensaver
Geotagging
New RAW features
Other goodies
* Improved caption editing
* Starred photos organize automatically into a special album
* "Just raw frames" option lets you export time-lapse sequences in the movie maker
* The bottom row of buttons can now be configured to suit your needs

This is also Tools -> Experimental menu for some other things Google is trying out.
From Official Google Blog:

Folders finally work as you'd expect, so people who've kept their photos meticulously organized in folders and subfolders can see them displayed the same way in Picasa. And we've added a shiny new feature to photo-editing: Save. Your Picasa edits can now be preserved when using other programs. The save feature is even undoable, so you never lose your original files.
And there's more -- you can import into any folder you like, make time-lapse sequences into movies, search by color, create a screensaver with beautiful visual effects, and even re-arrange Picasa's buttons. Oh, and we also made Picasa work with Google Earth, so you can put information about where you went on vacation into the photos themselves, and then, view your shots on a 3-D globe. Try it all out for yourself at picasa.google.com.

Reghardware: TDK has followed Samsung and launched a hard drive replacement based on NAND Flash memory. The product, which is currently available in sample quantities, was announced by the company last week. — The 32GB unit hooks up to the host across a standard IDE connector.
Tags: hardware, tdk, ide, drive, flash, nand, memory

"It’s not the technology stupid, it’s the people. Tech’s easy, ya know? It’s people who suck."
Eric Rice posting on the drama over editing a wikipedia entry.
Tags: quote, wikipedia, wiki, drama

Tags: seo, microsoft, windows, USB, how-to, hack

Wednesday (13 Sept 06) marked 50 years since the first hard disk drive was introduced by IBM in 1956.
PCWorld
Tags: hardware, ibm, hard drive, hdd, history

Tags: tweak, microsoft, windows, vista, photoshop, photography, brushes

Over on Vista Horizons, I've written up the 10 First Tweaks to Windows Vista After Installation. Handy if you have to keep reinstalling as often as I have been.
Tags: microsoft, windows, vista, tweaks, tips, hacks, how-to

From the 'Double-edged Sword of Security and Privacy Dept.'

Slashdot: Servers participating in the TOR anonymizing network have been seized by public prosecutors during a child porn crackdown in Germany.

TOR: This is not a "crackdown on Tor", as has been widely reported. This seems to be part of a wide sweep on computers associated by IP address with a large child porn bust. There does not seem to be any specific targeting of Tor — Tor is used by journalists, human rights activists, dissident bloggers, and a vast array of blameless users.

Tags: tor, anonymous, anonymizing, germany, privacy, security

There are certain scenarios that could cause and XP box to not synchronize with an Internet time server even though it is set to automatically synchronize.
This problem may occur in the following scenario:
• A scheduled task automatically resumes the computer from standby or from hibernation.
• The computer automatically goes on standby or into hibernation again.
For example, a computer that is running Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 automatically resumes from standby to record a scheduled show. Then, the computer automatically goes on standby after the recording has finished. In this example, the computer may not synchronize the clock with an Internet time server until the computer restarts.

Fortunately, there is a hot fix available: KB909279
Tags: microsoft, windows, xp, media center, mce, time, synchronization, sync

Google has a new service that lets you search 200 years of news. Pretty cool. Presents a time line with related stories. Some of the content lists as paid but if you click through you'll at least get a summary and details about when the original article was written.
http://news.google.com/archivesearch
Tags: google, news, archives, search
[via:BBCNews]

Amazon.com unveiled the Unbox Video Store yesterday, a direct rival to Apple's iTunes 24-7 video store, which allows U.S. users to buy or rent TV shows, movies, and other video content from the Internet.
Tags: amazon, video, download, itunes
[via: pcworld]

Tags: adobe

TechDirt: Quantas and Korean Air ban Dell and Apple laptops aboard their planes.
Tags: quantas, korean air, dell, apple, laptop, battery, ban

Tags: mysql, tune, optimize