TechLifeWeb

Sites that I found interesting for October 20th 2009 through October 22nd 2009:

• How to Use Digital Cable Tuners with CableCARD in Windows 7 Media Center – Last month at the CEDIA EXPO trade show in Atlanta, Microsoft made a major announcement regarding CableCARDs: the company announced that consumers would now be able to install digital cable tuners with CableCARD into their Windows 7 PCs…all by themselves.
• Thymer – Super easy Planning, Task and Project Management – Project management and task planning for people who hate project management and task planning.
• For the Sysadmins: Software Compliance Tool – Software Compliance Tool is a small application designed to reduce the overhead in managing unwanted applications in a business environment. via @sintaxasn on Twitter.

Sites that I found interesting for October 15th 2009 through October 18th 2009:

• DIY Tennis Ball Photography Stabilization Unit – DIY web site Instructables details how to make an image stabilizing unit to supplement your steady hand using a tennis ball and a few nuts and bolts.
• PowerPlaylist 2 for Windows Media Center in Windows 7 Now Available – Highly customizable by the consumer resulting in a highly personalized Windows Media Center experience.
• Google Voice Extends Invitations – Those testing Google Voice will be allowed to invite friends to use the service.

Sites that I found interesting for September 17th 2009 through September 21st 2009:

• AT&T to Let You Patch the Dead Zone in Your House for $20 per Month – The telco has started offering the 3G MicroCell, a wireless network extender the company claims acts like a mini cellular tower in your home. With it, users can expect enhanced coverage for both voice and data for up to 5,000 square feet, with support for up to four users at any given time
• Batch Converting a Directory Tree of Videos Recursively with Handbrake for Streaming to an Xbox360 – This script takes every *.avi file in the current (.) folder, and all folders underneath it (-R), and for each of this files, creates a new filename with the word "-convert" inside. It then calls the HandBrake command line (yours may be in "C:\Program Files" so you might need to change that. It uses the Xbox360 preset.
• Media Center Studio – Media Center Studio is a free application for Windows Vista and Windows 7 that enables you to customise Windows Media Center. It is the successor of MC Menu Mender, bringing it up to date for Windows 7 and adding support for theme application and editing.

Sites that I found interesting for July 25th 2009 through July 27th 2009:

• Great GTD diagram – via @jayrendon on twitter.
• FriendFeed as a social media strategy tool – For folks who aren’t familiar with FriendFeed, it’s a service that makes it easy for friends to share content with each other by aggregating their activities on up to 58 different social media sites. This content is updated automatically without any additional effort from the user. via @FreeRangeMom on Twitter.
• Getting Started with Windows 7 Media Center for First Timers – Just getting started with Windows 7 Media Center and not sure where to start? Hack7MC has a nice primer to get you going.

Hulu labs has launched Hulu Desktop. Desktop is a new program that lets you sit back from the PC and navigate Hulu via a standard remote control. It is currently available for both Windows and Mac.

It would be better if we could just use all the features from with in Vista or Windows 7 Media Center but at least this is a start. There are other solutions for Hulu in media center such as PlayOn with the vmcPlayIt Media Center add on but this new Hulu Desktop gives you a much richer navigation experience.

Hulu – Labs: Hulu Desktop.

Sites that I found interesting for May 20th 2009 through May 25th 2009:

• AT&T tips 32GB iPhone 3G through BlackBerry trade-in program – As part of AT&T’s efforts to get the BlackBerry Bold in as many hands as possible, the carrier has posted an as-yet non-existent 32GB iPhone 3G as being worth $355 when traded-in for a BlackBerry Bold.
• Kyocera Brings Solar to Prius Rooftops – Kyocera has won a deal to supply Toyota with solar panels for the new Prius.
• MediaInfo – Get technical information and tags of a lot of multimedia files. Supported formats : – Video : AVI/OGM/MKV/MPG/VOB/MP4/3GP/… – Audio : MP3/OGG/MKA/MP4/AAC/…

Sites that I found interesting for May 13th 2009 through May 17th 2009:

• The Exploding Digital Universe – What are we going to do with all our digital stuff??
• Jump Into The Stream – "This isn’t an inbox we have to empty, or a page we have to get to the bottom of — its a flow of data that we can dip into at will but we can’t attempt to gain an all encompassing view of it." – John Borthwick, betaworks.com
• Windows 7 Media Center Themes – Out of the box, Windows 7 Media Center does not have themes. Theme7MC gets around that and has some stunning themes for you to download. via @isdixon on twitter.

Sites that I found interesting for May 1st 2009 through May 6th 2009:

• tubeCentric.tv – tubeCore makes video from DLNA Media Servers such as Tversity, PlayOn, and TwonkyMedia available from within your Windows Media Center. via @isdixon on Twitter.
• What to look for in Windows 7 – Screenshot tour of Windows 7
• Upgrading a pre RC windows 7 beta to the RC – I RECOMMEND doing fresh installs between OS versions. There is just too much cruft that builds up over time. Also, you are replacing beta code with beta code so even more reason to get fresh. However, here’s what you can do to bypass the check for pre-release upgrade IF YOU REALLY REALLY NEED TO. Thanks to @simonster on Twitter.

Sites that I found interesting for April 30th 2009

• Toolkit to Disable Automatic Delivery of Internet Explorer 8 – The Internet Explorer 8 Blocker Toolkit enables IT Administrators to disable automatic delivery of Internet Explorer 8 as a high-priority update via Automatic Updates and the Windows Update and Microsoft Update sites.
• Streaming Media in Windows 7 – PlayTo –
• Disney to join NBC Universal, News Corporation and Providence Equity Partners as an equity owner of Hulu – From the press release: Full Episodes of Hit Current and Library Programs Like Lost, Desperate Housewives, Grey's Anatomy, Dancing with the Stars, Ugly Betty, Private Practice, Scrubs, Wizards of Waverly Place, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, General Hospital, The View, Greek, The Secret Life of the American Teenager And Other Hit Series From ABC, ABC Family, Disney Channel and SOAPnet To Come To Hulu.com and Its Distribution Sites.

Sites that I found interesting for April 2nd 2009 through April 5th 2009:

• Late Roman village found near Salzburg – Workers found the remains of the village which is thought to date back to the 5th to 7th centuries at a 6,000-square-metre site for construction of a home for pensioners at Anif-Niederalm in the Flachgau region.
• Troys Twitter Script for Greasemonkey – Nested Replies, Custom Search Tabs, Autocomplete, Pagination, RT button, Media Embed, URL Expansion, Hash Tag Search Links, Social Links
• Behind the scenes at Netflix – Pictures of a Netflix warehouse operation