Most say that the local “sysadmin” taking care of your most prized virtual belongings usually sits on their rear while everyone else does the hard work.

For the time being I’m here to provide a little insight into the situation.

As general information, IT stands for “information technology” and, as the name says, the “hard work” is often made in front of the screens, “talking” to the machines.

The notorious “sysadmin” is usually one person who doesn’t really have time (or in many cases doesn’t even feel like) talking to people that much. His/her purpose there is to insure that every piece of information flows smoothly throughout the respective institution, inputs, processed and transformed properly inside, stored, relayed, received from the outside, and so forth.

In many regards, the “sysadmin” is the “soul” keeping the information structure alive and well.
How does it happen? Well, that’s not really our topic for now, but a simple set of guidelines is in order.

Any form of organization today no matter how small or how big has to have an electronic information system. Be it one or one thousand computers, data clusters, servers and so forth, they all have to be properly managed in order to reach their potential as close to optimal as it can be. That pretty much means everything – careful planning before Any action is made, and down to business – networks, terminals, licensing, servers, software, configuration, starting with the main computing core down to the last wire. On top of that – the whole structure has to be carefully linked to the power lines to minimize any possible damage and/or data loss, the internet providers and other services, outgoing links and eventual surveillance systems.

And, on top of that, everything comes down to people, costs and time. This, often makes everything a lot messier than it needs to be..

There’s plenty of guides and documentation concerning the work of a system administrator available everywhere, so I won’t bore you with it further on.

However, there are a few things that tend to be persistent more or less often, concerning either the sysadmin, or the people also working in the IT department if that is the case.

1. First of all, most people working in a company pay a minimum of attention to the technology at their disposal. If that can be understandable, demanding the impossible from your sysadmin isn’t.

For instance, if you use your pc just like you use your garbage can – clicking anything on the screen, installing, copying, deleting disregarding any implications, kicking your pc/laptop around all day – then you are bound to notice some issues in time.

However, if that is your least concern for now, there will be a time when events such as data loss, viruses, general slow application response and frequent crashes will soon be on your way. That will most certainly have a negative impact on your so precious corporate time and employee of the month image.

Furthermore, when that starts going down hill, you will begin your journey into the endless sea of phone calls to the IT department. Depending on how severe the damage, and how tolerant the admin, you may or may Not get your data and your functionality back, or at best not in time. Besides, you are prone to get some restrictions or some kind of “punishment” for your doings.

Bottom line for the user: take care of your system and it will take care of you. For the admin: limited rights are usually good for the user.

2. PC’s are not all there is to it. Most people also print their documents (for some reason), use copy machines, scanners and so forth. The vast majority of these items do need a certain degree of periodic maintenance and/or supplies.

*An interesting aspect would be to observe how many employees clean their desks and keep their belongings tidy, but pay no attention to their office electronics, leaving the balls of dust to grow on them without saying or doing not one thing (there is no point in explaining the “mysteries” of why pc’s might stop working when kicked, Lcd screens might start showing dead pixels when poked, copy machines might start showing streaks when the glass is filled with ooze, etc)

However, when something shows it’s first symptoms of maintenance needs (aka unusual behavior), call your administrator person and Notify him/her. When it breaks, it will be too late.

This applies to – pc’s who start showing puff balls of dust in the vents, pc’s with increasing fan noise and/or heat (mostly due to the up mentioned puff balls), printers that start printing odd colors, streaks, or showing unusual light/screen activity, and so forth.

Bottom line: if you just yell “it blew up” after 2 weeks of sparks and noise, you are Not going to get a new one in 5 minutes, flawlessly serving its usual purpose. Notify Someone who is paid to hear it, the day it all starts happening. For the admin: you cannot do impossible things, warn and don’t hide it. What won’t be done today, most certainly won’t be done yesterday either (I think Einstein explained it)

3. It so happens that most employees will start postponing their problems (if not urgent), until the moment some IT person shows up. Somehow, most of them will “spare” the first phone call, and the next, and the one after, making some sort of a “mental list” of their needs. When the respective IT person finally comes, minding his/her business, everybody just starts “popping up” with demands. And guess what, some unrelated issue(s) also appear at the same time. What happens then? Who can tell..

Bottom line: one person cannot solve a dozen problems at the same time; if that one person is there, he/she is there for a reason, already taking into account that some unforeseen events can also occur. Jumping with your monthly list of problems on that one man’s back might not do much good in the best case scenario. When something comes up, take a minute to dial a phone number, or write an e-mail, your concerns will be noted and taken into account. For the admin: prioritize, and explain that working with multitasking machines does not necessarily mean you are one yourself. Moreover, even supercomputers prioritize.

4. General technical thoughts:

* when one of the providers or any outside informational entity linked to your data system stops.. providing, the admin can ask for information from the respective entity. If the problem belongs to that separate data cluster only, all he can do is wait, the “call for help” has been made and noted. Calling every 5 minutes just to push the phrase “do something” will not solve anything for anyone, but most probably make it somewhat worse in a psychological term, if not even tech related as consequence.

* when all of your network suddenly starts sinking and all pings choke to death in a matter of seconds, first thing you do - unplug all switches, and try to isolate the problem by plugging them back in one by one, and keeping an eye on the ping screens. Be advised, computers might need restarting to get back on their feet after crash. Sadly, these kinds of symptoms can even come from things like a shorted patch cord, a shorted Ethernet wall socket, crashed switch, or sometimes even a loop-back cable.

* another omnipresent thing in the IT field is, something closely resembling the fight against chaos, entropy. Influenced by some of the situations mentioned above, lack of spare time and a multitude of details to attend to, things usually start getting more and more messy around the working spot assigned to the systems administrator. Before you know it, the admin starts losing track of more and more details. The best advise for him/her at this point – always try as much as you can to organize your stuff so that everything is easy to keep track of. When that fails to happen, even the smallest tasks becomes very complicated due to the prolonged attempts of finding all that one needs to carry it out.

5. Te longer list of “bugs” encountered among the personnel include:

* repeated attempts to email shortcuts in hope that the respective documents they point out to will eventually reach their destination. They won’t. In spite of all the explanations, many will keep trying.
* repeated attempts to install specifically prohibited software, download media and what not, in spite even signed agreements that it will not happen
* repeated attempts to stuff stapled papers in copy machines or printers in spite all warnings, eventually leading to the “death” of the respective machine.
* repeated requests to the IT department regarding Anything related to electronics, software and what not, even though about 60% of these requests are common usage issues, and can be easily solved via a simple google search or a help button. Not to mention a whole universe of things that does not require a programmer’s degree, things like basic image resizing. If you cannot learn to follow an example or learn the “how to” steps, learn to write and take notes.
* repeated calls for help in the form of “it broke” or “it’s not working”. A bit more detailed approach is in order, regarding the context and the specific issue.

However, the wonderful adventures of sysadmins in cyber-land is a never-ending story I will bore you with no longer.

The purpose of this small personal insight, was to state that one must at least Try to help one’s self before crying out to others, in order to be satisfied by the results.

Also, it is yet another manifest on just how much appreciation the system administrator gets for his job, and how many things only lead to making it much harder than it really should be.

Furthermore, my point here is common knowledge among various groups around the world, groups that claimed the last Friday of July to be the System Administrator Appreciation Day. Informing you in advance, the dedicated website for the event is:

http://www.sysadminday.com

USB 3.0, however, has only been around for less than two years, and unlike 2.0, which has a 430 Mb bandwidth, the 3.0 is improved up to a 5 Gb extent. It hadn’t been used at its maximum capacity yet, manufacturers not taking full advantage of it, but that was until the beginning of this year when some consumer products have been announced. Recently, even a monitor connected to the computer via this version of USB has been built.

Developed by 3M, the monitor is plugged into two USB 3.0 sockets directly into the computer, both establishing a connection, and drawing its power from it. The need of two sockets comes from the fact that the monitor uses 8W of power, while one USB 3.0 can provide only 7W.

Another good thing about this monitor is that it only uses half the power normal monitors use. Moreover, not being directly plugged in, it requires fewer components, something which lowers its price, making it more affordable for the entire population.

It is still uncertain when the product will hit the stores or how much it will cost. However, the USB 3.0 is firstly expected to be installed in all new computers.

From what can be seen, most of the operating systems nowadays come with some sort of basic file manager that displays your files as a big colorful salad of icons immune to configuration attempts, usually organized in 2 panes - the tree view and the folder content view, plus any combination of address buttons/bars/tools/etc. That isn’t exactly a bad thing, but just how useful is it really?

From what I could tell, the common user doesn’t really spend that much effort organizing the content of files on his/her drive storage, except for the basic every day needs. Sooner or later an automated cleanup can be made to clear the junk, and some other software works with the files opening them, saving them, indexing them. But what if you just come to need to really work with your files, for instance getting the detailed insight on where is everything, searching by advanced criteria, complicated selections, multiple renaming, working with archives, configuration files and so forth. If that is the case, working with the integrated file manager will most probably throw in a frustrating time wasting clicking frenzy, trying to sort them all out.

Some of you that got used to the “old days” - when pretty much everything was living in ms-dos or other console systems where any graphics were a real event - may remember just how practical and popular the “twin panel” file managers were. You had a basic visual display of your files, all the options at your finger tips, and pretty much no need for a mouse. The prototype of the so-called “orthodox” dual-pane file managing system was none other than the notorious Norton Commander, software that pretty much inspired a whole variety of other managers out there, such as the Midnight Commander for linux, and the Dos Navigator.

Norton Commander

Long story short, what do we do today?

If your wrists are broken from all that mouse clicking and your eyes tired and unable to see the “forest” from the directory “trees” any longer, we strongly suggest you start looking through a set of goodies to make your life easier.

Any huge set of user opinions and votes out there can tell you what the top pick of file management system would be at the moment.

The modern-day proud successor of the Norton Commander genome, calls itself Total Commander.

Total Commander

This ingenuous piece of programming pretty much does it all, including the kitchen sink. You have an infinite set of configuration options via menus or direct editing of the configuration files, you have the big variety of hotkeys for anything, in the same inherited style (F5 - Copy, F6 - Rename/Move, etc). You have a wide array of plugins available for packing, viewing, undelete, extfs access, viewers and so forth, ftp client, local network browsing, file operation queue, portable configuration options, file encoding, checksum calculation, and so on and so forth - everything one could ever need. All of this in packed a tiny package, fast uncluttered interface and simply a clean and functional construction.

I know this software for many years, and I know a great deal of people using it, as well as the reviews and polls from the net. I can’t remember ever hearing someone say “Commander blows, I’d rather have something else”.

The Only downside to this program is that it’s not freeware.

So then what?

Well, there are some free alternatives out there you could also use in a corporate environment. Wikipedia and the web offers comparison and extended lists, and the best way to find the right choice is to actually try them yourself. I’m just here to narrow it down a little, and highlight a few top picks.

My first choice would be a little something called “Unreal Commander“. I’ve been watching this one for some time, and I do believe it’s growing into a nice piece of software, closing in the total commander functionality plus some extras. I will stick to the essentials since software reviews are available but the choice here is made by actually working and getting the feel of the program in order to decide.

Unreal Commander

Unreal Commander (UC) has pretty much the same standard function keys Total Commander (TC) does, also supports common packer and lister plugins (wcx, vlx). The overall interface feel may seem a bit sluggish on xp but you may try to turn off unnecessary transparencies and effects from the configuration menu and you won’t have that much issue there. However, file operations such as copy/move seem to be snappier than with TC, especially since TC was slower with lots of small files than xp’s native copy system. UC also has ftp, LAN browser, the works, and get this - symlink creation.

Unreal Commander offers automatic free licensing system both for corporate and personal use.

If for some reason you disagree with Unreal Commander (perhaps because it only runs on Windows OS), then you might try something like muCommander - a simple and effective choice that runs on basically anything with java. muCommander is not over-featured, but it is GPL Free, lightweight and gets the job done. “mu” supports virtual file systems such as ftp, archive management and so forth, coming even with a nice personal command console with easy copy/paste interface instead of opening some dos-like consoles out there such as the one Windows uses.

muCommander

Another java-based multi-platform manager goes by the name “Advanced Explorer“, holding simple functions, image viewer and so forth, together with “Double Commander” which is also a nice usable file manager in that manner.

Double Commander

The world of Linux users also has a twin-panel manager named Krusader (for KDE), making it a nice addition to the system.

Free Commander

The long list also contains names such as Free Commander, Q-Dir which brings a very interesting approach to file management with its multi-panel views and tiny program package, Gekko Manager, and last but certainly not least, NexusFile, bringing a dark stylish approach to your file views.

Q-Dir

Nexus is actually very comfortable, snappy and shows a lot of promise besides its good looks, decent set of functions and such. However, the first reflex is to dive in it using the standard Commander-like keys, but that only brings you to a hard impact with a totally different key layout as you can see little from the image. If you have the patience to reconfigure it to fit your needs, it can be done from the configuration file.. but it can be overkill. Nevertheless, I liked the feeling of the program overall.

NexusFile

The question remains: What do You choose? Feel free to comment !

The best part is that the public can interact with the mini sun. “Using an iPhone, iPod touch or iPad, people may disturb the animations in real-time and select different fluid dynamic visualizations,” writes Lozano-Hemmer. The app for doing so can be downloaded here: http://itunes.apple.com/app/solar-equation/id375165357?mt=8# and the devices can also be borrowed at “Il Pomodoro”. The animations, solar flares and spots, are displayed using the projectors and they are simulations of the real sun’s turbulences, recorded by NASA observatories. These visual effects are accompanied by sounds, loops of “rumbles, crackles and bursts”, also simulations of the real sun.

Being changed by the wind, Lozano and his team developed a 3-D tracking system to monitor the sun’s position 30 times per second. The information is send instantly to the projectors in order to correctly display new animations, correct the ones already on the sun, and prevent them from being shown on buildings.

The festival started on June, 4th and will last until July, 4th, so hurry if you want to play with the artificial sun by using one of your iProducts. For more details on how to control it, visit http://www.fedsquare.com/index.cfm?pageID=469 .

Here are other details:
Design
Dimensions
• Size: 113.5 x 59 x 12.9 mm
• Weight (with battery): 135 g
• Volume: 86 cc
Display and user interface
• Screen size: 3.5″
• Resolution: 16:9 nHD (640 x 360 pixels) OLED
• 16.7 million colours
• Capacitive touch screen
• Orientation sensor (Accelerometer)
• Compass (Magnetometer)
• Proximity sensor
• Ambient light detector
Keys and input methods
• Physical keys (Menu key, Power key, Lock key, volume keys, Camera key)
• Finger touch support for text input and UI control
• On-screen alphanumeric keypad and full keyboard
• Dedicated camera and volume keys
• Possibility to use capacitive stylus
• Handwriting recognition for Chinese
Colours
• Anodized aluminium casing, available in:
o Silver white
o Dark grey
o Orange
o Blue
o Green
• Colour availability varies by country
Personalisation
• Up to three customisable home screens:
o Widgets
o Themes
o Shortcuts
o Icons
o Menu
• Customisable profiles
• Ring tones: mp3, AAC, eAAC, eAAC+, WMA, AMR-NB, AMR-WB
• Video ring tones
• Themes
o wallpapers
o screensavers
o audio themes
o pre-installed themes
o changeable colour themes
Hardware
Power Management
• BL-4D 1200 mAh Li-Ion battery
• Talk-time (maximum):
o GSM 720 mins
o WCDMA 350 mins
• Standby time (maximum):
o GSM 390 h
o WCDMA 400 h
• Video playback time (H.264 720p, 30 fps, maximum): 6 h (via HDMI to TV)
• Video recording time (H.264 720p, 25 fps, maximum): 3 h 20 mins
• Video call time (maximum): 160 mins
• Internal memory: 16 GB music playback time (offline mode, maximum): 50 h
Memory
• Internal memory: 16 GB
• MicroSD memory card slot, hot swappable, up to 32 GB
Operating Frequency
• GSM/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900
• WCDMA 850/900/1700/1900/2100
• Automatic switching between WCDMA & GSM bands
• Flight mode
Data Network
• GPRS/EDGE class B, multislot class 33
• HSDPA Cat9, maximum speed up to 10.2 Mbps, HSUPA Cat5 2.0 Mbps
• WLAN IEEE802.11 b/g/n
• TCP/IP support
• Capability to serve as data modem
• Support for MS Outlook synchronisation of contacts, calendar and notes
Connectivity
• Bluetooth 3.0
• HDMI
• 2mm Charging connector
• Micro USB connector and charging
• High-Speed USB 2.0 (micro USB connector)
o USB On-the-Go
• 3.5 mm AV connector
o FM Radio
o FM Transmitter
Software & applications
Software platform & user interface
• Symbian ^3 for Nokia
• Java MIDP 2.1
• Qt 4.6.2, Web Runtime 7.2
o HTML 4.1
• Software updates Over the Air (FOTA) & Over the internet (FOTI)
• Flash Lite 4.0
• OMA DM 1.2, OMA Client provisioning 1.1
Applications
• Key applications: Calendar, Contacts, music player, internet, messaging, photos, Ovi Store, Maps, Videos, WebTV, Office document editors, Video & photo editor, Mail, Chat, Radio
• PC Applications: Nokia Ovi Suite, Nokia Ovi Player
Personal Information Management (PIM)
• Detailed contact information
• Calendar
• To-do list
• Notes
• Recorder
• Calculator
• Clock
Communications
Email and messaging
• Easy-to-use email client with attachment support for images, videos, music and documents .doc, .xls, .ppt, .pdf, .zip
• HTML support for email
• Unified email client for multiple protocols: Yahoo!® Mail, Gmail™, Windows Live™, Hotmail and other popular POP/IMAP services, Mail for Exchange, IBM Lotus traveler
• Editing of key office documents
• Email web widget for home screen
• Chat instant messaging support: OVI Chat, Yahoo, AIM, Windows Live, Gtalk, MySpace*
• Unified MMS/SMS editor
• Conversational view for SMS
• Push email and expanded portal support available through Nokia Messaging for Email and Instant Messaging
Call management
• Contacts: advanced contacts database with support for multiple phone and e-mail details per entry with personal thumbnail pictures and video clips
• Smart dialling to find phone numbers quickly
• Speed dialling, voice dialling (speaker independent) and voice commands
• Logs of dialled, received and missed calls
• Conference calling
• Integrated hands-free speaker
• Video calling
Sharing & Internet
Browsing and internet
• Full web browsing of real web pages
• Web browsing with touch control
• Supported markup languages: HTML, XHTML MP, WML, CSS
• Supported protocols: HTTP v1.1, WAP
• TCP/IP support
• Visual history, HTML and JavaScript support
• Flash Lite 4 will support a majority of Flash Player 10.1 content
• Nokia Mobile Search
• RSS reader
• Support for streaming video
• Unified home screen access to Facebook and Twitter through Ovi by Nokia Social client
• Social networking profiles visible in phone contacts
• Upload and view photos and video and see locations via Ovi by Nokia Social client
Social networking events visible in phone calendar
Navigation
GPS and navigation
• Integrated GPS, A-GPS receivers
• Ovi Maps with free car & pedestrian navigation
• Wi-Fi Positioning
• Compass and accelerometer for correct orientation of display
• Nokia Ovi Suite to transfer/upload maps to the device memory for free
Photography
Camera
• 12 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics
• Fullscreen 16:9 viewfinder with easy-to-use touchscreen parameters
• Xenon flash
• Face recognition software
• Autofocus
• Focal length: 5.9 mm
• F number/Aperture: F2.8
• Still images file format: JPEG/EXIF
• Zoom up to 2x (digital) for still images
• Zoom up to 3x (digital) for video
• Secondary camera for video calls (VGA, 640 x 480 pixels)
Image capture
• Automatic location tagging (Geotagging) of images and videos
• Images automatically taken in the correct orientation
• Pinch zoom in Photos image viewer
• View photos by tag cloud, month, album, slide show
• Photo editor
• Online Share with connectivity to popular sharing services
Other
• Internal memory: 16 GB
• MicroSD memory card slot, hot swappable, up to 32GB
• High-Speed microUSB to PC connectivity
Video
Video cameras
• Main camera
o 12 megapixel with Carl Zeiss optics
o HD quality 720p resolution
o Shoot 16:9 videos in HD
• Video capture in 720p 25 fps with codecs H.264, MPEG-4
• Settings for scene, video light, white balance, colour tone
• Secondary camera VGA for video calls
Video codecs & formats
• H.264 (base profile, main profile, high profile), MPEG-4, VC-1, Sorenson Spark, Real video 10
• Streaming: H.264, Flash Lite 4 (Flash 10 compatibility for video), On2 VP6, Sorenson Spark
Video sharing and playback
• HD 720p Video playback on HD TV through HDMI cable
• *Dolby Digital Plus surround sound when played with HDMI & a home theatre
• Support for download, streaming, and progressive download
• Video editing software
• Videos application: collection of stored videos
• On demand WebTV widgets to watch local & global internet streaming TV
• Support for Flash video
• YouTube browsing and streaming
• Video call support (WCDMA network services)
Music & audio
Music features
• Flick scroll to browse the albums in your music collection
• Comes with Music service on selected markets
• Nokia Music Player
• Ovi Music store
• MP3, WMA, AAC, eAAC, eAAC+, AMR-NB, AMR-WB, E-AC-3, AC-3
• Bit rate up tp 320 kbps
• DRM support WM DRM, OMA DRM 2.0
• FM transmitter
Radio
• Stereo FM radio (87.5-108 MHz/76-90 MHz)
Gaming
Gaming
• Use the touch UI to play games
• Dedicated graphics processor with OpenGL 2.0 enables 3D graphics
• Java games
• Use the accelerometer to play games
Environmental features
Energy efficiency
• Power Save mode, ambient light sensor, unplug charger reminder, Nokia Compact Travel Charger AC-15
Materials
• Free of PVC, free of nickel on the product surface, free of brominated & chlorinated compounds and free of antimony trioxide as defined in Nokia Substance List
Packaging
• Made of renewable, 100 % recyclable
Eco content and services
• Available at Ovi, maps for route optimization and pedestrian navigation
Recycling
• All materials of the device can be recovered as materials and energy
User guide
• Interactive user help in device and online, only Quick Guide in the box, eco tips on Green Page
Package contents
Standard Sales Package
• Nokia N8 mobile computer
• Nokia Battery BL-4D
• Nokia Connectivity Cable CA-179
• Nokia Stereo Headset WH-701
• Nokia Compact Travel Charger AC-15
• Nokia Adapter Cable for HDMI CA-156
• Nokia Adapter Cable for USB OTG CA-157
• Nokia Stylus SU-36 (selected markets only)
• Quick start guide
Accessories
Recommended accessories
• Nokia Bluetooth Stereo Headset BH-905
• Nokia Stylus SU-36
• Nokia Bluetooth Headset BH-608
• Nokia Bluetooth Stereo Headset BH-505
• Nokia Extra Power DC-11
• Nokia Mini Speaker MD-9

According to the designers, Soluto’s goal is to end the frustrations that PC users come across daily. The novelty of the product is something related to the cloud computing technology we recently started seeing implemented in anti-virus software such as Prevx and Panda Cloud Antivirus.

Soluto named its “cloud” the “PC Genome“, an online database linked to the user client, containing information on various software, as to weather it is best to be run, disabled, what conflicts may it generate with other programs, user behavior statistics regarding and so forth. Currently, this database is in construction by uploading anonymous data, as Soluto is tested by each user.

For the time being, Soluto is being centered on the boot process. In time, as the central knowledge base grows, the software is to be developed in such a way as to help users bring an end to as many as their computer-related issues as possible. The PC Genome data will be freely available for online study, also enabling the user to have an insight on the software he/she is using regarding the impact on system resources, conflicts, compatibility and any other causes for PC frustration. This database will also help users decide what software is best for use towards a certain goal.

Soluto Installer

The Soluto installer is a small 871k download, and the installation should go painlessly with one click on its behalf. However, the most substantial part of the installation is the .NET Framework 3.5 setup, automatically downloading and installing around 50 MB of data, added to around 7 Megs for Soluto itself. Common knowledge is that this version of the Framework will not always install as planned, in our case causing the Soluto installer to fall into a retry-fail cycle. The cause is usually in the already installed versions of the .NET framework. Good news is, Soluto leaves the .NET configuration intact at uninstall, and if you wish to reinstall the software again, it will install itself quickly, applying a check mark on the already installed .NET section and moving on.

In case the .NET framework fails to install, you might want to try uninstalling every .NET version you have, using either the Add/Remove programs applet from the Control Panel, or even better - using the .NET Framework Cleanup Tool available on msdn blogs (selecting All Versions and clicking restart when asked).

Soluto booting page fold

Now that that’s out of the way, the installation should run flawlessly, finishing with a screen asking to reboot now or postpone for later. After the reboot (which has a barely noticeable delay than the previous state before the program installed), a bottom left screen folding effect in the corner shows the processes still loading. Afterwards, the program identifies the findings using the “PC Genome” servers.

PC Genome uplink

When completed, Soluto shows the startup report, with names and load times, highlighting safely removable startup programs in green, potentially removable ones in orange (for advanced users to tamper with), and required - the system vitals in gray.

Soluto results

On mouse hover each program shows some details and actions that can be performed (such as Pause or Delay at startup), and more details on click. Using the PC Genome servers, a statistical pie chart shows what other users did with that respective process. You click your options and get on your way, plain and simple.

Soluto pie chart

Overall the interface is indeed plain and simple, clean and non-bloated. You get to have the above mentioned displays plus the tray icon, showing the necessary items. There you can open Soluto’s main interface, enable constant Live Boot Progress and “Ongoing Frustration Research“. Therefore, when clicking “My PC just frustrated me“, the program should send the currently running software problems to the servers for analysis, and contribute to the statistical frustration data for research.

However, the clean and simple interface keeled down this P4 in all its 3GHz hyper-threaded glory running Windows XP on 1Gig Ram, close to a full stop; I’ve even reported it in the program’s feedback section.

My guess is they haven’t optimized the interface for the XP GDI+ graphical system, but working fine only on the hardware accelerated WDDM driver system on Vista/Seven. Either this will be remedied in the final version, or the system requirements will not include XP anymore (which is downright stupid even from a marketing point of view). Frankly, this frustrated me more than many programs, as not even the latest Adobe Software for instance has managed to disrupt the CPU that much that even the mouse cursor movements started getting blackouts. Well.. at least nothing crashed..

So Do Not forget - it is a teenage Beta version! (researching even its Own frustrations).

That being said, Soluto shows a very promising approach for an integrated diagnostic solution, a tool permanently linked to the “brain” servers providing precious solutions to be applied instantly. Even for the advanced user, diagnosing problems with Microsoft operating systems does cause serious headaches every day. The average user just gives up and re-installs everything from scratch every few months or so, which is also a very frustrating solution.

In my opinion, this should be one of the main integrated jobs of the operating system. An Operating System should provide a secure, stable and user-friendly environment between user<->application<->hardware interactions.

Therefore, the Operating System should have an integrated self managed security system for prevention, detection and repair of any risk; a self managed maintenance system that prevents, diagnoses and repairs operating conflicts and risks and performs periodical operating system and file system optimization tasks; and of course detailed logs of Everything centralized in one place helping advanced diagnostic to be performed by system administrators and advanced users. These are aspects that are bearly present at best in the widespread Windows operating system.

Currently, the best performers to do these jobs for the operating and file system are pretty much the software we throw at it and program ourselves - defragmenters, optimizers, tweakers, cleaners and whatever it is we choose, while the operating system is busy with things such as “sending error reports”, informing when unknown errors occur, installing solitaire, and indexing files and folders nobody looks for.

Soluto is another potential embodiment of the popular wish to make an independent, organic piece of software capable of automatically performing its tasks in the most intelligent manner possible, instead of letting the user trying to patch everything up with his hammer, nuts and bolts. And to do these “tricks” in favor of the operating system and its users is indeed a noble cause. I am curious if it will do shutdown diagnostics as well (for faster, cleaner shutdown), as i don’t recall any program doing specifically that.

What exactly to expect from iPhones in the future? Not all of the following are yet confirmed or will be available for this year’s release, but the future is very promising, and such phones are expected to become better and better, maybe until there is nothing more to be improved.

Firstly, the 1.5 Ghz processor and the 4.0 operating system are set to be released later this year and will bring important improvements for the smartphone. The dual-core processor, developed by Snapdragon, is made exclusively for mobiles and will be capable of decoding 1080p. The 4.0 version OS is another important update, having over 100 new features. It will be compatible with several of the current apple devices, but not all of them will support the entire range of features it will bring.

Secondly, the iPhone will include 4G (4th generation of mobiles) standards, which means it will have all the features up to 3G, but it will also include Flash-OFDM and iBurst, enhancing the device’s capabilities when used as a phone. All these help with the LTE capability of the mobile network, increasing its speed, capacity and reliability of data transfer.

Lastly, even if it might not sound viable, the iPhones might become solar-powered by using solar cells incorporated in the case to recharge a lithium-ion polymer battery. A two hours sun recharged iPhone should last about one hour in 2G mode, enough to tell everybody you know that you have a low battery. However, it might take a while before costumers can buy solar rechargeable iPhones. Apple has already applied for the patent for the phone, but is not yet known when they will finish making the improvement.

Even if not all these things will be implemented in the latest iPhone, there is a high chance you will live to experience them.

This year (finally), after 8 years of wait, the second game is announced to be published in summer. The plot in Mafia II takes place during 1945-1955, and your character is offered 16 square kilometers to complete missions and earn respect.

The first thing to notice in the game is the design. Everything, from buildings and cars to clothing and the way the characters look, is meant to take you back to that decade. The designers have worked to the finest detail to make sure nothing is out of place.

The main character, Vito Scaletta, wants to escape poverty and winds up joining the world of gangsters. He will have to complete missions, settle accounts, deal drugs and run away from the police.

Further predictions can be made by making a comparison with the latest version of the game. First of all, the missions given will be indeed hard, you will encounter difficulties and some of them might even have traps or they might backfire. Furthermore, the predictions for how the game ends are not so bright either, considering that in the previous one the main character dies at the end. But, isn’t that what makes it more realistic? Even the creators of the game said that the it has a somewhat moralizing touch to it.

Are these predictions correct, or not? You will just have to play and see.

The tablet’s release date has been set shortly before Apple’s launch of the iPhone 4G. The price was not announced at this time, but it will most likely cost as the latest generation smartphones, not as tablets such as the iPad.