The Raspberry Pi is a $25/$35 ARM-based system board that is a complete personal computer.  It is powered by the same CPU (ARM) used in tablets, smartphones and other mobile devices these days.  The ARM architecture offers very good performance and battery life at low price-point.

This is truly a remarkable computer.  The low price will allow this computer to be attainable for just about anybody.  But because this computer is really affordable doesn’t mean that this computer is only just intended for those people who can’t afford a more powerful computer – anybody could want this computer.  There are just about a million uses.  How about a media center for your TV?  A robotics controller?  Learning how to program computers?  Home automation?

If you think that the computer might be limited by its specifications, then you certainly have not tried GNU/Linux before.  It will run like a beast on this board (especially lightweight desktop environments like Xfce/LXDE).  You will be able to play 3d games on this machine, play back HD videos, and create animations using the GPU built into the board.  XBMC (a good media center application) has been tested and proven to work excellently on the board, meaning that you could use this tiny little thing as a whole media playback platform for your television (similar devices cost more than 100 dollars and do not nearly have the amount of functionality one of these computers have).  With MythTV set up in a client/server configuration with this device acting as the remote thin client hooked up to the tv with a TV server and DVR unit located everywhere, you could access your recorded TV shows from anywhere in the house.

One of the big things driving the team who prototyped, designed and developed the device was to recreate with the release of the device the sort of hacker/hobbyist culture that surrounded computers like the Apple II and Commodore back in the 70s/80s and even the early 90s.  These cultures were what got them into computers when they were children themselves, but they are finding that in this day and age of easily available internet and graphical user interfaces we are losing a bit of the magic of actually coding for a computer yourself.  Thus, these computers are likely to be used heavily in schools with programming courses, especially seeing as every single student could have their own, because of the price-point.  Programming really isn’t that hard once you get started.  Perhaps this machine will the be the catalyst for a new generation of programmers and tweakers to get into the field.

The lack of a case and keyboard/mouse/screen has been criticized by many people, but many people already have these things lying around, and if someone doesn’t have an actual computer monitor, then likely the standard definition RGB tv output will allow anybody to use the device (most people have at least a crt tv).  If anything, I like the fact that this device doesn’t come loaded down with all sorts of unnecessary things, bringing the price up, and increasing the likelihood that someone will dislike something included with the package.  It is a very DIY style kit, and by keeping it bare-bones, people will be able to create all sorts of great electronics using this system as a base.  You could even create your own tablet, for example, using a touch screen hooked up to the HDMI port and USB port, and load up android onto your Raspberry Pi (android is compiled for the ARM architecture, so it will run great).

I just can’t wait till everybody who is dying to get their hands on this device can (the launch was a bit underprepared for the demand, I believe).  When everybody’s got one of these, then the ideas for uses will pile up, and people will be coming up with new DIY projects all the time.  The Open Source revolution has begun, and what a better way to start it – cheap hardware that is immensely capable and powerful open source software.

As the Windows 8 beta draws close, I took some time yesterday and downloaded the 64 bit Windows 8 Developer Preview from Microsoft.  As far as a developer preview, the operating system seemed relatively stable and boot time was if anything, faster than Windows 7.  I also really like the new Bootloader to select OSes (it has mouse support, and is full resolution).

Now onto the OS itself.  Keep in mind that I was trying the OS on a computer without a touch screen or a multitouch trackpad When you first log onto the OS, the new lock screen with the time and date with the nice image background is very tasteful.  The problem is, if you’re a new user, where will you click to login?  To get to the login screen you have to Double Click on the lock screen which does a little sort of a multitouch animation that makes it look like you pulled the login screen up by dragging the lock screen away.  It is really clumsy when you are using it on a computer without a touch screen, but it would probably look good if you had one.  I think Microsoft needs to have a setting when installing the OS that lets you tell the OS whether you have a touch screen or not, so that the OS can optimize the experience to either desktop or tablet use.

Right now, the compromise is not great for either party.  This is something that I am really concerned about.  They have done away with the powerful start menu and replaced it with a touch screen interface, the new Metro that you have probably heard about, and possibly used (it is featured in Windows Phone 7 right now).

Dialogue boxes have been replaced by little notification bars that pop up from the bottom (sort of how like internet explorer now has notification bars rather than dialogue boxes too).

Overall, I am not really fond of the new UI, but I am interested to see what changes in the upcoming Beta.

I just noticed today that Grooveshark, one of my three favorite music websites, the others being The Hype Machine and Last.FM, rolled out a new survey platform allowing their users to earn points towards getting a free Plus / VIP account (which is ad-less, and allows for many new cool features like Last.FM scrobbling and a Grooveshark Desktop Application built on Adobe Air, and exclusive preview of other new beta features).

The only survey that appeared to be available was called a Profile survey worth 150 points and I completed it.  Hopefully more will be available soon as I’m looking forward to my free Plus account!  The site states they email you when new surveys are available.

Just create or log into your Grooveshark account and under the Account button on the top right click on Surveys.  Enjoy!

This is something I’d wondered about for quite a while, and wasn’t able to do until now!

With Windows 7 there are a number of changes to how folders work.  You are now able to make ‘symbolic’ folder links among other cool things.

This allows you to congregate files from multiple locations and have windows recognize them as actually being in a location different than the one they are actually in (for example if you have a split archive with different parts on different hard drives you’d be able to make a “symbolic folder” to view them as if they were all on the same hard drive).

1. You’ll need a tool called Link Shell Extension.  This will add shell context menus to your right click context menus in Windows Explorer (giving you an option to make Symbolic Links and folders etc).   While this feature is new in windows 7 it is kind of buried and you would normally need to use the command line to utilize it.  Link Shell Extension provides a graphical front end to make this tool more useable in everyday situations.
2. Second of all, you will need to create a target folder to “paste” your symbolic links into, so Windows will be “tricked” into thinking that your files are actually there.  I guess that’s the best way of explaining it.
3. After creating your target folder wherever, navigate back to where your file is actually stored, and then right click and select Pick Link Source.
4. Navigate to your target folder and select Drop As and then select Junction (this was in instructions for linking folders; for your files you may need to try other options).
5. In your target folder you will see your file again with a little overlay icon. 
   
6. Repeat for all other parts of your archive.

Thanks to unifex from SevenForums.com for providing me with this knowledge!

Understanding your target market is a very important thing if you are trying to promote, or even just create a movie. The target market of The Pirates of the Carribean is a younger viewer, because it is generally appropriate for all ages and because the marketing and the sense of adventure conveyed in the marketing is in my opinion, directed to appeal to kids.

The movie captures a light-hearted comedic feel which pretty much appeals to everyone but it also has its fair share of action sequences which will keep older kids and young adults entertained.

Some people who will be looking for more of an intense and serious type of film that would probably be more violent will be disappointed, but this is generally not the target market of Disney, who are looking to create family-oriented films that appeal to people of all ages.

Pirates of the Caribbean also has several “spin-off” type products and lots of branded merchandise that will keep people wanting more of the franchise.  I know that if I saw a t-shirt or a video game relating to Pirates of the Caribbean in a store I’d be more likely to buy those than something else I hadn’t heard of before because I already know something to do with Pirates of the Caribbean is going to be cool because I know the backstory.

There is even a Pirates of the Caribbean theme park ride based on the movie (well actually, the movie was based on the ride, because the ride came first).  Every time a fan of the series is willing to buy one of these related products or visit an attraction based on the movie it strengthens and affirms a movie-goer’s likelihood to go see another movie in the series, if and when it comes out.

All of these promotional marketing efforts and related products based on the movie contribute to the stigma that surrounds Pirates of the Caribbean and keeps people coming back for more (and kids bugging their parents to see the latest film).

If you get an error on Gmail while attemping to make a free call to an actual phone, that says this:

Call failed due to an error [Code: 3 Remote: true]

That error code (as far as I know), means that the person you are calling is on the phone already, or that Gmail is getting a busy signal while trying to call your buddy!

One of our readers (Wave Cool00) just commented that this error can also happen when trying to chat (audio or video) from the same PC but from different Gmail accounts.  Thanks for the feedback!

If you have something to say to the contrary, let me know in the comments section!

Having trouble booting into windows with hal.dll errors and the like?  Here’s how to get rid of your problems.  Make sure you back up before you do it.

Things you need

• Your Windows XP CD
• About an hour of free time
• Computer with Boot problems

Read Here

We got a wierd letter in the mail from, of all places, Tanzania!

I opened it up to find a typical hilarious scam email.  It’s one thing to recieve spam in your email inbox, but it’s another thing to recieve it in the actual physical snail mail!

And it’s complete with the usual typos and everything (*facepalm*).  You’d expect if they were paying all the money for this postage they’d work on their sales pitch at least a little!

Let’s hope some gullible person doesn’t fall for this crap!

When I first got my HP Pavilion DV6753ca computer, it had Vista installed on it!  This was back in 2008.

I felt like downgrading to XP, because I liked the experience on XP better, and one of my favorite applications wouldn’t run on Vista, but would only work on XP.  So I downgraded, but I soon realized that HP, the manufacturer, didn’t really provide any XP drivers for this laptop!  I was really thrown for a loop!

After HOURS and HOURS of endless searching, I’ve managed to compile an almost complete list of all the drivers you need, and I’ve included downloads also, so you can get them all of this one page!  BOOKMARK IT!  Some of these drivers are out of date, like the nVidia drivers, but they work just fine, and I don’t think there are any newer version available for XP, so if you really want XP you’ll have to put up with that.

Otherwise, you could go with Windows 7 .  What’s handy about installing Windows 7 on this particular laptop is that you don’t have to really manually install any drivers at all!  Once you’ve installed windows, it automatically installs all the drivers for you, including your video drivers!

The DRIVERS:

nVidia Graphics Driver

SM56 Modem Driver

Realtek HD Audio Driver

Realtek PCI-E Ethernet Driver

Intel Chipset Driver

Lightscribe Driver

Synaptics Touchpad Driver

Intel® Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN

I hope that all of your driver installations run smoothly!  Please comment here if this works for you, or comment if you have a problem.

Thanks!

After much searching, this is a plugin that works with MSN Messenger or Windows Live Messenger, but also works with the latest version of Foobar2000 (v1.1 at the time of writing)!  None of the other plugins I tested would work because they were out of date.

Enjoy!  Let me know it works for you!

http://wiki.hydrogenaudio.org/index.php?title=Foobar2000:Components_0.9/WLM_Notifier_%28foo_wlm%29