For those that don’t work in corporate environments, you may be wondering why business has chose to stick to XP/2000 for so long. The answer is a relatively simple one – XP simply worked. An XP or 2000 box with MS Office connected to Exchange is an easy setup.

Windows 7 has proven to be a reliable and stable operating system, and done so in a way that gives IT admins enough confidence to use it.

What does this mean if you’re using XP at home now?

Corporations buy more PCs than anybody else and typically dictate what ends up in the computer marketplace.

XP at this point is hanging on, but it isn’t going to be long before Big Corporate gives XP the old heave-ho. As said above, the end of 2010 is projected to have 50% of business using Windows 7. By the end of 2011 it may be 75% or even higher.

When that occurs, you’ll see less support for the XP OS on store shelves for new products. Both hardware and software designed for Windows will be “Vista and up” compatible only.

What you can do to prepare for the future is one or more of the following:

1. Start stockpiling hardware if you plan on sticking with XP for a few more years. For example, if you have a favorite mouse or keyboard, consider purchasing another as a backup.
2. Upgrade to Windows 7. Not exactly the easiest thing in the world to do because the upgrade really isn’t an upgrade (it’s an OS replacement), but it’s an option.
3. Switch to Linux. Also not exactly the easiest thing in the world because Linux does things differently than Windows does. However, if you want something to look forward to, Ubuntu 10 will be released next month.

And yes, I’ll be downloading Ubuntu 10.04 LTS to try it out. It will be the best Ubuntu yet. Of that I’m sure of. Watch for my write-up here on it.

What about you?

Sticking with XP? Using Windows 7? Going with Linux? Using all of them?

Post from: PCMech. Helping Normal People Get Their Geek On And Live The Digital Lifestyle.

Windows XP Finally Losing Its Grip

However, we still have some stuff left to get rid of – almost all of it being our two Ubuntu training DVDs.

The terms of this sale are as follows:

• All shipping costs are normal and will be billed as they have always been billed.
• All sales are final.
• Due to the increased sales volume that is expected as we clear the inventory, my assistant might have to work herself to the bone to ship all these items. So, your patience will be needed as shipping might not exactly be instantaneous.

So, help us get rid of this stuff. If you’ve ever wanted to figure out how to do stuff with Ubuntu Linux, this is a good opportunity for you. We will never again offer this training on DVD.

If you want to get in on this, don’t waste time. We obviously have very little inventory left. Tomorrow, I’ll be announcing this to the PCMech mailing list, which is surely going to put an end to this offer because of the demand. So, if you want to beat the rush, act now.

Post from: PCMech. Helping Normal People Get Their Geek On And Live The Digital Lifestyle.

Ubuntu DVDs On Clearance From PCMech

Quick installation notes:

• This IE does not replace your current IE.
• You can run IE8 and IE9 side by side.
• A reboot is not required after installing.

This is what it looks like when you’re running the IE9 platform preview:

You can test out whatever you like from here. And yes, you can load any web page you want by clicking Page then Open from the toolbar at top left. When you want to jump back to the main preview page as seen above, click Page then Home or just tap F10.

Flash does work if you’re testing pages with Flash in them.

For you web designers out there, you’ll appreciate the debug menu because you can force IE5, IE7, IE8 or IE9 mode. This will come in very handy if you’re testing out things such as WordPress theme compatibility.

What will make IE9 better than IE8?

From a normal (meaning non-developer) web user perspective, the big deal here is HTML5. This is the the first major revision to HTML in seemingly forever, and it’s long overdue. While it’s true IE9 will have a whole host of other features besides HTML5 compliance, all modern web browsers are going in this direction. Opera and Firefox are already there, and now it’s IE’s turn.

If you’re developing for the web, you should download the preview to examine the platform. Or if you’re just curious to see if certain web sites (particularly shopping and business sites) will work in IE9, you can see for yourself right now how they’ll look without messing up your existing IE.

Post from: PCMech. Helping Normal People Get Their Geek On And Live The Digital Lifestyle.

Internet Explorer 9 Platform Preview

Here you can download and convert videos from the following sites: youtube.com, dailymotion.com, vimeo.com, twitvid.com, wat.tv, veoh.com, vids.myspace.com, video.google.com, blip.tv, break.com, kontraband.com, facebook.com, livevideo.com (liveshows not supported), metacafe.com, liveleak.com, stagevu.com.

From Bender Converter, you can download videos directly to a variety of formats such as MP3, FLV, AVI, WAV and lots more. Usage is simple, just select your desired format, enter the source URL and run the converter. Once the conversion is completed, you are presented a download link to save the output file to your computer. It doesn’t get any easier than that.

The best part is there is no software to download or registration required. Just visit the site and go.

Post from: PCMech. Helping Normal People Get Their Geek On And Live The Digital Lifestyle.

Easily Convert And Download Online Videos

I am curious, however, what our readers think. Do you give benchmark results consideration when making a decision to purchase a CPU, graphics card, memory, etc.?

My purchasing decision is usually based on availability (I look for used parts/systems first), but when I do need to buy new (mission critical systems) I look for value. I tend to lean more towards what will give me the life I need at a competitive cost and benchmarks never enter the equation.

Of course, different strokes for different folks, so do benchmarks get any consideration from you?

Post from: PCMech. Helping Normal People Get Their Geek On And Live The Digital Lifestyle.

Do You Give Benchmark Scores Consideration?

The first question that raises an eyebrow for most people when they hear of this is, “Wait a second.. a refurb?” Yes, refurb. The replacement unit you get most likely won’t be a new one. Remember that Apple is certainly not the only company that does this, even for traditional units with a removable battery.

(Incidentally, this is why I urge people not to bother buying new in the first place when it comes to electronic gadgets like this. If the refurb has the same warranty period as new, looks like new, works like new, and you’re going to be receiving a replacement refurb under warranty if it busts anyway, what’s the point of buying new? This is a disposable electronic gadget and not a collector’s item, after all. But I digress.)

I’m personally not against sealed-battery gadgets. But once the unit’s battery is dead and out of the warranty period, you’re forced to tether it, cough up a sizable amount of cash to repair it, or throw it out.

Tethering it: With a dead battery you’re required to power it from somewhere, be it your car’s cigarette lighter, USB or “wall wart” power adapter from in the home.

Coughing up cash to fix it: With the iPad there’s no repair policy. It’s replace-only, so this isn’t even an option.

Throw it out: I said before that the iPad is the most expensive disposable electronic gadget there is. The iPad a $500 throwaway device.

Are sealed battery units nothing but a bunch of money pits in the making?

This greatly depends on what type of device it is.

Smartphones that have sealed batteries are actually OK given the fact most people who use them get a new phone every two to three years. During this entire span of time your phone is under warranty and can be replaced free of charge if it busts, so no harm, no foul. In addition, you get a fat discount for a new phone each time you re-up your wireless plan, and in many instances the new phone is free.

Almost all PNDs (personal navigation devices), i.e. GPSes, have sealed batteries.  If the battery dies in one of those, you’re fine because you can still tether it to the cigarette lighter for power and the unit is still usable.

As for Apple’s iPad.. is it a money pit? More on that in a moment.

What about the Kindle?

Amazon’s 1st-gen Kindle can have its battery replaced – by you. You replace it similar to how you would in a cell phone. The battery is a small thin block with a wired port. Very simple and easy to pop in and out.

Is the iPad a money pit?

I’ll say this very bluntly – yes it is.

Why?

It can be summed up by answering a simple question: What convenience does a sealed battery in an iPad give you?

Answer: None at all.

If you buy an iPad and after a period of time when the warranty runs out and the battery dies, what then? Are you going to deal with the inconvenience of having it tethered to a power source? Before you say, “Yes! I would!”, bear in mind the power connector is at the bottom of the unit, meaning you’d have a power port poking out and sticking your stomach or leg every time you sit down with it.

Your only choice is to buy another iPad just to have a battery that works.. that is until that one dies and you’ll have to buy another. And another. And another. That’s more or less the definition of a money pit.

Does this mean all sealed-battery units are bad?

No, because it’s all about how they’re applied. In smartphones, they’re fine. In PNDs, also fine. In an iPod Touch – yes, it’s fine.

But in an iPad? It’s just plain wrong – for now. When the iPad drops in price from $500 to $200, that’s an acceptable (albeit barely) price to pay for a throwaway electronic gadget.

Do you agree or disagree? Let us know by posting a comment or two.

Post from: PCMech. Helping Normal People Get Their Geek On And Live The Digital Lifestyle.

The Sealed Battery – This is the Future?

Cloning and copying VirtualBox VMs is not as straight forward or obvious as it is with VMWare Desktop and this subject has created a lot of confusion in the support forums.

[...]

This article explains how to copy an existing VM containing an installed and configured guest OS. Before starting it helps to have a basic understanding of VirtualBox virtual machines.

Granted, I have only used VirtualBox on my wife’s Mac to install Windows but have never had the need to copy the environment. After reading through the article however, the process appears to be pretty straight forward as long as you don’t have saved states on the VM.

Post from: PCMech. Helping Normal People Get Their Geek On And Live The Digital Lifestyle.

Cloning VirtualBox Virtual Machine Images

The first thing to note is how it’s installed. This is on the download page:

In Windows, this is a five step process.

1. Close all web browsers that are open
2. Uninstall Flash Player 10 ActiveX
3. Uninstall Flash Player 10 Plugin
4. Install Flash Player Plugin 10.1
5. Install Flash Player ActiveX 10.1

For those wondering, the ActiveX is specifically for Internet Explorer – whether you use it or not.

Testing 10.1 Beta 3

I noticed that everything I use on the web with Flash still works properly. Whether it’s playing video on YouTube, using Flash based web interfaces or what-have-you, everything appeared to work OK.

Part of 10.1’s improvements is supposed to be hardware-accelerated video. The best way to test this is with an HD video like this:

The real test comes by clicking the full-screen button (the four arrows) at bottom right. With the 10.1 player, full-screen playback is much better. On my PC which uses an older nVidia GeForce 8400 GS 512MB card, there were almost no dropped frames and the motion was smooth as silk.

That alone is the best reason to use 10.1.

On the other hand, if you’re not into watching that much video on the internet, you can give it a pass and wait until the official release when out of beta.

Post from: PCMech. Helping Normal People Get Their Geek On And Live The Digital Lifestyle.

Adobe Flash Player 10.1

shellrefresh

Initiate a general refersh for Windows Explorer. This refresh command can be useful if you make a change in the Registry related to the shell file types (For example, if you change the icon of .gif extension), and you want that your changes will take affect immediately.

sysrefresh

Initiate a general system refresh. You can use this command to refresh your system after changing your system settings in the Registry (e.g: changing desktop icons size, environment variables, and so on..)

So by running the following 2 commands:

nircmd shellrefresh
nircmd sysrefresh

You can force Windows to refresh itself and avoid needing to reboot. Of course, this will not work for everything but it is worth a shot.

Post from: PCMech. Helping Normal People Get Their Geek On And Live The Digital Lifestyle.

Easy Way To Force A Windows “Refresh”

The service works exactly like 411, however the catch is you have to listen to an ad or two before you get to the assistance. If you only use this service every now and then, it shouldn’t be a big deal and can save you a couple of bucks.

Post from: PCMech. Helping Normal People Get Their Geek On And Live The Digital Lifestyle.

Call Directory Assistance For Free