Stefano Abbate's Stuff (en)

SaveSpace – The ed2k manager

noreply@blogger.com (Stefano Abbate) — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 23:31:00 +0000

Update your link to SaveSpace!

Click here!

Guide to SaveSpace

noreply@blogger.com (Stefano Abbate) — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 23:15:00 +0000

Update your link to SaveSpace!

Click here!

Download SaveSpace

noreply@blogger.com (Stefano Abbate) — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 23:10:00 +0000

Update your link to SaveSpace!

Click here!

GPS with speed camera service and POI - let's make it clear

noreply@blogger.com (Stefano Abbate) — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 21:51:00 +0000

The purchase of a GPS is sometimes dictated by the need to find the right way to an unknown destination, by the convenience of having along the path an estimation of distance and time of arrival and/or to detect in advance so hated speed cameras...

This reasoning can arouse the interest of people who do not have a good relationship with technology and then looking for navigators that "detect the speed cameras".

It must be noted that purchasing a GPS navigator the most important thing, besides the features are the maps: they must be fairly up to date, otherwise past one or two years, the navigator will have outdated information leading to potentially wrong information. The update service is under a payment of a fee (about 40 euros per year) it can be done using a PC connected to the Internet.

Many navigators offer so-called "speed camera service" which signals a few hundred meters ahead the presence of fixed speed cameras on the route. As for maps, updates are paid.

There are POIs or Points Of Interest grouped into categories such as cinemas, hospitals, distributors of fuel, bars, discos, museums and so on. You can choose a POI as a destination address, in which case the comfort of a POI is similar to Yellow Pages, where research is by type of service requested.

Alternatively, you can set your navigator to signal the proximity of a PDI along the way and this is the use for categories like mobile and fixed speed cameras, or tutor systems etc.; such POI, in opposition to "speed camera service" is available for free from the Intenet (www.poigps.com).

If you have further questions or wish to add another POI link, please contact me.

Voice Over IP (VoIP) – Calling through the Internet

noreply@blogger.com (Stefano Abbate) — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 10:55:00 +0000

The phone market knows no barriers and, in addition to the renewed ability of each device, it changes the way in which communications take place.

Until recently we were accustomed to using public phones and fixed line, then emerged the first cellular phones and now each of us has got at least one of them.

Finally, the great spread of the Internet in every home with ADSL technology, often with FLAT-type contracts, namely fixed monthly fee and navigation 24 hours on 24, paved the way for new types of services such as VoIP telephony.

But how does it work?

You request the service to the VoIP operator;
Get an account with the numbering of residence or domicile;
You use a program (Softphone) to dial from your comptuer, or use a real phone (with VoIP functionality) to be connected to the router.

Of course if you use the Softphone, the PC must be turned on and must use headphones and microphone. If you are using VoIP phone it is important that the Router is on and there is the power supply.

It should be noted that the number will be assigned has nothing to do with that on the active fixed line. Usually VoIP calls between the same operator are free, while the phone calls towards fixed lines and international numbers are still attractive.

There are numerous offers on the Internet, including Eutelia, which provides a VoIP phone in paying a fixed tribute of 19 euros only for the first recharge. Of course Telecom and Infostrada also offer VoIP service, but know you know what it is.

If you need advice on the purchase of VoIP telephony service, contact me.

Little tips - Free up Hard Disk space

noreply@blogger.com (Stefano Abbate) — Thu, 01 May 2008 20:19:00 +0000

Tired of receiving messages like "Out of disk space" or "Disk is full"? Two possible solutions:

Change your Hard Disk after saving all important data on an external support or spend hours and hours to burn DVDs and then install the operating system from scratch with all essential programs and loose a whole day to restore configurations

Free up disk space (no cost)

Except in special cases ("old" computers), you can free up space every time removing no longer useful and "hidden" files. The problem then is reduced to how to find these files: the rescue comes with a program for windows Windirstats (I discovered it in Linux with the equivalent kdirstat); it can provide a visual map of the files on your disk:

Each block represents a file and is more or less large in proportion to the size of the file. So it's easy to identify areas (grouped by directory) which are such as old movie .avi occupying space unnecessarily.

Of course you can analyze the files by scrolling the map or the folders tree, identifying for each space and the percentage associated.

I think it is a useful tool for identifying especially large files and would recommend to make careful what you delete (unless you know what it is) because some are system files and therefore essential to the operation of your computer.

Before make a purchase - site verify

noreply@blogger.com (Stefano Abbate) — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 00:19:00 +0000

I decided to dedicate this post to all skeptical of online purchases and give below some recommendations of the Guardia di Finanza to verify the legality of the site of a company that sells on the Internet:

Internet sites with the domain ".it", unlike all others, needs to fulfill certain obligations for their registration including the compilation and sending of the letter of responsibility accompanied by a copy of the registrant document to the Italian Authority (www.nic.it).

Against this, those who have provided for the registration of the site is easily traceable. It is a good idea to check in the pages of the site the presence of any reference (phone, fax, etc. physical location.) and use them for a first contact.

With regard to Internet sites with the domain ".com", they are not required to comply with any requirement of registration of domains (www.nic.it). They are therefore difficult to tracing those responsible for the site itself. It is advisable therefore, check on the home page of the site of any reference (phone, fax, etc. physical location.) to make an initial direct feedback contact them by phone, in order to assess the reliability of their activity on the web.

It is suggested that you still wary of those who enter on-line only e-mail as the only mode of contact. A good sign is finally, in the case of a business located in one of the European Union countries, the presence of web pages on VAT, which entering it into the form on-line site VIES you can see the data and comparing them with those at its disposal, find out if the company exists and corresponds to that if you are paying.

I also refer to the recommendations listed on the webpage E-COMMERCE SAFER (in Italian), on the website www.gat.gdf.it.

Purchases and payments via Internet - acting in a secure way

noreply@blogger.com (Stefano Abbate) — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 17:31:00 +0000

How many times have been known to try a product on the Internet and not to buy because it was required a credit card? Very often we get stuck at that point, failing to complete a purchase online or booking a trip. Actually there are safer alternatives for direct comparison of credit card: use prepaid cards.

Some of the most famous ones are Vodafone CashCard, Postepay, Kalibra Charter, Charter Yahoo, Saddle Money, CartaSi Eura, Charter Ego Go, Carteque, etc. Payup Charter.

To activate a Postepay (of Poste Italiane) you need to pay once 5 euros and whenever you withdraw or deposit money. You can use it for e-commerce sites or enabled supermarkets, exploiting the Visa Electron circuit (some even Mastercard). For these kind of payments there is no added fee.

A spread method of payment on Ebay is PayPal. It 's a mechanism that transfers money from one person to another, without providing card number each time.

With PayPal, you can go shopping around the world so free and secure either by credit card (Visa, Visa Electron, MasterCard) or prepaid card (as Postepay, Vodafone Cash Card, Kalibra and others), without sharing financial information with those who received the payment. I read some step to get paypal enabled on http://www.paypal.com:

Register and fill in the online form with your credit card or debit card.
Your credit card or debit card is linked to your account. No more data given, when you want to make a payment.
The only information you need to know to send a payment is the recipient's email address.
When you click on the button Pay, PayPal charges amount directly to your credit card or prepaid - no need for more.

It seems all so beautiful but in reality the problem is not resolved to 100%. Personal data is supplied to a trusted third party that has the responsibility to keep secrets (if the attackers could violate the site, would have full access).

You should also pay attention to the phenomenon of phishing, because there are many emails that arrive indicating updates requesting paypal account information: pay attention especially, at the name of the URL you connect to.

Wireless Internet – the need for connectivity

noreply@blogger.com (Stefano Abbate) — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 22:44:00 +0000

Over time the need for an Internet connection has been gradually growing. The most fortunate have a fixed line on which activate ADSL service flat, but there isn't always this possibility: sometimes people do not have a telephone line or simply the mobility induced by the spread of portable computers and smartphones, increases need for a wireless connection.

With a computer you can connect using a modem and sometimes it is already integrated into laptops. These devices are generally four types:

Internet key (USB Key)
Connect Card (PCI Express or PCMCIA)

Internet Box (USB Modem)

There is no particular preference from the point of view of functionality, but from the convenience and size: USB interfaces offer greater compatibility with computers while PCI Express is compatible only with certain types of laptops or Broadband Routers.

Usually in a contract with the established Internet operator shall be declared the number of HOURS or amount of data available and include monthly rental (free or not) of one of those three devices. So evaluate whether you buy it and check what is included in the subscription package.

Even directly from the phone we can connect using paid services offered by the phone company. In any case there are generally three ways of charging:

At time
At amount of traffic
Free navigation, with content download fee

For the first it will normally set a price per minute, but I have seen many plans that mentions "sessions" of 15 minutes. This means that once you are connected you spend 1 session of 15 minutes in which you pay for every minute but if you connect for 13 minutes, you pay for 13 and loose 2 minutes. If the plan provides for 100 hours a month, it means you have 400 sessions by 15 minutes: you can connect at most 400 times for a period less than or equal to 15 minutes or for example, if you connect for 28 minutes two sessions are considered (15 + 15 = 30 minutes, losing 2 minutes), and so forth.

The amount of traffic (Kbyte, or Mbytes Gbyte) pricing depends on how much data is downloaded. It is difficult to quantify this type of navigation in time terms, but it is certain that the payment is made only when a new page is loaded and stay connected on the same page (without update) does not involve any additional payment.

Regarding the free navigation there is a possibility of reaching pages with content such as songs or movies whose download is subject to charges.

In Italy the most popular telephone companies that offer connectivity are Tim, Tre, Vodafone, Wind.

As for the terminology that may see I indicate those referring to the connection speed listed by slower to faster: GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, HSDPA/HSUPA.

Soon (??) will be released a new technology that will allow us to replace the last mile of telephone lines with a wireless channel: it is the WiMAX.

Who benefits of this service will not necessarily have a fixed telephone line, but simply an external device capable of receiving radio signals to connect with the power of their telephone operator.

Three more...

noreply@blogger.com (Stefano Abbate) — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 15:32:00 +0000

Today another big, high "hurdle" has been overcome. See ya!

Domestic robots - an established fact

noreply@blogger.com (Stefano Abbate) — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 02:43:00 +0000

They exist since many years, but only now I can say there could be one of them in each house. I’m talking about robots: still not the one whose talks and carry out the housework, but very strange and specialized devices.

Out of all different models available at www.irobot.com, the vacuum cleaner impressed me because it moves autonomously in the house, it can cover all the surfaces of the rooms and it can turn back to the base to recharge itself.

Actually, I’ve first noticed it in the pilot episode of Knight Rider 2008 (broadcasted in the USA) and then I found it again in the Net.

The prices go from 200 to 500 Dollars, about from 200 to 500 Euros if you are willing to buy it in Italy (with the actual rate change it is better to buy in Euros from Italy, but if there is no one that can bring it for free, you have to pay high duty taxes).

It could seems strange, but I’m sure that soon we all be surrounded from these “things” that carry out the most common, boring and repetitive housework while we are at work or on holiday...

Here you can find a demo video or try with a search

Mp3/Mp4 and Multimedia players – travelling and relax

noreply@blogger.com (Stefano Abbate) — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 01:31:00 +0000

They are many, they are different and there is an embarrassing wealth of options: by now Mp3 players reached reasonable prices and they are part of our daily life.

Starting from the cheapest ones that seem like common USB Pen Drives with small LCD displays, to those more expensive and thin, with modern design and high storage capacity.

In general you can distinguish players with integrated flash memory, more resistant but with small storage capacity, and those with hard disk that can store many songs and videos.

If in the player details there is also Mp4 format, it means that the player can play videos and display size is really important.

Other than Mp3 (audio) and Mp4 formats (Mpeg4, audio and video), there are WMA, AAC, OGG, ASF and WAV formats; the former two are more important, but if the player supports the other ones, you have more choice.

Players evolution has been very fast, even if limited by the small dimension and lightness constraints; however the market demand brought about stronger developing of this kind of products, allowing greater sizes, all to the good of comfort and quality claimed by the user that in this way have the use of a mini portable tv set.

That’s why Multimedia players are born, more expensive than the above ones, but they offer integrated multimedia experience: watch video, movies, pictures and listen to the music.

You should have a look at Euronics, Unieuro, Expert, Mediaworld and I advise to pay attention to the Creative Labs. Mp3/Mp4 players.

If you need help, contact me.

Little tips - E-Mail recipients

noreply@blogger.com (Stefano Abbate) — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 00:04:00 +0000

With this brief post I wish to explain the mean of all those unknow fields to whom is not friendly with the emails: Cc and Bcc (or Ccn); they usually are placed after the field To.

Cc means Carbon Copy or Courtesy Copy and it is used to indicate the recipient that should know who sent what and to who, even not being the direct recipient.

Bcc means Blind Copy Carbon and it has the same function of the Cc field, but the To receiver is not able to understand if the message has been sent to another recipient too.

So, if my address is zzz@...com and I wish to send a message to xxx@...com and let read it by another recipient yyy@...com (only for informational purposes) I have to write:

To: xxx@...com
Cc: yyy@...com
Subject:
Body of message

The "To" recipient will read:

From: zzz@...com
Cc: yyy@...com
Subject:
Body of message

Otherwise, if the sender use the Ccn: yyy@...com not the Cc, the receiver will read:

From: zzz@...com
Subject:
Body of message

Who receive this email will NEVER be able to know that it has been also sent to yyy@....com

For the Privacy of your contacts and to avoid SPAM due to the spreading of the E-Mail addresses, I advise to use ONLY the Bcc field and NOT the To one for all those funny files that travel the Internet being forwarded; otherwise they would allow the reading of all the recipients to whoever receives that E-Mail. ;)

LCD vs Plasma - now you can choose

noreply@blogger.com (Stefano Abbate) — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 22:07:00 +0000

I will try to lead you in this choice, writing down some distinctive characteristics.

At first sight, the difference is the price: a Plasma TV set is usually more expensive than an LCD TV set (with screen dimension being equal). If you need a little device, it’s more easy to find an LCD TV set, rather than a Plasma TV set that has medium-big dimensions.

In general LCD TV sets are right for personal view, in fact, given the limited angle view, the quality can decrease on the basis of the position of the observer.

LCD tv sets are backlit and right for bright environments and they don’t feel the “reflex effect”. The pictures are very detailed, even if the color contrast depends from the angle view and the black is not much deep because of the backlit. They are recommended to people that own a game console like Xbox or Playstation or for the view of static images like the photos, while there is a smoothness effect for speedy images (like in a football match).

Plasma TV sets have a wider angle view and this let more people being able to watch the screen with high quality. They feel the effect of the light reflex but the image quality is very high, realistic and suitable for sport broadcast, action movies and etc.

In general, Full-HD TV sets have an higher resolution than the HD-Ready ones (that you can now find on sale). Many of them have integrated digital terrestrial (DVB-T), but pay attention: it is not possible to watch pay per view channels because they missed a CAM interface, unless specified.

If you are still undecided about the two technologies, I advise to go to a shop and look at two different TV sets that transmit the same movie and make the choice on the basis of your own flavors.

For every question or if you need help to purchase, send a comment.

Air conditioners - this is the best time

noreply@blogger.com (Stefano Abbate) — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 20:55:00 +0000

Let's start cosidering a problem arising when it's too late: the purchase of an air conditioner (keep in mind today's date, I warned you!) :D

A client frequently asked question is "Which brand?" Actually it is NOT the first characteristic to consider, but the question is "What to refrigerate?".

First of all, analyse your room (location w.r.t. the sun, walls and windows measures) to evaluate the BTU (British Thermal Unit) needed indicating the cooling power.

It usually varies in a range from about 8000 to 24000 BTU and approssimatively 9000 BTU is suitable for a 25 m^2 enviroment, 11000 BTU for 31 m^2 and 12000 BTU for 34 m^2.

You can use the search engine above and type the keyword "BTU Calculator" to find an euristic BTU calculus needed for your rooms.

Obviously we need to consider if we are also looking for an heating pump function and, in this case, it costs 20-30% more but it is preferable w.r.t. gas stove or fireplace because of harmful fumes.

Another characteristic that let you save money is the choice of a plant with inverter technology: it is possible to trim the power (i.e. the consumption) gradually and with respect to the environment temperature, in opposition to the traditional ON/OFF function (high/null consumption).

Energy classes are related to this function and they varies from A to F, lower to higher consumption.

You can read also about air conditioners mono or dual split: in the first case there are only one external and one internal unit, while in the second case there is always one external unit but two internal units; dual split is probably useful where a pipe plant exists or it can be installed to let pass the refrigerated air from the extern to the intern unit.

Keep in mind that the pipe length must be as short as possible because the longer it is, the higher is the cooling power lost.

Often the unit pair is placed at the same height for the above reason and on the top of the windows for assuring a thermal insulation from the extern, since the cold tends to come out rather than through the walls.

So if you see a special offer from a flying, check the BTU, energetic class, inverter technology, heat pump and mono or dual split.

With reference to this, I advise to check in Italy for the keywords "Expert italia" and "UniEuro". If you are looking for International/Internet offers, need help or want to report comments, feel free to do it. I can help you to find the best buy for E-Commerce sites :)

Flight and search

noreply@blogger.com (Stefano Abbate) — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 22:36:00 +0000

I like so much everything that "flies", overall planes and helicopters! One day I will be able to fly... you can say, just book a flight with Ryanair or something!! :)

flight with Ryanair or something!! :)

With this site/blog I wish to give you an hand to deal with the jungle of the Internet.

With this site/blog I wish to give you an hand to deal with the jungle of the Internet.

I'm italian and sorry if I write (bad or good) in English but I think this could reach more people outside my country and I will be happy to give something to the ones that don't have so much knowledge of italian life & style...

It's for italians too, I can help for example, to make a buy. Looking for a PC or a Notebook? Just ask me? Looking for something of Hi-Tech? It's all for free!

Offro consulenza gratuita per l'acquisto di notebook HP, Sony VAIO, Fujitsu Siemens, Acer, Packard Bell, Dell, Lenovo, Asus etc... oppure di Cellulari, Palmari, Smartphone HTC, Nokia, SonyEricsson.

Anche le varie periferiche per PC e a breve pubblicherò le offerte della settimana nei principali store come MediaWorld, Euronics, Trony, Unieuro e tanti altri.

Four more...

noreply@blogger.com (Stefano Abbate) — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 05:20:00 +0000

Today another step has been done! Now I'm looking for something to do in the while... and hope to write down about my hobbies.

See ya!

Here we go!

noreply@blogger.com (Stefano Abbate) — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 18:20:00 +0000

Now we can join this new adventure... I don't like so much this kind of stuff :) but I see it's easy man!

Coming soon - Let's go to the cinema

noreply@blogger.com (Stefano Abbate) — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 10:45:00 +0000

Activate volume by pressing to the right

Choose the movie among those displayed to the bottom

Otherwise select and choose your favourite from the list

Now you can see:

Movie details
You can choose the city to finde the cinema showing it now
You can see the trailer, news, microfilm or interviews

Any moment you can go back to the main menu by pressing at bottom right

When the trailer is shown, you can move mouse cursor to the center and click on the middle symbol for switching to full screen

Contact me

noreply@blogger.com (Stefano Abbate) — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 18:30:00 +0000

If this form would not work, you can contact me via E-Mail at the following address:

Repair service

noreply@blogger.com (Stefano Abbate) — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 18:00:00 +0000

I offer a repair service for the following devices:

1. iPhone
2. iPod Touch
3. Nokia
4. SonyEricsson
5. Samsung
6. Motorola

and other telephone devices or PDA: it depends from the issue. All you have to do is tell me what’s the problem (e.g. broken LCD display, audio not working…) and I’ll evaluate if I can repair or try to do it.

If so, you should send the phone and pay the only cost of the spare part and for delivering back to you the device (repaired or not). I will not get any earn from it, but if you want, you can free donate via PayPal.

If I tell you I can repair (or try to do it), follow these steps:

1. Package your device in the original retail packaging, in a padded envelope or in a box. I recommend that you insure your device while it is in transit to protect it against loss or damage. You may also want to get a tracking number and require a signature for delivery.

Please include any emails we exchanged about your device with the package. This is so that I can clearly identify that it is your device and what is wrong with it.

2. You will receive an email when it is received and upon delivery of your device I personally repair it. I will then repair any problems and attempt to restore full functionality to the best of my ability. You will also receive an email once it is repaired.

3. Your device will then be packaged to maximize protection and take into account these kind of costs.

Unless you provide your own prepaid envelope (or airbill for Poste Italiane, DHL, FedEX or UPS) I charge a variable amount of Euros, on the basis of the destination. For this fee I will provide a tracking number, insurance for the package's full value.

Any added tax, not calculated (e.g. duty fees) will be at charge of the service’s requester.

Here some links to evaluate your speditions.
www.poste.it
www.dhl.com
www.FedEX.com
www.ups.com

Privacy Policy

noreply@blogger.com (Stefano Abbate) — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 17:55:00 +0000

Last update: 23rd of March 2008 - Privacy Policy for en.stefanoabbate.com

The privacy of our visitors to en.stefanoabbate.com is important to us.

At en.stefanoabbate.com, we recognize that privacy of your personal information is important. Here is information on what types of personal information we receive and collect when you use visit en.stefanoabbate.com, and how we safeguard your information. We never sell your personal information to third parties.

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We do use cookies to store information, such as your personal preferences when you visit our site. This could include only showing you a popup once in your visit, or the ability to login to some of our features, such as forums.

We also use third party advertisements on en.stefanoabbate.com to support our site. Some of these advertisers may use technology such as cookies and web beacons when they advertise on our site, which will also send these advertisers (such as Google through the Google AdSense program) information including your IP address, your ISP , the browser you used to visit our site, and in some cases, whether you have Flash installed. This is generally used for geotargeting purposes (showing New York real estate ads to someone in New York, for example) or showing certain ads based on specific sites visited (such as showing cooking ads to someone who frequents cooking sites).

You can choose to disable or selectively turn off our cookies or third-party cookies in your browser settings, or by managing preferences in programs such as Norton Internet Security. However, this can affect how you are able to interact with our site as well as other websites. This could include the inability to login to services or programs, such as logging into forums or accounts.