Archive for October, 2006


Hardware Diagnostics

Filed Under: Tech Help by Dave — Comments Off
October 29, 2006

If you have ever had a PC suddenly crash, freeze up or spit out the dreaded blue screen of death you probably thought that your operating system was the cause.  In some cases, you would be right, but in most cases the problem lies with your hardware.  Before taking your PC in for service there are a couple programs you can run on your PC.

Memory (RAM): Memtest86 is a great little program to test your memory.  The site has in-depth instructions on how to use the program. 

Hard Drives: Most of the major hard drive makers have free programs you can use to test your hardware.

These programs can either be copied to a floppy or a blank CD.

Try these programs the next time you are having system lockups, at the very least they will exclude your memory or hard drive as the culprit.

Tags: , ,
Comment

Firefox v2.0

Filed Under: Tech News by Dave — Comments Off
October 27, 2006

Firefox v2.0 was released earlier this week, just after IE7's release date.  IE7 left me unimpressed with its interface and general look and feel.  Firefox latest release is a much more polished product.  Instead of changing mush of its buttons and interface, the developers left a good thing alone but gave the old interface a face lift.  The only interface change I have noticed is the addition of close buttons to each tab.  I still find myself mousing over to the right to close tabs but I'm sure Ill get used to this change quickly.  The single greatest improvement in v2 is the addition of inline spell checking in web forms.  I love this feature and its implementation was done perfectly.  Good job people. You can read about more features here .

So can these improvements further take a bite out of IE's market share?  Not without an inovative marketing plan or, better yet, a large PC builder installing it on all its PCs.  Dell & Google have a deal to install the Google Toolbar and Desktop on Dell PCs.  Mozilla should explore this type of deal.  Firefox's ~15% market share would quickly improve if our grandma's and mom's had the browser installed and ready to go on their new PC.

Tags: , , ,
Comment

Firefox & IE7

Filed Under: Tech News by Dave — Comments Off
October 22, 2006

With the impending releases of Internet Explorer 7, I would like to remind my readers that there is another option.  In fact there are two other options that would be a good choice as a primary browser, Firefox and Opera .  Personally I prefer Firefox to Opera, the bias is purely subjective.  I just like how Firefox does things and I like the the user interface.  There is nothing wrong with Opera, its just not for me.  With that being said, Firefox is set to release its latest version late this month.  You don't have to wait for 2.0 to come out, the latest stable release 1.5.07 is available and I urge you to at least give it a spin.  Check out TweakGuides.com to learn how to optimize you new copy of Firefox.

In related IE7 news, Microsoft will be pushing IE7 via Windows Update as a high priority update, but will be an optional update.  There have already been a few concerns over possible exploits, but one thing is for sure, this update will be worth the time to download it.  Until website developers stop designing sites to use activeX there will always be a need to keep a IE around.  It may as well be a more secure version than the porous IE6.

Tags: , , , , , ,
Comment

Cylon-O-Lantern

Filed Under: Tech Help by Dave — Comments Off
October 21, 2006

Just in time for halloween, an old-school Battlestar Galatica Cylon-O-Lantern .  Looks like I may be breaking out my soldering iron and chips from back in my electronics days.

Tags:
Comment

Viewpoints on Vista

Filed Under: Tech News by Dave — Comments Off
October 21, 2006

Paul Thurrott has written an interesting article looking back to the early days of Vista's (longhorn) development.  You can read about the 1st two articles here.  It is worth a read to see how much optimistic Gates and the Windows folk were back in 2001.  Vista today looks nothing like the idealistic view of Longhorn they had dreamed up.  I can't wait for the rest of Paul's history comes out.

John Dvorak's latest PCMag article brings up some serious concerns for the possible inclusion of Windows Genuine Advantage in the retail release of Vista.  John has been writing on technology for a very long time and I enjoy his articles immensly and his blog is on my daily list of reading.

Tags: , , , ,
Comment
Powered by WordPress | Theme: Motion by 85ideas | © 2006–2012 Dave Hildebrand | 58 queries in 3.442 seconds.