I recently got myself the AVerMedia AVerTV Hybrid+FM Volar H.264 and am extremely happy with it indeed... very much so, in fact.... and for 95.00 Oz dollars it's a bargain, as compared to PCI internal versions, which all cost more and are a pain in the arse to install.

It caters for Analog and digital TV, plus FM radio and video input from your VCR, DVD or CamCorder to record your home movies etc.  OK, other tuner cards may also offer these features, but what's so great about this little...

All of us have a calendar installed on our PCs, whether it be Windows, Rainlendar, or others. But what about calendars you can hang on your wall? I admit rainlendar has some pretty cool skins, but using Microsoft Word, and Paint.NET, I'm starting to create a new 2009 calendar set. It's silver & blue, and uses the power of Paint.NET to create custom effects, such as Drop Shadows, Glows, Reflections, and high-quality 32-bit PNG images instead of boring solid, gradient, or patterned backgrounds....

My old scanner died...so I got myself a new one....CanoScan LiDE 600F

Fun thing is the CD doesn't autorun to show the setup/install menus....

Not on this box...or on my Lappy....but it does on my wife's machine.

There's no autorun.inf ....and the files there are all appear to be for a Mac.....and not apparently executable.

I dl'd the driver and toolbox...but I still need the OCR and editing stuff ...but can't get the disc to 'do anything'....short of throwing it frisby-style....

C...

Every once and a while I like to remind people, especially our new users how to find resources for many of our sites and products such as WinCustomize, JoeUser, Stardock, etc.

We have a wide range of videos available online for people to view.  These videos consist of everything from application demos, animated wallpaper videos, to complete walkthrough screencasts showing how to use a particular product.  These are always featured on the appropriate sites, but I wanted to list some ...

I need some advice. I know next to nothing about computer specs, but I'm planning on getting a new computer soon. I realize that it will probably have Vista on it so it will need lots of RAM, but thats about all I know.

My son was looking up different computers and comparing prices, etc. This is one of the options he came up with.

------------

Hp s3400z Computer

Windows Vista Home Premium w/Service Pack 1
2.3 GHz AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ dual-core processor
3GB DDR2-800MHz dual chann...

    Ever wonder how to keep Windows running nice? I recommend using three tools.

    First, I recommend using CCleaner. CCleaner cleans your registry (save a backup) and startup to allow your PC to boot faster. It can also free a dramatic amount of space by deleting temporary files (4% of my HDD on my PC). Second, I recommend Spybot Search and Destroy. It works really well to speed up your computer and helps privacy. Third, I recommend Defraggler. It defragments ...

I found this test (March 2008) of firewalls on the internet.

Hope some of you find it useful.


http://www.matousec.com/projects/firewall-challenge/results.php#firewalls-ratings

If there is one key on the keyboard that I can't live without, it's the PrintScreen key. It's my personal favorite, and probably the most powerful key for web and graphic designers. It allows images created from other programs which don't have image saving capabilities (such as Microsoft Office programs) to be outputted onto the Clipboard. Importing images is a snap. Just open your favorite image editor and click "Paste". (I personally use MS Paint or Paint.NET)

More than likely, you don'...

But I want to live!  

Hat tip to DigitalChet.

I'm having a bit of an issue with WMP. It will not fire up when I ask it too. If I click on WMP in my start menu nothing happens.

Any ideas?

Well, XP might just be on its last legs after all... according to this PC User article. http://blogs.pcworld.com/techlog/archives/006751.html

It seems sales of XP will cease as of June 08, except for very low end laptops, etc.... and while it may not be too popular with many, it would seem MS resources are to be focussed on the future/new technology, rather than old OSes it deems to have passed their use by date.

So what are some of  your favorite Freebie Applications/games..etc..etc..etc? I personally have a few

OpenOffice - Document Editing
Mozilla Firefox - Browser
Mozilla Thunderbird - Email
Paint.net - Graphics Editing
Color Cop - Color Picker
Winamp -Media Player
Ccleaner - System optimization and privacy tool
Spybot - Anti-spyware


List some of  your own....

For the past year or so I have been using the older style wireless keyboard from Apple.  I have been quite pleased with it, but after a year of daily use it seemed it was time to replace this.  Since this keyboard is used with my Mac Mini, I headed out to our local Best Buy and picked up one of the new wireless keyboards.  Looking in the aisle you really wouldn't imagine a keyboard was in a box this this small, but hey, small is what this keyboard is. 



I was a bit...

The much anticipated WordPress 2.5 was released earlier today.  This is a pretty significant update and a ton of new features were added, one of the most notable being the redesigned Dashboard.

There are just too many features for me to describe, so just check out the WP 2.5 blog post for all the information.

I updated my personal blog in less than 10 minutes without any problems.

Download: WordPress 2.5

Thought I put this up for those interested to kick around.

Last year I began to feel somewhat hardware constrained.  My PC is an HP Media Center machine from mid 2005. 
I had added a low end graphics card ATI Hypermemory type to HP's standard configuration.  So, I had a 2.4Gz
AMD 3800 single core CPU, 200 GB's of HD storage, 1 Gb of Ram, and a starter graphics card. 

This was initialy adequate but, recently it was feeling sluggish and performance constrained, espec...