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Windows 7 – Is it worth it?

October 1st, 2009 by Michael Louie | 1 Comment | Filed in Tech

Some people have heard the new name, Windows 7, Codenamed Blackcomb and Vienna. Lately, you might have heard that you can get Windows 7 for free when buying a new PC or You can upgrade to Windows 7 at a discount price. But is this new OS worth it? (note: light review)

So we all know about the lows Vista set with its paranoia over everything and multiple errors / driver issues and benchmarks at all new lows. This of course made many stay back at home with their Xp computers.

But little do people notice the great things about Vista.  With its new Aero feature, improved support for 64 bit and multicore processors, peer to peer file transferring and sharing and etc. These new features would set the path for the next OS to improve on these new programs, features and layouts.

File:Windows 7.png

(screenshot of Windows 7)

This here is the new Windows 7. There are some obvious differences…..obviously. Some parts you may recognize such as the start menu but you notice our classic taskbar looks a little different. This new little gadget is called Aero Peek. Now unlike the previous aero which shows a preview of the window when hovering above it, Aero peek will show you the windows all by hovering over the ONE app. So lets say you have 3 internet explorer windows open. Instead of hovering over one at a time to find which one you are looking for, you can hover over the internet explorer icon in the taskbar and you will see all three in realtime and if you hover over the preview, you can get a large screen preview .     =)

File:Windows 7 Taskbar.png

Another New feature is the Snap In feature. Open two windows drag them on the two sides of the screen and they will adjust to fit perfectly in your monitor ,and don’t worry  the pesky messages that black out your screen just to ask the redundant question of permission are gone.

Now for the features that you won’t notice right away. So first you get improved accessories, boot times and performance on multi-core processors. (yippe for me and my core 2 quad) Your control center has been renovated with extra items such as Clear type and Gadgets. Also, for the sake of XP which kept windows alive in my opinion will have its cousin in Windows 7. Which will be Windows XP Mode which will basically run XP in a virtual machine.  Read more about Windows XP Mode.

To be honest, Windows 7 isn’t going to be as revolutionary as Vista was yet it still improves on the great features of Vista.

I will be definitely upgrading to Windows 7 because of the improved benchmarks and benefits it features.  It has many organizational upgrades too.  I wouldn’t lie to you. Its up to you whether you are going to upgrade but beware….Windows is back.

The planned release of Windows 7 for consumers is set for October 22, 2009.

Watch Windows 7 on Youtube

If you want to, you can read even more here: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/08/windows7-seven-reasons/

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TuxGuitar – Play, Create and Read Guitar tabs

July 9th, 2009 by Connor McBrine-Ellis | 3 Comments | Filed in Apps, Music, Online, Tech

TuxGuitar is an exellent piece of software I recently discovered.

It is completely open-source and reads and creates Guitar Tablature files. It even is compatible with the file format used by the commercial software Guitar Pro 5, allowing it to read and write to files that software can understand.

It’s the perfect solution to get those song ideas that are stuck in your head onto paper so you don’t lose them.

Also, if you ever go on www.ultimate-guitar.com and see Guitar Pro tabs, then this can read them, so you can read the tab as the song is playing.

Download it Now! and give it a try.

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Make a Webcam Timelapse Easily

June 18th, 2009 by Connor McBrine-Ellis | 2 Comments | Filed in Apps, How Tos, Tech

Wanted to make a timelapse of you doing something, such as putting lego blocks together or eating a cheesecake?  Now you can, and quite easily too, with the Timershot Powertoy for XP.

Requirements

  • Windows XP (I’m not sure that the Timershot powertoy works on vista – this is only tested with XP)
  • Timershot Powertoy
  • Windows Movie Maker (included with XP)
  • USB Webcam / USB Digital Camera

Steps

  1. Download the Powertoy and install it – pretty straightforward.
  2. Go to Start Menu > All Programs > Powertoys for Windows XP > Timershot and launch the application.
  3. The program will most likely start taking pictures right away.  Don’t worry about it.  Just set the capture rate as one picture every second, and set it not to just take one photo and replace that one, but to take individual photos each time, and so that way you’ll end up with the “frames” for your timelapse.
  4. Set a folder for the pictures to go into (not just your desktop – that will be messy !!! Remember , it takes 1 picture every second!!
  5. Now, point the webcam where you want it to take the timelapse , and away you go!
  6. Open up Windows Movie Maker (Start, All Programs, Windows Movie Maker)
  7. Go to the Tools menu, click Options, and click the Advanced tab.
  8. In the “Default Durations” section, decrease the Picture Duration to the lowest amount possible, and click OK.
  9. In the Capture Video section inside the “Movie Tasks” pane, click Import Pictures.
  10. Go to the folder you saved all your timelapse photos into, and import all the photos in that folder.
  11. Now, highlight all the pictures in the “Collections” pane (which is just right of the “Movie Tasks” pane) by pressing Ctrl + A, and then drag them to the timeline / storyboard below.
  12. In the Edit Movie section of the “Movie Tasks” pane, click View Video Effects (or just Effects, in Vista).
  13. Now, in the timeline / storyboard, click one of the pictures and press Ctrl + A to select all the pictures.
  14. In the “effects” window, click on “Speed Up” and hit “CTRL + D” to apply it to all the frames you have selected.If everything went correctly, each frame will now have a star at the bottom, indicating it has an effect paired with the frame. You can hit CTRL + D as many times as you want, if the video is still too slow.
  15. Now just hit Ctrl + P to save your movie, and share it with your friends or upload it to YouTube!

You can view  a couple sample timelapses I made myself:

Making Lego Structure

Cleaning up Lego Timelapse

Enjoy! Thanks to onlinephototutorials.com for the “Speed Up” enhancement to this tutorial.   Also, thanks to Microsoft for their great Windows XP Timershot PowerToy.
Jul 25th 2008
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Time lapse videos show motion over a long period of time. Set the camera on a tripod, switch it to manual focus, and you’re pretty much done. The hardest part is finding interesting things that will change over time, clearly. Many things change over time, in that you take one photo and they’re gone the next. However, things like clouds or stars are interesting as they move fluidly.

The goal of this tutorial is not taking the photos to make the timelapse, rather assembling the photos into a timelapse of high quality. Step One Before importing, set Windows Movie Maker’s “default image duration” to it’s fastest setting of 0.125 at “Tools > Options > Advanced”. First, you must import the necessary images into Windows Movie Maker. Hit “CTRL + I” and navigate to the folder where they are stored. Since Windows Movie Maker doesn’t support RAW or sizes about 1080p [1920x1080], I suggest you set your camera to the smallest JPEG size at “fine” or “high” quality. This means it won’t take as long to import all the images to your computer, it’ll take less space, and Windows Movie Maker will be faster. Import the JPEGs Step Two Under the “imported media” window, click on an image and hit CTRL + A to select all. Hold and drag the images into the timeline or storyboard at the bottom of the screen. Drag to Storyboard Step Three At the left hand pane, select the “effects” option under the “edit” category. Select "Effects" Now, at the bottom of the screen, select the “Storyboard” view. Select one of the images and hit “CTRL + A” to select all. Select "Show Storyboard" and select all

Step Four

In the “effects” window, click on “Speed Up” and hit “CTRL + D” to apply it to all the frames you have selected.

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Fast Dial – Clone of Opera’s Speed Dial

May 29th, 2009 by Connor McBrine-Ellis | 4 Comments | Filed in Apps, Offline, Tech

Fast Dial displays a list of thumbnails of your favorite sites in new tabs.  It is a sleek, easy way to access you favorite sites with each new tab you open.  Opera, an excellent browser, first pioneered this feature, along with it’s famous sidebar.  Opera’s Speed Dial looks a bit different from Fast dial, but Fast Dial still gets the job done.  Fast Dial also has a little search box at the top of the page, which is a nice added touch.

Download Fast Dial

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Sync Your Files with Dropbox

May 25th, 2009 by Connor McBrine-Ellis | 4 Comments | Filed in Apps, Online, Tech

Secure backup, sync, sharing made easy

Dropbox is an easy way to both backup files and share them at the same time, with any computers you have Dropbox installed onto.  It doesn’t matter where those computers are, they all get a copy of that file.

As it states on the home page, it syncs your files online and with other computers.  It’s like a central sharing folder.

There are free and paid options available for dropbox.  Should you choose to get dropbox for free, you get 2 GB of space to store your stuff.

For $9.99 per month or $99.00 per year, you can get 50 GB of secure storage.
Pay $9.99 per month or $99.00 per year to get a roomy 100 GB of storage.

There is also an amazing bonus most people don’t know about:  they have a referral system where, you as well as the other person you are referring will get 250 MB extra space for each person you are referring, for example:  if I refer you we each get 250 mb more space.  You can do this until you have a total of 5 GB total space – more than enough to store and transfer decently sized files.

Please use my referral link and when you sign up initially you will get 250 MB extra space.

Join Dropbox (referral link)

Join Dropbox (without my referral link)

Thanks to Alexander Momchilov for the inital referal to this service :D .
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Flash in Firefox without Admin Privileges

May 20th, 2009 by Connor McBrine-Ellis | 6 Comments | Filed in Apps, How Tos, Offline, Tech

If you’re trying to either install Adobe Flash into a Firefox install on a computer you don’t have admin rights on, or install it into Portable Firefox, then you’re probably having trouble.  The solution is relatively simple considering Adobe Flash runs off of only just two files!  Just copy those files and you’re set.

Download the flash installer, then use a program such as WinRAR or PeaZip to “extract the .EXE file”.

Then find the files flashplayer.xpt and NPSWF32.dll which you already extracted, and copy those to the folder Moziilla Firefox/plugins.

Restart Firefox, and it’s really as simple as that!

Another option if for some reason this doesn’t work though it should, is to download this extension and install it inside firefox: http://fpdownload.macromedia.com/get/flashplayer/xpi/current/flashplayer-win.xpi

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Does file sharing help music artists?

May 11th, 2009 by Connor McBrine-Ellis | 4 Comments | Filed in Essays and Stuff, Online, Other, Piracy, Tech

Many people wonder whether file sharing can actually increase revenue for music labels and artists because it helps both newer and older artists to be discovered or rediscovered. This question is frequently asked by fans and artists alike. I believe that BitTorrent is an excellent system and model for marketing and distributing media, such as music and movies, and should not be opposed the way it currently is by organizations such as the IFPI and the MPAA – it may even be making up a large figure of their sales!

Peer to peer technologies have been proven to be an effective marketing / promotion tools, For instance, in 2007, Radiohead made an interesting move in which their fans could make whatever payment that they wanted, including nothing; the site only advised, “it’s up to you” or free, or “Choose what you pay”, so that the fans could pay the amount they wanted for the album.
Of course, the band did not actually release their sales figures, yet the album became famous as the first one released in this method, and generated much publicity. New websites are now also following Radiohead’s model, as in “Choose what you pay”, such as the new public music tracker, Coda.FM.

BitTorrent is more effective as a marketing tool for artists that are not already established, yet for those already established as an artists, it may hinder them more than help, because since they are already popular, the viral nature of BitTorrent is not as useful, and many people will “leech” the music instead of buying it.

A report from the BI Norwegian School of Management has found that those who download music illegally are also 10 times more likely to pay for songs than those who don’t. This is because those who download music are generally music enthusiasts that agree that you should have the right to see exactly what you are buying before you buy it, and if it’s no good, then they won’t buy it. These enthusiasts see this as completely fair, yet the IFPI disagrees. Many people also say “I’d never buy it anyways!”, which is generally true, yet, they are obtaining the Intellectual Property for free – and thus comes the question – is IP even worth anything?

There is no doubt that the downloading of music for free will continue nevertheless, yet the question will remain in our minds, are we helping the artist (as in “increasing their revenue” or increasing exposure), or costing them? I believe that in the future, music will be either free, cost very little, or the consumer will choose the price – either way, the actual worth of something that can be copied, distributed, and reproduced countless times, all for free, will forever be disputed.

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Free Disk Imaging and Backup with Macrium Reflect

April 29th, 2009 by Connor McBrine-Ellis | No Comments | Filed in Apps, How Tos, Online, Tech

Ever want to back up your hard drive?  Macrium Reflect Free Edition, is AMAZING free disk imaging and recovery application.  The problem with traditional backup is that you have to search for your files to back them up!

No longer!

It will put every file in your hard drive into 1 compressed file.  No more need to search for obscure files, like those tax files that you can’t find etc, but now you can back up your computer in 1 swipe.  The main thing that stops backups these days is not being able to back up everything, and the fact that traditional backups take a LONG time!  Macrium Reflect is really fast – only taking about an hour to image every 100 GB!

Download Now!

Enjoy!

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Demonoid Invite Giveaway!!

April 29th, 2009 by Connor McBrine-Ellis | 26 Comments | Filed in Online, Tech

Just Comment if you’d like one!!

I will email it to you!

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