New, tips, and more
From BBC News: Some of the world’s biggest computer firms have been accused of imposing unfair contracts on customers who buy their software. The National Consumer Council (NCC) has accused 17 firms, including Microsoft, Adobe and Symantec, of using unfair “end user licence agreements” (EULAs). The NCC has asked the Office of Fair Trading to …
This isn’t very practical/important, but it is very cool. I was looking for an ASCII version (all text) of a heart that I could use on Valentine’s Day and I came across Photo2Text.com. It is a site that lets you upload a picture, and then it re-draws that picture with ASCII characters. As a test, …
From CNN: Toshiba said Tuesday it will no longer manufacture HD DVDs, effectively ending the long-running battle with the rival Blu-ray for a dominant high-definition format. Toshiba said it made the decision to cease developing, manufacturing, and marketing HD DVDs after “recent major changes in the market.” It promised to continue offering support and service …
From Time magazine: Do you find yourself struggling to find the right words to fill the blank Valentine’s Day card that you just purchased? When the florists asks what you’d like to say on the card with the bouquet, does an embarrassingly long pause ensue? If you have ever found yourself facing writer’s block, straining …
If you’ve seen Vista in action, you know that it does have some pretty cool looking icons. For the hard drives, it also has a nice bar graph showing how much space is used/available. TechRepublic has a tip on their Microsoft Windows Blog about how to get these icons in Windows XP: Vista Drive Icon …
Quite a while ago Download Squad has some information about how to get Norton Ghost for free. In that same posting, they also mentioned DriveImage XML, a free drive backup utility. DriveImage XML is an easy to use and reliable program for imaging and backing up partitions and logical drives. The program allows you to: …
From ComputerWorld: Ever wonder what that cop is doing in his cruiser that’s parked behind your car with lights flashing — while your heart is pounding and you’re searching for your license and registration? Most likely, he’s researching you on his laptop, and finding a surprisingly large amount of information. According to Lt. Paul Shastany …
There are all sorts of resources on the Internet to help you determine what program should open a particular file. Usually you do a search for the file extension, and you’ll find something telling you the program that made it or will open it. For instance, you can search for DOC and you find out …
The Toolbox section of the February issue of TechNet Magazine highlights a product called Unlocker. I mentioned this over 2 years ago, but the software is still around and is being updated. We’ve all had it happen to us before—some automated process hangs midway through its operation and a file gets stuck with a writelock, …
From Time magazine: When Sebastien Boucher stopped at the U.S.-Canadian border, agents who inspected his laptop said they found files containing child pornography. But when they tried to examine the images after his arrest, authorities were stymied by a password-protected encryption program. Now Boucher is caught in a cyber-age quandary: The government wants him to …