"I've kept a PC in my living room for the past three years as my primary home theater interface, and I heartily recommend it. It's shocking how cheap and easy it is to build a home theater PC these days. I've been pondering an upgrade to my creaky old home theater PC, and rave reviews of the new integrated AMD platform at Tech Report, Silent PC Review, and Tom's Hardware finally pushed me over the edge."
"It may be the year 2008, but a whole lot of sucktacular software still rears its ugly head on PC's everywhere, even when better-behaved options are freely available. Whether it's molasses-slow bloatware, shameless adware, anemic default apps, or "Your trial period has expired!" nagware, it's time to replace stinky Windows software with its superior (but lesser-known) alternative. Last week we asked what software you should never install on your PC, and over 200 comments later, you compiled quite a list. Today we're going to take a walk down the Crapware Hall of Shame, point and laugh at the worst offenders, and highlight some better choices."
"This must-try list contains a great collection of fun and useful websites that I think everybody should be familiar with, and to try at least once. Keep these on hand for everyday use. I believe that once you try these sites, you won't be disappointed and some of them may even become favorites that you will use everyday. There are sites here for the office, sites for the music you love, a fitness site, and some just for fun."
"Given that the average gamer is aged 23 or above, it's perhaps no surprise that a lot of games are rated over-18 only. But who are the guardians of taste and decency and how do they decide a videogame's age rating? In the UK, video games are classified by two bodies - the Pan European Game Information system (Pegi) and the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) - both of which have overlapping roles."
"For starters you're now looking at the latest Core 2 Duo Penryn processors. For the same starting price of $1,199, you now get a 20-inch iMac with 2.4GHz proc, 128MB of ATI Radeon HD 2400 XT graphics, 1GB of memory and a 250GB 7200RPM disk. The top of the line 24-inch model now sports a 3.06GHz processor, 512MB of NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GS graphics, 2GB of memory, and a 320GB 7200rpm disk for $2,199. Rounding out the specs across the lineup are Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, 802.11n WiFi, Gigabit Ethernet, built-in iSight cam, and 5x USB 2.0 (which includes the 2x on tethered keyboard) and 1x Firewire 400 and 1x Firewire 800. Same size, same weight and available now."
"How many times do you watch every episode of Battlestar Galactica? The answer may depend, not just on how much you enjoy hearing Edward James Olmos' smoky rasp, but also on how eager you are to freeze-frame key moments every episode in search of clues. If you look hard enough, there are little details in recent BSG episodes that either give a crucial glimpse of where the saga is going — or they show that fans have an overactive imagination."
"Got questions about Grand Theft Auto IV? We've maybe got some of the answers! In an effort to address some of the frequently asked questions about the game, its two console versions and the particular quirks of each, we're compiling a handy reference guide which we hope you find informative."
" Nobody really expected Wii Fit to be a flop, and obviously the rampant success in Japan should've tipped us off, but it looks like the little exercise-centric peripheral is really doing alright for itself over in Europe. Dixons.co.uk says it sold a Wii Fit every four seconds on Friday, and Amazon.co.uk says they sold out within 24 hours. No word on overall sales yet -- they've sold over 1.8 million units in Japan since the December launch -- but we'd recommend you get yourself a preorder or a nice spot in line if you plan on working that flab off anywhere near the May 21st launch date in the US."
"Not so long ago I got an email from one of the readers asking if there is a way to be notified about site updates when the site doesn’t offer RSS feeds. And since there are plenty of popular sites that don’t provide any feeds I thought it may be a good idea to write about it. So if you’re interested here are some free tools that can do the job."
"If you’re using an iPhone or a touch or some other mobile device this could be a very convenient way to retrieve a file from home and view it on your device."
"If you really want to understand how the dynamic works, there's no better place to look than Ning, a startup in Palo Alto -- located across the street from Facebook and a few clicks down the road from Google -- that was designed specifically to exploit viral loops. The brainchild of former Goldman Sachs investment banker Gina Bianchini and celebrity geek Marc Andreessen, Ning has been growing automagically from the moment it launched its Social Networks ."
"Many people are switching from Internet Explorer to alternative browsers such as Firefox and Safari. Though that might make them feel more secure, the shift has also opened new doors for bad guys."
"Dell will take advantage of a licensing option in Vista Business and Vista Ultimate that lets PC makers provide XP under the Vista license, which Microsoft calls a "downgrade" license. (Enterprises with site licenses have these same rights with any version of Vista.) In essence, the user is buying a Vista license that it can apply to XP, and Microsoft can still claim a Vista sale."
"An anonymous tipster tells TUAW that according to code found in the latest firmware release, Apple is working on a new iPhone application called iControl. Like Apple TV and other remote controllers, it would allow the iPhone to connect wirelessly to local iTunes libraries and browse through and play media from those sources."
"Using observatories on the earth and in space, astronomers have been able to study the nature of the cosmos in unprecedented detail. By analysing the motion of distant galaxies, they have discovered that the whole cosmos is expanding under the influence of forces unleashed at its birth in the big bang. Combined with studies of the radiation left over from that primordial explosion, they have found that the universe was born 13.7bn years ago, give or take 200m years."
"What is a cult book? We tried and failed to arrive at a definition: books often found in the pockets of murderers; books that you take very seriously when you are 17; books whose readers can be identified to all with the formula "
"The efficient and modern design of our aluminum docking stand vertically holds your laptop to organize your workspace. Our intelligent engineering not only offers optimal use of space but is an extension of the innovative Apple style."
"In this tutorial we'll put together a high-end web design using a crisp, thin font, gorgeous background images and clever use of space and layout. You can easily use the technique to create your own unique designs."
"The “Placentero” chair is designed by the young Argentinean designer Batti. It’s made from eco leather (white, red, or black), the outer sphere plastic surface is a slick cool-grey fibreglass shell. The Placentero aims to mimic the experiences of the human beings have before birth."
" With the latest release of the popular Linux-based operating system, Ubuntu Hardy Heron, the installation process just got easier for Windows users who wish to try out an alternative to Vista or XP. Even .NET developers who are looking out on trying the Mono project (the .NET platform for Linux-based operating systems) can benefit from it. All this is possible thanks to a little Windows utility called Wubi, which is an installer for Ubuntu. "
"James Karl Buck helped free himself from an Egyptian jail with a one-word blog post from his cell phone. Buck, a graduate student from the University of California-Berkeley, was in Mahalla, Egypt, covering an anti-government protest when he and his translator, Mohammed Maree, were arrested April 10. On his way to the police station, Buck took out his cell phone and sent a message to his friends and contacts using the micro-blogging site Twitter."
"Sometimes a bike is just a bike... there's no photoshopping going on here, guys. This is Uno, of course, a segway/motorcycle mashup shown publicly for the first time at the recent Toronto National Motorbike show. Technically it has two wheels, but they're right next to each other and it does balance on them under its own power."
"Blame broadband, says AT&T. Decades of dealing with the trickle of bandwidth consumed by voice and dialup modems left AT&T twiddling its thumbs. The massive rise of DSL and cable modem service in the 2000s has had AT&T facing a monstrous increase in the volume of data transmissions. And that's set to increase another 50 times between now and 2015. That's enough, says AT&T, to all but crash the system."
"Rivet allows you to access your digital life on your Xbox 360. Browse, play, and view all of your pictures, movies, and video through the Xbox 360's media blade right in your living room. Rivet will automatically load and give you full access to your iTunes music, iPhoto photographs, and any video or picture folder that you wish to share."
"The real life version does not have a flame thrower, like the one in Iron Man. But, thanks to its mechanical muscles, it is strong and moves seamlessly to mirror Jameson's every motion.To show off his superhuman endurance, Jameson can lift a bar loaded with 200lb for hundreds of times. "As far as software engineering goes, this job is about as good as it gets," he says.
"No matter what OS you use, you need to think about security. But what happens when you don't have time to think? Turn to Ars! We've got you covered with five freeware or shareware security tools for Linux boxes, Macs, and Windows machines, all recommended by Ars staffers. Running behind a firewall and a NAT router can keep many threats at bay, and skeptical computing can keep most people safe on the Internet, but it never hurts to have a toolbox of well-crafted apps that you can reach into should your machine be breached."
"Mesh allows you to synchronize up to 5GB of your files between various computers running XP or Vista (and, in the future, Windows Mobile phones and Macs) and, if you are using Internet Explorer, you can also remote control any of your machines that are running the Mesh synchronization software (it’s an ActiveX control, so it won’t run on Firefox)."
"The idea behind that theory is that as Flickr users proactively add tags to countless millions of photos stored on the site, the service is able to draw some very specific conclusions about the behavior of those users and the things that are happening around them. "
"Crafted by our analysts and editors and tested in PC Labs, our vast list of tips starts with the fundamentals of computing and then moves on to multimedia, mobility, business, and online solutions for maximizing your digital life. "
"RSS (Rich Site Summary, RDF Site Summary, or Really Simple Syndication) has been around since the mid-1990s. Over the years, several variants of the RSS format have popped up and several claims have been made about its ownership. Despite these differences, RSS never ceased to serve its usefulness in distributing Web content from one Web site to many others. The popularity of RSS gave way to the growth of a new class of Web software called the feed reader, also known as the feed aggregator."
"IT managers supervise information technology departments and ensure that all systems run smoothly. Students who major in information technology management earn a significant salary after graduation. Earnings are often dependent on employer and experience level, but in general, IT professionals with an MBA earn 46 percent more than IT pros with a bachelor's degree."
"Thank GOD summer is here. You can keep the chirping birds and baseball games, we're spending the season in the cool air conditioning of the movie theater. And like someone with Seasonal Affective Disorder that's been stuck in Alaska's 30 days of night, we could sure use some movie sunshine. Sure, there have been a few fun movies so far this year - Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Cloverfield, and... um, well... there's been at least two - but there has also been an insane amount of awful at the multiplex."
"We’ve all been there: the scenes in the movie where there’s some fantastic martial arts/gunplay/car chase/insert-theme-of- manliness-here, and we know, as Hollywood does, that it would be cool to relive the best moments in an interactive fashion… but only if the result didn’t always suck."
"In the wake of the intelligence bungles that propelled the United States into the Iraq war, it's no secret that the nation's spies have been working to improve the quality of their analysis. Now the top U.S. military intelligence agency has come up with a new tool for teaching recruits critical thinking skills: videogames."
"PC gaming doesn't necessarily need fixing. The industry is raking in money, and don't let anyone tell you differently. However, with the demise of Games for Windows/Computer Gaming World magazine, the popularity of consoles, and games that once might have been PC-only appearing on said consoles, sometimes exclusively, a lot of myopic dorks are calling for PC gaming's funeral."
"Gamers like to complain. I like to complain too. When you care about something, of course you are the first person to point out its problems and what needs fixing. Most of the time, we assume that fixing those things is somebody else's job, but actually there's a lot that we can all do to make gaming better for everyone – it isn't all just on us developer-types."
"You may not have the disposable income to take home our one of a kind PS3 Laptop (which is still up for charity auction!), but that doesn't mean you don't have the time or wherewithal to build one of your own. Which is why we've asked our man Ben Heck to show everybody how he built the thing for the benefit of independent modders everywhere. In this installment we'll take apart the PS3, identify the parts within, and then reassemble them in a more compact way. We'll also install a USB breakout cable and take a look under the mammoth heatsinks and pipes."
"As we all put our thinking caps on for this “save the environment” thing, and Americans begin to scream under the weight of rising fuel costs, one of the best ways around leaving a giant carbon footprint, or paying an arm and a leg, is to take the bus. Or the train. Or a subway."
"Microsoft Corp. CEO Steve Ballmer offered a glimmer of hope on Thursday to fans of the company's Windows XP operating system, saying the company may reconsider its decision to stop selling it soon. But Ballmer was adamant that most people who buy PCs today buy them with XP's successor, Vista."
"Being a WordPress devotee, the shocking thing about Drupal is that it doesn’t have a backup utility built into the core system. Any content management system that relies upon a back-end database should provide a way to back that database up regularly. Shockingly, Drupal doesn’t. But it does have a dedicated community, and there are a number of options out there for backing up your database. The one which I’ve been using lately is the Backup/Migrate module."
"Sky's upcoming on-demand TV service (now dubbed Go!View) for Sony's PSP will be available this summer, the British TV network said today. The service lets owners of the handheld game system use the Wi-Fi connection to watch shows offered on Sky independently of the satellite connection. Viewers will have the option of either paying per view or else paying a flat-rate subscription fee for watching many more shows. Shows can be downloaded first to the PC for transfer to the PSP later."
"Ubuntu 8.04 is available in a version tailored for server systems, but in the past it has been the desktop version that has garnered the most attention. The new release should be no different as it includes a number of improvements for desktop users -- most notably, a new installer that allows the OS to coexist on a Windows computer without partitioning or re-formatting the hard drive."
"Following Apple's second quarter earnings report on Wednesday, American Technology Research analyst Shaw Wu remains confident that the company is preparing to launch a 3G version of its popular iPhone during the World Wide Developer Conference in June. Along with the new 3G version, Apple could also launch an updated version of the current iPhone model, too."
"If you consider the sheer volume of television news channels in existence today, you know you’re running a loser’s race if you even so much as attempt to consume it all. Wouldn’t it be a real time saver to have someone tell you what (of possible interest) is being broadcast? Enter, LiveNewsCameras.com."
"Facebook has finally gone public with it’s new chat feature. It’s pretty harmless and nicely integrated with the option to hide offline if you’d like to. I’m sure many Facebook users will find it to be a nice addition compared to many of Facebook’s other changes and additions."
"Lately, the number of free online tools has grown enormously. Many of these tools are really original and useful. These services help you to do tasks that you would never imagine doing in such an easy and quick way. Sometimes, the same tools give you interesting ideas for your website, works... Ideas and concepts that can really increase your benefits. "
"Apple could be getting ready for the advent of the educational buying season with new iMacs. So says GeekSugar, which has a post up Thursday claiming Apple's about to tweak the all-in-one iMac desktop. It doesn't sound like much of an overhaul, just a speed bump to Intel's latest Penryn processors used by the MacBook and MacBook Pro and a larger hard drive, with no major design changes expected. Apple hasn't updated the iMac since introducing a new design for the lineup last August."
"Built into the knees are a pair of crotch rocking speakers, around the back you have the added convenience of a back pocket for your “mouse."
