I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious…
For some time I have used an older version of Nero without any issues. That is until my new laptop (with Vista) came along, and also because my test server is running Windows Server 2008.
For simple burning needs (as well as some extra’s like making an ISO from a DVD and a few other tools), I came across ImgBurn which is totally free / open source.
It works well with Vista and Server 2008, lightweight and of course… FREE!
So if you need a simple burner application… http://www.imgburn.com/
I came across this useful screen capture tool today. There are a few of these around, notably SnagIt which is excellent too. The good news with this tool, is that it is free, or at least 19.00 to buy a lifetime license. It has all the cool features you need from a screen capture tool, including annotations, drawing and sending to email, files, blogs etc direclty.
I only just discovered this today.. although if I use a local web server say IIS or Apache, I usually set the ports to 8080 or something.. mainly as I like to keep port 80 free for testing with Visual Studio etc.
Although I have needed to set IIS to run on port 80.. and found that port 80 was in use!
Actually I used SIW which is an excellent system information toolkit that you need to have. It basically runs standalone, which means it can run from a Flash Disk etc. To get this, go to http://www.gtopala.com/siw-download.html … which reminds me I really should donate or upgrade, as it is a really useful tool.
So, back to the Skype problem. By default (it seems), Skype connects using port 80/443, and so ties up those ports locally. I don’t think there is anything too suspicious going on here.. just a default.
To make Skype behave, follow the instructions below:
This should sort the problem!
If you don’t already know, Google has been for sometime now, touting a mobile phone operating system called “Android”. Essentially instead of say your usual Nokia interface/system that drives your phone with the menu/operations, Android does the same – but of course with some added differences. Notably Android has most of the Google applications/widget interface to allow quick access to Maps, Gmail etc, and also allows developers to create 3rd party applications for the phone system too.
Google are a little late to the party in some ways – the iPhone is here of course, and for a long time Windows based mobile smart phones have been doing the rounds. The big thing though (IMHO) is the pricing.. consider:
1. Windows based mobile devices are, and have been, quite expensive, although these days you
can get something relatively ok for around $499 au.
2. The iPhone is still darn expensive!
So.. and Australian based electronics company have come out with “Agora”. Kogan are set to release the phones early 2009. From what I can see, there will be 2 models:
1. One for $299 au which has 3g, touch interface with lots of features.
2. The other is $399 which looks like the same phone, but with GPS/WiFi too..
They actually look like really cool phones – very similar to say a HP, Blackberry or similar. Of course the main real difference is the price…
2.5-inch TFT-LCD flat touch-sensitive screen.
Integrated QWERTY keyboard.
High-speed 3G network connection.
One-Touch Google Search ™.
Easy Web Browsing.
Easy-to-use email with attachment support for images, videos, music and documents.
Customizable Home Screen with instant Email, text message and IM notifications.
Instant access to mobile Internet services (Gmail ™, YouTube ™, Google Talk ™, Google Calendar ™, Google Maps ™).
Music Player.
Bluetooth® 2.0 with Enhanced Data Rate
microSD™ expansion slot for all your storage needs.
Wi-Fi network access.
GPS navigation capability.
2.0 megapixel camera.
Ok, these days everything is online.. and take for instance a club meeting group or something like that. If you have spreadsheets, word documents etc, wouldn’t it be good to have just one version of the document online that:
Well, if you use Microsoft Office, or Word or Microsoft Works etc (although you could use other office software), Microsoft offer “Microsoft Office Live Workspace” for free! This is essentially a document/list store where you can keep your group documents online. In fact if you have Office 2003 or later (i.e. 2007 latest version), you can even access the documents direct from your local copy of Word, Excel, Powerpoint etc.
It is relatively easy to setup and manage, and in the next post I will step through this process with screen shots and easy how to’s!
To start, visit OfficeLive Workspace and get going!
Cloud computing, virtual servers and the like have started to be adopted as mainstream. It’s true.. look around. When you start to see big players like Microsoft getting involved (even though lots of other companies have been doing this for ages!), then you know the mainstream is really here for virtual computing.
Amazon WebServices have been a major player for a while now, offering “pay as you use” resources which were mainly centered around their EC2, S3 services (Elastic cloud and Storage 3). EC2 offers you the option to setup a linux machine pretty much immediately, use it for as long as you want, then destroy it - or keep it of course. The idea is you only get charged for the CPU/RAM hours you use. Amazon have to be one the major players for sure.
Then you have the smaller and possibly more nimble companies like GoGrid who offer a very visual way to create your own “cloud datacentre”.. again pay as you use, and you can (in the starter offerings) have upto 8 servers of mixed lineage i.e. Linux (lots of flavours), Windows (2003 and 2008 server), as well as database servers (mySQL, Microsoft SQL etc) and load balancer servers. I’m actually using GoGrid for Windows, and it works well - and quite cheap for essentially VPS servers which you can remote desktop to. Their Linux offerings provide SSH root access, but no GUI of course.. however I guess you can configure it that way if needs be.
There is also Mosso and SliceHost which are owned by some of the big hosting companies in the US (i.e. RackSpace etc), and offer some very cheap virtual computing… Mosso has Windows environments, and Slicehost seem to focus on just Linux.
So from a virtual online server world, things are changing, and also on the desktop too. VMware amongst others have again been around for some time, and yet again Microsoft have Virtual PC which enables you to run multiple OS’s within the one PC. For instance I am running vista, and I have two or three virtual PC images which enable me to run XP, 2003 server etc in parallel if I want (I have 1gb RAM at the moment, so one VPC is fine..). This makes testing, environmental processes so easy to setup and replicate as in the “real world”. I tend to keep a couple of “base images” which just have the default install, then copy those images to essentially create new “machines”. That process takes literally about 2-3 minutes! so I can test, delete, re-test without all the extra time and machines.
As for the best solutions? well it is of course subjective.. from a server perspective, I am finding GoGrid really good.. very easy to create new server images, and the cost seems to be very reasonable. Microsoft VPC is excellent for my use too.. and again mainly because my needs are windows.
Hope this helps!
After looking so much at the Silicon Valley events over in the US, this is a second post about sites/organisations down under that are really doing well in the VC/Startup community.
Worth a look - TechNation Australia
Working remotely and mostly freelance certainly has it’s own challenges. Not in the least is the misconception that you will have more “quality” time at home. I have been working remotely on and off for approx 3 years now, and it is an adventure! sure there are dark times, although thanks to a good heap of luck and determination (well ok, mostly luck!), it has/is working out quite well.
I think the hardest thing for me personally has been the dicipline. It is so easy in the early stages to simply put off work - “I can work later tonight”. You have to be more strict than when working a full time job. The positive sides are great too though - and environmentally helpful too! I don’t have to travel as much, in fact I probably travel about 75% less now. That means even by public transport, it’s a great saving. Also I don’t obviously spend as much. Travel aside, I still used to spend approx $20 per day on coffee, lunch etc, which is hard to control especially working in an office/corporate environment.
The main reason I can work quite well technically/logistically now is due to broadband. Internet speeds have increased, reliability is a lot better than the old days, and you can now have multiple backups without spending too much.
For instance, I have a home based wireless (like a satellite dish) broadband connection (due to the fact ADSL/Cable isn’t good enough around where I live). The connection is suprisingly good, and runs at around 1024/512k which is fine for what I need (obviously faster would be better). As a backup, I have an Optus (2nd largest Telecom in Australia) wireless broadband USB modem for either a PC/Laptop, and a secondary backup NextG (3G) mobile phone from Telstra. So in effect I have 3 different broadband connections working from different “backbones”. All this costs me no more than $140 per month which is exceptional considering this equates to about a week and half of my old daily spending budget whilst working in the city.
Here is another interesting article for “web workers”, actually from one of my favourite blogs “Web Worker Daily“
Yes it is true!
Whilst the TechieFerret is of course mostly tech oriented, there is (using the voice of Yoda from Return of the Jedi) “another”!
WebbyFerret will be coming soon to a browser near you!
WebbyFerret is dynamic, furiously curious about Internet Marketting, and lots more.
Check back soon for more, and remember to check http://www.webbyferret.com soon!
For a long time now, there has been lots of news about the “Google phone” which goes by the name of Android. Essentially it is an operating system for the new breed of mobiles to compete with the likes of Apple and Microsoft.
One of the interesting things is the “iPhone-ish” interface: a lot of the new Android based phones are touch screen, you can zoom/pan around the screen using your finger etc. It also has lots of the Google applications loaded like maps, street view, the browser of course, and also a very fast graphics processor. This is a major step when you see real-time 3D games being played on the Android phone!
The other plus is the price (or at least the expected price). The idea seems to be to make the phone(s) available for less than $200 US, making it definately within the reach of a lot more people who might think the iPhone is too expensive.
The BBC has a good run down of the Google phone, including a video demonstration of one of the Google Android phones…