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CyberNotes: 7-Zip Command Line Backups

Ryan — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 08:14:30 -0600

This article was written on January 03, 2008 by CyberNet.

Tutorial Thursday

The tool that I used for a long time for extracting and compressing archives is 7-Zip. It’s free, open-source, and has a powerful set of command line options that is perfect for performing backups. And today that’s exactly what we’re going to use it for.

We’re going to use a special version of 7-Zip that has no user interface whatsoever. It has to be used via the command line, and one of the benefits for using this version is that the entire application is self-contained in one single executable file. That makes it a great tool to carry around with you on a USB drive, and extremely easy to work with.

Here’s how to use the 7-Zip command line options to create backups at the click of a mouse:

The first thing you’ll want to do is go download the command line version of 7-zip. After you extract the contents you’ll notice that there are five files available. All we need is the 7za.exe, so you can delete the rest if you wish.
Open up Notepad, and now we’re going to create a batch file that will backup a folder location of our choosing. I’ve decided to backup everything on my desktop this time around, but it will work for any location as long as you know the path.

7za.exe a cybernet.7z "C:\Users\Ryan\Desktop"

Be sure to include quotation marks around any paths that have spaces in them. For this example I didn’t have to put quotation marks around my path, but it never hurts to include them.

This will archive the documents in the 7-Zip format, which means you’ll need to have 7-Zip to extract it. It’s good because the compression ratio is very high, which means the backup file will be rather small compared to the other compression formats. If you were going to send this to someone they may have troubles opening it, but you can choose save the file as a ZIP by replacing “7z” with “zip” in that line of code.
Now we need to save the batch file in the same place where the 7za.exe is located. In Notepad go to File -> Save As, and choose any filename. The only thing you need to make sure of is that at the end of the filename you include the .BAT extension:
Now all you have left to do is double-click on the batch file that you just created to run it. The resulting backup file will be located in the same place as the 7za.exe and the batch file, unless you’ve specified an alternate location in Step 2.
Extra Credit: You can always create a scheduled task that will run your batch file automatically at a time/date that you specify. That can be done by using the built-in Windows Scheduled Tasks wizard, which can be found in the Control Panel.

One other tip that I wanted to provide is how to automatically insert the current year, month, and day into the resulting filename. This would be useful for anyone looking to schedule backups, without wanting to overwrite the previous backup. In Step 2 from our example above you would want to replace:

cybernet.7z

with:

%DATE:~-4%-%DATE:~4,2%-%DATE:~7,2%_cybernet.7z

which for today would give a result of:

2008-01-03_cybernet.7z

Now every backup will remain in tact, assuming that you create no more than one backup per day.

For those of you who want to dive a little deeper in to the 7-Zip command line options, here are the different things that the “a” can be replaced with in Step 2:

a: Add to an existing archive, or create a new one
d: Delete files from an archive
e: Extract files from an archive
t: Test the integrity of an archive
u: Update the files in an archive

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Adobe Apollo Alpha: For Rich Internet Applications

Ryan — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 00:05:04 -0600

This article was written on March 19, 2007 by CyberNet.

Adobe has just hit a huge milestone today by releasing an Alpha version of their much anticipated Apollo software. This is something that I had been waiting to hear, but are you wondering what the heck Apollo is? Here is how Adobe explains it in their press release:

Apollo is the code name for a cross-operating system application runtime that allows web developers to leverage their existing skills in HTML, JavaScript and Ajax, as well as Adobe Flash and Adobe Flex software to build and deploy rich Internet applications (RIAs) on the desktop. Apollo combines the reach of Internet technologies with the richness of desktop applications, working seamlessly across operating systems and outside the browser to deliver a more consistent and engaging user experience.

The press release even states that eBay is working to take advantage of Apollo to bring in a better experience for their users. It is kinda hard to explain how this could revolutionize the future of online websites, so why don’t I just show you in the eBay demo for Apollo where it is pretty apparent the benefits it will have:

Now I’m not exactly sure if you think that is as cool as I do, but this is going to change the way that we interact with online information. The other thing that is huge is that the software developed using Apollo is cross-platform…so it won’t matter what operating system your website visitors are using because they should all be able to take advantage of Apollo’s offerings.

A little over halfway through the video you should have seen what happens when these Apollo applications go offline. Despite being offline the user is still able to utilize certain features that would ordinarily be rendered inaccessible. It is exciting to think that developers will be able to start taking advantage of a technology that is cross-platform like this.

Right now there is just the Apollo Alpha developers kit, so it is still in the very early stages. However, I’m sure many people are going to start looking into how this works and how they can take advantage of it.

All I can say is…I want that eBay “application”!

Apollo Homepage (mostly for developers)

News Source: Information Week

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CyberNotes: Best Portable Antivirus Software

Ryan — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 15:50:36 -0600

This article was written on October 09, 2007 by CyberNet.

Time Saving Tuesday

Have you ever been on another computer and wished that you had an antivirus program? Maybe you were trying to clean up a computer for a friend, or maybe you received an email attachment while using a public computer? One thing is for sure, and it’s that having the best antivirus is important, but there are times where you just need something.

Today we’re going to present you with three portable antivirus solutions that can be used for scanning files in an emergency. They are all self updating, and require absolutely no installation. But remember, these are not replacements for installed applications as they are only made to do on-demand scanning.

–Portable ClamWin (Homepage)–

Click to Enlarge

ClamAV is an extremely popular open source antivirus application. It was recently ranked very highly in the quest for the best Linux antivirus, it even beat out many of the highly acclaimed commercial solutions. Shortly after that the makers of the application were acquired by Sourcefire.

To get Portable ClamWin up and running all I had to do was run the executable, which then extracted several files to a directory. The first time that I ran it I was forced to update the program because the portable version comes with no virus definitions. So you may want to make sure to run the program at least once before throwing it on your USB drive, because if you don’t have an Internet connection you’ll be out of luck.

This is my top recommendation for portable antivirus software because it frequently receives updates.

Portable ClamWin will occupy about 19.1MB of room on your drive.

–Portable Antivirus (Homepage)–

Click to Enlarge

This program appears to be relatively new, and from what I can tell it has been around for less than 7 months. My favorite thing about this generically named program is that it is composed of a single file. It even comes bundled with a set of virus definitions so that it is ready to go out-of-the-box. Although the included virus definitions are just a small set relative to the other apps mentioned here.

There is a real-time scanning option available on this application, but it will be disabled if you are running it from the standalone file. This makes sense though, because if you were to use this on a USB drive it would create insane amounts of overhead, and would greatly hinder your ability to access the drive.

One nice touch that the program offers is a useful System Tray icon. From there you can start a full system scan, check for updates, or close the program all together.

Portable Antivirus will occupy about 847KB of room on your drive.

–MicroWorld Free Antivirus (Homepage)–

Click to Enlarge

This is one of the last tools that I stumbled upon, and I thought it was just a virus scanner like the others that I’ve listed here. It does scan your memory, registry, files, and more for viruses, but it also has an extremely useful network activity monitor.

In the network activity monitor you’ll be able to keep track of any communication going in and out of the computer. It also shows the ID of the computer “on the other end” so that you know who you are communicating with. If you ever try to diagnose a friends computer that is plagued with unknown programs and files, this will be a good way to identify the software that is frequently communicating with the outside world.

MicroWorld Free Antivirus will occupy about 18.8MB of room on your drive.

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IE 8 Passes Acid 2 Test

Ryan — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 07:33:03 -0600

This article was written on December 20, 2007 by CyberNet.

Microsoft has been receiving a heap of criticism lately for their Internet Explorer web browser, and the Opera antitrust suit just added more fuel to the flames. People want to see Internet Explorer follow the standards that other web browsers have already complied with, and that will hopefully increase the number of sites that are compatible outside of the IE realm.

Despite being overly “hush hush” about the next version of Internet Explorer, the development team has decided to help put our weary hearts at ease by telling us that the current internal version of Internet Explorer 8 already passes the Acid 2 test. There are not many *released* browsers out there that can boast such an accomplishment: Safari, Konqueror, and Opera. Firefox 3, which is expected for release in the first half of 2008, also passes the test.

If you’re thinking that Microsoft did this purely because of the pressure put on by Opera I think you’re wrong. It would have been pretty difficult for them to slap together Acid 2 compliance in such a short period of time, and I would therefore have to believe they’ve been working on it for awhile. Although I do have a strong inkling that they only posted this information because of the antitrust suit.

Now the only problem is browser adoption. Even though Internet Explorer 8 is going to be mounds better when it comes to standards, it won’t mean a thing if users don’t download it. I’ve been rather disappointed at the rate at which IE 7’s market share is increasing, and it looks as though many users are content with IE 6. Hopefully we’ll see more people adopting the standards compliant browsers in the future.

Internet Explorer 8 is not expected to be shipped until 2009, but Microsoft has said that the first Beta should be rolling out in the first half of 2008. If you’re anxious to give the new browser a whirl keep an eye out because an early look could be just a few months away.

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The Truth Behind Computer Repairs (Geek Squad, Fry’s, and More)

Ryan — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 23:15:33 -0600

This article was written on April 24, 2007 by CyberNet.

Since I am pretty knowledgeable about the internal workings of a computer, I often find myself helping others find the light at the end of the tunnel. By that I mean people who are having problems with their computers and have no idea where to begin. Typically they will just take it to a computer repair shop, but when you know someone that understands how computers work then you will of course turn to them first.

Most of the time the questions come at the most inopportune time for me. It is often when I am busy working on something else, but I always try to help others out with their problems…normally without charging a fee. For the most part no one really takes advantage of me, and if I feel that they are I will start billing them for some of the work. So why do I want to help people with their computer problems in the first place?

There are so many computer repair businesses out there that it is almost disgusting. People prosper from hard drives failing, motherboards getting fried, and the list keeps on going. Best Buy even has their “Geek Squad” that offers to not only fix your computer problems, but also setup networks among other things. The problem is that these companies pride themselves on having a “knowledgeable” repair staff, when most of them are lacking a lot of the experience that they need to be qualified for such a job.

The video below clearly demonstrates why I like to help people out with repairs, especially when they are minor ones. Basically this news station took a “broken” computer to 8 computer shops in their area. They had the computer checked out by a professional before hand to make sure it was in perfect working order, and then all they did was disconnect the cable that connects the hard drive to the motherboard. A fix that would take just seconds for any good computer repair person to complete wasn’t as cheap as you may think:

Here is what some of the different companies were charging to “repair” the computer:

Best Buy’s Geek Squad: They couldn’t fix it because they claimed the computer needed a new power supply that they didn’t carry. Best Buy responded to the misdiagonoses saying that “Computer malfunction can be hard to pinpoint.” If they can’t diagonose a disconnected cable then what can they do right?
Circuit City: Fixed it for $59.99 after saying there were also issues with the jumpers being set incorrectly on the hard drive.
CompUSA: Fixed the problem and didn’t lie about what was wrong, but still charged $119.99.
Fry’s: Charged $69.99 for the repair and also didn’t lie about the cause of the malfunction.
Torrance Computer Repair: They fixed it for free!
BMI Computers: Claimed there was a power short and that the motherboard and hard drive were bad…and it would cost $275 to fix!

I am still not sure if I should be shocked at the results or not, because I knew that the services were a rip off. I guess that is what keeps some of these electronics stores in business.

If you know anything about computers at least try and give people advice when they need to get something fixed, because I’m sure you would feel bad if they had to shell out that much money for something so simple!

Thanks for the tip Jason!

Source: Daily Cup of Tech

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WrapUp: Offline Gmail, Free Push Email for iPhone, and More

Ryan — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 15:00:04 -0600

This article was written on July 17, 2008 by CyberNet.

Welcome to the WrapUp by CyberNet. This is a collection of news stories and tips that we have collected over the last few days, but never got around to writing about. Don’t forget to send in your own tips, or just leave a comment on this page if you think you’ve got something we should include.

–News–

Gmail & Google Calender Offline Support
Sometime in the next 6 weeks Google will be adding Gears support to both Gmail and Google Calendar. This is a big step for Google, and it will mean that their most popular services will be able to go offline if needed.

Opera Mobile 9.5 Beta Released
It took a little while, but Opera has finally gotten around to releasing the first public Beta of their Opera Mobile 9.5 software. This is designed for Pocket PC devices, and is free while it’s in Beta. [related]

Meebo Launching Branded Chat Services
Meebo has plans of launching a branded chat service for users that want to integrate chat capabilities on their own sites. It will also include an advertising option, and with it the publishers will get a cut of the revenue.

YouTube Comes to TiVo
Can’t find anything on TV to watch? Just flip on your TV and start watching millions of different YouTube videos through your TiVo. You can watch popular videos, recent videos, or search for something on the site. Talk about hours of ~~quality~~ entertainment.

Unofficial RSS Feeds for iPhone App Store
One thing Apple really needs to do is create an RSS feed that makes tracking new applications in the App Store easy. Luckily one group of people have taken it upon themselves to create RSS feeds for new apps, updated apps, and more.

Dell Latitude XT Gets a Multitouch Upgrade
Dell has impressively released a free update for Dell Latitude XT Tablet PC owners that gives the operating system multitouch capabilities. You can do things like zoom in/out of photos in an iPhone-like fashion. [related]

Gmail iGoogle Gadget Gets Updated
Google has finally done justice to the iGoogle gadget for Gmail. Before it didn’t do much more than tell you what emails were in your Inbox, but now you can delete, mark as spam, and compose messages right from the homepage. Not bad.

Apple Goes After Psystar
Psystar has been selling computers with Mac OS X for a few months now, and it looks like Apple has finally unleashed their lawyers. Not only do they want Psystar to stop selling their computers, but they want them to recall all of the ones that have already shipped! [related]

Google’s Android Not So Open After All
Google has apparently been giving 50 or so developers private access to improved versions of the Android operating system, and have bound them to non-disclosure agreements. That’s a little disappointing for everyone else developing for the platform.

Find the Name of Any Gmail User
Using Google Calendar you can apparently find the name of any Gmail user by simply sharing a calendar with that person. This is one way that spammers could possibly get your name to make an email appear personalized.

Amazon Kindle 2.0 Coming Around October
The next generation Amazon Kindle will be coming just in time for the holiday season this year. It will have an improved form factor and be smaller in size, but the screen will still be the same size. [related]

YouTube to Mask Data Before Giving it to Viacom
There was some worry about what kind of information Viacom was going to get from Google, but it looks like the data will be masked before it reaches the hands of Viacom. [related]

Twitter Buys Summize
The Twitter search engine called Summize was purchased by none other than Twitter themselves. The transaction amount is unknown, but it’s estimated at about $15 million.

Big Blimps Making a Comeback
Boeing is working with a Canadian company to create blimps that can carry heavy loads in remote areas. The 302-foot-long airships will be equipped with rotors to make flying them easier, and they’ll be able to carry 40 tons up to 200 miles without refueling.

–Tips, Tutorials, and Reviews–

Top 10 Computer Annoyances & How to Fix Them
Lifehacker shows us how to fix common annoyances, such as slipstreaming XP SP3 or shutting down Dashboard widgets on Mac OS X.

Firefox Wallpapers
Want to show off your love for Firefox? This is a great collection of wallpapers that you’re sure to enjoy.

Free Push Email for iPhone
This is a guide on how you can setup free push email, contacts, and calendar for your iPhone. It’s not an optimal solution, but it’s hard to complain when it’s free.

Stop URL’s from Displaying When Printing Websites
Prevent URL’s from showing up whenever you print a website. These are instructions for both Internet Explorer and Firefox, and it takes just a few seconds to do.

Convert TinyURL’s to Real URL’s
Services like TinyURL are nice because they conserve space, but it can be frustrating to not know where a link is going to take you before you actually click on it. Webware has a few different solutions that will convert the TinyURL links into the actual URL’s that they points to.

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SlideRocket: Amazing Online Presentation Creator

Ryan — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 06:21:46 -0600

This article was written on March 20, 2008 by CyberNet.

(Click to Enlarge)

Omar tipped me off yesterday to a rather amazing presentation creator currently in private Beta called SlideRocket. It’s completely Flash-based, and the interface I would say is one of the best out of all the competing products.

I tinkered around with it for quite awhile, and I was impressed with the number of features it includes. Not only can you upload media such as pictures and videos, but you can also search online sites such as Flickr and Yahoo for media to add to your presentation. Other standard items like charts, shapes, and tables can also be added.

There is also a plugin system that I think will really help attract users. In a few clicks you can search and add a famous quote, word definition, or Yahoo map to a presentation without ever leaving SlideRocket. It’s still quite limited at this point, but if they build up the number of plugins it would become a very attractive service.

The thing that I enjoyed the most, however, would have to be the varying slide transitions that are available. I’ve embedded one of their presentations below so that you can see what I’m talking about:

There is just one problem…there are too many of these darn online office applications out there! At this point SlideRocket isn’t even publicly available, and it won’t be until this summer. If I start creating all of my presentations with them how do I know that they’ll be here tomorrow? I guess you don’t really know that with any of the online alternatives out there, but there’s a little more reassurance when using Google Docs or Zoho since they have become well established in their field.

My inquiring mind is now wondering that if a better online office suite emerges are you less inclined to use it if it’s not coming from someone that is well established?

SlideRocket [via TechCrunch]

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Dell 2405FPW 24″ Monitor For $879.99 At Costco

Ryan — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 22:16:03 -0600

This article was written on January 16, 2006 by CyberNet.

Costco currently has the Dell 2405FPW 24″ Monitor For $879.99 and while this may not be the best deal around, it is so great because of Costco’s return policy:

If you have receipt and product (even if it’s damaged, dead pixels, leaking, etc) you can return it in 20 years (but realistically try to keep it to no more than 5)

I have no way to confirm this policy because I have never used it before but someone mentioned this on SlickDeals. I am, however, a current owner of this 24″ monitor and it would be hard not to have it now. I highly recommend it to anyone even considering it. This gives you the most screen space for your buck, where the Dell 30″ monitor just gives you the most screen space!

News Source: SlickDeals

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Yahoo Rewarding Users for Switching to Flickr

Ashley — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 13:49:05 -0600

This article was written on June 19, 2007 by CyberNet.

Last week I mentioned that Yahoo Photos is closing, and that there are several alternatives for replacement services. If you choose one of Yahoo’s selected services, it’s a one-click migration process. There are five different services available as alternatives, and some of them are offering incentives if you select them.

Of course Flickr is owned by Yahoo, and so obviously they’d like you to select their service. Radu, one of our readers, just switched from Yahoo Photos to a Flickr account and noticed that he had a Pro Account. After searching around for an explanation, he found this in his order history:

“June 17, 2007 – 3 months of Pro Account status fell from the sky on to You (a gift from Flickr to say thanks!) – $0.00.”

So there’s your incentive for joining Flickr, a free Pro Account for three months which is usually priced at $24.95 per year. A regular account offers 100 MB monthly upload limit (5MB per photo), 3 sets, and Photostream views are limited to the 200 most recent images. Compare that with a Pro account where you have unlimited uploads, storage, bandwidth, photosets, and more.

For those of you who know that Flickr is not for you, here are incentives from the other services:

Shutterfly: Get a free 8×8 inch photo book
Kodak Gallery: Get 20 free 4×6 inch prints
Snapfish: Get 50 free 4×6–inch prints

If free prints is what you’re looking for, Snapfish is the way to go! It appears as though Photobucket is the only one that doesn’t have any kind of incentive for switching to their service. If by chance they are and I’m just not aware of it, let us know in the comments so we can add it to the list.

Thanks for the tip Radu!

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Ping Pong Flash Game Overly Addicting

Ryan — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 05:38:39 -0600

This article was written on November 07, 2006 by CyberNet.

I was looking for a fun game to play on the Internet today when I stumbled upon this Flash-based ping pong game. It sounds like such a simple concept but I was surprised at how difficult it was for me to even score a single point. I have started to gain some skill but I am yet to win a game. Once I do win I may actually be able to stop playing.

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Showcase Firefox Extension Makes Viewing Tabs Easy

Ryan — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 21:33:53 -0600

This article was written on September 13, 2006 by CyberNet.

Firefox is great because of how easy it is to use the tabs and the extensibility that the browser has. The Firefox Showcase extension brings both of those great things together to give you a visual overview of all of your tabs. It has a whole slew of features such as:

Multiple view modes: single window, tab, or sidebar (pictured below).
Find bar to filter thumbnails.
Easily select multiple thumbnails with Shift-Click or Ctrl-Click.
Customizable zooming when hovering over a thumbnail (pictured above).
A great configuration panel.
And Much More!

I like being able to view all of the thumbnails in the sidebar without the need of opening another tab which is what other similar extensions do. The latest version that was just released yesterday has several improvements as well as Firefox 2 Beta 2 compatibility.

Here is a screenshot of the sidebar thumbnails:

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My Logitech MX Revolution Mouse Review

Ryan — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 13:21:52 -0600

This article was written on October 23, 2006 by CyberNet.

Over the weekend I decided to buy myself a Logitech MX Revolution mouse which was just recently released. Those of you who have heard of the mouse before have no doubt seen the steep price tag that goes along with it. Yep, this mouse retails for $100 but you can find it at most places, like NewEgg, for around $90.

I was strongly discouraged by the price as well but when I was rummaging around our local Best Buy electronics store I noticed they had one on display. I played around with it and was remarkably amazed at how well it fit my hand. Best Buy was offering a $10 gift card with the $100 mouse so I coughed out the money to make the purchase.

When I brought it home I was very impatient to give it a try but I did what every good person should do and let it fully charge. While waiting I thought I would get the needed software installed so that after the charging was complete it would be ready to go. I was infuriated to find out that the SetPoint program said it was not Vista compatible! The box and website both say that it is compatible with Windows Vista and I guess it is but you can’t use the software…which makes many of the cool features useless.

As everyone knows I am very much a software tester and love to try things that say they don’t work, so I went ahead and installed the software anyway. Turns out the software completely works with Windows Vista despite them saying that it doesn’t. The features are the most amazing that I have seen on any mouse.

First-off, there are 7-buttons which are all completely customizable using the software that they provide. There are the standard back and forward buttons that are located on the side of the mouse but you’ll also notice the secondary scroll wheel located right below those. By default that is set to utilize the application switching program that is included with the SetPoint software. It lets you switch between open windows faster than anything I have ever used before by displaying a popup window located underneath the mouse cursor:

The top/main scroll button is also extraordinary in a different way. It doesn’t have the standard middle-click option set by default which is something that I never used anyway. Instead, if you push in on this scroll wheel it will switch modes between click-to-click and free-spin. The click-to-click is exactly what you’ll find on most mice where it partially rotates and then “clicks” into position. There is also the free-spin mode which lets you rotate the scroll wheel with nearly no friction (a.k.a. no clicking).

The click-to-click is actually my favorite because it can be configured to automatically switch between the two modes. If I am just scrolling slowly it will use the click-to-click but if I start to go a little faster it will shift to the free-spin. Since I can manually switch between the modes it will also remember which mode I am in for each application. That way I can use free-spin in Microsoft Word but have the mouse set to click-to-click when using PowerPoint.

The button located below the top scroll wheel is used for searching by default. Just highlight a word in any application and press that button and it will perform a Yahoo (can also be configured to Google) search in your browser. This is one of those buttons that you don’t think you would use until you actually have it! If you end up not using it then just configure the button to do almost anything you would like:

As you can see in the screenshot above there is also the option to configure the buttons on an individual basis for programs. This comes in handy because in several of the applications I use the forward and back buttons are typically useless, such as in Mozilla Thunderbird. For that program I set the Forward button to create a new email and the back button to delete the currently selected email, which are both done using keystroke assignments.

The mouse is also rechargeable so you don’t have to worry about going through the batteries like water. Judging by the power meter I should receive 4 days of use on a single charge…which is good in my book.

I’m not sure how this will stack up for the gamers out there because I don’t really play games. There are several settings in the options though that are related only to game configurations:

I understand that you might be skeptical about purchasing a mouse that costs $100 because I was too, but it is one of the best investments that I have made when it comes to computer add-ons. The charging station is separate from the USB receiver which is actually really nice because the wireless receiver is half the size of a typical flash drive…making it portable enough for me to use with my laptop as well as my desktop. So if you have enough money laying around I would highly recommend picking up this mouse.

Note: The Logitech MX Revolution is also compatible with Mac OS X but I only have Windows machines so I was unable to test the mouse with it.

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Vista Transformation Pack 6 for Windows XP/2003 Released…Wow!

Ryan — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 04:57:01 -0600

This article was written on December 26, 2006 by CyberNet.

What a Christmas present this was! Vista Transformation Pack 6 was just released yesterday with all kinds of new goodies including 3rd-party applications for providing features like Taskbar thumbnail previews and a remarkable sidebar just like Vista’s. In case you are unfamiliar with this application I will forewarn you that there is a tendency for it not to uninstall all the way in case you decide that you don’t like it. I think most of the time the problem lies within replacing the icons with the old Windows XP ones, but I have personally never had issues.

With that being said I want to give credit to “Windows X” for making this release better than all previous versions. After installing the Vista Transformation Pack you’ll notice that all of the following have been changed to appear more like Vista:

Boot screen
Welcome Screen / Logon Screen
New msstyles files (visual styles)
New desktop and file icons
New toolbar icons
Progress Dialogs
Sounds scheme
System Tray icons
New Wallpapers
Windows Media Player Skins

Besides for bug fixes, here is a list of what’s new in version 6:

Additional Vista related applications:
- Vista Sidebar
- VisualTooltip (Taskbar thumbnail view and also have docking mode)
- Styler with Kaye Ireneâ€™s Vista Perfection X4 Styler Toolbar
- Start Orb (fix cutting edge start orb in msstyles)
- Vista Live Messenger RC skin
Applying Vista setup screen transformation in setup integration
Browsable System files source for uninstallation so user can restore original system files from setup CD during uninstallation
Display configuration for the best view of machineâ€™s display
Fixing fileâ€™s PE checksum after resource patching to keep files more secure
Launch & Maintenance Center in transformation destination in case user already have transformed the system
Partially x64 support for Vista visual stuff but not for system files (experimental)
Option to reserved updated system files after uninstallation or not
Skipping system file verification patch on setup integration
Vista RTM system applications transformation:
- Photo printing wizard
- Remote Desktop Connection
- Volume Control
- Windows Task Manager
- System Restore
- Connection Manager
- Windows Update Client
- Media Center

Those of you attempting to upgrade from a previous version of Vista Transformation Pack shouldn’t have a problem, but if you do please mention it in the comments so others know what to expect. This application is so close to Vista that I bet you could trick 99% of the population that don’t have hands-on experience with Vista. So if you are looking to give your XP machine a fresh new look you should check out the new Vista Transformation Pack 6!

View Larger Screenshots

Download FAST from FileHo (I setup this mirror because their mirrors were going slow)
Download from SendSpace, SaveFile, or SoftVisia.

Discussion at JCXP.net

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CyberNotes: mynoteIt.com Helps Keep College Students Organized

Ashley — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 20:25:56 -0600

This article was written on August 25, 2006 by CyberNet.

Free For All Friday

With a new semester of college underway, many students will be looking for a way to organize themselves whether it be with their class notes or assignments. Simply keeping track of notes and assignments can be quite the task, especially when students are distracted multiple times throughout the day with social sites like MySpace or Facebook. I’m guilty of using both, and at times they are addicting and can keep me from staying on task. One site that was brought to my attention called mynoteIT.com has lots of tools that college students would be looking for to keep themselves organized.

mynoteIT.com is a fairly new site in beta that is easy to use, and best of all, free! Afterall, what college student has money they’re willing to fork out for the sake of organization? In an email we received from Alex Weidmann, one of the developers, he says “[mynoteIt] was created and developed by two college students who are just trying to make school a little easier for everybody.” That’s the first plus– college students designing something FOR college students, you can’t go wrong there! They update their blog regularly with notes and updates to the site. What is mynoteIt all about? Here are some of the features (this list is not exhaustive):

–Workspace Utilities–

This feature certainly would have been helpful for me last semester while I struggled my way through Spanish class. Many colleges and universities require students to take a foreign language whether they want to or not. And of course, many struggle or barely make it through. With workspace utilities, you’re able to look up and translate words, even sentences between languages. This can be done while you’re taking class notes and would definitely help the struggling foreign language student.

–Share notes with friends–

There are a multitude of reasons why students miss (or shall I say skip?) class. And of course after the fact, you can find them scrambling to get a friend to email class notes or visa versa– you’re the one your friends are coming to after they’ve skipped class because they know you take good notes. Regardless of the situation, sharing notes with friends is made easy. You have the option when you’re taking notes to make them private or public. And then when you’re wanting to share them with friends, you’re able to email them, send them through mynoteIt, or give them a direct link to the notes.

According to their blog entry on August 15th, they’ve added the ability to tag your notes which also means you’re able to search for notes by tags. Just think about the possibilities with that! They also have a comment system so that users are able to comment and leave feedback on your notes– this could potentially be beneficial to you and those who view your notes.

–mynoteIT search–

The search feature makes it possible to search your notes or community notes. For now, it is probably best to search your own notes until more users start using the service. I did a community search on “computer programming” with no results. As more users add content, the community search feature could become a useful tool for writing papers, researching, etc.

–Auto-save notes–

Worried about losing all of your notes? mynoteIT.com uses a WYSIWYG note editor that will save your work every 10 seconds. This leaves you with no room or reason to worry about what happens to your work when your browser crashes. Occasionally that does happen and normally it does so when you least expect it.

–Upcoming assignment reminder–

After setting up an account, I spent a few minutes playing around with the site and some of the features. With the upcoming assignment reminder, you’ll be emailed when you have an assignment due in the next week. Additionally, if you are involved in groups, the group activity feature will track the activity and email you when/if there are updates. The reminder feature ought to keep you from being that unreliable group member that always forgets to show up for group meetings!

–mynoteIT Groups–

I don’t know about you, but in previous semesters I’ve been bombarded with group projects. When you have multiple groups you’re working with, sometimes it’s hard to keep track of where to meet and when and with who, and then of course communicating about the project when you’re not at school can be a nightmare. That’s why I like the group feature where you can add all of your group members and send messages to them. Another option within the groups is to share a calendar with important group dates on it.

–A few additional things–

As of August 10th, they’ve redesigned their grade tracking program. While I was not familiar with their previous version, the new version is said to make things a bit easier. You’re able to enter in the scores you received, and the grade tracker will tell you what grade you have for each class. On your mynoteIt homepage, there is a “to-do” list to help keep yourself organized and on track. It’s easy to add an additional item to the list with a click.

One thing that might be a useful addition would be a graphic of your schedule of classes. I always like to visually see what chunks of my day are blocked out from classes so I know when I can schedule a group meeting or when I have free time, etc.

All in all mynoteIt.com is a very useful site for any college student. Again, as mentioned, the list of features I covered is not exhaustive. There are lots of things to play around and you don’t even have to register in order to try it. They haven’t been around for too long and are clearly growing. Once students utilize the note feature, searching notes from other members would be pretty useful. If you’re a student and you need some help with organization, check it out and let the team of developers know what you liked and what you want to see. I know they’re open to any suggestions!

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A Great High-Tech Pedometer – Omron HJ-720ITC

Ashley — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 12:22:03 -0600

This article was written on September 29, 2007 by CyberNet.

Earlier this week, Matt Cutts wrote about his favorite pedometer, the Omron HJ-720ITC. When he mentioned that it has a USB connector and comes with software so you can upload and track your data on a computer, I thought it was worth checking out. It didn’t sound like any ordinary pedometer to me, and sure enough, it’s not. This pedometer is the ultimate fitness gadget for geek’s, because after all, not all geek’s sit in front of the computer or play video games all day!

The biggest thing that sets the Omron HJ-720ITC apart from other pedometers is the Omron Health Management Software that comes with it. It’ll work great on Windows 2000 or XP (No Mac, Windows Vista, or Linux) and provides you with a visual graph of the total steps you’ve taken, the aerobic steps you’re taken, and a walking report. This software will help you keep track of your progress over time. The image below shows what the interface looks like:

Another great thing about this pedometer is that you don’t have to clip it to your belt! You can either attach it to your belt, a pocket, or even a bag. Other features include:

Measures steps, aerobic steps and minutes, calories, and distance
Display a 7 day history
Keeps a 42 day history in memory

For only $33 bucks at Amazon, I’d say this is a great deal!

Matt pointed out a few other things in his article such as this suggestion for Omron: “Make the pedometer look like a little flash drive, and create a special text document on the pseudo-drive with the user’s step data. Then anyone could read their data, regardless of the type of computer they used.” Wouldn’t that be nice?

Now, we know all of you don’t sit in front of your computers 24 hours a day, so what do you do in your free time to stay active?

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The Wii-mote More Than 10-Years In The Making?

Ryan — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 04:09:41 -0600

This article was written on December 19, 2006 by CyberNet.

I was flipping through some of the Digg upcoming stories when I saw one that referenced a patent for the Wii-mote (Nintendo Wii controller) that was filed back in 1993. It really caught my attention so I pulled up the Google Patent page that it linked to so that I could see for myself what the buzz was about. The item being patented is pictured above and this is the description of the unit:

A wireless remote control system is provided. The remote control system includes a remote unit and a receiver unit, and may be utilized in connection with a video game system or other controllable system. The receiver unit includes a plurality of detectors for detecting a signal transmitted by a remote unit. An angle-limiting device is coupled to each detector for limiting the signal which may be received by the particular detector to that signal which is transmitted from a particular location. In one embodiment, the angle-limiting device may limit the signal received by the detector to that signal transmitted from within a specified angular range relative to the detector. In a preferred embodiment, the angle-limiting devices coupled to the plurality of detectors may be arranged so that each angle-limiting device allows a signal to be received by the respective detector from a unique angular region. In another embodiment, the angular regions may be overlapping.

That sounds pretty close to the Wii-mote to me, and then in the claims it goes into further details saying:

14. The remote control system receiver according to claim 1, wherein said controllable device is a video game.

15. The remote control system receiver according to claim 1, wherein said controllable device is a Nintendo Entertainment System.

Ahh, don’t you just love the jibber jabber language that makes up these patents. It’s like they try to word it in such a way that it doesn’t even make sense except to themselves.

I’m wondering if this is really the patent for the Wii-mote or if it is just something similar that was once invented. If Nintendo really did use this then the inventor, Howerd Oakford, has surely got to be filthy rich by now. Well, maybe he will donate some of the money to the people who have been injured by the Wii (because of carelessness).

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New Experimental Features with Gmail Labs

Ashley — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 19:48:30 -0600

This article was written on June 06, 2008 by CyberNet.

Google has decided to take a few risks with Gmail by introducing Gmail labs. They say that they receive a lot of ideas for Gmail from both users and employees at Google, but they don’t always have the time to develop and implement them all. For this reason they started Gmail Labs which they say, “is a way for us to take lots of the ideas we wouldn’t normally pick and let you all decide whether they’re good or not.

For now it’s just offered in standard Gmail, and not for those using Google Apps. That’s not to say that they won’t offer this feature in the future for Google Apps users though. We could easily see this turning into something like iGoogle where everyday users, not just Google employees, will be able to submit their own work which would be great.

At this point, the Google Labs feature is available to those in the United States and the United Kingdom. You’ll know if you have it by logging into Gmail and clicking on the Settings tab. If you see a section at the far right labeled “Labs,” you have it. Just click on it to browse through the features that have already been made.

Of course you can view all of the different new features here, but we’ll quickly run through them so you can get an idea of what’s available:

Quick Links: Adds a box to the left column that gives you 1-click access to any bookmarkable URL in Gmail. You can use it for saving frequent searches, important individual messages, and more.
Superstars: Adds additional star icons. After enabling this feature, you can choose which icons you wish to use in the “General” Settings page.
Pictures in chat: See your friends’ profile pictures when you chat with them.
Fixed width font: Adds an option to the reply dropdown menu that lets you view a message in fixed width font.
Custom keyboard shortcuts: Lets you customize keyboard shortcut mappings. Adds a new Settings tab from which you can remap keys to various actions.
Mouse gestures: Use your mouse to navigate with gestures. Hold right-click and move the mouse left to go to a previous conversation, move it right to go to the next conversation, and move up to go back to the inbox view. Works best on Windows.
Signature tweaks: Places your signature before the quoted text in a reply, and removes the “–” line that appears before signatures. Can’t use this and the “Random signature” Labs feature at the same time.
Random signature: Rotates among random quotations for your email signature. Can’t use this and the “Signature tweaks” Labs feature at the same time.
Custom date formats: Adds options to the general settings page allowing the date and time format to be changed independent of language. For example, you can use a 24-hour clock (14:57) or show dates with the day first (31/12/07).
Muzzle: Conserves screen real estate by hiding your friends’ status messages.
Old Snakey: Kick it old school with Old Snakey! Enable keyboard shortcuts and hit ‘&’ from the main page to play a game of snake.
Email Addict: Lets you take a break from email and chat by blocking the screen for fifteen minutes and making you invisible in chat.
Hide Unread Counts: Hides the unread counts for inbox, labels, etc.

Before you go and opt-in to some of these features, just note that they may not always work perfect. They are experimental features, and Google even notes that they could change without notice, break or disappear.

Thanks for the tip Cory!

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Adobe Enters World of Online Word Processing

Ashley — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 11:37:21 -0600

This article was written on October 01, 2007 by CyberNet.

The list of companies offering an online word processor just keeps getting longer and longer. And because there are so many options, it makes it difficult to determine which service to use, if any at all. As though there weren’t enough options, Adobe has announced that they are acquiring Virtual Ubiquity which is the company that makes Buzzword.

Buzzword is a fairly new online word processor built upon Adobe’s Flash platform using Adobe Flex. Eventually Adobe will be integrating it into a new service called Adobe Share which sounds like their version of an online office suite. While I’m still not sold on the idea of managing all of my documents online, Buzzword does have some nice features considering it is web-based. Some of those features include:

Spell Check
End Notes
Insert tables and images
Print options for page size, page orientation, etc.
View the history of all the revisions made on a document
Share documents
Organize files

The Adobe Flash platform is certainly powerful, and Buzzword realizes this. Virtual Ubiquity’s CEO Rick Treitman says, “Flex and Flash were the means to where we want to go. No one else realized how powerful it was as a virtual machine.” Another big feature with Buzzword is that they’re the first online word processor with pagination. News.com explains Pagination as something that “allows people to get an accurate view of how a document will print out as the document is edited.”

Buzzword certainly could be competition for Microsoft, but more likely, they’ll end up as competition for other online word processors like Google Docs and Zoho Writer which could result in these companies putting extra effort into their products to make it the best. While I don’t foresee a major paradigm shift any time soon in the word processing market with people switching entirely from desktop based word processors to web-based options, it could certainly happen in the future. And should this happen, there will sure be all kinds of options to choose from!

Thanks for the tip S!

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Google Maps Gets Zoom Enhancements

Ryan — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 03:13:19 -0600

This article was written on July 12, 2006 by CyberNet.

Google has incorporated two new features into Google Maps: double-click to zoom and continuous zoom. It is no longer a hassle to zoom in to a certain point on the map. All you have to do is double-click on that spot and Google will zoom to it.

Continuous zoom can either be seen by doing the double-click or by incrementing the zoom slider by one. You should notice Google slowly zooming into the point you designated. This effect is similar to what we have all come to love in Google Earth but it is on a more basic level. For me the images in the hybrid or satellite view initially sometimes appeared as a gray box until they had the chance to fully load, so it wasn’t perfectly smooth. Let’s not forget that the continuous zoom is only compatible for, yep you guessed it, Firefox and Internet Explorer.

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MyFive: Good iPod Alternatives

Ashley — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 18:48:12 -0600

This article was written on October 07, 2007 by CyberNet.

Not everybody has nor wants to jump on the iPod bandwagon so that they, like millions of others, can waltz around with their signature white headphones. If you’re one of those people that refuses to get an iPod but you’re still wanting a digital media player, there are plenty of great alternatives. Here are just five of the many available.

Zune
The 30GB Zune is getting replaced in about a month with the new 80GB hard drive version and the 4GB and 8GB Flash versions, but it’s still a great buy, especially because there will really be no differences in terms of software between the “old” and “new” Zune’s. It’s got an intuitive interface, you can play audio, video, view photos, and even listen to FM radio. With the new versions coming out soon, you’ll likely find some great deals (like this one) this month.
Creative Zen
Using the Creative Zen 16GB MP3 player you can watch 64 hours of video, or enjoy up to 4,000 of your favorite songs. You can also share hundreds of your photos on the 2.5 inch color display. It’s got a clock and alarm function, volume restriction, eight equalizer settings, and a USB hard drive mode. The Creative Zen 16GB model is priced at $249.99
SanDisk Sansa e280
Unlike the iPod, the Sansa features FM radio and has an easily replaceable battery. It also has a voice recorder, and you can record from the radio. It’s got a great interface and uses a scroll wheel with four buttons to control the player. It’s flash based and has room for 8GB of songs, videos, photos, and voice recordings. The Sansa e280 is priced at $131.39.
Toshiba Gigabeat 30GB Portable Media Player
Like most portable media player devices (excluding the iPod) this Toshiba player includes a built-in FM tuner. It’s got a 2.4 inch WVGA display, and will run about 20 hours per charge. This is a great player for movies, photos, and videos, and is priced at around $255.00.
Sony 8GB Video MP3 Player
Priced at around $209.00, the Sony 8GB MP3 Player features up to 33 hours of battery life, high quality video playback at 30 frames per second, and includes an FM tuner with 30 station presets. Of course you can watch videos too on the bi-directional LCD display.

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