Saturday, May 27, 2006

Round up of interesting sites

Here are all the websites I have bookmarked in the last couple of weeks for review.
Google Trends With Google Trends, you can compare the world's interest in your favorite topics. Enter up to five topics and see how often they've been searched for on Google over time. Google Trends also displays how frequently your topics have appeared in Google News stories, and which geographic regions have searched for them most often.

Blogger's Fuel


I wanted to tell you about a great gourmet coffee and their new line of Bloggers Blends!
The best part is they have a bonus that that'll pay both of us $10 if you join from this invitation and buy anything through www.bloggersfuel.com, including any products from bocajava.com that you can access from bloggersfuel. After you sign up and buy anything, they'll put the $10 in each of our accounts, and you can spend it anytime on anything.
Please visit the following URL: Blogger Fuel
Found on Reality me

Inclue Web Feeds Add RSS webfeeds with
1 click while surfing.

International Library of Photography Photo Contest

Abbey Tournament is coming up soon here in Brisbane. Medieval Re-enactment tournament. Great fun!

Newspaper clipping generator Create newspaper clippings, clapper boards, ninja writing and more - great spoof site!

Paypal Fee CalculatorFor all of you power PayPal-ers out there, PPCalc is a PayPal fee calculator designed to help you calculate, obviously enough, the PayPal fees you would incur on different transactions.

If you’re an eBay seller, for example, PPCalc has a nice Reverse Fee Calculator that lets you determine the amount you should ask for by entering the amount you want to receive after fees. Found on Darrens Problogger Site.

Greg Ashbaugh Online - Gadgets, tech links and more.


Saturday, May 13, 2006

Shave Every Where!

Found on Doug's site

Alright Philips! Make sure you click "Where to shave" for some extra footage. Oh man! You must go through the questions at "The Basics" too. And be sure to do interesting things like not move the mouse for a while. Bah! Just go through every menu. Be sure to check out the manager’s name tag.

One question, why does the shaveeverywhere guy’s legs look like shag carpet?


Thursday, May 11, 2006

Microsoft Releases 3 New Security Bulletins

On May 9th, Microsoft released three new security bulletins, two of which are rated critical and one rated as moderate on the company's security rating scale.

Below is more detail regarding the new Microsoft Security Bulletins:

MS06-018: Vulnerability in Microsoft Distributed Transaction Coordinator Could Allow Denial of Service (913580)
Severity: Moderate
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/Bulletin/MS06-018.mspx

MS06-019: Vulnerability in Microsoft Exchange Could Allow Remote Code Execution (916803)
Severity: Critical
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/Bulletin/MS06-019.mspx

**MS06-020: Vulnerabilities in Macromedia Flash Player from Adobe Could Allow Remote Code Execution (913433)
Severity: Critical
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/Bulletin/MS06-020.mspx

MSRT-001: Malicious Software Removal Tool (May Update) http://www.microsoft.com/security/malwareremove/default.mspx

Additional information about these bulletins can be found on Microsoft's TechNet Web Site at http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms06-May.mspx. Additional details on these bulletins can also be found on Shavlik Technologies'
president and CEO Mark Shavlik's blog at heres the update

Shavlik Technologies recommends installation of these patches as soon as possible in order to ensure networks are secure. Deployment is simple with Shavlik NetChk Protect, our integrated patch and spyware management solution. Manage two of the most persistent network security risks through one console! For more information about Shavlik NetChk Protect, or to sign up for a free Webinar, click http://www.shavlik.com/netchk-protect.aspx.

**MS06-020 is a patch for Macromedia Flash versions 5 and 6. The patch from Microsoft will bring an XP SP1 or SP SP2 system running Flash 5 or Flash 6 up to the latest version of Flash 6. Flash 5 and Flash 6 on other OSes may still be vulnerable but Microsoft has not released patches for these other Operating Systems. In these instances, Shavlik recommends installing the patches from Adobe/Macromedia (discussed below).

Shavlik has updated the patch scan engine to detect Macromedia Flash as a product. Customers running Shavlik HFNetChkPro or Protect versions 5.5 or
5.6 will automatically receive the new scan engine during the next scan.
For 5.5 and 5.6 customers, the 06-020 patch will appear under the new product heading 'Macromedia Flash'.

For 5.1 and earlier customers, MS06-020 will not appear in the scan results.
Instead, you can remediate the vulnerability discussed in MS06-020 by installing either the APSB-0603 patch in the Shavlik database. (You may need to install MPSB-0507 before you can scan for and install APSB-0603)

The Flash patch from Microsoft does NOT patch Flash 5 or Flash 6 if installed on XP Gold, NT4, Windows 2000, or Windows Server 2003. If you are running Flash 5 or Flash 6 on any of these systems, they will be scanned and can be patched via the Operating System patch APSB-0603. By installing this patch, you will be able to protect yourself from the vulnerability in MS06-020 (even though MS hasn't released patches for these platforms).

In summary, no matter what version of the Shavlik console you are running, you can remediate the MS06-020 vulnerability on ALL of your OSes via the application of either MS06-020 or APSB-0507.

Shavlik recommends upgrading to version 5.6 to get the latest enhancements to the Shavlik scan engine, including support for Macromedia Flash.


Multiple display setups

I use 2 screens at my clients and also in my office at home.

I have previously blogged about 4 panel screen setups.

How about 6, 7 or 8?

Zenview Arena has an article illustrating these massive 8 LCD displays

The picture belows shows 8 LCD Screens stitched together to form one big computer monitor.All the individual LCD screens are supplied by Samsung. As they cost a couple of thousand dollars, the company guarantess zero dead pixels.


Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Antispam Service Hops Up

The Blue Frog is offering to keep spam out of your inbox. I haven't tried it but thought I'd let others know it is an option.


Wednesday, May 03, 2006

CPU testing

Two utilities mentioned to me recently to use to test CPU performance and becnhmark - especially if trying to assess the value in overclocking, are HotCPU and Prime 95.

Hot CPU provides a range of diagnostic and status reporting tools along with burn in and stress tests and allows you to benchmark your CPU.
Prime 95 is actually a mathematical tool looking for Mersenne Prime numbers. However it has a stress testing component and the ability to benchmark also.


Convert MP4 to WMV and more

Tools that can Convert MP4 to WMV and more are often shareware.

You can find many applications at http://www.bestshareware.net/ including:
ImTOO AUDIO ENCODER
Pocket PC DVD Wizard

You may be surprised to know that Microsoft has a free encoder.
From the DVD Software Forum I found that there is a WINDOWS MEDIA ENCODER 9 SERIES that I was able to download and successfully use to convert MOV and MP4 files to WMV.