Brother HL-2170W Laser Printer - HL2170W - Buy.com

Brother HL-2170W Laser Printer - HL2170W - Buy.com

Great deal on a great little wi-fi laser printer. Less than $100!

Free Orion IP Address Tracker

Register for Orion IP Address Tracker

Free IP address tracker helps you manage IP's on your network.

End Firearms Registration in Arizona

AZCDL Home -- End Firearms Registration - Contact the Governor

The Real Story of Todays Windows Mobile

End of the line for my T-Mobile HD2, I just can't take Windows Mobile anymore Smartphones and Cell Phones ZDNet.com

Matthew Miller tells the truth about his experience with a top notch device and a cobbled OS. We don't often get such a honest expression of frustration by a technology expert. Worth a read if for no other reason than to chuckle at the travails of an expert. Makes you feel a little less stupid when an expert has such struggles.

Forget HP's Corporate Clout End Users Drive Adoption

HP Partners: Palm Deal Spells Big End-To-End Opportunity - Mobile - IT Channel News by CRNl

Enterprise technology sales people are drooling over the prospects of selling Palm smartphones to their clients. It's believed that HP's powerful presence in that space gives them a unique advantage.

It is an advantage to be so strong in that market, but it isn't a substitute for producing very compelling products for end users. It was the case when PC's took over the mainframe/dumb terminal enterprise market in the '80's, the Apple iPhone corporate invasion now, and will be the key to success for HP with Palm. End users drive adoption, the product's management friendliness defines whether it will be a happy and speedy adoption or not.

Palm has some compelling products, but their marketing has been atrocious. HP's biggest favor it could do for Palm is spend some money (which Palm hasn't had for years) on good old fashioned aggressive marketing.

At least Palm's demise isn't hanging over it's head and smart phone buyers and third party developers can once again look at it as a legitimate potential choice.

Now if Palm can get it's lineup on more carriers, we may have a real rebirth.

UPDATED: Comodo Time Machine for Painless System Restoration

BEWARE: Some  users (including me) have experienced catastrophic disk failure when doing uninstalls of this software. I  recommend that you DO NOT use this software until it's problems are better understood and addressed.

Comodo offers a FREE system restore program that has the benefit of allowing you to do a restore even if Windows won't boot. Very helpful when your computer life has fallen apart and you need to get it back without spending hundreds on a pro. Works with XP, Vista & and some of the Server versions of Windows. Download it here.

Black screen fix for recent Windows patch errors...

Prevx, the security company has a very elegant fix for the MS update "black screen" victims.  Here's the procedure:

1) Restart your PC

2) Logon and wait for the black screen to appear

3) Make sure your PC should be able to connect to the internet (black screen does not appear to affect this)

4) Press the CTRL, ALT and DEL keys simultaneously

5) When prompted, Click Start Task Manager

6) In Task Manager Click on the Application Tab

7) Next Click New Task

8) Now enter the command:

"C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe" "http://info.prevx.com/download.asp?GRAB=BLACKSCREENFIX"

Note this command assumes that you are using internet explorer as your browser, if not substitute your browser path and file details for those of iexplore.exe or use the Browser option of Task manager to locate it.

9) Click OK and your browser should start up and begin the download process

10) When prompted for the download Click run, the black screen fix program will download and run to automatically fix the issue.

11) Now restart your PC and the black screen problem will hopefully be gone.

Thanks to the Prevx guys and gals for takin' care of us!

New Filezilla version - Dr Dave's FTP pick

I've used Filezilla for years and recommend it highly. Simple, reliable FTP software that doesn't cost a dime. Download and enjoy...

Microsoft's Windows 7 Compatibility list

Download this compatibility list for Windows 7 for IT pros. VERY useful to know in advance what's likely to cause issues with a Windows 7 install PRIOR to the install. Download it at the link above.

Snow Leopard Data Loss Problem

Apple's new OS has been reported to have a serious issue with guest account access and data loss since September. It cropped up so rarely it has been difficult to confirm.

Apple has confirmed it and is reported to have a fix on the way. 

Cool OSX functionality for Windows XP, Vista and 7

Excerpts from the site...

7stacks is an easy to use, free app that lets Windows 7 (and Vista and XP) users have "stacks" of icons in their Taskbar (in 7) or QuickLaunch Toolbar (in Vista and XP). By using stacks, users can reduce icon clutter, and combine a group of related icons into a single icon. For instance, if you use application suites such as Microsoft Office, OpenOffice, or Adobe CS4, you can have all the suite's icons combined into one icon!


You can also use it to browse and access documents within a folder very quickly. Usually, when you want to edit a series of frequently used documents, you'd have to either launch the app, and go to File|Open, or open the (My) Computer icon and go into your (My) Documents folder and pick the file you want. With 7stacks, just create a stack to that document's folder, and open that document in a couple of clicks.

Driving Speed 2.0.7 Free Download

Available at the link above is a great free auto racing game for Windows PCs. 

Driving Speed 2 is a free high quality racing game for your PC. Choose from four high powered V8 muscle cars and race against up to 11 computer controlled opponents on two touring car circuits.

This game has realistic graphics, realistic car physics and performance, high quality sound and AI. Play against your friends over a LAN or internet with 8 player Multiplayer.

Send your fastest lap records to the online lap records where you can see your times against players from all around the world.

System Requirements:
Windows 2000 / XP / Vista / Windows 7
1GHz CPU or higher
256MB RAM
228MB Hard Drive Space
Graphics Card with Pixel Shader Support
DirectX 9 Drivers

What´s New in version 2.0.7:
Optimized frame rate. 
Fixed a minor glitch in the online leaderboard results.

Check it out!

Google's New OS: Linux 3.0?

Everyone's guessing what Google's new OS will be. Even in this article the author contradicts himself by saying it's based on Linux, then an extension of the Chrome browser code. Sorry buddy, can't be both. A Safari based browser and an OS are 2 completely different things.

Makes sense that it may be an extension of Android, which itself is based on Linux. But Google's implementation of Android is not nearly as compelling as Palm's elegant version of mobile Linux known as WebOS.

Apple made the decision years ago to go with a Linux based OS and it certainly makes sense. We will see new versions of Linux based OS's released by numerous sources because of cost, development, licensing and reliability benefits. No reason to reinvent the wheel. The GUI will be optimized to deal with particular user and hardware requirements, but the real challenge for mainstream consumer type OS's is dealing with the myriad of hardware and software interfaces that must be streamlined and reliable. Linux was years late getting USB drivers and installs right. The public will not put up with that sort of marathon geek wrestling match.

I welcome Google's efforts to battle with the "Evil Empire", but don't underestimate the difficulty of the real battle - making an OS work for the average Joe. It's a battle worthy of Leonidas. How comfortable is Sergey in a breastplate?

Seattle Fire Shuts Down DaveMason.com

The Internet is pretty good at rerouting traffic in the event of a problem, but if the power to a site is interrupted there's not much that can be done, if you don't have a backup server. Obviously that was the case yesterday with DaveMason.com, Authorize.Net and the travel section of MS's new search engine - Bing.

I am always very cranky when I have site problems because it is an integral part of the show and business. I was forced because of the extended down time and remote location to  just ignore it and go about my business yesterday. I don't do that well. I'm a fixer. I like to get into the mess and figure it out and solve the problem. I could get nowhere with that. Although I id learn a bit about Dotster's network structure.

It's back up this morning, before the show, so that's very good. I've been thinking about what I can do at my end to mitigate the effects of such a problem in the future, and I can't think of a thing. Any ideas?

More Explosive Laptop Batteries

HP Recalls Notebook Computer Batteries Due to Fire Hazard

70,000+ laptop batteries are being recalled by HP and Compaq. Many popular models are included. If you own a Compaq or HP laptop made in the last few years, you may be entitled to a free replacement. Click the link above for a list of the model and serial numbers eligible. Do not put this off. If you have one of these your computer and data could be damaged, as well as anything in the vicinity of the overheating and/or fire. No injuries have been reported.

Ever wonder what those CHK files are?

DIY DataRecovery CHK-Mate (freeware), recover content from CHK files

It's not unusual to end up with one or more chk files after running chkdsk. Sometimes they are garbage, other times they are recoverable data files. This is how you get them back. Another great free tool to save our data.

New Twitter Worm Author Found

17-year-old claims responsibility for Twitter worm (April 12, 2009)

Click the link above to get the details. It's only going to get worse...

Good standard compliants is always good

When good browsers go bad -- and they all do

I've been a big fan of the Opera browser for years. They have a reputation for not working on certain sites, yet they have been the only browser 100% compliant with the web standards. Now IE 8 and FireFox are moving to more complete compliance with web standards, so we are in for a painful transition period. Those web sites not in compliance must be pressured to repair their sites, instead of continuing to use browsers that have no interest in standards.

Onward to a new era of standard standards and love and peace for all!

Large Screen Kindle on the way?

Amazon Reported To Be Developing A Large Screen Kindle (AMZN)

I have yet to jump on the Kindle bandwagon. Perhaps this new version due out later this year will move me.

I am still looking for color display, smaller keyboard, and cheaper price. Not likely to get all three in this next version. Or will we?

Pent up success or Vista-like failure?

My experience with Windows 7 has been stellar. But there is more to OS release success than a good, stable operating system. First of course is reputation. I think Windows 7 has that in spades. Many beta testers have been calling for it's release for weeks. While it's unquestionably premature to do so, it is a very compelling indication of the quality of the software. The other is a streamlined, common sense product lineup. The chaos of the numerous, ill defined Vista product versions made adopters reluctant to deal with the details of making a choice, so they didn't.

In this story the author argues that Windows 7 will suffer from a weak release demand due to the economy and the markets experience with Vista. I believe it may be just the opposite. Indeed the economy will weaken any products release well into 2012, but the pent up demand for upgrades for computers and OS's will drive Windows 7 to a very successful launch. Microsoft has learned well from it's Vista catastrophe.