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Saturday, July 7, 2007

Authors Pick Of The Week

Are you tired of sitting on the phone for technical support over some little computer problem? Is it annoying that it takes 20 minutes to get someone, then another 45 minutes just to solve the problem, OR NOT EVEN GET IT SOLVED AT ALL?

Here is My pick of the week:

protonic.com : fast free technical support

Yeah just what it says, Free Online Technical Support (Not always fast, but most of the time it is). They will help you with any problem you may have. Firewalls, Hardware, Software or even just building a computer.

Just for fun i sent a question asking why i can't run 2 firewalls at once, obviously i know why, but here is the message i sent and the great response i got back:

View Ticket Details: Ticket ID: 189527 (Mike Chrxxxxxx)

The question you asked about Security:

Why do my firewalls conflict with each other. I want Mcafee and Zone alarm together but it wont let me do that? Why is this? Can i get around this problem?

Thanks,
Mike


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Additional Information

General computer experience

Intermediate Level 3

Specific problem experience

Intermediate

Machine Information - (ID 4893)

Computer Name: Mikes PC

Operating System: Windows Vista
Ver. - (Unknown)
Computer Make: Home built
Model - (NA)
Processor: Not Specified
Processor Speed: Not Specified
Memory: 2 GB.
Hard Drive: 200 GB.
Screen Resolution: 1024 by 768
Web Browser: Firefox

* I have the Original Install / Setup disk.
* I have a valid CD Key.
* I built this computer myself.
* This computer is a Desktop or Tower.

* I connect to the Internet using a High Speed connection.

Other Information:
None

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Response:

Date Answered:

07-07 06:33am

Answer:

Hello Mike,

Thank you for visiting protonic.com!
My name is Doug and I will be assisting you with your question.

I'm sorry, but in much the same way you cannot have two people driving a car at the same time, you do not want to attempt to run two firewalls at the same time.

The problem lies in the fact that each firewall makes changes to your computers TCP/IP stack, and if both of them attempt to control your internet connection at the same time, nothing will work as each program tries to correct what the other is doing.

There is no way to make both McAfee and Zone Alarm work at the same time, and even if you did, the enormous slow down in your surfing speed would far outweigh any slight increase in security you might see.

Think of a Nascar driver and an Indy Car driver, both professional drivers, trying to steer the same car around a raceway..... One large crash after another would be the outcome.

As all the techs here at protonic.com are 100% volunteers, the only pay we receive (or expect) is the satisfaction of helping others and your feedback. Please take the time to fill in the feedback form which is available from the "Rate my reply" link towards the bottom of this email.

If you need any further assistance with this question, please feel free to use the reopen ticket link that is included within this email.

If you have a new issue, please post it at http://www.protonic.com where it can be reviewed by all our techs.

Thanks for visiting protonic.com!

Doug Davison, Quality Assurance technician
Doug@protonic.com
http://www.protonic.com

Ticket Number : 189527
Question Subject : Firewall Confliction
Date Asked : July 6th
Category : Security


RAM Use Rises Thanks to Vista, Falling Prices

RAM Use Rises Thanks to Vista, Falling Prices

Microsoft's memory-hungry Vista operating system, along with falling DRAM prices, boosts semiconductor sales.

Patrick Thibodeau, Computerworld

Thursday, July 05, 2007 3:00 PM PDT

Microsoft's memory-hungry Vista operating system -- along with falling DRAM prices -- is boosting semiconductor sales.


The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) reported this week that worldwide sales of semiconductors hit US>0.3 billion in May -- 2.4 percent higher than the


Microsoft's memory-hungry Vista operating system -- along with falling DRAM prices -- is boosting semiconductor sales.


The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) reported this week that worldwide sales of semiconductors hit US$20.3 billion in May -- 2.4 percent higher than the $19.8 billion sold in the same month a year ago.


The San Jose, Calif.-based based trade association, citing figures from one of its members, Micron Technology Inc., said the average amount of DRAM installed in PCs has increase from 772MB last year to 1,180MB this year.


In an interview, Kevin Kilback, a senior marketing manager at Boise, Idaho-based Micron, said DRAM price drops have allowed PC makers to increase the amount of memory without adding cost. Last week, Micron said that for the quarter ending May 31, DRAM prices had declined approximately 35 percent.


Windows Vista is also a factor in driving up memory usage, said Kilback. "Vista, unlike past operating system revisions, really takes advantage of more memory," he said.


The amount of DRAM going into PCs is expected to increase next year to about 1.5GB. "That's basically driven by Vista," said Kilback.


Although buyers can still find systems with 512MB of system memory, many PC vendors are recommending 2GB for use with the OS.


The semiconductor market is also being helped by NAND flash memory, which is used in devices such as flash drives. The SIA cited cell phone demands, in particular, as their multimedia capacity continues to increase demand.


"Despite severe price pressures on DRAMs and NAND flash, total sales of semiconductors for the first five months of 2007 increased by 3.1 percent from the same period of 2006," said George Scalise, SIA president, in a statement.


9.8 billion sold in the same month a year ago.


The San Jose, Calif.-based based trade association, citing figures from one of its members, Micron Technology Inc., said the average amount of DRAM installed in PCs has increase from 772MB last year to 1,180MB this year.


In an interview, Kevin Kilback, a senior marketing manager at Boise, Idaho-based Micron, said DRAM price drops have allowed PC makers to increase the amount of memory without adding cost. Last week, Micron said that for the quarter ending May 31, DRAM prices had declined approximately 35 percent.


Windows Vista is also a factor in driving up memory usage, said Kilback. "Vista, unlike past operating system revisions, really takes advantage of more memory," he said.


The amount of DRAM going into PCs is expected to increase next year to about 1.5GB. "That's basically driven by Vista," said Kilback.


Although buyers can still find systems with 512MB of system memory, many PC vendors are recommending 2GB for use with the OS.


The semiconductor market is also being helped by NAND flash memory, which is used in devices such as flash drives. The SIA cited cell phone demands, in particular, as their multimedia capacity continues to increase demand.


"Despite severe price pressures on DRAMs and NAND flash, total sales of semiconductors for the first five months of 2007 increased by 3.1 percent from the same period of 2006," said George Scalise, SIA president, in a statement.


Computerworld
For more enterprise computing news, visit Computerworld. Story copyright © 2007 Computerworld Inc. All rights reserved.

Legal Fight Over 'Vista Capable' PCs Gets Trial Date

Legal Fight Over 'Vista Capable' PCs Gets Trial Date


A lawsuit alleging that Microsoft Windows Vista Capable users were misled about the capabilities of the operating system will go to trial Oct. 28, 2008.

Patrick Thibodeau, Computerworld


Monday, July 02, 2007 3:00 PM PDT


A lawsuit alleging that Microsoft Windows Vista Capable users were misled about the capabilities of the operating system will go to trial Oct. 28, 2008, a federal judge in Seattle decided last week. That starting date will be close to the two-year anniversary of the release of the Windows Vista operating system.


On Friday, U.S. District Court Judge Marsha Pechman in Seattle released a schedule for a lawsuit by a Washington state resident disappointed in her PC, which was designated as being a Windows Vista Capable system. The Seattle-based law firm Gordon Tilden Thomas & Cordell LLP, which filed the suit on behalf of the plaintiff, is seeking class-action status for the case.


The judge released the schedule, even though she is still considering a motion from Microsoft to dismiss this case. A decision on the dismissal could come as early as next month and -- if the case is allowed to move forward -- a ruling on the class-action status could come in September, said one attorney connected to the case.


Prior to the release of Vista, Microsoft allowed PC sellers to certify some systems as "Windows Vista Capable" with just 512MB of RAM. The designation means that the system could run Vista Home Basic. Systems deemed Vista Premium Ready PCs have at least 1GB of RAM. And some vendors have recommended that users have at least 2GB of RAM for decent performance when using Vista.


In court papers, the lawyer representing Dianne Kelley, the Washington resident who brought the complaint, argued that the Windows Vista Capable designation "bore few, if any, of the features unique to the 'real Vista,' the premium edition. Microsoft "was able to increase the sales of its soon-to-be-replaced Windows XP operating system by certifying soon-to-be-obsolete computers as 'Vista Capable' when, in truth, such computers were incapable of running the 'real Vista.' "


Microsoft, in its response to the lawsuit, argues that Kelley wasn't harmed or misled. Kelley "does not allege that Microsoft's conduct deceived her into buying a PC that she would not have otherwise have purchased, or that she received anything other than what she expected to receive -- a low-end PC with the 'Windows Vista Capable' sticker, which was in fact 'capable' of running Windows Vista Home Basic."


Computerworld
For more enterprise computing news, visit Computerworld. Story copyright © 2007 Computerworld Inc. All rights reserved.

Tuesday, July 3, 2007

The New York Times: Video Catching Up to Photos When It Comes to Sharing

The New York Times: Video Catching Up to Photos When It Comes to Sharing



For Robert Levitan, the revelation came after a summer hiking trip on Mount Washington in New Hampshire with his twin brother. During the five-day trip in 2004, he used his digital Canon Elph camera to snap 80 pictures and 6 video clips. After the trip, his brother asked him to e-mail copies of the video.



"I said no, I'll have to make a DVD," Mr. Levitan said. "The file sizes are too big to easily send via e-mail."



That got him thinking: Why couldn't someone just send video from a desktop or laptop computer to other people's computers?



It is a question that an increasing number of digital camera users may ask as they start using the increasingly sophisticated video abilities of digital cameras.



Luckily, consumers have an alternative to burning DVD's or uploading personal video to sharing sites like www.youtube.com or www.metacafe.com. A range of new services and companies are making it easier than ever to share digital video from cameras or camcorders.



Sharing by E-Mail



Many popular video-sharing Web sites do not allow you to share full-quality video, because of bandwidth limitations. Instead, they provide a compressed resolution and reduced-quality version of your video, optimized for online viewing.



Pando, which Mr. Levitan helped found, takes a different approach. It transmits video files (or any files) from one computer to another using easily downloadable peer-to-peer software that manages the file transfers and communication between the computers (the peers) in the background.



The whole process is wrapped into a simple, e-mail-friendly format so users can send links and initiate video transfers as easily as attaching and sending a digital picture.



"On a personal level, I needed this product after that camping trip," said Mr. Levitan, who was earlier a founder of iVillage, a collection of Web sites bought by NBC Universal this year for $600 million. "Normally you'd attach pictures or videos to an e-mail, but e-mail wasn't designed to handle sending very large files."



Pando's process is simple. Users register at www.pando.com, and download and install a small software program (available in a test version for both Mac and PC). After that, users simply open up Pando, hit the "send new" button, and select the files or folders they want to send, along with a short description of the package.



An e-mail message is sent to the recipients, who, once she has installed the Pando software, can click on a small attachment and start downloading the files. A strength of Pando is the ability to send large files -- the service allows users to send up to a gigabyte at a time, which is enough for hours of video.



Pando does not compress or transcode video files, so there is no change in video quality. In addition, Pando can be used with any type of attachment -- video files, digital pictures, documents, PowerPoint files. Pando seems to have answered a need, reporting more than 600,000 downloads of its software in six months.



Becoming a Broadcaster



Alternatively, you can become your own broadcaster with Pixpo. Pixpo allows consumers to maintain their videos on their own computer and broadcast them to selected friends or relatives.


"We allow users to create broadcasting channels that can be made public or kept private," said Robert Cooper, Pixpo's director of business. "Public ones are visible to anyone via your broadcast home page, while private ones can be viewed only by people you've e-mailed a link to."


Pixpo, available in beta testing, turns your PC (and in the future, your Mac) into a broadcasting center able to stream video. The service is free and has no limitations on the number of video clips or users involved in sharing. Resolution is optimized for Internet transmission, at 240 by 320 pixels, a compromise between speed and quality.


The advantage for viewing is that Pixpo streams the video over the Internet instead of sending the actual video files, which would require the receiver to have the right video software (known as a codec).


But since the files you are sharing remain on your PC, you need to have an always-on connection and leave your PC and Pixpo software running to provide round-the-clock access to your video.


Setup is easy: go to www.pixpo.com, download the software (currently a svelte 4.5 megabytes) and then create your broadcast channel by selecting the files you want to share, giving your channel a name and telling friends about it.


Of course, if 100 people show up at the same time to view your video, your computer connection probably will not support the load. Pixpo can help by storing highly requested video from your system in a cache, so multiple copies can be served simultaneously.



Outsourcing It



If you do not want people viewing video directly from your computer, you might consider a fee-based video hosting service like HomeMovie or Snapfish.



"We're positioning our services as video sharing for grown-ups, not 'ego-casting,' where people upload a two- to three-minute clip of themselves lip-synching," said Lars Krumme, a co-founder of HomeMovie.



HomeMovie's latest service, Afiniti 3.0, allows consumers to send in tapes for digitizing, upload saved files for sharing or connect their digital camera or camcorder directly to their computer and transfer new video or pictures. The service can also be used to download the video to iPods.



Users can have up to five hours of video content in their online account free. Up to 10 hours is $3.99 a month with no time limit for the clips -- you can have one-minute clips or two-hour clips.



When you share video using HomeMovie (www.homemovie.com), the clips are uploaded from your computer to HomeMovie's servers. Invited friends and family members, who are given a password, can download the clips to their iPods, order DVD's or view the video online -- all free.



You can tag movies or scenes with keywords, so that you can search for "vacation" video or "birthday" scenes. HomeMovie also offers a service that will encode a two-hour tape into digital files for $5.



An advantage of HomeMovie is that it provides basic video editing abilities, including combining clips into a longer movie, or the ability to remove unwanted scenes -- particularly helpful when working with shorter clips from digital cameras.



However, there are no special transition tools, like dissolves or fades; the scenes simply cut from one to another. For other kinds of movie magic, you will need a video editing software package.



Mixing It Together



Of course, if you are recording video with a digital camera, you are probably also taking pictures, and may want to be able to upload both to one place for printing and sharing -- at least that is the bet that Snapfish is making with its new video-sharing service.



Snapfish (www.snapfish.com) offers a 30-day free trial of its video-sharing abilities. Afterward, it's $2.99 a month or $24.99 a year for unlimited video sharing. The service was introduced in January, and Snapfish says thousands have already used it, and it is trying to integrate video and photo sharing as much as possible. Snapfish albums can have still pictures and video mixed together.



Any "family friendly" video up to 10 minutes can be uploaded to the site. A crucial part of the service is converting (known as transcoding) the video file -- which can come in 13 different formats -- into MPEG2, which can be easily uploaded and shared.



Snapfish lets visitors actually save the file they are viewing by right-clicking their mouse, but Ben Nelson, Snapfish's general manager, said viewing, not keeping, was the point of the service.



Unlike a snapshot, "printing a video isn't that easy," he said, "so the ability to share videos is a really important feature."

Monday, July 2, 2007

How to get sound working on Virtual PC 2007 with Vista guest OS

How to get sound working on Virtual PC 2007 with Vista guest OS


Virtual PC 2007 added a new sound system specifically for using Vista as a guest and host OS. But when you install Vista as a guest OS, there is no sound! A search on Google and Live Search didn't turn up anything about how to use it.


Eventually I found that after you install the VM Additions, the sound driver is silently copied into the guest OS's "C:\Program Files\Virtual Machine Additions" folder. All you need to do to get sound working is "update" your audio controller driver within your Vista guest OS and tell it you Have Disk... and point it at that folder and voila! Beautiful sound. (without any restarts either).