A Christmas Joke

I'm a bit late, it's now more like a New Year's joke. Anyway thanks Dick:

Three men died on Christmas Eve and were met by Saint Peter at the pearly gates. "In honour of this holy season," Saint Peter said, "you must each possess something that symbolises Christmas to get into heaven."

The first man fumbled through his pockets and pulled out a lighter. He flicked it on. "It represents a candle," he said. "You may pass through the pearly gates" Saint Peter said.

The second man reached into his pocket and pulled out a set of keys. He shook them and said, "They're bells". Saint Peter said "you may pass through the pearly gates."

The third man started searching desperately through his pockets and finally pulled out a pair of women's panties. Saint Peter looked with a raised eyebrow and asked, "And just what do those symbolise?" The man replied, "They're Carols!"

Comments to : England, England, England...

The BBC web site had a posting welcoming comments regards the 2nd days play of this Boxing Day test match that you can check out here.

I got a bit sick of reading whining Poms comments about umpires, etc., so I left the following comment there:

The problems that England have are pretty serious and it doesn't stop with cricket. One of them is correctable and that is sporting infrastructure; another is uncorrectable without a geographical re-assignment to change the weather.

Here are some population facts
Britain 60 million
Australia 20 million

Now here are some Olympic facts from Athens:
1. USA 36 39 27
2. China 32 17 14
3. Russia 27 27 38
4. Australia 17 16 16
5. Japan 16 9 12
6. Germany 13 16 20
7. France 11 9 13
8. Italy 10 11 11
9. Korea 9 12 9
10.Britain 9 9 12

See the difference?

The Ashes

And today was the end of day 2 of the Boxing Day test.


And it is not going to well for England.


The series is already gone with a 3-0 result over the first 3 tests.


How England won the Ashes last year, or more correctly how Australia lost, is beyond me.

In this series England have shown how they lose the un-losable test and Australia have shown how they can win the un-winnable test.

It is shaping like a 5-0 drubbing for the first time in 85 years by Dad's Army.

Let's wait and see!!

A True Spam Solution

Zero Spam Day has finally arrived!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

For those of you who have a Gmail account then spam probably does not worry you because the excellent anti-spam and anti-virus filters incorporated compulsorily by default into Gmail silently does its job.

For those of you who have email accounts with other ISP's, service providers, etc. which is the majority of us then my bet is that you've got problems. I am and always have been vigilant about being conscious of anonymity on the Internet and hence have been careful as to who gets what email address during a software trial or news service or whatever.

BUT one of my accounts has suffered severely; like 20-30 spams per day. How this address was released to spammers I have no idea but it is. I have tried all sorts of filters and services to eliminate spam from this account and to no avail. The best system I have tried eliminated just short of 50% but that may as well be nothing!!!

Welcome external Gmail accounts!!!

It is a Beta Beta if that makes any sense so if you are lucky then it is available to you now. I have 4 Gmail accounts and it is available on only one.

Go to Gmail -> Settings -> Accounts and add the details of your external account.

It sure does clean up my inbox.

No More Spam!!

Gmail is still an invite only service so if you don't have an account and want one then send me a mail to albyxx at gmail dot com.

Digital Media On Your TV

The previous post about the iPod got me wondering about the thousands of digital photos on my notebook hard disk and how I can display them onto my TV at a higher resolution than is possible with the iPod. So, on closer investigation of notebook I discovered that what I thought was a PS2 mouse port is actually and S-Video out port.


Wow, now that has possibilities.

As long as your TV has an S-Video In port then all you need is an S-Video cable to connect to your PC. If you have a cam-corder then you probably already have on.

The other thing you should do is connect your earphones port on your PC to the Audio In ports of the complimenting S-Video In port and pass the sound through to the TV system rather than in my case 2 pathetic little speakers on my notebook.

Firstly turn on your TV, select the input port that has the S-Video input, connect it to your PC's S-Video port and then turn on your PC.

Once booted up then right click on your desktop and select "Properties", then "Setting", then "Advanced" and you should have access to your Video Driver software. My Toshiba Tecra is an nVidia GeForce 6600. I have the option to select "Dual Screen" with the second screen being the TV. You need to select the video format the the TV accepts, which in my case is NTSC, PAL-N or PAL-M. You may have to play with settings to get it right for your particular TV-PC configuration.


So now to get some content. I have found the best and cheapest option is Google's Picasa, no.1 becasue it's free and no.2 because it does a really nice slide show but there is one trick. Go to Picasa's "Options", then "Slideshow" and un-check the "Do full-resolution slideshow" checkbox. TV's have a surprisingly low resolution of generally only 720 x 480 pixels. Therefore if your image is lets say 1600 x 1200 then it will not display on the TV.

I don't have a DVD player in the house apart from my notebook so we watch DVD's on the TV through the notebook.

I recently bought a subscription to Cricket Australia's Cricket Australia TV which gives me access to all games live for the Australian summer. Now I watch it on the TV laid up on the sofa with a beer in the hand rather than sitting at my desk watch my computer screen. Cricket is just not the same without beer!!

Basically whatever you can display on your computer you can display on your TV and it's impressive, especially digital photos on your TV in the comfort of your lounge room.

iPod - PC - TV

If you have found yourself here at this blog and have an iPod or are contemplating buying on then do yourself a favour and read this from start to finish. I am sure you will learn something or some things as I did.

My main reason for buying an iPod Video 60GB a couple of months ago was for entertainment when alone traveling or on a job site somewhere in the world. My original idea was to be able to fill it up with music and a few movies (dvd's?). I really had done no research whatsoever so when I arrived at the iPod shop I bought the unit itself, extended warranty and a silicone case. I went black as pictured below. (beautiful isn't it?)


I had no idea of it's full potential!! I must say that it's very impressive!!

So, the following ramble is split up into these sections:

1. The Original Setup
2. The FM transmitter
3. Adding Podcasts
4. Adding Photos
5. Adding Videos
6. Connecting your TV (I left the best till last)

1. The Original Setup
This is all pretty basic so most of you will just need to follow the instructions that comes with your iPod unless you want to do something special with your configuration.

Anyway I started by installing iTunes and adding all my music that accounted for about 10GB. I suggest that you use iTunes to copy your CD's onto your PC and that you configure iTunes to burn music in MP3 format.

Make sure that you sure connected to the Internet and when you enter a music CD then iTunes will then look for a database to import all song names and album artwork BEFORE you burn it.

2. The FM transmitter
After a few days of using the iPod I thought that I would check out the Apple Store to see what accessories are available. The first one to catch my eye was an iTrip FM transmitter pictured below that just clicks on to your iPod and allows you to tune any radio in to a selected frequency on the iTrip.


Now just think about that!! No need for a CD stacker because the iPod IS your CD stacker. My 10GB of music is well over 2,000 songs. So obviously I bought one.

Most important is to firstly check for an unused frequency on your radio and then tune in the iTrip to EXACTLY that frequency.

3. Adding Podcasts
Podcasts come in 2 forms, audio only and audio/video. I have subscribed to about 10 but there are thousands out there to be found. A couple of my favourites are:


And


More about this in section 6. Connecting your TV.

4. Adding Photos
Don't forget to put all your digital photos on your iPod either. You can configure iTunes to be manually or automatically updated. Your complete photo album in you pocket. More about this in section 6. Connecting your TV.

5. Adding Videos
This is the tough one. Videos will play in MP4, MOV or M4V formats so whatever you have got that is not in one of these formats then you need to encode. I have tried quite a few transcoder programs and the best so far is:

It is the fastest of the transcoders that I've tried, creates the smallest files, has less
sound to image latency and is easier on your CPU. It also has a predefined configuration for the iPod called "Digital Media Player" that sets up all parameters, etc to output the file into MP4 video format. So far I have transcoded the DVD format VOB, the Flash format FLV (YouTube for example), AVI, MPG, DAT and a few others. Just drag the file or files into the main window and click start. Once complete then just add the folder into iTunes and the next Sync with your iPod will add the videos.

6. Connecting your TV
This is by far the best iPod feature that I was not aware of. I was checking out the Apple iTunes store for iPod accessories and noticed the Apple AV Cable for US$19 (AU$29).


This started my curiosity as here in Brazil the iPod and accessories are ridiculously expensive and I did not want to buy something that I would not use. So I thought that I would try my camcorder cable and found that the only difference is that a standard camcorder cable has the Video and Right Sound cable crossed over.

Tahdah!!!

I have a cable that works and I didn't pay a cent. Just connect it up to one of your TV's AV inputs. Most TV's these days have a connection in the front so it is so easy. You will have to set your iPod up to either PAL or NTSC output in the video settings. You may need to tinker a bit with the iPod setup but, don't worry, it works. By that way, I bought an extra camcorder cable here in Brazil for US$3 (AU$4).

So, now you might start to realize the possibilities. Instead of showing your photos to friends and relatives hunched around a computer you can now sit back in your lounge room and see your photos on your TV. Add some music or a playlist if you like to be played whilst running a slideshow.

Convert your DVD's before you go on a road trip, pack up your iPod and AV cable and plug it in to the TV in your hotel room.

Play your iPod music through your TV if you don't have external speakers.

Save your favorite YouTube clips and play them back on your TV.

Play your Podcasts on TV.

Etc, etc, etc, etc.

All good stuff.


I must say that the Apple AV Connection Kit looks very nice with a docking station and a remote. When I get back to Australia next that will be the first thing I buy.

Firefox 2

It's been here for a few weeks now.

I have been waiting for an automatic update notification but instead of getting a notification for 2 I got one for 1.5.0.8 so then I decided to update by a manual download.

And it is a nice, efficient and featured update.


Enjoy!!

Skype - Onwards and Upwards

It goes on.

Check out the current data here!!

When I started using Skype there was peak users of 635,120 and 28,267,164 downloads.

Google Arsenal

Talking about my Google arsenal; let's see now!

I use frequently (generally daily):

1. Search
2. Blogger
3. Analytics
4. Calendar
5. News
6. Personalized Home Page
7. Gmail
8. Reader
9. Talk
10.Earth
11.Picasa

And they are all free!!

And here's Googles full list and then some more.

Googles Picasa

I must admit I have become a Google fan over the years (as have millions of others).

The latest addition to my Google arsenal is Picasa. I've been a long term user of ACDSee and finally I have had enough.

All I want is a simple picture viewer and editor with a nice and easy full screen slideshow fucntion.

Free Hugs

Have you have seen this???

Get the original here.

Now check out what is behind it:

It started here and then here and then here and then here and I hope it goes on.

And if you think that it has not made an impression then Google It or check out the amount of views at Youtube (3,615,980 views in 4 weeks).

Just a nice story don't ya think? Gives you hope in humanity......

By the way, the music's not bad either from The Sick Puppies.

Skype, Firefox, Thunderbird

It's interesting you know. I don't read my own blog much but I went back to do a review of my current template and content a few things really hit me:::::

This blog is now 16 months old. My "About Stuff In A Blog!!!" profile has not changed one bit. I still love and only use Thunderbird, Firefox and Skype for their fantastic compatibility, usability and security in their specific fields. And for the most part they are free!!

If there are any Internet Explorer or Outlook Express users reading this then do yourself a favour and CHANGE!!! Don't take my word for it, Google it and see what they are all saying!! Firefox has 349,000,000 hits, Thunderbird has 39,000,000, Skype has 284,000,000.

The power is in the numbers.

Edit: I just did a Google search on Microsoft and it returned 2,000,000,000 hits. If we consider the amount of products that they have then their % is not so high when it comes to browsers. It goes to show that the exposure of these fantastic new products really are starting to eat into the Microsoft margins.

None for one and free for all!!!!!!!!!!

Wake Up USA!!

What the hell are you all doing there? You voted this absolutely dangerous idiot in for a second term and now you are really starting to pay.

Unfortunately your stupidity has a dramatic effect on the greater world; you know,,,,,,,,,,,,,, the one that exists outside the US of A.

You let him go to war in Iraq. A lovely situation now, hey?

You let him tap your telephone conversations. What will be the consequences?

You let him forget and neglect the economy and well being of US citizens. Again, what will be the consequences?

You let him .............................................

I see a very big similarity between GWB and the President in Fox's current series of 24. Both dangerous idiots shooting from the hip!!!!

Do we all have to put up with this for another 2 and a bit years? I guess so.

Think a little bit more carefully next time around, if not for your sake but for the good of the planet.

My Top 10 Things

1. Good food and drink. Thai is probably my favourite food but Chinese, a good Brazilian BBQ, Japanese (especially sushi and sashimi with loads of wasabi, soy and pickled ginger) and a simple Schnitzel (or milanesa) with lemon juice, mashed spuds and tinned peas are right up there also. Regards drinks well that's difficult. Here in Brazil we have a cocktail called Caipirinha that's pretty bloody good, a cold Corona with lemon is hard to beat, the first G&T sitting in Business Class is good too, cheap but good Argentinean reds are value for money, Swedish schnapps is a fun drink with friends during a mid-summer party (Akvavit, Aqvavit or Aquavit depending on where you come from, one of the most famous being Linie), etc..................

2. Staying in contact with friends and family. Need I say more?

3. Supermarkets. That's where most good food comes from.

4. Spending time in Brazil. Never a dull moment.

5. Spending time in Australia. Quite predictable but a beautiful country. It's a shame that most Aussies don't realize how good they've got it.

6. Working but not too much. And I am a little bit out of practise at the moment but I do enjoy it when I'm doing it.

7. Sport. I'm a true, all round sportsman; I can watch almost anything. Cricket, Australian rules, football, rugby, rugby league, tennis, sumo, formula 1, golf, snooker and pool just to name a few.

8. Computers and the Internet. Great time wasters.

9. Hot weather when I don't have to work in it.

10. Cold weather when I don't have to work in it.

Normally my wife would be at No.1 but we're in disagreement at the moment.

And by the way, how good is Wikipedia?

Sorry But It's Skype Again

Firstly, is blogging under the unfluence a crime?

I hope not!!!

Skype 2.5 Beta is out and it's yet another quantum leap into the future.

The most fantastic improvement of a most fantasitic product is the ability to SMS.

Enjoy!!!

American Media, What A Joke

If John Howard or Tony Blair had this humerous political attack against them then it would be world headlines. But who saw this in US TV or world wide for that matter?

It absolutely amazes me how much of the policies, statements and actions of the grand government of the USA does not reach the people. It also amazes me as to the lack of media that ....................... I could go on..............

I'm quite sure that we outsiders (or aliens as the US call us) have a better understanding as to what is going on in that grand land than the insiders, i.e. citizens.

Many things go on in government and public life that we don't ever hear a word of. And the following is something that, for sure, never made it to CNN or BBC.

So................ This is a little link to a George W Bush roasting that REALLY happened.

Video 1
Video 2
Video 3

I'm sure the organizer of this event got the sack but thank you Mr. Organizer.

American Media, What A Joke!!! Thanks Fox!!!

SkypeIn Australia

Today, or yesterday depending what part of the world you're in, SkypeIn Beta landed for Australia. That means that you can purchase a number in Austalia and even more specifically in area codes 02, 03, 07 and 08. The price is Euro10.00 for 3 months or Euro30.00 for a full year. And included in the price is Voicemail.

The service works like this; you give out your SkypeIn number to those that don't have a Skype account and they call you on that number. Skype then forwards that call to your computer if you are logged on. If you are not logged on then you can Call Forward it to a telephone number basically anywhere in the world.

Well done again Skype!!!!!

By the way, within the next 24 hours Skype will officially have 100 million registered user names. (edit: actually while I have been writing this the 100 M has been passed)

That doesn't convert into active users though. I have two user names but on actively use one. My step son has three but he only uses one. People that registered, tried it out and then never came back are also included in that number.

My guess is that there are something like 20 million active users. The daily peak usage generally occurs between 14-16 GMT at a bit over 6 million users online and growing.

Myself and a mate, Pete, started using this service back in Oct 2004 and on 19/10 there were 635,120 users online with a bit over 28 million downloads. There have now been in excess of 290 million downloads of the software.

It's Good Friday!!!

Yep, it's Good Friday!!!!!!!!!!!!

But what is good about it?

The war in Iraq?
The detainees in Guantanamo Bay?
The pigeons that shit on our balcony?
The beautiful beaches in whatever location you're in?
The stock exchange?

No!!!!

It's the beauty of waking up to a new day and enjoying it.

Somehow we are a little bit more sophisticated than ants. Although we are very similar in behaviour we are really only different by the amount of legs and brain capacity. We hunt, we gather, we improve our house, we worship our Queen (or the upper body because we have to), we explore, we ..................

That brings me to the next thought. Religion! What religion do ants have? I guess it's none. So where do they go when they die?

I think about this a lot. I was born a Catholic; baptised, etc, and went to church every Sunday until I was 15 or 16 (without choice). I've lived in Thailand where Buddhism is the In Thing. I've lived in Indonesia and Malaysia where Islam is the In Thing. I've lived in China where whatever the government says is the In Thing (basically just toe the party line). Now I'm in Brazil and I'm back to living amongst serious Christianity and serious crime.

Let's get it right!! Religion is for those that can't face reality and need a feeling of eternity. How can we all be right? Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, and all the other factions.

For God's sake (whichever one you worship) just be a good person to your family, neighbour and person that you pass by on the street.

If you do that then you will go to that great promise from whatever you believe in (maybe).

I think that this Friday was as good as the last and it will probably be as good as the next. Maybe there is something in it because Friday is also the primary religious day of Islam.

So, enjoy this Friday as it was the best day of your life, be happy and help others to be happy!!





And then tomorrow do the same....................

Bangladesh - Cricket

Who is the fool now? ( Remeber your words Aussies).

Okay, it's day 1 but the Aussies are not so shiny at the moment.

Tall popies have a long way to fall.

I'm sure that they will end up kicking ass but today, 9 April 2006, they did not.

Here's a local hero

Norton Anti-Virus

I've been a Norton AV subscriber for about 10 years now and today is the 3rd day without it (only a few days ago I realized that there are so many short falls with NAV) and (why am I so dumb to wake up so many years later?).

It's also the 3rd day with VET. It's a winner!! :-)

And it's so god dammed simple; a breath of fresh air. I say it's "Anti-Virus For Dummies". The only thing you need to do is to set up a scheduled scan once per week and an automatic update daily at some time that does not obstract your work . That's it!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Set it and forget it.

Okay, it's expensive but what cost is your PC and the data it holds?

I use Thunderbird as my e-mail client, not Outlook Express as per the majority of the world, and I've done all the tests and worked out that the real time and e-mail scanner are absolutely fully functional regardless of you client.

Congratulations VET.

Edit:
No more PC fan driving me crazy......
No more fight for resouces.................

Thanks Bake.

Blogger Status

God dam it can be frustrating. Blogger just goes off the air somtimes without notification. Does anyone have a "free" perfect world blogging solution? I've tried Wordpress and, although good, just didn't cut it. I'm not a Javascript, HTML or C++ programmer so what do the "run of the mill guys do"?

How To Blog!!!

A new discovery (is that a tortology?). I've played with all sorts of automatic blogging tools and every one of them comes up short. So, what to do?

Use you e-mail client as your word processor!! I use Thunderbird but I am sure that Outlook Express is the same. Write what you want, insert your HTML where you want, copy and paste and away you go. AND you've got a spell checker. Seeing how I failed English at school, this is more than useful.

Life is so easy!!!

My Top 10 Feeds

Okay, heres more.

My top 10 RSS Feeds. (by the way my feed reader is GreatNews). I'll leave out the Mozilla stuff because I don't want to look like I'm advertising.

1. Life Hacker
Without doubt this is my principle source of new technology.

2. FactoryCity by Chris Messina
A lot of his stuff is, for me, garble, but you pick some stuff up. A talented, over involved dude.

3. Dilbert
Get your daily fix. What can I say about Dilbert? He's a dude and his boss sucks.

4. Digg.
A necessary evil. Lots of crap but if you are patient then you will get good stuff here.

5. Nasa's Image Of The Day
You get some spectacular stuff.

6. Nasa's Earth Observatory
Again, you'll get some spectacular stuff.

7. Reuters News
They have a variety of feeds that keep you up to date on world info. I subscribe to 3 feeds.

8. Secunia Security Advisory
Be the first to know what problems exist out there, nasties and viruses.

9. Tumut
If you have a feed reader that supports a search then set it up to see what's going down in your home town.

10. Whatever You Want
There are so many sites out there that support and provide RSS feeds it is ridiculous. Take the time, get yourself a reader and enjoy.

My Top 10 PC Programs (Free)

Actually, it started out as a Top10 idea but I realized there was more. It's now the Top 13 (is that unlucky?).

The more and more I use my PC, the more and more I use free software. In the not so distant past I had all sorts of bits and pieces of applications and add-ons that, although were good, added up to quite a lot of money for something that existed fee of charge. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a cheap skate, I pay and donate where and when is I think it is warranted.

These days I am almost cost free (apart from my DSL connection) and using programs equal to the task or better than in the past.

Unfortunately, due to my work commitments I still need Microsoft Office and Project. I also have a Norton Anti-Virus subscription that is current for 3 more months, but that I will not renew. At this stage I'm looking at Avast Personal Edition.

So, that said, this is " The List" (in no particular order) of what I use every day. This is no advertising, no bullshit, just facts from an every day PC user that loves to delve a bit deeper than what comes default on your new PC.

1. Process Explorer by Sysinternals
Probably my most used utility. To quote the boys themselves:
"Find out what files, registry keys and other objects processes have open, which DLLs they have loaded, and more. This uniquely powerful utility will even show you who owns each process."
It is a hugely more powerful big brother to the Windows Task Manager. See what's running in the background then right click and "Google" it to see if it's legitimate or a nasty piece of rubbish that you picked up somewhere. It's a " must" for anyone that wants to know what the "F" is going on.

2. Total Commander by Christian Ghisler.
I remember the old days when there was Norton Commander. Do you?. Well this tool has been around for a while also but not quite that long. It is a powerful replacement for Windows Explorer and more. If you want (need) to move files around, create new folders, zip up a bunch of stuff, jump into someone else's PC on the network (as long as it's shared) then do yourself a favour get this utility. It also incorporates a very user friendly FTP interface. It is free but you get a nuisance pop-up that requires a click selection of 1, 2 or 3 to enter the program. I actually bought a license not to get rid of the pop-up but to give this good man a source of income to continue his development.

3. Skype
VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) is the "In Thing" these days and if you're wondering what that is then it is the new generation world wide telephone system or protocol. Instead of using the old PSTN system it uses your Internet connection to tele-communicate. There are many other VoIP providers out there, many of them localized, but this one is a truly international service. If your "other party" anywhere in the world has it installed on their PC then you can communicate for free. If they don't have a PC and Internet connection and only have a land line or mobile then use SkypeOut. I live in Brazil and talk to my friends and family in Australia and other countries who don't have this service for a fraction of the "Telecom" price. To most countries you talk for 0.017 euro cents per minute or, on today's currency, conversion AU$1.70 per hour. Not bad hey!!!

4. Firefox by the Mozilla Foundation
What can I say? I remember the days of Mosaic, my first browser in the mid 90's; basically it was the first commercial browser out there. There's a lot of water under the bridge since then. Later for me it was Netscape and then, once Microsoft killed the opposition, it was Internet Explorer. Since September 2004 I've been on Firefox. I've tried Maxthon, Opera and many other bits and mutations but there is no substitute for this incredible piece of software. If you want flexibility, configurability and security then don't F with the rest. No more to be said. By the way, it does not kill anything already installed, (i.e. Internet Explorer) it becomes an alternative. This is proudly Open Source Software.

5. Thunderbird by the Mozilla Foundation
An e-mail client. Again, as above with Firefox, I've tried them all. I lived with Outlook Express for years, dabbling with others and finally, 2004 also, I saw the light and it's still shining bright. This is proudly Open Source Software.

6. Autoruns by Sysinternals
If you have a need to get into the guts of what's starting up on your PC and want to take control then this is an absolute must. These guys also have a great range of other freebies.

7. GreatNews by Curiostudio
The way to get the latest gossip and keep in touch with what's going on in the world delivered to your PC is through RSS feeds. Again I've tried them all and, obviously in my opinion only, the best is GreatNews. The only thing that I don't like is that Internet Explorer is the power plant of this lovely, slim application. It is still in Beta and may turn to a pay application but for now it's still free.

8. Kerio by Sunbelt Software
A firewall program which is a "must have" for anyone that is connected to the Internet. Don't kid yourself and think that sitting behind a server or router is protection enough because it's not. I had been a Zone Alarm advocate for some years but it got to the point of bloat where I said "no more". I got sick of "svhost.exe" chewing up CPU ability and memory. Kerio has a very functional "simple" user mode and a very nice "advanced" mode of operation. If you think that you protected and are not behind a router or server then check out Steve Gibson's site at grc.com and run the Shields Up test.

9. Altiris Software Virtualization Solution Admin by Altiris
Commonly known as SVS Client and you can get it here without the bureaucratic crap. To put it as simple as I can I am a terrible experimenter of bits and pieces of software. As a result my PC ends up with untold amounts of DLL's and registry entries that are not removed by the "uninstall" function that comes with most software and also within Windows itself. If you have an application that you are not sure about and just want to try then use this application to do the install. It creates a "layer" that captures all the install data and packages it in that "layer". So, when you find that the software you installed was actually crap then simply delete the "layer" and it removes every trace of that application, gone!!!!! Wow!!

10. Open Office By Open Office Organization
Want to have Microsoft Office but can't afford it? Then this is for you. A fully featured Microsoft Office alternative application and more that is developed by a group of enthusiasts and Sun Microsystems (the guys that brought us Java). Probably the most impressive free software that is out there. This is proudly Open Source Software.

11. Spybot
One of the big two anti-spy detection and deletion programs. If you don't run this software once a month minimum then you're waiting (asking) for trouble.

12. Ad-Aware by Lavasoft
The other one of the big two anti-spy detection and deletion programs. Again, if you don't run this software once a month minimum then you're waiting (asking) for trouble

13. Windows Defender by Microsoft
Wow!! Microsoft gets an entry. Both Spybot and Ad-Aware are good removal tools but the idea is for these nasties to not get into your PC in the first place. This application does a pretty nice job. It also detects any change to applications and your PC start-up protocol. But, as with any of the Microsoft applications, you must have a genuine copy of Windows (but we all do, don't we!!)

That's it, my Top 10 (13). Enjoy a safer, faster Internet and PC.

Blogger

It looks like I'm back at Blogger even though Wordpress has some really nice stuff.

I want to be able to " tag" or " label" my entries and display it for the diaspora but using default templates in Blogger, well, it just does not seem to exist.

The perfect world certainly does not exist.

Toshiba Wireless Connections

I've had problems for more than a year and only yesterday I managed to get it right. The Australian delivery of S2 notebooks seems to have been shipped with a bad (old) driver version for some time.

I finally discovered a driver update for the Intel ® PRO/Wireless 2915ABG Network Connection so get it here.

or if you what to see where the link above is coming from then it's here

http://support.intel.com/support/wireless/wlan/sb/cs-005905.htm

Not good!!!!!!

Água Doce

Last night we went for the third time to Água Doce (in english "sweet water"), a Brazilian chain restaurant (in Brazil only unfortunately). They clasify themselves as a Cachaçaria which translates to be a "Sugar Cane Rum Bar", but it's much more.

What can I say? Impressive!!!!!!!

Below is an extract from their web site.

"No cardápio amplo e variado da casa são oferecidos mais de 600 itens que subdividem-se em 150 coquetéis com vinho e cachaça natural, cervejas, vodkas, whiskys e também uma infinidade de sucos, e coquetéis sem álcool para crianças"

Now that translates to be:

"Our more than ample menu offers more that 600 items divided into 150 cocktails with wine and sugar cane rum, beers, vodkas, whiskeys and also an infinite amount of juice, and non-alcoholic coktails for the kids."

But also the food is great.

I think they have about 85 franchaises and another four on the way.

Back to last night; there were four of us, we arrived at 8:00pm or a bit later, left at 12:30 and thought it was about 10.

Great food, drinks and atmosphere................................................

Wengo VoIP Service

I was just reading up about Wengo, an Open Source VoIP provider based in France.

Very Impressive!!!!!!!! And generally cheaper than Skype.

Unfortunately it does not benefit me so much but if I was calling to US, UK or Western Europe then they would be for me.

Maybe I'll give it a try, rates to Australian and Brazilian mobiles are cheaper than Skype.

Another Blog

I'm trying out Wordpress so check out Stuff In A Blog there. I'll keep both going until I find what I'm happiest with.

Australian VoIP Services

A friend of mine in Australia asked me what VoIP provider I used and went on to say that he was looking at either Engin or Firefly. So I thought that I better check these other 2 out and compare them to the service I use which is Skype.

So, the following tables are what I found (prices are per minute unless otherwise stated).

Service	Skype Euro	Skype AUD	Engin	Engin
Monthly Fee	Free	Free	$9.950	$29.950
PC to PC worldwide	Free	Free	Free	Free
Local Calls Aust	$0.017	$0.027	$0.100	$0.100
Capital Cities Aust.	$0.017	$0.027	$0.100	$0.100
Mobiles Aust	$0.165	$0.266	$0.270	$0.270
13/1300 Aust.	$0.017	$0.027	N/S	N/S
1 800 Aust	N/A	N/A	N/S	N/S
US	$0.017	$0.027	$0.035	$0.035
UK	$0.017	$0.027	$0.035	$0.035
NZ	$0.017	$0.027	$0.035	$0.035
NZ Mobile	$0.252	$0.406	$0.590	$0.590
Brazil	$0.044	$0.071	$0.140	$0.140
Brazil Mobile	$0.173	$0.279	$0.290	$0.290

Service	Skype Euro	Skype AUD	Firefly	Firefly Sub
Monthly Fee	Free	Free	Free	$5.950
PC to PC worldwide	Free	Free	Free	Free
Local Calls Aust	$0.017	$0.027	$0.069	$0.049
Capital Cities Aust.	$0.017	$0.027	$0.069	$0.100
Mobiles Aust	$0.165	$0.266	$0.300	$0.290
13/1300 Aust.	$0.017	$0.027	$0.069	$0.100
1 800 Aust	N/A	N/A	Free	Free
US	$0.017	$0.027	$0.069	$0.039
UK	$0.017	$0.027	$0.069	$0.039
NZ	$0.017	$0.027	$0.069	$0.049
NZ Mobile	$0.252	$0.406	$0.500	$0.500
Brazil	$0.044	$0.071	$0.145	$0.145
Brazil Mobile	$0.173	$0.279	$0.305	$0.305

Green text - service to service e.g. Engin to Engin
Blue text - $25 worth of calls included in monthly fee
Yellow text - untimed call
N/S - not sure
N/A - not available
Euro to AUD X-rate 1.6116 (as of 16 Feb 2006)

Further Info

If you were to use $9.95 worth (i.e. Engin) of Skype you would have 363.176 minutes (6.053 hours) to fixed lines in Australia and most parts of the world or 37.418 minutes (0.624 hours) to mobiles in Australia.

If you were to use $29.95 worth (i.e. Engin) of Skype you would have 1,093.177 minutes (18.22 hours) to fixed lines in Australia and most parts of the world or 112.63 minutes (1.877 hours) to mobiles in Australia.

Skype has no monthly fees; you only pay for what you use.

With Skype and Firefly you must have your PC turned on. They are both softphones.

Skype wins hands down on the international front.

Skype currently offer what is called "SkypeIn" in 12 different countries, unfortunately not yet in Australia but I believe that it will become available in the next 12 months. This is a service where you get a number in your country but for sure it will be one of the capital cities Engin will not be intersted in this because they use your existing land line and Firefly are still quite a small outfit.

I can't see how with any of these services that you can yet do away with your existing line so that you can still receive calls but the time will come some day soon.

For Australian customers Skype has the disadvantage that the servers are located in Europe meaning that if your are in Sydney and call your neighbour then your voice will travel to Europe and back as will the voice of your neighbour. You may experience some latency (delay) but in saying that I llive mainly in Brazil and call my parents 1-2 times per week to their land line and I would say that generally it is better quality than land line to land line.

I have saved a minimum of AU$3,000 in the last 16 months. I call more frequently and for longer to family and friends around the world.

Conclusion

I will definitely stick with Skype.

Blog Face Lift

Previous visitors will notice a bit of a facelift to this blog.

The most significant changes were:

1. Blogger.Com Template :
Was "Rounders 3"
Now "Minima Black"

2. Name :
Was "Stuff!!"
Now "Stuff In A Blog!!"

3. Address :
Was "http://albyxx.blogspot.com/"
Now "http://www.stuffinablog.blogspot.com/"

4. RSS Feed:
Was "feed://albyxx.blogspot.com/atom.xml"
Now "feed://stuffinablog.blogspot.com/atom.xml"

The old site still exists but you will have to click on the link to get to the new one. All content from the old blog has been transfered to here.

You will need to update your RSS feed link.

If there is something else that is broken then please let me know.

Australian's In Exile

OK, now that I have your attention I am a part of the Australian diaspora. I mainly live in Brazil and here we don't have a great deal of Australian TV content as you can imagine, actually zero.So I want to share something that I discovered yesterday.

ABC (Asia Pacific) TV online and LIVE!!

I was in Indonesia a couple of months ago and was getting this service in my hotel room and it was great, live rugby and rugby league and the best of all Australian television from the comercial operators such as All Saints, Blue Healers and Water Rats. I also caught the Australian football (soccer) team qualify for the world cup with a win over Uruguay.

And for those that are not Australian but are diaspora of elsewhere then do yourself a favor and check out this link to online TV around the world.

Enjoy!!!

German viewers may find Strip News quite entertaining.

Edit:
28 March 2006.
Well, the ABC Aisa Pacific service came to a halt a couple ofweeks back. When it dissapeared from service I contacted them about it and found out that it was a third party illegal stream.
Unfortunately they do not intend to make an internet stream of the service.

Browser Stats

A bit of trivial information:

Browser totals for this blog:

Mozilla/Gecko Core 53.69% (Firefox 1-30.20% Firefox 1.5-23.15%)
MSIE Core 40.27%
Opera 5.03%
Other Browsers 1.01%

Operating systems:

Windows 97.65%
Linux/Unix 1.34%
Apple 1.01%

Mozilla can hold it's head high.

It's a shame that Linux can't take off.