When I got it home, and plugged it in, it worked.  It booted up and got all the way into Windows.  This was much more than I expected it to do.  After surfing through multiple login pages and canceling the network password check I was able to do a status check of all the hardware and get some specs from it.

600 mHz Pentium 3
64 MB of SDRAM
8GB Hard Drive Space

Both video and audio were on-board and the USB ports were 1.0, so I’m not working with a completely defunct dinosaur. What I find very interesting is that the back of the computer had a key hole and a set of keys to lock and unlock the case. The lock was “supposed” to prevent me from getting to the case, but I didn’t learn this until I had already ripped off the case with the lock still locked. Oh well.

The motherboard and case setup is not your typical ATX standard, or at least not that I can tell. I will need to do a bit more research to find what I can fit on this Motherboard however, it does look like it has 3 distinct PCI slots. Those will come in handy.

I plan on tinkering with this PC in the coming months, and getting it upgraded enough to run Windows 2000, XP, or even 7. 2000 is my dad’s prefered OS if I plan on returning it, but I want to go big and try to squeeze 7 on it. I will be posting my progress regularly and hope to have it finished sometime next year. Wish me luck!!!

Those of you who live in the South know CellularSouth. They are a local Cellular provider who for 70 bucks a month offer a service for unlimited everything. “Man if only they had some better phones, I know me and the wife would consider changing carriers.”

Wow those are some nice phones for a little regional provider. For those wondering what that under the curtain Samsung Galaxy S is Click Here. Not sure why they hiding it. Possible they may have their own unique design to it or a Cell South Blue color scheme. Well Cell South you almost had my money. I am still holding out for a touch phone of a minimum 3.6 inch screen (800×480 or better), with physical Qwerty keyboard similar to or better than the HTC Touch Pro 2 Keyboard, A Snapdragon 1ghz processor or better, and Windows Phone 7 (Might Consider Android). You here me HTC, GET TO WORK ON THE TOUCH PRO 3. I am out of contract and that is the only way I will upgrade from my awesome Touch Pro 2.

Enjoy the first episode (Television Audio Video Jacks).

If you’re part of the Apple iPhone/iPod owner base, then you have undoubtedly been forced into the world of iTunes, Mac user or not. And while this in itself is not a total loss, there are certainly some frustrating things about iTunes on Windows which have cause for improvement. Putting buggy video playback and the seemingly slow performance aside, iTunes lacks something which I would consider core functionality, folder monitoring.

Unlike Windows Media Player, or the Zune software, iTunes does not have built in folder monitoring. What is folder monitoring? Folder monitoring is when the player library searches (monitors) one or more folders and check for any changes. If a new item is added to the folders, then it is also added to the library. If a file is removed from the folder, then it is removed from the library. Why is this important? Simple. Most people have one core folder that they keep their music in. And instead of having to manually add new content to your iTunes library every time something is added to that folder, folder monitoring could automatically do this for you. Yes, making music management a heck of a lot easier.

Fortunate for us, there is a handy third-party tool that can help alleviate the pain, iTunes Folder Watch. A product of klarita.net, iTunes Folder Watch is offered as free-to-try-ware, which continues to work in manual mode, even after the trial period is over. Aside from the nag screen on startup and shutdown, this software is worth more than its weight in gold.

After installing the software and booting it up for the first time, you will be presented with the following screenshot (a). This part is pretty self-explanatory. Here, under the ‘Watch Folder’ tab, you can select the folders you wish to monitor for iTunes import. Next go the ‘Configuration’ tab. Here you can fine tune your iTunes import experience, such as scanning for dead track on startup, adding your imported tracks to a playlist, allowing it to start on windows boot up, and allowing your tracks to be monitored automatically without intervention.

(a) Add Folder To Monitor

(b) Configuration

Run a quick scan to find new tracks to be imported, click the ‘New Tracks’ tab (c), then hit the add checked tracks to iTunes and viola, your tracks are imported. Like I said before, if you ante up the dough to buy the full version, this program can run in the background and this will be done without intervention.

(c) New Tracks

(d) Dead Tracks

Apple should really consider scooping up this software or adding this functionality in their self. It is a much needed edition to iTunes that will keep your library happy!

The game is a faithful recreation of the classic arcade title that includes everything down to the authentic music. It contains 255 levels and even has a 256 level with a killscreen. It is only a matter of time before a screen grab of that killscreen shows up somewhere online. Check it out before it disappears, presumable tomorrow morning!

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Wow. A lot has changed in the CPU world since I upgraded my computer early last year.

I was browsing Newegg yesterday and noticed that you can snag a quad core processor from AMD for $99. No, that isn’t a typo. With prices as low as ever I decided to go through a budget system build. I will be using some of the info from the Hardware Leaderboard form PC Perspective (If you haven’t checked it out, do so!).

First a bit of history. Last year I upgraded my current computer system by purchasing a new motherboard ( ECS BLACK SERIES A780GM-A), a new CPU ( AMD Athlon 64 X2 7750 Kuma 2.7GHz), and a new graphics card ( MSI R4830-T2D512 OC Radeon HD 4830 ). These components have served me well, but I am looking to further augment my system because of my new High definition Video Requirements.

CPUs are obviously one of the single most important components in any system. However, you don’t want to overbudget here. I only bought dual-core last year because I knew I would only be playing games. Quad-core CPUs show a negligible increase in performance for games.

However, when you start doing other things (like *cough* video editing) those precious cores are worth their weight in gold because they can significantly decrease your rendering time. It took my Athlon X2 12 hours to encode a one hour video (with 2-pass .h264). To get that time down, I was looking to buy a new system (I started looking at Core i-7s). I was excited to get the performance increase, but I wasn’t excited about the cost. Fortunately, I noticed something wonderful right in front of my face.

To be completely honest I never noticed that this CPU was a Quad-core on PCPer (I guess I should read more). Like I said earlier, I was browsing newegg reading reviews when I saw it. This thing is an insane value for the price, and makes buying anything below a higher-end core i5 (if you are an intel fanboy) make no sense (even THAT is a push considering you can get a 6-core AMD for $200).

The other great thing about this CPU is that it is AM3. AM3 cpus are backwards compatible with AM2/+ motherboards, and they have both DDR2 and DDR3 memory controllers built in. What that means is that I can drop this CPU into my current setup and it should work just fine! Win.

If you are considering the Intel path, that is another important area. You won’t be able to upgrade just one thing. You will probably have to upgrade your CPU, RAM, and Mobo at the same time (as Intel changes their sockets quite often).

I plan on buying this CPU in the near future, so stay tuned for comparisons and a review (if you don’t want to wait for my comparison, Anandtech has a review here).

His home has already been invaded and computers seized for the investigation.

I wonder if Gawker Media will be held liable for Chen’s actions? If so, I wonder what that means for gaming blog Kotaku and all the other Gawker sister sites.   Remember kiddies, ” Do not buy stolen goods and then post about it on the web.”  You never know who’s watching, could be the owner of said stolen goods.

I always liked Palm, just that  there was no way I was gonna become a Sprint customer, also wish the Pre was bigger, and a slider, and higher resolution screen.  That is all.

Thankfully motherboards have very standard drivers now and can boot from USB cause I hated building computers and then needing a floppy disk drive to install a third party SATA driver so I could install Window’s XP on the hard drive.  You will not be missed three and a half inch floppy.

Hey guys, what are your fondest or worst memories with floppies, 3.5 inch and 5.25 inch. (Oregon Trail Baby!!)

I am one step closer to considering purchasing a Motorola Droid.  It has nearly everything I want.  What I want is an open platform, a physical qwerty keyboard, and pretty solid game controls.  I am still gonna wait for all that and a Snapdragon processor.  Oh and a screen that’s at least three and half inches.

I hate to see companies fail.  America does not need anymore lost jobs nor do we need less competition in these markets.

Welcome to YouTube! Which may be the biggest and best free music store on the planet. How is this possible? If you’re a regular listener of the Techpedition Podcast (I’m assuming that’s all of you), then you would know that for Tech Tip Of The Week Episode 28, I suggested using KeepVid to save YouTube videos. Well, it doesn’t just stop with video. There are also many sites that allow you to capture YouTube audio in MP3 format, simply by plugging in the URL of your favorite video! As you would expect, most conversion sites are ad-ridden and give you that not-so-safe vibe, but there are a few exceptions. The one I use and find to be particularly trustworthy is Dirpy. Conversion is trivial.

1. Visit YouTube and copy the URL of your favorite video.
   
2. Go to Dirpy, paste your URL, and click the ‘Dirpy!’ button.
   
3. From here you are presented with filename and trans-coding options. Unless your tech savvy, just click the ‘Download’ button. (Note: Look a little further down the page. Dirpy also does video downloads too!)
   
4. Listen. Enjoy.

Disclaimer: Certain audio tracks on YouTube are under copyright and unlawful usage may be subject to legal action.

USB flash drives, also called thumb drives, have been around since the early 2000’s. Prior to that, we found ourselves hauling around floppies. (Anyone remember ZIP drives?) Over the years, floppies have all but gone the way of the dinosaur, and for most college students and information technology professionals, thumb drives seem to be the media of choice. Well, those days are numbered.

Embrace The Cloud

If you didn’t know already, we are in the midst of a connected society. Yes, it’s true people, the cloud is here to stay. And while some fear the notion of storing all their information online or only being able to access their applications via the web, most of the preconceptions and horror of net-based computing have all but faded. Long story short, the cloud is here, embrace it.

Lose The Thumb Drive, Enter Google Docs

Okay, let’s be clear. Google Docs has been an online office document edit/storage service for quite some time now. Google Docs has always allowed you to upload office documents, but up until now these documents were converted to their Google Docs format, allowing you to edit, save, and download the documents online. So nothing new there. But what is new is that Google Docs is now allowing the upload of non-office document types, and giving you the option to not convert uploaded office documents.

What this means? Fairly Simple. Google Docs, along with other online storage services, are making the use of thumb drives obsolete. Even more so, now everyone with a Gmail account now has access to online storage. And upload couldn’t be easier. Click the upload button from the Docs homepage, choose your file, hit start upload, and your on your way.

Not Without Drawbacks

As with most online storage applications/sites, unfortunately their are limitations. No exception here with Google Docs. There is a 1GB limit for non Google Doc files.

Also, embracing the cloud means just that. You have to be online. For most, this will never be a problem. Honestly, when are you ever at a computer and not online? Hardly never.

Conclusion

In closing, this is where everything is going and I don’t see this train stopping no time soon. My advice? Get connected, embrace the cloud, and leave the extra hardware at home.

“It’s the most wonderful time; of the Year.”

That’s right.  It’s that time of the year again.  The encroaching moment when the retail industry can finally start using black ink for their financial reports instead of red ink.  Yes, you heard right,  Black Friday gets its name from the fact that most retailers operate at a loss (financial reports in red ink) all year until the “Seasons of Giving” arrive, and people “burn” that money, thus helping most stores make over 60% of their fiscal year profits in a single month.

As always, with this time of the year, companies make their black Friday ads and try to hide them until the Monday of the week of Thanksgiving.  Well thanks to the internet we can all get early access to all those wonderful ads and build a plan of attack, well before the grandmas who have been doing this for over half a century.  I am not gonna tell you which site to check for these ads.  You may already have your own favorite.  Below are some things I might be buying.  Thanks to www.bfads.net for the info (my source).

Here are my Top 11: (In no specific order)

Left 4 Dead 2 $29 (Gamestop)

32in LCD 720p $244 (Walmart)

Laptop  15.6in 2gb Ram  $198 (Walmart)

Blu-ray Player with Netflix Streaming $99 (BestBuy)

Dremel Tool with free Detailers $44 (Home Depot)

Heath Ledger Joker Graphic hoodie size 3x $7 (Walmart)

8 in Digital Photo Frame 512mb built in mem $29 (Walmart)

Blu-ray player Magnavox $79 (Walmart)

17 in Laptop $398 (Walmart)

Over 30 Blu-ray movies $10 each (Walmart)

50in 720p Plasma $598 (Walmart)

For those of you who missed the Xbox special it appears they are doing it again in 30 minutes.  All the items in the Gold box are identical to the Walmart promotion.  To see what they are selling at the different time check my Walmart article.

$800 46in Plasma

$300 Laptop

$150 Blu-ray Player

$100 Xbox 360 Atcade (after $100 gift card)

$30 Upconvert 1080p DVD player

$500 42 LCD

Admittedly, I have had a troubled past with choosing the perfect desktop music application. With products like the iPod and iPhone, iTunes has managed to become the player of choice. But with Apple iTunes continued lack of innovation, I decided to give the Zune desktop software a second try. To my surprise, I was greatly pleased with the new, seemingly small innovations, that have managed to put the Zune software miles ahead of its Apple counterpart. Let’s take a look at what gets me excited about this up and coming player.

Visual Playback Experience

When I say visual playback experience, I mean, VISUAL playback experience. Instead of the out-dated option of only looking at the player software or just looking at visualizations, Zune has really stepped up by providing a rich visual experience. If your music is identifiable by the Zune Marketplace, you will be provided with graphics of the currently playing artist along with dynamically scrolling text with Zune Marketplace stats about the current song (screen shot below). Nice. If by chance your music is not identified, you will still be graced with a nice collage of the albums in your library which dynamically change in and out (screen shot above). On top of that, at the bottom of the player, you are provided with a graphical volume meter.

In Collection/Zune Marketplace

Once again, this is where the Zune team has went the extra step. Like I mentioned earlier with the visual features, this is purely dependent on your music being identifiable by the Zune Marketplace. That being said, if you music is identified by the software, and you browse the Zune Marketplace, all music that you own will show an ‘In Collection’ tag rather than a buy tag. Wow. To know they would go this extra step instead of allowing you to re-purchase content is really satisfying. If you click on the ‘In Collection’ tag, it takes you directly to the music within your library.

SmartDJ

This is obviously the Zune answer to the iTunes Genius feature. And weather their recommendation system is better or worse is yet to be seen. But once again, what is really cool here is presentation. Your Zune SmartDJ playlists are based on artist rather than a particular song. They are presented as a thumbnail with an image of the artist that’s, once again, pulled from the Zune Marketplace database.

The Social

This is a feature that all music players should have. And with growing popularity of services like last.fm or iLike, it’s quite clear that the Zune team is moving in the right direction with this feature. What is the Social? Zune Social is the social networking part of the Zune Software that displays a user’s most-played artists, favorite and recently played songs, and a list of the users friends, in addition to any comments about them. And with the addition of the Zune Marketplace subscription, you can instantly download all the songs from your firends library. What’s so cool about this is that the networked it shared with the XBOX Live friends service. So if your a XBOX Live user, you are instantly connected to all your XBOX live friends via the Zune social network. Also your Zune Card, a mini-representation of your Zune stats, is HTML embeddable. Very nice.

In Closing

Although Zune software has many innovations and features, it’s not without its faults. Often times I found that music that should be recognized by the Zune Marketplace, was not showing up. This all but kills a few of the features I mentioned above. And the lack of an Apple version isn’t helping it win any accolades either. All in all, I would definitely suggest giving this software a whirl. You may find it to be more than worth the price of admission (free).

For 72 hours www.newegg.com is offering 10% off all its Hard Drives.  That means a Terabyte drive can be purchased for nearly 60 bux.  However it appears that the deal is applicable only to patrons who subscribe to Newegg’s newsletter/email deals.  So sign up now people, you only have three days.  I think I might purchase that 1.5 terabyte external for $99.  Then sell my delete key on Ebay since I won’t be needing it anymore.

Over the past twenty some odd years, satellite technology for the home has come a long way. Going from dishes as large as several meters in diameter, to a smaller dish, about a foot or two in diameter. The technology used for satellite television transmission was eventually adopted for home internet use. Of course there are many issues that needed to be addressed to make this technology successful for internet usage. And there are many drawbacks to keep this technology from really taking off like it’s television counterpart. Let’s take a look at some of the major issues and drawbacks.

Latency
According to Wikipedia, latency is the delay between requesting data and the receipt of a response. What this means to satellite internet users is that they can forget about online gaming. Latency thresholds can be as great as 500 to 900 milliseconds one way. These type of delays can also make normal browsing frustrating if you are accustomed to dsl or cable internet response times. There are technologies in place to minimize this problem, but the problem stems from the great distance a signal has to travel. Home, Satellite, ISP, Internet Request, ISP, Satellite, Home.

Rain Fade
This is the problem that most people with satellite television get when there is a storm outside. Nothing new here, but a problem that affects home satellite technology in general. Let me tell you, it sucks when you have satellite television and internet, and both are in the crapper due to weather.

Pricing
Like satellite television, satellite internet prices have drastically come down, thus making it more accessible. That being said, it’s still much, much too expensive compared to similar dsl and cable offerings. Below is a chart outlining the prices and speeds of some satellite internet offerings compared to Comcast and At&t based on speed.

Company Name	Price (Based On 2-yr Contract)	Download Speed	Upload Speed
WildBlue (Satellite)	$79.95	1.5 Mbps	256 Kbps
HughesNet (Satellite)	$79.99	1.6 Mbps	250 Kbps
StarBand (Satellite)	$99.99	1.5 Mbps	256 Kbps
AT&T (DSL)	$25.00	1.5 Mbps	384 Kbps
Comcast (Cable)	$24.95	1.0 Mbps	384 Kbps

Other than the huge monthly price and speed differences between satellite and cable/dsl, with satellite you more than likely will have to sign a 2 year agreement and pay huge costs upfront for equipment and installation.

I have had hands on experience with the WildBlue service over the past week, and I must admit, it works pretty well. Don’t get me wrong, it ain’t no cable or dsl. But if you have dial-up, and satellite is the only alternative, then this is definitely the way to go. For basic internet usage, it’s more than enough. I am very curious to see where this technology will be in the next ten years as technology is always getting better and prices are getting lower.

After scouring the internet for answers I finally came upon this article in the most unlikely of places.  www.theinquirer.com It appears Comcast has been planning this for a year now.  Who would have thought that testing for it would begin this soon, and in the south for that matter.

This all seems to be in relation to new routers that should be rolling out in mass pretty soon.  Very expensive routers too.  They are called DOCSIS3.  These modems are touting up to 108 mbps upstream and up to 343 mbps downstream.  Now that could be considered overkill but I got to say I was not expecting the current modems to even reach 100+ mbps, but I have video proof of that below.  Uploads appear to be very slow though, capping around 2mbps, but i guess that does not matter when you consider bitt torrent.  A thousand people uploading at 2 mbps is still a 2 tera-bit pipe for getting data.

I really hope comcast is reasonable with the prices(HA) for these connection speeds.  Also with speeds that fast and steadily climbing for all ISPs, it has/will become idiotic to impose a bandwidth cap.   I guess Comcast and the other carriers will have to step it up because with the purchase of some analog channels by Verizon and AT&T,  wireless 4G is pushing to exceed 100mbps.  More points for tethering phones to laptops.