• iPod dissection video – The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)
  Fortunately, the young woman in the video manages to restore her iPod to its previous working state (or so it would seem) without incident.
  (tags: iPod dissassemble hack video)
• Intel to ship 45nm Core 2 chips by end of year – The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)
  Intel will be the first to market with processors based on a 45-nanometer process, dramatically boosting performance and/or lowering power requirements for the new devices compared with the current 65nm parts.
  (tags: cpu intel mac pc hardware)
• macosxhints.com – Access Gmail via a secure connection
  just use https://mail.google.com/ as the URL, and you’ll have a secure connection.
  (tags: gmail https secure email)
• Footnote original historical document database – Lifehacker
  Newly-hatched webapp Footnote offers an impressive database of original historical documents for searching, viewing, annotating and discussing.
  (tags: reference history manuscript document)
• Open Word attachments in Google Docs from Gmail – Lifehacker
  Google Docs is now incorporated into Gmail as an option for opening Microsoft Word documents.
  (tags: gmail microsoft word google)
• macosxhints.com – Auto-hide the dock and menubar on a per-app basis
  I’ve always wanted an preference pane that would show and hide the dock based on which app is in the foreground. This simple plist hack does the same thing on a per-app basis.
  (tags: dock osx hack tips)
• Screenshot Tour: Repartition your hard drive in Windows Vista – Lifehacker
  Move over, Partition Magic. Windows Vista has built-in hard drive partition management with the ability to shrink, create and format new partitions without the dreaded fdisk, third-party software, or even rebooting your PC.
  (tags: vista windows hardrive partition filesystem)
• Geek to Live: Manage multiple Firefox profiles – Lifehacker
  If you share a computer with family members or roommates, or if you simply browse for different reasons – like work, blogging, school research, or play – you may want to use different Firefox settings each time you sit down to surf. Luckily, the Firefox p
  (tags: firefox extension Lifehacker HowTo)

• Filter RSS feeds with Feed Rinse
  Feed Rinse is an easy to use tool that lets you automatically filter out syndicated content that you aren’t interested in.
  (tags: rss tools service)
• instructables : DIY – Replace Broken Laptop LCD
  ‘m going to show how easy it is with an Apple iBook G4. I’ve also replaced the screens on Panasonic, Gateway and other laptops just as easily.
  (tags: laptop repair howto computer hardware screen)

• Windows Vista: 10 Things You Need to Know about Deploying Windows Vista — TechNet Magazine, November 2006
  here are 10 deployment differences between Windows® XP and Windows Vista™ that you’ll be glad you discovered when it’s time to make the move.
  (tags: vista microsoft windows PC)
• Performancing Update : Partners Ad Network Shuts Down
  Performancing started some great services and tools, and I participated and used many of them, and its sad to see Performancing tools go this way…
  (tags: blogging firefox extension)
• Microsoft Photo Info
  Microsoft Photo Info enables easy editing of “metadata” for digital photographs from inside Windows Explorer
  (tags: software tools windows exif microsoft photo)
• Ask Lifehacker: What feedreader do you use? – Lifehacker
  I just can’t help but wonder… what do you all use to read blogs every day?
  (tags: rss news reader feed blog)
• Micro Persuasion: 35 Ways You Can Use RSS Today
  Almost every day I find a completely new way to use RSS feeds that I hadn’t seen before. So, with that here are 35 ways you can use RSS feeds today. in most cases, they go beyond news and blogs.
  (tags: rss feeds blog news)

• How to dismantle a Toshiba Satellite A70 / A75 laptop yourself.
  Other guides on this site for toshiba laptops
  (tags: laptop howto tutorial hardware toshiba)
• fd’s Flickr Toys
  Fun stuff to do with Flickr Images. Shame about the appallingly distracting ad which makes the site unusable without adblocking software.
  (tags: Flickr Photography photo fun utilities tools)
• Adblock | Firefox Add-ons | Mozilla Corporation
  Once installed, it’s a snap to filter elements at their source-address.
  (tags: firefox extension)
• Adblock Filterset.G Updater | Firefox Add-ons | Mozilla Corporation
  This is a companion extension to Adblock or Adblock Plus and should be used in conjunction with it. This extension automatically downloads the latest version of Filterset.G every 4-7 days. Filterset.G is an excellent set of filters maintained by G for Adb
  (tags: firefox extension)
• Laptop Repair Help » Why my Toshiba laptop suddenly shuts down by itself without warning?
  “My Toshiba laptop suddenly shuts down by itself without any warning. Sometimes it works fine for hours, sometimes it shuts down in 10-15 minutes.” This complaint we hear from our customers over and over again. About 15-20% of all Toshiba laptops we g
  (tags: toshiba laptop howto tutorial repair overheating)
• NotebookForums.com – Notebookforums.com Notebook reviews – laptops reviews
  Not sure how good the forums are…
  (tags: laptop forum notebook hardware Computer)
• Toshiba – Australia and New Zealand
  Repair Centres for Toshiba Notebooks in Australia
  (tags: toshiba service repair australia)
• Download of the Day: InstantShot (Mac) – Lifehacker
  Mac OS X only: Freeware app InstantShot is a menubar app that takes screenshots of your Mac desktop, windows, or selection, and saves them in one of three formats.
  (tags: OSX freeware software Mac)
• Belkin 4-Port USB 2.0 Grommet Hub
  The holes in your desk meant to embrace order and cleanliness are far too often left underused. Belkin aims to put an end to that with their 4-port USB 2.0 Grommet Hub, which assuming it isn’t placed inconveniently behind your monitor would make plugging
  (tags: usb pc mac)

Attack Of The Tech-Savvy Toddlers – News by InformationWeek:

The NPD Group announced results from a survey of American parents with children ages 2 to 14 in its report, Kids & Digital Content. The report said children are becoming more tech-savvy, with children as young as 2 years old downloading content to cell phones, computers, and portable digital music players.

Did you notice who was surveyed? The Kids? No, the parents.

I never cease to be amazed just how often technologically illiterate parents overestimate their children’s tech-savvyness. Usually it doesn’t take much for a child to be a step ahead of their parents. When they are, the parents often assume the child knows much more about the device than they actually do.

How is it possible for a 2 year old to download something on a cellphone when they would not be able to read the menus or know what number to dial. And even if there is some shortcut button that then can push to get a new wallpaper or ringtone, it doesn’t prove that the child has any cognition about how that new data gets transferred down to the phone from a server, and that it costs money to do so.

Yes there are some clever kids around. Yes children have grown up with technology and are much more comfortable with it than previous generations. But be careful about exaggerating their actual skills, or presuming that what they do know about one gadget will automatically transfer to other piece of technology.

It is a fact of life that children are more inquisitive and exploratory and less concerned with the consequences of their actions. Adults tend to be the other way round. Sometimes that makes it hard for adults to come to terms with technology and change, whilst it is easier for children or adolescents.

And for all we know the generation of children after this one may eschew technology altogether and be more interested in nature and exercise. Someone will do a study about how ‘children as young as 3 not obese, some even ask their parents to switch of the TV’

More likely is that technology will become more transparent such that it is less a matter of skill, and more of creativity and judgement, as the devices adapt to us, rather than the other way round.

Compare Linux distros side by side – Lifehacker:

Pro-Linux site polishlinux.org has a new tool that lets you compare Linux distributions side by side.

Too little, too late for me. In the past I have spent many hours searching the web in search of distros, and many more hours struggling with various flavors of Linux.

In the end I run XP on my PC boxes, because for me the windows license is a reasonable price to pay for a system that I can setup quickly with known results. I know XP will work with my hardware. I know it will not crash. I know my software will work, and almost all the best open source software has Windows binaries available.

For those occasions when I get a hankering for something like Unix, I have OSX.

You can access the site directly: polishlinux.org » Compare distros

• Top 10 Tweaks, Tips, and Tricks for Windows Vista ~ Chris Pirillo
  Vista Tips
  (tags: vista windows microsoft tweaks)
• Technology Review: Uninspiring Vista
  How Microsoft’s long-awaited operating system disappointed a stubborn fan.
  (tags: vista windows osx microsoft)
• Olympus E400 Digital Camera Review
  DSLR Review
  (tags: photography camera review dSLR)
• Download of the Day: Recuva (Windows) – Lifehacker
  Windows only: Recover deleted files with Recuva, a new utility from the developers who brought you the venerable system-scouring tool CCleaner.
  (tags: windows recovery utilities software)

Windows Vista Tip: Save your searches in virtual folders – Lifehacker

Ever wish you could save the results of a desktop search so you didn’t have to repeat the search in the future? Windows Vista lets you do exactly that with a new feature called Virtual Folders.

Windows Vista Tip: Built-in Quick Launch keyboard shortcuts – Lifehacker

Windows Vista automatically assigns keyboard shortcuts to programs and documents on your Quick Launch bar. Just use the Windows key + the number of the program in the order it appears there.

Much as I dislike it, Vista isn’t all bad.

Of course OSX has had ‘Smart Folders’ for awhile now, and QuickSilver beats just about any other way of launching applications.

Still, these are two handy hits. And if you are going to use vista, you need all the help you can get.

Microsoft to offer Windows Vista online – Yahoo! News:

The download program, being announced late Wednesday by the Redmond, Wash.-based software maker, will also include the Office 2007 line of software when both are released for consumers Jan. 30. At least initially, the huge downloads will be available in North America only.

Not just Vista but Office available for download.

Actually this is not as surprising as it seems. For the last 5 years or so, Microsoft has been moving the emphasis away from Boxes and Disks and towards Keys and Activation as the primary factor in software license ownership. Microsoft have a tried and tested anti-piracy system which involves tying software to hardware to prevent a single copy of their software being installed on multiple machines.

Of course this will be a nightmare for local PC Technicians, who have a hard enough time keeping track of who has a legitimate license for what. At the moment we can trust that a PC with an OEM windows license sticker probably has a legitimate license, but how are we to be sure when someone simply tells us that they bought their copy online.

Add to that the tech support nightmare of failed or partial downloads and lost keys.

Only this week I had a client bring in her laptop because she couldn’t install Office. At least she was a paying for the service I provided, but she had bought the software elsewhere and aparently was not able to get technical support either from the shop where she bought it, or Microsoft themselves (who are still supposed to provide such free technical support for installation difficulties). She was having issues activating the product and downloading the updates. Now imagine if this woman had been trying to download the software. It’s just another layer where things can go wrong.

(I say she was paying for our service, because we get many calls in a week where people expect us to just give them free support over the phone. This is doubly insulting if they bought the software somewhere else like a large discount chain who simply don’t offer support. As a small business it is a fine line to be helpful to potential customers without giving away the farm. The fact that the woman in question had to pay for support to install her software is a downside to her, an upside to us, but overall it is a downside to the industry as a whole when such basic computer tasks are made way more difficult than they should be.)

On a related note, I had 3 customers call this week who upgraded their antivirus software to a ’security suite’ style package. They had recieved their renewal notice for their annual subscription and had also been up-sold to the more expensive package. All three customers had had serious problems, including one where the PC would not boot into Windows. We had sold them the original antivirus package, which had performed perfectly. But the company that manages the subscription renewals had messed up our good will and our clients computers.

The point is, that it may seem easy to tell someone they can simply upgrade their software with an easy download, but the reality is that things will and do go wrong.

• Windows Tip: Tile two windows with just two clicks – Lifehacker
  neat little trick for tiling a pair of windows in Windows.
  (tags: Windows tip)
• TUAW Tip: The easy way to backup on mount – The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)
  How to trigger a backup when you plug in a removable drive.
  (tags: osx software backup utilities)
• Microsoft CEO Takes On Apple’s iPhone – News by InformationWeek
  Surprise, surprise. Steve Ballmer isn’t exactly a huge fan of Apple’s forthcoming iPhone.
  (tags: microsoft iphone ipod apple)