PC Memoirs

Few days ago I was thinking about how we lived our lives before Internet came along and how many changes Internet brought, especially in the last 10 years or so. Do you remember the good old times? We used to go out more and play games there instead on our PCs and game consoles, we used to write letters and call people at home to talk with them, read the news in the papers or watch them on the TV, and actually drive or walk to the shop to buy something.

Some things have been lost and some ruined with the introduction of the Internet, some stayed the same, but great things have also arrived with it. I have attempted to list the best ones in this post. Have a read and tell me if you agree.

By the way, for this list I have ignored any business use of the Internet. I am thinking more in terms of private use.

Email and Instant messaging – It saves time and money and it completely replaced physical mail.

Online shopping – eBay and Web shops enable you to find things that may not be available in your city or country and it can save you money.

Online dating – Some people are totally against this but it has brought many people together and while not every relationship works out, some people stay together and marry after meeting online.

Find lost contacts – You can find highschool and long-lost friends without having to hire a private investigator. Facebook is useful after all 🙂

Many news sources – Now you don’t have to wait for the evening news to hear what’s going on. You can read unbiased online news from sources all over the World.

Read the rest »

While visiting a fellow blogger’s website Freewaremission, I stumbled upon this great software called Ultrasurf.

Created by UltraReach Internet Corporation, Ultrasurf is a free program which lets you hide your IP address and access Web sites that may be blocked by your server. It connects to the Internet through proxy servers, like many similar programs, but with Ultrasurf you can view websites that require flash and javascript (something other programs can’t do). Ultrasurf also makes it possible to download and upload files.

By using Ultrasurf you can access webmail, Youtube, Myspace and Facebook in places where this is usually blocked. And of course, no one on the ‘other side’ will know your real location or identity. Ultrasurf also provides excellent security features and lets you clean browser history, cookies and temporary Internet files. This is very useful for me, because  I haven’t been able to access Facebook and webmail at work before.

Instructions:

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This is what my friend said when he called me to help him out with a new computer problem. He recently upgraded to Windows 7 and reconnected his SATA burner after he had used IDE for a while due to another issue. Now, with a new operating system and brand new hardware and drivers, everything was supposed to run smoothly. But it didn’t.

Suddenly, he wasn’t able to burn anything. Whenever he tried to burn a data DVD in Nero, the burning process failed and the “Invalid Block Address” message appeared. He tried to burn with a free burning program called Ashampoo, but that failed too. He thought he had some spyware so he scanned the system and he even tested his old IDE burner, but the same error appeared.

I suspected that some program was blocking the burning process. A simple search in Google confirmed this. Many people complained that antivirus and Internet security software interfere with burning programs, especially Kaspersky. And what a coincidence: my friend had installed Kaspersky Internet Security only a few weeks earlier.

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When I first started burning CDs few years ago, Nero was my favorite program. It was simple to use it got the job done. I also tried Roxio Easy CD Creator back in the old days, but I didn’t like its interface and it wasn’t as reliable as Nero. Nero 6 is still my favorite program (yes, version 6!), but it’s getting old, and there are compatibility issues with the newer Windows Vista and Windows 7 systems.

Finally, I had to look for other CD/DVD burning programs. This is also because I am planning to upgrade from Windows XP to Windows 7 very soon. This is what I found:

Best CD/DVD burning programs

• Burn Aware – Great for users with basic disc burning needs. This one’s free!
• Nero 9  Reloaded – I haven’t tried the new version, but it should be the same as (or better than) its predecessors. I give Nero the thumbs up.
• Ashampoo Burning Studio – Free burning program that’s easy to use and it looks nice too. One of my friends uses it regularly. No complaints!
• Roxio Easy CD Creator – Popular and well-known program that’s been around for many years. It’s not free but when you buy it, you should not be disappointed. It scored the best mark at TopTenReviews.com Read the rest »

I know, this is a PC blog, but I couldn’t resist writing about the new addition to the Apple family – the ‘mighty’ iPad. It was introduced by Apple CEO Steve Jobs few days ago and you could hear something about it on almost every news channel. Now the tech community has a reason to be excited. I’m sure that Apple fans love the new toy, but there are also those who are quick to criticize and find faults.

Apple iPad is a computer, but it’s not a laptop or netbook. It looks like a big iPhone, but you cannot make phone calls with it. It’s designed to be used for Internet surfing, typing, audio/video playback, gaming, e-book reading and for satellite navigation.

First the specs:

• it weighs 1.5lbs
• it’s 0.5″ thick
• includes 9.7″ display with a resolution of 1024 by 768
• includes on-screen keyboard for writing text (handwriting recognition is not available)
• 802.11n WiFi, Bluetooth, and GPS are built in
• 3G capabilities are possible for $130 extra
• Battery life is 10hrs
• One month standby time

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