The inner chaos of a web guy's mind.
Computers
Internet Marketing is it real or just Hype?
Jun 23rd
It today’s internet world we are bombarded with emails, Facebook ads and the like – many of these ads are images of young people standing beside Ferarri’s, Porsche’s and other exotic cars parked in front of Malibu mansions.
The headlines read “Buy my book and I will teach you to make a million dollars on the internet – Just like I did…“
I have consistently blown these off as I thought them to be the same as the smooth talking dude on late night TV with there get rich quick offers available for the next 2 hours CALL NOW!.
Well for the most part I think I have saved myself thousands of dollars not buying any of these products. BUT What if these guys are not full of $%^&*@ what if there is money to be made on the internet?
I had never met anyone that is actually making money with these systems and programs until now. Sitting in my office slaving away at client work and desperately trying to drum up more business for my Web Design company was a constant in my life. Sure I was living the good life – no boss, own the company blah blah blah, the good life also comes with a price – COUNTLESS HOURS OF SLAVE WORK!!! It was starting to feel like a regular old job but without benefits or a guaranteed paycheck.
So there I was and in walks this dressed down guy from down the hall (he has seen my flyer in the building offering my services). To make a long story short I take a look at one of his websites (it was honestly a crappy looking site) – and guess what he was one of those guys.
” Look at me I make lots of money on the Internet telling people how to make lots of money on the Internet”
Needless to say I blew the guy off and continued my work – later that day I was heading out and see the guy in the parking lot getting into his $100K car as I walk to my little Honda Civic parked a few cars away.
I decided to strike up a conversation with him and apologize for basically be a skeptical “Prick” when he showed me what he was doing online. What do you know this guy was one of the nicest guys I have ever met – he explains to me that hes used to that kind of reaction from people when he tells them what he does so he avoids talking about his business with people.
We talked for over a hour about what he does and what I do… Later that week we met again (honestly I just wanted to tell him about a project I was working on hoping he might buy a copy for his business!) well he loved the idea and asked if I wanted to do a Joint Venture to promote it when it was finished.
Out pops my skepticism again I’ve been burned too many times with “Joint Venture” – to date they had all ended up as I work my a$$ off while the other party does jack and keeps asking why there is no money coming in from the project. I asked my self a few simple questions:
- This time had to be different right?
- This guy is legit I’ve seen his business work.
- What do I have to lose business was slow at this time anyway.
- I had already completed most of the product may as well get this guy to market it.
So my team and I finish off this Affiliate Sales Site building tool with feedback from my now Joint Venture partner in the project. It has been 3 months and we are nearing the end of 2009.
I will refrain from going into all the details pertaining to launching a product like this – needless to say it would have made a GREAT reality TV show.
Finally in early December of 2009 the product launches – we’ll see if this guy is really as good as he says he is or just another opportunist.
My take on the project over the next 2 months more more than the entire sales for my company the year before, on top of that the product stays on the market and makes sales every week creating me a passive income. HOLY S___T I could not believe this was happening!!!
That is now history! – I have since fired or transferred all of my clients and are solely focusing on Internet Marketing and product development. I am making more money that I ever thought I would make.
And yes I got myself a fancy car – Not as fancy as my business partners exotic car. Sorry no pictures of me standing beside it telling you how I can teach you to do the same.
The Moral
Not all of these get rich internet programs are a scam, there are legitimate REAL people out there making money on the internet. Some of them honestly do care about the people that buy their products and help you do what they do.
Keep up to date with my product releases and information about the REAL internet Marketing business fill out the form on the right and get blown away.
The below link is a product I developed that details exactly how I did what I did and just how easy it can be to start an internet business that earns massive profits.
Are you the skeptic like I was or are you ready to take a little risk in your life and reap the rewards! It is totally up to you…
Building a green HTPC
Jan 1st
Technorati Tags: ASUS P5G43T-M Pro,Antec Earthwatts 430W,Antec Fusion Remote,Green HTPC,Green Computing,HTPC,Home Theatre,Home Media PC,Media PC
For those that may not know what HTPC is it an acronym for Home Theatre Personal Computer. Basically it is a PC that is dedicated to being a media computer connected to your Home Theatre System.
After a long time of researching options and components I have finally sourced out my HTPC system. The main concerns other than performance with this system was power efficiency and noise. As you will notice the components include the EARTHWATTS 80PLUS power supply, Western Digitals Green 1TB low energy use HDD and the ASUS 43T-M Pro green standard motherboard.
There are cheaper ways of building this system but I wanted to maintain decent quality components and be as GREEN as possible with the build. The ASUS board has integrated HDMI output on the Intel GMA X4500 graphics chip. The availability of the onboard HDMI was a huge selling point for this board as it reduces the power usage from having a PCIe card and there is no need for GPU cooling fans. For heat reduction and stability I opted for the Corsair XMS3 with the raised heat sinks.
The Antec Fusion Remote case supports Windows 7 and MCE, being available without the PSU was a big selling point as it allowed the ability to use the Earthwatts PSU. For internet connection I have opted for the D-Link Xtreme wireless N PCi card to save running cables from the room where this HTPC will reside to the data closet on the other side of the house. For ROM playback I opted for a Liteon BLU-RAY Reader to open up the versatility. CPU is a little bit of overkill for a media PC but its always worth having a little extra processing power in any computer.
The system will be connected to a Sharp 37” 720P LCD for the time being until I replace that with a 40” 1080P LCD.
THE COMPONENT LIST
- Liteon IHOS104 4X BLU-RAY Reader BD-ROM Drive SATA Black OEM
- Antec Fusion Remote Black HTPC Case mATX 1X5.25 2X3.5INT No PS with LCD Volume Control & Remote
- Antec Earthwatts 430W Power Supply ATX12V V2.0 20/24PIN Active PFC 80PLUS 80MM Fan
- Western Digital WD10EADS Caviar Green 1TB SATA 32MB Cache 3.5IN Hard Drive OEM
- D-LINK DWA-552 Xtreme N Desktop Adapter 802.11 Draft N B/G Triple Antenna PCI Adapter
- ASUS P5G43T-M Pro mATX LGA775 G43 DDR3 1PCI-E16 1PCI-E1 2PCI HDMI Video Sound GBLAN
- Motherboard Intel Pentium Dual Core E5200 Dual Core Processor LGA775 2.5GHZ 800FSB 2MB Retail Box
- Corsair XMS3 TWIN3X2048-1333C9DHX G 2GB DDR3 2X1GB DDR3-1333 CL 9-9-9-27 Dual Channel Memory Kit
Total price for this package is: $710.25 CAN
(Not bad for good quality components)
Parts were ordered on Jan 1st 2010 from NCIX I will add to this post with the build and testing. I plan on running Windows 7 Ultimate on this system.
>> Keep Checking back for the build.
Build Part 1
Well it is January 08 2010 and I received some parts in the mail. It looks like UPS misplaced one of the packages. The misplaced package contains the Case and PSU so just the internals have showed up.
First thoughts – The MicroATX mainboard is not as tight to work with as I originally thought it would be. The CPU and Ram was easy to install and there is more than enough space to route the wires for the PSU when it arrives. The ASUS P5G43T-M Pro mATX comes with 2 X SATA cables 1 X ATA Cable, although lacking in the accessories and parts department this is a tight little attractive looking motherboard package that will make the great heart of this HTPC.
Corsair Dominator ram as always looks a little over bearing on the MicroATX Motherboard but the extra cooling fins on this series of Corsair RAM I find invaluable on both OC systems and systems that passive cooling takes priority over fan cooling.
HDD and SATA BLU RAY ROM Drive are OEM so there is nothing to report on these components and this time. The D-LINK DWA-552 Xtreme N Desktop Adapter is compact and looks like it will have no problems fitting on the board and in the case with no interference.
That is all to report until the rest of the package arrives. Keep coming back to see the rest of the build and the follow up performance part.
Affiliate Genie
Nov 25th
I have been working hard on a new application designed with the affiliate marketer in mind. I have partnered with Chris Rempel from http://www.thelazymarketer.com/blog in order to bring this amazing product to market.
Some of the features included with Affiliate Genie are as follows:
- Dynamically built XML sitemap
- Dynamically created XML newsfeed
- Dynamically created SEO
- WYSIWYG Editing for content and product reviews
- ClickBank id field to earn commission from the powered by link
- Niche themes available
One of the core features of Affiliate Genie is its ability to easily create professional product review pages with an easy-to-use rating system and other integrated tools that – put simply – makes it very easy to publish unique, product-focused content.
And why is this a crucial success factor?
The answer is simple, and it’s something that was directly responsible for my own success as an affiliate…
Publishing product reviews and product-related content is the simplest possible way to get traffic from "buyer keywords" in the search engines. And trust me – those are the kinds of people you want coming to your site!
I’ve seen it with my own campaigns, time and time again…
Sites where I’ve tried to rank for a competitive keyword (or keywords) usually get a fair bit of a traffic, but the sales and conversions are average.
In contrast – sites where my content is specifically focused on products, pre-sales questions/problems and otherwise "buyer" keywords usually generate far more sales, even with a fraction of the traffic.
And with Affiliate Genie – rolling out sites like that is a breeze…
Perhaps the most powerful element of Affiliate Genie is that truly anybody – regardless of skill level – can put up professional affiliate sites with ease…
In fact, it’s actually easier to set up sites with Affiliate Genie than it is to install a WordPress® Blog – because you don’t need to set up a database! All you do is simply upload Affiliate Genie into your web space, login to the admin page and set some preferences.
Takes about 60 seconds, flat 
Adding content is a breeze, too. It’s very similar to using a blog, with the exception being that your sites will be specifically optimized for profit.
And it’s infinitely better than using sites like Squidoo®, HubPages® or Blogspot® because you actually own and host Affiliate Genie on your own domains.
(And by the way… if you’re not building your own sites on your own domains – you’re not building a business. And your income will always be hanging from a thread…)
But that said, it’s not just for beginners, either. Affiliate Genie is designed for all levels of marketers.
Coming soon is the amazing story of how Affiliate Genie came to be…
The form on the left will allow you instant notification of the Affiliate Genie release date.
New php – javaScript dynamic photo gallery
Sep 4th
At my company I have been developing a dynamic gallery script in PHP using Jquery library for displaying the images. the new script is completed and ready to share. View a sample of the script in action.
The script has the following features:
- Easy to use just upload a folder of images to create a new gallery
- Search engine optimized, title and alt tags matched to files
- Lightbox style full size image viewing
- Accordion style galleries allowing for one gallery to be open at a time to save space
- Automated thumbnail generation (no need to create thumbnails)
- Titles and tags are dynamically generated
- All you need to manage your galleries is an ftp client to upload images to your site
Customization options are available to fit the style and theme of your specific website including colors, theme matching and other options. Pre processing of images for the web is available also.
Once deployed galleries are very easy to maintain using any FTP program, you can rename, move and delete images from galleries without errors. Rename a folder and the site will update the next time it is loaded. If you are looking for an easy to manage photo gallery tool for you site then this is the script for you.
For more information on putting this script on your site please visit mk2solutions.com.
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2010 – Review
Aug 1st
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2010 – X BOX 360
Well EA has released another year of the Tiger Woods PGA Tour franchise, after the crap show that was 2009 I was hesitant about purchasing this version as I just did not want any more of the ridiculous AI and pointless use of the controller as the game has a tendency to make up it’s own mind where the ball is going to go.
So a few months after the release of the game I was done with my Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2009 X-Box 360 so I caved in and decided to grab the newest version 2010. After loading the game up the first time I did notice some things that I liked better than the previous year. The interface was much better and the textures for the courses had gone up a level. Gone was the Tiger Challenge and replaced with the Tournament Challenge which seems to bypass the AI all together as the players shots in that you are against are preset in most of the events so you are playing against actual shots that have been made during past real PGA Tournaments.
This was a welcome surprise in the game and I played through a few of the courses and challenges to build up some skills and some cash to buy equipment before tackling the event calender for the PGA Tour season.
At this point I am impressed with the game and the new precision putting tool is awesome, far more intuitive than the old putting system. More control over the power of you putt but the same control over reading the line. The RB preview of the putting path is spotty at best and I would not bank important putts on this pre read of the lie. It like the games in previous years I found to randomly decided to show the wrong path during a very important putt.
I am not going to be writing much more detail in the review as I only got two rounds in the season before I realized just how incredibly pathetic the game this year is. EA in all the great idiocity has made the rubber band AI and random crap shot even worse than ever this year. Wind of 7mph randomly has the same affect as a hurricane gale on your ball flight. My character was pretty decked out after playing through some of the Tournament Challenges and I had 10-11 in all attributes (Including some Beginner equipment giving some boosts). Not a bad character and should fare well in tournaments.
The second tournament “The Buick Invitational” was when I realized that EA has really butchered this badly. I played 4 incredible rounds of golf in the game only to end up T5 at -30 with Tiger Woods finishing at -40 for the win. Are you kidding me where the hell do these scores come from? He finished round 3 at -28 but when we started round 4 he had not completed any holes yet was at -30. Where the the magical -2 come from? Is there some 300Yrd Par 5 19th hole that was not available to anyone but him. I was in 2nd place at the end of the 3rd round at -23, So in theory Tiger Woods and I would be the last to start in the final round however this was not the case other players in the round Tee’d off behind me and jumped up the leader board as my character played through the round. Shooting a -7 to finish at -30 was only good enough to tie for 5th place in that tournament.
For all the effort that EA tried to put in to making this game more and more realistic and true to the real players with tournament mode etc. I would have figured that the season play would be more realistic and true scoring. I guess I gave EA Sports too much credit there cause this is the worst I have ever seen in the game. Good luck ever getting the achievement for winning all tournaments in a season when the AI scores obscenely high scores randomly while having players in lower position tee off behind you and pass you in the final round.
EA SCREWS THE POOCH ON TIGER WOODS PGA TOUR 2009 . Total write off. Psyc3d.com score 2/10 and only a 2 because the graphics are better and there are some interesting add ons in this version. I have deducted all value in the game from the score because of the impossible rubber band AI.
*UPDATE* - Been playing through this game a little more only to update this to THIS IS THE YET AGAIN A TOTAL PEICE OF CRAP EA – YOUR RUBBER BAND AI IS SO ANNOYING THAT AFTER A FEW ROUNDS THE GAME IS ALMOST UNPLAYABLE.
When will EA Sports get their heads out of their collective A$$es and do something with the AI in this franchise. You have lost a customer EA I would rather not play golf videos games than to have to provide you with another penny of my money on whatever CRAP you decide to put out in 2011.2
Alienware M17 Review
Jun 6th
Scullcap Alienware M17
For years I have dreamed of owning an Alienware laptop, all of my desktop computers are at my office so other than my Fujitsu laptop I don’t have a serious computer for at home. Looking over the Internet I found a sparse number of reviews of the M17 none of which provided any really good information for me the consumer. Alienware is renowned for their customizable configuration so reviewing them can be difficult due to the multitude of configurations available.
The following is my configuration of the M17 for this review.
- CPU – Core 2 Duo T9550 2.66Ghz
- GPU – Dual Radeon 3870 Mobility in Crossfire X
- RAM – 4GB DDR3
- Screen – WUXGA 17″ 1920X1200
- HDD – 128GB SSD
- NIC – Intel Wireless N with MIMO
- OS – Windows Vista Home Premium
- Headphones – Alienware TactX
- Orion Backpack
Total Price including shipping to Canada $3005 US
Ordering and Intial impressions
The order process was not as easy as expected I had to call the billing line because I am outside of the US. After a quick call to validate my credit card information the order was processsed. Much like Dell I was able to follow the build process of the laptop over the 9 phases of assembly, testing an shipping. I opted for the standard Fed Ex shipping offered from Alienware. Shipping was amazingly fast I had the laptop at my door in 2 days. The system comes in a big black box which contained another box with laptop and accessory pack. The M17 itself was covered with an alienware form fitting felt sleeve. The accessory package is top notch from the leather bound instruction manual to the monsterous 3lb power supply. Even the connecting cables for the powersupply are thicker than average and higher quality than found on most laptops. Pulling hte M17 out of the box and opening the felt sleeve is remenat of a scene from 2001 Space Odyssey all that was missing was the music playing in the background. The casing feels like the material the bat suit is made of. Softer to the touch but a hard protective shell. On my M17 I opted for the original SkullCap lid. Opening the lid for the first time it felt substantial and rigid no concerns about flexing even with a 17″ screen. Overall I am quite impressed with the look and feel of the unit. The only minor flaw I can find is that there is a slightly raised section where the indicator lights and quick touch buttons are but its nothing that impeeds the usabilty or cosmetics.
Side View Alienware M17
Basic Usage
It is difficult to call this Laptop a Laptop seeing as you cannot use it on your lap without a hard surface between your legs and the computer. There are some small vents on the bottom of the case that are not to be blocked. At close to 10 lbs the laptop is also a little on the heavy side but overall it is easy to manouver around. Picking it up with one hand is still an option and when you do there is no flexing of the chasis when lifting. I for one am willing to deal with a slightly more bulky laptop to have the security of a rigid chasis that doesn’t feel like it will break if you breathe on it wrong. I expected this beast to sounds like a 747 when I fired it up but was extremely surprised to hear almost nothing. The SSD drive is partially responsible for the lack of noise from the case. Under normal usage conditions you can barely hear the cpu fan making the M17 an extremely enjoyable desktop replacement while maintaining the mobility of a laptop. There are some minor annoyances under regular usage with the ergonomics. The touch pad is not easy to operate but with some tweaking of the sensitivity I’m sure it will be fine. Most of the time I am using a trackball or wireless mouse on the machine anyway so its not of major concern. The front edge of the case has a somewhat hard edge where your arms are resting so if the position of the computer in height relative to your arms is important to avoid serious rubbing of your wrists on the edge when typing. I found that having the keyboard slightly below so that you wrists are slightly bent when typing will aleviate that minor ergonomics problem.
Wireless performance is incredible, When connected wireless to my WRT160N or my WRT300N router I am pulling speeds of up to 1.8MB/Sec on download, when connected to an old WRT54G wireless G router I was pulling sustained 600KB/s to 900KB/s on torrent downloads.
The keyboard responds to soft touches well and is a little on the loud side for a keyboard but I am ok with that I don’t mind a loud keyboard when typing. The port configuration for USB and audio is extremely user friendly with enough ports on the right side of the machine to facilitate you needs. The volume wheel yes wheel no more annoying buttons works smoothly and responsive and is located in a place that is very easy to operate.
Configuration and Installed Software
The OS fired up in quick time comared to other vista instalations. I opted for both the VitaKey fingerprint scanner and the facial recognition biometric data for logging into Windows. I have never been a fan of these kind of devices in the past they have not been reliable. It has been a week now and between the fingerprint scanner and the facial recognition it is easy and faster getting into windows than using the traditional password input. The fingerprint scanner sometimes take a couple of swipes but in decent lighting conditions the facial recognition usually logs me in before I get to the second finger swipe. Much to my surprise and delight there was NO demo software in the windows installation when I fired up windows. No trials of office, no wildtangent games, no antivirus trial bugging you. All that was on the computer was an installation of power DVD and required device drivers. Finally a computer that didn’t need hours of software tweaking before I could be happy using it. So far so good, I have opted to keep this machine pretty clean and run alot of open source software here is the list of apps that I have installed and are running for productivity.
HTML Editing – Notepad ++
Image Editing – GIMP
Browser – Firefox
Media Player – VLC for video and Media Player for Music. I really dont use Media Center for anything as I hate it with a passion.
Email and Messaging – Windows live essentials
Thats about it for the software portion of this review I haven’t chosen an office suite yet but will most likely use open office. The one bit of advanced configuration required is to reconfigure the soft touch quick launch buttons above the keyboard. See below for how to configure the buttons on the M17, I have listed my configuration for the buttons. You can copy and paste the entire code block and save the file with extension .reg then double click the file to merge the contents into the registry.
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\MobilePC\HotStartButtons\1]
“ApplicationPath”=”\”C:”\\Program Files (x86)\\Windows Media Player\\wmplayer.exe\”"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\MobilePC\HotStartButtons\2]
“ApplicationPath”=”\”C:”\\Program Files (x86)\\Windows Media Player\\wmplayer.exe\”"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\MobilePC\HotStartButtons\3]
“ApplicationPath”=”\”C:”\\Program Files (x86)\\Windows Media Player\\wmplayer.exe\”"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\MobilePC\HotStartButtons\4]
“ApplicationPath”=”\”C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Mozilla Firefox\\firefox.exe\”"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\MobilePC\HotStartButtons\5]
“ApplicationPath”=”\”C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Windows Live\\Mail\\wlmail.exe\”"
Gaming Performance & Benchmarking
On the desktop there was a shortcut to a file named ‘My Alienware PC Information’ the path to the file “C:\Windows\System32\Alienware\My PC Information.XML”. In this file is all the information about my laptop including all of the benchmark runs and it is formatting like an Area 51 secret document. Below you will find the results from the burn in benchmark tests run on my specific machine. The rest of the document contains specific details about the components and drivers.
Burn-In/Benchmarks
3DMark 2006
3DMark Score- 13,081.00 3DMarks
SM2.0 Score- 5,712.00
HDR/SM3.0 Score- 7,477.00
CPU Score- 2,410.00
Game Score- 0.00 Points
SM2.0 Graphics Tests
GT1 – Return To Proxycon- 46.22 FPS
GT2 – Firefly Forest- 48.99 FPS
CPU Tests
CPU1 – Red Valley- 0.77 FPS
CPU2 – Red Valley- 1.20 FPS
HDR/SM3.0 Graphics Tests
HDR1 – Canyon Flight- 87.19 FPS
HDR2 – Deep Freeze- 62.36 FPS
Unreal Tournament 3 Demo
Average FPS- 59.31 FPS
Time Spent Over 30 FPS- 99.76 percent of total benchmark time was spent above 30 FPS
Pretty impressive results in a laptop I have to say. I quickly installed steam and downloaded my instal for Drakensang and Unreal Tournament 3 both games played with high framerate at full detail 1920X1200 resolution. I am more than happy with the results of the gaming performance. As far as the noise level when gaming, well what can you expect from a highpower machine playing games you need to have some serious cooling power to keep things running stable. After playing Drakensang for 4 hours straight there is no issues with the laptop getting overly hot and or reduced performance.
Conclusions
Pros: Amazing customer experience, Magnificant machine, Great gaming performance, Very quiet under normal usage conditions.
Cons: Hard edge on the front of the case is a little rough on the wrists under certain operating conditions, Bulky power supply.
Must have FreeWare Windows Apps
Apr 17th
As a Multimedia business owner workflow and efficiency are the keys to success. I use a multitude of shareware and freeware applications to increase my efficiency at the office. There are a few that really stand out and deliver the ultimate in time saving so I decided to share them here.
DupFinder
Duplicate File Finder is a simple, but effective tool to locate duplicate files in one or more selected search paths. It scans the files and compares them based on Byte for Byte Comparison, which ensures 100% accuracy. You can then choose to delete the selected duplicate or original files. The program is multi threaded and performs scans quickly.
ImageResizer
Resizing hundreds of images is now extremely fast and simple.
Just drag and drop the images you want to resize onto the dialog.
%name variable can be used to retain the original file name (without extension).
Supports saving files into the same directory, or subdirectories.
BulkRename Utility
Bulk Rename Utility is a free file renaming software for Windows. Bulk Rename Utility allows you to easily rename files and entire folders based upon extremely flexible criteria.
Add date/time stamps, replace numbers, insert text, convert case, add auto-numbers, process folders and sub-folders….plus a whole lot more!
Rename multiple files quickly, according to many flexible criteria.
Rename files in many ways: add, replace, insert text into file names. Convert case, add numbers. Remove or change file extensions.
Check the detailed preview before renaming.
Rename photos using EXIF meta data (i.e. “Date Picture Taken”, “Resolution” and other information embedded in all JPG photo files) Rename your holiday pictures from a meaningless dsc1790.jpg to NewYork1.jpg in a flash.
Rename MP3 files using ID3 tags (a.k.a. MP3 ID3 tag renaming).
Change files’ creation and modification time stamps.
It’s free. Easy to Install. Download and start renaming your files now!
Download BulkRenameUtility >>
CCleaner
CCleaner is a freeware system optimization, privacy and cleaning tool. It removes unused files from your system – allowing Windows to run faster and freeing up valuable hard disk space. It also cleans traces of your online activities such as your Internet history. Additionally it contains a fully featured registry cleaner. But the best part is that it’s fast (normally taking less than a second to run) and contains NO Spyware or Adware!
Wampserver
WampServer is a Windows web development environment. It allows you to create web applications with Apache, PHP and the MySQL database. It also comes with PHPMyAdmin and SQLiteManager to easily manage your databases.
WampServer installs automatically (installer), and its usage is very intuitive. You will be able to tune your server without even touching the setting files.
WampServer is the only packaged solution that will allow you to reproduce your production server. Once WampServer is installed, you have the possibility to add as many Apache, MySQL and PHP releases as you want.
WampServer also has a trayicon to manage your server and its settings.
Review
I have tested this software on Vista 32bit, Vista x64 and windows XP and have had no problems with any of these tools on any of the systems tested on. These utilities are FAST and efficient at what they do. A must have for anyone looking to speed up some of the mundane tasks involved in the Webdesign business, Graphic Design business and Programming.
Hope you enjoy…
Windows 7 Review Redux
Mar 12th
Well I figured its time to re-review Windows 7, in my previous review I did hammer on it a little bit but the major issues were due to the age of the machine that I was trying to install it on. There was a lack of driver support for some of the older equipment in the box.
Well I have built another machine for the office and decided to test Windows 7 again and see what it is all about.
Computer Specs
Mainboard Gigabyte EP45-UD3P
4GB DDR2 Corsair Dominator 5 5 5 25 Ram
250GB Seagate 7200.11
Intel Q6600 Quad core
BFG Nvidia 9600GT
Seasonic 650W PSU
Antec 300 Tower
Install
The previous disk that I had for Windows 7 would not allow an install to occur. Missing win install dll was the error that came up during the installation. So I grabbed a fresh copy of Windows 7 (this time I opted for the 64 bit version) and started again, just as the previous time I installed 7 it went very smoothly and installed as quickly as Vista does.
The majority of the drivers required were automatically installed with the installation. Again though there was no drivers for the onboard lan, out comes the driver disk from the motherboard box. Once the driver was in I was able to activate windows and the updates began to download. So far so good!
Features
The first things that I noticed was the new desktop tools. The side bar is now removed making way for free gadget placement on the desktop. Right Click >Personalize to find that the interface for desktop customization is much easier to navigate through. The options are listed on the bottom of the panel with nice big icons. The same old customization tools are present however there is more choice of color for the windows and there are some nice default themes. But wait what is that desktop slideshow tool I see? Using the browse tool I was able to navigate to my favorite wallpaper folder and I see a select all button. When pressed it selects all of the images in the folder and the slideshow options are available below. I cannot beleive what I am seeing here, the one feature I have wanted in Windows for years, can it be real? YES it is Windows 7 uses a slideshow for the desktop wallpaper. I am overwhelmed with awe as I am now able to have my favorite wallpapers change at set intervals.
The rest of the interface is just as described in my previous review.
Glitches
Just as I was thinking all is good with this new installation, time to play some video files and check out Media Player 12. The interface in media player 12 has changed again, I am not sure if I like it this time. The enhancements tools are nowhere to be found and the player seems to be separated from the library all together so that you can have the library and the player open at the same time. BSOD oh yes part way into the video the dreaded Blue Screen Of Death! well thats not very good. After a few attempts at playing videos with constant Blue Screens its time for diagnostics.
- Updated all drivers for sound and video – No fix!
- Downloaded Windows 7 Video codec pack – No fix!
- Disabled sound in biot – No fix!
- Switched to the 64 bit player (Vista and 7 Default to using x86 player) – No fix!
- Checked the error logs!
After getting into the error logs I was able to find out that there is a hotfix for a transer protocol which was causing the BSOD. Send off email to Microsoft and request the hotfix. 5 minutes later I recieve an email with the hotfix download and install it on the machine. Very hesitantly I open up a video and to my amazement I am able to watch through the entire video. Keep in mind this is the Beta 7000 Build so I cannot expect perfection.
Experience Index
The dreaded experience index is still present in windows 7. Although there is a much larger range of numbers so no cap out at 5.9 like in Vista. Something is not right here however my index is listed as 2.9 due to disk data transfer rate. I tried to enable AHCI instead of IDE in the bios for the SATA drive but it caused BSOD on boot. Not willing to go through another hassle of debugging this glitch I reverted back to the IDE control interface for the SATA drive.
I was able to get the drive performance to 5.3 by disabling the Write Caching on the disk which is good for now. The rest of the Experience Index was acceptable so no need for any major tweaks here. Now that the system is up and running I move some files around, the transfer speeds of files is far superior to that of vista.
Other stuff
I use multiple computers with same keyboard and mouse utilizing Multiplicity by Stardock. The application installed smoothly and needed no addition setup to run on Windows 7 and I am able to use concurantly with Vista 64bit on the other computer.
Conclusion
I haven’t had a chance to go any further into the OS and play with performance but Windows 7 really does feel more responsive than Vista and even with the hassles I faced it does seem more stable than Vista aswell. The OS itself seems like it is lighter as there are less applications integrated with it now. The live essentials pack is downloadable and there are WAY more options for removing windows components in the control panel. Overall I would have to say the Microsoft has gotten it right with this OS. I cannot wait to see the Release Candidate.
Psyc3d Updated Rating 8.5/10
ParetoLogic Software
Feb 6th
A local software company that develops some award winning software is offering downloads and trials of their applications. The software that is provided buy Pareto Logic is amazing and easy to use, the appilcations are all utility based applications designed to help the average computer user maintain a clean and optimized computer.
Outlook Repair – repair your damaged outlook PST files
Product information
Download a Trial
Recovery – Recover deleted files, Data recovery
Information and Registration
Download a Trial
RegCure – safely clean your registry and speed up your computer
Information and Registration
Download a Trial
Privacy Controls – Protect your internet privacy
Information and Registration
Download a Trial
AntiVirus – powerful small memory footprint anti virus tools
Information and Registration
Download a Trial
Driver fix and company homepage.
Psyc3D Recommends these products and believes in this company we have seen their office and met the founding partners so I vouch for the quality of the products offered.
Apple blunders of 2008
Jan 5th
In the spirit of my dislike of Apple and everything they stand for, I have decided to compile a list of Apple’s greatest blunders of 2008.
Even though apple enthusiasts want to believe Apple can do no harm, it is not always the case. I know, all the mac users out there are screaming, BLASPHEMY! Apple did mange to make it on Fortune’s 21 Dumbest Moments in Business this year. While a tiny bit embarrassing, it’s nothing that Apple hasn’t been able to brush off and continue to provide us with ipods and iphones in our pockets. Oh iPhone, how magically we love thee.
The first dumb moment is the “I Am Rich” app. This little glowing red gem of joy cost costumers $1000. It scammed about 8 people out of their cash. Unfortunately, we here at Mac|Life pooled our money together and got the app for our mascot Salty. He hasn’t been the same since. Apple quickly pulled the app without the masses getting a chance to experience buyers remorse.
Apple’s next epic FAIL had to do with the untimely passing of CEO and Apple World Leader, Steve Jobs… Oh that’s right, he didn’t. There was the faux obituary posted on Bloomberg’s website, and then some snot-nosed kid decided to publish a story about Steve having a heart attack on CNN’s iReport. And like the media we have grown to love and respect, they didn’t check any sources before posting it. That’s right, CNN went hog wild with this and posted it without confirming the information.
Here are some other blunders Apple made is 2008.
iPhone 3G launch
Apple’s blunders revolve around the launch of Apple’s iPhone 3G. Though it has been wildly successful, surpassing even Apple’s own ambitious sales goals for 2008, the launch in July had serious issues, namely problems with iPhone activation. Since that iPhone 3G is subsidized by most carriers, a contract is required at the time of purchase. This eliminated the straightforward online activation process used with the original iPhone, leading to extremely long lines for weeks after the July 11 launch. To make matters worse, the servers responsible for activations went down early on July 11, and took a couple days to be resolved.
MobileMe launch
In addition to activation woes at launch, Apple’s MobileMe service, the revamped .Mac service which works intimately with the iPhone, suffered service outages, slow access, and syncing problems. Though not everyone was affected (I count myself as one of the lucky ones), Apple eventually offered users as much as 120 days of free access to make up for all the problems. Recent updates have made the service finally stable for most, if not all, users. Still, it was a big letdown for many hoping to rely on the over-the-air data-syncing for their iPhones.
F*CKING NDA
Another iPhone-related blunder was Apple’s initial refusal to lift the non-disclosure agreement attached to the iPhone SDK. This refusal led to difficulty in getting assistance with iPhone programming issues, problems with iPhone-related developer conferences, and the inability to publish books on iPhone programming. Developers made a loud noise (including a certain obscene battle cry), which eventually led to Apple relenting and lifting the NDA. Developers rejoiced, but it still made Apple look pretty bad.
Still…
I can’t wait to see how Apple makes it onto next year’s list, but they won’t, because Apple does no wrong. Right?
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