system

I suppose it's time to roll up my sleeves and try to 'expose' the inner workings of the scary little box that's humming away on your desk. It's called a Personal Computer, no matter who designed and/or built it. It may have a name associated with it ... such as Macintosh (or Mac), Dell, IBM, Gateway, or any of a myriad of names depending where you live and what you decided to buy. No matter what name is associated, all desktop Personal Computers (or PCs) have a few basic components that are common. Laptop systems have the same array of components but they are usually not accessible like in a ... (view more)

Since last November and even before that, Microsoft has been aggressively hyping the features and virtues of Vista. We've all seen it talked about in the printed media, on television, and on web sites, including Infopackets. Is Vista the latest and ... greatest Windows operating system ever produced? The jury is still out on that. Even I, the local Linux 'geek', look upon Vista and can see where there are seeds of potential greatness, but only the potential. It's just too soon to say for sure if will attain greatness. Why So Much Memory? On the technical side, the reasons for the expanded ... (view more)

Off System The OFF System for content storage and retrieval lets you store all digital content and allows only the people authorized to use it to do so. It is the proof of concept for 'bright nets' and will allow anyone to securely share digital ... data legally. https://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=96735 Sharp E SharpE is a user-friendly desktop replacement for Windows XP and 2000. SharpDesk's powerful shell replacement makes crafting a luxurious desktop a delight. Every pixel of visible space can be personalized, and the export feature makes it easy to share your masterpieces ... (view more)

Debug Bar Debug Bar is an Internet Explorer plug-in with powerful features: DOM Inspector: View DOM Tree and modify tags attributes and CSS attributes on the fly to test your page. HTTP Inspector: View HTTP/S request to check cookies, GET and POST ... parameters, view server info. Javascript Inspector and Javascript Console: View Javascript functions for easier debugging, see Javascript and AJAX code. HTML Validator: Validate HTML code to correct and optimize your code and html size of your page. And many more features: See page cookies, get pixel color on a page, make a page screenshot. Free for ... (view more)

The United States Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) has issued an advisory regarding remote tech support tools made by SupportSoft. The affected software uses ActiveX controls contain multiple buffer overflow vulnerabilities which could allow a ... remote, unauthenticated attacker to execute arbitrary code on a vulnerable system. The SupportSoft ActiveX controls are essentially small applications that can be run from Microsoft's Internet Explorer. The affected software is often used by Internet service providers, PC makers and other companies to provide support functions such as remote ... (view more)

As software and technology expand to make sharing digital content on the web easier than ever before, the flipside of the coin is that many media companies are losing control over the disbursement of their copyrighted material. This is especially ... true in terms of copyrighted content illegally shared on popular web portals, such as YouTube.com. In the fierce fight for copyright protection, a company based in California has put together content-recognition software, which makes it possible to identify copyright material -- even if the sounds and images are slightly distorted or blurry. (Source ... (view more)

We have all seen them: the Apple Mac versus Microsoft Windows PC. Some times they're funny, and sometimes they're scary -- but they always leave the lingering question in the back of our minds as to which is truly better. I must admit, I do not own ... a Mac. I do own a number of Windows and UNIX/Linux based PCs, though. And of the systems I own, many of them are from spare parts. They all run reliable and efficiently, and are updated regularly. With that being said, I stumbled upon a blog the other day that stated Bill Gates had voiced distaste for one of the newest of the aforementioned ... (view more)

Accenture, a technology consulting company, is in the process of developing a system called "The Virtual Family Dinner" that hopes to restore the value and importance of having a shared family meal. The system hopes to target the elderly, mostly ... widows and widowers, who reside on their own and live with limited human contact. With The Virtual Family Dinner, families can come together around a virtual table and share a family meal as if they were both in the same room. (Source: usatoday.com ) The concept is much more appealing than a standard telephone call. For instance, if an elderly woman ... (view more)

It's no secret that the PC gaming market has been losing ground to video game consoles for years. Standalone game systems are significantly cheaper and they're incredibly easy to get up and running -- simply plug and play. Let's face it: playing ... games on a computer can be a pain. Addled users who just want to twiddle their joysticks for a couple of hours (or tap on their keyboard and mouse, as the case may be) suddenly have to worry about whether they have the right graphics card and sound chip, enough speed and memory, or any other number of frustrating variables. Perhaps that is what PC ... (view more)

Have you ever lost your work because Windows crashed? How long has it been since you rebooted Windows because of a system error of one sort or another? When was the last time you received the infamous "Blue Screen Of Death" or other error messages ... demanding that your omputer needs to shut down and reboot for obscure reasons? Certainly, the latest versions of Windows, especially the XP and 2000 "Professional" flavors are considerably more stable than their predecessors. Nevertheless, the need for a spontaneous reboot happens often enough. Of course, no operating system is perfect, and people ... (view more)