The Tech Journal

Sysinternals Site Migration to Microsoft Technet October 31, 2006

Sysinternals will be migrating to Microsofts site and it does not appear as though Microsoft will be axing a lot of the downloads which is a great thing.  Go to the link for further discussion

Link 

Windows Media Player 11 Final released October 31, 2006

 ” Windows Media Player 11 offers great new ways to store and enjoy all of your digital media. It’s easier than ever to access all of your music, video, pictures, and recorded TV on your computer. Play it, view it, organize it, and sync it to a portable device for enjoying on the go, or share with devices around your home – all from one place. Windows Media Player 11 is designed to work with all versions of Windows XP with Service Pack 2, including Windows XP Home Edition N and Windows XP Professional N. ”

My only question is when will the Windows Server 2003 package be delivered

Download:

Windows Media Player 11 for Windows XP (WGA check)

Windows Media Player 11 for Windows XP (64-bit)

Accounting Software for Windows October 31, 2006

Microsoft today released Microsoft Office Accounting Express 2007.  Doesnt look like a bad piece of software its aimed at very small businesses to home users.  There are other packages available free of charge that are much less complex and I have provided links here.

Link to MSOAE

TurboCASH 

Quasar  

Elizabeth Edwards and a Zune walkthrough: The Scoble Show October 26, 2006

Actually I thought the video was crap.  Not because Scoble did it, Robert did a great job.  I look forward to more of the Scoble Show.  Its nice to see Robert back to doing fun things.  I wish him and Maryam all the best  As for why the Video sucked, well the Zune guy didnt know crap about the product it seemed he was reading from a script and he was unprepared for the presentation which I am sure he had time to prepare for as I am somewhat thinking Scoble didnt just show up.  Nimrods like that is what makes Microsoft look bad.  Good quality video and sound.

Link to article 

In other Scoble Show news, Maryam Scoble had an interview with Elizabeth Edwards, the wife of Senator John Edwards (Who Im hoping will be in the Whitehouse in ’08 BTW) and it was very good as well.  Maryam is actually a better interviewer than Robert is.  Some good videos to watch if you are having a slow Thursday afternoon

Link to Interview 

IE7 vs Firefox 2 October 26, 2006

Well guys Im back to blogging. My vacation is now officially over. So what better way to commemorate my return than to blog about the two most controversial releases of all time. IE7 and Firefox 2.0. I have downloaded both and I have used both. Both have done a great job improving security and reliability. I personally like both but I will have to say Firefox 2.0 is my favorite. Its crossplatform, works with older Windows releases and its very fast. While IE7 is nothing to laugh at, its from Microsoft and future IE versions more than likely be used as an excuse to force upgrades.
So what are some of the differences. The IE7 interface has been complete;ly redesigned from the ground up to make it look more like Vista and to look more modern. It has a brand new button layout and mimics some of the features found in other browsers. I find it much faster to render than IE6 and not the memory hog IE6 was. IE7 also has a Tab priview where you can see tiny thumbnails of your open tabs. Opening Tabs is much faster and less system resource intensive than using the addons such as Yahoo Toolbar and MSN Toolbar on IE 6.

Firefox has just added some stuff that makes sense to Firefox 2.0. They added a quick close on the tabs now. The icon theme also sports a new glassier look similar to the default OS X Theme and it helps it look fabulous on Windows Vista. They added a new anti-phishing feature and changed the extensions and themes dialog basically combining the two under a new menu item called ‘add-ons’.

The only similarities between the two is that when a new search provider is found the search bar glows and Microsoft and the Mozilla team collaborated on the RSS icon

So in conclusion, If you like IE and hate Firefox, if your computer can take it upgrade to IE7. If you are fed up with IE and want an alternative or you still run ol’ reliable Windows 2000, Firefox is the way to go.

Download Firefox

Download IE7

Windows Live Writer October 9, 2006

I decided to give it a try, it seems pretty cool.  More on it later

Desktop Search Tools October 3, 2006

Copernic has released their update to their desktop search tool.  Version 2.0 is a big leap ahead of 1.0 series of Copernics tool.  With it spouts a new user interface thats more intuitive and easier to use. The new deskbar shows instantaneous results that before were only available with Windows Desktop Search and spotlight.  The indexer also acts as a service instead of an app so overhead is not that bad.  One bug I have noticed is that even when its indexing or even done indexing the index status will not go idle but will still display that system resources are busy.  Also like beagle and spotlight when you open the app and type in the search box results show up on the fly which in contrast of Windows Desktop Search you have to hit enter and wait a few seconds.  Copernic works on Windows 2000/XP and Server 2003, it will install and run on Windows 98/ME but some features are not available.  If you are looking for a top notch search tool that works and works well.  Copernic is the beast.

Link