JonesPC

If you haven’t heard (which you probably have) Microsoft released a beta for the new Windows 7 Operating during CES. Windows 7 is the operating system that is going to pretty much replace Vista when it released later this year (or early next year). The day it was released, I downloaded and installed the 64 bit version on my Notebook.

Unfortunately

I couldn’t get my sound drivers to work so I ended up downloading the 32 bit version and installing that instead. What do I think? Its still a little too early to tell. I haven’t really put Windows 7 through its paces as of yet but I will write up a little something with my “opinions so far” in about a week or so. I can tell you this much, it is stable, and fast (faster than Vista). Ive never had many problems with Vista but I did notice that 7 just runs better. Since then, I downloaded the 32 bit and installed it on my Media center PC also. I wanted to see how networking and using 7 as a Media Center works out.

If you want to try the beta, for a limited time, it will be available to anyone that wants to try. just head over to the Windows 7 page and sign up. You will get an option to download either the 32 or 64 bit and a cd key that can be used on up to 3 computers. The beta itself will expire in august so you have a good amount of time to play with it. but once its over, you have to be prepared to reformat/reinstall what you were using before as there is no way to revert back.

Download the beta

Online learning can be quite expensive, who would’ve guessed. Whenever I start looking up ways to better my own knowledge base, either through school or other means, I tend to look for ways that I can do it with the least amount of money…lest face it, I’m not rich and I got bills. So I tend to look online for solutions.

That being said, Ive been doing a bit of research on all of the different certifications that are available, such as MCSE, Cisco, or A+/Network+. Have you priced any of that stuff? Wow, it can cost you almost (and in many cases over) $10k for MCSE classes and testing. if you decide to try to teach yourself, you can spend over a thousand bucks on on interactive tutorials. You can spend the $30 bucks a month and use some of the material on Lynda.com to teach yourself some things. That’s not why I’m writing today.

I ran across a site that can help you out with some of your E-Learning for free. ProProfs.com has free study guides, sample exams, and lots of information on a few different items some may find interesting.

What brought me to ProProfs.com was the IT info available. There is information about Comptia’s certifications, Microsoft, Cisco and CIW. The good thing is that there are actual interactive tutorials and/or study guides for many of the different certifications listed. ProProfs.com is basically a WIKI style site that can be edited and contributed by the users. There is also a forum that you can find even more information. Each topic listed on the site gives you a pretty good starting point in figuring out what you need to do and what all is involved. Most of the sections have practice or sample test that you can take right on the website.

Its not just tech stuff, There is also a SAT section for those of you (or your kids) that will be looking to taking that test soon. There is a study guide, practice test and other information there also. There are also Flashcards for several other high school subjects for study use.

ProProfs.com wouldn’t be your only source of learning for any of the given topics on the site, but it will get you off and running with directions of where you need to go next. And its all free

This was a weird problem a friend of mine ran into with a easy solution. The solution was easy, but it was a solution that I wouldn’t think would have to be done. Let me explain…

My friend has a Dell laptop, cant remember which model, but its about a year old, its a 17 incher, has a 3.2 ghz Core 2 Duo processor, a Geforce 8400 video card and vista. He had this laptop for about a year and decided to sell it to one of my coworkers. We sat down to wipe the harddrive and do a full system restore. Got the disc he made from the recovery partition and went to work.

A little background, My friend who owned the laptop hadn’t done any “out of the ordinary” usage of the laptop, and was still on the initial install since the purchase. his use was moderate as it wasn’t his main PC. No configuration or hardware changes. It was pretty much in the same state as it was when he got it from Dell, should be easy right?

Well we started the recovery and went through the motions. The laptop was installing Windows and all we had to do was wait. After about an hour we came back to check and noticed the system was stuck on the last step of the install. We gave it a few more minutes, then decided to start over.

Got the same result 4 times in a row. Restore is going fine then it gets to the last step and hangs. after a while we gave up, and of coarse he lost his sale.

Later that night, he was trying to figure out what was going on with no luck. was just about to call Dell’s tech support when he found the solution to his problem (at a website other than Dell’s). What he had to do was go into the Bios, and switch the harddrive (a sata drive) from ATI to AHCI. He did so and it reinstalled windows like a champ. The thing he was thinking (I was too) why would you have to make a change like that if you never changed it in the first place? You would think it would already be set to AHCI being that it needs to be set to AHCI to install Vista? He brushes it off as a sneaky way to get you to pay for tech support. I don’t know if I agree but it does seem a bit odd.

This has been a great year. Lots of stuff has happened…Who knew George bush could move that fast huh? Anyway, I just took a look back over the year at Jonespc.com and have compiled a list of blog post that I thought were interesting, and worth a revisit if you havent already read them. Or if you are new to Jonespc.com, this could give you an idea of what things are all about here.

Enjoy

Is PC gaming dead?

Was PC gaming Ever alive?

Cant delete that file in Vista? Bypass all that permission mumbo jumbo by logging into the hidden admin account.

Is it still a good idea to “Do Follow” links in your blog’s comments?

Microsoft and Yahoo? Heres 4 other tech companies I would like to see merge

Beware, some of those forum avatars could be quite embarrassing

Harddrive crash? Important data lost? never fear, there are ways to recover it.

The internet, while great for most, is a pain in the neck for some.

Something is a little different over at Alexa…Rankings change!

So you want to start a blog and dont know where to start?

You got a host yet? Heres how to set up wordpress.

Farewell to GFW, one of my favorite magazines.

Always shred your important documents

Is Gmail the now Hotmail?

Make legal (as far as I know) Backups or your copy protected DVDs with DVD43

This is why I question the value of “Do Follow” Blog comments

What do you do with your computer parts? Here are a few suggestions

Scanning in Windows Vista (yea some of us dont know how)

How do you know if your PC is good enough for your favorite game?

How much do you pay for your Ink Cartridges?

Get a loan, or make some “interest” cash by being a lender with Prosper.

Giantbomb, Jeff Gerstmann’s life after Gamespot.

iTunes is a horrible piece of software

WOW is good for Blizzard, but could it be killing the PC market?

What is an NZB file?

Are you scared to delete your Email?

What things would you like to see happen or change in 2009? I’m talking about things online, software and tech related. Ive been thinking about a few things, some that fall more under gadgets and electronics. But here, where I talk mostly about software, and the web, I have a few new year wishes that I would like to share with you.

5 software and web related New year wishes

1. Android live disk or full install for PC’s

I really wish Google would release a version of Android that will run on a PC, without windows. Why couldn’t this happen? Android can pretty much be used with any cell phone (if a manufacturer chooses to use it) why couldn’t there be a live disk that you can slap in a laptop and boot into the Android OS. Or better yet, install it on a netbook and use Android instead of Windows XP or Linux. As far as the very basic features of a PC (What most people use) Android has enough functionality.

Ok Google, make it happen!!!

2. I wish for a new trend to overtake the “social” trend of web 2.0

For a few years now, just about every website that has made it into “popularity” did so because of the wildly addictive social aspect of that website. Honestly, I think the whole social thing is getting a little boring. People are running out of ideas which is leading to a lot of duplication of ideas. I feel that right now, the whole “web 2.0 / social” idea is at a plateau and something new and different needs to come along. What that could be, I dunno. But with the economic problems here in the US (And world wide to be honest) maybe some ideas will come about that will bring along a new set of trends and make thing exciting again.

3. I wish Amazon would create a music store/manager app that works with all music players

Amazon.com has a really nice music store, a very good alternative to iTunes. The problem? There is no stand-alone application associated with the Amazon music store to compete with iTunes…and to a lesser extent, the Zune software. The reason why an Amazon app seems like the best fit to me?  If there is a music player agnostic music store/ application, the need to keep buying the same brand over and over will go away. If I like the iPod this year, but the Zune next year, I dont have to stick with the iPod because I like to use iTunes (which i actually dislike iTunes). Or if a cool looking Archos or Sony player is released, I can buy that player and still have everything that I had with my last player because the Amazon app just transfers everything from one to the other. See how great that sounds?

4. Of coarse, I wish for Windows 7

Unlike many people, I have had very little problems with Windows Vista, and I actually prefer Vista to any other OS. I am very looking forward to Windows 7 and I wish for it’s release in 09 (which I think it will). To tell you the truth, I don’t know why I’m looking forward Windows 7, I haven’t played with the beta, haven’t read much about it so I don’t even know what to expect. All I know is that I like to try out new “official” operating systems, and I feel that all the bashing Vista has taken quite a bit of a beating this year (all of which I think was negative hype). Im hoping that negativity has forced them to do something really good the next go around.

5. Leo Laporte, John C Dvorak and Robert Heron to join Revision 3

I know, this one is a long shot, but why not? Out of all the individual project the old “the screensavers” guys are affiliated with, I think that Revision 3 is the most likely to have them all consolidate. Wouldnt you love to see Patrick Norton, Leo, John and the rest of the cast all together again? I can see John and Robert joining Rev 3, but Leo I think is a little too proud. Leo’s Twit and other podcast are doing well themselves and they dont need the consolidation but it would be a nice wish

Christmas was yesterday. As you all know, during the holidays you see people that you may not see on a regular basis. Most of my friends and family members know my interest in computers and other tech/gadget products so I usually get questions. “Whats the best DVD ripper software?”, ” I need a good audio converter, what do you suggest?” Usually, I don’t recommend software to non techie’s that aren’t free but the Blaze Media Pro looks like it can do just about anything you would need to do with audio or video files.

As far as music and other audio tools, Blaze Media Pro Has support for just about any format you can think of. MP3, OGG, WMA, even cd ripping and audio converting. Blaze Media Pro looks to also be a pretty decent video encoder, with support for vcd and svcd.

Like I said, it isn’t free, will cost you $50 bucks, but if you are looking for a media program that does it all, Blaze Media pro might be a good option

Ive talked about podcast that are new to me, that have become a few of my favorites, Now lets talk about a few of the podcast that I find I dont listen to as much anymore.

The Pet Fish Talk Podcast

I’ll be honest, when I first found out about the Fish Talk podcast, I was really addicted. I listened to every episode faithfully, all 2+ hours of each episode. While my feelings about this podcast hasn’t changed, I find that I really don’t want to listen to the 2+ hours anymore. Don’t get me wrong, I still listen to it, just not every episode anymore, and its last on my list when I que up my playlist.

Buzz Out Loud

Here is another podcast, a daily podcast, that was on my “must listen” list that I haven’t listened to in months. The reason? The 404. Yea, its pretty simple, with the variety of podcast I like to listen too, I only have room for 1 daily podcast. The 404 (also a cnet podcast) has won me over and made me pretty much forget about Buzz Out Loud. I did however listened to an episode of BOL the other day and noticed that they pretty much have a all new cast…well not all new, Molly and Tom are still there, but there are a few additions. I think those additions are enough to make me give them a second try.

All of Leo Laport’s Podcast except TWIT

I use to listen too Net@Night, the Munchcast, Windows weekly, security now and TWIT. I lost interest in security now and Windows weekly completely. Net@Night, Im still interested, and I still listen, but just not as much, I may catch it once a month now. Twit, however, I still listen too every week. I have become a big fan of Jason Calacanis and John C Dvorak.

DLTV

I’m sorry, I love listening to Robert Heron, but the show just isn’t the same without Roger Chang and/or Patrick Norton. I still catch it once in a while. I wish Robert heron would join rev 3 or Leo laport so I can start listening to him again.

Ive never tried audible, but I have listened to a few audio books in my time. but just when you think you know everything there is to know about where to get things from the web, a website like SimplyAudioBooks.com come in and show you, there is still some things about the web you still have to discover.

Simply Audio Books remind me of Netflix for books…In a way. There are 3 different ways to purchase or rent books here.

Audio book CD rentals similar to Netflix.

When you sign up for a CD rental plan, you pay a monthly fee and select from 1, 2 or 3 books a month. You get the audio book CD int he mail, listen, then send it back. Then you’ll get your next book.

Audio book downloads (rentals)

Similar to the CD rental, but you download the books instead of having to wait for CDs to come in the mail.

Audio CD Purchase

If you don’t want a monthly plan, you can just purchase individual audio book CD’s.

Most of the Audio book downloads are iPod compatible. If you want to find out more, check out SimplyAudioBooks.com

Every once in a while I talk about what I’m listening to as far as podcast, things have changed a little bit as of late. There are a few podcast that I have added to my list of favorites. sadly there are a few that I barely listen to anymore.

GDGT Weekly

First, and Im sure Im not alone, GDGT weekly have become one of my favorite podcast’s. Ive blogged about gdgt.com before, but if you not familiar. This podcast is hosted by Peter Rojas and Ryan Block. Still not familiar? They both are founders / creators / bloggers of the gadget websites Engadget and Gizmodo. I’m pretty sure you can “wiki” them to find out more information. Like many podcast, this is another gadget podcast. I cant quite explain it but the conversation that they have about the different gadgets are a little more in depth than the usual gadget talk. They really get deep into almost every aspect of the particular piece of electronics that they are talking about. I just find GDGT weekly really interesting and I pretty much look forward to that podcast moreso than any other on my list.

Check them out here.

Giantbombcast.

Something happened in the last few months. A few of my most looked forward too podcast were 1up yours, and GFW…both 1up.com podcast. Something happened, Jeff Green and Shawn Elliot got other jobs and moved on. around the same time, I discovered the Giantbombcast. Giant Bonbcast is just your average Gaming podcast, but it has become one of my favorites.

Check out the Giant Bombcast here.

Next I’ll talk about some of the podcast that has “fell from grace” on my list of podcast listening.

Have you ever had a website idea but didn’t know how to go about creating your own website?. Back in 2005, I had a website idea and I wanted to teach myself how to create a website. I bought a couple of books and while they were helpful, I dont think I got what I needed as a pure beginner. Thats when I got a set of CD’s from a friend.

I forget the name of the CD but it was from Lynda.com, teaches you how to build a ASP website using dreamweaver. I found those Video tutorials so helpful, and after a good weekend of watching those videos and practicing, I was building my first website. Since then, Ive used Lynda.com to learn the basic’s of css, and photoshop.

Right now, you can sign up to Lynda.com for about $25 bucks a month and have access to all of the tutorial programs on the website. Or you can just purchase the CD with just the training you need for whatever computer based skill you want to teach yourself.