Weblog Ask the PC Guide’s video demonstration above delves into some of the finer points of what it takes to master Gmail. The demo illustrates usage of labels, filters, a few keyboard shortcuts, and vacation autoresponders. It’s not a bad intro to advanced Gmail usage, but if you really want to kick Gmail up a notch, grab Better Gmail 2 and supercharge your Gmail Lifehacker-style.
Keep Your Software Up-to-Date and Secure with Secunia
Windows only: Freeware application Secunia Personal Software Inspector is sort of like Windows Update for your installed software, monitoring your installed apps and notifying you of available security updates. When you run your first scan after installing Secunia, you’ll be presented with a list of insecure apps that have available updates, “end-of-life” apps that are no longer being supported by the developer, and patched apps that have the latest security updates. Keep in mind that Secunia is not an anti-virus software, but more of a preventative tool for ensuring that your software is secure as it can be. For a less security-focused angle, check out mass-update apps File Hippo Update Checker or UpdateStar. Secunia PSI is freeware, Windows only.
WirelessHD version 1.0 is complete
WirelessHD (WiHD) is back, originally announced in late 2006, the 1.0 spec has been pronounced fit for consumption and will be released later this year. What’s changed in the last 14 months? HD dream team Intel, LG, Matsushita (Panasonic), NEC, Samsung, SiBEAM, Sony and Toshiba have added 40 other companies as well as approval from DRM watchdogs MPAA and DTLA for their 60Ghz-based standard. Move over cable vs. satellite, downloads vs. disc and HD DVD vs. Blu-ray, with UWB-equipped HDTVs already on the way, a battle to replace the still-tricky HDMI connection is the new HD battleground for 2008.
[Via Engadget]
Well guys, they seem to of made of Headway into the Wireless market with the HD. So does that mean there will be a wirelesss blueray? Just some interesting questions to consider, you know they are at a stalemate right now, or are they? HD just made some big advances in telling people they now can do wireless.
You can do more with Steam and Half-Life 2 now!!
So I’ve been Playing Half-Life 2 and Enjoying it so much. I’ve had a problem with Vista popping up and saying “The igfx video driver has stopped responding and has recovered!”. Which means this, that the game goes black and stops being played. It’s an annoying Vista flaw, I am thinking that if it wasn’t Vista it wouldn’t of happened. I’ve got the Minimum system specs for the game. DirectX 7.0 Compatible, 512 Megabytes of Ram, 128 megabytes Video Ram Card(some supported cards here but I don’t have one of those cards!), and Windows NT/XP/2000/98.
I did a little research and found out that the game was only using 256 megabytes of ram. How do I know? I went into the Taskmanager Manager and looked at hl2.exe (it was around 254 megs of memory!). So that got me thinking, I have 1024 megabytes(1 gigabyte memory) and I was using 256 megabytes of that for video. Well I still had over 700 megabytes of memory to use.
I did some digging and found this great article about Steam and Commands that I could put in to force Half-Life 2 to co-operate. The article is from the Linux Community and using the WINE engine to help people to play Half-Life 2 with Linux. This little option is available to most of the Steam community. To use these commands, one must do some stuff check farther down for details. These commands are:
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Command Line Commands
-heapsize [Kilobytes]: This command tells Half Life 2 to allocate more RAM to the game system heap, where it can be accessed by the game to improve performance by storing more game information in RAM and hence reducing loading pauses. The default heapsize is 64MB, however you can safely allocate around 128MB (i.e. -heapsize 128000) for most systems. You can use higher values if you have more RAM, but I don’t recommend exceeding half your physical RAM (e.g. for 1GB RAM, set heapsize of 512000).
-console: Speeds up the loading of Half Life 2 at startup by not loading up the background 3D graphics on the main menu and instead loading up a blurry background picture and the Half Life 2 console open. Note you can close this console using the ‘~’ key.
-width [pixels] -height [pixels]: Using these two commands you can set a custom resolution in Pixel Width x Pixel Height (e.g. -width 640 height 480 starts HL2 with 640×480 resolution). Make sure you choose a resolution supported by your monitor and with the correct ratio of width to height (usually 4:3).
-dxlevel [version]: Using this command allows you to force Half Life into only using the specified DirectX version for shaders. For example, use -dxlevel 70 to force Hardware DirectX7.0 level support for shaders. This means a reduction in image quality but an increase in performance. Other values include -dxlevel 80 -dxlevel 81 and -dxlevel90. Note that this only works if you choose a DirectX version which is lower than the current one supported by your graphics card. See the Hardware DirectX Version option under the In-Game settings for more details.
-refresh [Hz]: Specifies the refresh rate the game will use upon loading. This is normally not required as your system should already use the optimal refresh rate at your chosen resolution. However if this is not the case you can force it to a specific refresh rate (e.g. -rate 85). Make absolutely certain that the rate you are trying to apply does not exceed your monitor’s capabilities otherwise you may damage your monitor – especially if you change resolutions and forget to change this option.
-novid: Disables the intro video so that Half-Life 2 loads a bit faster.
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Now what I used to make Half-Life 2 a more enjoyable game was to go into steam program and Right click Half-Life 2 and select properties Then select : “Select launch options” and I added this:
“-console -heapsize 512000 -dxlevel 70“
Now let’s clarify some of this:
the heapsize I set that to add more memory for Half-Life 2 to make it around 512 megabytes. I then told it to Use only DirectX 7.0. Now when Direct X 7.0 was out you could only have 128 megabytes of Video so that was fine. I’ve got 256 megabytes of shared video memory, I Just told it to use only 128 so it actually helped out the game performance. I Got a more stable game to where I could play for hours without any annoying glitches and got to see the story line. I will say you shouldn’t use this particular setting unless you have enough memory. I think Vista is having trouble with Direct X 10.0 because the change of the game was surprisingly smoother. I am not sure why it works I just know it does. I hope this helps other gamers out with this little problem, I’ve had with Vista and all.
If you like this an other posts I’ve done please show your support by telling people to come here or just click the links at the bottom and let people know you like what I’ve written, this is the only way the blog will grow!! Thanks
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Did you apply for your TV converter box coupons yet?
If you’re anything like us, your only New Year’s resolution for this particular ride around the sun is to sign up for a converter box coupon in preparation for the 2009 digital TV transition — even if, also like us, your only remaining analog set is gathering dust next to your laserdisc player in the basement. Still, a bargain is a bargain, so $40 off a product or products that we don’t really need was more than enough motivation to race over to the official sign-up page only minutes after it went live. You, of course, still have a good 13 months to pick up one of these digital-to-analog converters from LG or friends, but since you’re probably not in very good shape to do much else today, why not make the most of your incapacitation and hit the Read link to fill out your application.
[Thanks for the reminder, Travis C.]
[Via Engadget]
Thought people would like to apply for that TV converter box from the US. We are supposed to go all digital next year and this is a great time to apply for tat TV converter. You don’t want to scrap your Analog tubes do you? I sure don’t so go check this out and apply!!
