New Release

Sometime August 2008, software giant Microsoft released for download the 2nd Beta editionof Internet Explorer 8. The famous browser came in four flavors, namely English, Japanese, Chinese (Simplified), and German.

Shortly thereafter on September 16, the Redmond company went live with the second attack of IE8 Beta 2 releases, offering the browser in a whopping localized versions. The hot-off the shelf IE8 Beta 2 are supported only on the 32-bit versions of Windows Vista RTM and Service Pack 1, Windows XP SP2 and SP3 and Windows Server 2008.

Is it worth the download?

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Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 has Crash Landed

Viruses love spreading via removable drives.  And what could be a better medium since every kid and his grandma totes a flashdisk or portable drive these days. It’s because of this that iKill came into existence.

iKill works magic by scanning the drives for the presence of removable discs. When found, it scrutinizes the autorun.inf file for the executables it may run.

If you enabled AutoProtect option the software will automatically deletes the nasties present on the drive. Otherwise, you will be prompted to confirm the deletion of the suspected files. 

Most USB drives whether a pendrive, ipod, mp3 Players, mobile phones, may contain viruses. As ubiquitous  carriers, the drive can unleash a payload  of the viruses and trojans to exploit the autorun.inf file to execute themselves whenever you try to open the drive by double clicking. They even may shadow the Open, Explore, Search, etc, other features using the shell commands.. like..

shellExplorecommand = virus.exe 

Simply clicking on the drive icon and running on Explore, the nasty virus.exe would be launched, infecting the whole system, and then it will start spreading by any means possible…

So, the program parses the autorun.inf for you and deletes the virus/trojans.

There is no use of the autorun.inf in your removable drive, so you can safely delete it.  In fact, if you see such a file on your flashdisk…. be suspicious. Be very suspicious.

ipod touch 2

Apple has  launched its  2nd generation iPod touch, which boasts sexy new design, integrated volume control buttons, built-in speaker for headset-free listening, built-in wireless support for Nike + iPod, Apple’s revolutionary Multi-Touch user interface, built-in accelerometer as well as other advanced sensors, working with new iTunes 8 Genius feature that empowers listeners to create playlists automatically while jogging, working or studying. Continue Reading »
Second Gen Ipod Touch Takes Off

The Mozilla developer centre just launched Firefox 3.1 Alpha 2 today. Codenamed as Shiretoko Alpha 2, betatesters who would like to give it a try can download it. (be warned…it’s got some hiccups!)

This Alpha 2 release draws power from pre-release version of the Gecko 1.9.1 platform and it introduces a few interesting new features such as:

• Support for the HTML 5 element
• Initial support for web worker threads
• You can now drag and drop tabs between browser windows
• New selector to create areas of Aero-style “glass” in XUL
• Support for CSS 2.1 properties: ::before and ::after, and white-space:pre-line
• Support for CSS 3 properties: -moz-border-image, word-wrap: break-word, text-shadow, box-shadow and column-rule
• Performance improvements and new preference values for color management profile support

Testers  can download Firefox 3.1 Shiretoko Alpha 2 via the following links:

Windows: Shiretoko Alpha 2 Setup.exe
Mac OS X: Shiretoko Alpha 2.dmg
Linux: shiretoko-alpha2.tar.bz2

I tend to shuffle around 2GB movie clips and audio on a regular basis. Just imagine how long that’d take on a standard PC! Good thing I discovered the compact TeraCopy  program designed to copy and move files at the maximum possible speed. It’s chockful of  features that Microsoft whould have integrated into Windows.

Teracopy works  using dynamically adjusted buffers to reduce seek times. Asynchronous copy speeds up file transfer between two physical hard drives. You can also pause and resume file transfers. In the rare case of copy error, it will try several times and in the worse case just skips the file, not terminating the entire transfer. TeraCopy can completely replace Explorer copy and move functions, allowing you work with files as usual.

Image of TeraCopy. look at that detail!

Download this kickass speed-demon:

TeraCopy 2.0 Beta 4a (link 1)
TeraCopy 2.0 Beta 4a (link 2)

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Slow File Transfers Get Your Goat?

Microsoft is flippin’ excited to release IE8 Beta 2 today for public download. You can find it at http://www.microsoft.com/ie8. Please try it out!

You’ll find versions for 32- and 64-bit editions of Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, and Windows Server 2008. In addition to English, IE8 Beta 2 is available in Japanese, Chinese (Simplified), and German. Additional languages will be available soon.

While Beta 1 was for developers, Microsoft thinks that anyone who browses or works on the web will enjoy IE8 Beta 2. Before the team blogs about our Beta 2 in detail, here’s an overview of what you’ll find in IE8. Continue Reading »
IE8 Has Landed. Hoohaaa!

For the cheapos, Memory Diagnostic is a freebie software tool available for download from the Microsoft websiste. It’s built to sniff out flaws in a machine’s RAM modules.

We know that the source mant blue screen is not always Windows, or rogue code for that matter. Guilt could just stem from stressed system memory. That’s what makes  Windows Memory Diagnostic so valuable. The software handily tests the RAM on a computer and uncovers any error.

“Windows Memory Diagnostic supports x86-based computers with the following microprocessors: Intel - Pentium or Celeron families; AMD - K6, Athlon, or Duron families; and microprocessors compatible with those listed above. You can test all types of RAM that run on x86-based computers with the supported microprocessors,” touts Microsoft’s description of the tool. Continue Reading »
Kickstart Your Memory With Software from Micro$oft

Remember the ole  Ion USB Turntable… the cute little gadget that allows you revive your aging vinyl records and transform them digitally into kickass MP3 files. Kinda obvious that the crackly audio cassettes were outcasted since shiny new technology refused to play them anymore… Sigh … Well not anymore!Now Ion released a gadget that specifically plays cassettes!

Over at ThinkGeek the geeky brains developed the  the USB Cassette Deck. This lil baby not only plays cassettes over USB ports, it helps you convert low tech data stream from your magnetic media into high end formats for playback on your ipod and whatnot. Plus you can copy your stash to CDs! Continue Reading »
USB Cassette Deck: Trip Down Memory Lane