Branhower's Blog (26)

The Journey to Retail Windows 7

I've been on the Windows 7 Release Candidate for what seems like years now (it was actually for several months). So, the day finally came, and I went to download my student-discount version of the new operating system.

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Added by Branhower on October 22, 2009 at 3:04pm — No Comments

It's Almost 10 Years into the 21st Century and...

...there's no successful way (at least in my experiences) to properly stream all forms of media from one piece of software in Windows 7 64-Bit to the Xbox 360.

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Added by Branhower on October 13, 2009 at 4:00pm — No Comments

Ubuntu Netbook Remix User Review

I'm no Linux guru by any means, but I still know some of the basic commands in the terminal ;). So, I fell into the end-user crowd when I installed Ubuntu Netbook Remix (I'll refer to it as UNR from here on) on my EEE PC 1000he.

The Initial Install

The installation of UNR was smooth as silk, almost like a Windows install (only they assume that the person installing it knows what "swap partitions" are). I like how I can choose my free space and have the installer figure out the best part

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Added by Branhower on September 14, 2009 at 6:08pm — No Comments

iTunes 9, Improved?

I'll throw it out to the audience. Do you find iTunes 9 really that improved?

My personal experience is; kind of. They did add a few new features that I like (such as Home Sharing a

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Added by Branhower on September 14, 2009 at 5:00pm — 2 Comments

Well, I Tried XP Mode

Thanks to WinSuperSite.com for the image I'll get straight to the point, I needed it, but it didn't do what I needed it to do.

Now to explain. What I wanted was a VM that ran in a 32-bit environment so I could play my super-old 16-bit games (so the system would go 16-bit to 32-bit to 64-bit). So I wanted to download and install the 32-bit version, but when I went to instal

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Added by Branhower on May 12, 2009 at 8:00am — No Comments

Get the Windows 7 RC Now!!!

Thanks to TechShout.com for the image Okay, so the title seems a little rushed, you don't have to get the RC now (I do promote freedom on this blog...).

Anyway, I may sound like a gushing fanboy within the next few words.This is the best version of Windows I have ever used! You think I'm joking? Take a look at the high points; it has the stability and reliab

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Added by Branhower on May 6, 2009 at 5:54pm — 2 Comments

How Many of You Geeks Are Looking Forward to 4G?

READ: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4G Gigaom.com ArsTechnica.com The download speeds are insane (1GBit/s while stationary, and 100MBit/s while moving at 65 miles per hour), and the upload speeds are really nice too (around 86 MBits/s, last time… Continue

Added by Branhower on February 23, 2009 at 11:20am — 2 Comments

No, You Can't Do That

Don't you just love it when the computer tells the owner that he can't do what he wants to do? Usually, it makes for some comical Youtube videos. People pulling their hair, bashing their keyboards, and some other quite memorable things happen when either Windows, Macs, or Linux tells them what they can and can't do. These people are total n00bs of course >.>.

Any

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Added by Branhower on February 11, 2009 at 11:06am — 5 Comments

The First Issue with Windows 7 I Ever Encountered

Five days without any issues, not bad for a beta. However, I did run across one issue a few days back.

The issue is related to this little piece of hardware to the left. It's a HP-PSC-1315, one of HP's first consumer all-in-one units. It's also quite the popular printer, about 50 people I know have one of these, and are serving those people well even today (those that are too fru

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Added by Branhower on January 18, 2009 at 5:00pm — No Comments

Anyone hear of Redsn0w? It's Apple related.

No, it's not snowing in Russia (well, it probably is, but this is definitely not related to that). There's a new "entity" (I have no idea what to call it, release maybe?) known as Redsn0w (

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Added by Branhower on January 16, 2009 at 8:30am — No Comments

Well, I Ran It (Cont.)

Well, it's been a week. Seven days with Windows 7 (build 6956), and here are some thoughts:

It's pretty freakin' good

For the most part, Windows 7 is a nice upgrade from Vista. It takes less overhead to run the background processes, not to mention the background processes eat up less RAM this time around. There are a lot more things running in the "services" tab in the background, which is probably due to Microsoft wanting to make Windows more accessible to everyone. I ha

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Added by Branhower on January 4, 2009 at 1:04pm — 1 Comment

FF-Class iPod Touch?

It's no secret that mobile devices have been taking off recently, and now we're to the point to where mobile devices that run their own operating systems are going mainstream (both portable media players and various smartphones and PDAs). In fact, my iPod Touch is almost more powerful than my mom's old computer. But, there I go digressing again. Anyway, we al

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Added by Branhower on January 4, 2009 at 12:33pm — No Comments

Well, I Ran It

I'm not talking about a marathon here guys. Actually, as I'm typing, I was one of the millions that reached his hand out and received something quite spectacular. Let's just say it's one of the 7 wonders of the computer world. Still stumped? It rates second only to the Xbox 360 (in my book at least). It hasn't came out yet. Still puzzled?

Alright,

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Added by Branhower on January 4, 2009 at 12:33pm — 1 Comment

I Found Something in Storage:

Obviously not mine, mine's covered in dust and spiderwebs:

For those that are too young to know, that is a PowerMac 8500 I should see if this thing still works, it would make an interesting video. Continue

Added by Branhower on January 2, 2009 at 5:15pm — 2 Comments

Progress on the Windows 7 Project

I'll keep this nice and short (since I'm on my iPod touch). I'll post a professionally edited video (tee hee!) on the subject, probably in a few days. In the meantime, hit up http://www.twitter.com/branhower for some live updates. Continue

Added by Branhower on December 28, 2008 at 7:30pm — 1 Comment

Any of you have old PC Magazines?

Have a look at this:

It's from PC Magazine's September 16, 2003 issue on building your own PC. I'm sure some of you geeks can dig out even older magazines that have even older suggested components (in fact, I encourage it). Going back and looking through these old things kind of makes me appreciate the level of hardware (and pri

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Added by Branhower on December 12, 2008 at 3:32pm — No Comments

Ah, Memories

This is a video from one of my Youtube buddies (his channel is here) on how to archive old data, it has served me well. I have used most of his suggestions, but I'm too poor to afford the Blu-Ray option.

Anyway, if you have read my previous posts, you'll know that I have sold my laptop. That means I sold the only way to import videos digitally from my Mini-DV camcorder. So, before I decided to sell the thing, I cruised thr

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Added by Branhower on November 26, 2008 at 11:28am — 1 Comment

Classifieds: A Panasonic GS-80 Camcorder (do people still want DVCs?)

Okay, if this is allowed, I would like to post a classified ad in my blog. It's of something I own, I assure you guys. I guess the real question here is, do people still want DVC camcorders?

Okay, as you may have read in my last post, I traded in an old laptop to get a discount on a new monitor. I have a camcorder (the model's in the title) that uses Mini-IEEE1394 as data input/output between it and the comp

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Added by Branhower on November 24, 2008 at 8:16pm — No Comments

If You're in the Market for a 25.5" Widescreen Monitor...

Yeah, I wasn't either. Anyway, I did some recent budgeting, and found out that a new laptop for the next semester at college would actually come really close to breaking my checking account; even with a trade-in deal with old HP products (info here). So, I was already approved for the trade-in, they were expecting my old laptop (my DV8315NR served me faithfully for 3 and a half years, but I had to part ways, because of the

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Added by Branhower on November 24, 2008 at 7:43pm — No Comments

As I Participate in More e-Commerce, I'm starting to prefer Brick-and-Mortar

Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of items I prefer to see for myself instead of buying online; such as cars, computers, monitors and televisions, and home-theater electronics. But, for the smaller items, I have had many more negative experiences than positive ones. One example, I had a client that wanted to sell his MacBook Pro. Now, the auction went very smoothly, and someone actually won it. That's when things got really complicated. Starting off the hour he won it, my client immediately s… Continue

Added by Branhower on November 6, 2008 at 2:39pm — 4 Comments