Content and news by Rob Williams

Rob Williams

Rob founded Techgage in 2005 to be an 'Advocate of the consumer', focusing on fair reviews and keeping people apprised of news in the tech world. Catering to both enthusiasts and businesses alike; from desktop gaming to professional workstations, and all the supporting software.

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Rob's Recent Content

New Vista build works with Boot Camp 1.1

For you Mac-heads, it looks like Vista can now be dual-booted on an Apple.

The new Vista Pre-RC1 build (5536) works now on Intel Macs. The installation procedure is the same as with Windows XP SP2. The only down side is that not all the drivers provided in Boot Camp will work under Vista; the iSight and the Apple keyboard will not install. The performace of this build is amazing when compared to the Beta 2 that was made available to the public a few months ago.

Vista is buggy enough on PC’s it’s designed for, I don’t even want to think of how it runs on a Mac.

Published on August 28, 2006

Top 100 WikiPedia Pages

Here is a list of the top 100 WikiPedia pages, according to searches. Some of the results are surprising to say the least. Oral Sex and Kama Sutra ranking in the top 20? “List of gay porn stars” at number 5? Maybe I could have done without this list after all.

Published on August 28, 2006

How you recover your lost data

After going through the process of reinstalling the operating system, I mounted the backup hard drive and discovered that it was empty. I had some how mixed up the hard drive I used to back up all the data with a hard drive that I wanted to wipe. Because I had done such a poor job of retaining backups on external media, I did not have any backups of my pictures and videos.

This is a lot of work, and it would help if you are an experienced Linux user. Though, the process laid out is completely free, which beats any $500 software out there.

Published on August 28, 2006

Dell and Nokia the Most Green (Tech) Companies

Greenpeace has ranked top electronics companies on their attitudes towards ecology. In addition to what toxic materials are used in manufacturing, the report on “greeness”, for example, considers how the recycling of old products is handled and how ecological issues are considered in company processes and decisions. Idea is that the ranking is updated quarterly, and companies would like achieve to the top position. Dell and Nokia take the top position with a rating of 7/10, with Apple, Acer, Motorola and Lenovo falling behind with ratings worse than 3/10.

Even 7/10 doesn’t seem incredible. That’s one test that’s hard to score in!

Published on August 28, 2006

GIMP vs. Photoshop – What still needs to be done?

We all know that the GIMP is more or less the de-facto standard for image editing in Linux, where Adobe Photoshop is the standard on the Mac and Windows (and some Linux boxes using Crossover Office) The question is the following: Does GIMP have what it takes to dethrone Adobe Photoshop as the standard?

There are a couple good points made here, the primary being the name. Granted, the GIMP is not that professional sounding, so I have to agree. In the end, I’d rather see Photoshop ported to Linux reliably.

Published on August 28, 2006

Review Roundup for August 28

    Displays & Video Cards
  • Asus EN7600GT Silent Geforce 7600GT – PC Stats

    Complete Systems, Competitions & Etcetera
  • Acronis True Image Workstation Version 9.1 – Bjorn3D
  • Alienware Area-51 7500 PC – Hexus
  • Games Convention 2006: Girls – techPowerUp!
  • Samsung A990 Mobile – Digital Trends
Published on August 28, 2006

AMD AM2 4600+ EE 2.40GHz

It’s a great time to be building a dual core system, due to great competition between AMD and Intel. We are taking a look at the AM2 4600+ which proves to be a decent value due to recent price drops. Does it warrant a purchase, or should you be looking elsewhere?

Published on August 28, 2006

Man Gets 3 Years for Botnet Attack

Weeks after NANOG subscribers argued whether or not mitigating botnet command and control systems was a worthwhile endeavor, the LA Times reports that the old fashioned method of arresting and prosecuting criminals still works. Prosecutors successfully prosecuted a 21 year old who had conspired to create botnets that attacked the Department of Defense, a California school district, and a Seattle hospital before being arrested. He plead guilty and was sentenced to 3 years of ‘supervised release.’

Clearly, the DoD seems like a safe enough target. I mean, what could backfire from this?

Published on August 27, 2006

PSA: Do Not Flush iPod

Clearly the bar for what is deemed as a security threat has had to be lowered — but should it be this low? When a rather embarrassed passenger loses his iPod in the lavatory — even admits to the crew his mistake, the plane is diverted to Ottawa and a bomb squad is brought in to investigate. Read the iPod owner’s story and take one lesson from this kid’s plight — clearly the iPod is not flushable.

Yes, anything to do with an iPod will make news nowadays. I can imagine how embarrased this guy must’ve been!

Published on August 27, 2006

See where the Internet lives

Equinix is responsible for holding massive amounts of data, including storage for popular sites like MySpace.com. Take a tour of the facilities, and see how much energy it takes to keep the Web alive. CNET News.com’s Neha Tiwari reports.

C|Net has a seven minute video that takes a look into Equinix… and this place is amazing! It has five levels of security and uses over 21,000 volts worth of power. Even if you are not interested in servers or data centers, it would be hard not to be impressed.

Published on August 26, 2006

Man Gets 6 Years for Software Piracy

Danny Ferrer, of Lakeland, Fla., pleaded guilty in June to conspiracy and copyright infringement charges after an FBI investigation of his Web site, BuysUSA.com. Ferrer also was ordered to pay more than $4.1 million in restitution to software makers Adobe Systems Inc., Autodesk, and Macromedia Inc.’ The judge ordered that items he bought with the money, including airplanes, a Lamborghini and other cars, be sold off to pay for the restitution.”

I think that almost deserves an “owned!” Like any crime, it’s bound to catch up with you sometime.

Published on August 26, 2006

IGE On Why Power-Leveling Is Like Day Care

Gamasutra managed to gain the opportunity to sit down and speak with James Clarke, IGE’s chief operating officer in Asia, during our time in Shanghai (where Clarke is largely based) last month. We had a chance to find out more about not only his role at the company, but also IGE’s plans itself, giving a rare insight behind the curtain into the workings of the MMO trading titan.

Though a good read, words can’t express my disgust with companies like this. It’s truly difficult to play an MMO nowadays without the thought of purchasing in-game Gold just to help give your character a boost. Regardless of what I think, just check out the article and form your own opinions.

Published on August 26, 2006

OLPC Gets a New Name, New Features

According to a story on Ars Technica, the $100 MIT Laptop is now going to cost $140. It has a new name — it’ll now be called the Children’s Machine 1 (CM1). The added price comes with new features! The laptop will now come with a 400 MHz AMD processor, 512 Megs of Flash storage, an SD card slot, mic and headphone jacks, a built in camera, built-in wireless, and an 8-inch LCD at a 1280×900 resolution.

You know, for $140, I think this thing would be popular over on these shores also. 1280*900! Great stuff. Sad there is a price hike, but at least the machine seems to be vastly improved.

Published on August 26, 2006

Penny Arcade Game!

Bellevue, Washington (August 25, 2006) — The creators of online ultracomic Penny Arcade have joined forces with Hothead Games, an independent and experienced video game developer, to collaboratively create video games based on the Penny Arcade comic.

It was only a matter of time! Hmm, hopefully it will be good. I’m not usually one for comedy-type games, so I am a tad skeptical.

Published on August 25, 2006

HL2 Episode 2 Delayed

Half-Life 2: Episode Two and its three-game entourage – on three platforms – has slipped until Q1 2007. February, we’re told. But if you ever really expected to play it this year you were probably kidding yourself anyway.

Well that sucks, but it is indeed better to have a better game than a rushed one. Be sure to check out this interview if you want to see what else is up Valves sleeves.

Published on August 25, 2006

How Not To Defend Yourself Against An RIAA Lawsuit

There are plenty of reasonable ways to defend yourself against an RIAA lawsuit over file sharing. For example, you can show how your IP address is shared by many others and it’s impossible for the RIAA to know who was actually responsible. However, one thing you should absolutely not do is erase your hard drive — especially when there’s a court order demanding you produce the hard drive as evidence.

Hmm. Yes I could see how this would appear a little fishy. However, was this guy not aware that he could easily write zeros to the remaining free space on his drive? I think that would have helped his case a lot more. Or… handing in a different hard drive could work. It surprises me, that the RIAA didn’t go and grab the hard drive from him, but rather sits back and waits for him to bring it in. Ahh, the softer side of the RIAA.

Published on August 25, 2006

No HD-DVD, Blu-Ray on 32-Bit Vista

If any of you out there were planning on adding a Blu-ray or HD DVD drive to your PC in the near future to playback high-definition content on your PC, you’re going to be out of luck with a 32-bit processor and the upcoming 32-bit version of Windows Vista. Microsoft Senior Program Manager Steve Riley made the announcement today during Tech.Ed 2006 in Sydney Australia.

While I agree that this is foolish of Microsoft to do, I can’t see it affecting -that- many people. Chances are if you are willing to buy Vista, then you have a 64-Bit computer to begin with. Even budget PC’s sometimes roll in with a 64-Bit architecture! Update: Looks like the dev was wrong!

Published on August 25, 2006

GEOS: The Graphical Environment Operating System

As we take time to look at the grand variety of operating systems available, it shows us that there is no one right way to ‘do it’. With hardware already a commodity, the way we interact with our computers is taken as a standard, and a given best-practice of design. The joy of alternative operating systems, is the variety of Computer ? Human interface models available.

Computing was so much simpler back in the 80s, and this is a refreshing look at a classic OS. It’s amazing how much actual power GEOS had… from spreadsheets to word and even being able to create custom cursors!

Published on August 25, 2006

Kevin Mitnicks website isolated

Kevin Mitnick’s Web site has been placed on a special server for continuous monitoring after it was hacked and defaced, Mitnick’s Web hosting company said. Mitnick’s Web site on Sunday displayed a vulgar message, instead of the usual description of the famed hacker, his consulting services and books. The Web site, hosted at Hostedhere.net in Greenville, S.C., ran on a shared Web server, as is common at many hosting companies.

Is it just me, or does the fact that an elite hackers website being hosted on a shared server seem funny? I mean… really.

Published on August 25, 2006

Apple recalls 1.8 Million Batteries

The announcement affects laptop computers – the iBook G4 and Powerbook G4 – sold between October 2003 and August 2006. It follows Dell’s decision to recall more than 4m batteries from its laptops last week. The recall does not affect the company’s latest line-up of laptops – the MacBook and MacBook Pro.

Well, at least now Dell doesn’t have to feel alone any more. The real target is Sony, since all of the faulty batteries seemed to be manufacturered by them.

Published on August 25, 2006

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