Monthly Archives: August 2014

Not happy with the look of Windows 8.x? Make it resemble Ubuntu

Linux, Windows, ,

While reviews of Windows 8.x have been mixed, it seems there is a perception problem with the general public about Microsoft’s latest operating system. Version 8 was largely hated, and 8.1 only went so far in fixing those issues. The company plans to go further when “Threshold”, or Windows 9, debuts later this year.

However, if you’d like to at least change the look of the OS, you can get a taste of Linux with an Ubuntu theme for it. Ubuntu is perhaps the most universally loved consumer version of Linux, though Mint has been gaining steam recently. It has a beautiful user interface that makes it consumer-friendly.

Don’t worry, you won’t have to actually install Linux, or learn all of the associated commands — a theme called Mavericks (ironically the same as the latest OS X) can go over top of Windows 8 and just make it look as if you are running the rival operating system.

It’s a free to download and install, though a premium version is available for a mere $1.35, which is a small price to pay by any app or software standard. The theme was created by the good folks over at Deviant Art and can be found here. You’ll also want to read the detailed instructions and get the visual style information.

maverick_8_1_for_windows_8_1_by_dpcdpc11-d7voprz

GNC #974 Jawbone & Twitch Lead Stories

Podcast

If you want to get a laugh watch my major mistake near the end of today’s video portion of the show and my reaction to what I did.. I share with you what Jawbone saw when the earthquake outside of Napa struck Sunday morning. I als dig into the Twitch / Amazon deal..

I Also update on my Transformation. Discounts are still available by using promo code “podcast” @ mypurium.com/podcast

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DDoS Attacks Shut Down Online Gaming Servers

Gaming, Hacker,

Sony Playstation LogoWas your favorite online video game difficult to access over the weekend? There is a reason for that. A group decided to use a DDoS attack against several of the big gaming companies servers. I’ve no idea what the motivation of this group was, and choose not to speculate as to what they may have been thinking. If you were on Twitter this weekend you may have seen a lot of confused and frustrated tweets from gamers who were just trying to have fun playing some online video games.

The group targeted Blizzard Entertainment’s servers. This caused difficulties for those trying to access Battle Net, World of Warcraft, Diablo III, Hearthstone and other Blizzard games. Riot Games’ League of Legends was attacked and so was Grinding Gear Game’s Path of Exile.

Blizzard was keeping people informed about the outage through their @BlizzardCS account on Twitter. They did not directly mention a DDos attack, and instead tweeted things like “We’re investigating issues where players are unable to connect or log into their characters.” Updates about the situation were provided through that Twitter account.

Sony’s PlayStation Network (PSN) was attacked, too. The PlayStation Blog has a post that gives some details.

The original post started with Like other major networks around the world, the PlayStation Network and Sony Entertainment Network have been impacted by an attempt to overwhelm our network with artificially high traffic. The blog was later updated to say: The PlayStation Network and Sony Entertainment Network are back online and people can now enjoy the services on their PlayStation devices. The networks were taken offline due to a distributed denial of service attack.

Grinding Gear Games sent out a Tweet on their @PathofExile Twitter account about it.

From what I saw via Twitter, it appeared that some of these gaming companies had their servers go down more than once. I am of the impression that stability has been restored to the affected servers now. Hopefully, that is the end of the problem.

Digital Curmudgeon

Bargain, Hard Drive, Hardware, Information, Operating Systems, SSD, ,

EEEPC-SSDThere’s a dirty little secret about computer performance that is hiding within plain sight. A solid state drive (SSD) will take almost any machine manufactured within the past five to ten years and give it a massive performance boost.

I have an Asus 1000HE EEEPC Netbook from four or five years ago. It came with a 160 gigabyte 5900 RPM conventional spinning hard drive. With the conventional hard drive, the computer was painfully slow to boot up and to use. It would take the better part of 10 minutes to completely boot up and become usable.

I installed a 120 gigabyte Crucial M500 SSD drive into it and restored the operating system (Windows XP SP3) from the original system DVD that came with the machine. After installing the software I will be using with the machine, including Adobe Audition 1.5 and MS Office XP, it completely boots up and is 100% usable within 30 seconds! Programs load immediately and windows snap to attention.

I use this machine as a handy backup machine to an older SSD-equipped white plastic Macbook. The Asus Netbook doesn’t take up much room when I’m traveling. I realize that XP is no longer being supported by Microsoft, but I want to hang on to the perfectly functional older software such as Adobe Audition 1.5 that really has no modern equivalent that I like nearly as well. I am not browsing or doing email with this machine, so it should be perfectly safe to continue to use well into the future.

The move to mobile has caused me to shift away from relying much on traditional computers. During the last year I have used my computers only to record podcasts with. Email and browsing are handled exclusively on mobile devices.

In recent years I’ve grown increasingly annoyed by the constant upgrade cycle drumbeat. It seems there is always some fix or some new supposedly “must have” version of virtually every piece of hardware and software. Why upgrade? “Better performance” and/or “better security” are almost always the answers that are either given or implied. Often I find that NOT to be the case.

Operating system updates end up destroying existing software and hardware compatabilities. Sometimes software that won’t work on a new version of an operating system is never updated or replaced, and the functionality is simply lost.

So, if you have an older machine, including both Windows and Mac, depending on what you are using it for, if you want to hold on to perfectly functional older hardware and software, installing an SSD into an older machine can give it an incredible performance boost that will blow away any brand new machine that is not equipped with an SSD drive. Also, SSD prices contine to go down. A 120 gigabyte Crucial M500 drive now sells for about $72 dollars on Amazon, making it one amazing inexpensive upgrade that offers the absolute most bang possible for the buck!

Tens Sunglasses Review

review, travel accessories, , ,

Tens-LogoThis summer I’ve been feeling uber-cool with my Tens “Real Life Photo Filter” sunglasses. In a classic style, the Tens sunglasses are tinted to give a “an extra burst of colour to your summer” and that they do, with everything coloured that little bit brighter. Everything’s richer and more vivid – I love them.

Originally, an Indiegogo campaign, I took a chance on these shades, partly because I needed new sunglasses but partly because it was good to see a campaign from the British side of the Atlantic. The team’s actually based in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Overall, I’ve been very pleased with the Tens sunglasses. The frames seem solid, with sturdy hinges and the lenses are clear and distortion free. I find them comfortable to wear too. Here are some photos to show you what they’re like.

Tens Sunglasses

Tens Sunglasses Hinge

The Tens sunglasses come with a neat little drawstring bag to keep them free from scratches when not in use.

Tens Sunglasses Bag

I was lucky enough to get in on the Indigogo campaign and paid only GB£44. Available in a choice of four frame colours (black, navy, deep red and teal), if you want your own pair of Tens glasses, they’ll currently set you back £64. I’ll probably buy a second pair once they start doing prescription versions.

Fingers crossed for a few more days of sunshine before summer comes to an end!

SDI to HDMI Under $100 from MonoPrice.com

review

monopriceI have long been a fan of MonoPrice.com for a long time, their cable prices are simply incredible. If you buy from anyone else you’re flushing money down the toilet. I recently picked up several new products from MonoPrice one ofthe was a SDI to HDMI Converter/

Unless you’re a Pro-Video person you are not even going to know what SDI is, but lets keep it simple.  SDI is a Video format that is outputted on high end video cameras, and video processing gear. The studio here at Geek News Central has about 10 converters of various types HDMI to SDI (most popular), SDI to HDMI and SDI Splitters..

The sub $100.00 SDI to HDMI converter from MonoPrice  was ver inexpensive. I other similar converters in the studio that cost me upwards of $400.00 each.  Long story short, I plugged it in, hooked it up, and bam works like a charm. So I want to send kudos over to MonoPrice for literally kicking the butts of the major pro players.

I am keeping my fingers crossed that they introduce an HDMI to SDI converter as well and start building switches. When I can buy 3-4 devices for the price of one.. Well you know where I am going to be spending my money.

StarTech HDMI Wireless Extender over WHDI – Review

review

In my Studio I have been looking at ways to place a High Definition TV in a location that has power but nearly impossible to run a cable. The folks at StarTech.com sent over a HDMI Wireless Extender using WHDI  in the 5.1 to 5.9mhz. This HDMI extender is capable of extending a HDMI signal  strait line of up to 50 ft.

startech1

Here is how I employed it. I have Mac Mini that I used to monitor the social media stream while we are live on the air. I have always had trouble looking at the monitor it is attached to. So I used a 1×2 HDMI distribution amplifier and hooked one output to the monitor, and the other output to the StarTech  HDMI transmitter. The HDMI Transmitter is very tiny maybe 1 inch by 3 inches and comes with a 90 degree adapter if needed.

I then hooked the receiver up to a flat screen TV in the back of my studio so that I can observer without looking away from my primary camera. This all took about 15 minutes to hook up..  I am here to tell you running that cable 20 feet would have sucked, and my wife would have been pissed as the studio would have had a cable running across the wall.

The best part is that the receiver can support additional transmitters so all I need to buy is more transmitters and I can send two wireless signals to the HDTV and when I want to switch. So it will be cool to watch a movie in the studio when not on the air.  The StarTech kit include a wireless remote control that brings up a on screen menu for its system config and pairing, I can also easily changes sources with a click of the button.

Going wireless is going to set up back about $285.00 on most of their retailers. When it is impossible to run a cable this is the way to go i’m in love already. You end up with a clean install and crystal clear picture as if it had been plugged into a cable. Supported resolutions include 1080p, 1080i, 720p, 480p.

I am not sure why I waited so long to implement a solution like this but it really keeps the cable deployments to a minimum and works like a charm.