ImaCanuck's Public Profile

I was perusing around the net the other day and happened upon this page at Digg talking about a new experimental service offered at BitLet that lets you stream videos directly from torrents. While the idea is definitely an interesting one, though I've yet to give it a try, what really caught my eye was the discussion going on the Digg page.

See, many people on that page had it right that this could potentially be useful in revolutionizing internet TV. The use of torrents can help to diffuse bandwidth costs for content providers and possibly make it easier for movies or TV shows to be available on the internet for free or at least for cheaper than what's out there now.

So, you find yourself within a growing group of people: you have two computers and want to keep all your personal files in-sync between the two of them. Whether it be your documents, or pictures, or even your internet favorites, you want access to the same files whether you're on your desktop at home or on your laptop on the road.

I'll cover an elegant way of syncing your files between two computers using Windows Folder Redirection and Offline Files. You would think that such a function would be easily accomplished considering how many people these days have multiple computers in the home... but you'd be surprised!

In case you haven't heard of it by now, Microsoft's next version of Windows is called Windows 7 and is scheduled for launch later this year. But in the meantime, those keen to give it a try before it's done and ready can download and install the Release Candidate (RC) starting today for free. You can find instructions on how to do this by going to the Windows 7 download page.

Like the Beta version of Windows 7, which was made available to the public in January, the RC version will be time-limited in that it will function normally until March 1, 2010. By that time, it's expected that Windows 7 will have already been released, and users should be using the full version anyways. Also keep in mind that, because an RC is still an incomplete product, you may experience bugs or oddities. From my own trials with the Beta earlier this year, however, and from what I've read elsewhere it's already as stable as Windows Vista.

All-in-one desktop machines have always been a forgotten form factor in the PC world. Even though many have attempted to make a successful machine, none have come close to achieving the same degree of success as, admittedly, the iMac did for Apple. Maybe it's because PC users generally appreciate more customization and upgradability than an all-in-one can offer, or maybe it's simply because the offerings haven't been good enough in both specification and appearance.

Dell is trying to change that with its new Studio One 19 all-in-one desktop. Like other members of the Studio class, the Studio One 19 is a beautiful machine designed to be placed outside the office around the home. Contrary to what the name implies, it's built around a widescreen LCD that is only 18.5" on the diagonal, though its specifications range wide from a Pentium Dual Core E5200 processor on the cheapest model ($699 USD starting) to a Core 2 Quad Q8200 on the most expensive ($1238 USD starting). To my content, all but the basic model comes with at least 3GB of RAM and come pre-equipped with the 64-bit version of Windows Vista Home Premium.

It wasn't more than a few years ago that 64-bit computing was meant only for servers and workstations. Even after a 64-bit version of Windows XP was released, the transition to 64-bit computing was slow at best. Now, with the increasing adoption of Microsoft's memory-loving Windows Vista and the affordability of computer memory, the promise of 64-bit computing is finally here. Many new computers now come pre-loaded with a 64-bit versions of Windows Vista, and that trend is only going to accelerate.

So what does this all mean for you? What exactly is 64-bit computing? I'll introduce you to the concepts of 64-bit computing and share with you some pointers as to why you would need it. I must warn that there will be some technical speak, but I promise I'll try to keep it as simple as possible.

In case you haven't seen it already, Apple's latest television ad depicts the "PC guy" with a bunch of legal copy popping up after every positive statement made in the commercial. Now, I'm not even going to start with Apple and its past false advertising practices time and time again, nor am I going to touch on the fact that the company doesn't think their ads ought to be truthful at all. What I'm going to do, is do a little experiment into the claims made in the ad and present my findings here.

The gist of the ad essentially says that there are gotchas to the statements made by PC about how easy it is to use, and so it needs legal copy in order to protect itself. So, apparently the Mac is so perfect that it doesn't need to deal with legal copy.