Vista 64
I just purchased a new computer from Dell with Vista 64-bit. I’ve heard that the transition to 64-bit is often a rough one, so I’ll be keeping track of my progress here. To start, I visited the Windows Vista Compatability Center and checked that my major hardware will still work with the OS. This included my laser printer, scanner, and of less importance a card readyer, Bluetooth adapter and a new TV tuner. The existing hardware was 1-3 years old and all of it will work just fine.
I opted to go with Vista Home Premium and I’ll save my money until Windows 7 comes out later this year and upgrade to the highest level then. With the exception of remote desktop, there’s nothing that I’ll be missing out on by having Home Premium.
I didn’t go with top of the line components but close. I do a bit of video editing, a lot of photo editing, and not much gaming. Here are the specs:
- Dell Studio XPS 435MT
- Core i7-920 processor, 2.66GHz, quad core
- 6GB DDR3 1067MHz
- 22″ Widescreen Full HD LCD Dell monitor
- ATI Radeon HD4670 with 512MB memory
- 640GB SATA Hard drive, 7200 RPM
- Vista Home Premium 64-bit
- 2-16X DVD+/-RW Drives
This is a major step up from my current 7+ year old system (frequently updated) that I built myself. Current specs are:
- AMD Athlon 1.2GHz
- 1GB PC133
- 17″ 4:3 LCD Dell Monitor
- ATI Radeon All-In-Wonder 7500 64MB
- 500GB PATA hard drive, 72oo RPM
- XP Pro 32-bit
- 16X DVD+/-RW Drive
- 52X CD-RW/-RW Drive
- Unidentified burning smell (main reason for upgrade)
Look for my new 64-bit M@’s Picks, and anything else that I learn about taking the step to 64-bit in the next month or two.
Download Youtube Videos
Downloading videos from Youtube is easier than ever. Simply change youtube.com in the title bar to pwnyoutube.com when you’ve viewing a video. It will bring you to a page with the option to download either the standard quality or the high quality video. Just click one of the links to start downloading.
SCalc
The calculator included with Windows Mobile is rather limited. If you need trig, scientific functions, constants, and more check out SCalc. It’s a very simple command line-like interface, but also very powerful.
VLC
VideoLan Client (VLC) is a media player that works with many OS’s. Unlike Windows Media Player, and many others, VLC has all of the codecs that you might need built in. So if you’re having trouble playing a particular file, give it a try. Also, there are several advanced features of the software that allow you to do transcoding, live streaming, and video capture.
Bonus Tip: KeePass Password Safe
By putting the file KeePass generates inside a Jungle Disk, and then using Jungle Disk’s USB drive version you’ll be able to get to your passwords from anywhere. You can keep the KeePass software itself either on your USB drive, or on the Jungle Disk.
