Every plugin or extension I’ve used for Chrome and Firefox to manage sessions means I have to make a few clicks to save each session and another bunch of clicks to open that session later into a separate browser window. Plus the latest window I close will get opened next time when I start that particular browser. So if I close last the windows with my daily tabs I loose the browsing session with the occasional tabs I need for a short period of time.

It’s a mess I reckon and even if I daily use Firefox, Chrome, Internet Explorer and Opera I can’t manage to browse the web the way I like and automatically keep separate browsing windows for the websites I visit.

The sollution

After thinking about this particular problem I’ve found a partial sollution to help me open special windows with the tabs I use the most. It’s partial because it doesn’t work exactly like I want and it works for Firefox and Chrome only, or at least I haven’t found how to use it on other browsers. The steps needed areas follows:

1 – In Windows Vista/7 open Start Menu and type the name of the browser. Drag the launch icon on desktop and rename it so that it will describe the session you will open once double clicked. In Windows XP you’ll have to browse to Start Menu – Programs and manually find the shortcut

Start menu search

2 – Right click on it and open Properties. Here browse to the Shortcut tab and edit the Target field by adding after the last “ the websites you wish to open (without http://) and separated by spaces. Remember that you can’t open 10-20 tabs as the target field has a limited char allowance.

Editing the shortcut parameters

3 – Repeat this step as many times as you like. It also applies to Chrome. In IE it doesn’t seem to work as the browser will try and open a single windows with the address consisting of the string (including spaces) that you enter in the target field after the last “. Or if you prefer, in IE this trick only works with one URL.

How to use it on a daily basis?

Always remember to open a new browser window for Firefox or Chrome and then double click the shortcut. If you don’t do this you’ll end up with the tabs being opened in the first browser window. If you know another trick to help me manage multiple sessions for the same browser please let me know in the comments below and I’ll try and update this article.

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But waiting is not always the best solution, at least when it comes to incompatible software and I’m going to show you a little trick that might save you from upgrading to a new version (which sometimes can only be done by paying a certain amount of money). No, I’m not talking about XP Mode for Windows 7, which means installing Windows XP in a virtual machine and running program from there.

Using Windows 7 compatibility mode

For those of you who don’t know Windows 7, as previous Windows versions did that allow a program to be executed in an environment similar to a previous version of Windows, which can be  selected by you. Accessing it is pretty simple: right click on a file or shortcut that you wish to execute and select Properties. From here go to Compatibility tab and check “Run this program in compatibility mode for” and select a previous Windows version for the drop down list below. Hit Apply and double click that file/shortcut again. If it still doesn’t work then select another compatibility mode. If none of them work then you might try XP Mode or wait for a compatible version to be released.

You can also choose to run the program with Administrator privileges or enforce the settings to all user running that particular program. Note: this trick also applies to installer programs, not just already installed software. Remember that running a program in compatibility mode doesn’t mean it will not affect your computer, for example best registry cleaners have released update versions that support Windows 7 but older models might just ruin your installation.

Windows 7 compatibility mode selector

If you encounter problems let me know and I’ll try and help you. Also if there’s other software problem you’ve encountered drop a comment below and I’ll try and help you.

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The fears people have about switching to 64 bit software

First I believe it’s best to make a short list of things people say about 64 bit software, things that more often are not true and put the stoppers on 64 bit mass adoption. Some of those fears crossed through my mind of course before deciding what version to install.

• drivers are immature or don’t exist at all, so you’ll have problem with your PC components, especially exotic models
• there are a lot of application compatibilities and for sure some of your favorite software will not work
• games run slower and require more memory

Those I think are the most important stoppers for those who have to choose between 32 bit and a 64 bit OS.

My experience with Windows 7 64 bit version

Let’s take it from beginning and presenting a little bit my hardware configuration. I own a desktop with components which are about an year and something old, so pretty new hardware: Intel Core 2 Duo CPU, Gigabyte motherboard with P45 chipset, 4 GB DDR 2 SDRAM, 1000 GB Seagate hard drive and nVidia GeForce GTX 275.

Installation went without any problems, the only hardware not recognized, therefore not working, was my integrated Realtek sound card but installing the pack from Gigabyte’s website (or Realtek’s) solved this little problem. So no problems with drivers, but that was my case. Always check if the components you put into your computer have 64 bit drivers before switching to a 64 bit OS.

System properties says I'm running a 64 bit OS

From performance point of view I’ve played the first days the same games I did on the 32 bit installation of Windows 7 RC1: Modern Warfare 2 (a beautiful game) and NFS Shift. Both games ran smoothly without any issues of compatibility. I didn’t felt any difference from 32 bit to 64 bit, but if it were it would be measurable, not distinguishable.

Now let’s get to application compatibility. I didn’t had any problems with my own favorite apps, but I found some small issues with my Gainward utility app (for the VGA card) which seemed not to remember settings I made, and I did recall it worked in the other install, but this is one minor annoyance.

About memory consumption, it’s nice to boot and see there’s 3 Gigs of free RAM, as a 64 Windows 7 (Professional, Enterprise or Ultimate) can work with a maximum of 192 GB, while Windows 7 32 bit is limited to 3.25 GB so before this last install I’ve always lost 750 MB RAM (and imagine my first computer had 4 MB RAM). So I didn’t feel any difference in used memory.

In general I don’t feel any performance difference between 32 bit and 64 bit Windows 7, plus stability is great, and that’s important for me as I’m running an overclocked system.

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Installation and configuration

Everyone can download Microsoft Security Essentials, but just people with a genuine Windows Installation can install it. Seems fair to me. Also I want to point out that the software is compatible with Windows XP, Vista (32 and 64 bit) and 7 (32 and 64 bit).

Right after installation Security Essentials updates its database

Installation is easy, no annoying popups, things to select and so on. Configuration options seem scarce at first look but if you think pragmatically there’s any option you might need in there. Microsoft Security Essentials replaces the former Windows Defender and your other antivirus software (it does not uninstall it but recommends you to do so).

Settings are well laid out and easy to understand

Actual use

Antivirus software is not usually something you want to be reminded too often, and Microsoft Security Essentials manages not to be intrusive at all, it just sits in the system tray and awaits for security threats to be detected. It does integrate with Internet Explorer (or so it says at installation) but integration is not vizible (no buttons or toolbars).

This is what you'll probably see 99% of the time

Memory footprint is very low (3.2 MB reported by Task Manger) and during system scan or file access (as it features a real time scanner) I couldn’t tell any difference from Avast and definitely feels faster than AVG.

System scan in progress

Conclusion

I don’t want to jump to conclusion after just a few hours of use, but I think Microsoft did a great job with Security Essentials and if history tought us something is that an EU fine is under way as Microsoft probably will want in the future to put the free antivirus in their Windows installations. Also the traditional antivirus providers will have to come up with something good if they don’t want to end up like Netscape in the browsers war.

Interface is simple and effective

My take on Microsoft Security Essentials is that you should give it at least a try. I will update this post as I’ll discover new things.

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AIMP

It’s the first suggestion I can remember. AIMP got to 2.51 version and has been created by a Russian guy, Artem Izmaylov. I want to say that AIMP is a thousand times faster and has much more functions than Winamp. It’s a strictly audio player. It doesn’t recognize video files like the newer versions of Winamp, but handles excellent the audio files.

Aimp - this is how the player looks like. Equalized - top right, DSP manager - down

It even has a coverter from/to MP3, WAV, WMA, OGG and others. I was astonished when I saw that AIMP even has a volume normalizer that functions perfectly to balance volumes of all songs. In other words, AIMP brings all songs to a certain volume level. You won’t hear a song played low and after that, a song that breaks your windows.

AIMP’s Audio library looks just like the one of Winamp, but I find the alignment on genres, artists and songs system, much more well-made. The sound also seemed somehow better, but it might be the enthusiasm in finding an audio player that excels Winamp.

This is the Audio Library in AIMP

It also has an extremely interesting feature that I haven’t seen on any other player: a DSP menu. You can find it on the bottom of the equalizer case and it makes some pretty extraordinary things. For example, it can increase or decrease the song’s tempo, it can increase or decrease tonality and can accelerate the song without modifying the tonality. Also, you can apply audio effects to a song. Reverberation, chorus, echo and flanger (a specific distort effect for electric guitars).

For a simple thing such as searching a song, you don’t have to press God knows what key combination. On the bottom of the window, you can find a quick search that solves your problem. You can create as many playlists as you like, that will be shown above the playlist and can be accessed by simply clicking on them. You can download AIMP over here. It’s free, of course. I myself won’t be uninstalling it sometime soon.

Foobar2000

Foobar2000 doesn’t astonish by design, but I haven’t seen a player that can support as much audio file types as Foobar2000 does. On installation, you are being asked about how you want the player to be divided, and to look. This is why I can’t say pretty much about tools disposition. Same as AIMP, Foobar2000 also has an extremely good song selector, by artist and album, but regarding the genres, I must say it has kind of screwed it up. It placed Angela Similea “Frumoasele mele lalele” to alternative. What’s curios is that it also placed it to tango. Not to mention that most of the Depeche Mode songs are placed to rock genre.

Foobar2000 - simple, clear, for everybody

Altogether, Foobar2000 is an extremely simple and easy to use player. It’s also very good at audio equalization. With no less than 18 bands of equalization between 55 Hz and 20 kHz frequencies that work pretty well. It has made a good impression and I like it way better than the complicated and ineffectual Winamp. You can download it for free over here.

Jajuk

Jajuk is an extremely complex and honest player, which I sometimes think resembles rather Windows Explorer than an audio player. Unfortunately, Jajuk can’t classify songs pretty well, most of them being unknown. Jajuk opens in a window that can be maximized to fit the whole screen. On your left, there’s a menu that contains varied types of visualization according to the organizing grade. For example, the first one, Files, gives you a list of all files and directors you’ve included in your audio library. If you click on Tracks you can find songs ordered by genre, then by artist and finally by song. The Albums menu, obviously shows the included albums. What I liked about Jajuk was that he could find covers for most of the albums. It connects to last.fm and automatically downloads them.

Jajuk looks more like Windows Explorer

It’s pretty clear what Playlist does, but it’s a pretty difficult process. You have to apply some filters to find the songs you’re searching for, and then you can add them to your playlist. With Jajuk you can even listen to radio, for example. On the left bottom side, you’ll see an icon of a red radio with an antenna. You have a list full of online radios or traditional ones, that are online on air. Of course, you can configurate the list. Altogether, I liked Jajuk and I think it deserves a chance. You can download it for free over here. You also have the option to try it online, in Flash version.

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But photo editing doesn’t have to be frustrating, as Adobe, Universitatea Princeton si Universitatea Washington got together to research special image editing algorithms of the future, called ‘structural image editing’. I’m not that good at explaining new technologies so if you want more info you can read about structural image editing here or watch the video below that better explans how work will be done in future Adobe Photoshop versions:

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Essence of Virtualization

Are you confused? I was too at first, so let’s see what Virtualization really is by explaining what you can do with it. So, you have your computer, with Windows installed (it can be pretty much any other OS). Windows in this case is called host OS. You need to download a Virtual Machine software that will make the hardware available to other operating systems. I chose VirtualBox from SUN, a free Virtual Machine available for Windows (NT 4.0, 2000, XP, Server 2003, Vista, Windows 7), DOS/Windows 3.x, Linux (2.4 and 2.6), Solaris and OpenSolaris and OpenBSD.

Installing Ubuntu on VirtualBox

Next you have to choose one or more host OS-es that will be installed on top of your host Windows installation. I gave a try on Ubuntu. Made a Virtual Machine in VirtualBox (it’s an easy to follow wizard). Pun the CD in drive, and told VirtualBox to boot from it, then went on to install Ubuntu on the previously created Virtual Machine.

Ubuntu runs just fine in windowed mode

After install you open VirtualBox and boot up the guest OS, Ubuntu in this case, and use it like a normal OS install (minus the fact that you have a combination of keys to switch the mouse focus from one OS to another). You can run it in windowed mode, or full screen if that’s what you want). That’s it, it can’t gen any easier that that, so let’s see what’s the use of virtualization.

Uses of Virtualization

• You can install as many guest OS-es as you like without having to worry about the host OS being damaged
• You can test any software, if you’re a software developer, using just one computer
• You can limit the resources of a Virtual Machine to see how it performs in various scenarios, or just for security reasons
• Virtualization helps also when older software have to run on newer OS-es which are not compatible with them

Have you tried virtualization? Or you’re afraid of it. Anyway, feel free to ask me questions. I’m happy to help if you have issues or got stuck at one point.

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At the oposite corner lies Mac OSX 10.6 (aka Snow Leopard), announced at WWDC at the beginning of this summer and that was it, not too much buzz except the fact that won’t cost Mac users too much (29$ to pe precise).

Price alone and the fanaticism of Mac users will make Snow Leopard a success, I’m sure of that. But price is not the only thing to look up in Snow Leopard, so let’s see what it brings to the table:

• A more responsive finder search
• New looks and features for Expose and Stacks
• Faster backups through Time Machine
• Faster boot, wake up, shut down times
• Quicker wireless network join time
• Faster installation time for Snow Leopard
• Less space occupied on disk
• A new generation of Quick Time software
• More reliable disk eject (so they admit it at last)
• More efficient file sharing in your home network

Too much marketing bullshit in the motto

I think those features make Snow Leopard an upgrade good to have, but not so much a must have, but I’m no Apple fan-boy, so I wouldn’t know. How about you?

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LastPass Firefox menu

The program is called LastPass and has a free and a paid version, but as usual, the free version is good enough for the average user. LastPass consists of plugins for IE, Firefox, Safari and other mobile browsers (you heard that right, LastPass is available for Android, Blackberry and iPhone, but you have to get the Premium version that will cost you 12 $ per year, which frankly is a bargain).

What can LastPass do for you?

• sync passwords between browsers and computers
• encrypts existing passwords which means more security if your laptop or PC is stolen
• import/export and backup of passwords
• can generate stronger passwords for you
• can help you organize passwords depending on groups of websites
• can auto login you in selected websites
• it can help you complete forms online as it stores multiple profiles that are accessible at a click of a button

All you need to do is download LastPass, install it, login into your account on the browsers/computers you want to sync passwords between and you’re set and only prompted to remember passwords when you access a new website not found in LastPass database.

Below there’s a short video describing the basic features of LastPass:

LastPass prouds itself that will only make you remember one password, that will unlock/lock all your passwords securely in one place. The problem that I find is that it’s not yet available for Chrome and Opera, two browsers that I use constantly. But that’s hardly a problem and I’m sure it will be fixed soon.

I’m using LastPass for a few weeks already and I’m lovin’ it as it does what it’s supposed to do, without hassle for me. I highly recommend it.

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Microsoft has a solution to this, called Desktop Search (now renamed to Windows Search 4.0), but that’s useless in Vista in Windows 7 as you already have the integrated search that caches and indexes various items (you can set up what you want indexed) and only occupies more resources. I’ve search for a long time for a solution to Outlook’s slow search function and found the Xobni plugin, which has a free and a paid version which offers some advanced feature, tough a regular user will only need the free version.

Xobni toolbar in Outlook

What Xobni does

First you have to understand that Xobni is an add-on which is installed on top of Microsoft Outlook (download it here). After install it is visible in the right part of Outlook. It can be minimized for your viewing convenience of course. At the first start it indexes your recent emails (you can then index all your email which took for me ~ 15 minutes).

The main functions performed by Xobni Free are:

• search in emails
• display someones detailed contact info with conversations (threaded view), exchanged files, mailing frequency statistics
• it integrates with LinkedIn, Facebook and Hoovers and allows you to see someone’s contacts
• auto suggest for new email recipients

Xobni Plus gets you more features:

• advanced search filters for emails
• unlimited Outlook Data files (PST), as the free version only allows for one
• it displays appointments and tasks with a certain contact
• more auto suggested persons when writing a new email

Auto suggest with Xobni

If you haven’t already tried Xobni you should as it’s free and easy to install and use. It also brings a few social media options to Outlook plus the aforementioned lightning fast search.

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Opera Mini main screen

What makes Opera Mini special

The engine: most important thing about Opera Mini that you won’t even notice. That’s why I’ll tell you how Opera Mini works: the URL you enter in the address bar is processed by some Opera servers that will send your browser the resulting page, formatted for your screen size and compressed to just a few kilobytes.

It’s simple, it’s fast and takes little bandwidth.

Other Opera Mini advantages

The best part about Opera is the way it works with the websites you want to visit. But Opera Mini as other aces in its sleeves that makes it a must have mobile browser:

• skins: you can customize its looks to your own taste
• speed dial: access your favorite websites with a push of a button
• sync bookmarks with your Opera account so that you have the same bookmarks in your desktop Opera browser and other mobile phones you might have. Also helps migrating to a new phone
• save offline web pages for later reading when you’ll have the time or don’t have an Internet connection

My blog on Opera Mini - full page

My blog - zoom on header

How well does it fares with limited data plans?

I’ll give you my example: I have a 25 MB monthly data plan (it’s low, I know) and I’m using Opera Mini two hours a day during workdays plus email checking and using other bandwidth consuming apps, and I’ve never went over the 25 MB I have. I think this speaks well in the name o Opera Mini. Please give it a try and tell me what you think. They even have a special simulator to see whow Opera Mini works – check it out here.

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Automatic translation

At this point come to me the idea of automatic translation for audio, not just for text. I think this needs to be developed in two stages: one is the speech recognition feature, that transforms the original voice into text and then a text to speech technology that, in this case, will analyze Schumacher’s voice, extract enough samples which are then used to reconstruct its speech in the destination language of the translation. An easy to implement solution would be to display captions on the video.

I know this is practically impossible now, but that’s a direction I want translation services to take in the future. Once the language barrier will no longer exist, Internet penetration will get close to that 100 % perfect rate (given that everyone could afford a PC and an Internet connection).

Maybe the future will suprize me, as it did in so many occasions.

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Ubuntu is not for Windows humans

Installing Ubuntu on my desktop

The first thing I’ve seen after I’ve started the installing procedure was a hard reset. And the second and the third. Then I’ve tried something different (I have no idea why I sensed that might work): I’ve booted into Live CD mode and begin the installing procedure from there. This was a little better, as I’ve got to 80%, the the forth reset occurred.

After calming down with a beer I’ve burned on a DVD the 32 bit version and gave it a go. Needless to say I’ve ended up in the same place, with resets at various points. Then I’ve thought to give another chance to the 64 bit version and browsed through the advanced options before install, where I’ve found something about “no ACPI installation” plus other options I’ve had no clue about. At this point I’ve checked the options with no ACPI and install went fine and pretty fast I have to say.

I have no idea what caused the hard resets but after looking on some forums I’ve seen that I wasn’t the only one with this issue. Next I’ve checked that I didn’t overwrite somehow the Windows Loader, as I usually did in the past experiences with installing Linux. All fine here.

First few hours of using Ubuntu

The first thing I noticed was how fast Ubuntu boots, as from the loading screen to desktop it takes about 10 seconds on a Core 2 Duo 3GHz CPU. Then I’ve noticed the silence of my 500W speaker system, that’s because Ubuntu has a problem with my Realtek HD Audio sound card. After reading a few posts and installing a few drivers the silence persisted, at witch moment I’ve switched my attention towards the video driver of my Radeon 4850 which doesn’t seemed to handle a full screen HD movie. Needless to say that my efforts were useless.

I don’t consider myself an IT Guru, but I’m pretty sure I’m an advanced Windows user with at least 14 years on trial and error. Practically I’ve tried every Windows desktop version since 3.11. I’ve also tried a few Linux distributions like Red Hat and Ubuntu so I can draw a conclusion about both of them

The question: Ubuntu or Windows

Well, the answer is more complicated than it should be and relies upon another question, ‘What do you seek?‘. If you want something easy to install and use give Ubuntu a try, but if you have hardware or drivers issue you’d better stick with Windows. Ubuntu is also a good alternative when your budget is limited, as it comes with various software which provides similar functions like paid Windows programs, but similar is not the same with identical, remember that.

In the end I can’t describe the happiness I’ve felt going back to Windows 7, which is faster in every day use than Ubuntu (except boot time), Precaching being one of the most useful things introduced by Vista. The newest iteration of Windows 7 brings back new levels of performance, a new taskbar and easy to use and install devices. It’s hard thinking about Ubuntu as a Windows 7 competitor, even if it’s cheaper (or free if you don’t need support), but that doesn’t mean it isn’t good, because Linux really made visible progress in past years, but so did Windows.

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Let’s start with the beginning: I knew some infos about Windows 7 since last year, but that was what Microsoft had released to general public, nothing more. When the first beta build came in January, first on some torrent sites then officially from Microsoft I had a few friends installing and recommend it to me.

Windows 7 Ultimate retail box on Amazon

I was a little bit skeptical at first, but as I love new stuff related to IT it is no surprise that I’ve installed it on my desktop first, to see how it handles on a beefed up configuration.

After a few days of running the beta version of Windows 7 I concluded that it was a pretty solid build and did installed it on my laptop with Intel integrated graphics. It ran there very satisfactory, with all eye candy on. Drivers were fine and general feel on both systems was that Windows 7 runs smoother than Windows Vista using the same programs.

Even better than my expectations was the fact that after Windows 7 RC1 appeared, I did an upgrade that worked like a charm on both systems.

Now, after 6 months my general feel is that both installations perform like in the first day, even after upgrades, new drivers and a lot of software installs. I expect it to get worse on some point in time, as Microsoft hasn’t ditched the whole registry thing, but for now it’s more than ok.

So, let’s break it down in bullets: why should you get Windows 7 in Autumn?

• It’s way faster than Vista on old and actual hardware
• There are no compatibility issues with software and drivers, or at least nothing major
• It increases functionality, especially in the task bar area
• It’s easier for new computer users, while experienced users will get a hold on it quickly
• It’s cheaper than Vista if you buy a new system
• Old OSes will not be supported long time after Winsows 7 hits the shelves, plus we all know support for old software is crappy
• It’s safer than XP and possibly than Vista. I haven’t got any malware and viruses problems in past months, but I don’t browse stupid/porn/untrusted websites

Info about where to buy Windows 7 and version pricing can be found here

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Microsoft Surface Software User Interface

Look at WEB 2.0, which is an overly simplified way of interacting with web services, from usability point of view, not function. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but what happens when you really can’t afford to compromise function over usability. Well, you get Photoshop, AutoCAD and other great software with miserable user interfaces. No one managed to make e complex and simple software interface.

Do thing have to get too simple to make them accessible? Looking at the iPhone (a nice phone that thinks it’s a smart phone. Sorry Apple fan boys but that’s what I believe) I’m inclined to say yes.

My take on the future?

Well, there will be a point in future when usability will be recognized as a science, as it has to do with social behavior, brain stimulation and so on.

In the way too distant future, when everyone on Earth will be used to everyday technology I’m hoping people will get smarter and able to use more advanced input and control methods, thus more complicated.

But for now we have to embrace the reality that things will dumb down even more to satisfy the needs of the majority. And that’s a fact, not a supposition.

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Congrats Matt, but that’s not what I want to write about in this post. I want to write about committing to do something right. I’ve been familiar with WordPress since version 1.something (1.3 or 1.4 I believe) and it was not my first CMS to use (PHP Nuke was the first one). I’m mainly a content guy, meaning that most of the websites I’ve created or worked for were  content websites or websites that used content in a significant percentage.

Committed

WordPress was by far the most efficient, optimized, bug free and simple to use CMS. It was also flexible trough plugins and that’s one thing that matters. Trough time I saw the WordPress team listening to users and implementing features that some used trough plugins and also offering excellent documentation and support for free.

WordPress is now more than a CMS, it’s a real platform that can adjust to different website profiles, not just hard-core content.

Not Committed

One example of not committed, at least for me, is Microsoft. I can’t look at Vista and not think that they didn’t solved problems years and years after being discovered. Even now windows animation for minimizing and maximizing is activating itself for no reason.

Rockstar is also one such example, not being able to solve disappearing textures in GTA and managing to make the game run smoothly on mainstream PCs.

WordPress is the example that with committment and dedication you can build big things with little help. Congrats again!

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Today I’ve came upon a little piece of software, SyncToy, a backup utility for synchronizing folders between two storage spaces (usually an internal hard drive and an external device).

Contrary to other Microsoft software SyncToy is very intuitive to use. You set up pairs of folders and define the way they sync: any changes between them is replicated, changes are replicated only in one direction, any changes are replicated minus Delete actions (you basically continuously backup one folder, keeping all files).

To close this post I think SyncToy is a very good utility to backup your sensitive files. I’ll surely keep using it till I find something better. What software do you use for backup? Or do you believe you can Recover Lost Data no matter what? I’m looking for the option to set up the folders which I want to sync by checking them in a Tree window (in SyncToy you have to manually define pairs of folders).

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