Supergeekblog

I remember seeing a device on Tom’s Hardware – using Bart PE Builder to put Windows XP on a flash drive. It is a good idea, one I discovered Microsoft itself is picking up on.

We came across something very interesting this morning: Pemberton USB flash drive with Windows XP loaded on it. The blog article goes into depth on the implications of what this technology could do, but the implications in the education field are staggering.

The idea would be to take your files from class, library, all the way to your dorm room, while preserving your system settings at the same time. The idea of having your OS on your USB drive isn’t new, but it is when coming from Microsoft. They are looking into how to change their licensing model to fit this new concept. You can view Don Roessler’s blog post about it, where it goes much more in depth. Apparently this article is originally from Micronews, the Microsoft Internal Newsletter. (At least that is where the links to his image files go, so we were only to show you the one image – the rest do not seem to be available externally.)

I don’t see this being quite as useful in the application of tech support as is implied in the initial look at the product. (Here is the article on Tom’s Hardware.) The live CD with the static files is much safer for working on someone’s infected machine. This might however be a better solution for people who can’t afford a full computer.

We here at SuperGeekBlog would love to get our hands on one (or three) to test. Feel free to include us in any tests of this product.

Technorati Tags: Microsoft, USB Drive, Pemberton, Don Roessler

Tweet This

Okay Jake sent me this flash animation that makes fun of overseas support. I have to say that it might not be the most politically correct, but I think it encompasses how most of us geeks feel about farmed out tech support. Check it out.

Tweet This

Rumors are flying around the blogosphere today that seem to indicate that Yahoo! will be announcing the purchase of Digg.com for a sum that is floating around $30-$35 Million. Quite the turn around for Kevin Rose and the gang as they just got $2-5 million in investment in the latter half of 2005. At this point, these rumors are just that. Rumors. In all honesty, I wouldn’t be surprised if it happens though. Yahoo! has been on a buying binge lately, and Digg would fit nicely with the other sites that they have purchased. Think integration with del.icio.us and flikr.

Kevin Burton appearantly started the whole thing with information from two sources close to Yahoo. Om Malik and Russell Beattie both think it’s hyped up linkbaiting. And Ben Barren(with his beautiful women) thinks it makes sense.

Obviously, until we get verification from either someone on the inside of Digg or Yahoo, these will stay rumors. On the other hand, the iPod video was rumored for months before the purchase. The Ebay-Skype deal was rumored for a few days before the announcement. Unless this turns out to be a complete hose-job linkbaiting extravaganza, our feeling is that we will be all talking about the logistics of the purchase by late next week at the latest. It does make sense for Yahoo to add Digg to the family and Digg would be an excellent partner to other services that Yahoo already has. We’re just waiting to hear the official word.

UPDATE: Kevin Rose has made an official entry into the DiggBlog at diggtheblog.blogspot.com

Yesterday, I saw a couple digg stories reporting rumors about Yahoo! acquiring digg - I posted a small comment on digg dispelling the rumors and thought that was the end of it. Then, I woke up this morning to see TechCrunch (great site btw), CNN, CNET, and a few others fueling the rumors. So, just to set things straight - we are not in talks with Yahoo. We are focused on creating new features and expanding digg into new areas beyond tech. The recent reports about digg and Yahoo! are just rumors, nothing more.

Digg on,

Kevin

So, for now our hopes are dashed.  Or renewed. Depends on your point of view.

Technorati Tags: digg, yahoo, kevin rose

Tweet This

Matt Mower over at curiouser and curiouser makes a very good arguement against the capslock key.

In the key’s defense, many of my co-workers use it constantly. It has become a function of their job and as a result all things that they do are in capslock. Yes, that includes email. While I find it annoying, I have come to understand. To them, working with the capslock on is akin to Matt and I working without it.

Technorati Tags: capslock, matt mower

Tweet This

Hitachi Global posted a quick Q&A from their support pages that has six of the worst sounds to hear coming from your hard drive.  Give em a listen so you know when to make that whole system backup.

These can be valuable if you haven’t heard them before.  I can’t count how many times I’ve heard them and just barely gotten a backup made before the drive kicked the bucket.

Technorati Tags: Hard drive, sound, bad, failing

Tweet This

Second life lays claim to over $240,000 in Linden Dollars changing hands each day. Until recently, these transactions were all for digital products. Products that could only be used in Second life.

That all changed the other day when “Second Life Boutique” listed a new category of product. You might say it was a little foreign. The category? “Real Life products.” The Second Lifer know as FlipperPA Peregrine who runs the store said:

I just started to think it would be interesting with the amount of dollars going through on a daily basis to challenge people to think of it as a foreign currency rather than as Monopoly money

Indeed, MMORPG games have gained in increasing popularity lately and we’ve seen many of the items that people use on their characters selling in our world. It’s about time that some of our stuff starts selling in theirs.

Original Story Credit: Finally, You Can Buy Something Real With Play Money

Technorati Tags: MMORPG, Second Life

Tweet This

Do you have several machines lying around your “geek room” running various versions of Windows/Linux/OsX and can’t think of a good use for them. Well I stumbled upon one of the better uber-geek utils I’ve found in a while while surfing today. It’s called Synergy and it lets you seamlessly integrate multiple networked computers on different operating systems into a virtual desktop of sorts.

I currently have it installed on my laptop (Which sits immediately to the left of the dual monitors attached to my main computers’ ATI X800xl videocard) and I can now move my mouse over to my laptop screen just by going off the left edge of my desktop computer screen. At which point I have full control of the laptop and can even copy and paste between it and my desktop as if they were one machine. You really have to throw this on one of your ghetto machines and try it out as it’s something to behold (It’s also good for confusing your friends when they sit down at your computer). Oh… and the best part? It’s free!
Check it out.

Technorati Tags: synergy, virtual desktop, multi monitor, kvm switch

Tweet This

It’s a bit unclear whether Scoble or Mano started this, but essentially, they are now collaborating on a post with links to juicy video’s of new Vista content.  I believe that the video’s have been around for a while, but they serve as a good reminder of the advances expected in Vista.

Mano’s post with the video links.

Scoble’s post

And finally, my post on thatedeguy

Technorati Tags: Microsoft, vista, scoble, thatedeguy, mano

Tweet This

Ebay reported it earnings for 2005 yesterday. The total revenues for Skype, who they have only owned for about 78 days, was nearly $25 million. Om Malik crunched the numbers and got to:

At $24.8 million over seventy eight days, it works out to about $116 million, a shade ahead of $100 million annual run-rate they hoped for when the SkyeBay deal was announced.

Sounds good for Ebay. Of course that’s until Om decided to “slice it differently”:

Being snarky for a minute, at that rate, the sales-to-deal-price ($2.6 billion) parity will take about 8176 days. Roughly 22 years! (Of course they will grow their sales, I am just having some fun here )

He says he’s being snarky, but is he? How far off point is he really? The fact of the matter is that yes, Skype revenues will most likely grow. Will they grow enough for Ebay to see any “deal” profit before all of the current employees at Ebay retire? Maybe. $2.6 billion is a lot of money. $2.6 billion is $2,600,000,000 million. Thats a lot. So lets say that they double their revenue… in 5 years. On average they take in $150 million a year for the next 5 years. If I’ve done my calculations right, that brings us to $1,744,000,000 million left. Now at $200 million thereafter… 8.72 years for a total of nearly 14 years. Best scenario? Paid off in 9-10 years unless revenues grow exponentially.

I suppose thats not horrible. But it isn’t great either.

Technorati Tags: Ebay, Skype, Malik, revenues

Tweet This

So Trillian logs in this morning, just like every other morning to Yahoo, MSN, and AIM IM networks. Only one difference this morning: An info box pops up saying I have an email in my inbox for AIM.

What the heck – I don’t have AIM/AOL email! I have had the same AIM login for the last 7-8 years. (I really don’t even know how long I have had it.) It is a AIM address not an email address. It never has been.)

However, AIM seems to have silently upgraded all users to a free @AIM.com email address. This is complete with 2GB of storage, a pretty nice looking webclient, and an interesting sounding “unsend” option to other AOL or AIM addresses. (I am guessing too many AOL users drunkenly sent emails and then called tech support looking for the Unsend option.

I have no confirmation yet if this really did happen to all uses, but I know I never signed up for it. I already have enough 2GB free email accounts. Between Live Mail and Gmail – AIM mail is just over-kill for me. Yet, I know that there are a bunch of people out there who will enjoy this new feature.

So… if you still have an AIM address out there – try logging in and seeing if your account has had this addition.

Technorati Tags: AIM, AIM Mail, IM, MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, Webmail, 2gb webmail

Tweet This