Looks like a great free tool from Microsoft; Photo Story 3 for Windows It creates a WMV video slideshow from your pictures with special effects, titles, captions, soundtracks and voice narration. A lot more interesting than a basic slideshow. I say looks like as it doesn't install on Win2k3 since it requires a "Genuine Windows Validation". My parents will have to survive with a normal jpeg slideshow of the grandchildren this year as well. Via [Larry Ostermann's WebLog]

Get up to 25 .info domains for free at Dotster.com Caution: AutoRenew of the new domains are on by default. Turn it off unless you want to pay automatically for the domains after 1 year.

A college was looking for an undelete tool for Windows. I found several but all were shareware or required installation (a big no-no for undelete utils). Mike came to the rescue and pointed out Restoration. Pretty cool as you can copy the tool to a SD Card or a floppy and run it without installing anything. It restores files in "copy mode" so you can restore the deleted file to a different drive. Works with FAT, NTFS, removable drives like SD cards, digital cameras etc. It found loads of very old files on my machine that has since been overwritten. Scary that it finds all the old file names even after a complete defrag… Anyone know of a tool that can delete such ...

Sharon wins historic Gaza vote. Great news that hopefully helps end a conflict instead of starting a new one: Israel's parliament last night voted for the first time in 37 years of occupation to remove Jewish settlements from the Palestinian territories in a historic move that Ariel Sharon said paved the way to the end of the conflict. ... Some opponents have accused Mr Sharon of "caving in to terrorism" and of being a traitor because he is considered the godfather of the settlements and oversaw the massive expansion of Israel's West Bank and Gaza colonies during the 70s and 80s.But the latest opinion poll, in the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, shows overwhelming ...

iTunes is finally available in Italy and a whole bunch of other countries. It has tons of music, you can burn as many CDs as you want of the songs you buy, including MP3 CDs. Buying the new U2: Vertigo single now and can't wait for the whole album to be released. Cool Or What? I tried earlier this summer but was very disappointed when I couldn't buy a couple of songs on any of the big stores: MSN Music has loads of music but they only sell to the US :-( Rhapsody requires a $9 monthly subscription for streaming. It is possible to download an burn songs but you pay an additional + $0.79 for each song. This makes sense if you buy tons of music or can listen to the ...

I spend my days on the command line prompt or in Visual Studio .NET full screen . Konfabulator looks just gorgeous so I guess I'll have to change my ways and write a command line widget whenever it is released for Windows. Konfabulator is a JavaScript runtime engine for Mac OS X (and Windows :-) that lets you run little files called Widgets that can do pretty much whatever you want them to. Widgets can be alarm clocks, calculators, can tell you your AirPort signal strength, will fetch the latest stock quotes for your preferred symbols, and even give your current local weather. ... The format for these Widgets is completely open and easy to learn so creating your ...

Unless you are living in Australia that is. The lunar eclipse map shows where the Lunar eclipse 27/28 October can be seen. The local weather forecast is for clouds (27th) and rain (28th) so I probably can't see it :-(

Yetisports part 7: Snowboard freeride has been released. Somehow I missed the release of part 6: Big wave so I have plenty of penguin fun to look forward to.

When the TV-B-Gone is not enough to satisfy your needs, it is time to get out the heavy arms: The cellular jammer by AllProducts.com covers a 30 meter radius GlobalGadgetUK has a wide range of mobile jammers. Including jammers disguised as mobile phones This WiFi jammer should be a great anti PHB tool. Arrive early, grab the only RJ-45 and all other participants will be stuck without a network connection. Remember to bring the AC adaptor if you suspect a long meeting as the battery only lasts 1.5 hours.

Shhhh! Don't tell my wife about the TV-B-Gone. It promises to turn of thousands of models of TVs with a single click in a few seconds. I must confess I am the one that leaves the TV on, tuned in to the KISS player, playing a Web Radio station or my MP3 collection. Add the cell phone jammer to your toolkit and you can finally get some peace and quiet wherever you go. All I -really- want is a mute control for my PHB... Via: Wired.com OnlineBlog.com

The Moto GP Schedule 2005 is ready. Moto GP returns to the USA after many years and it will race in China as well:10th April - Jerez, Spain17th April - Jacarepagua, Brazil1st May - Shanghai, China15th May - Le Mans, France29th May - Mugello, Italy5th June - Catalunya, Spain19th June - Donington Park, Great Britain25th June - Assen, Netherlands10th July - Laguna Seca, United States24th July - Sachsenring, Germany28th August - Brno, Czech Republic11th September - Sepang, Malaysia18th September - Motegi, Japan1st October - Doha, Qatar16th October - Phillip Island, Australia30th October - Estoril, Portugal6th November - Valencia, Spain I hope it will be as exciting as this ...

It's coolissimo that Buy.com has a Lexar JumpDrive 1 GB key chain for $49.99 but it sucks major time that Buy.com only ships to the US Via [The Furrygoat Experience]

What's the point of flying to London for a few euro via RyanAir or easyJet if you have to spend more than a 100 euro to get a clean place to spend the night? easyHotel aims to solve that problem: A central London bed from £5 a nighteasyHotel represents the easyGroup entry into the budget hotel sector and will be found in the centre of international cities. Customers can book their rooms at this website with a credit card on the basis of the earlier you book, the less you pay and periods of high demand will cost more than less popular periods. Via [Wired Magazine]

Lava Lamp 2: Using the latest in laser, LED and crystal optics, Laserpod brings science and nature together to create ever-changing organic lightforms of profound beauty. With the diffuser in place, the Laserpod is a meditative ambient lamp; remove the diffuser and these effects can be projected onto a wall or across an entire room. Plugg in... Switch on... Tune out. ThinkGeek lights:  Luminglass  Electra Lamp Thanks Mike

Cool but scary: An pill-sized brain chip has allowed a quadriplegic man to check e-mail and play computer games using his thoughts. The device can tap into a hundred neurons at a time, and is the most sophisticated such implant tested in humans so far…The BrainGate allowed the patient to control a computer or television using his mind, even when doing other things at the same time. Researchers report for example that he could control his television while talking and moving his head. Not for me. My PHB would have fired me a loooong time ago if I wrote what I think. Better to let mails with flames cool down in the Drafts folder before I send them. Via [OnlineBlog]

What a race! Yamaha is turning 50 next year and got its first Moto GP title in 12 years when Valentino Rossi won yesterday. Valentino came from Honda last year and was the first rider ever to win back to back races on machines from two different manufacturers this spring. The president of Yamaha, Toru Hasegawa, has put even higher goals for the next year; As Yamaha Motor Company prepares to celebrate the 50th anniversary of its founding next year, we dedicate ourselves to continuing the challenge of achieving even higher goals - such as winning the MotoGP World Manufacturers Championship title. By doing so, we hope that we can continue to bring you all that special ...

The Google Desktop Search beta is out: Google Desktop Search is how our brains would work if we had photographic memories. It's a desktop search application that provides full text search over your email, computer files, chats, and the web pages you've viewed. By making your computer searchable, Google Desktop Search puts your information easily within your reach and frees you from having to manually organize your files, emails, and bookmarks. Screenshots of the new Google Desktop beta. Via [Google Labs]

I can't wait for the first release of Make magazine, scheduled for early 2005. I'm a great fan of the O'Reilly books and I hope the magazine keeps up to the standard. Make brings the do-it-yourself mindset to all the technology in your life. Make is loaded with exciting projects that help you make the most of your technology at home and away from home. This is a magazine that celebrates your right to tweak, hack, and bend any technology to your own will. Coming early in 2005, Make is a hybrid magazine/book (known as a mook in Japan). Make comes from O'Reilly, the Publisher of Record for geeks and tech enthusiasts everywhere. It follows in line with the Hacks books ...

Western Digital has launched the Scorpio line of mobile hard disks. They come in the standard versions of 40gb, 60gb and 80gb with 5,400 rpm. The good news is that they claim to have fixed noise, heat, power consumtion and shock problems: To keep sound levels low, Western Digital teams its SoftSeek algorithms (which quiet the clicking typical in drive seeks) with its WhisperDrive technology (which includes fluid dynamic bearings and a specially dampened top cover). The company claims that models in the Scorpio line are the quietest mobile hard drives on the market. Heat won't be a problem either, according to spokesman Darrin Bulik. "Scorpio has run cooler in our ...

Sometimes keeping it simple pays of. Wired has the story on Amy Smith, A MacGyver for the Third World, that got $500.000 from the McArthur Foundation for her brilliant work. An engineer who is uninterested in advancing technologies is, to put it mildly, a rarity. So rare, in fact, that the MacArthur Foundation awarded one such engineer $500,000. Mechanical engineer Amy Smith, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology instructor, joined the MacArthur fellowship fold last week, receiving the so-called "genius award" and a colossal cash prize. Her award-winning feat? Using old technology in fresh ways to improve the lives of entire communities.

I wonder if this mouse pad from D-Mail is good against Repetitive strain injury or could cause it in males? Thanks Mike

I usually use family or astronomy pictures as my desktop but when I found the Glass Windows Wallpaper by DivineError, I just had to change. It looks just great on a 1680x1050 LCD. Via [Michael Swanson's Blog]

Wonder how fast the Shocking Tanks at GadgetShop go (and how fast my PHB can run :-) . These little vehicles are silver in appearance and have real tracks, not silly rolling wheels like other remote control tanks, so they look authentically rugged. Which is important when you're going into a war zone. At the front of the tank there's a firing arm for punishing your opponent. Each tank has 6 lights running across the top of it, which light up to indicate the number of lives that the players have. All you have to do is pop the tanks on the ground facing each other and press the reset button on the tops of the tanks to get going Thanks Mike

Dilbert's House is online. It has been designed buy thousands of Dilbert fans with features only a nerd can think of. First, let me give you some background. As you probably know, most of the people who design houses hate your guts. For example, they know you'll never use the formal living room, yet they include it so you'll have to pay extra. They tease you with a fancy-schmancy dining room, making you fantasize about hosting important dinners for heads of state, despite the reality that you eat your meals directly from the refrigerator. Wonder if it is too late to make some more suggestions: Japanese style toilet with auto wash and auto dry so you're free ...

Microsoft released the free Microsoft Creature House Expression™ 3 download a few months ago. I guess I'm not the only one that missed the announcement of the Expressions 3.3 preview. From the Expression product page: Creature House Expression™ 3 is an innovative vector-based illustration and graphics tool that provides exciting creative capabilities for designers working in print, web, video, and interactive mediums Microsoft acquired the Creature House technology and development team in 2003. As a service to the many loyal users of Expression, a free download version is available to existing users of the product for either Microsoft Windows or Mac ...

I have an old USB 1.0 external HD from from DataFab but I have not found any drivers that work on Win2k3 or Win98. In the end I gave up and bought a small, thin and great looking USB2 HD case from Trust Technical Specifications* External hard disk case for compact 2.5" size harddisk * USB 2.0 interface (40 x faster than USB 1.1) * Downwards compatible with USB 1.1 * Speeds supported: 480Mbps, 12Mbps and 1.5 Mbps * Easy to assemble, strong, durable and light aluminium housing * Power provided to hard disk via USB cable * Suitable for Macintosh and Windows (Plug & Play) * Product size (HxWxD in mm): 135 x 77 x 13 mm It works like a charm on all the computers ...

Got a mail this morning from Hellacious Riders this morning explaining that they had a huge backlog and they asked me to resubmit the request for the mailbox. A couple of minutes later I had a brand new mailbox with 107374182.4 Mb (~102GB) available space: I have sent some test mails and the service works like a charm. The GUI is simple to use, fast and -without- advertisements (at least so far). The only thing I don't like is the port of the web mail, 8383, as my proxy server at work doesn't support it :-( I hope I can convince their technical support to use a standard port like 80 or 8080

The Dilbert Newsletter 57.0: "A Little Ray of Bitter Sunshine" arrived a week ago and I usually drop everything to read it ASAP. This time I decided to save it for a plane trip to London so I had something to keep me happy during long waits. Good thing I did because flying in/out of Italy was an adventure today. A great read like as usual and a must for any Dilbert fan. Scott Adams just released The Religion War, a follow up to the God's debris. A shame he didn't release it online like he did with "God's debris". Enter your e-mail address on the Dilbert site to subscribe to the newsletter: http://www.comics.com/comics/dilbert/dnrc/subscribe Technorati Profile

Cool Or What? They did it again. The same space ship went to space twice in less than a week. It is just fantastic that we have gone from the moon landing to a private space launches with live web casts in half a life time. Last weeks space launch was exiting with the unexpected roll while SpaceShipOne went to space. It shows the dedication, and balls, of the test pilot when he decided to continued burning the rocket until he was sure he would break the 100km mark even if ground control suggested aborting the mission earlier. Stuff you only see in the movies. I'm really glad I found the time to watch the web casts live. I realize it's not sputnik or the moon landing ...

Adobe Acrobat 2.0 for Pocket PC is available in available in English, French, Italian, German, Spanish and adds some new features: Mobile data entry: Submit form data using handheld devices over a wireless connection. If you are working offline, the data is temporarily stored, then submitted once a connection is established. Send forms by e-mail or directly to the destination server using a cradle or cable. Wireless printing: Print directly from a handheld device to a remote printer Slide show viewing: Easily share Adobe PDF slide shows generated by Adobe Photoshop® Album software on handheld devices in portrait or landscape mode. Downloading digital editions: ...

I read the numbers, did a quick calculation and read them again. London is currently the hottest hub of them all, passing 55 Gigabit per second Impressive.

I noticed the Get Acrobat Reader to open up faster post a while back but I didn't try it before today. It works like a charm and Adobe Acrobat loads -a lot- faster. The splash page that lists the impressive list of patents hardly displays anymore.

Make your own view following the instructions in the The Virtual Window Project