The above diagram is my current setup and everything is connected by the D-Link Gigabit switch and routed through the Netgear Gigabit Router. Recently I have been trying to centralize my files and duplicate it somewhere else. I don’t want to put everything all in one place but at the same time putting it all in different locations has resulted in non-stop searching for certain files. The other day I stumbled upon a music directory inside a back-up folder of my old pc inside one of the network storage, I was surprised to find it since it had a lot of old songs I was looking for earlier.

What I’m trying to do is duplicate new media files just in case if a Hard Drive stops working on me, and I send the old files to Infrant NV+ which has redundant storage. It is a bit of task to go searching between them, and organizing them is going to be hell as well since I have to go through so many sub-directories and many of the External HDs have different profiles on them. I know once I am done I will be extremely happy with everything, its always about redundancy upon redundancy upon redundancy, its moments like these that I realize I am complete nerd.

I’m currently going to go with the two screen option since I do a lot of different things on one PC at a time, the problem I have is placing both the screens on my desk. My desk space is limited in space so I have to get the right type of flexible screen mounts to make sure the screens can be accommodated.

I was look at different mounts available since I’m going with the Dual screen option but at the same time I don’t want to clutter my desk. The screens mounts I’m looking at are for the Dell E22WFP and these mounts are compatible with VESA mounts which are the standard mounts on most screens between 75/100.

I have two options at this point:

• Omnimount WS-3
• 7000 Flat Panel Arm

I like the Omnimount but I’m leaning towards the 7000 because you are able to rotate the 360 degrees, so I can make both screens vertical, or one vertical and the other horizontal. It streamlines all the clutter on my desk and then I can adjust all the cables.

This is one of the features which I found to be annoying until CyberRowdy pointed it out to me. I wasn’t sure where to go to switch it off, UAC stands for User Account Control.

UAC is enabled for every account on the PC except the default administrator which is switched off by default. UAC is meant to limit people’s action to certain degree instead of the limited user accounts previously in XP. In Vista you have two types of users: Standard User and Administrator.

UAC is automatically active for both Administrator and Standard users, and it will always come up when you are making system changes or security changes. The difference of UAC in Administrator and Standard users is that in an Administrator account all you have to do is click the continue button, but in a Standard user account you must enter an administrator password to go through with the action.

The other purpose of UAC is that it doesn’t give programs more privileges then necessary to do what it has to do. Most programs in administrator mode have administrator access what UAC is trying to do is curb the access of certain programs to operate within their parameters. I think this is a good idea for a user who don’t are not tech savvy but it is also quiet annoying coming up when you are making small changes.

To Switch it off:
Control Panel -> User Accounts -> Turn User Account Control on or off (That is where you can switch it off)

The link below can give you a lot more information regarding the purpose of UAC.

Link: ookie

It seems that it has happened at last, that Apple is slowly invading the Windows realm. People with Apple have always enjoyed Safari, but now with Safari 3 it works on both Apple and Windows. Streamlined interface with full support for RSS feeds, integrated Google search, pop-up blocker, tabbed browsing, and easy-to-manage bookmarks. All for free and it loads up to twice as fast as IE 7 and 1.6 times as fast as Firefox 2. The best part of it is that its available for free. Beta version available for download from Apple.

Link: UnCrate

This is the main reason that I would purchase a Mac at this point, if you haven’t picked one up yet then wait until October of 2007 to pick up a Mac with OS X Leopard included. It has over 300 new features with a lot of things which have been improved such as iTunes, iChat, a new way to organize files and a lot of other things. Its well worth forking over $129 for this amazing OS, if Tiger was great I can only imagine how good this OS will be.

Link: UnCrate

This is a very brief breakdown of all that took place at the WDDC 07 with some interesting parts. To find out the real information then go click the link at Arstechnica. Apple is really doing some interesting things, we shall see what they will be releasing soon.

• .Mac overhauled
• Leopard secrets revealed
• New iLife
• Leopard is the star
• VoIP or iChat on iPhone
• Virtualization in Leopard
• “New” Finder in Leopard
• iPhone Widgets
• Illuminous
• iPhone Leopard demo
• New look in Leopard
• MacBook Thin
• iPhone SDK
• New desktop Mac (not Mac Pro)
• Vista ridiculed
• ZFS mentioned
• Universal MS Office demo
• “One more thing…”
• “Boom”
• Leopard release date
• Leopard != $129
• Leopard secrets remain
• New displays with cameras

Link: Arstechnica

I was previously thinking about upgrading my current PC with a few parts, but now I have come to the conclusion I want to build a new machine from scratch. And these are the specs that I’m currently going with. What I have in mind is simple, a powerful PC with a sturdy case which can handle all tasks without any fuss.

• Thermaltake Soprano DX VE7000BNS Black 0.8mm SECC Chassis/ Aluminum Front Bezel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
• Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz 2 x 4MB L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor
• MSI P6N Diamond LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard
• MSI NX8800GTX-T2D768E GeForce 8800GTX 768MB 384-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Video Card
• CORSAIR XMS2 4GB(2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit
• OCZ GameXStream OCZ1010GXSSLI ATX12V / EPS12V 1010W Power Supply 100 – 240 V
• ZALMAN CNPS 9700 NT 110mm 2 Ball Ultra Quiet CPU Cooler
• Western Digital Raptor X WD1500AHFDRTL 150GB 10,000 RPM 16MB Cache Serial ATA150 Hard Drive
• 2 X HITACHI Deskstar 7K1000 750 GB
• 2 X HITACHI Deskstar 7K1000 HDS721010KLA330 (0A34915) 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

This is combination that I have come up with, if you guys have any comments then let me know. I think this is a powerful system with this combination and regarding the hard drives then it would a combination of them not all of them.

I think everyone has run into this at one point in time when your trying to delete files. Currently I’m trying to clean up my main PC since its running into issues. When I’m trying to delete a file it tells me I can’t delete it since its currently in use which is really annoying. I have had a program for brute force deletion but in the past I have caused problems because of that.

After searching this is an extremely simple Windows utility called WhoLockMe which helps you find out which process has locked this file. All you have to do is right click on the desired file and then click WhoLockMe ? and it will give you all the necessary details. That way you will know if it is a critical file and not delete it, or if its a file you can get rid of without any issues. A simple program which does wonders for clean up.

Link: WhoLockMe

Well Apple have been dorment the past couple of months since many companies have been updating their line-up, but a lot was brewing under the radar and that is what I have been waiting to here, and as usual Apple comes out punching.

The new line up of their models:

• 2.2Ghz to 2.4 Ghz Core 2 Dou
• More Powerful Nvidia GeForce 8600M GT
• Up to 4 GB Ram
• 15″ LED-backlit LCDs (More power-efficient and mercury free)
• 17″ can be equiped with a 1920 by 1200 display naming it “MacBook Pro HD”

Price: $2000 – $2800

Link: UnCrate

I didn’t feel like writing the Roman four properly but that aside, I’m currently at the point of testing compatability and softwares that I have in mind. So currently I’m just testing out software that I usually use in day to day tasks as well as tweaking things.

Software:

• Critical Software and OS updates: AutoPatcher (Thanks لمياء الحالمة)
• Photo Editing: Paint.Net (Does a lot of what Photoshop does but for free, but Photoshop is more professional and a bit more features)
• Watching Video Files: K-Lite Codec Pack FULL – Media Player Classic (Works perfectly with all formats)
• Office: Trying to get a OEM copy of Office 07
• Browser: FireFox 2
• DVD Burning Software: Still looking at which is more compatible
• Video Editing: Still Searching

I’m currently tweaking the network settings and sharing items, the odd thing I am facing is all the security measures that I can’t seem to switch off. For another computer to access any information on my Vista PC you have to log in which is a bit annoying, I think its stopping my X-Box 360 from seeing the files thats on it.