Add The Product Red Suite to your PC

Download it here
Place Theme in \Windows\Resources\Themes
Place Wallpaper in C:\Windows\Web\Wallpaper
Place Dremescene in C:\Windows\Web\Windows DreamScene (if you have ultimate)
Double Click Gadgets to install
Place Screen Saver in \Windows\System32

Enjoy!
Credit to Vishal from askvg.com

My new sony vaio ns!

Hey everyone, wanted to announce that I just got my new sony vaio laptop on November 19th! It is really cool, it has a pentium dual core CPU, 3 GB RAM, 160GB HDD, and an integrated webcam and mic. It is really perfect for me... great for blogging on, surfing the web, and doing my everyday tasks. Windows Live mesh works great on it, as does office '07. I just upgraded it to vista ultimate and I look forward to upgrading to the windows seven beta when I come back from FL in January.
Photo's later this weekend.

iPod Touch/iPhone Firmware 2.2 Released

Today Apple released the iPhone and iPod Touch Firmware 2.2. This update works on all iPods that run iPhone OS and includes the following features:

* Enhancements to Maps (iPhone Only)
o Google Street View*
o Public transit and walking directions
o Display address of dropped pins
o Share location via email
* Decrease in call setup failures and dropped calls

* Enhancements to Mail
o Resolved isolated issues with scheduled fetching of email
o Improved formatting of wide HTML email
* Podcasts are now available for download in iTunes application
* Improved stability and performance of Safari
* Improved sound quality of Visual Voicemail messages
* Pressing Home button from any Home screen displays the first Home screen
* Preference to turn on/off auto-correction in Keyboard Setting

I've also heard that the iPod Touch 2G speaker volume has been increased a little, you can now record audio through the headphone jack, and safari's layout has been tweaked.
Go ahead and upgrade through iTunes.

Windows Live Mesh and Logmein NOW WORKING!!!

After hours of struggling trying to get windows live mesh and logmein working on my mac I have finally figured it out! I was browsing the web looking for kexts, and constantly asking the friendly (but not very talkative) users on irc.osx86.hu for the whereabouts of a solution to this problem when suddenly I found it.
On netkas.org I found the solution (or at least explanation) for my problem. I needed to use the correct version of applesmbios to enable logmein and mesh. I needed a different version for when I installed silverlight, but then I needed another new one.
After googling around for the correct kexts i finally found McKill.ca. It had links to many ToH kexts which I promptly downloaded and searched through to find AppleSMBIOS.kext. When I found it I immediately installed it using kext helper and rebooted.
Voila, it worked... upon boot logmein's logo loaded for the first time and windows live mesh asked me for my username and password. Every thing worked fine!

Download the kext I used either from the original site or from uploading.com respectively.
Original Zip Archive (you only need applesmbios.kext inside)
or
Uploading.com

My New Laptop!

I am extremely excited because I just ordered my new laptop! I didnt exactly have enough money, but I ordered it anyway... I'll cross that bride when it smacks me in the face later.
Anyway, my new laptop is a Sony Vaio NS130. It has 3GB Ram, a 160GB HDD, Pentium Dual-Core CPU at 2.0 GHz, a 1.3mp Webcam, wireless n, and a DVD-DL burner.
Here are some pictures:





I'm going to be doing a lot of new stuff to my laptop including setting up my multi-system, platform syncing (non-cloud) live mesh environment once windows seven is installed. I'll go through how-tos and what-to-dos with new laptops once I unpackage it, and requests for videos or how-tos on programs that I use, or even ones that I don't, will gladly be accepted.

Re-Post: Techspot Map

Figured I would re-post the map of users on the blog that I posted back in late september. It has changed a lot since then!

Microsoft: Reflection on The Redmond Company

So, after watching Microsoft unveil all this new stuff at PDC 2008, and with all the hype about Microsoft right now, I figured I'd jot down my thoughts about them.
So far, I have been extremely impressed by how much Microsoft has improved everything that they do as a company - over the past year. I watched them first unveil windows live messenger beta 9 quite a while back, and I thought that it was really cool, but then later I saw them release the Tech Preview of Windows Live Mesh; I was blown away. I immediately began to use the preview of mesh, even though I only owned a single computer with one operating system at the time. It helped me to get files off my computer from school, and backup my important files online. Little did I know that this would turn out to be just a small achievement of the Redmond company.
Recently, Microsoft's two largest and best releases have been Windows Seven Build 6801 and the Windows Live Services. I am shocked by how improved wave 3 was compared to wave 2 (of windows live) and the azure site impressed me even more. Silverlight has really helped make all of Microsofts website look stellar and I'm sure it will push them back into the average home user's life.
On the topic of Windows Seven, I want to say just how much I love this operating system. I love how it has fixed every single bug I ever had on vista, I love its new countless features like the new calculator, paint, wordpad, superbar, aero peek, aero shake, jumplists, ie8, windows media player 12, system tray, network discovery, and... well, you get the point.
This operating system (in its full version), especially when integrated with windows live wave 3 (in its full version) will definitely make Microsoft a dominant company that controls the market, just like it did in the XP years, and like apple does now. Thankfully microsoft PCs are much less expensive then Apple computers!
I can't wait to buy windows seven when it comes out, and I also can't wait to try it on my new laptop... I mean; that's another story.

Introducing the Mircrosoft Store

Welcome the new Microsoft Store!

Microsoft seems to have learned that people judge a lot about a company based on their website (maybe they learned this from apple, who knows?) so apparently they decided to make their own online store. Go to MicrosoftStore.com to check it out, its really cool, regardless of whether you're in the mood to buy something or not.

Microsoft Mesh Pack

So, apparently,
"Microsoft has finally developed some real live Live Mesh apps that put the system to use. The four apps—called the MeshPack—include a collaborative crossword app, a digital bulletin board, a list sharing tool, and a collaborative group-polling tool. Unfortunately you need a PDC code to actually download any of them" -Lifehacker
When I read this I began to think...
I visited the website Microsoft Mesh Pack as directed, where they ask you for a PDC code. I didnt believe I had one of these, so I began trying things that might make sense, like "live mesh" and "windows" and such. Then I realized something... It was mentioned to me before that we could use our windows vista beta codes to install windows 7, and so I decided to try using that code on this website... maybe that was the PDC code microsoft spoke of?
In short, it kinda worked. I gained full access to the Dev Center for windows live mesh and windows azure, but I couldnt seem to find links to download the 4 new applications anywhere.
I took a lot of screenshots of my endevour, please feel free to look at them; I'm sorry that they arent in order.

Add extra features to Windows Seven Build 6801

Withinwindows.com:

Last week, I revealed a weird protection scheme around some unfinished features in Windows 7 (build 6801). I provided a buggy tool to enable the new Taskbar, then teased everyone with other features such as gestures, panning, and Desktop Slideshow. It wasn’t intentional, I just needed some time to rework the unlocking tool, which went faster thanks to some code snippets from my Vize friend surrounding the headaches of TrustedInstaller and PendingFileRenameOperations.

As the dialog indicates, patched files are not backed up. I suggest all users back up, by copying into a temporary folder somewhere, the following files:

\Windows\Explorer.exe
\Windows\System32\wisptis.exe
\Windows\System32\ieframe.dll
\Windows\System32\shell32.dll
\Windows\System32\stobject.dll
\Windows\System32\TabletPC.cpl
\Windows\System32\themecpl.dll
\Windows\System32\themeui.dll
\Windows\System32\powercfg.cpl
Understanding the risks involved in patching core system files, you may download a copy of the tool for x86 or x64 (available tomorrow). Please keep in mind this tool is not affiliated, sponsored, supported by, written by, or endorsed by Microsoft Corporation.

This tool is absolutely amazing and what it enables is well worth it. The only problem is file backups. I created a batch file to backup your files, download it here and run it before you install the bluebadge file from here

Windows Live Mesh for Mac

So, it seems that Windows Live Mesh Expanded to include Mac OS X 10.5.1 (or above) today.

Or, maybe they are just preparing by putting it in the dropbox??? I am going to switch over to my mac install from Vienna and I’ll keep you informed.

Mac version was released, beta version. Installation did not work on my hackintosh. This will be the end of my posting about mac live mesh until I can get it working on my mac.

Windows Seven: Compatibility

After installing windows seven I had some compatibility issues with a lot of programs; I decided to post all of the programs that I've found to be compatible or incompatible with Windows Seven on here.

EDIT: It seems like all the major problems I had have been fixed... shown below in the lists

Compatible:

Live Mesh:
Download this rar file and run the reg file that's inside. Then install Mesh normally.
Did not work for me on ie8, but installed fine off of google chrome. Had to download the file 3 times though.

Windows Live Betas:
Download from Download.live.com
Install normally
after errors come up saying install failed, just click try again.
Do above steps 3-4 times
Install successful!

Microsoft Office 2007

Google Chrome

WinRAR

iTunes 8

Incompatible:
None so far

Windows Seven: First Impressions

Ok, so, if you have been following my blog lately you probably know that I have been switching operating systems pretty frequently as of late, and that I now have XP, Vista, Leopard (10.5.1) and Seven at my disposal. If you havent been reading, then I'll catch you up. I have recently installed leopard on my machine and converted my old vista installation to a virtual machine. The vista VM was very slow, so I decided that I needed a new operating system of some sort. I downloaded and installed windows seven build 6801 in VMware and it worked great so I decided to use it as a main operating system in my bootloader.
Now I have come down to a final solution. The following will be my installation plan for the next few months. I have decided to partition my 140GB HDD into 2 partitions. The partition scheme is as follows:
I will install Windows on Partition 1 using 60 GB and Leopard on Partition 2 using the remaining 80 GB. I will store my pictures and media files on my External HDD so they may be shared on both operating systems.
My windows partition will house my copy of windows seven milestone 3, and I will upgrade it when the official windows seven beta is released in december, and then to the final version of windows seven in late '09.
My mac partition will house mac osx leopard. It will include XP, Vista, and 98se in virtual machines. These will mainly be used for testing and helping people with computer problems.
I will be running windows live mesh to synchronize my documents folders between my two main operating systems, and I am using plaxo to sync contacts and calendars. iTunes and iPhoto will sync with my external HDD which will in turn sync with windows seven's pictures and media libraries. I'll be using address book and ical in mac (not entourage), and I'll use windows calendar and windows contacts in vienna (I like to refer to Windows Seven by its code name).

I also have some pictures of my windows seven virtual machine installation for you to look at while I go copy my Vista virtual machine's files over to my external HDD. They are not of any special new features or anything, just of the installation mostly.
Here you go:






Here is a video of the new glow of the vienna start button.

Original Video- More videos on Youtube

I'll post new images (below) of windows seven features as I see them:

Election 2008

I thought it might be a good idea to post a msn video of live coverage on the debate for all of you who are following it (which should be anyone from America).
Enjoy!

Mac and PC can live together: Days 4, 5, and 6

Well, after a lot of work, too much if you ask me, I finally got everything working. Vista operates just fine, and everything is peachy.... well... kinda. I mean, it's very slow. I have to wait forever for it to load and operate correctly; it's quite a burden. I've decided to go back to a normal dual boot setup, but as you probably read in my previous post, it will no longer be with leopard and vista; I will have a shiny new Vienna and Leopard installation!
I look forward to getting Windows Se7en installed on my computer, even though it means that I'll have to re-install leopard. Thank goodness I bought that external HDD, I have a lot of backing up to do (don'cha know?). Hopefully everything will be back to normal operational status by the weekend, but I'll go with next week Wednesday at the latest.
On a side note, I'm really starting to like Minefield, but that's a topic for another day.

Windows Se7en Milestone 3

I recently downloaded windows seven (herein known as windows Se7en or Vienna) from a popular torrent site. The build is 6801. I installed it on a virtual machine on my new hackintosh and it works marvelously. I have never seen such an absolutely amazing operating system. The install was flawless, activation was flawless, and the desktop window management worked wonders! I used a patch posted on withinwindows.com to enable to new taskbar from build 6933 and it made the operating system even more stunning. I will have videos to post later, and many pictures of my experiences, but before those are all posted I would like to mention that this operating system will definitely constitute switching back to windows. I still love mac, but I think I'm going to have to go back to a legit dual boot, but this time with mac and vienna.
I'll be taking the video tonight and it'll be posted on youtube before the weekend.