Grupenet

As you may have noticed, I have finally finished the new Grupenet site design. There’s a few more little tweaks I need to make to it but it’s pretty much completely finished. Anyway, I hope you like the new look and definitely leave your comments concerning the new design. I love hearing from you guys.

Now I will get back to cranking out some more great posts now that I’m all done with the site design. Look forward to some new Mac OS X and Linux content as requested by a some readers.

Thanks for your attention!

I’ve noticed that I have been focusing a bit too much on topics involving only Windows lately and I’d like to ask you, the reader, what you’re most interested in, whether it be web apps, software reviews or anything else you see a category for in the sidebar. I will be getting a Macbook soon (whenever Leopard is released), so I will definitely be writing quite a few more more posts involving Mac OS X.

Go ahead and post a comment on either a topic you want me to write about more often or a specific post you’d like me to do.

I just thought I’d also throw this out. Ankesh is a good friend of mine and runs a great blog on tips & tricks for blogging. Go ahead and check it out here: http://blogclout.com/blog/

Also wanted to thank all of you who comment on my blog on a regular basis such as Robbie P and Ryan.

EDIT: Oh, and I thought I’d just let you know a new site design is in the works for Grupenet, which is one of the reasons I have been slacking off at posting this week.

1. Windows Update is to blame for this massive Skype outage. Many users rebooted PCs after installing Windows patches which caused a flood of login requests, prompting a chain reaction that had a critical impact.
2. Handbrake 0.9.0 is out. This is a major release and includes many changes such as new Mac and Windows interfaces as well as improved picture quality and speed.
3. A great comparison of WordPress 2.2 and MovableType 4 was done by Mashable. Not surprisingly, WordPress is still rated better than MovableType.

Portable applications can be run right from a USB drive such as a thumb drive or even an iPod. Unfortunately, not all applications can be run from a USB drive. Here’s a few great resources for portable applications. As far as I know, all the applications listed on these websites are freeware.

PortableApps

This website offers a great selection of software that has been optimized to run from a USB drive. This is probably the premier place to find portable applications. At this point in time, PortableApps has 40 applications listed on their website. Another great thing about PortableApps is that they have their own suite that you can download which includes a fancy “PortableApps Menu” which acts more or less like a start menu for all the programs on your drive.

The Portable Freeware Collection

This resource has a large amount of software available and has over 1,000 applications available currently. You can find a lot of software here that you may not have even heard about before. Portable Freeware Collection is a great place to find great little tools to put in your “tune-up kit” when you go over to help grandma with her computer.

Pen Drive Apps

This blog links to a bunch of great portable software that has been created by others. Not all the applications on Pen Drive Apps are freeware. Here you may be able to find a portable version of a program you have paid for, which can come in handy if the developer doesn’t offer a portable version. Personally, this is probably the last place I’d go for portable applications.

The first time I booted into Vista I was very disappointed by the boot screen. Luckily there’s a quick and easy way to enable a much more visually appealing boot screen in Vista called “Aurora” that is not enabled by default. Here’s what the Aurora boot screen looks like and a quick how-to on enabling it.

Firstly, open your start menu, type msconfig into the search box, and press enter. In the window that pops up, go to the “Boot” tab. Check the box next to No GUI boot and Make all boot settings permanent. If you do not check “Make all boot settings permanent”, Windows Defender will bother you each and every time you boot into Windows.

You’re done! Just restart your computer and you should see a much better-looking boot screen.