HardwareDaily

After a long delay because of heart problems (a new pacemaker has put me back to abnormal!) I'm now working on a relaunch, focussing especially on audio and video editing.
Please contact me if you have any experiences worth sharing, preferred hardware or software etc.

Labels: audio, editing, karl dallas, relaunch, video

As computers become more and more susceptible to bugs, virus attacks and other threats, the publishers of SoftwareDaily and HardwareDaily have started a new blog, computerdisasters.blogspot.com.

We are at present working on a solution for the hundreds of users who have been affected by problems arising from attempting to install the Internet Explorer 7 beta.This often removes functionality from a wide range of programs, which are looking for two new DLLs that the IE7 install should have placed in the Windows/system 32 directory.

We have found a source for these files and at the present stage of our quest for a solution we have found that downloading them remedies some (but not all) of the problems.We have provided Microsoft with details of these files and where they may be found, but they have refused to distribute this information, since IE7 is in beta and they do not provide technical support for beta products.

However, a check with Google reveals the unprecedented extent of the problems arising from this beta, and if Microsoft will not make solutions available, then we must remedy that omission. Hence this new blog.

Please let us know of any disasters you have suffered - and, hopefully, of any solutions you have found. You can post them as comments to postings on this blog, or send them by email to disasters@blueyonder.co.uk.

We regret that we cannot enter into correspondence about any such postings which will be published "as is", with no guarantee of their veracity.In this, as in all things regarding computers, extreme caution is recommended.

The UK Elonex computer company has won the 'Most Innovative Solution for Consumers' in UK & France award at the Intel Solutions Summit 2006 for its Lumina Windows Media Center Digital Home PC.

The Lumina incorporates HDTV, DVD, CD, wireless networking and Internet technology all integrated into one slim LCD panel.

The Lumina is available with 32in or 40in screen, and uses an Intel© Core™ Duo processor. Its OS supports 'Away Mode', which improves upon current PC power-management systems by enabling the system to silently perform unattended tasks, such as recording TV shows and streaming content to Media Center Extenders, while in a low-power mode that appears to be off.

It comes in an integrated case with built-in LCD screen, PC system unit and audio speakers. A tabletop foot stand included and it is wall mountable using a standard plasma wall-bracket.

Planon has released a colour version of its innovative Docupen, a portable scanner that can hold literally hundreds of monochrome A4 scans - though a review in PC Magazine complained that "At maximum resolution and color depth, built-in memory holds only two 8.5- by 11-inch scans."
Selling at $299, compared with $100 less for a monochrome-only version (or just $99.99 for a "recertified" Docupen BW), the DocuPen scans full-page width and can therefore scan an entire page including text and graphics in just four seconds.
This is far better than other handheld scanners which scan only single lines of text and cannot scan graphics.
The Docupen has black and white, standard color or high 24bit colour modes and resolutions from 100 to 400 dpi. Bundled with it is the Paperport software which will convert scanned documents into editable text and assemble them into a searchable database. Also bundled is the ABBYY FineReader OCR and PDF conversion software.
For info on the Docupen, go to http://http://planon.com/, on Paperport, http://www.nuance.com/paperport/, and Abby, http://www.abbyy.com/finereader8/?param=44890&gclid=CKSQspm1voQCFQG7PgodenKRNg.

DVD Forum finalises HD DVD-RW disc spec | The Register

By Tony Smith
Published Thursday 30th September 2004 09:40 GMT
"The DVD Forum moved a step further toward the advent of HD DVD media and drives with the approval of key physical specifications at a meeting of the organisations steering committee last week.

"Meeting in Taiwan on 22 September, the Forum formally approved version 1.0 of the rewriteable HD DVD physical disc specification, a move that allows vendors to prepare the way for mass production of HD DVD-RW discs and drives. The spec. covers a 20GB single-layer blue-laser disc.
"However, it's facing strong opposition from the Sony-led Blu-ray camp, which is touting an alternative blue-laser, high-capacity disc format for similar applications. In particular, Sony has said it will incorporate Blu-ray drives into its upcoming PlayStation 3 console, which is expected to offer broader digital entertainment features that games, taking on such roles as personal video recorder."

The New Standard in Prosumer Cameras
By Daniel Grotta and Sally Wiener Grotta
December 26, 2003

Product: Olympus E-1
Street price: E-1 body, $1,800; 50mm f2 macro lens, $500; Olympus Studio software, $149
Requires: USB 1.1 or 2.0 or FireWire port; Windows XP
Company Info: Olympus America Inc., www.olympusamerica.com

Olympus E-1 review by PC Magazine:

A survey of 860 amateur and professional digital photographers across Europe, commissioned by French CD manufacturer and distributor Hi-Space, has found that CDs are the most popular archiving media for digital photos amongst consumers. Only 11 per cent of photos are printed to hardcopy.

Consumers cite the low percentage of printed photos as due to the cost of the photo paper and inks, and the perceived low shelf-life of digital prints. Twenty-three per cent of those interviewed believed that digital prints would 'age badly' within a decade.

"This is both good and bad news for the CD industry," comments Paul Chantry, UK sales manager for Hi-Space. "For the past two decades CD producers have done such a good job of persuading the public that CDs were indestructible, ever-lasting and perfect quality, that we're now having to live up to those claims. And not all CDs are. We don't want the public to be disappointed.

"Consumers need to be aware that CDs are manufactured to many different quality levels. There's a misconception that one CD-R is much like any other but the current influx of low-cost disks is in danger of damaging the reputation of the CD-R over the next few years as people learn about the quality difference the hard way.

"If you're really serious about the data you want to save to disk, particularly with digital photos, then you need to go one step further."

Emphasising this point, Hi-Space has recently launched a range of recordable optical disks for audio, video and multimedia applications.

This range includes a high quality Gold CD, which will save data securely for up to one hundred years (ideal for storing family photos), and a black vinyl-look CD-R, designed for traditionalists who want to store their favourite music on CD but still retain the look of vinyl. The funky design also incorporates a special layer of protection from UV light, which is one of the biggest causes of loss of data in CD-Rs.

Hi-Space say CD-Rs made of 24 carat gold are not just a gimmick or aesthetic exercise. The metal in the CDR is genuine 24 carat gold and is far harder-wearing than the silver normally used - so data is much more secure. The price difference is minimal, they say. "I can't understand why for the sake of a few pence per disk someone would risk storing their data on an inferior disk," says Chantry.

Hi-Space CDs are available from most branches of PC World, Currys and Richer Sounds.

For further details of the consumer survey, contact Influencer50 on +44(0)1628 779993.

About Hi-SPACE and MPO Media
MPO Media was founded in 1996 and is part of the MPO group. MPO Media develops, manufactures and markets recordable storage media for audio and data files used in audio, video and multimedia applications (CD-R, CD-R Audio, CD-RW, MD, DVD-R) under the name Hi-SPACE. MPO Media has a monthly production capacity of approx 7 million CD-Rs and DVD-Rs.

The MPO group (Moulages Plastiques de l'Ouest) has a presence on three continents with eight factories and five service and distribution centres.

It currently employs over 1,300 staff around the globe, some 1,000 of which work in Europe. MPO was the first company to manufacture vinyl records (1957) and audiocassettes in France, and in 1984 was the first company in the world to be granted a CD manufacturing license by Philips. For further information visit http://www.hi-space.com

"Metronomy is a revolutionary new concept which provides a FREE IBM HOME PC in exchange for your commitment to watch up to 3 minutes of advertising per hour of use."
FULL DETAILS:

By Tony Smith
Posted: 15/12/2003 at 14:36 GMT
"Japanese electronics giant Sanyo has developed a truly silent mobile phone. Instead of a loudspeaker, the handset, the TS41, uses the user's own skull to transmit the incoming call. "
FULL REPORT