Thread: Links To Keep You Busy This Weekend- 11-20 Edition

Back just in time to hook you up with all the links you need to keep you busy this weekend.

Remember, you don't have to read them all, but you might want to

And don't forget around Tue. or Wed. to start fasting in preparation for Thursday.

Tech Hardware News

Radeon HD 5970 sold out in a day - No surprise there. Fastest card out, and in very short supply equals empty shelves. If this is the first you are hearing about the 5970, we have a thread here: ATI 5970 released and reviews

Asus Introduces Eee Box EB1501 With Ion, Windows 7 - This is looking very good. Now if it was just down to under $400, it would be close to perfect.

Cedar Trail 2011 Atom platform is 32nm

ASUS launches Atom-powered mini Windows Home Server -This is one of many Home Servers that have been mentioned in the last couple of weeks. Best news this one is really cheap. Great way to keep all your media and backups strait.

ASUS' fully fledged Maximus II Extreme takes P55 to a new level - Awesome motherboard, but probably going to cost a paycheck. It has a feature that lets you overclock over bluetooth. I don't have a clue what that means.

Hard Disk Drive Performance Comparison Guide Rev. 3.2 - If you are looking to get a new HD soon, and can't put it off a bit longer till SSD's are cheaper, hopefully this very detailed guide will help you pick one.

NVIDIA Pushes 3D Vision Outside the Gaming Box -News about 3d is all over the tech sites right now. Nvidia is really pushing it, as well as all the TV makers and even Sony is saying they will have a firmware update for the PS3. Engadget has this, playing some L4D :ASUS G51J 3D hands-on

Matrox Powers 8 Displays With A Single Card - Even if you could afford the card, could you afford the 8 monitors?

From Sand to Silicon - How processors are made (Animation) -Just in case you were wondering

Powerzoa Internet Connected Outlet Adapters - This is pretty cool. You could turn things off and on from anywhere. Plus you can monitor how much power your stuff is sucking up.




Tech Software/Web News

So the really big news this week was the news of the Google Chrome OS. Here are a few links to help you catch up on what you need to know.
Google's Chrome OS revealed -- with video!
Everything You Need To Know About Chrome OS
Google Chrome OS available as free VMWare download (update: first impressions)
Editorial: Chrome OS is what I want, but not what I need
How-to: run Chrome OS as a virtual machine


Both Nvidia and ATI posted new drivers:
Geforce 195.55 WHQL-candidate drivers released
ATI releases Catalyst 9.11 WHQL

Roundup: 15 Free Must-Install Programs for Your New PC - You will know most of these, but might introduce you to some new ones.

Tech Tip of the Week: Unearth Region-Specific Windows 7 Themes Just in case you have Win7 and want to tweak the look a bit.

CDRoller 8.61 Recovers Lost Files On Discs - Just in case you have some disks laying around that are buggered. Interesting thing is it also works on Flash Memory.

Five Best Online Backup Tools - We have talked about Mozy and Dropbox here in the forums, but here is a roundup where they look at the top five as chosen by readers of Lifehacker.com

Microsoft Office 2010 (Beta) - Polska also has a thread here: MS Office Professional Plus 2010 Beta Beta is good till next Oct.

Trillian Now Available for iPhone, iPod Touch - Trillian is one of the best ways to use a bunch of IM apps in one program. And now it's on the Iphone so you can be in touch on the go. Too bad it is $4.99

Microsoft reveals first Internet Explorer 9 details -IE looks to catch up on Firefox. But MS says they are just now starting work.

Web App of the Week: ScreenToaster - Super easy way to record a screen cast in case you want to show someone how how to do something on the computer. Thinking of using this as a way to people get their ARMA2 addons running right.

This Week's Best iPhone Apps Might find some new apps to play with.

Rumor: Sony to Port Firefox to the PS3 - This is really big news. I tried to use the one on the PS3 now, and it SUCKS. Hope the rumor turns out to be true.

Mozilla's Weave browser sync add-on for Firefox hits beta - I will be using this for sure when I move over to Win7 and when I do reinstalls. It's good to back up your FF anyway, as I have had it loose everything once before (settings and extensions.)

Vitamin D Turns Your Web Cam into a Security Camera and Free Professional Grade Webcam Security Software - Turns a cheap webcam into a great way to monitor your toys . We have talked about programs like this here in the forum before, and this looks like it is a better option then some others out there.

4 Sites to Watch Old & Classic Cartoon TV Shows Online I grew up loving WB and Tom&Jerry cartoons, and now I can watch them online. Sweet



How To and Guides

Clicker – The Complete Guide To Online TV & Movie Shows - We talked about this last week, and this is a new in depth article about it. Looks like it should fit in nicely next to Hulu and other sites.

Hard Disk Drive Performance Comparison Guide Rev. 3.2 - If you are looking to get a new HD soon, and can't put it off a bit longer till SSD's are cheaper, hopefully this very detailed guide will help you pick one.

Giz Explains: The Difference Between a $600 TV and a $6000 TV - Great guide from Gizmodo they explains the differences in TV models. I actually got my wife to read it!!! Now she can understand why I want to spend $3500 on a TV They also just posted A Guide To Choosing The HDTV That's Right For You

20 Essential Tips Every Ubuntu User Should Know - If you are thinking of trying Ubuntu, this is a great way to get up to speed quick. Don't forget the great guide on how to dual boot that was posted in last week's thread.

Create Desktop Icons With Simply Icon Somebody that has time should make some TG icons

Good karma: an in-depth review of Ubuntu 9.10 - Also on Ubuntu topic, another good article. Might help you decide to give a dual boot a go.

Build a Cheap But Powerful Boxee Media Center Great and detailed guide from Lifehacker.

How to Easily Protect & Encrypt Files with Conceal (Windows) - Just in case you have something to hide. You don't, do you?

Consumer Reports: When To Repair, When To Replace - Sometimes it can be hard to decide.

How To Quickly Fix A Phone or MP3 Player With Water Damage - It's bound to happen sometime. Might as well read this now so you'll be ready.

Technology Explained: Open Router Ports & Their Security Implications - Got to say I hate ports. But this guide helps explain them, so hopefully next time I have to fight with them will have a better understanding.

I came across a bunch of good photo and photoshop tutorials this week.
Here are a few good ones.

12 Ideas On How To Take Better Photographs

30 Artistic and Creative Photoshop Poster Tutorials

35 Incredible Digital Painting Tutorials

19 Tutorials for Creating Beautiful HDR (High Dynamic Range) Imagery

The Best Photoshop Tutorials of 2009

45 Explosively Colorful Photoshop Effects- Really awesome site.

40 Amazing Photo Manipulations

20 Amazing Images That Could Be HDR – But are definitely Not.

The Top 30 Photoshop Text Effects Tutorials of 2008



Random and Off-Topic,

Newspaper Tracks Down Anonymous Commenter, Gets Him Fired Just for Fun -Better topic for the Soapbox forum, but I kind of like the idea.

VIDEO: Ten minutes of rally crashes devoid of butt-rock soundtrack -Crazy video. Most times people mix the videos like this with music, but this one you get to listen to crash after crash after awesome crash.

80+ Creative Geek T-Shirts You Can Buy Online -You might want to ask for a few of these for Christmas.

Kongregate - One of the best places to find flash games. Should waste many hours of your time on this site alone.

Wallpaper Roundup: Turkey Time and Pumpkin Pie - In case you want to pimp your desktop in time for turkey day.

A few of the vids I enjoyed this week:

I'm not a MJ fan, but this remix blows me away for some reason.

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wM31lsU0Gpc[/media]

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBBcZjxd-bk[/media]

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96Y24a0cyCE[/media]

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipysHdHk0Mc[/media]


And finally, a few of the pics I spent time staring at: