General
Playing VOB DVD Files on a Windows 7 laptop.
Nov 15th
We had some issues today playing VOB files on some instances of Windows Media Player. As an alternative check out VLC media player available here. Then you will be able to simply play the VOB files like they were anything else! Enjoy.
HP Mini 100e Kids Mini Laptop review.
Oct 19th
We had the pleasure of reviewing the HP Mini 100e which is a classroom laptop. It reminds me of the one laptop per child plan a few years back and actually comes close to their price point at around $300. there were a few features that this machine had that I really liked. I should start off by saying I could not get this mini laptop away from my 3 year old daughter. She absolutely loved it’s handle. She carried around the house for a week!
Comfortably access your 4GB Sony laptop in dark places using ultra laptop light.
The machine comes with a spill resistant keyboard, durable design meant to withstand daily use by young students and beginner PC users, a network activity light on the reverse side of the lid when the machine is online, integrated camera, integrated modem. With a 3 cell battery the machine sees about 3-4 1/2 hours of use and with a 6-cell battery the machine can get any where up to 8 1/2 hours of use. Both models are under $300!
Organizations can have the machines branded and other options. Currently they are only available for bulk purchases from educational institutions but we will see what happens in the future. Personally I like these machines better for younger students than iPad type devices because they teach them how to use a keyboard and mouse.
The only thing I would do differently with the production of this machine would be to include a touch screen option for transitioning small children from touching the screen to using the mouse. This would make the machine a bit more expensive and missing the $300 mark so I doubt we will ever see it here!
All in all I am very impressed and realize the need to teach the children about computers and technology young!
HP Elitebook 2540p Review
Sep 3rd
I wanted to start off by saying thanks to HP for sending over the Elitebook 2540p for review. This is their smallest business class notebook. You can opt for a few different processor options including the i5 and the i7. My system came equipped with the i5, a 12.1 inch LED backlit display, 2gb of memory and a 250gb hard drive.
Right off the bat you can see its ultra modern and sleek design. The system is not made out of cheap plastic but a metallic alloy that is very attractive and strong. They throw in all sorts of hard drive anti shock protection, a spill resistant keyboard in addition to its light weight and cool design.
Did I mention that it meats military standards (MIL-STD 810G2)? That means it can withstand dust, vibration, humidity, altitude and extreme temperatures.
I enjoyed using it and my daughter enjoyed mashing away on the keyboard playing her online games. We put it through rigorous testing and we were pleasantly surprised.
When the computer is off you can get on the Internet in a few seconds using HP Quick Web and you can even get to your calendar, contacts and email without booting the system up using HP QuickLook3. Have access to your information in seconds!
In addition to all this techno goodness the device’s battery life seriously rocks and I saw about 6 hours of hard use out of the slightly extended battery. Without using Wi-Fi the machine lasted almost 10 hours for me.
My system weighed in at about 3.3 pounds and was a pleasure to carry. This was a huge improvement from my 5 pound tablet! I might just be in the market for a new machine and this might be the winner! Stay tuned for more information and you can purchase the device for less than $1100 on Amazon here.
As computers are becoming cheaper to manufacture some companies are choosing to reduce the quality of their machines. HP on the other hand continues to innovate and impress me. In three short years I have done a complete 360 and have moved away from Dell entirely. I now only purchase HP desktops and laptops.
Great job HP! Dell can certainly learn a thing or two from you and your customer service department!
Do you have a favorite new computer that you want to share with us? We would love to hear from you. So please share with us in the comments!
Using PushVNC for easy network remote control.
Aug 5th
I absolutely hate walking over to an end users desk only to realize they did not click on a button or left a window opened. So being able to remotely view or remotely control their machines while they are able to see what I am doing is a big plus. A little free application has made my whole IT department lives a lot easier. I grabbed the PushVNC download from here via Cnet.
I extracted the files and ran saved them to a shared folder on the network. I then ran PushVNC.exe
Simply type in your target IP address, a username, and a password. You can leave everything else as is or you can select to leave the service installed or to set the service to automatic. You can also choose your color options. After that hit the push button and you will be connected to the workstation or server. When you disconnect the files and service will be removed unless you opted to leave them.
I use SingleClickVNC for my remote off network support – what do you use? We would love to hear from you in the comments!
Using Firefox 4 Portable with incompatible plug-ins made compatible!
Jul 8th
It looks like the beta version of Firefox 4 is out! You know we love to try out new software whenever possible and especially new releases of our favorite web browser! But if you are like me you also need to have a stable browser ready to do your bidding at the click of a button and if you install a beta version of Firefox chances are it will be bug ridden and probably not fully functional. Wow we sure wish there was a portable version of Firefox 4 beta…
Well you are in luck as we have a link to the portable version of Firefox 4 beta via Portable Apps. Follow this link to grab it. Here is a quick shot of the new browser with AskTheAdmin.com’s home page loaded up:
If you are interested in making your plug-ins Firefox 4 compatible check out this post from Life Rocks 2.0 and if you want to move that big feedback button off of your toolbar check out this tip from DownloadSquad:
- Click the Firefox button
- Go to Customize > Add-ons.
- Locate the Test Pilot add-on.
- Click Disable.
Voila, no more Feedback button!
Gmail updates its chat interface – smoother, cleaner chat window…
Jun 9th
Gmail's new chat window
Hey Boys and Girls,
Commodore 64 here to give a quick heads up about Gmail. Seems they’ve upgraded their chat window to look smoother and cleaner than ever. Hopefully it will be more compliant.
I’ve been using gmail for a while, and so has my wife. In her place of work, they haven’t gotten around to updating their browsers, so she is stuck using good old IE6, which doesnt offer many options along the lines of gmail chat. Most of the features are disabled, save for actually chatting.
My hope is that they’ve given her some more features to play with…
In the meantime, i just thought it interesting to point out this slight facelift on the good old Gmail chat box.
Oh and by the way, Gmail has added some animated emoticons as well, namely the rocker dude emoticon, which you can get by typing the following characters:
\m/ x-( \m/
-enjoy
Commodore 64 (the one you used to play Bruce Lee on),8,1
