Thu, 27 Mar 2008 05:51:01 -0700 http://www.tech-rant.com/ PostNuke Powered Site en-us http://www.tech-rant.com/images/logo.gif http://www.tech-rant.com/ admin@tech-rant.com Sorry for the inactivity around here, I am committed to a challenge on my other site 406 Not Acceptable to post a new article every day this month. Now, as you can guess the busiest month in Tech Rant's history only has 13 updates (or is it 18?) So, this is taking up more of my time than I thought it would have. Silly me, I really should have thought it out more; perhaps only doing the challenge for a week. Site Related http://www.tech-rant.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=116 http://www.tech-rant.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=116 Thu, 27 Mar 2008 05:51:01 -0700 There's a rather misleading article on TGDaily about Apple's growth in hardware sales. Now I do not usually 'bash' a company, or stick blindly to them either, as I use Windows XP and Ubuntu at home, but I do not like the misrepresentation of facts. Rants http://www.tech-rant.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=115 http://www.tech-rant.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=115 Thu, 06 Mar 2008 10:05:00 -0800 Freeme2 is a freeware open source piece of software that removes Digital Rights Management (DRM) protection from Windows Media WMA audio files and WMV video files. This program is a little harder to use than FairUse4WM, but it's always nice to have an alternative in case FairUse4WM does not work. DRM http://www.tech-rant.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=114 http://www.tech-rant.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=114 Tue, 04 Mar 2008 10:15:00 -0800 FairUse4WM v1.3 fix 2 (or FairUseWM) downloads still drive traffic to this site, plus there is a fix for Vista. I have found some more working mirrors for you to download FairUse4WM, plus the Vista version, from. After all most of the old ones are dead now. I believe the program has problems with the latest DRM protection and has not been updated from version (v1.3 fix 2.) There does not seem to be any activity that would indicate a v1.4 coming out. Especially now Vista and Media Player 11 are supported. Download mirrors are at the bottom of this post. DRM http://www.tech-rant.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=113 http://www.tech-rant.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=113 Fri, 29 Feb 2008 16:49:18 -0800 Whenever I turn my browser to DailyTech I never expect to find comical news, but today I did! Stock market site has reported that the usage of Apple products in general leads to a "Snob Effect" whereby users will consume more middleclass products. http://www.tech-rant.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=112 http://www.tech-rant.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=112 Mon, 18 Feb 2008 11:17:28 -0800 All downloads may go down for around an hour following this post. This will be due to remapping of the downloads database (or, in case your name is John Barden: Dartabase.) I have made the decision to place the downloads on a sub-domain, which will have bandwidth throttling rules. As it stands the whole site is subject to a very lenient rule-set for throttling at around 100GB. Site Related http://www.tech-rant.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=111 http://www.tech-rant.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=111 Wed, 13 Feb 2008 06:45:33 -0800 I've handily made use of my 'masses of bandwidth' by uploading eeeXubuntu versions 1 and 3 to the site. I've also uploaded xp3esd, which you may find handy for installing Windows XP on any removable drive. Site Related http://www.tech-rant.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=110 http://www.tech-rant.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=110 Tue, 12 Feb 2008 14:39:01 -0800 Another day, another nice gadget. Now I thought my ASUS EEE PC was handy, and by god it is. Having the freedom to Program, type, or just plain old messing around on the move is great. Yet, now I have another wonderful device, which completes the picture. Other Hardware http://www.tech-rant.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=109 http://www.tech-rant.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=109 Thu, 17 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0800 Yesterday I found my eBay account was hacked, well done to the perpetrator, sadly he (or even she) did not manage to mess anything up. They tried to sell a couple of DVDs, but I managed to cancel them before any bids were made. So naturally, I thought I better sort out my accounts security. Rants http://www.tech-rant.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=108 http://www.tech-rant.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=108 Wed, 16 Jan 2008 08:07:04 -0800 I found a very handy way for users to import their Postnuke, PHP-Nuke, or Joomla site/blog to a Wordpress blog (hosted on Wordpress.com) without any custom scripts. This method will keep all the sites categories (in fact it will update the Wordpress blog's categories to use the same names as the originating site.) Guides http://www.tech-rant.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=107 http://www.tech-rant.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=107 Fri, 28 Dec 2007 17:47:10 -0800 On behalf of Tech-Rant.com, have a merry Christmas! Site Related http://www.tech-rant.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=106 http://www.tech-rant.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=106 Tue, 25 Dec 2007 00:00:00 -0800 On the last day of November I recieved a truely wonderful parcel, within its cheap cardboard packing lay a marvelous peice of computing history: the ASUS eee notebooky thingy. As you can tell by the time differential between the publishing of this article, either: I have been busy with coursework; the eee has stolen my soul; or someone has sneekily made good use of a 'publish story later' feature in their CMS. Other Hardware http://www.tech-rant.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=105 http://www.tech-rant.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=105 Thu, 13 Dec 2007 11:20:00 -0800 When this site was first set up I allowed for unregistered users to comment on the site, and well you can guess what happened next... if you haven't got it by now, then I can spoil it for you: SPAM! I then decided to counter this with only allowing registered posts and the spam died down alongside actual comments. User activity is a problem that all sites have to deal with, as the administrator is faced with a problem: enable unregistered comments or posts and face a spam problem that makes global warming look like a minor inconvenience? Or just get no activity at all, because no one wants to register for anything. Rants http://www.tech-rant.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=104 http://www.tech-rant.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=104 Sat, 08 Dec 2007 18:17:45 -0800 Sorry, I've had too much on my plate to update the site this month. With University, real life, modding, work, etc. I doubt this will change next month either... Site Related http://www.tech-rant.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=103 http://www.tech-rant.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=103 Fri, 30 Nov 2007 02:16:10 -0800 Some people are just deluded I guess; whilst you will not find me giving Vista glowing praise, I just can not believe the rubbish other blogs and sites are coming out with. Take thisNews Blog post, on CNET. Rants http://www.tech-rant.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=102 http://www.tech-rant.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=102 Sat, 13 Oct 2007 15:32:46 -0700 No this site is not dead! This is my attempt to make sure Tech Rant never sees another month with no updates! The number of articles have dried up for a number of reasons -- the main one being that I have returned to university for more punishment. Site Related http://www.tech-rant.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=101 http://www.tech-rant.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=101 Fri, 12 Oct 2007 17:22:26 -0700 The ATi Radeon HD 2600xt graphics card has taken quite some stick from the hardware sites when being reviewed by them. What is quite shocking is that there has been no 'true midrange' graphics card released by either nVidia or ATi. There has been no card that packs the punch that, for example, the GeForce 6600GT did in its day. A card that came in at around the £100/$200 price point and gave gamers great performance for their cash. GPU http://www.tech-rant.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=100 http://www.tech-rant.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=100 Thu, 27 Sep 2007 13:13:39 -0700 There are a lot of sites on the internet about Tescopoly or generally are anti-Tesco or attack supermarkets in general. Now I personally do believe that a balance needs to be made and that local governments need to ask the populous on these issues, but some of these sites push people with a one sided story. One that, perhaps, intends makes people against the building of supermarkets in general. In addition, I believe some of these sites are incorrect, as they do not show the full story due to the vested interests of their supporters. Now, I feel some counter arguments need to set down. Rants http://www.tech-rant.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=99 http://www.tech-rant.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=99 Fri, 14 Sep 2007 09:12:10 -0700 I am currently stuck in limbo between accomodation. Thanks to problems with the my new accomodation, I might not move in till next week. The place I am currently residing does not have internet access, so I can't update the site even if I wanted to. Site Related http://www.tech-rant.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=98 http://www.tech-rant.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=98 Sat, 08 Sep 2007 15:07:52 -0700 We all know that a large portion of users are waiting for Microsoft to release Service Pack 1 (SP1) for Vista before they migrate to the operating system. This is an idea based on the success of Windows XP's SP1, which made XP a very stable operating system. So Microsoft must be rather smug with the Service Pack's progress. For those of you who are interested leeked versions of both Service Packs can be found, and I have provided links to sites with information at the bottom of this article. Tools http://www.tech-rant.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=97 http://www.tech-rant.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=97 Fri, 10 Aug 2007 12:18:34 -0700 Bah! This is a really annoying occurrence! Trust the mail service to go on strike just when you have a bunch of important letters to send and happen to have a few parcels on their way. Rants http://www.tech-rant.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=95 http://www.tech-rant.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=95 Thu, 02 Aug 2007 07:05:00 -0700 Tech Power Up! are reporting some interesting rumours for the specifications for nVidia's next graphics card -- the G92, or what would be more commonly known as the Geforce 9800GTX. GPU http://www.tech-rant.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=94 http://www.tech-rant.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=94 Wed, 01 Aug 2007 06:28:39 -0700 The html tag rel=”nofollow” is the subject to todays little rant. This has to be one of the most pointless aspects of HTML and something all search engines should ignore. The rel=”nofollow” HTML tag basically tells a search engine bot to ignore the link, so apart from a small about of traffic the link is pointless. Rants http://www.tech-rant.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=93 http://www.tech-rant.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=93 Wed, 25 Jul 2007 11:15:30 -0700 Well done to the site! Somehow this site has managed to reach its first birthday, which is an achievement for me! In one year, Tech Rant has received over 70,000 hits, I used to be happy when my old site gathered a thousand hits! Random http://www.tech-rant.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=92 http://www.tech-rant.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=92 Tue, 24 Jul 2007 00:00:00 -0700 If you’re using the built-in firewall that comes with Windows XP, you might want to consider using a different one. Windows XP’s built-in firewall is not bad but it doesn’t have configurable outbound protection. Comodo Firewall Pro is a good alternative to the one that comes with XP. It’s also free. Tools http://www.tech-rant.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=91 http://www.tech-rant.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=91 Mon, 23 Jul 2007 15:11:30 -0700