TechPenny - Essential Software

Tax day is April 15 and if you are still procrastinating on doing your software, here is some free tax software to help you along. Taxact offers both a free online and download version that helps you do basic taxes. Their software does not include the tips associated with Turbotax or Taxcut, so they keep telling you to update to their paid deluxe version. I recommend it for simple tax returns.

For state taxes I recommend you check with your state’s tax site to see if they offer a free online file. I found one for my state, it was easy, now all I have to do is sit back and wait for my checks to come in. Now what to do with my tax refunds…

The Buffalo Linkstation Pro Duo is a $200 1TB NAS that supports RAID 0 and RAID 1. It runs Linux and comes installed with Twonkymedia (DLNA media server), mt-daapd (iTunes media server), and RAID backup server.

I had grander plans for it; to run it as a 24-7 NAS, Media Server, and torrent client. There’s actually a very active community around NAS support since they mostly run Linux. Remember to BACKUP and try at your own risk!

1. Get shell(telnet) access to NAS with acp commander
   Link
2. Install Ipkg on the Linkstation
   Link
3. Install all neccessary packages (Transmission did not work for me)
   />ipkg install rtorrent
4. Get a RSS feed reader
   Link
   More Info
5. Thats it, pretty simple most of the work was finding/sorting the information. Enjoy!

• I been waiting for this Add-on to Firefox for a while, Scrapbook. The name doesn’t do it justice, if you ever wanted to save and organize web pages for later viewing offline then this tool is for you.

  
  

• Macs have Expose and Spaces and now Windows has Virtual Desktop Manager. Its pretty slick, perfect for separating work and great for when you are running a virtual machine on another desktop. It works on both Vista and XP.

  

Now go out and be productive!

Drum roll, …

1. PS3/Xbox 360
2. Gameboy/DS
3. Games(Dead Space, Left 4 Dead, Gears of War 2, Resistance 2, Spore, Little Big Planet
4. GPS
5. HDTV
6. Blu-ray player
7. Iphone/Gphone
8. Treasury Bond/CD
9. Subscription to Finance magazine
10. Cash $$$

Why do you have to pay for a text message when someone messages you ?!?!
Why does a single text message cost exponentially more than a phone call ?!?!
Why are the phone companies ripping us all off ?!?!

Recently, Playstation 3 has gotten more hype with the release of the much anticipated Metal Gear Solid 4. I finally succumbed and bought a 40GB PS3. I realized the 80GB PS3 was coming out with MGS4, new controller, backwards compatibility, and more USB/SD ports. The new features was certainly enticing, but unnecessary for my case; I have an existing PS2, rumble was never a big deal, and what the heck am I going to do with more ports and 40GB.

The PS3 arrived nicely packaged and very shiny as advertised. I plugged it into my existing network and updated to the latest firmware, which took about 30 minutes. The wireless controller charges directly through USB so there is no need to worry about batteries. Setting it up to run as a media server was a little more painful. I’m running Vista and I thought there was a way to share folders easily, but apparently you can only do it through Windows Media Player, you have to add folders to the Library and enable Media Sharing. In addition, you may have to change some network firewalls settings to allow streaming. Once set up it was beautiful to behold the upconverted videos whether avi, mpg4, or wmvs. I do wish the user interface was better, there is no way to play a folder, you have to rely on a playlist, and there is no slider to advance the media.

The PS3 also integrates to your PSP, this allows you to stream media and games directly to your PSP anywhere, even over the internet. This is certainly a cool feature and nice for the lazy. The web browser on the PS3 is functional though its certainly not a very fun time.

I’m currently playing Resistance: The Fall of Man, its not bad for a FPS, but I still prefer Gears of War and Call of Duty 4. The games are still a huge rip off at $60 a pop. I’m sure I’ll eventually get MSG4 even though I haven’t felt the draw as much as the original. Overall, the PS3 feels shinier than the Xbox360, but not always as user friendly.

Firefox 2 has been a good browser, the only complaints are the memory management issues. Firefox 3 fixes those issues and adds some new features. Tagging is now available for bookmarks, though I haven’t found a use for it yet. There are the additional security feature updates and there are claims that the new toolbar is awesome, but I haven’t seen it yet. I don’t think its any smarter than the old one. Overall, there isn’t any significant impact to my web surfing. Firefox 3 has more features to better organize and search data. However, I still can’t live without my Tab Mix, Download Statusbar, Colorful Tabs, NoScript, ScribeFire, and Speed Dial extensions.

Vista SP1 is officially out. I’m finally getting around to installing it because lets face it, Microsoft has a poor track record with releases. First off, its not a quick install, it does warn you up front that it may take up to an hour to install, and boy was it right, it took close to a hour to install. SP1 installed itself successfully without any problems which is good and even better everything ran fine. I do notice there are no longer any consent dialogs for file operations which speeds it up. Other than that, disappointingly there are no other obvious signs of SP1. I am sure it addressed many security updates and fixes, but I am not blown away. Still, I recommend you install the latest SP1. It can only help for the most part and only hurts a little.

I know Assassin’s Creed has been out for a while, but I have been busy playing Crysis and Gears of War. I wasn’t sure what to expect going in since it suffers from mixed reviews. On one hand you hear the Game of the Year, on another you hear the only ifs. Starting with the graphics, its stunning, on par with Crysis, which may be a bad sign. The world is very free flowing ala GTA, you can run everywhere. However, at its heart its a stealth game, you don’t want to attract attention. It hampers you from going all out and having fun, you are restricted to walking slow and being docile. I agree with some reviews the controls are not easy to handle and require some fine tuning. Its understandable with the free range of motion, but it sucks a lot when you fall off the roof and get stabbed just because the controls didn’t respond. I admit I am only in the beginning stages, yet it hasn’t captivated me. The plot is hazy, wtf am i supposed to be doing? I see potential and will stick it out even though I’m not clamoring for more. Oh if only…

Vista makes ripping DVDs a little more troublesome since most of my old tools are not supported. I recommend two software, DVDFab HD Decrypter and Handbrake. DVDFab will rip and decode DVDs on to your hard drive and assorted options. The best part is there is a free version, though functionality is limited. Afterwards, I use Handbrake, I find its the easiest tool to use to encode your files into different formats. So there you have it, 2 tools to backup your DVDs.