- Classical Hands Free
I would love to try this out whilst driving in Thailand. Question is, would the BIB think it's a joke or not!
Most hands free kits you see these days come in sleek styling that will definitely enhance any work space in a professional manner. What happens if you're the type who always like to go against conventional wisdom? The Classical Hands Free fits the bill perfectly - this retro-looking device allows you to chat with your friends as though you were talking on a home phone, although I don't see where the hands free part comes in if it looks like a regular home phone receiver that I can hold up to my ear. Would be pretty awkward to see this lying on the table just like that though. Supported cell phone models include Sony Ericsson, Motorola, Samsung, Nokia and Panasonic. The Classical Hands Free will retail for $19. [via Coolest Gadgets]
- The PC Repair Toolkit in your Pocket: Boot CD on a USB Stick
Several times I've been called upon at a moment's notice to troubleshoot a misbehaving PC system either at work or at a friend's or relative's home. Being the "go to" guy for these sorts of problems is both a curse and a blessing, but I guess that is besides the point.
One tool that I have found to be valuable beyond compare is the Ultimate Boot CD (UBCD). This compilation of software has just about everything you need to diagnose hard to find low level problems, and also some other tools that every PC technician should have available.
It has been around for a long time, but I still know a lot of techs who don't know about it. Ultimate Boot CD includes memory checkers, CPU stress testers, system information tools, boot managers and tools for hard drives, partitions, password resets, and more. For a full list, check out the UBCD page.
Typically, this is burned onto an ISO and you boot using a CD. But isn't that so "last year"? Putting it onto a USB Drive makes it much more portable and it can sit side by side with your other portable tech tools.
The directions on how to do this are courtesy of pendrivelinux:
- Download the Ultimate Boot CD iso file and place it into its own directory
- Download the UBCDfix.exe file and run it, extracting into the above folder
- From this folder click fixubcd.bat and follow the instructions
- Move the contents of the /dir/USBUBCD folder to your USB drive
- From your USB drive, run makeboot.bat to make it bootable
That's it! You now have a bootable USB drive. Any machine you wish to boot with this drive must be set to boot from USB, so this might mean a trip into the boot menu.
After booting from the drive you'll see the UBCD menu:
Some great things I've used the UBCD to do:
- Fixing a system whose boot loader did not install correctly
- Run Darik's Boot and Nuke to wipe a system before recycling it
- Fixed a tricky system freezing problem that was caused by a bad stick of ram
- Run OEM HD tools to confirm a hard drive was indeed malfunctioning
So give it a shot if you are the type of person who is always called upon to fix people's PCs! [via MakeUseOf]
- Your Favourite Website Has No RSS Feed? Not a Problem!
This week a came cross an interesting tool called Page2RSS. Basically they will create an RSS feed for static websites, checking it every day for new content, and sending the updates to you whenever they occur. [via Daily Blog Tips]
- Vidnik Records and Uploads Video to YouTube [Featured Mac Download]
Mac OS X only: Fresh from the Google Mac workshop, new video application Vidnik records clips with your Mac's camera and uploads them directly to YouTube.
You can use Vidnik to create a video diary, or just to quickly record a video comment to attach to an existing YouTube video. Vidnik works with the built-in video cameras on recent Macs, with FireWire video cameras, and with many USB video cameras.
You can also drag and drop existing video clips on your Mac into the left column in Vidnik to use it purely as an uploader. Vidnik is a free download for Mac only. [via Lifehacker]
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