Getting the right software for your Windows PC doesn’t have to be expensive. For every piece of premium software there’s probably a free version that does more or less the same job.
This list is a quick reference guide to the best of the free applications available for Windows machines, broken down by category. Read more
If you’re looking to get into web design then the easiest thing to do is to setup a web server on your home PC.
The problem is, with so many different tools and packages available to you, it can be a bit of a nightmare getting everything set up so that the different components talk to one another. Read more
These days computers are everywhere.
In fact, the number of computers built and sold has increased year-on-year since computers became a consumer item. Most homes in the UK now have at least one PC or laptop. But why stop there? Read more
First of all, you’ll need to make sure that you’re running the latest release of Ubuntu, 11.04 – also known as Natty Narwhal. If you’re running an earlier version of Ubuntu then you can’t use Unity, so you’ll need to upgrade to the latest version via “Software Updater” before you do anything else.
If you’re using 11.04 and still aren’t getting the Unity interface, then it may be that Ubuntu has decided that your system isn’t powerful enough for the new features.
However, it may be that Unity is just turned off for some reason, so if you’re sure that your system should be capable of running it, open a Terminal window and type “Unity” into it, then press return.
This will force Ubuntu to try and load the Unity interface, if your system isn’t powerful enough then you’ll get a black screen followed by an error message telling you that the Unity Kernal couldn’t load.
If this is the case the unfortunately you’re stuck using the standard interface until you decide to purchase a newer system or upgrade your existing one.
Canonical have released the latest version of Ubuntu, version 11.04 – codenamed Natty Narwhal, to the general public for immediate download as of today.
The latest Ubuntu version features a brand new user interface including a new program launcher that extends from the top left corner of the screen to fill the left hand side of the screen. Read more
Blogging is a great online medium, allowing interaction with those who have similar interests and it acts as a communication tool that is simple and yet very effective. There are many blogging platforms available, however arguably the most well known are WordPress and Google’s Blogger.
WordPress however holds a much deeper arsenal in addition to being a blog platform. It can be modified, in relatively easy steps to provide an effective Content Management System or CMS for short. Essentially, this means WordPress can be used to produce pages for a website, instead of posts for a blog. The advantages of using WordPress are that it is regularly updated, there are thousands of free and premium themes available to style your website and also a host of plugins, from Jquery to contact forms. Previous hours of coding for these features is replaced with a few minutes to install and set up a relevant plugin. Efficiency in producing a website is significantly enhanced as the timescale of reduction is reduced.
Another bonus is that the easy control panel WordPress operates on can be passed on to clients to manage their own website successfully and give them significant control over content and minor changes. This in itself is a huge selling point, as some clients prefer not to keep going between themselves and a designer for smaller changes. On the flip side, it does mean if any mistakes are made by the client, it can take some time to resolve this, but usually accounts can be set up to keep access within certain limitations.
Clients may find that initially, a WordPress site is a little more expensive but this balances out with costs that may have been incurred by revisiting their designer to make minor changes.
WordPress may not be a suitable CMS system for all projects by any means, but for small to medium sized websites with owners who wish to have that greater element of control, it certainly is more than just a blogging tool.
*Note* – David is right on the money with this one, WordPress has revolutionized the way people share information on the Internet. No longer are we reliant on manufacturer’s or resellers to provide information and news, instead we have an almost limitless pool of blogs sharing the thoughts, opinions and knowledge of millions of people. Tech Made Easy uses WordPress and it really is an amazing way to run a website, give it a try! – Ed.
Over the last couple of years, networked home storage has been growing in popularity. During that time, more and more technology manufacturers have gotten on board and churned out so called “Home Servers” that blur the line between corporate grade storage and home media management. The problem is that while a lot of these devices from major manufacturers such as Netgear and DLink do a respectable job, the market has fast become bogged down with cheap imports and copies from the Far East that feature slow processors, low amounts of memory and, sometimes, questionable compatibility.
The DS411J is not one of these products, it’s produced by a relatively new company called Synology who, despite their short presence in the industry, are fast cementing their place as a major player in this area of the market. The DS411J enters towards the top of their home and small office range and is essentially a 4-bay home storage and media server.
The list of features is comparable to those other devices already in the market place, but we’ll get to that.
First lets take a look at the device itself in more detail.
Synology do a respectable job of packaging up the DS411J, the unit arrived over-boxed for added protection but I dare say it wasn’t needed, the box itself has a place for everything and, more importantly, everything was in it’s place. The unit was held firmly in the box and well cushioned, it’s hard to imagine receiving one of these that’s been damaged in transit.
Contents of the box were:
It’s hard to think of what else Synology could have included, though the decision to not include much in the form of paper instructions may trouble some users. However, all the documentation is held on the included CD and it took mere seconds to locate the full installation instructions and technical manual on the disk. And even in the event that the disk is lost or damaged, all of the manuals and utilities are also available on the Synology website.
If, like me, you’re keen to make the switch to digital copies of all of your music, photos and video then you’ll undoubtedly have some questions as to how to go about it.
In this guide I’ll give some quick musings on how to digitize each of these types of media and then talk about how you can store it safely and access it from around the home.
Chances are that you already have a digital video camera and if so you already have digital copied of all of your photos. if you have “old school” paper photos then the only thing you can really do is scan them into your computer with a document scanner. There’s no two ways about it; this is going to be a pain in the butt, but once it’s done you’ll have immortal copies of all your best bygone memories. When I scanned in all mine it took an entire week of sitting in front of my PC in the evenings and scanning them in, so be prepared for a lot of waiting around if you choose to do this.
If all you have at your disposal is the old 35mm negatives (remember those) then you can buy something like this to get you up and running.
Most peoples music libraries are almost entirely CD based, which is great, because 99% of home PC’s and laptops have a drive capable of reading these disks. What’s more, Windows, Mac and Linux all have built in methods for converting those music CD’s into MP3 tracks which will play on any number of devices. Like the photos, it’s simply a case of sitting down and going through your disks one by one to convert them to MP3′s.
In Windows you can use Windows Media Player, Mac’s have iTunes by default and for Linux you can check out a free program called Banshee which will take care of this for you.
If you have other formats of music, such as tapes or vinyl, then the task is made slightly more difficult (but far from impossible). The problem is that these formats are analogue, so the only way to capture the sound is basically to play it and turn it into an MP3 in real time. Devices such as this USB record deck and this USB tape deck will help by allowing easy connectivity to your PC, but it will still take a long time.
Like CD’s, DVD’s can be transferred to your PC with relative ease. There are applications available for Windows, Mac and Linux to enable you to convert a DVD film to a video file that will play back on your PC or some other device. I’ve written articles about this before so I’ll just link to them here:
For TV shows and movies that are stored on old VHS cassettes; it’s back to the shops for you, you’ll need something like this. Be warned though, VHS picture and sound quality wasn’t that great to begin with, so converting these to video files might not be worth the time, effort and money.
Well, first of all, if you’ve just spent a load of your free time converting all of your media you’re not going to want to lose it all, so make sure that you take a backup of everything on a separate hard disk and leave it with a trusted friend or relative. That way, if something happens to your data, your drive, or god forbid; your house, you’ll still have a copy of everything. The best thing to do is invest in a large USB hard disk such as these and then make a copy of everything on to that. Having lost 250GB of data before now, I can tell you it’s no fun having to sit down and transfer it all over again.
There are two main ways to store all of this information. The first is to stick it all on a large hard drive inside an existing PC. The disadvantage of this is that you have to leave that PC on when you want to access the information from another device, which could prove expensive in terms of electricity costs (as well as being quite loud as well in some scenarios).
The other way is to invest in a network hard drive such as the ones available from QNAP and Netgear. Both of these devices will connect to your home broadband router and data can then be shared between multiple devices on your network, such as PC’s, games consoles and other home devices.
With either solution, you’re going to need a method to advertise all of your media to the other devices on your network. Fortunately this has been catered for by something called DLNA, the Digital Living Network Alliance. DLNA allows for the quick transfer (known as “streaming”) of media to devices that are capable of playing it. A lot of home electronics being sold today, such as TV’s, set top boxes and games consoles are DLNA compliant, so will be able to playback most media that is advertised on your home network.
Both of the network drives mentioned previously have built in DLNA server capabilities, which means that they will be able to advertise your media content to compatible devices on the network. And if you have a Windows PC then you can use Windows Media Player to advertise your media collection, as explained here.
Whichever solution you choose, the result should be that you are able to store all of your media in one place and then stream it to any compatible device that’s connected to your home network (including via WiFi). It may surprise you exactly how many home devices are now DLNA compatible. Most “internet ready” TV’s are, as are both the XBOX360 and Playstation 3 games consoles. There are also a whole bunch of set top boxes and media players available that will pick up your DLNA server and stream any of your home media.
There are a couple of things worth mentioning now, before you begin on the long journey to digitize your media collections.
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