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The 6 tools you need to Be Your Own IT

1. AVG Anti-Virus – Keep Yours as well as others computers virus free!
2. Memory Upgrade Tool – discover what type of Memory your computer takes and if your upgrading someone else this is the only place to go
3. Newegg Electronics Ordering – The best site for replacing or upgrading almost any part either for yourself, or for resale.
4. Password Recovery Tools – A whole host of password recovery tools, including wireless key finders, windows logins, and much more:All Free.
5. Sysinternals – Yes their owned by Microsoft now, but they still have a huge list of free utilities that can help you troubleshoot either yours or a potential customers computer
6. Ultimate Boot CD – There are CPU tests like CPU Burn-in. Memory diagnostic tools like Memtest86. There are hard drive wiping tools like Darik’s Boot and Nuke and many others popular utilities that can help you diagnose computer problems on your own. All you need to do is download the CD and burn the .iso image to a CD. There are limitless troubleshooting applications here.

Windows Tools

1. Windows Update – Used to get all the latest Microsoft Windows Updates downloaded automatically to your computer. Has a lot of benefit but use with caution stick with the critical updates typically

Data Back Up & File Recovery Software

1. Drive Image XML V1.21 – Backup Your hard drive, copy one hard drive to another and more
2. File Hamster – Free real time backup and archiving of your files while you work
3. Photo Backup LE – Easily back up all your valuable photos. Notice the free version is on the bottom of the page
4. Undelete Plus – Easily recover accidently deleted files
5. Kryptel Lite – Easily permanatly delete files from your hard drive

UPDATE: Undelete Plus doesn’t show up at the site listed above but can now be found here.

Hard Drive Utilities

1. Auslogics Disk Defrag – A free program to help defragment and organize your hard drive
2. Darik’s Boot and Nuke – DBAN is a simple, yet powerful utility that will wipe clean most hard drive’s after booting to a floppy disk. This is a great tool for fast formats or shredding of data when selling or throwing out your PC.
3. Cleanup Assistant -A freeware software program that performs various hard drive maintenance tasks, including cleaning, finding large and duplicate files, shredding documents and much more.
4. HD Clone 3.2 – The freeware version is great for transferring data from one hard drive to another. It runs on a bootable floppy or CD that it creates and allows you to easily clone your old drive onto your new drive.
5. Seagate DiskWizard – Seagate’s tool used for installing new Seagate hard drives in computers.
6. Western Digital Data Lifeguard – Diagnostic and other utilities for Western Digital hard drives only. Select your drive model from the list and download
7. MaxBlast – Maxblast is Maxtors hard disk utility. This utility will help users format and copy data from one drive to another in new installations of Maxtor hard disks..

Memory Utilities

1. Memtest86 – Memtest is considered one of the best memory diagnostic utilities out there. This free tool will allow you to make a bootable CD or floppy disk that runs the program automatically when you turn on your PC. By running this program for a few hours you will be able to pinpoint hardware problems with your memory that may have been causing your computer to crash
2. Windows Memory Diagnostic – Windows Memory Diagnostic is a great tool you can download if you do not have Vista (Included in Vista). Download and put the program on a disk. Insert the disk and reboot to that drive and let the diagnostic check your RAM for errors.

Registry Cleaners

1. RegSeeker 1.55 -This Registry program allows you to scan for bad and duplicate files, clean the registry and even optimize the Operating System. It’s available for all versions of Windows.
2. Eusing Free Registry Cleaner – Eusing Free Registry Cleaner is a free registry repair utility that allows you to clean and repair your computer’s registry with a few simple mouse clicks. The Windows Registry is a crucial part of your PC’s operation system.
3. CCleaner – CCleaner is a free system optimization and privacy utility. CCleaner removes unused files from your computer which allows Windows to run faster. It also frees up valuable hard disk space. For privacy, CCleaner also cleans traces of your online activities such as your Internet history

Network and Internet Troubleshooting

1. Network Speed Test – Help determine what kind of performance your network is getting and also diagnose any potential speed issues with your or your clients internet conenction
2. Winsock Fix – Used to solve a variety of internet connection issues. I’ve used it many times to fix computers damaged by spyware or virus’s or computers that just plain cannot access the internet. Has just plain saved my life many times
3. Microsoft Network Monitor 3.1 – The Microsoft Network Monitor is a utility that helps you analyze what is happening on your network behind the scenes
4. AnalogX Fast Cache – This program improves connection speed by caching DNS on your local computer. Each time you go to a web page or perform any other Internet task, your PC contacts DNS servers on the Internet. By caching these servers on your local machine you should, theoretically, connect faster.
5. Network Stumbler – NetStumbler (also known as Network Stumbler) is a tool for Windows that facilitates detection of Wireless LANs using the 802.11b, 802.11a and 802.11g WLAN standards. It runs on Microsoft Windows 98 and above. A trimmed-down version called MiniStumbler is available for Windows CE.

Another cloud service is coming, this time on your phone. Dashwire is intended to mirror your phones content onto a web based interface. I’m sure the power users are thinking “I can already do that with other 3rd party apps. Yes, you can… but Dashwire is probably not intended for the ultimate power user and it does do a good job of providing a clean, easy to use web based interface for accessing for phones information. Some of the things they list that Dashwire can do today via their Web-based interface:

• Send and receive text messages (SMS)

•  Add and edit phone contacts

•  Easily organize your photos and videos

•  Listen to voicemails

•  Set Internet favorites, ringtones, speed dials, and wallpapers for your phone

•  Transfer contacts and settings to your new phone

•  Automatically upload photos and videos

•  Find friends and people you want to follow

•  Create a personalized web page to share your media

• Add comments and star ratings

• Single click photo upload to Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, and Bebo

The interface is smooth, grey, and very attractive looking. The fonts are large and everything is easy to read.

On your Dashwire dashboard are your photos and videos, contacts, bookmarks, and SMS and call history laid out in movable AJAX tiles. You can click to play on your ringtones (I found this a very easy way to manage ringtones. There are tiles for phone, and text messages and you can reply to them with your keyboard. Even with a Treo or Blackjack you can’t bang out an SMS as fast as you can on a traditional keyboard. You can e-mail photo links from Dashwire, too, without your friends having to sign up to the service to view them online. Contacts you add online materialize in your mobile address book. Essentially, Dashwire is allowing you a web interface for interacting with your phone, while at the same time making an online backup of some of the most important “data”. It’s not backing up your programs, registry settings or anything like that, but all your critical stuff like contact, messages, etc.

Now it’s time for the secret sauce: how your content gets there. Dashwire begins as a mobile app that most users will probably download over the air. It installs, and then syncs to your personal page on Dashwire.com, which you’ve configured by registering your screen name and number on sign-up. The synching takes FOREVER, and might take more if your mobile network is lagging. Photos and videos take the longest to upload, and even longer the more you’ve got. I only have the “stock photos” that came with my phone and I’m sure that’s the part taking the longest. I wonder about the value of that (personally) though for people unfamiliar with other backup solutions this might be a great alternative.

The video they put together gives a great overview of what Dashwire can do, so check it out and see if this is a solution you could use. The accounts are free (not sure yet how’ll they monetize this service yet) and it’s in open beta. Some improvements they could make are faster backups. Even once my phone was sync’d it still take a LONG time during the sync process… and I wonder… why? For the moment, it only supports Windows Mobile 5 and 6, and subscribers have to specify their carrier and device model when they register. Dashwire doesn’t manage files or programs, or perform certain small tasks like deleting photos from the phone or reading and initiating e-mail. Those would be welcome additions. Dashwire also has a setting to update your status on Facebook and Twitter… though I haven’t seen HOW this works or any instructions on their site for making this interaction occur. Still… for a beta it’s not bad and definetly worth checking out.

While Photoshop is designed for trained professionals, Adobe says Photoshop Express, which it launched in a “beta” test version, is easier to learn. User comments will be taken into account for future upgrades.

Photoshop Express will be completely Web-based so consumers can use it with any type of computer, operating system and browser. And, once they register, users can get to their accounts from different computers.

Photoshop enters the online photo-management arena many years after such services first appeared. Some companies have already made a big name for themselves, like 9-year-old storage solution Shutterfly Inc., photo-editing service Picnik or image-sharing site Photobucket Inc.

Ok so cool enuf. I took it for a test drive and it wasn’t that fast. I GUESS editing stuff online is cool. Except that you can get full featured and much faster programs for free (Paint.NET or Gimp). Personally I see little need for something like this. Just because you CAN put something on the web doesn’t mean it’s the best medium for it. ce la vi

http://www.photoshop.com/express

Researchers at Duke University Medical Center have used a monkey’s brain activity to control a robot on the other side of the globe.

In what researchers tout as a first-of-its-kind experiment, monkeys’ thoughts controlled the walking patterns of a robot in Japan.

“They can walk in complete synchronization,” said Dr. Miguel Nicolelis, who also is the Anne W. Deane Professor of Neuroscience at Duke. “The most stunning finding is that when we stopped the treadmill and the monkey ceased to move its legs, it was able to sustain the locomotion of the robot for a few minutes — just by thinking — using only the visual feedback of the robot in Japan.”

Video and more after the jump

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 Watch the genius of two guys as they roll around England pretending to be “the DJ” and getting into all kinds of places…ya… they don’t stop at just clubs.