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Taking a Breath of Adobe AIRBy Scott Nesbitt – Sunday, May 31, 2009 |
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Web comes close, and a previous TechTip looked at a way of bringing Web apps to your desktop computer. But, let's face it: the Web's not quite the desktop. That's where Adobe AIR comes in.
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Learning Languages: Online, and on Your Own TimeBy Scott Nesbitt – Sunday, May 24, 2009 |
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Though the Web can help you get around those problems. Using any of the many sites out there, you can learn the basics (or more) of a foreign language online and on your own time. Getting goingEffectively learning a language, like picking up anything else, depends heavily on mastering the basics. It's not always fun, but it is essential. These sites can help you. One of the better known language courses is the one developed by the Foreign cheap viagra Service Institute to teach American diplomats, government agents, and consular staff the rudiments (and a bit more) of the languages of the countries in which they'll be stationed. You don't have to be employed by the State Department to take advantage of these courses. Nor do you need to spend hundreds of dollars to get the home edition. You can download public domain course textbooks and audio files that you can play on you MP3 player or iPod of lessons from the FSI Language Courses Web site. The site contains over 30 courses, with more being added. Not all courses are complete. Some are lacking all of the MP3 files, while others only have the texts. On top of that, some of the references in the material are dated – remember that these courses were originally developed in the 1970s and 1980s. However, the day-to-day vocabulary and grammar hasn't changed in that time. Mango Languages also offers grammar and cultural notes, quizzes that are interspersed in lessons to help you remember the content, and help with pronunciation. There's a lot packed into Mango, but it comes at a price – a three month course costs $160. Lying somewhere between FSI Language Courses and Mango Languages is Travlang Language for Travelers. As you've probably guessed from the name of the site, it offers basic vocabulary and phrases that someone traveling to a particular country will find useful. The vocabulary and phrases are divided into the following categories: Basic Words, Numbers, Shopping/Dining, Travel, Dates and Times, Directions, and Places. All of it is easy to learn and useful. You get not only the words/phrases in your languages and the foreign languages (say English and Portuguese), but also audio. The site also offers quick quizzes to test your knowledge and help you remember what you've learned. Getting socialStudying on your own is tough. It's hard to maintain your motivation and to test your skills if you don't have any interaction with others who speak or are learning the same language that you are. That's where Livemocha comes in. It's a free site that's billed as Social Language Learning. Livemocha encourages you not only to learn, but to practice. Even with online social networking, you'll find that from time to time you'll need to have face-to-face interaction with another person. If you don't have friends or family members who speak the language that you're studying, then you might want to check out Meetup.com. Meetup.com blurs the lines between the physical and the online world. On one hand, it's an online community for people with similar interests. On the other hand, members of the site have regular gatherings called meetups (hence the name of the site). As you've probably guessed, there are Meetup groups in most major cities, and smaller ones too. And there are groups for speakers and learners of various languages. Even if you can get out only once or twice a month, a Meetup group is a good way to practice you budding language skills. Becoming one of the pod(cast) peoplePodcasting is an interesting phenomenon. Some people call it blogging out loud. It's a great platform for presenting reviews, ideas, opinions, and polemic. Arguably, the best known language learning podcast is ChinesePod, put out by a company called Praxis Language. ChinesePod, as you might have guessed, is for learning Chinese – specifically Mandarin. There are episodes that are aimed at learners of all skill levels: from outright beginners to advanced students. Best of all, the folks behind ChinesePod have fun with the material. That makes learning fun, too. ChinesePod offers free lessons, and a range of subscriptions. The subscription plans offer more, obviously, like PDF transcripts, review audio, and study tools. ChinesePod has been so successful that Praxis has created a number of spin offs, including SpanishPod, FrenchPod, and ItalianPod. They follow the ChinesePod model, both with content and pricing. How effective is this?It all depends on you. If you're motivated, then the sites discussed in this TechTip can help you get a grasp of a foreign tongue. It will be a lot of work, and to be honest they're not a perfect substitute for language classes or for regular interaction with others who speak or are learning the language that you're studying. But if you don't have time to do that, working with these sites (and others like them) are the next best thing. |
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"Optical Disc Drive Guide"By Bryan Lambert – Sunday, May 17, 2009 |
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The BIG Picture
The important thing to know is that the drives are pretty much backwards compatible, so if you get a DVD±RW DL it can pretty much read and write to the formats before it (for example, a DVD±RW DL can read a CD-ROM disc, burn to a CD-RW disc, etc.). All that alphabet soup of letters can be confusing, but all you need to know are the three basic (currently used) optical formats: CD, DVD, BLU-RAY (also called BD). Each of these formats have a read-only mode (-ROM), a write only (recordable) mode (-R or +R) and a read-write (re-recordable) mode (-RW, +RW, -RAM or –RE). The DL tacked onto the end of the alphabet soup means that the drive is a Double Layer drive (it can read or write to 9.4GB double layer discs). Optical drives are also commonly advertised by their speed, represented by a number of how much “faster” the drive is than the original single speed spec. Thus, a CD-R drive that rates at 52x speed writes faster than a 32x drive (in theory – like many other things that run through marketers' hands, these numbers are sometimes foot-loose and fancy free, in that 52x speed may be the most inside track of a drive while the outer track actually records at a slower speed). Also, note that the original single speeds of CD, DVD and Blu-Ray discs are actually different, and that those multiplier numbers are meant for comparing to the single speed number within that category. Basically, all you need to know is that, pretty much, the larger the number, the faster the drive. Drives these days also come with two basic loading mechanisms, slot loaded and tray loaded (by far the more popular); two different interfaces (SATA and PATA (also called IDE or ATA); and two form If you bought a prebuilt system, then you usually have the software installed to use all these cool features, though maybe not to its full capability. Many times vendors may incorporate very basic software that gets the job done, whether its writing to a disc or watching a movie – but that’s about it. There are several very good software packages available, usually packaged as suites, that can enhance your experience using a optical drive, and many of them even have trial versions to take them for a test drive. Some of the more popular ones are Nero’s software package, Roxio’s software suite, Alcohol Software’s 120% program as well as many others. Common Failures/Fixes
Another common failure is that the drive will refuse to eject either via the button or the software eject command. When this happens, try rebooting the computer (rebooting cures a number of ills), or ejecting the disc manually (if you see a small hole in the drive's bezel you can use a handy, dandy drive ejection tool also known as an unbent paper-clip). If the drive still does not eject then it is more than likely a failed drive (in which case, pull any discs in the drive before replacing it – admittedly, retrieving discs from a slot loaded drive can be more daunting than pulling them from a tray loaded drive – sometimes it actually requires a drive's disassembly). In case of a failed drive, the best bet is to replace the drive entirely. Replacing the DriveReplacing an optical disc drive is a pretty straightforward process – you pull the old drive and put in the new drive, and if this is not covered under warranty, you can do it yourself. Manufacturers complicate this process. The first thing to know is that both slimline and desktop drives have the same form-factor, however manufacturers may do some interesting things with the bezels. For example, a desktop computer may have a drop-down door Slimline drives also can have the added aggravation of the bezels not matching with the replacement drive. Thus, unlike a desktop drive, the best bet with slimline drives is to find an exact replacement (these drives will typically have manufacturer part numbers on the top of the drives). Slimline drives also sometimes saddle a cradle around the drive – simply remove it from the old drive and screw it onto the new drive. These drives are either held in the computer with a couple of screws or a quick release mechanism. Again, make sure to watch the interface (SATA vs. PATA). Of course, if all else fails call a tech or a computer geek computer savvy friend. Wrap UpOptical drives make up one part of the wonderful machine that is your computer. While the drive itself may be confusing at first and the thought of possibly replacing it daunting, with a little know-how you’ll find yourself an optical drive expert in no time. |
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Wikipedia – All Aboard!By Bryan Lambert – Sunday, May 10, 2009 |
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In this Tech Tip, we’re going to take a look at this Wikipedia bus and check out what exactly it is. Who's Driving This Thing?! YOU ARE!
Because Wikipedia is set up the way it is, there are several positive characteristics of this informational forum. One is that you can have a comprehensive, well-written collaborative article up in no time – even on topics not covered by traditional encyclopedias. For instance, with the sensation that occurred when Susan Boyle sang cheap viagra pills on Britain’s Got Talent television program on April 11, 2009, we find that a Wikipedia article was started about her on April 12, 2009 and has since been revised over 2100 times to date (May 5, 2009). The end result is a very comprehensive, very informative encyclopedic article. Another big positive with this approach is that if you happen to be browsing an article and see something as small as a misspelling or as big as starting an article that you think should be included, you can quickly and easily edit or add the article on the fly. Note that if you don’t like to see your work added to by strangers, edited mercilessly or even removed altogether, then contributing to Wikipedia may not be for you. A Look Under The Hood Looking for an article is very straightforward and easy. After navigating to the website (www.wikipedia.org), you are introduced to a search box. Simply type in your search, and you are brought to the article if one exists. For words with many entries (such as "Ringo"), you are brought to what is commonly called a disambiguation page where you find various entries for the word are listed (for example, with Ringo, you find a number of “ringos” listed – everything from musician Ringo Starr to author John Ringo). Now, if we click through to an article (we’ll use the author listed above), we find that there is a simple, straight forward article giving a brief biography and a list of published works .
Cracks in The Chassis
The Bus Came By and I Got On, That's When It All Began! Wikipedia, the massive, hugely successful, popular collaborative encyclopedia website is a prime example of what the power of the internet can bring to the average user. Here we not only have volumes of information (so to speak), but the ability to add to and improve this information. Even with its shortcomings, Wikipedia has much to offer. Why not try your hand at the wheel of the bus and see where Wikipedia steers you and where you can steer Wikipedia. |
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Should I Upgrade My Web Browser?By Bryan Lambert – Sunday, May 3, 2009 |
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Internet Exploder
Alternative Browsers – AKA: Browsing the Browsers
Speaking of other operating systems, if you are running Apple's OSX, then your default browser is Safari, and if you are running some version of Linux (like Ubuntu), then your default browser is usually Firefox. In addition to these browsers, there are several smaller builds as well as "skins" that go over existing browsers. What do these browsers' offer that Internet Explorer may not offer? Where do we start? All are pretty much faster; all are highly customizable, and all are innovative. In fact, many of these browsers innovations usually show up in Internet
Final Thoughts While this Tech Tip offered a quick overview of internet browsers in general, we also have some older Tech Tips on specific browsers (such as Chrome) that are worth a look. It is true that while these browsers will get you from point A to point B (figuratively speaking), they all do it a little differently and with their own version of “cool”. Also, while reading about a browser may be good, we encourage you to go ahead and give some of the alternatives a test drive – you may be surprised that you like what you find and that you’re happy trading in your current browser for a different "set of wheels". |
One of the holy grails of software development has been to write applications that run on just about any operating system. This is called write once, run anywhere. The 
Applications that are written for AIR are termed 
It's free, and is available for Linux, Mac OS, and Windows. Once the installer is on your computer, double click it to start the installation process. If you're using Linux, you may need to go to the command line, change to the directory where you downloaded the installer, and type sudo ./AdobeAirInstaller.bin. You need to use the sudo command because the installer needs to be run as the root user.
(more on this later).
Sometimes, though, you can install an AIR application right off the Web. When you click a download link, you might be given the option to save or run the application.
One of the most popular AIR applications around is 
I know more than a few 
Is Adobe AIR a fad or something more? It's hard to say at the moment. It's definitely got potential, although I don't think that it will replace the desktop or Web-based applications. That said, AIR offers a wide range of useful utilities and some great ways in which to interact with popular Web services. And maybe that will be its niche: being a link between the Web and the desktop.
Learning a foreign language seems to be on the to do list of a lot of people. And their reasons for learning a language are as varied as the languages many of them want to study.
While there's no denying that being able to speak a foreign tongue is beneficial, would-be language learners often run into a few obstacles. They might not have time to attend formal or informal classes. They might not be able to afford language tutoring. Or classes for the languages they want to learn might not be available where they live.
Something a little more modern is 
How? First, you go through the various lessons for the language or languages that you want to study. The lessons are a mix of audio and visuals that give you a grounding in the basic vocabulary and grammar. Then, when you feel confident, you can post written and/or spoken exercises. The exercises are short, but they let you practice what you've learned. The social part comes in when you ask others to critique your exercises. Usually, the comments are quite constructive. They'll point out your glaring mistakes, and usually encourage you to keep at it. You can also arrange text and voice chats with other Livemocha members to get some live practice.
But it's also tailor made for learning languages. And, as you've probably guessed, there are a lot of language learning podcasts on the Web. One of the great things about language learning podcasts is that you can download them to your 
Optical disc drives, you know CD-ROM type drives, are pretty much on all computers these days (except maybe 
OK, to start off, optical drives have come a long way (baby). As most of our readers know, they progressed from the read-only days of the CD-ROM, through the burner days with CD-R, the rewritable days of CD-RW and then the DVD came along. From there you had read-only DVD-ROMs, CD-RW/DVD-ROM, DVD-RW. DVD+RW, DVD±RW, DVD±RW DL, blue-ray, yada, yada, yada!
factors, 5.25-inch desktop and 5.25” slimline (laptop and mini-desktop) sizes. Optical drives can also incorporate cool extra features such as LightScribe disc labeling technology as well.
By far, the most common failure is that the drive can no longer read a disc. It may be intermittent (sometimes reads, sometimes doesn’t or it may read CD discs and not DVD discs (or vice-versa). If the drive does this, the first thing to do is to make sure that the drive is compatible with the disc you are trying to read (after all, a DVD drive will not read a Blu-Ray disc but again, because of backwards compatibility, a Blu-Ray player will usually read a DVD disc). Next, you can try cleaning the disc itself (from the inside out, not in circles) with a clean, soft cloth and disc cleaner. If this doesn’t correct the issue you can try to clean the drive lens (either with a cleaner disc or denatured alcohol and a cotton swab). Admittedly these are stop gap measures, because truthfully this is usually a sign of a failing drive.
in front of the drive, and if you buy a replacement drive, you’ll need one whose eject button lines up with where that door thinks the eject button should be. Desktop drives are secured either by four screws (two on either side of the drive) or drive rails. While optical drives DO NOT need any special drivers, if you are upgrading to a DVD or 
So much has been written and said about the website known as 
Started in 2001, Wikipedia now offers over 2,847,000+ articles in the English language (and many more in other languages). Wikipedia is different from other encyclopedias. Instead of an advisory body of experts and a review process, Wikipedia is a free for all. Anyone can make, add to, and edit an article – all for free and even anonymously (though you can sign up with a user name as well, and would need to if you wanted to create a new article). Since 2003, Wikipedia (and its cousins such as Wiktionary, Wikiquote, Wikinews, etc.) have been overseen by the 
You’ll also notice at the top of the page four tabs labeled article, discussion, edit this page, and history. Edit this page is self -explanatory. Here you can actually edit the article if you think something can be phrased better; if you want to add information or if you simply want to fine tune the article. If you’d like to see the current thoughts on the article, simply click “discussion” – note that this page is editable as well as allowing you to weigh in on discussing the article along with others (this page has an “edit this page” button separate from the main article). History is simply every SINGLE revision of the page from its creation to the time you are looking at the article (including the editor (IP address if anonymous) – person who did the edit) – very helpful if you’d like to see earlier versions of the article. Of course, there are numerous tools and extensive help sections if you’d like to become more than just a casual editor (found of the left hand side navigation bar).
Of course, with its obvious strength also lies Wikipedia’s inherent weakness. Sometimes, articles by committee – especially a committee of everyone – may not necessarily produce the best possible work. Biases, personal opinion, not being scrupulous about the accuracy of the information provided, deliberate defacement, unfavorable information as well as false and misleading information can all cloud the integrity of an article as well as the website as a whole (
The car I drive is a beautiful bright yellow Mustang convertible with big bold racing stripes, while the car that my neighbor drives is a small, economical silver Toyota Prius. While the cars will get you from point A to B with no problems, they do it in different ways. The Mustang looks “cool”, it drives “cool” and it gets you to point B in “cool” while the Prius drives solid, is an engineering marvel and gets you from point A to B with quiet, fuel efficient “coolness.” Internet browsers are very much the same, they (for the most part) will get you from point A to B – but how you arrive can be totally different factors of cool.
Where else to start the discussion of browsers than with the defacto standard for browsers – Internet Explorer (currently with nearly 67% of the browser market share). The reason that it is the biggest (much to the European Unions consternation) is that it is bundled with Microsoft’s Windows operating system. While it’s not necessarily the first browser available, or (in many persons' opinions) the best browser available, it is still used by many, many people. Microsoft just recently launched 
When running Microsoft Windows (or really whatever operating system you have), it is good to remember that there are always alternatives to the browser that your computer shipped with. The really cool thing about internet browsers is that several can be loaded onto a computer at the same time. Though they may try to vie for being the top dog (that is, the default browser), they will peacefully coexist. This means that along side Internet Explorer you can run one or more of the alternative browsers (even at the same time as one another). Some of the major browsers that you may want to consider are: 
who also make a popular mini version of their browser that can be used on many cell phones). A really nice thing about running multiple browsers is that if a particular browser may have a problem rendering (displaying) a web page, you can always launch another browser to see if the problem is that web page or perhaps the browser.
Explorer a little down the road. All are free to download and use, and as mentioned all can run on the same machine at the same time. If you have not had a chance to run them, I’d highly recommend downloading them all and giving