When troubleshooting your system, it can be helpful to keep an eye on your network utilization to see if there's a problem with your network card or if your problem is upstream with your ISP. For example, if you're getting a ton of packet loss while playing online games, the problem is very possibly your ISP, but you could also have a malfunctioning network card that's dropping the connection so often that you can't tell. With ShaPlus Bandwidth Meter, you can watch your network activity in real-time to see if there's anything unusual about the way your network card is behaving.
ShaPlus works with both hard-wired network adapters and wireless adapters, and can be useful in troubleshooting network issues where you don't think your Internet connection is to blame. For example, when visiting my parents a while ago I noticed that my girlfriend could connect without a problem to the wireless network, but I kept having problems. It turned out to be a driver issue, but had I been able to watch my network traffic drop off every couple of seconds in real-time, I may have come to that conclusion sooner.
The tool is useful for more than just troubleshooting; if you're on a data plan that charges by the megabyte or you have a bandwidth cap on your plan, you likely want to keep track of how much data you're sending or receiving through your tethered Blackberry or cellular wireless card. ShaPlus shows you not just how much traffic is going in and out at any given moment, but how much data has passed through a specific network card today, or in the past 30 days.
ShaPlus runs quietly in the background and sits in the system tray. At any time, you can click on the meter to see the traffic passing through the active network connection. If you're sitting in a coffee shop and want to keep close tabs on your bandwidth utilization, you can set the meter to be permanently visible so you can glance down at any time to make sure you're not racking up over-use charges on your data plan. You can even adjust the transparency of the window if you don't want it to be a distraction.
In addition to monitoring bandwidth, ShaPlus can disable flash video or images in Internet Explorer with a single click, which cuts down on the amount of data downloaded at one time. ShaPlus is free to download and use, and supports just about every version of Windows.
[via gHacks]
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Silverlight 2.0 Appears on Tuesday
Microsoft will release the second version of Silverlight, its answer to Adobe's Flash technology, on Tuesday, Microsoft said Monday. For those users with Silverlight already installed, the upgrade process should be seamless, as Silverlight will automatically update itself over the short term.
Silverlight 2.0 offers changes for both the developer and the user. Probably the thing that leapt out at me was the addition of Silverlight DRM, powered by Microsoft's own PlayReady digital-rights-management software, which offers "robust content protection for connected Silverlight experiences".
In the past, those connected Silverlight experiences have included Olympics coverage on NBCOlympics.com, which included 70 million video streams viewed by 50 million unique people, according to Microsoft. Microsoft also claimed that CBS College Sports, Blockbuster, Hard Rock Cafe, Yahoo Japan, AOL, Toyota, HSN and Tencent are building "their next-generation experiences" on Silverlight.
The odd statistic here is this one, however: "...Already one in four consumers worldwide has access to a computer with Silverlight already installed," according to Scott Guthrie, corporate vice president of the .NET Developer Division at Microsoft. From the wording, it's hard to tell if Microsoft equates "access" with a PC in the home, down the street, across town, or in the same state. What would clear this up, of course, is if Microsoft would tell us how many times Silverlight has been downloaded and/or been installed.
As a consumer, here's what you'll see with the new release: new skinning capabilities, which means that a company like Blockbuster can customize the look and feel of a site; and deep zoom, which, as the name suggests, will allow users to zoom in on high-resoltion imagery; and support for Mac, Windows and Linux in Firefox, Safari and Windows Internet Explorer. Chrome is also reportedly supported as well.
It's also worth noting that Silverlight has new streaming and progressive download capabilities, Microsoft said.
From a developer standpoint, Microsoft said that it would integrate Silverlight development capabilities into the Eclipse toolset by way of Soyatec, a French developer. Microsoft also will release the Silverlight Control Pack and publish on MSDN the technical specification for the Silverlight Extensible Application Markup Language (XAML) vocabulary under Microsoft's Permissive License.
In addition, there is support for networking services including REST, WS*/SOAP, POX, RSS and standard HTTP services, Microsoft said.Silverlight 2 will also include expanded .NET framework language support.
Silverlight 2.0 offers changes for both the developer and the user. Probably the thing that leapt out at me was the addition of Silverlight DRM, powered by Microsoft's own PlayReady digital-rights-management software, which offers "robust content protection for connected Silverlight experiences".
In the past, those connected Silverlight experiences have included Olympics coverage on NBCOlympics.com, which included 70 million video streams viewed by 50 million unique people, according to Microsoft. Microsoft also claimed that CBS College Sports, Blockbuster, Hard Rock Cafe, Yahoo Japan, AOL, Toyota, HSN and Tencent are building "their next-generation experiences" on Silverlight.
The odd statistic here is this one, however: "...Already one in four consumers worldwide has access to a computer with Silverlight already installed," according to Scott Guthrie, corporate vice president of the .NET Developer Division at Microsoft. From the wording, it's hard to tell if Microsoft equates "access" with a PC in the home, down the street, across town, or in the same state. What would clear this up, of course, is if Microsoft would tell us how many times Silverlight has been downloaded and/or been installed.
As a consumer, here's what you'll see with the new release: new skinning capabilities, which means that a company like Blockbuster can customize the look and feel of a site; and deep zoom, which, as the name suggests, will allow users to zoom in on high-resoltion imagery; and support for Mac, Windows and Linux in Firefox, Safari and Windows Internet Explorer. Chrome is also reportedly supported as well.
It's also worth noting that Silverlight has new streaming and progressive download capabilities, Microsoft said.
From a developer standpoint, Microsoft said that it would integrate Silverlight development capabilities into the Eclipse toolset by way of Soyatec, a French developer. Microsoft also will release the Silverlight Control Pack and publish on MSDN the technical specification for the Silverlight Extensible Application Markup Language (XAML) vocabulary under Microsoft's Permissive License.
In addition, there is support for networking services including REST, WS*/SOAP, POX, RSS and standard HTTP services, Microsoft said.Silverlight 2 will also include expanded .NET framework language support.
Microsoft PlayReady 1.2 Released
Enthusiasts experimenting with Media Center TV Pack were forced to become familiar with a new DRM scheme from Microsoft, called PlayReady--all TV shows recorded after upgrading are wrapped in the shiny new content protection scheme. Since the Windows 7 pre-beta includes the TV Pack functionality, it's got PlayReady too...or it should. I noticed earlier this week that the included link to download the software didn't work. That wasn't because the DRM scheme was dead, however; instead, MS was prepping an update to PlayReady--version 1.2, freshly released.
According to sources at Microsoft, the PlayReady PC Runtime 1.2 (or here for x64) has reduced start-up and decryption times compared with the PlayReady PC Runtime 1.0. No word on the scale of these performance improvements, but I'd be surprised if it's anything end-users will notice.
Apparently, the MS Update server hasn't been properly configured to provide the new download just yet, so if you're testing Windows 7, use these links to enable it. And if you're one of the few who've tracked down and installed the secretive TV Pack, I'd suggest updating to the new runtime. The performance enhancements probably won't be noticeable, but probably won't hurt too much either.
According to sources at Microsoft, the PlayReady PC Runtime 1.2 (or here for x64) has reduced start-up and decryption times compared with the PlayReady PC Runtime 1.0. No word on the scale of these performance improvements, but I'd be surprised if it's anything end-users will notice.
Apparently, the MS Update server hasn't been properly configured to provide the new download just yet, so if you're testing Windows 7, use these links to enable it. And if you're one of the few who've tracked down and installed the secretive TV Pack, I'd suggest updating to the new runtime. The performance enhancements probably won't be noticeable, but probably won't hurt too much either.
Is PlayReady Already Dead?
Update: It's not dead, just improved! Read about PlayReady 1.2 here.
PlayReady is Microsoft's latest DRM scheme, the successor to playsforsure. The encryption scheme is already the backbone of content security in the Windows Media Center TV Pack, and it's been smooshed into the company's recently released Silverlight 2.0 platform as well. But don't try to download the stuff.
I noticed the issue first in Windows 7. The Windows Media Center Setup menus have a new section: Install PlayReady. But as the screenshot above shows, the Microsoft Update server can't get to the package to update the security components--and it's been that way for days. For the past few months, Microsoft had a direct download link to PlayReady as well; recently that link has been taken down too. Heck, search the Downloads section of Microsoft's web site and you can't even turn up reference to the downloadable version, much less get it.
Holes in the security scheme in need of a patch, perhaps? New versions forthcoming? Or perhaps the realization that the last thing consumers want is more DRM on their PCs?
PlayReady is Microsoft's latest DRM scheme, the successor to playsforsure. The encryption scheme is already the backbone of content security in the Windows Media Center TV Pack, and it's been smooshed into the company's recently released Silverlight 2.0 platform as well. But don't try to download the stuff.
I noticed the issue first in Windows 7. The Windows Media Center Setup menus have a new section: Install PlayReady. But as the screenshot above shows, the Microsoft Update server can't get to the package to update the security components--and it's been that way for days. For the past few months, Microsoft had a direct download link to PlayReady as well; recently that link has been taken down too. Heck, search the Downloads section of Microsoft's web site and you can't even turn up reference to the downloadable version, much less get it.
Holes in the security scheme in need of a patch, perhaps? New versions forthcoming? Or perhaps the realization that the last thing consumers want is more DRM on their PCs?
Obama Launches Change.gov to Provide Transition Details
Change has come to America! Well, change.gov, that is.
President-elect Barack Obama on Thursday unveiled change.gov, a Web site that will provide details on the presidential transition.
"Change.gov provides resources to better understand the transition process and the decisions being made as part of it," according to a blog post. "The Obama administration will reflect an essential lesson from the success of the Obama campaign: that people united around a common purpose can achieve great things."
The site is thus far a little sparse on details. No mention of Rahm Emanuel, who today accepted the position of Obama's chief of staff, or the tech leaders who were named to his transition team--Julius Genachowski, former IAC/InterActiveCorp executive and chief counsel to FCC chairman Reed Hundt, and Google.org's Sonal Shah.
The site does include a form that asks visitors to "tell us your ideas and help us solve the biggest challenges facing our country." Participants will be required to provide their e-mail address, first and last names, and ZIP code.
Change.gov also includes a link to Obama's Tuesday night acceptance speech, details on Obama's agenda, a blog, recent news, and information on Vice President-elect Joe Biden.
Obama made strides during his campaign utilizing the Internet and has said he would like to continue that during his administration.
In an October interview with MSNBC's Rachel Maddow, Obama called for "using technology in intelligent ways."
"One of the things I'm excited about is to transfer what we've learned from this campaign in using technology into government," he said. "There are examples of that all throughout our government that can remove bureaucracy, eliminate red tape, [and] make the whole process more customer-friendly. They do it in the private sector all the time."
President-elect Barack Obama on Thursday unveiled change.gov, a Web site that will provide details on the presidential transition.
"Change.gov provides resources to better understand the transition process and the decisions being made as part of it," according to a blog post. "The Obama administration will reflect an essential lesson from the success of the Obama campaign: that people united around a common purpose can achieve great things."
The site is thus far a little sparse on details. No mention of Rahm Emanuel, who today accepted the position of Obama's chief of staff, or the tech leaders who were named to his transition team--Julius Genachowski, former IAC/InterActiveCorp executive and chief counsel to FCC chairman Reed Hundt, and Google.org's Sonal Shah.
The site does include a form that asks visitors to "tell us your ideas and help us solve the biggest challenges facing our country." Participants will be required to provide their e-mail address, first and last names, and ZIP code.
Change.gov also includes a link to Obama's Tuesday night acceptance speech, details on Obama's agenda, a blog, recent news, and information on Vice President-elect Joe Biden.
Obama made strides during his campaign utilizing the Internet and has said he would like to continue that during his administration.
In an October interview with MSNBC's Rachel Maddow, Obama called for "using technology in intelligent ways."
"One of the things I'm excited about is to transfer what we've learned from this campaign in using technology into government," he said. "There are examples of that all throughout our government that can remove bureaucracy, eliminate red tape, [and] make the whole process more customer-friendly. They do it in the private sector all the time."
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
RNC Launches Site: Repulican For A Reason
After the Democratic upset that was the last election, the Republican National Committee is, understandably, doing some soul searching.
While Obama's team of Web designers busied themselves with the launch of Change.gov, the RNC was hard at work on Republican For A Reason, a site devoted to giving "users the opportunity to discuss their reasons for being a member of the Grand Old Party and what being a Republican means to them."
"We are a party of principles and must regain our voice," said RNC Chairman Mike Duncan. "We need to hear what our volunteers, activists, elected leaders, and party members think about the Republican Party as we rebuild, re-focus, and renew our bond with the American people."
The site features a video intro with a lot of shots of Reagan and George H.W. Bush--surprisingly, it also features plenty of clips of W. giving speeches as well. The experience is a bit like Microsoft's "I am a PC" ad campaign, only with more moving instrumental music.
While Obama's team of Web designers busied themselves with the launch of Change.gov, the RNC was hard at work on Republican For A Reason, a site devoted to giving "users the opportunity to discuss their reasons for being a member of the Grand Old Party and what being a Republican means to them."
"We are a party of principles and must regain our voice," said RNC Chairman Mike Duncan. "We need to hear what our volunteers, activists, elected leaders, and party members think about the Republican Party as we rebuild, re-focus, and renew our bond with the American people."
The site features a video intro with a lot of shots of Reagan and George H.W. Bush--surprisingly, it also features plenty of clips of W. giving speeches as well. The experience is a bit like Microsoft's "I am a PC" ad campaign, only with more moving instrumental music.
Google's Gmail, Apps Gets Voice and Video Chat
Fearful that the tone of your instant messages is sometimes lost in translation? Google on Tuesday announced that it is integrating a voice and video plug-in for it Gmail Chat offering that lets you see or hear the friend with which you are chatting.
Users will need to download and install a plug-in and must have access to a webcam for video purposes. Google has partnered with Logitech and Buy.com to offer discounts of up to 30 percent on several cameras, as well as free shipping, until November 30.
A $99.99 Logitech QuickCam Pro for Notebooks, for example, is available for $69.99, while a $49 Logitech QuickCam Communicate MP is now $39.99
"I'm a big user of Gmail chat. Being able to switch from email to chat as needed, all within the same app, is really great for productivity," Justin Uberti, a Google software engineer, wrote in a blog post. "But people can only type so fast, and even with our new emoticons, there are still some things that just can't be expressed in a chat message."
Once installed, click the "Video
Users will need to download and install a plug-in and must have access to a webcam for video purposes. Google has partnered with Logitech and Buy.com to offer discounts of up to 30 percent on several cameras, as well as free shipping, until November 30.
A $99.99 Logitech QuickCam Pro for Notebooks, for example, is available for $69.99, while a $49 Logitech QuickCam Communicate MP is now $39.99
"I'm a big user of Gmail chat. Being able to switch from email to chat as needed, all within the same app, is really great for productivity," Justin Uberti, a Google software engineer, wrote in a blog post. "But people can only type so fast, and even with our new emoticons, there are still some things that just can't be expressed in a chat message."
Once installed, click the "Video
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)