Home & Small Office Computer Guide

There could be some hardware issues because not all devices have drivers suitable for Vista. So before you do try upgrading perhaps you should download, instal and run Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor.

It’s a freebie and the experts say that it really does know what it’s talking about.

You will find some other great tips about Vista at All About Microsoft

If you’re thinking of upgrading to Vista it might be advisable to wait a few weeks. Reports are floating around that Microsoft is getting ready to release the first service pack for their new operating system.

That seems to say a lot when you consider that Vista hasn’t even been released in some markets yet.

How many times have you wanted one quick bit of information that’s only on your laptop? 

NVIDIA Corporation has announced that LG Electronics (LG), a global leader and technology innovator in consumer electronics, introduced a new series of notebook computers that take full advantage of the Windows Vista operating system, which fully utilizes the new NVIDIA Preface(TM) Personal Media Display (PMD) platform.

By using Preface to enable Windows SideShow, consumers will have “always-on” access to multimedia content and software gadgets via a secondary display embedded in the notebook lid.

Windows SideShow is a new technology that allows the Windows Vista operating system to drive auxiliary displays providing consumers with faster and easier to use bite-size bits of information. NVIDIA Preface allows consumers to link to the programs and data stored on the main system, even when the notebook is in hibernation mode or turned off.

Some of the many gadgets that can be used on the go without draining battery life include music playback, photo slideshows, e-mail, calendars, world clocks, stock quotes, RSS feeds, and more.

“In the consumer electronics market, the line between work and entertainment devices has become increasingly blurred,” said John Milner, general manager of personal media processors at NVIDIA Corporation.

“The LG Z1 with NVIDIA Preface technology allows consumers to get more from the notebook experience — they can be more productive throughout their workday and enjoy personal media along the way.”

“NVIDIA Preface technology and Windows SideShow allow us to offer our customers a new way to take advantage of the wealth of personal information in their notebook and on the Web,” said Mr. JJ Lee, general manager for the PC division of LG. “For those looking to enjoy a complete Windows Vista experience, this notebook is a must-have.”

The devil is always in the detail

The Apple iPhone sounds like a wonderful technological advance and even this Luddite would love to have one but there are a whole lot of important things that haven’t been said about the iPhone.

Some of those things are only of interest the tech-heads but others are very important to ordinary users too. You can read about them at 20 Things We Don’t Know About the iPhone.

 
Protect your investment

Is a complete system with almost no cables just a dream?

Well it was when An Introduction to Wireless USB was written in 2004 but now it’s much closer than you might think.

After a pause of several months - thanks to a whole combination of factors that kept me away from this blog - I am back and postings will resume their regular schedule once more.

The mystery was solved

Just before work escalated to the point where I had to make time in my schedule just to breathe I ran into a strange problem with two of my screens. I wrote about it and posted a picture at Strange Happenings …

A day or two after I posted that my wife identified that strange image - it comes from Yahoo’s Konfabulator and apparently there was a conflict involving that programme and something else on that particular computer.

Once I ditched Konfabulator the image disappeared and never returned. Other problems did continue to appear and in the end we migrated the system into a smaller box - like this one and took the opportunity to format the hard drive and reload the operating system.