It’s easy to get caught up in whatever is big on the web (or maybe even some work) and not take proper breaks from the computer. This can lead to eye strain or worsening RSI problems (even with a graphics tablet). Workrave is a good way of making sure you don’t over do it by recommending regular breaks.

There are two kinds of breaks. Microbreaks are short frequent breaks and rest breaks are rather longer with animation showing exercises for easing joints. Both kinds of rest periods can be skipped or postponed if you happen to be in a rush.

Thankfully it is also possible to change the length and interval between breaks; I found taking 30 seconds off every 3 minutes just a little but too disruptive.

I’m using it on Windows but there is a Linux version available as well.

Oh, and they have a very cute sheep as a logo – how can anyone resist?

Posted by Tim Smith on April 15, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (5)

The days of being able to show off a flashy image on your desktop and think that's enough to impress are sadly over.

If you want inspiration of just what is possible, you won’t go wrong by taking a look at Lifehacker.com. The most recent is a rather good picture of a Fender Stratocaster guitar with some clever custom menus.

The good thing about Lifehacker is there are explanations of how to work on the bits round the edges; it’s not just about the image any more.

One day I will get round to following the instructions for my Ubuntu laptop.

Posted by Tim Smith on March 23, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (10)

It’s finally here. Internet Explorer 8. I’ve got high hopes of better standards support and performance improvements. Both of which were promised by Microsoft when I saw them last week for a quick preview.

I see a vision of what my evening has in store. Well, it will keep me off Ubuntu if nothing else.

Don’t forget to check out our preview videos one and two for a taste of what is to come.

Posted by Tim Smith on March 19, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (2)

Yesterday we caught up with Asus, so today we went to see the latest products from one of its biggest rivals: MSI. MSI's Wind range of netbooks compete directly against the Asus Eee portables, but the focus at MSI's stand seems a little different: rather than the dozens of netbooks Asus is showing, MSI seems to be focusing on fewer models with more unusual features. Here, for example, is its forthcoming "hybrid" Wind U115:



It may look unremarkable, but there's some interesting technology inside. It uses both a solid state  disk (SSD) and a hard disk, but the hard disk can be disabled at the push of a button. This gives you loads of cheap storage space when you want it, but allows you to save battery power when on the move. MSI claims a battery life of nine hours, and we expect it to cost around £400.

More unusual still is the X-Slim series notebook, which looks a little like a white plastic Macbook Air. We got our hands on an engineering sample to take some photos:



And here it is from the side (note the two USB ports - one more than the Air):



This new "X-Slim" range will initially include two models. The X340 pictured here will use an Intel Core Solo ULV (Ultra Low Voltage) processor and include an HDMI output, and is expected to cost around £800. The X320, however, will use an Atom processor and should come in at between £500 to £600, making it a potentially interesting choice for those who want a really thin and light notebook on a budget. The notebooks will be on shelves in May.

Like Asus, MSI is also creating low cost desktop PCs. Here's the Wind Top AE1900, with a 19" touch screen display, DVD writer and an Atom processor:



It should cost around £600 and will be available by the end of March. Several other models are in the works, including one without the touch screen (the AP1900) as well as 20" and 22" models. A 24" version could appear later this year. Slightly more unusual is this model, the Wind Box DE200:



It has a Blu-Ray drive, HD video output and runs Windows Vista Home Premium - making it an interesting Media Center PC. Expect it in May, but prices are not yet confirmed.

And there are many other interesting products tucked away around the show. Icy Box, makers of hard disk enclosures, was showing a few new media player products that support H.264 video:



This model, the IB-MP309-HW, should appear in March, while one with a slot that accepts a 2.5" hard disk caddy will follow in May. Over in another hall, Zotac have what must be one of the smallest PCs at the whole show:

Posted by Tom Royal on March 4, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (3)

If there was ever an idea of mine that was considered ‘outside the box’ by my colleagues it was suggesting a feature on using the Dvorak keyboard layout.

It was offered with the best of intensions (take note please naysayers). I’ve not used it for a little while because I didn’t have time to learn it to level of Qwerty but I was definitely picking it up more quickly than I’d expected.

If you’ve never heard of Dvorak, I strongly recommend looking at this introduction. DVZine.org is also an excellent resource but the site seems to be down at the moment.

To summarise, the Dvorak layout was created with a lot more attention to how people type. This even included arranging the home keys (the ones your fingers start from) with the relative finger strength in mind, giving your little (pinkie) finger a break.

Anyway, the Colemak keyboard solves one of the biggest problems of the Dvorak keyboard by leaving the most commonly used shortcut keys – Z X C V B - in the same place as Qwerty.

Here’s a picture from Wikipedia, and there are lessons on the Colemak website.

Posted by Tim Smith on February 26, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (1)

An excellent programming language and editor for beginners, Small Basic has received some useful updates.

The most exciting for me is that ability to share code with other Small Basic users over the internet. Code can be uploaded to the Small Basic website where it is given a code that can be used to find it again. It’s a little like the short web addresses from sites such as tinyurl and snipurl. So the latest game posted on the blog has an address of http://smallbasic.com/program/?QRQ360. It’s a great idea and should make it even easier for beginners.

There are some bug fixes and performance improvements too. If you’ve never attempted programming before this is a good place to start from.

Posted by Tim Smith on February 17, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (4)

A fast Javascript engine it would appear from all of the press releases flying around about upcoming releases. The most recent from Opera about their new Javascript engine, called Carakan.

If you get down to the bottom of the press release there are some impressive numbers, doubling performance on cross platform versions and somewhere between 5 and 50 times faster on native code.

Why should we care about Javascript performance? Well it’s at the heart of Web 2.0 as the J in Ajax, and it’s getting harder to find websites that don’t use it. Bizarrely though I couldn’t find a logo so it is something of a backroom boy.

Google Chrome was really the first to champion its Javascript performance. Chrome isn’t just about processing code faster, but about giving every tab the ability to run Javascript independently of the others. I’ve noticed the delay of starting Firefox with 30 odd tabs as they load one after the other rather than all at the same time. You can read more in the graphic press release from Google from page 3 onwards.

Firefox has also got a new Javascript engine in the works called TraceMonkey. In Mozilla tests it did better than Google Chrome, so it looks like things are getting interesting.

Posted by Tim Smith on February 11, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (15)

Earlier this week we got a warning about malware that was spreading via USB keys. Now it seems that shortcut files are also at risk. The McAfee Avert Labs Blog has some useful information as to what can go wrong with shortcuts or .lnk files.

To be honest this was something of a revelation to me because I had always though these files were simple text. That doesn’t make them any less dangerous but at least it is easier to spot what’s going on inside.

Because I’m of a curious frame of mind, I decided to take a look inside a link file for myself. You can see the results to the right courtesy of Hex Editor from Sourceforge.net (I’ve cropped out a lot of the text to the left).

Lo and behold there are some meaningful references to the software – Scribus in this case because the shortcut was on my desktop.

Of course a malicious shortcut might not be so clear and some will use commands on the command prompt to carry out their nefarious deeds.

The good news is that you don’t need to check every shortcut file with a Hex editor. Right-click on the shortcut and then left-click on Properties. Click on the Shortcut tab and check the Target box to see what the shortcut will actually do. Don’t rely on the icon, that’s easy to change and doesn’t mean anything. Does anyone remember that old urban myth about the file with a teddy bear icon being a virus. It wasn’t, but possible it was a bad choice of icon.

Posted by Tim Smith on January 30, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (4)

What with the current threats to USB disks (memory keys, hard disks, memory cards), it is probably a good idea to disable Autoplay in Windows. If you have XP Pro this can be done through the Group Policy Editor, but that’s not an option for XP Home users, who have to edit the Registry directly.

There’s an alternative in the form of the Microsoft PowerToy TweakUI. This provides a person friendly and safe way to make the required changes in the Registry

Left-click on the small pluses by My Computer and AutoPlay. Left-click on Types in the left hand column and click in the box Enable Autoplay for removable drive so the tick disappears. Click on OK.

To be really safe, it’s also a good idea to access the contents of USB keys and drives with the right-click menu in My Computer, rather than a simple double-click. Select Explore from the menu.

This may make some devices like the ClickFree Backup Drive a little less convenient but I’d say that’s a small price to pay to stay safe.

Posted by Tim Smith on January 27, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (5)

I discovered SmallBasic a couple of months ago and was very impressed as way for people to start with programming. It offers far more than the first programming language I ever learnt ( Locomotive’s Basic 2* under GEM ) with code completion and constant help for the information required by the various commands. Microsoft’s Channel 9 website has an interesting interview with the creator of SmallBasic, Vijaye Raji.

The video above is a Silverlight video, if you cant view it head over to the video page on Channel 9, where it can be downloaded in a variety of formats including iPod and PSP.

*I see there is no actual Wikipedia page on this language, perhaps I should dig out the old manual and write something.

Posted by Tim Smith on January 21, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (3)