Top 10 Windows Tools for IT Pros

They say you can tell a lot about a person by the tools they bring to the job. If you're a professional plumber or a carpenter, people will expect you to carry the right tools for the task at hand. The same holds true for IT pros. Those in the know will judge you by the depth and sophistication of the technical toolkit you bring to a support call.

To help you make a good first impression and to cement your reputation as a seasoned troubleshooting guru, I offer the following list of my top 10 must-have Windows utilities for PC support professionals. Some you probably already know. Others you may have heard of only in passing. But all deserve your consideration for a place in your PC support and diagnostics toolkit.

[ Short on time? Take the quick slide show tour: "Top 10 free Windows tools for IT pros, at a glance." ]

1. Sysinternals Suite

When Mark Russinovich and David Solomon embarked on their quest to fill what they perceived to be glaring holes in Windows' management and diagnostic capabilities, they couldn't possibly have known the impact their suite of tools and utilities would have on the greater Windows IT community. Yet here we are, a short decade later, and it's hard to imagine a world without Process Monitor, Autoruns, RootkitRevealer, and the rest of the Sysinternals Suite.

A lot has changed since those early days. Russinovich was eventually courted by Microsoft and now serves as a technical fellow overseeing the evolution of the Windows architecture (much to the benefit of users everywhere). Meanwhile, the Sysinternals Suite has been transformed from unofficial -- yet highly prized and admired -- collection of backdoor hacks into a must-have ensemble of fully sanctioned tools offered under the Microsoft TechNet banner.

There's not much else to say about Sysinternals except that, like all of the tools I've highlighted here, it's absolutely free. And no Windows professional should be without it. For shame!

2. HWiNFO32

What kind of CPU is in the PC you're using? Does it support hardware virtualization so that it can run Virtual Windows XP Mode under Windows 7? How old is the BIOS? Are all of its core hardware components running within normal voltage parameters? Are any components overheating or otherwise misbehaving?

Source:

http://www.infoworld.com/d/windows/top-10-windows-tools-it-pros-792

Most Trusted Japanese Parts Dealer Features the Best Quality Japanese Car Parts

The automotive industry is an ever-changing industry. Every phase in the history of cars is highlighted by technical innovations & new automobile concepts that are aimed at improving the people’s widely used means of transportation. As cars became more efficient, more convenient, more comfortable, more stylish & safer, the demand for high quality replacement auto parts also grew bigger. Auto users’ need for auto parts that could complement their car’s abilities became higher & in the same way, auto users became more & more particular about the quality of the auto parts they are purchasing.

Today, the fastest & the most efficient way of finding the best quality replacement performance auto parts & accessories for your car’s repair or enhancement are through an online store. One of the leading stores that offer you not only wide assortment of Japanese car parts but great deals on Toyota car Parts, Nissan Car Parts and Subaru Car Parts as well is General Japanese Spares. This store specializes in selling the best quality Japanese car Parts.

General Japanese Spares adheres to providing you the best Japanese Car Parts, aftermarket auto products & auto accessories for various Toyota models, Nissan models, Subaru Models elderly & new. It offers long list of Japanese car & van parts & great Japanese parts Discount deals, in its efforts to provide you the best satisfaction you ought to get.

Due to the tough competition & high demand for replacement & aftermarket auto parts, a lot of stores are offering very inviting Japanese Parts Discount deals both on Japanese Parts used & new. Don’t be in a hurry in purchasing replacement parts; be wise in choosing the parts you are going to use in your Japanese automobile or van. Stock Japanese Parts used in your automobile are made of high standards–standards that have been cultivated for over a century now.

Proper maintenance of your Japanese cars, minivan, van is needed in order for it to give you the most efficient service for a long period of time. It actually depends on you. Japanese cars are well-built, no doubt, but you've to do your part in keeping it in lovely shape & condition. It's inevitable for it to experience some automobile problems; too–just like all other cars–so it must be given care & attention, the parts that perform the most difficult tasks. Don’t worry; General Japanese Spares can help you do this with ease.

Most Trusted Japanese Parts Dealer Features the Best Quality Japanese Car Parts
By: Michael Holmes

General Japanese Spares have been in operation for over ten years supplying Subaru Car Parts, Nissan Car Parts, Toyota Car Parts at competitive prices.

Google Updates Chrome Browser for Linux

Stabler and with more features

The Google Chrome developers announced a few days ago the immediate availability of another important update of their wonderful web browser, for Linux and Mac OS X platforms. Among the major features brought by Google Chrome 3.0.196.0, we can mention that users can now drag tabs into new windows (restoring is also possible) and the fact that it uses the system font settings, such as antialiasing and hinting. Also, some ugly crashes were fixed and the tab focus experiment was reversed.

Highlights of Google Chrome 3.0.196.0:

• The ability to import bookmarks, saved passwords, browsing history and search engine from Mozilla Firefox;
• The ability to drag tabs off, into new windows. Restoring is also possible by dragging them again into the original Chrome window;
• The Google Chrome browser uses now the system font hinting and antialiasing setting;
• A password manager dialog was added and it can be accessed from Options -> Personal -> Show Saved Passwords;
• Fixed "long page scrolling" issues. No more lagging!

About Google Chrome

Google Chrome is a brand-new web browser that makes surfing the Internet more efficient and ergonomic by placing modules on each new opened tab. Instead of showing a blank page, Google Chrome offers you eight thumbnails, displaying the most visited websites, a history search bar and even the last ten closed tabs. Another breathtaking feature of Google Chrome is its amazing speed, from the moment you open it until it is closed.

The Google Chrome interface is simple and clean, allowing websites to benefit from the increased screen space. The tab bar is placed on top of the multi-functional main address bar. Why multi-functional? Because you can not only direct Chrome to a certain address but also perform history or Internet searches.

Download Google Chrome 3.0.196.0 for Ubuntu and Debian operating system right now from Softpedia.

Source: http://news.softpedia.com/news/Google-Updates-Chrome-Browser-for-Linux-118542.shtml

Chrome gives Google bookmark sync religion again

by Stephen Shankland

Google ditched its browser sync plug-in for Firefox a year ago, but the idea is resurfacing in Chrome in a way that makes me think of possibilities the technology could hold for Chrome OS.

The company is preparing to build a system to synchronize bookmarks across different versions of Chrome, Google's Tim Steele said in a mailing list posting on Friday. Google envisions extending the feature to other data types, including passwords, Steele and fellow programmer Idan Avraham said in a follow-up posting.

"We wanted to focus on bookmarks and get it right first before we think about other data types. We chose bookmarks both because they are generally the most important to users, but also because they are the hardest data type to sync," Avraham said.

Synchronizing bookmarks is a fairly basic concept. The Xmarks plug-in, formerly called Foxmarks, has solved the issue for years on Firefox, so users could move from a work computer to a home computer and still have their saved Web addresses intact. Google had its own though now extinct option, and now Mozilla itself is building a plug-in called Weave that synchronizes bookmarks, passwords, tabs, and other information. Yahoo's Delicious service has been available for years for people to store bookmarks centrally in the cloud and to share them with contacts as well.

So it's no surprise Google feels compelled to add bookmark sync to Chrome--especially given that the company plans to use a person's Google Account to save the list. Google likes the idea of storing the state of people's applications in the cloud, even if they're relying on a local computer's horsepower to run.

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ExpressionEngine: Powerful Content Management System

Many open source Content Management Systems are available in market to download and integrate in your website or blog. The main benefit for using open source application is that they are free of cost. Some of the popular open source CMS available in market are Wordpress, Joomla, Drupal & Mambo. They are quite known to the people. But today you will come to know about ExpressionEngine.

ExpressionEngine is a flexible, feature-rich open source content management system used by thousands of individuals, organizations, and companies to easily manage their websites. It is written in the world’s most popular web scripting language, PHP, and built on the MySQL database server.

ExpressionEngine is intended to be simpler to use than other content management systems. It requires knowledge of PHP, and has extensive online documentation. It is available free as “Core Version” and also available in “Personal” and “Commercial” version. One have to pay only one time fee for Both “Personal” and “Commercial” version. The current Version is 2.0 which was announced for release in “last summer of 2008″. EllisLab (Developer of ExpressionEngine) has stated the new version of Expression Engine, built on the CodeIgniter (an open source web application framework for use in building dynamic web sites with PHP) framework.

Pros of ExpressionEngine :

1. It Provides Excellent security track record and offers other security features like IP Banning, Email banning and Throttling.
2. It is easily extensible, if one has knowledge of PHP. Also, one can easily extend ExpressionEngine through Extensions, Plugins and Modules.
3. ExpressionEngine allows you to cache individual templates, queries and optimize your site down to to the EE tag level.
4. Because it’s commercial software, real resources are dedicated to writing quality documentation for ExpressionEngine.
5. It provides Customizable Control Panel in which one can add tabs, remove tabs, add links and write an extension that completely changes functionality. You can also theme it the way you’d like. Tailor the control panel to the project or client. The best part is that in the coming new version of EE, all the customization is supposed to be even easier.
6. In the new version of EE, all add-ons will be written using the PHP framework CodeIgniter. For anyone that has written add-ons using the current API, using CodeIgniter will be a welcome change.
7. Custom form field.
8. It is easy-to-deploy website in EE.
9. Has active forum with a small technical support staff employed by Ellis Lab and a wikipedia that contains useful ExpressionEngine tips and tricks.

Cons of ExpressionEngine:

1. Image upload / organization could definitely have been solved more elegantly.
2. Automatic thumbnails or scaling of images only available using a third party (non-certified) plugin.
3. Some default settings are for bloggers, not professional sites. Most professional users may want to turn off these functions.
4. There got to be an easier way to loose the index.php in the URLs

Source From: zealousweb.net/blog/

CEO Confirms Twitter Not for Sale

Here comes the reality after rumors were abound about a possible buyout of the social networking website Twitter by Apple Inc.

In a recent television interview, Twitter CEO Biz Stone has denied that they were planning to sell off the startup to Apple or to any other company for that matter. He added that Twitter was only two years old and there was a lot more to do in terms of growth and product features, the Reuters reported.

It was just two days ago that rumors were abound regarding the Apple buyout. The source of the rumor was a blog post by tech-blogger Michael Arrington of TechCrunch who had posted that Apple is indeed in the "final stages" of talks to buy twitter. It was then only a matter of time and the whole world was discussing the pros and cons of the deal. People were also skeptical about Apple's interest in Twitter.

Twitter is a fast-growing social networking tool that allows users to "tweet" their status in less than 140 characters. It has seen unprecedented growth over the past year and has gone on to become one of the most influential social networking tools, with a host of celebrities and famous personalities having a Twitter account.

You can also follow Techtree on Twitter by clicking here!

Source: http://www.techtree.com/India/News/CEO_Confirms_Twitter_Not_for_Sale/551-101739-643.html

Marketing Platform

A New Marketing Platform for Dropjack Members

SPNbabble is a micro-blogging platform similar to Twitter and specifically created for web professionals - webmasters, web developers, web designers, marketers, entrepreneurs, bloggers and business professionals of all stripes.

Why Should You Use SPNb@bble?

If you are already using sites like Twitter and Facebook for marketing, networking, branding, PR and building backlinks, then SPNbabble can save you a great deal of time and effort. Message posts on SPNbabble will simultaneously appear on Twitter, Friendfeed, Plurk, Tumblr and Facebook, if you have accounts on those services. And, we plan to tie SPNbabble into even more micro-blogging services.

SPNb@bble Features:

• Receive message posts via IM, SMS, email or web
• Account customization
• Direct Messaging
• Simultaneous posting to Twitter, Friendfeed, Plurk, Tumblr and Facebook
• Message Groups
• Automatic Friend Invites