technology

I've been getting truck loads of e-mail on which drivers I'm using with my Audigy 2 ZS on Windows 7. To try and stem the tide here's the quick findings: 1) The Audigy 2 ZS drivers that Windows installs from Windows Update for both 32-bit and 64-bit occasionally produce garbled audio. These are dated 2006 and are probably identical to the original Windows Vista release. 2) Newer drivers resolve this, or at least it hasn't happened in the last week I've been using these drivers....

The new build of Windows Live Essentials beta has been released, this is part of the Wave 3 rollout. Quick thoughts... Windows Live Messenger has had a large overhaul since 8.5. It is much better looking and intergrated better with the web services now. Windows Live Mail has reached the point where I would recommend people to use this over Outlook Express or Windows Mail, it looks clean and is faster than the Wave 2 release....

Update: For the Audigy 2 ZS people with garbled sound I was having the same issue, I noticed the Creative driver is pretty old dated 2006. Since installing the 'Daniel_K' drivers he did for Vista I've not had anymore issues. Update 2: Quick run through on what drivers I'm using and where I got them. Update 3: New release, fix issues with CMSS that older drivers had. Update 4: Resolving lower than normal volume compared to Windows XP and Windows Vista....

So here's a review of the HTC Touch HD, no I don't have one but the first are trickling into the UK:

The 5th Security Intelligence Report has been released this covers January to June 2008. The full report can be downloaded here. Here's a quick look at it: First up we see the percentage of browser exploits on Windows XP vs Windows Vista. We can see on Windows Vista only 5.7% of the exploits are targeting Microsoft code, while on Windows XP that figure is 42.3%. A break down of the security vulnerabilities on Windows XP looks like this, a mix of Microsoft and 3rd party vulnerabilities....

Check this guy out: Update: He pulled the video. He claims the Windows 7 Taskbar is copied from the Mac OS X dock. He even includes an edited image featuring the same Adobe icons he has in his dock to try and make it seem even more similar. Apart from that he also makes numerous mistakes and wrong assumptions about how the new Taskbar works, and does the standard everyone is copying Apple line, which is completely and utterly false yet it something the Apple fanboys repeat ad nauseum....

As many of you are aware although the backup in Windows Vista was easy to use - it had no control over exactly what you wanted backup. The only controls were things like pictures, documents, recorded TV etc, and of course if you've got lots of php files and things like that in your documents folder you had to select the other files option, which would pretty much backup everything on the system - resulting in extremely large backup files....

Have just been throwing my must-have applications onto my Windows 7 system and came across a nice surprise. There's a new build of WorldWide Telescope available. Here's the official blurb for those who haven't already tried it out: Immerse yourself in a seamless beautiful environment. WorldWide Telescope (WWT) enables your computer to function as a virtual telescope, bringing together imagery from the best ground and space-based telescopes in the world. Experience narrated guided tours from astronomers and educators featuring interesting places in the sky...

It's nice to see the New York Times continuing to publish nonsense, this time from John Markoff: Microsoft Introduces Windows 7, Ending Vista Brand The Vista brand? Here's a tip, Windows is the brand, Vista is the version of Windows. Alternative headline: Microsoft introduce new version of Windows, and gives it a new name. Microsoft introduced what it said would be a slimmer and more responsive version of its Windows operating system on Tuesday, while unceremoniously dropping the brand name Vista for the new product....

Couple of screenshots from the PDC build of Windows 7: New calculator, obviously but check out the Taskbar. Now Quick Launch has been merged with the rest of the Taskbar. Hovering over these icons will show all windows that are open with that particular application. Best of all, it will also show individual tabs within applications so if you've got 20 websites open in Internet Explorer you can jump to a tab from the Taskbar....