Tom Keating : VoIP & Gadgets Blog
Tom Keating
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Windows on ARM - New Tablet Operating System With Some Limitations

February 10, 2012


Microsoft Windows President Steven Sinoksky OR is this Bruce Willis?

The next version of Windows will run full-sized desktop applications on low-power ARM-based tablets. However, the only desktop applications approved to appear on ARM devices will be those designed by Microsoft such as Internet Explorer 10, Office, and the Windows file explorer. Affectionately known as WOA (Windows On Arm), it includes desktop versions of Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote.

In an lengthy blog post, Microsoft's Steven Sinofsky, president of the Windows division explained how WOA will work. In a nutshell, you can think of WOA as a specialized version of Windows 8 designed for ARM processors.

Japan Earthquake Devastates Global Chip Production

March 21, 2011


The Japanese earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear reactor problems have had a devastating effect not just on people's live and property, but also the Japanese semiconductor industry which accounts for 25% of the global supply of silicon wafer. This will affect pricing on everything from PCs to smartphones to gadgets. Not good. Check out the news with additional information after the jump...

Hitachi Launches Three Terabytes (3TB) Drives

December 15, 2010


2TB not enough hard drive space? Looking for 3TB? Well, Hitachi GST today has launched a trio of three terabytes (3TB) hard drives.

First up, the new 3TB Hitachi Deskstar Internal Hard Drive Kit breaks the 2.2TB capacity limit on 32-bit Windows XP systems with no extra hardware required, i.e. special SATA card. Second up is a new 3TB Hitachi XL USB 2.0 drive for external storage and backup. Last up are the new 3TB Hitachi Deskstar 7K3000 and 5K3000 hard drive families now shipping to OEMs and the channel for system builders and VARs.

So how does the Hitachi 3TB stack up against the Western Digital 2TB hard drive I just reviewed? Well, first off, I can tell you Hitachi's 2TB version retails for $169.99 vs.

Opera Mini iPhone Review

April 13, 2010


Opera Mini has just been approved and is available in the Apple App Store. I have to admit Opera Mini was my favorite browser on my old clunky Apache 6700 Windows Mobile 6.5 phone. It was lightning fast. Opera Mini uses caching servers to compress images and text before sending the content down to your mobile device, which is what makes it so fast.

I downloaded and tested Opera Mini on my iPhone 3GS this morning and here are my thoughts.

NIC fixes VoIP for Gamers - Ok if you say so

March 24, 2009

Is it me, or this $130 NIC optimized for VoIP overkill? The idea behind this network interface card (NIC) is that it optimize packets and prioritizes games while offloading the voice processing from the CPU.

According to PC World: ...at the 2009 Game Developer's Conference, Bigfoot Networks has two announcements. The first: they are releasing the $130 Killer Xeno Pro card. The big deal this time around is that they've been able to get prices down, beef up the memory and pack on an additional chip that can offload the voice chat. A 400GHz NPU (as in Network Processing Unit -- oh, joy, another acronym!) bypasses the Windows network stack while an integrated audio chip offloads VoIP.

Greatest Linux Command Ever!

March 11, 2009

This is the greatest Linux command ever! Definitely my favorite.
find ./ -name \*.html -printf '%CD\t%p\n' | grep "03/10/08" | awk '{print $2}' | xargs -t -i mv {} temp/

What it does is look (find) for files that end in .html uses the printf option to format the 'find' output, then passes it to grep for searching for a certain date, then awk for printing a certain field, and finally xargs for executing a certain command.

Let's break it down...

The printf part within the find command has the format '%CD\t%p\n'.

%Cx = File's last status change time in the format specified by x. x=D. D=date in the format mm/dd/yy
\t = Horizontal tab
%p = file's name
\n = newline

So basically it outputs the file's last status change followed by a horizontal tab, then the filename, and then a new line. But before it outputs it, it sends it to 'grep' which searches the output and only outputs lines with "03/10/09".

Example so far: (minus the awk, xargs and mv commands)
find ./ -name \*.html -printf '%CD\t%p\n' | grep "03/10/09"
Outputs this: (notice the tab to separate the 2 fields)
03/10/09        ./2005/05/index.html
03/10/09        ./2005/03/index.html
03/10/09        ./2005/04/index.html
03/10/09        ./linked-in.html
03/10/09        ./consumer-electronics/samsung-bribery-news.html
03/10/09        ./technology/iptv/index.html

Now send this output into the awk command (awk '{print $2}') which parses it and pulls out the 2nd column/field (hence the tab character), which is the filename, including the path.

Here's the output you now have after adding awk '{print $2}' in:
./2005/05/index.html
./2005/03/index.html
./2005/04/index.html
./linked-in.html
./consumer-electronics/samsung-bribery-news.html
./technology/iptv/index.html

Next, send this output of "exact path + filename" to xargs for execution in the Linux shell.

The "xargs -t -i mv {} temp/" part basically takes the input from the previous commands (files named .html modified on 3/10/09) and moves (mv) them to the temp/ folder.

The xargs command can do anything.

Free snom Flexor CTI for Outlook Application offers Advanced Telephony Features

December 11, 2008

snom and Camrivox today announced free VoIP telephony integration with Microsoft Outlook with snom Flexor CTI software for Microsoft Outlook. Microsoft Outlook is the most widely used contact manager with a market share of over 60% of email users. A free CTI app for snom's VoIP phones? I remember the days where you had to pay thousands of dollara for a CTI server. No CTI server required for this app nor the thousands of dollars!

The highlights of this integration are:
On-screen Click-to-Dial makes calling really simple and screen pop-ups when someone calls Calls, made or received, automatically create a journal entry with the call details to build up a call log Supports Microsoft Outlook 2003 & 2007 snom Flexor CTI enables users of snom's 3xx series and snom 820 VoIP telephones to integrate their telephony with Outlook.

Black Friday Results are in!

December 1, 2008

It appears it just might be a Merry Christmas even with the doom & gloom surrounding the economy. I guess President-elect Barack Obama must be the Messiah, since he's already creating miracles and he hasn't even been sworn in yet. Or it could just be that credit card loving Americans just don't know when to quit spending & charging.

Check this out:

NRF Survey Finds Black Friday Gets Holiday Season Off to Energetic Start
-- Great Bargains, Pent-Up Demand Drove Shoppers to Stores, Web

Though the holiday season is far from over, retailers across the country are breathing a collective sigh of relief after shoppers headed to stores and websites in droves over the weekend. According to the National Retail Federation's 2008 Black Friday Weekend survey, conducted by BIGresearch, more than 172 million shoppers visited stores and websites over Black Friday weekend, up from 147 million shoppers last year.*

Shoppers spent an average of $372.57 this weekend*, up 7.2 percent over last year's $347.55.

Force Skype HQ Video Mode with any webcam

December 1, 2008

So you want Skype High Quality (HQ) video, but aren't willing to shell out for a nice dual-core processor and a high-end Logitech camera, eh? Well, no worries - Nodewave has a Force 'Skype' HQ Video app that allows you to Enable/Disable (and even configure) High-Quality Video in Skype, and even High-Definition Video regardless of your camera or processor.

So if Santa doesn't stick a high-end Logitech Orb AF webcam (my favorite webcam) in your stocking for Christmas, then this hack might just be the way to go!

Killing off Vampire Power for Good!

November 28, 2008

It's been called both "vampire power" and "phantom load" -- likened to the power-hungry HAL 9000 computer (at left) in Stanley Kubrick's classic film 2001: A Space Odyssey.

It's the little unblinking red light on the television set that is silently drawing energy from the grid; studies have shown it can add 10% or more to a household energy bill.

Now Spanish entrepreneurs claim to have invented a way to end the problem that has bedeviled energy regulators, environmentalists and appliance manufacturers. They have patented an algorithm that can detect when an appliance is in standby mode and automatically switch it off completely.

The standby-mode killer has yet to be proven commercially and must contend with other new products designed to tackle the same problem. But, despite some doubters, the Spanish inventors say theirs is the only product able to completely do away with a large, and growing, world-wide problem.

Now how about that!

Get more at the Wall Street Journal.
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