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The June issue of Computer Power User is just choc-full of my stuff, most of which was really fun to write.
Once again, one of mine is a "cover article," which always feels good. This time it is a 6-page write-up on Windows SP 1 on Page 56. I'm not a big fan of Vista, but SP1 makes it better by far, and you should definitely download and install it if you are forced to run Vista. I think my best line was "If you love Vista, it improves the OS's Letter Grade from an A to an A+; and if you don't, SP1 turns Vista from a D student into a C student."
Also printed is a review of PerfectDisk 2008 for VMWare, which is a good enough disk defragmenter to give Diskeeper a run for its money, but for less money, and EzMigration, which is a basic disk-cloning tool that's good for beginners, but unfortunately you must buy it before you can try it, which is a necessary business decision for this kind of software, but it always pains me. Both are on Page 79.
Because I wasn't busy enough, I looked at the Pinnacle PCTV HD Pro Stick on Page 34 which was something I saw in a Best Buy and thought would be interesting to review. Becha didn't know I pitch reviews too, didja? Anyway, it is a brilliant piece of hardware hobbled by average to mediocre software, though it is compatible with most of the Tivo-like software packages out there, so you can use it more efficiently. It really does let you watch HD-TV from over-the-air signals on your laptop or desktop with excellent picture quality.
And finally, I cover both the major web browsers in my monthly Beta Software column on Page 72. Firefox 3's beta is much farther along than Internet Explorer 8's beta, and is probably good enough to use regularly by the time you read this. Opera has just released their own beta, which I plan on covering next month.
The May 2008 issue of CPU Magazine is out, and it reflects a very busy month for me.
Page 77 has a 5-page round-up of 10 popular Linux distributions, which was a blast to write. I had most of my test machines up and running at the same time for a few weeks to use them all side by side, with all of them also running under VMWare Workstation concurrently too. Ubuntu 8.04 comes out on top as the best general-purpose Linux, but I'm quick to point out that most distros are geared for a certain type of user, and if you are that type of user, you'll probably find that distro best suited for you. While I prefer Gnome to KDE for a graphical desktop, I wish Ubuntu and Fedora would take some steps to simplify the occasionally random and sometimes cluttered GUI choices Gnome makes. I am very impressed with OpenSUSE's re-swizzling of the standard Gnome menus and GUI, and I wish Ubuntu would do the same. Favorite line: "...PCLinuxOS looks and feels like a slightly older version of Ubuntu slapped about the head and neck with a Simplicity Stick."
Two of my reivews are on Page 82. SPAMfighter is an innovative anti-spam plugin for Outlook and Outlook Express that uses the power of millions of other SPAMfighter users to identifiy spam far better than any Bayesian filter, but the free version drops advertising turds on your outgoing email, and $29 a year for the turd-free commercial version seems a tad overpriced to me unless you're really buried under spam. TotalMedia Extreme is a do-it-all DVD burner software suite that handles Blu-Ray and HD DVDs too. Very nice.
I also looked at Tritton Technologies' SEE-2 Xtreme on Page 33, which the good people of Tritton Technologies were nice enough to loan me a pre-production sample of. It basically gives you a DVI connection for an LCD monitor from any USB 2.0 port (they also sell a VGA version), allowing you to add up to 8 monitors. The video is plenty fast enough for web browsing and YouTube videos, but gaming looks rather poor.
Finally, Page 75 has my monthly Beta Software column, where I cover a real gem called ClipX. ClipX is the kind of utility I just can't live without: it keeps track of everything I copy into the Windows Clipboard, and allows me to Paste something back from the last 20 things I Copied by pressing Control-Alt-V instead of the typical Control-V. A menu pops up and shows all my clipboard items, including graphics. The beta is stable, the software free, and it takes less than 500k of RAM. Highly recommended.
So, it seems I haven't been very diligent in doing updates to my own site, which is really a shame since I have quite a few things to talk about these days, what with the new notebook, the elections, Windows Vista, and what seems like about 6 to 10 pages of stuff I've written in every issue of CPU Magazine.
So let's hope I catch up and make The LlamaPen interesting to read again...
Though none were cover stories this month, the April 08 issue of Computer Power User Magazine has a lot to offer you if your primary goal in life is to see how much I can write in a single issue. So I guess it offers you a lot if you are my Mom. Or my Grandma.
Page 59 has a 7-page article of mine on "covering your tracks" while online and using other computers, though the advice applies to pretty much any computer you use, such as a PC you share with family members at home, or your office PC. I also cover some hardware that can enhance your security, like the Corsair Flash Padlock (which is good, though not foolproof, security), APC's BioPod fingerprint reader (which doesn't work with Firefox - come on!), and the Rohos Login Key, which transforms any USB Flash Drive into a key that can lock and unlock your PC.
My monthly beta column, "The Bleeding Edge of Software," is on Page 72 this month, covering FeedReader (a great RSS reader) and AdMuncher, which manages to remove ads from both web pages and from any program that has an ad-displayer-dealy built-in.
Finally, on Page 79 I cover MojoPac Freedom, which is a "virtual windows running on a thumbdrive" kind of program that actually works and is free, and NTI Shadow 3, which is a near-revolutionary backup program that sort of acts like a software RAID running in Windows. It watches folders you designate, and then automatically copies files to a second device (hard drive, thumb drive, etc.) as they are added or updated. It's a bargain at about $30.
There is one other totally wild way to do download the programming into your hardware. It is filled with paradoxes and potential gotchas, but when set correctly, you won't have to reboot your computer to download your programming.
This alternative method is to run Windows 98 (or its version of DOS) inside a VMWare virtual machine running inside Windows XP. (Vista untested. Sorry.)
Don't even ask me how this manages to work, but it does. Somehow, even though Windows XP won't allow for the direct control of the keyboard port by the Thrustmaster programming software, that very same software running inside Windows 98 or DOS inside a virtual machine running inside XP can. I just did a whole bunch of testing this morning, and it definately works with the FLCS + WCS. It probably works for the other classic Thrustmaster hardware too.
Amazingly the VMWare software you need is totally free. Windows 98 SE, however, is not, but you probably have access to an old Windows 98 SE installation CD if you look around / ask around / Google around hard enough. You may even have one sitting in a box of stuff that came with your old PC.
Here's the procedure:
First, download and install VMWare Server, which is a totally free software package for emulating computers within Windows. I myself use VMWare Workstation, which is a commercial product I reviewed earlier this year for CPU Magazine. Everything I've read says that VMWare Server and VMWare Workstation should work the same way for this.
As of late 2006, there are still many, many websites that deal with Thrustmaster's "classic" high-end hardware, which is a testament to the quality of the hardware and the devotion of its users. Not bad for a 10+ year old product set.
There are also plenty of sites that, though they may not directly deal with Thrustmaster products, are still useful for anyone trying to keep using their old hardware.
As such, here is a list of websites that you'll probably want to know about, broken down into Hardware, Software, and Miscelaneous.
Hardware
Thrustmaster
No surprise here. Thrustmaster is still in business, and they still have a "downloads" page that has the classic DOS software. You can also buy a snazzy Cougar HOTAS or a bunch of other weird, pointless hardware. They may also sell spare parts.
CH Products' Replacement Parts Store
While CH Products may have seemed like "the enemy" to Thrustmaster users in the mid 1990's, the fact is that they're the best source of certain spare parts today. For example, the $10 "Potentiometer - HP100, 100K" is basically the same "pot" as the one used for the FLCS and the WCS, and it fits perfectly, and its probably of higher quality than the original. The various springs there may be just the ticket as well.
All: I am actively seeking a set of Bob Church's digital StickWorks chips of my own, mostly so that I can add some useful information to this page, but also to see if the setup is significantly better than what I use every day right now (currently, a FLCS and WCS Mk II, along with CH Pedals). I already have several F22 sticks and many TQS units all cleaned up and ready to go should I ever locate some StickWorks chips. If you have some StickWorks chips (or Thrustmaster hardware that already has them) you are no longer use them, please consider contacting me. Thanks in advance.
Here's a third-party review of the digital stickworks product. It is probably the last, best description of all that this upgrade.
Booting Into DOS page.
This is the big picture.
