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With IntelliType Pro keyboard software, you can customize the unique features of your Microsoft keyboard to fit your needs. Many keys can be reassigned to open a program, file or Web page, or to perform commands such as Find, Show Desktop, or other application-specific functions. You can also disable keys you sometimes press accidentally, such as CAPS LOCK, and modify keyboard settings, such as updated horizontal scrolling and zoom slider functionality. IntelliType Pro software even offers extended application support, as well as biometrics support for advanced identity management.
With IntelliPoint mouse software, you can customize the unique features of your Microsoft mouse to fit your needs. Each mouse button - including the wheel button - can be reassigned to perform a command or keyboard shortcut such as Print, Close, or an application-specific function. You can also modify mouse settings, such as pointer speed and horizontal scrolling. IntelliPoint also includes the Magnifier, which makes it easier to read a small block of text on a Web page or to enhance a photo. IntelliPoint software even offers biometrics support for advanced identity management.

Download: Keyboard Driver
Download: X86 Version (Mouse Driver)
Download: X64 Version (Mouse Driver)

Hopefully I don't have to tell you that if you don't have a Microsoft Keyboard and/or Mouse, then this is of no use to you?

It's been (somewhat)common knowledge for a while now that hard drives are slowly transitioning from using 512-byte sectors to using 4KB sectors. (ExtremeTech reported on it in 2005, for example.) But, as a recent BBC story points out, Windows XP users may be in for trouble when what is currently an "advanced format" becomes the standard next year.

extremetech

PCSTATS Beginner's Guides are some of the clearest and easiest to follow how-to articles available on the internet. From hardware upgrades to home networking to data backups, massive collections of PC tips, tweaks and tuning advice for Vista and Windows XP, you'll find it here on PCSTATS.com!
What we are trying to do with these guides is to strip the mystery out of computer setup and servicing.

pcstats

Windows 7 is an impressive and refined OS with fun and productive new features. (In fact, I award it a rare 5-out-of-5 stars in my own review.) But there are some important pieces missing. And while we might debate Microsoft's rationale for not including these solutions in Windows, the truth is, they're easy enough to find and install separately. Best of all, they're free.

winsupersite

One week after releasing security updates for its Firefox browser, the Mozilla Foundation has also updated Thunderbird. In version 3.0.2, the developers have closed several critical holes that can be exploited to compromise a system.

h-online

SANTIAGO, Chile – A devastating magnitude-8.8 earthquake struck Chile early Saturday, shattering buildings and bridges, killing at least 78 people and setting off a tsunami that threatened every nation around the Pacific Ocean — roughly a quarter of the globe.

Chilean TV showed devastating images of the most powerful quake to hit the country in a half-century: In the second city of Concepcion trucks plunged into the fractured earth, homes fell, bridges collapsed and buildings were engulfed in flames. Injured people lay in the streets or on stretchers.

Many roads were destroyed and electricity and water were cut to many areas.

There was still no word of death or damage from many outlying areas that were cut off by the quake that struck at 3:34 a.m. (1:34 a.m. EST, 0634 GMT) 200 miles (325 kilometers) southwest of Santiago.

Experts warned that a tsunami could strike anywhere in the Pacific, and Hawaii could face its largest waves since 1964 starting at 11:19 a.m. (4:19 p.m. EST, 2119 GMT), according to Charles McCreery, director of the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center.

Tsunami waves were likely to hit Asian, Australian and New Zealand shores within 24 hours of the earthquake. The U.S. West Coast and Alaska, too, were threatened.

A huge wave swept into a populated area in the Robinson Crusoe Islands, 410 miles (660 kilometers) off the Chilean coast, President Michele Bachelet said, but there were no immediate reports of major damage there.

Bachelet said the death toll was at 78 and rising, but officials had no information on the number of people injured. She declared a "state of catastrophe" in central Chile.





YahooNews.com

Dragon Age/Origins is a fantasy computer role playing game that takes players on a journey across the Kingdom of Ferelden on the continent of Thedas. After many had thought them extinct, Dragons have reappeared in the World. Dragon Age: Origins, as the title suggests, has an over arching story/plot surrounding this new “Dragon Age” which is intertwined differently depending both on the type of character being played and the actions players take throughout the game. This gives the opportunity for Dragon Age Origins to have a different ending and story each time it’s played.

savedelete.com

Coming up with a way to characterize a major comparison of desktop processors like this one isn't always easy. Since our initial review of Intel's Clarkdale processors, the desktop CPU market has shifted in a number of ways both big and small. For one, Clarkdale CPUs have proliferated everywhere, and we've gotten our hands on one model, the Core i3-530, that promises to be a much better value than the relatively high-end Core i5-661 that we first reviewed. To counter, AMD has introduced five new value-oriented CPUs, ranging from two cores to four, including the Athlon II X4 635, a potent value quad-core priced directly opposite the Core i3-530.

techreport

When NBC kicked off its coverage of the 2010 Winter Olympics on Friday night, it was with a much different introduction than originally planned. The broadcast started at 7:30 p.m. ET with a somber intro from Bob Costas and Matt Lauer that detailed the death of Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvil earlier in the day. It was a respectful and necessary decision, but far from the triumphant opening sequence that was doubtlessly in the can.

After a brief description of the tragedy from Costas and Lauer, the pair sent it to NBC News anchor Brian Williams, who delivered a lengthy report on the death. At the start of the piece, Williams warned viewers that "the pictures are very tough for some people to watch," but he spoke for just a few more seconds before video of Kumaritashvili's final run began. So when the video opened with a shot of the 21-year-old waiting in the gate before his training run, it was a bit jarring. It became more so when the video jumped ahead to the horrific crash, which was shown in slow motion. Seconds later, a longer, slower shot was shown. A still photo of Kumaritashvili receiving CPR was also broadcast. During the eight-minute report that opened the show, NBC showed the crash three times, the final two of which lingered on shots of the Georgian's body.


YahooNews.com

Weather service Weather Underground has a new trick up its sleeve: it can now show you the weather on a full-screen Google Map. The company is aptly calling it Fullscreenweather.com.

Fullscreenweather works just like Google Maps, meaning you can use your mouse wheel to zoom in and out, as well as use it to drag around the surface. It also includes quick toggles to change the terrain type, as well as what weather layer you're looking at--like temperature, precipitation, and cloud cover.

news.cnet.com


I like this alot MBF

Luckily, we’ve somehow managed to sort through over a hundred previously-for-sale titles that you can now play for free, and synthesized our list down to just the essential games you’d still want to play. Most of them look dated, for sure, but whether you’re looking for some decent side-scrolling action, nostalgic hits from the golden age of adventure, classic titles of interest, or even MMORPGs, you’re bound to find something in the following pages.

gamesradar

Tuesday's security updates from Microsoft have crippled Windows XP PCs with the notorious Blue Screen of Death (BSOD), users have reported on the company's support forum. Complaints began early yesterday, and gained momentum throughout the day.

"I updated 11 Windows XP updates today and restarted my PC like it asked me to," said a user identified as "tansenroy" who kicked off a growing support thread . "From then on, Windows cannot restart again! It is stopping at the blue screen with the following message: 'A problem has been detected and Windows has been shutdown to prevent damage to your computer.'"

Others joined in with similar reports. "There is something seriously wrong with the update. I can't even open in safe mode," said "Ghellow," referring to Windows diagnostic mode that's often a last-chance way to boot a PC.

PC World

Firefox on Windows 7 had been behaving...oddly. The app would simply stop working and exit to the desktop. Yet, parts of the Firefox kernel would remain in memory, making it impossible to restart the application without firing up Task Manager and manually killing the process. It happened a half dozen times a day. I was beginning to contemplate a browser change.

tomshardware

Tablet may be revolutionary, but it sounds like a feminine hygiene product

Given today's instant response to Apple's hotly anticipated, yet inexplicably named "iPad," one would think there are absolutely no women working in the upper echelons in Cupertino. And as a quick click on Apple's executive bios page reveals, one would be right. Still, as technology-entrenched as Apple's male monopoly may be, at least one guy must know a woman.

So why, Apple? Why? Why did you go with "iPad?" How could you not have seen this coming? "MADtv" saw it a couple of years ago when it satirized your MP3 player commercials — and that show's totally canceled! Maybe if a single employee, from Apple CEO Steve Jobs to the guy who fetches his lattes, was familiar with the former Fox sketch comedy show, the joke wouldn't be on Apple. But it is.

MSNBC

While women got knocked around, Coke and Budweiser shined as usual

Let the record show that 2010 was the year of older women being viciously tackled in Super Bowl commercials. It's about time: These old biddies have been getting away with far too much lately.

Of course until kickoff, 2010 was known as the Year of the Tim Tebow Pro-Life ad, in which the ex-Florida quarterback and his mom teamed to bring America a message funded by that conservative Christian fun bunch, Focus on the Family. The commercial was kept strictly under wraps until Sunday morning, when CBS released what turned out to be a rather timid, benign message which had Mrs. Tebow talking about her "miracle baby."

MSNBC

Starting in Q1 this year, all new hard drive models will contain the "big sector" footprint that Western Digital launched late last year with its "4k advanced format" 'EARS' drives.

After dropping Seagate a line to ask whether they were planning models on the new format to challenge WD, we were informed that the whole industry is behind the transition that is taking place right now. Good to know!

To quote Seagate PR directly: "International Disk Drive Materials and Equipment Association (IDEMA) have agreed that beginning January 1, 2011 all new product releases with SATA interfaces will support Advanced Formatted media."

The 4KB sector size is an advancement from the 512Byte sector size that all hard drives (as in, mechanical media) have adhered to for the longest time. The larger sector bring efficiency advantages because as the total size of drives increase, less sectors have to be used, and less ECC data overall has to be written, physical saving space. The downside is that there are issues of compatibility with older operating systems, however the drives will contain a "512B emulation mode" (at a performance loss) for the foreseeable future.

bit-tech.net

While it may seem that every week brings a new 'next big thing' in the world of batteries, this latest development in the world of portable power should have heads turning nonetheless.

As reported over on HotHardware, researchers at Imperial College London - in partnership with boffins at Volvo, interested in creating hybrid electric cars with better ranges - have come up with a plastic capable of storing a charge in much the same way as a traditional battery.

The so-called 'plastic supercapacitor' is an impressive leap forward in the concept of power storage, allowing the actual casing of a device to provide the power it requires to run. In the case of cars, this means non-structural elements such as the bumpers and interior spaces could provide additional power for increased range; in portable devices, the actual case itself could store the energy required to make the device work.

The technology could be used in portable gadgets in two ways: certainly at first it's likely to be as an additional power source, helping to make a more traditional Lithium-Ion or Lithium-Polymer battery last that little bit longer; once the technology has been sufficiently improved, however, it's possible that the battery can be dispensed of entirely - paving the way for thinner, lighter portable devices.

bit-tech.net

Until last month, I had a relic of a computer on which I used Windows XP Professional. I liked XP; I found it reasonably easy to use. Of course, I learned most of my computer skills on XP, so I admit that I am partial to it for that reason. When I replaced that computer, I purchased a Lenovo that came with Windows Vista installed and the promise of a free Windows 7 upgrade. My husband replaced his relic PC at the same time. We had heard terrible things about Vista, so we sent away for our free upgrades as soon as the computers were unpacked.
Immediate problems

The first problem we had with Lenovo's Windows 7 upgrade program is that it is not entirely free. We had to pay about $24 USD for materials (discs, I presume) and shipping for two upgrades. Alright, but why couldn't we just do a totally free download? I mean, Microsoft sells downloads of all their software, why not just give us a code for a free download? Of course, it's nice to have discs, and we still wanted our sort-of free upgrades, so we paid it.

Tech Republic

The Phenom II X2 is nothing more than a Phenom II X4 with two cores disabled. Originally these cores were disabled because of low yields, but over time yields on quad-core Phenom IIs should be high enough to negate the need for a Phenom II X2. This is most likely why AMD removed the Phenom II X2 from its official price list. It's also why the stranger Phenom II derivatives are also absent from AMD's price list. All that's left are Phenom II X4s pretty much.

anandtech