Software utilities

About a month ago I bought a shiny new Samsung TV, SLN40B650. Its specs didn’t change much from a lower cost one, such as the 630 model, but it had a very nice feature, internet@TV widgets and the ability to read videos from a USB port. At first I didn’t think it would be such a great feature, since I already had an external DVD and DivX disc reader, but I tought it could be useful so I went for it. But a few days after receiving it, I tried to attach ax external 2.5 HD and… magic! It easily read all the files inside it! I tried some DivX movies and they played perfectly! I also had some DVD .vob files, and they played too! So I went on and tryed to copy some mkv files in my office PC from Bluray disc to the HDD and they played too! And also at a great quality! I don’t need the Bluray reader anymore, I was going for it, but hey, now I got it free! I’ll buy another HD instead, I could get some 2 TB disc for the same price! If you’re going to buy a new TV, go for a Samsung like the ones below.

P.S. Please check that the TV you choose has this feature!

Samsung UN55B8000 55-Inch 1080p 240 Hz LED HDTV, Samsung LN46B750 46-Inch 1080p 240 Hz LCD HDTV with Charcoal Grey Touch of Color, Samsung PN50B650 50-Inch 1080p Plasma HDTV
, Samsung LN52B750 52-Inch 1080p 240 Hz LCD HDTV with Charcoal Grey Touch of Color
or

A fully-functional iSCSI initiator

Building a SAN is not possible without a fully-functional iSCSI initiator. The wide range of features should be combined with an affordable price otherwise the product will never become the market leader. StarPort Professional is an iSCSI initiator that offers extensive list of features at low price – let’s have a closer look.

First of all, the StarPort Professional is a powerful iSCSI initiator. iSCSI uses standard TCP/IP to transmit data packets. In other words, iSCSI allows two hosts to connect and exchange SCSI commands over IP networks. iSCSI takes a popular high-performance local storage bus and emulates (virtualizes) it over the networks. iSCSI operates through your existing switching and IP infrastructure – so you need no additional hardware investment. Remote storage is represented as a local hard drive. You can view it as a device through Windows Explorer and manage it just like any local hard drive or other storage device.
StarPort Professional fully implements the iSCSI client side protocol enabling you to connect to a full range of remote devices such as disk arrays, tape drives, DVD-ROM, BD-ROM and HD-DVD image libraries. The StarPort Professional also supports ATA-over-Ethernet (AoE) which is a network protocol designed for simple high-performance access to SATA storage devices over Ethernet. AoE does not rely on network layers above Ethernet, such as IP and TCP. It is more comparable to Fibre Channel over Ethernet than iSCSI. StarPort Professional AoE support enables connectivity to remote storage devices over a standard Ethernet network, regardless of where the device resides. Another StarPort Professional’s feature is encryption support. Whenever StarPort Professional creates an image file, it can optionally encrypt it and export it to a iSCSI target. Encryption increases the target’s security and prevents unauthorized access. The last but not the least StarPort Professional’s feature is Ultra Fast CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, HD DVD-ROM, BD-ROM Emulation. It allows you to use virtual optical drives when and where you need them. The fact that all these features are available for less than 100 USD makes the product stand out among its competitors.

Imagine that you have a tool that allows you to save streaming videos right on your computer. Imagine that it is easy to use, it is free to download and use and that it is easy to operate… Is it like a dream? No, more like reality – with Save Tube Video.

A brand-new Save Tube Video will allow you to download online videos as .avi from any locations to your hard drive. The first program’s benefit is that it is absolutely free to install and use. You just download an .exe file, run the installation and then browse the Internet as usual. The program adds two new buttons to your browser’s toolbar and when you watch the video on any site like YouTube, RedTube or any other, hints you that it can be saved to your PC. You can save video in two most popular formats – .avi and .flv. The Save Tube Video also can resume downloads if the connection has been lost and supports multiple concurrent downloads. The program is really small (about 1,5 MB), which altogether with other features makes it an ideal choice for all video fans.

Hi! I recently updated my old iPhone 2G to the new 3.1 firmware. I also tried installing Cydia for additional applications and control options. I used BossPrefs for some times, and really appreciated the additional control it gave me on the iPhone, but the latest release kept telling me to upgrade to the new SBPrefs for optimized and updated features. i did it, but after a while I noticed that the battery lasted much less, droping from 3-4 days to one day, even less. So after searching for many solutions, I tried unistalling SBPrefs and voilà, my battery had new life! So if you upgraded to 3.1 and had problems with the iPhone battery, try this too!

Finally, after a ong long, too long time, for registering an .it domains there is no need of a fax! It is a great advancement, also considering that this is true for com domains since 1993! You can now register a domain much easier! This could also be a boost for .it domain prices, which will have a much larger market. If you want to register a .it domain, try the Italian mantainer Tophost!