cFos Speed is a unique utility that I stumbled upon while looking for a way to optimize my Internet connection. I was getting frustrated at just simply browsing the Internet while downloading a large file or watching a Internet based video while talking to my wife on Skype.
Basically what this utility does is something called “‘Traffic Shaping”. Traffic Shaping is the process of looking at the data that is flowing in and out of your computer to the Internet and regulating that flow to optimize your experience. So for example, in my first scenario of downloading a large file while trying to browse the Internet, the process of downloading that large file ties up the computer not because the computer can’t handle it, but because the large string of data coming down is so long that the computer cannot send something back out (for instance a browser request to go to google.com) in a timely manner. It may take several seconds for the browser to get a break in the long stream of downloading data to send out the request. What you end up seeing is a very sluggish or even non-responding browser. With cFos speed installed, when the browser requests something, cFos Speed will temporarily stop the download stream, send the request out from the browser, and then resume the download. This all happens very quickly and the end result is that the download doesn’t appear to stop and the browser is very responsive. cFos Speed does this by assigning priorities for programs and protocols giving high priorities to the programs that deal with short sporadic data requests and low priorities for programs that handle large data strings. cFos Speed is easy to install and for basic needs configures itself over the course of a day or so of your normal activity. You will see no loss in download speeds and you will see dramatically decreased ping times and crisp browsing while downloading large files or watching bandwidth-hogging video. For gamers, this utility will reduce or even eliminate lagging in your Internet based games.
cFos Speed is highly configurable and is compatible with all versions of Windows including the new Windows 7 and has native versions for both 32 and 64 bit Windows.
This is probably THE most useful utility I have ever installed and is now my number one install after building a new system, even before I install an anti-virus! (Although I do install the anti-virus RIGHT after cFos Speed) ;o)
cFos Speed: For $23, don’t surf without it!
tim Productivity, Tech, Utilities, Vista64, WEB, Windows 7
Genie-Soft has released a major update to their backup products. Version 8 sports many enhancements and improvements over their already outstanding product. See previous Blog Entry.
Quoted from http://www.genie-soft.com/products/gbm/whats_new.html:
Genie-Soft Backup Solutions – Products – Genie Backup Manager Home 8.0
| What’s New in Genie Backup Manager Home 8.0 |
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Disaster Recovery |
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GBM can recover your system from malicious spyware, virus attacks, system failure, or deletion with the enhanced PE technology that also supports Vista and you can perform your Disaster Recovery backups online
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Free Open File Backup Option |
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GBM currently added Microsoft’s latest Volume Shadow-Copy Service (VSS) framework, to permit consistent backup of open files without the need for additional applications or plug-ins.
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Enhanced Online Backup Integration |
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Now it is easier to view, manage and delete your online backup storage. Added Bandwidth Throttling to control how much GBM takes from internet connection. Also improved connectivity that auto resumes when connection returns.
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Improved Scheduling Capabilities |
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Now it is easier to protect and rotate backups with the intuitive easy to use scheduling interface that is integrated in the backup wizard with two modes; Basic Schedule and Advanced Schedule
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REV Support |
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Now with the new Iomega REV support, users can automatically erase, enable/disable write and password protection before and after backup. Disaster recovery bootable disc and jobs can also be made on REV devices
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Enhanced Graphical User Interface |
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Now more organized with clear options making GBM’s interface better than ever |
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Enhanced Filtering Options |
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Added support of Date and file size filtering and newly added in scripting |
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Control Power Options and Backup Speed |
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You can control backup speed before or during backup and enable/disable power options or change them during backup.
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Pause/Snooze Backups |
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You can pause currently pause backups and postpone scheduled backups to start later via snoozing
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New Compression Engine |
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The new zip engine is more resource friendly making backups faster and with better compressing capabilities |
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Improved Connectivity |
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GBM now detects when backup destination is accessible and also reports disconnected network drives being backed up
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admin Application, Utilities, Vista64
This is a superb, fast, and versatile ripper/converter.
Quoted from http://www.poikosoft.com/index.html:
Easy CD-DA Extractor – Music Converter
| Easy CD-DA Extractor is a music converter that copies music CDs, converts music files from one format to another, and burns music CDs, MP3 CDs, WMA CDs, and regular Data CDs.
Supports all popular audio file formats such as 3G2, 3GP, MP1, MP2, MP3, Windows Media Audio, Ogg Vorbis, MP4, M4A, AAC, aacPlus (HE-AAC, AAC+, HE-AAC+PS, eAAC+), FLAC, Musepack, WavPack, WAV, AIFF, Monkey’s Audio, CUE and M3U.
Easy CD-DA Extractor is a four-in-one software that includes the following modules:
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| 1) Audio CD Ripper
Rips audio CDs with accurate, secure, high-performance CD ripping engine. Bypasses ‘copy-protections’. Reads CDs that are in bad condition and reports possible errors on the disc.
Automatically downloads disc information such as Artist, Track Titles, etc, and Cover Art image from the Internet.
Allows editing of ID3/metadata and can embed advanced metadata fields such as Cover Art image to the files.
Includes advanced audio processing features such as Peak Level Normalization, RMS Normalization, and Fade In/Out.
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| 2) Audio File Format Converter
Music Converter – Converts audio files from one format to another.
Allows editing of ID3/metadata and can embed advanced metadata fields such as Cover Art image to the files. Cover Art images can be downloaded from the Internet using the brilliant ‘Amazon Search’ feature.
Can perform advanced audio processing such as Peak Level Normalization, RMS Normalization, and Fade In/Out.
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Writes Audio CDs that are compatible with all home/car CD-players.
Burns Audio CDs on-the-fly from all audio file formats.
Writes CD-Text (a CD-Text compatible CD-player can display the track titles while playing the CD).
BURN-Proof enabled for error-free CD burning.
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| 4) MP3/WMA CD Creator
Writes MP3 CDs and WMA CDs that are playable on a CD/DVD-player that supports the feature. MP3 and WMA CDs can also be played on a regular CD-ROM drive of a computer.
Supports long JOLIET-filenames.
Can also be used to write standard Data CDs.
BURN-Proof enabled for error-free CD burning.
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State-of-the-art audio encoding technology – Easy CD-DA Extractor includes the most advanced audio codec, aacPlus from the Coding Technologies.
admin Application, Entertainment, Music, Utilities, Vista64
When was the last time you backed up your data? Have you EVER backed up??? If you do back up, do you backup to MULTIPLE locations? I violated the last statement once… never again! I backed up my CD collection to mp3 files on a Maxtor USB drive… about 25GB of music. One day the drive disappeared from Windows… all of my mp3 music gone! And I didn’t have an alternate back up of the music anywhere… I was looking at the prospect of re-ripping several hundred CDs again! So I was diligent but STILL lost all of my mp3 music! Lesson learned: BACKUP TO MULTIPLE LOCATIONS. I was able to recover the dead drive and get my mp3 music back eventually, but that is the topic of another post…
I looked at many backup solutions including Nero, Backup MyPC, Norton Backup, Windows built-in backup, Retrospect, Arcsoft, XDrive, and the open-source Amanda. All of these are either very expensive, hard to use, or not robust enough. I was looking for one that could backup anywhere, including USB/Firewire drives, FTP, and Internet. In addition, I wanted encryption, password protection, and a easy to use interface.
I found a great solution at a site called Genie-soft. Their solution called Backup Manager 7 does everything I need and more. I downloaded the trial version and tried various backups to USB drives, FTP to a site I own, and an Internet account with Genie-soft (free limited trial account). The interface is very intuitive and crisp. I have been using it for almost a month now and it has worked flawlessly in both XP and Vista64.
So don’t wait!! Backup your data now to more than one location and sleep like a baby using Genie-soft.
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digg Application, Productivity, Utilities, Vista64, WEB
I am always looking for the ‘ultimate’ program launcher… I just HATE desktop clutter. I’ve been using the Windows ‘QuickLaunch’ toolbar for many years… it helps a lot but viewing those tiny icons gives me a headache!
This is a really nice looking, functional launcher that does the job very well and it looks great also! It has many features not found in other launchers such as application windows minimizing to the dock, multi-monitor support (I LIKE that), Vista support (real-time window previews), and running application indicator in addition to the normal features also found in other similar launchers like auto-hide, drag-n-drop interface, and icon zooming.
I have been using this utility on XP, Vista32, and Vista64 with superb results… I highly recommend this very elegant eye-popping application!
Drag your shortcuts onto RocketDock and clear up that nasty desktop clutter I KNOW you have!
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digg Application, Productivity, Utilities, Vista64
