The Wizard is Busy for the next week

Hello to all who read my posts.

Just want to let you know that The Wizard has been busy for the last week or so with some server rebuilds for my business clients. I will be back to writing my regular posts in approximately 7-10 days.

Please come back in around 7-10 days time and I will have the Blog up to date for you.

Thank you all for your patience and thanks for reading my blog.

The Wizard

Dell introduces XPS one, all in one computer

“After teasing the public for a while, Dell on Friday revealed an all-in-one computer that combines the monitor and CPU in one box.”

“The XPS One will be available as a system with only a widescreen display, a mouse and a keyboard. Processing capabilities and other components will be fixed inside the display.”

The all-in-one computer should be available from Dell’s website around the 27th November.

Checkout the full story by clicking on the link below.

Website: Dell XPS One,all-in-one computer.

Android, Google’s amazing new operating system for mobile phones

This post is a sidetrack from the Vista series I have been talking about. I was so impressed with the new Android system from Google that I had to let you see it.

I just recently viewed a YouTube video describing the features of the new Android operating system for mobile phones. I have to say that I was quite impressed with what this software could do for new mobile phones. I was also impressed with the fact that Android is an open source operating system. Google’s vision is that the platform will power thousands of models of mobile phones. Check out the YouTube video and see what Android can do for you next mobile phone. Phones with Android should hit the market in the second half of 2008.

Video: YouTube

Vista Media Centre - Part 2, Home Video TV and Movies

In continuing from my previous post lets now look at the Home Video and TV and Movies features of Vista Media Centre. To make use of TV and Movies you will need a TV card and you will require connection to an external aerial.

Home Videos

Media Centre Home Video

Your home videos can be viewed from the Pictures + Videos section of Media Centre

Windows Media Centre allows you to view each of your movies using a thumbnail image (see picture above) taken from within the movie, this makes it easier for you to scroll through you movies and select the one you want to view and hit the play button.

Using Windows Movie Maker HD you can also edit high definition home videos and then view these on your PC or TV.

TV and Movies

Media Centre TV

With Media Centre TV and Movies you can watch, pause and record TV live on your PC or PC connected home entertainment system.

To watch TV select TV + Movies, choose guide, find the TV show you want to watch, then click the show you want from the guide. You also have the option to select the category of show you want to watch as well.

To watch Movies select TV + Movies, choose movies guide select between top rated, on now, on next or genres. Next select a movie that is currently airing and select watch.

Recording TV in Vista Media Centre

Using Media Centre you can record TV and Movies directly to your PC’s hard drive, the show is recorded and saved with a .dvr-ms file extension.

Media Centre record TV options

To record a TV show while it is playing, using your mouse find and then click Record on the transport controls.

To record a show from the start select TV + Movies, click guide, find and right-click the TV show that you want to record, and then click Record.

You also have options to record a TV series by selecting record series from the TV guide.

Playing recorded content.

From the start screen, scroll to TV + Movies, and then click recorded TV. Locate the thumbnail for the show you want to watch, highlight the show and from the program info screen select play.

You also have many other options which I won’t discuss in detail such as recording by channel or time, record only new episodes of a certain series, and finally these recorded shows could be burnt to DVD.

Stay tuned for my next post Vista Movie Maker and Movie Maker HD.

Vista Media Centre - Part 1 Music/Radio and Pictures

This is Part 1 of a 2 part series on Vista Media Centre. Here I will discuss Media Centre in general and the Music/Radio and Pictures sections.

Windows Vista Media Centre allows you to watch and record TV shows, download movies, play DVD’s and photo slide shows on both your computer or TV. You can even archive TV shows directly to DVD.

Media Centre has been around for a while, however with the Windows XP version you had to purchase a totally separate edition to get it. With Windows Vista you get Media Centre built in when you purchase Vista Premium or Ultimate.

Windows Media Centre

When you first start Media Centre it will automatically search your computer for media files. You may also notice Media Centre is optimized for wide screen displays as these are becoming more popular in the computer and TV world.

Lets just briefly look at the different components of media centre and what you can do with them.

Music

With the Music Library you can see a wall showing you cover art for all your albums and songs. Using your remote or mouse you are able to select which album or song you want as shown below and then press play.

Media Centre Music Library

Radio is also a part of Media Centre. Just pick the radio tile and then choose terrestrial ( FM antenna needed ) or Internet Radio Station, which requires an Internet connection.

Manage your Photo with Picture Library

You can access all your pictures using the Pictures + Videos Section of Windows Media Centre. Upon opening this section you will be able to navigate your folders and view thumbnails of your pictures as shown in the picture below. You will also be able to perform basic editing of your photos and prepare them for printing, creating slide shows and also burning to DVD. The editing options for you photos are basic and if you need to do any major enhancements of you images you may need to use a third party package such as Adobe Photoshop.

Media Centre Picture Library

Part two of this post will follow and I will discuss Home Video, TV and Movies and the Media Centre Extender.

Fix for Firefox not showing some images

Recently a friend told me about a problem he had for quite a while where firefox would not display some pictures from certain websites. He was using Windows XP SP2.

We had looked at all settings including the show images option which some forums had suggested and still no fix, his problem was that some images would display and some would not.

He was going to get a bigger hard drive soon so he waited and reinstalled windows on the new hard drive and reinstalled Firefox and restored his Firefox profile and yet he still had the same problem, where some websites would not show images within Firefox.

This made me think that it had to be his Firefox profile, so the only files that he really needed from his profile were his bookmarks. We made a backup of bookmarks.htm which is located in C:\documents and settings\username\local settings\application data\mozilla\firefox\profile\name_of your_profile\

Next step was to completely remove Firefox using Add Remove Programs in Control Panel.

A very important step next is to remove the mozilla firefox folder. You will find it at (C:\documents and settings\username\local settings\application data\mozilla\firefox <– remove this firefox folder.

Then reinstall Firefox and copy back your bookmarks.htm file to the same folder (C:\documents and settings\username\local settings\application data\mozilla\firefox\profile\name_of your_profile\).

Restart Firefox and your done, now his images display perfectly.