Download.com Sports a New Look

The world's largest software downloading site, Download.com of CNET, is now sporting a new refined look. The divide between Windows, Mac and mobile tools is now more distinct and searching option has got an uplift too. The web pages have been streamlined for faster loading, and more convenient information is available for the software tools. In fact, the entire CNET website has got this new look. However a header banner states that the new sites are still under 'beta', so we can expect more changes in coming days.

New looks of Download.com



Product details (Avast! Home Edition shown here)

Personally, I appreciate the vast improvements, though I must admit I'm not a big fan of the Georgia font (which has been plentifully used all over). Save that, there's little to moan about.

What's your view of the new looks of Download.com? Drop them in your comments. :)

How to Drop a Basic Comment in Blogger-Powered Blogs? (for first-timers only)

Hi,
You're right now in PC Tonic, which is powered by the Blogger platform. I hope you got what you were searching for here (though there's very little content!). Now, every blogger wants that his / her readers to communicate their views, recommendations, and criticisms, so that he / she can build upon their suggestions and improve the blog. The easiest way to put forth your views is by dropping a comment in any post. Probably you DO want to post your comment, but you've no idea HOW to do it! Well then, I'm here to help. Posting your comment in Blogger is really easy - you've just got to follow these steps :

Note : This is ONLY for first time visitors; I hardly expect any of the regular internet users and techies out there not to know this.


1. Find the comment form. In some blogs (including PC Tonic), you'll find the form right below the post and after all the comments. However most Blogger-powered blogs still lack this facility. You've to click on the "Post a Comment" link after which you'll be directed to the commenting page / pop-up window.

2. Enter your comment in the comment box. There isn't probably any limit on the number of characters (even if there's a limit, it hardly matters unless you're posting an epic!). You can give stress to certain words / phrases by writing them in BLOCK letters, or making them bold / italic. To make a certain word / phrase bold, enclose it within <b> </b> tags. To make it italic, use the <i> </i> tags.

3. Now that your comment's done, you've to enter your name. Just click the drop down menu just under the comment form and choose Name / URL from the list. Enter your name in the "Name" field. If you've a blog / web site / MySpace profile etc. that you'd like to share, enter it's full address (starting with http:// ) in the URL field. Just leave it blank otherwise. Even if you're in for "I-hate-your-blog" or "I-disagree-with-you" comments, please do NOT post anonymously - it'll make your statement far less significant.

4. Click OK and then select "Post Comment". If the blog owner has enabled comment moderation, your comment will be stacked for review; else it'll be published straightaway.

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See how easy it is! So why delay, blast me with your comments right away! :)

Know This Term : "Decompression Bomb"

Yeah really! Just a couple minutes ago, I was running a full system scan with my avast! Antivirus; no malware was found (as usual!), but there was something really funny (or really dangerous) in the results log. Check out the screenshot yourself :

I had never heard of this term of before so I immediately fired up a Google search. This is what Wikipedia has to say about these cyber bombs :

A decompression bomb is a type of denial-of-service attack, in which a small compressed file expands to an enormous size, requiring large amounts of system resources and possibly causing the software or the entire system to hang. All major web browsers are vulnerable to the attack, which may be launched merely by visiting a malicious website using the standard gzip transfer encoding.

These definitely seem to be severe problems, but I have little to worry because the 'bombs' in my PC are just the Linux ISO files (the last things you would associate the term 'malware' with). However if you encounter real decompression bomb files in your PC, make sure you delete those immediately; because the next time you try, it might have already exploded!

As if nuclear bombs weren't enough trouble already...

techroll 6 : 14th July, 2008

Thank you, Adobe Reader 9 - microBlog
Recently I wrote a blog entry about bloated software, and how much better Foxit PDF reader was than Adobe Reader. But I was using Adobe Reader 8. Little did I know how much superior version 9 would be... [Read on]


How to Make Windows Vista SP1 Installation Permanent - Life Rocks! 2.0
Once you have installed Windows Vista SP1 and you have no issues with the service pack, then you can consider making the SP1 installation permanent. The advantage of doing this is that you can reclaim disk space... [Read on]


Master Your Digital Media with VLC - Lifehacker
Cross-platform media player VLC is often referred to as the "Swiss Army knife of media applications" for good reason: Not only does VLC play nearly any file you throw at it (you even voted it the best desktop media player), but it can do so much more. From ripping DVDs to converting files to iPod-friendly formats... [Read on]


Create Extra Columns in Your Blogger Layout - Magazine Style! - Blogger Buster
One of the newest (and popular) trends of blog design is the magazine style layout. As the name suggests, this design style presents content in magazine format where extra columns and content are featured on the home page, offering readers an overview of the entire site. At present, Blogger Buster's home page features... [Read on]


Learning the Linux Lingo - MakeUseOf
We here at Make Use Of try to make your switch to Linux as smooth as possible, which includes using simple and common terminology. However there are plenty of terms that are unavoidable or at least impractical to avoid. Some terms we can explain as we go along, but some are so common that they would need explaining in every article. So here they are, but by no means is it a complete list since such a list would go on and on and bore us all to tears.... [Read on]


Latest posts on pc ton!c (Subscribe to stay updated!) :
Go-OO Does a Faster & Better OOo
FrostWire Gets Frostier with New Release
One Billion People, One Laptop?!
Make a Vista of Your XP Without Slowing Down Your PC


:)

Go-OO Does a Faster & Better OOo

OpenOffice.org is the most popular free alternative to Microsoft Office today. This rock-solid, open source productivity suite includes it's own set of richly featured word processor, presentation suite, spreadsheet tool, database manager, drawing tool and a math tool; all of them being mostly compatible with the equivalent tools in Office (upto version 2003). Good as it is, OOo does miss a few bells and whistles which are holding it back from being a serious Office rival. Take speed for example - OOo (being Java-based) takes quite some time to start up, and also eats up a considerable chunk of memory while running. Yet another shortcoming is the lack of support for for the newly introduced "Open Office XML" format in Office 2007 (and Office for Mac 2008) versions.

Go-OO is an OOo derivative that aims to provide a faster, more functional and better interoperable suite than the parent program. The developers of this suite have brought about numerous small and a few big improvements to the OOo source code all over, to create Go-OO. Among major changes, Go-OO includes

• support for Open Office XML format in Office 2007 (and Office for Mac 2008),
• built-in SVG filter import,
• built-in 3D transitions within presentations (Linux only),
• powerful and interoperable fields implementation with nesting, in-place editing, multiple fonts & nested conditionals,
• faster startup than OOo,
• VBA macro support,
• improved Excel interoperability,
• support for multimedia content in Linux, using Gstreamer multimedia framework,
• better text-grid rendering of Chinese language,
• support for Microsoft Works format,
• improved EMF+ rendering, for a better view of embedded drawings,
• support for T602 files, and
• WordPerfect graphics (WPG) import support

 Details of these features and improvements can be found here.

Splash Screen in Go-OO

Moreover, the Windows version of Go-OO has completely replaced the default icon set of OOo with clearer and larger ones (those of Gnome / Linux).

Go-OO is a free download, Windows (~ 130MB) and Linux only. If you're a Mac user, try NeoOffice, which builds upon OOo and Go-OO's source codes. :)

Go-OO
Available for : Windows (all), Linux
Rating : !!!!!
Links : Home | Download.com (Windows)

Go-OO not good enough for you? Try out some other offline and online free substitutes to Microsoft Office! :)

FrostWire Gets Frostier with New Release

FrostWire
Version : 4.17.0
Rating : !!!!
Pros : open source; ad free; fast downloads; support for BitTorrent and Gnutella networks; platform independent (Java-based); lots of inbuilt skins; iTunes integration
Cons : slow loading (Java-based)
Links : Home | FileHippo | Download.com

The much hyped about Gnutella client, FrostWire, has been upgraded to version 4.17.0 from it's previous 4.13.5. The FrostWire team claims it to be a "major" upgrade with a lot of new features, all of which can be found here. FrostWire is now a complete fork of the more popular LimeWire, but with a vastly modified core and UI updates. The overall layout and looks have mostly remained unchanged from those in older versions. However the boot screen has been revamped, now showing two barbed wires covered in frost.

There's also a quick option to disable sharing of any particular item from a shared folder.

Click to enlarge

One more change is in the title bar, which now reads "FrostWire: Share it with your friends", in place of "FrostWire 4.13.5: Tuned for extended play".


What's your say on FrostWire? How would you compare it with LimeWire (basic and pro)? Feel free to drop a comment. :)

One Billion People, One Laptop?!

HP India has surprisingly discontinued sale of all but one of it's Pavilion range of laptops. It still provides support and driver updates for these models, but they've been chucked out of the sale list. I was skimming through their website yesterday, and was shocked to find just one model in the list which contained at least 15 a few days ago. Reason of my detour - well I'm planning to get my first laptop and HP is obviously my first choice after all the positive reviews I've been hearing in Yahoo! Answers. The model I had picked  - Pavilion dv6767tx (Special Thrive) edition - is also in the "dumped models" list! Now that infuriated me and I called up a bunch of local resellers in my town; thankfully none of them has heard anything of this mass dumping, and all of them even had the Thrive model in their showrooms. w00t!

I'm not that bothered about getting that specific model (if not in the showrooms here, it'll certainly be available in any of the online shopping sites). What surprises me is the sudden discontinuation of so many models at once; it seems just too ridiculous to be possible. But then I'm a n00b in these matters, and maybe it IS absolutely normal. The discontinued models will probably be replaced soon by new ones or something. What's your view on this? Blogger has vastly modified the commenting system (look out, Wordpress!), so please say anything you know / feel about this. :)