BestTechie.net

What Is SystemLookup.com?

SystemLookup.com is a new site that is dedicated to determining whether a file is good or bad - meaning whether it is safe to have on your computer or if it is a malicious file. The site is still brand new and is constantly being updated with new file listings. It currently has listings for over 54,000 files.

The lists are divided into different categories pertaining to different types of files from Explorer / Internet Explorer components such as BHO’s (Browser Helper Objects), Toolbars, and Search Hooks to startup entries, autoruns, and AppInit_DLLs to name a few.

In order to differeniate files the website has created a status key (as shown below) which will tell you immediately whether a particular file is good, bad, open to debate, or currently in an unknown state.

Status Key:
X = Malware, spyware, adware, or other potentially unwanted items
L = Legitimate items
O = Open to debate
? = Currently unknown status

I should also note the list is not “owned” by a company, it’s driven by a group of people who have been in the anti-malware/spyware community for quite a while and are very well respected.  They are not beholdent to anyone so I can assure you the list will be as truthful as possible.  If you wish to help and contribute to the list you can too!  Just follow this link.

Tags: Browser Hijacks, Malware, SystemLookup

mp3VideoRaptor Review and Giveaway

Thanks to Audials.com for providing the software to review and giveaway. mp3VideoRaptor allows you to download video/audio files from various sites online such as YouTube, AOL, MyVideo, etc. It provides a number of features allowing you to convert files to a number of video and audio formats with ease.  You also have full control over the format you convert your downloaded video and audio files to - ranging from WMV, MP4, MPEG4, PSP format, different cell phone formats to MP3, Ogg, WMA, WAV, M4A, etc.  It even can synchronize with your mobile devices such as an iPod.

The three main features include the ability to search the supported sites within the application itself and download the content directly to your computer.  The second feature is called Autoload which is essentially built-in presets for searching - once you select one of the presets it will autoload all of the content available allowing you to download what you choose.  The third feature (and my favorite) is the Surf & Catch feature which (as long as the program is open) will show any available content to be downloaded as you surf supported download sites such as YouTube.

The software also provides a built-in player which allows you to play all of your downloaded content directly from the program itself making it nice and easy to view or listen to the content.  Some other nice features include the ability to create ring tones with the media files you have downloaded or currently have on your hard drive simply by clicking a button and following four (4) simple steps.  The ring tones can be transferred with or without a data cable depending on the options you select making it very easy to get the ring tone onto your phone.

The software is pretty cool and does exactly what it says it will. I hope to see more and more sites supported in the future as new ones appear.

Remember we have 25 licenses to giveaway! So start thinking about how we should do it. Best idea gets the first license!  Email me your ideas through the contact page.

Tags: Audials, mp3VideoRaptor

iPod Touch Giveaway Winner

Congrats to Hammay our iPod Touch giveaway winner! There will be more giveaways in the future (including software and video games) so stay tuned! Thanks to everyone who came to the giveaway today - it was a great turn out.

Tags: Giveaways, ipod touch

How To: iPod Touch Screenshot

Yesterday Mandy stumbled upon this cool feature on the iPod Touch (As far as I know this only works on 2.0 firmware) which allows you to take a screenshot of your iPod Touch anywhere whether it be your home page, within an application, etc. without any additional software needing to be installed.

It’s extremely simple to do as well, you can even email the screenshot to someone or yourself if you would like. To take a screenshot all you need to do is hold down the Menu button (the black circle) and press the power button at the top of the device - you will see a white flash on your screen which means the screenshot was taken.

In order to access the screenshots just go to your Pictures on your iPod Touch. It will appear within your saved images. If you would like to email it to someone, click the image once and you will notice an arrow on the far bottom left click that and it will give you three options - Email, Set as wallpaper, and set it as a contact’s icon. Select email and it will open Mail (assuming you have it configured to work with your email and a WiFi connection) just enter the person’s email and hit send. That’s it!

Pretty cool, huh?  Leave a comment!

Tags: ipod touch, Screenshots, tips & tricks

VMware Fusion vs Bootcamp

I received an email from one of our community members (Briafter) and he wants to know is it better to run XP/Vista in VMware Fusion or Bootcamp and why? He also wanted to know some good Mac software recommendations for his new Mac Pro.

Before we start I’m going to post the specs of his Mac Pro below:

2 2.8GHz Quad Core Xeon Processors
2 GB of Memory from Apple and another 8GB Purchased Separately
320GB HDD with a 1TB that I already have and a 320GB to go with that to so 1,640GB
NVIDIA GeForce 8800GT 512MB (Because I have two 22” monitors)
2 16x Superdrives
Wireless Keyboard
Wireless Mighty Mouse
AirPort Extreme Card

Briafter also writes:

Now I still need to use Windows Vista for sound dubbing because I have Adobe Audition, so what would be the better choice for running it, a virtual machine like VMware Fusion (I believe that is what you are using) or Boot Camp. Which will be better to carry out my tasks.

Based on the hardware of his new machine and what he is planning to do with XP/Vista I would recommend he just stick an XP installation on a virtual machine (using VMware Fusion) allocate maybe 1GB of RAM and possibly two cores. Which would leave him with 6 cores and 9GB of RAM for OSX (whenever the VM is open at least) - more than enough. I should also note you can mount a Bootcamp partition with VMware Fusion, however, if you’re starting directly with VMware Fusion just have it create a virtual disk.

Bootcamp is nice for an Apple machine like a Macbook or Mac Mini which are not as powerful as the Macbook Pro’s, iMac’s, or Mac Pro’s. However, you can still run a virtual machine on a Macbook or Mac Mini - it just may be more of a pleasant experience if you allocated your entire system to running XP or Vista or even a Linux distribution. And that’s not say, you shouldn’t bother running Bootcamp on a Mac Pro - its just the need is not as great especially when you have plenty of RAM and 8 cores to work with.

Why am I recommending XP over Vista?  I have tried using Vista in a virtual machine on my Mac Pro - it works, however, XP works much better than Vista in a VM mainly due to the sheer amount of resources Vista requires as compared to XP.

As for the applications I’d recommend right off the bat:

Audio Hijack Pro - Virtual Audio Mixer
ExpanDrive - SFTP Client for uploading files to a remote server
Secrets - OSX system tweaking tool
Adium - Multi-protocol Instant Messenger client for OSX
Coversutra - Manage iTunes without leaving your current application
VMWare Fusion - Virtual machine software which allows you to seamlessly integrate other operating systems within OSX

Tags: Apple, Bootcamp, Mac Pro, OSX, VMware Fusion, Windows Vista, Windows XP