Brandon Dimmel

Given that you're reading this right now, it's a fair bet that the web, or Internet access, is important to you. But, how important is it? In a recent survey, Harris Interactive found that women would rather give up "relations" for two weeks than ... access to the information superhighway. According to details on a survey recently released by chip manufacturer Intel (who commissioned the study), 46 per cent of women queried about the importance of the Internet versus "hanky-panky" replied that they would be more willing to engage in abstinence than lose their web access. By comparison, only 30 ... (view more)

Registry Edits For Windows XP Interested in a Santa sack full of lots and lots of tips and tweaks for your Windows XP operating system this holiday season? Well, this program from Kelly's Korner is formatted for easy use and offers a boodlebag full ... of goodies. http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com Virtual Screen Maximizer Take any foreground window to maximum available virtual screen size with Virtual Screen Maximizer. This great program will even maximize across multiple monitors, making it particularly useful for web designers, researchers, and hardcore gamers! http://www.codeplex.com Today's ... (view more)

Despite its line of popular holiday sports titles and a few new favorites (including the critically-acclaimed Dead Space), even video game giant Electronic Arts has hit a patchy skid due to the slowing U.S. economy. The company recently revealed ... that it has cancelled plans to open a new studio in Vancouver, British Columbia. For those of you unfamiliar with Electronic Arts, or EA, the company is by far the largest games publisher in the world. Franchises like Need for Speed, Burnout, Madden NFL, NHL, NBA, and MLB routinely top sales, and in the case of NHL, ratings charts. Despite the ... (view more)

Flash Folder FlashFolder extends the file-related common dialogs (e.g. open/save dialog) seen in most Windows programs. A small toolbar docks onto these dialogs that provides menus for quick access to recently-used folders, favorite folders and ... more. http://zett42.de Disk Heal Disk Heal is a useful tool that fixes common computer problems. Initially, it was a program that fixed disk problems that occur after a virus has been removed, but a host of other, equally exciting features have been added. Click to find out more. http://www.computer-realm.net/ Today's fresh software picks were provided ... (view more)

According to most copyright protectors, movie, TV, and music pirating is out of control. Let's face it, just about everyone owns a burnt album, television season, or film on CD or DVD -- heck, maybe even Blu-ray. How do you fight this if the problem ... is so rampant? Simple, say Canadian lawmakers: increase the cost of blank discs. According to reports, Canada's Copyright Board has green-lighted an increase in levies placed on blank CDs by 38%. Part of the reason for the jump is an increase in music compression and the continued rise in songwriter royalties. As the cost of making an album ... (view more)

Microsoft Web Platform The Web Platform Installer (Web PI) is a simple tool that installs Microsoft's entire Web Platform, including IIS, Visual Web Developer 2008 Express Edition, SQL Server 2008 Express Edition and the .NET Framework. Using the ... Web Platform Installer's user interface, you can choose to install either specific products or the entire Microsoft Web Platform onto your computer. The Web PI also helps keep your products up to date by always offering the latest additions to the Web Platform. http://www.microsoft.com Fbackup FBackup is a free backup software for both personal and ... (view more)

How much do you love robots? Enough to max out three credit cards building one? Well, Le Trung has done just that in creating Aiko, a 'femme-bot' boasting a vocabulary comprised of 13,000 English and Japanese phrases and capable of distinguishing ... 300 faces per second. Trung, a native of Brampton, Ontario, has been building robots his whole life. He built his first for a science fair in grade four; it couldn't do much, just shoot fake bullets and move about a little bit. Teachers weren't pleased when one of those fake bullets hit another child, either. "You get disqualified if you make a ... (view more)

Firefox -- 8 Untold Secrets With the ability to drastically expand Firefox functions using plug-in extensions and Greasemonkey scripts, many of Firefox 3's built-in features are overlooked. Here are eight handy things you can do with Firefox, ... ranging from tiny tweaks to more powerful functions, all with nary an extension to install. http://www.extremetech.com Adobe AIR SDK The Adobe AIR SDK provides the tools necessary to build and deploy Adobe AIR applications, including a framework for Adobe AIR APIs, a template for the Adobe AIR application install badge, a command-line Adobe AIR Debug ... (view more)

Emerge Desktop Emerge Desktop is a replacement Windows "shell" (the desktop environment normally provided by Windows Explorer) for Windows 2000 and above. In order to replace Windows Explorer as a shell, it provides a system tray (the area that ... collects the icons collected at the lower right corner in Explorer), called emergeTray. It will also provide access to the users programs (normally accessed with the Windows "start" button) via a right-click on the desktop. http://emergedesktop.org Starter Starter allows one to view and manage all the programs that are starting automatically whenever ... (view more)

Tired of your laptop battery dying out, or worried that it might actually pose a fire threat? Notebook batteries are notoriously fickle pieces of machinery, and their unpredictable nature can threaten one's work and even his or her health. ... Boston-Power Inc, makers of "green battery power" plan to redefine how laptop owners feel about the batteries powering their computers. Dedicated to producing safe and long-lasting lithium ion batteries, Boston-Power has announced that it intends to release a new battery boasting ultra-endurance -- performance that appears brand-spanking-new even three ... (view more)