So now you’re faced with a choice.

1. Reinstall the operating system on the new drive and reinstall all your apps.
2. Use drive imaging software to copy everything from the old drive to the new one.

As most people who use computers know, you can’t just copy/paste an operating system from one drive to another. It would be really cool if you could do that, but at present we can’t and most likely never will be able to.

There and disadvantages to both methods.

OS Reinstall

It’s most likely true that the OS you’ll be reinstalling is Windows XP.

The advantages of this OS reinstall are:

1. Your system will be super-fast because any ‘leftovers’ from all the software you uninstalled over the years won’t be there. Your system registry will be ‘clean’.
2. If there were any viruses, malware or spyware you couldn’t get rid of in your previous installation, that stuff definitely won’t be there on the fresh install.
3. Device driver ‘leftovers’ from the stuff you used to have (old printers, old digital cameras, etc.) won’t be there.

The disadvantages are:

1. You have to reinstall all your device drivers for the stuff you have. This could be a long list including everything from video drivers to printer drivers, etc.
2. You have to reinstall all your apps. This is also a long list and will take time.
3. Two words: Windows Update.

Things you can do to make an OS reinstall a whole lot easier (and faster):

• If you have a brand-name PC like Dell, write down the service tag number (physically printed on the box), head to support.dell.com, punch that tag in, download all your drivers and burn them to CD. When you reinstall the OS you’ll have all the necessary system drivers at the ready without the need to connect to the internet (which may not work until you get the drivers installed).
• For custom-build boxes, download the drivers you need and burn to CD before OS reinstall. For example, if you have an nVidia video card, head over to www.nvidia.com and download the latest driver set installation file.
• For all the apps that you use that were downloaded, burn all those to CD or DVD.
• For all the software you have that is on CD/DVD, get all these together and have them ready before you do your OS install.
• Make sure the software/drivers you need are on CD/DVD and not USB stick. The reason is because your computer on OS reinstall may not have your USB ports working until you install the drivers you need first. Being that your CD/DVD drive is auto-detected by Windows it doesn’t require any external driver installation 99% of the time.

Drive Imaging

In order to push the data on a hard drive that has a complete OS install to a new one to make an exact copy, you need drive imaging software to do it.

My first experience with drive imaging software was with Norton Ghost and it worked well. However some think TrueImage by Acronis is much better. And then there are others who think the free way is the only way to do things. The choice of how you image a drive is up to you.

Here are the advantages to drive imaging:

1. Everything is copied exactly as it was, exactly as you left it.
2. No driver reinstalls and no updates necessary.
3. It’s faster than doing an OS reinstall.

The disadvantages are:

1. Everything is copied exactly as it was, exactly the way you left it - including all the ‘leftovers’ from the software you uninstalled over the years, registry anomalies.. etc.
2. There is no speed advantage even if the drive is faster because the OS still has a bunch of crap on it.
3. You need to copy the image of the drive somewhere - and you simply may not have the space - or the copy may fail.

Things you can do to make drive imaging easier and faster:

• If there’s anything on your existing installation you can get rid of via Add/Remove that you don’t mind losing, do it.
• Defrag the drive.
• Close everything (or as much as you can) before starting the imaging process.

Which one sounds better to you?

Given the choice, which would you pick? OS reinstall or drive image?

(Via PCMech.)

It is 2008; do we still need to ask ourselves what a blog is? I think so, and for two reasons. First of all we still have many misconceptions about blogging floating around the web. Pretty much every week I get at least one email from someone asking if I believe blogging has a future. My answer is always ‘as long as the Internet has a future, blogs do too.’ You will see why I answer that below.

You also have countless articles being published every week where the author suggests that blogs are obsolete, and that the next big thing is micro blogging, or lifestreaming or something else. Again I don’t agree with any of those predicted trends.

The second reason for trying to define what a blog is in 2008 (many people have already done that in the past after all) is because blogging is a social phenomenon. As such, it is constantly evolving, and what was true two years ago might not be anymore.

Blogs Aren’t Necessarily Personal

The main misconception regarding the definition of blogs comes from people that associate blogs with their content. More specifically from people that associate blogs with the content from one particular type of blog: personal blogs.

In other words, those people think that blogs are online diaries where people share their opinions, ramblings and personal events.

Wrong!

That is just one of the things that you could do with a blog.

Today blogs are being used for all sorts of purposes. You have companies that use blogs to communicate and interact with customers and other stake holders. Newspapers that incorporated blogs to their main website to offer a new channel for their writers. Individuals that created a blog to share with the world their expertise on specific topics. And so on.

Separate The Content

If you separate the content from the website, it becomes much easier to work with the definitions.

Consider a person that wants to publish a Questions & Answers column online. She could use several types of websites for that purpose.

She could create an online forum, for example, where each thread would be an answer to a specific question. She could create a static HTML website and publish all the questions and answers on a single page. She could create a wiki where users would be able to edit the questions and answers directly. Finally, she could also create a blog where each post would contain a question and its answer.

As you can see, the content is not attached to the website. The picture below illustrates that (note that only four types of websites were used, but there are many more).

Obviously one type of website will be more suitable for a certain purpose than others. It would be easier for a company to use an online forum on its customer support section, for instance.

So What Is A Blog?

It is basically a type of website, like a forum or a social bookmarking site. As such it is defined by the technical aspects and features around it, and not by the content published inside it.

The features that make blogs different from other websites are:

• content is published in a chronological fashion
• content is updated regularly
• readers have the possibility to leave comments
• other blog authors can interact via trackbacks and pingbacks
• content is syndicated via RSS feeds

Keep in mind that it is the bundle of those features that should define a blog. An online forum could also offer an RSS feed for example, but that would not make it a blog.

What Is Your Definition? Share and Win an eBook

As I mentioned on the beginning of this article, blogs represent a social phenomenon, so they are in constant evolution. The Internet itself is changing very fast, so pin pointing a single definition for blogging is a hard task.

The definition above is my personal one, and I am sure that other people will want to add or remove details to it. Some might even completely disagree.

That is why I decided to create a small group writing project on this topic. I want to hear what you think a blog is. What characteristics define it? Is the definition changing over time?

Rules:

• Write a post on your blog giving an answer to the question ‘What is a blog?’ and linking to this article
• Deadline is Friday, August 15
• There is no word count or format limit. You can answer the question in one sentence, in 1000 words, or even on a video post

What you have to gain:

• Opportunity to meet new bloggers and interact with them
• All the participants will win a copy of my eBook Killer Domains
• Next Monday I will write a post with a link to all the participants, including a small quote form your definition

(Via Daily Blog Tips.)

(Via digg.)

Here’s how it works:

Do a search at TinySong.com:

View the search results and select the song that you want to send:

When you select the song you want to send, TinySong will provide a short URL, suitable for sending via text messages or Twitter:

Once you share the URL, the recipient can click it and listen to the song in the GrooveShark Lite player:

No install or account is needed.

(Via Podcasting News.)

Adobe AIR is Adobe’s entry into the field of widgets. It’s a better idea than just something on your desktop. Developers are able to create a potentially rich experience, and have it run cross-platform. Even though I think the whole Adobe AIR platform is quite ready yet, some of the apps that are available are truly getting there. I found a few of them that I think are pretty good, and I now have on my own computer.

1. FotoBooth is an application built for fun where you can quickly snap pictures using your webcam. It offers a dozen different filters to distort your images and also integrates with flickr for one click uploads to your flickr account..
2. iSpy uses your web cam to take a quick snap shot and save it to your local disk whenever it senses motion. If there is a level of motion that exceeds the sensitivity level, it will either take a quick snap shot and display on screen or if ‘Save pics to disk’ is checked it will also save a copy to the user’s picture/iSpy directory.
3. ReadAIR is an OSX Themed Desktop Client for Mac or Windows.
4. PandoraBoy allows you to control your music with global hotkeys or your apple remote. Additionally, it supports growl notifications so that you always know what you’re listening to.
5. ShrinkOMatic lets you resize photos easily. You can set size and ratio limits, change the output format, and then drag and drop your pictures.
6. WebKut allows you to feed it a URL and you can snapshot it. It will save the page out as a .PDF file with just a couple of clicks of your mouse.
7. Clevr is a seriously easy way of creating and sharing panoramic photos. It not only helps you create stunning panoramas, but it also lets you turn them into interactive images that you can move around and navigate.
8. CL Desktop is a user friendly way to browse Craigslist. Setup just the right searches to find what your looking for, and save them for instant access anytime you need. CL Desktop is an application that runs on your desktop to bring you a better view of Craigslist postings.

(Via The Chris Pirillo Show.)

“

(Via Ian Scott.)

Here’s how the scam works: You go to Network Solutions (or virtually any of their competitors) and do a search for a domain name you’d like to buy. If you don’t buy the domain right then, they register the domain anyway, meaning if you try to buy it somewhere else you can’t. You are then forced to buy the domain at Network Solutions.

At any given time, tens of thousands of domains are locked up by registrars in this way. In February, Network Solutions was named in a class action lawsuit over the practice.

Now Network Solutions is now calling the practice ‘abusive’ and proposing a fee to registrars designed to destroy the economic incentive to engage in the practice. Now that everyone’s doing this, it’s far less lucrative for them to continue. Thus the 180 degree change in attitude.

‘If ICANN [the quasi-governmental organization that regulates the domain industry] adopts the anti-tasting provision, Network Solutions will feel safe in discontinuing its service,’ they said.

Update: Network Solutions says I got at least part of the story wrong, since they’ve been talking about this issue for three years. My response: Then why engage in the practice? And will they now voluntarily stop?

(Via TechCrunch.)

Bringing it all together. That’s the theme of 2008: How to integrate multiple online accounts, activities, profiles, feeds, etc. into one comprehensive service (which is of course aside from the just as popular Web 2.0 theme of having scalability issues and crashing).

For the past three years Flock has been aggressively pursuing their goal of ‘bringing it all together’ with their unique social Web browser that connects people, lets them share media, and makes it easier for users to blur the lines between multiple online accounts.

Today the service announced that the Flock 2.0 Beta, built on the latest Firefox 3 technology, is finally available for free early trials and test runs. The new service combines its classic enhanced browsing capabilities in conjunction with the latest performance, security, and UI enhancements of Firefox 3.

I must admit that I was not very impressed by Flock’s 1.0 version, but — being a social media blogger and all- hearing the words ‘early trials and test runs’ made me feel as giddy as Robert Scoble at Twitter Prom. I immediately strapped on my investigative suit and proceeded to download Flock 2.0. The first thing I noticed was that it was fast. Flock was never unbearably slow, but I do recall it being somewhat of a ‘thinker’ when it came to switching between its features. And oh there were features. Most are the same as before, like the ability to integrate your Digg, Pownce, and AOL Mail into the ‘profiles’ sidebar. But there were also new features such as the auto-completion in the location bar, the ‘favorites’ and ‘download’ managers, and the improved ‘password manager.’

My Twitter feed updated every five seconds — much faster than Twhirl has lately — and there were dozens of new add-ons that could be downloaded, most notably Evernote’s exclusive beta add-on.

Overall, I was very pleased with Flock the second time around. Its default skin was just as attractive as it has always been (even though it’s unfortunate that there wasn’t a wide selection of different skins — one of Firefox’s popular features).

My favorite features were the ability to open all tabs at once, and the media stream, which compiles different users’ pictures and videos in a horizontal slideshow view. I also liked the ease with which I could share, e-mail, or blog any media I came across in the browser, but the blog editor itself is very plain and underwhelming.

(Via Mashable!.)

Word in the OSX86 world is that a new product will revolutionize (and simplify) the process of installing OS X on a PC — and that product is called the EFiX. The USB dongle allegedly pops into a free port and allows you to install the retail version of the Mac operating system on just about any system by automatically locating the proper hacks and drivers needed. Famed OSX86 hacker Netkas has demoed a beta unit on video (which you can see after the break) and claims that it’s working as it should. The manufacturer is aiming to have models available for purchase by June 23rd… barring any more ’sabotage.’ This sounds like a much more reasonable solution than marketing a Mac clone — feel free to send one our way whenever you like guys.

[Via Boing Boing Gadgets]

(Via Engadget.)

Apple today killed off its much-maligned .Mac service and introduced MobileMe, a service that delivers push email, push contacts and push calendars from the MobileMe service in the ‘cloud’ to native applications on iPhone, iPod touch, Macs and PCs.

In a nutshell, your apps will automatically get synced, via MobileMe, so that your desktop, laptop, iPhone & web calendar are current.

MobileMe also provides a suite of web applications that deliver a desktop-like experience through any modern browser. MobileMe applications will include Mail, Contacts and Calendar, as well as Gallery for viewing and sharing photos and iDisk for storing and exchanging documents online.

The base service is $99/year for 20GB, or $150 for a family. Additional storage can be purchased for $99/40GB.

We would have like to have seen larger  storage options and support for Time Machine backups to MobileMe. Google currently offers storage plans up to 400GB, and their pricing is significantly lower, too. 

‘Think of MobileMe as ‘Exchange for the rest of us,’’ said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. ‘Now users who are not part of an enterprise that runs Exchange can get the same push email, push calendars and push contacts that the big guys get.’

With a MobileMe email account, all folders, messages and status indicators look identical whether checking email on iPhone, iPod touch, a Mac or a PC. New email messages are pushed to iPhone over the cellular network or Wi-Fi, removing the need to manually check email and wait for downloads.

Push also keeps contacts and calendars continuously up-to-date so changes made on one device are automatically pushed up to the cloud and down to other devices. Push works with the native applications on iPhone and iPod touch, Microsoft Outlook for the PC, and Mac OS X applications, Mail, Address Book and iCal®, as well as the MobileMe web application suite.

MobileMe web applications are ad-free and provide a desktop-like experience that allows users to drag and drop, click and drag and even use keyboard shortcuts. MobileMe provides online access to Mail, Contacts and Calendar, with a unified interface that allows users to switch between applications with a single click.

Gallery users can upload, rearrange, rotate and title photos from any browser; post photos directly from an iPhone; allow visitors to download print quality images; and contribute photos to an album. MobileMe iDisk lets users store and manage files online with drag and drop filing and makes it easy to share documents too large to email by automatically sending an email with a link for downloading the file. MobileMe includes 20GB of online storage that can be used for email, contacts, calendar, photos, movies and documents.

Pricing & Availability

MobileMe, available on July 11, is a subscription-based service with 20GB of storage for $99 (US) per year for individuals and $149 (US) for a Family Pack, which includes one master account with 20GB of storage and four Family Member accounts with 5GB of storage each. MobileMe subscribers can purchase an additional 20GB of storage for $49 (US) or 40GB of storage for $99 (US) annually.

(Via Podcasting News.)

Word on the street — and by ’street’ we mean ‘the internet’ — is that Apple will begin exclusive use of LED BLUs for displays in all of its MacBooks come 2009. According to the Chinese-language paper Economic Daily News, the computer-maker’s Taiwanese supplier of LED backlight units, Kenmos, will increase shipments in the coming year of the brighter, longer-lasting, better dressed components. Of course, the paper could be making this all up to toy with our emotions and break our little hearts… but why would they do that?

(Via Engadget.)