From The Back Room

Thanks to Digital Inspiration for bringing this piece of news to our attention.

As part of their 25th anniversary celebrations, Laplink.com is giving away their PCmover software for free.

The offer stands for one day only, and that is on Thursday, May 15 2008.

The download process doesn't make you jump over too many hoops, and I have managed to successfully download the software.

The following are some screen captures of the process. Click the image if you want to see a larger version on Flickr.

First, the welcome screen.

Next, you'll see the details of the free PCmover.

While on the same page, tick the check box of other discounted offers you are interested in, or simply scroll all the way to the bottom and click one of two Proceed buttons.

You will then be required to login with your existing Laplink account or register a free one. I registered mine with no problems and proceeded to the download area.

Remember to save your serial number somewhere. Not to worry if you don't though, because this information will be available in your Laplink account home page. You're now ready to download the software.

You will probably see a message about their download servers being overloaded, so try both download links and see if you're able to get your browser download dialog box to appear. Otherwise, you could simply bookmark your Laplink support page, and login later with your email and password to proceed with the download. I tried a few times before I was able to finally launch the 13.4 MB MS-DOS executable (.exe) download.

Being an .exe file, the software is meant to migrate a files in a Windows installation on an existing PC to another PC or an Intel-based Mac running Windows XP in Bootcamp or a virtualization software such as Parallels.

Crunchgear has the article on how to ensure that the movie clips you upload to YouTube gets shown at the highest quality possible.

Important points:

1. $30 Apple Quicktime Pro is recommended.
2. MP4 format works best.
3. Video size should be 320 x 240 QVGA, YouTubes native size. By the way, that's a 4 x 3 aspect ratio.
4. Aim for 700 kbps to 1000 kbps bit rate for conversion.

For a different take on the settings to be used, read this comment by BayTaper(Dot)com.

The Adsense system is such a complex beast that there is bound to be some hiccups.

Like on the 5th / 6th of May, 2008 when many webmasters reported way-below-normal earnings (which later turned into way-above-normal figures).

Anyway, just a quick heads-up on a new Google Adsense Known Issues page.

The announcement of this new service was posted here.

You now have the ability to keep up to date with the status of issues pertaining to the Adsense reporting system.

(Note: This article was written using Windows Live Writer, Windows XP Pro, Parallels, Skitch, Flickr, MacBook Pro 2.4 GHz)

For my home computer, I've long since abandoned the use of Norton anti-virus software, which is something you'd have to pay for.

Instead, my computer runs fine on a free copy of AVG's anti-virus / anti-spyware program.

Here are the steps to locate the web site for AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition for Windows XP and Vista.

Step 1: Search Google for: AVG free.

Step 2: Navigate to AVG Free website.

Step 3: Familiarize yourself with the features of this free edition (especially the point that it offers protection against viruses and spyware).

Read also the differences between the free edition and paid versions.

One important feature that the free edition doesn't provide is real-time protection from poisoned web pages (for instance, hacked websites which automatically download malware to your computer as soon as you visit one of its pages).

Scroll down the page until you see the download link for the free edition.

Step 4: Confirm your intention to download the software by clicking on Continue to AVG Free download button.

Step 5: Start the file download.

I prefer to download from the AVG server rather than CNET's Download.com.

Step 6: Wait for the 46.1 MB download to complete.

Step 7: Double-click the installation file, and follow through with the screen prompts.

I personally select Standard Installation and confirm the installation of the AVG Security Toolbar (see the screen capture of this toolbar at the end of the article) for safer web surfing.

Step 8: Configure preferences for the program.

I personally switch off Daily Scanning, and check for new updates.

Note that the free version of AVG will check for new threats on a daily basis and automatically update its virus definition database.

Conclusion: When everything's running smoothly, you'll see the AVG icon in the taskbar.

As part of its one-time welcome process, AVG will also automatically provide additional details about its browser-based AVG Security Toolbar the next time you open a new browser session.

I'm getting MacUpdate's promo bundle just for the Parallels Desktop for Mac software as I intend to run Windows XP Pro on my MacBook Pro.

It costs nearly RM300 in Malaysia (that's the sticker price if you buy the software from Machines or any authorized Apple reseller). RM300 is about USD95 when I wrote this.

Paying USD64.99 to get Parallels and 10 other pieces of software / utilities is a fantastic bargain in my book.

Parallels costs USD79.99 if you purchase it from their website.

Get MacUpdate's promo bundle here.