The Average Windows Nerd
Here are all the Zath articles written by The Average Windows Nerd...
Here are all the Zath articles written by The Average Windows Nerd...
The Apple iSlate: Wow!!!…
February 1, 2010
I’m almost certain he did this at some point, but I can’t find it. Ah well, never mind..
So then, let’s get down to stating the bleeding obvious about the Apple iPad…
Where’s the kick-stand? – Tablets are unwieldy, and it’s a pain to hold it through a 2 hour movie. I suppose you could scratch the back up by resting it against something, but good luck with that rounded back.
Wot, No Flash? – According to Apple, some websites aren’t accessible through the iPad, because the browser you’re forced to use doesn’t support it. Well, clearly the iPad belongs in 1996, when that wouldn’t have been such a massive, debilitating and inexcusable deficiency. Honestly, I’m lost for words on this one. I mean, I’d be better-off with my PSP(!)
Continue reading »How To Setup Xbox 360 Media Player ‘Ecosystem’ Guide: Part One
December 23, 2009
As promised in my How To Setup Xbox 360 Media Player Guide teaser, with this help of this guide you should be able to stream everything. Play anything. Hundreds of HD movies. Thousands of songs. No DVDs, no DRM, no getting up from the sofa. No need for your PC to even be on and above all, no fruit! I told you I’d show you how to do it, so here it is. From scratch.
Part One: Infrastructure and Software
I recommend that you follow this guide with a clean installation of Windows 7 on a modern, Intel, dual-core or better native PC (ie. Not VM or Boot Camp), with at least 2GB of RAM, an internal SATA HDD, wired Ethernet and USB2 onboard.
Continue reading »Windows Is Virus-Proof: The Verdict – Part 1
December 9, 2009
You’re not going to like it…
Just as I said I would, I wanted to test out whether Windows is virus proof and this is how I’ve done it!
I’ve been putting Windows on my PCs from an OEM or VLA disc for so long, that I’ve apparently forgotten what it’s like to buy a new Windows computer from scratch. Well let me tell you now, it’s horrible! Windows has the reputation of crashing, getting infected with crap and generally screwing up without human help for one reason, and one reason alone. It’s the freakin’ OEMs.
Do you know what happens when you buy a new Windows PC?
This happens…
Continue reading »Star Trek: The Movie Future Begins On USB! (Or Not)
December 2, 2009
I just had to buy this. It’s the new Star Trek movie on a cool all-metal USB key, and it’s in DIVX!
Well, that’s just what the Xbox 360 / Archos / just about everything (apart from the crapple) I have, loves the most! It will play on six devices and well and.. OH MY GOD. Let’s start at the beginning, and then painfully work our way through everything that’s wrong with it, shall we?
I imagine that most people will go through the following sequence, and please bare with me if this isn’t exactly the same for you…
Continue reading »Real Player SP Review (How To Record Streaming Video)
November 23, 2009
Hold back the vomit; it’s time for Real Player SP!
If you’re like me, something happened in your teenage years, when you lost your mind through a combination of hormones and white cider, and decided that it would be a good idea to install Real Player on your computer.
Back in the age of Netscape, when .rm (and all the other) files were competing equally with every other format out there, it was quite a reasonable, even necessary thing to have Real Player installed. Of course, that was then and this is now. With the advent of VLC Media Player and similar cross-platform products, Real’s stranglehold over the .rm genus of increasingly insignificant file types has all but disappeared.
Continue reading »Windows Is Virus-Proof! (TBC)
October 26, 2009
“It is impossible to install, execute, or enable a virus in Windows unless, against the clear advice of the operating system, you explicitly choose to do so. Windows is virus-proof.”
Hmm, that’s quite a bold statement isn’t it? I mean, you’d have to be some sort of deluded “fan-boy” to actually believe a statement like that, right?
Maybe.
I intend to install Microsoft Security Essentials on a test machine with an isolated internet connection, and then do my level best to fuck it up. What do I mean by this? I will visit every dodgy web site, try a “test-scan” of every Win-Antivirus out there, and absolutely yes, please do show me Angelina Jolie in a compromising situation. Want my email address? Well, it’s right here:
Continue reading »Microsoft Security Essentials – The Best Free Anti-Virus / Anti-Spyware Software?
October 24, 2009
This one slipped out quietly, as most people don’t even seem to know it exists.
Anyway, fact is, Microsoft now give you complete anti-virus and malware protection, free of charge. So is it any good? Well that’s a very difficult question to answer, because unlike many other kinds of software, anti-virus is typically proven to be good over time, in the real world and with demonstrated resilience. Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) hasn’t been out that long, so its competency is yet to be proven.
I must say though, I already like it more than any of the other free offerings. It does exactly what AV should do, it installs without fuss and it leaves you alone. I wouldn’t necessarily advise you to bin the likes of AVG or Avast just yet, but I’d certainly recommend it over horrid, paid-for bloated-beasts like McAfee or the satanic monster known as Norton.
Continue reading »A Complete Xbox 360 Media Player ‘Ecosystem’ Guide (Teaser)
October 13, 2009
Stream everything. Play anything. Hundreds of HD movies. Thousands of songs. No DVDs, no DRM, no getting up from the sofa. No need for your PC to even be on and above all, no fruit.
For a simple, straightforward process for everyone to accomplish this and so much more with reliable ease, The Average Windows Nerd presents “Xbox 360 – A Complete Ecosystem Guide”, a practical and detailed step by step guide to making your Xbox 360 the media hub of your Windows 7 – networked Home, just like I did for “how to play iTunes H264 movie files on the Xbox 360“.
Continue reading »iTunes 9: So What?!?! – Part Two: Steal, Innovate, Repeat!
October 4, 2009
It’s Bill time again! (it’s always Bill O’clock in my house). I think Bill’s expression here, is a combination of shame and lust. Anyway, on with the whinging about Apple…
I always take delight in posing this quesstion to Mac Monks: “Well if OSX is so reliable and fantastic, where are all the Apple servers then!?” Exactly. There’s only one word in networking, and that word is Windows.
In part one of my iTunes 9 review, I told you how rubbish media sharing was in iTunes 9 and I told you why, but you know what? It doesn’t even matter. iTunes is a great audio manager and a competent audio streamer, but it’s no media-hub. Windows, however, is.
Practical sharing in Windows is so simple, I can cover it a paragraph. Here we go then…
Continue reading »iTunes 9 Review: So What?!?!
September 27, 2009
What can I say to follow up on my iTunes 9 teaser? Well, the scary doll from SAW said:
“Ringtones at a breakthrough price of $1.29” “We’ve bumped podcasts over and given the slot to ringtones”
Because that’s what everyone wants isn’t it? Not free, informative podcasts, oh no. Fucking shitty 30 second ringtones that cost more than the whole song, that’s what we want! – Assholes.
Continue reading »
