IT :: PC :: Computer :: Software :: Hardware :: Photoshop :: Themes/Templates :: Others

Is your download speed as fast as it should be? If you recall the days of the “speed demon” 56k dial-up modem, waiting on something as simple as a small digital picture file seemed to take eons. This is when you would get up from your computer and wander off to perform various other tasks to pass the time.

Now that more people have higher speed connections (Cable, DSL, Fiber), as of late, one would imagine that downloading a trial copy of Halo would be fast and steady. Well, not always. Instead of the person carefully watching their connectivity status while running their download, it is the group distributing the software, that is monitoring their bandwidth use.

Consider the possibility that greater bandwidth for the end user can mean greater amounts of requests for a target website. The chances that your download can be slowed down, or broken, increase. With larger websites, like Download.com, they take step to build infrastructure around maintaining the bandwidth necessary to support many thousands of active connections. However, for less frequented, or newer download or file sharing sites, the same environment may not be available.

To help you get the most out of your down stream speed on your Internet connection, tools like Download Accelerator Plus (found here) are available to boost your file grabbing speed and download connection quality. Download Accelerator Plus (also known as DAP) does more than simply make downloading files faster though. It also allows you to effectively pause a download and restart one, should a link set become broken.

Historically, this tool was an add-on for Internet Explorer, and now it has evolved into a suite of products. Included in Download Accelerator Plus is an FTP connection tool, a download dashboard, and a web browser. A simple tabbed interface allows the user to bounce between the three views.

The main draw behind this tool is the multiple download threads it utilizes when downloading a file. It does not simply get the download information from one site, and begin transferring the file. Download Accelerator Plus looks at other websites for the same file, and pulls from the as well. When you use DAP to get a file, it will display a multi-colored progress bar, showing several file connections.

When looking at Download tab, you can view the controls to Pause and Resume your downloads. You may select one or several streams for the purposes of stopping and starting the file transfers, or you may do all of them at once. One could see the practicality in this, because you could pause downloads that are taking longer then others, allowing DAP to focus on finishing certain transfers first.

When you pause an active download, a small icon pops up next to the selected transfer. This icon appears in the Status column and viewable while you are in the Download tab. The paused status remains until Resume is clicked.

For the purposes of downloading a file from a website, most people will navigate to the website, and locate the file on the site itself. This is tried and true method for finding file you wish to get at. That and the Google search engine covers most bases. However, if someone sends you a HTTP address link in an email, for instance, you can copy and paste the whole address into Download Accelerator Plus. All you have to do is click on the green Add icon in the Download tab, and a text box will appear for you to enter the website address of the download.

Please keep in mind that the version of Download Accelerator Plus reviewed here was the Free Version. There is a paid version of this software, and depending on what you click on within DAP, it will remind you frequently of this fact. The premium version does offer some nice privacy tools to help clean up Internet tracks with respect to downloaded files.

Is Download Accelerator Plus right for you? That is a determination that you will have to make for yourself. If you have a 265k DSL type connection, adding a tool like DAP will boost your file download time; whereas if you have a fiber connection of 20mb and upwards, DAP may not have the impact you want. Even if the speed is unattractive, the ability to effectively manage file downloads is reason enough to get this tool.

This set contains some Sexy Lady Silhouettes brushes for Photoshop.

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This set contains 30 Sunbrush Custom Shapes for Photoshop.

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This is my Zuney Blue Theme. Its basically the blue version of the Zune Final theme but the black parts are lighter, and I didn’t know about it at the time. I scratched my name out, so thats what the red is. No, I’m not crazy or paranoid. I just dont want people to see my account name, because it might offend some people.

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This may offer a bit of comfort to some with slower broadband connections. For US internet users, your tax dollars have now proven that the speed of broadband is 50% slower than what it’s claimed to be.

For those that would say, "Did we need to spend a bunch of tax money to figure something out everybody already knew?" In fact, yes. The problem needed to be identified in absolute fashion so plans can be made to actually do something about it. Saying something is slow and proving it as such are two different things. And now it’s proven.

A few other things have been proven as well.

First, what ISPs claim to be "fast" really doesn’t sound believable anymore due to the fact more and more US customers are saying, "I paid for ‘fast’ internet and I’m not getting it." When you download web pages, files and so on at the same speed you did with your "slow" broadband, you feel cheated. And you are being cheated. Fast should be legitimately fast, and it isn’t.

Second, internet today is no longer a luxury. For many it’s increasingly becoming a necessity. While it’s true you can go through daily life without it, it is becoming more difficult to do so and in the long run can cost you.

A simple example of this is paying bills online instead of mailing them out. The current cost of a US stamp is 44¢, and this doesn’t include the cost of envelopes. If you mail out 10 letters a month, that costs you $4.40 each time. Sending out bill payments online is completely free, and for payments that you cannot pay electronically, the bank will cover the cost of the postage and mail it for you.

This is just a single example as there are obviously many more.

The US is grossly behind the times when it comes to our broadband speed. The last time I wrote about this, the US ranked 15th in the world, with an extremely poor last-mile average download rate of 2.3mbps.

Thank the FCC for at least identifying our slow broadband as a legitimate problem. Plans to improve the network in the US will start soon in 2010. This is very late to the party concerning other countries are beating the pants off us right now in the broadband dept., but at least the problem has been identified and steps will be taken to resolve it, hopefully in short order.

In the past, I have written about how the copy-paste function works in a lot of places even though it may not be ‘advertised’ as a function. The same can be said about the undo function (Ctrl + Z).

For example, you can use this function:

• in just about any application text box
• in browser text boxes
• in find and replace dialogs
• lots of other places… try it

Unfortunately, many times the remembered undo level is only one deep (this is not always the case though) but this is still better than nothing.

So give the undo function (again, Ctrl + Z ) a try and it may come in handy.

If you fear your closets, you are not alone. Many closets contain everything from shoes, clothing, sports equipment, and hangers, to jackets, forgotten winter jackets, and more hangers. The long and short of it is, behind that door lies a potential tidal wave of things that you may have no clue as to what they are.

While a little unnerving to think about, the same can be true of your hard drive. Over a period of years, you hard drive has had files added to it, some files removed, and other files tucked away, which you may not realize are still on your computer. These file are not malicious, or anything of that nature. They are just quietly, and unnecessarily, consuming hard drive space. And just like your closets, need cleaning every so often.

Of course, you are not going to fling open your closet door, and dash in, garbage bags akimbo, and get rid of most of the items. You just need to sort out what to keep and what to get rid of. In regards to your computer’s hard drive, it is in your best interest to know what you are getting rid of before you execute the plan.

In order to examine the file structure of your hard drive, a tool such as Space Sniffer is needed. Space Sniffer (found here) scans your hard drive, and sorts the results for you to review. Now, bear in mind that the results are not in the format you may expect. Space Sniffer does not bring up a Windows Explorer type window, as some other applications do. This program shows its scan results in a block type schematic on the screen.

This first screen may not look like much, but it illustrates the top level of the diagram, the C: drive. At the C: drive level, you will see blocks of what is directly underneath the C: root directory. This would include items like Windows, Program Files, Documents and Settings, and the page file.

Should you be one that desires more detail in what they are looking at, this is easily accomplished. There are two blue boxes towards the top of the Space Sniffer program. The icon on the left reduces the amount of detail on screen, where the right icon increases the level of detail.

Granted, the icon that increases detail will only go down so many levels, before you are expected to click open the container. At some point, there would just not be enough of your screen’s real estate to properly display everything.

This is a view a few folders down. This is a section of what is under the My Documents folder. You can navigate within Space Sniffer in similar fashion to Windows Explorer. Instead of jumping through folders though, the main interface stays in place, while you dig further into a particular set of files or folders.

If you want to, you can click on the green star shaped icon in the icon bar within Space Sniffer. Doing so will show the free space available on your hard drive, in Space Sniffer. Free space is represented, color wise, by green.

Though it would seem that a simple program like this does not have the need for extra options, there are some available to you. Clicking on Edit, on the menu bar, then Configure, opens up an options window. Here you may alter the geometric and coloring effects of Space Sniffer. You can also modify the initial detail level, if the first set of results was visually too much for your tastes.

Space Sniffer may not be the only program you use for file management on your computer, but it is one that is worth looking at. It is very light on system resources and does not have to recalculate something every time you go one level deeper into your file structure.

Additionally, it is not installed on your hard drive, and can be used with a portable utility set (like programs on a USB thumb drive). If nothing else, it is fun to play around with and serve as a visual interpretation of how many files you have crammed into your My Pictures of My Documents folder.

Thanks and good luck!

Another set contains 10 Tattoo Photoshop brushes for Design. Brushes made in Adobe Photoshop CS4.


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This set contains 10 Tattoo Photoshop brushes for Design. Brushes made in Adobe Photoshop CS4.

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PS: For ObjectDock - For this purpose that has turned out how at me, it is necessary to use many empty shortcut (a blank address and empty PNG)

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Firmware, in generic terms, is "fixed software" in an electronic device. Your CD/DVD drive for example, has firmware. Your digital camera has firmware. Portable navigation devices (PND for short) has firmware. Even remote controls for televisions have firmware.

I’m the type of person that likes having the latest up-to-date firmware for whatever electronic device I use. But over the years I’ve had to train myself not to update if there isn’t any issue present with the way the device works.

Example: In one instance a few years ago I somewhat busted a CD/DVD drive I had because I updated the firmware. I found there was an update for the device, so I downloaded and applied it. After that the drive wouldn’t burn discs any longer. It would read them but not write no matter what brand of disc I used. It turned my DVD-R/W into a DVD-ROM. I tried applying a previous version of the firmware, but that didn’t work, so I had to junk it. $40 in the toilet. Lesson learned.

The only reason I bothered to update the firmware in that particular device is because it was available. Nothing was wrong with it, I didn’t need to do it, but did anyway.

Firmware updates for any electronic device serve two primary purposes. First, the update fixes a problem with the way the device works and/or second, the update adds in new features that weren’t there before.

If you spot a firmware update for whatever electronic device you use, but are not encountering any problems nor are there any features added in with the update, don’t apply it. If you do, chances are likely it will do more harm than good and in worst case scenario makes the device unusable.

As said above, I had to train myself not to apply firmware updates when I didn’t need them. I would look at the firmware version for my digital camera and it would be at 2.5a. But wait, now there’s 2.5b! My mind says, "I should really get this," but then common sense kicks in. "Hang on. There’s nothing wrong with my camera. And this update doesn’t add in anything I didn’t have before. No, I won’t do it." So I don’t.

This can be a temptation that’s tough to resist. After all, you want all your electronic stuff to have current software. Psychologically, having an old firmware version puts the message of, "I’m missing out on something" in your head. Trust me when I say that the vast majority of the time you’re not missing anything.

Whenever you see a firmware update for whatever electronic device you’re using, always read the release notes thoroughly. This documentation is always provided and is usually on the same page where the download is, or as a PDF or some other web page describing what’s in that particular version. If you see nothing in there that fixes anything or adds in features, don’t apply it, because having an update applied that breaks your stuff will ruin your day real quick. Every time it happens it’s money wasted that you have to spend all over again.

If you have a damaged CD or DVD which you need to recover data on and trying to copy data from Windows Explorer is not yielding successful results, a tool you might want to try is IsoPuzzle.

Short Description:
The goal of this program is to recover as much as possible data of damaged, bad burned or scratched CDs or DVDs.
This version supports only data CDs and DVDs with sectorsize of 2048 byte – Audio CD, VCD and SVCD are not supported.

IsoPuzzle reads the disc in the drive and creates an ISO file with any data it can recover. This resulting ISO file can either be loaded into a virtual drive or burned to a disc to copy any recovered data.

The product’s website does look dated to say the least, but the tool may be worth a try in a disaster recovery situation. Do take note of the author’s disclaimer that this program makes no guarantee that it can recover any data from a damaged disk.

A long while ago, I ran a tip which basically said putting a candy dish near your computer is a bad idea because you will end up munching on it without thinking. So as an alternative to the candy dish, here are some ideas of some stuff you might want to have instead:

• Nothing
• Low Salt Nuts (cashews for me)
• Raisins / Dried Fruit
• Bananas
• Peppermints (if you must have something sweet)

Of course, some of these may leave your hands sticky so having a moist cloth nearby might come in handy.

Did I miss something? If your computer snack isn’t listed, please share in the comments.

Evernote is a free online service that lets you save notes and access them from anywhere. It offers a client software in PC and mobile devices so that you can access your notes on a wide range of supported devices.

The idea behind Evernote is simple, for users to be able to save and edit notes with images, text, clips, audio, PDF and other formats online. Since the data is saved in the Cloud, users don’t have to transfer files if they need to switch computers.

It is a good free alternative to other paid solutions like Sharepoint and online MS Office services. It’s even better than other free competitors like Postica, an online note taking and file sharing tool. The client software can also import Microsoft Notes files, so compatibility seems to be not an issue.

The PC client software is a lightweight document editor that lets users create and edit notes. It lets users login to their Evernote account and then save notes online.

The free account lets users attach JPEG, PNG, GIF, MP3 and WAV files. If you want to attach other types like DOC, AVI and PPT, you will need to upgrade to a paid premium account.

The free account lets you save up to 40MB of files per month, not bad for casual note takers, but not so good for more demanding users like me (my blog drafts alone are more than 100 MB per month!). This service is for power note takers who are always on the roll.

If you think you need a cloud computing service like this, checkout their homepage at http://www.evernote.com

Good luck!

This set contains Smoke Brushes with hogh resolution for Photoshop 7 and higher.

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Windows 7 (7600 RTM) Basic Theme - Dark Blue by KI5

Follow this easy steps to install my theme/style

**********************************************

1.Run ux theme patcher for your windows 7 RTM

>for 32bit edition use the UniversalThemePatcher-x86.exe
>for 64bit edition use the UniversalThemePatcher-x64.exe

(both suplied with this theme and should be run as administrator)

2.Patch all 3 files, and restart your PC

3.Open windows explorer and navigate to C:\Windows\Resources\Themes\Aero

>find aero.msstyles
>right click on it and take ownership
>copy the file on your desktop, or some other folder for backup
>now take the suplied aero.msstyles and replace the original one…

THAT IS IT! now log OFF, and back ON to see the changes!

**********************************************

For questions, suggestions and general feedback contact me on

All credits for theme/style are going to KI5 / kipet

Special Thanks to UntitledGame for tips and support!

**********************************************

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For those that use an @aol.com email address, you might have noticed an email that appeared to be spam, but it wasn’t. It came from the sender "FooterSettlement" with subject line "OFFICIAL NOTICE OF PENDENCY OF CLASS ACTION AND PROPSED SETTLEMENT", and looked like this:

This is not spam. In short, what it means is that you now have the ability to opt out of footer advertisements in the emails you send. All you have to do it login to your AOL Mail first, then go to the web address http://footer.aol.com and simply uncheck the box, like this:

..then click the Save button.

From that point, no footer ads will be sent in the mail you send from your AOL email account.

It’s about time.

If you use AIM for instant messaging, any AIM account has the ability to send email. Your email address would be your-AIM-screen-name@aim.com. This has the same ability to opt out of footer ads just like @aol.com addresses do. To access and start using mail for an AIM account, the address to go to is http://webmail.aol.com. Login using your AIM credentials.

Are footer ads in outgoing emails good revenue generators anymore?

No. In order for free email providers to keep existing users and moreover attract new ones, the content of the communication sent to and from people must be absolutely ad-free. The biggest reason for this is SMS (Short Message Service) compatibility. Many of us use our email to send in the form of a short text message to cell phones. An email system that forces footer ads on all outgoing mail literally prevents you from sending any SMS at all, due to the fact you trip the 180-character-or-less limit every time you attempt to send a message.

Yahoo! Mail hasn’t had any footer ads on outgoing mail for some time and Gmail never has. Hotmail/Windows Live Mail does but only if you use the free web-based version. However I’m certain Hotmail will eventually drop the footer ads as well; it’s only a matter of time.

Any free email provider today that uses footer ads on outgoing messages is, pun intended, shooting themselves in the foot. Ad-supported free email should show ads in the web interface only and nowhere in the body of any message. This allows the user to send mail to anybody on any device, including mobile devices, without restriction.

At present, the most SMS-friendly free email providers are Google, Yahoo! and now AOL. Hotmail isn’t SMS-friendly only for the reason their free web-based version forces footer ads on outgoing messages. You can get around this by using the Windows Live Mail email client (mail sent from the client does not include footer ads at all) or by having a Hotmail Plus account, but it would be nice if Microsoft followed the lead of Yahoo! and AOL and dropped the footer crapola altogether.

The time for footer ads in email is over. The companies who choose to remain with it will have their users abandon the service in favor of footer-free email.

Have you ever changed the priority of a process in the Task Manager?
Do you have to do it often?
Do you want your database server or media player to know the priority it should work with?

If so, you have two choices: do it manually every time or automate/manage the process. If you prefer the latter then a tool you should check out is Prio Process Priority Saver.

Once installed, you just set the priority preferences of the processes you want to modify and then make sure the option to save is checked. Then the next time the program starts your saved settings will be applied automatically. This utility is ideal for power users or system admins who are looking to get more control over their server processes.

I often go to torrent search engines like mininova.org or isohunt.com to look for torrent files that I want to download. Sometimes the torrent files on one site are not available, but are on another site and I’ve found it necessary to visit multiple torrent sites – Google and Bing are just not that good when it comes to indexing torrents.

Lately, I discovered a great site that searches multiple torrent search engines so users can search on only one page. Before going further, also read my previous posts on how to make your own torrent and how to use uTorrent, my favorite torrent downloader.

The Scrapetorrent.com engine searches popular torrent trackers when you query a keyword. Users can also suggest trackers that they want to be added on the engine. As of this writing, there are about 280 torrent trackers added on the list and about 200 of them are active – some are probably shut down by the enemies of P2P sharing like RIA.

The site offers two types of search; the basic and TV mode. With basic mode you can search for music, software, video, and other types. You can also filter out torrents with no more seeds and duplicates:

The search results are presented with necessary torrent statistics like file size, seed and downloader counts.

The bottom of the page contains how many torrents are found on each portal:

The other mode, searching by TV episodes lets you enter a title of the show and choose a specific season and episode to search. There is also a link for the recent episode of the show.

If you love downloading content from torrents, Scrapetorrent.com is a good first place to search. Since it can search multiple torrent sites at once, you can optimize your search time and get the best torrent file with the most number of seeds.

Smiley and Pencil brushes for illustrator CS4 (.PDF file).

Download here

Brushpack contains Light stroke brushes for Photoshop.

Download here

Almost the same as the GTK theme except that there are no rounded menubars, because it can’t be styled in XP.

Also, don’t stare blind on how it compares to my other styles (looking too similar that is. Just look at the smaller details if you can.)

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Here is an interesting and clever use of Twitter: remotely controlling your computer. In a couple of articles recently posted on Lifehacker, you can use TweetMyPC and TweetMyMac (respectively) to send commands to your computer from anywhere you have Internet access.

The commands are limited (obviously) but you are able to do useful things like send a shutdown command or create your own custom commands which can do anything you like such as launch automated tasks. Of course there are dangers with using something like this as you will want to protect your account so not just anyone can send your computer commands.

Personally, I do not use Twitter so I am curious if any of our readers out there would try something like this.

Whenever you have a large number of folders, inevitably some will be more important than others such that you want them to stand out in the list. Typically, you accomplish this by using special characters, caps or punctuation in the folder name. An alternate way to do this would be to change the color and/or icon of the folder. A free tool to make this process simple is Folder Marker.

Folder icons can be customized using the standard Windows method, but with Folder Marker Free you can do this on the fly from the right-click menu of a folder. So there is no need to go through additional dialogs or run Folder Marker Free itself! Simply select the folder you want to mark, right-click on its icon and select a color-coded icon from the drop-down menu. The icon will be assigned to the folder at once.

This tool makes the required folder changes a simple one or two click process. A tool like this is a quick way to organize all your folders.

Windows Explorer does just about anything you would need it to with respect to file management, however one complaint you may see people have is that it lacks speed when doing file copies. If this is something you have noticed, a utility you should try is TeraCopy. TeraCopy is a program optimized for doing one thing- copying files fast.

Personally, I do a lot of work with virtual machines (copying, moving, etc.) which have a file size of at least 8 GB so this looks like something I am going to give a try. Does anyone already use TeraCopy or another similar program? If so, what is your experience?

If you are a Windows XP user but really like the visual glass effects of Windows Vista, then Border Skin is for you.

Border Skin is a new free program that skins the windows
borders by skins composed of png images with the support
of 2 famous windows vista & 7 effects ( Blur and reflection )

Nothing much to really add here. When you run Border Skin, there is a control panel available in your system tray which allows you to control the settings. Additionally, you can set program exclusions in the event this effect causes problems on certain applications.

While this does not work 100% the way Vista does, it is an easy way to get the same eye candy effects.

LCD monitors are great. No question. They’re thin, can be moved around easily, don’t use much electricity, don’t produce static when turned on or off, have a crisp picture that stays crisp, and so on.

However there is one failing of LCD monitors and a big one at that. It’s a lack of vertical resolution.

I’ll explain.

Let’s say you want a monitor that has a 2048-pixel-wide resolution. Yes, this is an insane amount of pixels. How big, as in physically big, do you have to go with an LCD to get this?

The answer is 21 inches.

However, at that size you only get 1152 pixels on the vertical within a reasonable price range – and those are 23-inchers. The monitor is really wide, but seriously short. Bear in mind that is only 72 pixels taller than a 1680×1050 resolution. Like I said, short.

Now let’s say you want something with some true vertical resolution, as in 2048×1536. That’s proper.

That will cost you $4,400 to get it with LCD. You literally pay an extra four thousand dollars for those extra 384 vertical pixels.

Now let’s compare this to the good ol’ CRT – which is really hard to come by these days.

You can get a 21-inch monitor that will support a true 2048×1536 resolution. I found one on eBay for just $600. It’s used because I could not locate a new one.

(Note: If you know of any vendor that does sell these new, please feel free to post a comment with a link as I’m sure there would be some interested parties.)

Who needs crazy resolutions like this?

Programmers love having this kind of screen real estate. You can fit so much stuff on-screen that there is no need for a secondary monitor.

If you’re wondering, "How could anyone read anything at that resolution?" Trust me, programmers can and do routinely.

You simply cannot get the vertical resolution of those old huge 21 and 22-inch CRTs on modern LCDs. Not without paying several thousand dollars for it, anyway.

To answer the question: Did we lose resolution with LCD? Unquestionably, yes.

Hopefully someday the LCD monitor manufacturers will wise up and give us some decent vertical resolution at an agreeable price.

And no, buying an LCD that turns sideways is not the answer because then you lose a ton of horizontal real estate. What the monitor manufacturers need to do is start making taller monitors and not wider. We’ve got enough wide to go around already and don’t need any more. We need height.

For those that would say, "Well, just get a 2560×1600 LCD! Problem solved!" No, problem not solved. The monitor is physically too large. You’re going to have a 26 or 30-inch behemoth on the desk. That’s not practical at all. Maybe fun and cool, but not practical.

Wide is great, but don’t you wish sometimes you had an extra 300 or so pixels at the bottom? I know I do.

Real-world monitor resolution considerations for those of us on a budget

The two best resolutions that give you the most usable vertical space within a reasonable price are:

• 1680×1050
• 1280×1024

Why is vertical resolution so important? Because you scroll less.

My advice: Don’t buy anything under 1000 pixels on the vertical. Not unless you like scrolling a lot.

The best box that Apple makes is the Mac Pro.

The best box that Dell makes is the Precision Workstation, commonly abbreviated as PW. Both are business machines first and foremost.

It is very easy to configure either to run you $20,000 for final cost.

How to do it? Simple. Check off every single possible option you can throw in when configuring it.

First, the Mac Pro.

This is an 8-core system (two 2.93GHz Quad Core Intel Xeons) stuffed with 32GB of RAM, 3 1TB hard drives, two optical drives, two 30-inch flat-panel displays, wireless everything, fibre channel, a bunch of preinstalled software and of course the AppleCare Protection plan.

And now, the Big Dell, the Precision Workstation T7500.

The screen shot of this would have been too long, so here are the specs:

• Windows Vista 64-bit Business Edition
• Dual Quad Core Intel® Xeon® Processors W5580 3.20GHz, 8M L3, 6.4GT/s,turbo
• 48GB, DDR3 RDIMM Memory, 1333MHz, ECC (12 DIMMS). You read correctly. 48 gigs of RAM. This is an $8,000+ option.
• 4 Year ProSupport for End Users and 4 Year 4HR 7×24 Onsite Service
• 4.0GB NVIDIA® Quadro® FX 5800, DUAL MON, 1DP & 2DVI
• Microsoft™ Office® Professional 2007
• McAfee® Total Protection for Small Business,15 Month Subscription,Eng
• Drive 1 – 1.5TB SATA 3.0Gb/s, 7200 RPM Hard Drive with 16MB DataBurst Cache™
• Drive 2 – 1.5TB SATA 3.0Gb/s, 7200 RPM Hard Drive with 16MB DataBurst Cache™
• Drive 3 – 1.5TB SATA 3.0Gb/s, 7200 RPM Hard Drive with 16MB DataBurst Cache™
• Drive 4 – 1.5TB SATA 3.0Gb/s, 7200 RPM Hard Drive with 16MB DataBurst Cache™
• Drive 5 – 1.5TB SATA 3.0Gb/s, 7200 RPM Hard Drive with 16MB DataBurst Cache™ Yes, this is 5 1.5TB drives for a total of 7.5 TB space.
• 16X DVD+/-RW w/ Cyberlink PowerDVD™ and Roxio Creator™
• Monitor 1 – Dell 24 inch UltraSharp™2408WFP Widescreen, Adjustable Stand, VGA/DVI
• Monitor 2 – Dell 24 inch UltraSharp™2408WFP Widescreen, Adjustable Stand, VGA/DVI
• Monitor 3 – Dell 24 inch UltraSharp™2408WFP Widescreen, Adjustable Stand, VGA/DVI
• Monitor 4 – Dell 24 inch UltraSharp™2408WFP Widescreen, Adjustable Stand, VGA/DVI
• Chassis Intrusion Switch

There are many, many different ways I could have priced out the Dell.

Instead of the four 24-inch monitors, I could have gone with three Dell 30-inchers (which I probably would). That would be a separate purchase albeit from the same company.

In addition, the Dell costs more mainly due to the extra 16GB of RAM, the four monitors and the extra two hard drives. Mac Pros at present cannot be configured from the OEM to go beyond 3 internal hard drives or 32GB RAM, and that’s by design.

What’s the Super Dell best suited for?

AutoCAD or high resolution medical imaging. With CAD in particular, this is still PC-only world.

And not gaming, you dope.

What’s the Super Mac best suited for?

HD/Film/Video editing suite. In a separate purchase I’d tack on either Final Cut Pro or Adobe Premiere or Media 100. Whatever had the most local (important) support. And when I say local I mean other shops in the area you live that support what you have. Some places favor Final Cut while others Media 100, etc.

Does anybody actually buy these things?

Yes, and routinely. Neither OEM would build them if there weren’t a market to buy them.

In medical, industrial design and research facilities you will see these Dells.

In pro video houses/animation studios, you will see these Macs.

Of course, neither looks any different from their lower-cost same-model boxes, but it’s what’s on the inside that counts obviously.

Could you build a PC with the above Dell specs for cheaper?

Yes. And in fact you can go higher than 64GB RAM.

How about 256GB RAM? Sound impossible? It isn’t. You have to use a server motherboard instead of desktop, like this one.

Ridiculous for a home PC? Very. And totally unnecessary. Sure, you’ll be the coolest nerd in town, but you’ll be paying a loan off for all that RAM for the next 10 years.

On the desktop side, the most RAM supported if you bought the motherboard thru NewEgg is 24GB. This is a bit crappy because there should be 32GB RAM support options for PC builders. Alas, there isn’t. Yet. Maybe there will be come 2010?

At present you’re best off using a board that supports 8 or 16GB. And you’ll obviously have to use 64-bit Windows (or Linux) to access all of that.

Is there any way to get the cost of the Mac Pro down?

Several ways, actually.

The first rule to buying Mac is to purchase as little as possible from the Apple Store concerning the box itself.

Instead of ordering your Mac with 32GB, order with 1GB. Fill it up with RAM from another vendor. Just remember to specifically order Mac Memory.

Instead of Apple 30-inch Cinema Displays, use 30-inch Dell UltraSharps. Even Mac people know that those are awesome monitors.

Instead of ordering 3 hard drives, take 1. Like with the RAM, buy the others from another vendor and install it yourself.

This is essentially no different than configuring the Dell. You put the money into the processors more than anything else. For the rest, you go with other vendors.

The only drawback to this is that the other-vendor stuff isn’t supported under OEM warranty. This can be said for either OEM.

I just bought a Dell Inspiron mini 10v. It will be arriving either later this week or early next week.

After examining all the different ways I could purchase it, I decided to go refurb.

Why?

Because it’s nearly $100 less than new.

For a laptop that’s in the sub-$500 range, $100 is a pretty big consideration. In my situation, I paid 23% less compared to buying new, and I got more for the money besides that.

With netbooks you either love or hate them, and you certainly don’t purchase one for speed and power. You want it for the portability factor; this is why I bought one. Later on when I actually get the thing I’ll write up more about it, but for now I’m concentrating on price.

Resale value

Netbooks will not have any significant resale value because laptops of this size are meant to be disposable tech to a degree. I know that in 2 years the 10v I bought will barely be worth $100 at best – and that’s being generous.

This is going to be a cold hard fact no matter which make or model you go with, mainly due to the reason they were designed from the ground up to be inexpensive.

Those who are anti-refurb will do nothing but pay more for the same thing

I know there’s a whole lot of you out there who are decidedly anti-refurb and say, "If it’s not new, I don’t want it." You may change your tune on that when it comes to netbooks.

Refurbs today (at least with Dell) are not like they were years ago. You get all the same warranty choices including extended options with new OR refurb. In yesteryear this was not the case as refurb warranties didn’t offer the same coverage, but now they do and have for some time.

This being the case, those who choose to go new for the same model as a refurb do nothing but spend more money for the exact same thing.

By the numbers

These are the specs of my Dell Inspiron mini 10v. Items listed in bold/red are things you have to pay extra for when buying new as upgrade options.

• Obsidian Black
• 10.1 inch WideScreen True Life Laptop Screen (1024×576)
• Processor: Intel Atom Processor N270 (1.6GHz/533Mhz FSB/512K cache)
• 1 GB DDR2 SDRAM 1 DIMM
• 160 GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM)
• 6 Cell, 56WHr Lithium-Ion Primary Battery
• Dell Wireless 1510 802.11a/g/n Draft Mini Card
• Integrated 1.3M Pixel Webcam
• Genuine Windows XP Home
• Microsoft Works 9.0
• 32BIT Operating System CD
• Windows Live
• 30W AC Adapter
• Service Software
• Intel Integrated Graphics Media Accelerator 950

The price I paid for the refurb: $309.21. That’s with tax and shipping included.

If you were to price this new for the exact same model with same upgrade options, the price is $384 and that does not include tax and shipping (if included that would go over $400 easily).

In other words, with new I’d pay $100 more for the same thing.

With netbooks, you are so much better off concerning the pocketbook by going refurb. If interested in a Dell refurb netbook, the site is http://www.dell.com/outlet.

What about other makes and models of netbooks? How do they compare in price?

At present the best price for a netbook is in the high 200s (US Dollar).

The MSI Wind at NewEgg at the time of this writing sells for $289.99. With shipping added in, it still stays under $300 and it’s very close in specs to the Dell Inspiron mini 10v, HOWEVER.. the battery life sucks.

The best part about the refurb Dell I bought is that I specifically sought out one that came provided with a 6-cell 56WHr battery. Netbooks are supposed to be super-duper portable by design, but all that portability means nothing without a really good battery under the hood (literally).

If you are interested in a netbook, the battery should be the first thing you examine. If it’s a 3-cell/24WHr, you’re only going to realistically get 3 hours of use per charge. For a netbook, that’s terrible. Aim for the 32 and 56WHr batteries.

You should always go for the better battery. This is true for any laptop, but it’s especially true for netbooks.

What will the prices of netbooks be in the future?

They’ll most likely stick around the high 200s for a good while yet. However in a year or two it’s possible you may see low 200s for new netbooks.

The one I just bought will definitely not be the only. Future models (and this is happening very soon) will have integrated GPS and more television/tv tuner options for media center use. The existing Inspiron mini 10 already has an HDMI output for such a task.

Portable computer tech is looking really good right now, and it’s getting better. But most importantly, it’s cheap.

The old saying goes “if it isn’t broken, don’t try to fix it”. This is a good approach to existing, functional device drivers on your system. However, if you are installing a new device going with the most recent stable driver is probably the best bet.

Whenever you purchase a retail device, it almost always comes with a driver CD. Instead of using this CD, download the latest release from the manufacture’s site instead. More times than not, you will find your CD has an older version because it was packaged and shipped X months ago.

In a very short period of time I’ve found that in order to get along with a netbook properly, there’s 10 things you absolutely must do.

1. Use Google Chrome

Those who know my browser preferences find this a bit of a shock being that I’m a diehard Firefox user, because I’ve made it no secret that I can’t stand the Chrome web browser.

On a netbook however it’s a totally different story.

Chrome gives you the most usable space for your monitor with the least amount of memory munching. Being that you’re only dealing with a 1024×576 (or 600) screen, space is at a premium. Granted, you can F11 it for full screen with other browsers, but it’s better if you see your menus and tabs. Chrome allows you to do this easily.

If you’re using Firefox the tabs will munch up vertical pixels easily, and so will IE 8. Chrome gives the most vertical space because the status appears as a bar that fades in but isn’t locked – and that’s good. And when you open up new tabs, no extra vertical space is taken up either.

It’s the best browser to use on a netbook, period. And coming from me, that’s saying a lot.

2. Spend quality time with your mouse configuration program.

No matter what model of netbook you use, you will probably hate the touchpad. And I mean really hate it. That’s okay because most people do. The netbook format at this point hasn’t exact found the happy medium for a mouse design, so to speak.

Side note: I do know the perfect design for a netbook’s touchpad – no touchpad. It should be the rubber eraser-tip style thing Thinkpads have. This would work perfectly on the netbook format. Yes, you lose your mouse gestures but I’d happily give them up for the mid-point joystick and two tactile buttons below the keyboard.

Fortunately on the Dell mini 10v and all other netbooks, you can control every single thing it does. It even has sensitivity recognition, so not only does it detect touch (obviously), but also how hard or soft you touch.

It is required for you to sit with this and spend a good amount of time tweaking the settings. There is no fast n’ easy way around it. Fortunately once done, it’s done and you don’t have to do it again.

Or if you still hate it, spring for a laptop mini-mouse.

3. Spend quality time with your monitor settings.

Like with the touchpad, this will take time to set correctly as well. In my situation, the screen was just too bright and too blue. And this wasn’t fixed by putting the brightness setting down a few notches. I had to manually go into the config program for the colors/brightness and set it that way. Once I did, I said to myself, “Okay, that’s the way it’s supposed to look.”

The Dell mini 10v in particular has a really, really bright screen. This is a good feature, but it’s set to FULL-ON BRIGHT out of the box.

4. Know your keyboard.

On more or less all netbooks, certain keys on the keyboard do double duty. On the mini 10v this is seen in the function and arrow keys. This is a non-standard layout, and you won’t take it to like a fish to water. For example, I use PgUp and PgDn a lot – but these are on the arrow keys whereas I have to do Fn+Up to page up and Fn-Down to page down. Being that I’m a keystroke freak, this takes time to get used to.

It should also be noted that most netbooks do not have the faux number pad, that being where the right-side keys serve as number keys when Fn is pressed.

5. Purposely seek out lightweight apps.

Instead of using AIM, use AIM Lite.

Instead of using WinZIP, use 7Zip.

Consider using AbiWord instead of OpenOffice Writer or Microsoft Word.

It’s not that the “heavy” apps won’t work on a netbook as they’ll work fine. But whenever you can use less processing power, the better because it increases battery life and they obviously run faster.

6. Purposely seek out apps that can be installed with no media required.

This means to use apps that can be downloaded and installed rather than something that requires a CD/DVD installation method. You could get around this by purchasing a 50-dollar USB external optical drive or creating ISOs and virtually mounting disks within XP, but that’s a pain to do. You’re better off if you use apps that can be downloaded. Sourceforge will be your best friend here.

7. Spring for the 6-cell battery.

This screen shot speaks for itself:

This is not Windows XP making a mistake as to how long the battery will last for. It literally will run for over 5 hours on a single charge. And that’s with wi-fi enabled! You can easily get 6 if you decrease the screen brightness a few notches and disable wi-fi when you don’t need it.

8. Know your wi-fi hotspots.

Most people don’t bother taking their laptops with them to open wi-fi hotspots because the laptop is too big, too heavy and barely holds a charge over 2 hours and 30 minutes. The netbook gives you over 5 hours with a 6-cell battery and it’s under 3 pounds, so yeah, you’ll want to hit more wi-fi spots.

How to find them? There’s two ways:

First way: OpenWiFiSpots

Punch in your ZIP code and you’ll see the closest wi-fi spots near you.

Second way: Searching for “wifi” in Google Earth.

Use the Google Earth software and position the map close to where you live, then search for “wifi”. Both business and user-contributed wi-fi listings will appear.

Obviously both ways are dependent on where you live. If you live in a more metro area, you’ll find more spots. For example, the metro downtown area of Tampa Florida has an entire area covered for wi-fi called the S.U.R.F. Zone.

9. Get familiar with netbook specific resources for your model.

Each netbook offering has at least one independent web site that is dedicated to what you use. The Dell Inspiron mini for example has www.ubuntumini.com. If you wanted to know everything and anything about Ubuntu on the Dell mini, well, there you go. No matter which make/model you decide to go with, chances are there’s a world of informational resource available to you outside of the company’s web site who manufactured it.

This happens because there’s almost a cult-like following for netbook computers. Except this is a really good type of cult.

10. Know your operating system choices.

The most popular OS on netbooks right now is Windows XP. However Ubuntu does have a “Netbook Remix” version of their own OS. The best part? You can install the whole thing to a single 1GB USB stick and test it out if you like. I’ve done so on my Dell mini 10v and yeah, it runs great.

You can expect other Linux flavors to offer “remix” versions of their own distributions in the near future.

For the observant, you’ll notice that a ton of computers are made in the nation of China these days. This is occurring so much that some people absolutely refuse to buy anything made from there, similar to the all-too-familiar MADE IN TAIWAN labels on so many products of the 1980s and 1990s.

On the computing front, many refer to Chinese-made computers as "those Foxconn-made pieces of sh*t".

The Mac mini, Macbook Air, Macbook, iMac and Macbook Pro are all manufactured in China. For those who have ever ordered one of the aforementioned direct from the Apple Store and had it shipped to you, you’ll notice the shipping process starts (the last I knew) from Shanghai.

The Dell mini 10v I just bought has a MADE IN CHINA sticker slapped on the back of it. Other Dell models follow suit.

It is totally possible (and this is a guess) that Dell and Apple PCs/laptops are manufactured right in the same city – and possibly even the same buildings.

Still think Apple-branded computers are better than Dell-branded now?

As to why so much of our computer stuff is made there, the answer is simple: Cost. It costs less to have electronics made there than in a Western nation (and yes, this also leads to serious e-waste problems in China).

The question however is this: Is a Chinese-manufactured computer "bad"? No, because it all boils down to design and manufacturing processes.

If a laptop has a bad design that’s been finalized and sent to production, the end result will be a crappy product no matter where it’s made.

Example 1: The Macbook (not the Macbook Pro). It is commonly called a Crackbook. Why? Because of a design flaw in the palm rest that literally causes the unit to crack even when just sitting there neatly on a table with it running – even if was never dropped, never abused, etc.

(Side note: Apple still sells this same model with the same design flaw. It can be fixed under warranty, but if your warranty runs out, you’re screwed.)

Example 2: The exploding batteries in Dell laptops that happened a few years ago which prompted a massive recall. It wasn’t the laptop that was the problem here, but guess where the battery was made?

Even with these examples, I don’t deem a product "bad" based on where it was made. I have owned several Chinese-made electronics products over the years. One company which I know has a major manufacturing plant in China that is Behringer – and I like Behringer products. A lot. That’s because they manufacture solid well-designed stuff.

If you’re going to blame anybody for poor quality computer stuff, blame the brand (like Apple, Dell and/or Foxconn). They don’t need to move their manufacturing facilities elsewhere, they just need to more thought into design for better electronics products.

Note: There is a video at the bottom of this post of my 10v, so be sure to check that out.

As I had been saying many times since 2009 started, my plan was to get a netbook as my next laptop. So I bought a refurbished Dell Inspiron Mini 10v.

My overall opinion of the unit is that it’s a decent solid build and is definitely the right size. However the one thing that I absolutely must point out is that without a 6 cell battery it’s not worth owning.

Since it’s a challenge at best to run high-powered, high-graphic apps (like many popular game titles) on one of these things, what you would use it most for is web browsing, documents and communication such as email, instant messengers and so on.

On a netbook, where one finds this most useful is not at home. Whether it’s your local coffee shop or restaurant with free wi-fi, a long flight, long car or bus ride, hotel, etc., that’s where you’re going to use this thing.

Being that’s the case, long battery life is what matters more than anything else on a netbook.

It should be absolutely mandatory that all netbooks come provided with a 6 cell battery as standard. This is not the case for any netbook currently. All of them, whether made by Dell, HP, MSI, Acer or the like all come with a 3 cell. This realistically only gets you 3 hours of battery life, and that serves absolutely no advantage over a standard-sized laptop.

On my 10v, I purposely sought out a refurb with the 6 cell battery. This was the absolute best decision I could have made because I get the most usefulness out of this netbook.

Being there are other reviews of the 10v on the internet already, I’m going to point out here (some of which will be mentioned in the video below) the points most people would be interested in learning, in Q&A format.

Does it have an optical drive?

No. What makes a netbook a netbook usually starts with having no optical drive. If you want one, you can purchase the small external USB kind. Here’s an example.

What’s the resolution?

On the 10v it’s 1024×576. Most apps will run in this resolution with no issue at all. In the browser (any web browser), you can get maximum space by pressing F11 for full screen mode, and press it again to go back to windowed. Try it right now if you like; it works on any computer.

The Dell mini 10 (the one without the v) does offer a 1366 resolution, however I know for a fact that for many people the text would just be way too small.

At the time I write this, Dell has introduced the brand new Inspiron 11z, which has, you guessed it, an 11-inch screen. Does a 1366 resolution look any more readable on that? Depends on your eyes.

1024×576 on a 10-inch screen can be read fine even for those with a “heavy” eyeglass prescription. With 1366 there’s squinting. And it is unknown at this point whether an 11-inch screen would serve any better, readability-wise.

It also should be noted that at full brightness, the 10v’s LCD screen beams, as in so bright it would literally bother you. I never have mine set at full bright. I think the only time you would have to full-bright is when sitting outside with it on a very bright sunny day.

What’s the hard drive size?

There are several sizes, starting with an 8GB SSD, then 16GB SSD, then 120GB 2.5-inch and the 160GB 2.5-inch. There’s also a 64GB SSD somewhere in the mix.

In the new 11v there is a 250GB 2.5-inch SATA drive offering. It’s overkill, but available.

The SATA drives are the purposely-chosen slower 5400rpm because they run cooler.

On my 10v, I have the 160GB. For me this is fine given the fact I don’t have anything that would munch up hard drive space.

Even if you chose to stuff your hard drive full of movies and MP3s, it would still take a while to fill this thing up. But if you gotta-gotta-gotta have the extra space, just buy an external 750GB Western Digital MyPassport (brand new at the time of this writing). Problem solved.

How does the keyboard feel?

On the 10v it feels solid and not toy-like. It is, according to Dell, 92% the size of a traditional laptop keyboard. It’s responsive, easy to type on and doesn’t require any huge learning curve.

What some may have a problem with is where the PgUp/PgDn keys are. They are shared with the arrow keys and accessible via Fn. Page Up would be Fn+Up, Page Down would be Fn+Down.

It also should be noted there are no keys which could act as a number pad via Fn. The only way to type numbers is to use the top row only.

How does the touchpad feel?

You’ll probably hate it at first. It does take a few days to get used to. Once you do it’s not bad though. It’s not great, I admit, but it’s not awful either. This is one of those things where a design had to be made to accommodate the pint-sized nature of the netbook.

What’s the performance like?

Note before continuing: The 11v is reported to have much better performance as it has a next-gen CPU in it.

The easiest way to describe the performance of a 10v is that it is about the same running speed as a upper-mid-grade laptop made 5 years ago.

Some of you may read that and say, “Bleah! That’s terrible!”

Not really. When you take away the high-powered/high-graphic apps, the 10v can basically run anything you put on it, and do so in a way where you’re not sitting around waiting for something to happen.

The OpenOffice suite for example is a chunky set of apps, but runs easily on the 10v.

I have no issues with the 10v choking and I don’t believe anybody else would.

How long does the 6 cell 56WHr battery last?

With the screen dimmed and wi-fi off, 6 hours. And no, not “about” 6 hours. I’m talking 6 hours or more.

With the screen brightness up and wi-fi on, 5 to 5.5 hours. I can confirm this as I have put the unit thru its paces.

This beats the ever-loving crap out of any standard-sized laptop. Like I said, the battery is the most important part of a netbook, no question.

The video below shows what the 6 cell battery looks like. It is significantly larger than the 3 cell, but not anything that would make you run for the hills.

Does it feel like a toy?

Some netbooks do feel like toys, I won’t deny that. But the 10v doesn’t. The overall construction is solid and it doesn’t feel like a child’s plaything. When opening the screen there are no creaks or squeaks. When typing the keyboard doesn’t feel cheap. All the ports have a nice snug fit when anything is plugged into them.

How loud is it?

The 10v is silent when running. So silent you’d think something is wrong with it. Whenever I turn it on I have to purposely look at the power light just to make sure I turned it on because I’m so used to hearing fan noise from older laptops I’ve used.

How is the audio speaker?

Terrible. Sounds chintzy. A compromise of the small design. Even at its loudest volume it’s still too quiet.

Fortunately for most things where you’d want to hear the audio (like YouTube videos or music), you just plug in headphones.

Part of the reason why the speaker sounds crappy is because I believe it’s under the keyboard, so the sound comes from the bottom of the netbook. It’s more or less the only place they could put the thing. Like I said, it’s a compromise in design because of the small size.

A video review

Below is my quick review. It touches on points I’ve mentioned above plus a few other things.

For some reason the hibernate function is not enabled in either Windows Vista or Windows 7 by default (even if your BIOS supports it). On top this, enabling this power saving feature isn’t as simple as marking a check box.

If you want to make use of this rather nice function then here is how to do it in Windows Vista and Windows 7.

I find this feature especially useful on laptops because it essentially allows you to snapshot your current session and resume from exactly where you left off. Additionally, the bootup time from hibernation is usually much faster than a cold boot.

You’re probably reading this article if you were going to find the calculator on your Windows XP machine to figure out some important calculation. After a bit of searching, you probably realized that your calculator is missing!

Pretty weird right? Well this can happen for a number of reasons, but basically your calculator is gone! If you recently installed a service pack to XP, such as SP2 or SP3, that could be the culprit.

Either way, here are a couple of ways you can get your calculator back in Windows XP!

Method 1 – Reinstall Calculator

The first method is pretty straight-forward as long as you have your Windows CD. Pop it into the disk drive and go to the Control Panel. Now go to Add/Remove Programs, click on Add/Remove Windows Components.

Click on Accessories and Utilities and then click the Details button below:

Now click on Accessories and click the Details button again. Now make sure to check the Calculator box.

Now click OK all the way back and XP will go ahead and reinstall the calculator! If you can’t get a hold of a Windows XP disc, then try the second method.

Method 2 – Copy over calc.exe

The second way to do it and maybe the easier method is to simply copy the calc.exe file over from another machine to your C:\Windows\System32 folder. Also, copy calc.chm to c:\Windows\Help.

Obviously, you’ll find both of these files in those two directories on another computer that has the calculator working. After that, you can just create a shortcut to the calc.exe file on your Start Menu or wherever you like.

If you have a Windows XP cd, you can also try popping the CD in and running these two commands, where X is your CD/DVD drive letter.

expand -r X:\I386\calc.ex_ c:\windows\system32
expand -r X:\I386\calc.ch_ c:\windows\help

If your calculator is still missing or gone, then post a comment here and I’ll try to help!

Sometimes even when you transfer MP3 files to the right MUSIC folder on your Sony PSP or MP3 player, the Sony device won’t be able to play it. It could be a sampling rate mismatch or the bit rate of the file, so often times you need to convert the MP3 file to a bit rate supported by the Sony player.

Sony also promotes its own music player/converter software for free – the SonicStage. With this tool, you can convert the MP3 file to a compatible Sony-native format called ATRAC3.

ATRAC, according to Sony, is an audio compression technology that satisfies the demand for high sound quality and a high compression rate such as one tenth of an audio CD.

Well certainly we don’t want another music format other than MP3, but sometimes for the sake of being able to play them on Sony devices, we need to convert the files to ATRAC format.

SonicStage has an easy to grasp interface. You can add music files to it by simply dragging the files to the “My Library” section. It can automatically tag your files with its integrated Gracenote service so you won’t have to manually do it.

To convert a regular MP3 file to ATRAC3 format, right click the file then choose Convert Format…

Choose ATRAC3 or ATRAC3plus (depends on what your Sony device could support so experiment between the two formats first before doing a batch of files):

To verify if you have converted the file, right click the file, choose properties then go to the file info tab. You should see that there are two file file formats saved on different locations.

Make sure to have room for the newly converted files on your hard disk. I prefer to keep the original files just in case I need to play the files in a non-Sony device like my iPod.

If you can not play your music files on a Sony device, try to convert the file first before transferring – this will re-encode the MP3 file with format supported by your device. I have a similar Sony Network MP3 player like the one below and the steps I have shown above are what I usually do to make the files play using this player.