I came across portable apps...that is apps that run directly from a USB drive, a few years ago. But at the time the selection of apps was limited. Acouple of days ago I revisited the Portable Apps site and I was pleasantly surprised to find that the selection of apps has increased and now includes some really handy apps.


The selection of apps now range from:

• 7-zip
• Notepad++
• WinSCP
• Toucan

A number of these apps and a few more are now happily living of my USB HDD, check out the Portable Apps site here I'm sure you'll find something useful to whack on your USB stick.

"Microsoft has confirmed its new Windows 7 operating system will be generally available on October 22, well ahead of its original schedule and in time for the holiday shopping season."
Read the full iTnews article here

Can't wait for the RTM, the RC so far is proving to be an excellent OS, light years ahead of Vista. It ponders the mind to think how MS can get Windows XP right, then Vista so wrong and now Windows 7 so right. But when you think about it, if we didn't have Vista, we wouldn't have the joy that is Windows 7. I'll be happy to part with my hard earned dollars for a copy.

Well I thought it was about time to do a Rig upgrade and get fairly up to date with hardware that will last me another 2-3 years. So the specs of the new rig are:

• CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3.0Ghz, 1333Mhz
• Mobo: Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3P
• RAM: 4GB of Kingston HyperX 1066 DDR2
• GFX: XFX GeForce 9800GT 512MB DDR3 600Mhz
• Sound: Crative X-Fi Xtreme Audio
• Storage: 2 x 160GB and 1 x 750GB HDD's
• Case: Coolermaster CM-690 with Side Window
• PSU: Corsair HX-620 Modular PSU

I also got some Zalman Green LED Fans and green SATA and IDE cables to top things off.
I've got some pics of the build here in my Gallery

Click here to view the Top 55 Moments on Top Gear...luckily 99% of the moments are from the true English version of Top Gear and not that dodgy Aus version.

There are some absolute classic laughs here, so best viewed at home where you can laugh to your hearts content...my personal Fav is the Stig on Public transport :D

"Could your business be paying for a proprietary program when an open source alternative exists? Take a look at our guide as we count down the most popular open source products."

This round-up on ZDNet of some of the most common Open Source products that are floating around the net is an excellent resource for anybody who wants to save a buck.

There's the usual linux distro's but there are also a few unheard of products that are very very good. It's great to see a personal favourite Open Source product of mine called FreeNAS getting a mention. Unfortunately no Firewall products were listed but they can't mention everything!. Have a read of the Round-Up and you may be surprised to find something very useful.

Matthew Hayden the big left handed opener has racked up 100 tests in the second test against New Zealand at the Adelaide Oval. Matt had a slow start to his test career with being dropped from the test side on one or two occasions early on. He is now the Australian Test and One-Day side's premier opener with his distinct style of intimidation of the opposition's bowlers.

His eight and a half year stint in the Australian side may be coming to an end as his age starts to raise concerns for the selectors looking to re-establish the Australian side after big name retirements last season but certainly this summer and hopefully the next we should still see him in full flight with the Australian colours.
"My commitment to the game hasn't changed, and more than anything if I can say what I'm proud of that would be it, Matthew Hayden in 1991 worked as hard as he works in 2008. And that guarantees you at least the best result in terms of how you prepare yourself, but it doesn't guarantee success."

This CricInfo article has more.

Well finally the purchase of a Nintendo Wii has been made, yes yes the wallet was breaked open by the misses.
The Wii is so far infront of every other console on the market that it's almost scary. A big hats of the R&D team at Nintendo.

To celebrate the Wii I've setup a special Wii page on eazyp.com. I'll attempt to review all of the games that I get and hopefully some previews of games and Wii updates.

Have a look at the page here....it's very Wii like ;)