The Geekcast #132 – Custom Windows 7 Logon Screen
Posted on : 26-03-2009 | By : Aaron | In : Episodes
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Items of Note:
Gozer and I will be podcasting at I-CON 28 in Brendwood, NY. If you’re attending the show, be sure to say hello!
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Are people interested in playing Xbox online? We need to know how much interest there is, so we can proceed accordingly, if at all
Get your tech question answered on the show! We need content for our Ask A Geek segment.
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Listener Feedback:
paulo_one tweeted: Great show this week. Info overload! Ha ha, love it. Will be watching Galactica with you.
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Geek This Week
Aaron:
GrandCentral upgrade to Google Voice. I’m not sure what to do with it because I have an established phone number for my house & cell. It’s a fun service but how do I integrate it into my life?
BSG finale quick, no-spoiler recap.
MacHeist Bundle. www.MacHeist.com
Gozer:
Peggle on LG Dare. Like pachinko games and arkanoid but from the top down. The object is to destroy orange pegs in order to advance in the game. Aim where the pinball will shoot then press the face of whatever character you have to shoot the pinball. Then basically just sit back and watch where it goes. There i also a thing that goes back and forth on the bottom of the screen that can save your pinball. Once you’ve destroyed all the orange pegs, these tubes come up and it starts to feel like plinko on the price is right. You wanna get the pinball in the middle one. Fun game and works well on the touch screen.
Also played some mario kart wii. Played online with my little cousin had fun. Online on the wii is terrible. Friend codes and lack of voice chat.
Still enjoyin Res Evil 5. Enjoying, being the keyword. Not loving it. It is an action game that when you get to the 4th chapter, becomes tomb raider. Needs to get back to the roots of survival horror.
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Tech & Game news:
Gears of War 2 Snowblind map pack dated, patch as well
Epic has confirmed that it will release the Snowblind pack, the next Gears of War 2 map bundle, on March 31st. The pack brings four additional maps to the title’s multiplayer mode, including Grindyard, Under Hill, Courtyard, and Fuel Depot (a remake from the original game.)
A patch is to be released on March 24th ( yesterday), which will change the game’s current ranking system to an improved experience points-based system, giving players the opportunity to up their status to as high as level 100. Additionally, drop-outs suffer an experience point penalty, and Epic will introduce an auto-balancing system to replace AWOL players with bots, to even games out as they progress.
http://www.examiner.com/x-3707-LA-Gaming-News-Examiner~y2009m3d13-Gears-of-War-2-Snowblind-map-pack-dated-patch-as-well
From Ars Technica:
Blockbuster On Demand comes to TiVo
Blockbuster has hopped on the TiVo bandwagon to bring Blockbuster’s digital movie library directly to the popular media center. The companies announced Wednesday that Blockbuster’s OnDemand service would be integrated into TiVo Series 2, Series 3, HD, and HD XL units in order to offer content for rental and purchase. To balance out the deal, TiVo DVRs will be sold at Blockbuster stores throughout the US and on Blockbuster’s website.
Blockbuster CEO Jim Keys elaborated on the companies’ joint plans for the future. “Ultimately, our vision is to work with TiVo so that their subscribers can access movies not only through our OnDemand service but also from our stores and through our by-mail service as well,” Keyes said in a statement. “Regardless of a film’s availability—through VOD or on DVD—we want to work with TiVo to provide their subscribers unprecedented access to movie content.”
The deal is part of Blockbuster’s latest strategy to try and get its services onto every device possible. In November of 2008, the company delivered a set-top box called MediaPoint, which is meant to stream movies from Blockbuster’s online library. Then, in January of 2009, BlockBuster announced that it would begin slapping its logo on CinemaNow’s online movie service, allowing Blockbuster to deliver content over the Internet to a “wide assortment of home and mobile electronic devices.”
http://arstechnica.com/media/news/2009/03/blockbuster-follows-everyone-else-by-getting-on-tivo.ars
http://www.tivo.com/mytivo/blockbusterontivo.html?WT.ac=tivohome_blockbuster_img
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Test A Geek: This segment will return on a future episode of The Geekcast
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How To: Customize the Windows 7 Login Screen
Windows 7 has been out in public beta for a couple of months and everyone will agree that it’s what Vista should have been. It has a polished look that works great and it should bring Windows back to a respectable OS that XP made it. One great little tweak to make Windows 7 even better is to customize the logon screen to whatever you want.
Logon Changer is a tiny system customizing utility that swaps out the logon screen wallpaper easily. All you need to do is just select a new wallpaper and you are done. Simply log out to see if the results are what you’re looking for. One of the only restrictions to the program is that the image cannot be more than 256k and it has to be a JPEG file. Most programs should be capable of exporting an existing image into the size and format Logon Changer requires.
Tweaks.com Logon Changer for Windows 7 is a free download and can be found at http://tweaks.com/software/tweakslogon/
http://lifehacker.com/5182061/logon-changer-customizes-the-windows-7-login-screen
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Ask A Geek: This segment will return on a future episode of The Geekcast
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Hack: Install jailbroken apps without jailbreaking
Up until now, in order to install non-authorized 3rd party apps onto your iPhone or iPod Touch, you had to jailbreak your phone. This process has come a long way since the inital versions where they could easily brick a phone and they were a crap-shoot. Today, there are a couple easy ways to jailbreak a phone and they work great. Now it seems that there has been an interesting development in the Jailbreaking wars.
Installer.app now has a desktop application that lets you install jailbroken apps directly from the desktop without jailbreaking an iPhone. The application looks like iTunes and works almost as easily.
The desktop version of Installer.app can be downloaded at http://ripdev.com/installerapp
9to5mac.com reports that if you are using a Unibody MacBook, you’ll need a USB hub. Overall, it looks like it isn’t really working that well yet. Their reccomendation is to wait and see.
http://www.9to5mac.com/iphone-jailbreak-installer-desktop
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The Geek’s View: This segment will return on a future episode of The Geekcast
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