I had tried NetStumbler before on my Vista laptop and not met with much success. So when I read on MetaGeek's web site that their inSSIDer was designed to do the same job with native Vista APIs, I was intrigued.

If you're a road warrior, this is a great utility to keep at the ready. inSSIDer's scanner makes it a snap to identify available access points, quickly displaying available SSIDs and their channel, signal strength, speed, and encryption type.

Click the edit menu, and you can copy discovered AP data or the chart pane to the clipboard.

It does an admirable job of locating wireless signals, usually picking up at least one that Windows doesn't report. Not that it's very useful, as it's always turned out to be the weakest signal for me. Still, I like to know my surroundings.

inSSIDer is free, open source, and will run on 32 and 64-bit Vista or Windows XP (with the .NET 2.0 runtimes installed).

I can't read, write, or speak Turkish, but that didn't stop me from downloading BD IP Organizer. If you provide service for customers that need an easy way to switch IP settings, don't let it stop you, either.

NetSetMan - which I reviewed recently - may be English and sport a larger feature set, but it's not free for anyone but home users. I highly doubt that anyone that really, really needs this kind of application is not using it in at least one business environment.

What I was actually searching for was a free app that could be used commercially, and I found it. If you don't need NetSetMan's other features (like automatic drive and printer mapping or machine name changing), then IP Organizer is the way to go.

If you're anything like me, you're probably at least a little bit addicted to your internet connection. The first thing I do when I wake up is check my email and RSS feeds, and it's also the last thing I do before going to sleep. But that addiction can sometimes be a problem.

Staying on-task these days is not easy, particularly if you work at an internet-connected computer. The possible distractions are virtually limitless. So what is a geek to do? One option is to simply pull the plug. The network plug, that is.

But of course, these days almost all computers have wireless capabilities, so turning off your internet connection isn't quite as simply as just pulling the plug. If you're on a Mac, you can use Freedom.

Freedom will turn off all of your Mac's wireless and ethernet networking for a set amount of time. So if you need to put your head down for an hour and get some work done, you can set Freedom to an hour, and know that you won't be tempted by any distractions.

If you absolutely need to get back online before the chosen duration is up, the only way to do so is to reboot your computer.

This is one of those apps that will be a life saver for some people, and seem totally ridiculous to others. Which are you?

Want to invite all your Twitter friends to one event at the click of a button? Twitzu has simplified the process, allowing you to quickly create and publicize events. Fill in the details and it's sent off as a link in a Twitter update, along with a short optional message. Your followers can then RSVP on the Twitzu website.

Twitzu has great potential for organizing public events like blog meets or advertising small gigs, but you won't want to use it to organize a private gathering. One of Twitzu's main drawbacks is the fact that your event is not only broadcast to all your Twitter followers, it's also posted up on the main Twitzu page. With talk of Twitter groups in the making - it would be nice to see the two concepts integrated - allowing you to invite only certain people who follow you. The website is also sorely lacking a privacy option. Another huge drawback is the inability to edit your event once you've submitted it. Don't be fooled by the 'Edit Event' tab. It seems to be there only for show.

Twitzu is far from perfect - and we don't just mean the glaring spelling mistake on the front page - but if it gets enough attention it could turn out to be one of the easiest ways to ensure a large turn out at your next public event.

Way back in the dark ages of 1993, we were introduced to this thing called email. Email in the olden days was not like email now. All the packets traveled uphill no matter where they were going, and usually there was a good three or four feet of snow on the internet backbone. We used these big hulking things called VAX/VMS nodes that were attached to some pretty sweet fourteen inch monochrome VT 100 terminals. There were also these machines that ran something called UNIX, which sounded to us like something that should have been found in the college health center, not the computer lab.

Eons passed, and things changed. Though there were many more email packets flying around, plate tectonics had changed the course of things so that now they traveled downhill, really really fast. The internet backbone became a series of tubes. All the VT 100 terminals banded together and created an archipelago in the South Pacific. And UNIX...

UNIX evolved. Mutated. It trickled down into various UNIX brands and distributions. There were things like BSD UNIX, HP-UX, and AT&T Bell Labs UNIX. There were other branches, too, rogue sprouts on the evolutionary tree: FreeBSD, and OpenBSD. Slightly alien but vaguely reminiscent life forms injected their DNA into the gene pool: Linux, and this weird little UNIX-esque animal called Solaris.

Sun recently let Solaris go open source. OpenSolaris is more a traditional UNIX environment than a Linux type environment, but the appeal of taking a peek at the 2008.05 OpenSolaris release was too great for us to resist. The folks at OpenSolaris knew this, and baked some goodies into the OS that no Linux user could refuse.

We were given a no-strings attached liveCD, so our Linux install would never know we cheated. We had a bash shell, and the GNOME desktop environment, so our eye candy and commands would feel familiar and easy.

Sometimes, though, evolution goes horribly, horribly wrong.

If you're itching to get your hands on Windows Home Server, Ars Technica reports that a number of retailers are ready to ship the new Microsoft OS. But if you're not ready to drop $150+ on an operating system that essentially lets you backup and share files on your home network, it looks like the OS has reportedly been leaked onto the BitTorrent sites.

The folks at Ars Technica took Windows Home Server for a spin and report that it serves it purpose reasonably well. But they also conclude that if you've already got some sort of network attached storage device, you probably don't need a new machine and operating system, especially one that doesn't even integrate with Windows Media Center to let you store and access recorded TV programs on the same machine you use to store all of your other file backups.

On the other hand, it's nice to have a simple, easy to use backup solution for every PC in the house.

You do realize that everything you do these days must have a social element, right? If you're so inclined, you can socially network almost every component of your life: college, work, sports, hobbies -- heck, even dying. So, if that's your thing, you'll be happy to know that one of the last vestiges of solitary activity has given way to social media. That's right, you'll never have to read alone again.

The glossy print publication 944 Magazine, a regional mag that covers the nightlife scene in major markets like Miami, Las Vegas, and San Francisco, has just launched the aptly-named Web site 944Life: Your Clique Here. In a welcome departure from typical one-dimensional sites with nothing but the text of back issues you've already read, this site has social interaction features so readers have a place to meet up and talk about where they're going to, er, meet up.

With trendy events happening in and around its coverage areas faster than you can say "What should I wear?", 944Life lets readers check out videos, news, reviews, and find out where the latest parties are going to be. There's even a section that features the hottest restaurants in town, along with photos from the fah-bulous events they've hosted. Registered members can hob-hob with other users, keep a blog, upload media, and join forums.

Though the site is still officially in beta, it's already very user-friendly and just as slick and glossy as the magazine itself. While we still like to curl up with the classics and read into the wee hours, a socially interactive website for a magazine devoted to cultivating one's social life makes a lot of sense to us.

Yesterday saw the release of Bonjour 1.0.4 for Windows, allowing Windows Vista (and of course XP and 2000/20003) users to enjoy the hassle-free networking and printer sharing that Bonjour offers. There's even a 64-bit version for Windows Vista available too, it that's your OS of choice.

[via MacNN]

Social networking sites have become an increasingly popular way for people to connect professionally but, once you've added someone to your contact list, what then? 8apps is one of the first sites we've seen that answers that question. It goes beyond just connecting people and actually gives them tools to develop whatever brainstorms happen to come up once they get to know each other.

Like other social networking sites, 8apps brings like-minded people together, but then it takes the concept a step further by offering tools to help shape the ideas that take root between members. Wikis offer the same collaborative tools as 8apps but start from the premise that all the users already know each other. 8apps puts the horse before the cart and helps you meet people, then develop a project together.

After completing the very simple sign-up process, find members by searching for groups or individuals in the Handshake section of the site. Map out your big idea in Blueprint, a virtual whiteboard that works a bit like a mind-mapping tool. Next, break down projects and assign tasks with Orchestrate. If your group decides that a face-to-face meeting is in order, use the Pinpoint map and scheduling tool to find your real-world middle ground.

While the four remaining applications are still under wraps, this new site is still useful even though it's technically under development.* It also has an outstanding, beautiful, and intuitive interface that makes navigation easy and painless.

While the world might not need Yet Another Social Networking Site, it does need a way to corral all those brainstorms between members so the ideas have a chance to grow up and become -- who knows? -- Yet Another Social Media Tool. 8apps is just the ticket.

*Note: As we were preparing this post for publication, we learned that the creators of 8apps have just put the site up for sale. Although further development has been temporarily put on hold, the site is still fully functional, and there are still private invites available. Want to know how you can score one? Stay tuned.

Gen Y, a term sometimes used for those 20-35 years old, are old enough to be (some of) our kids but more importantly make up our next generation of clients. This generation, defined more by popular culture than by age, is an Internet-hungry and online-casual bunch. Currently, there are about 76 million of them in the U.S., not a bad market slice.

They communicated first via Instant Message and made the sport popular. After webcams were affordable, dating sites emerged. By the time YouTube opened up the face-to-face world, research as we knew it had changed permanently. Then social sites like MySpace, and Facebook blew onto the virtual landscape. Television is becoming secondary to seeing what you want when you want it (this is the ongoing theme) and BitTorrent (among others) is the way to find preferred media, not TV Guide.

If your business is looking for its next generation of customers, what kind of online presence do you need to attract and keep the techno-oriented Y'ers who spend big bucks online? Although neither exhaustive nor scientific (my sample was everyone I know under 35), here is a list of popular places where young folks come together online. If you market, you should consider these sites.

Download Squad and its cousins – people want to know what's out there as soon as it's launched. DLS not only tells you what's there but also make it easy to find plus they let you know if it's worthwhile. With so much information out there, DLS and its cousin sites offer today's specials so you don't have to bother with the entire menu.

Gmail, Google News Reader, Google Docs – free online services by King Google are the prime haunt of many 20-35 year olds. Make sure you know how they work so when you build apps on your site you try to mimic the look and feel. When they want world news, they often use the links at the top of the pages.

The News Empire – the business-oriented target group seems to enjoy CNN's plethora of sites including cnn.com for news, cnnsi.com for sports, and the new CNN video area. They find news at their local paper's site as well as at the major news sites including The NY Times, WaPo, Google and Yahoo!.

Things Technical – if the users are geeky (a term I use with respect), they're likely to grab the most current news available from sites like Slashdot, Digg, Techmeme, Engadget and Reddit. Never heard of them? Each is a field-leader and they all use a blog-like or RSS-like updating system. Ease of use and consistent uptime can be more important than design. (A site is successful when its name becomes a verb, like, "Google that..." or "My review was slashdotted...")

Sharing Socially – social networking sites are more than just a "what's new" news item. Facebook and MySpace connect this international generation like virtual glue. Many users consider these sites to be their homepages and include links to other sites they want to visit (like Twitter, Google Reader, Pownce, their favorite blogs) right from those pages.

Photo Share – Got a shelf full of quaint photo albums? Today's shelves are online on a Flickr, Picasa or other photo site's servers. With the rapid availability of fast bandwidth, pictures go online instantaneously and can circle the globe in less than a morning. Others can comment and you can share all the photos you upload from your digital camera or more likely from your phone. In the olden days, we taught people how to attach a photo to an email. Today, we read the Flickr feed to see a picture that might interest us.

It's All in the RSS – most everyone who leans toward the technical has an RSS reader, whether it's Google or FeedDemon or others. The younger online group gets the feed for whatever interests them and checks that feed several times a day. It's neater and cleaner than browsing all over the Web and they get what they want when they want it (the ongoing theme) and have time to read it. If you don't yet have an RSS feed, what are you waiting for?

Share, Share, Share – the definition of social sites is sharing. We share not only photos and text but also we expect sharing in return. It's almost as if the Web has come full circle. From the olden days of the early 1990s to the mid-first decade of this millennium, the Web has evolved from open and free (when I started) to pay-as-you-go (when they expected you to pay to get news) and has grown into freely shared spaces that are your own. The mantra of sites is "Twitter/Pownce - Digg - Flickr" for the younger and clued-in audience.

Whether you consider this generation of Internet users to be egocentric and instantaneous gratifiers or open-minded and savvy, the proof of the online pudding is in the feed. Click a few links and see how they are coming to the knowledge that will make them – or keep them – from becoming your future customers.

If your fav site was omitted, please add it in the comments. You'd be surprised how many great sites we find out simply by asking others who are slightly more geeky than we are.

You probably know that you can listen to music or watch movies on your Windows Mobile device. But did you know you don't need to carry around a massive storage card?

Flash memory cards are getting cheaper and cheaper. While a 16MB CompactFlash card used to cost an arm and a leg, now you can pick up 8GB cards for under $100. But why bother when you can access all the media stored on your PC remotely? Let's take a look at a few ways to stream multimedia content from the web or from your home PC or network.

Thinking about expanding your wireless network but aren't exactly sure how to go about it? Using my trusty Linksys WRT54G, a copy of DD-WRT and an AirPort Express, I was able to increase the range of my network, and also bridge my wife's office upstairs with the network in the basement. Here's how you can do it too.

Ingredients:

• 1 Linksys WRT54G running DD-WRT
• 1 Apple AirPort Express
• MAC addresses of both
• 15-20 minutes of your time

For those who don't know, WDS stands for Wireless Distribution System. It's a simple system that allows you to interconnect multiple access points wirelessly. Wikipedia, as always, has more information on the subject.

Before we get started, as noted above, you need to have DD-WRT installed on your Linksys WRT54G, or on any AP/Router that supports it. Have a look at DD-WRT's hardware compatibility list to see if your hardware is supported. If you don't have DD-WRT installed, and are using a WRT54G, see these instructions on my personal blog on how to install DD-WRT. You'll also need to have already configured your AirPort Express.