She can call on one of the smartest Windows dudes on the planet. Her Husband.

Mark is a Microsoft Fellow and heads up the SysInternals division amongst other things.

In a recent post mark tells the story about how the Mrs had a sluggish Windows Vista machine.

If you have a remote Interest in Windows Vista problem solving it doesn’t get any better than a Russinovich tech post.

Link: http://blogs.technet.com/markrussinovich/archive/2008/09/24/3126858.aspx

From time to time new standards are introduced but rarely is it explained to consumers what they actually are.

The purpose of this post is to point you in the right direction about HDMI a semi new type of connection (pictured above).

You use HDMI to connect devices together typically for Hi-Definition Audio and Video.

So it might be a PC to a Display or even a Blu Ray player to a TV.

For the first time in PC technology we have a cable that can carry both Audio and Video on  a single cable.

From the PC End HDMI is the latest in a very long line of Display technology that started with EGA, CGA, VGA then DVI.

You can get converters from DVI to HDMI (pictured below).

HDMI does come with a steep learning curve in terms of specification and compatibility from HDMI 1.0 to 1.1, 1.2, 1.2a, 1.3. 1.3a, 1.3b and 1.3b1 (insanity I know).

Each adding something or fixing something in the HDMI specification.

Find below some good links all about HDMI for further reading.

Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HDMI

Link: http://www.enduserblog.com/2008/07/how-i-learned-t.html

Link: http://tech.yahoo.com/blog/patterson/2708

Good old Om Malik sat down with Michael Dell at last weeks Fortune Brainstorm Conference.

Om Asked Michael about cloud computing, Smartphones, on founding Dell and about the future.

Some of the choice questions were:-

Om Malik: Will Dell ever start offering its own cloud services?

Om: What do you think is the biggest opportunity for Dell?

Om: Any plans for mobile phones or smartphones?

Worth a read for those interested.

Link: GigaOM Interview- Michael Dell, CEO & Founder of Dell Inc

Michael Arrington over at Techcrunch has a video showing some new experimental Google features.

It allows people to vote and comment on search results.

This works very much like the Social News website Digg where people can vote, promote and comment on stories.

This could just be a sandbox experiment for Google or an early peak at the future of user driven Internet search.

User created input/content is at the heart of popular web sites like Wikipedia and Digg so the concept is well established.

At the core this turns Google into a popularity contest. It will turn Google search results into a Ebay style rating system where “98% of people think the link is good”.

There is nothing better than a personal recommendation, so would user input on search results make for better search?

Overall I would say yes.

Check the video fascinating stuff.

Link: http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/07/16/is-this-the-future-of-search/

Update: Toms Hardware have had a slight change of heart on the old “they use more power”.

See Here: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-hard-drive,1968.html

Solid State Drives are basically flash like memory instead of a hard disk thrashing away.

With no moving parts they do generally give better performance and are silent.

However there are several nails in SSD’s coffin.

1) Cost: If I were to put an SSD into my Dell XPS M1530 it would come at a significant cost premium (see main picture).

2) The long thought power savings offered by the “no moving parts” SSD technology just don’t exist in the real world.

The Guys over at Toms Hardware did some power consumption tests using a Dell Latitude D630 and found using SSD could cost you up to an hour of battery life compared to a 7200 rpm traditional Hard Disk.

Link: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-hdd-battery,1955.html

A Tweet is 140 character message on the twitter.com service.

Twitter is like sms blogging, short and sweet.

Dell have reportedly sold over $500,000 worth of equipment via twitter vouchers. They are now actively publishing voucher codes for discounts on Dell equipment via tweets.

Tip: You don’t have to have a free twitter account to see the discount vouchers, but it would make it easier to keep up to date.

Link: http://twitter.com/DellSmBizOffers

The post on the link below entitled “Eight Years of Wrongness” is a brutal but truthful account of some of Microsoft’s more ponderous business decisions in recent history.

Link: http://msftextrememakeover.blogspot.com/2008/06/eight-years-of-wrongness.html

Szu Ping Chan over at the Fool.co.uk has published a detailed comparison of the various mobile broadband offerings.

I was an early adopter a few years ago and used an Orange Data card. The experience was pretty poor and the costs were astronomical.

So once the contract expired on that I let it go. I use Windows Mobile to check my e-mail on the move and typically I am only offline while I travel between various Internet connected sites.

Recently I deployed a USB dongle from Vodaphone at a clients and the users report back a positive experience. (Link)

The market for Mobile Internet is popping so Szu’s round up post of the various service offerings comes just at the right time.

Link: The Best Broadband Dongle

The Wall Street Journal do a decent piece on their frankly bizarre relationship.

The Microsoft story is pretty amazing. One of the most interesting business books I ever read was Hard Drive: Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire by James Wallace and Jim Erickson.

All the really juicy stuff happened long ago (1980). But one or two swift moves saw them take over the world. You would be amazed at how much luck played a big part in all of this.

Link: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121261241035146237.html

Good old Jeff Atwood published a great post about the performance of high capacity USB Flash drives.

As I discovered myself the larger the drive the more important the performance becomes.

With a lot of Jeff’s Posts you should check out the comments they contain lots of additional information.

If you are interested in getting a high capacity USB flash drive you should check his post.

Link: Large USB Flash Drive Performance