Nerd hunk on desk vs. Nerd hunk on desk.

Source: Bill Gates and Steve Jobs: Nerds on Desks - Gizmodo

Attention Linux, Vista, and Apple fan boys: put on your gloves... it's time to rumble! A 6-month vulnerability report issued by Jeff "Security Guy" Jones has caught the eye of Redmond and the ire of places beyond. The report which bases its security assessment upon vulnerabilities found (not actually exploited) claims that Vista is "more secure than OS X and Linux." In fact, the much maligned XP even crushes the competition using their calculations. Of course, it's worth noting that Jeff is a member of Microsoft's Security business unit which will probably sway your opinion as to the integrity of the data. Still, as incomplete as the assessment may be, it certainly appears to be a good showing for Vista considering the vast community of hackers attempting to thwart its security. Of course you know what Billy G's probably saying right about now? Dy-no-mite JJ!

Source: Report: Vista more secure than OS X and Linux - Engadget

Microsoft has just announced a tasty banana for all you code monkeys out there, in the form of the first publicly available download (well, for non-beta testers at least) of the widely anticipated Windows Home Server operating system. Release Candidate 1, as this build is known, is said to offer a number of improvements over previous betas, and is the first version that participants in the Code2Fame Challenge can use to work on their entries. So go ahead, get your download on, and try to whip up some WHS add-ins that'll net you a portion of the $50,000 prize package.

Source: Windows Home Server RC1 available for download - Engadget

Have you ever run into a situation where you wanted to delete a file, but Windows simply wouldn’t allow you to do it? Personally, these things happen to me all the time, especially when I’m at a client’s house trying to get their machine clean of spyware.

The main reason behind this is that the explorer.exe process locks files that are in use, effectively preventing you from deleting them. Usually, these files should not be touched, but sometimes, situations arise when you really need to get rid of some troublesome ones.

Source: How to Delete an Undeletable File | [Geeks Are Sexy] Technology News

 I am always on the lookout for great free software.  Here Microsoft delivers another great free package with Microsoft Office Accounting Express.

Starting a new business?

Office Accounting Express 2007 is designed for the millions of new businesses that use pen and paper, spreadsheets or personal finance software to manage their business.

Office Accounting Express

Full featured accounting application provides a single place to manage your company's business finances with the familiar look and feel of Microsoft Office system programs.

Standard features:

• Get started quickly with familiar Office look and feel
• Create invoices, track sales and pay vendors
• Sell online with eBay and PayPal sales tools
• Bank online with thousands of financial institutions
• Access integrated services for payroll, credit card processing and more

Source: Easy to use free accounting software from Microsoft

Previously-mentioned online drawing tool Cumulate Draw's newest version adds lots of handy features, like network and floor plan shapes.

Quickly throw together a network diagram, flowchart, org chart, or rearrange your furniture using office (and kitchen and bath) floorplan items. Cumulate Draw's interface is rich with click and drag features to enlarge, rotate and re-position items. Click on the image above for a quick and dirty chart I threw together in a few minutes with Cumulate Draw.

Source: Drawing: Draw floorplans, diagrams and charts online with Cumulate Draw - Lifehacker

Windows only: Freeware app MP3myMP3 records audio from any source piping through your PC.

Record internet radio and save to mp3 or wav. Record streaming audio from the Internet, microphone, or any other source for that matter. MP3myMP3 Recorder works directly with your system sound card - if you can hear it, you can record it!

Select any input source and MP3myMP3 Recorder can save it to WAV or MP3 formats. Since it doesn't restrict the length of your recordings, MP3myMP3 is an ideal candidate for turning documents into MP3s, recording Skype calls, or digitizing cassettes among other things. MP3myMP3 Recorder is a free download for Windows only

MP3myMP3 Recorder 2.0
Click here for more details

Source: MP3 My MP3 Recorder - Record sounds and music to MP3 Free!

I hate Adobe Acrobat. It is a bloated and slow, and prompts for update every day or so.  I have been using FoxIt, but there is a new free PDF Reader on the seen.  XChange viewer has the ability to add text and graphics to PDFs, making filling out digital forms a breeze.

Source: Tracker Software Products Ltd - Homepage - Products for End-Users - PDF-XChange Viewer

The rare times I do use Internet Explorer 7, I can't stop reaching for the missing "File|Edit|View" menu, which is hidden by default. It's easy enough to turn it on, but it appears below the Address Bar when you do. The How-To Geek explains how to reposition the menubar to the top of the window with a registry hack.

Registry edits shouldn't be done lightly, so for those of you who want an easier point and click method, check out the previously-mentioned IE7Pro. (Once IE7Pro is installed - restart required - from IE7's Tools menu, choose IE7pro Preferences, and in the Settings area, check off "Top IE menu." Restart IE7 to see the menu relocation.)

Source: Internet Explorer 7: Put IE7's menubar in its place - Lifehacker

Disk fragmentation leads to system slowdowns, PC crashes, slow startup and shutdown and sometimes to system failures. Auslogics Disk Defrag® is designed for fast optimization of today's modern hard disks. Get the maximum performance out of your expensive hardware investments. And it's absolutely FREE.

Source: Disk Defrag - Reclaim the Speed Of Your Disks

MediaCoder is a FREE universal audio/video batch transcoder distributed under GPL license, which puts together lots of excellent audio/video codecs and tools from the open source community into an all-in-one solution, capable of transcoding among different audio/video formats. With many extra features and a expandable architecture, MediaCoder is more than a GUI of a bunch of command line tools.

Source: MediaCoder - more than a universal audio/video transcoder