Free Software Of The Day: Songbird

Welcome to Songbird! Songbird is a media-managing app(like itunes) but it is open source and free!! It works with ipods (EXCEPT iPod Touch and iPhone) , and it is built around firefox, one of the best web browsers you can find! It is still not a completely ready project yet (in version 0.4 and getting updated). I love this application, and I use it in linux to put songs on my iPod Video 5G (even though it does not support uploading movies ). But it is a great tool, especially for linux! Try it! Good luck!

-Yash Aggarwal

Make the perfect gaming pc

Here at 22tech, we love the idea of making your own pc's. Why? Because they provide a great amount of customization for a REALLY cheap price! But how can you get the perfect best gaming setup?? Here is our parts list for a $900 beauty, and all parts are from Newegg!

1. CPU - Obviously, you need a core 2 duo, but which one? You can get the pentium dual cores that OC very easily, you can get the e4xxx series, or you can get the more expensive e6xxx series. For our purposes, we picked up a e6, it is the lowest e6xxx series with 4mb of cache. It is not that overclockable, but you could easily get it to 3-3.5 GHz.
2. Motherboard - For the motherboard you really need a p35 chipset, it is a midrange, not too expensive board, but it is reliable, fast, and overclocks well. It doesn't support SLI, but you really do not need sli for midrange, right? But if you REALLY wanted sli, you could go a little bit more for a 680i chipset, but that does not support penryn quads :(. For our p35 board , we chose the ABIT ip35-e.

3. RAM - 4 gigs in $800!! No way!! But yes way! This awesome set of OCZ 4gb ddr2 800 will do you well, and it's only $66 after rebates!!!

4. Video Card - This is a no-brainer, the evga 8800gt is the best budget-midrange vidcard!

If you want something a little bit cheaper than that, you could go with an 8800gts . ($220 before $200 after rebate) or a HD3870. ($240) If you want something ULTRA cheap you could go with a HD3850, which will also give reasonable performance.

5. Case and Power Supply - We chose the Antec Sonata III because of the great PSU included with it and a solid, cheap case. (PSU is Earthwatts 500W). And to add to the value, it is only $90 after MIR!!! (Same as the original earthwatts)

6. CD/DVD drive - Who could forget the cd/dvd drive? We chose the SH-S203N. The predecessor of it was the MPC best of the best award, and it is CHEAP! For maximum performance, we chose two of them, which would be about $60.

7. OS - Not included! All you need to do is borrow an XP cd from a friend, then deactivate xp on your current machine, then install XP on your new PC! If you do not want to do that, then pick up winxp home (IMO you do not need pro). It is about $90 on newegg, you can get pro for $70 (upgrade) if you are an academic student.

So total that comes to about $920, not including rebates or s&h. We hope you enjoyed! If you have other ideas or disagree with our thoughts, please post in the comments section.

Free Software Of The Day:PortableApps

Today's Open source of the day is PortableApps!
PortableApps is a suite (like U3) that runs off of your thumbdrive/USB Mass storage device, but it is completely FREE! I use this all the time with my Flash Voyager 4gb and it works like a charm. There are a lot of apps supporting it and you can add new ones easily (by going to program files directory and copying folders to ?:/PortableApps.)

Try it out, it works great!!

Aces High 2

Aces High 2

Aces HIgh 2 is one of the best games on the net. Its based on ww2 combat. Its a online game, with many diffrent features. This is on my "must have" list.

For more 22 century technology videos goto http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=22techblog

For more about Aces High or to download goto http://flyaceshigh.com/

Free Software Of The Day: Ubuntu

Free Software Of The Day: Ubuntu

From now on, Each day we will have a new open source (or free) Program or software that you can use. We will start this off with a great version of linux, called ubuntu.

Ubuntu

What is Ubuntu?

Basically, Ubuntu is a Linux based operating system for all you needs. For any noob to linux, this is the one for you. It is totally Free, and you can download it here.

"Ubuntu is a community developed operating system that is perfect for laptops, desktops and servers. Whether you use it at home, at school or at work Ubuntu contains all the applications you'll ever need, from word processing and email applications, to web server software and programming tools.
Ubuntu is and always will be free of charge. You do not pay any licensing fees. You can download, use and share Ubuntu with your friends, family, school or business for absolutely nothing."

Ubuntu uses Openoffice, witch is also available for free download here.

Audacity: Free Audio Editor and Recorder

First off, I would like to anounce that our blog is now 100% Ad Free!!!

Audacity is free, open source software for recording and editing sounds. It is available for Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, GNU/Linux, and other operating systems. Learn more about Audacity... Also check our Wiki and Forum for more information.

It it one of the best open-source audio editing programs, and you can get it free here.

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004 Review

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004 Review

I myself am a big flight simulator fan, and before i get the new fsx, i have to write a review of Flight Simulator 2004.'

First of all, i have to say this is a great GAME. Any real pilot that says "o this is way easier than fling a real plane" i advise you, this is just a game. But the good thing is, un like fsx, this game can run on any not-so-fast computer on at least low settings. Over all the years of Microsoft's flight simulator (discluding x ) i'de have to say this is the best one yet. You can fly all different kinds of planes, any where in the world. You can also customize everything, so it works best for your system. At first, when you get this game you say " so all i do is fly the plane, huh...." But after a week or two you get to know all the cool different features, places, and controls. And with this games new Air Traffic Control window, talking to atc is a breeze. But this game is not the best for online play. ( for the best online play get fsx). My only dislike is the game gets boring after a while.

Overall i would rate this game a 8 on a 1-10 scale.

Virtual Machines!!

All of you hardcore users will know what a Virtual Machine is, if you don't know, it is a program that can let you run operating systems inside your operating system virtually (hardware emulation). The main Virtual Machine software is Vmware, and vmware player, etc. But today we are going to focus on VirtualBox, my favorite Virtual Machine software, and it is probably also the easiest to use!

In this post, I will show you where to get VirtualBox, and I will do a step-by-step tutorial using Vista. (In a linux envirornment).

1st of all, to download VirtualBox, go here.
Ubuntu users can download from there, and also do "sudo apt-get install VirtualBox"
Now load VBox. You should get this -

Now, click the button that says "New" and you should get this (click to enlarge) -

Just hit next and select the name of your vm (can be anything) and select your operating system you want to emulate. Then hit next and select the amnt of RAM you want to dedicate to a VM. This is your descision, it all depends how much RAM you have and how much you can sacrifice. Of course, for Vista, we do not recommend anything less than 1gb, but for some ppl that is ALL of their RAM!! After that click "New" on the hard disk page, I strongly recommend Dynamically Expanding Image, and from then on it should be easy, and now your screen should look like this-

But we are STILL not done yet. Click on CD/DVDROM, and choose your cd/dvd drive (or an iso file). You can also setup audio and other things (like networking, but should be automatic).
That's all for now, and we will wrap it up in another post!!!

Pinball Cheats!!

Pinball Cheats!!
In conclusion to our previous post on how to get pinball for free in vista, Here is a list of awesome cheats for pinball that really work!! (we tested them). To view the full list go here.

Debug mode:

Type hidden test during game play. You can now
click and drag the mouse to control the ball. Press one of the
following keys to activate the corresponding debug function.

Effect	Key
Display and edit high-score table	H
Display current system memory	M
Increase game ranking	R
Display frame rate in title bar	Y
Immediately get new ball when one is lost	B
Low fuel	[F12]
Field multiplier increases	[F11]

mrspeaker
via grady thompson, L. Verlaan,
Alex Sivret,
john smithand Scunnison.

---

Unlimited balls:

Type bmax at the full screen when the game firsts
starts up. Note: This will work on Windows XP, but not on Windows
NT 4.0.

Majin Brolli
and Michael Waldron.

Note: When the above code says "full screen", it does
not mean the full screen when the game starts up. Press [F4]
to enter the full screen game mode and the code will work. The
extra balls will appear from the yellow wormhole.

Fakey McFake.

Note: Enabling this code will disable high scores from being recorded.


Josh Brew.

Extra balls:

Type 1max during game play to earn extra balls.
Note: This will work on Windows XP.

Larry Ledbetter.

Activate Gravity Well:

Type gmax at the start of the game to activate
the Gravity Well. Note: This will work on Windows XP.

Larry Ledbetter.

Complete promotion:

Type rmax during gameplay to instantly complete
promotion. Note: You will not earn points doing this.

Larry Ledbetter.

More points:

Light up all three lights at the top by going through
the slots. The bumpers will change colors and are worth more points.


Looney5379.

When deploying a ball hit it soft so it only goes up to the third
light on the far right side. You will get 75,000 points.

Eddie808912867.

To earn points, start a game. When playing a game, send the ball
through the Hyperspace Chute to spin the flag. While it is spinning,
start a new game. That flag will still spin and you will earn
some points at the start of the new game.

Larry Ledbetter.

Enable the bmax code to keep getting balls when you lose
them. You can get a very high score by doing this. If you do this
and get a high enough score, keep pressing [Bump] so it
says "TILT" and you will lose a ball. Note: You can
also use the 1max code after you lose a ball to keep going.
This way, you do not have to tilt the board when you want to quit.


Fakey McFake.

if you restart a bad game when you are going through a wheel door
at the correctly moment, you will get the points for it.

Wfo870.

Cheat code note:

A cheat code will not work if you have the any of the
player controls mapped to a letter in the code.

davejordan.

Move lights:

Move the lights at the top by moving the flippers.


Looney5379.

Skill Shot:

A hidden Skill Shot tunnel is in the deployment chute.
Launch the ball partially up the chute and allow it to fall to
the first yellow arch light. There are six yellow arch lights
in the chute that are worth a varying amount of points.

gscot.

To unlock the Skill Shot, the point range for each light up are:


Chocobo World.

First: 15,000 points

Second: 30,000

Third: 75,000

Fourth: 30,000

Fifth: 15,000

Sixth: 7,500