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The digital photos I took when I was in Iowa are finally online. Unfortunately, I didn't get any from Gnomedex (though other people did). No worries. Anyway, if you'd like to see what I saw, then take a look at this small collection of memories. Most, if not all, of the pictures are suitable for using as desktop wallpapers. I even have a super close-up picture of Gretchen at the Iowa State Fair - she's wearing sunglasses. But don't look too hard for it in this album, as I chose to leave it out. Instead, I've created other things for your amusement. After all, you asked for it. Not really, but I'm giving it to you anyway. What? My face. That's right! Now you can have minutes of enjoyment on your Windows desktop with a jigsaw puzzle of the screen-squished Pirillo. How fast can you put me back together? It took the psychiatrist *17* years! And just when you think you're finished, I fall to pieces again. Yeah, the medication wears off quickly.

And here's a check-in from Lori: "My flights to Russia were very bad. My first flight was delayed; this resulted in an amazing chain of events. I missed my flight to Norway and they had to put me on a totally different airline - to a different destination. No problem... only 3 hours of a delay in Chicago. I barely made the connection to Moscow. Changing airlines caused them to lose my luggage for 2 days. My very first experience in Russia was frightening - no luggage and my hosts were stuck in traffic. Plus, customs 'played a trick' and told me to go on through (but didn't have me fill out paperwork). I thought that it was because my bag was missing, but later I was told that this is an impossible explanation (for not having completed customs paperwork)! I have some sort of luck - it attracts impossible events, I guess. The official decided it must be true and let me go without a fine. I must have looked pathetic enough (or blonde enough) for this to be work. Thank god for small miracles! The Elcomsoft staff were incredible hosts. I was on a four-hour driving tour of Moscow. WOW!!! I have TONS of photos, but please be patient. I need to get them sorted first. Red Square wins the prize as the best spot in town. When you are there, you can see the Kremlin, St. Basil cathedral, and several other amazing HUGE buildings.

Yours Digitally,              
Chris Pirillo       

GnomeDOWNLOADS

Cubes v2.0 [3.2M] W9x/2k/XP FREE

http://www.harishsave.com/

{Re-arrange the squares} Do you remember those little plastic holiday games you would get as a child? More specifically, I’m talking about the one with Rudolph (everyone had that one, right?) where one square was missing, and the idea was to shuffle the pieces around until you got the picture right. That’s the same idea in this game, called Cubes. You start out with a mixed-up board of colored cubes, and you have to move the cubes around using the empty square until you get the board to look like the board displayed on the right. I tried the game with it set to the beginner level, and it still took me quite a while to beat the first board. The beginner setting starts with a 4x4 game board, the intermediate with a 6x6 game board, and the expert with an 8x8 game board. There is a timer, so you can strive to beat your best score and land yourself a spot in the hall of fame. (Maybe someday I will get the courage to advance to the intermediate level!)

VideoSaver v3.1 [3.9M] W9x/2k/XP US$19.95

http://www.gnomedownloads.com/Desktop/

VideoSaver is a screen saver which plays one or more videos of your choice. You can download or create your own videos, then add them to a playlist. Create as many playlists as you like, then simply switch playlists to get a new screen saver. Most video formats are supported, including Windows Media, QuickTime (older versions), MPEG and AVI. Included with VideoSaver are two utilities, SaverControl and QTConv. SaverControl is a small application that resides on your taskbar and allows you to disable, enable, launch and configure your screen saver. Some QuickTime movies use compression methods (codecs) incompatible with VideoSaver. QTConv lets you change the codec the video uses to make it compatible with VideoSaver.

Easy Screen Capture v1.22 [819K] W9x/2k/XP US$19.95

http://www.gnomedownloads.com/Graphics/

Easy Screen Capture can capture the full screen, active window, window object or ANY part of your screen. You can make professional screen shots and save them as BMP, PNG, GIF, or JPG files. The program can capture DirectX mode games and also supports user-defined hot keys. A history of performed actions is provided. Other features include the ability to edit an image, capture cursor image, copy the screen shot to clipboard manually or automatically, repeat last capture, run as a system tray icon, and handle 'Print Screen' key.

Easy Screen Capture v1.22 [819K] W9x/2k/XP US$19.95

http://www.gnomedownloads.com/Graphics/

Easy Screen Capture can capture the full screen, active window, window object and any part of the screen. You can make professional screen shots and save them as BMP, PNG, GIF or JPG files. The program can capture DirectX mode games and supports user defined hot keys. A history of performed actions is provided. Other features include the ability to edit an image, capture cursor image, copy the screen shot to clipboard manually or automatically, repeat last capture, run as system tray icon and handle 'Print Screen' key.

ICEOWS v4.10 [636k] Windows (All) FREE

http://www.mywebattack.com/gnomeapp.php?id=105364

ICEOWS (formerly ArjFolder) is a de/compression tool that integrates into Windows Explorer and opens zip files as if they were regular folders. All you have to do is click on a zipped file and it will be opened just as any other folder. Furthermore it offers built-in decompression for ICE,ARJ, ZIP, GZIP, TAR, MS-CAB, RAR, ACE, Quake 3 compressed files, Internet Mail files (Mime, UUE, XXE, B64, HQX), Java Archive (JAR, EAR, WAR), LZS, LZH, LHA, IMP and BZ2. All of ICEOWS features are integrated into the Windows Explorer right click menu.

Submit a Resource | Recommend It!

GnomeCLICKS

GnomeSYSTEM

TECHtionary

http://www.crosstouch.com/techtionary/index_in.html

My mother started this habit of jumping up and down whenever I start talking too technical about her computer. She says she has to jump because she is trying to catch all that information that is over her head. Now this is an extreme case, of course, but all of us, at one time or another, have felt that something technology-related was over our heads. Wouldn't it just be a lot easier if there WERE an online dictionary related to technology? Well, there is now! TECHtionary is an online technology dictionary that doesn't just give you the definition of a technology term; in most cases it will show you an animation to help you learn what the term means. There have been times when someone has rattled off an acronym and because I knew the device by its actual name, I was lost. That's no longer a problem, now that I can look it up. Oh, and by the way? Now my mother doesn't have to invest so much money in sneakers with ankle support.

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GnomeFAVORITE

Coke Music

http://www.cokemusic.com/

I arrived at cokemusic.com and thought to myself, "Man, this virtual representative (Max) looks familiar." At that moment, I remembered a review of Oddcast Media Technologies, which seems to be the technical force behind cokemusic.com. This site is pretty well designed and a lot of fun. I recommend that the first thing you do is register and create your "V-ego," which is a digital representation of yourself. Once you have registered, you can click on Coke Studios and take a tour or chat with other "V-egos." I am a personal fan of the "Create Your Demo" section where you get to be the DJ. Just pick a genre, and then you are presented with a base music configuration from which you can change, remove, or add to. I made a killer dance mix; I know this, because my dog got up and started shaking her "groove thang." If you aren't into creating music, then how about listening to music? Coke FM is an online radio station you can listen to through programs like Winamp. If you aren't into radio, then there are always the Downloads sections where you can download wallpapers, screensavers, and music. (NOTE: I did have a little bit of a problem listening to the downloaded music, due to the DRM (Digital Right Management) solution they are using.)

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GnomeTIPS

Question: What is a PVR?

Answer: PVR stands for Personal Video Recorder. Some of you may have heard it by the different name of DVR, or Digital Video Recorder. If you still don't know what I'm talking about, then maybe you will recognize the names Tivo, ReplayTV, or UltimateTV. All of these systems are PVRs, and they are causing a revolution in the way that people watch TV. With a PVR, you can pause live TV. The PVR usually buffers approximately the last hour of TV, so you can pause anything live. This same concept comes into play if you turned to HBO and left the room to make popcorn (or a phone call), and when you came back you realized that you had missed the first ten minutes of the movie. With a PVR, it's not a problem, because with that buffer you can rewind and watch the movie from the beginning. This, of course, brings up the question of "Can I watch a movie while the PVR is recording it?" Yes, you can! The PVR is basically a computer hard drive with an MPEG-2 encoder/decoder, and like a computer, you can multitask. There are several advantages to having a PVR over a VCR, but the major drawback is the media. With a VCR, you just have to pop in a new cassette when you run out of space. To add more space, PVRs would require you to either obtain a new unit or to delete saved programs. There are some Web sites out there that tell you how to remove the hard drive or add more storage to a PVR, but you would be voiding the PVR's warranty to do this. Overall, I see this as the next step in the evolution of VCRs, and I hope that in the future we can adapt these PVRs into the now-available home DVD recorders.

Question: I really like the Windows Daily newsletter, but because I don't know the technical side of computers, I feel a little lost sometimes. How would you suggest I go about learning some of the technical basics?

Answer: Being a computer technician, this question hits close to home. The way I started was as a kid, and let's just say my mother wouldn't let me use my new computer until I read all the manuals (they used to come with a ton of them!). She also had a policy: "You break it, you fix it." So every time I messed with my computer and it "broke," I went on a rampage to find the fix. Needless to say, my philosophy since then has become that you can learn the most about a technology by knowing what breaks it, and from there you can always find some way to fix it. Now, I'm not telling you to attempt to break your computer. What I AM saying is that nothing beats real-world experience. If you can't get your hands on a spare computer to "break" and fix, that is fine. There are tons of resources online where you can learn more about your computer. Just reading the Windows Daily and submitting questions to the feedback section will help increase your technical knowledge. You could also look into any training CD having to do with A+ Certification, as this will teach you the basics to advanced technical aspects of your computer. I personally like to get all my training CDs from CBTNuggets.com. Another great place to get quick-study guides is cramsession.com; just look for A+ Certification. I'm sure your local community college probably offers a computer technologies or A+ Certification course. Keep in mind that you do not need to go for the certification; you may just want to attend the class to gain the technical knowledge. Another great Web site for when you are looking for a specific technology (like how a CD Recorder works), and one that Lockergnome has mentioned a few times, is howstuffworks.com. I just want to close with saying that one specific way of learning will not always work for everyone, so it is best to try out all the methods listed above. Also, please remember that there is no substitute for real-world experience, so try out what you learn.

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And now, we continue our look around the new Gnomestead. Notice the ornate trim, the bold colors, and the complete lack of a dishwasher. Oh yeah, it's really missing.