Rapid-Fire Post...

Duck or you may get hit with something!

Got to help Lavie with some work support...let's make this fast:

Vista RC2 might be released on Friday. source - Paul Thurrott, Windows IT Pro.

Comment: Sounds nice. If info is correct, this will be last release we get to play with before the "final" version ships out. Your tester keys should work on this one. They most likely won't work on the release version. Sorry. Get ready to pony-up.

BurnCDCDD (freeware) - Vista compatible standalone application from TerabyteUnlimited that lets you simply burn an ISO file to disk. Simple. Source - Scott Hanselman's ComputerZen.

Comment: Since Nero still seems to choke in Vista, this is a quick and free way to cook some CD/DVD's if you have an ISO already.

"Image" Windows XP for free (Tutorial) - Learn how to make a perfect copy of a hard-drive using a free Windows based tool. (Yes, I know about Linux "dd" but we are preaching to the Windows crew here tonight.)

Comment: I have used both Symantec's GHOST product as well as Acronis True Image to deal with disk imaging. But for home users, these are costly products. DriveImage XML is a free product that has been out for a while and gotten good props.

Windows Live Writer Beta (free) - Bumped up to build number 145 quietly. Fixes a late-breaking issue with Blogger Beta.

Comment: If you blog and are still sitting on the fence, download this tool and try it. Me Like! It's handling 90% of my blogging post work now.

PhishTank (infosite) - Submit suspected phishing sites, Track status of suspect sites, Verify submissions. Develop Software.

Comment: Phishing are attempts to scam you into providing personal information on line with realistic but fake web-sites. If you give em the info, they will take your identity and run. Nice site that allows developer's to work with an API to make custom use of their database information. Clever stuff. More info from the wonderful Paul Stamatiou. Related: CastleCops/Sunbelt Software's FiredPhish/PIRT Squad site.

UnitConversion.org - Website

Comment: Need to know how many pica's go into each pixel? This is the site! Handy bookmark to have.

DIY - GraphPaper - Website

Comment: So Alvis needed some graph paper and we were all out of stock. Found this site and printed out some on the printer. Easy!

Free Utilities under 2MB - WebList

Comment: Who says size matters? If you have a nice tool and execute it well...well, you be the judge.

Photoshop Tutorial - Photo to Pencil Sketch - via LifeHacker.

Comment: Yes, you can use some filters to quickly morph a digital photo into l33t artwork, but with a little help from this tutorial, you can do it the long way and come up with some awesome looking end-results. It's a great way to learn how to get more comfortable in Photoshop Land.

See you in the skies,
--Claus