In this wonderful small world we live in now where we can constantly absord music at a staggering rate from an innumerable amount of places I have but one question to ask. How many people remember the band Picturehouse?

I have asked that question so many times to so any different people in the last 24 hours and usually the answer is that they have just a vague recollection. Well if thats the case with you guys out there maybe you need a good dose of “listen carefully”. Side effects may include learning something.

Around about 17 years ago, or so the legends would have us believe, a man called Dave Browne and a few friends went to England to find their fortunes. After signing with London Records thinking theyd be the next U2 their band didnt do that hot. They cut their losses and returned home to Ireland and started going at it for themselves and made a really big name for themselves all over the country. Unfortunately though international fame, though they deserved it, didnt come to them. Of course they were big in Germany apparently but I think theyd rather play that down a bit seeing as most germans still bop to David Hasslehoff.

Anyway after a while Dave decided he’d had enough fun for now and called it a night. Dave went on to join a group known as the Flash Gits (kick ass band name imho) and for a time spent his nights playing in Lillie’s Bordello in Dublin City.

Well now its solo time. Yes Dave of PH is now going solo. In fact he released an album just today. The title is the same as the post title above. Windows to the Soul. Now thats all well and good but why is a geek related website reporting this? Wheres the microchips and the cat6 cabling. Take another spoonful of “Listen carefully” and I’ll continue.

Now the album comes in a very stylish package. Cd? Forget cds. Direct download from a website ala Radiohead? Forget that nonsense. How can you get this album? You can get it on a credit card style usb memory device. All you do is twist a bit of it to get the connector pointing out, you stick it in your machine and there you go. Not only is the album on there but its also a 1.5 gig memory stick that you can then use for whatever you like. Little things like that are what make the world go round.

If you guys want anymore details on Dave Browne and his tours and albums and whatnot check out his website.

Today we take a look at Three’s mobile broadband offering, which is offered in direct competition with both O2’s and Vodafone’s  mobile broadband services.

Three differentiate themselves from the pack right off the mark by offering both a prepay (dubbed threepay…urgh) and a subscription based service (for which im sure the marketing department were sorely disapointed, since they couldnt figure out how to inject the brand name into another already existing, perfectly usable word) which runs at approximately €25 per month and €20 per month respectively. Though it should be noted the prepay can only be topped up in increments of €10 - so you could easily find yourself with a misterious €5 credit that always just seems to hang around every second month or so. lovely.

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You’ve just download the latest and greatest version of Ubuntu Linux and it didn’t cost you a thing. You breezed through the installation and a brand new desktop is staring you in the face — now what?

There are a few things you’ll need to do if you want to get the most out of your Linux desktop. But don’t worry, none of this is too complicated. In fact, it’s much easier than trying to do the same on Windows or a Mac.

The first thing to do is open up the Add/Remove Programs application (Click on Applications > Add/Remove…). This is a simple manager for installing and uninstalling software on your Ubuntu system. There are literally hundreds of free goodies at your disposal here — Start with this list of essentials.

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For many years now ive been using a version of Windows. My first computer may have been a commodore 64 followed by a macintosh but i never used those things properly. They were simply little boxes that sat there and looked at me with their buttons and switches. Nowadays I think back and tell myself “Its ok. You were an idiot back then and didnt know how fun computers can be”. Still feel ashamed for not paying them the level of respect they deserved.

But now that I know the joys of computing I can safely say that out of everything Ive tried so far… Windows operating systems are the number one system for all the masochistsout there. Thats why I decided to switch to a flavour of linux.

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Ok so i wasnt going to do this but Ive been thinking about the whole P2P thing all week since reading this article. Lets take a moment now and discuss a few of the finer points of P2P shall we?

Ok so we all know that yes people use P2P networks to pirate music, movies and software but its used for so much more. A lot of people use it to get free and open source content that would be otherwise inaccessible. One good example would be a copy of a Linux distribution. Fedora for example weighs in at well over 3 gigs in size. Wouldnt that be fun to download directly from a server? Wouldnt that be so much fun for the people paying to host said server? I mean how many people actually download this stuff right? It couldnt possibly raise bandwith costs that much could it?

Yes. Yes it can.

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Ok so everyone knows about the different CMS (Content Management Systems) that are out there in the wide open world of the interwebs. The main ones you might have heard of would be Wordpress (Hey this site is made using that one), Joomla, Drupal (personal thought: Its awful) and finally e107 (also awful IMHO).

We now have a new one to wow us all. Its called Diferior.

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Use Windows long enough and you’ll recognize that bloated, sinking feeling creeping in. Spyware and viruses pile up, registries get corrupted, drivers stop working or cause conflicts — eventually reaching that point where you want to just erase everything and re-install the entire system. After swearing to pay more attention to the links you follow and the software you install, you find yourself staring at a brand-new-all-over-again Windows desktop.

Your system is fresh and untarnished. Now what? Time to tweak it to your satisfaction!

Start by running Windows Update to make sure you’re up to date with all the patches and security updates and then follow our handy guide to get the most out of Windows.

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image courtesy of Apple

Ology is a suffix denoting a field of study or academic discipline. Appleologists, as mentioned in Ars Technica, would therefore be people studying the field of Apple. Contrary to logic and belief, there are many who could fit this description.

As the buzz about Macworld 2008, Apple’s annual shindig, is building to a crescendo the air is full of speculation as to what new products will be announced. After all the iPhone was born a year ago. What will it be this year?

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Ah, to start from scratch - wouldnt it be nice if we could do that with life sometimes. Sadly thats not an option, however we can often find ourselves in a position where we can start from scratch with our computers - whether its a brand spanking newbie or our trusty daily use computer after its been reinstalled; unlike the life scenario however, starting from scratch with your computer(s) can be quite frustrating, having to download an reinstall all the apps you use day-in day-out.

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Ok lets start off by simply stating that everyone who has used both windows Xp and Vista preferrs Xp right? Well Microsoft dont really like that.

Microsoft have started up a “Fat or Fiction” quiz to help you to see just how good Vista is and to help you to sell Vista to your nearest and dearest and any schmuck that walks in off the street. This little quiz comes with an offer of a free Vista polo shirt and a chance at a $15000 prize but then again its Australia only so most people wont care about it much. But wait… if its an Aussie only thing why should we at IG care? Well its just too funny not to have a look at it.

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