packing

Google Pack is another useful idea from those nearly ubiquitous, ever-industrious Google folks. The Pack takes a bunch of disparate but essential programs, tosses in the entirety of the Google desktop suite, then loads and automatically updates all of them as future changes are made. A pre-installation checklist lets users opt in or out, and the program is flexible enough to allow users to change their choices easily after installation.

The latest version adds options to download Google's browser, Chrome, in addition to or instead of Mozilla's Firefox with Google Toolbar. From Google's repertoire come Earth, Desktop, … Read more

It's the stuff of science fiction and James Bond. Strap a jet pack to your back and fly like a bird--sort of. But jet packs are science fiction no more.

It's 1,500 feet across from cliff to cliff, and more than 1,000 chilling feet down to the bottom of the Royal Gorge on the Arkansas River near Canon City, Colo.

"You're going to see me on the other side. This isn't an 'Evel-Knievel, get-a-lot-of-media-out-and-just-screw-it-up' gig, you know," stuntman Eric Scott told CBS station KCNC-TV correspondent Rick Sallinger prior to the flight. … Read more

A flaw in Vista's networking has been found that can crash the system, but no fix is expected until the next service pack

A flaw has been found in Windows Vista that could allow rootkits to be hidden or denial-of-service attacks to be executed on computers using the operating system.

The vulnerability was found by Thomas Unterleitner of Austrian security company Phion and was announced Friday. Unterleitner told ZDNet UK on Friday that Phion told Microsoft about the flaw in October but that he understood a fix would only be issued in the next Vista service pack.

According to … Read more

Usually when I get news about Sun Microsystems and Microsoft working together, it is some highly technical enterprise collaboration stemming from their lawsuit settlement a few years back.

On Monday, though, the companies announced something in the consumer arena. Sun will start distributing the MSN toolbar to Internet Explorer users when they download Sun's Java Runtime Environment.

The companies said that Sun's Java runtime is downloaded tens of millions of times per month.

"This agreement with Sun Microsystems is another important milestone in our strategy to secure broad-scale distribution for our search offering, enabling millions more people … Read more

It's not exactly winter yet, though it feel fairly cold. However, folks at Pinnacle Systems think differently and on Thursday announced a new Pinnacle Theme Winter Pack for the Pinnacle Studio consumer video-editing application.

The Winter Pack is released together with the 12.1 update of the Pinnacle Studio software. The pack offers more than 80 additional winter-themed titles, DVD menus, and Pinnacle Montage templates. It will be included in special Pinnacle Studio Plus and Ultimate Winter Pack Editions at selected retailers until December 31.

The Winter Pack enables people to quickly create movies with themes relating to the … Read more

If you're contemplating liquidating some of your assets, eBay, Craigslist and others are probably looking pretty attractive right now. Don't forget about the garage sale though!

A good way to dress one up, or turn those old pizza boxes into holiday gift baskets is to head over to iStockPack. It's an Instructables-like community that's filled with various projects to put together anything from a cigar box to a cardboard cookie jar using nothing more than materials you may have laying around the house.

Users can submit their own designs with instructions, which go into one … Read more

While most of the excitement around Windows and Office is around the next full versions of the products, Microsoft is also working on the next service pack updates for each product.

In a blog posting on Wednesday, Microsoft said that Office 2007 Service Pack 2 will come sometime between February and April of next year. It also listed many of the features in the update, which includes previously announced support for the Open Document Format.

The Windows team, on the other hand, is offering far less detail.

It will confirm that there is a Service Pack 2 for Vista, but … Read more

Your Spore creature could soon get even creepier--or cuter, depending on your preferences in primordial beings. Electronic Arts on Monday officially confirmed rumors that an expansion titled Spore Creepy & Cute Parts Pack will be available worldwide as soon as November 18.

The expansion, announced just a month after the game's release, will offer more than 100 new creature-building components in two styles--charming, cartoon-esque creatures and scary, monster-like beasts.

The long-awaited game from EA and The Sims creator Will Wright tasks players with evolving from primordial ooze to creature, civilization, and all the way out into space. The expansion … Read more

A game on Facebook's platform called "PackRat" has been causing some issues for the site, according to a thread in the game's discussion forum.

The aim of PackRat appears to involve amassing graphical "cards" to chalk up points--sort of like the original Pokemon game, some cards are easy and common while others are rare. One of the ways to get new cards is by "stealing" them from friends, so having a huge network of friends who are also playing the game gives PackRat players a big advantage. Reading on in the forum, … Read more