burn

Burning and managing blu-ray discs on your Mac, if you need it

While Apple has been on the blu-ray consortium for a few years, it has been reluctant to pursue blu-ray playback in the Mac OS. Meanwhile, Apple has been focusing on online delivery of HD content with the iTunes store; but even though the use of Blu-Ray movies is limited, you can still manage and use blu-ray disks on your Mac.… Read more

Let 'er rip

For many people, a media player like iTunes or Windows Media Player can handle day-to-day media ripping and burning tasks. Users with slightly more demanding needs, however, may seek out a separate application for this kind of work. Astroburn Pro is a simple program that gives users a handful of features for working with digital media. It's nothing fancy, but it's a straightforward set of tools made especially to handle CDs and DVDs and their contents.

Astroburn Pro's interface is plain and fairly intuitive, although the way things are organized takes a little getting used to. A … Read more

Slideshows as easy as magic

MAGIX Entertainment specializes in multimedia software that focuses on making a particular job easier rather than the big-app, all-in-one approach. Their Xtreme PhotoStory on CD & DVD 8 is case in point: Its wizard-based templates make it a cinch to turn your photos, images, and even videos into personalized, enhanced slideshows and video presentations. It also helps you post your saved slideshows online or watch them on your PC or even your TV, with the proper connections.

The program's interface has the MAGIX family look, cleanly designed with an intuitive layout and clearly labeled controls. There's a media-player-like … Read more

Anne Mulcahy to retire as Xerox chairman

Xerox's Anne Mulcahy is stepping down as chairman and board director on May 20, the company said Tuesday.

Current CEO Ursula Burns will take on the additional job of chairman immediately following Mulcahy's departure.

The news marks Mulcahy's final curtain call on her 34 years with Xerox after having handed over the role of CEO to Burns in July.

Taking the reins as chief executive officer in 2001 and chairman in 2002, Mulcahy is credited with steering the company on the road to recovery following a rough patch of falling earnings and rising layoffs.

During her lengthy … Read more

Blank CDs and DVDs not mounting in the Finder

Normally when you insert a blank CD or DVD, the disc may mount on the desktop, in the Finder sidebar, or at the top level of the computer where you see your drives and network displayed. Sometimes, however, this default behavior may not happen, and inserted discs will not appear.… Read more

Need a copy of your DVD? Mac OS X does that

When faced with the necessity of making a copy of an unprotected DVD disc, Mac users should not worry--Mac OS X makes it simple. Keep in mind that these directions are only for copying DVDs that do not have any form of copy protection encoded on them.… Read more

Burn an ISO image in Windows 7

ISO images are files that contain an image of an entire disc. Usually, you download them from the Net and burn them to a CD or DVD to make an install or boot disc.

Windows 7 makes it easy to turn ISO files into discs.

Let's say you've downloaded a lovely ISO of the Linux operating system Ubuntu. If you burn it to a CD, you can boot off the CD and experiment with Linux without having to mess installing it.

Here's what you do.

Put your blank disc in the drive.

Double-click the ISO file. It … Read more

Burning Man, the opera

SAN FRANCISCO--For Ron Meiners, the aha! moment came during Burning Man 2006.

A longtime attendee of the countercultural arts festival, Meiners had been thinking about how one would explain what Burning Man is to someone who had never been. The answer, he decided, was obvious: an opera.

In typical Burning Man fashion, as he was standing in line at the port-a-potties, describing this epiphany to a friend, a man next to them piped up and said, in effect, "Are you talking about putting together an opera about Burning Man? I create operas. Can I help?"

Today, the fruits … Read more

Enhanced for Windows 7

With version 14 of this venerable archiving tool, WinZip aims specifically at Windows 7 compliance and enhancements, and adds a few other new features, too. WinZip in Windows 7 gets extensive support for libraries, tools, and recent archives in the jumplist, previews in Windows Explorer for certain file types, and basic touch-screen support. Multitouch support is limited to rotating pictures previewed from WinZip archives.

WinZip 14 also includes minor security enhancements. New automatic wiping keeps confidential data secret by "shredding" the temporary file that WinZip creates by default whenever it opens an archive. The shredding uses U.S. … Read more

Phones at Burning Man: Can you hear me now?

BLACK ROCK CITY, Nev.--Burning Man is not just an alternative culture event; it's increasingly a commercial cellular opportunity, and that has purists fuming.

For one week, participants leave behind their work and more mundane matters, and immerse themselves in an alternate reality, recharging their creative energy and drawing inspiration from the surreal atmosphere.

The remote location, 140 miles from the nearest city (Reno) in the desert of northern Nevada, makes it easy to escape. Meanwhile, banning commerce (apart from ice and coffee from the organizers) is designed to wean people off capitalism in favor of a more idealistic … Read more