Free is Good

Even though the pricing for Windows 7 is better than it was for Vista, there's always ways to get the software for less or even free. Here are 7 Great Ways to Get Windows 7 Cheap.

Light as a Feather

The newest notebook from Sony, the Vaio X, is about the lightest laptop I've ever seen...a mere 1.6 lbs. More impressive is the battery life with the second battery...a whopping 14 hours! Pricing will be in the $1300+ range.

Android Review

The first real challenger to the iPhone, the Droid, hit the streets today. Here's a review of what to expect...looks pretty good.

Smiling Faces

Here's a new service I just heard about:

BOULDER, Colo., Oct. 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Dental offices now have a better
alternative for their in-office music. Custom Channels, a company that
creates custom on-line and on-premise radio stations for nationally known
brands, has unveiled Smile Radio -- a music service specifically designed for
dental practices.

Smile Radio includes multiple channels of professionally programmed,
continuously updated music handpicked to enhance the sound and atmosphere of
dental offices. Smile Radio channels are broadcast directly to dental
practices via the Internet and received on a specially designed streaming
receiver.

Custom Channels' co-president Dave Rahn said, "A number of my dentist friends
really had a hard time finding a good music solution for their dental office.
Many used FM or satellite radio, or their own iPods or CDs -- but found each
had serious drawbacks. We created Smile Radio to address their concerns about
lack of variety, tiring repetition, inappropriate songs, commercials and
interruptions."

Dr. Anil Idiculla of Park Meadows Orthodontics in Denver said, "The power of
music is highly underrated in today's offices. It affects your patients, your
team members, and more importantly, your daily productivity. With the
numerous choices of music options out there already, it can be very
overwhelming to decide what the best option is to achieve this goal. Smile
Radio is the total package... current music, extensive playlists, and
customization. It can take your office to the next level."

Founded by 30-year broadcast radio veterans Dave Rahn and John Bradley, Custom
Channels creates and manages custom music channels for local and national
brands including Floyd's 99 Barbershops, Whole Foods Market, Bonnaroo Music
Festival, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Cost Plus World Market, Clearwire, and
numerous broadcast radio stations. Smile Radio is the company's entree into
providing specialized music channels designed for the dental and medical
professions. In addition to the standard Smile Radio package, Custom Channels
can create branded, "private label" Smile Radio Channels for multi-location
and dental franchise or marketing groups.

Smile Radio costs $39.95 per month and includes all required ASCAP, BMI and
SESAC music performance licenses. Custom Channels is offering a 30-day risk
free trial to customers who sign up through their website at
http://www.smile-radio.com. Dentists can preview music on Smile Radio on the
website as well.

Virtual Reality

With virtual computing now part of Windows 7 (it's called XP Mode and uses a software called Virtual Windows XP), you're going to be hearing more and more about virtual computers. One of my favorites is VMWare. The big knock against it in the past is that it couldn't create virtual machines, just booth ones created with other programs. That's no longer the case and you can now create virtual machines with this software. Check it out.

Crawling on Hands and Knees

I constantly install programs and operating systems on multiple computers to test them out. As organized as I'd like to be, I'm not when it comes to serial numbers and access codes...who can keep track of all that? That's where LicenseCrawler can help. All that info is in the Windows Registry...and the software finds it for you.

Not Deat Yet

Unless you live in a cave, you know that Windows 7 was released 3 days ago. However, don't expect to see Windows XP disappear any time soon. Here are 10 Reasons Why Windows XP Will Be Around Awhile.

Home on the Range

More and more professionals are working from home, on the go, or in whatever location they choose. With internet applications rapidly developing, online storage mechanisms becoming dirt cheap and often free, and netbook computers becoming more and more common, a huge wave of ultra-portable office applications, extensions, and utilities are popping up.

At the heart of every designer or developer’s office is their browser. This guide is dedicated to making sure that your browser becomes the ultimate productivity suite, complete with word processing and office tools, calculation and finance tools, and a wide range of development and design extensions.

The Biggest Gets Bigger

Danaher Corp. has announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire PaloDEx Holding Oy (“PaloDEx”), a leading manufacturer of dental imaging products with revenues of more than $100M that goes to market under the Instrumentarium Dental and SOREDEX brands. The transaction is subject to regulatory approval and customary closing conditions. Instrumentarium Dental and SOREDEX will join Gendex, DEXIS, ISI, KaVo and Pelton & Crane as part of Danaher’s group of dental equipment companies.

PaloDEx’s product range includes 3D CBCT, Panoramic x-ray (including the OP200), PSP (including the Optime IO PSP) and other intra-oral and extra-oral xray imaging systems.

“We believe this acquisition will be a game-changer for both of our companies and we are excited about the opportunity to acquire two of the leading imaging brands. Instrumentarium Dental and Soredex’s excellent digital imaging products and technology will be a great fit with our existing Gendex, DEXIS and i-CAT business. PaloDEx has a very experienced team and we look forward to working with Henrik Roos, President of PaloDEx, and his team as we continue to build the business,” said Henk van Duijnhoven, Group Executive of Danaher’s KaVo Group.

Henrik Roos will remain in his position and added: “I am thrilled to join Danaher’s dental business. The combined business will create a unique opportunity to provide new and innovative technologies in digital dentistry with focus on diagnostics and treatment planning for general practitioners and specialists.”

Today's the Day!

Unless you've been living in Siberia or in a cave, then you know that today is the official release of Windows 7. For many people, there will be a few bumps in the road as you upgrade from Vista. Here's how to get your old system ready for a Windows 7 upgrade.

Tablet PC Redux

I've been a fan of Tablet PCs since they came out almost 10 years ago. However, with new Tablets rumored to be coming from Apple and Microsoft in the next few months, they may actually start to take off. Here are 10 Reasons Why Tablets Will Succeed.

There's a Storm a Brewin'

I'm a huge fan of Blackberry and have had one for years. I scoffed when the Storm was released as it had many shortcomings. However, with the new Storm 2 just released, I'm starting to droll over the new features and might be looking to change!

Waiting for Godot

If you're like most people who have Vista machines, you'll probably do an in-place upgrade to Windows 7 when it comes out in 3 days. However, make sure you put aside some time to do this: tests show the process can take up to 21 hours...ouch! I did it recently on my home computer and it took about 2 hours...your mileage may vary.

Less is More

Here's a great service that I started recommending to my friends and family: BillShrink. You put in info about things like credit cards, wireless phone service, gas, savings, etc. and it will find you the best plans, ways to save money, etc. Very slick and works exactly as advertised.

Keeping Up with the Joneses

There's no reason to rely on individual applications to tell you when they need an update, when you've got a handy tool like TechTracker.

You'll need to create a free account or use Facebook connect to log in to CNet and download the TechTracker application. Once downloaded and installed finding the out of date applications on your system is as simple as running the application. TechTracker compares the software versions of your applications to the vast database of applications at Download.com and shows you a list of which applications need to be updated and a link to Download.com or the publisher's site where you can download the update.

You can also tell TechTracker to email you when a new version of an application you have comes out, so you'll get an email update before the next scan even takes place. TechTracker is freeware and works wherever Windows does.

Best of the Best

There are many websites that will rank programs based on customer feedback. A few will aggregate those together. LifeHacker has posted a list of The Hive Five Winners over the past 6 months.

The Hand that Feeds You

Trolling around on the web for the best deal is tedious and time consuming. Invisible Hand, an add on for Firefox notifies you of better prices on items you are searching on the web with a discreet interface. It's so discreet you have to search for it but if you see a green arrow in your status bar, you know it's there.

When you start shopping on Amazon or Best Buy, Invisible Hand will pop up a message indicating if the item you are searching is cheaper at another retailer. (The camera I was looking at was cheaper by 1 cent somewhere else according to Invisible Hand). Since they're in beta, you might not get a notification for every item you search as the Hand is still growing their product and retailer coverage

Believe the Hype

There's no shortage of applications that have received tons of buzz over the years, only to fall flat when they actually had a product. What we don't hear enough about are the really great products that don't get enough hype. Here are the 10 Underhyped Webapps in 2009.

More than Just a Pretty Face

One of the things I've been preaching about over the past few years is that digital cameras tend to capture far more information than what most of us need or could even see on our computer monitors. Many vendors are now bringing out new cameras with lower megapixel resolution but better features. What kind of features? Here are 10 New Camera Battlegrounds...coming to a digital camera near you soon!

The End of an Era?

While not really dental related, I found this article to be really fascinating. It describes how Netflix and their streaming service may eventually replace cable TV. I've been using this service, which is built into my Blu-Ray player, for many months and I love it: literally thousands of movies and TV shows, streamed in Hi Def, to my TV in under 30 seconds, for no additional cost on top of my existing DVD rental fee. Very, very cool.

Out With the Old....

There are plenty of ways to install software but in many cases, it's a lot easier to get it on your computer than to get it off. Windows' Add/Remove doesn't always work and even when it does, it often leaves remnants behind. KUninstall is a lightweight, portable application that removes programs. It has nice features such as searching for a program, scanning for leftover Registry entries, and other cool tricks.

Diggin' Digsby

With the convergence of email, social media, and chat, it would be nice to have one program that manage it all for you. Digsby is probably the best one out there. It lets you keep track of Twitter tweets, emails, chat, etc, all in one handy window. Very slick and free to use.

A Match Made in Heaven

As technical advances in the field of dentistry continue, it is imperative that we keep abreast of these advances to make sure we are offering patients the state of the art in restorative techniques and technology. One such area that has seen a dramatic change in the past years is shade matching.

Traditionally, shade matching was accomplished by holding up a set of prefabricated porcelain shade tabs to an existing tooth and estimating which shade tab is the closest color match. After this determination, the information is sent to the dental laboratory and a new restoration is manufactured to match this selected shade tab. As most of you know, this protocol leaves a lot of room for error. Proper shade determination can be effected by a multitude of variables. To be a meaningful improvement over current processes, I believe that a shade device is needed that measures the whole tooth accurately, adjusts to the complexities caused by saliva, supports a large library of shade guides, and offers the most helpful comparison features.

As I began my search for a device that met all of these requirements, I came across the SpectroShade Micro unit. The SpectroShade system allows dentists to confidently match and compare the shades of natural teeth with over 33 of the most popular shade and composite guides. When taking shades, we no longer have to worry about the type of lighting or color perception of the individual comparing the shade. The SpectroShade’s powerful case planning tools have also made tracking bleaching treatment progress with the before/after comparison feature an easy process. You can also check your laboratory’s work with this side-by-side feature.

The SpectroShade gives dentists the ability to communicate patient shades to the laboratory with unprecedented accuracy. All of the pertinent shade information can be printed out on color photo paper for the technician to use when creating the restoration. If a laboratory is also running the SpectroShade software, this information can be sent digitally via email.

The SpectroShade is incredibly easy to use. The system is designed with the user in mind. Feedback systems are in place to inform the operator of errors in image acquisition or calibration.

If you are looking to add a shade device to your practice, I highly recommend the SpectroShade Micro system. The SpectroShade can be purchased directly from Clōn 3D. For more information, please call them at 866.460.5682 and ask for Jon Grosso or Gary Fichtner.

Make sure you mention that you heard about them on my blog!

You Say Potato, And I'll Say...

In dental offices, many computers are often shared by multiple users, and they often prefer their own screen resolutions. Carroll is a great free utility that makes it easy to switch screen resolutions among users.

Nine Inch Nails

Caesy has just released the latest version of their DVD-based patient education program. here's the press release:

ST. PAUL, Minn. – (October 6, 2009) – Patterson Dental Supply, Inc. introduces CAESY DVD 9, the newest version of its DVD format patient education software. With CAESY DVD 9, dental professionals can efficiently and consistently explain diagnoses, procedures, alternatives and post-op instructions in operatories and consult rooms. The new version includes seven new presentations, as well as 29 updated presentations to enhance patient education throughout the practice.

The DVD features a completely updated esthetics section, as well as all-new modules on Digital Panoramic X-ray, the Caries ID detection wand, Medications, Esthetic Crown Lengthening, Free Gingival Graft, Sinus Lift, and Subepithelial Gingival Graft. Keeping pace with changes in the industry, CAESY DVD 9 also features updated CAD/CAM presentations to include the new CEREC AC powered by Bluecam. New 3-D animations and live-action video also help keep the presentations fresh.

“Dental technology is always changing, and the new CAESY DVD 9 reflects that,” says Jana Berghoff, Patterson Dental corporate technology manager. “Patterson Dental prides itself on its ability to keep its offerings current, providing dental practices with the most relevant and contemporary patient education.”

CAESY Education Systems has been dentistry’s premier developer of leading-edge patient education technology and content since 1993. CAESY was acquired by Patterson Dental Supply, Inc. in May 2004. The award-winning multimedia information on preventive, restorative and esthetic treatment options helps dental practices educate their patients and grow their practices. The CAESY content is distributed via video and computer networks or DVD players throughout the clinical and reception areas of the dental practice. The family of products includes CAESY DVD, Smile Channel DVD and CAESY Enterprise, which includes CAESY, Smile Channel and ShowCase. For more information, visit www.caesy.com or call 1-800-294-8504.

Leave it to the Pros

I see that Planmeca has just released a new sensor called the ProSensor. I'm not a huge fan of the proprietary cables and boxes that they use, but the sensor seems to have some other nice features. From the press release:

ROSELLE, Illinois--Planmeca USA has introduced a new product in the digital intraoral X-ray field--the Prosensor Digital Imaging System.

The Planmeca ProSensor combines durability with an enhanced functionality, said Bob Pienkowski, president, Planmeca USA.

The ProSensor uses the latest complementary metal oxide semiconductor technology while offering dentists advanced design features that deliver a technologically advanced product.

Pienkowski explained that "the ProSenor was designed to withstand the rigorous use that frequently occurs in a dental office. The cable is strengthened with Kevlar, and inside the cable there are only two wires. This construction has proved extremely durable in testing consisting of bending the cable more than 100,000 times."

The active imaging area of the sensor extends to the whole surface for maximized imaging performance. Hermetically sealed, the sensor can be fully immersed in disinfectant for effective infection control and prevention.

The ProSensor is available in three sizes--0, 1, and 2. Each is easily distinguished from the other with a clear symbol on the magnetic connector, assisting the ease of use.

Kill Zone

With many of us replacing our cell phones on a regular basis, it becomes critical to make sure you kill all the data on your old phone. Most devices allow you to do this remotely, so here's how to do it depending on which device you have.

Dropping Like Flys

I've mentioned one of my favorite applications recently: Dropbox. It allows me to sync files across multiple computers so that I always have the most current one handy. What I didn't realize is that there's a lot more you can do with Dropbox than file sync...check out this article.

Finally Good?

Norton has just released their 2010 Product Line. While I haven't been a fan of Norton in the past (like, ever), independent testing shows it to be much faster than previous versions and installs in around a minute. I'll test it for a few months to see how it affects system performance.

Abandonment

For many years in my teens and 20's, I loved playing computer games, and I still have fond memories of many DOS games I played in the past. Too bad you can't play them now..or can you? Head over to Abandonia where you'll find many older games and instructions on how to run them in modern computer. Lot's of great memories for me!

Command and Conquer

If you fancy yourself a power user, then Total Commander is for you. Total Commander is a file manager / windows explorer replacement that is positively packed to the rafters with features such as side-by-side windows, compression and decompression of most popular (and unpopular formats), a fully featured ftp client, file and folder comparison, parallel port linking, directory synchronization and much more.

In Beta / Release Candidate since April, the updated version adds a host of new functionality including full Unicode support, an enhanced help file, improved 64 bit support, improved synchronization and a powerful search function. The user interface has also been improved with subtle yet effective tweaks.