With every new year comes expectations and now that 2009 is upon us, there are a bunch of things that we a re looking forward to. Technology keeps moving at such a high pace and we can just try to keep up as best we can. In 2008 we got used to things like HDMI, Blu-Ray, great smart phones, improved mobile broadband and the ever growing popularity and importance of social networking. So, what has our attention now that the calendar has turned to '09?

The first thing we're thinking of is faster internet speeds and lower prices. Everyone always wants a faster connection and we are eager to see what the local companies will offer in the new year and how much they will lower their prices (or if they even will lower prices). Besides that, the past year brought 3G networks to Curacao and we're going to keep an eye out to how stable these will run here with more people making use of them.

While "3G" is still relatively new, there's already talk of "4G" networks coming into play. According to a few articles I've read, they've had some successful demonstrations in Japan but it still won't really be felt in the US 'till 2010.

Smart phones continue to evolve in amazing ways and there are plenty of rumors of a new iPhone coming out. There's talk of an "iPhone 3G Part II and also an iPhone Nano but it's only speculation so time will have to tell. The HTC G1 running Android will get a new version from T-Mobile but Motorola has also jumped into the ring and announced that they will offer a better phone with Android.

With 2008 coming to an end, we decided to take a look back at our top 10 favorite articles of the past year. These are the tutorials and reviews that we had the most fun writing and they were things that people were asking for on a daily basis almost. They are in no particular order so check them out and try one of them if it applies to you...

1. Custom Make Your Own Windows Xp Cd

If you stayed away from Vista and you are still running Windows Xp on your system (like a lot of people are), chances are that you had to format and re-install your OS at some point, but that brings along with it the headaches of installing all of the updates and re-installing of drivers. 

That's where this tutorial comes in very handy. Custom make your Xp install cd, slipstream service pack 3, add the latest updates, add drivers and even trim the bloat (languages etc etc) from your disc. Re-installing your OS will only take a fraction of the time, and trimming the bloat will free up more hard drive space.

Read : Custom Make Your Own Windows Xp Cd

2. Using the PCI Database To Find Your Drivers

Speaking of drivers, after you re-install your OS, you are going to need to install all of your drivers again (if you didn't add them to your custom install cd). Most of these are pretty easy to find, but sometimes your device manager will show some "unknown devices" and you would not know where to start looking for those specific drivers.

If that's the case, just use the PCI Database and it will tell you exactly which device is in need of drivers and you can then proceed to search for the drivers on the manufacturer's website.

Read : Using The PCI Database To Find Your Drivers

3. Adding A Second Hard Drive

If you have an old hard drive lying around and collecting dust, you can easily use it to add some much needed storage space to your pc. It's a fun DIY project if you aren't afraid to tinker inside of your pc.

Read : Adding A Second Hard Drive

If you know me, you'll know that I have a strict "No I.E." policy, meaning that I stay as far away from Microsoft's Internet Explorer as possible. I'll recommend Firefox or Chrome to whomever is willing to listen and will only use I.E. if there's absolutely no other choice at that particular moment. (For example, I'm doing some work on a clients pc that only has I.E. installed and I've forgotten my thumb drive with Firefox Portable on it) *shudder*

But we like to give all products a fair representation here and it would be hypocritical to not even give the new Internet Explorer 8 Beta a test drive. So, with I.E. 8 now in Beta 2, I decided to give it a whirl and see how it looks and feels in these early stages.

The Windows Xp version is a 15.9 MB download while the Vista version is a slightly smaller 12.7. When you run the set up, it will first download available updates, check your computer for malicious software and then proceed to install IE 8 and the previously downloaded updates. After that, you'll need to restart the pc and you are ready to use IE 8.

We've had a few more people contact us the past few days about "Antivirus 2009" and we'd like to remind everyone again that it's malware and not a legitimate antivirus application. If you see anything related to "Antivirus 2009" on your pc, it means you are infected and you need to have it removed as fast as possible. The program will try to trick you into buying the "full version" but don't fall for it.

To remove it you are going to have to remove the entry from the Startup list and then delete a couple of folders and files related to it. If you want to know which files and folders exactly, please read our post over here to see what you have to look for and delete from your system. Once you have done all that, you still have to run a legit antivirus program and you can be sure that it's going to find a bunch of trojans and other malware on your system. Let your antivirus application take care of those for you and you should be ok. 

If your system still is having issues, then it might be time for the dreaded format and re-install, something that is actually the best solution when you have been infected with malware. If you are re-installing Windows, remember that you can custom make your own XP cd, so check out our post here to see how. If you need help with any of these things, please don't hesitate to drop us an e-mail or just leave your question in the comments. 

We still can't stress enough how important it is to stay safe when you are online. Avoid shady websites, be careful with what you download and install on your system, don't click on ads that try to scam you and above all, try to avoid peer-to-peer programs like Limewir. For some additional tips on how to stay safe online, check out our post here that recommends a bunch of firewalls and anti-virus apps. Oh, and if that's not enough, switch over to Linux.

Since it's the holidays, we've taken some time off to rest a bit but we'll be getting back to our usuall postings tomorrow. We hope you and your loved ones have a wonderful Christmas and that Santa left some awesome tech gadgets under your tree...

Reader Alex chimes in with a problem he's been having recently with his 3G connection from UTS. He's been getting a "No Network" message when trying to connect and then suddenly it will go, only for the "No Network" message to appear again a few hours later. We have no idea why this would be happening but it obviously sounds like a problem at UTS' end.

Personally we have been having issues with our usually steady ADSL connection as the connection will drop every 4 or 5 hours. It will drop and the only way to get it back is to reset the modem. Resetting the modem always does the trick but as you can imagine, it gets very annoying to do this 2 to 3 times a day. This has been going on for more than a month and we have called the help desk a few times but the problem still isn't solved.

Besides that, we've also had some readers experience issues with their Scarlet connections these days. The connection will also keep dropping multiple times during the day or they get lower speeds than what they should be getting. Now we know that complaints and issues are common and that everyday there will be people experiencing some sort of hick-up, but the problems seem to be a bit on the high side these days. It could be a coincidence but it still makes us wonder.

Are you experiencing hick-ups these days with your ADSL / Wimax / 3G connection? Let us know in the comments...

I was just checking out Engadget and saw this post about a "revolutionary" Sony Vaio laptop that will be released on January 9th. Sony has a teaser site up that is counting down the days and hours 'till January 9th and you can also register and try to win the new Vaio.

We have no idea what could be so revolutionary and groundbreaking about this laptop but we are definitely eager to see what Sony will drop on us in the new year.

Just a little reminder for those who register to become a member of the site to click on the "confirmation link" in the e-mail that you get sent. We have seen a bunch of people register lately but since they don't click the confirmation link they don't get added to list of registered users.

So if you are registering, remember to confirm your registration and complete the process.

The latest version Open Office is now available for download from the portable apps. Open Office is the free, open source alternative to Microsoft Office and now you don't even have to install it on your system. You can just install it on your memory stick or external hard drive and run the entire office suite from there. 

We have praised the portable apps before and adding Open Office 3.0 to the fold is definitely a big plus. If you aren't familiar with the portable apps yet, we urge you to try them and to follow the tips that we have given on how to use the platform to optimize and de-clutter your compuuter.

If you ever want to download a Youtube video, there's a script that will make it very easy for you to do so. You'll need Firefox with the Greasemonkey extension and then this Youtube Download userscript. After you install the script, it adds a "download this video" link to Youtube videos, and you can just click that link and download the vid.

The one thing that you have to keep in mind is that every vid will be downloaded with the name "get_video" and you still probably won't be able to watch it. You'll have to right click the file and remane it with a .flv extension. So for example, I downloaded a video from the Family Guy cartoon and I just right clicked it and changed the name from "get_video" to "familyguy.flv". After doing that, you can watch the video in Media Player or VLC player or any other player that supports .flv files.

We have added a mobile version of Curacao Connected, especially for those who are browsing via a mobile device like a Blackberry, Treo, iPhone or any of the various cellphones that have browsing capabilities these days.

You can access the mobile version of the site over at mobile.curacaoconnected.com. If you go to the regular url on your cellphone, you should automatically get the mobile version, but if not, just go the the mobile url. We're still tweaking the look of the mobile version so if there's anything else that you think we should add to it, please This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or leave it in the comments section.

Remember that our forum is available for those who have second hand (or new) hardware/tech gadgets that they want to sell. Just place them in the "Wanted" section along with your asking price, condition of the product and your e-mail so that whoever is interested can drop you a line (Private Messages are also possible). But yes, you have to register first.. 

There's some Ram (DDR I) still for sale, a CRT Monitor, a brand new PS/2 mouse, a wireless router and also the brand new Blackberry Curve 8330. Tomorrow we'll be adding more RAM (DDR II) and also some video cards. 

Remember the Milk is one of those underrated web services that we think does not get enough attention, especially here. Simply put it's a task manager that helps you organize your to do list and remind yourself of things that need to be done. It's been in existence for 3 years now and during the past year there have been a lot of improvements and nice extras, but it's a service that we hardly see used here by the local crowd.

Now I know what you're thinking. You already use your calendar in Outlook, Google Calendar, Thunderbird or maybe just a simple pen and paper so there's no need for something like Remember the Milk. But I can assure you that if you try it you'll be pleasantly surprised at the ease of use and all the things you can do with it.

The lay-out is really simple and you can add tasks that can fall into categories like "Personal", "Work" or "Study". You can give your tasks a due date, estimated time of duration, a location and tags. You can postpone them, share them and put priorities to them. But the real fun is all the additional services that they provide.

We had a post yesterday that asked the readers which anti-virus/firewall combination they use to stay safe online but there's something we want to make clear for those who might have misunderstood. We mentioned that you can run Linux or have a Mac and be a lot safer than when running Windows and while this is very true, we just wanted to explain for those who might not know why that is.

There aren't many threats out there for the Linux and Mac platforms as there are for Windows. We remember an article back in 2005 that mentioned that there are about 900 known threats for Linux. That might seem like a lot, but back in 2003 Windows already had more than 60.000 known threats. So by running Linux or Apple's "OS X" operating system, you will be suspect to a lot less danger.

There are more complicated reasons as well. Windows file types are executable or not and it's really easy to trick someone into opening some malicious attachment in their e-mail and before they know it, the damage has been done. With Linux, you would need to run the program as a root (Administrator) user and go through some steps before you really do damage to the system. And with Mac, you have to enable the root account first because it is disabled by default. And as you know, it's really easy to be running as the Administrator in Windows. You are probably doing it as we speak and installing malicious things becomes that much easier.

But do keep in mind that both Linux and Mac are growing in popularity. Mac has seen a big rise in the market shares of operating systems, browsers (Safari) and the iPhone 3G has also helped to boost iPhone sales. The danger in that is that these platforms become more interesting to the people who make malware because more users are using these systems now so you still have to be careful.

Still, you can sleep better at night if you have a Mac and much much better at night if you run one of the Linux distros. It is a lot harder to get infected with something than it is while using Windows.

During the past few days, we've told you about the rare malware that is targeting Firefox and now about the Facebook worm that hijacks your clicks. It makes us wonder then how other people out there are staying safe online.

Obviously, the safest thing would be to have your pc unplugged to the internet and turned off, you can't get any safer than that. But yes, that's not going to work. Linux enthousiasts (like myself) will tell you to run Linux on your machine (with firewall for bonus security), Mac fans will tell you to buy a Mac, while Windows users will tell you to get a good antivirus application and team it with a good firewall.

One big key that people mostly forget is that you can be a lot safer just by having smart online behaviour. Adult sites, gaming sites, gambling sites, peer-to-peer networks (Limewire), sites that offer cracks and key-gens etc etc will absolutely destroy your system if you are not careful. So, smart online browsing is a very important first step to minimalizing the chance of getting infected with some form of malware.

But still, we want to know how you stay safe. For the last couple of years I have had a bunch of configurations. First I had Bitdefender antivirus + firewall (paid version). After the two years expired, I moved on to AVG Free and Zone Alarm Firewall. Then I tried AVG accompanied with Comodo Firewall and now I'm currently using AVG along with Clamwin Portable with just the regular Windows Firewall and the firewall that my router has.This set up is on my Windows Xp machines. My Fedora and Ubuntu virtual machines have nothing on them.

The biggest key for me is to have a light weight system that runs very smooth, with very little resources being used combined with smart browsing. Knowing what to look out for and to stay away from is more important than people imagine.

So tell us then in the comments what you have running on your system and how you protect yourself from malware..