This is a little OT for a Hardware Review site but the topic of running Homesite 5.x on Windows 7 is a subject near and dear to my heart (and pocketbook). Ever since I started developing websites my tool of choice was a little program called Homesite, Homesite isn't anything more than a glorified text editor but is designed specifically for web programming and also gets the job done in ways that many editors cannot. The tool won't replace Visual Studio, and it cannot do WYSIWYG editing, and in some ways has been replaced by any modern version of Adobe Dreamweaver. However there is just something extremely elegant about using a tool that only has a single purpose in life.

It's like the EVGA SR-2, The board is designed to break records, nothing more, nothing less.

Well when I heard the rumors that Homesite 5.x wouldn't install or run on Windows 7 I was devastated, not only would this limit my OS options but it also ment that if I wanted to upgrade to WIn 7 on my main workstation I would need to find a new editor. Truth be told I have known of these issues for quite some time, and it wasn't until tonight that I decided to test it out for myself.

So I fired up the test bench with a fresh install of Windows 7 Ultimate x64 Edition and navigated over the network to where I had the Homesite executable stored. A quick double click launched the installer and a few seconds later it was installed. I then applied the 5.2 patch and after a few seconds it was applied as well.

With the installation complete the only thing left was to fire it up. Clicking on the shortcut launched the splash screen followed by a general error about registry access. DOH!. Seems maybe the Internet masses were correct.

Can't be, nothing on the Internet can be trusted.

I navigated back to the Homesite shortcut, right-clicked to pull up the shortcut properties. From there you can set a compatibility mode, and for the purposes of this test I chose WInXP SP3. Clicking on the icon again launched the splash screen, followed by the program. WHOOO!!

How I ever doubted this would work is beyond me, I guess I put too much faith into the n00bs of the internet. Sadly I also cannot make fun of them since the people complaining were loyal Homesite users, however I can tarnish their technical rep for not trying the most simplest of program tweaks.

While there is some joy the whole thing is overshadowed by some extremely sad news... Shortly after Adobe acquired Macromedia rumors were spread that the purchase would spell certain d00m for Homesite, No longer would the program bundled with Dreamweaver and within a year the product link and developer forums were dead. You could still buy a license for Homesite but it was largely unsupported. no new patches, no new features, and no new versions at all. Homesite basically became abandonware.

I believe the final nail in the coffin was struck around the time Windows 7 was released, Adobe was pulling the plug and would no longer sell licenses for Homesite and even removed it from their company product offerings. Overall its not a bad thing, most developers now are into RAD (Rapid Application Development) tools like Visual Studio and Dreamweaver or have migrated over to building Flex/Silverlight applications which means code based development is a thing of the past. It is only dino cowboy coders like myself that hold on to the old ways, and also happen to be the people the lazy framework developers turn to when their shit stops working.

Thanks for listening.

As I mentioned in a previous blog post Computex runs for 5 days, but on the 5th day they open the show floor to the general public which can make it difficult to get around. I was lucky enough to schedule all of my important meetings early in the week so come Friday I was left with finding some of the companies that I wasn't able to talk to, and the others I found while checking out the exhibits.

In previous days I bounced between the Nangang hall and the Hyatt hotel for meetings which left me no time to check out Hall 3, Hall 1 and the TICC (next to Hall 1). Hall 3 is usually a wash for hardware site like Ninjalane, the exhibits usually consist of industrial electronics like components, signage, and digital video. Hall 1 is a little more interesting and is typically filled with addon devices, component parts, fans, etc.

Strangely enough Gigabyte elects to have their show booth in Hall 1. I'm not sure exactly why, but it might have something to do with the prestige of being in Hall 1 or the proximity of the booth to the VIP room in Taipei 101.

Next to Hall 1 is the TICC, this is the building where nVidia usually has their marketing display each year and where FiringSquad once held a LAN party and casemod contest. The ground floor is often reserved for Hall 1 overflow and worked out to be a perfect location for the ASUS display. Normally companies are quite reserved when it comes to showing off unreleased products but it didn't stop ASUS from showing these 2 motherboard concept boards.



On a related note, the TICC is also where Foxconn had their VIP meeting room complete with RSVP, no cameras, and no press. (But I was still able get in on more than one occasion)

In the world of computer cases we often forget there are more than just PC cases to consider. Chenbro is one of the leaders in workstation and server case design and had this tower style workstation case on display.



Don't get any ideas that the SR-2 will fit in this case. It may be big, but follows the standard ATX motherboard spec.

Extreme overclocking has been a common theme at Computex for the past several years, and for good reason, it tends to draw a crowd. EVGA, Antec, and MicSys all had overclocking shows with most using LN2 for dramatic effect.



Here is your booth babe pic of the day, this girl was taking a break and talking with friends but she let me take her photo anyway.



That concludes the daily coverage of Computex 2010. I'm planning to create a series of full articles with more photos in the coming weeks. So stay tuned.

Oh ya, there will be a booth babe gallery as well. ^^

Considering that all of my official meetings had concluded I decided that I would just enjoy some of the various shows and see what was cool, and what sucked. I have to admit the EVGA show at the GSkill booth was by far one of the most interesting to watch. Today as part of a motherboard giveaway they issued a challenge to "finish the game". There was a 980X running at 6Ghz and to win all the person had to do was keep the processor cool (and warm) enough to finish a 3DMark 2006 run. After 7 or so failures you could see that they started to help the contestants and avoid the dreaded "Don't get crash"

The first stop was with Cooler Master, I needed to do a follow-up meeting on Day 3 to go over some site stuff and get a good look at the latest line of products, most of which were not on display in the main booth.

Here we have a new gaming mouse, slightly lower specs and lower price.

You don't see me talking much about Elitegroup (if at all) but I decided to stop by and see what they had on display. By the looks of it they are doing pretty well at getting some gaming style motherboards to the market and with the latest specs like USB3 and SATA6. The P55 board shown here comes with gold plated contacts in the PCIe and memory slots.



Thermalright is one of my favorite companies to visit since they tend to show some pretty amazing stuff each year. The system shown below was a demonstration on how well they can keep a GTX 480 cool with a minimum of noise. The card in this system had been running full load from show start to show end and never got above 66c.



Finally the booth babe shot of the day.

Here we have 3 of the lovely ADATA girls posing for a photo.



Throughout the day the ADATA girls do a live show that highlights some of the ADATA products and sales partner countries. With some luck they will start selling more items in the US.

Final day at Computex is next, stay tuned.

A question I have been asked quite often is "how do you like the show this year compared to last year?" Nice icebreaker I suppose but a loaded question at best since they already have an option. So, how do I like this show? My usual answer is "its great!", there is plenty to see and being a 6 time veteran I know what to usually expect. According to the show promoters the 30th annual Computex is the largest ever with more exhibitors than any time in history. However, while this may be true on paper the halls have been rather devoid of people. The attendance doesn't matter much to me as long as I can still get around.

Meetings today were split once again with half being at Nangang and the others located somewhere in the Hyatt. For those that don't know the Hyatt is located right next to the World Trade Center (Hall 1) and offers up a cheap(er) alternative to setting up a display booth in one of the primary locations. This happens to be a popular location for US based companies that don't have a large presence in Taiwan.

Day 2 was also my heavy meeting day with a total of 6 on the books; however I was able to fit in more as I walked around. The first interesting stop was with Lian Li, the famed makers of the aluminum computer chassis. They had several new products on display including some all aluminum test benches, a wide variety of MicroATX chassis designs and this monster case designed for larger ATX cases such as the EVGA SR-2.

Noctua also had a booth on the show floor, surprisingly close to the memory manufactures. While the location is good, it can get rather loud over there. In the NH-D14 we mentioned that the dual towers combined with the 6 heatpipes allowed the cooler to handle extremely high overclocking loads with a minimum of noise. Well, the next cooler in the series could be this prototype with 7 heatipes in a single tower configuration and dual fan option.



Maybe one of the coolest things I have seen in a long time is the new ProSeries style lights that Corsair was showing off. To make this work Corsair added a small electrical connector to the tops of the Dominator modules under the cooling fins. This connector will then feed data to the ProSeries module which in turn produces visual results related to activity, temperature, and peek loads. If you have recently bought a Dominator memory module you might have these connectors already.



Our last official meeting was with EVGA in one of the Hyatt suites. As expected they had several SR-2 motherboards on display and the new GTX 465 card that was just announced. Pictured here is the GTX480 waterblock which is made up of 2 coolers in one. The main waterblock will cool GPU and memory while the finned section is a heatpipe cooler for the voltage regulators.



You may not know this but EVGA has been rather careful to diversify their product lines to include more than just motherboards and video cards. With any luck we'll have some of that to show later this year.

Now for the booth babe shot of the day. Anime School Girls anyone??



Computex Day 3 is here, so stay tuned.

The first day of any trade show is by far the most exciting, the day is usually filled with product launch announcements, and general chaos as vendors struggle to get things just right. My official meetings didn't start until right after lunch so I decided to check out some of the booths and generally see where everyone is.

My first stop was over at the GSkill booth where Shamino and K|ngp|n were hosting an overclocking demonstration. The show consisted of some 6Ghz gaming and stability testing and some giveaways to the people passing by. The first item they gave away was an EVGA P55 Classified to a person in the crowd that could answer some basic questions about the computer system.

Two Gigabyte meetings started my Computex schedule; I say 2 because VGA and Motherboards are handled by different marketing departments. Of course Gigabyte had the new X58-UD9 on display along with an 890FX and P55 based board with similar layout specifications. The interesting thing about the UD9 in particular is that while Gigabyte was very forthcoming with the new features of the board there are still features on this board that have yet to be announced.



I cannot say for sure, but based on my questions I suspect the announcements during Day 2 will consist of some specific details around the dual 12phase PWM and general power distribution.

Silverstone had some very interesting things on display including a new fan technology and a prototype of the new Raven 3 chassis. The new case is smaller than previous editions and, once again, completely redefines the traditional chassis layout. Look for some more photos of this case in a later edition.



What would be a Computex without the famous booth babes? Here is a girl helping to promote a well known video card and motherboard maker. Can you guess which one?



Stay tuned, more to come!