Sarasota PC Monitor
Review Chairmans Industry Comments (8/06)
The Computer Buffet
by Herb Goldstein, Review Editor
E-mail comments, suggestions, etc. to Herb Goldstein at: pcug@comcast.net
BAD HYPERLINK?? Occasionally for reasons beyond our control, a hyperlink provided here will not work. After carefully checking your typing (needs to be 100% accurate), the only suggestion we can offer is that you go to Google and enter the name of the software. If a more current hyperlink is available, this is the best place to look for it.
Please also note: Most of the software mentioned below is freeware. It is gathered through researching usually reliable sources. I do not personally try most references, time being the obvious factor.
YAHOO! WIDGETS ENGINE. Yahoo! Widgets Engine is a JavaScript runtime engine that lets you run small programs called Widgets that can perform a variety of tasks. These desktop plug-ins can perform a variety of tasks and are available from many different sources. The default installation includes a Yahoo! email checker, weather forecast, desktop photo frame, day planner, and more. More than a thousand additional widgets can be downloaded from the Widget Library. www.snapfilespro.com/gnomeapp.php?id=109964
FOLDERICO. Face the facts: Sometimes you get tired of looking at the same icons every single day. You need something new, you need something different. This is about the time you need to break out Folderico, a freeware program that will allow you to change your icons around. Here is what the developer of Folderico has to say: "Folderico allows you to change icons of the chosen folder to any chosen by you. And even at connection of a hard disk to another computer of an icon will remain such what they were made by you." That is right to the point now, is it not? You can change an icon of any folder, with any method which is pleasant to you more. You can do it through the context menu with preliminary viewing of the image or through the dialog, also with preliminary viewing of the image. As with any time you are messing around with things you are not supposed to, make sure you back up any files or folders you might change. Also make sure you can switch back to the icons, just in case something might go wrong. I don't think you'll have much to worry about, though. www.shedko.by.ru/en/soft/folderico.htm\
HOTT NOTES V4 BETA 1. Hott Notes enables you to place virtual sticky notes on your desktop to remind you of upcoming tasks, things to do, or any other information that you want to keep handy. The program supports regular notes, alarm notes, checklist notes, and even freehand scribble notes. You can color coordinate the notes to your preference, using font sizes of your choice and also set a transparency level to blend them with your desktop background. If you prefer to keep your desktop clean, you can also hide all or selected notes, and manage them via the supplied notes manager interface, archive older notes, and crumble (delete) the ones you no longer need. Other features include resizing of notes, automatic backup, and animation effects. www.snapfilespro.com/gnomeapp.php?id=109969
SPIDER PLAYER. Spider Player is a small media player with an array of extra features that include a CD ripper and audio format converter (MP3, WMA, OGG, WAV), Equalizer with presets, ID3 and WMA metadata editor, Song lyrics editor, Unicode support, and more. The player uses the Bass Audio Library from Un4seen. Other features include CD-Text support, streaming media playback and playlist search. Spider Player comes with a compact 3-part interface that can be arranged to your preference; most features are tucked away in menu lists, so the interface remain uncluttered despite the array of features offered. www.snapfilespro.com/gnomeapp.php?id=109973
CASSETTE TAPE TO CD VIA YOUR COMPUTER. For this digital resurrection, you'll need something to play the tapes on-preferably a decent cassette deck, but even an old Walkman-style player will work-and a patch cable to connect it to the line-in jack on your PC's sound card. (Your local electronics store will have the right cable for your setup.) Consider using an external audio-capture device such as the plug-and-play USB M-Audio Transit ($99.95; www.m-audio.com) instead of your sound card; it will record a much cleaner signal.
Finally, you'll need software to record the audio. Try Audacity (audacity.sourceforge.net): It performs all the necessary work, and it's free. If you plan to turn your tapes into MP3 files, make sure to get the LAME MP3 encoder as well; there's a link to it on the Audacity download page.
NTREGOPT. You know it's important to keep your Windows Registry lean, but what happens with the gaps left by deleted entries? They're a whole lot of nothin', just taking up space and slowing your system down. NTRegOpt defragments your Windows Registry, tightening all up that slack space. This freebie works on all systems based on the NT kernel; the author expects that it will work on any future NT-based systems as well. www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/erunt/
WINAMP FULL. There are lots of MP3 players available, but this popular free program is one of the best beloved. Winamp saves playlits and equalizer settings, and the special skins and dozens of color schemes keep it looking good.
In addition to playing CDs and most other digital audio formats (.wav, MID, MOD), Winamp lets you browse SHOUTcast Radio and TV station. It also offers AOL video content and AOL Radio featuring XM. You get 50 free MP3s from eMusic, too.
Winamp has a spectrum analyzer and oscilloscope that jumps and dips with the rhythm of your song. What sets Winamp apart from the pack is the smooth, intuitive way it's designed-how it allows you to easily create and save playlists, for instance. Want to play at the best fidelity for jazz tunes as well as bass-heavy rock songs? Winamp lets you save equalizer settings for specific songs. The program also has a minibrowser that lets you view biographies and photos, and you can sign up for 3GB of free Internet music storage. Integrated internet TV & radio round out the functions.
You can burn to CD with Winamp. It burns at 2x-if you want to get the best speed out of your burner, consider buying the Pro version, which can support burning up to 48x. And of course, there are the skins: Winamp has an endless supply of classic and modern ones. You can dress up the player so that it shows the interior of a fancy car, photos from your favorite TV show, a cubist geometric design, or any of the more than 25,000 other looks created by fans. The program also lets you sub in thousands of plug-ins for everything from encoders to visualizations to games. www.winamp.com
WEBWASHER CLASSIC. Webwasher Classic filters unwanted ads, crushes cookies, and prevents companies from profiling your surfing habits. You can eliminate pop-up windows, banner ads, and the new, larger "skyscrapers" and "rectangles" that increase the time it takes to view Web pages. You're even protected from Web bugs, invisible graphics hidden in documents that trigger the sending of messages to third parties.
With Webwasher Classic's cookie filter, you can classify cookies as good, bad, or neutral so that you can keep the ones you need (such as for home shopping), while classifying the ones that spy on you. And the included SecretMaker software sends phantom data in place of personal information and surfing habits. www.cyberguard.com
ICY TOWER. Now here's a game whose creators advise "getting as high as possible," which presumably is a reference to wall-climbing, not hallucinogenic drugs. Icy Tower is a climbing and jumping game. According to the designers, "Harold the Homeboy has decided to climb a huge tower. It's up to you to help him get as high as possible without falling down, and collect extra score by doing cool moves on the way." www.freelunchdesign.com
STORURL. How many times have you looked at your list of bookmarks and thought that you needed a better way of managing them all? There aren't too many bookmark managers that are not integrated with the browser in some way, shape, or form. StorURL is one of the few that are not, and it is worth a look. Here is what the developer of the program has to say about it: "StorURL is a utility that allows you to store all your favorite Web site URLs with a descriptive title to go along with the URL. It can: import/export Internet Explorer Favorites, load Web pages directly from within StorURL, store and sort sites in different categories, generate HTML "home" pages containing links from one or all categories. "If you like to keep a lot of Web sites bookmarked, but you don't want to clutter your favorites menu, then this program is one that you will appreciate." StorURL doesn't just work with one browser either. It works with Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer, Mozilla, and Opera, all four of the major players in the browser wars. Now why would you want to use a bookmark manager that isn't so integrated with the browser? Well that way you don't have to slow down your browsing experience with it loading in the background. With more than a few features to keep you coming back, StorURL is a great freeware product for any PC user out there today. www.haztek-software.com/index.php?page=storurl
PEGASUS MAIL. For years, power users have turned to Pegasus for their e-mail needs. This free e-mail client has all of the standard features you would expect to find, and it sports an easy-to-use interface that makes sending and retrieving messages from various accounts a snap. You can drag and drop e-mail addresses into a message, create address books, and manage rules for filtering mail. Pegasus also gives you message encryption, multiple-user support, and message templates that allow you to create your own mail form. www.pmail.com/downloads_maine_t.htm
OUTLOOK EXPRESS TWEAKER. Outlook Express makes it hard to find some of its own best features. Outlook Express Tweaker helps you customize Outlook Express with some of OE's hidden features and a few of its own. With this plug-in, you can unhide invisible accounts, hidden dialog boxes, and undocumented settings. You can also send unwanted items packing: Outlook Express Tweaker can hide Windows Messenger and enhance the Blocked Senders list interface. www.qwhale.com/products/outlook_express_tweaker/
FIX FOR SLEEPY PCS. Rip Van Winkle PCs-those running Windows XP Service Pack 2 that won't wake up from standby or hibernation mode-now have a cure: Microsoft has fixed a glitch with XP's "data execution prevention" security feature. Since the patch isn't security related, you'll need to manually download it from Microsoft's Help and Support: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/889673
INSTANT MEDIA. Ever wish you could get RSS feeds of your favorite Internet shows? Instant Media's free service offers more than 350 content channels, each of which you can download to your PC and watch on the free viewer.
The easy-to-use interface offers a variety of podcasts and videocasts; just choose the ones you like, and new segments will automatically download to your PC when they're released.
Instant Media claims to be the first company to offer high-definition video to consumer desktop and notebook PCs. The company-which styles itself "I'M" for short-uses the new iHD format, which offers 1280-by-720 resolution, a 2 megabits-per-second data rate, and 192 kilobits-per-second audio. First up in iHD: Buy.com's new BuyTV and Internet news broadcast RocketBoom. www.im.com/main.aspx
FREE411.COM has the same information as pay directories, but costs you nothing. The information can be accessed via phone with an easy-to-remember 1-800 number. If you prefer, you can save call time by using the Web interface. Both have the same information. There is no signing up. You never have to give any private information. And the phone number from which you call is not sold to telemarketers. There is a catch, as always. When you call, you might hear ads while you're on hold. This is why you don't pay. Also, paid sponsors will be recommended first, if applicable. Remember, the call will count as minutes from your cell plan. Nonetheless, this is a decent deal. You'll never want to pay for directory assistance again. www.free411.com
COMPUSEC. You can lock out unauthorized users before your PC boots with the free CompuSec utility from CE Infosys. Using AES encryption, CompuSec provides pre-boot authentication to protect your hard drive's data, even if someone removes the drive and tries to use it on another machine. If you prefer, you can encrypt individual files rather than your entire system. The product also lets you encrypt diskettes, CDs, DVDs, USB thumb drives, and other removable media. www.ce-infosys.com.sg/CeiHome.asp EXSTORA is an excellent tool for saving notes, ideas, passwords and scheduled events. It's the best if you are overwhelmed with the information flow and often need to remember or write down the small texts. The category system of notes manager will let you keep your records ordered, and the password protection system will hide the private data (passwords, notes, ideas) from the stranger's eyes. www.exstora.com
TEEN SPIRIT is a free MP3 player and organizer that stands out of the crowd with a very user friendly interface and easy access to some of the most popular features such as cover downloads, lyrics retrieval, artist bio, personal ratings, and more. You can create multiple collections by simply adding the folder paths that contain your MP3 files, search through your collections and sort the file list in several ways. The program can automatically download lyrics, cover art, and author bio (whenever available) and store the information locally, so it is available at any time, regardless of your Internet connection.
Teen Spirit also keeps track of the files you play and lets you review statistics and generates a personal hitlist based on which songs you listen to most. Other features include file renaming, ID3 editing, integrated player interface and more. A refreshing addition to the crowded media player/organizer market - Teen Spirit offers the right balance of features and an attractive interface that will suit most casual music listeners without much of a learning curve. www.snapfiles.com/get/teenspirit.html
MISSING WORD MENU OPTIONS? Word is not playing tricks on you. The menus continually adjust to show the options you choose most often. The lesser-used options become hidden. In that case, click the double arrow at the bottom of the menu. The hidden options will reappear. If the Save As option is still missing, you can restore it in a few easy steps. Kim Komando offers the solution to the problem:
To put the Save As option back in the File menu, click Tools>>Customize. Select the Commands tab.
Then click the Rearrange Commands button. At the top of the windows, select Menu Bar. Then use the dropdown menu to the right to select File. Under Controls, you'll see a visual preview of File menu. Click the Add button. Under Categories, select File. Under Commands, select Save As. Then click OK. You'll see a preview of the File menu again, including the change. Word will probably just stick Save As at the top of the menu. You can adjust its position with the Move Up and Move Down buttons.
When the preview looks like the menu you knew and loved, click Close. Then click Close on the next window as well. That's it!
EXPLORERXP. This free Windows file manager uses tabs, making it easier to keep track of your files. ExplorerXP shows you folder size information, and it shows you the actual size of compressed files and folders. This program supports USB devices, so it's not a problem if you use an extra USB hard drive. It also lets you merge and split files and rename several files at once. www.explorerxp.com/
CDCHECK. Some CD-R manufacturers claim that CD-Rs can last 100 years if cared for properly, but before that theory is fully tested, why don't you periodically check to be sure your data is where it's supposed to be? This utility detects and recovers damaged files on CD-ROMs. You can discover which files on your CD are corrupted.
You can also use the program proactively, to insure that your data on CD-ROMs are safe. In addition to CD-ROMs, the program can be used with other local or removable media, such as disk drives, floppy disks, and ZIP drives.
The file is free for non-profit use. If you wish to support continued development, you are encouraged to register it for $10. www.elpros.si/CDCheck/helplink.phphelpfn=overview
DRIVERHEAVEN TUNEXP. If you're an invenerate system tweaker, DriverHeaven TuneXP (free, though donations are accepted) lets you adjust a variety of Windows system settings-many of which I'd never heard of to speed up the OS's starts and shutdowns, as well as to optimize other system processes. For example, the utility lets you rearrange boot files for faster startups, and clean out Windows' prefetch folder to optimize file access. While every command is explained in the program's help file, it is clearly intended for technically adept users. www.driverheaven.net/
PHOTOFILTRE is a complete image retouching program. It performs simple or advanced adjustments to an image and applies a vast range of filters. Most tweaks are very intuitive. A toolbar provides access to most standard filters with a few clicks. Modules like PhotoMasque and Automatisation assist in processing images. The app supports image browsing, scanning, transparency management, text effects, contours, textures, blending and image assembly. www.photofiltre.com/
STAR FAX COVER SHEET CREATOR. Most companies have a standard fax cover sheet, that is copied over and over, then everyone just hand writes it out and faxes it out. This does not portray a very professional image. This product saves User information that is very helpful if you have one person using your pc, or you have a need for multiple users. Contains a database to save all your fax numbers. Just click and print. It really is as easy as that. www.starresoft.com/faxcover.html
REAL ESTATE ABCS. If you're thinking about buying a home or selling your current house, visit www.realestateabc.com It is filled with information you need. First-time buyers can learn the ABCs of real estate. Find out what to look for when you're buying and things you should avoid. Then, use the listings to locate an agent in your area if you don't already have one.
Think you know everything about real estate? This site has a few articles that debunk commonly held beliefs.
Maybe you'll find something surprising. Or, maybe you just want to skip the advice and go straight to the numbers. You can do that, too. There's a healthy selection of calculators-not to mention the latest outlook on interest rates and home values. WILDBIT VIEWER is an image viewer with slide show and editor. Viewer includes Image Info, EXIF, JPEG and TIFF support, and IPTC (IIMV4). Thumbview offers changeable views, sorting and quick thumbnail resizing. It also includes image compare for side-by-side viewing. In Favorites you can save a list of favorite images to create custom shows or loading custom views. Slide Show includes 171 different transition effects and multi-monitor support. http://koti.mbnet.fi/mhieta/software.shtml
ARCHIVE FOLDERS TO SAVE DISK SPACE. Windows XP makes it easy to compress or zip files. This is especially handy when you want to send a folder containing several files in an e-mail message. To compress a file or folder:
- Right-click the file that you want to compress.
- Point to Send To and click Compressed (Zipped) Folder.
Windows XP immediately creates a new compressed folder in the same location as the source file. You can identify the new compressed folder by a little zipper on the folder's icon. You can then safely delete the original file.
DOUBLEKILLER. There's a good chance that you have more than one copy of many files on your hard drive. And unless you intend the duplication, you're wasting space. DoubleKiller is a free program that can deal with this problem, searching for and alerting you to any files that are in more then one location. It doesn't, just look at filenames; it compares the filename, size and does a quick scan of the files to find the real duplicates. And once you've found them, you can either delete the files or move them to another location, freeing up the space with a couple of mouse clicks. However, be careful: on a typical system, this program will find hundreds of duplicates, but that doesn't mean that you should delete all of them: some are useful (such as programs that install files into the Windows directory, but keep a copy in their own directory as well). So, only remove the duplicates you are sure that you don't need. This is the free version: There's also a Pro version which does more sophisticated searching, scans faster, but costs $20. www.bigbangenterprises.de/en/doublekiller/
DON'T USE! We agree with Scott Johnson, The Computer Tutor who wisely says there are a couple of programs that he recommends not using - and suggests you disable them in your computer. If you use Windows XP, you unfortunately have both of them pre-installed as part of the Windows operating system. You don't need either one.
1. Windows Messenger (note that this is different from MSN Messenger, which is a legitimate chat program):
Windows Messenger was originally designed as a way that multiple users on a network (usually in an office environment) could receive a pop-up message from someone else on the network. However, spammers figured out how to use it to make their junk messages pop up, so the program is pretty much useless now.
2. MSN Explorer: this is the web browser that the MSN internet service would like for you to use, and it is truly awful. Combine the worst aspects of Internet Explorer and AOL, and you have MSN Explorer. The Firefox browser is much easier to use, customizable, and safer. It's no contest.
If you don't use either of these programs, you can save some space on your Windows XP computer by removing them. Here's how:
- Click Start, and choose "Set Program Access and Defaults"
- On the left side of the window, click "Add/Remove Windows Components"
- Scroll down the list and UNcheck the boxes in front of MSN Explorer and Windows Messenger.
- Click Next, then click Finish, then close the window by clicking OK.
FONTS.COM is the place to look when you want a special font or collection of fonts. They are not free, but the collection is exhaustive and many are very special.
INSTALLING A NEW MOTHERBOARD. If you are a do-it-yourselfer you can make yourself a new computer of the latest variety by installing a new motherboard. It is well within the capabilities of the average intermediate to advanced user. If you want to give it a shot or are just curious, you will find instructions on the project at PC Magazine's site, www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1828835,00.asp
THINKING ABOUT AN LCD MONITOR? So thin, flat, easy on the eyes; so very pretty and tempting! LCD monitors have come down drastically in price and seem to be getting less expensive every month. An excellent 19 inch make and model that cost over $2,000 not too long ago can be yours for somewhere in the $200 range, beating even the cost of a really good CRT model. PC Magazine offers an excellent overview and roundup of models at www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1970403,00.asp
HARD DRIVE SIZE SOARING! Flash-memory makers have been doubling capacities about every nine months.
They're squeezing more bits of data onto cells in their silicon chips as well as developing new ways to stack layers of cells in the same amount of space.
The capacities of hard drives, which use spinning magnetized disks, have been doubling nearly each year. After decades of cramming more and more bits of data closer together, physical limitations are kicking in, so now the industry is switching to so-called perpendicular recording. By flipping the bits of information to stand vertically rather than horizontally, hard-drive capacities are again on track to keep expanding. As a result, consumers are closer than they've ever been to seeing a terabyte of storage in the 3.5-inch hard-disk drives found in mainstream home computers.
Later this year, consumers will see PCs and backup-storage devices with 750-gigabyte hard drives - a 50 percent increase from the previous industry maximum of 500 gigabytes and many more times greater than the megabyte drives of the 1980s. Three-quarters of a terabyte will let consumers store roughly 375 hours of standard TV programming, about 75 hours of high-definition video, more than a half million photos, or more than 10,000 music CDs converted into the MP3 digital audio format.
And by the end of 2007, PC's will have 1-terabyte drives while notebook computers will sport 200-gigabyte drives. The competing storage medium, flash memory, holds data in tinier packages than hard drives, though at smaller capacities. Flash chips, unlike hard drives, have no moving parts, making them particularly rugged and versatile. It's why people can now tote around reams of documents on USB key chains or work out to their favorite tunes on gizmos as light as a stick of Chapstick. Continued advances will mean portable gadgets will be able to carry 32 gigabytes of data on fingernail-sized flash memory cards within five years.
VIBE STREAMER is a free full-featured MP3 streaming server. Share unlimited files and directories, either through restricted access or with anyone. Directories may be protected either per user or per group using configurable access rights. Interface is fully skinnable, with support for IE, Firefox and Opera. www.vibestreamer.com/
POWERDESK. Moving and copying files and folders can be a tedious business, but PowerDesk 6 tries to make it easier by providing an interface that's better designed than Windows Explorer's. This handy utility shows you two directories in one window, letting you select files and then copy or move them with a mouse click. That's a lot easier than all the dragging and dropping you have to do in Windows Explorer. It can also perform .zip compression, securely delete files, and start other utilities (such as Regedit and a command prompt).
Although it is designed as a demo for the $40 commercial utility PowerDesk 6 Standard, this download is a useful program in its own right, and runs without time limitations or restrictions. By the way, Power Desk Pro is the most frequently used application on my computer. It leads the list of software I absolutely would not be without. It is a file manger beyond compare! www.v-com.com
WI-FI FREESPOT. It lists free wireless connection points around the world. You can find airports, motels, restaurants and stores that offer free access. http://wififreespot.com :
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Copyright 2006. This article is from the August 2006 issue of the Sarasota PC Monitor, the official monthly publication of the Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc., P.O. Box 15889, Sarasota, FL 34277-1889. Permission to reprint is granted only to other non-profit computer user groups, provided proper credit is given to the author and our publication. We would appreciate receiving a copy of the publication the reprint appears in, please send to above address, Attn: Editor. For further information about our group, email: admin@spcug.org Web: http://www.spcug.org/
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