Sarasota PC Monitor
Review Chairman's Industry Comments (05/07)
The Computer Buffet
by Herb Goldstein, Review Editor
E-mail comments, suggestions, etc. to Herb Goldstein at: revieweditor@spcug.org
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.
COMPUTER RUSSIAN ROULETTE. That's the game you play when you don't make regular (at least weekly) backups of your entire hard drive(s). It is a given that the best and most complete way to do the job is with backup imaging software. An image is a byte for byte exact copy of your drive. The best imaging software currently available to do the job is Acronis True Image. The user group contact for Acronis is one of our favorite presenters, Gene Barlow. Our members can get True Image from him at special discount by going to his website at ugr.com
CLEAR TEMPORARY INTERNET FILES FOLDER WHEN BROWSER IS CLOSED. The purpose of the Temporary Internet Files folder is to speed up browsing on the Internet. However, this folder can consume disk space. If you are not too concerned with performance in terms of browsing, you can have the contents of this folder deleted automatically.
You can complete this task in Internet Explorer 7 by using the following steps: Open Internet Explorer; Click Internet Options from the Tools menu; On the General tab, you will see that you can manually delete the files in this folder. Click the Advanced tab; From the list of settings, locate the Security section. Select the option to Empty Temporary Internet Files folder when browser is closed; Click OK.
CCLEANER. Somewhere under the layers of software detritus, your PC is vigorous and eager to work. CCleaner claims to search through several programs and remove useless files. Many cleaners scrub out just your browser cache or your temporary files folder, but CCleaner was developed to go several steps further. It cleans temporary files from a number of applications, including Adobe Acrobat, Firefox, Google Toolbar, Kazaa, Nero, Netscape, and more.
Note: CCleaner includes an optional Yahoo toolbar that you may choose to install along with the program. Installing this toolbar may trigger alerts from some spyware programs. CCleaner's makers assert that CCleaner is spyware-free. www.ccleaner.com/ CLIPMARKS. With Clipmarks, you can clip the best parts of web pages. Save what you clip, post it on your blog, send it to your friends or share it with everyone on the Clipmarks site. www.clipmarks.com
DUPLICATE CLEANER. I hate finding that I have multiple copies of the same file. I don't care if it is music, photos, or old articles I have written - it just gets on my nerves. I used to have to seek out and destroy duplicates on my own. That was a real pain. How did I find a solution that works better? I downloaded the Duplicate Cleaner. Here is a little more about the freeware download from the developers of the program:
"Duplicate Cleaner is the latest tool to assist anyone in cleaning up the contents of their personal hard drive or corporate network. You'd be surprised just how many duplicate files you could find forgotten in an obscure documents folder. Photos, music, Word documents, PowerPoint presentations, videos - you name it, if it appears twice on your system then Duplicate Cleaner will find it." As you can see this program does a good job at seeking out and finding files you really do not need to have handy. You should always be a little careful when deleting files, but if you know you don't want them there - this is a good and free program that will help you get rid of them. www.digitalvolcano.co.uk/dupe.html
EMPTY FOLDER NUKER. Find yourself randomly finding files that are empty and you had forgotten about a long time ago? Maybe you deleted a few files inside of it, thought you got it all - but the empty file remains? If you are a perfectionist like me, you will be happy to have the Empty Folder Nuker. This freeware program does exactly what you would think it does. It nukes, destroys, seeks out and eliminates empty folders starting from the base folder of your choice. If you wanted it to scan "My Documents" for empty folders, it could do just that. The interface is pretty straightforward, and does not leave a lot of room for mistakes. All you need to do is put in your base folder address and then hit a button. That is it. The program does the rest of the work for you. It also integrates with your current right click menu for easy scanning for empty folders as you browse through your computer. Now of course you should be careful not to delete important files - that much should be a given. When it comes to doing some empty file cleanup, though, this free program is a good place to get started. www.simonwai.com/developments/empty_folder_nuker/
FONTFRENZY tames the frenzy of fonts that can clutter and slow down Windows. The DeFrenzy function removes and stores all fonts except those that were present when Windows was first installed. In short, it cleans up your font folder so that Windows boots more quickly and runs more smoothly. FontFrenzy helps solve the problem of Windows font overload. The special FrenzySnap function enables you to establish "restore points" and re-install the fonts that were in your system on a specific date. FontFrenzy is also a great general font manager. It has the ability to preview, print, add, and delete fonts. FontFrenzy is fully-functional freeware - with the nag screen easily removed after a painless registration. www.fontfrenzy.org/default.asp?id=5936
FOLDERVIEWER is a Windows Explorer replacement that can be used to browse folder content, print, preview, (un)pack and organize MS Office documents, MP3 files, photos, and much more. The program integrates with IE and provides a built in browser as well as a text editor with syntax coloring, image viewer, media player, and more. www.matirsoft.com/
PASSWORD HASH. This excellent tool lets you use a single password at your end but achieve the safety of generating a unique and robust password at each site. While you continue typing the same password at each site you visit that requires one, Password Hash converts that one familiar string on the fly into a series of safe and unique passwords-one for each site. And you never have to learn the special coding to benefit from its protection. http://crypto.stanford.edu/pwdhash/
AT ANNUALCREDITREPORT.COM, you can request your free credit reports. You'll need to enter your Social Security number. The site uses encryption. But, if you're uncomfortable doing this, there are instructions for ordering your reports over the phone. MAKE YOUR FOLDERS PRIVATE. There are a couple of ways to keep other users from viewing your PC files. First, you can make every folder under My Documents private, so only you can access these folders and their contents. Here's how:
- Right-click your My Documents folder and then click Properties.
- Click the Sharing tab, select the Do Not Share This Folder checkbox, and then click OK.
If you don't need this much privacy, you can simply follow the same steps above to make individual folders private instead.
SAVE YOUTUBE VIDEOS. If you see a YouTube video, and want to save - and later play it from your hard drive - TubeMe is the tool for you. Just insert one or more links to YouTube videos into TubeMe and the program saves the files to your hard drive. http://ashimonovits.brinkster.net/TubeMe.html
OFFLINE BROWSING makes Web pages available when you are not connected to the Internet. This means you do not have to connect to the Web to revisit the Web page. One of the benefits of this is that it can reduce connection times and it also speeds up load times. Instead of accessing it from the Web server, you can access it from the cache on your local computer. To do this use the steps outlined below:
Navigate to your favorite Web page and click Add To Favorites from the Favorites menu.
Select the folder where you want to store the favorite and place a check beside the option to Make available offline.
You can further customize your offline browsing by clicking the Customize button. Click Next.
Specify how you want to synchronize offline Web pages. You can do so manually or according to a schedule. Leave the default option selected and click Next. If the site requires a password, supply both the username and password. Click Finish. Click OK to close the Add Favorite dialog box.
DESKTOP RENAMER. It's easy to customize the look of the Windows desktop, but it's not so easy to rename the Windows icons. And what boring names they are. Recycle Bin? "My" this, that, and the other? Give those dull-sounding icons new identities with ree Desktop Renamer. This small and simple freebie lets you rename the four Windows desktop icons. It interface consists of one small window. Just type in the names you want and hit "OK." The names will change in Windows right away, but you may need to restart the system to see the icons change on the desktop. The resulting personalized desktop feels more like something of your very own. www.iconico.com/desktopRenamer/
SNIPPY. How often have you carefully selected some text from a Web page and copied it to an email message? Snippy makes this a snap! Simply click on the little Snippy icon in the taskbar notification area, and mark out the region of the screen that you want to copy - that's it, you're done! The cut-out image will now be in your clipboard, and you can paste it in another application. If you are cutting out a portion of an Internet Explorer window, the URL will also be copied to the clipboard; this makes it very convenient to select something interesting on a Web site and send it out in an email message. www.bhelpuri.net/Snippy/
GOOGLE EARTH. Whether you want the world or just a tiny corner of it, Google Earth gives it all to you. You can twirl the planet like a globe and turn it every which way. Once you're done tossing the planet like a Hacky Sack, zoom in for a better look at what interests you. The images-none more than three years old-show every landmark and every urban center in exquisite detail. You even can find your own house. http://earth.google.com/
DOCUMERON. Have you ever been in a situation when you know that the document you were working with last week should definitely be on your computer, but you don't remember either the document's name or any keyword combinations from this document to use the search option? Having spent an hour on the search, you then decide that it would be much faster to type the document again. Time has been wasted and this happened only because you didn't hear about a program called Documeron. Documeron is free and constantly traces your documents. A link to every document is placed in a list. It is possible to perform operations, such as classifying, filtering by a date and type of the document, exporting, and many others. http://documeron.mutexdevelopments.com/
ULTIMATE BOOT CD. UBCD4Win is a bootable "live" CD which contains software that allows you to repair/restore/diagnostic almost any computer problem. All software included in UBCD4Win are freeware utilities for Windows. UBCD4Win is based on Bart's PE. Bart's PE builds a Windows "pre-install" environment CD, basically Windows booted from CD. With network support, the ability to modify NTFS volumes, recover deleted files, create new NTFS volumes, and scan hard drives for viruses. This project includes almost everything you need to repair your system problems. www.ubcd4win.com/
ORB. Orb provides the ability to MyCast. MyCasting gives the user instant access to photos, music, videos, live television, and other digital content on their home PC at anytime and from any Internet-connected device, such as a mobile phone, PDA, or laptop. Orb is first of its kind to allow consumers mobile access to all of their digital media. It is completely secure while having no restrictions in its use. Using any Web browser, Orb allows the user to connect to their home computer and then gives them the ability to stream digital content located on their PC. www.orb.com/
PICFINDR. The Internet is a great place to find photographs. There are millions online. But you can't always use just any photo. Many are protected by copyrights. That doesn't mean that you can't find free photos online. You just need to know where to look. PicFindr will search stock photography sites for you. Put in a search term and off you go! The pictures that are returned are free to use. www.picfindr.com
BUDDI is a personal finance and budgeting program aimed at those who have little or no financial background. In making this software, the developer has attempted to make things as simple as possible while still retaining enough functions to satisfy most home users. Buddi includes the ability to create a budget, record transactions, and view reports on how well you are keeping to your budget. http://buddi.sourceforge.net/en/
OPTIMIZE THE TEMPORARY INTERNET FILES FOLDER IN INTERNET EXPLORER 7. If you have decided to change the amount of space that is allocated to the Temporary Internet Files folder, be aware that you may experience a decrease in performance if the value is set too high or too low. For example, if the amount of hard drive space available for the folder is set too high, the Temporary Internet Files folder may take up a large portion of your hard drive with outdated information. (Remember that many Web sites are updated regularly). On the other hand, configuring a value that is too low can increase the amount of time it takes for IE to display Web pages
When the size of the Temporary Internet Files folder reaches the maximum amount of available hard drive space, IE automatically removes older files to make room as needed. So when you are configuring the amount of hard drive space the folder can use, keep in mind that if you set the folder size too high, you may be retaining outdated Web site information. Conversely setting the maximum size too low slows the system because a low value doesn't let you store as many Web sites in the Temporary Internet files folder and Web sites stored in the Temporary Internet Files folder load significantly faster.
To adjust the Temporary Internet Files folder settings, open the Tools menu in IE and click Internet Options. From the General tab click the Settings button. In the Settings dialog box, move the slider bar to set the amount of hard drive space you want the Temporary Internet Files folder to use. Click OK to apply your changes.
AMAZINGMIDI. Now there's a new way to get to Carnegie Hall. AmazingMIDI is a free program that automatically transcribes music into notes by converting WAV files into MIDI files. Isolate a single instrument with powerful single instrument polyphonic music recognition. Strike new chords (or learn them) with this quick install program. As accomplished as this program is, to get to Carnegie Hall you'll still have to practice, but with AmazingMIDI, perhaps you'll get there faster. www.pluto.dti.ne.jp/~araki/amazingmidi/
FIND PRODUCT REVIEWS WITH CONSUMER SEARCH. We agree with noted PC World columnist Steve Bass who says, " I rely on Google, but that's not always so smart because there are other specialized search engines on the Web that do a better job. A good example is ConsumerSearch, a site I discovered while I was doing some research for when I buy a new BBQ grill. (Hey, I told you about the great weather, and I have a tri-tip marinating and a bottle of pinot decanting.) ConsumerSearch has saved me tons of time. It digs around for reviews of the products I'm interested in, supplying summaries of the reviews and giving me links to where the review appeared. It also rates the reviews. It has 13 categories, including the usual suspects-computers, electronics, lawn and garden, and office. I like ConsumerSearch lots and it's become a resident in my Favorites." Here's the link: www.consumersearch.com/
TASKBAR SHUFFLE. Here's a small freebee that lets you easily rearrange the icons on your taskbar in any order you wish. Get it at www.freewebs.com/nerdcave/taskbarshuffle.htm
FREEBIE NOTES is a user-friendly sticky note manager that allows you to create, edit, date, and customize notes for home or office. www.techsoup.org/products/downdetails.cfm?downloadcat=9&downloadid=203
SPYWARE VS. VIRUS. Spyware and viruses are both forms of unwanted or malicious software, sometimes called "malware." You need to protect yourself from both. What's the difference? Spyware (sometimes called adware) collects information about you without appropriate notice and consent. A computer virus spreads software, usually malicious in nature, from computer to computer. Spyware can get installed on your computer in a number of ways. One way is through a virus. Another way is for it to be secretly downloaded and installed with other software you've chosen to install. In short, spyware is a specific type of unwanted software that secretly collects your information. A virus is a specific way software can be secretly distributed, often by e-mail or instant messaging. Both spyware and viruses can cause damage to your computer or cause you to lose important data.
REMEMBER THE ALPHABET. It's hard to believe, but as you add programs to your PC, Windows XP doesn't automatically alphabetize the list of apps it shows when you select All Programs from the Start menu. But you can tell XP to sort them alphabetically by simply right-clicking on a program or folder name in the All Programs list and selecting Sort by Name in the pop-up menu.
10 TIPS FOR GOOGLE SEARCH:
- The "In" Crowd: Using the word "in" allows you to find out how much one quantity is when converted to an equivalent quantity. If you're looking for currency conversion, you can type, for instance, 10 dollars in pounds to find out the British equivalent. Or you can make a similar query if you need to convert something from one measurement to another (for example, 50cm in inches).
- Turn It Around: When you need an answer to a specific question, turn the query into a statement using the "*" symbol as a wildcard. So instead of typing who was the first person in space, try the first person in space was *.
- No More Moviefone: If you need to know where a movie is playing in your area, just type its name and your location (ZIP code, or city and state) into the search bar to get show times. If you're looking for a movie theater in a general area, just type movies and your location to get a list with show times.
4. Delayed Reaction: If you need to know if weather conditions are delaying flights for a specific airport in the United States, just type in that airport's three-letter code and "airport" (for instance, phl airport), then click on the FAA link next to the airplane icon. To check the status of a specific flight, type the name of the airline and the flight number (for example, southwest 626).
5. Well-Defined: Need to know what "perspicacious" (or any other word) means, and don't have a dictionary handy? Just type define perspicacious into the search bar.
6. All Business Is Local: Going on a sales trip, and need to find out if your favorite chain restaurant and office-supply store are located near your destination? Just type the name of the business plus a city or ZIP code, and start planning your itinerary.
7. Track Star: Checking on the delivery status of a package sent via UPS, FedEx or the U.S. Postal Service is as simple as typing in fedex, ups, or usps and the tracking ID number in the search bar. Click the link next to the package icon, and you'll be sent straight to your shipping service's tracking page.
8. Play the Links: If you want to find out what sites link to another site (such as, say, your blog), just type in link: siteurl.
9. All Things Being Equal: Don't go hunting around on your desktop (real or virtual) for your calculator when Google can crunch numbers for you. You can perform basic mathematical equations (16*37 or 144/12) or even use trigonometric functions (sin for sine and cos for cosine).
10. Range Rover: You can limit a search to a certain range of numbers by placing two periods between the bottom and top numbers in the range. For instance, typing academy awards 1950..1960 provides you with information about the Oscars from just that period of time.
ADDING SPECIAL CHARACTERS TO TEXT. To see these characters, go to Start - All Programs - Accessories - System Tools - Character Map. A new window will open, and you can see those fun little characters in a grid. You can copy and paste directly from this window into your document. However, if you use a particular character often, it is cumbersome to have to open this new window each time. Click on one of the characters to highlight it, and then look in the lower right corner of the window. You will see the Alt-key number combination that will display that character. Just make a note of it, and use that key combination whenever you want to type that character.
MIXXX is a free cross-platform DJ program that lets you mix MP3, OGG, WAV and AIFF music files using a crossfader, tri-band equalizer, cue points plus customisable control of knobs and sliders using keyboard shortcuts or hardware MIDI devices such as music keyboards or control surfaces. The left side of the program has controls for tracks being played on channel 1 and the right side has controls for channel 2. Playback controls are fairly straightforward, with independent track volume sliders and buttons for stop, pause/play, fast forward, rewind, tempo adjustment (slower/faster), and gain (volume boost). Each channel also has controls to adjust the low, mid and high frequencies of the track being played, ideal for smoothly mixing any kind of track. http://mixxx.sourceforge.net/
CHANGE THE HOME PAGE IN IE7. Each time you open Internet Explorer, an HTML page is displayed. This is referred to as the Home Page. By configuring the home page settings, you can specify which HTML page you want displayed when you open Internet Explorer. To change the Home Page, open Internet Explorer, click the down arrow beside Tools and click Internet Options. You have three options on the General tab when configuring the home page. By selecting the Use current button, the web page that is currently open in your browser will become the home page. Selecting the Use default button, the home page will be set to that which was configured when Internet Explorer was first installed. The Use blank button means the home page displayed will be a blank HTML page.
You can return your home page at any time in Internet Explorer by clicking the icon on the tool bar that resembles a house. Alternatively, you can return to this page by pressing the ALT + Home keystrokes. And an even simpler way yet to get back home is to type two periods in the address bar and press Enter.
EASY TO-DO, a free utility which helps you manage your To-Do lists. It is a simple but powerful program to help you remember all those important little tasks you have to do, at home or in the office. www.xanadutools.com/
KEEP YOUR DRIVE TIDY. Windows XP has a handy disk-defragmentation utility to keep your hard drive humming at optimal speed. You can schedule XP to run it automatically. Choose Performance and Maintenance from the Control Panel and select Scheduled Tasks. Double-click on Add Scheduled Task to launch XP's Scheduled Task wizard. Select Next, click on the Browse button, enter %systemroot%\system32\defrag.exe in the "File name" field and click Open. Select the frequency (weekly is fine) and time of day (when your PC will be on, but ideally when you won't be using it). Make sure the "Open advanced properties." box is checked, and click on Finish. In the Run box of the advanced properties pane, add the drive letter you want to defrag to the end of the command in the window (be sure to include a space before the drive letter), and click OK.
STARTER allows you to view and manage all the programs that are starting automatically whenever operating system is loading. It enumerates all the hidden registry entries, startup folders' items and some of the initialization files, so that the user could choose to temporarily disable selected entries, edit them, create new, or delete them permanently. Secondary purpose is to list all the running processes with possibility to view extended process' information (such as used DLLs, memory usage, thread count, priorities etc.), and to terminate selected process (even a Windows NT service, having enough access rights). Another one is Windows' services (and drivers) manager with some advanced features. Starter is a real Freeware and is not crippled in any way among the similar products. The user interface is pretty simple and has a lot of options that are self-explanatory. http://members.lycos.co.uk/codestuff/products_starter.html
VIDEO ALTERNATIVES. After reading about Video Central in last month's Monitor, member Ken Aspinwall mentioned a few of the video alternative sites to You Tube that he finds enjoyable. They include www.tv-links.co.uk, http://peekvid.com, and www.chooseandwatch.com/ Thanks, Ken! :
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Copyright 2007. This article is from the May 2007 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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