Sarasota PC Monitor
Review Chairman's Industry Comments (01/08)
The Computer Buffet
by Herb Goldstein, Review EditorE-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.
RSS BANDIT. Browsing the Web is last century. These days, the Web should come to you. That’s what RSS feeds can do for you. They’re a way for you to keep up with your favorite blogs, news sites, political news, and much more. RSS Bandit makes it exceedingly easy to subscribe to and read RSS feeds, and organize them as well. Subscribe to any RSS feed and add it to a folder, and the program will automatically update the feed for you. Feeds you haven’t read yet show up in bold, so that you can see what’s new. It displays full graphics, and even lets you play videos directly inside the program as well. www.rssbandit.org/
VERSION TRACKER is among the most popular resources out there for Windows, Mac, and Palm software upgrades, patches, and updates. It’s also for users who want to roll back to an earlier version of an app because the current one has a finicky feature we don’t like or is just a tad too buggy. The site also lets you stay on top of updates, patches, and more with the Version Tracker blog. www.versiontracker.com
PROCESSLIBRARY. What the heck is crss.exe? pmmon.exe? isass.exe? You’re computer-savvy enough to know they’re executable files, but if you check them out on www.ProcessLibrary.com, you’ll see that they’re extremely dangerous. ProcessLibrary.com translates gibberish process names into familiar English, letting you know if www.isass.exe is malicious or not (it is), and how you should handle it (disable and remove immediately). Simply type the unfamiliar process or DLL into the site’s search box, and you’ll get a security rating, description, and recommended action. www.processlibrary.com
DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY REVIEW continues to provide exhaustive coverage of the digital camera industry, with breaking news and detailed hands-on reviews of new cameras. The site is an indispensable resource for pro photographers and hobbyists, and the active discussion forums provide plenty of shooting tips for beginner and pro alike. www.dpreview.com
DSLREPORTS.COM. This online community cares about one thing above all else: fast Internet connections. Cable, DSL, FTTH, even VoIP services-they’re all fair game for reviews and ratings from happy campers or disgruntled customers. If you’re looking for new broadband service, or have a problem with your current service, this is a good place to start looking for a new one.
GIBSON RESEARCH CORP. Steve Gibson wrote the first version of his hard drive analysis/data recovery tool SpinRite 19 years ago, and he’s been filling grc.com with free tools, utilities, and information ever since. In addition to SpinRite and the legendary Shields UP!! port-vulnerability scanner, turn to GRC for new tools such as SecurAble (which reveals some of your CPU’s features) and great info such as the Security Now column/podcast. www.grc.com
LIVE SEARCH MAPS. Google may get all the map glory, but Microsoft’s Virtual Earth tool keeps the battle for map innovation raging. Street maps and satellite images are almost old hat when you have bird’s-eye views from multiple vantage points, plus 3D views that you can navigate like a flight simulation of the real world. Just be sure to use IE to get the 3D ActiveX control. The location finder pinpoints where you are if you have a Wi-Fi-enabled laptop. maps.live .com
THE CONSUMERIST. Tired of getting ripped off? Angry at Company X’s poor customer service? Head over to The Consumerist to read cathartic rants and learn how to save money on your purchases. The site provides readers with deal alerts, recall notices, and a forum for venting, and calls out businesses that don’t treat their customers right. www.consumerist.com
GOOGLE PRODUCT SEARCH (formerly Froogle). It’s a shopper’s dream come true—a centralized product search that lets you enter a product name or description and then shows you all the sites that sell what you’re looking for, so you can easily compare prices and customer ratings. Our only qualm: Why in the world would you ditch a fantastic name like Froogle for one as boring as “Google Product Search”? www.google.com/products
TRIPADVISOR. (www.tripadvisor.com) Who do you trust more, the travel agent who’s never left his/her desk, or someone who’s already traveled where you want to go? TripAdvisor’s all about user-to-user communication on what works and what doesn’t when you’re out and about, with all the comforts of a social network to connect with your fellow tourists. And if you still want to get some expert opinions, they own the travel-guru site SmarterTravel.com.
HOW STUFF WORKS. No matter how old you are, at some point you’ve looked up at an adult holding some toy or contraption and implored, “But how does it work?” Odds are that dear old Dad made up a pretty convincing story at the time, but now, in the age of the Internet, we have the means to dig down and find out how everything really works, from a dog fight to the animation on an episode of The Simpsons. The experts at How Stuff Works share their knowledge on any and all subjects, and we recommend taking advantage of it. www.howstuffworks.com
MERRIAM-WEBSTER ONLINE. (www.m-w.com). Besides the regular ol’ stuffy-dictionary features, Merriam-Webster Online teaches you your own mother tongue with fun stuff like the Word of the Day and daily crossword puzzles, and even a user-submitted “Open Dictionary” that lets you submit your own words and definitions.
THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. (www.loc.gov). As the online rolodex of the Library of Congress, this site houses numerous reference materials, digitized collections, films—basically any content you’d ever want to find. The Library of Congress is the only library in the United States that contains everything ever published in the country, so if you’re stuck trying to find something, chances are the Library of Congress will have it.
NOLO. (www.nolo.com). Nolo is an excellent online law resource center for non-lawyers. Get legal documents, advice, and information for your business or family, or turn to the site’s lawyer directory if you’re squeamish about taking the law into your own hands.
THE STRAIGHT DOPE. (www.straightdope.com). Every class had that kid: the one who would ask all the dumb questions you were dying to ask but felt too embarrassed to utter out loud. The Straight Dope is the grown-up, online version of that kid. Published in the Chicago Reader and penned by ghostwriters under the name Cecil Adams (aka “the smartest person in the world”), The Straight Dope tackles burning questions from “Who invented the smiley face?” to “Did Mussolini use castor oil as an instrument of torture?” with a delicious combination of sarcasm and profanity.
WIKIPEDIA. (www.wikipedia.org). Love it or hate it—though most likely, your feelings are some combination of both—you can’t ignore the current poster child for the wisdom of crowds. Launched in 2001, Wikipedia has become the go-to online resource for global knowledge, with nearly eight million articles written in 253 languages. We’d think twice before quoting it as a source for an academic paper, given the sometimes questionable authority of its authors, but that doesn’t stop us from consulting the encyclopedia several times every day.
SNOPES. (www.snopes.com). Before you forward that so-called “true” story that landed in your inbox this morning to everyone in your address book, you better check Snopes to make sure it’s not completely full of you-know-what. It’s an extensive index of urban legends, common fallacies, old wives’ tales, strange news stories, rumors, trashy gossip, and more. If it’s on Snopes, funny or moving though it may be, it’s totally untrue.
URBAN DICTIONARY. (www.urbandictionary.com). This user-generated online slang dictionary doesn’t just teach you new ways to swear; it can actually expand our common vernacular. For example, on August 1, the Urban Word of the Day was “baby bear,” which is an adjective for when “things are just right.” And here we thought it was just a fairy-tale character! Also, if you don’t have time to check the site every day, get your daily dose via cell phone at urbanwap.com.
FASTSTONE CAPTURE. If you don't have Vista or dont like its Snipping Tool, you can always press to copy an image of your entire screen (or - for just the active window) to the Clipboard. But it almost always leaves out the pointer or cursor, and you still have to paste the image into and save it from Paint or some other image editor. For a fast, free, easy solution, try FastStone Capture. FastStone supports a variety of output formats, provides an editor for you to tweak your capture before saving, or lets you go directly to save (with auto file naming, if desired). www.faststone.org/
SPEEDY IMAGE RESIZING. These days, digital cameras take huge pictures. Resizing is often necessary before images are posted or shared via e-mail. You probably have a program that resizes photos. But using it to resize a picture or two is a lot of work. Fortunately, Quick Thumbnail will help. This Web site will resize your photographs (or other images). Just upload an image. Specify your options. You can reduce or enlarge the image by a percentage. Or you can select from some predefined sizes. Not quite sure what size you need? That’s okay. Several options are available. Click Resize, and you’ll get the resized image(s). It’s fast and easy. This is one site you’ll want to bookmark! quickthumbnail.com
UNDELETE PLUS. The free Undelete PLUS scans your system for files that have been deleted, even those removed from the Recycle Bin, or deleted on a network drive or via a DOS window. It lists all the files, and tells you whether it can likely be restored. (In some instances, the delete file has already been overwritten; in that case, you can kiss it sayonara.) Then tell the program to restore your files, and they come back from the dead. www.undelete-plus.com/
EDITPAD LITE. A free convenient text editor and Notepad replacement. You can open as many files at a time as you want, with no arbitrary file size limit. www.editpadpro.com/editpadlite.html WISE REGISTRY CLEANER. One of the safest free Registry cleaning tools available in the market today. Its scanning engine is thorough, safe, and fast. www.wisecleaner.com/
PEAZIP. A free Open Source portable file archiver, released under LGPL for Windows and Linux. Full support: 7Z, 7Z-sfx, BZip2, GZip/TGZ, PAQ8F/JD/L, PEA, QUAD, split (.001), TAR, ZIP. Read: ACE, ARJ, CAB, CHM, CPIO, ISO, JAR/EAR/WAR, Linux installers (DEB, PET/PUP, RPM, SLP), LHA, LZH, OpenOffice file types, PAK/PK3/PK4, RAR, Windows installers (NSIS, some MSI), WIM, XPI, Z/TZ. PeaZip allows you to browse archives (with multiple inclusion and exclusion filters), extract multiple archives at once, save an archive’s layout, save job definition (to be inspected, or used in scripts), and save job logs. http://peazip.sourceforge.net/
FREEBIE NOTES. Freebie Notes is a great little program for users who just want sticky notes with an alarm timer. www.pw-soft.com/stick-notes/index.html WINSCP. Freeware SFTP (SSH File Transfer Protocol), FTP (File Transfer Protocol), and SCP (Secure Copy) client for Windows using SSH (Secure Shell). Its main function is safe copying of files between a local and a remote computer. Beyond this basic function, WinSCP manages some other actions with files.
WISE DISK CLEANER. Your hard disk is littered with junk files you don’t need, taking up precious hard disk space, and potentially slowing down your PC’s performance. There are files of all kinds, such as temporary files that applications should delete when they’re no longer needed, and various log files, index files, backup files. You’d be amazed at how much space these junk files take up. The Wise Disk Cleaner looks for it all, then deletes what you tell it to. You can choose to have the files permanently deleted, or else first moved to the Recycle Bin. And you can have the program do the cleanup automatically, or you can do it manually. You’ll be amazed at how much hard disk space this program can gain for you. On my laptop, for example, it found 872 MB of junk. I needed none of it, so automatically got back plenty of hard disk space. www.wisecleaner.com/
THE FILE SPLITTER. Here’s the problem: You have a 10MB limit on e-mail attachments with most services. But you have a larger file that you have to send. So, how do you send the file? One simple option is to split the into smaller chunks, a task that The File Splitter handles easily. You tell it which file to split and how big you want the chunks, and it chops the file up into pieces that you can e-mail. At the other end of the process, the recipient runs the program that The File Splitter creates, and it automatically “glues” the chunks back together to reform the original file. The program lacks some of the features of MasterSplitter, described below. However, it also lacks the annoying nag screen and $13 price tag. www.dekabyte.com/filesplitter/
AV MP3 PLAYER MORPHER BASIC. An MP3 Player that can play and change music in real-time. This versatile MP3 player allows you to apply powerful audio effects and filters to songs or tracks, just with one click and in real-time. http://tinyurl.com/3b2yhc
MENTATIONS V0.92 BETA. An Internet-enabled desktop dashboard that will unobtrusively monitor, analyze, distill, and categorize all of your important information and provide it to you through an aesthetically pleasing ‘skinnable’ interface. http://www.mentations.com/
MP3TAG. A powerful and yet easy-to-use tool to edit tags of MP3, Ogg Vorbis, Musepack, Monkey’s Audio, FLAC, and WavPack files. It can rename files based on the tag information, replace characters or words from tags and filenames, import/export tag information, create playlists, and more. www.mp3tag .de/en/
NOTETAB LIGHT . A versatile free Notepad replacement and a handy HTML editor. Move around stacks of large files quickly with a simple tabbed interface and format your text to your heart’s content. www.fookes.com/notetab/index.php
PETER’S FLEXIBLE RENAMING KIT.] Organize your music, pictures, or other types of files easily. Rename files using regular expressions, pre-defined commands, your own commands, or combinations thereof. www3.telus.net/pfrank/
STARTUP INSPECTOR FOR WINDOWS is a Windows® platform software that helps both novice and expert user manage Windows® startup applications. On www.windowsstartup.com, there are more than 4,900 known programs in the database. Startup Inspector for Windows can thus provide a consultative information on the programs that are running at your Windows startup process. Whether a program is necessary to the system, or is the program a spyware. Scans all programs that are in the Windows Startup Folder, Registry and provide you with a background information of the program. Remove harmful programs like spyware, virus, diallers, make your system healthier. Remove unnecessary programs like reminders, monitors, improve your system performance.
DEDAULUS SYSTEM CLEANER. If you’re looking for a simple, easy way to do basic system cleaning — and don’t want to pay a penny for it — then this is the program for you. It cleans temp files and Internet traces, finds duplicate files, and fixes Registry errors. It’ll do more as well, including showing you all programs that load on system startup, and deleting and uninstalling programs. Don’t expects bells or whistles or a fancy interface. But for straight-ahead, simple system cleaning, this is a winner. http://dedaulus.net.ru/index_en.html
FREERAM XP PRO is a free utility that tries to keep your memory from being consumed by a system full of hungry programs. The program optimizes how apps use memory, forcing them to use the minimum required and leaving as much as possible free for other programs. This should (in theory) make your computer faster and more responsive. Although it’s tough to tell how good a job it does, it seemed to be more intelligent than Windows in keeping memory free. In addition, the ability to free up large chunks of memory is useful if you are going to be running a program that needs it (a feature FreeRAM XP Pro calls AutoFree). www.yourwaresolutions.com/
DUPLICATE MUSIC FILES. Got a disk full of MP3s or other music files? If so, there’s a good chance you’ve got duplicates, hogging up hard disk space, and junking up your media library. Finding duplicates can be an exceedingly time-consuming task, because you may have the same music file, but with different names, multiple times. That means in order to find duplicates you’ll have to play every track, remember what you played, and then delete duplicates. This free simple program finds duplicates for you, fast, and lets you delete them. It doesn’t just search for files names. It also compares file sizes, does CRC checks, and even looks at ID3 tags to help track down duplicates. www.lcibrossolutions.com/
WHAT’S RUNNING. Are you the kind of person who needs to peer deep into your PC, and know exactly what’s running on your system? Do you want to know about every single process, every single services, view every single IP connection, find out the details of every drivers and more. Then you’ll love this program. www.whatsrunning.net/whatsrunning/main.aspx
WINDOWS MOVIE MAKER. Microsoft, a scrappy little software company from Washington state, has released another version of their Movie Maker software. With Movie Maker 2, you can create, edit, and share your home movies. You create movies with drag-and-drop commands, and you can edit your footage so you highlight only the best scenes. Then you can share your movie via the Web, e-mail, or CD; you can also save your movie back to the video tape in your camera to play back on a TV or on the camera itself. www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/updates/moviemaker2.mspx
CHOLESTEROL RESOURCES. Are you concerned about high cholesterol? From heart-healthy diets to alternative therapies, find the information you need to be healthy. http://lowerheartrisk.specials.about.com/
AUTOHOTKEY can automate almost anything by sending keystrokes and mouse clicks. You can write macros by hand or use the macro recorder. You can also create hotkeys for keyboard, mouse, joystick, and handheld remote controls. Virtually any key, button, or combination can become a hotkey. Similarly, you can define abbreviations that expand as you type them. For example, typing “btw” can automatically produce “by the way.” Finally, you can create custom data entry forms, user interfaces, and menu bars. www.autohotkey.com/
DEFRAG BOOT FILES IN VISTA TO IMPROVE PERFORMANCE. Regularly defragging files one your hard drive is one way that you can optimize and improve the performance of your computer. However, when you defrag your files, the boot files are not included. In order to make sure that your system continues to start as fast as possible, you should verify that your computer is defragging the boot files on start up. A boot defragment puts the boot files as close together as possible, making startup time faster. By default, your system should be configured to defrag boot files on startup. You can verify that this setting is enabled in the registry using the following steps: --Click Start, type Registry Editor in the search field and press Enter. --Navigate to the following registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_ MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Dfrg\BootOptimizeFunction --In the right pane, check that the Enable string has a value of “Y.” Otherwise, complete the next steps. --Double click Enable. --In the Value data field, type “Y” and click OK. --Close the Registry Editor.
AUSLOGICS DISK DEFRAG V1.3.7 Disk fragmentation leads to system slowdowns, PC crashes, slow startup and shutdown, and sometimes to system failures. AusLogics Disk Defrag is designed for fast optimization of today’s modern hard disks. Get the maximum performance out of your expensive hardware investments. It’s one of my all-time favorites! www.auslogics.com
ADVANCED WINDOWSCARE. This free all-in-one tool combines anti-spyware, a Registry cleaner, a privacy sweep to delete your surfing traces, a system analysis tool, and more, combined into package. It’s exceedingly simple to use; run the program, then choose which feature you want to use, and it goes about its work. There’s too much here to go into detail about it all, but each module is surprisingly fully featured, something you wouldn’t expect in an all-in-one tool. www.iobit.com/
XPLORER2 LITE is a free version of xplorer2, a tabbed dual-pane, excellent Windows Explorer replacement with integrated quick previewer. Compared to the professional version it lacks customizability and the powerful search command. Version 1.6.5.3 includes hotkey customization, a user friendly settings editor, improved Vista shell integration, and better breadcrumbs. http://zabkat.com:80/x2lite.htm
CRYPTAINER LE is totally free, 128 bit disk encryption software. It’s a simple, easy to use encryption application that creates encrypted “vaults” where one can store any kind of data. Cryptainer LE allows you to encrypt any file or folder on any Windows PC. Protects all types of media and any type of data. Password protect any file or folder with strong encryption. Send secure e-mail. Protects data on USB drives, flash drives, CDs, and HDDs. www.cypherix.co.uk:80/downloads.htm DoPDF is a free program that allows you to create PDF files. It won’t edit PDF files, but it creates them in virtually any Windows program. DoPDF is added to the list of printers. So, creating a PDF is as simple as printing a document. www.dopdf.com/download.php
MEDIAMONKEY. This free music manager organizes your collection, plays files, and grabs album art. Not happy with Windows Media Player or your current media player, or are you just looking for an alternative? Then give the free MediaMonkey a try. It’s an excellent tool for playing media, organizing your media library, and ripping and burning music. It’ll play pretty much every music file that’s out there, will synchronize with your iPod and MP3 player, and includes a tag editor. It will also automatically find album art for the file you’re currently playing as well. MediaMonkey organizes all your music in multiple ways, including by artist, title, album, genre, year, rating and so on. Unlike Windows Media Player, it loads fast. Fans of Internet radio will like this program as well; it automatically connects you to the Shoutcast and Icecast online radio directories, and play any stations you want. www.mediamonkey.com/
FILEMON. Is your PC acting flakey? This tool can help you find out what’s causing the problems. FileMon gives you a real-time view of every running program — and lets you know what it’s doing. The tool records and timestamps the actions of each open application — say, opening other files or loading helper programs. Watch for a specific program’s behavior just before a system freeze. www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/processesandthreadsutilities.mspx VIDEOSPIN is a brand new tool that allows you to create your own movie clips in minutes using your own videos and pictures. VideoSpin is a fully functional gadget which lets you mix videos, photos and music together, add titles and transitions, upload to the web in a snap. Do it all for free! www.videospin.com
FREE MONEY MANAGEMENT WITH MINT. There’s no shortage of Web apps designed to help you manage your money and track your spending. Some of them just help you stay on top of your spending habits and keep an eye on where your money is going. Others help you work towards a specific saving goal, whether it’s a new home, a down payment on a car, or a retirement fund. Mint is a new free Web service that promises to do all of these things. It also promises easy setup, instant communications with most popular banks, and savings tips that will help you go from living paycheck to paycheck to planning for your future within moments. www.mint.com :
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Copyright 2008. This article is from the January 2008 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/
The Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc. has 1,100+ members and was established in 1982. We are members of the Assoc. of PC User Groups (APCUG), the Florida Assoc. of PC Users Groups, Inc., and we are members of the America Online Ambassador Program.
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