Review Chairman's Industry Comments (05/08)
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.
FLASH DRIVE CAUTION. There is something important to
remember when you are using your flash drive. When you are finished with
whatever you are doing, you cannot just pull it out. Well, you can, but
you are risking damaging the data if you do it that way. If you just
pull the drive out of the USB port without the proper preparation, you
are sort of "surprising" the computer by its removal. The computer
doesn’t like surprises.
Before you physically remove the flash drive, open My
Computer and see what drive letter the flash drive is using (once you
know that, you can close the My Computer window).
Then, look in the System Tray (the lower right corner of
your screen). Move your mouse over the icons until you see one that
displays the words "Safely Remove Hardware". Double click on that icon.
In the new window that appears, you should see some
drives listed (and some other things that are plugged into USB ports,
such as your printer or mouse or keyboard). Your flash drive probably is
listed like "USB Mass Storage Device" or something similar. There should
be a box near the bottom of the window that says "Display device
components" and you will see exactly what drives are connected to your
computer.
Click once to highlight the flash drive, then click on
the Stop button.
When you see the message appear in the lower right that
says you can now safely remove the device, that’s when you can actually
pull the drive out of the USB port.
HAZARD SHIELD. Looking for a free anti-malware tool
with a little something extra? Hazard Shield claims to be a fast
anti-malware program that can do both manual scans and real-time
monitoring for ongoing protection. Hazard Shield definitely completed
its scan faster than my normal antispyware program, Webroot Spy Sweeper.
Whats more, it found several items that Spy Sweeper appears to have
missed. Hazard Shield has a few other nifty features, like the ability
to delete those pesky hard-to-remove files that are locked or in use, an
uninstaller, and more. Hazard Shield can scan both local network drives.
www.orbitech.org/
TRUESAFE PERSONAL EDITION. Allows you to back up
your data to another computer over the Internet or to local storage
(e.g. a USB drive). It’s designed for people who don’t want to hassle
with backup.
www.qpointsoft.com/products.html#personaledition
UPDATESTAR. The program that lets you stay
up-to-date with all of your personal software you are using on your
computer. This way you make sure to always use the most up-to-date
software, maximizing your every-day user experience. www.updatestar.com/
INFLOW INVENTORY FREE EDITION. Software designed specifically to
help small businesses doing wholesale and distribution to handle sales,
purchasing, and inventory management. inFlow can help you to: organize
customer orders and issue invoices; print pick lists and packing labels;
track inventory on hand and movement history; re-order stock from
vendors;see reports on sales trend.
www.inflowinventory.com/software-editions.aspx
KIDS WEB MENU. Keeps your kids safe on the Internet.
The highly visual, single-click interface enables kids as young as two
years of age to navigate the Web without even knowing how to read. A
unique camera mode lets kids take pictures while safely exploring the
Internet.
www.webbowser.com/kidswebmenu/kidswebmenu.asp?sec=Overview
WORK MANAGER. Your free personal assistant that
helps you manage your tasks each day. Order and arrange your tasks
alphabetically and by any category so that you can work more efficiently
and effectively.
www.studentatlaw.net/
UNIVERSAL VIEWER. File names don’t always tell the
whole story of whats in a file. And you don’t want to open a half-dozen
huge programs when all you need to know is the basic contents of a file.
Vista lets you add a preview pane to its Explorer, but what are XP users
to do? Universal Viewer from to the rescue. This free utility lets you
peek inside a variety of common file types (graphics, PDF, HTML, and
many more) just by right-clicking and choosing the Universal Viewer
command. Install the plugin for Microsoft Office (a separate free
download), and you can view Word and Excel files as well. Navigation
buttons make it easy to skim through all files in a folder. For more
features (such as an Explorer-like tree pane for navigation and
rudimentary file management features), youll have to shell out $20 for
the personal version.
www.uvviewsoft.com/index.htm
FOLDER GUIDE. One of the more annoying aspects of
Windows is the time it takes to navigate to frequently used folders. Try
the easy and elegant Folder Guide. You can add your favorite folders in
its Settings window, or just right-click a folder in Explorer and choose
Add to Folder Guide. Once you’ve set up your list, just right-click in
any Explorer window or Open and Save dialog box. Choose your destination
from the Folder Guide submenu, and youre instantly redirected to that
folder.
www.freeware365.com/desktop/folderguide.htm
BURNAWARE FREE EDITION allows you to easily perform
the most common disc burning tasks: write to all CD/DVD media types,
including Blu-Ray; write audio CDs and DVD video files; create and burn
disc images; write multi-session discs, and much more.
www.glorylogic.com/
JR SCREEN RULER. Ever wonder how big that family
photo is? Or how big it might be if you cropped out Auntie Jane? No
mystery in that when you download JR Screen Ruler from JR Free Tools.
Theres nothing to install; just unzip and launch this tiny program to
see a resizable ruler you can use to measure anything on screen. You can
adjust the size of the ruler itself, rotate it 90 degrees, and set it to
display pixels, inches, picas, or centimeters. JR Screen Ruler is a
handy gadget for Web designers, product developers, and more.
www.spadixbd.com/freetools/
SPAMIHILATOR. Bayesian spam filters are all the rage
these days with their ability to calculate the spam probability of mail.
One such tool is Spamihilator, which sits quietly in your taskbar tray,
intercepting all incoming mail before it gets to your e-mail client
(Outlook, Outlook Express, Eudora, Mozilla, and pretty much any POP3
application). The product has a Recycle bin from which you can retrieve
mails that are filtered by mistake, and a training area to help it learn
what not to filter in the future. You can also specify friends never to
filter, bad guys to always block, and customize what kind of attachments
(if any) to permit.
www.spamihilator.com/
EBU is a tool which will automatically update a
whole collection of files for you at once. You simply select the files
that you wish to update, enter the text you want replaced, enter the new
text that you want in it’s place, and all of the files are automatically
updated in one go.
http://ebscer.blogspot.com:80/search/label/EBU
BULK RENAME is a utility for renaming files and
folders with extremely flexible criteria. Process subfolders, add date
stamps, add auto numbers, perform search and replace, perform regular
expressions, and change timestamps. The software is available in a
native 64-bit version for enhanced performance.
www.bulkrenameutility.co.uk/Main_Intro.php
DISABLE THE VISTA STARTUP SOUND. Vista plays a sound
as it starts up. You can easily disable the startup sound if you would
prefer not to hear it as your system is starting up. To disable the
Vista startup sound: Click on the Start Button and type in Sound in the
search field. Select Sound from the list of results. Click the Sounds
tab. Deselect the Play Windows Startup sound option. Click OK.
THE CHEAPEST WAY TO SHIP? Shipping costs can quickly
add up. And when it comes to expenses, I run a pretty tight ship. So we
check to find the best shipping rate. Comparing costs on different
shipping sites can be a lot of work. That’s why we use ShipGooder’s
handy comparison tool. If you can get past ShipGooder’s name, you’ll
find that the site is handy, too. Just enter your ZIP code, destination
ZIP and the package weight. You’ll get a nifty table showing shipping
rates. It’s easy to find the lowest rate based on shipping time. Then,
click through to the shipper’s site for more information!
www.shipgooder.com
CUTEPDF WRITER is the free version of commercial PDF
creation software. CutePDF Writer installs itself as a "printer
subsystem" and enables virtually any Windows application to create
professional-quality PDF documents. Portable Document Format (PDF) is
the de facto standard for the secure and reliable distribution and
exchange of electronic documents and forms around the world. CutePDF
Writer (formerly CutePDF Printer) is the free version of commercial PDF
creation software. CutePDF Writer installs itself as a "printer
subsystem". This enables virtually any Windows applications (must be
able to print) to create professional quality PDF documents - with just
a push of a button!
www.cutepdf.com/Products/CutePDF/writer.asp
DARIK’S BOOT AND NUKE is a self-contained operating
system that you boot onto, and then erases the hard drives so it can be
properly disposed of. You can install the software to boot from a floppy
disk, CD, or USB stick, depending on the computer’s boot options. Wiping
the disk before disposal ensures that no personal information ends up in
the wrong hands, and to remain compliant to any applicable laws.
http://dban.sourceforge.net/
TRACK YOUR FINANCES ONLINE FOR FREE (without
Software). Kim Komando Says, " In this day and age of investment
opportunities available, how do you manage to keep track of everything?
Did you know you can track all of your finances online… without
software? The caller for this video said he is ready to make a switch to
OS X, but is hesitant due to not being sure if there is something he can
use to track his finances without being able to use Microsoft Money.
If you’ve watched my show for any length of time, you’ll
have heard me say many times that the future of software is online. A
couple of friends have recommended a website that you can consider for
the future of your financial tracking… Mint. Mint’s tagline is
"Refreshing Money Management".
Mint does NOT store your usernames, passwords or account
numbers. Mint partners with Yodlee, the leading provider of online
banking services to major banks for more than 10 years, to ensure a
secure connection to your personal financial information. Mint protects
your information using bank-level data security and 128 bit-encryption,
verified by Verisign and HackerSafe. Mint is TRUSTe certified to provide
industry-leading privacy protection and partners with RSA to provide
anti-phishing protection.
Eliminate the need to manage multiple Web sites to get a
comprehensive view of your personal finances.
Mint.com connects securely with more
than 5,000 US financial institutions. By adding your bank, credit card
and investment accounts to Mint.com, you get a complete perspective of
your finances in one, easy to use location. Planning your personal
budget just got a lot easier.
Once your accounts are added, Mint.com retrieves new
transactions and balances from your bank, credit card and investment
accounts automatically, every day. This means you?re on top of your
money, with no budgeting spreadsheets, expensive desktop software or
manual labor required. Mint.com automatically keeps your personal
finances up to date for you so you can save more money and focus on
living."
EXPRESS BURN is a free program for Windows that lets
you create and record CDs, DVDs, HD-DVDs, and Blu-ray with any PC with a
CD/DVD/Blu-ray recorder installed. With Express Burn you can record a
CD, DVD, High Definition DVD or Blu-ray disc quickly and easily by
dragging the files you want onto the Express Burn icon and clicking
‘Burn.’
www.nch.com.au/burn/index.html
SWEET HOME 3D is a free interior design application
that helps you place your furniture in a house’s 2D plan, giving you a
3D preview.
http://sweethome3d.sourceforge.net:80/
SOCIAGAMI allows you to manage your MySpace and
Facebook accounts from one beautiful Windows application. Now you don’t
need to separately log in to each Web site to get your latest messages,
comments, and wall posts.
www.sociagami.com:80/
FAST DEFRAG PROFESSIONAL. PC speed at a crawl? It
may be because your memory is so scattered, your PC is running
inefficiently. Fast Defrag Professional defragments your memory to free
up RAM. Not only does this speed up your computer, it increases your
system’s stability. This defragger uses little of your system’s valuable
resources. www.amsn.ro/
TWITTEROO. A Windows Desktop client that allows you
to monitor your Twitter account and update your status without logging
into the site.
http://rareedge.com/twitteroo/
AV VIDEO KARAOKE MAKER. A stand-alone
karaoke-mastering tool for home karaoke enthusiasts. It offers the
ability to create a new or open a previously saved karaoke project by
importing sound and lyrics, video or static backgrounds from different
formats; synchronizing lyrics and sound; previewing the current karaoke
project; and exporting the karaoke project to different video formats.
http://dvd-player.audio4fun.com/video-karaoke-maker.htm
TEXTBEAST FREE CLIPBOARD+ More than a clipboard;
it’s a text manager that’s perfect for the busy professional or anyone
who doesn’t want to waste time typing the same things over and over
again. With textBEAST, you can copy, store, organize and paste text with
ease. It features a clean, uncluttered interface and powerful
organizational capabilities.
http://www.asbware.com/compare.html
TURN ON WINDOWS XP CLEARTYPE. With Windows XP,
ClearType delivers improved font display quality over traditional forms
of font smoothing or anti-aliasing. ClearType improves readability on
color LCD displays with a digital interface, such as those in laptops
and high-quality flat panel displays. Readability on CRT screens can
also be somewhat improved. Use this online tuner to turn on and tune
your Windows XP ClearType settings. If you experience problems download
the Windows XP PowerToy version of the tuner. Please note that the
online tuner does not currently work with Windows Vista.
www.microsoft.com/typography/cleartype/tuner/Step1.aspx
FLASHGET. If you are a download junkie who always
has something in the queue to leech off the Web, you need a download
manager to help handle everything. FlashGet is a free and extremely
popular download manager that can help you organize and queue up HTTP,
FTP, BitTorrent, and other types of downloads, working in the background
and letting you pause and resume downloads. It can even tell your
computer to shut itself down when the downloading is done. Works on any
browser.
www.flashget.com/index_en.htm
FFDSHOW. Dodge the hassle of juggling multiple video
formats by turning to this versatile plug-in, which supports most video
players and provides all the video codecs you are likely to need.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/ffdshow AUTORUNS. To find out
what programs are loading on your PC at startup, you can run the
Windows-resident system configuration utility called MSCONFIG. But
there’s another free utility called Autoruns that does the job better.
MSCONFIG entries tend to be rather cryptic, for example, but Autoruns
includes a line of description for each entry in plain English. Autoruns
also lets you Hide Signed Microsoft Entries, which allows you to quickly
narrow your focus to third-party programs. Disabling or deleting entries
requires just one click (so you’ll need to be careful!). This function
really saved my sanity when my system was breached by a scrap of
regenerative malware.
Autoruns is one of the Sysinternals utilities developed
by Mark Russinovich and Bryce Cogswell. Somebody at Microsoft must have
admired their work, because Microsoft bought the company last year and
now touts these utilities from its own web site.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/default.aspx
AUSLOGICS REGISTRY DEFRAG. Cleaning your Registry
with a tool such as Eusing Free Registry Cleaner will go a long way
toward speeding up your PC—but it won’t go all the way. Even when you
clean out the Registry, it may still be bloated. That’s because over
time, the Registry becomes defragmented, particularly when you add and
remove Registry entries. This free, simple tool defragments the
Registry, and gains you a bit of hard disk space. More important,
though, is that it speeds up your PC’s access to the Registry by
compacting it—and that means a speedier PC.
The program is free, it’s simple to use, and it speeds
up your PC?what else could you ask for?
www.auslogics.com/en/
JETSTART. Stop spending too much time nosing around
the Windows Start menu in order to launch a program. JetStart lets you
quickly find and launch any program on your PC, much faster than using
the Start menu. It lets you launch programs in several different ways,
including by replacing your Start menu, by typing in letters, and by
using a simple toolbar.
Hover your mouse over the Start menu—but don’t click
it—and you’ll get the JetStart alternative menu, a stripped-down version
of the Start menu, with only programs you want included. There are
several other ways to start programs as well. Launch the JetStart
application, and you’ll be able to start programs by typing in text, or
browsing to them in alphabetical order. And there’s also a nifty toolbar
that lets you launch applications as well. Note that in Windows Vista,
JetStart won’t replace the Start menu, but can launch applications in
its normal other ways.
www.codesector.com/
TRUESAFE allows you to back up your data to another
computer over the Internet or to local storage (e.g. a USB drive).
TrueSafe backs up your computer files, providing you with protection
against loss, corruption, and accidental deletion. It’s designed for
people who don’t want to hassle with backups — it is easy to use and
runs automatically in the background.
www.qpointsoft.com/products.php#personaledition
EAV ANTIVIRUS SUITE can detect and eliminate
spyware, Trojans, key loggers, adware programs, browser hijackers,
cookies, spy bots, trackware, and other malware, even new and unknown
ones, on your PC. EAV Antivirus Suite will scan all running processes,
local files in real time automatically once you run the software. Once
spyware or other malware appears, even if it hides in other programs,
EAV Antivirus Suite will display a signal for warning and will eliminate
it consequently. Meanwhile, this software will clear all
spyware-system-linked files as well as relative registry files. EAV
Antivirus Suite can recover all damages with Internet Explorer caused by
JavaScript and ActiveX viruses. And it can also help you to fulfill
anti-hacker Windows settings.
www.download.com/EAV-Antivirus-Suite-Free-Edition/3000-2239_4-10358025.html?tag=lst-0-8
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN VIRUSES, WORMS, AND TROJANS.
The world of computing has always had pranksters developing rogue
software programs with ill intent, but these days, the intent is
becoming more menacing.
Technically speaking, viruses, worms, and Trojans are
different transmission methods to deliver a malicious "payload", usually
to compromise your computer. Knowing the differences can help you
understand how to protect yourself from them all.
A computer virus is much like a human virus, in that it
needs the help of a human to spread. The most common way to get infected
by a virus is to manually run a program that has the malicious code
attached to it. All viruses are avoidable because the user has to
double-click or run the infected file in order to get infected. The best
way to avoid computer viruses is to avoid running any program or file
attachment that you are not 100% sure about. In addition, keeping your
anti-virus program up-to-date will generally stop you from running an
infected file before it has a chance to attack your computer.
The problem with relying on your anti-virus program to
protect you all the time is that the bad guys have the upper hand.
Anti-virus program vendors can create protection against a new virus
only AFTER it has been released in the wild and in most cases started to
infect users.
Before the Internet connected us all together, the most
common way to get infected by a virus was to run a program on a floppy
disk that came from an infected computer, which meant virus spread was
slow and anti-virus companies had the time to create and distribute
updates. Today, a new virus can spread across the world in a matter of
hours if humans can be "tricked" into opening or running a file they get
via e-mail, instant messaging or from a rogue website. One of the key
indicators that a file may be dangerous is if it has the .EXE extension,
which means that it is an executable file. You should never open or run
an EXE file that you receive via e-mail, instant messaging or from a
website unless you are absolutely sure of its validity.
A computer worm, unlike a virus, doesn’t need a human in
order to spread. A worm is capable of "worming" its way from computer to
computer through a network without the assistance or knowledge of the
infected party. The Internet is the world’s largest computer network, so
any one user is capable of spreading a worm to every other user on the
entire network, which is why this method is so insidious.
One of the keys to defending yourself against worms is
to install a firewall. If you are on a high-speed (always on) Internet
connection and you don’t have a firewall in place, the thousands of
worms traversing the Internet every minute are capable of infecting you
just because you are physically connected to the Internet.
Broadband "routers" (which are considered hardware
firewalls) are a must have on today’s Internet because they provide a
single point of protection for all the computers in your home or at your
business. Software firewalls should be considered a second layer of
protection to be used in conjunction with a hardware firewall.
Trojans are programs that hide themselves inside of
other programs and "jump out" once the carrier program has been run.
Users that like to download and install lots of free programs that they
find on the Internet or on file sharing networks are at the highest risk
of being infected by a Trojan.
Unfortunately, the vast majority of today’s attempts to
infect you use a "blended threat" approach, which means a virus and a
worm or Trojan are usually coded together in the same attack, so don’t
let your guard down!
SECUNIA PERSONAL SOFTWARE INSPECTOR. Allows you to
scan, detect, check, and secure the applications installed on your
computer; Get an assessment of the applications installed on your
computer are they insecure, end-of-life, or patched.
https://psi.secunia.com/
EZYPAGE BASIC EDITION. A true what you see is what
you get HTML page(s) designer tool that allows you to create up to 600
pages all at the same time, simply by dragging and dropping each object
onto the page layout using a number of scale measurements. All pages can
be exported to HTML, PDF, BMP, GIF, JPEG, PNG, and to e-mail format.
www.ezyware.com/ezypage.htm
OTS CD SCRATCH 1200. A virtual turntable CD player.
Play two songs from the same CD at the same time - one forward and one
in reverse. Scratch a CD track back and forth like a record, or listen
to your favorite CD automatically mixed between the turntables.
www.cdscratch.com/
SUBJECT BUILDER FOR VBULLETIN FORUMS. DESA powerful
BBCode editor with intuitive, easy-to-use interface and multi-lingual
support, which allows you to create your own topics, subjects, and
signatures with effects for vBulletin forums.CRIP
http://tinyurl.com/2b8s33
MIRO was formerly known as Democracy Player. Video
is the most interesting thing on the web these days, but it’s easy to
get stuck on YouTube looking for the diamonds among the lip-synching
teenagers and inebriated video camera abusers. The Participatory Culture
Foundation offers this free video feed aggregator-cum-personal video
recorder as part of its larger goal of jumpstarting a grassroots
Internet TV model. Democracy player lets you browse and subscribe to
video channels, including Seed Magazine’s science clips, Comedy Central,
Adult Swim, music video channels, and Democracy Now. You can also search
the major video web sites without leaving the player. Just like your
Tivo box, Democracy Player expires and deletes older videos
automatically to keep your hard disk from filling up.
www.getmiro.com/
ATLANTIS NOVA is a free Microsoft Word competitor
that adheres to the 10/90 theory of software design: It provides the 10
percent of the word processing features that most people need to get 90
percent of their work done. And it’s small enough684 KB installedto fit
on a thumb drive.
www.atlantiswordprocessor.com/en/
There was once a young man who, in his youth, professed
his desire to become a great writer. When asked to define "great" he
said, "I want to write stuff that the whole world will read, stuff that
people will react to on a truly emotional level, stuff that will make
them scream, cry, howl in pain and anger!" He now works for Microsoft,
writing error messages. :
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Copyright 2008. This article is from the May 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
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and was established in 1982. We are members of the Assoc. of PC User
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