Review Chairman's Industry Comments (09/12)
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.
SECUNIA PSI. One of the best ways to protect your PC
is to keep all your software up-to-date. Patching over security holes
blocks online attackers who like nothing more than exploiting old
software flaws to surreptitiously install Trojans and other malware. The
free Secunia Personal Software Inspector makes it easy to find and fix
old programs on your PC, even those that lack automatic update features.
It scans your computer to find out what versions of what software you
have installed, and it reports on which might contain known security
holes.
But the excellent app doesn’t stop there. Secunia PSI
also provides clickable links to download available patches or program
updates, which makes updating most software a snap. Other helpful icons
can open the program’s folder, bring up online references for any
security advisories, and perform other useful tasks.
Less technical users can opt for a simple interface mode
that lists only easy-to-patch software. But it’s worth trying the
advanced interface, which displays a wealth of information about your
installed software. The latest version includes a handy "Secure
Browsing" tab that reports not only on your browser version(s), but also
on any plugins, ActiveX controls, Firefox add-ons and other extras.
By default, Secunia PSI will start with Windows and
report on new software or newly discovered security holes. Gamers and
anyone else who wants to conserve system resources can turn off those
options using the settings tab in the advanced mode, and instead run
manual scans. Secunia PSI won’t do away with the need to run a good
antivirus program and firewall on your PC. But it provides a solid layer
of free protection that no PC should do without.
http://secunia.com/
EDIT PDF FILES FOR FREE – Scanned documents and PDFs
are common in an office environment. They’re easy to use. That is,
unless you want to edit them. To do that, you’ll need to convert them to
another format. OCR Terminal will do it for you.
www.ocrterminal.com
TURN MEDIA CENTER INTO A SLINGBOX. Windows Media
Center makes it easy to manage music, pictures and video. It was
introduced with Windows XP Media Center PCs. But now, it is included in
some versions of Vista. You probably know that you can use Media Center
to record television. Of course, you need a TV tuner card. Still, a few
things are missing from Media Center. For example, you can only schedule
recordings at home. And you can’t access your content from the road.
Well, WebGuide changes this. This free program will let you manage your
recordings via the Internet. And, if you’re away from home, you can
access your Media Center content. You’ll love it!
www.asciiexpress.com
AUTOMATICALLY COMPARE PRICES ONLINE. Love shopping
online? You can find anything you need. And you can usually get a great
deal. That’s because you have so many stores to choose from. And you
don’t have to run around town to compare prices. Jumping between Web
sites is easier than visiting actual stores. But it still takes a fair
bit of surfing. And there may be great deals on sites you’ve never heard
of. It would be nice to have some help when bargain hunting.
INVISIBLE HAND is an online personal shopping
assistant. The Firefox add-on compares prices across dozens of online
stores. That includes big names like Best Buy, Amazon.com and Wal-Mart.
You’ll also get results from more specialized stores. Simply search for
a product on your favorite site. When you reach a specific product page,
Invisible Hand jumps into action. A strip at the top of the window will
appear. It will show you how much you could save at another store. Or
maybe you’re already viewing the best deal. You’ll never miss out on
savings.
www.getinvisiblehand.com
TUBEMASTER++. The Internet is chock-full of sites
that stream video and audio to your PC; YouTube’s the most notable, but
it has plenty of company. The problem, though, is that those sites don’t
let you capture that multimedia content so that you can store it on your
PC and watch or listen to it later. That’s where TubeMaster++ comes in.
It saves those files, and converts them into an easy-to-use format as
well.
TubeMaster++ makes the process of saving the files
exceedingly simple. Just run the program, go to the Web page where you
want to watch video or listen to music, and stream the content. The
program captures the file as it streams. When the file finishes
streaming, save the file. It will be saved in its native format, but if
you want you can use TubeMaster++ to convert the file into a more usable
format. This is particularly useful on sites such as YouTube, which uses
the .flv file format. Most PC programs don’t recognize .flv and won’t
play back videos in that format. (One that does recognize and play such
videos is FLV Player.) You can convert the files into several formats,
including .avi, mp3, mp4, and formats for specific multimedia players
such as iPods or Zunes.
Especially welcome is the program’s built-in search
tool, with which there’s no need to visit and search multiple sites when
you’re looking for a specific video or audio clip. Instead, do a search
from within TubeMaster++, and you’ll see results from many Web sites.
Double-click any results and you’ll be sent straight to the site to
begin streaming. You can then capture and save the file. If you’ve ever
viewed an online video or listened to streaming music and wished you
could save them on your PC so you could view or listen to them again,
TubeMaster++ is the program for you.
Note: In Windows Vista you must run the program as an
administrator
http://tubemaster.free.fr/
YOUTUBE DOWNLOADER. You just want to download videos
from YouTube. Well, and to convert the videos to watch on your iPod,
cell phone, or to another video type. That means you want freebie
YouTube Downloader. It runs as a small applet, and it’s exceedingly
simple to use. Copy the URL of the YouTube video into it (you’ll find
the URL on the upper right-hand side of the video page in YouTube), then
tell the program to do its work. You’ll be able to choose your
destination folder and name of the downloaded video.
Conversion is similarly easy. Choose the downloaded file
you want to convert, then choose the download format and click OK, and
the work is done. You can convert to many different formats, including
for the iPod, iPhone, cell phones, PlayStation Portable, as well as
common PC formats including MPEG and Windows Media (.wmv). Given that
all this is free, what’s not to like?
Note: When you install this software, by default it will
install the Yahoo Toolbar and make Yahoo your default search engine. If
you don’t want that to happen, make sure to uncheck the boxes before
installation.
http://youtubedownload.altervista.org/
ONLINE IMAGE-EDITING TOOLS. Creating and editing
images takes specialized software. Photoshop is the de facto standard.
It has some of the best tools around. But that doesn’t mean it’s for
everyone. For one, it’s a really expensive piece of software. And most
people don’t need all of the tools it provides. Plus, you can find other
solutions online. Aviary is suite of online image-editing tools. All are
free to use. Edit photographs with Phoenix. You can use layers to add
various effects. Artistic types will enjoy using Raven. Use the vector
editor to build stunning images from scratch. Toucan will help you
decided what colors compliment each other. This way your creations will
look vibrant and natural. Peacock will change the way you view image
editing. It’s an effects laboratory that has to be seen. It’s great for
visual thinkers. http://aviary.com/home
EDIT PDF FILES FREE. Some files are tricky to work
with. PDFs can be especially stressful. They’re easy to move around. And
you can view them on any computer. But they are difficult to edit. That
requires very expensive software. Not all editing requires you to
rewrite content. Sometimes you just need to rearrange pages. Or perhaps
you want to combine multiple PDFs into a single document. Will those
simple edits cost you hundreds? Not if you use PDF Hammer. You can
upload multiple PDFs to this online tool. You can combine them into a
singe document. You can rearrange the pages however you’d like. And you
can remove pages you no longer need. You can also add metadata to your
new PDF. Sign it as the author. Add a title, keywords and more. You can
also lock the PDF with a password. No one will be able to open it
without a password. www.nitropdf.com
SLIMBROWSER. Little-known SlimBrowser will surprise
you with many of its innovative features. Although not as feature-packed
as Maxthon, it’s still laden with nifty features. And it’s
lightning-fast as well. One of SlimBrowser’s more useful features is the
ability to create separate groups of your favorite Web pages, and then
to launch them all at once. So, for example, you may have a group of
your favorite news sites. Rather than having to open each individually,
you can open them all with a single click.
There’s also a built-in spell checker as well as an ad
blocker. And SlimBrowser has a particularly nifty feature for handling
multiple tabs. You can view all of your open Web pages as separate tiled
windows horizontally or vertically, and then move them around and resize
them. There’s plenty more, including the ability to view pop-ups you’ve
blocked, a Web page translator, and more. Because it has so many
features, its interface tends to be cluttered and crowded, although it’s
extremely customizable so that you can make it far cleaner. It’s also
skinnable, so you can download skins to change the way SlimBrowser looks
as well. www.flashpeak.com/
WYZO. If you need a browser specifically designed
for power downloaders, then Wyzo may well be for you. The free browser
includes a set of tools that downloaders will welcome including
multi-sourced downloads for faster downloads and built-in BitTorrent.
www.wyzo.com/
COMMANDS IN DEMAND. A collection of commands that
may be needed instantly for a purpose. Commands in Demand provides
non-technical users with easy access to more than 70 Windows commands
and features that can be hard to find or time consuming to get to. The
program includes shortcuts to terminate non-responsive applications,
restart Windows Explorer, view/clear the clipboard, open a command
prompt in a selected folder, access system folders, view TCP/IP
configuration settings, etc. It has a selections menu (sections)
according to where its commands are related. If a command is related
with more than one section and in order to be less confused, you may
find the same command buttons more than one time.
www.vasilios-free.gr/freesoft/commands_in_demand.htm
KEEP INFORMED EASILY. Everyone has a handful of
favorite blogs and news sites. But you don’t always have time to visit
all of them. That’s where free RSS (Really Simple Syndication) comes in.
The sites’ content is delivered to you. All you need is an RSS reader.
But is there something even easier? There’s something to be said for the
convenience of an e-mail newsletter. It shows up in your inbox on a set
schedule. And you can read it at your leisure. You could even print it
out and take it with you. Tabbloid automatically builds a custom
newsletter from your favorite sites. Add an unlimited number of RSS
feeds to your subscription. Full posts are placed into a simple
two-column format. It can be delivered daily or weekly. The newsletter
shows up as a PDF. It mixes up posts from the selected feeds. All links
still function. And the format makes it easy to skim. There’s no sign up
required. You just need your e-mail address. And you can add or remove
feeds at any time. www.tabbloid.com
RUNALYZER. If you’re looking to track down spyware,
or speed up system startup—and you’re technically astute—then RunAlyzer
may be just what you need. Run it, and it performs a thorough analysis
of all programs and services that run when you start up your computer.
Based on what you find, you can determine whether suspicious programs
are running, and you can also speed up startup by stopping unnecessary
programs from running. This is not a program for novices. It is for
those seasoned enough to know what they are looking at.
www.safer-networking.org/en/runalyzer/index.html
BELARC ADVISOR creates an HTML report that not only
tells you everything you could possibly want to know about the hardware
on your system, but also what you might need to know about the software
that’s installed. Gathered info includes motherboard type and revision,
CPU and GPU info, drive space, Microsoft hotfixes, operating system
revision, and Web browser vulnerabilities, as well as third-party
software installs. www.belarc.com
SYSINTERNALS. Everyone knows how important it is to
keep your computer safe and secure. The Sysinternals program from
Microsoft help with this. Microsoft Sysinternal program diagnose
security holes and add to Windows’ features. They include
troubleshooting tools, help files and more. There are over 100 Windows
Sysinternal programs free for download. But it can be a pain to download
all of these files separately. Luckily, all of the Sysinternal’s
troubleshooting utilities can be downloaded in one! The suite includes
over 60 files recommended by Microsoft. Look no further— protect your
computer now!
www.technet.microsoft.com
WHAT IS SETPOWER? SetPower harnesses your computer’s
existing power management capabilities. SetPower allows you to specify
when your computer may fall asleep and when it must be awake. Why is
this important to do? Because when you control your computer’s wake and
sleep cycle, you can reduce your power consumption — and reduce your
enery bills, too. SetPower is good for you, and the environment.
Consider this: most people do one of two things:
-
they leave their computer on all the time, sucking
energy and wasting money
-
they use the built-in Windows power feature,
resulting in a computer that falls asleep at inopportune times.
SetPower, on the other hand, lets you leverage your computer’s
existing power management capabilities so that you can save energy
and money, while also ensuring that your computer is ready to go
when you need it.
www.setpowersoftware.com/
SMARTERFOX is a popular productivity addon. Save
your time get faster, parallelized downloads, auto-load the next page
when you reach the end, search as you type from the URL bar, search
highlighted text with the pop-up bubble, and more. SmarterFox has some
more options like Download all links, images, or media on a page in
parallel, maximizing the use of your bandwidth, Easily save page media
such as Flash videos, Flash games, and Shockwave movies on any
YouTube-like site to your hard-drive,Search by selecting/highlighting
text and then clicking on the popup bubble,Visit bookmarks quickly with
keyboard shortcuts using qLauncher. SmarterFox is without a doubt among
the most varied and powerful add-ons out there to enhance Firefox
browsing.
http://downloads.zdnet.com/abstract.aspx?docid=1120671
WIKIHOW is a collaborative writing project to build
the world’s largest, highest quality how-to manual. With your
contributions, we can create a free resource that helps millions of
people by offering solutions to the problems of everyday life. wikiHow
currently contains 60,491 articles — written, edited, and maintained
primarily by volunteers. Please join us by writing on a topic not yet
covered, or editing an article that someone else has started.
www.wikihow.com/Main-Page
SWOOPUP.COM provides coupons and other info to find
the best deals in online shopping. If you are a bargain hunter you may
find this a very interesting site.
GET HELP MAKING FINANCIAL DECISIONS. Everyone makes
bad financial decisions. Maybe you invested in the wrong stock. Or,
maybe you made an unwise purchase. Some financial mistakes are
unavoidable. But most can be avoided. All it takes is a little research.
Financial calculators are a great way to avoid costly mistakes. They’ll
help you determine the cost of a car or house, for example. This cool
site contains links to dozens of financial calculators. But they’re not
traditional financial calculators. They’re geared toward helping you
make major life decisions.
They cover moving, getting married and having children.
There are even calculators to help you compute funeral costs! This is a
site you’ll want to book for future reference. Fire it up when you’re
facing a major lifestyle change.
www.freemoneyfinance.com
in
VOLUME DIAL ON YOUR MOUSE. Windows includes a Volume
Control to maintain speaker volume. However, it is not as convenient as
it could be. You have to open up the Volume Control menu. It takes time
and a chunk of your screen. Those are two drawbacks you don’t need when
you encounter blaring Web page music or video. Volumouse turns your
mouse’s click wheel into a volume dial. Already at your fingertips, it’s
free, convenient and intuitive. And you don’t have to open a menu to use
it.
By default, you can activate Volumouse by pressing and
holding the Alt key. Otherwise, you can use your mouse’s click wheel to
scroll through Web pages and other documents as normal. You can also
customize Volumouse to activate through other keys. For example, turn
the click wheel into a volume dial whenever you hold the right mouse
button down. If you don’t use the click wheel for anything else, you can
even set Volumouse to always-on. Volumouse can also control Windows
Media Player volume whenever the player is on screen.
www.nirsoft.net
RETRIEVE LOST PRODUCT KEYS AND SERIAL NUMBERS. Maybe
you’ve just bought a new computer. Maybe you’re fixing a problem with
your current one. Whatever the reason, you’ll probably have to reinstall
your favorite programs. But that’s not always a straightforward
operation. Many programs you have to authenticate your copy when you
install it. This helps to fight piracy. You are required to enter a
product key or serial number. Did you save these numbers? Do you know
where you left the packaging for your software? It’s all gone isn’t it?
Don’t worry. Luckily, for many programs, those numbers are stored
somewhere secure. Just go get LicenseCrawler. It will retrieve any
product keys and serial numbers stored on your computer. This makes it
easy to transfer or reload your favorite programs.
www.freewarefiles.com
SOFTPERFECT NETWORK SCANNER. If you administer a
small network at work or at home, you’ll welcome the free SoftPerfect
Network Scanner. Want to discover every device on your network? Get
details about IP addressses? MAC addresses? SoftPerfect Network Scanner
does that for you, and more.
www.softperfect.com/
POP-UP STOPPER FREE. Very few of us have a warm
place in our hearts for browser windows that pop up in front of the
screen without permission. The free Pop-Up Stopper prevents them (and
pop-under windows) from displaying. You can have sounds notify you when
a pop-up has been blocked. The program also allows you to briefly
disable the blocking by double-clicking the system tray icon or by
pressing Shift or Ctrl when following a new link. This version features
a new ad-blocking technology, an improved interface, and more sound and
visual options to play when an ad is blocked. This free version is one
of four versions offered. Check the at comparison chart the vendor
website to determine which one best suits your needs.
www.panicware.com/product_dpps.html
DSHUTDOWN is a stand-alone program that allows you
to easily shutdown and wake up local or remote PCs, with many options.
DShutdown can monitor the PC to shutdown after a particular application
terminates, for example. There are also options to shutdown a PC when
Internet traffic reduces below a particular data-rate: useful to
shutdown a PC when it has finished a large download.
www.infopackets.com/news/software/shell_city/2009/20090902_dshutdown_and_task_switch_xp.htm
HOW FAST IS YOUR INTERNET CONNECTION? You can test
your connection speed online. Speakeasy Speed Test is dead simple. Just
select a testing server in a near you. You can choose from locations
across the country. The test will begin automatically. You’ll see both
your download and upload speeds. The download speed is associated with
surfing and file downloading. The upload speed matters for uploading
photos, videos and more to the Web.
http://speakeasy.net/speedtest/
ECALC CALCULATOR. This seriously spiffy new
number-cruncher includes Programmer, Statistic, and Scientific modes,
and comes with handy templates for figuring stuff like mortgage payments
and gas mileage. www.ecalc.com/
OPERA BROWSER. Operating System: Windows
2000,Windows 9.x,Windows Me,Windows XP,Windows Vista. Opera has always
been a try-harder browser packed with features. Despite this, it has not
yet managed to get the same kind of publicity that Internet Explorer,
Firefox, and Chrome garner. And that’s a shame, because this new version
of the venerable browser adds a slew of clever features that will be
welcome to anyone who surfs the Web. Anyone who wishes his or her
current browser were faster and had more features will want to give
Opera a try. www.opera.com/
BLUESCREENVIEW. Operating System: Windows XP,Windows
Vista,Windows Server 2003,Windows Server 2008,Windows 7 If you’ve used
Windows for any length of time, chances are you’ve seen a Blue Screen of
Death. Unfortunately, a BSOD is usually cryptic. Factor in the fact that
Windows usually reboots itself—with no assurance that you won’t get the
same error—and you can see the need for BlueScreenView.
www.nirsoft.net/utils/blue_screen_view.html
DOWNTESTER. Everyone wants to know how fast their
Internet connection is, and DownTester promises to tell you exactly
that. This free utility is simple to use and tests speeds by contacting
any Web site of your choice.
www.nirsoft.net/utils/download_speed_tester.html
GET THE LOWDOWN ON YOUR SYMPTOMS. Most of us are not
doctors. So, it can be difficult to know if we should worry about minor
pain. The Internet offers a wealth of health information. Unfortunately,
a lot of this information comes from questionable sources. You won’t
want to use these sources to research your health. Instead, head to a
reputable source like the Mayo Clinic. It offers a symptom checker on
its Web site. Start by choosing a symptom. Then, answer a couple of
questions about the symptom. You’ll see a list of possible causes. Now,
you should not use the Symptom Checker to diagnose medical problems.
That would be foolish. Rather, the Symptom Checker will help you decide
when it’s time to see a doctor.
www.mayoclinic.com :
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Copyright 2009. This article is from the December 2009 issue of the
Sarasota PC Monitor, the official monthly publication of the Sarasota
Personal Computer Users Group, Inc., P.O. Box 15889, Sarasota, FL
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