It's News to Me

This page will serve as a place for me to list links and comments about particular pieces of software and services that I use. I would expect it to grow as I find time to make comments about each item. Remember this is merely a personal list of preferences provided in the hope it might prove useful or interesting to my readers. I'm choosing to use an unordered list to avoid indicating by location in the list that one item is ranked higher or more favorably than another. I should note that I am using these programs on Windows XP.

Free, as in no-cost software

• Foxit Reader 1.3

  A faster replacement for the standard Adobe Acrobat Reader.

• Process Explorer

  One of the truly remarkable SysInternals tools that can be set to run as a replacement for Windows Task Manager.

• DubIt

  A useful tool for adding audio to AVI files and for creating narrated slide shows.

• AVG Free

  The anti-virus program I use. Described on their website as, «AVG Anti-Virus Free and ewido anti-spyware Free is for private, non-commercial, single home computer use only.»

• VLC

  A cross-platform media player and streaming server that will handle anything I've thrown at it -- and in full-screen mode too.

• TightVNC

  A very useful application for delivering remote technical assistance to friends and relatives.

• Spybot Search and Destroy

  One of a number of tools available for combating spyware.

• Audacity

  A free, cross-platform audio editor.

• Picasa

  A Google tool that permits cataloging and making basic edits to digital photos. There is a beta version of Picasa 2.0 available with more capabilities if you sign up for the Picasa Web service.

• Thunderbird

  A very nice free, cross-platform email client from the Mozilla Foundation. I have this client on my system, though I don't use it as my primary email client.

• Firefox

  An excellent replacement for Internet Explorer that offers security, extensibility, and ease of use. Like Thunderbird, it is free and from the Mozilla Foundation.

• Flock

  My browser of choice that is based on the Firefox engine, but has other social browsing functions built in. It is still in beta and has some issues to work out yet (memory usage, for instance), but despite those remaining issues, it is a delight to use.

• WordPress

  This blogging tool is free to use but in the version listed here requires that you have a web hosting service to use it. It is supported by a large community of users and is an excellent blogging platform and can even be used as a CMS (Content Management System) for a «normal» web site.

• Family Tree Builder

  This genealogy programs permits you to enter both factual information and photographs and scans of documents and photographs into its database. It is easy and fun to use and offers a very helpful and easy to understand 56-page tutorial that contains many screenshots. I wrote about a more in-depth description of it here.

Web Services

Here are a few web services that I use regularly.

• Gmail

  A free, web-based email service from Google with over 2.7 Gigabytes of storage, that offers POP3 access, so that you can use it in combination with an email client like Thunderbird.

• RapidShare

  A service hosted in Germany that permit you to upload files up to 100 megabytes in size and provides a link that you can give to others so they can go there an download those large files. The free version of this service imposes a 60 minute wait between downloads from the same IP address. See this post for a bit more elaboration on the service.

• ImageShack

  A free image hosting service where you can upload an image you need to share on a forum or mailing list that doesn't permit attachments.

• Schtuff.com

  A free wiki service that offers 200 megabytes of storage and the ability to create two «spaces» that you can either make public or private. A great way to collaborate online with others.

• del.icio.us

  A bookmarking and tagging service that gives you access to your bookmarks wherever you are and allows you to share them, if you choose, with others. Many features that can be very useful for researching and collaborating with others. My del.icio.us bookmarks can be found here.

• Skype

  A VoIP service that provides free computer-to-computer communications anywhere in the world that is a clear as a telephone. I use it for daily chats with my friend, Paul Moor, in Berlin. Currently until the end of this year, we here in the US can make calls to any land-based telephone, including cell phones, for no charge. My user name on Skype is perrynelson. Feel free to add me to your contacts if you should choose to download and install it. It works best if you have a broadband connection.

• TinyURL

  «Are you sick of posting URLs in emails only to have it break when sent causing the recipient to have to cut and paste it back together? Then you've come to the right place. By entering in a URL in the text field below, we will create a tiny URL that will not break in email postings and never expires.»

Non-free software, as in these cost money.

Through the years I have bought, paid for, and used a variety of different programs. I continue to use most of them, but I have moved on from some to other things now. Again these are my personal favorites. Most, if not all of them, have a trial version that you can download and try before you buy, which in my opinion is the best way to buy software.

• The Bat!

  A power-user's email program that offers templates, macros, virtual folders, filtering, and color coding of messages according to user-defined criteria. I use the pro version that is slightly more expensive but which comes with The Bat! Voyager which is a version of the program that can be stored on a USB stick, so that you can take the program with you when you are mobile.

• TSE Pro

  A programmer's text editor that offers macro capabilities, the ability to customize it to your own preferences, a well-documented help system, and the ability to load an unlimited number of files, among other things. I barely scratch the surface of all the things this amazing little program can do, but it is a joy to work in and a daily tool for me.

• Goldwave

  An audio file editor. «It includes all of the common audio editing commands and effects, plus powerful built-in tools such as a batch processor/converter, a CD reader, and audio restoration filters that cost extra in other similar programs.»

• Multiquence

  The companion program to Goldwave. «A remarkably flexible multitrack digital audio and video mixing program.»

• WinRar

  «WinRAR is a powerful archive manager. It can backup your data and reduce size of email attachments, decompress RAR, ZIP and other files downloaded from Internet and create new archives in RAR and ZIP file format.»

• Xplorer2

  A replacement for Windows Explorer (the native file manager in Windows XP). «All the shell goodies from windows explorer — none of the hassle! Plus all the features you would expect from a powerful tabbed dual-pane file manager, including Omni-Finder, a find files module that simply outclasses all known search tools.»

• SnagIt

  A screen capture utility that permits you to capture screenshots, record video of interactions on the screen, and save in a variety of formats, including PDF. It can be used to grab a web page with the included links, and then save that web page in PDF format so that the links are preserved.

• Diskeeper

  An automatic disk defragmentation utility that works in the background continuously, keeping your hard disk optimized.

• Handy Backup

  A backup utility that I use to automatically back up important files from my system by FTP to my web hosting service each night. Automating backup is the only sure way to guarantee that you'll have a backup in the event a disaster should occur.