10 More pieces of useful free software 2012 Edition

Early on in this blog I wrote about 10 Pieces of useful software. It's not that many of those aren't good, but the truth is, the interwebs are full of new things all the time and people get new interests all the time.  It's been 4 years now (I would NEVER have believed that I would still be writing this thing that long).  So I revisit 10 pieces of free software and I had so many entries that I had to cull out some that I thought were fun but not really useful.  I'm trying to display not only software, but some new ways of doing things that people might find useful.

10.  BitCoin : This is revolutionary.  Really really a whole new concept.  Forever we have used currency both coin and bill to pay debts.  Currency has always been based on governments and boarders.  Once you go from one country to another you have to change your currency to that of the country you are visiting.  There is of course an exchange rate that is based on the relative economies of both countries.  It wasn't always this way.  It used to be that the currency had it's own intrinsic value based on the precious metals it was created from.  Currency based on this has a problem with value volatility.  Currency based on countries has the same problem, but not as much.  The larger the country the currency is based on (economically) the more stable the currency is.  Ok, that's WAY enough boring talk about currency, here is the new way.  BitCoin is currency based on the rarity of the 'coins'  You can read about how they are made and why they have value on the website.  Here is a synopsis of why they are a new wave.
    1.  They can not be counterfeited because of their nature.  They are encrypted.
    2.  They do not track so they are like cash.
    3.  They have no base country so they are based on the world.
They may not emerge as the dominant currency, but they have enough benefits that they, or something like them will be around.

9. Google Docs : In my prior blog I found that Open Office (now Libre Office) was a great Microsoft Office alternative.  It's still true.  I'm not taking away anything from this.  Google docs on the other hand are the next step.  The documents are not as full featured as standard PC style, but they will do what you need and more.  I've always thought that office style programs actually have too many options and features that might be convenient but we don't really need it.  What the docs offers is a way to collaborate over a single spreadsheet or document over the internet.  Like this scenario:  A family has a calendar each member has their personal calendar.  Each calendar will combine in each family members view of calendars so everyone can know what is on everyone's schedule.  The other benefit is the information is all held on google's servers so it is all automatically backed up.

8.  Spotify : Who doesn't love music?  I know I do.  In the prior post I mentioned media monkey.  It's still good, but it doesn't do this.  Spotify will let you play nearly any music you like with ad's in between so many tracks to pay for it.  You don't get to 'keep' the music, but you don't need to.  if it's on I-tunes, it's on Spotify.  If you want to listen to the music on portable devices, that's a different story, but on your PC at work, it's perfect.  A close runner up for this is the website PANDORA which will create themed radio stations based on your interests.  Spotify will also do this but is an app that sits on your PC.

7. RockMelt : If you are a big fan of Facebook, you probably spend a lot of time on it.  You keep coming back to update statuses and play games etc.  I know.  I do it too.  Well, RockMelt is a browser based on Chrome that integrates your facebooking into your regular web browsing.  it has a lot of other fun features that make it more handy to check on your running interests.  You can also browse with friends which is a whole other handy thing instead of pasting links back and forth.   Give it a try, you might like it.

6.  DropBox : Ok, you have a bunch of files that you have at home.  they are all important to you when you need them.  Gosh if there was some way to make them available on the other computers I get onto that would be swell.  Enter DropBox.  This program will take folders on your computer you designate and co-ordinate them with the same folders on other computers you have drop box on.  So if I'm writing a book in 3 different places I simply save the file to the folder that is assigned to Dropbox and then I don't worry.  Not only is the folder backed up onto the internet, but it is then propagated to the other computers that I have assigned it to.  No more worrying about making things current between two or more computers.  It's easy and VERY handy.

5. Google Voice : So you really like your telephone at home right?  who doesn't.  good ole ma bell.  She was there for us through thick and thin.  Well, enter google Voice.  A way to have a phone number that works just like your telephone.  It's free to get a number and it costs a small fee to get numbers forwarded to that number, but you can get messages and have them transcribed to emails for you as well as not have to worry about pesky bills because like everything else in this list.  It's free.  If nothing else it's nice to be able to have a different disposable phone number that isn't directly attached to you, but that you can still monitor.  It's worth looking into.  It's not necessarily an easy thing to do, but the cost savings are pretty obvious.  One problem is the lack of 911 locality in the voice.  Notable alternatives is magic jack.

4. Keepass : This is a password keeper.  There are online ones that work well but I don't like them for some reason.  Mostly because if my internet is not available there are some things I still need my passwords for.  The nice thing about keepass is that it encrypts your information very strongly and saves it.  If you use it in conjunction with DropBox, you can have your passwords anywhere you have a computer.  A lot of other people like LastPass.  It does a good job for internet passwords as well.

3.  Inkscape : Is a vector based drawing program.  If you are not particularly artistic because your hands don't go in the right places, a vector drawing program might help you a little bit.  It won't give you the artists eye, but it will help you correct mistakes.  It's Open source, which means you can take the code and specialize it and make it your own if you like.  It's full features.  If you aren't an artist, programs like this might at least help you fake it.  (You'll want to look into some basic design tips if you really want to go places)



2.  Procexp : Process explorer allows you to see what programs are running as well as what they are dependent on.  This is not for everyone, mostly just for people that want to find out why some things break when other things run and other techie things.  It's still really handy to tell you what is making your computer slow etc.




1.  Winmerge : Winmerge is a program that will compare two files OR two directories.  I for one have lots of directories that have files that duplicate the files in other directories.  This program helps you spot the differences.  If you are writing something and you want to see where your changes are, this will really help you a lot



Not all the software I think is cool, but it's the software I come back to over and over.  Thanks for reading!

Top ten useful pieces of FREE software

Computers are the single greatest invention to hit mankind since the car. It might even be bigger than that. Thanks to the internet and all of those computers out there, we have brains that think for us and eventually, they will become self aware and kill us. Well, maybe not, maybe they will make us their slaves so they can harvest our electricity...hmmm...maybe they always serve us because their first rule is to never kill a human. I can't remember what they are going to do, but we aren't there yet. For now, they are our electronic slaves from Finland. Why finland you ask? Becauase Finland holds a distinction of being one of the hardest languages to speak spoken by the fewest amount of people. And a lot of people have a hard time making their electronic slave do their bidding. It's a good thing the Finns have Nokia.

I digress. Seems like all of us have a computer, and we all have things we would like to do on that computer, but we either don't have the money, or the knowledge that the software that is there to help is available for our use. Well I'm here to help both sides of the problem. I give to you my top 10 (PC) Software titles that are Open Source. What's open source you say? Open source is the geek word for FREE (And I know some of you out there are a big fan of free). These are software packages that are built for open use and adjustment. The companies that promote them make their money on helping people use it and integrating it with your business.
In many cases, the open source software is better than the pay to play software.

There are a LOT more than 10 chuncks of software that are worthwhile and yet free. These pieces of software are MOSTLY for PC, not Mac or Linux, but the truth is, if it's open source, it's probably available for LINUX first, and some stuff actually gets ported to Mac. I am just putting up my top 10 in hopes that you will find at least one of them useful.

10. 7-zip - Smaller is better? A long time ago when computers had 3 colors and 640K of ram was more memory than anyone would ever need, there WAS a need to take your files and compress them so they could fit on little floppies (wow, that was a long time ago). That file format was called ARC. A little company made a program that would ARC and UnArc software. Legal troubles ensued and the new format that was smaller stronger and faster and PKZIP was born (Winzip is related). But that's not all, there are a lot of different compression standards. RAR is a very popular one as well. Well, 7-zip is an open source archiving program that remembers and can deal with them all! and it's super easy to use and the price is right. 7-zip







9. PFRank - So when you see these dudes that dress in girls clothing and they say 'I just don't feel right in a mans clothes' You think 'you certainly don't LOOK right in mans clothes'. So when I'm stealing my favorite music I'm always disappointed in how other people name it the way THEY like it instead of how I like it. They always include the album and the track number or some such nonsense and all I want is the name of the song. Just like the transvestite, you can change the look, but what's inside will stay the same. Well PFRank will rename your files any way you like and has lots of pre-defined ways to help you do it. It's a little bit hard to use, but well worth it. PFRank





8. AutoHotkey - This is a keyboard macro program that is amazingly powerful. *YAWN* Marks talking geek again. Ok ok, I know, but it's a very cool program if you want to say put in a bunch of data into a webpage over and over again, or it's good for making it look like your machine it typing by itself...spooooooky! anyway. It's a good program AutoHotkey

7. Synergy - Uggg this is one of those idiotic words that they use in business talk to mean something i can't remember. The Program on the other hand is for those of you out there that have a notebook as well as a home computer. If you have both, then you know that you'll end up needing either 2 sets of mice and keyboards, OR a switch box that will let you switch between your 2 systems. NOT ANY MORE! If you are on a home network (like you have 2 machines that are on the same internet connection, you are on a home network) you can use this nifty program to move your mouse to the edge of one of your systems and onto the other and back and where ever your mouse is, that's where your keyboard will type. as an ADDED bonus, it will let you cut and paste between systems. SWEET. Synergy means working together.



6. MediaMonkey - This is a sweet music player/CD Ripper/ipod-loader/music converter/Songlist keeper. What you say? You already have Microsoft media player? or Itunes (shudder!). Well this one doesn't take over your system, it just helps you do what you want. It's really slick and you can't beat the price. mmmmm....MediaMonkey














5. LINUX - Hey isn't that Lucy's brother that believe's in the Great Pumpkin? No, this is the ultimate in getting under the radar. Hate Bill gates, but you hate Steve Jobs more? Skip them both and go to LINUX an operating system with no strings attached and built by a very nice Finnish lad named Linus Torvald. well...a few strings. Linux is cool and works pretty well, once you get it going. It generally takes up less space and will work harder for less. Problem is, it's not very nice to non-geeks. So find a geek friend to help you with it and you can get by without stupid Micky Soft or OS XICLLVM or whatever they are up to. There are a TON of different versions of Linux, but my favorites right now are Ubuntu and OpenSuse linux, they offer a LOT and cost...you know.



4. TrueCrypt - So you share a computer with your room mates, or the rest of your family and you've got stuff you just don't want them to see. Your secret project that will make you millions (napster? I loved that Italian Job movie) You don't want them stumbling onto it, you don't want them even knowing it's there. Well this program not only hides your stuff, but it encrypts it! Encryption is to secrets what Fort Knox is to gold. When you run it, it takes your encrypted area and maps it onto a drive on your computer so you can use it like any other drive. It's amazing. What's that you say? What if they find out you have a hidden area and they bug you to show them whats on it or they will double your rent? This nifty program has a mode that will make your encryption 2 layered. one password for 1 layer and one password for the REAL layer. so you use your other password to show them the 'dummy' data you've prepared to throw the interested off the track and you keep your secrets to yourself. TrueCrypt The government doesn't like you having this.

3. cc pdf - What is the most acceptable non text document format around today? Microsoft Word????? **BUZZZZZ** Sorry, not even close. It's the PDF or the PostScript format. Everyone can read it, but you have to get special software from Adobe to make them. Or you USED to need that. Now we have cc pdf that will let you print to the wonderful PDF format and you can send it out like a pro. cc PDF




2. Gimp - Once you've got a word processor and a spreadsheet what do you need? A graphics editor. What's the best one out there? Adobe Photoshop is arguably the best out there. Well that's one spendy chunk of software, besides, I just want to put google eyes on my brother and a funny hat on my cat with a caption. Well GIMP is the answer for you. It's 80% of what photoshop is, and easier to user. It's the beez Kneez. GIMP








1. Open Office - Microsoft Office, 300 bux in Bill Gates pocket for software that hasn't changed in 10 years. Sure it looks different and they put menu's in different places, but what they do the most is make the newest file format unopenable to the earlier formats thus ensuring that you will pay another 300 dollars for the same crap that you use 15 % of (that's if you are a type A IT manager). Open Office on the other hand is everything you love in an office suite. The biggest annoyance about using Open office is in trying to open complex microsoft products. I will admit that it takes a little extra effort to use in a business setting. I've been able to for the last 2 years and it's not that big a deal, you can ask the sender to use an older format of MsWord or MsExcel and they will work just fine. I'm pretty sure Microsoft doesn't need any more of anyones money. Open Office





That's it. I hope I saved you a couple of bucks.