Some programs everyone should have
- Published: 12/05/2010 at 12:00 AM
- Newspaper section: Database
There are some programs that everyone should have on their computer because eventually you are going to need one or more of them. If you use the Internet and download files then the different types will need to be handled, opened, viewed or played. Everyone has their list of favourites. I have seen lists that include products like iTunes and McAfee that I would never allow on any computer of mine.
If you have noticed Adobe’s reader is slow, a better alternative, the Foxit Reader, is available for free at www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/reader.
Something I use often is a program to convert compressed files into their normal versions. My favourite product to do this is WinRAR but since that costs money the next best option is 7Zip which you can find at http://www.7-zip.org.
This product will allow you to unpack the following formats ARJ, CAB, CHM, CPIO, DEB, DMG, HFS, ISO, LZH, LZMA, MSI, NSIS, RAR, RPM, UDF, WIM, XAR and Z. With this program installed you will be able to unpack just about anything you grab from the net. You will also be able to create your own .ZIP files.
Next on my list in no particular order or preference is a replacement for the regular Notepad that comes with Windows. Called Notepad Plus,
you can find it at http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm, or do a search in your favourite browser. This version will support programming templates, tabbed open files and remembers your last session.
If you use PDF files at all, you will have noticed that Adobe's reader is slow. A better alternative is the Foxit Reader, available for free from http://www.foxitsoftware. com/pdf/reader/. It works as a plug-in for your browser or in a standalone mode. The company also has some nice PDF editor products but these will cost you some cash.
For playing video and music files, there are two options I'd recommend. The first I have told you about before; the K-lite Mega Codec Pack which is available at http://www.codecguide.com/download - mega.htm. It comes with Windows Media Player Classic and plays anything I have ever wanted it to. The second option is the VLC media player from http://www.videolan.org/vlc/ that also supports many video formats, including DVD, CDs and VCDs.
For still images you can get the FastStone Image Viewer 4.1 from http://www.faststone.org/fsviewerdetail.htm. This is an image browser, converter and editor product that will allow you to view your digital images, manipulate them and supports a number of RAW camera formats. Check out the feature set for yourself.
To save yourself some money, get OpenOffice instead of the Microsoft suite. I've talked about this one before and you can get it from http://www.openoffice.org.
When it comes to communicating to cover all the bases, try Pidgin from http://www.pidgin.im. This is a chat consolidation product that will allow you to access all your accounts from the same place including Yahoo, Google, IRC, MSN chat clients along with a lot of others. If you then add Skype (http://www.skype.com/intl/en-gb)this will cover you for all your text and video chatting needs.
Finally in the ten you can try Piriform CCleaner 2.2 from http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner. It is handy to clean your registry out every now and then to get rid of the entries that are no longer pointing to anything useful or to clean out your browser history. This product can do these things for you.
All of the utilities mentioned above with the exception of WinRAR are freeware products. You can download and use then for free. Some of them ask if you want to donate and if you find the utility useful, then why not do so? Some of you may also believe that all you need to do is download and install them and that is it. Remember that in many areas things change, get updated, and new versions of things like codecs are created. Remember that for all these products there will be new versions and you should check occasionally to get the latest one. If you find a better product than one I have listed, then let me know and I'll pass it along to the rest of the readers.
Industry news
Australia has backed off from Internet-filtering proposals. The public reasoning is that there are other things that need to be done first. The reality is that the system would not have worked as proposed. The broadband connectivity plan in the same country is still waiting for the implementation plan, delayed perhaps because the scheme is unfeasible and would never make any money to pay for itself.
Showing just how marketing and brand loyalty are a buying factor, compare the iPad with the Fusion Garage JooJoo. Both about the same price in the UK, the latter is based on the Atom operating system. The JooJoo comes with a 12" screen, has multi tasking and 768 HD playback. It contains a 4GB solid state drive, camera, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and has a fingerprint-resistant coating. It also supports just about anything you want as far as application support. Apple claims to have sold over 1 million iPads - a figure I doubt, but compared to the under 100 JooJoos sold to date as I type this, the branding seems to make all the difference.
AMD has a six-code CPU out, the Phenom II X6. The good, definitely non-Intel news is that you won't need a new motherboard with the AM3 and AM2+ socket motherboards supporting the new CPU. Not that it matters much any more, but the two chip versions come in 2.8 and 3.2 GHz versions. They work with the AMD 890FX chipset which provides for 6Gb/sec SATA with many of the available motherboards supporting USB 3.0. There are a bunch of other features you can check out on AMD's website (http://www.amd.com).
HP and Palm working together - well, one buying the other out, at least. HP wants to get into the phone business and will do so based on the Palm OS. From there the plan appears to be to then move into the webOS tablet business. This marks a major shift for HP into the mobile user market. Yes, they already have iPaq smartphones that are based on the Microsoft Windows Mobile operating system and it is also developing a tablet PC based on Windows 7. The acquisition gives HP some flexibility in terms of suppliers and the luxury of choice.
Delivery times are up in the air because HP is waiting for the deal to be settled and that is likely to happen at the end of July. All we know at the moment is that they will be building both home and work units. HP believed that with them behind the Palm brand, things will pick up for both companies. HP also happens to provide the infrastructure for eight of the top 10 wireless carriers in the world so they can leverage those relationships as well. How this will pan out is anyone's guess, so it will be interesting to see where HP is 12 months from now.
Sony just can't seem to get it right these days. The latest is a class-action lawsuit against Sony for "downgrading" the PS3. It all started when Goerge Hotz worked out how to jailbreak the console leveraging on the Linux installation. Sony replied by announcing they would disable other OS support, i.e. Linux. This was of course to placate the film and game makers. Sony's reason was for "security purposes".
There are two issues here one is that someone will just find another way around the "security" and the second is that annoying your customer base is not a great way to increase sales.
Email: jclhein@gmail.com
About the author
- Writer: James Hein
- Position: Database Writer
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