Sunday, September 26, 2010

Top 10 Freeware Programs

This is a list of the top 10 freeware programs that I use on a day to day basis. This list might have some stuff you already know of because some of these are pretty known but there should be some new ones too. Also if you have suggestions on things you use leave a message in the comments below. So without further ado lets get this started.

1. The most used freeware program I use is the Firefox browser. I really like this browser and have been using it for the past 3-4 years and has been great since day one. Firefox is cool because of all the add-ons and tweaks you can do to it. Thus creating a personalized environment for the user.

2. Google Chrome is another browser that I use. I haven't been using Chrome that long yet but really like how fast it is and how you can search Google.com right out of the search bar. Also the reason that I like to use two browsers is that somethings work better in other browsers.

3. XBMC or formally know as Xbox Media Center and thats just what it is a media center. One of the main reasons that I use XBMC is that I wanted a way to be able to watch movies across my home network on my television using a PS3. I like this program but one problem that I run across while using it on the pc is it uses a lot of cpu power to run so it can get a bit slow at times. It works good across the network to a PS3 or Xbox and you can stream pictures and music too.

4. iTunes music player is one that I use on the daily the one reason that I started using iTunes was because I bought a iPod and needed it to put music on it. Later down the road I seemed to like it more and more but right now it is getting a bit bogged down but still runs fine on older machines. I also like how iTunes can share it's library with other iTunes running on different pc's over the network thus only having to save your library on one computer.

5. Avira Antivir Personal anti-virus is a great free virus scanner. I really like how user friendly it is and updates and scans all on its own through scheduling that you setup. Also it's always looking for things that are suspicious and asks you about it.

6. Format Factory is a file conversion program for just about all media file types. I use this program for just about all file converting that I do. This is one program that comes very handy when you have file types that wont work in certain programs and changed into a format the program can read.

7. Gimp image editing software is a very powerful program that needs little resources to run on and compares to Adobe Photoshop in what you can do in the program. I have been using both Photoshop and Gimp for awhile but almost seem to like Gimp better. Gimp just seems to be easier to do things and get great effects.

8. CCleaner is a great little program to help you system out by doing a bit of cleaning and getting rid of things that are bogging your system down or just to tidy up. CCleaner has many different options that you can choose from and other features that are helpful like adjusting the programs on start up to uninstalling unused programs.

9. Revo Uninstaller is a great tool for fully uninstalling programs because it searches your hard disk to find all of the stuff that the programs uninstaller left behind. There are 3 different modes to choose from according to how you would like to scan your system after the uninstall is complete.

10. VLC Media Player is a very lite program for playing media files of all different types. I mainly use this program for watching movies because I have iTunes for all my musical needs. I like how I can watch so many different file types under one piece of software and it doesn't need very many resources from your computer so it can be used even on outdated machines.

There you have it a full list of 10 free programs that you should check out if you haven't already or give them another chance. This is just a list of things that I have found and really like and use all of the time and have worked great for me. If you want to add something you think I should check out or have something you would like to voice throw down a comment down below.

Monday, September 20, 2010

Evolution Of A Programmer

This was something I thought was a bit funny and thoughtful about programming. It's a list of different steps of programming and if you know even a little programming you should get the gist of it. Here it is: http://www.ariel.com.au/jokes/The_Evolution_of_a_Programmer.html.

If you would like to learn about programming I learned a lot from this pdf tutorial.
This is the site it comes from: http://www.isotton.com/devel/docs/lcpp/

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Listen To Any Song For Free With Grooveshark

Grooveshark is a site that works kind of the same way as Pandora Radio works but you can select the songs that you want to listen to and not just listen to things like your song played in a radio fashion. Grooveshark also has this feature but you need to turn it on. All you need to do is search and your ready to be listening in no time. Go there now and start listening to all of your favorite songs all at your fingertips.

Friday, September 17, 2010

Fix A Laptop Cable

Awhile back a friend of mine came over to my house with their puppy to just hang out for a bit. After they left I remember seeing my laptop cord was chewed on and went to see if it still worked but no luck on my part it was ruined. I was just going to buy a cord but they are so expensive and to make it a little worse my laptop only runs off the cord because the battery can't hold a charge anymore. But atlas I tried something that seemed worth a try and came out working just as before. Just the cord is a little patched up.

Things needed:
broken cord
wire cutter
razor/knife (to strip the wires if no tool for it)
electrical tape


The tools needed to fix the cord

First what you will need to do is use a wire cutter and cut the cord on both sides of the bad part on the wire. Then you need to strip the plastic outer coating off to show the wires inside. You can do this with a razor blade or a knife just try not to cut any of the wires on the inside when doing this.


Cords stripped and separated

Depending on which side of the cord is bad what you need to do is just tie the alike wires together (color coded or different styles). To tie the wires together you can use electrical tape. Just twist the wires together and then tape em' up. Tape the different sets of wires separate from each other. Once you are done with this you can tape all the wires together just make sure that none of the wires are showing through and can touch the other wires. This can short things out and then you would have to redo everything.


Cord all tied up with electrical tape

After everything is taped up it's ready to test it out and see if you have done it correctly. You may not want to have it plugged into your laptop on the first attempt to plug the cord into the wall. If everything is good no sparks or anything unusual you can then plug in to your laptop. If all is good you should see the lights come on to notify you that the computer is being charged. You are now done and have saved on a bit of money by not having to buy a new cord.


Up and running fine

Thursday, September 16, 2010

I'm Back :)

It's been a bit of a rough time trying to post stuff up on here due to the fact that I have not had a Internet connection other than my cell phone. Now I am back up and running and hope to be posting more frequently.

This is something that I found the other day and is pretty cool : http://wmi.math.u-szeged.hu/xaos/doku.php. It's a fractal zoomer but has many effects and such that you can change to however you like. Also it moves to the music that is playing on your computer too.