Carputers News and Computer Tips

IrfanView is a free image viewer and editor that we’ve used (and really enjoyed) since the Windows 95 days.  It is quick, light and easy to use.  This YouTube clip is a good basic tutorial on how to get started with IrfanView:

Samuel Dean has written a couple of great posts about IrfanView on the Web Worker Daily blog called IrfanView: Great Graphics On-the-Fly, and Free, and Tutorials and Plug-Ins for IrfanView–a Graphics Gem.

Ben Carigtan has written an outstanding tutorial called Photo sketch tutorial and swapping colors using IrfanView for the Online Tech Tips blog.

A Google search for IrfanView Tutorial will give you many more guides and tutorials to choose from. 

There are ads currently running on Craigslist selling TV on PC software for $9.95.  Why pay for what you can get for free? 

JLC’s Internet TV is a FREE program for watching and browsing thousands of TV channels freely available on the internet. It’s probably the biggest and most up to date database of channels ever, and users are able to submit, rate and flag channels.

Here’s a screenshot: (click image below to open enlarged in a new tab or window)

You definitely will not get the same channels or shows that your cable/satellite provider gets, but it is free.  It is worth a look.  Many of the available channels are from all over the world. 

We would also recommend downloading and installing VLC Player and then setting JLC’s Internet TV to use it (rather than Windows Media Player) by default.  To do this, click on Options, Settings in the Menu Bar.  When the Settings window opens, click on the Media Player tab at the top: 

As shown in the graphic above, make sure there’s a checkmark in the box labeled “Use VLC to play ALL streams“.

Online help, including a “Get started tutorial” is available here. 

You can also see the same channels right in your internet browser here.

See also our post titled Watch TV via the Internet.

This is a free office suite which will run on Windows 95 and newer Microsoft operating systems.  It consists of:

TextMaker for Windows - The Microsoft Word-compatible word processor that’s so easy to use that you’ll wonder why you bothered with Microsoft Word or OpenOffice.org for so long.

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PlanMaker for Windows - The Microsoft Excel-compatible spreadsheet that opens all your Excel workbooks directly and gives you many time-saving features.

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There is no presentation (PowerPoint-like) component.  Nonetheless, we are really liking this suite for its versatility and simplicity.  It is more capable than AbiWord and much lighter and quicker to open than OpenOffice.org or Lotus Symphony.

It also has another neat feature - after installation, a start menu link is created which allows the suite to be copied to a USB flash drive as a portable application.  You CAN take it with you!

Details and a download link can be found here.  The suite is fully-functional, non-crippled, and not time-limited.

After installation, click on Extras, Preferences…

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…and then click on the File tab at the top of the Preferences window.  The second drop-down menu (as shown below) allows the default file format to be set to your choice of Microsoft Office-compatible formats.  You’ll need to do this in both TextMaker and PlanMaker.

TextMaker documents will then be saved with a .doc extension, and PlanMaker spreadsheets will be saved with a .xls extension automatically by default so they can be shared with Microsoft Office users.

Edit 11/14/2008:

Lifehacker has discovered this suite!  Outstanding!  Maybe it will start getting the recognition it deserves!

Edit 01/08/2009:

The German company ashampoo GmbH & Co. KG SELLS this same suite for $49.99!  As we’ve asked before, why pay for what you can legitimately get for free?

Edit 04/21/2009:

Here’s a review, courtesy of Software In Review.

PC World reporter Christopher Null tried to buy a computer with Windows XP preinstalled on it from the United States’ nine biggest PC makers. His findings: You can get one, but be prepared to fib.

The biggest issue with “downgrading”, in our opinion?  Before trying (on your own) to replace a factory install of Vista with a retail copy of Windows XP, make sure that there are Windows XP drivers available for all of the hardware in your machine.  The first place to look would be the computer manufacturer’s website.  If you don’t find everything you need there, you could run a program like SIW to positively identify all of your hardware.  Once you have identified the hardware you can try to get drivers from the hardware manufacturer(s)… 

Here are two lists of web-based, no-install applications worth perusing and trying:

From the netHACKZ website, 15 Killer Web Apps That’ll Rock Your World, and from the SmashingApps website, 21 Online Free Web Based Applications That You Probably Would Love To Use Every Day!

Web-based applications are a double-edged sword of sorts.  They are platform-independent which makes them good for users of multiple computers and/or non-Microsoft operating systems.  They do require internet access, which makes it tough to be productive while offline.

There are still worth a look, in our humble opinion…

Edit 10/18/2008:

A recent post on The Emma Alvarez Site lists 55 Recommended Free Online Tools.   

Nelson Doyle, on Webupon:

Delivering the best of the best free music on the Internet is what these Top 45 Music websites are best known for and now, they are presented to music lovers the world over as an easy reference guide to bookmark.

In addition, Mashable has compiled a list of 30+ awesome streaming music sites along with a list of 30+ sites for free, legal music downloads we know you’ll enjoy.

Regardless of your choice or taste, what would life be like without music?  Getting it free is the icing on the cake!

Edit 08/31/2008:

Lee Mathews from Download Squad offers up 35 Places To Download Free, Legal MP3s - Sorry, RIAA!

Edit 01/04/2009:

The makeuseof.com blog offers up their choices for The Best Sites To Download Free Music. 

Laura Milligan writes on the Teaching Tips blog:

Beyond Google, Wikipedia and other generic reference sites, the Internet boasts a multitude of search engines, dictionaries, reference desks and databases that have organized and archived information for quick and easy searches. In this list, we’ve compiled just 100 of our favorites, for teachers, students, hypochondriacs, procrastinators, bookworms, sports nuts and more.

If you’re an information junkie, there’s much here to be had…

Edit 08/02/2008:

Laura has also written an article listing 50 Awesome Search Engines Every Librarian Should Know About.  It is linked here because we feel that even non-librarians should find these search engines useful. 

Here’s a classic example of why - an article that makes for an interesting read.

What happened when ‘Penelope Retch’ answered her spam e-mail… What would be the experience in 10 countries when everyday people, armed with a PC and e-mail account McAfee provided for the Global S.P.A.M. Diaries project, clicked through the spam and chronicled the results?

We’ve found the best anti-spam measure (besides being very careful about giving out your email address) is a free GMail account from Google.  You can use it to check and filter almost any other email account you may have, and their spam filter is the most effective we’ve ever seen or used.

If you want to try this, but need help setting it up, contact us!  We’d be happy to help!