Carputers News and Computer Tips

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!

Actually, it has been out of beta for about a month.

IBM says:

IBM Lotus Symphony tools enable users to create, edit and share word processing documents, spreadsheets and presentations.

This is a free office suite that, while not as feature-rich as OpenOffice, is still more than most home users will ever need. It will save in MS Office 2003 (and previous) formats. It is supported on XP and Vista, and a couple of different flavors of Linux.

Here’s the direct download link…

After you’ve installed it, setting it up to save in Microsoft Office-compatible formats is easy.  Open IBM Lotus Symphony, and select File, Preferences from the Menu Bar:

After the Preferences window opens, expand the IBM Lotus Symphony tree in the left pane by clicking the “plus-in-a-box”, and then click File Type Association as shown below:

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Select Microsoft Office from the drop-down labeled Select the file types to automatically create with IBM Lotus Symphony.  Then click the Apply and OK buttons.  Documents, spreadsheets, and presentations that you create with IBM Lotus Symphony will then be saved automatically in formats (.doc, .xls, .ppt) that will allow you to share them with users of Microsoft Office.

IBM also has short online streaming video tutorials on how to use IBM Lotus Symphony Document, Presentation, and Spreadsheet applications.  The main page containing these tutorials in different downloadable formats can be found here.

The IBM Lotus Symphony Help Page has links to longer slideshow-type tutorials, reference cards, and other information. 

Curtis Franklin, Jr. wrote an IBM Lotus Symphony review (the article also reviews OpenOffice.org, Google Docs, and Zoho and includes a slideshow…) for InfoWorld that can be found here. 

Newsday’s Lou Dolinar wrote a short review as well.

The Investintech website (this company sells PDF conversion software) recently posted a good article about free MS Word alternatives - including web-based applications.   

Those of you that are running the free (and pay) versions of AVG 7.5 are probably getting messages about upgrading to version 8.0.  Virus definition updates and support for the free version of AVG 7.5 will end as of 05/31/2008. There is a free version of AVG 8.0, but it is not easy to find, and the update messages steer free users towards the pay version.

The free version of AVG 8.0 is available from this web page. Use the second link down, which will pull the file directly from AVG’s servers.

It is strongly recommended that, when installing AVG 8.0 Free, a custom (rather than default) install is selected.  We would suggest NOT installing the “Web Shield” nor the “AVG Security Toolbar”.  Users have reported better performance without having these options installed.  

As always, if you need assistance or have questions about securing and protecting your computer or network, contact us!  We’d be happy to be of assistance! 

Samer (creator of the most excellent Freewaregenius blog) did a recent comparison of many of the free applications that can be used to convert .pdf files into editable MS Word .doc files.  His verdict?  Online service Koolwire did the best job overall.

This serves not only as an informational presentation about good office freeware but also as a test of a new Google Docs feature that allows Powerpoint presentations to be imbedded in blogs and webpages. Note that the three suites mentioned (OpenOffice.org, StarOffice and IBM Lotus Symphony) that can create presentations will all save those presentations in .ppt format. In fact, the presentation shown was created in StarOffice using a free downloaded template before being uploaded to Google Docs.

A full-screen version of this presentation is available here for those that are interested.

Need more information? Here’s a great article from PC Magazine on The Best Office Alternatives.

Edit 11/22/2008: 

Google has dropped StarOffice from the Google Pack, with no explanation as to why. 

To make your life easier, check out this list of 101 tools from the Codswallop blog that will allow you to convert just about anything.

Etan Horowitz writes for the Orlando Sentinel newspaper.  His column for Saturday, July 7 listed three free alternatives to Microsoft Office.

“OpenOffice.org is downloadable software that is nearly identical to Office.  The programs have catchy names “Writer” for word processing, “Calc” for spreadsheets, and “Impress” for presentations.  If everyone had to create PowerPoint-like presentations using a program called “Impress,” I think we’d all be better off.  I was able to do virtually everything I could do in Office, such as create pivot tables from spreadsheets and add animations to slides.  If you want free software that operates the most like Microsoft Office, this is it.”  

Mr. Horowitz is absolutely correct in his assessment, in our humble opinion.  OpenOffice.org is the ticket, and it can be downloaded for free by clicking this button:

Be sure to see our post on Configuring the OpenOffice.org suite for use in a Microsoft Office world for instructions on how to easily set OpenOffice.org up to save files in the default Microsoft formats.  This will make it much easier to exchange files with Microsoft Office users.

All modern flavors of Windows ship with Notepad and Wordpad.  For some, who prefer to keep things simple, these are all the writing or word processing applications that are necessary or needed.  Others will need more features and horsepower in a word processing application. 

We like OpenOffice Writer as a free alternative to Microsoft Word.  The only problem with Writer is that you must install the entire OpenOffice suite to get it.  Another popular free standalone alternative is Abiword. 

The DonationCoder website recently posted a comprehensive review of modern word processing applications.  It was  written by Zaine Ridling, who runs The Great Software List.  The ending summary is linked here for those who wish to “cut to the chase”. 

The Web Worker Daily blog has also recently posted an article listing 10 free minimalist word processors for greater productivity.  In their words, “if you don’t need a million features and don’t want to shell out 400 clams to write something, give one of these great alternatives a spin”.

We couldn’t have said it any better ourselves…