Carputers News and Computer Tips

Cameron Chapman (who is one of our favorite writers about things online) recently wrote an outstanding article for the Webdesigner Depot website entitled How to Find Anything Online: Become an Internet Research Expert.  He notes:

…with the Internet, almost anything you could ever want to know is at your fingertips. You just have to learn how to access it.

We agree wholeheartedly and have found this to be the case.  We blogged three years ago this month about the American Library Association’s Best Free Reference Web Sites. 

Mr. Ms. Chapman’s article gives tips and sites that, while they will not make you an immediate expert at research, will enable you to expand and practice your search technique.  It is a definite keeper!

While you’re flying this holiday season (through 01/15/2010), you can enjoy free WiFi at 47 participating airports, courtesy of Google…

Edit 12/23/2009:

PC World and Yahoo News feature a list of chain restaurants which offer free WiFi.

Many free software programs are licensed for home, non-commercial, or non-business use only.  Our Links to Free Software page contains a note about this which states:

Some free software licenses stipulate home or personal use only - read the license agreements and let your conscience be your guide…

Here is a well-researched, two-page long list of software applications that may legitimately be used in a business setting over at the Donation Coder forums. In this age of doing more with less, I thought that blogging it would be appropriate.

As always, if you aren’t sure what you need, contact us!  We’ll be happy to help!

Actually, school here in metro Birmingham, AL has been back in session since mid-August.  However, since this is Labor Day weekend with tomorrow being the “traditional” start of school for many, we thought we’d note some resources that would be useful for students and parents.

The first is a post we wrote a couple of years ago about web-based applications for students.

The second is an article written for Mashable by Josh Catone entitled Back to School: 15 Essential Web Tools for Students.  He writes:

“From staying organized to improving study habits to making sure you reference your research sources properly, the web can help you be a better student.”

The third is a call from blogger Bill Mullins urging High School/College Students (to) Line Up Here for Your Free PC Software.  Bill’s picks are, in his words:

“…recommended free downloads that will help you communicate, get those assignments done, have some fun, and manage and protect your system while you’re surfing the Internet.”

Bill mentions Open Office in his picks.  We’ve pointed out several Microsoft Office Alternatives over the last few years.  As we’ve said before, “free is good”, especially in this day and time of belt-tightening.

Looking for other sources for legitimate, free software?  We maintain a list on out links pages!

Here are two sets of picks for the best websites of 2009 - one from Time Magazine, and one from PC Magazine.  The latter also features a downloadable application that will add add all 100 sites to your IE Favorites (you can also export them to Firefox).

We’ll edit this post whenever more lists come out between now and the end of 2009.

Edit 10/30/2009:

techradar.com has a six page list entitled 95 Websites You Should Totally Bookmark Today that is worth a read.

We blogged on this about a year ago.  Recently, v3.co.uk made a full, commercial version of Ashampoo Burning Studio 2009 available for free download.

Nero has also made a free version of Nero 9 available, though this version is somewhat feature-limited.  Download Squad’s Lee Mathews doesn’t care for it, and we can agree with the negative aspects that he pointed out about this application.

UsefulUtils Discs Studio is a free and lightweight disc burning software program for most Windows operating systems including Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7. The website is in Russian by default, but clicking the British flag in the upper right corner will change the page to read in English.  This program has a ton of features generally not found in other free burning software.

We love GMail!  We’ve used it since it became available, and recommend it highly.  Recently, Google put together and posted a series of tips and a printable guide on becoming a GMail Ninja:

Learn tips and tricks to save time, increase your productivity, and manage your email efficiently. Start with the tips that are right for you, based on how much email you get each day.

Looking for even more tips?  Techradar recently featured 14 tips and tricks to buff up your Gmail skills.  If Gmail is your preferred client, these tips will help you get the best from it.

Is GMail not your thing? There are many other free email providers.  Here’s a comparison of free online mail services from the Freeware Elite blog. 

As always, we’ll be happy to help if you have PC-related questions or issues.  Contact us if we can be of assistance!

Edit 09/05/2009:

Courtesy of Lee Mathews and Download Squad, here are 11 useful Windows apps that tie in to your GMail account.

Edit 12/24/2009:

Here are 20 Essential Gmail Tips You Probably Don’t Use (but should!) courtesy of MaximumPC magazine.

Ashampoo Office 2008 is a “rebranded” version of SoftMaker Office 2008.  We blogged about SoftMaker Office 2006 last year, and noted that the freeware 2006 version did an excellent job with word processing and spreadsheets but did not include a presentation (PowerPoint-like) application.

Ashampoo/SoftMaker Office 2008 corrects this with a very capable presentation application that can also utilize templates originally created for PowerPoint.

Softpedia posted an article earlier this spring detailing how to buy a copy of Ashampoo Office 2008 for $4.99.  From that article, here is a direct link to Ashampoo’s offer.

The second link on the left side of that Ashampoo offer (the first black button) says “Download 30 days free full version HERE”  Clicking that link in turn takes you to a CNET download.com page where the installation file can be downloaded and saved.

According to the Planete Beranger blog, A full license key to turn this 30-day version of Ashampoo Office 2008 into a full, non-time limited version can be obtained from Ashampoo by filling out this form using a valid email address.

Once you’ve obtained your key from Ashampoo via email, go ahead and run the installation file you downloaded from CNET download.com.  Enter the name, email address, and serial number you received from Ashampoo in their reply email when prompted.  After the installation is complete, download and install SoftMaker’s service pack from here, which will make sure your Ashampoo/SoftMaker Office 2008 installation is fully up-to-date.

Here’s how to make this very capable office suite save files in Microsoft Office (.doc, .xls, .ppt) formats automatically. You’ll need to do this in all three (TextMaker 2008, PlanMaker 2008, and Presentations 2008) programs.

After installation, click on Tools, Options… in the menu bar…

…and and then click on the Files tab at the top of the Options window.

The drop-down menu labeled Default file format (as shown above) allows the default file format to be set to your choice of Microsoft Office-compatible formats.

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

Hopefully these links will all last.  Either deal - free or five bucks - is pretty hard to beat for what you get.  Take advantage of it before Ashampoo does away with it.

Edit 07/19/2009:

InfoWorld says:

“ SoftMaker Office 2008 shows superior compatibility with Microsoft Office formats, while OpenOffice.org 3.1 falls flat”

The For Free On Internet blog also has a recent post about how to get Ashampoo Office 2008 for free.

Edit 10/12/2009:

Here’s a video review and tutorial for Ashampoo Office 2008 courtesy of infopackets.com:

p>

The newest version of this free office suite was released June 10.  As shown in the screenshot below, it will now open/import Microsoft Office 2007 files and templates:

Here are links to our previous posts on using and configuring this very capable free office suite:

• Our first IBM Lotus Symphony post, from about a year ago…

• Our post about major IBM Lotus Symphony updates

• IBM Lotus Symphony “how-tos” can be found here.

Edit 06/19/2009:

Amy Vernon wrote about Lotus Symphony 1.3 over at HotHardware.  She notes that according to an IBM press release there are several large companies that are using this free alternative to Microsoft Office…

Edit 10/30/2009:

Courtesy of the Lotus Symphony wiki, here are all of IBM’s Lotus Symphony education offerings.  These include Getting Started pages, Online courses, Reference Cards, and short “show me” videos.  We’ve mentioned some of these in previous Lotus Symphony posts.

Samer writes for the freewaregenius blog:

Avira Antivir, Avast, or AVG… are (all) very worthy contenders that can hold their own or surpass any heavyweight for-pay antivirus; however Anitvir and Avast are definitely in the first tier, while AVG is a close second tier.

We concur with this analysis, and are currently recommending Avira Antivir for home users.

And, as always, if you need help or advice with antivirus or any other computer-related issues, contact us!  We’ll be happy to be of assistance!

Edit 09/05/2009:

Can You Trust Free Antivirus Software?  This article from a recent issue of PCWorld Magazine also rates Avira highly.  They also have a ranking chart for side-by-side comparison.