PCWorld.ca had an article about how to do things faster on your computer:
22 smarter, more efficient ways to make short work of common tech tasks–from reinstalling Windows to crushing spyware to setting up a Web site.
security4web has a nice list of suggestions to protect your child online (follow the link to read the entire 19-point list):
- Be aware of cyberspace threats! Learn about all risks children may face while surfing on the Internet and start educating them on how to protect themselves online.
- Talk to your children about dangers they can encounter as long as they are online. Do not be reluctant to subjects such as sexuality, pornography or pedophiles. Do not consider them taboo.
- Make sure your children know that not everything they read on the Internet is true and accurate.

I heard about YouGetSignal.com from Chris…
The best way to learn about the tools is to visit the site and try them. The reason why we came across the site is that we were trying to determine what sites were on a web server (to determine how loaded or overloaded the server is). The tool is the “Reverse IP Domain Check”. For instance, I did a search on my PCIN.net domain, and found that the IP address of my server (66.98.222.18) has 177 different sites hosted (seems excessive to me!).

I used to use AVG on my computer, but then learned about Avira Antivir. There is a free version of this which apparently is the best/most effective free antivirus out there. The only drawback is that every day there is a huge pop-up asking you to buy the full product. I did a quick search and came across a document that explains how to stop the “notify” program from running. I haven’t tried it yet, but I link to it for your reference…

There are lots of free image recovery software titles out there. I couldn’t figure out how companies could still be charging for their products when the free ones are great. Lexar was one of those companies still selling, but for now (I don’t know if it is permanent), they are offering their product for free if you purchase one of their memory cards. However, the link is open to all:
Product Highlights
- Recovers photo, video, and audio files from any brand or type of memory card, using any card reader
- Recovers popular file formats, including JPEG, TIFF, RAW, MP4, AVI, and more
- Redesigned interface and simple recovery process
- Live online chat link to Lexar support engineers
- Includes card reformatting, secure deletion, and overall card health check features
- Works with PC or Mac
Download Squad has a nice posting with information about several Photoshop alternatives such as:
- GIMP
- Paint.NET
- ArtWeaver
- Photofiltre
- VicMan’s Photo Editor
In the comments, there are also some other alternatives mentioned.

From Download Squad:
What could be better than a program that will convert audio, video, and image files from and to just about any format you can think of? How about one that does it all batch-style with minimal clicking? FormatFactory doesn’t care what files you want to swap in what order, just feed it your sources and watch it go to work. Unlike a lot of similar apps, this one doesn’t limit you to only video or audio, or even to one file at a time.Dump in as much as you want of whatever you want, and FormatFactory will do all the heavy lifting. It even supports the iPhone and PSP, and 3GP as well - making it a great way to cram multiformat goodness onto your favorite portable player.
This posting is from almost a month ago, and I finally got around to trying it last night. It’s great! It converted a video for me in just a few seconds. I also tried a WAV to MP3 converstion and it only took a few seconds as well.
None of the download links on the site itself worked, so I did a search for the program and found it easily.
Recent Comments