Computer Chit Chat

Archive for the ‘Software’ Category

A recent encounter with a virus took my computer out of commission for almost a week. We actually had to wipe the hard drive and start from scratch. Good thing I only had the desktop and not a network of computers or I’d have really been in trouble.

GFI gave me a heads up on their new product, GFI Languard. GFI Languard is a network security scanner suitable for networks of all sizes including soho (small office - home office) such as the one I’d like to create in the future. This product has won awards year after year since 2002. It’s no wonder it is considered the #1 Windows commercial security scanner (voted by Nmap users for two years running).

What GFI LANguard does is scan the entire network for computers and then scan the computers for areas vulnerable to attack. Once the network scan is complete the software creates a report of which computers are vulnerable, what the vulnerabilities are and what the solutions are to those problems. Once you’ve got the report you can apply service packs, updates, patches as well as address other issues immediately with a couple of clicks.

I was fascinated by how many things a LANguard network audit can reveal, including which machines have weak passwords, where USB devices are connected, where unauthorized software was installed and what hardware has been added or removed since your previous audit. It will also tell you hardware specifics including memory, processors, display adapters, storage devices, motherboard details, printers, and ports in use.

GFI LANguard is available for companies with ten or more ip addresses and can be purchased directly from GFI or through one of their resellers. GFI recently announced that a fully functioning freeware version that will scan up to 5 ip addresses is available.

• One person can be in more than one place at a time
• Pragma. A pragmatic solution.
• The cost of software

Everyone likes free stuff, don’t they? Giveaway of the Day is a site that offers a different licensed software download every day. The titles are only available for free for one day. There’s no way to get advance notice of what title is going to be given away next so you need to check the site daily to see what they’ve got for that day. It’s a neat site and I’ve found some terrific software there. Check it out and let me know what you think.

• 25 free magnets
• HP offering free online classes
• Sumo Paint

Do you use several chat clients? I’ve been signed up for AIM for nearly forever, and for ICQ for almost just as long. I can also use Google Talk. I’ve been asked to chat using MSN and declined because I didn’t want to have yet another chat client open. Pidgin alleviates that problem. Pidgin is a free, open source, universal chat client all of the popular clients that you’ve heard of such as AIM, ICQ, Google Talk, Jabber, IRC, MSN Messenger and Yahoo as well as a bunch of other clients I’m not familiar with. In the Windows environment, Pidgin sits in the system tray. Once you download Pidgin you can log in to all of your chat networks at once. Neat!

• Color picker Firefox addon
• Create free online invoices
• Pixel Pick, a free color coding tool

SUMO Paint is free software that allows users to create and edit images online. The application opens in your browser. The software does offer support for layers and filters. I was surprised to see that it offers many of the same tools as expensive image editing software, such as shape tools, a brush tool, an ink tool, a text tool, a stamp tool, an eraser tool, a gradient tool, shape tools, a magic wand tool, a lasso tool, a line tool and a curve tool, just to name some.

• The cost of software
• Places to find free pictures to use on your blog
• Work smarter and healthier with Dragon

I get a newsletter by email from HP every once in a while. In the edition that I got this week some free online classes were mentioned. Expecting to find only one or two, I was pleasantly surprised to find a lot more. The HP Learning Center offers courses on Microsoft Office, Adobe and Macromedia titles, as well as servers, pcs, networking, operating systems, programming, internet and graphics. There are also courses for business skills. I’m going to check a couple of them out.

• The cost of software
• 25 free magnets
• Looking for a free alternative to Office?

I’ve had to use a computer for work for over fifteen years now. It’s become a necessity in the office, helping in productivity, accuracy and potential. While there’s not a computer in every home yet I do think we’re heading in that direction. With people like myself working at least eight hours a day on the computer, I think companies need to look into ways to make computer use safer and healthier for employees.

Here’s a quick video showing Dragon in action.

Several years ago I was diagnosed with carpal tunnel syndrome in both my right and left hands. After several cortisone shots didn’t help I ended up having to have the surgery on my right hand. In the past month or two my left hand has started flaring up a lot. By lunch my fingers would be turning numb and by the end of the day my hands  burning in pain. I reopened the workers comp case and the doctor asked me to try physical therapy and refitting my work station. It was at this time that I realized that the software Dragon Naturally Speaking would not only be extremely beneficial for me but it could reshape the workplace as we know it if used on a widespread basis.Dragon Naturally Speaking is a speech recognition application that works with many of today’s popular applications. When paired with a noise cancelling microphone and headset, Dragon can transcribe your spoken word at a speed of about 150 words per minute. An average person only types about 40 words per minute. On a good day when I’m not in pain I can only type at about 65-70 words per minute, so it’s easy to see how Dragon could save a lot of time in an employee’s day and increase productivity. To get a glimpse of what I mean, try taking Dragon’s typing speed test! .

Dragon Naturally Speaking has been around for years and is known worldwide. Besides being a powerful piece of software, it is also the engine underneath the Macintosh software MacSpeech Dictate. Both of these products are ready to use out of the box with no expensive training.

I think that if companies offered use of a product such as Dragon they would end up saving money over time, not only because employees would be more productive but also because they could save money on some workers comp related expenses. Dragon would be a very useful tool for home computer users as well. Bloggers are a perfect example. Many bloggers such as myself spend a lot of time online - their blog is an online home of sorts and the internet and other bloggers are neighborhoods and communities.If a blogger used Dragon they’d be more productive, leaving them time to do other things (or blog some more). I’d save hours if I used this to work on my blogs. I can only imagine how nice it would be to sit back and talk instead of type. Check out video of Brett, a fellow blogger, using Dragon Naturally Speaking 10 outside. How cool is that!

I’d give just about anything to use Dragon. My Compaq desktop can’t run it, but my MacBook Pro could run the MacSpeech Dictate. Now all I have to do is save up the money.

• How Dragon Naturally Speaking increases earnings and pays for itself
• Journyx, free time and expense management software
• Looking for a free alternative to Office?

I got an email from my host a while back to check out BambooInvoice and I’ve finally gotten around to it. BambooInvoice is a site where you can create client invoices online. The site is based on open source code and was made with the small business owner in mind and is free to use. After registering for an account you can customize your business and invoice settings - things like company name and info, logo, currency and tax info. From the main screen, or root, you can view all invoices, drilling down to show open, closed and overdue. From that same screen you can view all clients. Users can even generate some simple sales and revenue reports. I think the site is extremely easy to use and would be helpful to anyone that has the need to create invoices.

• MyPictureTown
• 25 free magnets
• So many menus

Have you ever been writing something or working on a website and wondered what the finished results would look like complete with text? If you use Microsoft Office you don’t have to wonder. There’s a way you can enter “dummy text” effortlessly. It’s great if you’re working on a newsletter. Depending on which version of Word you’re using you can type one of a couple of things into your document.

Word 2003, Word 2002, Word 2000, or in Word 97 for Windows.
Type =rand() and press enter in your Word document and you’ll get a paragraph of five sentences. Each sentence will read The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. You can put numbers inside the parentheses to obtain the output you desire. P is for number of paragraphs and l is for the number of lines per paragraph.

Word 2007 actually has three options.
Option one. Type rand() and then enter and you will get three paragraphs containing three sentences each. The text will come from Microsoft help files. Again, placing p and l inside the parentheses directs how many paragraphs and/or lines you want output.
Option two. Type rand.old and then enter and you will get three paragraphs containing three sentences each. Each sentence will read The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. Again, placing p and l inside the parentheses directs how many paragraphs and/or lines you want output.
Option three. Type =lorem() and then enter and you will get three paragraphs of Latin text beginning with the words Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet. Once again, placing p and l inside the parentheses directs how many paragraphs and/or lines you want output.

That’s it. Let me know if you find it useful!

• How to keep notes in Wordpress
• How to adjust what appears in the content of your rss feed
• How to embed a video in a Wordpress post

Many people are interested in managing their time and maximizing their income. If they aren’t they should be, because time truly is money. Expenses are also a part of money that it’s crucial to track. That’s what makes Journyx Timesheet such a great find. Journyx offers a free online time and expense management solution that can be used by anywhere from one to ten users. Because it’s a software solution, there are no more books and ledgers to keep, so you’ll save money on those items and the man hours it took to use them. Even if you have some one tracking all of this info in Excel it’s a good idea to check it out. If you use Journyx you’ll be freeing up yourExcel guru’s time to work on other projects.

You can do a lot of things with Journyx. Yes, Journyx manages payroll functions such as employee timesheets, attendance and vacations. But Journyx can also mange projects, expenses and client invoicing. To better understand what Jourynx does you really need to sign up for the free demo like I did. After downloading the complete version for free you can log in and play. Go ahead! Give it a test drive. Create a test project. While ideal for people that are self employed or those that own small businesses, Journyx could be used by any individual wanting to be more efficient and manage time better. Even bloggers can make great use of it to track how much time they spend working on their blog.

If you want to read about some , just visit their website.

• The cost of software
• Work smarter and healthier with Dragon
• How do you sell online?

I received an email asking me for a little help understanding the menus within applications. Let me see what I can do to help.

Sometimes people get a little confused within an application because there are so many things going on. If you’re not familiar it could be a little intimidating. I remember when I first started using a computer I broke into a sweat anytime I opened most applications. It all looked so confusing because I hadn’t seen it before, and because I didn’t understand what it was that I was looking at. I recently received a question asking me about the different menus within an application. I’m going to do my best to explain what it is you’re seeing in there.

When you open an application, across the top of the screen you see the menu bar. All of the application’s menus are located within the menu bar. When you click or hover over one of the menus there, you will find a list of options or commands that can be chosen. Next to many of them you will see their corresponding keyboard shortcut. If you learn the keyboard shortcuts for the tasks you do the most you will find you aren’t in the menus nearly as much. Within the menus there is another menu called Toolbars. When you check an item a toolbar containing the commands from that menu will appear at the top of your screen. Toolbars can be customized to contain just the buttons you want by clicking the little arrow on the side of the toolbar. I love to have the formatting toolbar visible whenever possible.

That’s just a small dent in the big pile of information pertaining to menus. If you’re looking for something specific let me know and I’ll do my best to help.

• Shortcuts
• Sumo Paint
• Work smarter and healthier with Dragon