A few of you were concerned I was gone for good, but no, I was at a DefragOhio Conference in Lorain Ohio. I and my wife (Respect2Glory) were busy promoting PBwiki at the conference. We plan on attending another conference sometime in July, but this will be in Youngstown, Ohio. We would like to meet you if you're in the area. We'll check with Val about a restaurant to meet at, before or after the conference, and the time will be posted in the newsletter beforehand.
WELCOME TO DEFRAG OHIO. WELCOME TO THE FUTURE!
Get connected to Ohio's digital media industry. Build your network and advance Ohio's participation in the multi-billion dollar global industry in digital media development in modeling, narrowcasting, simulation and 3-D visualization.
I sometimes get the inside scoop on things here at PBwiki, but this one caught me by surprise. PBwiki has added a new plug-in to their already cool WysiWyg editor ( Point and Click editor ). This plug-in puts an Adobe Flash voice chat widget in your wiki. That means there is no installation needed for visitors since nearly everyone on the net has Adobe Flash already installed.
If you have a microphone and speakers, just click this image to chat with us.
Here you can see how easy it was for me to add this plug-in to my wiki.
“There is something magical about hearing someone else’s voice,” said Ramit Sethi, PBwiki co-founder. “It takes collaboration to an entirely different level.”
Dr. BJ Fogg said, “Voice builds unity.”
To use the widget, sign up for a PBwiki at http://www.pbwiki.com, click the edit button on any page on your wiki, and insert the Walkie Talkie plugin.
If you sign up for a free PBwiki website here, you could be chatting with your friends and family at your own personal website in no time at all. If you have any questions about PBwiki, just comment below. Be sure to leave your email address. Your address won't be visible to anyone but me.
Don't forget that FreewareArena.com is one of the safest places online to get good freeware. Here is a program that Scott likes. Maybe you will like it too.
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Quote from the website
XP SysPad Editor's Pick
Description
Provide easy access to Windows System utilities!
XP SysPad is a launcher which makes access to Windows system utilities its specialty. All of the prime Windows system info and utilites such as the individual control panel applets, can be launched with the click of one button, which makes it easier than hunting around the explorer pane or waiting for menus to fold out. For convenience, it also can minimize itself to the system tray. It launches over 100 functions in all!
The program is very small with a minute memory footprint, and makes no changes to your system registry whatsoever and comes with uninstaller."
I often scout out the alt.comp.freeware newsgroup and I sometimes see things there I'd never heard of. I've tried Ubuntu linux live CD before, but this installer called Wubi sounds much better. Here's a portion of the thread at alt.comp.freeware.
SueDoeCyAnts:
A bit of a warning though:
Base executible size is about 9mb, but the install program is going to load a whole CD ISO before completion.
that's 600+ mb, so broadband only, and make sure its running smooth.
Bear Bottoms:
It is a nice approach over Live CD's. I installed it a few days ago and it is working well. I like it so far over Ubuntu's live CD as I can do more things, go back to Windows, and come back to Ubuntu and everything is still there. I'm still working with it, so I haven't come to a final conclusion about it though.
I was using Ubuntu's Live CD the other day, and the power went off. I lost everything I had been doing before I had a chance to try it, and would have had to start all over. That was a bit frustrating.
If you are not sold on Windows Vista, you need to begin scoping out alternatives. Presently this pretty much means linux for those who do not wish to switch to Apple propriety systems. It also seems that Ubuntu offers the easiest route for those who are not comfortable with the command line.
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Wubi is an unofficial Ubuntu installer for Windows users that will bring you into the Linux world with a few clicks. Wubi allows you to install and uninstall Ubuntu as any other application. If you heard about Linux and Ubuntu, if you wanted to try them but you were afraid, this is for you.
Ron wrote in with this great review. So, who is Ron?
I built my first computer thirty years ago based on a 6502 assembly chip. Programs were written in BASIC. Now I use commercial software, but at heart I'm a freeware junkie. It's always a pleasure to find free software that can give a commercial application a run for its money!
From 2 Penny Ron:
KompoZer — A Freeware WYSIWYG Editor
Web site building tools fall naturally into three varieties: text-only HTML-editors, editors that combined a graphic WYSIWIG view with a code view, and those there were purely graphic, for users who shied away from HTML. Each type of site editor had its own audience, die-hard programmers, part-time Webmasters, or graphic designers.
The nice thing about the Internet is the ability for anyone to post a personal page or whatever without too much trouble. Many times, ISPs supply their subscribers with on-line tools/page builders which allow you to work within their defined parameters, but this doesn't quite give you complete control over your content. However, there are users that need more than on-line builder pages.
WYSIWYG
What You See Is What You Get - this is a term used for web-content (typically) editors that allow you to edit the final rendered page as it would appear to your end-viewers. Pretty cool really, so there is reassurance that what you are editing will look the same to your Internet audience - - browser differences aside (for now).
Mozilla has always had an editor that was built-in with their browser products. Netscape had one as part of their package (based off of Mozilla's code), and Microsoft Word can edit/create HTML files (after injecting their own coding and tags. Tools are available to clean them up).
Enter Nvu
In early 2004, the search for a free WYSIWYG editor appeared to be over with the release of NVU, a tool based off of the Netscape editor code. Nvu was easy to use, had not only a huge number of easy-to-use features, but included a preview, tag, and HTML source editor pane - all very easy to navigate. In mid-2005, Nvu's 1.0 development pretty much died, with the original developer moving on to other projects, leaving Nvu with some needed bug fixes and enhancements for others to deal with. Another group took on the challenge, and released KompoZer not long after.
KompoZer, built on the NVU architecture, is a good free option that is beginning to approach the functionality of Dreamweaver. KompoZer is a very easy to use HTML editor, with the added benefit of being able to see what you are editing as it would appear to the person viewing the page on the Internet (for the most part, since some browsers display content differently than others). The project strives to fix bugs in the NVU project and added new features to it.
The interface is different than Dreamweaver’s, but it should still feel familiar. Major editing buttons live in a three-tier toolbar at the top of the program that includes a one-click Publishing icon as well as one-click buttons for Image insertion and Table and Form creation. Font tweaks like Size and Style live in toolbars just below for easy HTML editing. A Site Manager, including File tree, is anchored on the left, although it can be collapsed. KompoZer seems to compete more than adequately with better-known competitors.
The Basics
Creating a new page and setting up tables, colored fonts, images, within that page is remarkably easy to do. There is a built-in forms tool, which helps you develop simple user interfaces (like dropdown lists and text input boxes)–in addition to including the ability to manipulate just about every single property available for whatever it is that you are double-clicking (images, tables, etc.). Also included is support for CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), so if a user is up for it, she/he can start coding page attributes for a more dynamic experience!
KompoZer offers the ability to upload and publish your pages directly through the toolbar using the built-in FTP interface - akin to FrontPage, Dreamweaver, and others. You can manage your pages using the Site Manager feature. This allows you to associate resources like images and HTML pages into a single project–making it easier to find what you are looking for when creating links to your other pages. KompoZer can, with some work, be customized with some XUL (eXtensible User interface Language) and JavaScript coding.
A very good (and free) FTP program for uploading files is FileZilla.
KompoZer is still a little buggy, but not nearly so much as Nvu. It’s fine for quick results, but if you need to work in ASP, then PSPad is a fine choice http://www.pspad.com/
Currently, the best sources for KompoZer information are in the Nvu forums and pages.
Mitch Keeler over at Lockergnome.com seems to only write about free software. I like that. He also writes pretty good reviews. Take a look at this little program that Mitch wrote about last week.
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Need yet another powerful alternative to WinZip for zipping and unzipping your files? Well I can give you one, and I’ll even do it for free. While looking for other good zipping programs that have not gotten a lot of press, I found ZipGenius. I might be able to say it is one of the best (if not the best) free zip program out there today.
I love Sourceforge.net. They've got tons of freeware and it changes all the time. Almost everytime I go there I find a new tool I didn't know about before. Here's one I ran into last week.
Go ahead! Click on one of the songs in the list to see and hear it in action.
Quote from the website
XSPF Web Music Player is a flash-based web application that uses xspf playlist format to play mp3 songs. XSPF is the XML Shareable Playlist Format. The software is written in Actionscript 2.
What is Clickster ? The answer to this question is simple. Clickster is a safe and legal option for searching and downloading Mp3 music files from the Internet without the negative impact of being prosecuted by the ruthless RIAA ( Recording Industry Association of America ). The RIAA is currently engaged in the business of tracking down P2P users who share illegal music files. The RIAA is determined to spank the P2P / BitTorrent network into submission - making peoples lives miserable with their hard core anti-piracy practices. According to the RIAA, get caught downloading material that is protected under the copyright infringement act and you will face the music in court.
( pun-intended )
There are literally tons of Mp3's already available on the Internet - it's just a matter of locating them. This tidy StandAlone application performs it's magic by searching the net for Mp3 files employing several databases, Altavista and a couple of smaller search engines to find Mp3's that are indexed in the "http communications protocol." The developer plans on incorporating Google in future build releases. A little known fact, Google has more Mp3's indexed than all the P2P networks combined.
Out of concern over the legal aspects, I contacted the developer questioning the legalities involved using this software and how the RIAA would respond when they catch wind of the 'Clickster'.
This is what he had to say :
"I am expecting some grief from the RIAA and their partners in the UK and Europe over Clickster. But with there being nothing illegal passe within Clickster, it's difficult to see what, if anything they can do to me...except threaten and moan. Current legislation both within in the States and Europe does not make provision for it to be illegal to download copyrighted material...if it was then every user of YouTube would be breaking the law whenever they access a pop-video. It's the sharing/distribution of material which is illegal and while I guess a few webmasters could be prosecuted for hosting mp3 files, that's about it. The RIAA currently attempts to block the Ports used by BitTorrent and P2P networks, Clickster uses Port 80. As I'm sure you are aware, Port 80 is the main Internet traffic port and blocking this results in a total block of all Internet traffic, which is obviously not an option." Point well taken - my emphasis.
If the RIAA wants to put an end to downloading they will have to destroy the Internet altogether, and that's highly improbable. Being a musician myself, I have seen the music industry heading in the wrong direction for years. I will spare you the torture of going into great lengths babbling about my own personal views regarding the recording industries despicable (shameful) treatment of the artist and their fans. I will say this, the RIAA is a depository of the greediest people known to mankind. They have in effect given the artist a bad name. The wave of upcoming artist's are taking a new novel approach by eliminating the middleman. By promoting a few tasty numbers as free downloads, if the music enthusiast likes what they hear, they will buy the CD. Enough rambling on my part. I'm supposed to be writing a review.
Comparing 'Clickster' to some high profile P2P programs you will find that it is so easy to use it's ridiculous. Once you have it installed, it loads up with a simple uncomplicated user-interface. No difficult settings to deal with. No exposure to infected files that are all to common in the illegal P2P file sharing realm.
To use 'Clickster' you simply type in the artist, a genre, song title, a phrase and a list of tracks will be generated. I wanted to see what would show up for Frank Sinatra. To my surprise there were over forty tags of his most popular songs. All of the songs I downloaded were high quality. To be on the safe side all tracks were scanned for infections - no threats were detected. By clicking on the mp3 track location button the URL will be displayed. You can download the files directly or you can listen to them through the interface player by double clicking on the song name. Note: in order for the player to function properly you will need the latest Internet Explorer Macromedia flash player plugin installed.
Note: Nagware included to update to Pro version. The author will gladly take donations. I asked what would be the least amount he would accept.
Here's the reply I received :
"With regard to donations, I'll pretty much accept anything. That said, anything less than $3 actually costs me money to process. When I first embarked upon this bizarre payment schedule for Clickster-Pro, friends said I was crazy and would never receive a payment in excess of $1. While that happened a couple of times and worse, two people have so far sent me 1 cent, the vast majority have been fair and generous. As long as I get enough money to pay for the hosting and bandwidth charges, I'm a happy man."
"Most software developers seem to come from an angle which almost seems to assume that all customers are thieves; looking to rip off them and their software. I prefer to assume that the majority of users as honest people and concentrate my efforts into making better software, rather than ensuring I milk every last cent."
"As for kids, who are not old enough to hold a PayPal account or people living in parts of the world not recognised by PayPal, I give away free copies of Clickster-Pro upon receiving their email."
All in all, Clickster is a spiffy little program that performed well. The author is a down to earth individual. I'm sure he wouldn't mind hearing from you if you have any questions relating to the usage of "Clickster'. If you think it's morally wrong or illegal to download music files, then don't do it. The controversial issues surrounding the downloading of Mp3's is meant to make you paranoid by design. Just keep in mind that if you decide to download, I encourage you to please go out and purchase other music CD's created by your favorite artist's or go see them perform live. Happiness is a two way street - if ya catch my drift.
I haven't tried this yet, but I will when I get time. If you try it, be sure to tell us in a comment below.
Quote from the website
The never-ending two-step defragmenting process of Vista can soon become a thing of the past. With certain tools, we were able to cut defragmentation time of 25 GBs of files with Vista Ultimate from 82 minutes to 6 minutes!!! That is defragmenting 10X faster than the built-in Vista defragmenter! The tutorial also works with Windows 2000 and XP.
Gary at Internet Fixes continues to amaze me with hundreds and thousands of tips for your PC. Whatever your operating system, or how you use it, a visit to Gary's site will soon have you saying "So that's how you do this!".
In the tip below, Gary tells you how to control the taskbar grouping feature in Windows XP and Vista. Microsoft explains this behaviour: By default, when you enable the Group similar taskbar buttons option in Taskbar properties, items are grouped only when the taskbar buttons begin to get too small, and then the item that you opened first, is grouped first.
Most people either love this feature or hate it. If you hate it, be sure to read Gary's tip below.
Quote from the website
Have you ever "lost" a window because it was grouped with other windows in the taskbar at the bottom of your Windows XP or Vista PC? Taskbar grouping may be handy for some but for most it's just an annoyance. Stop Windows from doing this once and for all.
If you have questions, you can often find an answer at ask-leo.com. Today I found an answer to a question I never thought to ask. I've always trusted Gmail to keep my email safe and sound. So far, I haven't been disappointed. For those of you who are less trusting, you may find this tip very useful.
Quote from the website
Of all the current free email services, GMail is my favorite. I know I've railed against free email services as your only email service, but they definitely have their place. And GMail is the service I recommend.
In part, I recommend it because I can answer this question. GMail is easy to backup.
Bill Webb loves free stuff as much as the next guy. He also knows when to spend some well earned dollars. If you are going to spend a few bucks on music, he's found a great place to do it.
Thanks to everyone who commented on the articles last week. You gave me more ideas and some good advice. If you see comments on an article, you will be missing out if you don't click on them to take a look.
If you commented last week, check to see who commented on your comment!
Here are the comments from last week.
REVIEWS
GreaseMonkey - Firefox Add-on that adds more to websites •
Yahoo Widgets - desktop widgets are useful and cool •
COOLSITES is a list of safe, fun, useful, informative and just plain cool websites and programs that are FREE, FREE and FREE. All of the programs and websites I list are free. If I list anything that is so good but isn't free I will list the price with it.
I really thought I was in deep trouble at first. I was getting ready for a big presentation and I'd planned on using some Flash videos I'd pulled off some websites. While checking these out to see how they looked on the big overhead video projector at work, I was panic stricken to see that they didn't appear at all.
After a few minutes of racing thoughts, I decided to try different movie formats to see if that was the problem. Sure enough, the FLV or Flash video format seems to know when you are showing it on an alternate monitor and it makes the screen blank.
I decided to see if I could find a good online converter to convert those FLVs into AVIs. A quick internet search landed me at Media Convert. It works!
I converted 7 files in about 15 minutes. I recommend this free service to all.
I am a big Star Trek fan. I've been watching it ever since the original TV series. I recently found what could be the true web center of the Star Trek universe at Memory Alpha.
Memory Alpha is a wiki like WikiPedia, and like FreewareWiki. People from all over the web can contribute and are encouraged to do so.
Quote from the website
Memory Alpha is a collaborative project to create the most definitive, accurate, and accessible encyclopedia and reference for everything related to Star Trek. The English-language Memory Alpha started in November 2003, and currently consists of 23,889 articles.
It's easy to grab images from websites and use them however you please. However, if you publish the images, you have to be careful that you have the legal rights to display them. Images are like music and video. They aren't always free to share.
The best way to use images is to make sure they are free for everyone. WikiPedia has great pages that can help you find thousands of free images.
You need a free 2.8 GB Gmail account to access many of the cool features at Google. After more than two years in beta testing Gmail is open to the public. Just go to http://gmail.com and sign up for an account.
I think Gmail works best in the awesome Firefox browser. It's free, easy to use, and it's way more secure than Internet Explorer. My favorite thing to do is to customize Firefox so that it does much more than IE ever could. You can select new button controls for your toolbars, install extensions to add new features, or change the look of your browser with themes - the way Firefox looks and works is under your control.
Wow! Over 400 people and still growing! I invite all of you to record your locations on this map. You can include as little or as much information as you wish. I think you'll enjoy seeing yourself there.
Here's a small look at my frapper map.
Write your own review
I get many of the reviews in the newsletter from the readers. You don't have to be a genius or computer guru. Just answer a few questions and send me a review. I'll probably put you in the newsletter.
What do you have to say?
Just tell me what article you are talking about and leave me your comment.
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