Apple Updates Becoming More Annoying

Comments (4) · October 2, 2008 at 4:00 am · Software Help

Dear Apple, please stop it with the useless updates…

Is it just me, or is Apple starting to remind you more of the Real Player more and more? Or perhaps, maybe Adobe and the 10,000 unrelated updates it asks for?

 

BurnAware Free Edition

Comments (2) · January 3, 2008 at 6:31 am · Software Help

Looking for a replacement to your favorite burning application? There are many out there, but a new one to catch me by the nose and take me for a ride is BurnAware Free Edition. The package of disk burning tools is simple, but has enough to make it powerful enough to replace some of the classic crapfests that you can buy.

Thanks to companies bundling over thirty or forty different tools in with the big burning sofware packages (I’m looking at you Nero) I have been left to look at BurnAware Free Edition as an alternative. What does it deliver? Read the rest of this entry »

 

MP3 Player Software Doesn’t Have to Suck

Comments off · July 31, 2007 at 6:43 am · Personal, Software Help

Yes, I am still fawning over my new mp3 player. Can you blame me? Just look how tiny and beautiful it is! Sure the menu system is a little wonky and I am just now starting to manage it but other than that it has been a good solid player thus far.

The software that came with it wasn’t that bad either as a matter of fact.

Usually when software comes a device it is lackluster at best and at worst, well it just sucks. Go ahead and tell me the last software package that came with your device that you actually use. You can’t because none of us do it. The Creative Media Lite program that I was asked to download after buying my Creative Zen Stone Plus is awesome.

Why does it rock? (pun was intended there buddy)

• It Tells Me if the Battery is Charged
• It allows me to Drag and Drop Media From and To the Device
• It Doesn’t Slow Me Down With a Bunch of Other Features I Don’t Need

I was expecting to see something with a music store, big flashing lights and an interface that looked like it was stolen from a Scifi Channel movie of the week. Instead I got a useful application.

Two thumbs up to you Creative, you deserve it!

 

Mitch’s Top 10 Offline Applications

Comments (5) · May 23, 2007 at 5:00 am · Personal, Software Help

I have reviewed a ton of freeware applications for Lockergnome’s Windows Fanatics over the years. So many, I’m not sure if people really know which ones actually make it into my day to day life. Here are ten offline applications that I use on a day to day basis. Some are free, some are not - they are all quality goods though that you should all check out.

1. Firefox
   It has been my Web browser for year, and unless they do something extremely crazy - don’t think I’ll be moving away for one of the other browsers anytime soon.
2. NoteTab Pro
   NoteTab Pro is another program I have been using forever and have never found anything better. Three reasons I love it are: basic text editing, spell checker and word count. If your a text editor without those three don’t bother me.
3. WinRAR
   Out of all the zipping and un-zipping tools out there, I think WinRAR does the best job and stays out of my way unless I need it. Good stuff all around.
4. VLC Media Player
   I mainly have this one loaded up to play all the wacky video downloaded from the Web that doesn’t play right in your standard video players.
5. CoreFTP Lite
   I am not deeply in love with this FTP client - but it does the job without choking much. If I could find a better client - I’d probably use it instead. Alternatives welcome!
6. Audacity
   A must have for any podcast that is working with a $3 budget. Totally free and easy to use even for a beginner in the audio editing arena.
7. CDBurnerXP Pro 3
   Toss out your old CD burning software because you no longer need it. CDBurnerXP Pro 3 does for free what some of the other burning packages can’t even get done for $50 or more.
8. XNeat Windows Manager
   This is one I just ran across not too long ago. It allows you to hide things on your taskbar, send anything to the tray, show and hide windows, and a heck of a lot more.
9. Foxit Reader
   Adobe can bite my Web hosting butt. Foxit Reader gives me a PDF reader that doesn’t ask to update itself every five minutes with crap I don’t need. Thank you Foxit!
10. OpenOffice.org
    Anybody who says you can’t live day to day inside of Open Office is wrong. For me, at least - it does what it needs to do when I need it to do something. Usually I only use it for editing and creating invoices though so maybe I’m not the spokesperson they are looking for.

What about you? What do you think of these suggestions - or can you suggest a replacement for one? Let me know and make sure to leave some links for them as well.

 

Web Hosting Expert Panel

Comments off · August 30, 2006 at 10:48 am · Web Hosting

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Rutledge Consulting (rutledge-consulting.com) is putting together a new panel of Web hosting IT professionals called the Elite Hosting Panel (elitehostingpanel.com) to help create a direct channel of communication between Web hosts and hardware and software vendors developing future products.

I don’t know if a lowly media rock star of the Web hosting industry will be accepted, but I joined anyways. Even if I am not accepted though, I’ll be interested in seeing what they produce.

+ Join the Elite Hosting Panel!
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