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Useful Websites and Products
December 2009
Web Tour is a monthly feature
where we travel the internet
to find interesting sites and programs.
Web Tour appears
in the group's newsletter
as well as here on our website.
Just click the links below
to visit the sites.
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Web Tour Recap
Combining Sites for Handy Reference
by Bill Aulepp
Member - Phoenix PC Users Group
◊
SiteAdvisor
SiteAdvisor from McAfee.
For IE and Firefox.
Warns users of bad, fair, or good websites.
Absolutely a must for every user.
◊
Belarc
Belarc does an "audit"
of your PC's hardware, software,
installation key codes
(for example MS Office
and Windows XP and Vista).
Save and print these out
as you add and remove
programs, devices, etc.
Even finds your motherboard's manufacturer and serial number.
Very helpful when you call tech support.
◊
SyncBack
Easily configured,
does auto backup,
synchronizing one directory to another,
or bi-directional
(be careful in how you choose overwrite options).
Configs can back up by date and time, even several per day, week,
etc.
Not a mirror full-drive backup -
only directories.
◊
CamStudio
Records video, screen shots, audio.
If you have trouble
or want to document
what happens on your PC,
this is excellent.
The avi files can be sent
to tech support
to show what happened,
or used for training purposes.
◊
Atomic Clock - Time Sync
Helpful if your PC time is drifting,
before you replace your clock battery
◊
Audacity
Powerful audio recorder,
editor, amplifier, noise reduction.
Great for recording support calls, doing audio note taking,
music editing, etc.
◊
Woot
One deal of the day.
Some excellent; some goofy.
Hard drives, PC's,
audio, camcorders, ...
◊
Giveaway of the Day
Free daily programs,
not restricted for personal use,
but no support.
Utilities, small programs,
often useful, etc.
Computer Internet Connections
◊
LogMeIn
Access and back up
your home or work computer
from anywhere
with an Internet connection.
Browsers and Email Clients
◊
Firefox Web Browser
Get the latest security and stability release
◊
Thunderbird Email Program
Includes intelligent spam filters, powerful search, and
customizable views
◊
OpenOffice.org Office Suite
This complete all-in-one office suite contains all that is needed
for a productive day at the office,
featuring word processing,
spreadsheets, presentations,
graphics, databases, and more
◊
VideoLAN - VLC Media Player
This is a highly portable
multimedia player
for various audio and video formats (MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4,
DivX, mp3, ogg, ...)
as well as DVDs, VCDs,
and various streaming protocols
◊
Infrarecorder CD/DVD Burning Software
Infrarecorder is a burning
solution for Microsoft Windows,
offering a wide range
of powerful features,
all through an easy-to-use
application interface with
Windows Explorer integration
◊
The Gimp Photo Image Shop
An image manipulation program
with a new GUI (graphical user
interface) that makes it easier to use
◊
GnuCash Financial Accounting
Complete personal and small-business financial
accounting software
PC Registry and File Cleaners
◊
Advanced SystemCare Free Registry and File Cleaner
Help protect, repair, clean, and optimize your PC
◊
7-Zip Compression Tool
7-Zip is fast, efficient, and free
◊
Ask Jeeves
An older site
that just keeps going and going
◊
CUIL - pronounced 'cool'
Less than a year old,
it features long entries
with thumbnail pictures -
not your usual type of search site,
and worth looking into
◊
Yahoo
Another old standby
◊
Dogpile
A search engine that uses
the other search engines
for a combined search
◊
People Search
For a price, gives more
than you probably want to
know about a person -
basic lookup is free
Electronic Manuals - Street Prices
◊
Electronic Manuals
If you have ever lost the manual
that came with one of your consumer electronic items,
this is the place to find it.
Try it out now!
This site also gives
street prices for the manual's item.
◊
DriveRMax
Drivemax is a new tool
that allows you to download
the latest driver updates
for your computer
◊
FreewareUpdater
From this site
you can find many, many
free download applications.
The Web Site describes
itself as follows:
FreewareUpdater is a small,
yet powerful,
software management tool
to help you keep track
of the most popular
Freeware and Open Source applications.
It is provided to you
absolutely free.
It provides you an
interactive list of applications,
which you can install
just with a click.
Currently, FreewareUpdater
contains about 200+
Freeware and Open Source
applications that are presented
in a user-friendly interface
to ease your search
and installation
of free software.
◊
OpenOffice.org Calc
OpenOffice.org Calc
is a segment of the
OpenOffice.org software package.
It is similar to Microsoft Excel,
with many similar features.
Calc is capable of
opening and saving spreadsheets
in Microsoft Excel file format.
It provides a number of features
Excel does not include
in the graphical area.
Calc can convert spreadsheets
to PDF files.
◊
Gnumeric
Gnumeric has Windows
installers available.
It is intended to be a free
replacement for proprietary
spreadsheet programs.
Gnumeric's accuracy has
helped establish itself
for statistical analysis
and other scientific tasks
◊
Simple Spreadsheet
Simple Spreadsheet
is a web-based
spreadsheet program.
It is released under the GNU
General Public License,
and is thus free software.
It includes formulas, charts,
formats, cell/row merging,
cell locking,
keyboard navigation, etc.
◊
wikiCalc
WikiCalk is a web application
created by Dan Bricklin who, 27 years earlier, created VisiCalc,
the first spreadsheet.
It is currently, as Version 1.0, available for Windows, Mac, and Llnux/Unix.
◊
Comodo Free Products
An assortment of free products featured in the August 2009 Web Tour
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Remember
All of the Web Tour sites
in the newsletter are archived
and instantly available right here on our website.
Don't waste time-consuming typing
of the site addresses.
Just click, and you are there.
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