Posts Tagged: ‘Software’

Spring Cleaning – Originally Published April 2013

August 15, 2014 Posted by Tiny

A Pain in the Whatchamacallit
By Tiny Ruisch

It’s that time of year again.  Time to do that spring cleaning.  Luckily, I don’t have either a garage or an attic, so you would assume there is no need for me to do any of that mundane cleansing stuff.  What I have to spring clean every year is the closet in my computer room where all of my excess electronic stuff ends up.  Just last month a lot of people told me “thank you” for bringing in something for the give away table that they could really use.  I’ll have to tell the truth.  I wasn’t really spring cleaning.  My wife had the house re‑carpeted and I had to move all of that stuff out.  It was easier to put it in the pickup than back in the closet.

Talking about spring cleaning, this is a good time to do some computer cleaning.  If you’ve got a desktop computer, it is a good idea to shut it down, unplug the power cord, open the case and blow out all of those dust bunnies that have accumulated inside.  A can of compressed air doesn’t cost much.  Make sure you blow out all of the ventilation ducts and in the corners and underneath all of the components.  This is also a good time to check that all of your power cables, memory chips, etc. are firmly seated.  Over time they sometimes wiggle loose and cause aggravating problems.

Your keyboard can also probably use a good cleaning.  Disconnect it, turn it over and give it a good shake to get rid of the accumulated crumbs and other gunk.  You could also vacuum it with a brush attachment.  A squirt or two of your canned air will also help.  If you haven’t got rid of all the keyboard muck, a cotton swab dipped in isopropyl alcohol can be rubbed between the keys to clean them.  Just make sure that the swabs aren’t dripping wet.

Next, it’s time to clean your monitor(s).  Use your compressed air to blow the dust out of the corners.  You’ve probably got a few dust bunnies over or under the stand as well.  You can make a screen cleaner from several recipes found on the internet.  Personally, I spend a few dollars and buy one of the commercial products.  Either way, don’t directly spray the screen.  Just moisten a micro-fiber cloth and then rub the screen clean.  Wipe it dry with another cloth.

Now that you’ve got a sparkling computer, it is a good time to clean your hard drive(s).  Download a copy of Belarc Advisor.  The Advisor is a program that scans all the hardware and software on your PC.  One of the sections in the report lists all of the software installed on your machine.  It also tells you the version number, date installed, usage data and much more.  Look at the section that tells you when you last opened each program.  I’ll bet you find some that haven’t been used in more than a year.  Might be good time to get rid of them and free some space on your hard drive.

Cleaning those old programs off of your hard drive is easily done with Revo Uninstaller.  Revo uses the Windows operating system uninstaller to remove the program.  Then it checks your hard drive and registry for leftover remnants and deletes them.

After deleting all of those programs, your recycle bin is probably getting pretty full.  With CCleaner  you can easily do that  At the same time you should delete old log files and old temporary files.  As an added bonus, you can clean all of your browsers temporary files, history, cookies, download history, etc.

Now that you’ve got a clean house, a sparkling garage, a spotless attic and a smooth running, junk-less computer, you’ve got time to have a cold beverage.  Maybe you could even play some clean games.

Thanks for reading.

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Companies I Dislike a Lot – Originally Published October 2012

August 4, 2014 Posted by Tiny

A Pain in the Whatchamacallit
By Tiny Ruisch

Earlier this month, when I was adding the “differences” to the Commodore 64 picture, I started to realize what a loyal consumer I am.  Until they went bankrupt, all except one of the computers I owned were manufactured by Commodore.  The lone exception was a Heathkit Zenith computer kit that I built.

Back in the early 1980’s the VIC 20 was a great first computer.  Later, it was a real joy to own the Commodore 64.  I think anyone that ever owned one will tell you how much they loved it.  The Commodore 128 was a great upgrade.  After all, it had a 64 mode which made it the best of both worlds.  For some reason, the Amiga didn’t impress me all that much.  It was a Commodore though.

I think most people are like me.  I’ve always had good luck with Netgear products, so I tend to buy their stuff when it is a viable choice.  Same way with computers.  Four of the five machines in my house were manufactured by HP.  Brand loyalty is a big thing to most companies.  That’s why they sue all trademark infringements.

Brand loyalty also works in reverse.  Years ago, I was a fan of Sony products (even the Betamax).  I owned the Sony Walkman, a Sony TV, and of course a Sony Discman.  Do you remember the Sony Trinitron microwave?  I think you could say that I was a loyal Sony customer.

That all changed for me when Sony did evil.  In 2005, they put root kits on their music CDs.  It was supposed to be a copyright scheme.  It later turned out that they illegally violated the license agreement for the LAME codec and the VLC Media Player.  That made me so mad that I refused to spend any of my money on Sony products again.  Over the years, it seems that I made a good decision.  Sony has often been in the news since then for various nefarious reasons.

Another company that I refuse to enrich is Electronic Arts.  I dislike them so much that since October of 2000, I’ve slammed them on my personal web site.  Once again, my instincts were proven to be good.  Over the years, Electronic Arts has spent a lot of time in court defending themselves against various lawsuits.

Then there is another of my favorite companies to dislike: Symantec.  Way back in the 1980’s, a great utility named PC Tools was created by Central Point Software.  I was a faithful customer until they were acquired by Symantec for a whole bunch of money.  Like many others, I shifted to the Norton suite because PC Tools was incorporated in it.  Unfortunately, it was never the same program again.  Norton turned out to be bloated software that actually slowed down your computer.  The company received so many complaints ranging from poor customer service to fraudulently putting charges on customer’s credit cards.  They only got away with charging me one time.  They have supposedly gotten better since then, but I’ve never purchased any of their products again.

I guess I’ve done enough ranting and raving for this month.  Please feel free to join me in not supporting Sony, Electronic Arts and Symantec.  When it comes to the computing picture, I can tell you that there aren’t any “differences” in them.

Thanks for reading.

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Web Design Reminiscing – Originally Published June 2012

July 31, 2014 Posted by Tiny

A Pain in the Whatchamacallit
By Tiny Ruisch

I was browsing the internet the other day when I stumbled across the Internet Archive Wayback Machine.  Of course, I couldn’t resist typing in my web address and looking back at what I used to have published online.  They had a snapshot of my web site as far back as 2001.  That would have been right after I bought my domain name and moved it from the web hosting at AOL.  Back then, if you paid AOL a bunch of money each month, you could get “free” web space.  I started my web site in 1995.  At one time, I had two web sites and averaged about 200 visitors a day.

Things have changed a lot since then.  Flash was still in its infancy and many internet surfers refused to visit sites that used flash.  Of course, this was before it was Adobe Flash.  Originally, it was Future Flash and then became Macromedia Flash.  I blocked Flash way back then.  Today, I use the flash blocker plug in and don’t often let flash run in my browser.

Web sites didn’t have many graphics in those day.  Broadband had yet to be invented.  It could take several minutes to download a simple picture.  Internet surfers didn’t waste their time looking at a cute picture of a dog.  If you did include a media file on your site, it was good manners to let visitors know the file size before they downloaded it.  I remember the first time I uploaded my BS to the internet.  It took almost two hours for a relatively small site.

Another thing I remember is that almost all sites had a guest book.  Visitors would fill in what information they wanted to disclose and click the submit button.  Anybody else that visited the site could view all the guest book entries.  The Netscape browser introduced us to cookies.  The original “magic cookie” just checked to see if it was your first visit to the web site.

I remember when I made my first foray onto the internet.  The first decision was what browser to buy.  I decided to use the Netscape Navigator because they had a free trial period.  Almost the whole web was nothing but text.

I can’t tell you that Google was the greatest search engine in those days.  Google hadn’t been invented then.  There wasn’t a real index of internet web sites.  The first attempt to index FTP sites was called Archie.  Gopher was one of the first “point and click” search engines and was created by students at the University of Minnesota.

Twenty years ago, if you wanted a web site you had to at least learn the basics of HTML coding.  In the modern world, there are hundreds of programs you can use to create a website for free.  All you really need to know how to do is enter your content.

That’s enough reminiscing.  Personal websites are both easy and cheap.  Why don’t you make one for your family and friends?

Thanks for reading.

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Stupid Things I’ve Done – Originally Published March 2012

July 30, 2014 Posted by Tiny

A Pain in the Whatchamacallit
By Tiny Ruisch

Forrest Gump said, “Stupid is as stupid does.“  Could this mean that an intelligent person who does stupid things is still stupid?  Everyone has heard the stories of the computer user that used their disk player as a coffee cup holder.  Did you hear about the computer user that called tech support trying to figure out why their computer wasn’t working?  Turns out there was a power outage.  When you Google “stupid computer stories” you get about 6,660,000 hits.  No matter how you look at it, we’re talking about a lot of stupidity.

Lately, I think I might be the number one stupid computer user on the planet.  Recently, I had a problem with Microsoft Outlook.  None of my e-mails were being downloaded.  I thought it was probably a Suddenlink problem.  When I checked e-mail with a web browser program, my mail was on the server.  Outlook just wouldn’t download it to my computer.  With my typical “smart” thinking, I was sure I could solve the problem without calling tech support.  I searched the internet an found no answers.  After three days of frustration, I solved the problem by accident.  After a download with Outlook, there was once again no e-mail in my in box.  Then I accidentally clicked on my deleted items folder and there was my e-mail.  It turns out that I had created a new mail rule.  I mistakenly caused it to transfer all of my mail to the deleted folder.  I keep Outlook set to empty the deleted items folder whenever I exit the program.  For three days, I was downloading and deleting all of my e-mail.

Avast anti-virus recently recently released the Version 7 upgrade to their program.  Whenever I install software, I’m really careful about reading the EULA and carefully inspecting the install boxes.  Sure enough, the installer had an option to install Chrome and make it my default browser.  Of course, the boxes were checked.  No problem.  I’m “smart” and unchecked them before installing.  I’ve got several computers, so you can probably guess what I did on the third install.  When I rebooted the computer, I had a new default browser.

Oh yes, I’ll admit that I did it. I broke the number one stupidity rule.  I clicked on a link that I shouldn’t have.  Luckily, I have a good firewall and no harm was done.

Not too long ago, one of my DVD drives quit working for no reason at all.  It turns out that there was a reason.  When I installed a new hard drive, I unplugged the disc power cord to make it easier to reach the brackets.  I don’t know why I forgot to plug it back in.  Another easily solved stupid problem.

I’m going to keep looking at the bright side of computing.  At least I haven’t broken any ports by forcing the cables in upside down – yet.  I also haven’t deleted any important files – yet.  I haven’t spilled coffee on my keyboard – yet.

One last stupid thing I’ve done.  It’s not computer related, but if you ask me, I’ll tell you how my being “smart” at a local convenience store almost resulted in a fight.

Thanks for reading.

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Amazon App Store – Originally Published October 2013

July 29, 2014 Posted by Tiny

From the Dark Side
by Tiny Ruisch

Recently, I almost downloaded an app from the Google Play Store.  It wanted me to grant the following permissions:
Network communication
full network access
view Wi-Fi connections
view network connections
add or modify calendar events and send email to guests without owners’ knowledge
read phone status and identity
modify or delete the contents of your USB storage
pair with Bluetooth devices
find accounts on the device
test access to protected storage
prevent device from sleeping
expand/collapse status bar

Did you carefully read that permissions list?  Do you think that an app that can change your calender and send email without telling you must be an awesome program?   You would probably think that it’s a utility for managing your contact list, your important documents, or maybe a super schedule manager.

You’d be wrong.  Those permissions are for the Amazon Audible book reader app.  I stumbled on it by accident when I was searching for a book that I wanted to read that the library didn’t have.  Out of all the book sites: e-book, hardcover and paperback, Audible was the cheapest.  I wonder if the price was so low because Amazon thought they could secretly mine my contacts and sell more stuff to people on that list?

I’d check the Amazon Appstore to see if the permissions are the same, but I can’t.  A month or ago, I removed it from all of my devices.  Back in March of 2011 when I installed it, the Appstore seemed like a real good deal.  There was a free paid app every day and many of them were really good ones.   The Swipe Keyboard, Tune In Radio and Documents to Go are just a few that come to my mind.  There were also many good games that you could download an play without the advertisements.

I don’t know if it was always the policy, but about a half year ago, a lot of my “free” apps wouldn’t open.  I would get an error message telling me that I had to be logged in to the Amazon Appstore to use the program.  Of course, it would always happen at the most inconvenient times.  Oh well, I don’t have that problem anymore.

It’s probably my imagination, but my Android devices seem to be a little faster since I deleted the Amazon Appstore and all of the apps that I downloaded.  Maybe the faster speed will give me more time to read that book I purchased from the Google Play Store.

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Kingsoft Office – Originally Published August 2013

July 29, 2014 Posted by Tiny

From the Dark Side
by Tiny Ruisch

I’ve finally decided which office suite to use on my android devices.  My requirements are probably a little different than most users.  On my phone, I mostly use a half dozen different spreadsheets to track my medical data.  On my tablet, I usually connect my portable keyboard to write newsletter articles, etc.  Over the last year and a half or so, I’ve tried all of the major suites in the Google Play Store.  All of them work fairly well, but each has its own idiosyncrasies.  Kingsoft Office for Android is an office suite that is free.  Unlike many other suites, there is no paid version with extra features.

The Kingsoft suite has five modules: a widget, Writer for Android, Spreadsheets for Android, Presentation for Android and a file manager.  The interface is easy to use.  Files are previewed in a large, sliding thumbnail window.  I have found this to be much more efficient than a file list which my clumsy fingers seem to always touch the wrong file.  More that twenty file formats can be imported.  Output file formats are: Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint 97 to 2010 formats: .doc, .docx, .txt, .xls, .xlsx, .pptx and .pdf.

Working on documents isn’t difficult at all, as long as you are comfortable with typing on a touch interface.  When I attach my Bluetooth keyboard, it is even more simple, almost like using a laptop computer.  All the options like save, edit, layout etc. are easily accessible from the toolbar at the top.  Underneath it, you will find all the sub-options on a horizontal ribbon.  When working on a document, a long press on any part of the text will open a pop-up window with options to cut, copy, select, share etc.  Other options include the ability to add images, font size, header/footer, encrypt files, copy/paste, add comments etc.

Working on spreadsheets is also easy.  Formulas are supported, as well as options like wrap text, freeze panes, sort, add charts, auto shapes etc.  The touch interface is a little difficult to learn but is easy to use once you’ve done so.  As with the writer module, connecting a keyboard will make it a breeze.

I have not used the presentation module enough to know how well it works.  It is compatible with power point files.  My only complaint about Kingsoft Office for Android is that it doesn’t support RTF (rich text format) and ODT (Libre Office) files.  For my mobile files, I usually save as either text or word and then do my final edit on either my laptop or desktop.

There are many more features I did not mention in this short review.  One is support for cloud services.  You can learn more at the Kingsoft Store.  The suite is available for download from the Google Play Store.  Give it a try and post your thoughts on the club website.

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Paint.net – Originally Published November 2013

July 27, 2014 Posted by Tiny

Some Lagniappe for You
By Tiny Ruisch

la·gniappe (lnyp, ln-yp)
n. Chiefly Southern Louisiana & Mississippi
1. A small gift presented by a store owner to a customer with the customer’s purchase.
2. An extra or unexpected gift or benefit. Also called regionally boot.

Usually, when I take photographs, my procedure is to take about twenty of them at a time.  I figure that I should get one good picture out of that many.  On those rare occasions that I don’t get a keeper, I just edit it like it was a shark jumping at a helicopter.  The program that I use most often for editing is Paint.NET, an open-source, free photo editing software program.  It was originally created as a student project in 2004, funded by Microsoft.  It was designed to replace Microsoft Paint, which was included in Windows.

Paint.NET has many advanced features which include blurring, sharpening, the Magic Wand which allows for the selecting of regions of similar color and the Clone Stamp which is used for copying or erasing portions of an image.

Layers are another great feature of Paint.Net.  They allow you to add a layer on top of the background that not only allows you to add new items on top of others, but to edit them independently of the other layers.

The program has a large number of special effects.  These allow you to alter the appearance of your image.  You can use blurs, sepia toning, color level altering, ink sketch transformations, anti red-eye, distortions such as bulging, denting and pixelation.  The software has a huge following of users that are constantly creating and sharing other special effects and plug-ins.

Another great feature is unlimited undo history.  You can make as many changes as want.  If they don’t look good, just undo and do over as often as you like.

There is also an active online community and forum.  They will give you any extra help that you might need.  You can also find several tutorials and guides.

Did I mention Paint.NETs best feature is the cost?  The price is free, although the author will accept any donations.  Give it a try.  You might like it.  You can download Paint.NET here.

If you like the program, just tell everyone that you’ve got a SWLAPCUG extra, bonus perk; a little lagniappe.

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DesktopOK – Originally Published September 2013

July 27, 2014 Posted by Tiny

Some Lagniappe for You
By Tiny Ruisch

la·gniappe (lnyp, ln-yp)
n. Chiefly Southern Louisiana & Mississippi
1. A small gift presented by a store owner to a customer with the customer’s purchase.
2. An extra or unexpected gift or benefit. Also called regionally boot.

Right now I’m sitting in front of my desktop computer writing this article for the newsletter.  At the same time, I’m using my machine to watch a full screen movie.  I’m also playing a Texas Hold ‘Em poker tournament.  I’m also copying some files to  one of my portable machines.  Using more than one monitor makes it a lot easier to do.

One of the bad things about using more than one monitor is also one of my general Windows annoyances.  Sometimes when you temporarily change screen resolution or crash your system, you lose your carefully arranged icon layout on your desktop.  It’s especially aggravating when you get used to clicking on an icon that is always in the same place.  If your screen layout changes after a computer crash, it becomes real easy to accidentally launch the wrong program.

A program that comes to the rescue is DesktopOK, a basic, compact program that lets you save and restore the positions of your desktop icons.  It’s nothing fancy, but if you frequently end up with a desktop full of scrambled icons, this program will be a lifesaver.  This freeware program lets you save and restore icon layouts.  Simply set your icons the way you like them and save the layout.  Just restore it later when they become jumbled.

You’re not limited to one layout.  You can save as many as you want, which is handy if you have more than one user.  There are several save options.  You can enable auto saving at various intervals or when Windows is shut down.

DesktopOK does not have to be installed and can be executed easily from the desktop, a flash drive or any other memory device.  Give it a try. I think you’ll like it.  You can find more information or download the program from the authors website.

If you like the program, just tell everyone that you’ve got a SWLAPCUG extra, bonus perk; a little lagniappe.

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File Menu Tools – Originally Published June 2013

July 27, 2014 Posted by Tiny

Some Lagniappe for You
By Tiny Ruisch

la·gniappe (lnyp, ln-yp)
n. Chiefly Southern Louisiana & Mississippi
1. A small gift presented by a storeowner to a customer with the customer’s purchase.
2. An extra or unexpected gift or benefit. Also called regionally boot.

There is a really efficient utility program that I’ve been using for several years now.  FileMenu Tools lets you customize the right click menu of Windows Explorer.  The program adds utilities to perform operations on files and folders and adds customized commands that let you run external applications, copy or move to a specific folder or delete specific file types.

With the built in commands you can:
Run With Parameters – Runs a program with parameters that you input in a dialog box.
Command Line From Here – Opens a command line window.
Copy/Move – No need to cut and paste. You can also use filters in your file selection.
Duplicate Files – Make a copy in the same folder.
Pack to Folder – Moves all the selected elements to new subfolder in the current folder.
Copy Path/Name/Content – Copies the selected item(s) to the clipboard.
Attributes – You can view and change them without opening a properties dialog box.
Find and Replace – Lets you find or replace a text for all the files in a selected folder.
Advanced Rename – With lots of options.
Change Icon – Quickly and easily change folder options.
Advanced Delete – lets you delete specific file types in a folder.
Synchronize Two Folders – Lets you synchronize two folders quickly and easily.
Shred Files – Overwrites several times so it is impossible to recover the file in the future.
Send to Mail Recipient – Lets you send an e-mail with selected elements as attachments.

These are about half of the FileMenu commands you can select from.  In the configuration menu, a simple check box will turn off the commands you don’t want to appear when you right click.  If you can’t find the FileMenu function you need, you can add a customized command to run external applications, copy/move to a specific folder or delete specific file types.

FileMenu Tools lets you configure the “Send to” sub-menu.  You can add new items, change the properties of the existing items or delete them.  You also can disable existing “Send to” items in order to hide them from the menu.

FileMenu Tools will also let you enable/disable the commands which are added to the context menu of the Windows Explorer by other programs.  This is the only function that is not one hundred percent reliable.  When it works, it works well, but it doesn‘t catch all of the programs that add to your right click.

Download FileMenu Tools from the developers website.  Give this program a test.  I’m pretty sure that you’ll like it.  FileMenu Tools is a 7.6 MB download and runs on all Windows platforms.  Did I mention the price?  This program is freeware and costs nothing.  While you’re on the Lopesoft website, you can also download and try LopeEdit Lite.  If you do, you’ll probably never use Windows Notepad again.

If you like the program, just tell everyone that you’ve got a SWLAPCUG extra, bonus perk; a little lagniappe.

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KeyPass Password Safe – Originally Published May 2013

July 27, 2014 Posted by Tiny

Some Lagniappe for You
By Tiny Ruisch

la·gniappe (lnyp, ln-yp)
n. Chiefly Southern Louisiana & Mississippi
1. A small gift presented by a store owner to a customer with the customer’s purchase.
2. An extra or unexpected gift or benefit. Also called regionally boot.

I have written about passwords several times, but I thought I’d take a few minutes and tell you about the Password Program that I use every day when I’m computing.  I did a Google Search for “password manager“ and got 5,260,000 results.  I‘ve carefully researched all of them except for the last four million or so.

I use a lot of passwords in my daily computing.  As of this writing, I’ve got 63 e-mail addresses.  I have eighteen passwords that I use to manage them.  I frequent 7 different forums, each with separate password.  Then there are my gaming site passwords.  Five right now.  Did forget to mention my military and medical passwords?  Eight of them.  Then there is on line shopping passwords and the most important one of all – the one that logs me into the SWLACUG web site.  I’ve got more than 50 passwords that I use fairly frequently.

The first week of every month, I change the passwords for websites that keep important data.  It seems that some company or government office is always being compromised and losing important data.  For most web sites, I use hard to break passwords.  Want to see one of my sample passwords? qyF+,CMqaF;+@x!,SdqyF+,CMqaF;+@x!,Sd is a password that used to open my web site for editing.

The program I use to manage all of those passwords is KeePass Password Safe.  It is a really easy to use utility that helps you to keep track of all your passwords while keeping them safe.  It lets you store all of your passwords in a lightweight, simple to use database that is encrypted so that only you can access it.

KeePass Password Safe stores all of your passwords in groups.  That makes it extremely easy to quickly find the one you want.  The program does more than just store the passwords; it also lets you easily copy them onto a Web page or an application.  You can drag and drop them, copy them to the clipboard, or copy them using a hot key.

One of the best features of KeePass is the random password generator which creates passwords with characteristics that you specify.  That way you can tailor your passwords as needed.  For example, some websites won’t let you create a password with underlines while others might require a specific password length.  KeePass makes it easy to create any password.

The program also includes support for TAN (Transactional Access Numbers) passwords and allows you to create TAN lists which automatically expire a password once it has been used.  Other features include auto-lock, database search, import/export.  There are many more features.

Of Course, KeePass also fits in with one of my most demanding prerequisites.  The cost is Zero!  KeePass is open source, which means that there have been a lot of plug-ins developed.  You can read more about the program on the KeePass Password Safe Home Page.  Give it a try. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

If you like the program, just tell everyone that you’ve got a SWLAPCUG extra, bonus perk; a little lagniappe.

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