Whatever

Puget Systems, a small company selling high-end computers in the Puget Sound area (go figure) is offering a free upgrade to Windows 7, with some catches.

I plan on taking advantage of the offer soon.

The catches? You must purchase Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit or Vista Ultimate 64-bit. Your system must be over $1,000. And, they install the new operating system. Yes, you must ship your system back to them.

For me, it’s no problem because I live about 2.5 hours from Seattle and I have relatives there. Not everyone lives so close (but a few million of you do). If you’re dying for a high-end computer NOW, but you’ve been waiting for Windows 7, wait no more.

The benefits?

Puget Systems seems to be a company that has it all together. They’ve been around about 10 years, and they’ve recently bought a new warehouse, even in this down economy. As they say, they’re “here to stay.” The systems all have lifetime labor support (now that’s a nice warranty) and the support is, well, right in Seattle, and provided by some knowledgeable guys (check out their bios).

I’ve asked about 1,000 questions so far about the system they’re going to build for me, and they haven’t tired of me yet. Jeff has spent at least an hour on the phone with me answering my stupid questions and he hasn’t even made me feel stupid (yet). They didn’t even balk when I asked if they could install a dual TV tuner they don’t carry. They just said, “We’ll take care of it.”

I’ll share more of my opinions after I actually buy the system, but so far, I’m impressed.

Oh yes, there’s one more benefit that I really like: you get the actual Microsoft disk, not some restore garbage disk filled with crapware.

Check out Puget Systems’ free Windows 7 Upgrade Program.

I’ve again updated my Freeware Only post due to some reader feedback.

I’ve added Notepad++ and avast! Antivirus to the mix. With these programs your computer can run without any commercial software.

A computer without commercial software? It’s possible.


Productivity Software

Open Office 
Does everything Microsoft Office does (and more) but it’s open source, cross-platform, and free. Reads and writes Office file types.

Stickies 
Sticky note addicts – rejoice! This sweet program puts sticky notes all over your desktops. Style ‘em, set audible alarms, resize ‘em, attach ‘em to a website or document, hide ‘em . . . shucks, play all day with your cool stick notes. Doesn’t mess with system files or write to the registry. Windows only.

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Sledgehammer. Drill. Shovel. Will I need anything else to obliterate my computer?

I feel this way when things don’t work right. One error in particular that makes me want to scream is the following:

The error can take a number of forms . . . it might tell you that you can’t rename a folder, that a file can’t be deleted, that another program is using the file . . . I’m sure it’s happened to you before so there’s really no reason for me to keep explaining myself. Typically I end up rebooting my computer to make the problem disappear. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. But you don’t have to do that anymore. All you need is Unlocker, a free program that works on all Windows platforms.

Right-click the file or folder, then click “Unlocker” then click “unlock” and you’re done. Problem solved. Day saved.

Download Unlocker here.

This program performs an essential function – it keeps you from forgetting stuff. I have a tendency to forget things unless I write them down. I also tend to lose papers on which I write things down. No longer. And, of course, it’s completely free. Oh, and it has a very imaginative name:  Stickies.

Actually, this program has been around a long time, but the author continues to improve it. It’s by far the best free sticky note program available. Other choices exist, but most have disabled functions unless you buy the full version, or they simply don’t have the simple elegance of function this program possesses.

Some of the functions I appreciate:

1. stickies can be hidden to re-appear whenever you’d like
2. you can set an alarm to sound (as a helpful reminder)
3. stickies stay where you put them, even through re-boots (you can’t lose them)
4. it initiates no registry changes (now that’s nice)

Of course this amazing free sticky note program performs other cool functions but you’ll have to download it for yourself to figure out what they are.

Download Stickies here.

I don’t really know how in the heck Aegisub works, but it does. I also don’t know what else it’s capable of doing, but I use it for adding subtitles to videos edited in Virtualdub.

You’ll need Virtualdub, Aegisub, and VSFilter (VSFilter is the plugin that makes it all work). So, get Virtualdub, then go grab Aegisub and don’t forget that pesky plugin, VSFilter. I’d get the VS filter without the installer, unzip it, drag the VSFilter.dll to your Virtualdub plugins folder, rename it VSFilter.vdf, and you’re good to go.

Now, next time you have a video you want to add subtitles to, just open Aegisub, drag the video onto the interface, add the text where you want it (I’m not going to tell you how to use it; you’ll have to figure it out), and save it. Typically I use the .ass extension (really).

Then open your video in Virtualdub, go to Video –> Filters –> Add –> TextSub (the new plugin), browse to your file (with the .ass extension), open it, and . . . . you’re done! Of course you have to save your new video but you should now have subtitles.

If you’re interested in using a simple script for fading text, check out this link.

If you want something easier than all this for adding subtitles to your videos, I’d suggest buying some commercial software like Pinnacle or Sony Vegas. But I’m not suggesting that anyone really buy those packages. I think you’d be much better off figuring this stuff out on your own!

For a bit more assistance figuring this out, check out this informative Youtube video (just remember that Aegisub now comes with its own installer – you don’t have to download all the separate .dll files like it says in the video).

Shucks, I don’t even know how AviSynth works, or what a frameserver is, but I do know that in combination with Virtualdub, it allows me to do some pretty cool things with videos.

What can you do with it? Well, you can create slow-motion effects. You can use it to join videos together. AviSynth feeds the video to the editing program rather than letting the program actually open the video. Because of this, you can use it to open massive files not typically supported by your video editing program. Or, you can open up video files of different types because your program thinks it’s just opening up a standard AVI. There’s lots more AviSynth can do, but to be honest, I don’t know what. It’s a program for much geekier types than myself, but if you have a little bit of patience, you’ll find it can do amazing things when you’re post-processing your videos.

Actually, I just wrote about it to make myself look really technical.

Download AviSynth here.

The best free desktop search is . . . well, I’ll tell you later (really – it’s at the end of this entry if you just want to scroll down). I want to tell you about the Windows Indexing Service first.

Windows Indexing Service eats up valuable system resources (it’s true). Turn that garbage off. It’s easy, really (these instructions are for XP users). Click start, click run, type in “services.msc” then hit enter. Scroll down to indexing service, double-click it, click the stop button if it’s running, set the “startup type” dropdown to disabled, click apply then OK. Phew! We got that out of the way. Your computer is thanking you.

Oh, you should also right-click the start button, then left click Explore, right click C:, then left click properties then untick the checkbox that says “Allow Indexing Service to index this disk for fast file searching” then click OK and wait a few minutes. Click “ignore all” if Windows gives some garbage about not being able to apply an attribute or something like that. You can still search; you’ve just given your computer a performance boost.

If you have Vista, well, read this article, because I’m tired of typing and really, this post is about the best free desktop search tool!

Thanks for stopping by.

Oh, wait. You want to hear about the best desktop search? You want an alternative to the indexing service you just turned off? OK. It’s called Agent Ransack, and it’s free, of course. It doesn’t chew up valuable resources, it’s blazing fast, and you can even use regular expressions (whatever that means)! I’ve been using it for the past couple years. It blows away other desktop search alternatives (Google Desktop, Copernic), because it doesn’t surreptitiously invade your computer.

Download Agent Ransack here.
Get help for Agent Ransack here.

Not only is KeePass free, it’s also open source.

What does it do? Simply put, it remembers passwords for you. I use the Internet a lot, and I have a lot of passwords, and for years I’ve tried to keep it all straight (and done a pretty good job, if I say so myself). But finally I broke down and started looking for a password manager.

KeePass fit the bill perfectly. It costs relatively little (free), it uses the most secure encryption algorithms known to mankind (well, OK, I don’t know if that’s really true but the KeePass site says the databases are encrypted “using the best and most secure encryption algorithms currently known (AES and Twofish).” So, I believe them.

Anyway, if you’re having a hard time remembering all your passwords, and you want to make a list of them (stored very securely on your computer) then get KeePass.

Get KeePass here.

OK. I’ll admit it. I don’t have Irfanview on my computer. I have a different image viewer. However, I did have Irfanview on my computer for years and I still say it’s the best free image viewer out there (we all need change at some point). It began the slew of freeware image viewers and most others have cloned or copied its features at some point or another.

If you want the ability to batch edit graphics, view slideshows, view EXIF information, losslessly rotate photos, or just view files (most any type of file), Irfanview will do it all. It IS the original and still the best free image viewer.

Irfanview has served me well over the years and I think it’s time to re-install it.

Get your free copy right here.

I looked back over my posts on free software, and I realized I hadn’t given e-sword its own post. I’ve mentioned it in my top five free software picks of all time, but really, e-sword should have its own entry.

This program deserves my award for the best free program of all time. Sure, many other programs are useful (Firefox, for instance), and many other programs do more (Open Office, for example), but none (except e-sword) provide life-giving truth.

E-sword easily compares to commercial offerings. No, you can’t get all the “premium” modules for free (like the NKJV) but who needs ‘em? The ESV (English Standard Version) is a very literal translation that I find very similar to the NASB. Download multiple versions, bucketloads of commentaries and dictionaries, devotions, maps . . . get going!

Some people say the interface appears antiquated, but I disagree. To me, it looks snazzy and modern (O.K., well, it’s free) and it even provides useful tips on opening (if you want them).

Some cool things that I like are:

• the ability to create your own parallel Bible with up to four versions,
• the simple to use tabs that show you which commentaries, dictionaries, etc. have information pertinent to the passage you’re reading,
• the fast search tool (you can search dictionaries, commentaries, etc. as well,
• the tooltips which appear when you hover over certain things (like Scripture references in the commentaries and dictionaries),
• and all the little extras, like the Bible reading plan, daily devotions, and the cool Scripture memory tool.

Visit the site to check out the many features of e-sword. Check out the many downloads available. If you want access to the best free program of all time, then quit just checking out all the benefits e-sword has to offer – get the program!

Download e-sword here.

I have a Canon G9 but I absolutely hate Canon’s bundled software (sorry, Canon). I call it “bloatware.” As you install it, you don’t know what to install or not install. Then, when you finally figure out what to install (usually everyone just installs everything), you have 200MB of crap on your system you’ll never use. I’ve had a G3, and now a G9, and both times I purchased a camera I tried installing the Canon software and promptly uninstalled it. I don’t like bloat. I like efficiency. Speed. Lightness of being. So I started looking for a free alternative.

I found it in cam2pc. I’ve been using this freebie for years and it’s never failed me. It does what I want it to do (which is download images and videos from my camera and losslessly rotate them). It does a lot more, too, but I use it for one thing – to download images from my camera quickly and painlessly. If you want to see its other features, check out the cam2pc website. They also sell a more feature-packed version of cam2pc, which I’ve never used, but if it functions as flawlessly as the free verions, I’d highly recommend it.

Download the free version of cam2pc here.

Oh yes, you’ll also need to download the Canon support files (if you have a Canon, that is), found here.