Freeware fav’s
This is a geek-ish post, mainly for windows users: (Sorry MACies as i don’t have one i don’t know what freeware is out there for one), there are several great programs that I use on a regular basis that are completely free, (Some are freeware others are open source) included are a short description of said program.
Google earth: as something of a writer, when I’m looking for some exotic location… or just want to mess around I load up google earth. It’s fun to mess around with and more than a little creepy when you think about some of the implications…. though while I’m on the subject of Google, let me add Gmail, Google Docs, Google Calender, Google Reader, and Picassa.
paint.net do not mistake this awesome program for mspaint (which and let’s be honest about this, sucks), Paint.net is a fairly robust program that loads incredibly fast for quick photo touching up I’ve not yet found a better program in the freescape.
gimp - I honestly couldn’t talk about paint.net without mentioning gimp, aka THE open source photoshop replacement program, I also don’t use it that often, but it’s still considered the best image manipulation program that comes without a price tag. Now I’ve had issues with the UI for gimp, but apparently there is a solution provided.
Launchy – now this one I know has a mac equivalent called quicksilver this is a very nice program launcher, (type based) for me I hit alt + space and then start to type the name of a program and then can launch it. I know it sounds like a long way to do things, but I abhor a messy desktop, and for me it’s much faster to do this then to navigate through the start menu.
Dropbox This one is also cross platform, and one I’m working on getting more members of our creative arts team using. It’s a free (for 2 gigs worth of space) file synchronizing service. As an added benefit you can share folders with other users, I team up with our main vj to ensure that our Lyrics are current for each week’s worship set.
Winamp The original mp3 player… okay so perhaps it wasn’t THE original mp3 player, but it might as well have been. I’ve been a winamp user since the early versions, long before all the improvements that have followed in version 5.x (What i’m currently using), that have made it in my opinion MUCH more usable then itunes, It takes a few seconds to set up, but once you do, the library feature is great! and makes managing my massive song collection, a breeze.
google Voice: okay technically this one is still in Beta, with invitation only, as someone who’s gotten his invitation let me say simply, this rocks. Along with it I’ll add Google Wave, especially if I can get more people to use it..
If you have any Favorite free programs? Share them here!
Logmeinfree I love logmeinfree, it’s a web app that allows me to control another pc via the internet. Its come in very handy.
Darkroom When I just want to write creatively or am working on some major writing project I use Darkroom. It doesn’t have any fancy formatting tools of a robust office program (For that try Open Office, it’s a simple full screen text editor that darkens out (IE runs in full screen mode) everything else so that you can focus on your writing.
Foxit Reader My much preferred pdf reader over Adobe Acrobat reader, in general it loads and runs 2-3 times faster…
VLC Probably the best media player out there. It’s constantly being tweaked and upgraded and it seem to play EVERYTHING.
TOK Box Video conferencing (And vid-mailing for that matter) made simple and easy, this is an awesome tool that should get a lot more street cred than it is!
Lessons learned from the tech sector….
I make no qualms, or apologies about it, I want a netbook. I know I’ve already got a good labtop, and a powerful desktop in the works… (planned anyway), but I’ve come to really like these little mini-geek toys. And honestly? I wouldn’t mind a macbook pro either…
And there’s something to be said about that.
The tech-sector is offering specifically different products to different people based on want people have wanted, when the netbooks first came out they were only available with Linux, something that I’ve got nothing against, they were very limited in capacity, but all they really were intended for was a mobile wifi internet platform, and they served their purpose, as time has past people have wanted more options and the market has responded, now most netbooks that you can find, (or at least the ones I’ve seen) are preloaded with Windows xp, because it’s more market friendly. (Fellow geeks out there STOP! I know, and I’m right there with you, but the fact remains that the everyday normal person who DOESN’T do coding from their station, and could careless about your 37 node beowulf cluster actually likes their windows operating system). And yes if you look linux is still an option, but you know what else I’ve noticed they’re still selling laptops.
Sorry getting WAY off topic here, my apologies.
My point is that you’re looking for portability you can buy a low end netbook (for under 200 if woot has a deal and they haven’t sold out… again), you can spend a bit more and get a high end netbook, or a bit more still and get a notebook, or a lot more and get a mac. (And lets not forget about the netphones now available, the iPhone being the market leader hands down, but there our android phones and the new palm {pre I think} that’s out/about to come out).
Setting aside brand rivalries for a moment, (and that means pc vs mac, give it a break for a few minutes) each machine serves a different market, and sells itself to a different demographic, yet the end purpose is still the same. They guys who use macs talk down about windows notebooks, windows users can’t figure out why someone would pay three times the price for something with software that takes up a single shelf at best buy… and poor Linux is left for those who truly understand…. (Sorry getting off topic again).
The Church (capital c) is supposed to be like that too. Some people like a church (lower case c) that has loud rocking music that seeks to amplify and raise up the name of Christ, some people like a church (again lower case c) that has an organ and piano and a full gospel choir with anthems of praise, some people have a church (do I really need to repeat myself at this point) that can’t sing at all, they meet in secret because of persecution and sing silently and lift or wjavascript:void(0)orship to God just the same.
1 Corinthians 12:12 – The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ.
Perhaps instead of complaining that the music is too loud, or too boring, perhaps we should celebrate that others are worshiping our Creator and Savior…
and who knows I might end up with a net book or a mac yet!
move aside apple…
glass trackpad? pshaw, try THIS it’s like they took a DS and then built a full labtop around it.
Just something cool I found…
Extreme shepherding?
Now I’m by no means an expert in this….
Having grown up in a house where a period drama (more on this in a second) was as common as watching facts of life I was a bit surprised by a recent commercial on food network, it was a commercial for shoyuu or as it’s more commonly known in the states, Soy sauce… Okay technically it was a commercial for Kikkoman a brand of Shoyu… errr soy sauce, but as far as I’m concerned if I ever refer to Shoy…soy sauce I’m talking about Kikkoman (In a similar fashion Hellman and mayonnaise the two are synonymous with each other as far as I’m concerned).
Sorry going off on a tangent there, the point of this blog post was in my (admittedly limited, but still more common to me than the average person watching the commercial) opinion was the words used.
Umami, it’s Japanese for Delicious was the wording used.
Now when I was a kid I watched period dramas… (In this case, it was Samurai/Shogun era, the Japanese equivalent to watching a western TV series) as a young teen I was more immersed in Japanese culture than I should care to admit to… (point in fact to Lifepoint staff, JAPANESE NOT KOREAN!) (Point to Korean friends, not that there’s anything wrong with Korea (err at least the southern half,) it’s just not my heritage).
I have a couple friends in Japan, we’ve discussed food before.
my issue? never ONCE have I EVER seen, heard, or used the word Umami to describe something as being delicious (for that matter never before have I seen the word period).
No the terms I know Umai (pronounced oo (as in you) mai (as in my)) or in more informal (and more commonly in my experience) was Oishi! (pronounced Oy (as in Oy-vey) Shi (as in she)).
I listened to the commercial (it was long enough it was repeated Several times) to make sure I didn’t mis-heard (I hadn’t) after not finding it in the normal translating dictionary I use, I looked it up online and sure enough, it does mean what the commercial claims it does…
of course with a commercial like this:
I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised…
Side note regarding just mentioned commercial you will hear them use Oishi in the background song about 21 seconds into it… Umami nowhere to be found.
Oh and speaking of commercials… I don’t know about the video itself, but I know that the song was a diddy for the company, because I remember the show me, shoyou line… and I’m not going to link it here, it’s too disturbing and that way you can’t blame me for getting it in your head.
Does this strike you as wrong?
I like so many of my contemporaries am a big fan of moleskine notebooks, they’re awesome for a quick note jot, or sketch an idea out… so when I saw this on the blogroll this morning, my immediate response was… that’s just wrong…
Watch for…
These web-services are on my use/try to get others to use/next big thing
General Productivity
Google Reader: My choice for an RSS reader, it’s simple, it’s mobile, (Ie you log into your google account and can access it from anywhere), it handles the several hundred different blogs I’m subscribed too (no i don’t read every article every day) very efficiently.
Twitter: Is there anyone out there who reads blogs who hasn’t heard of twitter yet? A “microblogging” service, also great for updating status on facebook and others.
Yammer: Picture if you will, a microblogging service, (ala twitter) that’s built for a private network, a place where team members in various areas can post questions and comments about current and upcoming events, to other team members. Well it’s here and it’s called yammer, private networks are setup by email addresses, ie yourname(at)yourcompanynamehere.com , it also works with sms (text) or web posting (just like twitter).
Tokbok: I first found out about tokbox from Los’s (Ragamuffin Soul)’s blog It’s a live video chat service which can have multiple people video conferencing at once, plus, you can record and send video emails.
Facebook: Facebook social networking? maybe, but one thing that it’s done (and done well) is put me back in touch with people from my school days (cough cough) years ago.
Fun stuff
Audiorium: THIS is the freeware physics game to watch for in my opinion, beautifully scored and rendered, and interesting to play, i’m waiting for them to release a soundtrack, I think the audio draws me in more then the actual gameplay at times…
More Cowbell Dj: Remember the Saturday night live sketch? Well so do the guys at cowbell dj, put a song up mess with a couple of sliders, and doink, your very own need more cowbell.
Generatus: Officially billed as “Social Network Status Generator” with the Tag, (Ideal for the imaginatively challenged), You’ve got to love something that automatically comes up with “Matt does for rock and roll what “The Sound of Music” did for hills”
Image Mosaic Generator: You’ve seen those pictures of something made up of thousand of tiny little images right? same concept upload a picture and it does the rest, it does choose it’s own images to create yours from so that can end up being rather random but it’s still a neat effect.
mac vs. pc 2.0
You know those I’m a mac, i’m a pc commercials? (And visa-versa for the ones that microsoft put out)
yeah well this blows then all away.
