Hi, I am back from a short sick leave so apologies for the lack of posts in the last few weeks.
This week I am going to give you a few tips and links to software which is completely free to use and can replace some really expensive pieces of software which you may be thinking of purchasing. I am in no way affiliated with any of the below companies. This is all my honest opinion.
Let's start with Office. If your needs are an easy to use word processor, spreadsheet and slide presentation suite of software, you could use Open Office. This is free software and easily installed and can save you hundreds of dollars. It can also open up documents made with MS Office. http://download.openoffice.org/index.html and you are set to go.
The next bit of software which comes free with Windows XP (SP2). Windows Movie Maker. This bit of software is GREAT for making and editing movies or slide shows. It is easy to use and you can add music and titles to each slide. Just go to "Start" -- "All Programs" -- "Accessories" -- "Microsoft Movie Maker".
There is a great tutorial at the following link: http://presentationsoft.about.com/od/moviemaker/a/mov_mak_beg.htm
If you have tons of pictures on your PC, then I would recommend using Picasa. This is free software from Google which indexes all your pictures and keeps them arranged according to date taken. It is like getting a secretary to organize all your pictures in nice, neat folders. On top of that, Picasa is great for editing pictures like getting rid of red eye and cropping pictures. It automatically keeps a copy of the original. If you have a Google account, you can also use Picasa to upload your pictures to the web to Picasa Web Albums. This is great for backup and to share your pics with family and friends. Get Picasa free at http://picasa.google.com/download/index.html
Have you heard of VOIP? That is Voice Over IP. It is a method of using internet connections to make phone calls. There are a number of companies which provide free VOIP. The one I recommend is Skype. The phone calls are free from Skype user to Skype user, and you can call at low prices from Skype to a regular phone line. On top of that, if you have a webcam (you can pick up a cheap web camera for under 20 dollars), you can also make video phone calls for FREE. Imagine calling your loved ones thousands of miles away and being able to see them while you talk. Get Skype at http://www.skype.com/download/ and make sure you get as many people as you can onto Skype because the more people on Skype, the more free calls you can make.
Me
About Me
- mart
- I am a Windows / Unix / Linux System administrator who likes to help others. If you have any questions, just post a comment and I will try my best.
6 comments:
How do I save the earth?
Hallo Mart,
Thanks for your kind comment on Petero's 80% blog.
Quite possible we might not so easily agree on those political issues. But leaving that aside, I am quite thrilled to learn that you are a paraglider pilot, too. Your photo seems to suggest this.
Yes, I would like to fly on the sea side. I saw once on YouTube you have sand dunes somewhere, good for soaring in warm laminary winds.
May I give it a try and ask you a computer question?
I am using XP and the browser/messenger Seamonkey. When I write an email and attach a picture I cannot reduce it. This reduction is only possible when I go into "my pictures" section, right click on mouse and choose to transfer the photo to an email. Only in this case a window pops up and asks me if I want to reduce the size. Only in this case.
So how can I activate this when I wish to reduce size??
Cheers
Georg
Hi Georg,
I will start with the image resize question. I understand that you wish to be able to resize an image without going through the right click and mail process. The best free software for this is microsofts "Image resizer" which you can download and install free from http://download.microsoft.com/download/whistler/Install/2/WXP/EN-US/ImageResizerPowertoySetup.exe
After installing this, you can right click a picture or a whole lot of pictures at once and then choose "Resize Pictures". Choose what size you want and it will create a new resized picture and keep the original. If you click on "Advanced" you can choose to not keep the originals" but then you cannot go back to the original size again without loosing on the resolution.
About Parapente in Israel, I have not been flying for a few years but was an instructor and tandem pilot and have a few thousand hours. In the summer months, we have some fantastic coastal soaring sites next to the beach which can be flown almost every day for hours. In addition we have some mountain flying as well with nice thermals and possibility of flying cross country.
In the winter the weather is usually good and then we have some mountain sites which face east which is the prevailing winter wind.
If you decide to come for a visit, let me know and I will put you in touch with some active pilots who will be able to show you around.
With regard to politics, I have been living in Israel for the past 33 years. I used to be a extremely annoyed by the Israeli treatment of Arabs and other minorities but after seeing people blown up in the streets and having my family bombed by Iraq, Hizzbolah and Hamas, my views have changed quite a bit. I still DO believe that the man in the street in Israel and in the Palestinian territories wants to ket up in the morning, go to work and then come home to his family but our politicians have a different agenda. I also believe that a large amount of Palestinians do not want peace with Israel but they want to get rid of Israel. (They probably think the same about us) and it will take a lot to get rid of that mistrust.
All I can wish for is Peace, Shalom, Salaam to all.
Regards,
Mart
Bonjour Mart,
May I ask you a very general computer question regarding Windows XP (might be relevant to Vista, too).
My brother in law once said that Windows keeps upgrading XP by adding layer on layer. According to him, these many downloaded layers make the system slower and slower.
Do you agree with that and do you have an idea - if this is true - how to improve speed of XP??
Thanks in advance (if you have some time to spare)
GCeorg
Hi Martin,
Just to tell you that I did the download of "Resize Picture": the program works fine.
Thanks so much.
Georg
Hi Grorg,
I have never investigated the reasons for Windows to start getting sluggish after about 6 - 8 months of use but I can only guess. (I usually reinstall the operating system every year)
One thing is that beside the windows operating system, you are constantly installing other software which does changes to the registry and eventually one change after another can make things work in an unpredictable manner. In addition, patch after patch of Microsoft's also starts to make it heavier and slower.
I would suggest moving over to a Linux operating system but that could be a bit trying for the less technically minded users and there is also a lack of Microsoft compatable software so I guess we can only hope that the next OS from Microsoft will be less buggy.
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