New Sites and Software

New/Recommended Software
Firefox 10 Top features (Now my favorite and most used browser.) From PCMag.com: "The update, the latest in the organization's "rapid release" program, improves the way the browser handles add-on updating, and adds a gaggle of new tools and capabilities for Web developers to use, which in turn, means more powerful and compelling sites for end users."
Dropbox.com Excellent! Free and highly recommended. Site/software for saving data online. "Any file you save to Dropbox also instantly saves to your computers, phones, and the Dropbox website. Features: 2 GB of online Dropbox storage for free, with subscriptions up to 100GB available. Your files are always available from the secure Dropbox website. Dropbox works with Windows, Mac, Linux, iPad, iPhone, Android and BlackBerry. Works even when offline. You always have your files, whether or not you have a connection. Dropbox transfers just the parts of a file that change (not the whole thing). Manually set bandwidth limits -- Dropbox won't hog your connection. Shared folders allow people to work together on the same projects and documents. Invite friends, family or teammates to a folder. It'll be as if you saved the folder to their computers. See other people's changes instantly. Create photo galleries viewable by anyone you choose. Send a link to any file in your Dropbox using your Public folder."
Kingsoft Office Suite Free 2012 "A free office suite that offers a number of features for creating, viewing and editing personal and business documents. Kingsoft free office software suite is compatible with all of the latest Microsoft Office file formats. It can easily open, read and write documents created with Microsoft Office as well as a wide variety of other formats. Microsoft Office can also open Kingsoft Office files without having Kingsoft Office installed on the same computer. It is fully compatible with Windows 7."
Kindle Cloud Reader "A web app that lets you read your Kindle books, instantly. Instant access to your Kindle library Continue reading even when you lose your internet connection." Works in Firefox, Chrome, Safari.
Amazon Cloud Drive "Amazon Cloud Drive is your hard drive in the cloud. Store your music, videos, photos, and documents on Amazon's secure servers. All you need is a web browser to upload, download, and access your files from any computer. 5 GB of free online storage." If you have an Amazon account you already have the reserved space just log on here. This is secure storage (encrypted using HPPS) and therefore somewhat like Google Docs and Windows Cloud, except no sharing possible. And of course you lack any online applications/editing facilities that are available with Windows Cloud and Google Docs.
Google Docs & Spreadsheets With Google Docs & Spreadsheets, you can: Use our online editor to format documents, spell-check and more. Upload Word documents, OpenOffice, RTF, HTML or text. Download documents to your desktop as Word, PDF and more. View your documents' revision history and roll back to any version. Plus, since its online, you can: Invite others to share your documents by e-mail address. Edit documents online with whomever you choose. Publish documents online to the world, or to just who you choose. You can now also upload video and images.
Splashtop Remote Desktop for Windows Access your computer from another PC! FREE with no ads! Splashtop Remote Desktop for Windows will give you PC-to-PC or PC-to-Mac remote access support with full audio and video. Unlike other remote desktop products, Splashtop allows you to: Enjoy high-definition movies and videos (up to 30 frames per second), streaming from PC or Mac Play interactive/3D games with low latency Setup with ease through its simple, intuitive interface It works! Incredibly well. You won't believe you are not actually at the host computer itself - highly recommended! Also available as an app (not free but cheap) for Ipad (in Apple App Store) or HP Touchpad (in HP App Catalog). Requires installation of Splashtop Streamer (also free) on the computer to be controlled/viewed.
Chrome 16 Google's very own browser. Has a lot of features to like, including improved handling of Javascript-heavy sites, like Gmail, Yahoo Mail, and Google Docs. No need for the Google toolbar - it's built-in! Just type search terms in the address box and press enter! May not be compatible with some web sites. Has continuing stability problems.
LibreOffice 3.4.4 "LibreOffice is the free power-packed Open Source personal productivity suite for Windows, Macintosh and Linux, that gives you six feature-rich applications for all your document production and data processing needs: Writer [=Word], Calc [=Excel], Impress [=Powerpoint], Draw, Math and Base[=Access]. Support and documentation is free from our large, dedicated community of users, contributors and developers." Based on OpenOffice but has enhanced features over and above OO. Free and highly recommended.
Adobe Acrobat Reader 10 Update for popular plug-in/ActiveX control viewer for displaying inline PDF files. This is a link to the Adobe FTP server which lets you get the stand-alone installer (without installing/using Adobe's Download Manager).
Panda Cloud Antivirus Free Edition Sets a new technological standard for virus/spyware/malware protection. See the PC Mag review. I now recommend Cloud over all other anti-virus products. Requires free and easy email registration.
Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware "Can detect and remove malware that even the most well known anti-virus and anti-malware applications fail to detect." Free and highly recommended - Install (and keep uo-to-date) even if you have other good anti-virus protection. It is especially good at finding/destroying malware that other programs cannot - run in safe mode if you think you may have an infection.
IObit Malware Fighter "IObit Malware Fighter is an advanced malware & spyware removal utility that detects, removes the deepest infections, and protects your PC from various potential spyware, adware, trojans, keyloggers, bots, worms, and hijackers. With the improved, unique "Dual-Core" engine and the heuristic malware detection, IObit Malware Fighter detects the most complex and deepest spyware and malware in a very fast and efficient way."
Advanced SystemCare Free "Advanced SystemCare Free has a one-click approach to helping protect, repair, clean, and optimize your PC. With over 20,000,000 downloads since 2006, this fantastic, award-winning, free program is a "must-have" tool for your computer, 100% safe and clean with no adware, spyware, or viruses." Free and highly recommended.
Glary Utilities "Offers numerous powerful and easy-to-use system tools and utilities to fix, speed up, maintain and protect your PC. It allows you to clean common system junk files, as well as invalid registry entries and Internet traces. You can manage and delete browser add-ons, analyze disk space usage and find duplicate files. You can also view and manage installed shell extensions, encrypt your files from unauthorized access and use, split large files into smaller manageable files and then rejoin them. Furthermore, Glary Utilities includes the options to optimize memory, find, fix, or remove broken Windows shortcuts, manage the programs that start at Windows startup and uninstall software. Other features include secure file deletion, an Empty Folder finder and more." Free and highly recommended.
Microsoft Security Essentials "Microsoft Security Essentials provides real-time protection for your home or small business PC that guards against viruses, spyware, and other malicious software." Recommended - although they say "Before installing Microsoft Security Essentials, we recommend that you uninstall other antivirus software already running on your PC. Running more than one antivirus program at the same time can potentially cause conflicts that affect PC performance." I have not had a problem running it in tandem with Panda, Avast, Malwarebytes. YMMV.
VideoLAN "A free cross-platform media player, supports a large number of multimedia formats, without the need for additional codecs. It can also be used as a streaming server, with extended features (video on demand, on the fly transcoding, ...)" Highly recommended - much simpler and easier to use than Windows Media Player - with a much smaller system resource footprint.
Paint.NET "Free image and photo editing software for computers that run Windows. It features an intuitive and innovative user interface with support for layers, unlimited undo, special effects, and a wide variety of useful and powerful tools. An active and growing online community provides friendly help, tutorials, and plugins." I now use it in preference to my old favorite Paint Shop Pro - great for simple tasks like cropping/resizing/optimizing - highly recommended.
Picasa from Google Yet another breakthrough web-software application from Google. You download a small program that allows you to organize and manipulate (simply, powerfully) your images and then publish them ALL AT ONCE to a web albumn for others. Terrific idea! Highly recommended. Latest development: "Picasa Web Albums, Google's free and therefore widely-popular photo-sharing tool, added facial recognition technology to online photo albums."
AVG Anti-Virus/Anti-Spyware Free Edition 2012 "Get your free copy of the AVG Anti-Virus/Anti-Spyware System - AVG Free Edition and you will be able to use it without any limitations for life of the product. You can download free updates to get the latest program virus/spyware databases."
Avast Home Edition "Avast Home Edition is a reliable free antivirus solution, that constantly and rapidly scans your computer for malicious programs such as viruses, Trojans, backdoor programs, hoaxes, worms, dialers etc."
OpenDNS "OpenDNS is the leading provider of FREE security and infrastructure services that make the Internet safer through integrated Web content filtering, anti-phishing and DNS. OpenDNS services enable consumers and network administrators to secure their networks from online threats, reduce costs and enforce Internet-use policies. OpenDNS is used today by millions of users and organizations around the world." Not really software, at least from the user's side, but a way to protect your computer(s) from many Internet threats. Highly recommended. Takes only minutes to setup (a video tutorial) and gives you immense control (if you setup a free account) over potential security issues, e.g., monitors your network traffic for signs of the Conficker virus. All of this without installing ANY software on your computer(s)!

New Sites/Articles
Jim's HP-Touchpad Review My evaluation of the HP-Touchpad and resources for same. Updated: Monday, February 6, 2012
Only Connect Fun quiz taken from the BBC TV programme (as they spell it) - a challenge to your lateral thinking skills. Find the connections in seemingly unrelated things
Jim's Windows 8 Preview A summary outline of my presentation to the Seven Lakes Computer Club on Oct. 11, 2011 and links to Windows 8 articles, videos and resources. Updated: Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Jim's Kindle 3 Ereader/Ebook Review My evaluation of the Kindle 3 ereader and sources of ebooks and ebook utilities. Updated: Friday, October 14, 2011
Jim's Top 10 Tips for Optimizing XP/Vista/Windows 7 Some easy tricks to wring more performance out of XP/Vista/Windows 7.
Windows 7 - The Pocket Guide A free Windows 7 book (360+ pages pdf) - requires free registration.
Jim's Browser Review My evaluation of the three major browser competitors (IE, Firefox, Chrome) to date (on the PC/Windows platform). This review is rather out of date, since the original review considered the older versions of all these browsers. For one thing, my overall ranking has changed - I now prefer and use Firefox most often, occassionally Chrome, and IE almost never. Firefox 8 is now more stable than Chrome and much less of a memory hog than previously.
KhanAcademy.org Excellent site for learning in many areas. "With a library of over 2,600 videos covering everything from arithmetic to physics, finance, and history and 211 practice exercises, we're on a mission to help you learn what you want, when you want, at your own pace. "
Princeton University: WebMedia - Lectures Many streaming videos of lectures by eminent intellectuals in many fields. Great stuff!
Gifford Lectures Online "Presents a comprehensive collection of books derived from the Gifford Lectures [a tradition of more than a hundred years]. In addition to the books, the Web site contains a biography of each lecturer and a summary of the lecture or book." Wonderful if you care anything about the confluence of philosophy, science, and theology.
MIT's OpenCourseWare "A free and open educational resource for faculty, students, and self-learners around the world." Incredible content!
Ted.com "Inspired talks by the world's greatest thinkers and doers" - great stuff!
BBC - Languages "Learn Spanish, German, French and Italian and other languages with the BBC Languages site. From holiday phrases to a complete course."
HOW THINGS WORK Encourages everyone to learn about the physics and science of the world around them.
A Brief History Of The End Of Everything "A series exploring how our ideas about the end of the universe have been shaped by religion, belief, and the contemporary state of scientific thinking and observation." A series of streaming audio programs on contemporary cosmology.
Windows 7 Product Guide) Free from Microsoft a 140 page (pdf) book, profusely illustrated in color
Wolfram Alpha A most useful (cogitatingly speaking) thing to hit the web in a while - think of it as a "computational engine for factual knowledge" - see a Flash intro by Stephen Wolfram himself!
How the Alphabet Was Born from Hieroglyphs "More than 3,800 years ago, illiterate Canaanite laborers working in the turquoise mines of Sinai were responsible for one of the most significant inventions in human history: the alphabet. An Egyptologist and expert in hieroglyphs explores the simple but ingenious ideas that led these miners under hieroglyphic inspiration to create the first-ever alphabetic script." From Bible History Today. Also on this site get free ebooks on Biblical history topics.
Brain Training Games Nifty brain stretching games from the BBC TV series.
FreeRice An Internet word game has generated enough rice to feed 50,000 people for one day. The game, FreeRice, tests the vocabulary of participants. For each click on a correct answer, the website donates money to buy 10 grains of rice. Companies advertising on the website provide the money to the WFP to buy and distribute the rice. FreeRice went online in early October and has now raised 1bn grains of rice.
ClarkHoward.com "Save more, spend less and avoid ripoffs." Consumer information and advise. Very useful.
Local Gas Prices Enter your zip code in the site below, and it tells you which gas stations have the cheapest prices (and the highest) on gas in your zip code area. It's updated every evening.
LibriVox LibriVox provides free audiobooks from the public domain.
Roger McGuinn Incredibly beautiful folk music on 12-string in RealAudio/MP3 - former leader of the Byrds of "Mr. Tamborine Man" and "Turn, Turn, Turn" fame. Here is a video of Roger singing/playing "Turn, Turn, Turn."
Classical KING-FM "Broadcasting classical music LIVE from Seattle Washington on the radio and on the NET! The widest variety of live and recorded classical performances. Excellent for at work or homework!"
WCPE.org WCPE (Classical) streams audio over the Internet 24 hours a day in MP3, Ogg Vorbis, Real Audio, Windows Media & QuickTime!
Nationmaster.com A data source and comparison tool for national statistics...you can generate maps and graphs with ease.
Washington Post Puzzles Crosswords, sudoku - includes printable (archived) puzzles
USAToday Puzzles Many puzzles, including crosswords, sudoku
Casual Printable Crossword Seven American-style crosswords are available each day (rotated at midnight eastern time). Solutions available the next day.
Fun-with-words.com "Over 500 pages of word puzzles, games, amazing lists, and fun facts."

What's New* at Internet Resources

Updated: Monday, February 6, 2012