Category: Geek Software of the Week

The best and most exciting Freeware and Open Source program that you can find is the one that you really, really need RIGHT NOW! Well, that’s where I was yesterday… I REALLY needed a way to do an on-line tutorial showing someone EXACTLY how to access an application and what to click. I wanted them to be able to watch my mouse movements, see the screens, and hear my voice as I gave the tutorial. And, of course, I wanted to be able to convert from a movie (AVI) file to a flash file and generate HTML so that I could make it a web site. AND, the big thing is, I didn’t want to spend any money doing it! Impossible? Of course not! Not when there are so many great Open Source or Freeware solutions!

I found two, one called “Wink” and one called “CamStudio” (I am sure that there may be more.) However, as our Geek Software of the Week… here is my favorite: CamStudio!

CamStudio Web Site

“CamStudio is able to record all screen and audio activity on your computer and create industry-standard AVI video files and using its built-in SWF Producer can turn those AVIs into lean, mean, bandwidth-friendly Streaming Flash videos (SWFs)

Here are just a few ways you can use this software:

You can use it to create demonstration videos for any software program

Or how about creating a set of videos answering your most frequently asked questions?

You can create video tutorials for school or college class

You can use it to record a recurring problem with your computer so you can show technical support people

You can use it to create video-based information products you can sell

You can even use it to record new tricks and techniques you discover on your favourite software program, before you forget them

Don’t like the sound of your voice? No problem.

CamStudio can also add high-quality, anti-aliased (no jagged edges) screen captions to your recordings in seconds and with the unique Video Annotation feature you can even personalise your videos by including a webcam movie of yourself ‘picture-in-picture’ over your desktop.

And if all that wasn’t enough, CamStudio also comes with its own Lossless Codec that produces crystal clear results with a much smaller filesize compared with other more popular codecs, like Microsoft Video 1.

You have total control over the output of your video: you can choose to use custom cursors, to record the whole screen or just a section of it and can reduce or increase the quality of the recording depending on if you want smaller videos (for emailing to people, for instance) or you can have ‘best quality’ ones for burning onto CD/DVD.

But all of these features would be worthless if CamStudio wasn’t easy to use … fortunately that’s not the case. CamStudio can be learned in a matter of minutes and comes with a comprehensive built-in helpfile, so if you do manage to get stuck, you can simply hit ‘Help’ and get the answers you need.”

Try it! You will agree that this software rocks!

This week’s Geek Software of the Week is late… but it is a big one! It is not so much software, but rather technique! I thought about this one long and hard, because it does “shoot me in the foot” as a Google Adsense participating website… but, my commitment to your computer safety outweighs my personal “gain.” Pretty small gain actually, but “gain” nonetheless! You see, when you go to a website, yes, even this website, you see adds generated by Google based on the content, and presumably, the context of the site. This is then supposed to lead to referrals off the site because if you see something interesting, and click on that link, then, I, as the web site owner gets a tiny “slice” of the ad revenue from that click.

Well, what I am about to reveal will shut that down for you, if you use it, not only on this site, but ALL web sites you visit! It will also keep you safe from madware, spyware, and even some viruses! (Not from THIS site, obviously, but others!) What am I talking about? Well, here it is!

Mega HOSTS File

The link above is to the mega, huge, all time, biggest, HOSTS file I have seen! Well, OK, I am sure that there are others that are good too, but this one is really good!

The idea is that if you replace your typical HOSTS file found in:

C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\etc\

(A location where you will find a file called “hosts” with no extension.)

If you replace that file with the file available at the link above, then get out of your browser and back in… poof! All those nasty ads will be no more! And, your system will not be as “trackable” either! Pretty cool! Where you once saw “Hit the Monkey” ad banners, there will be a white block with a small error, but no flashing yukkiness! Pretty cool… and really powerful! Give it a try… you can always rename your old file to “hosts.old” and copy it back if it proves to be “too much” for you!

Check out “Viidoo” and tell me what you think! IPTV… hummm?

Viidoo – The Home of WebTV

It appears to convert TV into flash video and display it via the player. I can’t find a FAQ, but it seems pretty cool. Will it “win out” over other versions… I don’t know. But it is interesting!

You defrag your hard drive (don’t you?!) Well, you should! You should also defrag your registry! What?!? You say that you don’t know how to defrag your registry? Well, then, you need this week’s GSoTW!

NTREGOPT: Defrag Your Windows Registry

From the NTREGOPT FAQ:
“Similar to Windows 9x/Me, the registry files in an NT-based system can become fragmented over time, occupying more space on your hard disk than necessary and decreasing overall performance. You should use the NTREGOPT utility regularly, but especially after installing or uninstalling a program, to minimize the size of the registry files and optimize registry access.”

This is very cool software… and, this week, you get two Geek Software’s for the “price” of one (still FREE!) Find number ONE:

DeepRipper

“DeepRipper is freeware that will convert your audio CD tracks to a first-grade MP3, OGG or WAV files. A number of presets for less experienced users and full set of manual settings for experts. Take a full control over CD ripping with DeepRipper- do it quickly, easily and in a flexible way. Extracting digital music files from CDs becomes simple, quick, and painless with DeepRipper. Full control over constant or variable BitRate encoding, ID3 tags management, MPEG version selection- all for first-grade ripping. Truly Free.”

And, on the same web site, find number TWO:

DeepBurner

“Need a lightweight, powerful and rock-solid burning application that would work with your drive? It is DeepBurner. DeepBurner will be able to solve most of all your burning needs: be it burning data/audio/video CDs, all types of DVDs, composing photo albums and even burning backups. Every operation would start with a simple wizard, thus virtually everyone can use DeepBurner. Small, easy to start, intuitive to use and powerful, featuring all you need- it is DeepBurner. DeepBurner works on Windows 95/98/2000/NT/ME/XP and is compatible with most CD and DVD writers. There is a Free and a Pro version, the former being intended for home users, while Pro is for advanced and business users.”

REMEMBER… the free version is only for HOME USE! Be sure to pay for Pro and support these guys if you are getting it for commercial use! Very nice!

Dewd! If you have ever used (or wanted to use) Adobe Photoshop… but couldn’t afford the over $1000.00 price tag, then you NEED The GIMP! The GIMP stands for “GNU Image Manipulation Program” and it truly rocks! It is Open Source, free, and very cool! I was reminded by a listener to the podcast that I hadn’t spotlighted The GIMP yet as a Geek Software of the Week winner! As I told him, it is just that I use it all the time, and hadn’t really thought about the fact that it is VERY useful to anyone that needs to graphic editor… and doesn’t want to drop a grand!

The GIMP for Windows

The GIMP is available on nearly all Linux Distributions, and for Mac OS/X! The link above is for the Windows installer version. You will need to download and install the GTK+ envirnment first, then download and install The GIMP. It is slick, fast, and cool! And, if you need an interface that is more familiar to Photoshop-ers… try GIMPshop! Here’s that link:

GIMPshop, a GIMP Hack by Scott Mochella

Scott hacked the GIMP interface to “Photoshop-ize” it. Very cool, Scott!

Thanks, Joe, for the e-mail reminding me to feature The GIMP!

You don’t REALLY still use Outlook, do you? Sigh. In spite of my pleadings you persist? Thunderbird is better than Outlook and has built-in Bayesian Spam filtering. OK, OK! So, you are going to use Outlook. I have to use it at work… BUT, at least I can ADD Bayesian filtering to it!

SpamBayes Outlook Plugin

Install it, and use it to “train” your mailbox to stop spam… remember, “You can’t tell spam from ham, without a program!” Well, this is that program! Enjoy!

I seem to be on a “quest” to find the best text editor. Do you ever check your posts to see who links to them? Well, I do occasionally, and I found that someone had linked to my recent post about the list of software that I recommend for all Windows users. He agreed with all of them pretty much EXCEPT the text editor. He recommended his favorite, which was Jedit. I downloaded and played with Jedit, and it was OK… it had some things I really liked. But, being a Java application, it was a mite slow. Also, I had to download and install four plugins to get the features that I really wanted. However, in a forum discussing Jedit, I found a reference to this week’s Geek Software of the Week, and my new text editor… ta da! PSPad!

PSpad – Text and Programmer’s Editor

PSpad has all the features I was looking for and more! Check them out (…not the full list!)

— work with projects
— work on several documents at the same time (MDI)
— Save desktop session to later reopen all open files
— FTP client – you can edit files directly from the web
— macro recorder to record, save and load macros
— search and replace in files
— text difference with color-coded differences highlighted
— templates (HTML tags, scripts, code templates…)
— installation contains templates for HTML, PHP, Pascal, JScript, VBScript, MySQL, MS-Dos, Perl,…
— syntax highlighting auto set by file type
— user-defined highlighters for exotic environments
— auto correction
— intelligent internal HTML preview using IE and Mozilla
— full HEX editor
— call external programs, different for each environment
— external compiler with catch command output, log window, log parser for each environment for “IDE” effect
— color syntax highlight printing and print preview
— integrated HTML TiDy library for formatting and checking HTML code, conversion to CSS, XML, XHTML
— integrated free version of top CSS editor TopStyle Lite
— export with highlight to RTF, HTML, TeX format into file or clipboard
— column block select, bookmarks, line numbers, …
— reformat and compress HTML code, tags char case change
— line sorting with ability to sort on defined column, with option to drop duplicates
— ASCII chart with HTML entities
— Code explorer for Pascal, INI, HTML, XML, PHP, and more in future
— spell checker
— internal web browser with APACHE support (this is VERY cool!)
— matching bracket highlighting

As Internet savvy parents, we know that no matter how “nice and well behaved” our teens are, there is an excellent chance that they will run across web sites that we don’t want them exposed to. You have hit questionable sites, and so have I, just doing some innocent search engine queries and “surfing.” In the past, I had recommended Naomi Web Filter, as a free project that offered good protection from the “evil” web sites that litter the Internet. However, the guy that was developing Naomi has had to abandon the project due to lack of time. I can relate, but we need the filtering software to be kept “cutting edge.” So, enter my new FREE recommendation: K9 Web Protection Software! Totally FREE, and excellent!

This product has been discontinued.

Take a look at this Admin Screen in the K9 Product. You have a lot of control, and the ability to track what has been viewed. This is excellent information for a parent that wants to guide their child’s experience on the net. The company says on their web site: ” If you’re like most of us, parenting in the age of the Internet has you facing a new set of challenges. Blue Coat is committed to helping you and all communities through this ‘First Generation of Internet Parenting’. K9 Web Protection is our free Internet filtering and control solution for the home. K9 puts YOU in control of the Internet so you can protect your kids.”

Check this out! It is an awesome package… and deserves a “Geek Software of the Week” recommendation!

As I have mentioned before, I differ from some of my Linux brethren in that I love Linspire Linux as a desktop distro! Now, on the server side, I run CentOS Linux (which is the totally free from source version of Red Hat… though they are not affliated in any way.) In fact, all four of my Dr. Bill Bailey.NET company servers (which host this web site) are CentOS Linux servers. BUT, on the desktop I like Linspire. However, Linspire, sadly, is NOT free! I have been a Linspire “Insider” since it was originally conceived way back in 2001/2002. And, I still support Michael Robertson’s vision of Linspire. However, NOW there is a free version of Linspire (so to speak!)

Official Freespire Website

“Freespire is a community-driven, Linux-based operating system that combines the best that free, open source software has to offer (community driven, freely distributed, open source code, etc.), but also provides users the choice of including proprietary codecs, drivers and applications as they see fit. With Freespire, the choice is yours as to what software is installed on your computer, with no limitations or restrictions placed on that choice. How you choose to maximize the performance of your computer is entirely up to you.”

I downloaded and tried the beta version of Freespire (Version 0.0.76) and it looks good! Simple install, nice look and feel, and most everything a “Joe User” would want is there! I was even able to simply and quickly connect to a file share across the network on a Windows XP system. Very nice! Check it out! The first public full release will be available in August (next month!) But, the beta is available now, here:

Download for Freespire