No face of mine

Facebook. That is what this post is all about. I have been curious about a couple things:

1. People with 1000-ish (or more) friends - Is it possible to maintain that many relationships? Maybe I am asking the wrong question. How do other people see Facebook? Personally, I see it as a place not to distribute my name in quantity, but to maintain close with a smaller network of friends. But I understand the way that I use Facebook is probably just one way out of many.

2. The quizzes – What is it that compels people to design quizzes that ultimately assign a score to a participant (example: those “How well do you know me?” quizzes)?

3. The fan pages – I fear Facebook is losing what I hoped it would not. A personal Facebook page seems to be more of an advert of who a person thinks that they are rather than a place where communities of people maintain in contact.

4. Wall posts – To me, there are circumstances when I reply to someone’s post on my wall directly on my wall and others when I choose to reply on their wall. It would be interesting to find out if other people see this similarly. I’ve only heard one person ever mention anything about where another user chose to leave their comments.

5. The highly similar series of uploaded photos – I don’t want to put this in a negative light, but I am curious why people sometimes choose to upload 10-20 photos of themselves doing something that spanned about 10-20 seconds in real life. As a result there are many photos that look like the same photo, with very little changing between pictures. I would never say this is a bad thing, I just don’t understand it.

The Top Computer Repair Mistakes I Have Made, and How to Avoid Them

I repair computers for a living. There is not much to say with that. I continue to learn new things about computer repair every day, but this post focuses on events of the past. There is no question, I have made my fair share of mistakes when it comes to fixing a client’s box, so I am going to share with you the mistakes I have made, and how you can avoid making the same mistakes.

1. Do not delay the diagnosis – Several instances of delaying a diagnosis of a computer have occurred while I have been the tech on duty. Sometimes there were an overwhelming amount of computers in the shop to sensibly diagnose in a night’s time, other times the problem at hand was less than clear to determine, and other times the reported symptoms on some computers seemed far too petty to place them in a fitter hierarchical order for me to diagnose along with all the more severely afflicted systems. Let me make myself clear: delaying a diagnosis on a computer is one of the worst things a computer tech can possibly do. When a tech does not promptly respond (prompt would be somewhere between 3 hours to the time you stop working for the day) to a client with a solid diagnosis and/or a quote for service, things typically get very ugly, very fast. Not only does it make the tech appear inexperienced, but also slow and unproductive. A good tech (I am not suggesting I am perfect) will allocate more time to diagnose all of the systems as soon as possible. Unless your client is familiar with your repair turnaround time, it is best to be in immediate communication with the client so that they can get an initial view of: 1. How long the repair is going to take, 2. Roughly how much the repair is going to cost, and 3. Other important information such as brief and simplified explanations of the cause of the problem. So to do it right, contact the client as soon as you can with a diagnosis of the problem. If the problem is not apparent, still contact the client to gain a deeper insight of the reported symptoms. If you are still unable to diagnose a problem, have the client come in, and have them attempt to recreate the problem while you and the client stand together before the client’s system.

2. Know when to reload – I wish I was the master of virus, adware, spyware, and malware removal. ‘Wish’ is the operative word in that statement. Often, virus, adware, spyware, and malware removal is an engaging task because it involves the detection and destruction (or repair) of infected files within a file system. If you are an easily distracted person, not swayed by the pressures of a clock, then you may want to pay attention to this one. Removing threats from an infected system is only productive and profitable when the sum total cost of all the time spent removing the threat(s) from a system do not exceed the cost of a system rebuild. Unless the client has specifically requested that do not reload a system under any circumstance, you need to be aware of how much time you are spending trying to remove threats from an infected system compared with the amount of time it would take you to simply throw a fresh OS on the thing. If you pay attention to this tip, you will save tons in the long run and you may even save a couple of clients from coming back in with reinfected computers after minute traces of a threat brought back all the threats you spent a lot of time removing in the first place.

3. Find loyalty in several repair utilities (not one hundred) – One of my mistakes in early computer repair was over-diversifying my software collection. Having your own personal favorite repair utilities is a valuable and productive thing, but having too many repair utilities to choose from while on the repair bench can be a challenging and confusing task. The best way to find your favorite repair utilities is by trying. The key is to try out those utilities off the clock. Trying to fix a computer by throwing a fleet of different utilities at it is not the best approach to computer repair because it takes up unnecessary amounts of time and prolongs the repair process.

4. Put yourself in the client’s shoes – This is a good one. Whenever a client drops off their computer for you to repair, it is always important to treat that computer as if it were your own computer needs service. Often times people do not have a backup computer. Their digital lives are put on standby until you return a fixed product. Taking the extra steps (and consequently time) to perform several small, but crucial things for a client before you give their computer back, collect their money, and send them home can be the difference between your service and someone else’s service. Here are the steps (not listed in any order):

A. If you reload the operating system, be sure to find out from the client what software they want reinstalled on the new system. This could include word processing software, financial management software, business software, games, music/media software, etc. The idea behind this step is to recreate a comfortable digital working environment for the client.

B. If you need to reload the operating system, before you reload, ask the client if there is any data they would like backed up and restored to the new system configuration. If they decline a data backup, take a backup anyways just in case something was miscommunicated or changes in time.

C. If you restore data to a new system configuration, make the restore location easy to access, clear to navagate, and in its own clearly labeled sub-directory to allow differentiation between the old system configuration and the new.

D. If you reload the operating system, ensure all drivers are installed and functioning without problems, ensure the latest updates for the operating system are installed, and defragment (if applicable) the harddrive after you are finished performing service.

E. Ask the client if they are going to need anti-virus software (if applicable).

F. When you are all finished performing service, call the client and tell them the computer is ready to pick up and also ask the client if they have any questions or concerns about the new system configuration or the repair process. This can prevent added confusion (and time) if something was miscommunicated along the way.

G. For less technologically up-to-date people, put shortcuts of everything they might need on their desktop (programs, documents, etc).

What All Computer Techs Should Know About The Recession

According to the American historical statistics, one of the fastest growing jobs during the 1929-1933 depression was “Persons engaged in repair services”.

read more | digg story

notice: The summary provided above as well as the article and content in the external links that have also been posted above are not my own creation. The article was written by someone affiliated with Technibble.com. :)

Bringing back the memories: Chip’s Challenge

The third quarter of the 1990s was an especially critical time in my development as a young man. This was the period of time where I was just beginning my journey of finding out my true identity as a person and as someone who interacts and uses technology on a daily basis.

One of the unforgettable moments in my life was the first time I played Chip’s Challenge on Windows 95. I came across Chip’s Challenge by accident. It wasn’t stored in the default games folder in Windows 95. Instead, I found it in a folder my mom had put in the C: directory. The folder contained several games, and obviously Chip’s Challenge was one of them.

I can remember the excitement I felt as I was beginning to figure out what the game was all about, what the objectives were, and the autonomy I had within the game to complete those objectives.

Before discovering Chip’s Challenge, I was very much limited by games that were designed primarily to sharpen certain skills in a very controlled fashion, while consequently abandoning the possibility of autonomous thinking.

Though games like Treasure Mountain, Math Blaster, and Fatty Bear’s Birthday Surprise were almost like 2nd, 3rd, and 4th hearts aside from the one I was born with, these games had their shortcomings in terms of what they offered children at the cost of something else. The cost in this case was the development of strategy solving skills. One of the negative features in games like Treasure Mountain and Fatty Bear’s Birthday Surprise is that these games did not have multiple ways of solving a solution. There was a predefined journey that was not going to change regardless of how you choose to play the game. In these games, there was a strict path that guided a linear sequence of events which ultimately led up to the conclusion of the game.

Chip’s Challenge, on the contrary, provided a means through which to develop certain vital elements of strategic problem solving and cause and effect relationships. It was a game that, for the most part, allowed the user to proceed through the level without following a strict set of instructions (with the exception of needing to find keys to open doors). Because of this extra autonomy that the player had, the game also provided consequences (both positive and negative) for many of the different choices the user had when proceeding through a level. If you made a poor choice, you would ‘die’ and the level would restart. If you made a good choice, you would proceed one or more steps further through the level. If you kept dying on one particular level without making progress, the game would ask if you would like to skip the level and move on to the next level.

I appreciate Chip’s Challenge for it’s contribution to the entertainment arena and for it’s contribution to the partial formation of the framework of the ethics and standards I now hold as accurate and relevant.

If you would like to see what this game is all about, please check out the Chip’s Challenge website. This game can run on Windows and Linux as far as I know. The only platform I have not tested Chip’s Challenge on yet is any Mac-based platform.

gOS and how it can benefit your non-techie family and friends

gOS is a relatively new emergence when compared side-by-side with the current age of our universe. To put this into perspective, if our universe was 20 minutes old, gOS would be just over 31.5 nanoseconds old. This is pretty amazing.

Because of its relative newness in our universe, gOS drew my attention about a week ago after browsing del.icio.us for some new OS alternatives. At the present moment, I am using Ubuntu 7.10 Gusty Gibbon. I am completely satisfied with Gusty, that’s not the reason I am looking for another OS. The real reason is that I am attempting to convert my parents from a Microsoft-based operating system to something a little less proprietary and constraining.

The most important thing to realize besides how cool gOS is, is that my parents are both technologically illiterate. Saying the words ‘technologically illiterate’ almost makes me feel like one myself because it’s so cliché to use as an excuse, but it’s true. My parents are hardcore Howdy Doody people. And because I care about them so much, I care enough to ensure that their souls are not sucked up by the infamous Microsoft EULA and all of its fat-rings.

The first thing I established when embarking on my journey to find my parents a Unix-based OS was that whatever the outcome or result, it has to be colorful, it has to be visible and readable, and it has to dumb down the CLI thing about 11 notches.

I came across gOS. There is no radical story that surrounds how I found it. I just did. And I was really glad that I came across something so up-front and easy-to-use.

Here are the major benefits of gOS:

1. Very easy for almost anyone to use. Children, old people, parents, etc.

2. Looks amazing.

3. Restricted and non-free repos. are enabled by default.

4. Light resource footprint on systems built within about the last 3-4 years. (This is definitely not your average Microsoft Resource-Vacuum).

5. Great for educational environments right out of the box because of its endorsement of Google and all of its continually expanding features.

6. It’s free to use and free to copy (as are 90% of non-Windows, non-Mac OSs.)

So far the only disadvantages of the gOS live disk compared to other alternative OSs that I have used are:

1. The partition editor does not have the immediate ability to resize a partition. In order to get a program that will resize a partition for you without having to restart the live disk, boot back into Windows (which you are about to kill with gOS), download a suitable partition editor, and do it that way, you can save alot of time by downloading GParted from Synaptic Package Manager (located in the Administrator tab when you left-click on the desktop).

2. The command line terminal is not initially, without custom modification, as easy to access as on other alternative OSs that incorporate a command line terminal.

3. The notorious floating icons at the bottom of the screen (the Mac-like feature) sometimes display slight abnormalities around the edges, giving the floating-icon interface a cheap and ‘pasted-on’ look. This is in comparison to the similar interface offered in modern-day Macs, which, as our scientific control in this sort of digitized experiment, is flawless in terms of the floating-icon interface.

4. The active windows may seem blurry at times and sometimes appear to over-blend with the desktop window. Perhaps this is a consequence of gOS’s default vibrant-green desktop, or perhaps this is a problem with gOS’s default theme as an entirety.

5. Some computers will have problems properly displaying the OS (in the live-disk form) when booted from the default option. As a way to possibly prevent compatibility issues and as a way to save another 2-4 minutes of booting the live disk a second time, try booting from safe-graphics mode (the second option down when the boot menu appears just after you turn on the computer).

6. At times, you may feel like Google is trying to hijack your Linux experience. Yes, I know this is gOS and that ‘g’ stands for Google, and of course my life would be worthless without Google, but there is still the slight sense that Google is injecting a slight bias into your computing experience by placing their own search bar right on the desktop screen by default. This can get annoying if you need to move around multiple windows, screens, etc.

Grab yourself a copy of gOS and enjoy!

My 6 Favorite Linux-based Programs

I have been using Ubuntu as a full replacement of Microsoft-based operating systems since January of 2007. It started with 6.06 now I’ve downloaded and burnt myself all the way to 7.10. I am very happy to announce that my dedication to Linux, and more specifically, Ubuntu, is not only solid, but continues to increase every day.

This is a list of programs, along with some other helpful details which have played a tremendous role in shaping how I feel about my Linux experience(s).

1. mtPaint – This small application is probably one of the most idiot-proof primitive paint-programs out there at this time. I am definitely not an artist and I know nothing about painting, graphic design, or drawing, but mtPaint has helped me achieve astounding levels of detail in my work as a student in some of the most unusual areas of my academic curriculum. If you have never tried this program before, perhaps you’ve seen it sitting in the repository manager but never thought to download, now is a great time to download it and test it out. The only major issue that I’ve had with it was when it came to drawing scientific sketches of Bacillus-shaped bacteria. It is very difficult to draw a diagonal ellipse and/or rounded rod-like shape. Everything else about the program is very user-friendly and very useful.

2 . WebHTTrack Website Copier – The possibilities seem endless when you have the entire internet at your disposal to download with this handy little tool. This is a very easy-to-use graphically represented application that downloads full sites and all of their content. It is highly customizable and has a sorts of fun preferences to play around with. Some of these preferences consist of functionality to override robots.txt files and to scan even restricted links. This program is highly useful for retrieving and recording preliminary information for first-hand research, data-mining, statistical analysis, and many other fields. Whatever the reason, even if it is for personal use, WebHTTrack is a highly useful tool that can be used for almost anything when it comes to downloading websites and their content.

3. KTorrent – I’m sure that there are dozens of people who would argue with me on my choice to include KTorrent as one of my favorite apps. Maybe it is just because KTorrent has made me delusional, but I think I can tell my difference between a smooth and easy-to-use KTorrent and a bumpy and mal-confingured BitTorrent core-app. KTorrent packs a huge punch in a small package. The program is highly customizable and supports encryption, UPnP, and has about 12-15 very useful, optional plugins.

4 . VLC Media Player – though this program is offered on many other platforms besides Linux, VLC Media Player is like that person we all know that never complains about anything and is always happy and gets everything done on time and does everything near, if not totally perfect. VLC can handle a huge array of media formats. It is the perfect addition to a sad, media-player-less system. Forget the hassle of figuring out all of the right programs for your media. Get this swiss-army knife of a program and see what near-universal compatibility can do for you and your media needs.

5. Last.fm player – if you are feeling out of ideas one night, or perhaps musically empty, Last.fm player is a great way to aid those feelings. You don’t have to open a browser and waste your time navigating to Last.fm to get yourself situated with the music you want to listen to. Instead, you can just open this baby up, type in the music you want to listen to, and Last.fm begins to do its magic. This player is great for late nights at the office and days when briefcase space is limited enough to prohibit me from taking along my portable harddrive with all of my overflow music on it.

6. K3b – K3b is a cd/dvd burning application that has never, ever failed me to this day. It burns cd/dvd images, data projects, audio cds, and many other types of specific formats which are all highly customizable in the program’s graphical user interface. Nothing about this program is complicated, yet this program gives its user a tremendous amount of autonomy when it comes to media creation. I will always admire K3b and I encourage you to look beyond all of those other burning programs out there. K3b is the best burning program out there (opinion). :)

Index.dat files, where they are located, and how to remove them

Index.dat files are giant logs of browsing information. They are a pain the butt to the average computer user looking to erase his or her tracks.

So, if you are unfamiliar with Index.dat files, I encourage you to head on over to Wikipedia to do your ‘research’.

Where are these Index.dat files most typically located? I have made a list below of some locations you may want to check for these evasive extensive logs of brutal honesty.

• C:\Documents and Settings\<the user name>\UserData\
• C:\Documents and Settings\<the user name>\Cookies\
• C:\Documents and Settings\<the user name>\Local Settings\History\History.IE5\
• C:\WINDOWS\system32\config\systemprofile\Cookies\
• C:\Documents and Settings\<the user name>\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5

In order to erase these files, you should first have the confidence to perform more-than-your-average-joe task on the computer. Then, (if you don’t feel comfortable booting into safe mode or from a PE to do these steps,) you need to seek out a program like Unlocker. This type of program will allow you to override those annoying errors that suggest that the file(s) you are trying to delete cannot be deleted because the disk is either “write-protected or in use”. BS. Get something like Unlocker and let those Index.dat files fry to death.

As a note to readers, anything you try on your computer is totally up to you. If you try the above, in part or in whole, I am not responsible for the result(s) of your attempt(s) to follow this instruction guide. …Basically I can’t be held liable for a broken computer if such a thing were to occur from following this guide (which I doubt).

Happy privacy! Don’t let any “clear history now” button convince you that you are totally clean of tracks.

One of my dreams finally came true.

One of my dreams finally came true. More people than myself actually are tired of using the word ‘hack’ to describe technological modifications. All those cocksuckers out there who think that throwing a few LEDs in something with a AA battery completing a circuit is some sort of thing that deserves to be called ‘a hack’, deserves to be fucking shot in the skull, with particular attention paid to destroying the brain with the trigger-pull.

http://reddit.com/info/6ah33/comments/ read that my friends and realize that calling a technological modification a ‘hack’ is enough to make my insides scream in morbid desire to rip the heart and soul out of every wannabe computer-junkie like http://www.oreilly.com/ . I fucking hate those mother fuckers who don’t know the true meaning of the word ‘hack’:

1. to cut, notch, slice, chop, or sever (something) with or as with heavy, irregular blows (often fol. by up or down): to hack meat; to hack down trees.
2. to break up the surface of (the ground).
3. to clear (a road, path, etc.) by cutting away vines, trees, brush, or the like: They hacked a trail through the jungle.
4. to damage or injure by crude, harsh, or insensitive treatment; mutilate; mangle: The editor hacked the story to bits.
5. to reduce or cut ruthlessly; trim: The Senate hacked the budget severely before returning it to the House.
6. Slang. to deal or cope with; handle: He can’t hack all this commuting.
7. Computers. to devise or modify (a computer program), usually skillfully.
8. Basketball. to strike the arm of (an opposing ball handler): He got a penalty for hacking the shooter.
9. British. to kick or kick at the shins of (an opposing player) in Rugby football.
10. South Midland and Southern U.S. to embarrass, annoy, or disconcert.
–verb (used without object)
11. to make rough cuts or notches; deal cutting blows.
12. to cough harshly, usually in short and repeated spasms.
13. Tennis.
a. to take a poor, ineffective, or awkward swing at the ball.
b. to play tennis at a mediocre level.
14. British. to kick or kick at an opponent’s shins in Rugby football.
–noun
15. a cut, gash, or notch.
16. a tool, as an ax, hoe, or pick, for hacking.
17. an act or instance of hacking; a cutting blow.
18. a short, rasping dry cough.
19. a hesitation in speech.
20. Curling. an indentation made in the ice at the foot score, for supporting the foot in delivering the stone.
21. British. a gash in the skin produced by a kick, as in Rugby football.
—Verb phrase
22. hack around, Slang. to pass the time idly; indulge in idle talk.
—Idiom
23. hack it, Slang. to handle or cope with a situation or an assignment adequately and calmly: The new recruit just can’t hack it.
[Origin: 1150–1200; ME hacken; cf. OE tōhaccian to hack to pieces; c. D hakken, G hacken]

…in no place in that entire definition list do I see a definition that says, “Pretend that your digitalized-cock is bigger than it actually is by using terms describing a level of skill and expertise that super-exceeds what you are trying to do, but matches what you wish you could do.”

…so please, if any of you are into the habit of calling a stupid on/off switch a hack, don’t ever look me in the face again because I’m pretty sure I’ll just chuck a sharp-cornered hard-drive loaded with a copy of Cain and Abel, Ophcrack, and a couple well-constructed rainbow tables at your head with the intention of splitting your skull open all over the floor so that I can laugh at the lack of brain density you have. ~~not saying that this is anyone in particular.

I feel warm and good inside now.

The boycott of Trend Micro.

This is in response to the article found here: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/boycottTrendMicro.html

Trend Micro appears to be looking for a slimy way to rack up some recognition and money…because they are using and abusing the legal system that thousands of men died for hundreds of years ago. With this filed patent infringement lawsuit, Trend is pulling a stunt similar to that of the “I spilled your company’s coffee on my jeans because I slammed on the breaks and the lid came off. I’m suing you because your company’s coffee ruined my jeans.”

This stunt is a cheap shot at the legal system. It is the type of legal dispute that is started out of disparity and greed.

Trend Micro not only makes a terrible anti-virus software, but they are also greedy and selfish. These characteristics are not the characteristics of a company I would invest in, nor of a company that I would, in any good conscience, encourage or endorse others to invest in.

6 piece-of-shit programs and their (better) alternatives.

Inefficient, outdated, overloaded, and proprietary software really bugs me; be it in one, all, or some combination of those descriptors. End-users are not test rats nor garbage disposals nor peasants. They do not deserve the ‘high-level hammy downs’ of some O’Reilly-bred OSI-evangelist software engineer. End-users do not deserve to spend their time entering a validation key whenever they buy or reinstall software. I have many more opinions on the matter, but that is another topic for another day.

Here are 6 piece-of-shit programs and their (better) alternatives:

The Crap Software	The Reason	The Better Alternative
Adobe Reader	Adobe seeks to reel in end-users by masking inefficient code and wannabe-protocol-propagation with a quasi-functional program.	Sumatra PDF
AIM	Enough with the corporate-doused chat-clients. Every chat opportunity shouldn’t be riddled with ads and corporate sludge.	Pidgin
iTunes	There is no need for Steve Jobs to oversee your multimedial experience(s). Rate yourself higher than a farm animal for once. Be risqué. Who would think that you paid 400 bucks for that fruitful little propo-box sitting in front of you?	Songbird
Winamp	“Uh, 1997 called earlier and they want you to return Web 1.0, Rick Martin, and the pack of Gobble Sticks ASAP.”	VLC media player
Google Toolbar	Google Toolbar is like the B.O.B. (Baby-on-Board) driver going 10 mph under the speed limit during rush hour. No one gives a shit about B.O.B., and drivers with real lives are angrily tailing behind wishing B.O.B. was dead.	termBlaster (Firefox addon)
Internet Explorer	The time has come to convert from quill and ink to ballpoint pen… in digital terms.	Firefox

Top 5 Reasons to use Google Spreadsheet instead of all those others.

Please note that I am not affiliated with Google in any way and this article is exclusively meant to endorse activity which promotes educational experiences and non-profit functionality.
1. Google Spreadsheet offers a huge pallet of power in a very simple interface – I used to think I was the most spreadsheet-illiterate person in the world. Even if I am spreadsheet-illiterate, Google Spreadsheet in its extreme degree of simplicity is not going to exploit these deficiencies of mine! Upon opening a new spreadsheet, the user is presented with a subtle and clean environment, free from excessive toolbars and overwhelming cubicle-traditionalism*. Non-invasive and non-interruptive visual cues help orient and guide the user through the entire process.2. Forget right-clicking and toolbar-skimming if you get stuck.- Have you ever not understood how to perform a certain action within a Microsoft or similarly platformed spreadsheet software? Have you ever gotten lost in the scads of menus and buttons to click on and scroll through trying without success to find the function you are looking for? Well, fear no more because Google Spreadsheet eliminates the time-wasting, complicated browsing that other spreadsheet programs have so kindly inflicted on the computerized world. Google Spreadsheet keeps it simple with only one toolbar containing everything you need for the specific action you are performing within it’s non-eclipsing boundaries.

3. Have confidence in your saved documents. Lose the need to back it up. – Google Spreadsheet is entirely online. Everything you do is stored and saved online through your Gmail account’s storage. Where ever you go, as long as you have internet access with access to Google with a browser that supports Google Docs (most browser do), then you have no reason to worry about losing your documents. Google Spreadsheet eliminates the days when you have to rush home to grab the report that is due that same day that you forgot to print out earlier that morning.

4. Expert of Exporting – Google Spreadsheet makes it very easy to save, autosave, export, and rename your projects if needed. Google Spreadsheet supports exporting spreadsheet projects as .csv, .html, .ods, .pdf, .txt, and .xls. With such a wide variety of exporting options so easily available at your command, it’s hard not to get distracted playing around with export extensions that you’ve never even heard of! (Sry, I have ADD, it happens alot) :)

5. Sharing couldn’t be easier while privacy is default. – Let’s face it, we live in a society that downplays sharing. No longer do we encourage sharing. We want to lock it up, block it, secure it, bolt it down, weld it shut, or block it off. As a consequence of this mentality, many programs that have offered functions similar to Google Spreadsheet have failed in coming up with a reasonable and practical way of quickly sharing what you produce. With Google Spreadsheet, (and all of Google Docs too) you can easily share your spreadsheet with a friend or other person you have in your contacts. You also have the ability to attach it to emails, and even collaborate with friends or other user-designated readers in real-time via built in chat. I’d like to see Microsoft office emulate THAT type of functionality at no cost to its users! Oh and of course, your privacy is still secure. You can pick what documents (if any) that you want to share and with what people.

* this is my way of describing that unmistakable feeling you get every time you open up a Microsoft Word spreadsheet or registering to take the SAT.

2 extremely useful partition manipulation/computer info utilities

Over the past three days, I have been testing as much OpenSource and Freeware computer repair software as possible. So far I have tested about 30 different projects. I have found 2 that have been particularly notable.

1. TestDisk – an extremely useful utility for hard disk information, repair, and manipulation.

2.  AIDA32 – a utility that provides more information about your system that you’ll probably ever need. I can’t believe how extensive this software is.