Ten Must Have Computer Products
Ten Must-have Computer Products and Web Sites
Some weeks I will download and test out a dozen or more software products. Most never see much use beyond an initial test run but others become staples and an ongoing part of my technology world. Here’s a rundown on nine products I use on a daily or frequent basis along with a set of four news sites I visit first thing each morning.
MailWasher Pro… recently upgraded, initially recommended to me by RCAV webmaster Paul Marquis and a product I’ve used for a number of years now, it has become the defacto mail reader for me at home. It keeps all nasty, unwanted content on the remote mail server, unless I expressly choose to let it in. To be sure, I don’t get to read messages in “glorious” HTML format, but then I’m only interested in content, not appearance. About once a week I’ll actually push content down to my mail reader (see next entry). If I need to read an important attachment then this timeframe may be pushed up. For product information, www.firetrust.com.
Eudora… for almost a decade now I’ve been using this package as my home mail client. Mind you, with MailWasher as a front end, I’m primarily using Eudora to create and send messages rather than to read e-mail. The package has never failed me, and yes, I use the free, ad-supported version, although I couldn’t tell you the name of a single company or product that has appeared in those ads. Qualcomm, Eudora’s owners, offer three versions of the popular product, paid, sponsored and light (no advertising but reduced functionality). For more, www.eudora.com.
Outlook… at school I’m a confirmed Outlook user for my e-mail… actually I use OWA 2003, Outlook’s web-based client. I consider it only fair to use this application as it is the one we give to our teachers, for both in school and from home use. Our admin staff use the full-blown Outlook application. During the course of this year we can look forward to Microsoft rolling out an ad-supported version of Outlook Web Access. Keep an eye out for it and related products at www.live.com.
Oubliette… a fine little freeware application to manage account access codes and passwords, along with URLs and memos. A general rule in the security business is to not store access information on your computer but Oubliette lets you break that rule and not lose sleep over it. You see it stores all that sensitive information in an encrypted password-protected file. Don’t bother putting the password in the file: you need to remember it to unlock Oubliette! Unfortunately no longer maintained by its owner but still among the best in the field. To download, www.tranglos.com/free.
Microsoft Office… well Word and to a lesser extent Excel, Access and PowerPoint. Sure, there are other packages available, even some that are free, but it would take a lot to get me to switch. MS Office remains the de facto standard in productivity software and the company hopes to keep it that way. New versions are seldom more than a year or two away and 2006 will usher in a dramatically different interface for the company’s flagship product. www.microsoft.com/office.
USB backup hard drive… no more backups to CD or, thank goodness, floppy disk. Today’s USB drives are relatively hardy, they’re fast and they’re inexpensive, on the order of a dollar per gigabyte. For truly effective backups of crucial data such as documents and photographs, why not have two such drives. Lock one away and update it every month or so.
USB Camera Card Reader… forget the cable running from camera to computer. Wireless downloads from digital cameras aren’t quite ready for prime time. Do yourself a favour: purchase an inexpensive multi-format card reader. Mine is from Lin Haw on Main Street in Vancouver: $20. Reads 16 different camera data cards.
A great search engine… for now it remains Google, in either the .ca or .com incarnations, but I also find myself using other services. For instance, the quirky mrsapo.com (www.mrsapo.com) with its ability to let me redirect a search to another engine, has become a bit of a favourite. Soople (www.soople.com), reviewed in this column a couple of years back, is a staple whenever I need to locate files of a certain type. True, Soople is nothing more than a front-end to simplify and unlock some of Google’s power, but it means I don’t have to remember all those extra constructs nor do I need to open the somewhat intimidating Google advanced search window.
Reliable PDF writer... I’ve used many, from free products such as PDF995 to full-fledged (and expensive) products such as Adobe’s Acrobat Writer but I’ve settled on deskPDF, a $30 or so product that produces terrific output. Download a trial at www.docudesk.com.
Four news web sites…
Caveat emptor: although in the top-ten most popular downloads at download.com, do not at this time test out the just released version of privacy and anti-pop-up application All-in-One Secretmaker. In a note to the BCC, the product developers say they are investigating reports that the product randomly renames numerous folders, in some cases rendering machines unusable.
Repeat: stay away from version 4.2.4 (released Christmas Day) of All-in-One Secretmaker until the folder renaming issue is resolved.
Peter Vogel is a Physics and Computer Sciences teacher at Notre Dame Regional Secondary School (www.ndrs.org). Suggestions and comments may be sent via email to peterv@portal.ca.
Some weeks I will download and test out a dozen or more software products. Most never see much use beyond an initial test run but others become staples and an ongoing part of my technology world. Here’s a rundown on nine products I use on a daily or frequent basis along with a set of four news sites I visit first thing each morning.
MailWasher Pro… recently upgraded, initially recommended to me by RCAV webmaster Paul Marquis and a product I’ve used for a number of years now, it has become the defacto mail reader for me at home. It keeps all nasty, unwanted content on the remote mail server, unless I expressly choose to let it in. To be sure, I don’t get to read messages in “glorious” HTML format, but then I’m only interested in content, not appearance. About once a week I’ll actually push content down to my mail reader (see next entry). If I need to read an important attachment then this timeframe may be pushed up. For product information, www.firetrust.com.
Eudora… for almost a decade now I’ve been using this package as my home mail client. Mind you, with MailWasher as a front end, I’m primarily using Eudora to create and send messages rather than to read e-mail. The package has never failed me, and yes, I use the free, ad-supported version, although I couldn’t tell you the name of a single company or product that has appeared in those ads. Qualcomm, Eudora’s owners, offer three versions of the popular product, paid, sponsored and light (no advertising but reduced functionality). For more, www.eudora.com.
Outlook… at school I’m a confirmed Outlook user for my e-mail… actually I use OWA 2003, Outlook’s web-based client. I consider it only fair to use this application as it is the one we give to our teachers, for both in school and from home use. Our admin staff use the full-blown Outlook application. During the course of this year we can look forward to Microsoft rolling out an ad-supported version of Outlook Web Access. Keep an eye out for it and related products at www.live.com.
Oubliette… a fine little freeware application to manage account access codes and passwords, along with URLs and memos. A general rule in the security business is to not store access information on your computer but Oubliette lets you break that rule and not lose sleep over it. You see it stores all that sensitive information in an encrypted password-protected file. Don’t bother putting the password in the file: you need to remember it to unlock Oubliette! Unfortunately no longer maintained by its owner but still among the best in the field. To download, www.tranglos.com/free.
Microsoft Office… well Word and to a lesser extent Excel, Access and PowerPoint. Sure, there are other packages available, even some that are free, but it would take a lot to get me to switch. MS Office remains the de facto standard in productivity software and the company hopes to keep it that way. New versions are seldom more than a year or two away and 2006 will usher in a dramatically different interface for the company’s flagship product. www.microsoft.com/office.
USB backup hard drive… no more backups to CD or, thank goodness, floppy disk. Today’s USB drives are relatively hardy, they’re fast and they’re inexpensive, on the order of a dollar per gigabyte. For truly effective backups of crucial data such as documents and photographs, why not have two such drives. Lock one away and update it every month or so.
USB Camera Card Reader… forget the cable running from camera to computer. Wireless downloads from digital cameras aren’t quite ready for prime time. Do yourself a favour: purchase an inexpensive multi-format card reader. Mine is from Lin Haw on Main Street in Vancouver: $20. Reads 16 different camera data cards.
A great search engine… for now it remains Google, in either the .ca or .com incarnations, but I also find myself using other services. For instance, the quirky mrsapo.com (www.mrsapo.com) with its ability to let me redirect a search to another engine, has become a bit of a favourite. Soople (www.soople.com), reviewed in this column a couple of years back, is a staple whenever I need to locate files of a certain type. True, Soople is nothing more than a front-end to simplify and unlock some of Google’s power, but it means I don’t have to remember all those extra constructs nor do I need to open the somewhat intimidating Google advanced search window.
Reliable PDF writer... I’ve used many, from free products such as PDF995 to full-fledged (and expensive) products such as Adobe’s Acrobat Writer but I’ve settled on deskPDF, a $30 or so product that produces terrific output. Download a trial at www.docudesk.com.
Four news web sites…
- DrudgeReport… still the best for breaking stories but fading as Google’s news aggregator becomes harder to beat. www.drudgereport.com.
- Bourque Newswatch… frequent errors and somewhat arrogant nature of the site manager are drawbacks, but the only one of its kind featuring Canadian news. Content sometimes sits unchanged for a day or two so it’s problematic to call it a breaking news site on a 24x7 basis. www.bourque.com.
- CKNW… good for local news but sometimes a day or two behind, particularly on weekends. Numerous spelling errors and typos make for a frustrating read at times. www.cknw.com.
- News.com… this recently revamped portal remains one of the best sites for high quality tech news covering a wide spectrum of topics, including hardware, software, security, patching and industry labour trends. www.news.com.
Caveat emptor: although in the top-ten most popular downloads at download.com, do not at this time test out the just released version of privacy and anti-pop-up application All-in-One Secretmaker. In a note to the BCC, the product developers say they are investigating reports that the product randomly renames numerous folders, in some cases rendering machines unusable.
Repeat: stay away from version 4.2.4 (released Christmas Day) of All-in-One Secretmaker until the folder renaming issue is resolved.
Peter Vogel is a Physics and Computer Sciences teacher at Notre Dame Regional Secondary School (www.ndrs.org). Suggestions and comments may be sent via email to peterv@portal.ca.
posted by Peter Vogel at 1:52 PM
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