At one month, Google+ already a 'major player'

July 2011

Google+ on Thursday hit its one-month birthday and is already a major social networking player, analysts say.
Google released its much-anticipated social network on June 28. Google+ quickly grabbed headlines, gained 10 million users in its first two weeks (and another 10 million since then) and had people seeking invitations to its field trial from total strangers.
Oh, and it's gained a lot of interest in the much-sought-after and lucrative enterprise market. Businesses have been clamoring to set up Google+ accounts, even though the network has asked companies and organizations to wait until a business version is ready in a few months.
"With tens of millions of users and Google behind it, Google+ has become a major player," said Rob Enderle, an analyst with the Enderle Group. "It has a good vibe going for it. The product is embracing concepts from Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook.... The end result is a higher average quality of information and less overall information traffic, making the service more useful for most."
All of this fanfare and success means Facebook, which had been skating along with nary a serious rival, is having to make room for a new competitor.
"It's been going very well for Google+," said Dan Olds, an analyst for The Gabriel Consulting Group. "I'm not sure [Google] can ask for much more at this point - although I'm sure they will."
Olds pointed out that the new network's technical rollout has gone very smoothly. There have been no outages or security breaches.
"It looks like everything that's supposed to work is working," he added. "This is crucially important at launch, since it ensures that news coverage concentrates on the Google+ story, rather than focusing on bad technical execution or something like that."
Google+ did have to deal with a report from Hitwise, an Internet traffic tracker, this week that its traffic had dipped. Hitwise reported that for the week ending July 23, Google+ had 1.79 million visits, down 3% from the week before. The report also noted that the average time spent on the site had fallen 10% that week to 5 minutes and 15 seconds.

Facebook moves 30-petabyte Hadoop cluster to new data center

July 2011

As the world's largest social network, Facebook accumulates more data in a single day than many good size companies generate in a year.
Facebook stores much of the data on its massive Hadoop cluster, which has grown exponentially in recent years.
Today the cluster holds a staggering 30 petabytes of data or, as Facebook puts it, about 3,000 times more information than is stored by the Library of Congress. The Facebook data store has grown by more than a third in the past year, the company notes.
To accommodate the surging data volumes, the company earlier this year launched an effort to move the ever-growing Hadoop cluster to a new and bigger Facebook data center in Prineville, Ore. The biggest data migration effort ever at Facebook was completed last month, the company said.
Paul Yang, an engineer with Facebook's data infrastructure team, outlined details of the project this week on the company's blog site. Yang said the migration to the new Facebook data center was necessary because the company had run out of available power and space leaving it unable to add nodes to the Hadoop cluster.
Yang was not immediately available to speak with Computerworld about the effort.
Facebook's experience with Hadoop is likely to be of interest to a growing number of companies that are tapping the Apache open source software to capture and analyze huge volumes of structured and unstructured data.
Much of the Hadoop's appeal lies in its ability to break up very large data sets into smaller data blocks that are then distributed across a cluster of commodity hardware systems for faster processing.
A Ventana Research report released this week showed that a growing number of enterprises have started using Hadoop to collect and analyze huge volumes of unstructured and machine-generated information, such as log and event data, search engine results, and text and multimedia content from social media sites.
Facebook said it uses Hadoop technology to capture and store billions of pieces of content generated by its members daily. The data is analyzed using the open source Apache Hive data warehousing tool set.
Other data-heavy companies using Hadoop in a similar manner include eBay, Amazon and Yahoo. Yahoo is a major contributor of Hadoop code.
Facebook's Hadoop cluster was said by bloggers in May 2010 to be the largest in the world.
At the time, the cluster consisted of 2000 machines, 800 16-core systems and 1,200 8-core machines. Each of the systems in the cluster stored between 12 and 24 terabytes of data.
Facebook had a pair of potential methods for moving the cluster to a new data center, Yang said in his post.

Apple and Samsung overtake Nokia in smartphone sales in Q2

July 2011

Apple and Samsung both sold more smartphones than Nokia in the second quarter, although Nokia still sold most phones overall, market researcher Strategy Analytics said Friday.
Nokia's smartphone sales have plunged since its February announcement that its future smartphones will run Microsoft's Windows Phone instead of its own Symbian OS: In the second quarter, it shipped 16.7 million smartphones, down 30 percent from shipments of 23.8 million a year earlier.
In comparison, the smartphone market as a whole grew 76.3 percent year on year, according to Strategy Analytics.
Apple, meanwhile, more than doubled its shipments to 20.3 million for the quarter, up from just 8.4 million a year earlier. For Samsung, the increase was even more dramatic, moving from just 3.1 million smartphones shipped in the second quarter of 2010 to 19.2 million in the second quarter this year.
That puts Apple top of the smartphone market, with an 18.5 percent share, up from second place with 13.5 percent a year earlier. Samsung is now second, with 17.5 percent, up from a third-placed 5 percent a year earlier, while Nokia's share has plummeted to 15.2 percent, from 38.1 percent a year earlier. Other manufacturers have seen their share of the smartphone market rise from 43.4 percent to 48.9 percent, Strategy Analytics said.
Nokia also fared badly in the market for feature phones, with shipments slipping to 71.8 million in the second quarter, down from 87.3 million a year earlier, according to Strategy Analytics.
Other manufacturers saw similar declines, so much so that overall shipments of feature phones declined for the first time in about two years, research firm IDC said Friday.
Overall, phone shipments totalled 361.1 million in the second quarter, up from 320 million a year earlier, according to Strategy Analytics. IDC put the figure at 365.4 million, up from 328.4 million, a growth rate of 11.3 percent -- lower than the 13.3 percent IDC had forecast.
Overall, Nokia's phone shipments fell from 111.1 million in the second quarter last year to 88.5 million phones this year, still enough to leave it in first place, Strategy Analytics said. IDC published identical figures for Nokia's shipments on Friday, adding that Nokia had shipped 2.6 million dual-SIM feature phones in the second quarter. In previous quarters, the company's sales had suffered in markets such as India, where phones are often shared by several users and dual-SIM models are a popular way to let each user store their own address book and pay for their own calls.
Because of the slight disagreement on the overall size of the market, Strategy Analytics put Nokia's share at 24.5 percent for the quarter, down from 34.7 percent a year ago, while IDC said Nokia's share had slipped to 24.2 percent from 33.8 percent a year ago.

How About a Free Anti Virus Program - 3 Reasons Why You May Be at Risk

July 2011

Should I use a free antivirus program or a paid version? In todays world on the internet, we are always looking for a product or service that is free. However, when it comes to a virus protection, free is not always free.

Think about it for a minute. Why would anyone sit down on the computer and spend hours and hours of time to develop and maintain a software program and do it for free. There has got to be someone wanting to make money off of you some how or they could not continue with their activities.

In addition, many of the so called free programs do not have technical support. How would they be able to support technical help if they could not pay them. When you have a problem, you are going to want someone to help you.

Spyware – Many software programs that are free, have some type of spyware attached. If the maker or developer of the program is not charging you, then how are they going to make money. Spyware is attached to the program and your system may be tracked for advertisement purposes.

In some cases your system may be scanned for e-mail address or other information that you may not want to give out. Please be very careful with any free program you install on your computer.

Better yet, make sure you have a firewall, anti virus program and anti spyware program installed on your computer for all of your internet security protection.

Top 5 Virus Protection Software Programs

Norton Anti Virus
Trend Micro PC-cillin Anti Virus
BitDefender Anti Virus
Shield Pro 2007
Mcafee AntiVirus

Computer running slow problems

July 2011

Is your computer running slow? Does it take 15minutes to boot up? Computers can get people so frustrated when they don't do what you want them to do, computers that run slow are basically useless.

There are many reasons why computer run slow...

Spyware! What is it? What does it do to my computer?

A simple definition of Spyware: a general term used to describe software that performs certain behaviors such as advertising, collecting personal information, or changing the configuration of your computer, generally without appropriately obtaining your consent first.

Spyware is often associated with software that displays advertisements (called ad ware) or software that tracks personal or sensitive information. The most common type of spyware is pop up banners that never stop! You close them, and they keep returning. Im sure we have all had this problem once. Spyware in a nut shell, basically makes your computer run really slow. Once a computer is infected, the software usually uses your internet connection to download more.

Your computer 'Hardware' can be the problem!


This is probably not the problem with your computer, but it has to be mentioned because it could be the problem. After you have deleted the spyware and removed the virus you may have, if your computer still runs slow, then it is time to take your computer to a qualified technician to see if you are having hardware trouble. Check to see if you have at least 512meg of memory. This is the recommended ram specifications for windows Xp, some older systems have 256meg of memory and this is not enough if you run multiple programs. If you are running the new Windows Vista, i would recommend at least 1gig (1024meg) of ram.

Single-Slot Graphics: Whose Card Is Fastest?

July 2011

Any enthusiast who builds systems to-order for family and friends will, at some point, be asked to work magic with parts that fall outside the realm of traditional. Nowadays, we simply come to expect that any graphics card purporting to be high-end is going to end up eating two expansion slots worth of space. This problem is particularly vexing to gamers, since compact systems often require a card that’s either shorter in length, height, or thickness than the fastest boards, which absolutely tend to also be the largest. We’ve even reviewed so-called performance-oriented graphics card in a half-height format, but that supposedly-compact part still required two slots. What’s a builder with minimal expansion options to do with only one available slot?

When we heard that a few vendors were finally going to buck the trend and nudge us back in the direction of enthusiast-class graphics cards designed to fit within a single slot of space, we invited 17 of our closest industry contacts to take part in a roundup. Four companies promised us a card to test, and only three delivered on that promise. Today we get to see how these three solutions compare.

How Do I Know If My PC Is Infected With Spyware or Adware

July 2011

Many people that are new to the Internet world are nervous about the potential of viruses, Spyware or Adware that can harm their computer, affect performance or make their very private information public to others.

Spyware programs can do a number of damaging things to your personal computer. Spyware infects your pc and hides in the background and can do many nasty things to the performance of your system. It can also do harmful things to you such as send out your personal information, your every keystroke and photo that resides on your hard drive, watch your surfing habits and shopping habits and annoy you with annoying pop-ups filled with advertisements and even pornography.

If you are experiencing any unusual changes in your computer's performance or have any unusual new pop-ups, changes to your toolbars or new icons on your desktop, you should run a system scan to find out if you have Spyware. Products exist on the market to help you combat this problem. Be sure to install software that you know is credible. Downloading freeware can often result in further Spyware existing on your computer. Spyware, Adware and Malware companies frequently fool users into sending pop-ups telling them that there's a problem with their computer and this in fact is further spyware. These errors can open your system up to future further problems by fooling people into thinking they're downloading fixes when really further spyware is being downloaded.

Watch your system's performance and at the sign of any unusual activity, realize that you are probably infected. Do something as soon as possible to protect your privacy. These programs don't discriminate and can launch themselves when you or your family members sit in front of the computer. Pornographic pop-ups can turn up whether it's an adult or a child using the computer. Protect your pc.

Antivirus alone isn't enough to combat this problem. Spyware sneaks into your system via executable files that you don't need to do anything to launch. They can sneak in as attachments that you download or by many other means. They're harmful and annoying but you can protect your computer and your privacy with the right software. This software needs to have an auto update for spyware definitions as new spyware definitions are being added daily. So a spyware removal program is a great compliment to your existing anti-virus software.

PC or Mac? Part II

July 2011

I started last week talking about the recent resurrection of the Apple Mac and whether your next computer really should be a Mac or whether you’d be best off sticking with the trusty PC. Unfortunately my article is restricted to approximately 700 words so I got as far as to looking at both systems historically and had to leave the conclusion for this week For those of you who missed the initial article visit www.computerarticles.co.uk to download a copy.

It can’t be denied that by all major benchmarks the Mac has improved a great deal in the past few years,and certainly for this point Apple should be congratulated. That having been said,I can’t help but think that I’m missing something when it comes to the argument of why I should abandon the PC and switch over.

Those who have read this article for a while will know that I am a firm supporter of the underdog and so on this account I should certainly be using the much smaller Apple platform but it’s not quite that simple. My problem stems from the fact that I’m very much against the way that all Macs have to be made by Apple,and that the majority of the software that you will use on the machine will also be developed by them.

I enjoy the fact that PC’s are manufactured by hundreds of different companies and that you can even buy all the parts yourself and make a PC based computer from scratch – when was the last time you heard of someone building their own Apple Mac?

From a software standpoint you are given no option as to the Operating System you use and a large majority of the software that you use will be forced on you from the outset. Approximately half of the fifteen reasons for switching over to a Mac from the Apple website centre around the argument that there is a large amount of software built in to the Operating System out of the box. You could argue that this is convenient for the end user but remember that Microsoft have been sued for countless millions for shipping Internet Explorer with Windows. No one has even questioned the fact that Apple ship their own photo,video,music,chat and the heavily iPod biased iTunes software with their machines.

Stability makes up another couple of points on their list,however these are highly debatable. Yes,Macs suffer from far fewer viruses and security attacks but this isn’t down to the ‘rock solid’Operating System as Apple claims;it’s simply that with such an insignificant market share,no bugger can be bothered writing viruses for their machines. Windows based machines do have a large amount of viruses and security scares but that’s primarily due to their popularity rather than the fact that the idea of a PC is inherently flawed. Do remember that unlike Mac users,those that run PC’s have the choice of alternative Operating Systems such as Linux which again very few people tend to target for attacks.

The remainder of these fifteen official arguments focus on compatibility which again I don’t quite understand;the fact an Apple Mac can run Windows Vista or utilises an Intel chip isn’t a reason to make a switch. Granted,if these obstacles did exist then it would be a reason to stick with using a PC but the fact that they don’t exist doesn’t constitute a legitimate reason to spend half a grand switching over.

Don’t get me wrong,I actually have nothing against the Apple Mac as a machine but it’s just that I’ve been used to living in a world where if I want a new PC I pick who makes it and what software I put on it. If I want to upgrade it I take the side of the case off and stick a new graphics card,hard disk,processor or even motherboard inside and these can be made by a manufacturer of my choosing.

I don’t like the idea that to make the switch over from the PC I will only have the choice of giving my money to one company,and then when I want to upgrade a few years down the line they would have a complete monopoly over my business for a second time around. For me,at least,subscribing to such a system wouldn’t feel like supporting the underdog but rather more like selling my soul.

Google Chrome

July 2011

I’m considering giving up my reviews of Internet browsers in the future;things are changing far too quickly to keep abreast of developments and it seems once I’ve got on top of things the entire playing field changes dramatically and I have to start again from scratch. Some might argue that I spend too much time on the subject of web browsers but due to the huge differences between them,along with the large amount of time the average user spends using one,I would have to disagree.

It was always surprising that given Googles’ prominence in the Search Engine market,they hadn’t created a browser of their own but rather chosen to focus their software on themes un-associated with their core business activity;Earth,Picasa and Sketchup to name just a few. At the beginning of last week however,completely out of the blue,they announced Google Chrome (www.google.com/chrome) and then released it days later.

This is an interesting shake up of the browser market which is currently dominated by Internet Explorer and Firefox (and to a lesser extent Opera). Remember that although a new entrant,Google have some fantastic developers and bucket loads of cash to throw at this project.

Whilst still in beta (testing) stage I thought it might be worth compiling a list of why you will possibly find yourself switching in the not too distant future:

It’s stable – Due to the fact that all tabs are run independently from one another,one unstable page won’t bring down the whole browser along with any other currently open pages. Although still in beta I am yet to crash Chrome.

It’s fast – This is possibly an understatement;the program opens in seconds and renders pages extremely quickly. Due to the multi-process architecture mentioned above,one slow tab won’t affect the speed of any other opened pages.

Clean Interface – Rather than consuming large amounts of screen space,Chrome is incredibly compact. It does take a little getting used to but eventually you almost forget that you are actually using a browser.

Intelligent Address Bar – Much like the fantastic address bar in Firefox,Chrome allows you to start typing a phrase and will immediately attempt to find a match from all your previously visited websites and bookmarks. If no matches are found,hit return and Google will do a web search to attempt to find other suitable matches.

Dynamic Home Page – As you use Chrome it will remember the sites that you visit most often,your preferred choice of search engine,tabs that you have recently closed and recent bookmarks and display it on your home page unless you specify otherwise.

Of course,there are still some drawbacks to the application;we haven’t adopted it at work just yet due to the fact the option to print preview and print backgrounds are completely absent;these are both critical for our web based invoice run. The application also doesn’t yet support add-ins which are a technology that have been a huge factor in the success of Firefox. Possibly most importantly,the browser is still in Beta stage so many would consider it unproven and prone to problems,including potential security risks.

Whilst I am excited about the shake up this could bring to the browser industry,I am worried that rather than harming Internet Explorer (which,despite being inferior,is still the most popular browser as a result of being bundled with Windows),Chrome will just draw experienced users away from other quality browsers such as Firefox and Opera.

Media Player Classic Home Cinema

July 2011

One of the most common problems I experience when playing movies and videos on my home PC is poor lip syncing caused by the sound and video not marrying up perfectly.  Rather than performing any degree of troubleshooting I always fall back to the trusty player ‘Media Player Classic Home Theatre’ which despite a complete lack of both bells and whistles always performs admirably.
The user interface for Media Player Classic looks just like the old Windows Media Player 6.4 which was bundled with Windows ME and early versions of Windows XP.  I expect few users to know this specific version off the top of their heads so simply refer back to the version in your memory that could be described as looking ‘particularly primitive and dated’.
There are no fancy skins,no modern looking icons and no ribbon style interface;what you simply get is a blank screen along with play,stop,pause,rewind and fast forward buttons,a volume control and a series of options running along the top of the application in an old school grey drop-down menu.
The compensation for the primitive looking interface is that the 3mb application is capable of playing a huge number of audio and video files without the need for any additional software or codecs.  Out of the box Media Player Classic Home Theatre includes support for MPEG-1,MPEG-2 and MPEG-4,VCD,SVCD and DVD playback.  It also has built-in codecs for LPCM,MP2,AC3 and DTS audio along with H.264 and VC-1 with DXVA support,DivX,Xvid,and Flash Video formats.  Media Player Classic Home Theatre can also support Quicktime and Realtime formats with the use of additional software.
The player is based on the old Media Player Classic application which was being developed up until the original author ceased development back in 2006.  In the last few years,asides from the name change,a number of new features have been integrated in to this new release including additional video decoders,several bug and vulnerability fixes and a 64-bit version for those with compatible versions of Windows Vista and Windows 7.
The main appeal to me has to be the sheer simplicity of the application;it will load in literally a second and rarely skips a frame or misses a beat.  If I ever find myself in a situation where a more ‘advanced’ player is struggling then immediately I’ll load up MPC Home Cinema and on the same PC with the same video file the problems cease.  The low resource requirement means that it’s suitable for use on low specification machines making it especially tempting for those that can’t run the latest version of Windows Media Player.

Long term data storage

July 2011

I’ve had a few people ask me just recently what method I would recommend when planning a long term backup strategy.  One elderly gentleman in particular was creating a family time capsule that he wanted his children and grandchildren to be able to view many decades from now.
The question isn’t as easy as you may think.  You may imagine that the data could be burnt to CD,locked in a cupboard and that it would last forever however unfortunately this isn’t the case.  There are literally hundreds of suitably stored but physically decayed CD’s from my teenage years which I could use as testament to that.
Therefore I’ve made a list of common formats one would usually consider for archiving a large amount of data so you can pick the most suitable one for your needs:
Hard Disk –When used on a regular basis a hard disk will typically last for around 5 years before it starts to decay and if it is being used as an infrequently accessed backup drive then we can assume that this can be at least doubled.   Unfortunately degradation of the discs metallic surface,along with the inevitable seizing of parts would still occur over an extended period of disuse.
Optical –Standard optical media includes CD,DVD and BluRay.  If choosing this media type ensure that you go for the highest grade money can buy you;a premium brand such as Taiyo Yuden may well last a decade but a more budget brand such as Memorex may only last half that time before the aluminium starts separating from the plastic.
Flash Media –Clearly you would expect that since Flash Media has no moving parts it would be ideal for a long term backup strategy.  To an extent you would be right but the published data retention of a unused flash drive is only around 10 years and unfortunately once the device has reached the end of its life it is likely that it will go out in style,taking with it all of the information stored within.
Paper –Rather obvious this one –if left in a dark,dry place then paper will last for many decades;we recently recovered a number of newspapers from 1964 from below the flooring of a building we’re doing up and aside from being a little yellowed they’re in perfect condition.  Primary problems do of course include having to find a safe place to store them along with the physical limitations relating to the amount and type of information that can be stored on sheets of paper.
Tape –This may come as a surprise,but Tape backup actually holds one of the best data retention rates hence its continued use in banking and government sectors.  Typically a manufacturer will warranty a tape for 30 years with an expected life expectancy beyond that.   Although the tapes themselves are affordable and the capacities typically high (between 72GB and 1TB compressed),the actual drives themselves are relatively expensive,starting at £250 for a basic model.

Google Books –Online Literature Library

July 2011

The idea of Google Books was first conceived in 2002 when a small group of Google programmers started pondering the question of how many man hours it would take to scan every single book ever written.    We still don’t know the true answer to this question although just eight years from the idea conception there are now over 10 million books catalogued in their database.
While the first scan was done manually on a 300 page book and took 40 minutes to process,Google now use cameras capable of scanning at a rate of 1,000 pages an hour and also work with 20,000 publisher partners who provide content directly.  They have also been able to provide over 1 million books that can be read in full from cover to cover;these unrestricted works are either books that have fallen out of copyright or have been provided with publishers express permission.
As well as simply scanning the books,Google performs OCR (Optical Character Recognition) on the pages,thereby turning them in to pure text which can be entered in to their database.  As a result when you do a Google Search you are now not only returned results from relevant websites but also your search terms are checked against a library encompassing millions of books and appropriate matches are suggested for further reading.
The integration in to the Google Search engine means you may have already inadvertently stumbled across Google Books but if you haven’t and are eager to explore then the Google Books can be found by visiting the site http://books.google.co.uk/ directly.   Being a Google service,it almost goes without saying that the service is completely free of charge and is instead paid for via a minimal number of sponsored links which are in no way intrusive or detrimental to the service.
From the Google Books site you can perform searches,add books to your virtual library or organise your collection in a logical manner.  Searching for a book and then subsequently clicking on it opens an interface which allows you to either view the directly scanned pages from the book or in some instances a ‘plain text’ version.  This plain text can then be copied and passed to another application or simply printed out for reading offline.
Books still under copyright enjoy the protection of a variety of access limitations and security measures which limit the number of viewable pages making the experience somewhat akin to being able to flick through the first couple of pages in a library or bookshop.   Despite this protection there have rather predictably been a number of fairly major lawsuits issued by individuals and publishers alike;some with legitimate grievances and others just seeking money or publicity.
Possibly the most notable case was between The Authors Guild,the publishing industry and Google which resulted in Google agreeing to a settlement on October 28,2008.  This would see them pay a total $125 million not only to pay the court costs of the plaintiffs but also create a Book Rights Registry which will collect and disburse revenue generated by all third party sites such as Google which provide content based on the content of books covered by the agreement.
These issues aside,on the whole I am amazed that again this relatively new company have been able to offer such an incredible gift to the world.  With Google Books we have the potential to preserve centuries of human literacy work for generations to come as well as promoting the spread and availability of knowledge amongst all groups and all classes of people.

Windows 7 Hidden Gems –Additional functionality

July 2011

I’ve been living with Windows 7 for a good few months now and in that time have discovered a couple of little ‘hidden gems’ which I wanted to share with you:
Aero ShakeIn Windows 7,when you click on the title bar of any window and shake it every other open window gets minimised straight back in to your taskbar,reducing clutter on your screen.  This allows you to focus on the one window and then when ready shake it again and the other windows will reappear.
There are additional Aero user interface related features which make a welcome debut.  These include Aero Peek which allows you to immediately see what’s going on in an application just by hovering over the icon in the task bar and Aero Snap which quickly allows you to rearrange your desktop by slamming any open window against the left,right or top side of your screen;try it!
Sticky Notes
Proof,if needed,that some of the simplest applications make the largest differences to the end user experience.  One of the most commonly used applications on my PC used to be the incredibly simple ‘notepad’ as I find that my working life works a lot better if I simplify everything down in to lists.
Rather than jotting notes on random pieces of paper that will almost certainly get lost throughout the day I used to dump everything in notepad and ensure that every line was eventually cleared so I was left with a blank page before I went home.
Sticky notes have a similar application.  To get started click on the start menu and type in ‘sticky’ and begin typing tasks for the day or things to remember in to little post it notes that stick to your screen.  When complete either close or minimise the application to get back to the job in hand,safe in the knowledge that once Sticky Notes are reopened,these tasks will reappear exactly as you left them.  When a task has been completed or the note simply isn’t needed,it can be deleted with one click of the mouse.
Improved CalculatorWindows 7 calculator has improved considerably;now rather than being an arithmetic only affair,it can be operated in four modes –Standard,Scientific,Programmer and Statistical.  It can also perform unit conversion,for example grams to ounces,metres to feet and Celsius to Fahrenheit along with a couple of unexpected features such as the ability to calculate the number of days between two dates or the value of your mortgage repayment.   Surely in the next version of Windows the calculator application will finally gain graphical capabilities.
Windows Disk Image Burner
For some time now the preferred method of copying and storing CD’s and DVD’s has been by using an ISO file;a single image which includes the contents of an entire disk.  Reading these files used to require a specific application (the likes of which I’ve covered previously in Click) but every version of Windows 7 now includes support for these straight out the box;simply double click on the ISO file that you wish to burn,insert a blank CD or DVD and you’re done.

Cashback Websites –Get money back on online purchases

July 2011

I have a saying that goes something along the lines of ‘A penny saved is 1.22 pennies earned’ and while I’ll admit it’s not the catchiest of proverbs it certainly does hold some truth for the majority of us.  Owing to the fact that you’re taxed on almost everything you earn,it is genuinely better to save a penny than earning an additional one and fortunately the Internet offers various methods of allowing us to do just that.
Money Saving Expert (www.moneysavingexpert.com) for example is a site that I turn to time and again to ensure that I’m always getting the best deal on my current account,credit card,utilities and so forth.  As well as offering news and comparisons of various financial products on the market is also gives you a heads of to any discount vouchers or special offers valid at places such as restaurants and supermarkets which you would most likely visit anyway.
Keeping with the financial theme,I’m amazed at how many people are unaware of the various ‘cash back’ sites that are present on the Internet.  One which I’ve just started using is Top Cash Back (www.topcashback.co.uk),a site which takes only a couple of minutes to sign up to before you can start earning money on purchased that you would most likely be making anyway.  Top Cash back has no set up or membership fees and the idea essentially is that if you visit one of their sponsors via the site then you’ll actually get a cash reward paid straight in to your account.
There are hundreds of big name featured retailers including Play.com,Tesco,Asda,B&Q and Dell and along with the usual couple of per cent back you occasionally come across an offer which is ridiculously generous.  As an example I recently signed up for O2 broadband at home which,as an existing O2 mobile customer,would usually cost me £7.50 a month for the 16mb package,including unlimited bandwidth.  By going via Top Cash Back I actually got a £75 cash back bonus meaning that during the contractual year my O2 Broadband has actually only cost me £1.25 a month (£7.50 a Month x 12 Months –£75 Cashback = £15 per annum or £1.25 monthly).
The service works as retailers pay Top Cash Back to be featured with the intention that they can then accumulate more customers by also offering them rewards to buy their products.  It’s only a beneficial system for the customer if they buy things they would only have purchased anyway;I also signed up to Sky HD last month which again was something I was planning to do but simply by visiting this website first I got an extra £50 straight in to my bank account.  It’s just too easy!

Spider Player - Free music only media playerSpider Player –Free music only media player

July 2011

Despite the fact there are an inordinate number of media players available,it is difficult to find one that is quite as well rounded as Windows Media Player;the application included as standard with Windows.  Many other media players are either overloaded with features you will never use or stripped down to the point where the few extra features you are likely to use on a daily basis are missing.
Just recently,however,I was pointed in the direction of Spider Player,an application that is available via a free download at www.spider-player.com.  Admittedly this is just a music player and does not support videos files but focusing purely on audio allows it to excel in this area.
It offers a 32-bit sound processing irrespective of the specification of your sound card which should ensure a high quality of playback of all your audio files.  The player also supports 5.1/7.1 surround as well as traditional stereo/mono audio files.
Standard features such as the ability to open individual files and create and save playlists are also included along with a wonderfully simple equalizer panel which is available at all times.  This can be minimised if you should wish but this feature,along with the DSP effects manager allows you to customise the sound of the playback to your personal taste.
Along with supporting every conceivable file format,Spider Player will also allow you to convert existing audio files in to another format;for example to change a WAV file to a small MP3 file.  This is provided in addition to the ability to rip tracks directly from a CD and then convert them in to a number of formats including MP3,WMA and OGG.
Direct access is provided to a number of Internet radio stations and can record up to five minutes of transmission to any one file (recording time is unlimited in the professional version).
While the standard design of the player is relatively pleasing as it is,the player is fully skinnable with a variety of designs available for free from the developer’s website.  If you would rather personalise your own player,there is a skin development package available for download from the website.
Users who require the ability to play video may be best looking into downloading the excellent VLC Media Player,one of the many alternatives mentioned in Click over the years,or sticking with the faithful Windows Media Player.  For those that are primarily concerned with music,Spider Player certainly comes highly recommended as although the claim “The Ultimate Music Player” may seem rather grandiose it certainly comes with all the features I could hope for without any of the chaff I would have previously tolerated.

Google Buzz - Social Networking WebsiteGoogle Buzz –Social Networking Website

July 2011

Google Buzz is an extension of the Google Mail service offered by Google which the Internet giants hope will lure users away from alternative services such as Facebook.
Google Mail initially created shockwaves when first introduced as they offered a huge 1GB of storage space for messages and attachments compared to most of its competitors who at the time offered a feeble 2 to 4MB.  Today they offer a huge 7GB as standard however times have moved on and alternative providers such as Yahoo Mail and Hotmail also now offer an almost unlimited amount of storage space free of charge.
Despite not having the advantage over the competition in this respect any longer,Google Gmail continues to be a popular service due to its ability to integrate well with other e-mail accounts and the way in which it allows you to manage your messages.  As an example,Gmail groups together messages that are of the same subject,making them part of a conversation file.  In this way you can manage large number of e-mails grouped into the same conversation quickly and easily so that deleting or achieving them doesn’t cause a headache.
Google Gmail is free to use and paid for by advertising however the adverts are very small,non-intrusive and are targeted so that they are more relevant to subject matter that you might find of interest.  There are no large graphic adverts and no pop-up or pop-under adverts to clutter your browser.
Google Buzz is a social networking application integrated into Gmail.  It aims to offer a better method to share photos,links,videos,and events with your Gmail contacts and personally I believe it is rather coincidental that this was developed after Facebook announced plans they were developing their own email system.
Buzz has all the basic features that you would expect from a social networking application including the ability to share status updates,photos,links and videos both privately and publically.  You can choose who you’d like to follow by simply entering their Gmail address at which point they can be added as a friend for you to see a steam of all their updates that have been shared either publically or privately with you.  As with Facebook,other users can comment on public posts and show their appreciation for an update or users status by clicking the ‘like’ button.
You can direct a comment into a fellow users Gmail inbox by simply putting @ the beginning of your comment and the user name of that person is then hidden to protect their privacy.  This feature can only be used with people that are in your Gmail contact list.  Also by clicking on the arrow to the right of any post,you can link content to the post,email the contact directly and mute the buzz that appears in your inbox.
Google Buzz also integrates with Picasa,Flickr,Google Reader,YouTube,Blogger,and Twitter meaning that you are able to share content from these applications directly.  This is a nice feature as it allows you to post files and albums you may have already created without having to go through the hardship of creating them twice.
The social networking market has the potential for huge rewards,especially for a company such as Google that makes such a large amount of its profits from revenue generated by advertising.   With news that Buzz will soon be available on the Android phone and iPhones platforms,it will almost certainly give the more established social networking sites a run for their money.

Pidgin - Multiple Instant Messenger ServicePidgin –Multiple Instant Messenger Service

July 2011

If like me,you find yourself juggling multiple messenger applications to keep your friends,family and colleagues happy you will be glad to hear about Pidgin.  Formally known as Gaim,Pidgin is an open-source messaging program that allows the simultaneous use of multiple instant messenger services through one application.
Available as a free of charge download from www.pidgin.im,this small program supports 17 networks including favourites AOL,MSN and Yahoo as well some lesser known ones such as Jabber and Gadu-Gadu.  Additional chat clients such as Skype and the Facebook Chat tool can be added through the use of freely available third party plugins which are easily located on the Pidgin site.
Once installed,simply select the type of account you want to add (for example a Google Talk account) along with your user name and password.  Any of your contacts from that account that are currently online will automatically appear in the buddies list and you can begin chatting straight away.  Not only does this offer the distinct advantage that you don’t need to switch between several applications if you have contact with friends on multiple networks but it also cuts down on the resource requirements of having multiple chat services running on one machine.
Along with being cross compatible with different networks,the Pidgin application is also available for many different Operating Systems;as well as the obvious Windows version,the developers have provided support for Solaris,SkyOS,Qtopia,UNIX,Linux and even the AmigaOS.
All the standard features you would come to expect such as contact organiser,custom smileys,file transfers and group chats are present.  The only slight criticism that I would have is that it doesn’t support video and voice chat however my assumption is that these protocols are difficult to integrate in to an application that has been designed to be compatible with dozens of networks and half a dozen different Operating Systems.  Hopefully this lack of functionality will be addressed in future releases.
Pidgin is completely customisable;the preferences dialog box provides an area where you can define every conceivable option including the interface,sounds,network connection,chat logging and your default availability status.  In terms of appearance you can also change the font type,size and colour,formatting along with installing new themes which change the appearance of smileys and status icons.  An additional option to install themes in order to change the actual user interface would be welcome as the default interface may be a little dull and unintuitive for some users.