You Know Your a Geek Tip

Elevator expressing.
Press down the close door button, and the floor you would like to go to at the same time, keep held till you get there. Works on many elevators.

Are You Tired of Big Company Voicemail???

Just hate Waiting on hold?
Visit Paul English, Paul has gathered a nice database of tips on how to exit Voicemail hell and tell them what you really think!
Stop Being ignored FIND-A-HUMAN

What's A ThumbDrive Daddy?

All things Thumb, and why you can't live without one...

floppy drive, hard drive, Zip drive, Tape drive, CDR/RW, DVD-R/RW all these things store our data you may have used all of them or some. However some just don't belong in your pocket...

Today's best answer is a Thumb Drive or as we will refer to it futher on as a "TD", just a few ounces and its tiny like a keychain fob or smaller and capable of holding one gigabyte or even more. If you own a Windows XP/ME/2000 system you simply put your TD into any unused USB port and in a couple seconds it acts just like the internal hard drive in your computer! I own a 256 Meg TD and its replaced a bunch of CDRs I always carried everywhere and I have forced myself to only the data that I need to repair computers some bookmarks and my resume.
I cannot begin to tell you how easy it is now to just reach into my pants pocket where the TD lives everyday.

Any data that's important needs to be backed up, Personally there are very few items I need to backup on a TD, I still copy my basic setup of my entire computer to a quick restore DVD-r "perhaps there's another post there?" but it sure would be nice to carry a few programs a resume and perhaps some of my favorite bookmarks everywhere all the time and not let the world think Im a geek.
The real point here is at what point can I carry data so its at hand anytime and not a burden to have wherever I go and be big enough to keep things that can help me or make me money each day.

At home, Instant backup of home business or school projects.

At work, take home projects and move data outside the network to other offices with total security. "Just don't loose it"

At School, well just about everything except icy cold beverages*! Scan the books you own the papers your writing ect. "*for you college students"

Some drives now offer encryption and even built-in biometric scanners (Read, James bond stuff) There are many programs to back-up the moment you plug your drive in too.
See JumpVault Backup or PicoBackup for just outlook or PC-Mac PasswordVault for logins and identity. Don't forget you can put one around your neck on a keychain or a few are small enough to slip in a wallet

Lets move on, Ok I just got a TD what will I do now???
Well here are a few ideas on how you can use it beyond a few documents and a resume.

http://johnhaller.com/jh/Mozilla/ (portable Thunderbird, Firefox, etc.)

http://johnhaller.com/jh/useful_stuff/portable_openoffice/ (portableOpen Office)

http://sourceforge.net/projects/abiwordftd (word processor)

http://www.trilliananywhere.com/ (IM)http://www.miranda-im.org/ (IM)

http://www.goosee.com/puppy/ (Linux OS)

Keep looking, there many more apps you can run off a thumb!

Next time I go on a trip, I'm totally bringing the portable Thunderbird and Firefox with me.
So have you got one yet?
I'm gonna go get a one Gig thumb right now... hehe.

Thanks to Mike SP for the Research on links above.

All the best things in Life are free

FREE SOFTWARE GUIDE Vol 1
Yes its possible!
No no no, not pirated, pay me later or rebates,
not even a stops working after 30 days thing.
Just plain old "no strings attached" fully functioning FREE really!
You have already found a few examples here on this site.
Now I will give you a bigger roundup not security related. "Free of adware and spyware"
Replace Word, Quicken, Photoshop, and more....

OK lets start with the beginning of mans need for a computer. If you guessed word processing well that would be it.
There are sooo many Word clones and formats to consider but alas formats and spell checking are the two things to consider,with that said i give you...

Word Proc/Office apps:

ABIWORD

What use is a Word Processor when you can't share your documents with your friends? AbiWord is able to read and write all industry standard document types, such as OpenOffice.org documents, Microsoft Word documents, WordPerfect documents, Rich Text Format documents, HTML web pages and many more. Enjoy your favorite Word Processor on the operating system you like to use - be it Windows, Linux, QNX, FreeBSD or Solaris. AbiWord has been designed to integrate perfectly with the operating system it runs on. It will take advantage of the functionality provided by the system, such as image loading or printing capabilities. Don't miss the plug-in pak with grammar checking it free too. Download here.


COPYWRITER

Want simple tiny fit on a thumbdrive size and spellchecking?
Well you may want to try this one. The interface is very simple but it works its free and it spellchecks go get it. Download here.

EASYOFFICE

Why not just go all out and replace office period.
Easyoffice is attempting just that,
What you want here is Easyoffice free trial. This version of EasyOffice is completely functional for basic tasks. There is a polite start-up licensing screen, as well as small indication on the top toolbar that this is a Freetrial version. Otherwise, this version will function quite well. There's loads of applications included, Easymail, Easyword, EasyPDF, EasySpreadsheet, EasyDatabase, EasyContact manager ect,ect go see its loaded. Optionally pay later for more addons and support. Download here.

OPENOFFICE

This is a well known project out to put the squeeze on Office.
OpenOffice.org is both a multi-platform and multi-lingual office suite and an open-source project. Compatible with all other major office suites, the product is free to download, use, and distribute. To help build the community, join us.

I'm gonna stop here, anything you think you want to do it can do just visit the site get your Windows version here, Download here.
Make sure you pick the "Lastest stable release" not a beta version.

SOFTWARE602 PC suite

A full version of Office XP Standard retails for $400+. What if you were able to get many of the same functions in a software package that's free? 602Pro PC Suite 2001 from Software602 is just that. At around 14 MB, it's a realistic download even for a 56K dial-up connection and it installs quickly and easily too. Now this one does have some limits but you should try it I have also seen it retail at Walmart for less than 20$. Visit the site trust me they will sell you on the free download without question...
Download here.

Money Management:

ACEMONEY

AceMoney Lite is limited to one bank account but very useful for free.
AceMoney is small, but it has a lot of features that could be found in huge personal accounting software packages that are on the market. Download here.
You can track spending habits, Manage budgets, Track investments, Finance math calc with currency's, Import on-line files from your bank, Debt planning and lastly Internet payments like Paypal ect.
If you need more accounts then pay 30$ for the full version.

MOFFSOFT FREECALC

A great replacement for your existing Windows^® calculator. We took the standard Windows calculator functionality and added the following features:
Adjustable calculator size
Tape
Color schemes
New keys
Visible memory value
Option settings
Digit groupings
International support
and more.
Download here.

PAINT PROGRAMS:

Deep Paint

Pure 3D painting fun! I Love this one.

Deep Paint 3D® provides 3D artists with an intuitive, easy to use tool to paint and texture 3D models interactively in 3D. It uses textures or natural medium that can be brushed directly or projected onto 3D models and scenes. This creative environment supports an integrated workflow with 3ds max®, Maya®, Softimage® and LightWave 3D®. Deep Paint 3D comes complete with a bi-directional interface to Photoshop® and special support for the Wacom®TMntuos(tm) pressure sensitive tablet. Deep Paint 3D can be used standalone
If you have a Graphics Tablet its a real joy to use too.
Get it here, Download.com

INKSCAPE

Inkscape is an Open Source vector graphics editor, with capabilities similar to Illustrator, Freehand, CorelDraw, or Xara X using the W3C standard Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) file format. Supported SVG features include shapes, paths, text, markers, clones, alpha blending, transforms, gradients, patterns, and grouping.
Let me translate that last statement for you, its FREE and very much like 100$ and upward paint applications. Hence, why are you waiting? Get it here.

THE GIMP
Yup silly name for a paint program but this is the Rolls Royce of free paint.
There are books published on this one and its used everyday by pros, this is a fully featured program you can't actually buy. Funny huh...

The application provides professional tools that can stand against the big boys without the hefty price tag. The GIMP is extremely powerful and easy to work with. The GIMP is ideal for amateur photographers, Web designers, and anyone who wants to create and edit professional-quality digital images on a budget.

Now for the catch, it is in 2 parts this one installs first GTK+ 2 for Windows and then The Gimp for Windows get both HERE

SCREEN GRAB PRO

One of those things you just should have.
Screen Grab is simple and works just fine, If you can see it you can create a instant Bitmap image of a window or box of any size on screen. Try capturing textures to paint with or pictures to create a tutorial use for creating Instant messenger icons.
Download here.


MUSIC:

JETAUDIO Basic

Way cool alt for windows media player plus you get a window into something different.
This program has it all, and sound/looks sweet! You can also broadcast over the internet and be a DJ. I'm paying for Musicmatch but still enjoy this one.
Get it Here.

WINAMP 5.1
Get with the llama Winamp's mascot.
What can I say, Winamp is FAST sounds great its totally skinable and you can get visuals for it and now it seeks and plays online video feeds.
(There are tons of shows out there, but watch your kids though some bad stuff too)
Get it here.

GAMES:

I had to put a few games in.

This one is a true find, Not a demo, 265 meg download has FPS online play and requires 3d graphics see requirements at source.
This one is not for the kiddies and Yup it was 50$ now its just FREE!!! WOO! Thank you ACTIVISON!
Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory
Get it at Download.com

Not too much to say just fun time wasters your PS2, X-Box or whatever will put em to shame.
Still worth trying and lots of fun for zip$.
LITTLE FIGHTER II
SCORCHED 3D
WARNING FOREVER

Lets do this again soon, I would love some comments and any of your suggestions. and I know my spelling and grammar needs work. HeHe...
J