SuperGeeks » Free Stuff

5 Free Apps for Your New PC

Chief Geek — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 20:43:54 +0000

If you recently picked up a new computer, consider yourself one of the lucky ones. The rest of us are still waiting for our chance to justify the expenditure.

To mitigate the cost of ownership, there are some free goodies out there you may want to consider installing while your computer is still fresh out-of-the-box. And though ‘free’ in the computing world doesn’t necessarily equate to ‘good’, all of the software listed below has been thoroughly geek-tested and is wholly SuperGeeks-approved:

Install Firefox. Assuming you bought a Windows machine, it will come with Internet Explorer pre-loaded. There are better browsers than Internet Explorer. Firefox, for example, is both faster and safer than IE. Use it instead. You can download it for free here: www.getfirefox.com.

Install PCDecrapifier. As you probably know well, new PCs come with a bunch of trial software pre-installed. This includes trial subscriptions of Norton and McAfee antivirus software. We geeks call this stuff crap-ware. Basically, it’s useless and hogs your computer’s precious resources. Remove it all asap. Here’s a free tool to help you get the job done: www.pcdecrapifier.com

Install Avast. There are several good, free antivirus programs. There is also a lot of bogus software masquerading as legitimate solutions when – in reality – they are fake and sometimes malicious apps. For a list of rogue software, go here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogue_security_software It’s big business! For real protection from viruses, install Avast. It’s free. You can get it here: www.avast.com. Run it weekly. Delete or quarantine everything it finds.

Install SpyBot Search & Destroy. Everyone has their favorite anti-spyware solution. I like SpyBot Search & Destroy. There are other good ones out there, but if you’re unfamiliar with those, just stick with this: www.safer-networking.org. Run it daily. Delete everything it finds.

Install CCleaner. Remember the crap-ware I talked about earlier? New computers come laden with crap. But old computers will accumulate crap over time through standard use. That crap will bog down your system and may even make it unstable. To keep your computer healthy, run ‘Crap Cleaner’ daily. It’s free. You can get it here: www.ccleaner.com. Delete everything it finds.

Enjoy your new computer. Take good care of it. Let me know if I can help with anything.

James Kerr is Chief Geek at SuperGeeks. You can reach him at (808) 531-GEEK and on Twitter: SuperGeeks

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Kirk Continues His Twitter Challenge: 1000 followers by May 5th

Chief Geek — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 21:55:34 +0000

To sweeten the prize, we will select one person from the 1000 followers. The winner will receive a netbook or an iPad. He/she can decide.

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Free Tools for Fixing Your Website

Chief Geek — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 00:59:53 +0000

Most of the tools you need can be found at w3.org

HTML Validator - http://validator.w3.org/

CSS Validator - http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/

Link Checker - http://validator.w3.org/checklink

Competitor Analysis can be found at http://www.ineedhits.com/free-tools/competitor-analysis.aspx or http://www.alexa.com/ (also good for a page ranking of sorts)

Calculate your Google Rank http://www.prchecker.info/check_page_rank.php

Site grader: http://website.grader.com/

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5 Free Apps for Your New PC

Chief Geek — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 22:44:16 +0000

If you recently picked up a new computer, consider yourself one of the lucky ones. The rest of us are still waiting for our chance to justify the expenditure.

Install Firefox. Assuming you bought a Windows machine, it will come with Internet Explorer pre-loaded. There are better browsers than Internet Explorer. Firefox, for example, is both faster and safer than IE. Use it instead. You can download it for free here: www.getfirefox.com.

Install PCDecrapifier. As you probably know well, new PCs come with a bunch of trial software pre-installed. This includes trial subscriptions of Norton and McAfee antivirus software. We geeks call this stuff crap-ware. Basically, it’s useless and hogs your computer’s precious resources. Remove it all asap. Here’s a free tool to help you get the job done: www.pcdecrapifier.com

Install Avast. There are several good, free antivirus programs. There is also a lot of bogus software masquerading as legitimate solutions when – in reality – they are fake and sometimes malicious apps. For a list of rogue software, go here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogue_security_software It’s big business! For real protection from viruses, install Avast. It’s free. You can get it here: www.avast.com. Run it weekly. Delete or quarantine everything it finds.

Install SpyBot Search & Destroy. Everyone has their favorite anti-spyware solution. I like SpyBot Search & Destroy. There are other good ones out there, but if you’re unfamiliar with those, just stick with this: www.safer-networking.org. Run it daily. Delete everything it finds.

Install CCleaner. Remember the crap-ware I talked about earlier? New computers come laden with crap. But old computers will accumulate crap over time through standard use. That crap will bog down your system and may even make it unstable. To keep your computer healthy, run ‘Crap Cleaner’ daily. It’s free. You can get it here: www.ccleaner.com. Delete everything it finds.

Enjoy your new computer. Take good care of it. Let me know if I can help with anything.

James Kerr is Chief Geek at SuperGeeks. You can reach him at (808) 531-GEEK and www.SuperGeeks.net. Twitter: SuperGeeks

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How to learn how to do anything

Chief Geek — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 17:38:41 +0000

One of the most exciting things about the internet is the sheer volume of information you can find and educate yourself. You can learn about everything from history of Ancient Greece, to motorcycle repair, to the lifestyles of capucine monkeys.

For those of us who are perpetually curious, the internet offers boundless resources for life-long learning. And while some of the resources are paid, many are free.

One of my favorite free sites is Videojug.com.

Videojug is an online encyclopedia of life skills. It’s clean and intuitive interface offers a wealth of knowledge in the form of well-cataloged instructional videos. The channels include beauty and style, creative and culture, family and education, food and drink, health and well being, lifestyle and home, love and dating, money and career, sports and outdoors, and technology and cars. Each video is professionally made by an expert in that field. Be it an expert in speed-folding T-shirts, putting custom ring tones on your iPhone, or making a business plan, Videojug has it all

The site was created in 2006 by David Tabizel after he got a flat tire and could not find a good instructional video on how to fix it. Three years later, it’s one of the largest online libraries of free videos. While all of its high-definition videos are produced by experts, common users can upload their own videos and also participate in forums. Users can also comment on videos and suggest ideas for new videos.

Some videos are funny and goofy, especially in the love and dating section. For example, to initiate a good night kiss after a first date, Videojug advises to first “create an awkward pause” the conversation. If the first stage of dating went well, you may follow the advice on “how to avoid trapped arm while cuddling in bed.”

One of the most useful sections of this site is the Lifestyle & Home category. It contains simple and easy to understand instructions on home decor, plumbing, tiling, etc.

Another good section is Money & Careers. You can hear from a commercial airline pilot how to become a pilot, cocktail-mixing tips from a bartender, and how to select an estate planning attorney versus an estate planning attorney. Throw in a ton of cooking videos, salsa and makeup lessons, and you can spend all day learning stuff you always wanted to learn.

In many respects, Videojug is similar to YouTube’s How To & Style section. However, the comparison is not in YouTube’s favor, since YouTube is riddled with poorly-produced videos and lacks organization. Search “yoga” on Youtube returns 73,000 results, including “The Inappropriate Yoga Guy”, Dilbert cartoon, and yoga sandals. Videojug, on the other hand, generated a concise 18 pages of detailed instructions on specific yoga techniques.

Finally, in Videojug’s Discussion section, you can find other users’ advice on such life’s pressing questions as: How Can I Remove Dog Urine Stains From A Wool Rug? and How Can One Get Rid Of The Big Belly?

Have fun poking around Videojug. It’s well worth the time.

James Kerr is Chief Geek of SuperGeeks. He can be reached at www.SuperGeeks.net. You can also follow him on Twitter: supergeeks.

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Welcome to Zoho

Chief Geek — Tue, 19 May 2009 20:00:38 +0000

They say the best things in life are free…But on the internet, ‘free’ is a whole different world.

With hackers always searching for new ways to con the innocent, ‘free’ on the web usually means ‘potentially dangerous.’ It’s no secret that free downloads of music and video, for example, often contain malicious software secretly embedded inside.

However, when it comes to Microsoft and the fierce battles to gain market share, free can mean access to a pretty darn good product. As you may know, Google Docs is a suite of online tools that can do just about everything Microsoft Office can do. Google Docs is free. The idea is to offer the software for free so everyone will jettison Microsoft Office and migrate to Google Docs.

Zoho (www.Zoho.com ) is another player in this market space. They, too, offer a set of free online tools for a wide range of applications.

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been playing with their Wiki and I must say I like Zoho a lot. It’s intuitive, user friendly and useful for both home and business.

One of the challenges we face as a company is how can we efficiently capture and disseminate knowledge. Standard operating proceedures are critical to ensuring quality of service and smooth operations.

In the old days, we would have created a 3-ringed binder describing how to do specific tasks. New and veteran employees would reference the manual as-needed.

Using Zoho Wiki now as an internal, password protected handbook, we’re able to accomplish everything we need plus two new benefits:

It’s readily available anytime/anywhere online
Anyone can contribute to it anytime, so the content is fresh and relevant.

We also use Zoho for our corporate clients. Instead of having each employee send troubleshooting request to us via email, we have employees post action items on on an internal, Zoho-based bulletin board. They can now assign levels of urgency, management can help prioritize requests, and the SuperGeeks can post messages next to each action item. The bottom line: The whole support process is now infinitely more effective and efficient.