My Top 10 Picks for Windows Software

I have noticed there seem to be quite a few people discussing their top 10 picks for software for their computer. From these lists, I have found quite a bit of very useful, well written and completely bug-free stuff. Most of these items are free, and the few that aren't are almost-but-not-quite free. So here is my Top 10 Software Must-Haves:

1. Textpad: This isn't free, but it is worth every fracking penny! This is a notepad replacement text editor, but also does color coding for PHP, HTML and others. With displayed line numbers, and tabbed interface and all sorts of other goodies, I don't know that I could live without it. ($16.50)
2. Windows Live Writer: Honestly, I don't see how anybody that blogs can do without this beautiful little gem. It posts to a list of blog software longer than my arm. Blogspot, Wordpress.com, Wordpress (stand-alone),LiveJournal,LiveSpaces and the list goes on and on and on. There are also some great plugins for it. It is so easy to insert a picture, position the thing, give it a border or a drop shadow just to add that little extra 'oomph' for your readers. (Free)
3. IZarc: This free program is a great replacement for WinZip and it's rather limited capabilities. This thing opens just about every type of compressed file imaginable. I know, I know, file compression in the ZIP format is natively available in XP and Vista, but there are so many other formats that are not compatible with the Windows File Compression (or WinZip) - such as RAR, TAR, GZIP and a host of others. There is absolutely no reason what-so-ever to NOT have this thing on your machine. It is fast, and small and once you have it, you won't understand how anyone could not have it. (Free)
4. Paint.NET: When I first heard about this program,I'm thinking to myself. "Ho-hum, it's MS Paint, but written in .NET, so what, MS Paint is probably the absolute worst graphics program...EVER". But I visited the website anyway, and WOW, this thing does so much more than MS Paint could ever DREAM of doing. It uses layers, there are plenty of people making plug-ins and actions. This is a quick and easy light-weight (and FREE) Adobe Photoshop instead-of. There is also GIMP, but my opine is that Paint.NET is easier and much more intuitive than GIMP...but a long shot. For quick lightweight photo manipulation, or graphics creation, I always turn to Pain.NET. OF course, it is no where near as powerful as Photoshop, so is in now way a Photoshop replacement. But I've found about 70% of what I do with pictures, can be done in Paint.NET. (Free)
5. Firefox: The best browser money can buy - and it doesn't cost any money. I switched to Firefox before Internet Explorer 7 was released, because Firefox has tabbed browsing. You can open a multitude of pages in different tabs, in a single window. Awesome! Great for doing searches, as you can right-click the link and select "open in new tab" and still have the original search results available. There are very few pages any more that actually require MSIE, and for those that do, you can download an add-on for Firefox which adds "View in IE" to the right-click menu of any web page. Simple, elegant, and it works great. (Free)
6. StumbleUpon: This is actually a browser toolbar instead of a program, but I still dig it. You setup your account at StumbleUpon and install the tool bar. The tool bar gives you a"Stumble!" button. Get bored? Click the stumble button and StumbleUpon serves you up a random web page that falls within the "likes and dislikes" criteria to setup at their site. Plus there is a thumbs-up and thumbs-down button on the toolbar, allowing you specifiy "Yeah, this is cool, I like this kind of stuff" or "Stupid, I hate it, don't show me this kind of junk anymore". (Free)
7. Windows Live Photo Gallery: Another of Microsoft's Live offerings. It appears to integrate seamlessly with Windows - it has the same look and feel as the native image viewer, so everything is comfortable and familiar. Allows you to index, tag, keyword photos and videos, and upload them to both Windows Spaces and Flickr (Yahoo's very popular online photo album/sharing site). It doesn't natively upload to Google's Picasa, but then again, who want's Google to have all of their photos stored in a database that you can't ever ever ever delete anyway? (Free)
8. PCTools AntiVirus: I used to be an AVG fan. I really did. But then I started playing with Microsoft's new web-graphic flash knock off called Silverlight. The problem is, that AVG would block access to Silverlight files, so I was forced to investigate other options. I found PCTools, and haven't looked back. Look, everyone needs an anti-virus program running, even with Vista's beefed up security, it's just a darned smart thing. I hate Norton, it is slow, clunky, extremely bloated and seems to start up at inopportune times (read, when I've got Dingo in the sites of my Famas, and just ready to pull the trigger). PCTools, on the other hand, creates a smaller disc space footprint, and a much smaller memory footprint. Enough to make even Al Gore proud. (Free)
9. Google Desktop Sidebar: If you're not running Vista with its ultra-cool (and even somewhat functional) sidebar, then you should look into the Google Desktop Sidebar. You can put all sorts of widgets in it. Clock, calendar that hooks into your Google Calendar, file shredder, remote desktop connection, as well as many, many others. There is another sidebar supported by Microsoft called "Desktop Sidebar" but frankly, I found that one unstable, and sorely lacking widgets. (Free)
10. µTorrent: Oh c'mon, there are plenty of reasons to need a bit torrent client that does not include piracy or pr0n. I can't happen to think of any just now, but there are - people assure me of that. In any case, this bit torrent client is small and quick and is anything but a resource hog. You won't even notice it's running. (Free)

So there's my top ten free/nearly free programs for Windows. And just to show I'm not prejudiced against the Mac, here are my top 11 must-haves for Macs:

1. Windows Vista: An extremely versatile and easy to use OS. Has decent enough security, and there are oodles more programs (read: games) for Windows than any other operating system:
2. The ten other items listed above...

There you go, 10 for Windows, 11 for Macs.

Rock Chalk Jayhawk!

Twenty years ago, when the 5/8 and I were just 'a couple' and not yet a married couple, we sat in my parents' living room and watched the Kansas Jayhawks win the NCAA basketball championship. I can still remember the feeling of watching that happen. There was a kind of quiet pride. I didn't feel like hooping and hollaring, but I did remember this kind of peaceful happiness that came over me. Kansas isn't known for much see. We are the very definition of 'fly-over country'. People arrive in, or travel through Kansas because they have to - very few because they want to. So some positive recognition coming out of Kansas is always a good thing.

Last night, I got to feel that feeling again. Luckily I might add. With about 6 minutes left in the game, and Kansas quite a bit behind, I was contemplating turning the TV off and just going to bed. But, then I figured that in basketball, 6 minutes is an eternity. So I watched a little more. With 3 minutes left in the game, and the prognosis not much better, I began saving the work I was doing on the computer while watching the game, and shutting it down. Figuring we gave it a decent try, but just weren't playing to our potential, and we'd once again walk away from the championship game without the win.

But then that guy on the Memphis team missed his two free-throws, and something, it seemed, began to happen for the 'hawks. They seemed to sense that this gave them a fighting chance. The score now was very close, one possession could win or at least tie the game. And it did, ridiculously, with something like 2 seconds left in the game Kansas scores the tying field goal, and the game heads to overtime.

The overtime period was quite an exceptional display of what the 'hawks are capable of. They came out and played better during that period, than (I believe anyway) any other time in the game. Meanwhile, Memphis seemed to have lost their steam. It was truly a great game. And I send out a giant, heartfelt congratulations to the Kansas Jayhawks. Let's hope there are many, many more of these to come our way.

General Electric sUxX0r!!!!!

General Electric is a humongous company. If it exists, they probably either 1) make it, 2) make a part that goes in it or 3) consult on the production of it. They do everything from light bulbs, to airplane engines, to wind turbines, to nuclear reactors, to movies (Universal is owned by GE) to television shows (NBC is owned by GE).

I used to work for them. I know what they are like. They are all about 'The Process'. The Process is what is all fired important. It is, in fact, THE most important thing at GE. Even in the customer service arena, the customer takes a back seat to The Process. A CSR can have 1000 customers angry with their performance, but as long as the CSR followed the process, they don't have to worry about a poor review, or losing their job. Meanwhile, a different CSR can have 1000 customers happy as snails, and ready to throw away all of their appliances today, and spend their hard-earned Benjies on brand spanking new GE appliances, but if that CSR didn't follow The Process, they are in danger of losing their job and will undoubtedly receive a poor review. In GE, The Process is everything...always.

About eight years ago we purchased a new washing machine. It was a GE brand. It world great for us for about six years, then started to show signs of wear and tear. We have three kids. We do laundry probably five days out of seven every week. The machine was used and abused for six straight years. Then about two years ago we had to have the service guy out to fix it for the first time. Over the past two years, the service guy has been out to fix our old GE washer maybe eight or ten times. Finally, we decided that it was time to get a new machine.

We had such a great experience with the previous GE machine, we naturally gravitated to a new GE machine. What we ended up with was basically an updated model of the one we had. We had it about a month before it started making some gawd awful noise. We called GE since it was still under warranty, and they came out and fixed it. Some kind of stabilizing arm had broken. That should have been the first clue that this machine was made with quality that was almost-but-not-quite exactly unlike the quality of our old machine.

We had the machine a mere month before it broke down and we had to call invoke our warranty to have it repaired. I seems that some dohickey responsible for the stabilazanitator that connects to the thingamabob broke. Ummmmmkaaay...sure. They fixed it it all up and everything went humming along splendidly for the next five months. Then one night, after putting a load in the wash, and settling down to see what questions weren't going to be answered on LOST that week, a noise came rumbling up from the basement. It was an ominous noise. Not unlike (I would imagine) two buffalo fighting. I don't mean just butting heads fighting - the way animals do in Wild Kingdom - I mean real honest to goodness, John Wayne style knock-down drag out fighting. It seems the entire house was shaking.

Long story short, the washer quit...again. So now we've had this thing six months, and it has broken down twice. Call up GE again, they say they'll send someone out on Monday. Monday comes and goes, no one show sup. call them back. They say someone will come out on Thursday. This time someone actually shows up (surprise!). Bad news is, he has to order parts. Worse news is, one of the parts is back-ordered. Back ordered. The machine is six months old. I would expect a part for...say...a ten year old machine to be back ordered. But six months? Either this part that broke is so freaking rare that they don't feel the need to keep any in stock...anywhere, or the parts breaks so fracking much they can't keep them in stock. I'm leaning towards believing the latter.

Fast forward a month - that is a month, mind you, where we were spending $60+ dollars a week at the darned laundromat - and they repairman finally comes back to the house. All ready to make the machine purr like a kitten again (not to mention actually wash clothes). And...OOPS...there is yet ANOTHER part the guy needs. And guess what? They don't have THAT part in stock either, and need to order it from GE. The guy says he'll be back next Friday to fix it (I think he is assuming the part is not on back order - a pretty big assumption if you ask me).

So, we get to look forward to yet another fun Saturday afternoon at the laundromat.

I seriously cannot see myself buying another GE product, period. These people have really ticked me off but good.

Literary Thoughts: Knights of the Black and White

I'm not a big fan of fantasy literature. Sure, I've read "Lord of the Rings" and "Watership Down" and they were  enjoyable. But mostly, I'm not into reading stuff where people are named stuff like 'Glimmermear', just can't seem to get to into it. I mean, seriously, if you have refer to a glossary just to pronounce the names, it's just too much work to make for an enjoyable read. But I digress...

Jack Whyte is an author I hadn't heard of when I ran out of reading material and was at the local Dillon's store where I managed to find this book. It is book one of the "Templar Trilogy". Now, I've always been a sucker for the mysteries of the Knights Templar, the Priory of Sion, ancient Church societies and the like. So I picked it up. He starts his tale just before the first Crusade in the mid 11th Century. Knowing this, I was a bit curious how he would handle the Crusades and subsequent occupation of Jerusalem and other areas of the Middle East.

And true to any author in today's climate who doesn't want to have a fatwa issued against him, or be branded a racist, the occupying Muslims were all nice, peaceful folks until the Franks from Christendom invaded their land and brutalized everyone. And even after that, the Muslims (along with the group who were to become the Knights Templar) were the only people who had any honor.

Now, I don't mind books that are critical of the Church or Christianity. I loved Dan Brown's "Angels and Demons" (even more than his "DaVinci Code"). And I know that throughout history, and especially in the early part of the second millennium, the Church was full of people who were only out for themselves. People who, by birth order, were pretty much forced into priesthood and what not. But come on, could Whyte not find one single Church official that would display at least some modicum of Christian ideals? For him, every pastor, bishop, cardinal and pope, everything they did, they did for some ulterior, self-gratifying motive. In addition to that, there must have been twenty or thirty pages, peppered throughout the book, where he kept repeating how evil and dishonorable the invaders from Christendom were. Once or twice, and I can get the message, but over and over ad nauseam. It started to remind me of that 50+ page speech given by John Galt in "Atlas Shrugged" (I have to be honest about that, I didn't read the whole speech).

But his misrepresentation of history aside, the book wasn't all bad. His descriptions of the people and the surroundings and the activities were well thought out. The story, while a bit slow to get rolling, did start to click along at a good pace once Jerusalem was conquered. I'm certain that I will finish the trilogy when the others come out in paperback - if only because I'm a sucker for stories of the Templars. Kind of like I'm a sucker for time travel movies, no matter how badly they stink, I can't not watch 'em.

Easter

It seems like it was just a couple of months ago that we were coloring Easter eggs. But that was a year ago, and this weekend, we were at it again. Boiling eggs, smelling that acidic vinegar smell as the little tablets of dye bubble and pop and dissolve into it. Covering the kitchen table with old newspapers to keep the dye - which will inevitably be spilt - from staining the table.

No. 2 Son is too old this year for coloring Easter eggs. No. 1 Son became too old a couple of years ago. So it was up to Little Sister and myself to color the eggs. She did a great job. The 5/8 had bought some egg coloring kits which came with little foam stickers. So, naturally for a nine year old, the more foam stickers you can use, the better off the entire world is. Needless to say several of the eggs were so covered with foam stickers, they could have been dropped from the top of the house without even cracking the brittle shell.

On Good Friday, it has become somewhat of a tradition that we get Long John Silver's for lunch, eat it at Gage Park (which, BTW, got a lot of print in Stephen King's "Dark Tower: Wizards and Glass"), and tour the Zoo. Two years ago we went, it was dreadfully cold and windy. Last year we didn't go. The weather man promised rain in the afternoon, so we skipped the Gage Park/Zoo tour. But the day was mostly nice, not near as bad as it was the year before. Lesson learned I suppose. This year, despite the gloom predictions of weather, we made plans to go anyway.

Our plans were delayed by the need to meet the Lowe's delivery guy at the Ol' Man's apartment building. The Ol' Man owns an old, mostly run-down apartment building. It was built eons ago. Sometime in the early part of the 20th Century, the building belonged to the American War Dads fraternal organization. The building has a gigantic, beautifully decorated (at one time anyway) basement which was hand-dug by the AWD. I can't imagine digging that basement, with 10 foot ceilings, by hand. I certainly can't see anyone doing that kind of work in this day and age. Instead, they would simply tear down the building and build a new one with a basement built-in.

At any rate, the Lowe's delivery guy called me about noon, just as we were getting ready to head over to LJS to get our food. He was wondering if someone would be there to help him unload the tons of carpet, ceiling tiles and linoleum the Ol' Man was having delivered. The Ol' Man is in his 70s, and about 8/10 blind. He has trouble standing, let alone walking or actually carrying anything, so we took a detour to the building to help the Lowe's guy unload the items.

The zoo was nice. It wasn't too cold, but chilly nonetheless. I have discovered over the last couple of years, that the best time to see the zoo is when the temperature is somewhere between 50 and 65. In the cool temperatures, the animals seem to be out and about much more than in either the cold or the hot weather. The bears were out playing and wrestling with each other. The Orangutans were outside, climbing on the impressively complex looking equipment their environment contains. Even the female gorilla, which usually only has her foot or knee visible from her hiding spot, was able to be seen.

Easter was...well...Easter. We spent the holiday with the in-laws in Lawrence. Not my favorite place to be. The 5/8 family, especially her sisters, tend to treat her like a red-headed stepchild. Constantly putting her down and pointing out her faults, even ones that aren't there. It ticks me off, and the kids are aware of the tension all around which usually lasts for a day or two after any visit to Lawrence. But this time, this time they seemed much more cordial than they have in the past.

While Easter and Christmas are closely related, it is clear to all that Christmas is definitely the bigger holiday. My kids know the reasons we celebrate these times. If you ask them, they'll acknowledge that of the two, while Christmas is a bigger celebration, Easter is the more important of the two. I'm thankful, and proud they know the reasons, not only in a way that they can recite that Easter is the "day Jesus rose from the dead". But that I get the feeling they really, really know what it is about. We haven't kept them close-in and sheltered from other faiths and beliefs. They know that Buddha, and Mohamed and a host of other religious founders were all born a natural birth, like Jesus. But they also recognize that only one of them rose from the grave. No re-incarnated, but re-animated. He conquered death, and with that, waits to absolve us of all our sins and fallacies.

With that, I extend to everyone a (belated) Happy Easter day, and season.

Cats & Dogs, working together

Are the end times upon us? Has anyone seen lions laying down with the lambs? I have to ask this because, in what I'm certain is a sign of the end of days, our cat and our dog seem to be in cahoots.

When the dog wants outside, she scratches at the door. The cat is not allowed outside. It's cruel I know. I fully support the notion that the cat should be allowed outside. Far, far away outside. Now, when the dog wants in, she again scratches at the door.

This morning, the dog scratches at the door. I get up, open the door and the dog runs to the end of the porch. Frustrated, open the door a bit more to whistle for her. That is when I noticed the movement, out of the corner of my eye. A dark slinky shape moving at an incredibly inhuman speed towards the open door, at an angle.

Luckily, I am wicked fast (well, not really) and closed the door enough to slow down the attempted egress of the feline, slow enough for me to reach down and grab it. The whole thing was timed with the precision of a Swiss watch. I can only conclude that the dog and the cat were in collusion.

Worries...

No. 1 Son left last Friday for a week trip to Orlando, Florida with the high school band. I was extremely proud of his efforts to earn his own spending money. He left with about $200 for spending. They left Friday morning, and arrived in Orlando around noon on Saturday. The 5/8 and I had given him another $40 to buy his siblings some T-shirts, not thinking it fair that he spend his own hard-earned money on stuff we wanted him to buy.

He thought he had a bundle of money. I explained to him that it really wasn't all that much. $250 works out to about $35 a day. He seemed to understand that. At least I thought he did, until he called this morning to let the 5/8 know he had blown through his entire stash of cash. In less than 36 hours, he managed to burn through all of his money. He is now 1/2 a continent away, and penniless.

He'll get $20 when they get back on the bus for the trip home so he can buy meals and what-not on the trip. They have meal tickets (I think about $15/day worth) for meals at the parks. But still....still it is hard. Knowing how easy it would be to pick up the phone, call the hotel and arrange to wire some money to him. But I can't. I have to let him learn and have this lesson indelibly burned into his psyche.

But I wonder. Am I being too harsh? Shouldn't I just wire 20 bucks to the kid? I haven't felt this kind of worry about any of my kids to date. That knot of tension in the back, just below the neck and between the shoulder blades. It isn't going away. He really only has two days left now. Tuesday and Wednesday. They leave Wednesday night for the ride back to T-town. So he'll be ok. He has the meal tickets, and the hotel supplies a large breakfast buffet.

So there he is 1/2 a country away, without money. If I do nothing, I feel callous and cruel. But if I give in and send money, he doesn't learn this valuable lesson. This is a lesson that cannot be taught any other way, period.

 

*sigh*

Whoa Nellie...

The wind was blowing with a good gale, and the air was cool to begin with. Which all added together made for a fairly cold day. The temperature hovered in the mid-thirties throughout the day Saturday. Saturday was one of those days where the stuff you have to do just doesn't seem to end.

My niece was having a birthday party in the morning. One just for the kids. I took Little Sister and dropped her off. I would have liked to stay, but had other things that required my attention. The party was rather unique, a candle making party held at a candle shop downtown. Then I had to run out to the east side of town to meet Sandy. Sandy has a daughter who used to be in girl scouts, but quit. She ended up though, with more than a few people who wanted girl scout cookies. So the 5/8 took her orders and Little Sister ended up selling some 250 boxes of cookies.

I met Sandy at the Sonic Drive-In on the east side of town. While I was waiting for her to show up, I idly wondered what the folks at the Sonic were thinking about the guy in the little red car who didn't order anything and didn't get out of his car. Then she pulled up in her big white Dodge Ram pickup and I got out and walked over to the truck. She handed me the envelope full of cash from the cookie sales. I thanked her, stuck in the inside pocket of my coat and returned to my car. After pulling out of the Sonic parking lot, I started wondering how long it was going to be before the fuzz pulled me over. I mean, how did that exchange really look? Some guy pulls up in a car, sits in the parking lot, then a truck pulls in. The guy gets out of his car, walks to the truck. The wind blowing the tails of his coat around his legs, takes an envelope full of money from the driver of the truck, gets back in his car and drives off. To me, that would look pretty suspicious. But I suppose the folks at the Sonic are either oblivious to their surroundings, or they see that kind of thing every day since the fuzz never did pull me over to see what the transaction was all about.

After the party, Little Sister's brownie troop were scheduled to meet at some stables south of town where the girls would get to ride horses and earn some horse badge thing. It was cold, and wet but thankfully the stables had an indoor arena so we didn't have to be outside. The lady running the show was nice enough, but she did have to go and talk about how much fun horse birthday parties are, and that she just happens to host them, right there at the stables. With that announcement she pretty much got on the dark side of every parent in attendance. I know for the last two days I've been hearing about how Little Sister just has to have a horse party or she will positively just die. *Sigh*

During our family movie (Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium - fab movie BTW) No. 1 Son called from Florida. He was all excited they had driven through Atlanta just after that massive tornado that tore up the city. He was telling me all about it when I heard some girl giggle in the background. Putting on my ultra-authoritative fatherly voice I asked "are you in a hotel room with a girl?" "No, dad, they just barged in...sorry dad, I gotta go" - click...buzzzz. Sounds like he's having fun anyway.

...And they're off...

Last Friday I went in late to work. I wanted to see No. 1 Son off. Make sure he got on the bus along with his trumpet and clothes and what not. The high school band had been invited to perform in the parade at Disney World and Epcot Center down in Orlando.

No. 1 Son worked his bum off earning money. Money to help may the 600 clams for the trip as well as earning some spending money. I was proud of the work he did. The savings he accumulated for spending money. We gave him about 40 bucks and instructed him to use that to purchase t-shirts for his younger sister and brother. I didn't think it would be fair for him to have to spend his own money on curios for his siblings. He would have, without hesitation, don't get me wrong. That's the kind of guy he is. He'd give you the shirt right off his back if you asked him for it, and he thought it would help you out.

I realized, as I was escorting him to the buses, then waiting for them to board, and the buses to pull away, how little I know if his school persona. I know some of his friends. Friends he had while attending Mater Dei school, and there is the kid from across the alley. Good kid, and No. 1 Son's best friend. But when we arrived, there were two girls, cute ones mind you, who were all jumpy and squealing when No. 1 Son arrived. One I know somewhat and I know they are just friends. The other, I don't know anything about. She's the one in the pic with the 'Home Alone' expression. No. 1 Son is on the left, the kid from across the alley is the other 'joe cool' with his sunglasses in a cloudy day. I don't know the Jayhawk fan, never seen him before.

I'm certain they're going to have a great time. And I trust No 1 Son completely. I have no fears at this time in his life that he would do anything inappropriate. Now, in the next year or so I fully expect that to change, but for now, I have complete faith in his  gentleman-ness and chivalry.