FileHippo.com has been a repository for available programs for awhile now. A lot of companies have been using it has an extra facility to distribute there software. They just realeased a peice of sotware that scans your computer and finds the version of every peice of software that matches one in there repository. Then it displays a nice interface to download every program it finds. I've been using it for a couple days and its really easy. You can customize it to check when you login and to then close. You can also set it to ignore certain programs.
Here is some information from the website.
What is it?
The Update Checker will scan your computer for installed software, check
the versions and then send this information to FileHippo.com to see if
there are any newer releases. These are then neatly displayed in your
browser for you to download. Please note that not all programs are
supported.
But it gets better...
The client is FREE, just over 100kb to download and only takes seconds
to run! In fact on our test machines the process is complete in under 2
seconds!
What are the requirements?
The Update Checker works on any Windows PC running Vista, XP, 2003,
2000, ME or 98. It requires that the Microsoft
.NET Framework 2.0 is installed, which you may download directly
from here,
or the installer will prompt and download it automatically.
Update Checker v1.036
FHSetup.exe (152kb) Download now
I just wanted to post something
strange that was happening to me the other day.I have used calendar sync for awhile now and absolutely love it.I recently got a droid and needed calendar
sync to do a bit more work.I need it to
sync calendar dates between my work exchange computer, my laptop, my home
computer, and droid willthen sync with Google
calendar.I was having a problem with
certain events not being synced.It was
mostly repeating events and certain events on my work computer.I have a Gmail account but i didn't start
using it until i got a droid.My Gmail
login used my regular email.I was using
my consultsteimel.com email to log into the calendar sync accounts.I changed to logins to my actual Gmail
account and the problem went away.
Filezilla is by far the best file transfer program out there. You can use it for scp or ftp and is very robust. Filezilla is a open source program that has been in production for years. It finally went production a few years back and is still coming out with new versions. Not only is it a client but filezilla also comes with a server too. Here are some excerps from there website.
FileZilla Features
Overview
FileZilla Client is a fast and reliable cross-platform FTP, FTPS and
SFTP client with lots of useful features and an intuitive graphical user
interface.
Features
Among others, the features of FileZilla include the following:
Easy to use
Supports FTP, FTP over SSL/TLS (FTPS) and SSH File Transfer
Protocol (SFTP)
Cross-platform. Runs on Windows, Linux, *BSD, Mac OS X and more
This is something I just found the other day while looking for some new add-ons. Firefox offers collections which provide add-ons for a specific type of user. There is a social collection, web developer collection and so on. Something i never noticed before and something to look at the next time your adding things to your firefox browser.
With Google Opendns and Ultradns all having free available DNS servers, you can pick and choose which is the fastest. I ran this tool at work and at home and it was 35 to 40% faster. At my home it found a different verizon DNS server, at work it found openDNS to be faster then my office's public DNS server. I run that dns server, so i guess i should get crackin at speeding that thing up. It was the second faster DSN server though, eh whatever. I noticed a difference almost immediately while cruising the interwebs, Domain lookups are much faster.
Here is the definition of DNS for everyone there Domain Name System: A database system that translates an IP address
into a domain name. For example, a numeric IP address like
207.219.116.4 is converted into netlingo.com. ...
Another cool tip i found today. In Firefox you can set it so it save all of your entered data. I'm not talking about a saved password thats a different section. Tools -> options -> security -> saved Passwords. I'm talking when you enter something into any form, whether its a login or an address or anything. When you mistype an entry its listed there forever. How do you delete one entry without deleting all of your saved data?
Go to the form where the mistake is. Put your cursor in the text entry
and hit down until the incorrect entry is highlighted. Now press
shift + del. Glorious day!
I found something really cool today. I hate apple software, its bloated and I'd rather not use it. I don't own an Ipod and i don't purchase music through itunes so i don't use the itunes software. I use Firefox so i don't use safari. The only thing i can't get around is Quicktime, some websites still use it. Until today i found a piece software named QT lite. It works flawlessly and implements easier with Firefox and other browsers. You can download it from a variety of sources just follow a search for Qt lite, quicktime alternative. Mostly from codec providers. Not that i really hate quicktime but its difficult to find the install without itunes and it installs apple updater which tries to install everything i don't need. So if your like me and don't want the bloatware of itunes and all its friends on your computer try the Quicktime alternative called qt lite.
Instant messaging has been evolving throughout the years. From ICM to AIM to facebook and hopefully skype. If your antyhing like me, it seems everyone I know perfers something different. Although 90% of my friends like to chat either using AIM, facebook, or google. I hate opeing 2 programs when 1 will do. That's why I use Pidgin instant messenger. This is an open source product that combines almost every chat service into 1 familar tool. You may remember an older program named GAIM that started in Linux, this is the same tool just evolved a bit. It looks and feels a lot like the old AIM client which i liked the best. I currently use it for yahoo, AIM, google and facebook chat, but it also includes all of the chat interfaces listed below. I enable facebook chat through a third party plugin: http://code.google.com/p/pidgin-facebookchat/. Because the software is open source there are tons of features, much like the facebook plugin. There are logging plugins or smiley plugins and a whole lot more. This is a highly recommended software if you do a lot of chatting online and especially if you want to use multiple services.
I saw a few articles around the net commenting on cellphones from the top companies. Some handy tools if your shopping for one this xmas seaons.
Check out the pic below for the top phones from the top companies. Iphone 3gs from AT&T VS Motorola Droid from Verizon VS Palm Pre from spring VS My Touch from Tmoblie Click the here to read the full article. Click to enlarge the pic below
I've also included a link the latest consumer report article regarding cell phone providers. Verizon is first, AT&T is dead last. This is not really surprising. "The annual survey of wireless customer satisfaction from Consumer Reports
hits the streets this week and it doesn’t have much good to say about
AT&T. In a canvass of more than 50,000 readers spanning 26 U.S.
cities, the organization found the carrier had the lowest
customer-satisfaction rating in 19 cities surveyed; Verizon ranked
highest." Consumer reports AT&T is dead last
I've been a happy verizon customer for years and have had only 1 complaint up until now, an Iphone competitor. I'm going to get the Driod in a few weeks when i become elligible. With my new phone every 2 years. I can get the driod for $99 and since i don't need it for business i only have to pay $89 per month.
I have been asked by a lot of people what kind of computer to get. Here are my recommendations for a everyday computer that the basic family would probably need. I have already written a quick laptop recommendation check our past articles for that. This page is a bit more in depth. Also check out the recent study we found showing laptop and netbook warranty claims. Toshiba came out best but they all were pretty bad. 1 in 3 laptops break within the first 3 years.
Laptops and desktops used to be worlds apart but for a basic everyday computing I really give the same recommendation on both. So this page will give you an explanation on every component and hopefully help you shop during the holiday season.
File Hamster is a version control system for almost any document. Earlier CS recommended subversion for version control. While subversion is still a great product it might be a little much for just the casual html user or someone looking to version there word docs.
I have been asked by a lot of people what kind of computer to get. Here are my recommendations for a everyday computer that the basic family would probably need. I have already written a quick laptop recommendation check our past articles for that. This page is a bit more in depth. Also check out the recent study we found showing laptop and netbook warranty claims. Toshiba came out best but they all were pretty bad. 1 in 3 laptops break within the first 3 years. 
