The Review PSP - iPod - Palm Tx - Belkin Pre-N. - Productivity & Pleasure

List:
Sony PSP
This is a really great device. Bigger than the iPod but able to do much more. Beautiful screen rich colours but stay indoors. -
Palm TX
Great tool if it would just work as advertised and stop rebooting. Good colour screen, excellent wifi - blue tooth and wireless.
Belkin Pre-N Wireless router
Absolutely great piece of equipment. Easy to install and use.

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New Toys for Christmas ... that may interest you. - Productivity & Pleasure

I got a few new toys for Christmas that I will post reviews on, just that basic user stuff and anything unusual that I think would be of interest to the everyday user.

List:
Sony PSP - not really mine, each of my kids got one.
Palm TX - wife bought me one and got one for herself from me (you know how that is if you are married :)).
Belkin Pre-N Wireless router - finally wireless, for use with the 2 Palm TXs, the 2 PSPs and anything else that I can find in the house willing to connect :).

I have been messing with some software as well. Software for the PC, PSP and the Palm. So I'll do some posts about them.

Time simply did not allow for any meaningful posts and I really didn't have anything that was shouting out at me. But dispite my long break from posting, I have been actively looking for material that I think would be of interest.

Blogarithm.com! - So many blogs, so little time..can you tell me when they post something new?
As the website says "Blogarithm (http://www.blogarithm.com/index.php) lets you easily manage all the blogs (or any other pages you'd like!) that you track. Any time one or more of the blogs you read changes, you'll get BlogMailtm - a morning email listing all your blogs that have new content - including excerpts when available!"

Cool huh?

Doinit online - Another online utility to make you go aaaaahhhh!
Do you have a decent internet connection? Even better you joined the those of us with a life and now have broadband. Well now that you have broadband you must have been feeling that always on itch! Well if you want to give it a scratch here is a starter. AirSet (www.airset.com) is an online utility that offers some order to your presently organized ....but fixed located life.

If you use Microsoft Outlook or similar organizer/email client then you should be aware of a number of limitations. Ok so those of you who have a laptop or haven't had it stolen are a bit better off but just slightly.

For those of you who have a really nice contact list, and schedule appointments, tasks etc. picture for one little instant that that list was to go bye bye with a computer crash. There ....did you feel that cold dull ache in the base of your stomach? That feeling of total loss. You get the same feeling when that large tightly pack list of names and numbers goes missing .... along with that well used cell phone.

I have said all this ... not to entertain you .... but to remind all of us who don't have the MOST VALUABLE information backed up just how important it really is.

So let's do something about it .... by giving that worry to people who secure information for a living and who have the tools to do it right. That's right all those online servies are a more secure media than that PC you own and operate.

AirSet offers for free: Calendars - Contacts - Lists - Blogs - WebLinks all in a easy to use format ... online. Then they don't stop there...they put some very nice spins on this wicked little worker.

AirSet is excellent for individual, groups and the small business/office, who need to share ... appointments, contacts etc..

How about a robotic assistant .... one that emails you reminders of the up coming appointments.

You can setup groups to share your the information .... you can even load calendars on your website.

Downside...... one very big one ..... if their servers go down or you lose your internet connection ...... you can't access your data. They do however provide tools that allow you to download info to your desktop.

Pictures with a coffee scent - Get those pix up on the web, CD or Hard Drive.
I must have lost a few brain cells not to have listed this baby. Easily one of the best offerings for those digital pictures. Free web photo album software. JAlbum (http://jalbum.net), from JAVA + Album (that's where the coffee thing comes from).

From the JAlbum site "This gallery software makes web albums of your digital images. JAlbum aims to be the easiest to use and most powerful tool in this category - and free!
With JAlbum, no extra software is needed to view the albums, -just your web browser. Unlike "server side" album scripts, JAlbum albums can be served from a plain web server without scripting support. You can also share your albums on CD-ROM.
JAlbum runs on Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and others.

With JAlbum you have full control of the look of the generated album, not just color theme and basic layout, still making an album is just a matter of drag and drop + a button click if you prefer to use one of the many existing looks. JAlbum will process your images, make index pages and slide show pages and even upload the final album to the Internet for your friends to see."

JAlbum runs on a multitude of operating systems. This is possible as JAlbum uses a "Java runtime" (also known as "Java VM") to convert its code to the language of each platform. This wonderful ability might however require you to download a "Java runtime" first. If you didn't have JAva runtime you must run out and get it. When this is done, you can enjoy a multitude of advanced Java programs. Remember, no Java is needed to view the albums.
JAlbum needs Sun's Java runtime (http://www.java.com/en/) to run. Microsofts Java is unfortunately too old. If you haven't previously installed a Java runtime (or don't know), either select the option that includes one (Windows users) or download "Java for the desktop" first. Macintosh users already have a Java runtime installed and can download and run JAlbum right away.

Super easy to configure and even easier to generate the web album. From an album with static pix to one that includes slides. Chose from a list of backgrounds or create your own.

Here is a sample of a created album:
http://www2.jalbum.net/samples/ExhibitPlus/slides/100-0032_IMG.html

An absolute MUST have if you take pictures at all, even if you got similar software with your digital camera. Remember that anyone you send the ablum to can view the photo album created, they only need a browser (MS Internet Explorer, Firefox, Maxthon, Opera, Mozilla etc).

You are sure to enjoy this one.

Unzip ... take it out - Tired of the others? I was.
Almost forgot about this one... should have stuck into the UTILITY post. Well simply put 7-zip (http://www.7-zip.org/) is a unzip program (open source) that is SIMPLE to use (thank God) and covers a wide range of compression formats. Bet you didn't know that .zip wasn't the only compression format. Supported formats: Packing / unpacking: 7z, ZIP, GZIP, BZIP2 and TAR. Unpacking only: CAB, ARJ, LZH, CHM, Z, CPIO, RPM and DEB. 7-zip offers Integration with Windows Shell so you can right click throughout Windows and use 7-zip.

Antivirus ...revisited - More programs to help fight the fight.
I know you never get tired of information that is about antivirus stuff. Well I just have two for you. Avast (http://www.avast.com/eng/down_home.html) and ClamWin (http://www.clamwin.com/). Both have free versions (ClamWin is actually open source), both seem to have no noticable conflicts with AVG from Grisoft (reviewed below). Avast has a really cool interface, I almost thought I accidently downloaded a MP3 player :). Both of these programs allow you to integrate them into software on your system, like Outlook and MS Office programs. This is great but be aware that the programs will open more slowly. Small price to pay for those of us who roam the internet and have our systems on broadband.

I haven't gone into the details of either programs, I have left you to do that when you visit their sites.

Please note that ClamWin Free Antivirus does not include an on-access real-time scanner, that is, you need to manually scan a file in order to detect a virus. Microsoft Outlook Addin, however will delete a virus-infected attachment automatically.

Here is a FAQ for ClamWin
http://sourceforge.net/docman/display_doc.php?docid=22588&group_id=105508

Here is a FAQ for Avast
http://www.avast.com/eng/faq-avast-4-home-professional.html

Hope you find this useful.

Samurize - A Useful Utility - Desktop Enhancement
Well I found a really fun tool called Samurize (www.samurize.com). One of those bits of software which help us express our individuality and useful information about our computer. Very sweet, and as they say the limit is your imagination.

The site says "Samurize is the popular advanced system monitoring and desktop enhancement engine for Microsoft Windows 2000/XP/2003. IT professionals, overclockers, gamers and desktop modders alike use Samurize for system information, weather reports, news headlines and much much more. And best of all, Samurize is 100% free!"

A host of desktops created by others are listed, awesome and breath-taking. Take a look even if you are not interested in dressing up your desktop.

Time on your hands - What time is it over there?!!!
I'm sure that from time to time everyone needs to know what time it is in some distant place. In the world of commerce it is a must. I have a little tool that I have used for a few years now, and I really don't know how I haven't mentioned it here before. Well it's more a website that is a tool, and its called Timeticker www.timeticker.com. Created by Martin Zwernemann, who by the way contacted me very late one night over an IM when he first created it to confirm the time in Jamaica and whether Jamaica used daylight saving time. In my opinion one of the best sites to check the time in another country and definitely the coolest.