Home

Let Gizmo Make your New Year Wish Come True

Last Update: Sun, 12/28/2008 - 00:04 — gizmo.richards

This site is here for you.

So if there is one single thing we could do to make it better for you, what would it be?

Just leave a comment below and we will try to make it happen in 2009.

Gizmo

Bookmark/Search this post with:
0
No votes yet
Your rating: None
#1Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 04/29/2009 - 21:17.

i want to be slim again

#2Submitted by Anonymous on Sun, 02/22/2009 - 19:48.

*BEST LINUX DISTRIBUTIONS FOR THE HOME USER*

For us folk who are NOT so PC literate. For us who have ONE (maybe two down the road if we're lucky) computer connected to the internet (broadband).

Small, fast, uncomplcated, easy to install... intuitive to use...

I'm getting tired of Windows with it's constantly being under attack by jerk off hackers etc... And trying to make heads or tales of all the security software is impossible. Plus my PC is old and can't handle all that extra cpu and memory usage

After the distributions you'll have to evaluate software.

That's what I want , a Linux I can learn to use and love.

#3Submitted by Anonymous on Sun, 02/22/2009 - 20:16.

To answer my own question/request I found this website

Linux Distribution Chooser
http://www.zegeniestudios.net/ldc/index.php?firsttime=true

I took the test and it came up with:
1. OpenSuSE 100% http://www.opensuse.org/
2. Linux Mint 95% http://www.linuxmint.com/
3. Ubuntu 95% http://www.ubuntulinux.org/
4. Xandros 95% http://www.xandros.com/
5. Mandriva 95% http://www.mandrivalinux.org/
6. Kubuntu 90% http://www.kubuntu.org/
7. Fedora 90% http://fedora.redhat.com/

I always speak too soon when I post. Never fail.
Deemarie

#4Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 02/19/2009 - 05:51.

Can the comment list be extended to 50 or so because sometimes, your question will be buried in a list of comments before they get answered. Also, replies to some comments will also be buried deep before people can read them.

Thanks in advance.

#5Submitted by peter on Thu, 02/19/2009 - 07:57.

See here:
http://www.techsupportalert.com/freeware-forum

#6Submitted by Anonymous on Sat, 02/21/2009 - 06:34.

The forum is a great idea but the whole purpose of extending the comment list is to discuss problems easily within the article, unless the argument gets heated up a little, also you can post anything without the need to log in so it's pretty useful for quick posts and anyone can easily leave a comment without the need to log in or register (unless they want to).

P.S. - Are you trying to promote the new forum, because I've seen that post in several other articles too.

#7Submitted by peter on Sat, 02/21/2009 - 07:52.

Of course we're promoting the new Forum.
We think it's a very effective resource that most will enjoy using.
An added bonus is that it's not subject to my obtrusive moderation.

#8Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 02/12/2009 - 14:44.

Best free 2d CAD and 3d modeling/unfolding software section please.

#9Submitted by Anonymous on Fri, 02/13/2009 - 19:16.

Use Google SketchUp. it is amazing.

#10Submitted by OnDeck29 on Tue, 02/10/2009 - 17:10.

Monitor Calibration - gamma, rgb, etc

#11Submitted by ianjrichards on Tue, 02/17/2009 - 23:15.

Good idea. I've created a stub and hopefully someone will volunteer to edit it.

http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-monitor-calibration-utility.ht...

Gizmo

#12Submitted by Anonymous on Sun, 02/08/2009 - 03:59.

I would like to see more on the REXX interpreter and related applications that are constructed around it. I find it tremendously useful as a workstation and mainframe programming tool. There are a number of FREE interpreters for REXX including the OO version that IBM made available to SourceForge in the public domain. Also, I have not seen any references to the new Lotus Symphony Office application either. Just my 2 cents for new freeware additions on the site.

#13Submitted by Anonymous on Sat, 02/07/2009 - 07:10.

I think best free security software combination is a good topic. This can also include the security suite vs standalone freeware combinations.

Comparison can be based on performance and resource usage.

#14Submitted by Anonymous on Mon, 02/16/2009 - 07:57.

That gets my vote too.

#15Submitted by ianjrichards on Tue, 02/17/2009 - 23:05.

Coming your way soon. - Gizmo

#16Submitted by Anonymous on Sat, 02/07/2009 - 06:42.

Best Free OCR? Maybe this whole category is out of date, but once upon it is useful.

#17Submitted by Anonymous on Sun, 02/08/2009 - 07:38.

What's OCR?

#18Submitted by Anonymous on Fri, 02/13/2009 - 12:31.

put a paper on a scanner via OCR computer recognizes the characters and you can simply copy them into say a word file, extremely helpful when you need to refer sth else from a printed document.

#19Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 02/10/2009 - 20:48.

Optical charactor recognition. Lets you scan in a document and edit it in say, word or notepad.

#20Submitted by Anonymous on Fri, 02/06/2009 - 06:15.

Online dictionaries for english and foreign languages.

#21Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 02/05/2009 - 01:54.

how about more coverage of linux software?

#22Submitted by ianjrichards on Tue, 02/17/2009 - 23:07.

We plan to start Mac, Linux and Server software sections soon but need volunteers with expertise in these areas. If you would like to help then pls contact me using the site contact form (bottom left)

Gizmo

#23Submitted by Anonymous on Mon, 02/02/2009 - 20:12.

Hello

I wish that this site will include mobile phone applications section. This is really necessary given there is too much programs all around that are either malicious or fake. Previews and opinions exchange will be very useful to avoid this.

#24Submitted by Anonymous on Mon, 02/02/2009 - 18:56.

Looking for a free help and manual writing program.

#25Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 02/05/2009 - 09:23.

Why don't you try Microsoft HTML work shop.

#26Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 02/05/2009 - 09:31.

You mean Microsoft HTML help workshop don't you

#27Submitted by Anonymous on Mon, 02/02/2009 - 03:31.

i would like to see an Ultimate boot CD for Vista 32 and 64, or more options to fix vista for clients pc's. It most likely exists, and i have very limited time to research and slipstream but XP still seeems to be only newly support OS.

Matt L.

#28Submitted by Bob on Sun, 02/01/2009 - 15:01.

Just a passing thought -
How about a "Useless Waste of Time" links page??
Perhaps starting with a selection of those mentioned in the old TechSupport newsletter. Followed by "add-your-own" in the comments ...

For instance: http://www.bitstorm.org/gameoflife/

#29Submitted by chris.p on Thu, 02/12/2009 - 16:33.

You ask - we deliver.

http://www.techsupportalert.com/complete-waste-of-time.htm

chris.p

#30Submitted by Bob on Sun, 02/15/2009 - 16:37.

Geee ... Thanks Chris!

#31Submitted by Anonymous on Fri, 01/30/2009 - 15:42.

hi
i am urgently looking for a software that can password protect my USB Drive. I have tried truecrypt but it encrypts the usb flash drive, that means that if i have data of 16 GB stored, it will take ages to decrypt it back.
plus using truecrypt is also of no use, as in case of Usb loss, the person who finds it can easily Format the flash drive and start using it.
i have heard that there software available that can fully password protect the usb drive. which when inserted asks for the password and does not authorize with an invalid password at all. Also without a password, the USB disk is completely unusable.
is anyone aware of any trick that can help me???

#32Submitted by oblivion on Wed, 02/04/2009 - 13:54.

You can't do what you want. I'm not sure I completely understand your criticism of TrueCrypt unless it's a simple statement that a 16Gb encrypted file takes time to decrypt -- but a 2Mb file stored in a 16Gb TrueCrypt volume doesn't take significantly longer to save or transfer than one stored on an unencrypted thumbdrive.

The only completely lockable drive that's useless without the key will necessarily be one that's secured with a physical lock of some sort. Anything that only uses software to protect it must be able to run that software. To do that, it must be recognised as a medium containing data, and the moment that's true, you can repartition and/or reformat the device, if you have no interest in its content.

There are a number of ways of securing your data, but it's very hard to secure the hardware if the data on it is of no interest. Look at gadgets like IronKey, but you'll pay a lot extra for it.

Try TrueCrypt again. It's very good at what it does, and it's usable under Windows and Linux. If you don't want to lose your drive, buy a good lanyard and keep it tied to you at all times!

#33Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 01/29/2009 - 16:01.

Are there any programs now to allow downloading videos and converting them to a usable format? - I had a couple on the old PC; these are no longer operational or the program somehow up-dated not allowing for downloading some videos or the video sites have switched their settings now or ???
I've checked this site only to find many of these programs are now trial versions only ???

#34Submitted by Bob on Sat, 01/31/2009 - 17:20.

Have you tried Orbit Downloader?
http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-download-manager.htm#Orbit

If you like Firefox, you can use the excellent Video DownloadHelper extension:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3006
And if you want to go one step further, you can integrate DownloadHelper with Orbit via the FlashGot extension:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/220

DownloadHelper is designed to handle format conversion (though I haven't tried this myself). For information on stand-alone conversion programmes, see:
http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-audio-video-format-conversion-...

#35Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 01/29/2009 - 05:53.

Best Free Document Scanner software, particularly looking for sofware that scans directly to email.

#36Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 01/29/2009 - 15:49.

Whether free or not, I'm not impressed with any of these scanning programs -
scanning images is great; but scanning articles/documents/papers, etc. in order to edit them is next to impossible.

#37Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 01/29/2009 - 02:27.

It would be nice if you could include a Best Free OS article or Alternate OS for windows, I can't seem to find anything about OS in here.

Thanks

#38Submitted by chris.p on Sat, 01/31/2009 - 02:02.

Yes, this is a good point. It's the Big One though!

You want to know the best free OS? Many of us would say there's no such thing - and that's the problem of course. You could try Linux Mint for example (an Ubuntu fork), it's many people's answer to questions of this sort. It will certainly do a lot of what you probably want to do. But the big problem is you'll find that it won't run your own 'best' software - the favourite stuff you like to use to do your work or play. Try and find a version of your best game that will run on it, for example; try and plug in the new hardware widget you just got; try and navigate your boat with it. Chances are it won't help you there. Send somebody a file you produced in your office suite? They won't be able to open it. Just like .docx from Office 2007 I guess - no good in the real world.

Great OS - will do all your day-to-day stuff - but as for interoperability, connectivity, communicating on work and play - hmm, some way to go there I think. And hopefully you will never have to do anything serious with it as it may need console commands - and that's like going back 15 years to the days of DOS.

Wish there *was* a good alt OS. Still waiting. My dream OS would be if somebody bought the rights to Windows 2000 off MS and re-worked it for 2009 - man would that be a great OS.

The 'real world' is unfortunately the world of Windows - because that's what the software's for.

chris.p

#39Submitted by Anonymous on Sat, 01/31/2009 - 12:17.

I knew that request was too impossible, but I've been using Windows for years and I've just heard about Mac FOR THE FIRST TIME after reading about Windows 7 (not exactly... but that's the first time I actually took my time to read about Mac). They say Mac is quite virus-free and stable, it also has a great interface. Comparing Mac to Windows, Mac seems better in more ways than one. So I went hunting for other OS which led me to post that request... Linux seems to be the only free OS but it's quite different from Windows. It's flexible, too flexible with multiple GUI selections, different types of Linux OS and so on... It's a bit like Lego. If it's not possible then just forget about it.

#40Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 02/19/2009 - 23:44.

Linux is not the only free OS:

http://www.reactos.org/en/index.html

ReactOS is a project to offer a binary equivalent to Windows. This means that it would be an alternative OS that allows your favorite programs to run on without virtualization, or emulation. Its quite an ambitious project, and has made quite some progress. For what its worth.

This is NOT a Linux based OS, it is an independent OS created built from the ground up, to be a Windows equivalent.

#41Submitted by Anonymous on Sat, 02/21/2009 - 06:47.

ReactOS is however still in alpha-stage. According to their website, ReactOS is still in version 0.38 and version 0.40 is to be beta soon. How long do you think it would take for it to be officially released as a stable version or out of beta-stage. I'm surprised that someone actually reply to that post.

#42Submitted by Anonymous on Sun, 02/22/2009 - 05:20.

Sorry, my bad, 0.40 will still be alpha while 0.50 will be beta.

#43Submitted by spaarks on Mon, 01/26/2009 - 14:10.

In the index for each category it would be good to show the last update date for each sub-category. ie beside 'hits'

#44Submitted by gizmo.richards on Tue, 01/27/2009 - 06:54.

I agree, this feature is indeed most desirable and has been requested by a number of readers. We are currently evaluating the best solution.

Gizmo

#45Submitted by Anonymous on Sat, 01/24/2009 - 16:02.

I get requests from my Mum and sister to help out with their PCs (they live 100 and 250 miles away). A free and easy remote admin piece of software would be very useful. Am just attempting Teamviewer but have no idea if it is any good.

#46Submitted by bnast7@yahoo.ca on Sun, 02/08/2009 - 20:35.

You might want to try the free version of logmein.com - it allows you to access and manipulate your family members' desktop(s)and contents as if you were sitting right in their homes. Do the initial set-up with them in order to get the connection/computer reg.#. P.S. - Once this is set up, their computers must be ON, of course, in order for you to access them remotely. -- Bobbie

#47Submitted by Rizar on Thu, 01/29/2009 - 06:26.

You could try the following article:

http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-remote-access-software.htm

It discusses software that "allows a user to remotely administer another computer through a GUI (Graphical User Interface)" whether attended or unattended.

#48Submitted by Anonymous on Sun, 01/25/2009 - 02:44.

try http://www.freeremotesupport.com

I've tried it and it works great.

#49Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 01/28/2009 - 03:14.

I'll second that. I love it too.

#50Submitted by Anonymous on Sat, 01/24/2009 - 15:07.

You have become the benchmark the others have to measure up to. Congrats

Please please please don't change anything. Keep it sleek, fast and up to date.

Thank you for saving my life on many occasions.

Anders

123next ›last »