Cliff Pavlovic (.com) » Technology

A Vision of the Future… Year 2019

Cliff — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 04:06:29 +0000

Here is a very interesting vision of the future, by Microsoft, of the year 2019.

A cool vision indeed. I especially like the medical applications as well as the electronic wallet (finally all cards in one!). If Microsoft can keep its focus, maybe this vision can become reality.

Videos are originally by Microsoft Office Labs

A New Way To Look At The World: Poverty and Health – TED Talks

Cliff — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 02:10:04 +0000

Found some great videos from TED (www.ted.com) on the topic of world poverty and health. A fascinating look at statistics (I’m not kidding, it was fun and interesting). Enjoy!

From 2006

From 2007

Free software for Windows: Good quality for no money!

Cliff — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 19:31:03 +0000

So you have a Windows box and need some software for it. Sure you can take the route and buy what you need (an office suite, an antivirus, etc.), but what if you are tight on money or have already been burnt by purchased software (needing to always activate, having your system slow down to unusable speeds)? So here are a few free programs that will enable you to get work done and keep your machine running smoothly.

Office suite: OpenOffice
http://www.openoffice.org
A good replacement for Microsoft Office and does not cost a penny.

Anti-virus: AVG Free Anti-virus
http://tinyurl.com/39aeu8
A very good antivirus that is not heavy on your system resources.

Anti-spyware: Spybot Search & Destroy
http://tinyurl.com/37t9f
Helps you cleanup any spyware that has infiltrated your system and protects you from future infections.

Maintenance & cleanup: CCleaner (Crap Cleaner)
http://www.ccleaner.com/
It does what it says and does it well. Helps cleaning up leftover files on your system and cleanup your registry too (with a backup of all changes just in case you need to go back).

File compressor/decompressor: 7-Zip
http://www.7-zip.org/
If you need to open a zip file (or rar), this program does the job. Also opens a ton of other formats (as well as create the same formats).

Web browser: Firefox
http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/
A good open-source browser with useful features (such as tabbed browsing) and easily extensible with a multitude of add-ons. Of course, Internet Explorer 7 is not bad at all (so please use it if you don’t go with Firefox, especially if you use Internet Explorer 6 or earlier versions), but Firefox can be customized to your liking with a much bigger community of add-on developers.

E-Mail: Thunderbird
http://www.mozilla.com/thunderbird/
A good email program which can be extended using add-ons.

Image editing: Paint.NET
http://www.getpaint.net/
Does a very good job of replacing the regular Paint program (which is very basic) and has more advanced features (like layers) seen in more expensive software (such as Photoshop).

Instant Messaging: Pidgin
http://www.pidgin.im/
if you have/use multiple Instant Messaging accounts (like MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, etc.), you can condense all your accounts in one software.

There you have it. Remember that this is a non-exclusive list and many more different programs exist that can do the job; this list I’ve compiled is of software I have used and recommended to others, posted them here as a quick reference to people who may need a program for a specific task. Enjoy!

Facebook Off: The Movie (Trailer)

Cliff — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 23:07:02 +0000

If you use Facebook in any way, you will find this (fake) trailer quite amusing. If you don’t, well get Facebook and you’ll understand.

The Ultimate Steal: Get Office 2007 for $64! (in Canada)

Cliff — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 20:04:51 +0000

If you are a university student and have, well, not paid for your version of Office, now there is a cheap and legitimate way of getting you hands on it: Get Office Ultimate 2007, which retails for $899, for only $64 (in Canada, but the offer is available elsewhere).
What’s the catch? Well you have to have a valid university email address and provide, if asked for, proof of being a student (a copy of your ID card). I think Microsoft finally got it: Give students a cheap price on Office and they shall buy. Remember, this is the Ultimate edition, not the student version (which retails at some places for $109), and it is installable on one desktop and one laptop. If you want to know what the differences between different editions are, just go to Microsoft’s Office edition comparison page (click here).
So go to http://www.theultimatesteal.ca, or http://www.theultimatesteal.com if you are in the US, to get your copy! Offer is valid till April 30th, 2008.
I did and I’m quite happy with it.

PC vs. Mac: Bill Gates vs. Steve Jobs

Cliff — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 00:26:57 +0000

Here is a little video from SuperNews (http://www.current.tv/supernews). It’s a comical take on the rivalry between the Mac and the PC.

Ms. Dewey: Search with Attitude

Cliff — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 02:16:56 +0000

While listening to the Net@Nite podcast (more info at TWIT.tv), found out about Ms. Dewey (http://www.msdewey.com/), a web search page (based on Microsoft Live Search, http://www.live.com/). Every time you make a search, Ms. Dewey makes a “witty” comment (sometimes very good, sometimes really bad). She also reacts if you leave her alone (“knocks” on the computer screen, whines, etc.). The novelty wears off with time, but worth checking out at least once.

My del.icio.us links

Cliff — Wed, 20 Sep 2006 00:20:09 +0000

I have two sets of del.icio.us links. Del.icio.us is an online social bookmarking site, useful for discovering new sites and pages and a good place to put bookmarks if you use multiple computers.

The first one (thundros) is mainly used for personal links, whether they be tech related, fun links or just about anything I find interesting. The second one (cubickarma) is used for links related to my PhD research work (useful when preparing for work, paper writing, experiments, etc.).

Enjoy!

Stellarium: A free planetarium on your computer

Cliff — Sat, 13 May 2006 16:33:54 +0000

I came across a nice free program online: Stellarium. It’s an open-source project (which can be found here) which re-creates a planetarium on your computer. You can set it to any location in the world and be able to see what the stars look like in the sky. Features include the ability to illustrate constellations, zoom in on different stars, time control and even have starts twinkle (which gives a realistic effect). It also has a multilingual interface and can run on different platforms (Windows, Mac, Linux). You’ll find a full description of all its features on the project’s homepage. So if you like looking at the stars, or are just curious about what’s in the sky, check out this nice free program.

Paint.NET: MS Paint replacement and more

Cliff — Mon, 20 Feb 2006 00:41:35 +0000

There are a lot of image editing programs available today, some free (MS Paint) and some exorbitantly expensive (Photoshop) . One of them stands out as being feature rich (management of layers, support for diferent file formats) and free. Paint.NET (version 2.6 as of this writing) is an excellent MS Paint replacement and it can handle most image editing tasks very effectively.

Paint.NET started as a university project to replace MS Paint and became a full fledge image editing program. With each version more features have been added, without it become a huge program (installation file is around 4 MB and when running it uses about 23 MB), compared to other imaging heavyweights. In short, Paint.NET delivers as an excellent MS Paint replacement. It can handle layers and different image effects (usually the realm of Photoshop) and it can handle different file types with ease (JPG, PNG, TIFF, BMP, GIF, TGA and PDN). For a full description of features and changes to each version, just go to the Paint.NET homepage.

I use it and did I mention that it was free?