Free alternatives to popular programs

Here are a few free alternatives to popular programs like Microsoft word

Microsoft Word/Power point/excel spreadsheet
Free alternative(s)
1:open office-the leading open-source office software suite for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, databases and more. It is available in many languages and works on all common computers
link: http://www.openoffice.org/

2:Abiword-AbiWord is similar to MS Word and MS Word users will not find much problem in switching over to this free application and will certainly love it as there is nothing better than a powerful and free word processor.
Link:http://www.abisource.com/download/


Photoshop
Free alternative(s)
1:GIMP-GIMP stands for “GNU image manipulation program”, and it is one of the oldest and most well known alternatives to Photoshop in existence.
Link:http://www.gimp.org/

2:Krita-Krita is slightly less powerful than both Photoshop and GIMP, but does contain some unique features.
Link:http://www.koffice.org/download/

Nero
Free alternative(s)
1:CDBurnerXP-This is by far the most popular free alternative to the expensive Nero Software. Works on Vista as well.
Link:http://www.cdburnerxp.se/es/home (site is in Spanish but software is multi-language)

2:InfraRecorder-This is the software that I currently use on my computer as a Nero alternative, and I must tell, it’s damn simple and straightforward. Has all that you might expect in a CD DVD Burning software like Nero.
Link:http://infrarecorder.org/?page_id=5

how to play any video and music format

ever try to download a video file or music file only to be told by windows that i cant play or recognize the format. here are a couple of tips to make your PC/laptop  play any video format with no problems

 download a codec.
    A codec is a set of small programs that are able to read and translate a form of media. they are easy to install and they turn on and off by themselves.they usually come in packs of more than one type. each and every media type has a single codec hence the packs of them

here are a few codec.

xvid
this is a low level codec pack that is able to read some main stream media types. use this if you just want to play a basic range of Media types and don't want to take up a lot of space or processing power to run
plays: mp4, wmv (windows media video), and AVI
Link:xvid codec


Divx
this is a mid-high level codec pack that is a field leader. this pack gives you the option for personal tweaking that helps to make it better (although you must know what you are doing as you can mess up your computer). this codec pack also gives you the option to download there HD video player if you are tired of windows media player it works with there codec pack if you want to try something different
plays:DivX, AVI, MKV, MP4 and MOV.
Link:Divx codec


K-lite
this is a mid-high level jack of all trades codec pack. this is one of my personal favorites.it plays almost every type of video and even has a special pack to play duel audio and subtitled video. it also comes with its own media player called windows media player classic.this pack also allows for extra tweaking with a little know how you can have a very full video experience.
plays:AVI, MKV, MP4, FLV, OGM, MPEG, MOV, HDMOV, TS, M2TS, and OGG files
Link:k-lite mega pack (you don't need to run the scan just go to direct download 1)

VLC
this last option is not a media pack but a full media player. instead of downloading codec's this media player has them all built in. the vlc media player has the ability to play all media types it even has the ability to repair damaged or corrupted media files.
plays:AVI, MKV, MP4, FLV, OGM, MPEG, MOV, HDMOV, TS, M2TS, and OGG files
Link:VLC media player

Note: all codec and media players work on mac as well as PC

how to recover a windows password (high level)

Warning High level of PC knowledge required:

If you are trying to recover a password from windows, you are in luck since it isn't terribly difficult. The best case scenario is that the windows workstation is set up with a guest account or an account that you actually know the password to. In this case, you can log in using that account and employ some password cracking software.
Modern versions of the Windows software uses the secure hash standard, which is an algorithm used to encrypt passwords that are stored on the system. Without such encryption, it would be even easier to find the passwords. The easiest method to find out such passwords is to employ an application that brute force attacks it with character and number combinations. A brute force approach essentially tries every possible combination of characters and numbers until it finds a password that works. With today's computers, this process can typically be done within a day for short passwords, but can take significantly longer for long passwords. In any case, no Windows password cannot be cracked eventually with this approach.
Some cracking applications can be found in our downloads section. The easiest to use is LCP, although the Cain and Abel program has more features. To crack a password, load LCP and select Import/Import from local computer. A list of user accounts and hashes should appear. Now select the brute force attack button and select Session/Begin audit. Now all you have to do is wait for the program to find the right password!
If you aren't able to log in at all to the Windows workstation, don't worry. All you have to do is recover the SAM file by booting up an alternate operating system on the computer. The easiest way to do this is to burn a copy of Knoppix (a port of Linux) and perform a boot from the CD-ROM with this disk in the drive. Once you are in Knoppix, locate the SAM file in the Windows directory (usually C:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\lmhosts.sam) and either copy it to a USB thumb drive, floppy disk, CD, or the Internet. Alternatively, you could use a DOS boot disk.
Now that you have the SAM file, take it to another PC that has LCP running on it. Copy the SAM file into the LCP directory, boot up LCP and select Import/Import from SAM file. This will load the hashes and you will be able to execute a brute force attack on them.

Mini EMP Schematic

I was in the movies the other day and a usual sceen happend. all i could see was a scatterd view of brightly lit cellphone screens as people sent texts and checked the time. that was the most anoying shit ever so i decided to contact a friend that works with the NSA. he said that they have plans on how to build a handheld emp. so if you feel like i do and are sick of peoples private life being on display all the fucking time here they are

L1 is 3 to 12 turns of 24 gauge wire.

T1 is a coil manufactured by Toko electronics, not Toyo. It is available here. Thanks for pointing this out, Clinton!

The battery pack consists of four nine volt batteries wired in series. One could substitute power supplies instead.



May your life not have a ringtone ever again (sinister laugh)

What do you want to read?

I also review tech by trade so let me know what u want me to review. my emails is
specterpcrepair@yahoo.com or specter99.mg@gmail.com

also email any computer questions you have and i will try my best to blog about them

improve pc/laptop performance

1:Put all of your Icons into folders, so say you have lots of music files on your desktop make a new folder called music

2:Now hit "start" again and press the "all programs" button and press "Accessories", look for "Disk Cleanup" in the "System Tools" folder. Run that and check all the boxes of things to delete. Afterwards go to the same place and run the "Disk defragment". This could take a while so do it before bed or before work. There you go your PC should be running faster, if its not your may have a virus or just a slow processor, and a small amount of RAM(Random Access Memory).

3:There is not that many tips, just make sure to do this on a regular basis, only run the "Diskdefragment" once a month, or after you uninstall a large program(5GB or more).

computer stupidities (all true)

here are a few of the conversations me and my friends have with people. from my life and side jobs

Me: "DSL is a lot faster."
Friend's Father: "Yeah, but if you have DSL, there are a lot of threats."
Me: "Yes, that's true to a degree, but there are firewalls that"
Friend's Father: "No, but they can hack into your computer even when it's off and steal your electricity."
Me: "Umm...I'm pretty sure that won't happen
Friend's Father: "It's all over the news. You mean to tell me they're wrong?"
Me: "...I guess so."


I have both a laptop and cell phone that are bluetooth-compatible. I tried to show my friends mother how I could connect the two pieces of equipment.

• Me: "See? I confirm the request, and they're connected."
• friends Mom: "Don't do that! I don't want my voice on the Internet!"

email i got from client
Client: "I think I've broken my computer! There's a message across the screen that says: 'It is now safe to turn off your PC.' WHAT SHOULD I DO?!?!"

I once used the generic telnet program on the library computers to check my mail on UTM (my personal server email) with Pine. The computer-inept librarian walked up behind me.

• Her: (shrieking) "WHAT ARE YOU DOING???"
• Me: "I'm checking my email--"
• Her: "It looks like you're breaking into the computer!!"
• Me: "No really -- I'm checking my mail."
• Her: "But that's not HOTMAIL!!"
• Me: "I don't use hotmail. I use--"
• Her: "But EVERYONE uses HOTMAIL!!"
• Me: "No, my account goes through UTM. My email account ends with--"
• Her: "But that's not what MYYY UTM looks like!!" (apparently referring to the UTM web page)
• Me: "Yes, I'm telnetting. It's another way of accessing--"
• Her: "I think you better shut that off. You're breaking into the computer."
• Me: "But I--"
• Her: "Turn it off. I don't believe that 'checking mail' story."

my friend works for tech support for apple here is one from him

Tech Support: "Yes, ma'am, we require a credit card or checking account in order to sign up on our service."
Customer: "Well, I saw on the news that I should never give out my credit card information!"
Tech Support: "Well, ma'am, we have to have a way to bill you."
Customer: "No other service does this!"
Tech Support: "No, ma'am, the others don't allow you to use a checking account."
Customer: "No honest company would ask me for my credit card information!"


Me: "When would you like me to go main office to install the antivirus software on the new system?"
Chairman: "Oh, they don't need it because they are not in a big city."
Me: "Do they connect to the internet?"
Chairman: "Yes, all day, but they are safe because it's not a big city."


here is one with a client over the phone with me

Client: "YOU GAVE ME A VIRUS!"
Me: "I don't think I've got a virus."
Client: "Go download [a brand of virus checker], and you'll see."


Sometime later I dutifully ran the checker.

• Me: "Ok, I ran it. No virus."
• Client : "You MUST have a virus. You gave it to me. It was all over my system. You must not have run the checker properly." (yell, rant, rave, repeat checks, etc)
• Me: "How did I give it to you?"
• Client: "On those floppies with the latest revision of the software you wrote."
• Me: "The ones you just returned?"
• Client: "Yeah."
• Me: "Just a sec...let me check those." (pause) "Well, I found a virus on the disks. Ahem...seems you were about to pass a virus on to ME."
• Client: "Ah...lemme get back to you." (click)

This sounds ridiculous, but it actually happened to me a couple of weeks ago.my friend work as a computer tech in a chain computer store.

• Customer: "Hi, I'd like to buy a virus."
• Friend: "You really don't want a virus on your computer. What you need is anti-virus software."
• Customer: "No, my son told me I need a virus, and that's what I'd like."
• Friend: "No worries. You don't need to buy a virus -- you can just connect to the internet and download one."

when i was working in the city i went into the clients office he was in a real panic. He kept saying something about how his computer screen was shaking violently, and he thought it had a virus! Going down to the computer, I found that the picture on the screen was indeed shaking a lot, but I also noticed something else...a desk fan was placed right next to the monitor, which was plugged into the same power strip. I switched the fan off, and the picture stopped shaking. I told him to move the fan away from the monitor in future, to avoid that problem.
Later on I heard him telling a colleague that his desk fan had a virus, and he had to keep it away from the screen to stop it from infecting his computer.


Me: "I need you to right-click on the Open Desktop."
Customer:Ok."
Me: "Did you get a pop-up menu?"
Customer: "No."
Me: "Ok. Right click again. Do you see a pop-up menu?"
Customer: "No."
Me: "Ok, sir. Can you tell me what you have done up until this point?"
Customer: "Sure, you told me to write 'click' and I wrote 'click'."


(At this point I had to put the caller on hold to tell you the truth I couldn't stop from giggling when I got back to the call.)

Me: "Ok, did you type 'click' with the keyboard?"
Customer: "I have done something dumb, right?"


On the phone with a client who's office i just left

Client: "My computer won't work. You guys must have broken it when you installed the modem."
Me: "What happens when you turn it on?"
Client: "It won't turn on anymore!!!!!"
Me: "So you don't see any lights or hear any noise?"
Client: "I'm telling you it WON'T TURN ON."
Me: "Is it plugged in?
Client: "OF COURSE it's plugged in, you MORON!"
Me: "When you push the power button it--"
Client: "Power button? This computer doesn't have a power button."
Me: "Sir, all computers have power buttons. Look at the front of the case, find the word 'power,' and push the button."
Client: "YOU FIXED IT!! Thanks!!!!"

Read the fine print: Why a lawsuits over phone place tracking is bogus

Two Michigan group are suing Google for tracking their locations nonetheless a warrant. Here’s since a lawsuits over phone plcae tracking don’t make sense, and since a authorised leeches merit to lose.

America. The land of the nfl (National Felon League) and triple bacon burgers (mmm bacon). Yesterday, dual Oakland County, Michigan residents filed a lawsuit opposite Google for allegedly tracking their locale “just as if by a tracking device for that a court-ordered aver would usually be required.” The dual plaintiffs possess HTC Inspire 4G phones, that run on Google’s Android handling system. They wish $50 million in indemnification and a justice sequence requiring Google to stop tracking users of a products.
“We yield users with notice and control over a collection, pity and use of location” pronounced Chris Gaither, a orator for Google, to Bloomberg. “Any plcae information that is sent behind to Google plcae servers is anonymized and is not tied or traceable to a specific user.”
This lawsuit is absurd and here’s why.

How Android works

On an Android phone, when we spin on “wireless networks” location-based services by Google, it privately asks we to determine or remonstrate to “Allow Google’s plcae use to collect unknown plcae data. Collection will start even when no applications are running.”
You can spin GPS plcae services on or off nonetheless an “agree” warning, nonetheless nothing of your location-based apps will work good (or during all) with GPS alone and Google doesn’t anonymously lane true GPS data.
On their own, GPS systems indeed take a few mins to pinpoint your location. This is since complicated phones use Assisted GPS, that “assists” GPS record by triangulating your position regulating circuitously dungeon phone towers and famous Wi-Fi hotspots. By caching (storing) a tiny volume of this wireless information each so often, a smartphone can roughly figure out where we are. Without this, a GPS knowledge wouldn’t work good during all, partially due to GPS record and partially since a GPS chips in phones are unequivocally diseased and inexpensive.
I do have an tangible HTC Inspire 4G and can endorse that a options are a same as a customary Android phone. HTC did not cgange a settings as it does many tools of Android with HTC Sense, a tradition user knowledge covering it tacks onto Google’s OS. The Inspire does have one underline that some other phones do not, however: a “Phone finder” use that “Allows we to find your phone when it is mislaid or stolen.” The box was checked when my phone arrived. If they were suing over that use though, it seems that HTC would be a partial of a lawsuit.

Wrong target, guys

What these savvy group should have finished is buy iPhones and sue Apple instead, like a similar twin in New York. Unlike Google, Apple doesn’t now advise users before they spin on GPS services; they’re usually warned when they determine to a iTunes Terms and Conditions whenever there’s a new update. South Park ran a humorous episode about this dual days ago.

Apple claims that it does not lane iPhone users, nonetheless a recently unprotected bug in a iPhone shows that it does keep an unencrypted record of a user’s ubiquitous locale for as prolonged as a year. The record is stored locally on a user’s computer. Some military departments have famous about a bug for some time and have used a locally stored information to assist investigations. Apple says it will repair this bug, nonetheless has continually reiterated that, nonetheless it stores a record of new locations on a users machine, it does not lane user data itself. The information is stored, nonetheless Apple claims that it doesn’t have a duplicate for itself. The iPhone also doesn’t store accurate coordinates; it usually shows circuitously dungeon phone towers “as distant as 100 miles away.” Using this tender dungeon building data, location-based iPhone apps figure out your ubiquitous locale and broach applicable ads and services.
Microsoft has not nonetheless been sued, nonetheless like Google, it too collects unknown plcae data.

Sue a wireless carriers

If Google, Apple, and Microsoft can’t store plcae information indispensable to run their services nonetheless a lawsuit, afterwards somebody needs to start suing wireless carriers, since Sprint, Verizon, and ATT know a helluva lot some-more than anybody else about where you’re going and what you’re adult to. For example, ATT recently began promulgation users location-aware selling messages when they get tighten to stores. Carriers also customarily sell information about users to law coercion and can do whatever they wish with your location. Like Apple, all they unequivocally have to do is bury some calm low inside a Terms and Conditions agreement. At slightest Google warns we upfront.

Location services don’t run on magic

You can’t have location-based services if a phone can’t promulgate and send a plcae (anonymously) to GPS satellites or ping internal dungeon phone towers and hotspots. These dual Michigan plaintiffs bought smartphones that are marketed with core facilities like “Navigation” and “Places,” that are built in. When we buy a Google phone, we know you’re removing Google Maps and other Google services. Furthermore, HTC phones indeed make we spin on plcae services to see a continue on your homescreen. These dual gentlemen substantially concluded to a plcae warning summary when they activated their devices.
Did they not consternation how their phone knew they lived in Oakland County, Michigan? Did they trust it was magic? Google sufficient warns users about a plcae use in Android and creates it comparatively elementary to spin it on or off. we spin my GPS off and on all a time. If you’re going to buy a smartphone, we need to learn what services you’re opting into. If usually common clarity factored into the justice system.

The -isms of the Tech lost

Top tech religions:

Applism - Anything with the logo is simply the best ... regardless of cost.

Googlum - Google always acts in your best interests, not theirs.

Open Sourcery - Source code is the cure for all technological issues.

NASAians - NASA is the source of all real technological innovation.

Artificial Intellizans - We're on the verge of the singularity --- I know cause I saw it in a movie

Facebookism - 1: when a person lives in a world revolving around themselves. Applying all Facebook posts good or bad to themselves. 2: Judging people based on the number of friends/connections that they have on Facebook.

Twitterism - Deep insights about life in 140 chars or less. Stems from the microblogging service Twitter that allows posts of up to 140 characters.

I quote ferris bueller  "-Ism's in my opinion are not good. A person should not believe in an -ism, he should believe in himself."

Backing up your computer

These days, more and more people are using computers to store memories, important documents, and various other bits of information that may need to be kept for long periods of time. Backing up a computer is essential for keeping long term (or even short term) documents around.

Step 1
Decide on the proper backup media for your needs. CD-R, DVD+-R, tape, hard drives (internal and external), online, and flash drives are all great choices, but the right tool for the job is always best. I would suggest an external hard drive as of right now you can get a 500gb hard drive for next to nothing

Step 2
Choose a back-up application. For personal computers, there are many options. If you are using Microsoft Windows, there is a back-up application built in (Start>Programs>Accessories>System Tools>Backup). You can also use third party back-up managers, ranging from small programs to full online backup services. Mac OS X has the Time Machine back-up application built in. If you use a flavor of Linux, there are many open source options available in repositories for all of the major distributions.

Step 3
Prepare your back-up device of choice. If you are using a hard drive, it's best to use it just for back-up purposes. Make sure whatever you are using is ready to accept the back-up. As most most external hard drives are plug and play (the register to your computer when you plug them up) any hard drive 500gb or higher is great

 

Step 4

Ok the moment of truth. if you decide to use windows backup

(Start>Programs>Accessories>System Tools>Backup)

it might look something like this

make sure you plug in your media type and select it.


Special note:
With Apple's Time Machine, just plug in your volume. A window will pop-up asking you if you would like to use it to back-up. Click yes, and Time Machine will do everything else for you.

 

 

 

 

how to upgrade ram on your pc and laptop

Upgrading the ram on your pc is the easiest and least time consumeing task you can do to your computer. there are only a few things you need to know before hand and you will be all set.

FIRSTTurn off your computer and unplug all peripherals. Take notice of how you unplug or disconnect any devices.
SECOND
Remove the side panel of the tower system or the cover if you have a desktop. Place the panel in a safe place well out of the way.
THIRDBefore touching anything inside the system unit, remove electrical static charge from your body by touching a door knob or any unpainted metal surface.
FOURTHRemove the new memory from its protective wrapping and locate the sockets to install the new memory chips.
FIFTHNotice the type of retaining clips that hold the chips in place. Remove any old chips you intend to move. Now to be sure you won't damage the chips, ground yourself again to remove any remaining static electricity.
SIXTH
Pull the retaining clip open and carefully slide the RAM Chips in their memory banks. Push the clips back over the new memory chips.
SEVENTH
Check and double check the firmness of the chips by gently trying to move them from side to side. Take a good long look at the chips for anything that looks unusual.
EIGHT
Replace the system unit cover and reconnect all peripherals. Reboot the computer and the operating system should recognize your new or added memory without any problem.