One of the things I do is test programs. So far, I have written two sets of reviews:

Office, Entertainment

Microsoft Office for free (my list of office programs)

1. The Sage from www.sequencepublishing.com. The Sage is nothing more than a dictionary, thesaurus and mini encyclopedia. This is THE dictionary that I use. It also supports wildcard searches and if you have text in your clipboard (were copied text is stored) it will automatically search for that definition.

2. GraphCalc from www.graphcalc.com. GraphCalc is getting a little old, but it still does its job. Think of a TI-83 on steroids. It supports many (not all, but you can write your own, so) of the functions of a TI-83. It also does graphing, though not shading, unless you use its 3D graphing. Thats right, X,Y, and Z axis are included. The 2D and 3D graphing can support up to 10 equations, but you can have a lot of 2D graphs. All graphs can be saved to images and printed. Please note that the 3D graphing uses OpenGL, so some computers might have a little trouble. That doesnt stop me though.

3. HTML-Kit from www.chami.com/html-kit. Planning on writing a webpage? Try HTML-Kit, whether you dont know what WYSIWYG, even though you use will be using it, or you are someone dreams in tags, HTML-Kit is what you want. HTML-Kit allows you to make the same way you make blogs or Word Documents by putting in text and formatting so you can see it. If that method is too easy, you can create pages by putting in source code. All tags are highlighted and, if you need help, HTML-Kit has a list of all HTML tags for use. Need more help? HTML-Kit has tag wizards. Select the tag you want to add in from the drop down menu in the tool bar and the wizard shows all supporting fields. While I have never use the feature, it also supports editing on a server. The nice thing of HTML-Kit is that you put the code in one window, then click on preview, and you can see what the page would look like online. It also allows for tidying up the code. There is so much I can write about, so if you want more information go to the website. Did I mentions all the plugins? Yeah, they have plugins to make live even better.

4. LogMeIn from www.logmein.com. I have a feeling that I might use this alot here on campus. LogMeIn is a remote desktop program, that is, if I am at a different computer, any computer in the world (has to be online), I can log into my computer and take control of it. You do have to install a little program on your computer, but the other computer can get to your computer without an install. Yeah, that means you can do it on shared computers, old computers, new computers, and my favorite, apple computers! I have found only one glitch, you cannot log into a computer that is shutdown.

5. OpenOffice from www.openoffice.org. You may have heard of this one already, but still. Think of OpenOffice as what you get if Microsoft Office was made by someone other than Bill Gates. It is much like Office, though maybe a little simpler. Hate Microsoft Office but like Word Perfect? OpenOffice will ask you if you want it to look like Office, Word Perfect, or Wordpad. Pretty or what?

6. Writely from www.Writely.com. There is no reason not to get Writely...oh, shoot, you cant get Writely. Ha Ha! Writely is not a program, it is a web site. Yes, you heard right. Writely is an online document editor. You sign in and you can upload documents to the site so that you can edit them from any computer that can go online. No downloading (other than the website) is required. You can even save the files back to the desktop. Speaking of saving, Writely will automatically save your document every 10 seconds. All files on Writely live on its server, where you can store up to a gigabyte of data.

(A while after I wrote this, Writely was aquired by Google and is now Google Docs (www.docs.google.com.)

7. ThinkFree from www.Thinkfree.com. Thinkfree is almost like Writely. ThinkFree has two editors for Word documents. There is the quick editor, much like Writely, and the power editor, which looks A LOT like Microsoft Word. ThinkFree also gives you a gigabyte of server space, but you can buy more. A word of caution, power editor is not for those in a hurry and/or on dial-up. The power editor has to download applets. I think this comes to about 35 MB of downloading before you can use it. Ok, I lied, 35 MB is for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Yeah, ThinkFree supports Excel and Powerpoint too. Excel uses one editor and it requires some downloading, but Powerpoint has both power edit and quick edit. If you use power edit in powerpoint, you can also use it to view slideshows, in FULL SCREEN!

Hee Hee, Fun stuff (my list of entertaining programs)

1. Windows Media Player 11 from www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/default.mspx. Microsoft and all its ills has left WMP 11 in beta(2). Still, its pretty little interface is pretty, though a little confusing when you get started. WMP 11 has changed its catalog system so that is can search a lot faster. I have about 50 GBs of songs and when I did a search today, I found it in 3 seconds (dang I type slow). One note about intalling, it can sometimes erase you ratings, so make sure you go to options is the old version and find the option that says "Maintain my star ratings as global ratings in files" and check it.

2. ITunes from www.apple.com/itunes/. Its ITunes need I say more?

3. Boot Camp from www.apple.com/macosx/bootcamp/. While I am making my plug for Apple, I think I should be self centered and bring up boot camp. Please note that I have not used it yet, but boot camp is a program that lets you run Windows XP on an Apple computer that has an intel chip. A test from a computer magazine shows that Windows XP runs two to three times faster than Apple (comparison of the same programs, measuring FPS). My room mate is going to try it soon, so I will let you know how it goes.

4. Goldwave from www.goldwave.com. Goldwave is a trial program, really no limits, just an annoying popup; I deal with it. Goldwave allows for music recoding and editing by editing the waveform of the song. It is a really powerful program that runs fast, allows batch processing, and has so many ways to edit a song that my head just spins and spins. On older computers it is important to note that Goldwave has two ways of allowing you to work with songs. When you open a song, the song (it is in wave form so it is about 10 MB per minute) can be stored in the RAM or on the Harddrive. If you store in RAM, you can open and edit faster, but if you use too much RAM, it goes to the virtual memeory (RAM on the Harddrive) and slows down. If you store to the HardDrive, it will be slower, but it uses no RAM. I have a GB of RAM, so you guess what I do.

5. K-Lite from www.codecguide.com/download_mega.htm (among other sites). K-Lite is a compilation of a lot of different codecs (the data needed to translate media files). The nice thing about K-Lite Mega Pack is that it includes the codecs that allow you to watch Quicktime and Realmedia files in Windows media player.

6. Stellarium from www.Stellarium.org. A great program if you live in the city, Stellarium is a planetarium on your computer. It does 3-D graphics and you can make your own backgrounds for the program (takes a little work). Stellarium shows stars, planets, consolations, nebulas, and even the occasional shooting star.

7. World Wind from www.worldwind.arc.nasa.gov. Direct from NASA, World Wind is a fun program that lets you fly around and see Earth in 3-D using images from satalites. If you look in the right location, you should be able to see my truck at my old house. Remember that current satilite cameras can go to a resolution that allows you to see the dimples of a stamp. While you can't get that close in (security and downloading reasons), it does its job. Did I say you can see Earth? I should include Venus, Luna (our moon) Mars, and Jupeter.

World Wind does download images from the internet and is not recommended for Dial-up. I use to have Dial-up and I got around this by downloading the program to my laptop at the library and then transfer it to my desktop. That will get you the program, but if you go to www.worldwinddata.com/ you can download install programs that have the images you need to zoom in a lot more. Do keep in mind that some are over a GB in size, but you buy a DVD with the images, or buy a hard drive (internal or external) with the program and images. World Wind is too much fun.

8. Pocket Tanks from www.blitwise.com/ptanks.html. A fun little game that lets you shoot each other. I play it whenever I get board because it starts so fast. Helps to know Geometry.

9. ElectricSheep from www.electricsheep.org. BAA! ElectricSheep is a screen saver that, oh, I am getting excited just thinking about it. ElecticSheep grabs some rendering commands from a server and process the data into a frame for a sheep. Once a big sheep is made, it is uploaded to everyone. If you want, you vote for your favorite sheep. Popular sheep reproduce with other sheep. I currently have 48 sheep. My favorite is dead though. The sheep itself is a Mpg video that plays as your screensaver. The more sheep, the more fun. Processor usage: 3%, most is used for video playback but some is to make sheep. BAA!