Software I love...if you haven't checked these out, you might want to.

[valis2]

Here are some programs I use to make my Internet Life easier and more fun.

The basic versions of all of these are FREE. They don't involve spyware or evil naughty little programs that laugh at you as they wipe your hard drive. At least not in my experience. These are all for Windows, so I apologize in advance to my Mac friends.

• Semagic: Is there any more essential program for LJ than Semagic? I can't imagine. This program rocks. Basically, it acts as an intermediary between you and LJ. You "log on" to it just as you do LJ. If you haven't used it, be prepared to fall right in love. First of all, you'll never lose an entry again. The program saves your entry every sixty seconds as you write it (you can change the interval, too, if you like). Secondly, it makes putting tags in your entries easy. It has all of the LJ-specific HTML codes (like cut-tags), and it makes it incredibly easy to execute them. Thirdly, it has all of your LJ friends and comms, so if you want to insert someone's LJ tag, you just click on a pull down menu and insert them. Watch: virtual_gravy, nebulart, gmth. Yep, it's that easy. It also supports a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) view, which really resembles Word, and most of the commands on the shortcut bar are the same as Word. Also, if you go under "Edit Friends" and update from the server, Semagic will let you know who has added or deleted you, whose birthday it is, and who has changed their subname. Even more handy is the fact that you can save multiple drafts! I have six entries all on the back burner as I type this. This program is absolutely awesome. If you're nervous, then you should know that Brad Fitzsimmons, the creator of LJ, also had a hand in working on Semagic, and it is mentioned in LJ's FAQ. Oh, and there is a little icon that shows up in your system tray that blinks when anyone on your flist updates their journal.
  
  Oh, and gmth reminded me that Semagic has a "Preview" option to look at your post before it goes out to the public. LJ itself has that option, but Semagic's preview is quicker and less likely to wig out, because you are previewing it on your own computer, not on a webpage.
  
  You can read about downloadable clients in the LJ FAQ here.
  Download the Windows version here.



• Firefox: I was a diehard Internet Explorer user for years. My day job, you see, involves a tremendous quantity of internet research. So I am intimately familiar with using browsers. I work on the internet all day long (and play all night long, heh). So when my good friend Les told me about Mozilla's browser called Firefox, I was totally skeptical.
  
  Well, I am now a true believer. Firefox is absolutely awesome.
  
  First of all, it is a smaller program than IE. It's compact. Yet it is nearly identical. Second, it supports tabbed browsing. TABBED BROWSING IS THE BEST THING EVAH.
  
  What is tabbed browsing, you ask?
  
  With IE, if you want to check out another link while leaving the original link open, you have to start another IE program to open a new window to view it in. For example: You're looking at the Dark Potions website. "Frockcoat Fetish" sounds amusing. So does "Fine Fanfiction". In IE you would have to either go to the Frockcoat page and then back button to the main page to select Fanfiction. With Firefox, you simply right click on each link and select "Open in new tab". Within the frame of the Firefox display each link will show up as a "tab" with a small description on the tab. Right now, I have tabs for Yahoo Mail, Gmail, LJ, eBay, chefshop, and Dark Potions open. All at the same time. Within the same browser.
  
  Yep. You can have tens of tabs open. At work I have, in actuality, had sixty or seventy open at one time. It is so incredibly helpful. You can keep your mail up and refresh it occasionally, and when you find the main page of a website you like, you can open several pages at once, and look at them easily.
  
  Third, it is uniquely customizable. Using small applications called "Extensions" you can add all sorts of useful features to it. I have extensions that display the weather forecast for my area, that filter ads, that allow me to drag and drop tabs, that allow me to protect cookies and delete the rest. There are even extensions that notify you if you receive a new piece of Gmail or Yahoo mail, and that allow you to update your LJ, test your bandwidth, and "view web pages or mail as spoken by the Swedish Chef" (I am not making that up). These extensions make Firefox a great program.
  
  Fourth, it is much less prone to popup and spyware. It doesn't use ActiveX controls, which means your computer is less susceptible to ebil stuff.
  
  Drawbacks? There are some sites that don't work well with it. They are the exception, but still. And I still have to use IE to access Microsoft Downloads, of course. Some Flash-based sites (like JKR's) can't make use of the tabbed browsing. Occasionally there are problems. But overall, and this is from someone who uses a browser for work and for pleasure, sometimes twelve hours a day, Firefox is magical.
  
  Mozilla also produces their own version of Outlook Express called Thunderbird.
  
  Mozilla's website is here.
  Download Firefox here.
  Download Thunderbird here.



• Trillian: If you are like me, then you have more than one chat identity on more than one messenger program. This absolutely heavenly little program will manage it all for you. No kidding! It runs Yahoo Messenger, MSN Messenger, AIM, ICQ, and IRC. And best of all...you don't have to use any of their software! Yes, you read that correctly...you can get rid of the evil AIM software, because Trillian does it all for you without using the host programs. I have deleted AIM and Yahoo Messenger entirely (goodbye, evil WildTangent), and I use only Trillian. It allows you to manage all of your chat friends, and it color-codes every contact based on program. It is tremendously handy. Trillian Basic is FREE, contains NO ads or spyware, and is quite easy to use. I have since upgraded to Trillian Pro because it is such a great program.
  
  You can download the Basic program here.



• avast!: This is a virus checker program. It's free to home users, as long as you register. It's a great program, and it isn't targeted as often as Norton & McAfee because it is less popular. If you already have Norton or McAfee then I wouldn't recommend getting another virus checker...when you have more than one installed odd things can happen. (They fight with each other.)
  
  You can download it here.
  
  
• A Squared: Another virus checker program. I've only used it once or twice, just got it, but already I'm impressed.
  
  It's here.
  
  
• Ad Aware: A program that helps you remove spyware from your computer.
  
  Available here.
  
  
• Spybot: Another program that helps you remove spyware from your computer.
  
  Find it here.
  
  
• Blogpulse: This isn't a program...it's just an interesting website where you can search blogs. I use it every once in a while by putting in my handle to see if it's been mentioned somewhere. Fun to do!
  
  You can search blogs here.



• Reading potter_cliche made me realize that some people aren't aware (or just don't care, heh) how to use special characters like é, õ, and ÿ. If you're interested then this is how you do it:
  
  
  1. Click on "Start"
  
  
  2. Click on "All Programs"
  
  
  3. Click on "Accessories
  
  
  4. Click on "System Tools"
  
  
  5. Click on "Character Map"
  
  
  Now that you've brought the character map up, you can scroll through the list of characters. Select a character, and it will tell you if there is a keyboard shortcut. For example, the shortcut for é is holding down ALT and typing "0233". Or you can select the character in the blank box and pick "copy". To use the character, you can either use a paste command or CTRL-V. Fun and exciting, isn't it?

Well, that's my good deed for the week. Whew!

Comments

[ac1d6urn.livejournal.com]

Will definitely try out Semagic. Thank you! By the way, in addition to blogpulse, have you tried this and this yet?

Speaking of sites, Pookmail and Mailinator are awesome. They're basically an email account provider, but you use it without sign up or passwords. I'm probably getting off topic, but I'm going to give a few more links to Dogwaffle and ArtRage, free painting programs which are great.

Also this page has a few good links.

Argh, I've gotta stop myself from copying my entire bookmarks folder over. :D

Hmm, Trillian sounds interesting. I've heard of it before. Perhaps it's time to try it out. Thanks, Valis.

[valis2.livejournal.com]

Yay!! A fellow program/useful link aficionado. I will *definitely* check these out. Thanks!