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HipCal

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HipCal

HipCal is a nice Web2.0 Calendar for anyone who is looking to use one. I have been using Yahoo! Calendar for a while, but that was mediocre. HipCal not only has a nice design and interface, but some great features.

First of all, it uses enough AJAX to make me drool with excitement and awe. Second of all, it looks pretty. The layout is neat and organized, but still has the information you need and would expect from a calendar. My favorite feature is the reminder. Not only does it have a feature to send you an e-mail when an event is nearing, but it will also send a TXT MSG to your phone. A great feature if you know you won’t be need a computer to get the reminder. If you are looking for a nice calendar program that is free, easy to use, and web based, this is your best bet. Later!

IE Tab for FireFox

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IE Tab

In the midst of finals, packing, and the butt load of other stuff I have to do this week, I figured I’d take some time real quick to mention a FF extension that I have been loving. IE Tab is an extension that allows you to right click on a page and open an IE tab right in FF. This is just great for site development and for those sites that don’t support FF (but that is another story). I find it to be a great and convenient tool that allows you to have the processing of IE with the safety of Fire Fox. Later!

Get FireFox

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FireFox is the better browser. It offers a number of features that you don’t get with Internet Explorer, including tabbed browser for a more organized browsing expirience, built-in spyware and ad blocking, etc. But the best part is that you can get extentions and plug-ins galore. Since FireFox is an open source browser, people everywhere are writting things for the browser that they think people would like. My favorite by far is the Ad-Block plug-in, which allows you to block all ads on any page you would like. There is one to integrate your music player (including iTunes) into it, get weather, etc. It’s a great browser that everone should be using. Later!

4/5- Picasa 2

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Ahh, yes, Google’s Picasa. It is a free photo editor/manager from Google- and it is simple wonderful. Basically what it does is search your computer for any pictures. Then it organizes them (within the program) and you can edit them. But the edits don’t take to the picture. They are saved in picasa until you physically save the picture. If you don’t, and you close Picasa, the changes are still in Picasa, just not on the actual photo. You can do a number of things to the photo itself. Make it black and white, make all but one part black and white, blur all or most of it, crop it, and get rid of red eye- amoungst other things. You can also export the photos to your blogger (www.blogger.com) or Gmail. Using Google’s Hello Photo Sharing Technology, you can post one or more pictures right to your blogger blog, adding a caption and other text you want. Other things you can do are: Create collages of pics and slideshows. A great application of this is my friends blog. For photo touch ups, and online sharing Picasa is definatly the program to get. Later!

The 5th and final installment: Tasks-Jr.

3/5- GAIM

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So, I know that I haven’t posted for the software series in a while. And I know I said some registry cleaner would be next, but I used it once and well, Gaim would be a better review, and better for most people. So, without further ado, Gaim.
Gaim is an Instant Messenger clone that isn’t just for AOL Instant Messanger. You can pretty much combine all your buddy lists from IM/ICQ, MSN, Napster and some other ones. With Gaim, you can also set up aliasing (screen name = real name), set yourself idle, make all the fonts the same color/font type, etc. It has tabbed IMing, go invisible, fix up your buddy list’s look and all that. Plus, since it is open source, you can get Plug-Ins. All in all its a nice little program, though I do have trouble transferring files from time to time. Later!

Up next: Picasa2

2/5- Notepad++

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So here is part 2 of my 5 part review of cool/fun software I have found on the net. This time, Notepad++. This software much like Notepad on your Windows machine- im not sure about Apple, but with more bells and whistles. First of all, it has tabs, so all the projects you are working on are organized. I find this especially useful when I am working on a website because I might refer to other pages I have developed. This way, I dont have to click on a new window or instance of notpad, but on another tab within the program. It also has syntax colorization. It colorizes the code so it is easier to read and trouble shoot. For example- comments are green and comic-sans. each reserved word, attribute, element is a different color based on the language you are writting in. It supports a vast amount of languages, including HTML, PHP, C, C++, Java, ASP, CSS, SQL, Pascal and a bunch more. While it doesn’t compile for you, its still nice to code in. Java looks so much nice in Notepad++ than it does in teh compiler I have, jGrasp. and there aren’t all of those extra frams the program uses. Another nice feature is line numbering, also making it easier to troubleshoot. The program is great to use, and doesn’t use nearly as much memory as something like Dreamweaver or Frontpage. I highly recommend it. Later!

Coming up next: EasyCleaner.

1/5- Napster 2.0

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The honest truth? Its not a bad program. However, it was much better. If you want to try it, you get 14 days free. After that, they charge your credit card. Its $10/month, you can listen to all the music you want. On your computer. Its basically the Block Buster of music. If you like the song you can pay 99 cents for it to burn to a cd or put on your mp3 player. It also syncs up with select mp3 players (iPod not one of them). It was better because of a certain loophole that allowed you to convert the songs into mp3 from WMA, thus not having to pay the 99 cents to use the song outside of Napster. However, napster crushed those loop holes. So, At the end of this month, I will no longer be using napster. It was nice while it lasted. But I dont need to pay $10/month to sample music. Like I said, try it out for the 14 days, see what you think. But keep in mind, you dont get to keep the music when you get rid of napster. (as far as I know). Napster 2.o. Later

Coming up next: Notepad++

Some Cool Software: Intro

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Well, since making the switch to my laptop for a little while, I have come across some cool software. Of Course you know my love of Fire Fox. I highly recommend it. But there is some other stuff. I do some Reviews– maybe you have seen them. But this is a short series where I just tell you in depth about some cool, or not so cool software. Stay tuned, check back often- the first program is Napster, 2.0. Later.

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Fire Fox Review.

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Finals Are over and well, i couldnt be more happy. Now, I need to find a job. Preferably well paying. Anyway, alot has gone on in the past week, so im reporting.
Fire Fox 1.0– I have been hearing great things about this browser, and last night my friend showed me what he did with his. After that I was convinced to at least try it out. In 10 min, i was convinced that this is the best fucking browser. First of all, its Open Source. That means when someone wants the browser to do something, the write a code for it, or tell someone too. This means there is a load of extentions to download. Some of the ones I got are:
– FoxyTunes- control of your music player from within fire fox. -Web Developer- A bunch of tools for, you guessed it, the web developer. Its a tool bar that allowes you to change the CSS of the page, or apply your own, validate the CSS, HTML, Links, and other things on any page, display certain attributes about images, such as dimmentions and alt tags, and resize the window resolution. -ForcastFox- weather, from anywhere, in the bottom of your browser. -Mouse Guesters- The all important right click. Right click and move your mouse a certain way, and u can go back, formward, new window, open a certain link, or anything else you can do with a broswer. -AdBlock- th ebest thing ever. Not only does it block pop ups, but u can chose to have it blocks ads with in pages. That means all those annoying ads on tripod sites, geocities sites, and even google ads, can be blocked. It will do wonders for ESPN’s Site, as that site is full of ads. if I have time later, ill get up a screen shot.
There are also customizable skins, add ons like google search, a bookmarks nav bar, tabbed browsing, and a bunch of other fun stuff. If you don’t have it, you definetly should. Later!