With the new version 8.5 Opera becomes completely free. It is considered as the best browser in terms of features and performance. Only FireFox can match it with performace. It has lots of features builtin. A great download manager, email client, RSS feeder, Multi tab Browsing, Password manager, Zoom function, built in search option etc. Now it also supports voice browsing. Yes, you need to download a 10 MB update. The main installation package without java is only around 3.5 MB. So any dial up user can download it within half an hour. And it is very light on system resources also. So you can open 20 or thirty web pages simultaniously. A thing that is never possible with Internet Explorer using a low end system. The page rendering is very fast when compared to IE.
What should you do?
It is a must have browser if you 're using Internet Explorer. Even firefox users can try it out because it is simply the best browser in terms of features. If you 're already using an ad supported previous version of opera, then u are recommended to install it since it is having only a small download size. But don't expect a lot more features. Enable voice browsing by downloading the voice packages if you want to surprise your friends.
Well, no software is perfect and opera is not an exception. One area where it should improve is the web page save feature. It saves every supported files in the root folder. It is very incovenient considering that IE saves supported files in a sub directory. It would be nice if Opera can do this in their next versions.
Two thumbs up for Opera!
My Rating: Must try software
Links: http://www.opera.com
Sunday, October 30, 2005
Saturday, September 17, 2005
Desktop Enhancement Tools
There are lots of desktop enhancement tools available on the net. Some of them are free and some of them are not. Some so called desktop enhancement tools do no enhancements other than skinning your applications. Some of them changes wallpapers regurlary, shows calendars, clocks and other useful informations in the desktop. One example is Webshots. It is a very popular tool.
Do you need them? If performance is the only thing you want from your system then the answer is NO. But if you like some eye candy on your desktop then go for it.
Do you need them? If performance is the only thing you want from your system then the answer is NO. But if you like some eye candy on your desktop then go for it.
My recommendations
I have used Style XP, Window Blinds and Talisman. Comparing them is ofcourse difficult. Style XP is the simplest one and some argue that it is also the faster. Well! I am also one of them. Using Style XP you can change desktop themes, icons, boot screens, cursors, explorer tool bars etc etc. And you can find a lot of them from websites.
Window Blinds is a skinning engine from Stardock. This company offers lots of desktop enchancement tools. WIndow FX, Icon changer etc are one of them. The latest offering is Desktop X. Desktop X do more than skinning. It is your desktop changer. You can place
objects instead of just links. An object can be a calculator, calendar etc. You can also download additional objects from their site.
Talisman is not just a skinning tool. It is more similar to Desktop X than Style XP or Window Blinds. It offers a complete replacement of the standard explorer shell. (A shell is the interface when you start Windows. It is Explorer by default.) It may not be recommended for basic users. I would have strongly recommended this for power users if it was free. You can only try 1 month. (Well! ;) - you know what i mean. right? :) )
In my opinion, Style XP is the best if you only want some eye candy desktop themes. You can find a huge number of themes, icon packs, visual styles, boot screens etc. Desktop X is also a must try software. I recommend Talisman for advanced users who wants full control of their desktop.
Links
Style XP - www.tgtsoft.com (download size around 16 MB)Window Blinds - www.stardock.com (download size around 6 MB)Talisman - www.lighttek.com/talisman.htm (download size aroud 6 MB)
Desktop Enhancement Tools
There are lots of desktop enhancement tools available on the net. Some of them are free and some of them are not. Some so called desktop enhancement tools do no enhancements other than skinning your applications. Some of them changes wallpapers regurlary, shows calendars, clocks and other useful informations in the desktop. One example is Webshots. It is a very popular tool.
Do you need them? If performance is the only thing you want from your system then the answer is NO. But if you like some eye candy on your desktop then go for it.
Do you need them? If performance is the only thing you want from your system then the answer is NO. But if you like some eye candy on your desktop then go for it.
My recommendations
I have used Style XP, Window Blinds and Talisman. Comparing them is ofcourse difficult.
Style XP is the simplest one and some argue that it is also the faster. Well! I am also one
of them. Using Style XP you can change desktop themes, icons, boot screens, cursors,
explorer tool bars etc etc. And you can find a lot of them from websites.
Window Blinds is a skinning engine from Stardock. This company offers lots of desktop
enchancement tools. WIndow FX, Icon changer etc are one of them. The latest offering is
Desktop X. Desktop X do more than skinning. It is your desktop changer. You can place
objects instead of just links. An object can be a calculator, calendar etc. You can also download additional objects from their site.
Talisman is not just a skinning tool. It is more similar to Desktop X than Style XP or Window Blinds. It offers a complete replacement of the standard explorer shell. (A shell is the interface when you start Windows. It is Explorer by default.) It may not be recommended for basic users. I would have strongly recommended this for power users if it was free. You can only try 1 month. (Well! ;) - you know what i mean. right? :) )
In my opinion, Style XP is the best if you only want some eye candy desktop themes. You can find a huge number of themes, icon packs, visual styles, boot screens etc. Desktop X is also a must try software. I recommend Talisman for advanced users who wants full control of their desktop.
Links
Style XP - www.tgtsoft.com (download size around 16 MB)Window Blinds - www.stardock.com (download size around 6 MB)Talisman - www.lighttek.com/talisman.htm (download size aroud 6 MB)
Friday, August 05, 2005
The Browser War
| There are mainly three browsers for the Windows platform
Though there are other browsers most of them use either the Internet Explorer engine or Mozilla. So we only need to talk about these three. Internet Explorer All of us are familiar with the Microsoft product. It is installed with Windows. But many hackers proved that Internet Explorer is buggy and therefore not very safe to use. Microsoft released Service Pack2 and claims that all bugs are fixed. Advantages
Disadvantages
Future
Mozilla Firefox This open source browser is gaining astonishing popularity. The web site claims more than 75 millions of downloads so far. This is really encouraging to the open source community. It is undoubtedly one of the fastest browsers. There are many plug-ins written for Firefox including tabbed browsing. Advantages
Disadvantages
Future
Opera They call it as the 'fastest browser in the planet'. May be opposed by the Firefox fans. But it is surely the most feature rich browser. With a small download (Only 5 MB without Java Runtimes) it will change the way you browse. Advantages
Disadvantages
Future
Final Verdict Based on speed: Firefox > Opera > IE (i.e Firefox is best and Opera comes second in a very slight margin ) Based on Features: Opera > Firefox > IE (i.e Opera wins here without any doubt) What you should do? You must change to either Mozilla Firefox or Opera (The ad supported version is also better than IE). Links: "If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas." This article is written by me and the views expressed are solely mine. You may send your feedback or queries to hafees.s@gmail.com | |||
| |
Saturday, July 30, 2005
MSN Search improved a lot!
| MSN Search is fighting back with lots of features. It offers searching for images, encyclopaedia information (through the famous Microsoft Encarta! encyclopaedia series) etc. Searching time is also improved a lot. Now google may come with another revolutionary product. "If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas." This article is written by me and the views expressed are solely mine. You may send your feedback or queries to hafees.s@gmail.com | |||
| |
Enable Malayalam in your Windows XP with Service Pack2
| Though XP with service pack 2 supports Malayalam no one is interested, may be because they 're not aware of it. Well! If you enable it, you can do the following.
and more... "If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas." This article is written by me and the views expressed are solely mine. You may send your feedback or queries to hafees.s@gmail.com | |||
| |
Thursday, July 28, 2005
Google Earth!
| |||||
| |
Monday, June 20, 2005
How to start your own Blogger?
| Smart ways of Computing - Start your own Blog! What is Blogging? It is relatively a new term. Therefore you may not find it in a dictionary. Still this term is used widely now. It is the acronym for weB LOG. A blog offer so many features. A blog can be used as a powerful news media, for publishing your own articles, etc. Many sites offers blog facility. www.blogger.com (www.blogspot.com) is one of the mostly used blog sites. Now Yahoo and MSN provide this service and more. Yahoo with its 360.yahoo.com offers a home page for you with blog support and photo albums. You only need a yahoo! account to create your own web identity. Just visit http://360.yahoo.com and create one. Your page will have the following address. http://360.yahoo.com/your_name . For eg: http://360.yahoo.com/hafees_s is my web page address on Yahoo! MSN also supports these features. MSN offers a wide variety of themes that can be used as ur home page. All you need is a hotmail account. Just visit http://spaces.msn.com to register your account. Your page address will look like http://spaces.msn.com/members/your_name For Eg: http://spaces.msn.com/members/hafees is my web page on msn. Which is the best one? The answer depends on your need. What you need is only blogging (that is, publishing your own articles) then undoubtedly www.blogspot.com is the best one. Advantages.
If you need more than blogging, that is you need to create online photo albums etc then look for MSN or Yahoo! alternative. I personally like MSN because it is more good looking, it provides more options to customize your page etc. Both these site offers photo album support with security. That is you can either make your photo album public (which can be viewed by anyone) or you can make it private (only people selected by you can see the album) Just visit these sites and decide yourself. Start your blog today.
"If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas." This article is written by me and the views expressed are solely mine. You may send your feedback or queries to hafees.s@gmail.com | ||||||||
| |
Saturday, June 18, 2005
Smart Computing - Desktop Searching Tools
Smart Computing! - Deasktop searching tools
What is a desktop searching tool?
A desktop search tool indexes files (documents, images, audio, video) in the computer sothat we can search very quickly through all the files (filename as well as file contents are searches) for a given search string.
What are the advantages?
There are many.
* Searching will be lightning fast.
* Searching includes not only file names but also the file contents.
* Some desktop searching tools provides many options for searching.
What are the disasdvantages?
* Indexing is a time consuming process. If you've many files (say 40 GB +) it will take hours to complete indexing.
* Though full indsexing is done only once, indexing service should run in the baxckground to ensure that addition and deletion of files are upsdated in the database. That is indexing is a never ending process. And it takes a little system resource. (You should turn off the indexing service in Windsows XP.)
Do we need it?
Well ! it depends. If you are a gamer and or you neesd performance rather than ease of use, then you may stick with the basic searching service offered by Windows. (XP also offers an indexing service and MSN desktop search is based on this indexing service. So you should turn off this service too. [Tell me How?] )
But a strong 'Yes' if you need to search documents, images etc frequently and wants instant results. Once you used it you cant done without it. And the best part is you dont need to pay.
Which one?
Many companies provides desktop search. Like gmail, google started the trend. With its first desktop search tool, the searching power of google finally came to the desktop. Then many companies started providing desktop searching tools. They include Yahoo!, MSN, Copernic etc. They are already familiar to the web users. All of them are powerful web search engines. So we need to decide which is the best one?
Google revolutionised the search engine technology. So a lot of expectations were there when they released their desktop search beta version. The interface is similar to that of the web search. The search page opens in a new browser window and takes some time to load. The searching is really fast. Nothing beats google there. But in terms of features, Copernic another revolutionary search tool, beats google and the others. The interface is really good (it is both good looking and easy to use). Google takes a lot of space for indexing. And we cant change the path to store the index files. So you need atleast 1 GB free space in your Windows drive. But Copernic only took very less space when compared to Google (500 vs 150MB in my system with two 40 GB hard disks and 60 + GB of data). Copernic can index PDF files also. So you can search what ever you want. It offers image search, music search, video search, Email search, etc. A definite tool.
Final Verdict
In my opinion, Copernic beats every desktop searching tools in terms of features. The search is also powerful. But to open the folder containing files, you cannot use your keyboard. You should right click. The keyboard's rightclick key does not work.
What is a desktop searching tool?
A desktop search tool indexes files (documents, images, audio, video) in the computer sothat we can search very quickly through all the files (filename as well as file contents are searches) for a given search string.
What are the advantages?
There are many.
* Searching will be lightning fast.
* Searching includes not only file names but also the file contents.
* Some desktop searching tools provides many options for searching.
What are the disasdvantages?
* Indexing is a time consuming process. If you've many files (say 40 GB +) it will take hours to complete indexing.
* Though full indsexing is done only once, indexing service should run in the baxckground to ensure that addition and deletion of files are upsdated in the database. That is indexing is a never ending process. And it takes a little system resource. (You should turn off the indexing service in Windsows XP.)
Do we need it?
Well ! it depends. If you are a gamer and or you neesd performance rather than ease of use, then you may stick with the basic searching service offered by Windows. (XP also offers an indexing service and MSN desktop search is based on this indexing service. So you should turn off this service too. [Tell me How?] )
But a strong 'Yes' if you need to search documents, images etc frequently and wants instant results. Once you used it you cant done without it. And the best part is you dont need to pay.
Which one?
Many companies provides desktop search. Like gmail, google started the trend. With its first desktop search tool, the searching power of google finally came to the desktop. Then many companies started providing desktop searching tools. They include Yahoo!, MSN, Copernic etc. They are already familiar to the web users. All of them are powerful web search engines. So we need to decide which is the best one?
Google revolutionised the search engine technology. So a lot of expectations were there when they released their desktop search beta version. The interface is similar to that of the web search. The search page opens in a new browser window and takes some time to load. The searching is really fast. Nothing beats google there. But in terms of features, Copernic another revolutionary search tool, beats google and the others. The interface is really good (it is both good looking and easy to use). Google takes a lot of space for indexing. And we cant change the path to store the index files. So you need atleast 1 GB free space in your Windows drive. But Copernic only took very less space when compared to Google (500 vs 150MB in my system with two 40 GB hard disks and 60 + GB of data). Copernic can index PDF files also. So you can search what ever you want. It offers image search, music search, video search, Email search, etc. A definite tool.
Final Verdict
In my opinion, Copernic beats every desktop searching tools in terms of features. The search is also powerful. But to open the folder containing files, you cannot use your keyboard. You should right click. The keyboard's rightclick key does not work.
Wednesday, April 20, 2005
Friday, March 11, 2005
Monday, February 28, 2005
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)