Since I got a free upgrade with my new computer that I bought in August, I was really looking forward to it as I really hated Vista with a passion. I keep giving Microsoft my blood, sweat and tears not to mention money but at least this time I’m not out of pocket. Thank goodness.

Windows 7 has a lot of really cool features that if you don’t read up on you will never know they are there or how to use them. I did spend $32 (list price $50) for a book on Win7 and I am very, very, glad I did. This is a life saver if you plan on updating your OS, just don’t be intimidated by the size of the book since it is huge.

Get this book!

The Good:

I have tried paring down what I have on my computer or checking if there are upgrades for Win7 but I find that most of the programs I have already work on Win7. So far, so good and no software issues. Also I have not run into any hardware conflicts and that is without updating any drivers. Yippee!

The Bad:

If you don’t have a book or website to let you know about the new stuff in Win7 you can get very aggravated at some of the features that only need some tweaking for your personal preferences such as how documents are displayed. You’ve seen the commercials where they are comparing documents side-by-side on the computer screen. This is a really neat feature but there are lots of secrets on how to use this more efficiently. Sometimes I think that the “secrets” are built in so there will be thirty books out there telling you the best way to use the program. I just know that if I use something from Microsoft (computer OS or productivity suite) then I know I’m going to be buying books on how to use them the most efficiently or I will miss out on some neat features of the programs.

The Ugly:

The biggest problem I have had since upgrading to Win7 is the crashing factor but isn’t that the way Windows usually goes? I love getting on the internet and checking out blogs and looking for cool pictures but both I.E. and Firefox crash almost continuously. If I stay off the internet I have no problems or issues but that is not how I roll. I don’t have a day go by that I don’t get on the internet to update my blogs, read  blogs and articles and check my email (except when I’m fishing then all bets are off) so I’m really hoping that they address this issue soon. What is really frustrating is not only do IE 8 and Firefox crash but you have to go into the task manager and kill the process or it stays in the background without you being able to use it. Think about that sentence. You cannot kill out the app by clicking on the application button, nope, you have to hunt it down in the process section to kill it and start over without rebooting your system. This is getting very old, very quickly.

All in all I am glad I upgraded to Windows 7 but if I was really expecting it to be crash proof then I should have known better. I do feel that the new features I am discovering are worth the aggravations. Though as I am typing this Live Writer is crashing on me….ugh!!

Is it worth the $120 to upgrade? Well, I would spring for the difference and go with the $170 upgrade through Amazon.com for the Windows 7 Professional since there are a lot of features that the pro version has that the others don’t. I would however recommend waiting to see what bug fixes they put out in the next couple of months before deciding to drop that much cash.

Until Next Time,

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Program Review: Bump Top 

Rating: B+

Bump Top is one of those programs that is just difficult to describe but worth the try. Bump Top is a desktop organization program sort of along the lines of Object Dock or Fences but a whole new ball game.

If you are anything like me and have loads of shortcuts or file folders on your computer desktop, then you know it can be very frustrating to keep them in control and not taking up all available space on your computer screen. I really didn’t want to buy a program for this and have been using Fences which if you haven’t tried is pretty good on it’s own in corralling your desktop. Bump Top however takes this organization capabilities to a higher level plus it is a lot of fun.  

Here is a snap shot of my desktop upon starting Bump Top. Nice and orderly but kind of boring and I still have a lot going on but it is neat and tidy.

Looking at the snapshot you can see some of the cool features you get right off the bat. On the “wall” directly in front is some of my photos and they cycle through. I can put picture frames on them and just tweak it. The other icons on the wall are mostly self explanatory yet – not. If I throw a picture at the Twitter, Facebook  or email icons the picture will be sent out on those services.

In the left hand corner – on the wall – is a sticky note just like you would write to yourself. Now ain’t that cool??

You can slide stuff all around on this desktop just like you can on a real live desktop. You can “lasso” and then stack documents, pictures, folders, pretty much anything you can see. Now if messy isn’t your thing you might not like this because like a desktop, what you put where stays there. But with this one you can throw things on the wall and they stay put.

Here is a screenshot while I was playing around with Bump Top.

There are many cool features on this program but you need to go to the website and watch the demo video to get the full scope of what this can do.

I’m having a great time playing around with this and if your desktop looks anything like mine then this might help you out.

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You select a photo you have on file and open it in FotoSketcher

(I love the TV show “The Closer” so here is a picture of Kyra Sedgwick)

The original shows up in the left hand frame and the “Sketched” photo will be on the right side.

Choose if you want a pencil sketch, pen and ink, watercolor or oil painting. For this demo I chose the oil painting. Now the center shot is the control panel where you can decide if you want a frame or not – I did – how much the brushes or pen/pencil strokes are, etc.

Click on the “Draw It” button and see if that is the effect that you want. This is what I came up with and I rather like it.

(If you click on the picture to bring up the photo you will see the texture and coloring better)

Here are some I did of my daughter and grand daughter.

Original photo:

FotoSketched results done in watercolor:

This is a cool and free program so give it a try. I found FotoSketcher to be quite addictive so watch out!

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I got the idea of creating this blog when I discovered a treasure trove of great, and I mean great software. It was too good for me not to share and with all the blogs I have (4) this is the best format for me to get this information out there to you, the public that wants and needs free software.

To show you I’m legit and not trying to sell you anything, or use trial versions (God, don’t you just hate those?) but honest to goodness free and fantastic useful software.

First up is a great and I do mean great little program that pretty much automates something that I have needed to do forever – catalog all my DVDs. Now I have never done this yet and I am a book freak so I also have tons of books that I keep and let me tell you something, after using this program for 10 minutes I am ready to find one for books because unless you are a totally lazy ass, you have no excuse to not use this program. I swear this is Freeware though he does ask for donations but that is up to you. After using this I know I will donate to the cause, because I want a book format similar to this one.
And here it is:

EDMB (Eric’s Movie Database)

This why I’m saying I now longer have an excuse to not do this since there is minimal work at best, mostly getting stacks of your movies together so you can enter them in. Info is stored where you want it. On your HD or burn to disks to put in a safe place in case of fire, flood or mount slides, at least you can prove what you have as long as you take a picture of the DVDs in the shelves you store them in.

Here is the begining screen but don’t let it fool you, it is idiot proof which is a good thing for me. You can add as much info as you know or just the title though director or year helps it be more accurate. It even does TV shows as you can see in the above example where I have the Gilmore Girls and Farscape listed. Cool isn’t it???

Starting screen:

Like I stated, any info past title and year is great , but not necessary for this slick little program to find (in about 30 seconds) a list of choices and you pick what is right. How freaking easy is that?!?

Here are the particulars:

• Download

Well, I hope you liked this and will come back for more great FREE software information and download links.

Since I do have 4 blogs with the start of this one, I will probably post 2-3 times a week. I will be shooting for M-W-F but if it’s only twice it will most like be on M & F.

Check this out. I’m sure you will love it. :0)

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