Clark Computer Consulting Port Jervis, NY » Free

Google Voice Finally Available Without An Invite From Google

Scott — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 16:11:22 +0000

As of yesterday Google Voice is finally available in the U.S. without requiring an invite from Google. I have been a huge Google Voice fan since its release last year. Adding the Voice app to my new Droid Incredible was fast and easy. I now have the option of making calls with either Google Voice or my cell service. My cell phones voice mail is now also handled through Google Voice. Learn more about this great new service from Google by checking out the video and links below.

Google Voice: 10 Reasons to Check It Out http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/199611/google_voice_10_reasons_to_check_it_out.html?tk=hp_new

Google Voice: A Guide to Getting Started http://www.pcworld.com/article/199580/google_voice_a_guide_to_getting_started.html

How to Ease Your Transition to Google Voice http://lifehacker.com/5311254/how-to-ease-your-transition-to-google-voice

Before you go, check out some of our other links.

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VIPRE Antivirus Premium is high-performance antivirus + antispyware software with an integrated firewall. It doesn’t slow down your PC like other security products. The press loves it, and it’s antivirus certified. Protect your PC from ‘being owned’ by bad guys with our free (registered) full-function 30-day trial!

Have a blessed day, be safe

Thunderbird and Gmail are still fine feathered email friends.

Scott — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 02:48:11 +0000

Thunderbird 3 came out on Tuesday and its Gmail integration is better than ever. Download the newest version of Thunderbird from www.mozillamessaging.com/thunderbird Once you’ve installed Thunderbird 3 all that you need to do is enter your Name, Email Address and Password and you will be up and running in minutes. Thunderbird even downloads all your Gmail labels automatically. I highly recommend Thunderbird 3 for anyone that wants a local copy of their Gmail for offline use. I personally use Gmail as my primary personal and business email client. Thunderbird allows me to make a local copy of my Gmail account for both safety and offline use. Check out the following links for more info on this great free and Open Source application.

Thunderbird Release Notes http://www.mozillamessaging.com/thunderbird/3.0/releasenotes/

Thunderbird 3 Features http://www.mozillamessaging.com/thunderbird/features/

Review: Thunderbird 3 takes flight with tabs, enhanced search http://arstechnica.com/open-source/reviews/2009/12/review-thunderbird-3-hatches-with-tabs-and-enhanced-search.ars

The French Military contributed to Thunderbird 3 http://www.geek.com/articles/news/the-french-military-contributed-to-thunderbird-3-20091211/

Like Firefox? Try Thunderbird 3 http://www.networkworld.com/news/2009/121109-like-firefox-try-thunderbird.html

Mozilla’s Thunderbird E-mail Client Comes With Tabs

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/184073/mozillas_thunderbird_email_client_comes_with_tabs.html

Check out our Amazon Mac Store Amazon Mac Store

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Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala has arrived

Scott — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 15:06:21 +0000

Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala has arrived right on schedule and can be downloaded from the following link http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download

I highly recommend this new version of Ubuntu. Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala has lived happily on my Dell Vostro 1500 laptop since the Alpha 5 test release. The installation is smooth and all my hardware was recognized right out of the box.

Check the following links for more info on this great new version of Ubuntu.

Ubuntu 9.10 Feature Tour http://www.ubuntu.com/products/whatisubuntu/910features

What is Ubuntu http://www.ubuntu.com/products/whatisubuntu

Ubuntu 9.10 brings web sync, faster bootup, GNOME 2.28

http://arstechnica.com/open-source/news/2009/10/ubuntu-910-brings-web-sync-faster-bootup-gnome-228.ars

What’s new in Ubuntu 9.10

http://www.h-online.com/open/features/What-s-new-in-Ubuntu-9-10-846772.html

Check out our Amazon Mac Store Amazon Mac Store

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Download of the Day

Scott — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 19:04:14 +0000

VLC media player is a highly portable multimedia player and multimedia framework capable of reading most audio and video formats (MPEG-2, MPEG-4, H.264, DivX, MPEG-1, mp3, ogg, aac …) as well as DVDs, Audio CDs VCDs, and various streaming protocols.

I personally love this lightweight Open Source media player. Download the most recent version from the link below.

http://www.videolan.org/

Firefox 3.5.3 and 3.0.14 have been released

Scott — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 18:03:18 +0000

Firefox 3.5.3 and 3.0.14 have been released

Head on over to getfirefox.com for the latest version or from within Firefox choose “Help” and then “Check for Update”.

The latest update fixes the following security issues.

Security Advisories for Firefox 3.5

http://www.mozilla.org/security/known-vulnerabilities/firefox35.html

Security Advisories for Firefox 3.0

http://www.mozilla.org/security/known-vulnerabilities/firefox30.html

The great new feature of this update is the warning you will receive when your flash player is outdated.

Old versions of the Adobe flash player are a common entrance for malware into your system. This new feature is yet another reason why I will continue to recommend Firefox over Internet Explorer.

Now don’t be an update slacker, stay updated and safe.

Go already, and have a nice day

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Download of the Day

Scott — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 03:47:01 +0000

Foxit Reader is a free PDF document viewer, with incredible small size, blazing-fast launch speed and rich feature set.

Foxitreader was updated on 9/3/09 to version 3.1.1.0901 and it can be downloaded at the link below

http://www.filehippo.com/download_foxit/

or from here

http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/reader/

Previous article on alternatives to Adobe Reader

http://rootaid.com/2009/07/26/alternatives-to-adobe-reader/

How to smoothly transition to the Linux Desktop

Scott — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 13:39:32 +0000

Using Free and Open software on your PC will save you money and also provide a more secure operating system. Switching to the following applications on your Windows PC will help you smoothly transition to the Free and Open Linux desktop.

Firefox as a replacement for Internet Explorer http://www.mozilla.com

Thunderbird as a replacement for Outlook Express http://www.mozillamessaging.com

Open Office as a replacement for Microsoft Office http://www.openoffice.org/

Abiword as a lightweight replacement for Microsoft Word. http://www.abisource.com/

Pidgin to replace your instant messaging software http://www.pidgin.im/

And finally Ubuntu as a replacement for Windows http://www.ubuntu.com/products/whatisubuntu/904features/

Once you go free and open there will be no turning back to the dark side. Go set your desktop free…

Firefox 3.5.2 and 3.0.13 updates available

Scott — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 11:13:48 +0000

Update Firefox to the newest version ASAP; click the following link for the most current version.

http://www.mozilla.com or from within Firefox choose “Help” and then “Check for Update”.

Bugs addressed by the current update include the following.

MFSA 2009-46 Chrome privilege escalation due to incorrectly cached wrapper
MFSA 2009-45 Crashes with evidence of memory corruption (rv:1.9.1.2/1.9.0.13)
MFSA 2009-44 Location bar and SSL indicator spoofing via window.open() on invalid URL
MFSA 2009-38 Data corruption with SOCKS5 reply containing DNS name longer than 15 characters

Mozilla Foundation Security Advisory http://www.mozilla.org/security/announce/

The latest advisories can always been found at the Mozilla Foundation Security Advisory site http://www.mozilla.org/security/announce/

After the update you will have either Firefox 3.5.2 or 3.0.13 depending on your current version.

The Mozilla Foundation is recommending that Firefox 3.0.x users should now upgrade to 3.5.x – support for the former is set to end in January 2010.

Head on over to getfirefox.com for the latest version. Don’t be an update slacker, stay updated and safe.

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Alternatives to Adobe Reader

Scott — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 14:14:43 +0000

Adobe Reader has another zero day exploit and I have finally switched to an alternative PDF reader on all my Windows PCs. There are many good PDF readers on the market most are free and some are even Open Source. I currently recommend Foxit Reader and Sumatra PDF for opening PDF files. If your looking for a product that is a drop in replacement for Adobe Reader then Foxit Reader is a great product. If you only need a bare bones PDF reader then the Free and Open Source Sumatra PDF is your reader. Both Foxit Reader and Sumatra PDF are very lightweight and will even run off of a flash drive. Adobe Reader 9 weighs in at 212MB of bloat in its folder on my Vista PC. By comparison Foxit Reader takes up 7.17 MB and Sumatra PDF takes up 1.43MB. Check out both products at the links below.

Sumatra PDF http://blog.kowalczyk.info/software/sumatrapdf/index.html

Foxit Reader http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/reader/

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Google Chrome OS clouds up the OS market

Scott — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 16:44:43 +0000

Google has opened another front in its fight with Microsoft. The new Free and Open Google Chrome Operating System was announced last night on the official Google Blog According to Google “netbooks running Google Chrome OS will be available for consumers in the second half of 2010″

The idea behind this new OS is to take advantage of the cloud through an Operating System designed from the ground up for the cloud.

From the Google Blog

“Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS. We’re designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the web in a few seconds. The user interface is minimal to stay out of your way, and most of the user experience takes place on the web. And as we did for the Google Chrome browser, we are going back to the basics and completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so that users don’t have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates. It should just work.”

If Google succeeds in producing this new lightweight ultra secure OS, the writing might be on the wall for that old shrink wrapped OS from Redmond.

Good luck Google…Keep it Free and Open.