Category Archives: Software

Category containing all information relating to software.

Do you want to customize your Vista logon screen?

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After a very short while, I get bored of things I frequently see. The logon screen, for example, is something I see several times a day. I quickly got bored of the default wallpaper Vista provides for your logon screen, so I decided to personalise it a little.

I used a program called LogonStudio by Stardock. It’s a free program, and basically it just changes the wallpaper of the logon screen, to whatever you specify. 

It’s a fantastic program, and there is also an XP version. You can download it here, and I’ll post a link on the Resources page.

Have you got your copy of OpenOffice 3?

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Now I know I use Microsoft as my primary office software, and probably always will, but when OpenOffice 3 was released I had to get my hands on a copy.

So, despite the massive problems OpenOffice have been having with their site (huge traffic), I managed to get my download of the 150MB file. 

Well its installed fine, and I opened it up, and the new interface is fantastic! It’s brought Open Office in to 2008 rather than 2000! There are several new features that have also been added, including docx support and other important features.

Grab a copy at OpenOffice.org (They are currently having problems with server overload at the time of writing – you may not get the full download first time).

Is Skype 4 Beta 2 any good?

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I’ve tried it myself and have been using it for about a week now, and overall its a big improvement on the first beta. Heres a quick video from the Skype staff on the new features:

So there you have it from the staff. The most useful features I have found is the new compact view which makes it much better for anyone who is used to the older versions of Skype, because it makes Skype much easier to use when you are doing a lot at one time on the computer.

The new alerts system is much better. In beta 1 I had issues that I’d open up Skype and notice I’d missed a message from someone a day back which is a newsense. Now the new notification system will leave plenty of ways to tell me I’ve got a new message.

Overall, much better, and hopefully the next release from Skype will be the final version which I look forward to. 

Grab a copy at http://www.skype.com/intl/en/download/skype/windows/beta/ and try it for yourself, but beware there are still a few bugs and a few call drops/program freezes, so if you want to be on the safe side stick with Skype 3.8.

Do you use Last.fm?

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I only recently discovered the point in having an account with Last.fm. Before then, I only used it for the odd song I wanted to listen to online. 

But I see why its so good to sign up to now. Basically, when you sign up you get your own page where you can put up a whole load of statistics on what music you like, how much you listen to it, make playlists and “love” songs. It’s really good for anyone who listens to a lot of music.

You may have noticed the widgets I have added to the GEEK! sidebar. They are from last.fm and the top one shows what I have recently listened to to, and the bottom one shows what artists I like.

You can easily install the program that Last.fm provide, which will monitor all the music you are listening to, and what you’ve listened to in the past. It support Windows Media Player, iTunes, and I think Winamp as well as a couple of other music players. You can have the program upload the artists you listen to from one of the players you use, straight to your page.

It’s a great site for any music lover, and it is FREE. I do wish you could add it via FTP to your own domain, that would be awesome, but for now its good anyway.

I will be adding it to the Resources page (soon to be renamed).

Is defragmenting really worth it?

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I’ve been defragmenting my hard disks once every 3 months ago for about the last 3 years, and it hasn’t ever caused me a problem. It does take quite a few hours, but I just leave it to do its job and that’s that.

But it is really something to worry about? Well it’s never seem to have made a lot of difference to me. Once every so often it does really help – if you are getting very slow boot times, defragmenting is an idea.

But generally, if your computer is up to speed and you aren’t having any slow file issues, I don’t really see the point.

Do you defragment regularly?