Software: Karen’s Powertools

By | November 24, 2011
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Karen’s Powertools have long been a favourite of mine. Check out her latest: an updated version of her Computer Profiler. The program “displays hundreds of bits of information about your computer and the software it uses. Programs you’ve installed, facts about your disk drives, printers, memory, and network connections, even dozens of details of Windows itself, are all revealed by the Profiler.”
 
This is a bit geeky, but this kind of data can be useful if you need to find out what’s going wrong, or your PC vendor asks awkward questions when you’re trying to get them to fix something. This version not only covers USB devices but also reports every USB device you’ve ever connected to your computer.
 
The software’s free, but if you want to support her, buy a CD of all her work.

Mail: SpamNet

By | November 24, 2011
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Further to my recent column on spam, a reader from Selangor, Malaysia, J. Allen Otten, recommends
SpamNet from Cloudpoint: 
 
“Works rather well and I do not lose emails I really should get.  Cloudpoint places spam (and suspected spam) in a folder called Spam.  If it fails to catch a message that is spam, you can add that message to the filter and next time, you won’t get it.
 
“I get about 30 spams a day.  Cloudpoint gets 28+ of them with no repeats; only the new ones get by.  I do have to delete messages from the Spam folder from time to time and I do have to add a new message source or two a day to the filter.  Short of changing my email address, this program works.”
 
SpamNet costs $4 a month.

Link: online journalism blogs

By | November 24, 2011
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Glaser rates the most influential blogs

Mark Glaser in his Glaser Online column with Online Journalism Review shares his list of the most influential Web blogs. Glaser divides the blogs into liberal, conservative and media business blogs. Some of those rated highly in his list are: E-Media Tidbits, PaidContent.org, Andrew Sullivan and Instapundit.
 

Mail: Recording devices

By | November 24, 2011
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Reader Hans Lee has asked whether I know of a pocket tape recorder whose contents can go directly into a computer within the Linux, or Mac environment?

Good question. I don’t know about Linux, but I’m a big fan of the Olympus range, and spotted these new Voice-Trek models launched in Japan earlier this year. I’ll try to find out whether they’re available elsewhere.