Tag Archives: Links

Links from the October 25, 2012 BRCS Freeware SIG

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At the October 25th session, there was a demonstration and discussion of screen captures, image resolution, and Evernote.

Screen Capture

The Windows Snipping Tool and Irfanview were demonstrated, and other screen capture utilities were discussed. Links used for these are:

Snipping Tool Windows 7

http://windows.microsoft.com/is-IS/windows7/Use-Snipping-Tool-to-capture-screen-shots

http://windows.microsoft.com/is-IS/windows7/Snipping-Tool-frequently-asked-questions

Other free screen capture programs:

http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-screen-capture-tool.htm

http://www.aplusfreeware.com/categories/mmedia/FastStoneCapture.html

http://www.gadwin.com/printscreen/

http://picpick.org

Vector Graphics, Image Resolution and Ask-Leo

A question about converting images from jpg to vector graphics was asked, and a Google search for an online converter resulted in trying out Vector Magic.

A practical demonstration with a simple jpg showed that this type of conversion does not give very good results.

The discussion then led to image resolution and Leo Notenboom’s posting:
http://ask-leo.com/how_do_pixels_and_dpi_and_resolution_and_picture_size_and_file_size_all_relate_to_each_other.html

Attendees were advised to sign up for the ask-leo email newsletter to get similar tips and information on their own twice a week.

Evernote

As the resolution posting came from my Evernote notebooks, there was a discussion about obtaining and using Evernote, as well as a practical demonstration of how I use Evernote.

http://evernote.com/

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NOTE:

There will be no BRCS Freeware SIG sessions in November 2012, nor in December 2012. The next session will be January 24, 2013.

A List of Links for Learning

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This was found via a public post on Google+ by Brad Aker 02OCT12 at 7:03 PM.

He linked to http://noexcuselist.com/.

This site says:

“The best place on the web to learn anything, free.”

There are links to learning resources for:

  • Academics
  • Music
  • Programming
  • HowTo + DIY
  • eBooks
  • Cooking
  • Languages
  • Other

If you hover your mouse over the links, you can see comments about them.

I have not checked out every link myself, but the ones I have checked, are useful.

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If you are interested in learning, and you should be, check these out. Let me know what you think.

If you know of any other similar lists, let me know about them also.

I am always looking for places to learn new things.

Opera Browser Setup for Slow Connections

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The main topic at the April 28, 2011 Freeware SIG session inspired by a posting on Lifehacker.com, as the internet connection where we meet is usually very slow.
As usual, the session started off with a short slide show presentation of the main topic, and then we branched off into other items of interest to those in attendance.
The notes and actual presentation regarding setting up and using the Opera browser for slow connections are posted in LibreOffice/OpenOffice.org format, Microsoft Office (PowerPoint 2007 for the presentation), and PDF format in their corresponding folders at the BRCS Freeware SIG box.net site. http://www.box.net/shared/3933b4mnnl

After the completion of the main topic some others were discussed:

Question

Where can I find cartoons?

Answer

Don’t know anywhere in specific, other than http://xkcd.com/ and https://web.archive.org/web/20170919143550/http://geekandpoke.typepad.com:80// http://geek-and-poke.com, both of which have appeared in this blog. The suggestion is to search in Google for them, and when you see ones you like bookmark the link and/or subscribe to the RSS feed if available. Also, if you see one in print, check and see if there is a link to the cartoonist’s site and go there to check out the other cartoons by the same cartoonist.

Question

Is there a free equivalent to Microsoft Publisher? I have files in Publisher 97 format that I would like to open and work on.

Answer

There are some out there but I have no experience with them. I don’t think that any of them will open Microsoft Publisher formatted files though, as it is a proprietary format.

The above question brought up a discussion of where to find alternatives to other applications. One suggestion was to Google “alternative to aaaaa”, where aaaaa replaces name of the application you are looking for an alternative to. Also the site alternativeTo http://alternativeto.net/ was explored as much as was possible with the connection available.

Kindle for PC, eBooks, Free Music

Someone mentioned eBooks and the Kindle device. I let them know that I had just been trying out Kindle for PC available from Amazon, a free download and free to use. Just go to Kindle for PC [Download] to check it out.

I demonstrated how it looks on my laptop and advised that there were plenty of free books to download, though not recent best sellers of course.

This led into where to get free music to listen to. I suggested jamendo http://www.jamendo.com/en/ and gave a brief demonstration of what was available in my favorite genre of jazz. There were over 300,000 tracks available at the time we visited the site.

All the music posted there is under Creative Commons http://creativecommons.org/ license, so is legal to download and listen to.

May 26, 2001 Session

As we were closing up, I reminded everyone that Paul Nappo will be taking over for the May 26th session, and that I was sure he would do a good job.