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Revision as of 23:10, 24 November 2009 by Andrew (talk | contribs) (→‎Other)
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Welcome! This site is a place to document technical information and other stuff that I was not able to find easily and/or don't want to lose.

Technical Notes

Links

Free Tools

Here are a number of free tools that I have found to be very useful.

Graphics

  • GIMP GIMP is a versatile graphics manipulation package.
  • Hugin Panorama photo stitcher.
  • jhead Exif Jpeg header manipulation tool (can use -autorot flag in conjunction with jpegtran to automatically rotate images based on orientation data stored by cameras that support including many Canon Powershots).
  • jpegtran Lossless jpeg manipulation including rotation (direct link for .exe version is here).
  • ImageMagick I mainly use this for batch picture resizing (mogrify -resize *.JPG 1600x1600)

Video

  • MPEG Streamclip Simple video editor that can read multiple formats and export them to QuickTime, DV, AVI/DivX and MPEG-4.
  • VLC media player The cross-platform open-source multimedia framework, player and server

Networking / Connectivity

  • Firefox Web browser (favorite add-ons include Copy Plain Text, Auto Copy, ShowIP and SwitchProxy Tool)
  • Skype Encrypted text & video chat that just works (even through firewalls)
  • PuTTY Free telnet/ssh/serial client which supports tunneling and much more.
  • UltraVNC Remote control software

Security

  • KeePass Password Safe Secure, encrypted password storage with cross platform support including blackberry and other mobile devices.
  • TrueCrypt Free open-source disk encryption software for Windows 7/Vista/XP, Mac OS X, and Linux (I use it mostly for a virtual encrypted disk within a file which is mounted as a real disk).

Other

  • 1-4a-rename A file renamer which renames many files at once (handy for combining pictures from multiple sources and prepending numbers to keep them in order).
  • CDBurnerXP Burn CDs and DVDs, including Blu-Ray and HD-DVDs for free.
  • Directory Compare This handy utility will compare and/or synchronize folders including network shares and can be used for simple backups. Visit the author's home page for more handy tools: http://tp.lc.ehu.es/jma.html

Free Website Software

Here are a few free web tools and software packages that I use.

  • Google Apps I use Google apps for my email & calendars (yes I realize it's the only thing in this list that you can't install on your own server)
  • MovableType Publishing Platform
  • Gallery Your photos your website
  • MediaWiki Free software wiki package written in PHP, originally for use on Wikipedia (this site is running on it).
  • Secure PHP Form Mailer Script
  • Secure Guestbook Script with Image Verification
  • AWStats Free tool that generates graphs web, streaming, ftp or mail server statistics.
  • csv2png Very small precompiled utility for generating graphs from csv data.
  • PHP RecipeBook PHPRecipeBook is a web based cookbook with the ability to create shopping lists.
  • GNUMP3d Web based music indexing & streaming including recursive playlist generation.
  • LimeSurvey Opensource survey application (run easy to use surveys on your own web server)

Websites that I frequent

Entertainment

  • Facebook I use Facebook to stay in touch with friends
  • Hulu Watch TV shows & movies online for free legally
  • Pandora Free music streaming service that plays new & old music based on what you like
  • National Geographic I get several e-newsletters and enjoy the pictures & articles
  • slashdot News for nerds, stuff that matters

Shopping

Stores
  • Amazon Buy and read reviews on almost any product
  • Monoprice Very reasonable prices on cables and other IT/AV supplies
  • eBay Buy stuff cheaper (sometimes) and/or locate hard to find items
Comparison/Deal Sites

Travel

Travel research often involves many varied sites, but here are a few that I use often and a couple that are unique enough to mention.

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