LibreOffice 3.5
Still using OpenOffice? if you are your behind the times. LibreOffice is a free and open source office suite developed by The Document Foundation as a fork of OpenOffice.org. It is largely compatible with other major office suites, including Microsoft Office, and available on a variety of platforms. LibreOffice has no licensing fees, is available in a large number of local languages and gives users the opportunity to participate in its development.
LibreOffice is a hybrid word, meaning “Free Office”. Libre means free (as in freedom) in French and Spanish. Between January 2011 (its first stable launch) and October 2011, LibreOffice was downloaded approximately 7.5 million times. It is the default office suite in many Linux distributions, such as Fedora, Linux Mint, openSUSE, and Ubuntu.
LibreOffice can be run on Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger or newer, and Linux-based systems running Linux kernel version 2.6.18 or newer. (more…)
Rooting Android & Recovery 1-2-3
Summary: Rooting a phone can be a rewarding project, but it also has several dangers attached with it. When considering phone hacking, you need to know what to do if something goes wrong. Read these 3 quick steps to find out what to do if something goes wrong when rooting your phone.
Tweaking a rooted smartphone is mostly a simple process so long as you follow the instructions to the letter. But if something goes wrong it can leave you unable to boot your phon, can you say “brick”?
Thankfully it can be recovered with the helpful ROM Manager app.
Rooting your Android phone is a term that you are bound to across at some point or another while searching on how to optimize your Android device. If you you would like to know more, Wikipedia has a decent entry on the subject: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rooting_(Android_OS)
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No Recovery For You!
When consumers purchase personal computers, they should be given the means to restore/repair their operating system via an included LIVE CD/DVD, in NOT doing so by the OEM is just plain stupid. Bear in mind that as a Microsoft Windows licensee, meaning YOU, the thing with a Windows license is that you DO NOT OWN the software, you DO NOT OWN the product, that you are paying for and by receiving a license to use that software under the terms given, you must abide by them, whether you like it or not. That doesn’t sound to user friendly does it?
What you typically have included with you computer, is a recovery CD (best case), perhaps a recovery partition that just re-images your partition setting everything back to the way it was originally or nothing at all (worst case), none of these truly do fix anything. Normally the best way to accomplish this feat is to boot from a Linux LiveCD to recover your files. (more…)
Exercise your Computer
It’s always kind of surprising to me how many people don’t really bother to maintain their PC. A lot of folks seem to think that they can simply let their computer run without any sort of user intervention at all. The trouble is, it doesn’t work that way. As with one’s vehicle, which needs timely maintenance, so does your computer. Your computer’s is a complex, intricate machine, and it needs to be well-cared for in order to properly function, if not you will suffer problems down the road.
What’s more, it’s not just the hardware of a system that has a tendency to degrade over time. Modern computers are complex, intricate pieces of technology- fifty years ago, people wouldn’t have even dreamed this sort of stuff existed. As with any complex system, sometimes things tend to go wrong. A glitch in the software here, a misplaced line of code there, and boom. What’s shocking isn’t the fact that there’s literally thousands of ways a computer could break down and simply stop working. No, what’s shocking is that most of these issues, most of these errors, are preventable. Windows users suffer through lot’s of problems, this is why I openly advocate Linux.
Here’s a few exercises (primarily meant for Windows users) that you should do, to ensure that your computer is in top working condition.
$35 Personal Computer
Some people may dismiss this idea, but I see the real genius behind it. Using one of these devices, you would be able to browse the web, shop and do your online banking securely without worrying about picking up computer viruses or malware.
Budding computer hackers/scientists are about to get a welcome gift, albeit a bit late. The non-profit Raspberry Pi Foundation (RPF) is nearing the release date of its surprisingly powerful and remarkably affordable Raspberry Pi line of bare-bones machines that have been developed in an effort to broaden kids’ access to computers in the UK and abroad. How affordable? The figure above was no typo. Read on to learn just what US$35 will get you when these nifty, fully-assembled, credit-card sized computers go on sale next month (sorry, case, monitor, keyboard and mouse not included … we did say bare bones).
Early models of the Pi will be offered in two versions. The first, Model A (US$25), will sport 128M of RAM but no Ethernet port. Presumably, most of these will end up in educational use. The second, Model B (US$35), will have a larger production run and offer 256M of RAM along with 10/100MBit networking capability. Both are powered by 700MHz ARM11 CPUs and include hardware support for OpenGL ES 2.0 and Blu-Ray caliber (1080p30 H.264) playback. (more…)
Christmas is Cancelled
Best Buy is completely dropping the ball this holiday season. We’re hearing reports that customers who bought items on BestBuy.com on Black Friday (yes, nearly a month ago) will not be receiving their orders this year, with some of them even being cancelled right before Christmas.
Best Buy’s official statement on the matter, as relayed to FOX 9 is this:
“Due to overwhelming demand of hot product offerings on BestBuy.com during the November and December time period, we have encountered a situation that has affected redemption of some of our customers’ online orders. We are very sorry for the inconvenience this has caused and we have notified the affected customers.” (more…)
Speedup Your PC
Want to make your Windows PC run faster and smoother? These are some small tips which make great impact on the performance of your computer. Everybody wants a PC which runs the way we want. A newly bought computer just impresses you, with its fast interface, quick reactions, negligible garbage, in short just like what a new computer should.
But after using your computer for about a year or so, like me, you would also face some minor problems with your computer performance e.g. takes more time to boot up, hangs up very frequently, you see a large cluster of useless icons on your desktop, applications run slower, some even refuse to run. Innumerable problems are faced by all of us. This happens from how Windows is designed, the filing system used (NTFS) is sloppy, as opposed to EXT3/4 journaling file system as used on Linux distributions.
Now all of us won’t buy a new computer just for this reason, so what would you do? Format your hard disk? Probably, but who wants to lose precious data? There are many small things that PC users, don’t know about, or though being aware of them don’t prefer to use them as they require investment of time. And who has free time?
I am going to tell you, what I do to my own PC, to achieve the performance level I want from it. This doesn’t require much effort to follow these simple tips, nor do they require much time, but surely they increase our PC performance, your PC would surely run smoother and faster. (more…)
My Scam PC
I’ve seen this ad on TV for a program to speed up your computer off on on when viewing cable. The program that installed was called “Cyber Defender”. It’s listed in many sites on the internet as a possible Virus, Trojan or Rogue.
It would do one and only one operation and that was to scan the registry. Or at least it appeared that’s what it was doing. I was locked out of selecting any other options. Then it reported over 400 errors in my registry, but when I hit the button to Fix the problems, it took me right to there web site, where I was presented with the opportunity to spend money to buy their program. (more…)
Data Loss and Vacations
Backing up your computer these days? I hope so..
There’s little question Americans love their vacation time and their cocktails, but new research suggests they love their computers even more. Released by Carbonite, the study found that 50 percent of those surveyed would rather lose their vacation time for a year than lose all of the files on their computer, and while wedding rings may be an important symbol of marriage, the research also revealed that nearly 40 percent of those surveyed would rather lose it than everything on their computer.
In addition, the study shows that Americans would be willing to give up a lot if it meant they could recover data, including:
- Giving up beer and wine for a year — 34 percent.
- Giving up coffee for a year — 31 percent.
- Giving up their cellphone for a month — 23 percent.
- Giving up their free time to mow their neighbor’s lawn for a year — 18 percent.
It’s not just luxury items those surveyed are willing to part with. Nearly two-thirds said they would pay to get their lost data back if their computer crashed, with 21 percent willing to pay as much as $500 and 27 percent saying they would pay whatever it took.
Despite the significant value placed on electronic data, nearly 40 percent of those surveyed admit they have never backed up their computers, or haven’t done so in more than a year.
The research also found that despite more than half of those surveyed having lost all of their personal files in a computer crash, people still continue to place too much trust in their hard drives.
The survey shows that 82 percent of Americans keep electronic files, with the majority nowhere else but on their computer hard drive. In addition, the average person surveyed has more than $400 worth of digital music and movies on their computer.
David Friend, Carbonite CEO and chairman, said people have priceless photographs, critical personal financial information and hundreds of dollars of digital media stored on their computer, but still aren’t taking the necessary precautions to ensure it is safe. Carbonite provides data-backup services.
“It’s interesting to contrast the way people insure their treasured possessions, like their home and their car, with the ways in which they leave their often-irreplaceable digital assets unprotected,” Friend said in a statement. “Most have experienced at least one major data loss disaster, yet are still not taking simple steps to protect the contents of their computer.”
Low-Cost $200 Computer
If you need a second or third computer but money is tight, you don’t need to buy a full system. You can build a surprisingly speedy Linux PC that will excel at everyday tasks, and cost less than $200. I highly recommend this with young children in the home, or for use as a dedicated banking computer. Why?, because you will NOT have to deal with it getting infected with a virus to boot.
No one who expected the languid economy to have fully revived by now can be cheered by the way things have gone this summer; the volatile stock market alone has been a constant dispenser of heartache. So if you’re in need of a computer, even just a small one to do basic, everyday things, you may have put it off because of the uncertainty currently surrounding, well, everything. But it’s possible to build a PC yourself for an obscenely low cash layout—less than you’d spend on pretty much any full system on the market.
In fact, you can even do it for as little as $200. And no, that’s not a typo.
This was written about last year , back when it looked like the economy’s most turbulent days were behind it. But because money issues have persisted, and because relative luxuries like technology are usually the first line items to be cut from most home budgets, we wanted to revisit the notion. We started browsing our favorite Web components outlet, Newegg.com, with the intent of answering three questions: Could we do it again? Could we build a better computer this time around? And could we do it for significantly less than we had the first time?
The answer to the first question was a no-brainer: absolutely. Even as recently as several years ago, the PC industry hadn’t yet advanced to a point where a threshold this low would result in a complete PC of any recognizable kind. As hardware has improved, that quality has slowly filtered down to the lowest price ranges, making good components both cheaper and easier to find.
It was also obvious that our new desktop would be superior in terms of performance. We didn’t want to build exactly the same system this year, but we’d been concerned that the final product wouldn’t be different enough to justify a second attempt. But once we started shopping, it didn’t take us long to discover that prices had fallen enough in the last year for us to get some more impressive parts. You’re still not going to confuse this PC’s capabilities with those of a more expensive desktop, but even in just a year the possibilities have considerably expanded.
As for whether we could spend a lot less this year than we could in 2010… Technically, yes. But that would have violated our most important precept: This had to be a computer we could really use. Building a system that costs this little already requires major compromises in some areas, and shaving off too many additional dollars would have seriously hobbled usability and upgradability. We could have put together something for closer to $150, but we didn’t want something—we wanted a computer we could feel good about integrating into our lives right away, and feel comfortable about tweaking and expanding in the future.
What follows is a look at how we accomplished this: the parts we chose, why we chose them, how we put them together, and what we gave up along the way. We’ll also run through a list of some “budget-busting” items that we couldn’t include if we wanted to stay below our $200 ceiling, but that we’d definitely investigate if we had another few bucks to rub together.
We understand that building the least-expensive computer possible isn’t something that will appeal to everyone. As we said last year, this is as much a thought experiment as it is an actual build project—you can do it, and get great results (we still use our original sub-$200 PC regularly), but under most circumstances you would make different, more expensive, and (we admit it) more exciting choices. What it proves, however, is that you should never feel constrained by your bank account, even if it’s as empty as a politician’s promises. When you’re building computers, almost anything is possible at any price, and with a little bit of research, a little bit of thought, and a little bit of sacrifice, you can get what you need without courting bankruptcy. In economic times both scary and spirited, that’s something worth remembering.
Once you remove Microsoft from the picture, you start saving $100′s of dollars. How, you may ask? Well you can obtain a complete OS like Linux Mint online and download a full office suite like LibreOffice for $0.
