IT Tools

Quiz Games - Fun For All The Family

admin — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 12:19:21 +0000

There is nothing better at Christmas time than sitting down with your family and friends and playing a good quiz game. Now, I am sure we have all sat around the fire playing the usual selection of board games at Christmas time but this is 2008, soon to be 2009 so I think it’s time we ditch the cardboard and take a look at some popular quiz games available for both the PC and the ever popular Mac. Now, let it be known I have researched a lot of mac games and when it comes to finding the best game within the genre, I consider myself quite the expert.

Today, we’re going to look at a game called Quizland. This game is absolutely fantastic, as the name suggests it’s a quiz game but where this differs to traditional quiz games is that the quicker you answer the question, the higher the score you get. This in itself makes the game extremely interesting and fast paced. There is no waiting around for your drunk uncle to spend 5 minutes answering a question. You have 15 seconds maximum before you must move on. From experience, quick fire questions always lead to some funny and interesting answers. This really is one of the best mac games out there to play with your family at Christmas and with free downloads also available for the PC, it’s well worth checking out.

Of course, for your younger family members, quiz games might be a little tedious and the level of question (even from the 1500 available within Quizland) might be a little tasking. If this is the case, we suggest having a look around for some good, family friendly adventure games which are fun for all ages and extremely easy to play. They will keep the kids entertained for a few hours anyway!

Network Scanning - An Important Security Measure

admin — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 11:57:57 +0000

When we think of network and port scanning, we tend to think of hackers breaking into third party systems with a view of doing some damage or at the very least viewing data that they shouldn’t, but, network and port scanning is just as important for security / systems admins who are looking to secure their own networks. Using a good network scanner, systems administrators can scan for all open ports and services in use on their network with a view of patching up holes / open ports that could later pose a vulnerability. Open ports and services running that the systems administrators isn’t aware of is the primary cause of most network hacks. By scanning all open ports on your network, you can easily detect services that might allow an intruder to gain access and you can also secure ports for services to only allow access from designated IP’s or users on your own, internal network. Most good network scanners do not just detect running services and open ports, they also come with a whole host of usage information such as memory / processor usage which is just as important to monitor and maintain as the ports themselves. There are too many exploits out there that make use of memory crashes, it’s always best to be safe!

The Perfect Corporate Gift

admin — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 02:01:44 +0000

I have been thinking of a gift for Christmas that I can send out to all of my business partners, clients and general business contacts alike and I think I have found the perfect gift. A Promotional USB Flash Drive. For someone like me, surrounded by individuals working in the technology industry, I find this absolutely perfect. Not only can I give my clients and hopefully potential clients something useful, I mean really useful, I can also give them a device that will self market my company on a daily basis (assuming they use the device of course).

I have had a look around on the Internet and there are various Promotional USB devices available with varying memory capacity and extremely different forms. I cannot think of anything better. A customised flash drive that will sit in my clients computer on a daily basis whilst displaying my branding, it is almost too perfect.

I normally cringe at receiving marketing material through the post but if someone were to send me a free flash drive, regardless of the branding, I’d be more than happy to make full use of it, as I’m sure you would. I mean, how many of us will not use a free pen, simply because it displays someones marketing - not many. Hopefully my clients will appreciate it, I will keep everyone updated.

An Aggregator

admin — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 08:52:20 +0000

Popularly known as feed reader or news reader, an Aggregator is a web application (generally referred to as client software) which presents syndicated contents like blogs or podcasts in an easy format. Many websites today use this special feature or software to make their site more user friendly. It updates the contents at regular intervals and manages the feed from time to time.

Aggregator, a special member of web 2.0 family, is not known to many since it gets bogged down under the names like RSS feed reader or news reader. But in actuality, the basic term is aggregator, which is responsible for the functionality of these feed readers. It has been termed as the building block of desktop application akin to web 2.0 features. Since the data is retrieved in terms of RSS or XML, user readability is easily achieved.

An aggregator is of different varieties. Media aggregator, search engine aggregator, client libraries aggregator and tickers are to name a few. It can also be used as simple client software applicable for web browsers and email programs.

Google reader, My Yahoo, bloglines, iGoogle and other web packages use the feature of aggregator. Aggregators are getting more advanced day by day and will continue to do so in near future.

Lock File

admin — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 16:55:28 +0000

Do you want to lock a file?

A file lock is basically protecting a file from being accessed. This is
important for privacy and keeping your data secure. A file can be easily
compromised unless it’s locked.

Lock File is a great software for this purpose.

Lock File securely hides and protects your files from prying eyes. Never
worry again!

Lock File

Torrent Speed

admin — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 16:54:18 +0000

Have you ever wanted to increase your torrent speed? Maybe your torrents are
way too slow? How would you like your torrents to be fast?

It’s tough trying to get torrents to go faster. Some of the tricks out there
to increase torrent speed actually slow you down.

If you want something to really increase torrent speed, check out:

Torrent Speed

Some tidbits on shopping through the internet

admin — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 14:42:26 +0000

When you need to make a purchase of something, either a gift or a personal purchase, the simple act of doing a query at any of the several search engines so you can make an online purchase can be scary, even if you somehow decide to narrow it down to the location or country where you live. Whatever you decide to buy it is certain that you will find a great number of sellers offering to provide your needs online and at a very wide range of prices and options.

Because of this, the best way to approach online shopping is to compare and check out as many possibilities as you can and then decide on the best price, the lowest shipping cost or the best deal. Of course, comparison shopping can take a while, especially if you decide to make it as thorough as possible, so it would be a good idea not to venture and buy in a hasty manner or leave to the last possible minute the shopping that you need to do.

Another way to approach this while surfing on the web is to go to look around through many of the online shopping malls where you can narrow your search to show you items by either category, price, or availability.

Fonts spring cleaning with Font Doctor

admin — Sun, 25 May 2008 01:00:29 +0000

Whether you are an established graphic designer or a beginner who’s just beginning to learn the ropes, it cannot be denied that designers need their collection of fonts as much as they need their graphics software to survive. As such, the hundreds of fonts cluttering up your computer might end up corrupting your files if you don’t organize them in a proper manner. Numerous fonts with the same file names might prove to be messy and hinder your design process. One good counter measure is to spring clean your computer and organize your fonts using Font Doctor.

Font Doctor is available in PC and Mac versions. It acts as a janitor by scanning your hard drive, searching every nook and cranny for fonts and then becomes a “doctor” by “treating” “sick” files. Missing PostScript fonts are also sought out. Those with unneeded font sizes are also eliminated. Font Doctor also locates “cloned” fonts with same file names and alerts you of their presence so that you can delete them and thus freeing up space in your computer.

Your font collection can also be better managed once Font Doctor arranges your font library by alphabetical order or by fonts within the same category. This value added utility also helps you convert fonts in Mac format to PC format and vice versa.

Google Talk – Going Back to Basics

admin — Sun, 18 May 2008 21:14:51 +0000

Let’s face it: most of us have, in one way or other, encountered Google in our daily lives. Be it accessing Google.com to search for an ideal French omelet recipe or making new friends amongst like-minded people in Google Groups, Google offers endless possibilities for the average netizen including Google Talk, a simple Instant Messaging program. It is still in beta stage and is free to download. Google Talk lets you access your Gmail account to automatically add contacts. I am charmed by how simple Google Talk is. Most Instant Messaging programs in the market are stumbling over themselves trying to outdo the competition by offering customizable user interfaces that will only serve to irk users. I dislike unneeded icons cluttering my chat programs and instead, prefer Google Talk’s simple and minimalistic outlook. Downloading it is also a cinch, and it won’t take up an awful lot of space on your hard drive. Right now, they have yet to provide video conferencing features but I’m already very satisfied with their text and voice messaging capabilities. After signing in to Google Talk, you can personalize your chat experience by adding your own Buddy Picture. You are free to upload photos in jpg, gif, bmp or png formats.

MegaMeeting - the leader in Web Collaboration

admin — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 15:26:56 +0000

How long have you been dreaming of a unique and universal web collaboration tool that allows web meeting organization and collaboration in solving up-to-date tasks, share documents and edit them on-line and organize a communication via video and audio channels together and in real time? Time has come to stop all your searches for a video conference product and put an end to your dreams as now you will be introduced to a revolutionary Web Meeting System called MegaMeeting.com!

The intuitive interface and easy connectivity of the product opens new horizons for everyone who wants to gain more from organizing conferences and share expertise with colleagues and employees as well. All you need is a broadband access to the Internet and just a computer - doesn’t matter what Operating System you have installed as Megameeting software works on Windows, MacOS and Linux.

All in all, if you want to have the best web meeting software in addition to PM software installed on your computer - MegaMeeting is the right choice.