Dan Murphy's Blog

Mozilla released the new version of Firefox in beta today.  If you are interested in what exactly is in the release they have a full listing at Mozilla.  Some of the nice new features include:

• Added security including phishing filters and Anti-Virus integration
• Easier password management
• Easier add-on installation
• Resume-able Downloading
• Full Page Zoom
• Faster
• Less Memory
• Ability to star items and dynamic favorites menu is automatically created as your browse
• Improved graphics and font rendering

For your average user they may not spot these updates immediately but just playing around with it for a while I noticed that there was a significant pickup in speed and its nice to see some of the options that drive me nuts be addressed (password management)

This program is great, my webhost has this built in but for sites that don’t this is a must have.  With the Windows version you can download it and unzip it, then put the .log file in the same folder and then jump to command prompt and type Webalizer [log file] and it will generate your log stats in almost no time flat.  To view the results you just go to that folder in the web and look at the index.html file. 

Of the many portable apps that I keep installed on my pen drive and use on a daily basis I love Keepass probably the most.  This one is great because it easily organizes and stores you passwords, usernames, and URLs for all the accounts that you have.  It then encrypts these all into a local file.  Only thing is you must remember the original password to unlock the file!  This is great for remembering the 500 email accounts you have as well as everyone in your family’s wireless information that you setup and all the web hosting passwords and usernames I have to remember.  Some other portable apps I tend to use a lot are: PuTTY, WinSCP, Open Office, Firefox, and Thunderbird.  All are light weight and fit on a pen drive no problem.

Well today my favorite blogging tool is out of beta and ready for the prime time.  This application has let me increase my blogging ability by oh say 500% because it is just so much easier now.  Also it lets you manage multiple sites.  There are very few major differences in the beta and the final other then a heap of bug fixes and some extra features that well I just don’t use that much.  So go out and grab the latest version today!

Well looks like FastStone has decided after version 5.3 to make this software shareware and lock up after 30 days.  This is version 5.3 which is free for private use according to their rules.  I use this program a ton and love it because it is super light and always running and allows users to select exactly what they want to copy to the clipboard.  You can have it copy to the clipboard or you can have it create a .jpg or open an editor, it does just about everything you could think about.

Click here to download the zip file

So when I read that Mozilla created the Prism project I really couldn’t think of a valid application as I could just have tabs in Firefox always open.  Well I have found a use for it and it is for streaming website’s like Pandora or Jango, so they always have their own browser window and I don’t have to worry about accidentally closing it and interrupting my music while I work.  Isn’t technology great?

Sometimes I find myself coming across strange file formats I want to convert and converters aren’t always free.  It just so happens this one is and has no limit on the lines you want to convert.  It will take a .DBF file and convert it to .TXT, .XLS, .CSV and a bunch of others.  This came in super handy especially for our statistics project.  Here is their official web page

Kexi
There have been a lot of people over the last few months who have been quite clear in stating that they do not feel Open Office Base is a solid replacement for Microsoft’s Access. My answer to these individuals is to look into Kexi instead. It offers a solid, consistent UI, an active community of users and a future that looks pretty darn bright to me. I see this cross-platform data management application as a means of freeing your company from an otherwise expensive alternative.

VirtualDub
Video editing for Windows is certainly not limited to the Windows Movie Maker. VirtualDub allows its users a clean, user –friendly tool to capture, edit and produce their videos without sacrificing quality or spending any money on an application with unneeded features. Thanks to VirtualDub, which rovides decent documentation and frequent revisions, this is one of the better, yet lesser known open source video editing applications for the Windows OS.

WinMerge
Personally, I am shocked that this program is not OEM released into every Windows desktop released from the factory floor. WinMerge does a fantastic job at helping to manage projects, making sure that the data inside the file is always the newest, not just the file itself. For example, take two of the same files and use the program to compare them. You’ll see, instantly, using colors to guide you, which syntax has changed and which is missing from one file vs. another. This is a have must for programmers and web designers.

Pentaho BI Suite
Business intelligence is not a minor issue for most companies – having a solid open source application that can legitimately compete with the big boys is nothing to sneeze at. Pentaho Open BI Suite provides businesses with enterprise class tools to help in this critical data gathering. Reporting, analysis, dashboards and process management: the Pentaho suite does it all.

I don’t know how I missed this one on my blog.  This program is an awesome time saver and super light weight.  Also with the new version you can do math and stuff right in the window without having to launch calculator.  Very handy and pretty much the only way I launch programs any more for Windows.

If you are in the need of a light weight photo editor that is easy to use and cross platform XnView makes for a good option.  It gives you some of the quick editing features I have only been able to find in Photoshop which is um…not free.  Also I find that the gimp can be clunky for quick photo editing.  It allows you to change formats and edit meta tags easily as well.