Above are some college girls trying to do the GREEK thing, but looking more like geeks.
I am not a geek. I wish I were, but even as I am not very
bright, I am very lazy. So, I just sit
back, and enjoy the great work others do.
It is not different from when I read a good book on gardening and then apply
what I learn to my yard. You read a
little, and then adapt it your needs. I know
I should test my soil more often. I only
have to drop it off at Clemson, and the garden geeks send back a report
explaining exactly what to add here and there for only $5. Still, most years I tend to ‘wing it’ and
probably add too much of this and that and let the plants tell me. That is a season wasted though. Next year I promise my yard to retest everything.
I play like that on computers. I just read what the computer geeks are up to
and adapt it to my needs. I can’t
remember all that stuff, but when any question arises, all that is needed is to
search the web. You can be sure that
many 15 year olds have had the same problem and gone to 12 year olds who solve
the problem. Kids are like me; they play
with their toys (computer) and tear them up all the time to see what is inside
just like I did as a kid with the wind up car.
We were as smart, but our toys did not challenge us as much.
Like most of you, I can stop off at Sarah
Palin’s house or a library in Little
Rock
In the past, much of this has been on a
great program called PORTABLE APPS. I
highly recommend it. I set up a key for
my Bride, and she will tell you that her office computer was no longer able to
restrict or monitor what ever she wanted to do.
This week I found a better one, and I feel
like I should share.
Most people don’t realize that Bill Gates
did not make his fortune off computers.
He did it selling software. A
computer is just a paper weight until you put software in it. Software can cost millions. Really, it can – if you buy from people I
admire like Bill Gates. I have bought
his stuff in the past, and will in the future.
Computers a like a big game. When things don’t work as you expect, the puzzle
begins. I love that! I suppose it is why I never got into
games. The basic computer entertains me
to no end. I admit I am kinda slow, but
poking at it is very entertaining. To really poke, you need software to poke
with, and to poke at, and like I said – it can be very expensive.
Lucky for me and you, many 12 year olds,
and many experts from places like Clemson, see it all as a playground and put
out tons of free stuff.
I said “many”, but it is more than that. People all around the world work on this stuff,
and the results are excellent! There is
no way even Bill Gates could ever hire this many ‘motivated’ geeks. You can run a very efficient computer with
only open source (free) stuff. You can
even jump in and add to or build your own stuff to share. Many favorite programs I use all the time are
free, and I prefer them over many of the things I paid for. In fact, many of the geeks who work for
places like Microsoft and Apple play with these as a hobby.
To get back to the main thought, below is a
site like Portable Apps, but on steroids.
You can download a LOT of free software with just a few clicks, and it
will install itself, and update itself if you choose, so why not?
It is designed to run on a thumb drive, but
if you are new to free software, just install it on your ‘C’ drive and have fun
exploring it all. I don’t see any reason
why it would not work installed on a cd or dvd, but why bother. The download for the ULTIMATE (get that) is
about 200MB. That means you will have to
wait up till 2A.M. if you on satellite like me, but the download took only
about 25 minutes, and the set up was - well a 12 year old could do it.
Get this, and explore all these great
programs. It will be more fun than the
video game you are playing, or rewatching RAYMOND for the 15th time. (I like Ray, “YEA RAYMOND”)
A few of my favorite programs are not
included in the download, but easy to add from the site. That would be things like OPEN OFFICE (I am writing
now on that), GIMP, IRFANVIEW, and a few more.
VLC does come with the initial download and I prefer it over anything
you can buy. I sure wish they could add WINAMP though.
Give it a try. It is free, safe, very useful, and a lot of fun. Plus, then your thumb drive will be nearly as good as the one YardCrap (me) uses, but without the HONEYMOONERS. I could tell you how to add that, but I don’t want to alert the FBI as they would sweat me to give up the names of the teenagers who teach me, and I would never do that.
Go here and get this - email me if you have a problem.
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