Jonathan Fletcher Music

This blog system is way better than the ones included with MySpace, Blogger, or Facebook!

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Dealing with computers I get asked what the best software is pretty often. Well, seriously most of it is legally free software or software that DID NOT come packaged with Windows. Here are some quality recommendations.

Web Browser: Mozilla Firefox

Firefox is an alternative to Internet Explorer. Major advantages to Firefox include Tabbed Browsing (years before Internet Explorer 7), Spell Checking, Search Suggestions, integrated RSS feed reading, Phishing Protection, Secure password manager, and more. Even better is the ability to add over 2000 add-ons for the browser all free of charge. I will write an article about the best Firefox extensions soon.

Anti-virus: AVG / Anti-spy: Spybot

There are tons of Anti-THIS and Anti-THAT applications to choose from. Unfortunately, many of these "anti" programs are problematic themselves, bringing viruses, adware, spyware, and malware with them. Put your trust in AVG for Anti-Virus and Spybot for Adware and Spyware prevention: You will be pleased with the high level of security and your system performance utilizing these choices over Norton or McAffee.

Best Audio and Video: Winamp / Quiktime Alternative / Real Alternative

Winamp plays MP3s, streaming internet radio (http://shoutcast.com), and various video formats (divx, wma, xvid, avi, more) with good quality and very little system resource. Quiktime Alternative is for those of us that do not own an iPod or Quik subscription service, or simply do not wish to have iTunes. It enables us to watch QuikTime files without installing the official cluttered QuikTime media player. Real alternative plays Real media files without the need for the official cluttered player with Real Media guide that makes the official program a poor performer..

Clean Windows: CCleaner

CCleaner will clean Windows of temporary files and other clutter, like traces of history and usage. It also comes with an integrated registry cleaner to fix problems that Windows may be having. Keeping Windows clean with CCleaner will help it run both better and faster.

Defrag: Diskeeper Lite

After many various versions of Windows, one thing has definitely been neglected for improvement: Windows Defrag. Defragging will make your hard drive live longer and read faster causing Windows to run better. Try Diskeeper to speed Windows up.

Acrobat Alternative: Cool PDF Reader

It is wise to have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed just to read PDF files but it is terrible for system performance, security vulnerabilities, and upgrades. Cool PDF will read PDF files much quicker and just as well.

Microsoft Office alternative: OxygenOffice Professional

OxygenOffice is a great free alternative to the costly Microsoft Office suite (valued at $500). OOP will read and write Microsoft Word, Excel, Access, and Powerpoint formats. Few of the extras you get with OxygenOffice Professional: Clip Art (currently more than 2,900 objects), Templates, Samples, and Fonts (more than 90 fonts).

More to Come :)

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Here, we will explain the key differences between the MySpace, Blogger, and Wordpress blog engines to gather a better understanding of possible differences between the options.

There are many blogging services offering features of their own, ranging in complexity and professionalism. Many sites all over the interact are converting to blog engines, due to the simplicity, professionalism, and structured organization. Blogs can be used for personal diaries, link directories, electronic magazines, estores, adult marketing, and more.

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MySpace: 

The MySpace engine does offer useful resources like font customization (font, size, color), indentions, character inserts, hyper linking, image linking, categories, and podcast enclosures. It also comes equipped with personal amusement such as smiley charts, current moods, privacy, comments, and is able to display what you are listening to in a marketing manner. However, advanced customization can not be added via the MySpace interface or HTML hacks.

Blogger:

Blogger offers more advanced features than the MySpace blog, or many other alternative choices for that matter. Templates can be customized via HTML code. Most template designs are very simple and do not offer full screen support or two column layouts. Blogger does support HTML widgets. Posing options are very comparable to the MySpace editor, however Blogger does offer bullets and numbering. Advanced features include photo uploading with advanced editing options like alignment. Video uploads are also supported, but Blogger does not allow video linking. Blogger is recommended for those that would like more than MySpace offers and less than our next presentation: Wordpress.

Wordpress: 

Techtronic is hosted via the Wordpress engine. The reason we chose the Wordpress engine over other alternatives is simple: there is total control over presentation and features. The average user can create a free account at http://wordpress.com, or more advanced users owning their own servers can download the Wordpress engine and many customizations for free at http://wordpress.org. Features of the hosted Wordpress account include:

• All accounts come stocked with over 60 themes 
• Posting features include Spell-check, Previews, Autosave, Words, Photos, and Videos 
• Integrated stats system which gives you up-to-the-minute stats on how many people are visiting your blog, where they’re coming from, which posts are most popular, and which search engine terms are sending people to your blog. 
• Automatic Spam Protection with Askimet 
• Privacy Options, including Members-Only Blogs 
• The ability to import from Blogger, TypePad, LiveJournal, and More 
• Sidebar Widgets for Flickr, del.icio.us, Meebo, and More 
• Multiple Blogs and Multiple Authors

Self-hosted versions of Wordpress include the ability to create or upload custom templates, the ability to create or upload custom widgets or HTML toys, and more.

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