E-Sword

This is truly one of my favourite programs of all time.

I’m someone who LOVES technology, I also LOVE finding all the deeper meanings and jewels in scripture, so if a program can combine the two it’s a MUST have for me. E-Sword is a remarkable system in that it breaks open the true meaning of scripture (well, as far as technology and the help of commentaries, dictionaries, Bible Translations, etc can do this).

I have told MANY people about it and it is really such a great tool to use. What’s nice for me is the many features it has making studying the Bible EASY – and to make it even better – its FREE.

Rick Meyers – the guy who wrote the program – really puts Jesus’ words into action of “Freely you received, freely give.”

It is VERY USER FRIENDLY. As you click on a verse, it will automatically bring up all the commentaries of many different authors on the right. If you were to click on a specific word, it would bring up all the different dictionaries explaining this word at the bottom.

Since you can install many bible translations, commentaries and dictionaries, it really becomes a feature rich applications. One of the features I like is to put a few bible translations next to each other to get a deeper understanding on what is being said.

You can also install maps and many other tools which will help you understand the context better.

I really like the fact that if you hover over a word in the KJV+ translation, then you will see the original Greek / Hebrew, depending on which part of the Bible you are in. (Making it easy for the normal man on the street – like myself – to understand what was actually said and meant by each verse.)

GO AHEAD and download it now!! Make sure to grab all the add-ons as well. It’s really an “eye opener” on the Word. Get it HERE.

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Plaxo

I always had the following problem… SYNCHRONIZING!! Trying to sync all my contacts and calendars from all my different sources. It’s SUCH a mission to do this.

I tried different methods, even a few online solutions, but was never happy until I found the new Plaxo version. I must be honest, one of the solutions I tried a few years ago was Plaxo, and I was not very impressed, but from those early years they have come a LONG way.

The other thing I like about Plaxo is that all your data is available anywhere where you have internet access (for those times you leave your phone at home or don’t have your computer with you).

Contacts:
They make it really easy to sync your contacts from different sources. I sync my outlook, Gmail and hotmail accounts. (Sometimes Gmail does not sync well – but this is due to Gmail not allowing outside sources to update its data) What is also nice is once you have connected to someone else on Plaxo and they change their details, you will have their updated information immediately.

Calendar:
Finally I can add appointments to any of my different calendars and know that I will see it when I go into any of my Calendar clients (obviously I must have synced it all first).

Pulse:
With pulse you can share all the interesting things you find on the internet, including your Picasa Web albums, things on flickr, YouTube videos, your blogs and much more. There is even a client you can install on your computer which will give you updates on all of this.

Mobile:
I sync my mobile phone with outlook, so I have my contacts and calendar entries of the calendars I choose to sync with, with me all the time. I know their is also a mobile client for Plaxo, but the last time I had a look you had to pay.

Well, for my use and needs Plaxo is just what I needed and the new look and feel gives you the idea that they will keep on upgrading their services for years to come.

I you need to sync your calendars perfectly, I would recommend you download Plaxo here.

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VLC media player

When you watch video clips on your laptop or computer regularly, you often find issues with it. A few days ago my wife and I ran into some troubles again… the lip-sync was TOTALLY out. It was one of those moments where you would hear what's going to happen about 5 seconds in advance… SUPER irritating.

I then remembered that I had VLC installed but I don’t often use it to watch video clips. I decided to give it a go again and it was AMAZING. The lip-sync problem was TOTALLY gone and we could enjoy the rest of what we were watching. I later saw an article where someone said it’s their default video player, and I’m slowly but surely starting to be convinced. It’s really great.

Some technical stuff: VLC media player is a the cross-platform (meaning it works with most operating systems) media player and streaming server. It is also open source, so lots of programmers put some FREE time into it to add many features and to make it work better.

It plays various audio and video formats (MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, mp3, ogg, ...) as well as DVDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols. It can also be used as a server to stream in unicast or multicast in IPv4 or IPv6 on a high-bandwidth network.

If I was you I would give it a go. It’s really very good, FREE and gets rid of lip-sync issues :)

Download it here.

Picasa

My wife and I LOVE to take photos :) No really… we are like Japanese tourists when it comes to photos (as the saying goes).

Because of that we have TONS of photos. For our Honeymoon alone we had about 1450 photos and for our December twelve day holiday close to 800. So obviously we needed a way to look for sorting it, finding it and sharing it.

I then came across Picasa, which is a free application to do just what I wanted to AND MORE. It has plug-ins which one can install which will add lots of other functions, but more about that in a later article. For now lets look at the main features.

Sort and Organize
You can either view photos by the folder they are in or you can create albums. The nice thing about this is that one photo can also be in more than one album without having to make a copy. You can also add captions and much more. You can also do certain searches on photos you have, which then makes it easy to find.

Share
You can easily upload your photos to Picasa Web Albums, Blogger or even Facebook in order to share it with your friends. Facebook sharing is an add-on I will blog about in feature.

Edit
You can also edit your photos: the typical rotate, fixing red eyes, cropping and some more advanced effects like getting rid of scratches and problems on the actual photo. There are much more you can do with Picasa which really makes it my choice of photo organizing software.

Be Creative
For those who have more time to be creative you can even create slide-shows, movies, collages. We usually use Picasa to show our friends all our trigger happy shots from our last trips.

I think you will really enjoy this application. Since its free you’ve got nothing to loose really :) Get it here.

Photo Fun

You will LOVE this!

I will talk about two online sites where you can have FREE fun with photos. You remember a while back you could mms your photo to some server and they would return a warped image of the original. Well – this is ALMOST the same idea, just WAY more fun and WAY more advanced.

Its very cool and I love sending photos like these to people I know. Please note that some of the photo effects I don’t approve of – but there are MANY nice ones you can use.

The first one is called
Fun Photo Box. I only discovered this one today and will shortly send my wife a nice new image.

There are SO many effects to choose from and apparently it will grow every week.

I’ve had SO much fun with online applications like these.
Basically ALL you do is:
- Select an effect you want.
- Upload your personal photo.
- Let it create the new image.

 

The second one I will introduce you to is PhotoFunia. This was actually the first site I ran into which did this.

They also have many options and it works pretty much in the same way Fun Photo Box does.

We’ve had quite a few people laugh at these funny effects.

So if you wish, go make someone’s day and sent then a picture from Fun Photo Box or PhotoFunia.

Remote Control my Laptop

Have you ever wanted to remote control your laptop.

Well, I knew this was possible but never really gave it a second thought… …until my wife and I started watching Prison Break on the Laptop. We plug it into the TV for better viewer experience. The thing is the Laptop is JUST too far to reach and I would LOVE to pause the episode now and again.

After having to run to the Laptop every few minutes I decided to get a remote for my laptop. I thought of buying a Wii console and then write an application for it until a friend of mine reminded me about free Bluetooth applications over your phone.

I did a Google search and found THIS site. 

Basically with this software, you will be able to control remotely your desktop mouse, Winamp, iTunes, Windows Media Player, PowerDVD etc. You can also set it up tp pause your favourite music software when the phone rings, then resume play when you hang up. In future you’ll also be able to add your own application.

This Bluetooth remote control application is definitely in the lines of what I was looking to get and can’t wait to test it the next time my wife and I want to pause an episode.

Free Microsoft tools

I came across a free list of windows software for Microsoft. You can view it here.