Software • Buzzsonic.com

Archive for the "Software" Category

Apr5

Essential Digital Tools For The Music Office Part 1

Posted at 11:19 AM • One Comment

I was looking at the hard-drive on my laptop yesterday in an effort to try and clear up some clutter so I made an issue of listing all the software apps I actually use on a regular basis and dumped all the ones I never use.

I’m a software junkie I guess so I collect a lot of novelty apps that I dont need at all

Publishing Online

First and foremost one of my most useful online ‘apps’ (well its not actually an app as such, more a service) is my webhosting account. For anyone experimenting with various websites as I do a hosting account is absolutely essential.

Just for the record I choose a Hostgator reseller account (though there are thousands of companies out there offering similar services) which gives me the capacity to host hundreds of websites all with their own online control panels and with a whole bunch of storage space and very generous bandwidth.

One of the most useful aspects of my webhosting account is the fact that I can have a new blog or website online within minutes, literally. Hostgator are one of the many webhosting companies that use an online script installer called Fantastico. You access Fantastico via an online control panel, called CPanel (what else?) and it will install a selection of free scripts with just a couple of clicks basically.

Those scripts include blog/content management systems like WordPress, Joomla, Mambo, Geeklog and Drupal (amongst others). I choose WordPress simply because it has a massive support network, free plugins and themes and its easy to learn and manage.

So an artist management company with multiple bands could have separate blogs installed for each artist in minutes. And sites can be updated from any browser, anywhere. I swear by WordPress, this blog is hosted on that platform and I have used it for almost four years now.

Extra Blogging Tools

I use Windows Live Writer to write posts offline and also the Live Writer Firefox plugin that enables me to quickly write a post on a page I might be viewing if I’m online. If you use Flickr for image hosting then I recommend the Flickr Uploadr app which sits on your desktop and enables you to simply drag images from your hard drive into your Flickr account. Windows Live Writer has the ability to insert Flickr images at a snap too.

RSS Tools

I’ll scan feeds daily to look for inspiration and ideas and the RSS tools I use most are FeedDemon as my main desktop reader, Sage for browsing in Firefox and Google Reader online. Sync all three accounts by exporting all your feeds in an OPML file onto your desktop then importing the feeds into your other readers. If I can get my head round that then so can you! Here’s some YouTube help.

Audio Video Tools

For Torrent files I use UTorrent, for ripping audio and video from web pages I use Orbit. Uploading music to sell online? Then you’ll want an MP3 encoder that’s better quality than the encoder built into iTunes. CDex is a freebie that uses the acclaimed Lame encoder and will also rip to the higher quality Ogg format.

If you want to do simple audio editing (ringtones, mp3 editing) then Audacity is another great free tool with multiple uses like simple recording or encoding old vinyl and cassettes into digital files. There’s even a VST plugin. I use it in particular to try out drum breaks as it has a really neat looping function.

Ripping DVDs? I swear by Magic DVD Ripper used in conjunction with the Cheetah DVD burner. Hey, they’re not system hogs and they just do what it says on the tin.

Related Reading

10 Must Have Office Apps (ReadWriteWeb)
Software-Hack The Day (HackTheDay.com)
Downloads (Lifehacker.com)

Mar22

Invasion Of the Comment Spam Bots

Posted at 2:00 PM • No Comments

Since the blog makeover a couple of weeks ago I’ve been bombarded by comment spam for some reason. Its one of the things that makes blogging work and not fun. So, I finally activated Askimet (Automattic Kismet to give it its full name) on my WordPress install (didn’t really pay attention to it before for some reason?). Its actually working wonders right now and since activating the plug-in its halted more than 2,200 of the most bloodcurdlingly despicable types of spam you can imagine that up to now I’ve been having to edit manually daily.

Askimet comes installed by default in Word Press but you have to activate it in the Plugins area in your admin area and get a free APi key. A five minute task that’ll save you hours of work weekly.

Related Links

Askimet FAQ ( Askimet)

Mar20

Google Buys Data Visualization Software

Posted at 1:55 PM • No Comments

Late last week Google quietly acquired data visualization software tool, Trendalyzer from its parent company, Gapminder. They are already making the tool available for free here and the software developers have moved into Google’s Mountain View HQ.

Trendalyzer generates moving graphics and other novel effects in the display of facts, figures, and statistics in presentations.

The Official Google Blog reports, “We hope to provide the resources necessary to bring such work to its deserved wider audience by improving and expanding Trendalyzer and making it freely available to any and all users capable of thinking outside the X and Y axes.”

via Paid Content

Related Reading
A Word In Motion (Official Google Blog)

Mar12

Power Up Your Business Email With GMail

Posted at 10:16 PM • No Comments

I mentioned the Gmail for your domain service back in July last year and things have moved along nicely since and now come under the umbrella of Google Apps which include being able to offer users all the features of Google email and Calendar, Docs and Spreadsheets branded with your own domain name. The Google Apps Premier Edition sign ups remain free until the end of April so its a great service for clubs, schools, small enterprise and groups in either the premier (with 10gb email space per account) or the freebie edition.

Add extra POP3 email checking to your Gmail

Another new-ish feature for Gmail users (or at least some accounts, its still in beta, naturally) is the ability to download POP3 mail from other email accounts. In particular this could be useful if you own a few domain names and need to be able to send and receive mail from several accounts all in one place. At the moment you can add a further five POP3 accounts to your Gmail account. Used in conjunction with Gmail Manager its saving me a bunch of time by alerting me to not only my Gmail accounts but email from five separate domain names too.

To check if the extra POP3 features have been activated on your account open up your Gmail, go to Setting>Accounts> and look for “Get mail from other accounts (download mail using POP3)”. Its worth shelling out the $5.99 it costs for a domain name from somewhere like 1and1 to plug it in to your Gmail account to get all the benefits of the Google service but with your own personal name.

Mar10

Flickr4Writer Adds to Live Writer Usability

Posted at 3:17 PM • No Comments

I’m toggling between using Windows Live Writer for posting right now vs. using the Performancing Firefox add-on ScribeFire. Though for the last two days the Live Writer has been crashing everytime I try to add an image to the post. After losing two hours work yesterday I was on the brink of dumping the app completely and returning to ScribeFire.Having second thoughts Writer is simply fuller featured and offers things like the ability to add images to posts (ScribeFire doesn’t) and preview the post in your blog before publishing (much like WordPress does in the admin panel), two features I cant really do without.

Also ScribeFire doesn’t seem to have a minimize option so you either have to put up with it hogging the bottom of your screen, or you save and close. Obtrusive and I hate obtrusive, its what sends me rushing to the delete option!

Anyway, the crashing. Until I find the conflict (it used to work fine) I found an excellent plug-in which works around the problem Flickr4Writer.

Flickr4Writer is a simple plugin for Windows Live Writer that enables you to browse Flickr and insert an image from Flickr into a Writer post. The project is part of CodePlex, Microsoft’s open source project hosting web site.

Mar10

MySpace Toolbar Timesaver

Posted at 2:38 PM • No Comments

I have three MySpace profiles, one for my latest music project, one to network my travel site and one which acts as an archive for my old bands music. My latest music profile (the 99th Floor Elevators) is the most active and has proved great for networking and making new contacts in that field.

I actually hate manually visiting MySpace daily so a neat ‘shortcut’ is to install the unofficial MySpace Firefox toolbar which is unobtrusive enough and enables you to quickly toggle between profile pages, messages and the like. The toolbar auto hides when the MySpace page is closed. One thing the toolbar is lacking is the ability to log-in to multiple accounts, that would make it even handier.

Related Links
Download Unofficial MySpace Toolbar (Mozilla.org)
MySpace Toolbar Home (Freewebs.com)

Mar9

Firefox With 100 Extensions Installed !

Posted at 10:48 PM • No Comments

There’s me rambling on about Firefox extensions in my last post then I stumble across this lunatic (with too much time on his hands?) who installed the top 100 Firefox extensions on his browser. Amazingly it still worked.

Firefox With 100 Extensions Installed @ Flickr

Mar7

Eleven Killer WordPress Hacks

Posted at 11:46 PM • No Comments

I’ve been using the blogging software WordPress for around three years now and in all of that time there really is nothing to touch it. Why? Its free (Open Source), it has a massive user base and support network, plug-ins, mods, widgets and themes galore, oh and did I mention it doesn’t cost a penny?

Of course free doesn’t always mean great but in this case, you get what you don’t pay for. I have tried literally hundreds of mods over the years, different themes/skins and modifications. Basically I like to tinker and I think I’m getting closer to my ideal WordPress install (at least for my needs).

Buzzsonic.com (as of today) runs on WordPress v2.0.2, so its not the latest install (which is v2.1.2). Anyway, I thought I’d list my top ten (or eleven!) modifications which I’m finding the most useful right now. This could well change soon but these are what I consider the most useful WordPress mods.

1. Glossy Blue Theme- For a simple, quick overhaul of the default WordPress look this neat two column Web 2.0-ish looking theme is one of the easiest ways to get a cool looking make-over. A close second was Glued Ideas Subtle which you might go for if you prefer a three column look. Honorable mentions go to Misty Look and Semiologic (I’m using an older install of this theme here). Read the rest of this entry »

Mar6

Linux Challenger For Outlook Ported to Windows

Posted at 4:07 PM • No Comments

Stan Beer at Australian IT blog IT Wire today talks about a Windows version of Evolution the Linux desktop alternative to Microsoft Outlook.

“Evolution for Windows exists, it’s easy to install and it works! No sooner had the ink dried on an article I had penned bemoaning the fact that OpenOffice.org on the Windows platform does not include an equivalent to Microsoft’s Outlook, when a poster pointed me to a very exciting non-project.” Reports Beer.

Good tip. I’ve been happy with Thunderbird for around three years now but have started to miss having a built in calendaring client. So, this morning I added Lightning, the Thunderbird calendar extension (actually based on the stand-alone Firebird client) and downloaded Evolution for Windows to try both out. Both options seem less daunting than exporting my Thunderbird settings and mail back into Outlook.

Early impressions favor Lightning for me as Evolution for Windows is still very buggy right now with hung screens and such but its worth a look for early adopters and beta testers.

Jul20

Keeping Passwords Safe With KeePass

Posted at 8:05 PM • No Comments

Here’s a neat piece of software that I discovered care of Gina Trapani’s excellent weekly tipsheet ‘Geek To Live’ at Lifehacker.

If you’re like me you probably have a stack of passwords and log-ins hidden away in secure .doc files, scraps of paper and the like. Alternatively you can keep a secure and searchable database to retrieve those hard to remember passwords without compromising security using the free, open source software application KeePass.