Can you imagine world with out computers? Our tasks, businesses, communication and what not will be mashed. Right!? To run computer we use various kinds of softwares to ease our workloads.

Every business to using computers to enhance their profit would definitely look for the best software they can get, and for that they pay huge amount of money. Well they are not doing any kind foolishness, but, meanwhile there are free softwares available that can be used as a substitute of the costly one.

Yes, I am talking about free or lower prized software easily available on net, which are also dressed up with almost the same facilities, provided some the major software companies.

Ignorance leads people to spend massive amount on software, as there are substitute for almost every single category of applications, which is being used on a daily basis.

There are lots of programs out there that can do the job almost without spending a single penny. However, people think that only popular/branded products such as from Microsoft, Symantec, Adobe and many more are significant.

In fact, our minds are not set to use other software made by small or middle sized companies, as it in state if it’s free that it’s not that good enough for them.

Hundreds of Office Suite, Antivirus Software, shareware, Firewalls, System Maintenance Tools, CD Burning Software and freeware files are accessible on net, but because we acknowledge only major products.

You can easily find website, providing free downloads for software of nearly every kind. Just use “free software download” for your search and you will receive list of numerous websites.

This article is my sincere effort to stimulate people that there are several high-quality free programs out there on the internet that can do the same task as a commercially available program but without that expensive price tag.

Paras Yadav: Web content and article writer.

http://web-content-writing.blogspot.com/

Somewhere in the mid 90’s, my company, Brook Group, underwent rapid growth as it converted from being an advertising and design firm to a web services firm. We were running 3 shifts at the time and we only had one manager: me. Coming from a design background, I had a lot of (sometimes very difficult) lessons to learn about technology projects and managing folks who make technology products.

I imagined a way for me to post tasks for each employee without knowing HTML, to make managing the late night folks easier. My programmer created it and the lightbulb went on. Wouldn’t it be great if we could create a series of these types of widgets to allow any user to post content to the web without knowing HTML? And that is when Tacklebox, my enterprise content management system, was born.

I have survived building 4 versions of Tacklebox, the latest of which was actually launched. I learned these lessons the hard way and I want to share them with anyone tackling that sort of project. Think of this as a fundamental, practical, elementary guide to building a software product.

1. Patience is a Virtue. If you are starting from scratch and you are not well-funded, and you plan on bootstrapping the development effort, realize that patience is a virtue.

2. Know thyself. This means know your limitations. If you don’t know how to do software product development and you are bootstrapping and starting from scratch, get people involved who do know how to do software development, product development, project management, product pricing, product marketing… You be the entrepreneur, idea person, but don’t try to head everything up yourself; you will fail out of the gate.

3. Make Something. Don’t go to Venture Capital folks or potential partners with a flip chart and a pitch that sounds something like, "This is going to be really cool"… VCs want to see a working product. And do not go to VCs too early; you might lose your chance to get funded because you haven’t done your homework.

4. Plan. Plan. Plan. Start the project with a plan. It can have basic elements like what this product is going to fix, what is the business problem, who is the audience, and on several levels, why it will be better than the competition? And yes, you do have competition.

5. Get the Right People involved. Whether you’re hiring or looking for a partner, two guys in a garage are not the best choice for building a software product. Sometimes those two guys in a garage dress up good. Maybe they move into an office space and start a company like real grownups. You had better make sure you can identify the difference between a real company and two guys in a garage that just graduated. Ask them if they have business insurance, errors and omissions insurance; ask them for Service Level Agreements. Talk to them about CMM levels.

6. Don’t use proprietary anything to build your software. You’ll be tied to that proprietary code forever, or it will cost you a small fortune to have it removed from your source code.

7. Independents are independent. They will hold you hostage one day. Don’t hire independents to build your product. If you hire a team to build your product, focus on hiring "company people."

8. 95% of your success will come from hiring the right and best people, 5% by training people. Don’t hire to train, unless you have the best and brightest around to do the training, and a multi-year commitment from those who are getting trained that they will stick around!

9. A caution about partnering. You don’t want your intellectual capital sitting in the brain of a contractor. Make sure that whatever you do, you own your source code outright. You need to hire the right people and make sure that their knowledge — your capital — stays at home.

10. Always learn from your mistakes. Sometimes we joke about when we are going to stop learning lessons the hard way. Probably never, but make sure you learn each mistake, so you don’t repeat it. And just when you think it’s safe, new ones will be right around the corner.

Kara Brook is the President and CEO of Brook Group, a Web site development firm near Washington, DC. Recognizing the need for user-friendly Web site management, she conceived Tacklebox, one of the industry’s most exciting new content management systems. More articles by this author can be found at Usability and Branding.

The educational software which was especially designed to give a response to the modern necessity includes two services accessible for both disabled persons or students generally: the electronic textbook which usually includes the same information conveyed by a standard printed textbook and interactive educational software.This is the reason why , to a student software education is an answer to many problems.

Description for Electronic Textbooks

We can speak nowadays of these above mentioned electronic textbooks which can diminish the disadvantage encountered by students who require braille textbooks.Why is that? Generally because a serious flaw exist in the production of the braille textbooks:there are many students who ask for these textbooks specialized as educational material for blind children but the production series is completed long after classes begin. There is a logical explanation for these as decisions on what textbook should be used in class are made quite late and there are no electronic files to create the braille version.This can be applied in the case of math or any other scientifically subject as people who know the Nemeth Code the braille code for math are less every year.

Some of the disabled students are using audio taped books instead of the Braille version of the textbooks, but these have their flaws too as they entirely lack future references or some specific text mark which can enable students to go back to an explanation.This is why we can claim that for a student software education and electronic textbooks are a way to preserve the usage of the same materials in class as well as the guarantee that everybody receives it in first day of school.

Interactive Student Software

When we talk about the interactive educational software, we can talk about revolution as this allows some students can take advantage of some multimedia and experimental learning which are the only means they can use to prevent ignorance. I am now talking about students who suffer from blindness and for this type of student software education can be the only solution as they cannot be exposed to that great variety of proper environments for learning or experimenting.As an example we can name the simulations for chemistry experiments which could not have been known by blind persons in any other way.Some biology experiments can be understood better by the usage of some typical simulations rather than not having them at all.

It should not be necessary to mention that the students who suffer from a certain disability such as blindness could not benefit from proper services such as the software education some years ago. The technology used nowadays have made this product both accessible and suitable for these students. Many education programs for children use the poor and rudimentary visual patterns of counting and color shades association. We can understand why a blind child could not take advantage of this product. Nowadays there are some programs which can teach students the same patterns by using other techniques.

Yet which are also visual but better designed, based on a better contrast for colors and so on. For a student software education is a replique of the future and everlasting technological possibility and probability.

If you are a student, teacher or educational institution and you want to save a lot of money on software, just visit http://www.sprysoft.com for academic software and student software discounts.

If you search the ‘net for "Free Software" you’ll alway come up with links to the Free Software Foundation or something called a GNU, rather than software that doesn’t cost anything.

You see, "Free Software" it doesn’t always refer to software that is free of charge. It actually refers to the software being "Free" as in "Freedom" !

Just so that you understand the difference, here is the definition of free software from GNU.org

"A program is free software, for you, a particular user, if:

You have the freedom to run the program, for any purpose. You have the freedom to modify the program to suit your needs. (To make this freedom effective in practice, you must have access to the source code, since making changes in a program without having the source code is exceedingly difficult.)

You have the freedom to redistribute copies, either gratis or for a fee. You have the freedom to distribute modified versions of the program, so that the community can benefit from your improvements. Since "free" refers to freedom, not to price, there is no contradiction between selling copies and free software.

In fact, the freedom to sell copies is crucial: collections of free software sold on CD-ROMs are important for the community, and selling them is an important way to raise funds for free software development. Therefore, a program which people are not free to include on these collections is not free software.

Because of the ambiguity of "free", people have long looked for alternatives, but no one has found a suitable alternative. The English Language has more words and nuances than any other, but it lacks a simple, unambiguous, word that means "free," as in freedom–"unfettered," being the word that comes closest in meaning. Such alternatives as "liberated", "freedom," and "open" have either the wrong meaning or some other disadvantage."

"Free Software" is often but not always free-of-charge but it does have other benefits. Often the software is written by people who are doing it for the challenge or simply because they enjoy writing it, or to solve a particular problem, and this approach can produce really useful programs without the usual commercial undercurrent.

Also because the source code is normally freely available it is also likely that many people from the software community will have had a hand in the creation or debugging of the finished article.

More information and a large quantity of Free Software is available from www.sourceforge.net

Steve Blampied lives in Jersey in the Channel Islands and has been an independent IT consultant for around 10 years and has a small IT company in Jersey.

http://www.technology.je

He is currently putting together a web site solely about free software. http://www.freesoftwareadvice.com

Job advertisements in newspapers and on the internet asking for IT professionals usually tout large projects as the sole reason for wanting an IT professional in the first place. A programmer, system analyst or system tester must have had experience in large corporate projects and the larger the better.

Many businesses, in Australia at least, see IT departments as a liability and a necessary evil so as little money as necessary is thrown into IT infrastructure where other areas of a business, for example the Engineering Department or the Buyers Department, get inundated with large budgets. IT Departments have to justify their existence with staff time-sheets and charging internal clients for IT solutions.

Although grandiose back-slapping projects bring in the money and look good on a resume these projects do not necessarily improve the expediency with which a company does business. In fact large corporate systems can increase the workload where more data is required to be captured by the users, call centre staff and so on.

Throughout my consultancy career my main philosophy has been to improve the user’s or developer’s work environment by making their job easier. As well as large projects I have developed many small applications that took anywhere between 15 minutes to an hour to create but have saved employees anywhere between hours to months of hard tedious work. The accumulation of small time-saving applications can out-perform some of the larger projects when measuring productivity especially when used over and again exponentially increasing productivity within a company.

Those employees who benefit from many of these small applications are usually confined to the IT department itself where users have direct access to an IT professional who can put together a small custom application during their spare time. Those outside of the IT department though are usually left to their own devices and this is where end users and macro recordable office suites or keyboard capturing software comes into play.

What begins as simple macro instructions within an application built by an end user eventually become large complex and business critical applications held together with chewing gum and string. As news of the application spreads throughout the department more demands are made upon the hapless user who provided the solution and ergo their stress is increased as they maintain the original solution with all its additions whilst trying to cater for a stream of new requests. When a system grows to the point of being unmanageable the department can then justify the expense of a business case which the IT department will then accept, all too often though the business case specifies an upgrade of the original system, a band-aid solution as the ultimate solution, where a total rewrite is really the only solution.

There would be more control over such a situation if IT departments provided small applications for individuals and groups, and companies realised the benefits of incorporating the IT department more into its overall infrastructure instead of annexing it to the companies structure as if it were a parasitic necessity.

Duane Hennessy
Senior Software Engineer and Systems Architect.
Bandicoot Software
Tropical Queensland, Australia
(ABN: 33 682 969 957)

Productivity…No Stress!
http://www.bandicootsoftware.com.au

If you are like me before buying a product you will download and try lots of demo versions to find the software that fits best your needs. But with all this installing/unininstalling your hard drive becomes fragmented, your registry cluttered with unneeded information and your system performance degrades. Here are some programs which could help bring things back to normal.

Registry Washer
Registry Washer safely scan your entire Windows registry using Registry Washer robust searching algorithm for errors, any invalid entries and provides you with a list of all registry errors found, you can then choose to selectively clean each item or automatically repair them all. In addition with Registry Washer tools you can easily search inside your Windows registry, detect and manage Internet Explorer components installed on your machine and manage your windows start-up items with Registry Washer registry tools.

SpeedUpMyPC 2.0
Now, you can get a faster, cleaner, and safer PC within minutes - without being a Windows expert! SpeedUpMyPC automatically finds the best settings for your PC and carefully controls your system resources to give you the best performance. Easy to use, this award-winning utility has all the features you could ever need to clean up your system, monitor resources, and improve performance.

Smart PC
Smart PC makes your PC faster, error-free and more efficient!

By a few easy steps you can make your PC run faster, cleaner and error-free with the help of a new system tool Smart PC. The software fixes stubborn errors, cleans-up space-wasting junk and debris making your PC more efficient and reliable. Special features of the new software ensure your personal privacy while surfing through the Web and protect your PC from information theft.

And your benefits are:

Smart PC has 3 operation modes: Quick, Normal and Full varying from basic functionality to professional one. Smart PC allows you to make undo of any repairs so that you can easily recover any changes.

Are you ready to set up your computer on a proper mode in a blink of an eye?

For More Information:
Registry Washer: http://www.lightsparkle.com/product_page.php?product_id=299
SpeedUpMyPC 2.0: http://www.lightsparkle.com/product_page.php?product_id=15
Smart PC: http://www.lightsparkle.com/product_page.php?product_id=620

Joe Light runs an online collection of optimizing and diagnostic software at http://www.lightsparkle.com

The patterns of wind are interesting and take on the appearance of being so complex that many computer software scientists have previously thrown up their hands giving up in trying to mathematically predict it. Yet, we can predict it since we have formulas for much of what we know as fluid dynamics physics, we have laws and rules which are taught in higher math and physics classes through linear sets of equations, yet when we add additional variables and stack the data sets, somehow our minds having been taught a certain methodology of problem solving, rendering us to a conclusion that it is impossible to predict.

Not so, since currently with the use of computers, XML data bases, ESRI software and a better understanding of other complex systems and patterns which we have broken through, we now know it is not only possible, but known that we can predict wind patterns and depending on the number of variables taken into consideration we can be so accurate that we would know wind.

It seems as if many give up just before they figure it out. You see the wind and weather is nothing more than many interrelated yet separate patterns all coming together. Each one is simple by itself, but the huge number of variables make it seem impossible. Thankfully scientists now with super computers are making it all happen and soon weather prediction maybe as exact as looking at a calendar to see what the next day is. Think on this.

"Lance Winslow" - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

As access to the Internet becomes more widespread with faster, more reliable and ‘always on’ connections becoming the norm the growth of applications using the hosted application model continues to expand.

Although hosted applications will not suit every situation, or every customer, they offer many individuals and organizations, as well as the application manufacturers’ themselves, considerable benefits over the locally installed application.

What Is A Hosted Application?

A hosted application, also known as Internet-based application, web-based application, online application and Application Service Providers (ASPs) are software applications where the software resides on servers that are accessed through the Internet instead of the more traditional software that is installed on either a local server or on individual PC’s.

The thin client concept is nothing new but advances in Internet connectivity have allowed the application to move from a local server to a server on the Internet.

Example of hosted applications would be Salesforce.com that provides customer relationship management facilities, Netsuite offering all-in-one business management applications and SurveyGalaxy.com that provides their customers with an enterprise survey and questionnaires application.

What Are The Benefits?

Reduced costs, instant deployment, easier to maintain and reduced administration are among some of the main benefits.

Low Maintenance

With hosted applications the hardware and software is the responsibility of the vendor with the client only having to maintain access to the Internet. As there is no software to download a hosted application can be made instantly available across an entire organization even where the organization has multiple regional and international offices.

As there is no software the considerable time and resources required for periodic updates is also completely eliminated.

Reduced Cost

The need to license software through a ‘per user’, ‘per concurrent user’, ‘per server’ or ’site’ license has been eliminated. Although some hosted applications still do charge ‘per user’ many have taken the opportunity to charge on a ‘usage’ and/or ‘period’ basis meaning that the customer does not have to estimate the number of licenses that will be required, nor install and pay for full licenses that may only be used by some employees occasionally.

This hosted application model also allows the smaller organization and sole trader access to applications written using advanced software development tools and that utilize sophisticated database technology and high-end servers. The capital investment of the hardware and software as well as the security, backup and server maintenance cost are all the responsibility of the vendor.

Minimal Risk

Many hosted applications require no long term commitment from their customers. New customers can often test hosted applications either through a free introduction offer or with minimal risk using a Pay-As-You-Go model. If after trialing the hosted application the customer finds it unsuitable then they can simply stop using the service.

Access

Because the application software and the data is stored on the Internet server the application and data is available to the authorized client once they have logged on from anywhere there is Internet access. The customer can now work anywhere in the office environment, from remote offices or from their home or hotel without the need to download their work or synchronize with portable devices.

Integration

For organizations that have legacy systems from different suppliers running different operating systems the hosted application will provide an integrated solution to any system that supports a standard Internet browser including Windows, Unix and Macs.

Support

The hosted application vendors benefit by not having to maintain multiple version numbers or individual maintenance and licensing agreements. New updates are installed centrally negating the need for expensive roll outs. For many applications the need for version numbers is eliminated as updates are made incrementally bringing the benefits to the customer without having to bundle new features up into a new periodic version release. In some cases a user can request a new feature in the morning that can be developed, tested and deployed globally by the afternoon.

The Concerns

Internet access

New communication technology is able to bring high speed Internet connectivity to more and more remote places but there are still some regions where internet access is limited or not available.

In some cases such as mobile workers although high speed Internet connectivity is available the cost both in terms of connectivity charges and equipment may, at least in the short term, prove to be prohibitive.

Security

As with everything to do with the Internet security is a justified concern. There is no simple ‘one size fits all’ solution to the security issue and a lot will depend on the specific hosted application and the nature of the data.

With online banking and shopping becoming common place the vendor should be able to provide their clients with sufficient confidence that the data is secure and that any private information remains private.

Hosted applications will normally operate a login procedure ensuring that only those that are authorized have access. The more sensitive the data, the more sophisticated the login procedure.

A good data host will strictly enforce the stated wishes of their customers and ensure that data is not available or released to anyone that is not legally entitled to see it and they will adopt the latest security measures available to prevent unauthorized access.

There may be some areas such as automatic logins from known PC’s and the use of cookies that although they don’t necessary represent a significant risk could present a risk under certain circumstances, such as gaining access to a private account through the automatic login using an unattended PC. Although strictly speaking the customer’s responsibility the customer should be made aware of the risks so that they can take action to safeguard their own system.

Although security is a concern in some circumstances private data may prove to be more secure than it would be on a private network with less sophisticated security measures or in an environment where there is a risk from within.

Vendor Lock-In

As with all software applications there is a risk that a customer could become locked-in to paying costly monthly subscriptions to maintain access to their historic data. To counter this some applications will allow the data to be downloaded or allow customer to maintain access to their data for a reasonable time free of charge.

Control

Unlike a local application the hardware and software is under the control of a third party. This is a justifiable concern although not too dissimilar to the telephone provider supplying and maintaining the communications equipment and there are considerable incentives for the vendors to ensure high availability and reliability since their business depends on it.

In Summary

Benefits

• No vendor installation or upgrades required
• Low start-up costs
• Minimal Risk, no long term commitment
• Backups and viruses responsibility of the vendor
• Hardware and software server maintenance vendor’s responsibility
• Investment in local hardware & software reduced
• No need to synchronized data with multiple devices
• Access to data available globally through any internet connection
• Reduced software licensing costs

Concerns

• Lack of Internet availability
• Security
• Possibility of vendor lock-in

Martin Day is a Director of Survey Galaxy a hosted application that provides an enterprise application to create, design and publish surveys online. For more information please visit http://www.surveygalaxy.com

There are some very large, very powerful companies out there that have saved quite a bit of money using an Oracle database. Will your company be one of those? Or, will you simply overlook this opportunity? In order to know if in fact an Oracle database will help you, perhaps you have to know a little more about it. Also, you need to realize the differences that are out there in various versions of the Oracle database. Gathering this information will help you to make a sound decision about the use of this product in your business.

First, realize that the Oracle database is available to be used and can be benefited from by virtually any size business. Large corporations, medium sized companies, and even small organizations can all benefit here. What makes it nice to everyone as well is the lower prices that are currently being offered on Oracle database systems. There is no doubt that the introductory price is something to turn heads.

The system we will mention here is the Oracle Database 10g Products. These are, believe it or not, the first databases designed for grid computing in the industry. Your options are many:

• Enterprise Edition: Packed full with the highest level of performance and scalability. You will find reliability in OLTP as well as in decision support, and management activities.
• Standard Edition: Clustering support is provided with this 4 processor version.
• Standard Edition One: Same great stuff with a 2 processor version that is perfect for the entry level.
• Personal Edition: Perfect for the individual
• Lite Edition: Great option for managing mobile database applications.

While the features of each of these Oracle database options are many and very versatile, it makes sense for each and every business out there to find out how well these products can serve their basic needs. Take a moment to see what they can do for you and you may just be impressed with the options that are available to you in Oracle database.

for more information please see http://www.oracle-db-info.co.uk

Geocadabra can help the child to understand difficult objects. Especially 3D objects can be rotated, unfolded, and calculations can be done. Geocadabra is also dynamical: points, lines and circles can be dragged with the mouse. While dragging a point, the status of the object keeps the same: a midpoint will be a midpoint, also after dragging an endpoint of an edge.

Geocadabra is used nowadays in Holland and Belgium, but it is also available in English, it runs at schools in South Africa and Texas (Houston).

I am searching for more schools and pupils in English speaking countries, where Geocadabra can help understanding mathematics. Using the internet, I will support the school from distance.

Geocadabra can simply be downloaded from its website. After installing it, it will behave as a demo. But on the website you can request an autorisation, by entering your email adress (after clicking "register"). Then immediately the autorisation is emailed to you.

Of course teacher and pupil can ask me questions. Simply by emailing me the question. Together we can approve the software, when you email me your suggestions to change Geocadabra.

Geocadabra can be downloaded from

http://www.omdeschool.nl/geocadabra_english_specialoffer.htm.

On this site also several documents can be downloaded to help the child and teacher to use and understand the software.

On my Dutch privat website, http://home.planet.nl/~leclu012, more materials can be found for Geocadabra.

Ton Lecluse is the author of Geocadabra. I am developing this program since 1993, and it improves daily.