Viewing Crystal Reports – Crystal Ease

Posted on September 13, 2011 by David Rier

In my opinion, Crystal Reports (www.businessobjects.com) is a great program. It allows you to design, display and print reports made from virtually any data sources. You can smoothly merge information from any number of sources (E.g. networked databases, Excel spreadsheets, Access files, web sources, etc.)

All of the above assumes that you have the Crystal Reports software to design and publish your reports. Like many programs that have wide utility (E.g. MS Office, etc.) the cost of such software can be high if you have to pay for the software to be put on each computer in a company.

Crystal Ease software (www.surfinggeckosoftware.com) is one of the best Crystal Reports viewers available. It allows a user to refresh and output Crystal Reports without having to pay for a copy of Crystal Reports (list price of $495) for every user. While not free, Crystal Ease only costs $149 for an unlimited-user, enterprise license.

Posted in Computer Advice, Technology | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Remote Access and Support – TeamViewer

Posted on September 6, 2011 by David Rier

If you have ever tried to provide help or support to computer user over the phone, you know that “using them as your eyes” is not the greatest. People assume things about how their computer is working and/or misinterpret what they see on the screen.

The simplest answer to this problem is to go over to the problem computer, put your hands on its mouse and keyboard and fix the problem. However, that is not always feasible. The computer in question might be in your parent’s house outside Atlanta or in a company location a thousand miles away.

So how do you quickly deal with such a problem? My suggestion is to get remote access/support software. This allows you to see on your screen what is being displayed on another computer. As well, it allows you (if you are allowed by the remote person) to take control of the remote computer’s computer, mouse and keyboard. You can then diagnose and fix problems remotely.

There are lots of software programs that allow you to remotely access and support computers. Some examples are GoToMyPC, LogMeIn, and PCNow from Webex. While they each have their strengths, we prefer to use TeamViewer (www.teamviewer.com). The non-commercial version of the software is free. It provides many advantages (E.g. one program for support and access, allows remote administration and file transfers, works behind firewalls, highly encrypted, etc.) There are also commercial versions of the program that allow you to make a one-time purchase and not have to pay monthly usage charges.

Posted in Computer Advice, PCs, Personal computing | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Free Translation Software

Posted on August 30, 2011 by David Rier

Although English is currently the international language of business, not every document or Internet screen is in English. To deal with this, you need quick and accurate translations to and from English.

There are translation services available that charge by the document. There are also programs that you can buy that give you the ability to translate to and from many languages.

Best of all, in my opinion, is the “freeware” software called Dicter (www.dicter.net). It provides translations to/from over 40 languages. It is very quick and provides an accurate translation, which is aided by its automatic detection of the original language. The output seems to be more smooth and idiomatic than many other programs, so it produces more than just a stilted, word-by-word translation.

Posted in Computer Advice, Personal computing | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Free Internet Information

Posted on August 23, 2011 by David Rier

Sometimes a network administrator needs to get Internet-related information. The web site Network-tools.com (http://network-tools.com) gathers a number of Internet tools together on a single page to help in this area. Use of the site and its tools is free.

Some of the tools are:
• Ping – Basic ping tool
• Lookup – IP address information
• Trace – trace the route to an Internet address
• WhoIs – ownership informtion
• DNS Records – DNS record related to domain
• Spam Blacklist Check – Checks a domain against major blacklist services
• Email verification – validates an email address

Posted in PCs, Personal computing | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

KeePass Organizes Your Passwords

Posted on August 16, 2011 by David Rier

How many passwords, account numbers, PIN numbers, etc. do you have? Do you remember them all? Wouldn’t it be nice to have one safe place where all of that important information is available without worrying about prying eyes?

One answer to this need is software called KeePass. It is a free, open source password manager. It stores and manages all your important information in a safe and secure format. Its entire database is secured using 256-bit (I.e. extremely strong) encryption. You only have to remember one “master” password to enter the database of all of your information. (Make it strong!!)

KeePass is available at http://keepass.info/download.html. There are versions of the software for PC, Mac, Linux and “smart” phones (like the iPhone, BlackBerry and Android phones).

Posted in Computer Advice, PCs, Technology | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Happy Birthday to the PC

Posted on August 9, 2011 by David Rier

A few dates, like the first moon landing, are apparently historic as they are happening.  Most important dates in history just happen and become “historic” with hindsight.

Thirty years ago (on August 12, 1981 to be exact), the IBM PC was announced to the world.  With that announcement, personal computers were validated as business machines.  Up until then, the Apples, Commodores, Radio Shacks, etc. of the PC world were seen as units that were not yet ready for the business world.

With the announcement or the IBM PC, the personal computer industry exploded off the launching pad into history.  It’s now 30 years and counting.  Happy birthday!

Posted in Computer History, PCs, Personal computing | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Process Explorer

Posted on August 3, 2011 by David Rier

Sometimes your PC seems to be running slowly and you want to see why.  You press Alt-Ctrl-Del, choose the Task Manager and look at the Processes tab there.  Does that help?  The answers to that question are “maybe” and “a little”.

Task Manager only shows you the process name, user name associated with the process, % of the CPU being used by the process and the memory being used by the process.  If you don’t know the purpose of each process name displayed, you are still left in the dark.  Process Explorer, freeware software available by download from CNet, can help a lot more.

The Process Explorer software tells you a lot more about the processes that are being run on your computer.  Its most useful information comes from the addition of a description of what each process is doing.  As well, it can show a process tree of what processes are reliant on others, provide you with vast amount of information about each process’ properties and allow you to “kill” a process.

Process Explorer has one main purpose and it does it well.  It allows you to view complete and useful information about the processes running on your PC.

Posted in Computer Advice, PCs, Personal computing | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Keeping your PC “On Time”

Posted on July 26, 2011 by David Rier

When you first set up your PC, you are asked to enter the correct time and choose your appropriate time zone.  Over the course of time, your PC (or server) can get out of sync with “real world” time.

If you have data and/or applications that rely on accurate timestamps, the above situation is a problem.  Your computer provides the time used by your programs.  If that time is inaccurate, the data will be as well.

One solution to this problem is to use a program that helps to synchronize your computer’s clock with the standard clock that is maintained by the government.  The National Institute of Standards and Technology maintains that atomic clock.  You can download software from their site (http://www.nist.gov/pml/div688/grp40/its.cfm) that automatically updates your PC’s clock so that it agrees with the official US time clock.

Posted in Computer Advice, PCs, Personal computing, Technology | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

File Shredder

Posted on July 19, 2011 by David Rier

When you delete a file from your PC, is it truly erased?  Without getting into the fine details of how files are stored on and then deleted from your hard drive, the one-word answer is “NO”.

A deleted file is not erased from your hard drive.  In fact, it is easy to recover immediately after the deletion, but gets harder over time.

What is the deleted file contained personal or financial information?  A hacker could recover the data and use it in ways that you might not like.  So what are you to do?

A simple way to make sure that the information in a file is actually deleted from a drive and not able to be recovered is to use a special deletion program like File Shredder (www.fileshredder.org).  File Shredder writes a series of random 1’s and 0’s on top of the drive area where your file was stored.  You can choose different levels of “shredding” (from a single pass, to a Department of Defense (7-pass) standard to the ultimate “Guttman” (35-pass) standard.)

Once you have deleted a file using File Shredder, it is actually gone from your drive and safe from any prying eyes.

Posted in Computer Advice, PCs, Personal computing | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Manage Your Disks – TreeSize Free

Posted on July 12, 2011 by David Rier

Disk drives have gotten larger and larger over time.  They are so big now that the general feeling is “I’ll never run out of file space”.

Like all gut feelings, “I’ll never run out of file space” can prove false.  So how do you find out where your disk space disappeared if you suddenly find yourself low on space?

One tool that I would recommend is called TreeSize Free.  It is available for download on CNet (www.cnet.com).  Once you have installed the software, you can scan your drive(s) and see an expandable list of directories and files (and their associated file sizes).  This will help you to quickly see and locate what directories and/or files are taking up the large chunks of space on your drive.

With the above information, you can make choices that will help you to free up space on your drive(s).

Posted in Computer Advice, PCs, Personal computing, Technology | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment