There are a lot of sites and links out there that claim to give you FREE software, only to find that the site or page really meant that the download is free, you still have to pay for a key or something to unlock and use the software. Want proof? Here’s a Google search on “free game software” with the results:

Notice how the links taunt you with “FREE” but are then followed by “download?”

If you click on those links, you’ll find that they will list software that is free to download, but you’ll quickly notice a price column indicating how much it cost to actually use the product, not just download it.

Download.com and brothersoft have made tons of money getting people to their site this way. But those customers, once screwed, learn the lesson and seldom return.

Is there a better way to do it?

As Sarah Palin would say, “You Betcha!” Take Jing, for example. It is by far and away the best video capture, screen capture, and narration software for home users out there… and it’s actually FREE! Now, the free version has some limitations and a PRO version is available, but for the average home user, this program is a must have! It sure beats Windows Snipping Tool. It allows you to place arrows, text, highlights, and boxes on your screen capture and save it to any format. In fact, I did the screen capture for this article using the product.

There is a 5 minute limit on video, but that’s more than enough for someone to start the recorder, show something on their screen with a little narration, and send it to friends or family. You can narrate and animate slide shows or webcam screens.

The reason it’s free? It’s from the same people who make Camtasia Studio, the professional video capture and screen recording software. It does cost money, but at $299 it’s still a bargain. Our training videos and presentations were all done with Camtasia Studio, and it even comes with a 30 day trial. I’m not providing links to it here since I don’t want any of our subscribers to think we are a reseller or make money off of pushing the product. I will, however, provide a link for the free, non reseller Jing here.

Well, here it is, Saturday morning. I got Mystery Science Theater playing (Episode 509 “The Girl In Lover’s Lane"), which features one of my favorite character names, Big Stupid (aka Bix Dugan). Anyway, I use that time to also catch up on my favorite blogs while sipping the overpriced hot brown water they label as ‘coffee’ at QuickTrip. It was during my routine blog perusal that I caught someone describing a fellow gamer as a ‘Grognard’. Their reasoning for doing so was simply based on the fact that the person was over 40 and grumpy. I couldn’t believe this gross misrepresentation of the term and immediately went to the Internet’s most fervently accurate resource, Wikipedia. Again, I couldn’t believe what I was reading. The term to which an entire generation of gamers gave their Saturday nights defining was being besmirched and misused by the kids of today. Since I am a 40+ year old ‘semi-Grognard’ myself, I will attempt to set the record straight.

“Grognard’ is a French word meaning ‘grumbler’, or one who complains incessantly. This is not to be confused with the French term “Gronarniue’ which means “Drop your rifle and run.” The term made it’s way into the gaming world around the early 80’s, but it did not mean ‘grumbler’. After all, everyone who plays tabletop RPG’s or PC games is a grumbler. We love to bitch about anything and everything. Therefore, to call a fellow gamer a ‘grumbler’ was basically just calling them an average gamer.

The term ‘Grognard’, in proper gaming circles, refers to a person who annoyingly claims to know every rule and strategy for a given RPG, but never actually plays the game. They spend their time sitting around the table lecturing everyone else about how stupid their previous move was or how they are mismanaging their army’s resources, yet never put their grandiose knowledge to practical use.

For our gaming group, that person was Kevin. He wasn’t always that way. He played most Games Workshop and other tabletop RPG’s quite well, and for many years. But then, something snapped. He fell into a sullen world of negativity and second guessing. He would still join us for gaming night, but would just sit there like a lump lamenting the idiocy of the current player’s move. Many a times people would challenge him to actually put his reputation on the line and do battle, but he would refuse citing some fear of the government tracking how well you strategize at RPG’s and warning that a black, windowless van would swoop you up on the way home and have you organizing black-ops for the CIA.

I was just kidding about that last part, he wasn’t that nutty. I actually do miss Kevin, who moved away about 10 years ago. I think every gaming group requires a bit of a Grognard in their midst. I believe it helps the group bond and become more cohesive and dependent, while also providing the group with a reason to argue (as if we needed a reason).

For the last couple of years I’ve been writing web applications and desktop software using mapping technologies. A couple of years ago when these projects started we had to make a choice between Google Maps and Microsoft’s Virtual Earth (now called Bing Maps). At the time, Google had a much more restrictive licensing model than Microsoft. The websites and software we were developing required a subscription to plot and view the data, but free users could use the map in any way intended without requiring the user to log in or enter an email address. Google also had restrictive limits on the number of hits that your account could absorb. We went with Microsoft’s Virtual Earth and it has worked very well for us over the years and Microsoft was very forthcoming and open about their licensing and how we intended to use the technology.

Skip ahead a couple of years and I have started to look at Google and Bing again. This time it is for a site that will feature new home information and mapping. Like I said, Bing has worked well for us over the last couple years providing aerial maps for 3 web sites and 1 desktop application, so we have no real reason to switch other than to ensure they are able to provide the services we need.

I started by checking Google Map’s licensing strategy, which was the deal killer for us a couple of years ago. It seems they have relaxed a lot of the per day restrictions (or eliminated them altogether). They have the same daily limit on geocoding addresses (providing the lat / long for a given street address), but the imaging is not restricted by hits. This means that you can provide the maps for your website visitors or for your applications without worry.

But wait, there’s more. Both Microsoft and Google have restrictions against charging for using the maps. In other words, you can’t use Google or Bing on a website that charges simply for using the map. You can provide basic functionality of the maps for use on your site and charge for overlays, plots, or other data that you provide. As an example, I designed a site that allows users to view Bing Maps and use all the features of it as provided by Bing. However, the customer provides data for overlays, boundaries, and plots that is proprietary to them. For that data to be displayed on the map, there is a charge. After a few calls to Microsoft, the client was able to get a clear and concise answer regarding the rules and regulations regarding Bing Maps, and the custom overlay charge was fine by them… Again, as long as users could freely use the Bing Maps general functionality as provided by Microsoft without paying for anything.

The one negative Bing has going for it is the abysmal default pins. Granted, I never use them and create custom PNG’s for the maps, but Google makes such a nice, simple pin that it would make my time spent developing the site a little less as well as providing an already well recognized image on the screen. People see it and immediately think “Oh, there’s one of what I’m looking for” instead of “What’s that gelatinous blob trying to say?”

Both offer 3d views, or Bird’s Eye View as Bing called it. They are both reasonably accurate with the plotting of geocoded points, but examples of mistakes are documented and lamented all over the net on both sides.

My Ratings:

	Google Maps	Bing Maps
Data
Developer Resources
Documentation
Browser Support
Accuracy

Right now Google gets a little more exposure since Orbitz, Redfin and Trulia are all using the current version of the API on their websites. But Bing has made some serious inroads in the last year by providing more up to data data and a more relaxed licensing strategy.

In late January, Apple announced the iPad. Essentially it’s a jumbo sized iTouch (approximately 9.5” X 7.5”). Some of the features touted by Apple regarding the iPad are a 10 hour battery life, a solid state drive (16GB up to 32GB), all the multimedia you should need, and the ability to read eBooks. One of the neatest things to me was the ability to dock with a regular keyboard and the ability to run iPhone applications! Sounds like a winner so far, and since it’s an Apple product, I’m sure they will sell millions.

The iPad is beautiful, like all Apple products. It looks like an HD LCD TV with the black border and shiny high gloss screen. Which brings me to the first possible problem…

The iPad is slightly smaller than a standard sheet of notebook paper. Laptops, while smaller now, have similar type screens but are sometimes chided for their clamshell design keyboard / screen mechanics. iTouch devices are nice and small and fit in your shirt pocket. This helps eliminate possible scratches to the screen. The other hidden purpose of a laptop’s clamshell design is to help protect the screen since it cannot be easily placed in a protective pocket. I think the iPad will suffer a bit in that the screen is exposed. One scratch and you’ve not only ruined the aesthetics, you’ve just incurred a few hundred dollars in screen replacement cost.

In 2002/2003, Windows toyed with the idea of a tablet PC. It was marketed as being more convenient than a laptop for quick startup and retrieval of information on the go. One thing the iPad has going for it is a touch screen. The tablet PC’s of old required a stylus (but cut them some slack… it was 8 years ago). I’ve read a couple of posts from Apple groupies comparing it to the Windows Tablet PC’s, but they fail to acknowledge that they are in reality comparing Apples to Oranges… or Windows. 8 years of technological growth have no doubt made the iPad a vast improvement over the tablet PC’s.

One problem I’ve had with Apple over the years is their distrustful licensing model. They assume everyone is out to rip them off so they clamp their product access down with a jackhammer. All applications on the iPad come from the App Store, which means that before you use them, a series of complex and secure communications must happen between your device and your App store account. In my opinion, this is where the iPad falls way short of a traditional laptop.

Window will  have another go at the tablet market in 2013 when it releases it’s new device. Google will also be releasing it’s Chrome OS and a tablet like device. One of the big hurdles that Google has overcome in marketing it’s iPhone comparable phone is price. Google’s product, by comparison, is cheaper, and that’s driving sales.

I wonder if Apple will pull the same old price switch-aroo it did with the first iPhones? They were cut by $100 within a few weeks of release, which angered some initial iPhone enthusiasts who stood in long lines and forked over their hard earned money for Apple’s latest must have device. But, I’m sure the throngs of loyal Apple groupies will make this launch a huge success. Good luck fitting it in your shirt pocket!

No, it does not bring up a picture of Bill Gates. What is does, though, is brings up a fantastic little shortcut to all the features that you now have to hunt around for in order to find them. BTW, what happened to ‘network repair’ in Windows7… I can’t find it anywhere.

Credit CNET with this one:

Although its name suggests perhaps even grander capabilities, Windows enthusiasts are excited over the discovery of a hidden "GodMode" feature that lets users access all of the operating system's control panels from within a single folder.

 

By creating a new folder in Windows 7 and renaming it with a certain text string at the end, users are able to have a single place to do everything from changing the look of the mouse pointer to making a new hard-drive partition.

 

The trick is also said to work in Windows Vista, although some are warning that although it works fine in 32-bit versions of Vista, it can cause 64-bit versions of that operating system to crash.

 

To enter "GodMode," one need only create a new folder and then rename the folder to the following:

 

GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}

 

Once that is done, the folder's icon will change to resemble a control panel and will contain dozens of control options. I'm not sure it's my idea of playing God, but it is a handy way to get to all kinds of controls.

I've asked Microsoft for more details on the feature and how it came to be. But so far, Redmond is silent on the topic.