For those who very occasionally run across a zip file and need to open it, WinZip 14 likely isn’t worthwhile. Ever since Windows XP, after all, Microsoft has included a built in zip manager. The trouble is that while this basic zip management exists, it really is not all that good. It opens and it makes zip files. For those who deal with lots of files and find that compressing and combining files into zip folders is a regular task, I heartily recommend WinZip 14.

My previous German language experience came from an eight week German reading course I took about 5 years ago. The emphasis was not on speaking, but rather to give us the basic tools in order to begin the process of deciphering German texts. I’ve had a few other language classes since then, establishing me if not as a thorough polyglot at least as a someone well versed in language training from a variety of different teaching styles, approaches, and contexts.

If you work with geographic data this is an astounding, helpful product that allows you to use that data in interesting ways. The map program itself, which is Microsofts Streets and Trips, is not nearly as good. After using it for a little while I find myself going back to Google or my garmin software. I have the USB gps to go with this, but even still the tracking is haphazard, and it takes a surprisingly long time for my laptop to recognize the gps.

If you know Painter, there’s not much I can add about the program in general. There’s nothing else like it. It’s an art studio in a box, on your computer. Allowing an almost infinite creativity to take shape. It’s the sort of program where the key learning task isn’t the software itself, it’s learning how to draw, or paint, or design. Useful for sketching, for composing, for testing out ideas, for putting together test pieces.

Video editing is one of those tasks I’d like to get better at but have never gotten around to actually getting better at. My experiences in this have been enduring constant frustration with Liquid Edition 6 and then some video editing solace with Sony Vegas. With my recent upgrade to Windows Vista I not only was one of the few absolutely delighted with the switch I also found a nice, extremely user-friendly video editing program in the new Windows Movie Maker.

Video editing is one of those tasks I’d like to get better at but have never gotten around to actually getting better at. My experiences in this have been enduring constant frustration with Liquid Edition 6 and then some video editing solace with Sony Vegas. With my recent upgrade to Windows Vista I not only was one of the few absolutely delighted with the switch I also found a nice, extremely user-friendly video editing program in the new Windows Movie Maker.

I started looking into genealogy a few years ago, not getting very far. Not enough time and I was needing to compile a few more resources to get started to find. I had some time over the summer and started up a free trial. I got the essentials version of Family Tree Maker to add a bit more. School started (I’m a professor) and I ran out of time but I wanted to keep up with what was really moving forward.

If you work with geographic data this is an astounding, helpful product that allows you to use that data in interesting ways. The map program itself, which is Microsofts Streets and Trips, is not nearly as good. After using it for a little while I find myself going back to Google or my garmin software. I have the USB gps to go with this, but even still the tracking is haphazard, and it takes a surprisingly long time for my laptop to recognize the gps.

A lot of features for not a lot of price, it does have a bit of a learning curve but they provide a lot of lessons and guidance on how to use each feature. If you have any background with video editing, this offers an easy step into some useful task, though not entirely advanced compared to other programs. I’d heartily suggest it for people who aren’t willing or interested to jump in to the more professional programs, or are interested but they’re budget isn’t–but who want to have more creative possibilities than what a basic program like Windows Movie Maker or lower end/price programs.

In the first day, when I installed FileZilla, from FileZillas site, it puts this evil malware called Vosteran on your machine that takes over as a search engine. Even if you go into Chrome to remove it, it adds itself back in. Vosteran is evil. Simple, but Kaspersky didn’t stop it. Even after creating an account, you cant make comments on their web page. Called Kaspersky, and the woman spoke softly and couldn’t understand me due to her accent, so I asked to speak to someone else.