How Google has changed the world.....according to me.

 

     Google has changed the world a lot, well not the world but the internet and how we use it.  Google was and is the answer to searching the internet and doing it more effectively and with less problems unlike Yahoo and other search engines.  Google has been around since 1996 as a private research project in Stanford.  In 1998 Google went full and public through the internet and quickly became very popular search engine provider.
     Now Google offers many different things than just being a search provider.  Google offers many things like Gmail, Blogger, Google Plus, Google Maps, Google Drive, and other little things.  The best thing about it is you make one account for one of those things and it makes accounts for the other things they offer.
    Google is also a competitor to other companies that offer similar things like Yahoo and Microsoft's Bing.  There are other search engine providers out there that offer free services and some of them are actually very good competitors.

(Google's homepage as of Halloween 2013)

     Some of my complaints about Google is that they like to change things a lot. As of now one of the things they just changed is the way you log into Gmail now is no longer as fast as it once was, now it takes you to a site then you gotta click again to go to the gmail Login.
     The main thing though about this blog is abut how Google has changed everything and how easily its made things to find.  If you want to know where to find anything or how to do something, you go to a computer and then you google it.  Google has gotten that big that its a part of our everyday life now.

(Google in use)

   

   So its very amazing how something like Google started as a school project and then continued out of a basement into a corporate business like it is now.

photo editing sites

 Photo Editing Sites

    Today I'm going to show you some free Photo editing software that you don't have to download on to your computer.  These sites are very easy to use and the best thing is they're free.

  Photoshop express

   Photoshop express is very much photoshop for free with almost everything that actual photoshop has to offer.  Express is very easy to use compare to its actual version,  it seemed that anyone with some knowledge of computers could easily work it out just fine especially for someone like me that has already used photoshop.  It also lets you edit your photos from you computers so can get rid of that red-eye from your family picture.

As you can see the layout is very simple and it neatly displays what tools you can use at the side and also displays setting for those tools at the top.

    All in all photoshop express is a great thing to use if you don't have the money to buy photoshop for your own use.

Befunky.com

   Befunky is another free photo editor that doesn't need downloaded to your computer to be used and like stated already(YAY! redundancy!!)its free.  Now Befunky is similar to Photoshop in only a few ways.  Befunky has filters that you can select from to give cool effects to your photos.  

                                                                                 

As you can see Befunky is simple to use and has a user-friendly setup.

     Now the thing that makes Befunky stand out is its collage maker.  Befunky allows you to upload your photos and make a collage out of them.

As you can see its very easy to use and you can go by there default templates or make your own.

         One cool thing you could do with Befunky and Photoshop express is, pull the photo through express and edit it to look the way you want it, then take it to befunky to give it a cool filter and put it in a collage.

Picmonkey.com

       

      Picmonkey is another free photo editor website. Now Picmonkey is great or what it does, but seeing it and after viewing Photoshop Express and Befunky its nothing stellar.  Now the one thing I think that Picmonkey does best and better is their effects options.  

As you can see the effects look very nice through their filters.  Using dusk and cross process I made a very cool old timey pictures.

    Now picmonkey's UI is friendly to use, but can take some time to learn where everything is since its all under tabs.  Now one cool thing they're doing is the Halloween specials where can use on your self into a undead fiend for October 31st.

Sumopaint.com

       Now sumopaint is another photo editor.  It looks like paint in a lot of ways and some of photoshop in my opinion.  Now sumopaint isn't that user friendly and takes time to learn what you're doing and how to do it, but watching the video they have for it and some youtube searches can help you get speed.  Now sumopaint has alot of stuff on it that i'm only going to cover a little bit of it.  You have you simple paint setup on the side.                                                               

     Now the best stuff is up top that has all your filters and options for your tools.  Sumopaint is a very good editor and can be rewarding once you learnt its controls.

psykopaint.com 

   Psykopaint is the last one this list and the most unique editor here.  Psykopaint lets you paint over your pictures to make you pictures in paint form.  Now it can be confusing at first, but watch the video and youtube and you'll be up to speed in no time.  

(behold my awesome art skills :p)

     Now i'm no good at this, but i'm quite sure someone else can use this better then me.  Now it UI is very easy to use and it lets you change your brush style to a selected style they have available.  

      These are some of the free photo editing sites.  You can use these as free alternatives and to keep from downloading programs onto your computer or having to pay for services.  You can use these site whenever and however you want and can even combine them to make better.

  

Free Software

   Today i'm going be talking to everyone about three lovely free programs that you can get for your computer to help with your computer needs or make it a a big waste.

Steam

      Steam is a program that lets you buy and download games for your computer.  The whole process is digital so it involves no disks and means it take time for your games to install.  Steam is owned by Valve, the people who've brought you Half-Life and Team Fortress, and therefore is ran by the all-powerful Gabe Newel.  Steam is one of largest in digital retail for games and is known for its epic sales.  

     (steams store page where you can buy games and see daily deals)

(this is the steam personal library, you can view all your games you own)

      Steam's interface is very easy to figure out and is very easy on the eyes, especially when ever you play games in your room like a vampire it won't blind you.  Steam also allows you to have friends who you can trade, message, spam, and give games to.  Steam has the Community page that allows you to post on forums trade and find help for games that don't work properly. My only complaint about steam is that sometimes it can do stupid things, like break.  Also the steam betas is only if you want to completely hate yourself while trying to help steam with their problems.

Skype

   Skype is another free program that could help make your life easier or ruin it.  Skype is owned by Microsoft now and is used for hanging out with your friends through your computer.  Skype allows you to talked to your freinds and family as already stated, but can also be used to talk to complete random strangers if you want.  Skype's interface is very easy to figure out also but its interface is very bright(vampires beware).  In skype you can also have multiple people in one call at anytime, and you can  also video chat or share screens with them, making computer help very easy.  

(picture of skype's interface)

      My only complaint with skype is that it is a resource hog.  Skype doesn't bode to well with low-end computers and can strain other computers while using skype to talk to friends while playing games.  After all the bad things skype really isn't that bad and can be used by twelve-year-old-kids just fine.

XBConnects

     XBConnects is another free program that emulates a xbox server.  XBConnects can be very useful when trying to relive the moments of playing Halo 2 on your xbox with other people across the world.  XBConnects can be very hard to figure out and setup since its designed to be for people who tend to know what their doing, but forums and youtube videos can help alot with figuring it all out.  

(XBConnects interface and page)

      Another thing XBC does is that it shows what games it supports and what servers are currently in use for those games.  My only complaint is that it takes a while to setup and learn, but will reward you with awesomeness of playing your favorite games from your childhood.

Libre V.S. Open Office V.S. Skydrive V.S. Google Drive

Open Office

     Open Office is a program just like Microsoft Word that lets you type up documents.  Open Office lets yo make more than just word docs.  You have spreadsheets, Presentations, Databases, and drawing documents.  Open Office is simple enough to use even if you don't watch the tutorial video.  Its drawing option isn't no where near great in my opinion.  Its like it was a after thought when they add it, but it does have some really cool and nice things that can be used on it.

LibreOffice
 

    Libre is also a program like open office that'll allow you to make word docs.  For the most part Libre is the same as Open Office with all the same looks and document options.  Its draw doc is more well thought out than Open Office give or take a few things.

Sky Drive 

 

     Sky Drive is a Microsoft owned program that works like Google Drive.  Sky lets you do all the things like Open and Libre, besides a few things here and there like drawing pictures, but lets you upload them from your computer.  Sky is cloud based and can be synced across multiple computers, and also allows you to download it to your computer for offline use and allows you to share your files with your friends.

Google Drive

   Google Drive is very much like Sky Drive and the way it set up.  Of course it'll look different and have its layout different, but works almost the same. Google Drive can be accessed from your Gmail and is also cloud based.  Google Drive can also be downloaded to your computer for offline use and you can share your documents with your friends on Google Drive too.

    These are four software programs that in general terms allow you to do relatively the same things.  Although I find Open and Libre quite useless for my needs for Word is really all you need compare to what they offer.  Sky Drive and Google Drive are the two best bets and just comes down to personal preference and which is easier.   

So that's this blog and have a nice day you jerks very friendly internet people.

Springpad and Evernote comparison

                                     VS                                 

   Today i'm going to talk about two software products; Evernote and Springpad.

Springpad

    First off is Springpad (and since I've already did a review on Evernote I'll only compare the two).
Springpad is a program much like Evernote in a way that they both are used to store links from websites and share your stuff with other people or keep.  Springpad does have a more prettier interface than Evernote in that things are organized with notebook icons  called springs and can be arranged in a more neatly fashion.

Springpad----->

    Also in spring pad you can have pictures and links just like in evernote, but you can also have videos too.   Now you can also tag your springs with tags and share them with other people.  I once made a notebook with exotic pictures of poop and tagged everything I could think of.

You can make your springs public or private so your picture collection of poop can't be shared with anyone.  Now one thing you can do in springpad is change the UI and how it looks, with four choices that it allows you to pick.

Evernite ---->

Now all the bad stuff

Springpad -

•   It requires a internet connection and unlike Evernote, it can't be downloaded to your computer to be used if your internet goes out or just plain sucks.

Evernote - 

•  It doesn't have as many UI option as springpad, but it gets the job done.
•  Unlike springpad if you want to share you notebooks with others you have to pay a fee.

Now all the good things

springpad - 

• It's pretty and has options.

Evernote - 

• Has Skitch to be used as a counterpart
• Can be used on and off-line

Google chrome Extensions (Guest Blog)

Here are some google apps I've been playing with which are pretty cool.
   Type Fu is an app I picked because my typing sucks and i have to do something about that.  it offers a lot for rusty typist.  There are infinite exercises generated from over 3500 most popular english words.  nine difficulty levels increase automatically based on your ability.  Features include: Speed Chart, Accuarcy Chart, most Typed Keys and Most Mistyped Keys.  there are lesson options for Letters, Numbers, Words, Proverbs, and Quotes.  There's a viewable speed meter, accuarcy meter, and time meter.  You can select keyboard layout by type and the difficulty level advancement settings are adjustable.  This is an excellent program for honing your typing skills.
     I've also been playing with Simplebooklet.  It's pretty amazing so far.  I've some freeze up problems, but I think that's from my mot knowing the controls fully yet and locking things up.  That said, with this app, you can create books and fliers by drag and drop to page frames.  It gives you text options galore, resizing, a huge array of image enhancing options, templates, and a huge bunch of other goodies to really make a book, pamphlet, catalog, or brochure.

  Another app I've been using is Planetarium.  It lets you see what constellations are in the sky from from any given point on Earth at any given time.  You set the location of viewing and then dial in any time and date you want.  This shows what constellations are visible from that location at that time.  I sighted in a couple of points and then went to Google Earth Sky and investigated further using Planetarium as my reference.  I think it's pretty fun.

  Also kinda fun for what it is, the Newegg Official Chrome Extension is pretty cool.  At any time you can click the toolbar icon and you get a Newegg mini-window instantly.  If you come across something you want to price, wham, you can, fast.  It gives you instant comparison shopping and availability information.  I find it an invaluable tool for equipment research.

  These apps are ones I find myself using more often than I would have thought I would and I would definitely recommend them to others.

Enjoy,

David Porter