Be Your Own IT Blog » Software Spotlight

Defragmenting=Very Important

Kevin — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 23:00:54 +0000

To keep your computer running as fast as possible, it is important to perform certain maintenance tasks on it. One these tasks are called defragmenting your hard drive(s) or defrag for short.

What is defragmentation?

Let’s say you have saved a bunch of files to a brand new hard drive (HD) and then over time you remove half of them. Those spaces or blocks you removed the files from are empty but scattered throughout the HD. Now let’s say you save a much larger file to the HD. The system will use the smaller blocks first thus breaking the file into pieces. When you go to open that file, the system needs to reassemble the file and depending on how many blocks the file resides in will depend on how long it will take to open. Defragging your HD will put those pieces in order allowing the system to find them faster and open quicker. Running periodic defrags will keep your system running as fast as possible and although Windows comes with its own utilities including one for defragging, I use a software called Defraggler.

Defraggler

Defraggler can be found here and is developed by Piriform. With Defraggler you can analyze and defrag your HDs as well as certain folders and files. I found it to be very fast and a better utility than the one offered by Windows.

Defragmenting=Very Important is a post from: Be Your Own IT Blog

New Roxio Creator 2011 Has 3D Capabilities

Ty — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 19:58:09 +0000

I have to say, I’m impressed. I didn’t think we would be able to incorporate 3D technology into our home movies so soon. I mean, I’m sure it’s not Avatar quality, but still, it’s pretty cool. Roxio Creator 2011 allows you to add 3D to your movies and photos, and the best part… 3D glasses are included.

Creator 2011 should work with most 3D-enabled cameras and HDTV’s, and you can even transform some of your 2D images and movies into 3D.

Why update to this year’s Creator product besides 3D? They’ve added a lot of new audio features. For instance, you can create custom soundtracks for your home movies and photo slideshows. Roxio helps you find musical styles that match the mood of your movies. And you can remove annoying hisses, rumbles, and other background noises from digital files.

Plus there are additional tools that allow you to backup your whole computer, stabalize shaky videos, and upload videos directly to Facebook.

As I’m writing this, Roxio is selling Creator 2012 on their website for $79.99 after $20.00 mail in rebate. If you have a previous version of Roxio, you can probably upgrade for less.

We’ve heard that you might be a little dissappointed that colors look washed out after transforming your movies into 3D, but it’s still fun to use and quite nice for Roxio’s first attempt and initial release of 3D technology.

An explanation of how 3D works from Roxio:

New Roxio Creator 2011 Has 3D Capabilities is a post from: Be Your Own IT Blog

Learn how to use Skype – A video chat and calling program

Jeremy-Be Your Own IT — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 15:45:47 +0000

Looking for a video chat program to talk to your friends? Skype not only is a great program for web-chat, but also for making free phone calls from your computer! This program is easy to use, as long as you have a web-cam and internet connection. It give you features such as free voice and video calls to anyone else on Skype, conference calls to three or more people, instant messaging and file transfer, and cheap worldwide calling. To learn more about skype and how to use it, check out our free tutorial video.

Learn How to Use Skype Free Internet Phone

Learn how to use Skype – A video chat and calling program is a post from: Be Your Own IT Blog

Audacity: The free audio editor

Kevin — Sun, 23 May 2010 20:40:55 +0000

Problem:

One of the biggest problems I run into is editing music and sounds for my videos and/or websites. Like anything else, there are plenty of software packages you can buy to edit music. Depending on your needs, sometimes freeware is the way to go and I feel Audacity is one of those exceptions.

Resolution:

Audacity is an audio editor that can be used for all types of things. I use Audacity all the time to make ringtones for my iphone, music drops for my videos and to edit sounds for my websites.

Here is the list of features Audacity offers: (From the website)

Recording

Audacity can record live audio through a microphone or mixer, or digitize recordings from cassette tapes, vinyl records, or minidiscs. With some sound cards, it can also capture streaming audio.

Record from microphone, line input, or other sources.
Dub over existing tracks to create multi-track recordings.
Record up to 16 channels at once (requires multi-channel hardware).
Level meters can monitor volume levels before, during, and after recording.

Import and Export

Import sound files, edit them, and combine them with other files or new recordings. Export your recordings in several common file formats.

Import and export WAV, AIFF, AU, and Ogg Vorbis files.
Import MPEG audio (including MP2 and MP3 files) with libmad.
Export MP3s with the optional LAME encoder library.
Create WAV or AIFF files suitable for burning to CD.
Import and export all file formats supported by libsndfile.
Open raw (headerless) audio files using the “Import Raw” command.
Note: Audacity does not currently support WMA, AAC, or most other proprietary or restricted file formats.

Editing

Easy editing with Cut, Copy, Paste, and Delete.
Use unlimited Undo (and Redo) to go back any number of steps.
Very fast editing of large files.
Edit and mix an unlimited number of tracks.
Use the Drawing tool to alter individual sample points.
Fade the volume up or down smoothly with the Envelope tool.

Effects

Change the pitch without altering the tempo, or vice-versa.
Remove static, hiss, hum, or other constant background noises.
Alter frequencies with Equalization, FFT Filter, and Bass Boost effects.
Adjust volumes with Compressor, Amplify, and Normalize effects.
Other built-in effects include:
- Echo
- Phaser
- Wahwah
- Reverse

Sound Quality

Record and edit 16-bit, 24-bit, and 32-bit (floating point) samples.
Record at up to 96 kHz.
Sample rates and formats are converted using high-quality resampling and dithering.
Mix tracks with different sample rates or formats, and Audacity will convert them automatically in realtime.

Plug-Ins

Add new effects with LADSPA plug-ins.
Audacity includes some sample plug-ins by Steve Harris.
Load VST plug-ins for Windows and Mac, with the optional VST Enabler.
Write new effects with the built-in Nyquist programming language.

Analysis

Spectrogram mode for visualizing frequencies.
“Plot Spectrum” command for detailed frequency analysis.

Free and Cross-Platform

Licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL).
Runs on Mac OS X, Windows, and GNU/Linux.

Check out Audacity…What do you have to lose?

Audacity: The free audio editor is a post from: Be Your Own IT Blog

Real Temp Review

James — Wed, 19 May 2010 09:46:40 +0000

Looks like a piece of resource monitoring software got the takedown. Check it out and see what happened during our Real Temp review.

Real Temp Review is a post from: Be Your Own IT Blog

HWMonitor Review

James — Wed, 19 May 2010 08:54:02 +0000

Need to check out your resources? Check out our HWMonitor Review to see if this piece of software will make your life a little bit easier.

HWMonitor Review is a post from: Be Your Own IT Blog

Vonage Review

James — Wed, 19 May 2010 08:35:18 +0000

Vonage is one of the oldest VOIP providers in the industry, and we just had to check them out and see what they were made of. See more in the Vonage review.

Vonage Review is a post from: Be Your Own IT Blog

RingCentral Review

James — Wed, 19 May 2010 08:22:59 +0000

RingCentral is one of the older VOIP service providers that has been through their ups and downs. However, even the oldest products haven’t met what we demand as fellow techs. See how they did in our RingCentral review.

RingCentral Review is a post from: Be Your Own IT Blog

CallCentric Review

James — Tue, 18 May 2010 19:17:50 +0000

Did CallCentric make it or break it? Find out in our CallCentric VOIP review, right here on BYOIT. Yes, we love finding out what products and services are made of, so that we can help you make a wise decision.

CallCentric Review is a post from: Be Your Own IT Blog

Skype Review

James — Sun, 16 May 2010 06:40:19 +0000

Skype is a cutting-edge piece of software which has changed the way that many people communicate all across the globe. We took it for a spin in our Skype review.

Skype Review is a post from: Be Your Own IT Blog