I reviewed Workrave a while ago which reminded PC users that it was time to take a break to assist in the recovery and prevention of Repetitive Strain Injury. Off 4 Fit is another application that reminds the PC user that he needs to take a break. The difference between both applications is that Off 4 Fit is actually using animations to show a number of exercises during the breaks.
Exercises are divided into the three categories Eyes, Hands and Body each containing several exercises that do not take up lots of space, if any, which is ideal for work environments. Each exercise is explained visually by an avatar that is performing it over and over again as well as text that is displayed below the performance.
The first exercise for the hands for example asks the user to stretch his finger joints while the first body exercise is all about stretching the body for a few times.
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Software
break, computer, fitness, pc break, Software, Windows, workrave
If you travel a lot chance is that you will eventually fall victim to theft. If you happen to have your notebook or laptop with you most of the time chance is pretty high that the thief will have the desire to steal that one. Chances are pretty slim that you will see your notebook again after the theft but you can increase them a bit by using Locate PC.
Locate PC only works if the thief is stupid enough to boot your computer while being connected to an internet connection. I cannot truly say how many thiefs would do that but it can happen and that’s probably reason enough to use Locate PC. A slim chance is better than no chance at all, don’t you think ?
Locate PC (via Cybernet News) will send emails periodically whenever the PC is connected to the Internet, by default one email is send per day and another one for every IP change. The application is running in the background with an obscured filename and no system tray icon making it harder to identify. I would say that you do not need to worry about that though, if the thief truly boots the PC while it is connected to the Internet then you should not fear that he will discover the little tracking application.
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Mobiles
computer, hardware, laptop, locate pc, mobile computing, notebook, notebooks, Software, stolen pc, theft
I’m still not finished with the installation of all applications that I want to use on my new computer but the essential ones are there. Essential are those that are needed to work online and view most of the files that I need to work with. The first two applications that I did install were Firefox and Thunderbird both in their latest release version. I then imported the data from my old computer to the new one which gave me access to bookmarks, cookies and saved passwords.
I needed MozBackup to import the data from my old computer. Once I had access to my bookmarks and emails I began to install several applications that I needed for work. The screenshot application MWSnap, WinSCP and Putty to administrate my dedicated server, GIMP for editing images and XNView Lite for viewing images.
Then Extract Now to be able to work with all kinds of archives, XMPlay for playing music, SMPlayer for videos, Notepad for working with texts and source codes and True Crypt to work with encrypted partitions.
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Software
computer, operating systems, pc, Software, software tips, Windows
For some time now I’m running several maintenance applications once a week to improve the performance, security and privacy of my computer. It usually takes less than two hours to run all of these applications and I would like to explain which programs I’m using, why I’m using them and what the benefit of using them is.
Depending on your computer setup and usage you might want to run the schedule less often, maybe once a month or every other week instead. The applications that I’m using are: Autoruns, Process Explorer, CurrPorts, MyUninstaller, Eraser, Disk Cleaner and Defraggler.
If you want to add more security to the schedule you could add an anti-virus application and one against spyware to the mix and run them as well. I usually do not do this however. The schedule is selected for the greatest efficiency. I begin by analyzing the current situation, remove programs and files that I no longer need in the second step, defragment the hard drives and finally erase the free space on the drives so that these deleted files can’t be recovered anymore.
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Software
computer, maintenance, microsoft, operating systems, schedule, security, Software, Windows
The first thing that I’m doing after I bought a computer, be it used or retail, is to check if the components installed are indeed the components advertised. I personally think this is essentially because I witnessed more than once that a computer that was sold did not contain the components that the seller claimed it would.
Some had hard drives with lesser storage, some slower RAM and another one only onboard graphics although it was advertised otherwise. While some components of a computer are easily analyzed some require a little more knowledge. Thankfully applications exist that help us determine exactly what is installed in a computer.
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Software
computer, hardware, hardware check, operating systems, Software, Windows
Not long ago, my system popped out a dialog saying “Error” in the title and offering two ways to go in form of two buttons below it - Yes and No. I was trying hard for a while to find out about the right answer but I never truly did find it because I did not know what the error was all about. I suppose I’ve saved the world by choosing the right answer, the world didn’t blow up after all… And now seriously 
We live in an imperfect world full of bugs (and other insects of course) and the cyber-world is no exception to that rule. Fortunately, there are several ways to resolve problems, as long as you have any idea of what caused them to happen. Not all error messages or bug reports are as useless (and funny) as the one I mentioned above. Most of them provide you with at least a brief description of the error and mostly an error number or category as well. But what if you don’t understand the error message? How about asking some other users who could have experienced it or know how to fix it ?
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The Web
bugs, computer, errors, knowledge, Software, The Web, Windows
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