All Posts Tagged With: "7"

For close to two years now, I have been using SnagIt for all my screen capturing needs. Despite several free alternatives, I felt that this software did a better job of giving me the tools that I needed, so I dropped roughly $40.00 on this software and haven’t looked back.

Today I noticed that TechSmith has decided to give away free retail editions of SnagIt 7.2.5 with no strings attached, which is good news for people that have not yet experienced this software. For your reference, the most recent version is 8.2.

In addition to traditional screen capture, this software allows the user to capture scrolling long web pages, extract text from windows, annotate images and make fancy borders and stuff on your images.

In order to get the software, follow these two steps:

1) Download the demo version of SnagIt TechSmith FTP servers below:

• ftp://ftp.techsmith.com/pub/products/snagit/725/SnagIt.exe (English Version)
• ftp://ftp.techsmith.com/pub/products/snagit/725/snagitde.exe (German Version)
• ftp://ftp.techsmith.com/pub/products/snagit/725/snagitfr.exe (French Version)

2) Visit the TechSmith website and request a SnagIt 7 Software key - it should arrive in your Inbox pretty soon. Just key in the registration details and your trial copy of SnagIt will convert into a full retail version.

This free version is a complimentary copy of SnagIt (Version 7.2.5).  You can upgrade the software to the above mentioned current version 8.2 at half of the standard price if you’d like the updates from version 8.0+.

[via Digital Inspiration]

Mozilla fans rejoice!   Fans of Firefox, Thunderbird, and/or Songbird applications will be pleased to see that Mozilla has just entered into the instant messenger market with the release of beta version 0.1 of InstantBird, which is available for Windows, Apple, and Linux users.  This beta version still includes some bugs and some problems with Ubuntu versions of Linux, but seems to be pretty reliable.   The interface needs a lot of work as well, but I’m sure that will be improved once all of the features have been implemented.   It also includes Mozilla’s trademark add-ons, allowing users to build extensions for InstantBird.

For those that are interested in trying this out, it looks to pretty much be the equivalent of an early version of Pidgin.   It is based on the same code library as Pidgin (libpurple), and will serve as a multi-client chat program that connects to popular instant messenger services like Yahoo Messenger, AOL Instant Messenger, and Windows Live Messenger.

Mozilla’s future plans include attempting to compete with Pidgin by adding similar features, then add video and voice features.  Hopefully once voice is done, Skype compatibility will be included.

Currently many web surfers make the terrible mistake of using one of several paid anti-virus softwares on the market, such as the popular Norton and McAfee softwares. Not only are they not the best anti-virus software available, but if you were to ever take the time to look into it a little bit, you would probably see that they are usually the culprit when your computer is running extremely slow.

Luckily there are several free alternatives that won’t cause you all of the headaches. I personally use Avast and recommend them to most people that are setting up a new computer. Another nice alternative I’ve used is AVG, which is also available at no charge when using it for personal use (non-commercial).

One of the debates that comes along with the recent open source movement is the idea that anti-virus software could at some point go to open source. Chris Pirillo recently looked at whether anti-virus software is the virus. In the post, he looks at the effects open source would have on an anti-virus. The post is very well written, but the most notable part is actually where he quotes Peter Schwankl’s thoughts on the matter:

I like your idea that all Anti-Virus should be free! A company is indeed selling the cure for the poison that appears. It’s just a vicious cycle. But then again, I think open source is a mistake. I would think that an open source version of an anti virus would cause problems with potential hackers having access to the source code of an anti-virus, causing two things to happen:

1. Impossibly hard-to-crack AV programs
2. Far more devastating virii

It should be said that an AV program, open or closed, can have a hacker gain access to the source code, but making it easier is like handing it to them. Because that’s what’s happening.

So therefore, I think AV programs do indeed need to be closed source, an open source community wouldn’t have the dedicated resources that a company does to produce consistent, worthwhile, and stable-running AV software. Also, like with the Vista situation right now, open source can have a VERY long turnaround time when crossing to new OSes, leaving people crossing over, especially from OEMs such as Dell, or HP that move to the newest OS immediately, without protection while it’s updated for a new OS, where as companies are given OS Dev kits in advance.

However, while they should NOT be open source, they should on the same note be free. I WILL NOT pay to cure the poison that is omnipresent.

The benefits of open source for an anti-virus are obvious, with thousands of people around the globe having access to the code and trying to improve the product, but I think Peter is correct in his assessment. If hackers can access the source code, then the anti-virus software would quickly become worthless.