Flash Drive Apps

Do you have a flash drive? Is it at least 1GB? If you do, what do you use it for?
You could use it for many things. Saving documents, music, movies, programs and more. You could also make it bootable, and install a Linux disro on your PC.

But, did you know, you can run applications on it?

“ PortableApps.com Suite™ is a complete collection of portable apps including a web browser, email client, office suite, calendar/scheduler, instant messaging client, antivirus, audio player, sudoku game, password manager, PDF reader, minesweeper clone, backup utility and integrated menu, all pre-configured to work portably. Just drop it on your portable device and you're ready to go.” www.portableapps.com

So, if you want to use somebody else's PC without leaving a footprint behind, you can do it. Or, you could compile an entire presentation and never save anything on your actual PC. Once you install PortableApps on your flash drive, you can use your apps on any computer with Windows XP or higher!


If you have any suggestions for software, hardware, or website reviews, feel free to email me anytime at techguru@techgurushow.com!

Office Suite

Do you use an office suite? When you want to type out a document, or create a spreadsheet, how do you do it? You could use Microsoft Office 2003 or Microsoft Office 2007 and it would get the job done easily. But, what if you don't have it, and can't afford to pay for it?

You may have heard of OpenOffice, I sure have for a long time. I never gave it a though though, I always had Microsoft Office. I recently decided to try it, and I was blown away. It is very similar to Microsoft Office, and works the same way. The OpenOffice suite has a lot of useful applications

“ OpenOffice.org 3 is the result of over twenty years' software engineering. Designed from the start as a single piece of software, it has a consistency other products cannot match. A completely open development process means that anyone can report bugs, request new features, or enhance the software. The result: OpenOffice.org 3 does everything you want your office software to do, the way you want it to.

Best of all, OpenOffice.org 3 can be downloaded and used entirely free of any licence fees. OpenOffice.org 3 is released under the LGPL licence. This means you may use it for any purpose - domestic, commercial, educational, public administration. You may install it on as many computers as you like. You may make copies and give them away to family, friends, students, employees - anyone you like. “ - www.openoffice.org

This is the best, free office suite you can get. I would argue that for some people, it is better than Microsoft Office. I highly recommend you try this, whether you have an office suite already or not.

How do you download YouTube videos?

Note: This video was made for GoLiveWire.com

Where do you go to download YouTube videos? Or, did you know you could download YouTube videos?

Well, There are many ways to do it. You could use a website like www.KeepVid.com which will do the job. However, I really don't like to have to go to the website every time I want to download a YouTube video. I would much rather have A simple, easy to use application on my computer to do the same thing.

This is where YouTube Download comes into play. YouTube Download is a small program that installs on your computer, and downloads YouTube videos for you. That's it. It also has a built-in conveter. So, If you don't like FLV format, You are able to convert to about 7 different formats right there within the same software that downloads the video.

Personally, I love the application. It couldn't be easier, or more fun to use. You no longer have to worry about viruses etc.. from torrents, or programs such as LimeWire. You can download YouTube Downloader for yourself, 100% free at http://youtubedownload.altervista.org

The Hackintosh Experiment

So, most people think that the Mac OS X only runs on a Mac computer. Well, that's not true anymore. Since Mac has switched to the Intel platform, It is now possible to run Mac OS X on your INTEL BASED PC. IT will not work on AMD or anything else, but it does work on Intel. Becuase I got a new computer recently, I no longer use my Acer Aspire laptop as my primary computer. So, I decided to install Mac OS X Leopard on it. I will be sure to make a video and blog update as soon as it is finished, and tell you all how it turned out. If you would like information on how to do this for yourself, Please visit http://www.osx86project.org/ for detailed information and instructions on how to do this..

Before you E-Mail me and say "Dylan, Is this legal?" I'm going to tell you right now. The simple answer is No. I do not recommend you doing this, and I do not condone any illegal activity. If you choose to try this yourself, It is at your own risk.

Are you someone that has a LOT of files on your computer? Not just music, or movies, but just files in general that you want, but may not have room for on your hard drive? I know I have this problem, my hard drive is 160GB on my laptop, and it is almost full. Now, I have a personal NAS (Network Attached Storage) device to put them on. But, if I did not have that, I would not be able to keep all my files without paying massive amounts of money for online storage. Websites like www.adrive.com and www.xdrive.com will charge amounts around $100 for 1TB online storage. I love online storage. I can upload my music, pictures, documents, and movies and free up space on my hard drive. But what if you can’t afford online storage, or an external hard drive of some sort?

Well, you may want to check out www.oosah.com Oosah, is a free online storage website. You can have up to 1TB (1000GB) of COMPLETELY FREE online storage! So, now you can free up your hard drive, while storing your precious files in a safe environment so you can access them anytime.

Oosah is a simple, easy-to-use, but feature rich “Web 2.0″ content hosting site. We give you one spot on the Web where you can manage all of your digital media content - photos, videos, and music/audio files. It is designed to be easy enough for novice users to use, while at the same time providing features that even the advanced user can appreciate. Oosah is a fully Web-based application, there is no Oosah application or code that you need to download or install on your Mac or PC.

Oosah has a great web interface for uploading, downloading, and viewing/playing your files. You can listen to your uploaded music, watch your uploaded videos, and view your uploaded pictures without ever downloading them. Now, of course the option is there to download them again at any time, but the web interface is amazing. This free service could revolutionize the way we store our files.
For more information, and to sign up for a free account to try this out yourself, just go to www.oosah.com
And don’t forget to stop by and say “Hi” to me, streaming my live video 24/7 at http://live.techgurushow.com

What would you consider safer? Running with scissors, or running LimeWire on your computer? I would argue that it is far safer to run with scissors, at least safer for the computer anyway. You always run the risk of getting viruses, spyware, malware, Trojans etc… when running any illegal download, whether it be on LimeWire or some other form of torrent. If you’re like me, you don’t run antivirus 24/7 or all the time while your computer is on. Well, you may call me crazy, but I’m not. I simply know where to download from and where not to download from, and what websites can be trusted and what websites cannot be trusted. But what if you download an EXE file that may contain a virus, but you’re not sure? Well you may want to take a look at www.virustotal.com

VirusTotal is a service that analyzes suspicious files and facilitates the quick detection of viruses, worms, trojans, and all kinds of malware detected by antivirus engines.

Specs:

* Free, independent service
* Use of multiple antivirus engines
* Real-time automatic updates of virus signatures

Virus Total is a free service, which will run any EXE file you give it, through 36 different virus scanners. These include AVG, Avast, Norton, NOD32, TechSmith and many more. Simply upload any EXE file, for detailed results from every scanner it went though!

So, to put it to the test, I upload a setup file of VNC free client edition. 3 of the antivirus programs picked it up as “RemoteAdmin” which simply means it would allow someone to access my computer. This is, of course, what VNC is designed to do anyway.

This can be very helpful, if you ever have any doubt about a program you downloaded. Don’t just run it by your 1 or 2 antivirus programs, run it through 36 of them at www.virustotal.com