The 10 Computer Apps Murray Can’t Live Without

Technology Stuff

Here’s my  list of the 10 computer apps I can’t live without. I try to keep them both Mac and PC, but some are not cross platform compatible, anyway – here we go! I’m adding one per month, so check back for the rest.

#1 – Seamonkey (a computer app)

What the heck a Seamonkey is anyway?   Mozilla (remember Netscape Navigator?) named this app after the real thingMozilla  is an “open source” community that provides such better-known apps as the Firefox browser and the Thunderbird email client. Seamonkey is cool because it has a Firefox like browser, a Thunderbird like email client AND a built in WYSIWYG HTML editor, an IRC chat client, a news group client, and an easy to use address book (download links below).

There are so many advantages of using Mozilla apps over especially the Microsoft apps (Internet Explorer and Outlook), the biggest being security. You have a lot better chance of avoiding being the target of malicious emails and web viruses by using Mozilla products. Sad but true, hackers most often target Microsoft products. That’s reason enough to switch, isn’t it? Add to that the ease of use and stability of Mozilla, and you’re nuts (sorry) for using IE or OE!

As part-time web page designers and developers, we have another huge reason not to use IE – we hate it. It is the biggest single source of coding headaches in the universe. Developers can code all day long and have their web content work just fine – as long as they don’t view it in IE. We are forced to throw “conditional comments” into the code to have our beautifully coded work “work” right with IE. So, throw out IE (please!!!) and coding for the web would be a trillion times more efficient and simple.

Currently, the browser market share looks something like this.
October 2011:  IE-22.4%, Firefox-40.6%, Chrome-30.3%, Safari -3.8%, Opera-2.3%

* Source: http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp

That’s 22.4% for IE (boo), and you can figure out the rest (yeah!). What’s it mean? IE is loosing market share to the good browsers. Mozilla has zoomed ahead in the last couple of years, and Chrome, Google’s new browser, is sure to bite even more into that market share very quickly.

Where does Seamonkey fit in? Seamonkey’s browser looks, feels and behaves much the same as Firefox, it works great, but seems to have just a few more issues with certain web sites that develop only for the major browsers (IE, Firefox, etc.). We use both Seamonkey and when we need to – Firefox, but you could use both Firefox and Thunderbird like a lot of folks do just as easily as you use IE and Outlook Express, with a lot less stress, a lot more efficiency, and way more fun.

Well there you go, now go get it – because its there!

Seamonkey download page (look for the correct version for your OS):
http://www.seamonkey-project.org/releases/

Or if you prefer Firefox:
Mac OSX: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/upgrade.html
Windows: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/products/download.html?product=firefox-3.5.5&os=win?=en-US

Thunderbird:
Mac OSX: http://www.mozillamessaging.com/en-US/thunderbird/download/?product=thunderbird-2.0.0.23&os=osx?=en-US
Windows: http://www.mozillamessaging.com/en-US/thunderbird/download/?product=thunderbird-2.0.0.23&os=win?=en-US

Two months ago,  I started my “Top-Ten list of Apps I Can’t Live Without with Seamonkey”, you can read the article here, or read all of The 10 Computer Apps Murray Can’t live without here.

 

This month, since I missed a month (sorry I was busy, find out doing what here) – I’m going to tell you about two apps that when used together allow you to manage and store passwords and user names securely and access them no matter where you are (as long as you have an internet or mobile connection).  Here’s how I do it.

 

keepass logo#2 – Keepass and KeePassX (a computer and mobile app)

 

I don’t know about you, but I have at least 100 different sites, apps, accounts or whatever that I need to have user names and passwords for. I started out years ago with a post-it note on my bulletin board, and soon it was on to an Excel spreadsheet. Problem was, if for any reason some bad person got into my computer, they could easily open the spreadsheet and get and get all my passwords.

 

I used a Mac only app for years, but recently I found KeePass (KeePassX for Mac). Keepass is a highly encrypted open source app that allows you to store your user names, passwords, site URL’s, notes and more in an easy to use and SAFE database.

 

It’s Free, But….

 

KeePass once again is Open Source – that means it’s free! But, if you want to use it without being at your computer there’s a catch. It is not a “cloud” app. That means that the app resides on the hard drive of a computer somewhere and that means if you are on your smart phone, you can’t get to your KeePass on your computer to retrieve your passwords, right?

 

Not exactly….

 

Here’s How You Can Use KeePass Anywhere!

 

Well, how do you access KeePass if it’s not a cloud app and it is on my computer hard drive (you ask)? Not only is KeePass a computer app, it’s available for mobile devices like iPhones, Android phones, etc. (download links below). If you have KeePass on your computer, and you have KeePass on your mobile, you can access it anywhere, here’s how.

(KeePass info and download information are at the end of the #3 – DropBox post)

 

#3 – DropBox To The Rescue!

 

DropBox is a free (up to 2 gigabytes of storage free, more for $$) cloud application that allows you put ANYTHING into your DropBox on your computer, and then share it with ANYONE that you give access to! You can share photos, documents and in this case your KeePass database when you put the KeePass database into the DropBox folder on your computer. Another great benefit to DropBox is that it securely stores the documents in your DropBox on their servers, so you can to access the stuff in your DropBox from any computer anywhere as long as there is an internet connection.

 

Simply go to the link below, download DropBox onto your hard drive, then create a DropBox account online. Now, when you

 

Wrap It All Up – Passwords and User Names Anywhere – Anytime.

 

1. Put your KeePass database in your DropBox.

 

2. Download the DropBox and KeePass mobile apps for your mobile device.

 

3. Open DropBox on your mobile device and voila – your KeePass database is there for you to access and even edit if you like.

 

This works great for me, it’s all free, it’s secure, it takes minimum set-up, and it is easy to use once it is set up. Hope you like it!

 

More Information and To Download

KeePass

KeePass Info: http://keepass.info/

KeePass PC & Mac Download (look for the correct version for your OS): http://keepass.info/download.html

KeePass Mobile Download (look for the correct version for your device):m Go to the app store for your mobile device

DropBox

DropBox is free. However, if you decide to get DropBox, email us here. We will send you an invitation to get DropBox and by doing it this way we can get additional space above the 20gb free limit for free. Just thinking…..

DropBox Info: http://www.dropbox.com/features

DropBox PC & Mac Download (look for the correct version for your OS):http://www.dropbox.com/features

DropBox Mobile Download (look for the correct version for your device): Go to the app store for your mobile device

 

 

 

 


Leave a Reply