process

I love a good win-win.

From now until December 24, you can get SoftMaker FreeOffice for Windows or Linux absolutely free. And when you do, SoftMaker will donate 0.10 Euros to betterplace.org, which raises funds for a variety of worthy worldwide projects.

So what the heck is SoftMaker FreeOffice? As you may have guessed from the name, it's the free version of SoftMaker's commercial office suite. It provides word processing, spreadsheets, and presentations, all with an interface that closely resembles Microsoft Office 2003.

Speaking of which, FreeOffice is fully file-compatible with Microsoft's suite, though it'… Read more

When Windows hangs or crashes, it's usually due to a single process or program that isn't running properly. Sometimes you have to open the System Configuration or Services tool to terminate a running process. Or you can open Process Hacker and view it all at once. This free, open-source process viewer displays all your running processes and services, including network and disk processes, in color-coded tree views. Process Hacker's powerful process termination capabilities bypass most security software and rootkits, ending the entire affected process. Skilled users can take advantage of Process Hacker's string scanning capabilities and … Read more

CorelDraw Graphics Suite is a software package of design tools designed to run on Windows operating systems. The main application in this large package of tools is CorelDraw, which is used for vector designs and layouts. Corel Photo-Paint is designed to retouch and edit digital photos, and other apps in the package can do tasks such as screen grabs, collaborate with co-workers, and more.

The CorelDraw interface has the familiar Windows options with pull-down menus for File, Edit, and View. Main functions like effects are easily applied with large buttons on the left of the main window. New effects for … Read more

If you're looking for a decent photo editor without breaking your wallet, FX Photo Studio for Mac is a solid solution. It comes with plenty of tools and filters for post processing and adding flare to your photos.

Upon launching the program, users are welcomed with a slick, dark interface that directs your attention to the photo itself. The layout makes great use of screen estate and the interface is clean and uncluttered. The overall experience of Photo Studio really focuses on bringing out the elements and emotions that you want out of the photo through its custom filters … Read more

Apache OpenOffice.org is the free open-source productivity suite that rivals Microsoft's Office suite, the business world's standard. OpenOffice.org is compatible with most Office documents and many other file types. Like Office, it's a collection of powerful tools, but you don't have to install all its modules. The latest version of OpenOffice.org supports Windows 8.

The OpenOffice.org installer's custom option lets users choose which Program Modules to install from Writer, Calc, Draw, Impress, Base, and Math, plus shared Optional Components. During setup, we chose to make OpenOffice.org our default program for … Read more

ACDSee Pro 6 is the photo editing software of choice for many professional photographers. It offers powerful image editing and cataloging tools with secure online storage capabilities that let you store and access massive RAW images for editing and processing wherever and whenever you want or need them. ACDSee is oriented toward maximizing your workflow, too. The fully featured ACDSee Pro 6 is free to try for 30 days. It's not cheap, but it's hardly expensive as image editing software goes. It's well within the budget of sophisticated amateurs, and the price includes online storage space.

ACDSee … Read more

Square is growing by leaps, bounds, and venti lattes.

The payment-processing company, which allows merchants to swipe cards with a device connected to mobile devices, today announced that it's now handling $8 billion in transactions every year. Just a year ago, that figure stood at over $1 billion, and earlier this year, Square CEO Jack Dorsey said the company was processing $4 billion in transactions per year.

That growth has meant far more revenue for Square. Although the company doesn't divulge its financials, it takes a fee of 2.75 percent for each card swipe through its service. … Read more

After more than 25 years since the passage of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA), Sen. Patrick Leahy is hoping to get the out-of-date privacy law up to speed by introducing a new bill in the Senate Judiciary Committee today, according to Ars Technica.

The key component of this new bill is that law enforcement officials would no longer have the ease of freely being able to read people's personal e-mail and online communication -- they'd need a warrant first. As the law now stands, police are allowed to get individual's private correspondence by simply asking e-mail … Read more

It's easy to click away with your digital camera or phone and save tons of snapshots to your PC. If you've ever admired someone else's immaculately trimmed and framed digital pictures, there's no reason yours can't look the same; all you need is software that can create borders and frames for your images. But a tool that's too difficult to use is almost worse than no tool at all, especially if you spend a lot of time learning to use it but end up no further than when you started. Not all picture framing … Read more