processes

Review: Create and edit Word-compatible documents with WordPad-based Jarte

We suggest taking a look at Carolina Road's Jarte, a free, tabbed-based, Word-compatible word processor built upon WordPad. It's fast and reliable, like WordPad, but it adds some features, such as single-click bookmarking, mouse scroll wheel cut-and-paste capability, and dictionary and thesaurus reference tools. Jarte is available in installed and portable versions; there's also a paid upgrade (still less than Word, though). The latest version of Jarte is compatible with Windows 8; we tried it in Windows 7.

Jarte's installer let us choose whether to install some components, such as dictionary and spell checker tools for … Read more

Google Checkout to check out

Google plans to shut down Google Checkout, its service for online payment processing, in six months, the company announced in a blog post Monday.

Even though Checkout was replaced by Wallet in 2011, it still has been an option for those merchants who are adamant about using the old service in their operations. But on November 20, that will come to an end. Google said by that time merchants who use Checkout will have two options: (1) move to another service, such as Google partners Braintree, Shopify, or Freshbooks, if they don't have their own payment processing, or (2) … Read more

DOJ: We don't need warrants for e-mail, Facebook chats

The U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI believe they don't need a search warrant to review Americans' e-mails, Facebook chats, Twitter direct messages, and other private files, internal documents reveal.

Government documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union and provided to CNET show a split over electronic privacy rights within the Obama administration, with Justice Department prosecutors and investigators privately insisting they're not legally required to obtain search warrants for e-mail. The IRS, on the other hand, publicly said last month that it would abandon a controversial policy that claimed it could get warrantless access … Read more

Edit like a pro with Zoner Photo Studio 15, now 60 percent off

Update May 9, 2013: This offer has been extended, thanks to the folks over at Zoner!

The full-featured image-editing suite Zoner Photo Studio 15 has a bit of something for everyone, from budding amateurs to eager enthusiasts to professional photographers. Whether you need to retouch a few snapshots or batch edit huge photo collections, ZPS has you covered. Need to organize your entire image gallery? Try Zoner Photo Studio's built-in Manager feature. You can create beautiful panoramas, have fun with high-dynamic range (HDR) imaging, or even develop eye-popping 3D images.

Zoner Photo Studio is easy to pick up without … Read more

Process Lasso 6.0.3.4 Review

At Download.com, we've long recommended the excellent Mark Russinovich-created and Microsoft-supplied Process Explorer freeware, which provides scads of info on all of your Windows PC processes and options for managing them. Well, Process Lasso is like the peanut butter for Process Explorer's chocolate. It lets users set default priorities and CPU affinities for specific processes, establish rules for how processes behave, and also create alerts and automatic events for when processes misbehave or use too much memory. The interface is outdated and not beginner friendly, but Process Lasso offers very useful features in a powerful little package.… Read more

Nvidia shows off GeForce 700M GPUs for notebooks

Nvidia yesterday announced five new notebook GPUs designed to deliver the enhanced performance in the devices they're running on.

Collectively known as the GeForce 700M line of GPUs, the chips -- the GT 750M, GT 745M, GT 740M, GT 735M, and GT 720M -- are designed to enhance performance without requiring user input. The GPUs include Nvidia's Boost 2.0 technology, which adjusts clock speed to maximize graphics performance when it's needed. The chips can also enhance battery life, and software that comes with the chips lets users modify visual settings for PC games.

Nvidia's three … Read more

Congressman endorses data retention law, then backs away

A historic lobbying effort today to update U.S. privacy laws for the 21st century seemed to be in danger of derailment by a law enforcement-backed proposal to require Internet companies and e-mail providers to keep records of what their users are doing online.

Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner, the chairman of a key House of Representatives subcommittee, said this morning that it was time to resuscitate the idea of the government mandating data retention. Sensenbrenner, a Wisconsin Republican, had drafted a mandatory logging proposal seven years ago that included prison terms for company executives who failed to comply. A law … Read more

Your smartphone knows which side of the brain you're using

Some people use the left, some the right, but which side of the brain do you primarily use for language? It may seem like a trivial question, but for one thing, if you ever have to undergo any type of brain surgery, the answer can help avoid damage to speech areas.

While lab tests can provide the answer, an app that involves a few minutes of concentration works just as well, according to a study in the journal Frontiers in Psychology.

Furthermore, a version of the app for patients with schizophrenia trains them to improve their focus so that when … Read more

Free LibreOffice office suite beefs up with version 4.0

Fans of LibreOffice will discover a new and improved version with several features typically found only in Microsoft Office.

For those unfamiliar with the product, LibreOffice is an open-source desktop suite, one of several free alternatives to Microsoft Office. The suite includes applications for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, databases, and drawings.

Released today by the Document Foundation, LibreOffice 4.0 builds on its foundations with a host of new features and fixes.

As just a few examples, users of the Writer word processor can now add comments to entire blocks of text, more easily create different headers and footers for … Read more

Love low-fi? 3D-print your own vinyl records

I can't bear to part with my record collection. It's got gems like Steely Dan's "The Royal Scam" that sound better on a turntable and amplifier than on MP3.

Maybe analog sound can feel better because we're analog creatures. Whatever the reason, vinyl's recent popularity has led to events like Record Store Day and DIY projects like Amanda Ghassaei's 3D-printed records.

An editorial staffer at Instructables.com, Ghassaei managed to lay down digital audio files on 3D-printed 33 rpm records that she played on a standard turntable.

The results, as heard in the video below, sound about as clear as phonograph cylinders from the 1880s. The audio output has a sampling rate of 11kHz and 5- to 6-bit resolution, but tunes like Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" are easily recognizable. … Read more