Audubon Birds: A Field Guide to North American Birds

Audubon Birds: A Field Guide to North American Birds

This is why they invented mobile apps.

I have never been thrilled about the scientific apps out there because at the end books were always better or to do calculations pen and paper. This is one of the few that I think the app is better than the book version.

Loading screen...

Login screen

Category selection

All them pretty birds

I am selecting Bronzed Cowbird

Options for identification include pictures of male and females, range, voice, description, and similar birds.

Most birds have songs and calls listed.

You can hear their voices to confirm what you may be seeing in real life.

Imagine if all Audubon books were turned into apps. The access to see, hear, and learn more about the world around you without having to swim through a sea of internet waste would be great.

I hope encyclopedia makers and other scientific publications take a second to copy and improve on these types of apps.

Here's why this is a 100% program...
Pros

1. You can hear and see the birds
2. The way it is set up is simple.
3. You can add your own content.

Cons

1. No knowing bird types can slow your search

Rating: 10 out of 10 (80%)

Got it at:
Amazon for free but currently it is $2.99,
Audubon Birds: A Field Guide to North American Birds

Help need Screen Capture for Android?

Does anyone now of a good Screen Capture tool for Android phones?

Look at this I have to use a digital camera and it gets more reflection than screen.

My phone is not rooted (hacked) and I am not going to root it. So this tool must be free and able to work on the Droid X type of Android phones.


Any help or links will be greatly appreciated.

McAfee All Access 2012

McAfee All Access 2012

Got this free my normal McAfee Total Protection I first got in 2004. Generally McAfee is a great piece of computer security. Occasionally it slows down the computer but it the job and I have never had problem with threats or viruses since 2004, especially since I have never turned off my desktop. Unlike previous editions there is no limit to what device you can download it on.

Mobile Security

This is the component or phones. It gives you the ability to track, secure, and erase your phone. My Droid X is about to be two years old and I have had zero problems. Still I am using online features and download more apps than I can keep track of so it seemed like a smart idea.

McAfee Security Pin screen, it's 90210...just kidding, maybe.

Options screen

Warning Messages

It keeps warning me of three things...
Device Admin: This allows remote erasing and other remote actions. I will not turn it on because since I never have the phone away from me it may cause more problems like accidental erasure.

GPS Disabled: Yeah I never use the GPS on my phone. My city has a great 3G network and GPS would not add anything except for battery drainage.

Auto-Backup Disabled: Again this is a battery drainage issue, plus my phone came with an auto-backup that works great. So another redundant feature.

Here's why this is a 80% program...
Pros

1. The PC edition changes little to nothing
2. Mobile security is only noticeable when downloading apps
3. Lots of customizable functions

Cons

1. Can slow down the computer in certain cases
2. Yearly cost is ridiculous

Rating: 8 out of 10 (80%)

Got it at:
Full Edition at McAfee.com: Free upgrade after that $99.99 a year
Mobile Componen at Google Play: Free with subscription

Side note: I hate the fact I cannot screen capture on my phone so excuse the reflections.

CamStudio Portable

CamStudio Portable

This is a screen recording app that works from a USB drive. You can define the shape of the recording area, the frame rate, and other functions. It is lightweight but the files can be large.

The small application screen very efficient.

The screen size is defined by the corner arrows you see at the four corners of the screenshot.

The CamStudio Player showing what you just recorded.

Notice a problem.

Well if you did not notice the screen size I selected was correct but it was shifted to left and up by one-third. No matter what I did to the setting it was always recording off center. It was high quality and I could adjust but still very annoying.

Here's why this is a 80% program...
Pros

1. Easy to use
2. Great playback
3. Lots of functions
4. Very lightweight

Cons

1. Off center recording
2. Some of the functions are not clear to a novice

Rating: 8 out of 10 (80%)

Got it at:
PortableApps: Free

This copy I have is older, allegedly they updated so I will too soon.

Blogger Comments Problem

Blogger recently added a Reply feature to there comment system and if you have a small blog with less than 200 comments pictures. Now if you have over 200 comments or like me 2000+ comments the whole comment system is ruined and it is nearly impossible to use.

Check it out you can now reply to each comment individually except those stopped at 2009. Yet I still get comment everyday even in 2012. So to see your new comments you have to hit the "Load more..." link for 5 minutes until you see the newest comments.

What I had to do is turn back to the old system that takes you to a second page in order to comment. Using a simple code I can alter the color of my comments to make them stand out against regular comments. I love the look of my custom comments but the best part is to see the newest comments all you have to do is click the "Newest" link.

I appreciate the reply option but they obviously did not test it on blogs with 2,000+ comments per page. They did not give users an option to use the Embedded comments without reply or with a Newest link. Also getting a reply from their Blogger Buzz Blog is useless, they only accept praise.

Solution
Switch from Embedded to Full Page.
Hopefully a new update will fix it.

Here's why this is a 10% feature...
Pros

1. Reply is always easier for the commenter.

Cons

1. Email updates on the comments do not take you to the newest "Reply" making it difficult to find the newest comments.
2. Newest comments are hidden under the useless "Load More" link.
3. Font and color is changed for the smaller and less unique.

Rating: 1 out of 10 (10%)

Excel vs. Access: Part 1

The Project:
List 2,031 coins by country, date, denomination, grade, value, quantity, variety, and worth.

 

Excel	Access
Very customizable	Limited options
Sheets for each country	Tables can be made
Macros needed get sheet names	Data easily manipulated
Shared easily	Few people use it

Decision: 
Excel, because using Access at work I noticed some short comings when converting to Excel. Plus when sharing no one wants Access files. Plus at the beginning I did not know how to classify varieties and thought Excel gave me more choices.

Verdict:
I like the look of the Excel sheets and stuff is easy to find. Unfortunately it is difficult to make graphs and tables involving all the coins. On second thought I should have done it in Acces and just like my work files take a day or day to adjust the Excel output.

When I have time I will make an Access file version.

McAfee Net Guard

McAfee Net Guard

For a week every time I got on the internet everything was slow. Gmail would get stuck, could not download anything, Youtube videos would not play beyond 14 seconds, and most sites needed to be constantly refreshed to work. At the beginning of last week everything updated. Windows, Adobe, and McAfee all updated on the same day.

It took a while to figure what messed up but thanks to some Youtube research it was narrowed down to firewall issues. I checked McAfee and turn several things on and off until the internet worked again. The culprit was Net Guard.

Net Guard is a feature that automatically avoids risky connections. The problem is that it labels everything as "risky". There is a way to edit the untrusted connection but they had names like http:122.1090.019 and server.theuun.ooap/aihoia/%20pabuua.thh.555. All this is gibberish to me and I have no time to go one by one and change each setting. Add to that I visit 20 to 100 sites a day, most just once, so I found this feature a major annoyance.

Solution
Turned it off.
Maybe later if I have time I will turn it on and "trust" each site I visit but that seems like a hassle for now.

Here's why this is a 10% program...
Pros

1. Worked great until the last update.

Cons

1. It's a beast. It will block everything and cripple all your browsers.

Rating: 1 out of 10 (10%)

Got it at:
McAfee for about $90 for the full package.