Posts Tagged ‘free’

Picture the scene… you’re about to set off for a meeting… you’re doing your preparation and you realise that you need a replacement notepad for your shiny corporate portfolio. You head off to the stationery cupboard, only to discover that those cheeky devils in {delete as appropriate} Accounts/Sales/Marketing/Operations took the last one, and didn’t bother re-ordering any!

You could of course quickly swipe some plain copier paper from the nearest printer… or you could instead head over to Printable Paper where you can choose from a selection of printable templates. Take your pick from lined paper, graph paper, dot paper, music paper, and oh so much more (in fact we didn’t know that there were so many different types of paper!). Bear in mind the site has a global audience, so if you’re in the UK, you will most likely want to head straight to the A4 section. The templates can be downloaded as a PDF or in Microsoft Word format. They are completely free (but then we would hope so given that you have to use your own paper and printer!).

As well as offering printable paper templates, you can also download 2009 calendars and cash receipts forms. Ok, so some of the designs leave ‘a little to be desired’, but if you’re simply looking for something functional then they will certainly do the job… at the very least helping you out until the replacement stationery order arrives!

Microsoft Word… it’s one of those programs that you either love or hate (and sometimes both!). If you find yourself using the program on a regular basis, then you might find the following site useful. We don’t know who Alan Wyatt is, but we think it’s mighty nice of him to go to the effort to post this information at no cost to others.

Vitalnews

If you only really use your broadband connection to surf a few basic web pages, then connection speed probably isn’t all that important. If on the otherhand, you send and receive hundreds of e-mails and regularly need to upload or download large files etc… it’s absolutely essential (especially when you have multiple users sharing a connection).

As you may have read recently, many broadband suppliers (also known as ‘ISPs or ‘internet service providers’) advertise connection speeds of up to 8mbps (mega bits per second) yet often customers do not actually get this level of service. To us, that’s a bit like advertising a sports car that does up to 100mph when in fact, on most drives, it won’t top 60!

If you’re about to come to the end of your broadband contract (or you’re simply curious about the actual speed of your connection) then you might want to head over to www.speedtest.net

Once you’re at the site, simply click on the yellow pyramid nearest to your geographical location, and watch the large ’speedometer’ calculate your speed (you may want to try this at different times of day to see if it varies). If you are on an network within an office, then remember that the results may also vary according to internet usage by your colleagues.

Once you have your result, you can compare this against other broadband providers in your region, town, county etc.

We use a company called Newnet, which is both reasonably priced, and (in our experience) reliable too. Perhaps most importantly, we actually get the close to the speed advertised (on our case, about 7kbps verses an advertised speed of 8kbps).

Have you ever visited a website and been greeted with the following message “404 error – file not found”?

Congratulations! You’ve encountered what’s known as a ‘dead link‘… or a page on a site that is no longer available. Think of this as an undelivered parcel… the postman attempted to deliver your package to the address on the label, but when he got there, the building had been demolished!

So how does this relate to your ‘favorites‘ folder?

If (like us) you’ve accumulated hundreds of favorites (a.k.a. ‘bookmarks’) over the last few years, it would be nice to know which of these are still ‘alive’ and which are ‘dead’. Obviously, it would be too time consuming to trawl through the list and visit each of these sites manually (just to see if they were in fact still working). Wouldn’t it be nice then, if there were a piece of software that did this for you automatically?

Well the good news is… there is! AM Deadlink is like a spring clean for your favorites folder. It looks at all of the addresses you have saved, and highlights any ‘dead’ or ‘duplicate links’.

Not only is this a great little program, but it is also free to download and use!

AM Deadlink via PC World

Image by Canon Snapper

We have a bit of a love/hate relationship with the humble ‘post it’ note.

They are without doubt incredibly useful for quickly jotting stuff down… but if you don’t transfer your scribblings into some sort of system, you soon end up with a working area rather like the one pictured.

Wouldn’t it be nice (and more environmentally friendly) if there was a PC equivalent of ‘post its’… a system where you could type snippits on to your screen for retrieval at a later date?

Our ‘macs’ (computers, not raincoats!) have just that… a piece of built in software called ‘stickies‘. It’s one of those really useful things that you tend to take for granted (and struggle to do without).

We have never been able to figure why there was no equivalent program for Windows PCs. Clearly, we are not alone, as just such a program has been developed. It’s called ‘Hott Notes’, and you can find out more about it here

The latest version of ‘hot notes’ allows you to save your ‘notes’ to a USB memory stick or portable hard drive, so even if you change computers regularly, you can always have them to hand (nice!).

Oh yes… did we mention it’s free too?

Happy note taking!

via Lifehacker

Image by katiew

Here at blue sky, we use a range of software to create, design, and edit images. When it comes to manipulating photography, we use Adobe Photoshop. It’s a fantastic tool, but it takes several months of use to become proficient (it’s also very expensive to purchase).

If you want to quickly and easily perform some basic image editing (e.g. removing ‘red eye‘ from some party snaps) then head on over to the new Adobe Photoshop Express site. You don’t need to install any expensive or complicated software, and you can get some pretty impressive results in a matter of minutes. You can even upload your photos and save them (there’s a gernerous 2gb limit). Oh, and did we mention, it’s free to use!

Naturally, we’ve given this a try, and we’re very impressed with the layout and user friendliness etc. It’s worth bearing in mind that this is a very limited tool however, and only performs a fraction of the tasks of the professional version… so if you need help with something a little more complex, then (thankfully) you will still need to give us a call!

OK, so this won’t save you any time… but it might brighten up your PC a bit! Those of you that know us well, will know of our passion for all things automotive. We also love computers (both PCs and Macs) and we love a bargain too (after all, our favourite price is free!). Mix all of these things up, and what do you get?……… You get free desktop wallpapers of course! Head on over to the Top Gear site for a fantastic selection of images to spruce up your screen (including some from the new F1 season). Admittedly, these will only appeal to other ‘petrolheads’… so if cars are not your thing, the you might want to take a look at this mighty fine selection. And if you don’t know how to change your desktop wallpaper, then here is a handy tutorial:- Tutorial

When it comes to advertising, we’re big fans of the campaign for directory enquiries service provider ‘118 118′. We are not, however, big fans of paying a fixed fee of 69p per call, with a subsequent rate of 19 pence per minute!

If you need call directory enquiries on a frequent basis, then you might be interested to know of a couple of new FREE services:-

Free directory enquiries 0800 100 100
The Number 0800 118 3733

So what’s the catch?… well, you have to listen to a short (20 second) advertisement before receiving the number. OK, so time is money… but we tend to do something else whilst waiting (e.g. checking our e-mail).

You can read the pros and cons of each service at moneysavingexpert

Telephones photo by givepeaceachance

Imagine you’d recently renovated you kitchen and you’ve got an old chest freezer to dispose of. It’s not particularly pretty, it’s too big to fit in your family hatchback, and it’s probably not very valuable… but it does work really well. It would be a shame for it to go to landfill wouldn’t it? “I’m sure someone somewhere would find this useful” you’re thinking… “But who?“.

Imagine now, that you could advertise the item completely free of charge, and that someone would come and collect it from your home for their own use. Not only would you have a problem taken off your hands, but a warm fuzzy feeling that someone will benefit from your generosity.

Enter ‘Freecycle‘.

We were going to write an explanatory paragraph about Freecycle, but they’ve already done the hard work for us, so here’s a direct quote from them:-

“This amazing worldwide phenomenon known as Freecycle(TM) started in Tucson, Arizona in 2003 by Deron Beal. Freecycle harnesses the power of the Internet to connect people who have stuff to throw away with others in their area who would like that stuff, so it doesn’t wind up in a landfill. We ALL have things in our garages, closets, attics, offices, etc. that we don’t need. Freecycle lets you find someone who does. No item is too big or too small but ALL must be 100% FREE with NO strings attached. A perfect consumer/earth friendly circle is no overhead, no money, no waste and no catch. After all, there is no point in throwing something away when it still has good life in it or it can be of use to someone else.”

OK, so ideally, we would prefer to donate unwanted goods to charity, however there are certain items that charities will not accept. For instance, here’s a list of what Oxfam will and will not handle:- Oxfam

Another option might be to sell unwanted goods on eBay, but this can be time consuming, and unfeasable for larger bulky items. In addition, it might not be particularly environmentally friendly if your old TV gets shipped up to Glasgow.

So in summary, if you have a ‘useful’ but relatively ‘low value’ item that the ‘charity shops don’t want’, then we think Freecycle is a great solution.

www.freecycle.org

When you visit the site you can search for a group in your area (the local group for Weybridge is listed as ‘Elmbridge’). Freecycle does require that you have a ‘Yahoo id’… if you don’t have one, you can get one for free here

Cartoon via clangnuts.com

Whilst February might be a little late to be writing about a year planner, we thought we’d bring this to your attention anyway (especially given the price). US productivity software company Sciral is offering a range of ‘free custom calendars’ on their website. You can download a monthly calendar, year planner, or something they call a ‘life page’ (which plots 100 years on one sheet). The calendars have some configuration options too (for example, you can choose which year you would like to print, or the day of the week you would like the calendar to start on). Once you have selected your preferences, you can download a printer friendly PDF.

Personally we think the year planner will be the most useful item…

www.sciral.com