OTHER SOFTWARE
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Personal Information Managers - Streaming Audio - Other Categories
BEST PERSONAL INFORMATION MANAGER AROUND: ClickTray CalendarThere are more "professional" PIMs than this European one. But they look awful, and have limited features. This unique thing has just got everything, and it's the only one to look a bit nice as well.You have to get used to how it works, it can be a bit complicated, some data entries work differently than on any other program, and you can send the program to system tray, but not to system bar. Bu once you learn to use it, after a couple of days, you're just happy to do it and discover how it's useful. You have a main window with the calendar and a nice picture of the month. Days with tasks and notes can be coloured, and below you see a reminder of the tasks of the day, week, month, of alarms, prewarnings and to do list. And this is only the main window! On the right you have the menu to the other features. Other than those reminded in the main window there are addresses, textbook, anniversaries, notice overview, moon phases and star sign, countdown clock, holidays, date calculation, calculator and year overview, to mention only the most important ones. Can this do? ;-) Rating: 9/10 ClickTray Calendar home page and download |
 A screenshot of ClickTray Calendar, click here to go to the program page. |
BEST STREAMING AUDIO AROUND: Radio Netscape PlusThis great program once was Spinner. There are more than 175 station, whatever kind music you like or wish to discover, or rediscover, here you find it. I'll list only my favourite channels: New Wave, 80s Alternative, Awesome 80s, Classic Punk, Funk, Indie Rock Mix, Melancholia, Old School Rap, 90s Alternative, 90s Indie, Disco, New Indie, but there's truly everything, even an Oktoberfest channel!It's a separate program, so you can use it indipendently from Netscape browser. You can influence the playlist by rating songs. In this version you can read on a bar which song is being played on a channel by passing the mouse over the station name, and you have a group of favourite channels, the firsts of them are reported on a screen where you can see the songs being played there at the same time. This program is much ahead than any other of the same kind, and you have much more choice. Rating: 10/10 Radio Netscape Plus home page and download |
 A screenshot of Radio Netscape Plus, click here to go to the program page. |
About Other Categories
- The main purpose of these pages was to write about credible alternatives to the most popular software. I don't write about kinds of software for which I can't recommend alternatives.
For example, Notepad isn't obviously the best text editor, I recommend EditPad Lite. Or Internet Explorer is the best browser, but you can use it better through Crazy Browser. The independent alternatives aren't better, but some of them are credible and were worth of mention.
As much as I'd like to find other alternatives, I still think the best Office programs are those coming from Microsoft (except Front Page and maybe the Outlook client and organizer), and everyone knows it. You can't find a credible alternative to Word as a word processor, simply as that.
Also, there are kinds of programs I don't use often yet, like I don't really know which graphic tool is the best, I can't tell if there are alternatives to PhotoShop, so I won't...
Something apart must be said for E Mail clients. I think the current alternatives to Outlook Express are ridicolously inferior. OE is the best, easiest, most effective and most complete client. Pegasus was the first client, but now it's just complicated and obsolete. Eudora has maybe more problems than its brother browser, Opera, and a really ugly interface. The others are too poor. The worst is Incredimail. Outlook Express is already a very heavy program, and they add other 6 MB to the core for silly graphic tools but not including all the features. The only interesting program was Calypso, but as soon as it became free the development and distribution stopped, though you can still find it in software libraries.
So, Outlook Express. I just wish they made something like Crazy Browser for it to use it with a tab interface. The only big problem is OE it's really more vulnerable to viruses. So you better use an antivirus, and Norton is the best. And keep it updated. Otherwise, never ever open mysterious files. You just know how they are. They're not the kind of stuff you usually receive, and most of all they're not requested. Don't open and do delete the message. No unrequested .exe, no strange extensions like .pif... and the text messages are always so stupid. Someone sends you one of those files to have an opinion or something. Or a friend of yours write you in a foreign language. It makes no sense, just think about it. Does this message make sense? Was I waiting for it? Did I request it? When in doubt, just ask, hey mate, did you really send me that message? Then you'll know. Keep in mind these obvious and simple things and you can use Outlook Express safely.
If you wish to do further research on software I recommend the best libraries. The Download section of CNet is the most complete, but the best organized is the WebAttack freeware section. Just be warned, many of these programs are plainly bad and even dangerous, some are developed by immature amateurs and cause even crashes to your computer. Experiment at your own risk. It's the only way to find the best, though, so I found the programs I recommended here... and as soon as I'll find others you'll know it.
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Site started: 26 Jun 2000. This page last modified: 25 May 2003.
The screenshots are taken from ClickTray Calendar and Radio Netscape webpages.