The Apps I Use

When I brought home Daisy, I knew I had to install a couple of applications so that my computing experience would be seamless between any of the PCs I use.

Here are a couple of must-haves on your PC (and all of them are FREE!):

Avira Anti-Virus - I've been using Avira for a couple of years now and I never had any problems with viruses. And what's great about Avira is it's free and there's an update every few days. 

Open Office - I've been using Open Office for over a year now and there's really not much difference between using it and MS-Office. Most of my documents though are on Google Docs since I oftentimes change the PC I use. And it was a hard lesson learned when George (my old PC) crashed when I was out of town, good thing I always backed up my files.

Google Desktop - I love using Google Desktop because I just need to press Ctrl twice and I can easily search for a file in my desktop. I also use it for some RSS feeds, notes, a Picasa slideshow of my photos and it's where I anchor my Gtalk. 

Picasa - I use Picasa to keep my photos organized. I love the fact that you can have your name/URL stamped automatically on the photo when you upload it to your web album. My other favorite button is the "I'm feeling lucky" button which edits your photo automatically. And I also use the "Blog This" button and I'm currently learning how to edit videos using Picasa too. Plus you can also use Picasa to import photos from your phone!

Gtalk Gadget - I use Gtalk 99% of the time now, so I just use the web version of YM. I like using the gadget because it's easy to send files and chat (by voice) with friends. Gtalk on Gmail is also quite exciting with the video messaging feature. 

iTunes - Can't live without music. `nuff said.

So those are my standard installations whenever I have a new PC/laptop. And it's all FREE!

What about you? What do you install on your PC/laptop?

MSI Wind

I've wanted to buy a small notebook since last year since Happy's growing old and heavy. Month after month my mind changed and eventually I limited my choices to: an Acer Aspire, a HP Mini or MSI Wind. My choice for an OS also swung, Linux vs. Microsoft Windows, but that was an easier battle to settle since I realized I had to make sure that if I had to a presentation my laptop should work on any type of LCD projector. 

So, why did I limit my choices to the three? Here's why:

1. Acer Aspire - one of the best brands and during the third quarter last year they came out with their line of smaller notebooks. I also liked the fact that the notebooks are available in red, black and blue. (I liked the red one!).

2. HP Mini - At some point during the decision making process I thought I wanted an HP Mini, because HP's a really good brand too and I remember getting excited back then because HP had one of the bigger harddisk sizes (most of the netbooks had very small HD's).

3. MSI Wind - My tried and tested brand. I love my MSI S262 and I still use it often. In the 20 months that I've had it I never experienced any problems with it (even though I lug it around whenever I travel). So I naturally thought that getting a MSI Wind was a shoo-in.

So come Saturday I thought I'd finally get a new laptop. My requirements were:

(1) should be light

(2) should run on Windows XP

(3) hard disk size should be more than 100GB

(4) memory should be at least 1GB DDR2

(5) should be less than 10" 

I realized that I didn't like how the HP Mini looked like. I don't have any issues with having smaller keys since I have small hands. I chose the MSI Wind because it had 2GB DDR2 memory compared to the Acer laptop.

And meet Daisy, my new laptop -

I got Daisy at The Hub, Parksquare. It's the second time I bought a PC there since they give very good service. I was assisted by Reymond this time around.