I am sure that in the same way as many other new bloggers have done, I have been thinking hard about the name and content of my blog over the last couple of weeks. Probably the hardest decision to make was about the blog name. What has become clear to me very quickly was that “My Free Review” has no immediate impact for anyone searching for content with Google, Yahoo or any of the other major search engines. The same lack of impact would also effect users of StumbleUpon, Technorati, Digg, etc. While every blog on “how to increase Traffic” to a blog always says content is King, that’s no good if you don’t have anyone to read it! Reading articles on changing the domain name for a blog, made it clear that the longer I left it the more the impact of the change would be. Not only are there lots of changes to make to the blog database, but there are also major effects on search engine and other rankings. So yesterday I spent several hours trying to come up with a new name that could be tied into a domain name as well.

I started by thinking of names that would have the right combination of simplicity, memorability, and authority. A name that people could identify with for the type of content but had the right sound to it, catchy without being trivial. Words in the frame included tech, techno, expert, xpert, review, pro and even (in desperation) geek. I wanted to avoid using a domain name with any of the “modifiers” suggested by the domain name sellers like GoDaddy such as adding THE, NEW, BEST, MY or OFFICIAL at the beginning of the domain name or ONLINE, HOME, SITE, LIVE, BLOG to the end. Not only do these often look lame but they also lengthen the name and potentially make it less memorable.

The other big influence on my choice of name was that I wanted to have wider variety of content than reviews and hoped to reflect that in the name. So, you ask, why have I ended up with proreviewer.com! Simply, after several hours of researching available names, apart from a couple that were available at “premium rates” ranging from $500 to $5000, I couldn’t find any name that fitted the above set of criteria. Even when extending my list of acceptable words most of the others I tried were not available or just didn’t work for me. There were also a couple of names that I could have used but were within a letter of another blog name and with content in a similar area. So I ended up with a shortlist of 5 names and with the help of family and friends (a focus group of 3!) whittled this down to a final 2. Even choosing to include proreviewer in the list, which was close to exiting names and tied back to reviews, was difficult, but in the end it was considered the best we could come up with.

As you can see, the new name has become a major compromise. It still reflects an area that is more narrow than the intended blog content but I will just have to live with that and The need to have something that sounded authoritative and was in the right area to reflect at least some of the content was important and I am sure that Darren Rowse’s excellent and highly successful site, problogger.com had an influence on my final decision.

Other Relevant Posts

Why I Decided to Write this Blog

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P.S. Just visited Problogger to check spelling of Darren’s surname and coincidentally there is this post:

Six Defining Moments of a ProBlogger

which I thought was quite appropriate as I see changing this blog name as a defining moment in my blogging life.

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P.P.S. I think it will take a couple of weeks for me to make all the internal WordPress changes so don’t be surprised that “My Free Review” (myfreereview) will appear in various links and other places for a while.

Technorati Tags: ProReviewer, My Free Review, Problogger, Domain Name

What Does it Do – The Essentials?

FlashFolder is a small utility that enhances the common Open/Save File dialog boxes used by windows programs. It sits on top of the dialog box (docks) as shown above (the red border has been added to illustrate). FlashFolder provides several additional functions in the form of a toolbar to help you use and navigate when opening and saving files. I personally think this is a great little program.

Summary:

• Go To Last Folder
• Favorite Folders/Bookmarks
• Last Used Folders
• Resizes Dialog Box
• Positions Dialog Box at Screen Centre (Optional)
• View “All Files” in a folder
• Provides a file/folder path address bar
• Integrates with Total Commander directory menu

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Popularity: 17% [?]

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Loved Ones

Tonight I am promised a nice meal, a bottle of champagne and the company of my “significant other”. Much as I enjoy the research and writing that goes into the reviews in the short life of this blog, more worldly pleasures are dragging me away from the keyboard and screen!

So just a couple of quick notes for this post as I am sure that you will all have better things to do as well.

Worms

The major malware/anti-virus sites are reporting a major onslaught of the worm Dref-AB in preparation for the unsuspecting on Valentine’s Day. this worm is spread by email and subject lines include:

• A Valentine Love Song
• Fly Away Valentine
• My Lucky Valentine
• For My Valentine
• Happy Valentine’s Day
• Be My Valentine
• My Valentine

The attachment containing the worm include the following titles:

• greeting postcard.exe
• flash postcard.exe
• postcard.exe.
• greeting card.exe

BUT This is not an exclusive list of email subjects or attachment executable names.

So treat everything you receive from unknown sources with the usual degree of caution and sceptism. Make sure you have a viris scanner installed, there are plenty of free ones (personally I use AVG Free Edition from Grisoft), that the definitions are up todate and that it is set to scan your email and downloads.

It is believed that the worm code is written to download more malicious code over the Internet which will  take over the PC in order to use it as part convert  of a zombie network. It could then be used to send spam or for DOS attacks.

Fun

I came across the following freeware programs with a Valentine’s Day theme. I haven’t tried them but they are listed on reputable download sites. Same caution as always use an anti-virus program and scan the downloads. Google for the download site or visit your favorite and search there.

Valentine’s Hearts Animated Screenmate

Let your house be full of warmth and coziness during these holidays!

Valentine’s Hearts is a holiday Screen Mate by EleFun Multimedia devoted to St. Valentine’s Day. From year to year people in many countries celebrate the day of all beloved — St. Valentine’s Day.
On this wonderful holiday it is a common practice to present greeting-cards in the form of hearts and to make an avowal of sentiments. Screen Mate Valentine’s Hearts is almost a greeting-card but it is much more interesting and unique. Just imagine a bright and beautiful heart on the desktop of your computer! A present like this can never be forgotten!
To present Valentine’s Hearts Screen Mate to your friend, you may use send from Valentine’s Hearts settings by Send To Friend button or copy URL of this page and send it.

Saturn-7 Valentine

Freeware Valentine’s heart like screenmate that allow to write any text on it. Had some function to slow down or faster slide speed. Egg inside.

Platform: Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows Me, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows 2003

System Requirements: There is no specific requirements

Language: English

Have fun and enjoy your day!

Popularity: 9% [?]

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What Does It Do – The Essentials?

Daphne is a small utility that allows you to view and control the processes running on your system. The beauty of this utility is that it provides the ability to do this by dragging and dropping a target with your mouse. It also provides functions to modify, control and kill processes by name and to save these as rules. I had been looking for a “process manager” with the mouse capabilities for sometime so I am really pleased to have found this.

Summary:

• Lists all currently running processes
• Kill processes by name, from main window or by dragging a target onto the application window
• Control and modify processes in the same way as above
• Controls include hide application, always on top, hide , transparency, enable and disable
• Processes can be highlighted by colour in main window
• Shows full process path in main window
• Process priority can be changed in the main window
• Details of processes can be shown
• Access to database of process details (via web)
• Can be set to run automatically at Startup

Pros: What’s Good?

• Freeware

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Popularity: 26% [?]

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What’s the Problem?

Delaying the tedious, the boring and tasks with unwelcome consequences seems to be part of the normal human condition. It has certainly produced numerous academic studies and research projects into the syndrome. Procrastination is just part of life and yet we mostly feel guilty about it and look for ways to help us "Get Things Done". You only have to look around the web and you will find thousands of resources devoted to advising you on what to do, lots of software that is meant to help you and all sorts of systems based around forms or methods to help identify the tasks and keep you on track. It seems that many of us are looking for a solution for a problem that we are really not facing up to. A reality check may well suggest that the issue is a reluctance to do many things that need to be done but that we have no interest in even starting let alone finishing . In the end mostly we are looking for a crutch to support us, something that will help us overcome our natural tendencies.

I am among the world’s worst at GTD. I am not writing as some guru with the answers, but as someone who struggles on a daily basis to complete tasks, particularly at home. Work is a bit different, I struggle to complete tasks at work as well, but this is a factor of insufficient time. Thinking about these different situations makes me realise that there are at least two different factors in Getting Things Done, depending on the circumstances.

What Am I Doing?

I wrote briefly in this post - GTD – Getting Things Done – as an introduction to some of thoughts and issues. In the post I mention some of the software and tools I am currently using which include:

• MS Outlook – because I have to use this for work and it syncs to my work mobile and to my home PC
• Stickies – because this is an excellent freeware virtual sticky note program
• AAA – because this provides a multi-tab notepad with alarms and recurring event reminders
• Essential PIM (freeware version) – I would use this a lot more if I could easily sync with Outlook for free.

I have also tried gadgets like the AceCad DigiMemo (AceCad DigiMemo – Save Your Handwritten Notes and Convert to Images, Doc or PDF) to help me.

So what have I tried to do to help with completing tasks at work has been quite useful. I believe this is because at work the issues are to do with time management far more than reluctance to carry out the task. Various GTD sites on the web suggest that people often are afraid to start a task because of the fear of failure. This can be either in completing the work or in not meeting the expected standard. I like to think that most of the time this does not apply to my work tasks, although I can see that occasionally there may be a problem with a particularly difficult or unusual task. However, I never seem to be reluctant to start but may have some delay in the middle while I reflect on whether things are going well or if I have covered all the angles. Therefore, using tools that help identify what I need to do i.e my "To Do" list combined with time management and prioritisation through tabbed notes, alarms and reminders, keeps me on track.

What Am I Not Doing?

What are the Tags?

Popularity: 13% [?]

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What Does It Do – The Essentials?

tinySpell provides a simple way of spell checking all your keyboard text input applications and the first word copied to the clipboard. It also provides spelling suggestions and correction of the misspelled word. It monitors your typing “on the fly” and alerts you whenever a spelling error is detected. This latest version, 1.7 beta, has a new visual spelling “tooltip” alert next to the word and a single press of the down arrow key brings up the spelling suggestions dialog. This new functionality is a great leap forward for the program.

N.B. This is a review of a beta stage version and therefore some comments and conclusions may not apply to the final release version.

Summary:

• Spell checks text input to all applications
• Provides spelling suggestions
• Programs can be specifically excluded or included
• Comes with an 110,00 word American English dictionary
• Can be set to run automatically at Startup

Pros: What’s Good?

• Freeware

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Popularity: 27% [?]

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What Does it Do – The Essentials?

PortableApps Menu is a a small utility that sits in the system tray and provides access to a suite of programs contained in the associated folders. It also provides access to a set of folders associated with the portable applications folder to make documents, music, pictures and videos available on you USB Flash drive or removable hard drive. (Or just use them in a folder on your PC – see Why You Want to Use Portable Freeware Applications) PortableApps Menu is part of the PortableApps.com Suite available here at PortableApps.com.

The suite comes in 3 versions:

Basic – PortableApps Menu, PortableApps Backup utility and custom folders, icons and AutoRun

Standard – Firefox Portable Edition, OpenOffice.org, Portable, Mozilla Songbird Portable, Gain Portable, Sudoku Portable and Thunderbird Portable Edition

Lite – As standard edition but replaces OpenOffice with Abiword

No doubt the above applications will be subject to the My Free Review treatment in the coming weeks.

Summary:

• Gives simple access to a suite of portable programs
• Provides a set of portable document and multimedia folders
• Can be set to run automatically at Startup

Pros: What’s Good?

• Freeware (more…)

Popularity: 33% [?]

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Please use this updated permalink – Apologies for the inconvenience

myfreereview.com/2008/02/...eck-in-all-your-programs/

Popularity: 8% [?]

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What Does it Do – The Essentials?

Shutter is one of those tools that must have started life with the intention of being a fairly straightforward replacement for the Windows “Shut Down” dialog.

Of course I am speculating here but when you look at what the program now offers it shows all the signs of the developer (den4b) deciding “oh! that would be useful, I’ll add it in”.

Shutter allows the user to program Actions based on Events or to carry out the action immediately by pressing the “Now” button. The program can be set to run at startup and will reside in the system tray for access by left clicking with the mouse or a menu appears on right clicking.

The System tray Right Click Dialog Box

Summary:

• A useful piece of software that I use frequently (although I also use Brutus Shutdown Tools) .
• Very useful as part of a “Portable Suite” of programs to keep on a removable drive/USB stick/Portable Programs PC Partition.
• Easy to use at a basic level but also has many advanced Events and Actions

Pros: What’s Good?

• Freeware
• Portable

  
  

• Small Memory requirement
• Run from startup option
• Very Flexible

Cons: What’s Not So Good?

• Too many options?
• Over Complicated?

I have questioned both these Cons comments as it may be that the complexity of options and functions are a real benefit to some users.

Why Would You Want It?

1. Provides an alternative way to shutdown your system
2. Provides many more shutdown options
3. Provides events to trigger shutdown
4. Also provides actions that do not shutdown the computer

More About What it Does in Detail:

Events:

Allows for a series of different events to have happened to trigger a shutdown “Action” which in fact may not be a normal shutdown process

Actions:

Provides a series of shutdown actions and further actions that may be useful

Options:

The screenshots below are all self explanatory (click on the picture to open full size)

General Tab

On Action Tab

On Action Extra Tab

Web Interface Tab

What are the Technical Details & Compatibility?

What is the My Free Review Experience?

I have used this program for several months on one of my laptops and it is part of my “Portable Applications” suite which I have installed on all my PCs and laptops as well as on a removable drive and USB stick. It gets used at least once and sometimes more each day but only to shutdown or restart the laptop. Usually this is done using the now button but occasionally it has been useful to set the timer to allow running tasks to complete before the shutdown.Used in this way I have found it to be simple and efficient to use and have not experienced problems with crashes or hangs when using it. All in all it appears to be a useful part of my program toolbox.

What Could Make it be Better?

• As den4b is currently working on the next version let’s wait and see this before commenting

den4b Quotes on his website about progress on Shutter V3:

January 30 2008

……….On the other hand, considerable time was spent for re-designing and re-working Shutter. Bits and pieces are coming together now, and hopefully I’ll have a release candidate soon ready for testing. If anyone wants to have a pre-release look at it – you can contact me for more details. The underneath structure has pretty much stabilised now, but looks and feels of things do require some user attention.

What Other Posts are Relevant?

Why You Want to Use Portable Freeware Applications

What are the Tags?

Technorati Tags: Freeware, My Free Review, Portable Freeware, Portable Freeware Applications, Programs, Reviews, shutdown tools, software, Utilities, Windows, Windows XP

Popularity: 17% [?]

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I am constantly fascinated and frustrated at the same time by GTD or “Getting Things Done” hints, tips, lifestyle choices and changes etc. Probably this is because like many of you I am living a life of information overload, too many things to do in not enough time and a job with a workload that always seems to grow and never diminish. So ‘I constantly look for better, quicker, more efficient ways to do things. I think that maybe part of my fascination with computers and programming is that they (or really the people involved in computing) have always promised that computers would reduce our workload, give us freedom and time to do the things we want. My experience is that Parkinson’s Law always prevails and that work always increases to fill the available time. This just means more pressure to “GET THINGS DONE”. So I continue to search for the holy grail, or at least something that might just give me a little more time to find it!!! In fact the more you get into GTD the more you realise that the biggest obstacle to success isn’t tools (software or good old fashioned pen and paper systems) that are ineffective but the processes and determination of the person using them. (more…)

Popularity: 13% [?]

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