The first part of this article ( Save Time, Effort & Maybe Money - Use Web Reviews Before you Install or Purchase - Part 1 ) dealt with a bad experience I had in purchasing some external hard drive units. In particular it points out the sort traps that are easy to fall into when you don’t do research before you purchase or there isn’t sufficient good information available. While this post is using hardware as an example the same can be said for software. Even with Freeware the time invested and the potential for damage to your system or inadvertently installing malware still means time on research and reading reviews is time well spent.

How to Stack the Odds to Get a Good Experience

Having used the purchase of the external hard drives as an example of where I had a bad experience I will use their replacement to demonstrate how to try to avoid some of the pitfalls.

As I said in the first part of this article my preference was for Network Attached Storage for this particular purpose. The reason for my previous purchase of FireWire/USB was that this option was considerably cheaper than any NAS devices I could buy at the time. Therefore I let the savings weigh too heavily against the lack of available information or reviews on my purchase. This time I was more determined to go for NAS rather than external hard drives but price still had a big part to play. The main requirements were preferably 2TB, NAS, secondary preferences were RAID configuration and user security/login options. Other facilities such as print server and Internet file access/server were not important.

Over time I have built a short list of reputable Internet companies that I start of by using to see what is available whether I am looking for the best deal on a particular item or I am looking for a product in a particular class as in this case. This list remains fairly stable as a core list of trustworthy companies with competitive prices as well as excellent “terms & conditions” for support and returns. This forms a starting point for my “research” but is not an exclusive list as far as any decision is concerned as I will explain later.

Using my core list I quickly narrowed things down to a short list of NAS devices that met the requirements of storage size, price and overall specification. It was clear that NAS devices still seem to command a premium price when compared to “External Hard Drives” which is surprising as in terms of hardware and production costs they must be almost identical. In fact when you see NAS boxes with “TB of storage selling for substantially more than a Windows Home Server PC plus some additional hard disks to make it up to 2TB you have to wonder what’s going on .

Having narrowed my options down I found that the best value money, by some way, was the Western Digital My Book 1.5TB NAS which also offered remote access and sharing. I then set about looking for reviews and information on it at various locations. The main sources | normally use and would recommend are :

• The Internet sales sites for specification, user manuals, policy on guarantees and customer reviews (for positive and negative feedback)
• The manufacturer for detailed check on specifications, support area FAQ’s, firmware or software updates, Forums
• Major Technology sites and PC magazine Internet sites for reviews and reports
• Blogs for Reviews and Comments on products
• Groups and Forums for reviews, comments and particularly negative feedback

In going through this process I keep an eye out for alternative products that may appear in the reviews or comments. I also watch out for similar products by the same manufacturer as this may be a further guide to quality and service.

The most important thing is to take a balanced view of what you read. Reviews by the manufacturer will of course set everything in the best possible light but if they also point to independent reviews and awards then these should be followed up. (Make sure that you believe the authenticity of any independent review, you should have no problem with reputable magazines and tech sources but it is not unknown for some smaller operators to be up to no good)

When I was looking at the 1.5TB reviews and comments there were quite a lot of very negative comments from customers on a couple of the major Internet sellers websites. At first I was rather disappointed as I thought this would mean I needed to find an alternative which would be far more expensive. However looking at some of the reviews in detail and making comparisons with other comments and the product specification revealed a lot more. What became clear was that many comments resulted form unrealistic expectations or understanding of the product followed by a somewhat prejudiced reaction. In this case two things were clear, the bundled software for connection and sharing appeared to not work properly and secondly the Western Digital approach to DRM and sharing over the Internet was being attacked. So a little more delving showed that the bundled software was not necessary except for Internet sharing and that if the device was uses as a straight NAS device and configured through the internal Web Interface then there were no problems.

The final part of the decision making process is where to purchase from. For me this is very dependent on the type of product I am purchasing. If it is electronic or mechanical (or a combination of both as with disk drives) I consider this quite high risk in terms of possible early failure through bad luck or manufacturing problems. I will already have considered this in selecting the manufacturer but I like to know that the online retailer is likely to provide a good returns and support policy and I am prepared to pay a little more for this. If I am buying low cost or low risk goods such as software or consumables then I will look for the best price option. In making these decisions remember that you need to take into account postage costs, delivery times and additional security or rights you may get through the method of purchase. (e.g. In the UK using a credit card provides additional rights and even insurance for certain purchases).

In Summary I suggest that the following process is advisable:

1. Select possible products
2. Gather “Research”
3. Review research for validity and weight accordingly
4. Decide Yes/No to purchase
5. Find prices including postage costs
6. Decide level of cost v “terms and conditions” that is appropriate
7. Check delivery times etc. meet your requirements
8. Use most appropriate payment method

Good luck in all your future purchases

Technorati Tags: Electronics, External Hard Drive, Free Reviews, NAS Device, Network Attached Storage, Pro Reviewer, ProReviewer, Reviews, Windows, Windows Home Server

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Well that’s pretty obvious but I bet we all have made poor decisions to install software or buy a new bit of kit before carrying out a proper review of information available on the web. I would also add to this that being an “Early Adopter” can be fun and all very cutting edge but this is often referred to as the “Bleeding Edge” with good reason. I will detail two of my recent experiences bad and good and the value of doing some good research.

A Bad Experience

About 9 months ago I bought a 2TB external storage device. My preference was to go for a NAS (Network Attached Storage) unit as I already had a couple of these and liked the fact that they were universally available over the home network. A bit of searching around on the Internet showed that there was a 2TB FireWire/USB interfaced unit for about 60% of the price I would be paying for a NAS device. The 2TB unit was new on the market but came from what I understood to be a large, reputable company with plenty of other external storage products which had a good track record. This was quite a sizeable purchase at over £400 ($800) so I did not commit to this lightly, but I decided the saving was to good to pass and ordered it (over the Internet). The device duly arrived, I plugged it in and everything was up and running quickly with no problems. In fact I was so pleased that I decided to buy a second unit a couple of weeks later and daisy chain them together.

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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…)

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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

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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…)

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This is the main category for software program reviews.

All reviews should appear under the appropriate sub-category, this main category will be used for general comments and news on software and developers.

Technorati Tags: Free Reviews, Freeware, My Free Review, Open Source, Portable Freeware, Portable Applications, Portable software, Portable Programs, Reviews, Utilities, Windows, Windows XP, file handling

The Donation Coder web site offers a selection of freeware programs and portable freeware utilities some of which are written in the autohotkey scripting language. There is a wide range of programs from small utilities to carry out a relatively simple task to far more complex programs such as Find & Run Robot or Process Tamer. Many of the utilities are available both as a source code (*.ahk) and executable programs (*.exe). This means that you can easily use the utilities straight away or you can modify them for yourself using autohotkey which can be relatively easily learned at a basic level. The icing on the cake is that custom made utilities can be requested.

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Update February 2008

This blog was originally called My Free review and if you look back through the posts for February 2008 you will see the reasons for changing the blog name - Pro Reviewer - It’s Hard to Find a Good Domain Name! . So references to My Free Review in the following text relate to this original name choice.

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Well I have decided that I need to write my own blog, so what made me decide this? (more…)

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 Update February 2008

This blog was originally called My Free review and if you look back through the posts for February 2008 you will see the reasons for changing the blog name - Pro Reviewer - It’s Hard to Find a Good Domain Name! . So references to My Free Review in the following text relate to this original name choice.

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The aim of My Free Review is to provide more independent information on various software programs than may be generally available from most blogs at present.

There are several web sites and blogs that provide descriptions of the programs as they are released or updated but this is usually a brief resume taken from the developers site or “press release”. (Although there are some notable exceptions).

Quite often when a program has been downloaded and installed it doesn’t really quite do what is expected or it may do several useful things that were never even mentioned. So I thought that reporting the details could be a useful guide and time saver for other software “junkies” like myself.

The reviews that will be presented are going to be predominantly freeware and shareware. I will review programs and updates that have been recently released whenever possible. Also there will be reviews on some older favourites that deserve a mention.

I feel that the more commercial programs produced by the big software companies are adequately covered by the mainstream PC web sites and magazines. However, I will try to include some personal comments where they seem relevant as well as reviewing some of the free plugins and add-ons that become available.

I am now a big fan of “portable” programs. That is programs that can be run without touching the registry and therefore can easily be transferred from one machine to another complete with all settings or run from a “memory stick”.

I also have an interest in Firefox add-ons which seem to never be adequately described or reviewed at addons.mozilla.org.

Being something of a gadget freak I also thought I would provide a little insight, where relevant, on some of these. Again this may help others from making bad choices or point to some products that have performed well.

All the reviews will obviously be personal opinions and I will welcome comments and discussion from those of you who wish to add something more, disagree or correct something if it is wrong.

For anyone who is interested a little relevant background on myself can be found at “Why I Decided to Write this Blog”

Technorati Tags: Freeware,Portable Freeware,