computer nonsense for wisp

     I thought I might share some of my good finds with you for Blondie.

•  Use Google Chrome for a browser. It's the fastest there is, no questions asked, toolbar-less, and you can get user-created add-ons. Plus it has it's own built-in PDF file reader so you don't have to download Adobe Reader. I hate Adobe Reader.

       - Get the AdBlock add-on. It puts a little icon in the top right corner of your browser that tells you how many ads it is currently blocking on said page (I've reached up to hundreds on Facebook by just idling for a minute - and watch it go up, up, up...).  It also keeps track of how many ads it has blocked total (I'm at 13,616 as of this moment), and gives you the ability to disable AdBlock on certain websites (One of the sites I use to download mods for the Sims always asks me to disable it to help pay for the server, so that's a cool option).
     - I also use Avast's virus add-on for extra protection. It gives site ratings which are very useful for when you're googling something, because it'll tell you if it's an un-trusted website before you click on the link.
     - I love Google Mail Checker because it has a tiny icon on the top right of the browser, like AdBlock, which displays how many unread e-mails you have and provides a quick one click link.
     - Speed Dial is an add-on that is just like speed dials on phones. When you open a new browser in chrome, the top ten websites that you have assigned numbers to appear, allowing you one click access to it. I have HI on it so I never have to type in the URL. Just click. I'm lazy, though.
     - Eye Dropper is just like the tool on Photoshop. You click on the icon, then click anywhere on the webpage you're viewing and it returns the color for you. This might be really useful when you're doing GUI for HTML/CSS and are playing with colors which is why I mention it.

• This is the VPN I told you I was using: https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/
• The article I read when determining what VPN to use: http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/
• If you're wanting to torrent, I use BitTorrent, but uTorrent is popular also
• You can download or stream almost any tv show from eztv.it
• http://keepvid.com/ lets you download a video or audio file of any YouTube video
• You can find a free portable version of Photoshop CS5 here: http://portableappz.blogspot.com/2011/04/photoshop-cs5-extended-121-multilingual.html
• VideoLAN (VLC) is an amazing media player that loads everything quick and easy, very much unlike Windows Media Player in my experience. My school used it, too. Link: http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-windows.html
• 7-zip is a free compressor that is faster than WinZip and doesn't bring up annoying messages about your trial expiring. http://www.7-zip.org/
• I use Razer Game Booster on my computer at all times because it makes not only games but pretty much everything run significantly faster (although the games part is certainly nice, I love seeing my FPS rocket). It finds all the useless programs running in the background of your computer and temporarily turns them off for however long in order to speed things up. It'll list said programs so you can personally check and uncheck which programs you want it to close.
• Avast has never failed me as an ad-blocker, ever. Plus it's free.
• I heard this site is really awesome for organizing purposes, but I haven't checked it out yet personally because I don't really have anything to organize at the moment: https://evernote.com/
• Update several programs at once: https://ninite.com/
• Pandora is awesome if you want to find new music that is very related to artists you like.
• Spotify is also pretty neat. You enter in your mood and it creates a playlist which correlates.
• http://plug.dj/ is a place where you can create your own playlist consisting of YouTube music videos, then, if you get friends to use it too, you take turns playing the songs you've chosen. When your song is playing you are dubbed the DJ and the people in the room with you have the option to "Woot!" your song which gives you points that lets you unlock cute little DJ avatars. It's pretty awesome if you get a good group of people together.
• http://www.furry-paws.com/ is the dog version of Hworse.
• http://www.mweor.com/ is the cat version.
• http://www.misticpets.com/ is a small community virtual pet site with absolutely beautiful artists working behind it. The mods are very friendly, as are the users. It's a little wonky due to the programmers not being top-notch, highly paid professionals, but still awesome.
• http://www.rescreatu.com/ is like a modern Subeta. It was actually one of the former mods from this website who created Misticpets. I haven't played it in many years, but one of my old friends is one of the artists who draws the pets.

     Hopefully you find something neat that you like. :3