Budget Sketch

Budget Sketch is the budgeting program I am using to track my finances. It's simple, it takes one month at a time. It does not carry anything over from the last month making it simple to use and keep track of even if you miss a month and eliminating the need to balance.

At the end of the month you put any leftover cash toward your "Goals". You set up your goals (savings, emerg fund, ect...) and "Debt Goals" (Car Payment, Mortgage, ect...).

Its very minimalistic not complex or requiring lots of time and effort to setup like some programs.

And its free!

I give it 4 stars (losing one for not having some features some ppl may want. (But I think are unneeded anyway.))

www.budgetsketch.com

∞Caleb

Evernote for Android

I just received an email contaning this:

"The long-awaited Evernote for Android is now available for free from the Android Market. It's great for creating notes on the fly and searching through all of your existing content. Notable features include automatic location-tagging of notes, the ability to upload files, and Evernote's amazing image recognition. Read on: http://s.evernote.com/androidapp"

So for all you Android users who use Evernote YAY, and the ones whom don't you should look into it. Evernote is great software.


∞Caleb

Google Chrome

I just downloaded Google Chrome. I've messed around with it before but this is my first real use of it.

First loads seem BLAZING fast. I like the fact that I can do my Google searches in the address bar this saves me from clicking/tabbing on to the Google search bar or loading Google homepage. I was concerned about memory usage but after running it for 3+ hrs with 3 tabs open and working (including this one.) its using 45,676K while Firefox on a fresh open with one tab (Google.com) is using 46,000K. I'm running 4+GB of RAM (WinXP-32bit) so I'm seeing little to no change in RAM usage vs. Firefox.

I like the Chrome minimalist look, the way it handles tabs and it imported all of my bookmarks from Firefox no problem.

I just noticed that I have 3 Chrome processes active in Task Manager using a combination of 100,811K of RAM!! I'm going to do some research and find out why.

EDIT:
Ok I've looked into the RAM usage found a great article from Google on the disadvantages and advantages of multi-process programs Here. Seems to be safer and can clean memory better after closing a tab. Also its not really using all 128,700K some of that is shared between the tabs ect... (Cool hint, to see Google chromes task manager press "Shift-Esc", for more info goto "about:memory" here you can see Chrome RAM usage also accounting for the shared memory.

I made Chrome my default browser.

I give it a 4 Stars (losing one star for RAM usage)

www.google.com/chrome

∞Caleb

Paint .NET

Paint.NET is a great free photo-shop substitute, its more powerful than windows paint but not overly clogged with "features" like GIMP or PS. It's got almost any basic feature you would need to edit home/phone/pro pictures, great for prepping photos for web use.


To prep a photo for the web using Paint.Net:

1. Select "Image>Resize..." (Ctrl+R)
   
2. Set the width as 800 (be sure that "Maintan aspect ratio" is selected)
   
3. Click Ok (Enter)
4. Select "File>Save As..." (Ctrl+Shift+S)
   
5. Make a name for your photo (example: "MyPhoto_Edited")
   
6. Make sure you save it as a JPEG file type.
   
7. Click save (Enter)
   
8. Then set the quality to 75 and click Ok (Enter).

I give it 4 Stars

NOTE: Paint.Net requires that the .NET Framework be installed, a link is provided at Paint.NET's web site.


www.getpaint.net


∞Caleb

Microsoft Security Essentials

Microsoft Security Essentials is the newest Anti-Virus application.
Its free and it is said to be the best free anti-virus available
right now. MSE also protects against spyware and malware.
I'm using it on a few computers right now and it seems to be
running fine. Its only a 8MB download and runs quite
unobtrusively.

I give it 5 stars.

I'm still in shock that Microsoft is offering free software!!...

www.microsoft.com/Security_Essentials

∞Caleb

New Blog

Welcome to my NEW blog. I have not really done much blogging before so this is my first real attempt at it. My goal with this blog is to share some helpful tips I come across in my day to day life and possibly make a lil extra cash. (Google adds ect. I will not receive payment to push a product, but I will take any money they wanna give me for products I'm publishing about anyway. lol )

You will probably notice that I'm a big fan of Google. I'm also a big fan of freeware and will probably drop some links to stuff I like now and again. Like DimScreen, a neat lil portable .exe I'm using right now it can dim your screen anywhere from 0-90% its great to reduce some strain off your eyes and not be so annoying to the people around you.

Anyway I will add more stuff later. Have a Merry Christmas and thanks for reading, be sure to subscribe and bookmark me!

r4ndom-h4cks.blogspot.com

∞Caleb