Setting up computer systems can be a boring repetitive task. While I’m setting up and configuring PCs maybe once or twice a year only, I always repeat the same set of steps after the operating system has been installed. This includes installing common software like the web browser Firefox, the email client Thunderbird, SnagIt for [...]

Categories: Software, Windows

I have reviewed quite a few programs to download photos from Flickr in the past. From Flickr Download and Flickr Downloadr to Flickr Mass Downloader and the more recent Flickr Mass Downloader. All tools have in common that they can be used to download public photos that are hosted on Flickr. They differ in handling [...]

Categories: Software, Windows

Oracle has released a critical patch update for its Java products including the Java Development Kit and the Java Runtime Environment. According to the security advisory the cumulative update fixes a total of 20 security related issues across all Java based products. Java users can verify their computer system’s Java version on this page. Affected [...]

Categories: Linux, Mac, Security, Windows

Flash cards can be an effective learning technique. It is especially effective to learn vocabulary and subject matters that can be learned via a question and answer format, which is for instance true for factual information. A question, word, phrase or sentence is usually added to one side of the card, and an answer, word [...]

Categories: Linux, Mac, Software, Windows

Big news today for the Google Chrome crowd. A post on the Google System blog outlines a recent change in the browser that affects the Java and Quicktime plugin, and maybe even other lesser known plugins. Probably the easiest way to demonstrate what has been changed is it show you a screenshot of Apple’s popular [...]

Categories: Browsing, Google Chrome

Critical Java vulnerabilities were discovered in the beginning of February which affected the Java Runtime Environment and Java Development Kit. The affected versions were JRE 6 Update 23 and earlier on all supported operating systems. Instead of releasing a security patch right away, Oracle decided to release a command line tool first to patch the [...]

Categories: Security

I have seen several reports on the Internet that users of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 9 have troubles playing Flash videos, Java apples, games and other contents powered by plugins such as Java or Adobe Flash. The reports have emerged after the release of the IE9 Release Candidate and it seems that they are linked to [...]

Categories: Browsing, Internet Explorer

It feels like I’m patching computer systems all day long in the last two days. First the monthly Windows Update, then Adobe with its patches and now Oracle and Java. This is madness and unfortunately a necessary evil. Oracle has just released a security advisory that details a critical security vulnerability in the JDK and [...]

Categories: Linux, Mac, Security, Windows

Free tools to manage pdf documents are rare while many pdf viewing applications exist. That can be a problem for users who want to work with pdf documents, for instance to delete pages from the document or add pages from another pdf file. PDF Jumbler is a free software program that offers several tools to [...]

Categories: Linux, Mac, Software, Windows