StickySorter: Free Software from Microsoft Office Labs

You have probably seen Post-It Notes for your computer - you may have tried some, like I have, but not been happy with the results. Here is a free software program from Microsoft Office Labs team members Sumit Basu (Researcher, Microsoft Research) and Julie Guinn (User Researcher, Microsoft Office Design Group), co-creators of StickySorter. They developed this for their work and it became a program for the rest of us. Intended to organize large amounts of data, Microsoft Office Labs recognizes that this application can be used in the home, too.

This easy-to-use program starts you out on a white canvas, and when you click "add note", a full-size yellow Sticky comes up. You can't format the text, but you can change the color of the Sticky, write on the back of it, and it will export and import to Excel, Access, Notepad...any program in .csv format. Then you set up a "Group", or a header for the topic you want to organize, and add the Sticky to a group. You can duplicate the Sticky and add it to any other group. 

The stickies reduce to 1/2 size (or you can keep them enlarged) and go to their groups where you can pile them, tile them, or have them display in a nice column (stack). And you can delete stickies and remove them from groups, too.

If I had a family I would set up tasks for my kids to do, give them their own canvas, and color code by jobs, fun, and other hobbies - then I'd make a pile for what they had to do today. I'm using this to organize the work to be done on our new web site. 

To download StickySorter, you have to give Microsoft permission to see how you use it, and agree to accept all updates to the program. I have no qualms with doing this, I like to be a guinea pig for product development, but this is the first time I've ever seen it mandatory. To learn the program, read the FAQ - it is very informative and will have you up and running in short order. If you want to comment on the program (many are asking for new features), go to the discussion area.

This is my kind of sticky program, check it out if it sounds like yours!

AVG 8.0 and Clamwin Antivirus .92 - Which One is Right For You?

I recently loaded ClamWin Antivirus on my "work" machine, it's an open source program and doesn't have the constrictions that AVG carries for non-commercial use. If you're paying for antivirus via Norton, McAfee, or even AVG I'd encourage you to consider either of these two programs in the future and save your $30 to $50 - they both perform well.

AVG is by far the slicker interface, and they'll try to sell you their pro package, but you can have it for free, schedule your scans, have real-time file scanning and email scanning as well. AVG is harder on your resources than ClamWin - at least on my machine, the fan is always going full speed and I experience momentary screen freeze-ups when working with AVG running in the background. 

ClamWin's interface in comparison is primitive, but it came up with two viruses that AVG never reported to me. ClamWin is not scanning all the time, you have to run the scanner or configure it to run daily, weekly, or on weekends. When you see it's "preferences" menu under tools, you'll find a myriad of options, including email notification of a virus. You can scan memory or hard disks, or configure for both to be scanned. The more advanced user may appreciate the options you have with ClamWin. 

As it stands for me, ClamWin will be on my "work" machine and AVG on my "personal" machine, at least until ClamWin develops further. At least I'm legal!