Google Chrome is one of the fastest, if not THE fastest, web browsers available at the moment. It’s also lightweight meaning that it doesn’t have a bunch of add-ons and plugins to load slowing your browsing speed like IE and, at times, Firefox. The thing that I like most about it is that you can do a Google search right from the address bar instead of using Google’s site or a search bar like other browsers have. It also features a start up page, when enabled, that gives you thumbnails of your six most visited sites. Gmail users-it can also act as an offline e-mail client with the installation of Google Apps (which comes with Docs and Calender as well).

OpenOffice.org is an open source Microsoft Office replacer. On the surface it can do everything MS Office can do. OOo has it’s own version (shown in parenthesis) of Word (Text Document), Power Point (Presentation), Access (Database) and Excel (Spreadsheet) as well as a drawing component (Drawing) and an advance mathematical equation editor (Math). These features should suffice for the average user of MS Office, but of course Microsoft’s version comes with a plethora of other cool programs including my favorite, OneNote.

The one thing I really like about it is that there’s only one icon associated with all the programs so you don’t waste a lot of desktop or quick launch room. On the other hand, the one thing I dislike about it is that it has no e-mail client like MS Office does, but that’s cool, I use Gmail anyways. Oh yeah, die hard MS Office users should know that OOo can also read and create MS Office file formats.

Windows Live Mail-Yes, I put a Microsoft product on the list of essentials; I apologize if you thought I was trying to steer clear from everything MS with this list. If the program works well, regardless of the manufacturer, I’ll use it.

As much as I hate Bill Gates for charging so much for MS products, this e-mail client is free and by far the best I’ve ever used. It’s so easy to set up because it almost always retrieves your email provider’s information foregoing any configuring on your part. It runs faster than Mozilla’s Thunderbird, on my system anyway, and is more user friendly than Mulberry. To me, it’s just a great all-around e-mail client.

CCleaner is a free PC optimization tool that features a Windows registry cleaner, a temporary file cleaner, which cleans the temp files generated by a ton of programs, and startup programs manager which allows you to choose what programs you want to run when your computer boots up. This feature will also let you delete the entries you don’t want.

Another thing this little program does is that it securely empties your recycle bin by overwriting all the files so that file recovery is impossible. I use the registry and the temp file cleaner functions almost daily.

Revo Unistaller Free Version does the one thing I wish CCleaner did: properly and completely uninstall programs. You may be asking your self “Doesn’t Windows, the program and/or CCleaner already do that?”

The short answer is yes, they both do that, but what you probably don’t know is that many programs leave behind “traces” of themselves even after you’ve uninstalled them using the methods aforementioned. These traces are left behind because of, among other things, poor programming of the program’s uninstaller. CCleaner does a great job with the registry, but programs often leave traces of themselves in your App Data folder, Program Files folder and others that CCleaner doesn’t mess with (it uses the program’s uninstaller).

With this program installed, you can be sure you’ve gotten rid of everything the program you want gone has put in your computer. I should mention, however, that the paid version of this program essentially adds the same functionality that CCleaner has, but comes in at a whopping 40 USD.

KeePass-Tired of keeping up with all of your passwords for various sites across the net or losing them when you do a complete browser cleaning? Well look no further, because this nifty program will keep track of all of that for you with a few clicks. When you first install it, you are prompted to specify a database location and name. This will store all of your usernames and passwords securely using one or all of the database protection options this program has to offer. After the database creation you can create new entries that store your user name, password and login page info.

Like me, you probably use the same password for everything. This is not recommended for obvious reasons: if someone has one of your passwords, they have them all and that’s not cool, man. One of the key features of this program is it’s password generator which lets you randomize strings of letters, numbers and symbols many different ways to generate a new password. One thing I really like about this program is that you can virtually browse your passworded sites using just KeePass. It allows you to bring up the page you specified for the password entry and then it can auto type your user name and password for you. Very handy if you have a suspected key logger infection.

WinRAR-Not really much to say about this program. It goes above and beyond the built in Windows unzip program in that it can unpack .zip, .rar, .cab, .arj, .lzh, .tar, .gz (and tar.gz), .bz2 (and tar.bz2), .ace, .uue, .jar, .iso, .7z and .z files. You’ve probably not heard of more than half of those file extensions as the two main file types you’re likely to need unpacking are .zip and .rar files as well as the highly occasional .7z (on Windows anyways). Yes, I know 7-zip does the same thing and it’s open source, but I like WinRAR better simply because it’s what I’ve used for many years.

Flash Renamer-As mentioned in my most recent Review post, Flash Renamer is a godsend when it comes to renaming many different types of files. With FR you can change the casing (upper to lower-case and vise-versa), add strings at specific positions, remove sections of the file name and trim spaces out. If you collect MP3s, File Renamer also has a ton of useful tools for renaming music files such as an MP3 tagger and ID3/lyrics tag editor. If you are a photo collector FR also lets you change dates and file attributes as well as edit Exif tags. You’ll have to visit the official “About” page for all the other uses of this program, because I could literally make a whole post of it.

uTorrent-For those of you who like to download “Content Distribution” torrents, uTorrent should be your number one choice. It’s light-weight, fast and it uses almost no system resources. I’ve heard that you can also download tons of movies, TV shows, music, ebooks and other randomness from torrent sites such as thepiratebay.com as well as search for them with torrentz.com, but I really wouldn’t know anything about that seeing how you have to own the original to download it legally…this is all just stuff I’ve heard… truly.

AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition 9.0-There’s not really much to say about this program either except that it protects you from most known viruses and spyware and will also scan links on a page to help you determine whether or not the site you are trying to visit is potentially dangerous for your computer’s health. This is really just one of a ton of great anti-virus programs out there. This just happens to be the one that I use. You’ll also note that I said “most know viruses”; that’s because there aren’t any that can completely detect every threat your computer might face.

Well that about sums it up for this post. Let me just say again that these programs are ones that I personally use and in no way am I trying to say that these are the best at what they do. This list is also in no way definitive. There are many other great programs out there that you may find useful and by all means, feel free to point them out to me if you like as I am a collector of programs (sort of). And just to point it out, I’m in no way affiliated with any of the makers f these programs what-so- ever in case you’re wondering.

-That is all…

The first thing was a story Steve had told me about his Dad having some sort of issue, and I’m sure he’ll correct me if I’m wrong, with breathing and was essentially changing colors. Of course Steve whisked him to the hospital where he was promptly told to wait until they could verify his insurance. WTF, mate? A man is a color other than the color he supposed to be and you’re worried about his insurance….effing wow, man.

The second was this. It’s an article that tells of a girl who suspected she was raped after passing out at a party only to realize when she woke up that she had cuts and bruises in the no-no area consistent with rape. The woman following the correct procedures after a suspected rape, visited her doctor who put her on HIV pills just in case. Several months went by and she lost her insurance and because she had been taking HIV pills, all the insurance companies she applied to shot her ass down because being on those pills raised to many questions about her health. Again, WTF, mate? A woman is raped and has taken the proper actions and she’s being denied healthcare so she can continue taking the proper actions? I don’t get that at all.

Now I’m not saying that I want to rush in a give everyone free healthcare, but damn, if that’s how things are going to work with it privatized, maybe we need to start looking else where.

If socialized healthcare were a reality right now, the two stories above would not even have happened. I’m not saying that nothing bad would’ve happened, I mean just look at the state of care in England or Canada, but the issue of insurance wouldn’t have even come up.

While it look excellent on paper, I have two, well three, main issues with socialized healthcare.

The first being the loss of jobs that will incur. I know that what’s being proposed right now is a sort of hybrid between private and social but that’s not what I’m talking about (I believe there will be heavy job losses there as well with companies refusing to offer health benefits because the government would be providing it). What I’m talking about is strait social healthcare. How would the government make up for literally thousands of jobs that would be lost for people working in the health insurance business right now? There’s no way that going to a social healthcare plan would add as many jobs as it’s going to take away.

The second are the people who don’t pay taxes. I’m not talking about the people who are out of work temporarily or the people who legitimately can’t go out and get money for themselves for whatever reason as we already have things in place for that, I’m talking about the people who are able to work and yet choose not to go out and get a job because they know they are going to get taken care of by the government. What are we to do about them? Do we go ahead and give them access to tax payer insurance, because that’s what it’ll be, or do we tell them to fuck off. My instinct is to tell them to fuck off. I’m sure that the Demo-nazis won’t like that because it’s not “fair”, but whatever.

And finally, are we going to ration it like England and Canada do? Do we want the Government to pick and choose what treatments we get and when based on things like age and sex? Do they know what’s good for us better than we do? I would tend to think not. Some would point out the fact that there are highly religious assholes, and probably some non-religious assholes, out there who would rather pray for the cancer in their child to go away rather than go see a doctor about it. I see that as another issue all together, but that seems to be, in my experience,  one of the prevalent issues regarding the Government’s involvement in the socialized healthcare business.

If those three things, and a few more that I won’t go into at this time,  could be better looked at in the realm of socialized medicine, I could consider getting on board with it. The state of healthcare in the country sucks balls and is in dire need of revamping. Is socialization the way to go? I’m not sure, but something has to give here…really.

-That is all…

Apparently during the Miss USA pageant when asked her views in Gay Marriage by an openly gay judge, Perez Hilton, Carrie Prejean, California, gave a not so politically correct answer and as everyone agrees it cost her the crown. Ok..

1. Why is it that when someone comes out and states their opinion on gay marriage and its not the approving opinion they get shut down? And its not like she was obscene, rude or derogatory about it. Why should she have to lie about her honest belief just to pacify a “lifestyle”.

2. I don’t even think there should be political questions on this stupid pageant anyways. You are going to take away a women?s chances of winning because on the off chance of this kind of thing happens and the person expresses the belief that in conflicting to yours. So you’re going to penalize her even if her answer was perfectly worded and spoken.

3. All these “celebrities” have come out and commented on what she should have said. I say F you. You shouldn’t have to lie about your beliefs just because of the type of people that are business your in. So Miss California, I applaud you and even though I didn’t watch any of the stupid pageant, you should have won just on the shear fact that you didn’t give in like so many of the other airheads who just rattle out the same shit they always do about “World Peace” or something else that is unattainable. Good job.

On the subject of bailouts…why the fuck am I paying to bail companies out? If a company goes down because of poor management, decline in sales or any other reason, why should the taxpayers be forced to give them money to stay afloat? That’s not my problem unless I have a vested interest in the company. I drive a Honda so why should I give two shits about GM? A lot of businesses have come and gone…so what. That is the nature of business. Starting a company is like gambling-sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. It’s a risk you take when starting one.

When a business goes down, especially a big business, that opens up a hole in the market either for a new one to come along or to let the competition make more money. Making money is what keeps a business going, not taking it from people who don’t give two shits about your company. Look it…if some fucking Mom-and-Pop shop is getting ready to go out of business and they want to stay in business what do they do? They’ll prolly head down to the bank and try and take out a loan to pay shit off until business picks back up. That’s usually their only option unless someone OF THEIR OWN FREE WILL comes along and hands them a check. If all else fails, they go the fuck out of business. It sucks, but you pick up the pieces and either start over or move along to something else. You won’t see the government caring about that and nor should they. It’s not the government’s problem. So why are their different standards for bigger, more well known companies?

The problem with the Government trying to get involved with a privately owned company and the management letting it happen is that the Government has something to hold over it’s head. Look at what happened with GM. The Government bailed it out and pretty much forced the CEO to resign. The CEO should have resigned because he sucks at CEOing you say? Probably, but that shouldn’t be up to someone outside the company. These companies have shareholder meetings in which things of this very nature are talked about…or at least should be talked about.

And further more, in respects to GM, the Government can now dictate how cars are made there. What’s the problem with this you ask? Well the law already has mandates about things such as safety and emissions and things of that nature, but now the Government can go well above and beyond that. They can say shit like “Hey…we think hot pink is the coolest, most awesome color ever to grace the body of a car. You will only offer hot pink cars or else!”

“Or else what?” GM would say, “We won’t sell shit over here and you’ll have to bail us out again!”

“Paint all your cars hot fucking pink or else we’ll make you pay back all that money we gave you because you guys can’t run a company properly.” They will reply.

Now I’m not saying the Government would actually dictate what colors to offer, but still…you get the point. There is nothing in the Constitution that tells the Government they have the right to intervene with a company that is going bankrupt. Again, it’s not the Government’s problem.

If you really like GM (or any other company for that matter) and don’t want to see it go down in flames, that’s cool…help them out with your personal finances…hell enlist the help of others…I don’t have a problem with that because it’s private citizens volunteering to help bail a company out. It’s not something thats totally impossible to do if there are people willing to work hard for it. If GM still goes down and you just can’t stand driving any other kind of car, fucking walk…it’s healthier anyways.

To wrap this thing up-the more power you give the Government, the less freedom you will have. That’s a fucking fact. History has proven time and time again that if a Government gets too big, it’s citizens will suffer because of it and eventually the country as a whole breaks the fuck down. Read about it…from fucking Rome to Nazi Germany, once great nations (in terms of power, not ideology) have fallen and America isn’t exempt. Period fucking dot.

That is all…