Tag: blip tv

The move to Norton Internet Security 2009

I apologize for the long absence. I’ve had a lot of ideas to blog about, but interestingly, I’ve daunted by the flood of ideas and how best to present them. Like I always end up solving dilemmas like this (i.e. a lot to do and being at a loss for how to tackle tasks), I take it one step at a time. I’ve twittered about my woes with Bitdefender Internet Security 2009 and how I started a trial of Norton Internet Security 2009. Well, I’m here to let you know that I’m now a bonafide customer of Symantec once again.

I once used (back in 2005) Symantec Client Security and it bogged down my computer. I have had such a horrible experience with Symantec products, ranging from being a resource hog to being plain impossible to uninstall. Fast forwarding to 2009, I find that the installation experience for Norton Internet Security 2009 is remarkably smooth and very unobtrusive. I mean, I didn’t even have to restart the computer!! This was mind-boggling to me after coming off Bitdefender Internet Security 2009’s rather clunky installation method. According to a review on CNet, this streamlined installation process is indeed new and borrowed from another of Symantec’s flagship products (Norton Ghost). Scanning my laptop (a full scan) does not leave my system hanging although in fairness to Bitdefender Internet Security 2009, a full system scan didn’t bog my laptop down.

There are a few things I miss about Bitdefender Internet Security 2009 and I wish these things would be incorporated into Norton Internet Security 2009: Continue reading The move to Norton Internet Security 2009

My current computer backup situations

Ever since I purchased an HP dv9700t CTO notebook PC, I’ve had to reformat this computer over 3 times now. The reason is simple: I like to try out new things on the computer and that more often than not, include alpha, beta and even gamma software. I’d like to say that I’ve learned and reformatting my PC (as a last solution) is a thing of the past. Alas! I cannot guarantee that. So, here’s what I’ve learned from owning a computer that I deliberately introduce chaos into:

  1. If you don’t know what a virtual machine or virtualization means, learn it NOW. Invest an operating system (Linux or Microsoft) and learn how to run that operating system inside a virtual environment. This article is going to be short so go ahead and read my article about my experience with two virtual machines (Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 and VirtualBox) Both are free virtual machine managers and are widely recommended for regular users.
  2. Windows Complete Image backup is NOT the same as merely backing up your files. In fact, based on my experience with Windows Complete Image backup and Windows File Backup available to Vista Ultimate users, I will say this: it would really really be smart to have a full featured backup solution in addition to Windows built-in backup feature. I would recommend Acronis True Image 2009 which is not bad at the price tag of $49.99. I’ve used Acronis on my computer since they had Acronis True Image 10 and since I discovered that you can’t retrieve individual files/folders from a Windows Complete Image backup, I’ve returned to using Acronis True Image. The reason: each time I perform a complete PC backup using Windows Backup and Restore center, it’s over 70gbs in size. Guess how much it costs (in terms of space consumed on the hard disk) to create a file backup using Windows Backup and Restore Center? Roughly ~65gbs (leaving all the default settings checked because Windows doesn’t even give you the chance to pick & choose what files you want to backup)!!! So, like I always say, economics (of space) is the reason I’m switching back to Acronis True Image 2009. That way, I’ll have just one ~ 70GB backup file on my external hard drive AND be able to extract my individual files from it!
  3. Good old fashioned DVD-R or CD-R backups:- After my last disaster scenario (i.e. I lost close to 3 weeks worth of work), I have seen the light in having copies of precious files on disks. I was actually able to pare my loss down to 2 weeks because I had copied the “My Documents” folder on my laptop to a regular DVD (~ 4.3 GBs of data).

So there you have it! Good luck and stay tuned for more on my blog and at my Blip.tv Channel (Jane Talks Tech!)

Yay! Camtasia Studio 6 has arrived

So, the kind folks at Gottabemobile.com sent a license to Camtasia Studio 6 on its merry way to my inbox and I installed it on my computer without wasting any more time. 🙂 Here are the preliminary results of my amateur video work. My preliminary thoughts on Camtasia Studio 6:

  1. The user interface is much like Windows Movie Maker. I think I was comforted by that although the functions were really different. I struggled with doing things like inserting text and slides (which were a cake walk in Windows Movie Maker) and I’m sure that was mostly a function of me not reading the user manual first. I’m the type of girl to dive into things head first and then, coming up for air later. 🙂
  2. I love the zoom ‘n pan function! lol. From the videos I’ve seen on Youtube from amateurs like me, they all apparently love the zoom ‘n pan function a little too much. I hope I didn’t abuse it too  much.
  3. Youtube did some horrible things to the file output from Camtasia. It looks much better on Blip.tv. The video below is from blip.tv. Cheers!
  4. I do wish for a better way to manage all the callouts, transitions, etc other than cramming them into the timeline. It would help if I had a bigger LCD screen because then I can , but I suspect I might have to continue my editing in Storyboard mode vs. Timeline.