GITweekly

I regularly meander through large electronic goods purveyors. Gazing at the shinyness that imbues these hallowed places with Visa card rending excitement. I glance covertly at the prospective purchases of the impulsive and unworldy inhabitants. All is not well.

It’s every bit as interesting as watching a David Attenborough documentary on meerkats.

“He” stands in front of a wall of primary colours. The yellow one is $60. The red is $79.95. The red says to him “I am strong and I’ll protect you”. The yellow fights back, saying “you’ve used me before – trust me”.

Enter the world of the naive “mum and dad” software purchaser – Today, for them, is otherwise known as the “Antivirus out of date must purchase new one because computer says so” day.

Should I say something to them?

Should I let them throw a hundred big ones on a purchase that may not be necessary?

Sorry to say I’ve always been too nervous to say anything. Coward.

But, he says getting to the point of it all, there are alternatives. And by alternatives I mean alternatives to paid versions.

But are they as good as the well known commercial offerings?

It depends, is the answer.

Here’s the rub, or the proviso. If you’re a photographer, engineer, graphic designer, web architect or whatever, and you use your computer to make a living – you’ll probably be aware of what software solutions are out there. And more often than not it’s going to be the more expensive tools that are used. Beyond tax write-offs and strict adherence to standards you probably already have the tools you need.

But for the rest of us mere mortals – we have ways of getting great results using tools that are often more simple to use and that won’t kill the hip pocket like the big boys.

So where can I find these little gems?

Two amazing places to start are:

Osalt – Open Source as Alternative

This super simple to use site lists, on the left hand side of their page, an amazing range of categories. From business and communications tools to games and graphics programs. Just click on the category or type in the program you want an alternative to and hey presto – you’re now entering a world of new software choices and alternatives. Punching in Photoshop gives five alternatives for a range of operating systems.

AlternativeTo

With a slightly flasher interface, AlternativeTo provides you with the same sort of experience as Osalt. Typing into the search box gives you similar software titles, but the site comes into its own with tag clouds and tabbing at the top of the page to narrow down the software choices into operating systems. Super simple and super effective. It also provides some alternatives to online tools like Dropbox, Grooveshark and Evernote.

Have a play with both. You’ll be amazed by the possibilities.

One of the most amazing side effects of these sites is the fact that you won’t have to spend a fortune trying new things. If you’ve ever wondered if you could do some graphic design but couldn’t afford a vector graphics program like Adobe’s Illustrator – try Inkscape (an amazing graphics editor). Too sweet.

So there we have it – get that brain of yours working. Try new things. Paint, draw, design, program – all with amazing open source or freeware software. You may just find that the alternative suits you better than the big boys.

The GITweekly Top Ten Alternatives to Commercial Versions.

1. Antivirus – Microsoft Security Essentials. Fantastic virus, spyware and malware protection. CNET Australia‘s editors gave it a 9.0 rating. Nice for zero cost.
2. Image and Photo editing – Paint.Net. Simple to use alternative to Adobe’s Photoshop and Corel’s Paint Shop Pro.
3. Office Suite – OpenOffice. A truly fantastic alternative to the often expensive Microsoft Office. Comes with a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation/powerpoint, database, and graphics programs. You can even save documents in the industry standard word format.
4. Music manager/iTunes alternative – Double Twist. Organise your podcasts, music, playlists and videos. Works with a multitude of devices (including some Apple products much to their annoyance). Check their list for your device – if it’s there you’ll enjoy Double Twist.
5. CD/DVD/Blu-Ray burning software – ImgBurn. Super simple to use. Great alternative to Nero.
6. Email Program – Thunderbird. With a great batch of add-ons and tabbed email (organises your email logically and simply) Thunderbird is a fantastic Outlook challenger.
7. Web Browser – Google Chrome. While most of us use Firefox and Internet explorer, the folks at the big G have created a super fast and secure browser. Try it. Now.
8. Simple Audio Editor – Audacity. Cut, splice, convert, make people sound like chipmunks. Check out all of the features here.
9. Operating System – Ubuntu. A version of the mysterious Linux operating system. Don’t be scared – they’ve designed it with us average folk in mind. Comes with a beautiful graphical desktop – just like windows only free. Yes free. Got an old PC lying around? Wack this onto it.
10. Hey stop copying me peoples! Find your own using Osalt and AlternativeTo. Seriously.

The Twitter Tsunami Vs The Google Wave

Anecdotally speaking, some days I’m finding that I get more traffic to GITweekly from the mighty Twitter than I do from the big search engine that could, Google.

Look, I’m not complaining – any traffic’s good traffic. Great even.

My only problem is that we may be missing our target audience. You see, at GITweekly we’re trying to chat to the people who aren’t the hardcore tech heads. We’re trying to get some interesting news and ideas onto the desktops of the masses rather than the Android mobiles of the technorati.

Sure the average Twitter user may be in our demographic but people who use Twitter to search out topical news, and subsequently find our Twittered links, may just be a little too hardcore. It’s hard to say and time will tell.

All in all Twitter is proving to be a very powerful tool for marketing, topical news searching and discussion. It’s not just about inane chatter about how soft your stools were this morning. Sorry.

But if you are one of those folks that prides themselves on being “tech-forward” please hang around. Make comment. Suggest story ideas. Heck – write for us. We’d love to see you stay and give “average Joe and Josephine”* something great to sink their teeth into.

Cheers.

*Davey apologises if your name is Joe or Josephine – please substitute either Sandra or Sandro in your names place.

The story of “Habib” winds-up with the storyteller’s realisation that we can begin to use scepticism as a defense against our situation. This leads to us not listening to the people that aren’t listened to. We then don’t hear the truths.

Maybe I’ve lost a little in translation, but this poignant story from the writer/blogger/storyteller Ted Conover truly establishes my belief that the internet is the new “campfire”. The place to hear remarkable stories of humanity, loss, triumph, and learning. These are stories to inspire and change us.

One such “campfire” is a site called The Moth.

In their blurb, The Moth, sprang from one writer’s desire to recreate the feeling of sitting on his mate’s porch, connecting and sharing tales. These come-togethers started as a lounge room gathering and have since expanded into large venues throughout New York City.

Nowadays these stories can be subscribed to via RSS feeds or more simply through iTunes. Just download and get lost in some remarkable storytelling.

Here in the GITweekly.com cave we’ve been keeping our eyes on a new upstart emerging from their startup chrysalis. This company is Square.

The aim of the game, as far as Square is concerned, is to bring the convenience of credit card payments to the people. How can they do this without the complexity of opening merchant accounts with banks and buying great big credit card swipey machines?

It’s all in the Square.

This little dohickey – that will most likely be given away by the company – attaches to the hand-held communications device otherwise known as your iPhone. Brilliant. And what makes this whole thing totally clevertasitic? It attaches via the standard audio jack – making it, presumably, compatible with any smart-phone that has a headphone/microphone combo jack. The main idea is that it’s self powered and avoids Apple‘s unique connector, making it cheaper and easier to manufacture. The company has since started sending out these little packages of goodness to the early adopters.

So why would I love to sell my left kidney to invest in this company?

Because of these reasons:

• It’s dead easy to use. Launch the application, plug in the gadget, how much and swipe.
• It will be used by anyone who sells anything – craft market, plumber, car boot sale, personal trainers, lady of the *cough* night.
• It will be cheap for the average punter to use (compared to setting up a merchant account and paying for high tech EFT facilities).
• It is super convenient.
• You could use it to get that money off your mate who keeps “forgetting” to go to the ATM.

And how will this do-dad work?

Like I alluded to before, it’s a matter of plugging in the little plastic “square”, launching the application, typing in the value of the transaction then swiping the credit card. After that the security features kick into action. If they’re a registered Square user (not required) their face will pop up on the screen – this allows you to check that they are who they say they are. Signing for the sale is done on the smart-phone’s touchscreen.

What’s great for the consumer is that their receipt will be emailed to them and can be viewed online through the Square website. Ace-ness ensues.

So why wouldn’t we all want one of these gadgets (aside from the little slice of the action that Square takes to put food on the table)?

Don’t know. That’s why you can view my kidney on eBay. I just gotsta get that payola to get in on the Square action.

Simple. Brilliant. And it will be successful*.

*Here’s hoping.