Puffer TV: Geek Website of the Week!

Puffer TVHere’s a way to watch California (Stanford University area) local TV and major TV networks via your web browser. Puffer TV is research project you can help with for free. They say: “Stream live TV in your browser. There’s no charge. You can watch U.S. TV stations affiliated with the NBC, CBS, ABC, PBS, Fox, and CW networks.

Puffer works well in the Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Opera browsers, on a computer or an Android phone or tablet. Puffer does not work on iPhones or iPads or in the Safari browser.

Puffer is a research project in the computer-science department at Stanford University. Please see the FAQ and our research paper (Community Award winner at USENIX NSDI 2020) for more information.”

Geek Web Site of the Week: What Is My Browser?

WhatIsMyBrowser.comYou need to test your browser to get the most of your Internet experience and stay safe.

WhatIsMyBrowser.com

Why should I update my web browser?

Get the most out of the internet

More than ever, websites are taking advantages of all the new features that modern web browsers provide; HTML5 video and audio, advanced JavaScript and CSS styling all rely on you having a modern web browser. If you don’t use the latest version of your web browser, you’re probably missing out on some of the latest features.

Many websites (including very big ones like Gmail, YouTube and Facebook) have stopped supporting older versions of browsers. If you’re running something that’s very out of date, you probably won’t be able to use some or all of the features of these sites.

Stay safe and secure

If you run a web browser that is out of date and which contains security vulnerabilities, you risk having your computer compromised by criminals. Depending on the security exploit, your personal information (including emails, banking details, online sales, photos and other sensitive information) could be stolen or destroyed. This is not a hypothetical occurrence; it happens regularly and in large volumes.

If your computer’s security is compromised you also run the risk of being used as a “middle man” in online crime; or as an unwitting pawn in large scale attacks against other internet users or companies. So even if your personal data is not stolen, if compromised, your computer can be turned into a “zombie”; sending out thousands of spam emails per day, or be forced to participate in “denial of service” attacks against other websites; all without you even being aware.

How to stay up to date

Make sure that you keep your web browser patched and up to date by following your vendor’s instructions. If your operating system no longer supports modern browsers, it’s time to update that too! Anti Virus software is a necessity these days as well.

Some web browsers (such as Chrome and Firefox) have an “Auto-update” feature enabled by default. Browsers such as Safari and Internet Explorer include updates in the latest versions of their respective Operating Systems.

Check out our guides to update your web browser for detailed information to make sure you’re up to date.

In an ideal world, every one would only run modern web browsers. It would not only make the users themselves safer and give them fuller and more enjoyable experiences; but it would make Web Developers and System Administrator’s lives much easier and enjoyable, as well as saving clients and companies lots of money as they no longer have to support out dated software.

As a responsible entity on the internet, WhatIsMyBrowser.com encourages everyone to keep their web browser up to date.

You can help by encouraging your friends and family to keep their web browsers up to date as well. If you run a website, consider putting a link in your website’s footer to WhatIsMyBrowser.com reminding your users to stay up to date.

Test to See Which HDTV “Over the Air” Stations You Can Receive

HDTV AntennaTV without Cable – Over 90% of households can get free over-the-air TV. Can you?

The average US household’s cable bill is $123 (a month.) This means you can save over $1,400 a year by simply dropping Cable TV.

Cable companies are allowed to downgrade their service by 30% to save on transmission costs. OTA (“Over the Air”) doesn’t have this problem.

Test to see what you can receive over the air, using our Geek Web Site of the Week: https://nocable.org/home (Enter your Zip Code on this page.)

Geek Website of the Week: RollApp!

Do you want to run LibreOffice on your new Google Chromebook? Well, now you can, with ‘RollApp!’ Rollapp is a service that let’s you run ‘heavy’ programs and view them, in an HTML5 enabled browser. IT is actually pretty cool! Instead of virtualizing a whole desktop, it virtualizes the applications themselves!

RollApp Web Site

What is rollApp?
There are 3 different answers to this question, depending on your point of view

For users
rollApp is a software-on-demand service that instantly delivers existing third-party SW applications to any web-browser equipped device over broadband/3G. Users can find and run online most of the software they need without installing it to their computers or other devices. Think of it as ‘YouTube for applications’ – a place where software authors publish their applications and then anyone can access them using a browser.

For technology professionals
rollApp is an online application virtualization platform. Once a software publisher installs their ‘traditional’ desktop applications to rollApp server, rollApp instantly converts these applications to SaaS/Cloud versions. Then anyone can access rollApp server using regular web-browser and launch the converted applications inside a browser. When executed via a browser, rollApp applications behave the same way as locally installed ones. This works for applications initially developed for any popular platform: Windows, UNIX, MacOS, etc – and regardless of the operating system installed on the client computer/device.

For businesses
rollApp is an application publishing platform that allows end customers to get access to software-on-demand services using freemium model. For software publishers it instantly adds new features to their applications and provides new distribution/revenue channel, for advertisers it brings traditional TV-style advertising model to non-TV devices (desktop computers, laptops, netbooks, smartphones, tablets, etc).”

They show OpenOffice in this demo, but they have LibreOffice available now. Check it out!

They also have a RollApp File Opener, as shown in this video:

Web Site of the Week: ConvertCase.Net!

So, you type out the great missive on the problems of the universe that you want top post, but wait! Your caps lock was stuck on the whole time! What will you do?! You know that the Internets are full of people who will jump on, “DON’T YELL, DEWD!” So, now, you have a fix! It is ConvertCase.Net!

https://www.convertcase.net/

Lot’s of options for your case-changing pleasure!

Sentence case: Yep, first letter of first word capitalized.

lower case: you guessed it. all lower case.

UPPER CASE: PUT IT IN SHOUT MODE!

Capitalized Case: Each Word Capitalized.

Download as a .txt file

Copy to Clipboard

Geek Website of the Week: Spoon.Net!

Spoon.Net

And, the GSotW as well! This is SO cool, that I did a demo for this week’s Dr. Bill.TV Show, it will be posted later today, check it out! This is VERY awesome! I gotta give them huge Geek Cred for this implementation. You can either sign up for the service from their web site, or, if you have a business, and want to host it on your own server, you can do that as well! Did I mention… Awesome!

Spoon.Net – Virtual Desktop System

No more installs.

Apps launch inside pre-configured virtual machines with no changes to your desktop.

Spoon Console
Access the Spoon Console directly from your desktop by pressing Alt + Win.

Universal Search Engine
Instantly find apps and files anywhere, even across multiple devices.

Browser Plugin
Spoon works through a small browser plugin. No administrative privileges are required.

Hundreds of Apps Online
Use hundreds of free applications online, or easily virtualize your own applications.

Ninite – A Neat Service to Keep You Safe!

When you install software these days you have to be very, very careful, because even free software vendors allow all kinds of JUNK to be included in their software installs. Browser bars, fake “virus scans” and the like will “muck up” your system something fierce! Now,l there is a service that eliminates the crapware! It is called “Ninite.”

The Easiest, Fastest Way to Update or Install Software. Just pick your apps and click Get Installer. Ninite does the rest — fully automatic.

Ninite Web Site

No Clicking Next, Next, Next
Ninite fully automates installers offscreen.

No Toolbars
Ninite automatically says “No” to toolbars and other junk.

Always Up-to-date
A Ninite installer always gets an app’s latest version no matter when you made it.

It Updates Too
Just run your Ninite installer again and it will update the apps to their latest versions.

No Signup
Ninite just works. No account, signup, or client needed.

32 and 64-bit
Ninite installs the best version of an app for your PC.

International
Ninite installs apps in your PC’s language.

Faster for Business
Ninite Pro is 3x faster and allows business use.

Works with RMMs
Kaseya, Labtech, Level Platforms, KACE, GFI, Naverisk, and more. Ninite Pro integrates with everything.

Offline Mode
With offline support, a /silent switch, and desktop icon control Ninite Pro is even more flexible.

Security Made Easy
The /updateonly switch for Ninite Pro makes keeping software up to date simple.

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