tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-50060137257983543712012-02-02T21:01:44.411-05:00Trust me to lead you to the best solutions for the little problems in your computing life! In this blog, I'll explore handy little utilities that have won my heart. I'll focus on useful free and cheap software tools and Web sites that can save you time, boost your productivity, improve your computing environment, do some vital task you otherwise couldn't easily do — or are just too much fun to ignore.Jonathan Plutchokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00611661473758716824noreply@blogger.comBlogger771100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5006013725798354371.post-76663886380831175802011-08-30T17:05:00.001-04:002011-09-02T12:57:32.554-04:00

Dear readers, I feel obligated to rouse myself to warn you of a dangerous and deceptive Web service, Uploadingit.com. It provides massive cloud storage for your files (10 GB for a free account, and even more for competitively-priced paid accounts). It shows a reasonably friendly interface and offers a good range of services. There are many other Web services that are similar, and I suggest you

Jonathan Plutchokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00611661473758716824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5006013725798354371.post-13112538922684173382008-10-04T14:00:00.001-04:002008-10-05T07:55:38.655-04:00

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Jonathan Plutchokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00611661473758716824noreply@blogger.com26tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5006013725798354371.post-73922861486485689022008-06-17T16:46:00.012-04:002008-11-13T15:56:24.065-05:00

Note to Readers23 June 2008Jonathan's Tool Bar & Grill is going on temporary hiatus. Due to backlogged commitments in the real world, Mark and I will not be able to post on our regular schedule for a while. Please bear with us, and remember to check back here from time to time, because we will provide you helpful new software and Web site reviews and tips whenever we can. Meanwhile, be sure to

Jonathan Plutchokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00611661473758716824noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5006013725798354371.post-23234426328495959472008-06-09T14:21:00.011-04:002008-11-13T15:56:24.640-05:00

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Jonathan Plutchokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00611661473758716824noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5006013725798354371.post-49717071163862962892008-06-03T16:33:00.030-04:002009-06-06T11:16:37.691-04:00

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Jonathan Plutchokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00611661473758716824noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5006013725798354371.post-18183170255284641712008-05-27T16:19:00.013-04:002008-12-14T06:30:42.540-05:00

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Jonathan Plutchokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00611661473758716824noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5006013725798354371.post-82138299980011759682008-05-21T08:51:00.006-04:002008-11-13T15:56:26.386-05:00

Welcome back to the Tool Bar & Grill. I wish I could stay – but I just saw Mark Lautman heading into the Linux Lounge with a gas can, some rags, and a lighter. So I decided to evacuate the Tool Bar & Grill and leave the place entirely to Mark today. Playing with Fire by Mark Lautman There is something a little disturbing about names of computer products. We have “firewalls” and CD “burners.”

Jonathan Plutchokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00611661473758716824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5006013725798354371.post-51951990275458481322008-05-11T00:00:00.012-04:002008-11-13T15:56:27.127-05:00

This week at the Tool Bar & Grill, we want to tell you everything about everything you need to know. Unfortunately, we don’t know much… but we do know where to look!How To Find a How-ToThe Internet is full of great information. You can learn how to do just about anything on line – build a deck, play the guitar, arrange flowers, make origami flowers, or even make love – if you can just find the

Jonathan Plutchokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00611661473758716824noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5006013725798354371.post-6102704473251959562008-05-04T00:00:00.004-04:002008-11-13T15:56:28.107-05:00

I know, the Tool Bar & Grill isn’t well known as a pickup joint, but you will find valuable tips on getting and keeping dates right here. But first, a little music to set the mood.Just Music, Just RightSometimes you just want to play some music on your computer. You don’t want to futz with playlists or assemble libraries. You don’t want to look at album covers or get dizzy watching swirling

Jonathan Plutchokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00611661473758716824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5006013725798354371.post-59138370576473067132008-04-27T11:54:00.015-04:002008-11-13T15:56:30.537-05:00

A great film is just the ticket after a great dinner at the Tool Bar & Grill. So today, your movie-buff chef will help you decide what to see. Meanwhile, back in the Linux Room, Mark is hunched over his drawing tablet… Film Review Aggregators Now and then I manage to find time to watch a good movie. But which one? With my blog taking so much of my time, I can’t afford to waste a couple of hours

Jonathan Plutchokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00611661473758716824noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5006013725798354371.post-56808554420196441272008-04-20T00:00:00.003-04:002008-11-13T15:56:31.599-05:00

Howdy from the Tool Bar & Grill, and welcome to the many new readers who have joined us in the past few weeks. Your chef is glad to be back behind the counter again, with some fresh new software recommendations. And assistant chef Mark Lautman continues his thesis on Perl scripting.Stick With Me, Kid, and You’ll Go FarI remember when the invention of Post-It® Notes revolutionized office work. Now

Jonathan Plutchokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00611661473758716824noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5006013725798354371.post-67776912394915681282008-04-13T17:04:00.008-04:002008-11-13T15:56:32.797-05:00

Welcome back, dear readers. This week your chef had to take his act out on the road again, despite his notable lack of wanderlust. Thus your chef was faced today with the choice of strolling around his hotel’s serene Japanese garden and exploring the surroundings in a new city, or spending many hours evaluating new utility software and writing his recommendations. Maybe this will give you a clue

Jonathan Plutchokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00611661473758716824noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5006013725798354371.post-35756378110562860742008-04-06T09:59:00.013-04:002008-11-13T15:56:33.964-05:00

It must be time to redecorate the tawdry old Tool Bar & Grill, because I’m in a graphical mood this week. So let’s break out the paint brushes and buckets, and find the best free image editing software.Give Your Pictures the Royal TreatmentImage software has come a long way in recent years, keeping up with the dizzying advances in digital photography. If you are still using the Paint program that

Jonathan Plutchokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00611661473758716824noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5006013725798354371.post-33057806368683309182008-03-30T12:17:00.003-04:002008-11-13T15:56:34.833-05:00

Managing the Tool Bar & Grill requires lots of hard work and long hours. So a lazy guy like me looks for anything that makes the work go by faster and easier. That’s how I became a utilities maven to begin with, long before there was a Tool Bar & Grill. And the wonderfully generous programmers who populate the Internet keep coming up with new ways to make our lives more pleasant. Special guest

Jonathan Plutchokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00611661473758716824noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5006013725798354371.post-24245912840321841902008-03-23T17:32:00.010-04:002008-11-13T15:56:35.751-05:00

Things keep hopping at the Tool Bar & Grill, even while I sweep Louise away for a beach resort weekend. After I describe my latest utility discoveries, Linux rabble-rouser Mark Lautman explains the wonders of window managers.Where’s a Ruler When You Need One?Sometimes the little things drive you crazy. And sometimes it’s the big things. Heaven knows that sitting at home on Saturday nights and

Jonathan Plutchokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00611661473758716824noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5006013725798354371.post-86215511242789134682008-03-15T17:49:00.012-04:002008-11-13T15:56:36.012-05:00

Welcome back to the Tool Bar & Grill, where we search through the Internet to find the best utilities and Web sites, and hand them to you on a silver platter. Today’s utility is a strong shot for weak computers, and it is chased with a rundown of the most important literature for document authors by Mark Lautman. How To Cope When Memory Fails If you search the Web, you will find dozens of free

Jonathan Plutchokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00611661473758716824noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5006013725798354371.post-50397641518396022572008-03-09T00:00:00.004-05:002008-11-13T15:56:36.879-05:00

And that day will come sooner rather than later. At the Tool Bar & Grill, we’re here to help you. Today I’ll tell you about a Web site that looks and feels bad but really is good for you, and some useful utilities for those with limited computing resources. And Linux guru Mark Lautman will help you find files you forgot you had.Make XP Think It’s VistaI admit it, my memory just isn’t what it used

Jonathan Plutchokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00611661473758716824noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5006013725798354371.post-35204176248017383652008-03-02T00:00:00.000-05:002008-11-13T15:56:38.214-05:00

Howdy once again from the Tool Bar & Grill, where the search for better utilities and Web sites never ends. We have found some great free solutions today, too. In my technical writer role, I frequently need to convert documents to PDF (Portable Document Format) (first discussed in post #54, 20 January 2008). My PDFs must include bookmarks (an outline pane with links to chapters and sections) and

Jonathan Plutchokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00611661473758716824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5006013725798354371.post-80708772705293959702008-02-24T00:00:00.003-05:002008-11-13T15:56:39.696-05:00

Good evening, gentlemen and ladies, and welcome to Jonathan’s Bistro. I hope you can read the Specials Du Jour board clearly enough to enjoy your meal. First an hors d’oeuvre to tune up our LCD screens, and then on to sample Mark Lautman’s selection of OpenOffice extensions. No Fork Needed for This Tuner Note: I just noticed a minor omission and error in this post, and have added a couple of

Jonathan Plutchokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00611661473758716824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5006013725798354371.post-3964113217893558342008-02-17T00:00:00.004-05:002008-11-13T15:56:40.309-05:00

Frustration has returned to the Tool Bar & Grill. A few years ago, I didn’t think about how a USB flash drive could make my life easier. Now I can’t live without at least one. But each new solution brings still newer problems, especially for someone as lazy as your Tool Bar chef. The new problem is synchronizing multiple computers through the flash drive. I have a PC in the office and one at

Jonathan Plutchokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00611661473758716824noreply@blogger.com21tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5006013725798354371.post-6398925732848939352008-02-10T00:00:00.000-05:002008-11-13T15:56:40.644-05:00

Welcome to the Tool Bar & Grill, friends. Please come right in and find your own seats. I’ll be back to take your order soon. Right now, though, I’m very busy getting acquainted with my new love and outfitting her just the way I like. Oh, you want to see her? Sure, she’s right over there… No, not her; that’s my devoted, long-suffering girlfriend Louise at the kitchen door. I mean the beauty

Jonathan Plutchokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00611661473758716824noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5006013725798354371.post-78824905056248833162008-02-04T15:52:00.000-05:002008-11-13T15:56:40.882-05:00

Dear readers: This week, I turn the Tool Bar & Grill spatula and spoon over to graphics whiz Mark Lautman, who promised to paint the whole place. See you next week! Scalable Vector Graphics, Part 3 by Mark Lautman Saturday nights are particularly obstreperous at the Tool Bar's Linux Room. The music is loud, the conversation effervescent, and even the police officers who are sent to quell the

Jonathan Plutchokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00611661473758716824noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5006013725798354371.post-18266366881614861702008-01-27T00:00:00.000-05:002008-11-13T15:56:41.169-05:00

Ola, amigos, from the Tool Bar & Grill, where sometimes the Special of the Day is refritos. Today I’m serving up new information on a disk reporting utility that updates my previous post on the topic. Back in November I reviewed a couple of great disk-space reporters (“What’s Eating You?”, post #46). These handy utilities analyze your hard disk and tell you what file types are occupying its

Jonathan Plutchokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00611661473758716824noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5006013725798354371.post-25067131390326755312008-01-20T00:00:00.000-05:002008-11-13T15:56:41.845-05:00

Hello again from the Tool Bar & Grill, where the hot kitchen is a comfort on cold winter days (apologies to those of you below the equator). Then again, a hot kitchen is always comforting to a big eater like me. While stirring the linguine and listening to old Porter and Dolly duets, a few of us got to talking about the problems of editing PDF files. Portable Document Format is a nearly

Jonathan Plutchokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00611661473758716824noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5006013725798354371.post-33010142653107783832008-01-13T00:00:00.000-05:002008-11-13T15:56:42.365-05:00

We don’t allow our customers to get clipped* at the Tool Bar & Grill. But we do like to help them manage their clips. Clips, of course, are items that you copy or cut, for pasting elsewhere. [*For my non-American readers, “getting clipped” is slang for being cheated.] Windows provides a “clipboard” that remembers the last clip you copied or cut, enabling you to paste it. But the primitive

Jonathan Plutchokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00611661473758716824noreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5006013725798354371.post-25958305418613160282008-01-06T00:00:00.000-05:002008-11-13T15:56:42.821-05:00

It’s tapas week at the Tool Bar & Grill, where today’s offering is a buffet of delightful little morsels – a variety of small special-purpose utilities, all in one place. And after the appetizing tapas, special guest blogger Mark Lautman tells us about Something Very Good: SVG. Skrommel to the RescueI have long been a devoted fan of DonationCoder, a public service site that hosts and encourages

Jonathan Plutchokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00611661473758716824noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5006013725798354371.post-16355849102028206132007-12-30T00:00:00.000-05:002008-11-13T15:56:44.193-05:00

So I’m sitting behind the counter in my Tool Bar & Grill a couple of weeks ago, nursing a Diet Coke and my disappointment with the new Commodo firewall (see post #47). Then the mail arrives, and my eyes are pulled to the one from Comodo. Here’s a new version, and it fixes the bugs, Comodo said. Try it, you’ll like it, they said. But first, special guest blogger Mark Lautman takes digital art

Jonathan Plutchokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00611661473758716824noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5006013725798354371.post-46100520380772986052007-12-16T09:46:00.000-05:002008-11-13T15:56:44.575-05:00

It’s holiday shopping crunch time. If you have not finalized your gift choices yet, today’s Tool Bar & Grill special can help you get it done quickly – and save you some money too. Don’t forget to show your appreciation for these valuable shopping tips by leaving a tip for your devoted Tool Bar & Grill staff! Price Comparison Proliferation Price comparison Web sites help you find the right

Jonathan Plutchokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00611661473758716824noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5006013725798354371.post-55031551132583155502007-12-09T00:00:00.000-05:002008-11-13T15:56:45.367-05:00

Good morning, holiday shoppers, and welcome back to the Tool Bar & Grill for the second installment of our on-line buying guide. Last week we looked at some Web sites that collate professional reviews of consumer goods. But your research need not stop there. Many Web sites also give you the lowdown on actual customers’ experiences with the products you’re thinking of buying, on the assumption

Jonathan Plutchokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00611661473758716824noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5006013725798354371.post-68239160174005459792007-12-02T00:00:00.000-05:002008-11-13T15:56:45.665-05:00

The holiday shopping season is upon us, and of course the Tool Bar & Grill is in on the action. In a multipart series starting today, I’ll help you kick off the festivities by pointing out the best Web sites for finding the ideal goods and rock-bottom prices for all your gift-giving needs. Before you hit the cybermall, though, you need to know what to buy. Today I’ll show you some product

Jonathan Plutchokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00611661473758716824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5006013725798354371.post-64721875525948634712007-11-25T00:00:00.000-05:002008-11-13T15:56:45.876-05:00

Welcome again to my humble establishment, where patrons come to snack on their dedicated chef’s latest and greatest discoveries of delectable utility software and Web sites. Today, a solution to the eternal conundrum: How do you find out the name of something that you don’t know the name of? Yeah, you know the doohickey I mean – the whatchamacallit on the thingamabob – what the heck is its name?

Jonathan Plutchokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00611661473758716824noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5006013725798354371.post-63194053377660450672007-11-18T00:00:00.000-05:002008-11-13T15:56:47.433-05:00

What I mean is, what’s eating up your disk space? We keep buying bigger and bigger hard disks – a terabyte is becoming affordable these days – and yet they just keeping filling up even faster. What is all that stuff on the disk? Wouldn’t you like to know! Welcome back to my Tool Bar & Grill, where I would just love to tell you... but instead, all I can do is point you to useful free utilities

Jonathan Plutchokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00611661473758716824noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5006013725798354371.post-29853213206553854872007-11-11T00:00:00.000-05:002008-11-13T15:56:47.686-05:00

Welcome once again to my Tool Bar & Grill, where every week you can find the coolest solutions to problems you might not even have known you had. Glad to be of service. And now, so is Qipit. What the heck is a Qipit? I don’t know, but whatever it is, it’s slick. Qipit is a Web service the enables you to send PDF files from your mobile phone. However, that’s just scratching the surface. Here’s one

Jonathan Plutchokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00611661473758716824noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5006013725798354371.post-69427794589178024142007-11-04T00:00:00.004-04:002009-06-06T11:12:32.039-04:00

This week the Tool Bar & Grill hosted a meeting of the amateur photography club, and the talk was all about new advances in digital photo enhancements. Here are some of the most interesting new tools for digital camera users. Celebrity Look-Alike Contest Do people come up to you and say, “Hey, you look just like... you know, that actor... what’s his name?” Yeah, OK, me neither. But now

Jonathan Plutchokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00611661473758716824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5006013725798354371.post-15543533873699364992007-10-28T19:00:00.001-04:002008-11-13T15:56:48.952-05:00

Welcome back to another buffet of diversity at the Tool Bar & Grill. The unifying theme of today’s topics is that they have no theme. So just dig in, and you’re sure to find a morsel that tickles your palate.Hidden Backup ItemsWe have been focusing on backups a lot lately, with previous posts on Web-hosted backup services and local backup software. But there’s still more to backing up than that,

Jonathan Plutchokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00611661473758716824noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5006013725798354371.post-65591317593826068092007-10-21T00:00:00.000-04:002007-10-21T11:06:07.440-04:00

Hello again from the Tool Bar & Grill kitchen, where this week we’re whipping up some healing salves to soothe those minor irritants that sometimes can flare up into major inflammations. No, not jock itch or crabs – this is a software blog, remember? We already know that I am especially picky about my computing experience, almost to the point of anal retentiveness (some might say far beyond).

Jonathan Plutchokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00611661473758716824noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5006013725798354371.post-69134062351752018132007-10-14T00:00:00.000-04:002008-11-13T15:56:49.709-05:00

Everyone likes a little levity, and your Tool Bar & Grill chef is no different. So after the doom-and-gloom scaremongering of the last few posts, let’s take some time out for the lighter side of the computing world. In future posts, we’ll get back to more sober advice about backing up, maintaining your computer, and other serious matters. For Web Sites You Love To Hate The Internet doesn’t

Jonathan Plutchokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00611661473758716824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5006013725798354371.post-1426806107215724532007-10-07T00:00:00.001-04:002008-03-23T16:42:46.924-04:00

Welcome to the second part of my review of local hard disk backup utilities. Last week I explained general backup concepts and described what I look for in a backup program. I have examined a number of well-known free backup tools, and now can offer some recommendations. So without further ado, here are some great freeware backup solutions and a couple of shareware choices, too. Each of the

Jonathan Plutchokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00611661473758716824noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5006013725798354371.post-76451493107283509042007-09-30T00:00:00.000-04:002007-10-01T08:06:34.867-04:00

Today’s meal at the Tool Bar & Grill comes with a lecture from the chef. You know you should back up your important files frequently, right? You brush your teeth every morning, you wear clean underwear, you eat a healthy breakfast (don’t you?) – so why don’t you run regular backups? Is it because your mother didn’t drill the lesson into you in childhood?Mothers of the world, take note. Today’s

Jonathan Plutchokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00611661473758716824noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5006013725798354371.post-46491389627561535412007-09-23T00:00:00.000-04:002008-11-13T15:56:50.068-05:00

Note to readers: If you use Linux, as more and more people do, you're in for a special treat today! Special guest blogger, Linux wizard, and long-time FOJ (friend of Jonathan) Mark Lautman follows up on my earlier column about setting your Windows computer's clock. Take it away, Mark!Jonathan's Tool Bar and Grill is a place where friends come to drink a few brews and watch soccer or baseball

Jonathan Plutchokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00611661473758716824noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5006013725798354371.post-82546713239276747582007-09-09T00:00:00.000-04:002007-09-16T04:48:05.696-04:00

Note to Readers: Due to a holiday, your Tool Bar & Grill chef is taking a week off. Visit this site again next week for a special double issue on local backup utilities! — Jonathan Plutchok, 16 September 2007.When you’re packing to move to a new home, you discover all kinds of things you forgot you had. Some you pack, some you sell, some you just give away. I moved house last week, which left me

Jonathan Plutchokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00611661473758716824noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5006013725798354371.post-32708229668435382652007-09-02T00:00:00.001-04:002009-06-06T10:49:39.326-04:00

Welcome, friends, to another hearty meal at the Tool Bar & Grill. Today let’s try to find good uses for some interesting new Web sites that integrate with email. Send Your Emails by Post eSnailer prints out your email and mails it to the recipient through snail mail (that is, the regular postal service). This service is free (including the postage), and sends mail throughout the United States.

Jonathan Plutchokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00611661473758716824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5006013725798354371.post-39740553040345992602007-08-26T00:00:00.001-04:002008-07-09T12:00:21.948-04:00

Sometimes it’s the little irritations that get you – the small annoyances that can occasionally build up into one of those days when it seems nothing is going right. Like when the bar and grill where you hang out runs out of your favorite pie, the coffee is cold, and the waitress brings the wrong change. None of that will happen at my Tool Bar & Grill. In fact, in my hangout I specialize in

Jonathan Plutchokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00611661473758716824noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5006013725798354371.post-5153171544186676552007-08-19T00:00:00.000-04:002008-11-13T15:56:50.893-05:00

I’m glad you have stepped through the swinging screen door into the Tool Bar & Grill (air conditioned for your comfort) to cool down in these dog days of August. Summer is the time for eating light, and in that spirit, the specials du jour are short reviews of charming little utilities that you might find useful. (Apologies for being so Northern Hemisphere-centric; old habits are especially hard

Jonathan Plutchokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00611661473758716824noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5006013725798354371.post-3348924184851609492007-08-12T00:00:00.000-04:002007-10-01T08:10:42.908-04:00

Welcome to another Sunday brunch at Jonathan’s Tool Bar & Grill, where I dish up delicious recommendations for great free and cheap utilities and useful Web sites.<?xml:namespace prefix = o />Last week I noticed that well over one-half of Tool Bar visitors get here with Mozilla Firefox, the free Web browser that has exploded in popularity in the last two years. That is evidence of your

Jonathan Plutchokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00611661473758716824noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5006013725798354371.post-30213005056369003432007-08-05T09:07:00.000-04:002008-11-13T15:56:51.136-05:00

Hello again to my loyal Tool Bar & Grill patrons, and welcome to the many new visitors who stopped in for a bite this week. I hope you all are enjoying the tasty snacks of useful and time-saving utilities and helpful Web sites that I serve up every week. Today’s special: a great backup service for your blog (and mine). If you write a blog or Web site, you appreciate the hard work that goes into

Jonathan Plutchokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00611661473758716824noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5006013725798354371.post-60179407037382248122007-07-29T00:00:00.000-04:002007-10-01T08:13:44.762-04:00

Hello again from Jonathan’s Tool Bar & Grill. This week let’s sit in the corner booth and talk about what happens when size really matters. It’s an increasingly common problem that frequently causes frustration and embarrassment. More and more we hear questions like “How do you expect me to take that huge thing?”Yes, sending big files used to be a hassle. The wired world’s needs to exchange more

Jonathan Plutchokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00611661473758716824noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5006013725798354371.post-58413097342197156242007-07-22T00:00:00.000-04:002007-10-01T08:16:38.693-04:00

Thank you, loyal visitors, for tearing yourselves away from the new Harry Potter book long enough to read some real adventure at the Tool Bar & Grill. I’m sure you’re all wondering how this week’s installment will end – while I’m still wondering how to begin.Pixel R.I.P.<?xml:namespace prefix = o />Have you just bought a new laptop computer or LCD monitor? Before you do anything else – especially

Jonathan Plutchokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00611661473758716824noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5006013725798354371.post-54171602922847519602007-07-15T00:00:00.001-04:002009-06-06T10:46:30.527-04:00

Come right in to my Tool Bar & Grill, where this week we use a better calculator to figure your tab, and where phish is once again the main course. Say Bye Bye to the Windows Calculator You get a free, general-purpose and scientific calculator accessory with Windows. So what’s wrong with that? Nothing, really. But what’s right with it? The Internet offers many replacement calculators that do

Jonathan Plutchokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00611661473758716824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5006013725798354371.post-81286881490139103942007-07-08T00:00:00.000-04:002008-11-13T15:56:52.281-05:00

Gee, ain’t it funny how time slips away, goes the lovely jazz standard. It seems like only last week that I wrote about Allway Sync, a free file synchronization utility (see #27). Now, after the passage of so much time, I feel obligated to update my recommendations. Sync Hole? When I looked again at my posting about Allway Sync (#27), I noticed that one of the Google advertisements alongside it

Jonathan Plutchokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00611661473758716824noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5006013725798354371.post-76486197839323564902007-07-01T01:00:00.004-04:002009-06-06T10:42:59.170-04:00

Devoted readers already know that I use ToDoList to manage all my task lists (see #12, 25 February 2007), both in the office and at home. To synchronize the two computers’ task lists, I copied the latest files onto my USB flash disk and then copied them again to the other computer. Yes, it was primitive and a bit of a pain. I knew I had to either find a way to sync my computers or swim in

Jonathan Plutchokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00611661473758716824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5006013725798354371.post-84277477376988921612007-06-24T01:00:00.000-04:002007-10-01T08:26:47.616-04:00

At the Tool Bar & Grill, we encourage all our patrons to cut calories, sample all the food groups in their proper proportions, eat plenty of fiber, and back up their computer files frequently. Everyone agrees it’s right, but how many really follow through?Be proud of yourself if you bother to back up your files at all. Remember, though, if you copy your files to another folder on your hard drive,

Jonathan Plutchokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00611661473758716824noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5006013725798354371.post-77885002661238630612007-06-17T01:00:00.000-04:002008-11-13T15:56:53.270-05:00

As your devoted Tool Bar & Grill chef, I admit to more than a touch of what the nice man with the white coat and butterfly net said is “anal retentiveness.” Apparently, this is a common ailment among chefs as well as technical writers. I’ll have to take his word for it, because they don’t let me have any books in here since I bounced them off the walls. Certainly, I can spend hours keeping my

Jonathan Plutchokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00611661473758716824noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5006013725798354371.post-30570106430694184882007-06-10T01:00:00.000-04:002008-11-13T15:56:53.521-05:00

It’s always words on the menu at the Tool Bar & Grill. Lots and lots of them. For us professional writers, words – and knowing how to string them together – are our stock in trade. So anything that helps us get the blah-blah onto the screen faster and easier is a blessing. PhraseExpress We’re all familiar with Microsoft Word’s™ time- and finger-saving AutoCorrect and AutoText features (or the

Jonathan Plutchokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00611661473758716824noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5006013725798354371.post-30360135335453126552007-06-03T03:21:00.001-04:002008-11-13T15:56:53.825-05:00

Hello again from Jonathan’s Tool Bar & Grill, where I live just to tell you about great free or cheap utilities and Web sites that solve the little problems in your computing life – sometimes problems you didn’t even know you had. This week I recommend two desktop accessories that are big improvements over the ones provided with Windows. See the Task You’re Switching To Veteran Windows users

Jonathan Plutchokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00611661473758716824noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5006013725798354371.post-43212626542836070082007-05-27T01:00:00.001-04:002009-06-06T10:57:43.136-04:00

At Jonathan’s Tool Bar & Grill, we value time over all things. In previous entries, I reviewed a variety of helpful time-saving and time management utilities. This week I tell you about two great, but very different, ways to keep track of time. Keep Track of Your Time As a freelance writer and consultant, I must keep careful track of every hour I spend working for clients (every tenth of an

Jonathan Plutchokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00611661473758716824noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5006013725798354371.post-83560790833410867342007-05-20T01:00:00.000-04:002008-11-13T15:56:55.427-05:00

Welcome back to Jonathan’s Tool Bar & Grill, where patience is not our strong point. This week we hurry to recommend some utilities that shave precious seconds or minutes from your everyday activities. Safe and Fast Add or Remove Programs Replacement Life is short. So when you need to remove a program from your hard disk, who’s got time to open the Windows Control Panel and then wait for its

Jonathan Plutchokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00611661473758716824noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5006013725798354371.post-19871464084146457692007-05-12T05:28:00.001-04:002008-11-13T15:56:55.554-05:00

Your Tool Bar & Grill chef is grumpier than usual this week. Dour at the best of times, I was subjected to long-distance travel, which I dislike even more than pop musicians pretending to go country. So hello from Down Undah, home of Keith Urban, who somehow does sound sort of like the real thang. Pardon Me, Stewardess, But I Can’t Feel My Legs My trip was made bearable in large part thanks to

Jonathan Plutchokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00611661473758716824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5006013725798354371.post-58444988210214389032007-05-05T10:24:00.001-04:002008-11-13T15:56:56.522-05:00

This week the Tool Bar & Grill jumps on the wholesome lifestyle bandwagon with its special Diet & Health Menu. If you know me, you know this won’t last long, so get on board while you can. I am usually devoted to the “see food” diet – I see food, I eat it. (Hmmm, that one doesn’t work so well in writing.) I have discovered some great Web sites that help you lose weight and get strong by keeping

Jonathan Plutchokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00611661473758716824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5006013725798354371.post-90307128466302232552007-04-29T06:35:00.000-04:002008-11-13T15:56:56.885-05:00

This week the Jonathan’s Tool Bar & Grill menu is all tapas – a collection of tasty appetizer-size morsels instead of a heavy meal. Here are a few great utilities that solve some little problems, and that I appreciate more every time I use them. VoluMouse<?xml:namespace prefix = o />I’m sitting at my desk with Shania Twain blaring from my computer when the phone rings. Must I fumble for the

Jonathan Plutchokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00611661473758716824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5006013725798354371.post-29086984118044869982007-04-22T01:00:00.000-04:002008-11-13T15:56:57.370-05:00

Hello again from Jonathan’s Tool Bar & Grill, where every week you’ll find new recommendations of useful free and cheap software and cool Web sites. Don’t forget to set a reminder to check this blog every week! Converting movie files in AVI, MPG, or other formats for burning onto disks and playing in DVD players can be either simple or cheap, but not both. The expensive commercial programs try

Jonathan Plutchokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00611661473758716824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5006013725798354371.post-36065325202290228372007-04-15T01:00:00.000-04:002008-11-13T15:56:57.640-05:00

Welcome once again to Jonathan’s Tool Bar & Grill, where the hot tips keep coming – now every week! Check this space each Sunday for more insightful reviews of great software and Web sites.Time-Savers for File Operations<?xml:namespace prefix = o />Don’t you get tired of clicking through layer after layer of folders to get to the file you want to open, or to save your current file in the right

Jonathan Plutchokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00611661473758716824noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5006013725798354371.post-48325449925983481352007-04-08T01:00:00.000-04:002008-11-13T15:56:57.834-05:00

Words are on the menu at today’s Tool Bar & Grill. All the words you can eat, with plenty left over for the doggie bag. They’re all served up piping hot by WordWeb, an excellent dictionary, thesaurus, and linguistic tool.Where do you go to look up word definitions, spelling, synonyms, and antonyms? There’s the thick dictionary on the bookshelf, but that’s so 1980s. There are lots of good free

Jonathan Plutchokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00611661473758716824noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5006013725798354371.post-33998812906507881172007-03-25T01:00:00.000-04:002007-03-23T10:47:55.203-04:00

Welcome again to my Tool Bar & Grill, where the menu always contains only the most mouth-watering delicacies from the world of Windows utilities and Web sites, and every item is free or inexpensive. AutoCorrect and AutoText Everywhere If you use Microsoft Office (and who doesn’t?), you’re familiar with its split personality – the ever-obedient Good Office and its evil twin, Bad Office. One of

Jonathan Plutchokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00611661473758716824noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5006013725798354371.post-33207368984009187142007-03-10T16:08:00.000-05:002008-11-13T15:56:58.281-05:00

Call me a cad, but sometimes I can’t help stumbling into a new love affair, ending the previous one without ever meaning to. I think I have it all, and then something better comes along and I’m swept away again. I love the hard-working and good-looking ones, and I’m especially vulnerable when they’re cheap too. I’m talking about utilities, of course. Hey, what kind of guy did you think I am?

Jonathan Plutchokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00611661473758716824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5006013725798354371.post-35053581130012561452007-02-25T00:00:00.000-05:002008-11-13T15:56:58.455-05:00

Welcome back to Jonathan’s Tool Bar & Grill, where you can find a valuable new Windows utility or Web site twice a month– that is, if I can figure out what to write about and get myself organized enough to research and write it.Sometimes I stare at my desk, close to desperation, trying to figure out what I’m supposed to be doing now. What was I working on? What should I be working on? What’s my

Jonathan Plutchokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00611661473758716824noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5006013725798354371.post-35984870118783018702007-02-10T00:00:00.000-05:002008-11-13T15:56:59.389-05:00

Has this happened to you? It’s taking longer and longer to crank up your computer, and then you find that your virtual memory is nearly all used up before you open an application. So you pop open the hood (perhaps with Windows’ built-in System Information or Msconfig) and peer inside. There you find a complex tangle of programs, processes, and services that loaded themselves automatically. What

Jonathan Plutchokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00611661473758716824noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5006013725798354371.post-8840083958090942832007-01-25T00:00:00.000-05:002008-11-13T15:57:00.496-05:00

Everybody’s talking about Internet security these days. It’s the hottest topic from Kalamazoo to Katmandu. So why shouldn’t I get in on the action, sitting as I am right between those two? Welcome back to Jonathan’s Tool Bar & Grill, where twice a month I share my discoveries of great low-cost utilities and Web sites. Today I’ll tell you about a couple of ways to stop fraudsters from tricking

Jonathan Plutchokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00611661473758716824noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5006013725798354371.post-37452173161772416132007-01-10T00:00:00.000-05:002008-11-13T15:57:01.300-05:00

Welcome back to Jonathan’s Tool Bar & Grill, where twice a month I share my discoveries of useful free or cheap utilities and Web sites. Fresh back from a long vacation, I still have leisure activities on my mind, especially music. So here are some of my favorite free tools for managing my country music collection. Converting Can Be Quick and Easy If you’re converting music files from one

Jonathan Plutchokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00611661473758716824noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5006013725798354371.post-78944402919874630382006-12-10T00:00:00.000-05:002007-03-10T11:11:12.255-05:00

Welcome once again to my Tool Bar & Grill, where I bring you the best utilities and Web sites that have won my heart. Today, my favorite things are some free screen capture and WiFi tools. Free Screen Capture #1: Screenshot Captor SnagIt is widely regarded as the best screen capture utility (www.techsmith.com). But even if you can’t afford $39.95 for SnagIt, you can certainly afford $0 for

Jonathan Plutchokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00611661473758716824noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5006013725798354371.post-72982173277395535702006-11-25T00:00:00.000-05:002008-11-13T15:57:01.774-05:00

Welcome to this Internet edition of my Tool Bar & Grill, where it’s all Web, all the time. In this edition, I reveal some fascinating facts, surprising statistics, and helpful hints about Web searching. Metasearch Engines Most of us turn to Google by habit whenever we want to find something on the Internet – so much so that “Google” has become a synonym for “search.” But by doing so, we might

Jonathan Plutchokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00611661473758716824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5006013725798354371.post-59406353395758214812006-11-10T00:00:00.000-05:002008-11-13T15:57:02.216-05:00

Welcome back to my Tool Bar & Grill, where I bring you useful new Windows utilities or Web sites twice each month. EULAlyzer Reads the Fine Print When I get new software, I’m dying to find out what it can do for me, so I want to install and run it ASAP. Who wants to take time to read the interminable legalese of the end user license agreement (EULA) that stands in the way of setting up new

Jonathan Plutchokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00611661473758716824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5006013725798354371.post-15330421511200125702006-10-25T01:00:00.000-04:002008-11-13T15:57:02.421-05:00

Marco Polo. Leif Ericsson. Christopher Columbus. Ferdinand Magellan. James Cook. Roald Amundsen. Robert Peary. Neil Armstrong. All were great explorers, whose courageous exertions shrunk our world.Sometimes, however, great discoveries are born of sloth. That's how I came across another great explorer: the xplorer2 file manager. One day, while creating a lot of new folders, I tired of pressing

Jonathan Plutchokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00611661473758716824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5006013725798354371.post-72516960980276083922006-10-10T01:00:00.000-04:002008-11-13T15:57:02.854-05:00

Welcome back to the Tool Bar & Grill, where you can find a valuable new Windows utility or Web site twice a month. George Prints His File Lists George is a good ole boy. I think of George as a redneck – except he’s a Yankee, Jewish, well-read, cultured, and basically decent at heart. OK, so maybe he’s just a redneck wannabe, like me, with our shared love of country & western music. But if you

Jonathan Plutchokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00611661473758716824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5006013725798354371.post-15755418739802130422006-09-25T01:00:00.000-04:002008-11-13T15:57:03.085-05:00

Welcome back to my Tool Bar & Grill, where twice a month I report on useful Windows utilities or Web sites.Bulletin: Synch Your ClockDid you remember to set your clocks back on the night of September 30/October 1? Nut cases like me insist on near-perfect accuracy in timekeping, and fortunately these days it's a snap to do. The Internet offers many free utilities that synchronize your computer's

Jonathan Plutchokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00611661473758716824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5006013725798354371.post-89676552320208879852006-09-10T01:00:00.001-04:002009-06-06T11:01:16.570-04:00

Welcome back to the new Tool Bar & Grill, where twice a month I'll present my discoveries in Windows utility software and Web sites that can save time, enhance your computing environment, do something new, or maybe just raise a chuckle. I'll recommend both free and shareware utilities, but will favor freeware wherever it is available. I can only report to you on the tools that I have

Jonathan Plutchokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00611661473758716824noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5006013725798354371.post-68091990728608467912006-08-25T01:00:00.000-04:002008-11-13T15:57:03.658-05:00

Welcome to my new Tool Bar & Grill, where I point you to great utilities and Web sites. I'll recommend both free and commercial utilities, but will favor freeware wherever it is available. If you like a shareware utility and use it beyond the trial period, please pay for it. Also, some free utilities are distributed as "donationware," and I urge you to send donations to such publishers if you

Jonathan Plutchokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00611661473758716824noreply@blogger.com0