Mozilla is becoming well known for its Firefox browser and Thunderbird e-mail client, but its Sunbird calendar is less well known. Put simply, it is a [...]]]> Once again, it’s time for me to publish a few of the e-mails that have arrived in my inbox this week.

Mozilla is becoming well known for its Firefox browser and Thunderbird e-mail client, but its Sunbird calendar is less well known. Put simply, it is a clone of the calendar in Microsoft Office but it is completely free and worth a look for anyone who wants an office calendar program without the expense of buying Microsoft Office.

Ian MacMillan, via E-mail

Nicely spotted Ian. Whilst completely free of charge and still in very early stages of development, Mozilla Sunbird is certainly worth downloading for those in need of an easy to use calendar application for their PC without the need for purchasing a package such as Microsoft Office.

The idea of the calendar will be for it to work across multiple platforms (Windows, Mac, Linux etc) as it works using the XUL user interface language provided by a number of applications such as Mozilla Firefox. As a result of this interdependency you will be required to have one of the free programs from the Mozilla suite installed such as Firefox or Thunderbird which I have reviewed before in the past.

To download the Mozilla Calendar head to www.mozilla.org/projects/calendar/ and if you don’t already have Firefox head to www.mozilla.org – Both downloads are extremely small and free of charge.

Those interested in other projects that the Mozilla team are working on should head to http://www.mozilla.org/projects/ – To be honest most of it will be way over the head of the average user as a great deal of it is designed for developers but there are certainly some interesting applications to take a look at.

Having downloaded AVG Anti-Virus as suggested in one of your previous articles I am now getting lots of pop up ads when visiting a site – Should this be happening?

Andrea Winnchild, via E-mail

One thing that you should have learnt from me by now is that I’ll never recommend that you download a program that will also expose the user to pop-up adverts and Spyware.

The problem is likely to be caused by a piece of Adware or Spyware that you also have installed on your computer and it is just incidental that this was installed at approximately the same time as AVG. To rectify this I would recommend that you visit the Microsoft (www.microsoft.com) website and download their Anti-Spyware utility or download Spybot Search and Destroy (http://security.kolla.de) which are both very good programs designed to rid your system of such annoyances. If you require any further instructions regarding these two utilities please head to www.computerarticles.co.uk and download one of my numerous previous articles on the subject.

Whilst talking about removing rubbish from your system it might be worthwhile me taking this opportunity to mention that the CCleaner utility that I mentioned several weeks ago which is designed to remove obsolete files and registry entries from your system has been redesigned and fully updated. This is certainly a worthwhile application for most users who wish to clean up their system which can be downloaded free of charge by heading to www.ccleaner.com. Once again, a full review is available at www.computerarticles.co.uk.

It was interesting to read your article about YouTube last week although one of the disadvantages of this website is that it has not been possible to download [...]]]> I’ve received a couple of e-mails in the last week which I thought I’d share with my Click readers.

It was interesting to read your article about YouTube last week although one of the disadvantages of this website is that it has not been possible to download the videos on YouTube for offline use. This means that you will not be able to view the videos away from an internet connection, and if one of the videos is removed for any reason you will not be able to see it again.

This problem is solved with YouRipper (free from www.snapfiles.com/get/youripper.html) which allows you to download any YouTube video as a Flash video in .flv format. YouRipper acts like a video recorder for YouTube, and allows archiving of your favourite material.

The .flv format that YouRipper will save the video as cannot be played in most of the common media players but it can be played in the freeware FLV player which is available as a separate download at http://www.softpedia.com/progDownload/FLV-Player-Download-27852.html. This is a useful piece of software as it is a nuisance to be permanently tied to what is available online at YouTube.

Ian MacMillan, via e-mail

Another good find there by Ian and another piece of software for me to add to my rapidly expanding collection. I see a particularly good use for this program would be downloading music videos then converting them to AVI format with a free program such as Riva (www.rivavx.com) with the intention of then compiling them to a CD or DVD.

Until recently I have been able to transmit & receive photographs in the format JPEG however, I find now that although photographs are received I cannot open them. I get a message to the effect that Outlook Express restricted the opening of the attachments due to unsafe content.

The sources are well known to me so I know that the images are no unsafe and moreover, messages that contain photographs that were previously openable have become unopenable. My AVG anti-virus reports on each e-mail ‘No virus present’ and AdAware reports no critical objects.

Keith Wheatley

This is an extremely common problem for many people hence I have chosen to feature it in Click this week. Microsoft in all their wisdom decided that in a recent update to Outlook Express that they would disable the opening of all files attached to e-mails. Whilst some would consider this prudent security I consider it to be over the top, especially when you consider the files you are discussing couldn’t possibly contain a virus as they are not executable.

There is an easy way around this fortunately so when in Outlook Express click on the ‘Tools’ tab, ‘Options’, then ‘Security’ and then make sure that there is no tick in the ‘Do not allow files to be saved or opened that could potentially be a virus’ box.

At last the beta version of Internet Explorer 7 is available for download, at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/ie7/default.mspx – This [...]]]> This week I’ll be publishing a letter from one of my loyal readers regarding the new beta version of Internet Explorer that has just been published on the Microsoft website:

At last the beta version of Internet Explorer 7 is available for download, at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/ie7/default.mspx – This will be the standard browser in Windows Vista when it is launched in September 2006.

The main emphasis of the new browser seems to be on simplicity, with the interface being considerably simpler than previous versions – This may not please the purists as some features are not now as easy to access as they were in the earlier versions. The main additions are tabbed browsing (which Firefox and Opera have offered for ages) and the built in RSS reader. RSS feeds with the orange RSS logo like this are becoming very common and for example they can be a much quicker way of reading the news headlines on the BBC’s website. IE7 can also display all of the currently open tabs as quick tabs, which is like a thumbnail image of all the open tabs.

Although there is nothing badly wrong with IE7, it is unlikely to bowl over the current enthusiasts of Firefox and Opera. Also worth a mention is the freeware Avant Browser which can be downloaded at www.snapfiles.com and is in my view a better all round browser and RSS feed reader than IE7. As ever Microsoft seems to be playing catch-up to newer and more flexible pieces of software, and nowadays I rarely use Windows Media Player because Winamp is so much better.

Having said the above, market research suggests that Internet Explorer has 90% of the market for web browsing, simply because many people do not get round to trying the alternatives like Firefox and Opera. This is a good time for people to look at the alternatives because frankly although it is okay, Internet Explorer 7 is not the best tabbed browser.

Ian MacMillan, via e-mail.

After downloading the latest version of Internet Explorer for myself I must side with Ian and say that I am somewhat disappointed with the modest improvements that Microsoft have made to the application in this latest incarnation. Rather than innovating in any shape or form they seem to have simply tried to make their browser more like Firefox and whilst imitation is the highest form of flattery I find it quite funny that such a large, expensive programming team should try to emulate a browser which was originally pioneered by a couple of bedroom programmers.

I don’t like the streamlined toolbar; it is missing a load of options that the average user requires and the new design is moving away from the standardised interface we are used to all Windows applications. I can see this leading to a fair amount of confusion as the fact there are no menus present for the ‘file’, ‘edit’ and ‘tools’ functions had me scratching my head for a minute.

The only truly unique feature I can see this application has having is the new ‘phishing filter’ which aims to protect you from websites that aim to gain personal details by deception. For example, a common problem at the moment is websites ripping off the designs of banking websites in an attempt to steal bank details off the unsuspecting. To be honest such a filter is long overdue in any browser as this problem has been around for a while now but quite how effective and up to date it’ll be remains to be seen.

It is also worth pointing out that as mentioned at the beginning of this article Internet Explorer 7 is still in beta format which essentially means it’s unfinished – We could see a fair few improvements before the final version is released and before it starts shipping with the new, unfinished Windows Operating System ‘Vista’. Personally I believe the improvements will be enough to stop many people moving to an alternative such as Firefox however those such as myself who are already using an alternative will have little incentive to switch back.

[...]]]> Most of you will recognise the name Ian MacMillan by now; he is an enthusiastic reader who has often suggested topics for me to cover in Click. A few days ago I received the e-mail below from him highlighting a useful free service which some of you may find of interest:

Just a quick e-mail to let you know about something I learned of a while back. Dropload (www.dropload.com) is an unusual free service which allows you to send and receive files of up to 100MB in size. At present the top e-mail accounts are limited to a maximum attachment size of 10MB, and some offer far less than that. The service offers the additional benefit that files uploaded and downloaded are automatically scanned for viruses.

Dropload is free but you need to sign up for an account first, which is easy to do. Once a file is uploaded the recipient is then sent an e-mail telling them to go to Dropload to pick up the file. The only catch is that if the file is not picked up within seven days it will be deleted from the system regardless of whether it is picked up or not. This is service a useful way of sending people large files without clogging up their inboxes.

Now that broadband is becoming the standard, Dropload is worth a look for people who want to send or receive large files.

Ian MacMillan, via e-mail

I must be honest in saying that I’ve never had a need for such a service however I can easily see how some people would. If you have a large file to send then you would either not be able to send it because of limitations on your e-mail account or alternatively the recipient would have their e-mail inbox blocked up whilst they receive the huge file that you just sent them. I’ve seen people on dial up who have been sent 40mb files and since Outlook Express doesn’t allow you to delete messages without reading them they’ve had to spend literally hours online just to download this and their other e-mails.

Signing up to Dropload is incredibly simple and once you’re registered simply enter the recipients e-mail address and upload the file that you wish to send them. Once the transfer is complete they will receive an e-mail with instructions and a website address to go to in order to download the file.

It is worth noting that there are several alternatives to Dropload – One of the more promising ones that I came across was MegaUpload (www.megaupload.com) which allows you to send files up to 500mb in size. An additional advantage of MegaUpload is that they don’t delete the file once it’s been downloaded meaning that you can allow several people access to the same file rather than having to upload multiple copies for multiple recipients.

The advertising on Dropload is less than it is with MegaUpload but other than that the services work in very similar ways. Feel free to try out both services as they are both completely free of charge and then just stick with the one that you prefer.