You can't miss these (or at least I can't).

Some time ago I posted a post regarding the software that can't miss on my computer.
I am updating the list as I am discovering more freewares and changing my needs.


Formatting is taking longer and longer because of the high amount of data to be backupped. And because of the number of softwares we use, and because of their increasing size due to their high performances. So, I have decided to post a list of the software I can't forget to install on my newly formatted computer with download links. In this way everytime I format I just have to read this post to dowload the most recent version.

What you should remember to backup:
1) email messages Use Gmail and save from the hassle!

2) documents
3) images
4) databases such as your book inventory or your CD and DVD inventory
5) address book of your email client Use Gmail and save from the hassle!

6) favourite bookmarks (Use the add-on Xmarks for browsers to have them stored on your personal account)



The softwares you will need

THE ESSENTIALS:
1) an OS (Operative System) according to your preference (get it before formatting)
2) an antivirus (get it before formatting so that you will install it before connecting to the internet for the first time), my favourite anitivirus is free and it's called Avast
3) a web browser to download the following softwares ;) I use Firefox

THE BASICS:
4) one or more antispywares such as Spybot Search & Destroy and Adaware
5) one cache cleaner, I use CCleaner
6) a PDF reader, I recommend to use Foxit which as the same functions as Acrobat Adobe but is free and lighter (unfortunately it has some troubles with Forms created with Acrobat)
7) A suite of programs to read and write word, excel, power points, access files. You can buy Microsoft Office or you can just download OpenOffice for free.
8) An email client if you don't use your webmail. I use Thunderbird for my secondary emails, just to check them simultaneously (always keep a copy of your emails on the server, so that you don't need to back it up). Thunderbird also offers superfast configuration of your gmail accounts.
9) Cellphone software. It depends on your cellphone brand. Mine is Nokia.
10) A software to listen to the music and to watch videos. My fave is winamp but I need iTunes to listen to some music I bought on their website. Winamp indexes your multimedia files and allow you to browse it, as well as to surf the web (as a built in browser) and look for radio broadcasting channels from all over the world. Use VLC for both audio and videos!

11) An IM (Istant Messenger) such as MSN Messenger, ICQ, etc. You can also get some multiple chat clients to have a single software for more than one community like IMO - it works from the web only (unfortunately it doesn't support file receiving from your accounts).

OTHERS I WILL FEEL THE NEED TO INSTALL SOONER OR LATER:
12) Some games. It's incredible how it is hard to find good games these days. They don't have to take all your screen nor 100% your attention, they shouldn't be flashy or noisy. Card games are the best, but there are some strategy games I love. Popcap Games has excellent games. They are not free but you can try them for a while before buying. My mom also plays Brickshooter , DxBall and Bubble Golden Pack 3.
13) Jack SMS: for Italian users, it allows to send a limited amount of free texts. Since Facebook, I don't need it anymore

14) Power DVD, a DVD player which allows double subtitles, very handful when it comes to learn a language throught movies. Not free but has a trial version. I have the full version because it came with my DVD burner.
15) AIDA 32 - it's a nice software which shows you how the space on your HD is allocated. You can easily individuate the bigger files.
16) DVD43  - free software that allows you to view DVD from multiple regions. Great deal!

17) A neutral screensaver such as Fliqlo, which shows the time in a old fashioned yet cool way
18) BsPlayer is a player which allow you to watch DiVx with subtitles (to be downloaded ina separated files)
19) an Italian-English dictionary with pronunciation, such as the Oxford-Paravia
20) Filezilla to easily upload via ftp you files on your webspace
21) Macromedia Dreamweaver & Fireworks. The first one is to edit/build webpages, the latter is used for the photo editing.
22) WordWeb is an English only dictionary which offers for free also synonims, nearest types and figured pronounciation. It's very light and easily to use. Just select the word you want to explore and click a combination of keys of your choice to open it. Now it features also a search on wikipedia. The software it's free, but there is also a Pro version for €19 which offers some more stuff.

New layout, same ol' stuff

Today I came on my blog after a very long time.

You are not forgotten, my dear blog, I was just busing doing other stuff.

I come on blogspot and all sorts of pop-ups are popping-up (well, what else?), there are a gazillion of new features, among which lay maybe a hundred of different customizable layouts that doesn't require you to know a word (or a TAG) of HTML. I can't tell how much time I spent shuffling and browsing the various theme and colour combinations, anyway you can see the results for yourself, dear reader.

The only downside is that I came on blogspot for a reason, but I cannot recall what I wanted to write. So, just to keep this blog alive (better to say half-asleep) I am writing this post to simply say: new layout, same ol' stuff.

I write like....

I write like
Dan Brown

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Guida a beneficio pubblico, dopo tre ore di smanettamento su Acrobat

Creare un modulo in PDF

Per realizzare un PDF compilabile è necessario avere Adobe Acrobat installato sul computer. La versione gratuita di Acrobat Reader consente solo di leggere e compilare i PDF contenenti moduli, ma non di crearli.

Per realizzare un PDF compilabile è necessario seguire tre semplici passi:
1) Creare il PDF di partenza
2) Inserire dei campi compilabili nel PDF esistente
3) Salvare il PDF con i campi


 


1) Creare il PDF di partenza


Esistono diversi modi per creare un PDF: si tratta di una semplice stampa su file che può essere realizzata da qualsiasi programma, a patto di avere la stampante PDF installata sul proprio computer, ad esempio doPDF v6.


In alternativa, se si utilizza un programma del pacchetto Office 2007 o superiore, è sufficiente salvare il file come PDF.


Piccola nota: se il vostro file di partenza contiene dei collegamenti ipertestuali (link, segnalibri, un indice con segnalibri, etc.), affinché tali collegamenti funzionino anche nel vostro PDF è necessario:
1) scegliere di salvare il file come PDF
2) Nella finestra di salvataggio, cliccare sul tasto Opzioni…
3) Nel pop-up delle opzioni, spuntare la casella Crea segnalibri utilizzando…
4) Confermare cliccando su OK e pubblicare il PDF.
Tale opzione è disponibile solo se il documento di origine contiene segnalibri.




 
2) Inserire dei campi compilabili nel PDF esistente


i. Aprire Acrobat


ii. Accedere al menù Moduli presente nella barra superiore di Acrobat, scegliere la procedura guidata oppure Aggiungi o modifica campi.


iii. In modalità modifica del modulo, scegliere Aggiungi nuovo campo e selezionare il tipo di campo da aggiungere, per esempio, Campo testo.


iv. Utilizzare le guide azzurre per posizionare il campo nel documento.
 
v. Il campo è ridimensionabile e se ne possono variare le proprietà (ad es. renderlo obbligatorio). Cliccare sul campo con il tasto destro e selezionare Proprietà per modificarne gli attributi.



vi. Proseguire all’inserimento dei campi desiderati. Sono disponibili caselle di controllo (checkbox a scelta multipla), pulsanti di scelta (solo una opzione selezionabile), etc.
 
vii. A questo punto il modulo ottenuto ha questo aspetto: i campi obbligatori hanno il bordo rosso. Per rendere un campo obbligatorio, scegliere Richiesto nel pop-up delle Proprietà del campo.




 
3) Salvare il PDF con i campi


Per fare sì che gli utenti possano compilare il modulo e salvarlo compilato, è necessario togliere l’esclusività di modifica del PDF cliccando su Avanzate e scegliendo Estendi compilazione moduli e salva in Adobe Reader.


Se non si sceglie questa opzione gli utenti potranno compilare il modulo e stamparlo, ma non saranno in grado di salvare una copia compilata del PDF.


Scarica questa guida in PDF, completa di immagini passo-passo.

Ode to boredom

No, the title is not ironic. I really believe that boredom is the best way to improve one's crativity, even in hard sciences like math and physics.
The point is that people don't have anymore time to get bored, not even the children.
Eagers mums drive them all the way from a piano lesson to any sport class, then school and b-day parties. But when do they have time to play and notice that "at a certain point" a book falls from the edge of the table?

Learning Russian for Italians - the vowels

For my English readers:

I am sorry I have to say this table is for Italians only, because the corrispondence in the sounds gets lost for an English reader. I just thought that if learning a language is good for your memory, guess the benefit of learning one with a completely different alphabet!

Today I studied the Russian alphabet for a couple of hours.I found an easy way to memorize the vowels through this table. I don't think I am the first to invent it, but I am so proud I came up with it.

I am studying on a introductory Russian course in English. In case you are a native in English and you are interested in the Russian language, you can hear the sounds and access the free course visiting http://www.langintro.com/rintro/index.htm

Per i lettori italiani:

questa tabella è per voi! E' un modo semplice per memorizzare i suoni vocalici russi per un madrelingua italiano. Oggi ho dedicato un paio di ore allo studio dell'alfabeto russo, il quale è composto da 33 lettere.

In russo ci sono 11 suoni vocalici o semivocalici, per cui con lo studio di oggi ho già imparato un terzo dell'alfabeto.

11 suoni vocalici vi sembrano tanti? Non spaventatevi: cinque di essi corrispondono alle cinque vocali italiane, altri cinque corrispondono alle vocali italiane a cui è anteposta una "i". 

Per cui, cinque lettere corrispondono alle nostre vocali "a", "e", "i", "o", "u" e altre cinque corrispondono a "ia", "ie", "j", "io", "iu". Per ultimo, c'è un suono che non trova corrispondente in italiano, però quello possiamo sforzarci di tenerlo a mente. ;-)

Italiano	Russo
		I + …
A	A	Я
E	Э	Е
I	И	Й
O	О	Ё
U	У	Ю
“I”dura, a metà tra I e U	Ы

Nota: questi insegnamenti sono tratti da un sito web di introduzione al russo in inglese con tanto di suoni.
Se ve la sentite, potete cimentarvi all'indirizzo: http://www.langintro.com/rintro/index.htm

What's the best way to learn speaking English?

I have been having a thing for the English language for as long as I can remember. When I was just 4 or 5 years old, in my kindergarten we had an English class every Wednesday.

I don't remember a lot about it, I can't even tell if we had an English mothertongue teacher, but I remember clearly that the first stage was learning color names, and the next step was learning the animal names.

So, summoning 2 years of English in kindergarten I was able to say "The pig is pink" and I found it very funny.

Later in 1989 I moved to a small town, where no English class was available until I was 12 y.o.

By that time I already tried to learn some English by myself, but I had an English dictionary which was no help when you don't know the grammar.

My mom had an LP by Michael Jackson (Bad) and on the back cover there were the lyrics of some (maybe all) of the songs. So I kept looking on the dictionary for the word "are", without being able to understand why Michael used it so often if it wasn't even on the dictionary!

He looked so cool, but he talked an out of fashion-ed way. Wow!

So when I was in midschool I was about 12 y.o. and had real English classes with an Italian teacher. Reading the English mothertongue mums living in Italy, I have to say my teacher was pretty good for being an Italian. Or maybe it was me that had no benchmark and no clue about American English and British English. Italian English teachers have an issue with AmE, for they believe the only "real" and "genuine" English is the one of the citizen of the Kingdom, thus driving the children born from American mothers mad, as they are repeatedly corrected by their Italian teachers for saying/writing "specialize" instead of "specialise"

That aside, although I am very fond of my first English teacher even if she was Italian, I have to say that later in the years I called my Californian English teacher a "mistress" and she was very surprised to be called so. My first teacher said that "Mrs." was the short form for "mistress", but forgot to mention that nowadays "mistress" is not a nice name to call someone.

Now, after two years of work I came in contact with foreigner people and the official language to be used (and the only one we barely know) is English. But funny enough, our resident engineer is German and speaks English the way I speak Spanish, by ear.

Sometimes it is harder to understand a broken English for someone who knows very well the language rather for some other brokenly English speaker. 

Anyway, in my plant nobody speaks English, so the words they learnt were brought in by this German engineer, who definitely has an issue with English, both spoken and written. (He's taking Italian classes, anyway). So in my plant, and there alone, we pronounce "turbine" in an unique way that won't be understood anywhere else in the world, I assume.

When I tried to correct this habit among my colleagues, I still had to convince the German engineer to switch to /turbIn/, and there I failed.

So, what's the best way to learn English? At school? On the field? I guess none of the above. I'd take private lessons if I only knew of somebody in the area available.