The Software and Services T&T Uses

Programs and websites that have increased our productivity.

The internet is increasingly more efficient and useful day by day for businesses to accomplish various transactions with beyond simple ecommerce. This is especially true for small businesses such as Tincknell & Tincknell. We maintain a geographically diverse network of wine industry professionals all utilizing the power of the internet to maintain contact, communicate, share files, and collaborate. Even more impressive is that much of this can be accomplished for free. (Please note that many of the free programs listed welcome "donations" for support.) In fact you can find high-quality programs that compete admirably with Microsoft's offerings to the point where all you need is Microsoft Windows (or, if you are more daring, forego Microsoft entirely with a Linux distro). So in the spirit of giving back to those applications and services that have allowed us to be more efficient and global, we offer our recommendations and endorsements for the following in the hopes that more people will discover and support these truly indispensable additions to our physical office.

• Qnext (free; www.qnext.com) - Called "the Swiss Army knife" of the internet, this Java-based application is a universal instant messenger (for AIM, Yahoo!, MSN, and ICQ), p2p file transfers, PC-toPC (VoIP) phone and video calls, and allows remote directory sharing. The home website also allows Qnext members to do remote PC control. And on the fun side, there are collaborative games, photo sharing, and personal music streaming. While it can be a little fussy to set up (sometimes ports need to be opened in local firewalls and network routers manually), and relies on numerical user ID's for members, it is secure, easy to use, and incredibly useful for linking people and locations together. A caution though - Qnext so far does not play nice on Windows Vista as of the beginning of 2008.
• Pidgen (free; www.pidgin.im) - Pidgen is the next best universal instant messenger, covering more IM clients and protocols than you have heard of, and it is open source, running on Windows, MacOS, and Linux. Used to be called GAIM until AOL stepped in.
• Skype (free; www.skype.com) - If you have not heard about Skype you have not been on the internet. Skype allows PC-to-PC (VoIP) phone and video calls, and is easier to use than Qnext for those less tech savvy (no port configuration and user-chosen account IDs). All calls and data is encrypted. It also has a instant messaging and p2p file transfer capabilities. It also has SkypeOut and SkypeIn, which allow it to be used for calling any phone number out and visa versa (for a per-minute fee).
• Palm Desktop (free; www.palm.com) - Not a Microsoft Outlook user? The Palm Desktop is one of the best calendar programs available, and vital if you are a Palm user.
• Mozilla Firefox (free; www.mozilla.com) - The web browser that got Microsoft moving again. While IE7 may equal Firefox it does not beat it in our humble opinion; Firefox has numerous plug-ins that extend its functionality to indispensable. Highly recommended plug-ins include IE Tab, Sage RSS Reader, Foxmarks, FoxyTunes, Forecastfox, and the useless Beer O'Clock - all free.
• Mozilla Thunderbird (free; www.mozilla.com) - The companion email reader from the Mozilla Foundation, and completely competent as such. If you never made the plunge into Microsoft's Outlook and have been using either Outlook Express or Eudora (or another), this program easily matches those in most functions. It is also an RSS Reader (though we personally prefer the Sage RSS Reader plug-in for Firefox).
• GIMP (free; www.gimp.org) - GIMP is the acronym of the GNU Image Manipulation Program, one of the oldest open-source projects going. It is, in a nutshell, the next best thing to Adobe Photoshop -  well, one that is free. It is a graphics/photo editing program that creates and edits JPEGs, GIFs, BMPs, PNGs, and dozens more graphic files. And very nearly against any program you can buy. It does have a bit of a learning curve, and a non-Windows standard program user interface, but the online help is excellent for those with patience and persistence.
• Inkscape (free; www.inkscape.org) - Inkscape is the open-source project that compares to Adobe's Illustrator. Still working towards a version 1.0, it does have some glitches here and there, but creates standards-compliant vector graphics in the SVG file format. It also has a learning curve, but there isn't another vector graphics creation program out there for free.
• KompoZer (free; www.kompozer.net) - KompoZer is a WYSIWYG web authoring program approaching the sophistication of Adobe's Dreamweaver or Microsoft's Expression Web ... but not quite. It has a rudimentary site manager, does publish via FTP to remote servers, has impressive support for CSS, and will adhere to DTD document declarations. Not bad for a pre-version 1.0 release! Another open-source project, based on the Mozilla Composer/Linspire Nvu programs.
• FileZilla (free; filezilla.sourceforge.net) - An open source FTP client that is the equal of the many other programs that cost something.
• FolderSync (free; www.kalab.com/freeware/foldersync/foldersync.htm) - This handy little utility keeps a two PC directories in sync, and one can save different sync profiles for quick syncing. Absolutely necessary if one uses a USB key or removable drive to transfer files between PCs.
• 7-Zip (free; www.7-zip.org ) - 7-Zip is a file compression utility that creates ZIP files or other compression formats (such as their own 7z, plus GZIP, BZIP2, and TAR) and opens many others.
• YouSendIt (free up to 1 GB file transfers; www.yousendit.com) - Need to transfer a BIG file to someone else over the internet and can't use email or one of the programs listed above (Qnext or Skype)? Log onto YouSendIt.
• µtorrent - (free; www.utorrent.com) - A BitTorrent client that allows users to create, upload, and download torrent files. A great protocol for moving large files that a community wants to share - and no, it is not illegal (just illegal to transfer copyrighted material that one does not own the rights or licenses too).
• Google Picasa (free; picasa.google.com) - Picasa is owned by Google, and is a photo editor, sorter, viewer, and has sharing capabilities built in. For simple digital photo management and editing, this is the program to get, but it does not compete with advanced photo editors such as GIMP (above) or Adobe's Photoshop.
• Google Earth (free; earth.google.com) - If you haven't downloaded and run Google's Earth, prepared to be blown away. This fascinating application calls up a globe you can spin, zoom in on (sometimes to incredible detail), and mark with your or others' points of interest or geological features. Useful? Somewhat. Educational? You bet.
• osCommerce (free; www.oscommerce.com) - osCommerce is an open-source, fully functional ecommerce shopping cart. This is for advanced website developers as it utilizes PHP and MySQL, but one can't beat free, especially for a secure, flexible, and complete shopping cart solutions.
• WordPress (free; www.wordpress.org) - WordPress is an open-source, fully functional blogging system that is relatively easy to install, though knowledge of CSS is needed to customize it. It utilizes PHP and MySQL though knowledge of such is not needed for simple installations. Pre-made themes are available from other developers as well. T&T's blog is powered by WordPress.
• RSSBuilder - (free; sourceforge.net/projects/rss-builder) - For making simple RSS feeds, this free, open-source utility is easy to use. Note that Wordpress generates RSS feeds automatically within the blogging software.
• Awasu (free for the Personal Edition; www.awasu.com) - For the power RSS user, Awasu allows for more than just reading RSS or Atom feeds; it lets you sort, archive, and manipulate feeds. Some of the capabilities take some tech savvy. (We personally prefer the Sage RSS Reader plug-in for Firefox, as we aren't that into archiving, etc.)
• OpenOffice - (free; www.openoffice.org) - OpenOffice is an open-source office suite that includes a word processor, spreadsheet program, presentation slideshow program, drawing program, math program, and database program. It can open and save Microsoft Office documents accurately, and has most of the features that most Office users use.
• VerticalResponse - (per email rates, based on total number purchased; www.verticalresponse.com) - There are times when we prefer to send an email campaign from our office using a dedicated email marketing program, and there are times when an application service provider such as VerticalResponse is the better method. For the novice, though, VerticalResponse is a hands-down winner; many templates to choose from, the ability to create freeform layouts, mailing list management, and reporting are all top-notch, and very reasonably priced.

We also welcome suggestions on websites and services, free or for a cost, that make life easier for businesses. Send us suggestions through the email address below (listed in the footer).