Sunday, July 31, 2005

ZipGenius v6 - Free Zipping Utility

There are a lot of different zipping and unzipping programs out there today. Some are free, some are expensive, but they all share one trait. It seems like none of them have exactly everything you need with a zipping and unzipping utility. That was my mindset at least until I found ZipGenius.

ZipGenius does just about everything but take out your trash and mow your lawn. Do you want a long list of features to browse through? ZipGenius has more than enough features to keep you busy. After receiving feedback and complaints and suggestions over the previous version of the program, the programmers have gone in and fixed every issue. I like to hear software companies that are willing to change a few things due to a customer or client suggestions. What all can you zip and unzip? ZipGenius supports 21 types of compression and file encoding formats. That should cover just about all of your bases.

Don't like the way that the program looks? Just go and download a new skin for it.

XmailHardDrive.com.


One of the most attractive things about Gmail is the amount of storage space that they give to you for free. With that kind of space, you can keep years worth of archived messages in your account. You’re not locked into a certain amount of space, either. If you check out the Gmail Web site, you’ll see that that as the seconds go by, the amount of storage space available to you goes up. Naturally, many people have wanted to use this space for file storage, and several tools have emerged for that purpose. One of the easiest ways that I have found to turn your Gmail account into a personal Web server is XmailHardDrive.com.

This service couldn't be easier to use. All you do is login with your Gmail address and password, and the site will take you to your file storage area. Upload one or more files (there is currently a 20M limit per file), and XmailHardDrive.com will e-mail the content to your account in an encrypted and compressed format to save space. When you want to retrieve a file, login to the service and grab it. It's still in beta, but from what I experienced, things are looking good.

Scan2PDF 1.1

scan documents to PDF format
Scan2PDF enables you to scan paper documents and save them to PDF format on your computer for digital archiving or backup. In addition, you can also load images from your hard drive and combine them with a scanned document, or combine multiple documents/images into a single PDF file.
Preview it

Resize digital pictures quickly

Half the fun of taking pictures is sharing them with family and friends.

While it's great that newer digital cameras can take beautiful 5-, 6-, or 7-megapixel pictures, e-mailing such large photo files can clog up your recipient's Inbox. Resizing pictures before you e-mail them—or even before you burn them to a CD—is made simpler using a free Windows XP download called the Image Resizer,>
which is one of the many handy tools that make up the Microsoft PowerToys for Windows XP.

You can also use the Image Resizer to resize photos so they'll fit on a compatible cell phone, personal digital assistant (PDA), or Portable Media Center so you can enjoy your photos while on the go. Using the Image Resizer is easy, and it will preserve your original photos for other uses you may have in the future.

SyncToy

Synchronizing Images and Files in Windows XP Using Microsoft SyncToy
Increasingly, computer users are using different folders, drives, and even different computers (such as a laptop and a desktop) to store and retrieve files. There are new sources of files coming from every direction: digital cameras, e-mail, cell phones, portable media players, camcorders, PDAs, and laptops. Yet managing hundreds or thousands of files is still largely a manual opera-tion. In some cases it is necessary to move files from one place to another; in other cases there is a need to keep two storage locations exactly in sync. Some users manage files manually, dragging and dropping from one place to another and keeping a mental card catalog in their heads. Others use one or more applications of one sort or another to provide this functionality for them.

Now there is an easier way. SyncToy is a free PowerToy for Microsoft Windows XP that provides is an easy to use, highly customizable program that helps users to do the heavy lifting involved with the copying, moving, and synchronization of different directories. Most common operations can be performed with just a few clicks of the mouse, and additional customization is available without added complexity. SyncToy can manage multiple sets of folders at the same time; it can combine files from two folders in one case, and mimic renames and deletes in another. Unlike other applications, SyncToy actually keeps track of renames to files and will make sure those changes get carried over to the synchronized folder.

Sounds awesome!

Lockergnome'

Saturday, July 30, 2005

River Past PlayDV

River Past PlayDV is a easy-to-use and DV player/recorder software. View your DV tape on your PC! Full control over the DV camcorder. Play, pause, stop, rewind, fast forward, step backward, and step forward the tape the same way you control a VCR. Its features resizable window and hot plug support, enable you to connect and disconnect the camcorder while the software is running. Record to AVI or DV file. No adware or spyware.

Nvu (pronounced N-view, for a "new view")

Finally! A complete Web Authoring System for Linux Desktop users as well as Microsoft Windows and Macintosh users to rival programs like FrontPage and Dreamweaver.

Nvu (pronounced N-view, for a "new view") makes managing a web site a snap. Now anyone can create web pages and manage a website with no technical expertise or knowledge of HTML.

Thursday, July 28, 2005

Introducing Newzie FREE Newsreader

Newzie is capable of processing RSS and Atom feeds, as well as OPML files. The fun does not stop there, though. The thing that gets me excited (and that I haven't seen before) is some of the color coding that it does as well as the news slide show feature. The news bar feature is also unique. You can have a crawl going at the top of your screen so that you can keep up with RSS headlines even when you are just blankly staring at your desktop.

Widgets go wild with new Yahoo backing

Yahoo.com acquired Konfabulator, the maker of those shiny little Widget thingies for your Desktop, less than a week ago, and already there's a subdomain at Yahoo to promote the goodies.

The image at left is from the Multiple City Traffic Widget by Sarah Tuohy. Her handy tool sucks down info from Traffic.com and displays the area you select (greater New York City is shown). You can see this bauble and hundreds of others at the Konfabulator Gallery.

To start right at the top of the food chain, visit the big daddy at widgets.yahoo.com. (But don't download the whole 8.8 MB enchilada until you check out the individual selections at the Gallery.)

Wednesday, July 27, 2005

Tux Paint FREE

Tux Paint is a free drawing program designed for young children (kids ages 3 and up). It has a simple, easy-to-use interface, fun sound effects, and an encouraging cartoon mascot who helps guide children as they use the program. (See the full list of features.) It provides a blank canvas and a variety of drawing tools to help your child be creative.
How Can It Be Free?
[A Tux4Kids Sponsored Project]

Tux Paint is developed by volunteers around the world. We work on it as a labor of love, with the hopes that people will find it useful, and in turn share it with their own friends and family. (Specifically, Tux Paint is Free/Libre software, distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License. That's similar to freeware, but even more free!)

See More Screenshots
See the Gallery of Children's Artwork

Enhance your Media Center PC Experience with Orb

If you have a Media Center PC, you can expand its functionality by installing Orb on it. Orb is a Web interface that will let you watch your recorded TV shows, listen to your music files and view your digital photos over the Internet using a Web browser, from anywhere. Even if you don't have an MCPC, you can still use Orb to access your media files, and you can even watch live TV through it, too, as long as the computer on which Orb is installed has a TV tuner. You can access your media files from just about any device that has a Web browser, including your handheld computer, laptop or even your Web-enabled mobile phone. Best of all, it's free!
What Is Orb?

Google Earth

the incredible detail now available in satellite photos. If you'd like to see most places from the sky, you can download Google's free software, Google Earth, to get a better look. This is a very cool program, based on the old Keyhole technology. You can type in a street address or a city name and zoom in on wonderfully detailed views. And even better, you can select "layers" to overlay on the maps, showing where various types of places are located (such as schools, banks, postal code boundaries, airports, cemeteries, restaurants, gas stations, golf courses, hospitals and many more. Our only caveat is that you need a good 3D video card and a broadband Internet connection to take advantage of it.
Product tour

Tuesday, July 26, 2005

DeepBurner Free

Create data CDs and DVDs on your PC. DeepBurner Free lets you burn audio CDs, burn and build ISO images, and create bootable CDs and DVDs. The program's design is similar to Windows Explorer: you drag and drop the files you want into a queue, and then they can be burned.

Price: Free

Monday, July 18, 2005

RPictureResize v2.4 (alpha) [338K] [Win98/ME/2k/XP] [FREE]

After taking a few digital pictures, I like to dump them onto my computer and then decide where I want to upload them online to share with friends, family, or other Gnomies. Going through a big assortment of pictures, and resizing each one for the Web can be more work than it is worth, though. Going through each one, one by one, is not a fun way to spend a Saturday afternoon. RPictureResize is a nice little application that does all that hard work for you. All you have to do is load up all the images inside the program, then set the percentage you want them to be downsized to. Let us say, for example, you want all your pictures you just took to be fifty percent smaller - about half the size. Just plug them right into RPictureResize, adjust your settings, then go back to taking your pictures. This program really makes it a breeze to resize a group of pictures, plain and simple. When a good program does the job it is supposed to do, what else could you really ask for?

Sunday, July 17, 2005

The GoogleX interface

Google offers more than a dozen services, but most are hidden. The GoogleX interface makes all of Google's goodies--such as Gmail, Froogle, Maps, and more--accessible via a nifty Mac OS X-like toolbar. Originally designed by a Google researcher, the toolbar disappeared shortly after being posted on the Google Labs site (most likely due to objections by Apple), but not before some plucky Netizens saved a copy for your use.

Saturday, July 16, 2005

SlimBrowser

A multiple-site browser based on tab-page interface, SlimBrowser's central utility is its ability to open and display several sites within the single application. Other features include pop-up ad stoppers, blacklist/whitelist filtering, multiple search-engine queries, and an auto-login feature for logging into your frequently used Web account with one click. Also: in-window access to online dictionaries, thesauri, and text translation.

Version: 4.03.007
Price: Free

Wednesday, July 13, 2005

The HistoryNet

Articles about a wide range of historical events and activities. Here one can find out about American and World History, World War II, the American Civil War, and Arms, Armies, and Intrigues. There are discussion groups, information about historical tours (to visit those places you have always wanted go to), and eyewitness accounts of historical events. There are links to several magazines on this site as well, ranging from Aviation History, Historic Traveler, Women's History, Wild West, and Military History Quarterly.

This site is a wonderful place to visit and explore the events of past years. There is such a wide variety of subjects here that there is something for everyone to enjoy. No matter how small or large the event, it is still our history.

Past Issues of WXPnews

Just what it says on the tin.

WUGNET Shareware Picks for XP

WUGNET and Microsoft feature a shareware pick demonstrating the highest standards available today in shareware for Windows XP. Here are the most recent 25 offerings.

Tuesday, July 12, 2005

Digital Photography How-to Center

Want to take better digital pictures? Already got a lot of photos and need a way to organize them and back them up so you won't lose them? Want to know how to make them look better with a little software "touchup" job? Looking for tips on how to scan and print pictures and share them with others? All this and more can be found in Microsoft's Digital Photography Web site

Microsoft Update

Microsoft Update is a new service - offered at no charge - that provides everything you get through Windows Update, plus High Priority updates for Office and other Microsoft applications. It’s a one-stop destination for updates that help keep your computer more secure, up-to-date, and performing at its best. Microsoft Update includes the Automatic Updates functionality already found in Windows Update so you can choose to install High Priority updates automatically. Microsoft recommends that users of Windows Update move up to Microsoft Update.

Sunday, July 10, 2005

Folder View

Make browsing folders in Windows easierIf you find yourself opening the same folders or files time and time again, you may get fed up of searching through the folder menus in Windows Explorer to find them. As files and folders may not all be stored in the same place on a computer's hard disk, you can waste a lot of time tracking things down. Folder View allows you to create a special toolbar displayed in any folder you open in Windows Explorer with buttons that give fast access to specific folders and files. This means that when you want to copy, move, save or open a file you can do so in just a couple of mouse clicks. How does it work...?
and INSTRUCTIONS

Thursday, July 07, 2005

Cool Quiz

Trivia Quizzes Puzzles Humor Cool Games Fun Pages Connect

Tuesday, July 05, 2005

Free Vlog

A vlog is a videoblog and you want one because, let's face it, they're not going to put you on TV. Besides, not playing that game is what makes this so much fun. You can do whatever you want. Learn more about how to make your own.

Monday, July 04, 2005

a Galleria photography

Welcome ! View on-line galleries of travel, adventure, landscape, and nature photography by Quang-Tuan Luong. The browsable image bank contains more than 12,000 pictures from around the world (including many large format images), available not only as fine art prints or for commercial image licencing as stock photos, but also for personal use. Site supporters get access to a huge collection of high quality computer wallpaper pictures for use on their screen. In addition, there is a lot of information on the site. New pictures are added monthly, so come back often !

Bibliomania

Worthwhile surfing in depth when you have time to explore and enjoy it-- a broad scope of literary material including LOTS of study guides, reference works, histories, quotations, interviews, scripts, articles and texts, all full and free.

One of the most useful and interesting links from the 'reference' bookmarks I've saved over the years.

Sunday, July 03, 2005

Flower Maker

Make, print, send or save your own personalized flower.

Also, view the 'community garden' made by other flower makers.

Saturday, July 02, 2005

"complete freeware collection"

The "complete freeware collection" is a collection of hand-chosen free and open source applications, which when combined, make the complete freeware package. In other words, all you need is the operating system and you won't have to spend one cent on software. Nothing in this software bundle contains spyware or adware everything is either free or open source freeware.
Replace everything from bloated Office Suites: WordPerfect or Microsoft Office, to browsers like the security issue plagued, standards-uncompliant Internet Explorer, to less useful file managers like Windows Explorer, to the insecure Microsoft Outlook. Find alternatives to many of the feature deprived applications which come with Microsoft Windows as well, applications such as Notepad, Wordpad, Disk Defragmenter to name a few...

Looking for a WYSIWYG website builder to replace MS Frontpage or Macromedia Dreamweaver? - no problem there is one in this list. If I told you that there is even an office suite which can fit on one floppy, would you believe me?


Office/Productivity

Office Suites:
OpenOffice.org



Word Processor:
Atlantis Nova +/ AbiWord



PIM:
TreeDBNotes Free +/ TreePad Lite



Organizer:
Chaos Manager



Time Management:
Advanced Diary



Financial Management:
AceMoney Lite



Database:
CSVed +/ DBDesigner



Desk Top Publishing:
Ragtime Solo +/ PagePlus SE



PDF:
PDFproducer +/ CutePDF Writer



Desktop Notes:
PrestoNotes +/ ATnotes



Memo/Noter:
ShirusuPad



Spreadsheet:
Spread32



Calculator:
Moffsoft FreeCalc



Spelling Tools:
Tinyspell



Thesaurus:
Wordweb





To be continued later

FileAmigo LE

What do you want to organize today?

Now you can get control of data without technical skills! Design databases and reports for just about any situation. All common data types are supported as well as very large note fields and storing files (images, documents, etc.) in records. Use FileAmigo for customers, prospect lists, projects, membership, defect tracking, trouble tickets, maintenance schedules, event planning, and much more...Within minutes of installing FileAmigo LE, create a database, import data, add supporting data such as notes and action items, and create reports.

Click on an e-mail address in a data grid to start an e-mail. Use active hyperlinks directly from data grids for URL's and files.

Interface directly to MS Word for mail merges and MS Excel for spreadsheets.

And, it's free software.