Wednesday, November 30, 2005

Reasons Not to Fly an Ultralight Plane Video

By Alice Hill
RealTechNews

Most longtime readers now that I long to fly and own some sort of cool ultralight plane. I’ve covered personal helicopters and flying cars and everything in between, but today I found a video of an ultralight crash that definitely made me stop and think. The weird thing is how there is no warning, the guy is happily flying and then BOOM. Result: broken back, broken pelvis, punctured lung, and so on.

View The Video Here via Furl

Tuesday, November 29, 2005

TrekEarth Photographs


Learning about the world through photography

VASILIOS FREEWARE SITE


Welcome to
Vasilios Freeware Applications
Web site

* I'm always constructing applications that are useful for my programming jobs. When I think that some of them can be helpful to someone else, I beautify them and I publish them.
* Until 2004, I was constructing applications with an interface, tooltips and help files in my native language (Greek) that they were publishing in my country's Computer Magazines and they were offered from Greek Downloading Portals.This year I decided to turn worldwide.
* I believe in Freeware for all, that's why you will find here only that kind of Applications .

Hoping that I've helped you somehow,

Vasilis Stamatopoulos - Greece

New version of AVG Free now available!!



I KNOW I keep including this program on the site but if you DONT have any Anti Virus software loaded then this is a MUST HAVE to keep you safe.
The new version of AVG Free provides increased scanning speed as well as additional improvements which include a new event-history log and added options for filename extension definitions.

Microsoft's Malicious Software Removal Tool


The Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool checks computers running Windows XP, Windows 2000, and Windows Server 2003 for infections by specific, prevalent malicious software—including Blaster, Sasser, and Mydoom—and helps remove any infection found. When the detection and removal process is complete, the tool displays a report describing the outcome, including which, if any, malicious software was detected and removed.

Microsoft releases an updated version of this tool on the second Tuesday of each month, and as needed to respond to security incidents. You can run the tool from this Web page anytime or download it to your computer.
run Microsoft's Malicious Software Removal Tool regularly (it's updated each month) and install a free AV program. One that gets good reviews from readers is AVG (which offers both a free version and a paid version that offers 24/7 tech support). You can download the free version HERE:

Monday, November 28, 2005

Sudoku online play


Fill in the grid so every column, row, and 3x3 grid contains all digits 1-9 only once.
Great online version of the game. Hint--Hold down the number button before placing it into the location.

How to update firmware on your MP3 player

By James Kim
(November 23, 2005)
Most MP3 players available today are firmware upgradable, meaning as it becomes available, new software that runs your player can be loaded onto it to improve its feature set or performance. In most cases, a firmware update will fix bugs or any playback or navigation issues, though it can sometimes also mean improved battery management, compatibility with new audio formats, and the addition of useful features such as album art support. In a few cases, a firmware update can completely change a player's looks and abilities.

Upgrading firmware is analogous to updating your computer's operating system with patches and fixes, and it often happens semi-automatically. Though not necessary for the majority of players, a firmware upgrade for your MP3 player will nonetheless make your unit the best it can be. Most manufacturers will offer a periodical firmware upgrade, though you'll often have to find these updates yourself on the manufacturer's Web site (or check out CNET Music Center's Firmware Watch). Since each manufacturer has a different method for upgrading a player's firmware, we've offered a few easy upgrade steps for the most popular brands: the Apple iPod and the Creative Zen, as well as iRiver and Cowon players.

Required attention span: About 10 minutes

Sunday, November 27, 2005

"Success Quote of the Week"

"If you think you can, you can. And if you think you can't,
you're right."

- Henry Ford

Compare Google Maps and Yahoo! Maps

Compare Google Maps and Yahoo! Maps: "Jon Aquino has released a great little demo showing Google Maps and Yahoo! Maps side-by-side.

They’re linked up so when you change one the others change.

It’s a great way of comparing features. I have to say that I still like Google Maps, especially because they cover the UK very nicely. Google seem also to have the easiest, lightest interface which really works to their advantage, especially when you consider the amount of data which is going though such apps.

Thumbs up to Google, thumbs up to Jon. "

Saturday, November 26, 2005

Festoon adds video and sharing to Skype and Google Talk.

>
Getting started is simple. Just connect a camera, download our free Festoon plug-in, and see each other one-on-one or invite up to 200 buddies to a video call - even if they don't have a camera. But wait, there's more! You can also share anything you see on your screen, even your entire desktop! And Festoon's immersive EyeCandy video effects add fun to your video experience, including funhouse mirrors, motion colors, and crazy cutouts. Whether you use Skype or Google Talk for business or to connect with family and friends, now you can show a presentation, work on a spreadsheet, share photos, or just have fun online while seeing everyone in the call!
Check it out - see why face to face is better!

Just this link will make you WANT to use this fun program

Clipboard Help+Spell 1.05.01


Clipboard Help+Spell is a clipboard utility that automatically captures and stores all text content that is copied to the Windows clipboard. It automatically organizes entries by new and old and can remove entries after X days, backup the database and filter the list by keyword. In addition to clipboard management, the program also includes tools to process the captured text. You can spell check, convert case, remove and format characters, trim line breaks, find/replace and more. An all-around clipboard utility helps you maintain an organized list of frequently used text snippets for quick pasting to the clipboard, keep track of clipboard history, process text, spell check text in any application and more.

Friday, November 25, 2005

Schtuff


Schtuff is a new free wiki platform available to anyone. The service makes it easy to set up and use a wiki page and integrates tagging and image cataloguing features. Schtuff provides users with three wiki spaces with an integrated storage space of 200 MB, a search facility, RSS notification, document history and revision capabilities. Users can also use Schtuff to set up a blog, and can allow unlimited authors to collaborate on the wiki.

No Need to Click Here - I'm just claiming my feed at Feedster

Thursday, November 24, 2005

SMILE JOKES


I just have to do it. I knew there was a site out there that could make anyone laugh, no matter what. I appreciate a good joke, one that makes my sides hurt from laughing so hard. I finally found a site that has a great collection of jokes on just about any subject.

Wednesday, November 23, 2005

Yahoo Toolbar for Mozilla Firefox


Yahoo Toolbar for Mozilla Firefox Browser lets you search Yahoo directly from Firefox. It snuggles into the Firefox toolbar so you can launch your quests without opening a new window. This customizable plug-in also lets you find and add RSS feeds to My Yahoo.

Version: Beta
Price: Free

Monday, November 21, 2005

Insane Cat Video

and now for the laughs.--------Ever wonder why people love cats? This video is why. They are not always "graceful" creatures, but they are always funny - and nuts.

BitPump


So you've heard about torrent files around the net, and now you're looking for a client to handle downloading them quickly and easily. That's what AnalogX BitPump is all about - a simple to use, fast, low memory overhead implementation of the extremely popular BitTorrent protocol.
AnalogX BitPump is a sophisticated BitTorrent client that supports many of the important features needed to get the most out of torrent files - multiple torrents using a single port and a single instance of the application, advanced seeding methods, detailed information related to the transfer, both manager and dialog based user interfaces, and much more

Photobie. FREE mage editing software


Photobie is an image editing software. It is customized for photo editing. It supports multi-layer editing. Photobie's screen-capture feature make your life easier for preparing presentation.

Photobie is a .NET windows application, thus a .NET framework 1.0 or higher must be installed before running Photobie. .NET framework 1.0 is free for win2K and winXP and can be downloaded here.

If you are using linux, you can download some free software Mono for supporting .NET framework.

With Photobie, you can do pretty much what Photoshop can do such as resizing, rotating, fliping, adjusting brightness/gamma/transparency, doing select/copy/cut/paste any shaped portion of image, erasing/moving/adjusting layers, drawing/filling colored shapes as well as text, converting the image format and quality, saving current editing workspace with many layers to ".pob" file for future retouching. Furthurmore, with Photobie, you can capture any shaped area on the screen.

Photobie is developed initially by Cheng, who is currently a Ph. D. candidate at UMass Boston. Photobie was started as a preparation for his sourceforge software engineering project GODS.

In the next phase of development, Photobie will have photo album editing features, it will also save the photo album in a way that can be simply deployed to the web.

Photobie is developed with C# .NET. The developer intends to deliver Photobie as a freeware and is willing to keep updating it with new useful features.

This software may be distributed freely on every electronic or physical media as long as the files are distributed in their entirety.

This software and its accompanying files are provided "as is" and no warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied, including merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

The entire risk arising out of use or performance of this software remains with you. In no event will author be liable for any incidental or consequential damages arising from the use of, or inability to use, this program.

The success of Photobie relies solely on your support. I sincerely hope you can provide me precious feedback and suggestion. Any sponsorship for promoting Photobie will be highly appreciated.

Saturday, November 19, 2005

http://www.planzo.com/ The world's easiest online calendar. Fast. Robust. Free.


What's Planzo?
Planzo is an exciting new online calendar that makes planning your day simple and easy.
What's so great about Planzo's calendar?

* Share your calendar everywhere
o Share your events on your blog, webpage, AOL Instant Messenger, and more
o We provide all the code, you just cut-and-paste
* Easy to use
o One click event creation, move events by drag-and-drop.
The way web calendar was supposed to be
o Planzo's interface makes adding events easy! Directly click on
your calendar and start typing in an event. It's that simple.
* Tons of features
o Daily Digest: E-mail your day's events to you every morning
o SMS: Text message events and reminders to your cell phone
o Share Events: Share your events with friends on Planzo
o Privacy: Complete control over who can see your events
o Look and Feel: Customize the look of your Planzo calendar
o New features added daily. Tell us what features YOU want!
* Latest Technology
o AJAX, RSS, Web 2.0, XML, SMS

Give Planzo a Spin!
Try out a demo calendar

WaxMail For OUTLOOK and now OUTLOOK EXPRESS


WaxMail is a free voice email service for Outlook from the guys who created Skylook
WaxMail requires a small download and a quick installation with Outlook AND NOW Outlook express From there, all you have to do is click a button to record a voicemail. The sound file is saved as an MP3 and is attached to the email, which can also include text and other attachments. WaxMail is free, although there is a small text advertisement added to the email. For those wishing to exclude the add, WaxMail charges a $29.95 one time fee
The downside WAS that it only used to work with Outlook, however now there is a version for Outlook Express as well. The upside: it’s free, it works incredibly well and it has a very slick interface. Also, I love the fact that files are actually sent as attachments (meaning they can be listened to offline, easily forwarded, etc.) instead of forcing the listener to click on a link.
I have been using this tool now for the last 24 Hrs and it has changed the way I use my email.

Thursday, November 17, 2005

Windows Live


Redmond has unveiled their version of the personalized homepage that combines many of Microsoft's existing MSN services into an advertising-supported product for consumers. Windows Live lets users create a specialized page with all their favorite content, including email, newsfeeds, weather reports, stock reports, bookmarks and other features, all in one place. While the MS personalized homepages do not compare to the simplicity of the Google version, they are likely to become prominent, as they are designed to work seamlessly with Microsoft software. The Windows Live suite also contains new versions of MSN Messenger, virus protections and a mobile-compatible search.

Saturday, November 12, 2005

Custom Google Map for NYC Subway

The net's pretty overloaded with Google maps right now, but this one is worth a look. Not only is the technology behind it impressive - a custom map replacing Google's own for the NYC area, it also fills a previously vacant nice for New York's commuters - plotting the nearest subways to any address.

OpenOffice v2.0


OpenOffice just released the long-awaited v. 2.0 of its office suite, the free version that’s supposed to begin the process of eroding MS Office’s predominance in the field.
OpenOffice.org 2.0 is the productivity suite that individuals, governments, and corporations around the world have been expecting for the last two years. Easy to use and fluidly interoperable with every major office suite, OpenOffice.org 2.0 realises the potential of open source.

With new features, advanced XML capabilities and native support for the OASIS Standard OpenDocument format, OpenOffice.org 2.0 gives users around the globe the tools to be engaged and productive members of their society.

Download it now. If it is not ready today in your language, it will be shortly. OpenOffice.org 2.0 is yours.

Picasa


Ages ago, I discovered an incredibly useful photo management program that has evolved into one of the best on the market and the best part is that it's free.

It's called Picasa, one of the many properties of the Google family, and is one of the best-kept secrets on the Internet. (For those that used the original and have not updated to Picasa 2, it is loaded with tons of new features!)

Not only can it help you locate and organize all of the images on your computer (no matter where they are), it gives you easy to use tools to improve image quality, an easy way to make slide show CDs for your friends and family, an easy way to backup all your images and simple image compression so you send your pictures in an e-mail friendly format.

It automatically locates and sorts your pictures and videos into visual albums based on the date of the files so you can quickly view all of your photographic masterpieces in chronological order.

Each folder that constitutes an album uses easily identifiable labels that can easily be edited and shows you how many images are in each folder. You can even give a gold star to any photo you love so you can later search for your best of collection.

You can password protect folders, quickly get rid of red eye, optimize the contrast and brightness and write captions that will stay with the picture.

Another great feature of the current version is that it works with most cameras for downloading images directly into Picasa albums, which eliminates the need to install those bulky, poorly written programs that come with most digital cameras.

For those camera buffs that like to work in RAW formats, the latest version works with the highest quality files from camera manufacturers such as Canon (.CRW, .CR2), Nikon (.NEF), Olympus (.ORF), Pentax (.PEF), Kodak (.DCR), Sony (.SRF), Minolta (.MRW), and Fuji (.RAF). New models supported include the Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT (aka the 350D), Pentax *istDS and Konica/Minolta Maxxum7D (aka the Dynax 7D).

The best thing about Picasa is that it is very fast (once all of your pictures have been indexed) and very easy to master yet is powerful enough for hard-core photography types for all the basics.

If you own a digital camera, this is a must have piece of software!

Friday, November 11, 2005

Skype Web Toolbar


The Skype Web Toolbar lets you combine Skype with your web browser. It recognises phone numbers and Skype Names on web pages so you can call them with one click, through Skype.
You can also use the Skype Web Toolbar to:

* Call and chat to your existing contacts
* Change your online status
* See how much Skype Credit you have left
* Automatically send a contact a link to the web page you’re viewing

Test Ping

TEST PING

Thursday, November 10, 2005

Festoon


Festoon adds video and sharing to Skype and Google Talk.
Getting started is simple. Just connect a camera, download our free Festoon plug-in, and see each other one-on-one or invite up to 200 buddies to a video call - even if they don't have a camera. But wait, there's more! You can also share anything you see on your screen, even your entire desktop! And Festoon's immersive EyeCandy video effects add fun to your video experience, including funhouse mirrors, motion colors, and crazy cutouts. Whether you use Skype or Google Talk for business or to connect with family and friends, now you can show a presentation, work on a spreadsheet, share photos, or just have fun online while seeing everyone in the call!
Check it out - see why face to face is better!

Wednesday, November 09, 2005

Brutus 2006


Are you one of the millions of folks out there who think that it takes way too long to shut any version of Windows down? You should just have a one-click option to get the job done, right? It isn’t that the task is hard, it is just tedious. Thanks to Brutus 2006, that task just got a little more simple.
Once you get Brutus 2006 up and running you are given a few options via the program's control panel to choose.

You can have a normal exit from Windows. This option shuts down Windows as it would if you were to go in and do it the way via the Microsoft interface. You can have it "force exit" from Windows. This means that Brutus 2006 will terminate everything that is going on and automatically restart, shut down or log off. The "terminate hung applications" option allows Brutus 2006 to turn off, restart or log off but lets Windows take care of shutting down all the applications that might be running. As you can see, for a simple program and task, you have a lot of options to choose from.

This program gives you the power to log off, restart, or shut down a computer running Windows 98 Second Edition, Windows Me, Windows 2000, Windows XP, or Windows Server 2003 with one simple click. For that reason and that reason alone, Brutus 2006 has earned it's spot on my personal computer.

Tuesday, November 08, 2005

Picaboo


Picaboo is a tool for creating personalized photo albums from your desktop. Picaboo offers the ability to customize all parts of your album or use several pre-designed page layouts, backgrounds, corners, and covers. You can even load your pics and Picaboo will create an album instantly for you. For a small proce, users can then print out the photos on glossy, acid-free paper, and bind them in a book easily. Picaboo also allows creation of DVDs or computer-based albums complete with soundtracks and transition effects. The software is free to download.>WELCOME TO PICABOO INSTRUCTION PAGE

PixPulse


PixPulse is a unique photo-sharing service for your camera phone or mobile device. Users upload photos or video to their “personal media channel,” allowing multiple friends to instantly see the material on mobile phones or on the net. PixPulse differs from other similar services by offering a social networking aspect similar to del.icio.us or flickr, which allows tagging so people with similar interests can connect to each other. Users can notify multiple friends at once with PixPulse, saving the cost of sending multiple SMS messages. PixPulse supports all mobile carriers and works on any phone with camera or video capabilities, SMS/MMS and WAP 2.0. The service is free.

FON

FON is an ambitious public service project aiming to spread free WiFi across Europe. Started by Martin Varsavsky, the man behind two of Spain's largest telecom companies: Jazztel and Viatel, FON will use the Wi-Fi infrastructure already in place across Europe and allow anyone with a laptop to access it for free. FON's downloadable software client installs into your Wi-Fi base station, giving you a password of your choice but also accepting all the other passwords of all the other FON members. "FON is based on the premise that Wi-Fi users are only taking advantage of 3% of their capacity on the average or in other words wasting 97% of their total paid for bandwidth." Varsavsky has pledged millions of euro of his own money to buy software and ad campaigns to achieve his goal, and is currently looking for people interested in working with him.

Monday, November 07, 2005

APO USB Autorun v1.0


APO USB Autorun enables you to add autorun functionality to your USB drive. It automatically searches for the standard autorun.inf (as used with CDs) and executes it. This simple, but very handy functionality allows you to create an autorun menu in the same way you would for a CD and use it with your USB drive, or launch playlists, html pages, and any other type of file as soon as the USB drive is inserted. In addition to the autorun functionality, the program also allows you to quickly access the files on the USB drive(s) from the tray icon menu.
[300k] [Win98/ME/2k/XP] [FREE]

FirmTools ShellExtension v2.0


In a world filled with different formats, we all want the freedom to go back and forth, right? From JPG to BMP, there are more image formats out there than I have fingers and toes. FirmTools ShellExtension does what no other program has been able to do for me before. It gives me a free and simple way of converting my graphics from one format to the next. Here is what the author of the program has to say about it: "As far as we develop our products for digital camera users, we know that you can have tons of images scattered on your computer. ShellExtension is our FREE program that we grant you as the BONUS to help you with images manipulation. "This is a very handy application that extends Windows Explorer's User Interface with three useful commands for graphic files. ShellExtension adds an option to context menu that allows you to view a thumbnail of an image, convert it to any of supported formats, and print them." FirmTools ShellExtension currently supports: GIF - Graphic Interchange Format; JPG, JPEG - Joint Photographic Expert Group format; BMP - Windows bit-mapped graphics format; PNG - Portable Network Graphics format; TGA - developed by Truevision; PSD - Adobe Photoshop; TIF, TIFF - Universal Graphic Format for PC and Mac platforms; SGI - Silicon Graphics file format, also known as RGB file format; RGB, RGBA - Silicon Graphics RGB formats; BW - Silicon Graphics file format; PGM - Portable graymap file format; PBM - Portable bitmap file format; PPM - Portable pixmap file format; PCX - PC Paintbrush MS-DOS; and PCD - Kodak PhotoCD format. Now why would you want to change file formats? Well, some places on the Web only accept one or two kinds of graphics. Other graphic formats are larger than others. There are really a million-and-one reasons why you might need to change. What FirmTools ShellExtension does is give you an easy right-click option of moving from one format to the next

Exsate DV Capture Live


Exsate DV Capture Live enables you to capture and convert DV video from your camcorder via an IEEE-1394 FireWire connection. While the program is capturing the video, it automatically converts it to AVI or WMV format in real-time and saves it to your hard drive. You can optionally imprint the DV time stamp into the captured video and choose to have it appear once a day, once an hour, or with every scene. Furthermore, you can choose to capture to a single or multiple files, append to existing projects, and operate all playback functions of your DV camcorder. Exsate DV Capture Live does not offer any editing functionalities, but if you just want to capture and convert your tapes to digital format, this program offers all the functionality you'll need.
[1252k] [Win2k/XP] [FREE]

Sunday, November 06, 2005

Foonbox Arcade


Great independant games site from the makers of Hapland.
Eat In
Escape from Rhetundo Island
Avoision
Hapland
Hapland 2
The Pie Game
The Balls Game

Take Away
Blackshift
MindWinder

Friday, November 04, 2005

Guitar Shred Show


Guitar Shred Show is the place where you'll find this quirky site, which puts you in the boots of one of the true masters of shred guitar, Mr Fastfinger. Now, this guy isn't real - at least I hope not with a hairdo like that. It's a cartoon animation that allows you to trigger killer electric guitar moves using the keys on your keyboard, to most satisfying ends even if you have no musical talent whatsoever.

The first thing you notice is the loading screens - all made to look like part of the story unfolding. A nice touch the first time you visit the site, but a little annoying thereafter.

Inside the main menu, clicking the plectrum by Show Off Solo will launch a demo of the kind of effects you can achieve, but the real fun is to be had behind Lesson & Jam. With the plectrum pointing at Lesson you can try out the sets one by one, and a printable tablature even appears at the bottom if you fancy trying to recreate them in the real world.

But the pinnacle of the site resides under Jam - the joys of which I will have to leave you to discover on your own.

Powerbullet Presenter


If you have a website or make presentations, you're going to love this next freebie software package. Powerbullet Presenter is a comprehensive package for making impressive, professional animated slide shows and presentations - complete with the option to add sound - using the web-based language of Flash, meaning it's ideal for displaying on websites.

The first step is to download t - then follow the path through to the FTP site at Download.com. After installation you might be a little put off by the amount of buttons and functions on the toolbar. And whilst a lot of them will be familiar to those used to using graphics and word processing packages, a lot of them won't be. But it is worth persevering as it's not actually as complicated as it first looks. There's an excellent and very friendly forum on the website too, where you'll find no end of tips and lovely people willing to help out with advice.

My top tips for getting started - use the options under the Insert menu to add pictures and text boxes - you can animate these to come on and off the page using the Animation and Effects button, which looks like a little wand. Add sound by recording with the mic button, and the page+ button will add a new page for you to work with. Project & Export, or hitting CTRL+E will save the finished work in a file in your Documents folder. You can now publish the .swf file to the web for all to enjoy.

Thursday, November 03, 2005

EasyOffice v7


Save money, and help make it less of a Microsoft-run world, with this free suite of office tools. EasyOffice includes word-processing, spreadsheet, database, e-mail, contact management, and presentation applications.

EasyWord is compatible with Microsoft Word, Adobe PDF, HTML, and .zip files; it includes English, French, Spanish, Italian, German, Portuguese, Swedish, medical, and legal dictionaries. EasySpreadsheet is compatible with Microsoft Excel, and features one-click e-mailing of your spreadsheets. Both applications have a feature that reads your text to help catch mistakes.

You can create slide presentations with EasyPresentation, and EasyContactManager helps you produce customized form letters and track appointment dates; its contact lists can be exported in Excel format.

In addition, EasyOffice can do some things Microsoft Office can't, such as create PDF files. It also has a dictionary that gives you full definitions and--if you're feeling masochistic--a spelling checker that can alert you out loud about mistakes. Bundled are add-ons such as the EasyCalculator financial calculator and the financial program EasyZip. The software does not need Microsoft Office to run.

Note: The link will take you to a site where you can download the version that's right for you. The vendor also sells a more full-featured version, EasyOffice Premium. go to download site

Wednesday, November 02, 2005

Killer Flash Games

Here isthe Crimson Room, a Flash game I found baffling:

and IF you manage to complete that game then try the next one called Viridian Room

Note
If you go insane trying to figure out how to escape the crimson room, you're not alone.you will find hints HERE. Very clever puzzle.



When your done with those two puzzles then try these two
Hapland 1:
It's a little easier as there are only 25 items to click as opposed to
Hapland 2's 48.

Let me know how you get on
Click items to trigger events in Hapland.

Some may require clicking several times while others require proper timing.

Special thanks to Karen for pointing out the non working links

Feedtier


Feedtier is a web-based tool that is able to generate a RSS feeds for web sites that do not have one. This essentially turns any site into a live web feed, making it easy to get the latest content from a site without checking it constantly. Feedtier works by performing content analysis for a site and syndicating the results via RSS. It is completely automated (although a manual version is expected soon) and requires no technical expertise or in-depth knowledge of RSS. Free to use.

Tuesday, November 01, 2005

numa numa Video


Go on do yourself a favour and have a laugh.

Remember The Milk


Achieve Domestic Bliss.
Never forget the milk (or anything else) again.
Remember The Milk is the easiest and best way to manage your to-do lists online. Here are just a few of the reasons why it's so cool:

Picasa v2



Its some time now since I mentioned this program but for all those with photos on their computer then THIS program is a must.
Automatically find photos on your camera and share them with ease. If you still have a drawer stuffed with photo prints waiting to be placed in albums, chances are your hard drive is equally full of digital photos waiting to be placed in albums. Picasa automatically finds photos on your camera or photo CDs and organizes your pics. This photo organizer lets you browse photos and watch slideshows. You can touch up red-eye and other imperfections without any danger of saving over the original. And if you'd like to share your photographic wonders with the world, e-mailing a photo is made much easier