Omni-directional Panoramas of the World

Greg Downing's Omni-directional Panoramas of the World
Incredible panoramic photos of famous places Taken from Linkfilter with thanks.

Photo Story 3 - Free for Windows XP Users

Photo Story 3 - Free for Windows XP Users: "Earlier this week, Microsoft released Photo Story 3 as a free download for all users of Windows XP. Photo Story 3 allows you to create musical slide shows from your digital photo stills.

New features in Photo Story 3 include photo editing features, more special effects, advanced panning and zooming capabilities, and more options for saving and sharing your photo stories.

I was impressed with the 'SE' version of Photo Story that came with Microsoft Digital Image Suite when I reviewed it last year, so it is exciting to see a more feature-full version being offered as a free download. I plan to check it out over the coming weekend.

Here is what Paul Thurrot says about it in his SuperSite for Windows:

Photo Story 3 is an almost perfect tool for digital photography enthusiasts and a must-have utility for anyone who enjoys their own digital photographs. The effects generated by this application are both stunning and compelling, and very similar to the photo slideshow capabilities that Media Center users enjoy... If you're an XP user, you simply must download Photo Story 3 today and get busy creating your own stories."
PLEASE NOTE --Now, there's one teensy little catch- to get that free software, Microsoft wants you to submit to a search (virtually speaking). You have to allow them to install an anti-piracy tool on your system. It's part of their Windows Genuine Advantage program that aims to get people to prove that their copy of Windows is legal. I leave it to you to decide if you can participate in this give-away.

www.audiobooksforfree.com

www.audiobooksforfree.com
When traveling, or when any other long stretch of monotony is placed upon you, it’s a good idea to use things that will help to pass the time. Some read books, others use laptops, and even more people can be found listening to portable music players. Let’s also not forget the individuals who opt to sit in their seat with that open-mouthed stare going on. What may surprise you is that portions of the people using those music players probably aren’t even listening to music. One of the more popular things recently has been the explosion of audiobooks. After all, why read when someone else can do it for you? That is a proposal that shouldn’t be encouraged, but I’m sure some would like to nod their heads in agreement. To find some audiobooks for your own enjoyment, go ahead and visit AudioBooksForFree. I use this site to download stories for my Grandchildren
You’ll notice that you have to register with the site to continue with the download, and you’ll also only be able to get the low bit rate files for free. If you want better quality, then it’s time to pay up. (The freeware is plenty good enough though)

EUROPA | Dialogue with Citizens | Home

EUROPA | Dialogue with Citizens | Home: "What is 'Dialogue with Citizens'?

It provides you with detailed practical information on your rights and opportunities in the EU and its Internal Market plus advice on how to exercise these rights in practice. For example, you can learn more about living, working and studying in another EU country. See our concrete example for further details."

Virtual Desktop Toolbox, use multiple desktops and user contexts

Virtual Desktop Toolbox, use multiple desktops and user contexts
available for NT, Windows 2000 and Windows XP only.
Virtual Desktop Toolbox is the first professional tool that enlarges your monitor by dynamically creating multiple virtual or non virtual desktops. You can organize programs and windows by categories in different desktops, share programs and windows between desktops, group your desktops within a virtual screen and easily and quickly (one mouse move) switch from one desktop to another one.

CWShredder - Download CWShredder 2.0

CWShredder - Download CWShredder 2.0
CWShredder, the only free program known to successfully detect and remove all variants of the Cool Web Search browser hijacker, is back in the fight. After its developer, Dutch college student Merijn Bellekom, called it quits this past June, CWShredder was no longer being updated. Now, Merijn has licensed the CWShredder source code and rights to Intermute, a provider of Internet security and content filtering solutions and developer of SpySubtract PRO.
CoolWebSearch is probably one of the most vicious and hardest to eliminate pieces of spyware circulating on the Internet today,” said Ed English, CEO of InterMute, Inc. “We are proud to offer CWShredder as a free download, and we plan to integrate its powerful functionality into SpySubtract PRO to give our customers the most robust protection available against invasive forms of software.

TextAloud Text to Speech Software

NextUp.com - TextAloud Text to Speech Software: "TextAloud"
The World's Most Popular Text to Speech Tool!
TextAloud reads text from email, web pages, reports and more, aloud on your PC. TextAloud can also save your daily reading to MP3 or Windows Media files ready for playback on your iPod, PocketPC, or even on your TV with Tivo's Home Media Option. Be more productive or just be entertained wherever you go with TextAloud. Our TextAloud 2.0 release is here and packed with new features

OpenOffice FREE

download: OpenOffice.org 1.1.3 Downloads
OpenOffice is a fully fledged office application suite, complete with a word processor, spreadsheet and presentation graphics program.

OpenOffice will be more familiar to some people as Sun Microsystems' StarOffice, which until recently was a free download.

With the launch of StarOffice 6, Sun changed its policy: the full office application suite would now cost (a still very reasonable) £50, while this completely free version is available to download.

Deepnet Explorer - Web P2P News Browser

Deepnet Explorer - Web P2P News Browser
Deepnet Explorer is the world’s first browser to offer fully integrated P2P file sharing capabilities and a built-in RSS/ATOM news reader. With features like tabbed browsing, pop blocking, auto login, form filler and P2P technology, Deepnet Explorer is the quick and easy way to browse the web, share files and read news simultaneously! Deepnet Explorer is also one of the most secure web browsers.

Vemail voice email software

Vemail voice email software
Vemail is software that lets you record and send voice messages instead of text using ordinary email. How Vemail Works: To send a voice message with Vemail simply enter an email address and then press and hold down F6 while speaking. When you have finished recording, the message will be compressed and sent as an email automatically. Almost anyone can receive and listen to the vemail as it can be played with the standard player installed in most PCs.

Network Connect

Free download, free utilities
Use network clipboard to instantly copy files, texts, images, internet adresses between different computers!Press Copy on one computer and go to different PC and press Paste. The contents go with you.

Or press Copy and your colleague on different computer can press Paste and he immediatelly has the stuff you wanted to give him.
NOTE- I have NOT tried this program as yet.
Tony

NEWS of the WEIRD

NEWS of the WEIRD
Sitting down to watch the news or read a newspaper is usually a very disturbing experience. Most of the stories that we are subjected to involve how many people died today, how they died, and why we’re all dying because of what we’re doing to ourselves. Yeah… depressing. Sometimes it’s nice to step away from the news stories that we’re used to, and instead, get up to speed on all of the weird things that human beings are doing. After all, that well will never run dry. To find some of these stories, visit News of the Weird.

News of the Weird is a weekly syndicated newspaper column. The site documents a host of the columns for the Internet crowd to read. Reading this column will probably make you feel a whole bunch better about yourself, which is always a plus. One cool feature is that you can go to a map of the US and select a state to read stories that actually happened there. Those of you who really like what you read can check into the compilation books that feature the best of the weird. If your story has appeared in this column, please slap yourself.

Microsoft Partner Pack for Windows Web Site

Microsoft Partner Pack for Windows Web Site
The Partner Pack for XP includes games and third-party applications to enhance your computing experience - including the Google Deskbar, PhotoSite, the PayPal Payment Wizard, Post-it Software Notes and more.

Copernic Desktop Search - The Search Engine for Your PC

Copernic Desktop Search - The Search Engine for Your PC
Last week's announcement of Google Desktop brought recommendations for a different desktop search engine: Copernic. It searches your hard disk for documents, e-mail messages, media files and browser history, and it's a free download that got an Editor's Choice award from CNET this month. If you'd like to try an alternative to Google's desktop search, you might want to give this one a try:

Main

Main
Snackster is a powerful cookbook program that redefines how people will get their recipes. Snackster is the world's best peer to peer recipe sharing program. Unlike other popular file sharing networks Snackster is dedicated to only cooking. Snackster was created to fill the void of cooking online. While there are plenty of cookbook programs online, most lacked features and ease of use. Snackster utilizes unique features to make cooking easier and more enjoyable for everyone....

viksoe.dk - GMail Drive shell extension

viksoe.dk - GMail Drive shell extension: "GMail Drive is a Shell Namespace Extension that creates a virtual filesystem around your Google GMail account, allowing you to use GMail as a storage medium.

GMail Drive creates a virtual filesystem on top of your Google GMail account and enables you to save and retrieve files stored on your GMail account directly from inside Windows Explorer. GMail Drive literally adds a new drive to your computer under the My Computer folder, where you can create new folders, copy and drag'n'drop files to."

Browse eMusic

Browse eMusic
EMusic is basically a Web site. You search using your browser and click to download tracks. That triggers a small download manager app (available for Windows, Mac, and Linux PCs), which queues the files you've selected and pulls them down from the server. Preference settings in the download manager make it easy to fit your new files in with the rest of your music collection by changing the folder and file naming structure that tracks go into.

About Google Desktop Search

About Google Desktop Search
If you use shared or public computers, you have a new privacy risk to consider: Google Desktop Search.

Announced last week and currently available in a beta version, Google Desktop Search allows you to scour your hard drive for lost or forgotten documents. But it just may be too good at what it does, according to privacy and security experts, who say it poses risks for users who don't understand its power.

Welcome to Binarema Home Page - Volutive: business management and invoicing software - business software, free invoicing software, email invoice, send

Welcome to Binarema Home Page - Volutive: business management and invoicing software - business software, free invoicing software, email invoice, send invoice email, customize invoice, invoice template, report HTML, freeware
It's a fact that many people around the world are currently running their own businesses. If your enterprise (if you want to call it that) only consists of you, then you're obligated to wear many different hats. You have to be your own marketer, manager, accountant, and so forth. One of the most dreaded responsibilities for any sole proprietor is keeping track of the accounts and the invoicing duties. Ugh. As you probably know, most of the accounting software sitting on store shelves is very expensive. In order to save some money, you may try to see what other options are out there. Free programs are always appreciated, and one called Volutive deals with managing all of your invoicing needs. While Volutive isn't capable of handling all of the things that high-end suites can, it should satisfy someone with basic needs. One nice feature is that you can send your reports and invoices by e-mail, allowing you to hand it off to the desired party in a much quicker manner. A help file is not currently available for the software, which is a huge letdown. The company acts like one will be compiled soon, and hopefully they'll hold true to that. If you only have a small business to manage, Volutive may be all you need.

**** ANTIVIRUS TIPS AND TOOLS ****

This letter was taken from Common Sense Security Newsletter 24 October, 2004 and I think it is important for all those people running AVG Anti Virus.

*** ANTIVIRUS TIPS AND TOOLS ****
Liesbeth wrote in about a problem she found in her antivirus program.

"You probably know about AVG, the free virus scanner from Grisoft. Me and
some friends use it, and we were quite happy with it until lately, it
started to give warnings about Trojans being on my computer, and telling me
to run its virus scanner. When I did, nothing was found.
I found this piece of information on a forum:
AVG doesn't scan your whole computer. If you want it to test every single
file you need to first enable it (right-click on system tray icon, Run AVG
Anti-virus, Service menu, Complete Test Settings, check 'Test All
Extensions').
I checked with my AVG, and indeed, that is not a default setting. I find it
a bit strange that the default is (only) documents and sheets."

This is indeed a strange way to set the program defaults, and Liesbeth was
lucky that she didn't suffer more damage. We are lucky that she told us
about it, since I have AVG on a computer and have never thought to look at
the default settings either! Make sure that you read through the help file
that comes with your programs so that this kind of thing doesn't happen.
And to be even safer, don't rely on just one antivirus program to check for
problems.

Although running multiple antivirus programs is not recommended (and some
will not let you install their program if there is another one installed)
there are scanners that can be used to double check your system. Most of the
major antivirus programs offer online scanners that you can use to check
your system, and it is a good idea to choose one that is not made by the
same company that made your antivirus program. If you use PC-Cillin, try
the McAfee scanner. If you are running Panda, go to the Symantec site for
their scanner. This helps insure that you have a second opinion, rather than
relying on just one solution.

MicroWorld offers a Free Scanner that is updated weekly to insure that it is
as up to date as possible. The scanner will check for a variety of problems,
not just from viruses or worms but from almost all the potential e-threats
that can endanger your system's security.
http://www.mwti.net/antivirus/free_utilities.asp

PIVX offers Qwik-Fix Pro Home Edition at http://www.pivx.com/qwikfix.asp.
It is a free download, and it protects against current and future problems
by eliminating the way the programs can get onto your computer. They
identified the way a worm could attack a computer in December 2002. The
Qwik-Fix program was updated to prevent this method of attack. In February
2003, Microsoft started working on a patch, and they released it in July.
Within a month the MSBlaster worm hit the Internet, and it was soon found
that the Microsoft patch was not 100% effective. MS released an updated
patch in September, but the damage was done. If you had been running
Qwik-Fix, you would have been protected 8 months before Microsoft
acknowledged the problem!

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