Technology Gadgets Food Toys Fun and Games

Link: http://www.redferret.net/?p=19345

During the work week I have dozens of work items scattered across my desktop - on the weekends I like to move them to a folder so I don't have to think of work for a couple days. This software lets you create virtual desktops. I like the idea.

Dexpot is a virtual desktop manager that allows you to create multiple desktops for a range of tasks or software. Put all your work short cuts on one page, put all your home stuff on another. Or, create different desktops for different customers; video editing, document writing or whatever. You can even bind programs to different desktops to keep yourself focused.

Link: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/03/05/mozilla_firefox_developer_preview_with_oopp/

Why this wasn't done years ago is beyond me, I think browsers should sandbox everything (like Chrome)

Mozilla has pushed out a Firefox developer preview that runs Adobe Flash and other plug-ins as a separate process, hoping to prevent crashing plug-ins from crashing the browser proper.

The move comes as Apple Insider reports that Steve Jobs and cult have asked a group of "elite" testers to kick the proverbial tires on a new version of Safari that includes some sort of Flash crash protection.

Mozilla's new developer preview is the second "pre-release" version of the open source outfit's Gecko 1.9.3 rendering engine. Today's official Firefox offering - version 3.6 - uses Gecko 1.9.2.

Link: http://cybernetnews.com/desktop-comic-reader/

This is a neat bit 'o software - small app that snags online comics and saves you the work of browsing to all the individual sites. If you are a bit handy you can add comics that aren't included.

Link: http://www.softwareok.com/?seite=Freeware/WinBin2Iso

Every now and then you get stuck with a .bin file and you think to yourself... "what the heck do I do with this?"

Well, you convert it to an ISO and burn it from there.

This software will do that for you - in a no frills free type of way.

WinBinToIso does not have to be installed and can be executed easily from the desktop, and can be carried on a small usb-stick or other memory device.

Link: http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/11636/send-up-to-100mb-attachments-with-outlook-and-drop.io/

Even corporate servers will blanch at that size attachment -

Drop.io offers a unique file-sharing and collaboration platform. With their Outlook plug-in, you can use this system to send larger files directly from Outlook. Drop.io is free for up to 100MB of storage; if you need to send larger files than that, you can upgrade to a professional account.

As usual the How To Geek Covers installation and use.

Link: http://www.oo-software.com/home/en/special/defragspecial/

Want a great free commercial defrag?

Unleash the hidden performance of your computer with the minimum effort. O&O Defrag 11 Professional Edition packs file fragments quickly and securely back together to optimize your hard disk under Windows. Its functionality ranges from a fully automated defragmentation to an individual professional set up. It can do everything a truly good defragmentation software should be able to do.

The new background monitoring function helps to prevent fragmentation at source. Newly added and modified files are analyzed and defragmented whenever they are not being accessed. O&O Defrag makes sure that your hard disk is constantly performing at its peak.

Link: http://www.h-online.com/security/news/item/Thunderbird-3-0-2-released-941372.html

If you use Thunderbird - you've got a small update .... go to help / check for updates if it hasn't arrived yet.

Link: http://lifehacker.com/5482269/disk-space-fan-analyzes-hard-drive-space-with-a-dash-of-eye-candy?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+lifehacker%2Ffull+%28Lifehacker%29

This is yet another free space finder (or used space finder) like Treeview I linked last week, but it's way cooler looking. So if you want some candy with that drive cleaning you got it here.

Link: http://www.google.com/chat/video

Smoother, better, faster - sounds a bit like the Six Million Dollar man mixed with Billy D Williams.

Here's what you'll need to get started:

* Download the voice and video chat plug-in, quit all open browser windows, and install the plug-in.
* Sign in to Gmail, iGoogle or orkut.
* In your chat list, select the contact you want to call. If they have a camera icon next to their name, you can make a voice or video call to them; just click Video & more.

If your friend doesn't have a camera next to their name in your chat list, you can invite them to download the voice and video chat plug-in from the Video & more menu in a chat window. Even if your friend doesn't have a video camera, you can still have a voice chat or a 1-way video chat.

Real light update and no, I haven't had the time to check it out yet.

Link: http://www.freewaregenius.com/2010/02/21/tableau-public-create-charts-and-interactive-dashboards-and-publish-them-to-the-web/

You got it - go chart and graph yourself silly....

Link: http://www.betanews.com/article/A-BlackBerry-browser-with-a-100-Acid3-score-RIM-finally-picks-up-the-Torch/1266342783

and fast and very cool - however if you own an older BB you probably won't be getting it. ( Too resource intensive)

Link: http://mashable.com/2010/02/17/outlook-facebook-myspace/

I can imagine that system admins everywhere are doing the facepalm - who the heck would want their employees integrated into these things? Oy...

Now that integration has gone live. Outlook users can now download LinkedIn for Outlook and transform their desktop inboxes into a hub for all things LinkedIn.

Overshadowing its release is Microsoft’s announcement of two big partners for the Outlook Social Connector, MySpace and Facebook. Sometime in the next few months, users will be able to check up on their MySpace friends, update their Facebook status and browse through photos.

Painful  - but on the bright side it's another nail in the coffin for companies deciding if they want to go with Office or Open Office.

Link: http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/resources_extract.html

I can think of a pile of uses for this one right off the bat - several games, windows icons, programs...  this I think is a goodly useful tool to add to your general toolkit

Link: http://www.abelssoft.net/filewing.php

Every now and then we all delete something that we meant not to - if this is your issue try out this software, it just might save your butt.

* Restores deleted files (undeleter)

* Wipes files securely making undeletion impossible

* Also works for digital cameras

* 100% free of charge

* Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7

Link: http://www.geek.com/articles/mobile/verizon-wireless-launches-vz-navigator-5-2010021/

This is Verizons GPS navigation app - and I use it all the time. It's as good as if not better than a GPS unit. The new version is getting....

Roadside Assistance - call for a tow truck from the nav screen.

* Enhanced Points of Interest – No need to wait for the entire route to download before starting their voyage because data will now be streamed, causing display screens to populate more quickly
* Enhanced Points of Interest – Access to premium places of interest with detailed descriptions, clearly branded by Map Icons
* Traffic Crowd Sourcing – Opt-in to anonymously send real-time location and speed to the VZ Navigator traffic reporting service, allowing quicker notifications and improved accuracy for all VZ Navigator users
* Alerts for Other Road Attributes – Graphic notifications for tunnels, U-turns, traffic circles and toll plazas
* “Say it Mode” – Select BlackBerry smartphones and Windows Mobile® handsets allow customers to verbally search for and update destinations

It's out for the BlackBerry Curve 8530, LG enV TOUCH, HTC Touch Pro2 and Samsung Omnia - but not yet out for the Blackberry Storm - so I wait while other folks play with all the new coolness.... sigh.

Link: http://torrentfreak.com/utorrent-spreads-its-wings-with-falcon-100131/

Most everyone's favorite Torrent client is getting an upgrade, personally I just hope they don't go the way of Azareus/Vuze - that got so bloated it caused me to quit using an app I'd used for years.

In all the years it’s been available, uTorrent hasn’t changed as much as it will with the upcoming release. Codenamed Falcon, the client will have an easier, more secure and more complete web UI as well as support for streaming and remote downloading.

Link: http://www.imgburn.com/

Fed up with Magic ISO ? This freeware offering just might do the trick for ya.

ImgBurn is a lightweight CD / DVD / HD DVD / Blu-ray burning application that everyone should have in their toolkit!

It has several 'Modes', each one for performing a different task:

* Read - Read a disc to an image file
* Build - Create an image file from files on your computer or network - or you can write the files directly to a disc
* Write - Write an image file to a disc
* Verify - Check a disc is 100% readable. Optionally, you can also have ImgBurn compare it against a given image file to ensure the actual data is correct
* Discovery - Put your drive / media to the test! Used in combination with DVDInfoPro, you can check the quality of the burns your drive is producing

Link: http://www.lupopensuite.com/

Ok so lets say you don't have your favorite USB stick available or maybe you need to build one with everything you might need in a hurry. Enter ....

Lupo PenSuite is a completely free suite of portable programs and games. This Suite is designed to simplify the user's life, by collecting the best suites and portable applications available on the Web.
Optimized to be loaded on a USB flash drive and brought always with you, this Suite works perfectly well on any other device. It includes over 180 highly selected portable programs and games (7-Zip, Audacity, CCleaner, eMule, FileZilla, Firefox, Foxit Reader, GIMP, IrfanView, Notepad++, Opera, Pidgin, Thunderbird, µTorrent, VLC and many more).
You can also easily customize your suite adding portable apps from our broad software database. All you need in one package.

Link: http://cybernetnews.com/free-im-messenger/

W00T - run this and have everything - even voice chat and video.

* Universal Messenger – Qnext is the world’s most advanced Universal Instant Messenger, allowing you to send and receive messages with buddies on all of the most popular networks.
* Voice Chat – Just get a microphone or a headset and you’re ready to host Voice Conferences with up to eight Qnext Friends. Qnext is cross-platform. This means, you guessed it, finally Mac, Windows, and Linux users can all jump on a Video or Voice call together!
* Video Conferencing – Just plug in a webcam and a headset, and you are ready to go! Since Qnext video and audio conferencing is completely integrated into your Qnext friends/ buddy list, initiating a video conference is straightforward and easy. All you do is select a user from your ‘friends’ list and start a live video conference with right clicking on a Qnext contact and selecting Conference > Video.
* Photo Sharing – Qnext Photo Sharing is the easiest way to share an unlimited amount of photos with anyone, even if they don’t have Qnext. Just choose your photos, choose your Audience and you’re done; your friends will receive a link that lets them view or download (with permission) your photos from any web browser. They can browse through thumbnails, zoom into photos, and run custom slideshows too!
* File Transfer – Qnext enables users to send or receive files from other Instant Messenger protocols including Yahoo, MSN, AOL, Google Talk, Jabber, iChat, and ICQ. When you Transfer Files between Qnext users you can take a file (s) or folder (s) of any size from your computer and drag it onto a contact name. This initiates a secure P2P file transfer. A file can be 1 MB, 1GB, or your entire C drive!
* File Sharing – Qnext File Sharing is the easiest way to get those huge files where they need to go fast. Put an unlimited amount of files or folders of any size into a File Zone and select your Audience; your specified recipients will get a link in an Email or an Instant Message and be able to download any or all of your shared files at top speeds, from any web browser in the world!
* Remote PC Access – Qnext MyPC is a Remote Access and Application Sharing service included in Qnext. Basically, it lets you give yourself or anyone you specify access to your computer or specific applications from any standard web browser.
* Music Streaming – Qnext Music Streaming is the only way to listen to your entire music Library from anywhere in the world. Choose up to 700,000 songs and select your Audience; we will Streaming your tunes instantly to whoever you want. Whether you want to share with yourself or with your friends, this is the only way to stream your music to any web browser on the planet.

And do you want the update ? I'd say heck yeah you do....

* Improved performance, security and stability
* Users can now change their browser’s appearance with a single click, with built in support for Personas.
* Firefox 3.6 will alert users about out of date plugins to keep them safe.
* Open, native video can now be displayed full screen, and supports poster frames.
* Improved JavaScript performance, overall browser responsiveness and startup time.
* Support for new CSS, DOM and HTML5 web technologies.

You can see a video of the new goodness right below.

*** note - users of log me in - the plugin is not compatible, you could be locked out of your machine - wait for a compatibility update!

**** As of Today (jan 22) Logmein has released a new plugin - according to them all you need to do to update is connect.

**** KHTML Editors are completely disabled by this update - if you administer one be warned. - Time to update to Tiny MCE or such

Link: http://www.dopdf.com/

I run into this at work all the time - people want to give me something in PDF but don't have anything to convert that word doc .....

doPDF is a free PDF converter for both personal and commercial use. Using doPDF you can create PDF files by selecting the "Print" command from virtually any application. With one click you can convert your Microsoft Excel, Word or PowerPoint documents or your emails and favorite web sites to PDF files.

Fantastic - no ads or malware - I'm sold.

Link: http://www.betanews.com/article/Mozilla-No-Firefox-XUL-addons-are-not-an-endangered-species/1263590938

While tere is definitely a push for add-ons that install and update better, more powerful add-ons like Noscript and Adblock aren't going anywhere.

"There's been a lot of speculation over the past couple of days around the future of Firefox Add-ons, and how Jetpack fits into that future. There's currently a lot of misinformation swirling about this topic and it's making people very unhappy," read the company's first official response to the subject. But as it continued, it contained the following: "Right now, you write a Firefox extension; in the future you'll be able to write an extension using Jetpack. If Jetpack doesn't provide the flexibility or feature you need, you'll be able to contribute it in true Mozilla fashion."

So lets put this panic to bed - nothing to see here, move along.

Link: http://www.adobe.com/products/shockwaveplayer/

There's a new version of Shockwave (11.5.6.606) - you'd be best off if you updated to the latest version for security purposes if nothing else.

Oh by the way don't forget to uncheck the crapware it wants you to install by default.

Link: http://cybernetnews.com/computer-usage-time-limits/

There's a bunch of apps on the market for limiting content or time on a PC - Vista and Win 7 come with a (very limited) one. This little beauty gives you 3 new ways to limit PC use

* Daily quota: Specify how much time the user is allowed to spend on the computer on any given day.
* Session time limit: Specify how much time the user is allowed to spend on the computer each time they login.
* Online usage restrictions: Specify how much time the user can spend online before their browser is locked. It considers you “online” when you have a web browser running. If you close the browser the quota will be paused.

I like it - Freeware - Windows Only.

Link: http://www.airytec.com/en/switch-off/

Switch Off is a lightweight easy-to-use tray-based system utility that could automatically shutdown, suspend or hibernate your system to cut your electricity bills and save the Environment by lowering your PC power consumption. It could also disconnect dial-up and VPN connections to cut your internet service bills as well. Automation options allows you to schedule all operations daily, weekly, past specified time or when PC becomes idle.

perfect for that kid who never shuts down the laptop eh?

Supported operating systems

* Windows 2000
* Windows XP
* Windows 2003
* Windows Vista
* Windows 2008
* Windows 2008 R2
* Windows 7

Link: http://www.freewaregenius.com/2010/01/13/auto-mute-mutes-your-pc-whenever-it-is-turning-on-or-waking-up-from-sleep-or-suspend-modes/

Oh we've all been there , boot up the laptop and we forgot that last nights viewing of Lord of The Rings was at max volume - then the startup sound makes you spill hot coffee all over you. (Well, I've been there for that particular one) - but you know what I mean.

This teeny little app fixes all that and saves your coffee/lap.

Link: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/01/11/firefox_3_6_release_candidate/

I'd say it won't be too long before the 3.6 is out as a regular update - read up on the new security, speed and changes coming down the pipeline. Of course it'll go and mess with all your add-ons, so you might want to snag the nightly tester tools to make the older ones compatible till they're updated.

Link: http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=4867&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+zdnet%2Fmicrosoft+%28ZDNet+All+About+Microsoft%29

Yeah, and forget about it if you are a home user - heck, there are so many hooks here I don't even know many business users that would bite.

First,customers get the 50 percent discount only for the first year of their Open Value Subscription (OVS) payment. (OVS is a Microsoft licensing program, introduced last year for SMBs, which allows users to pay for software licenses over time and includes many of the same provisions as Microsoft’s Software Assurance licensing program.) The new deal applies only to those customers using the Professional versions of Windows and/or the Professional versions of Office.

Geez - well the 5% of all users that are interested can find out more HERE

Link: http://www.freewarefiles.com/TV-Browser_program_16696.html

You know what I hate about Zap 2 it or Tv Guide online - all the cookies and questions and hassle ....

Run this puppy and never have to deal with that again.

TV-Browser is a digital TV guide. The TV data are retrieved from multiple sources and can be downloaded from our servers after having been automatically processed.

The whole project - both the client and the server part - is distributed under the GNU GPL.

Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8425906.stm

I can't wait for this, initially it will only be out for a couple platforms.. But - as soon as it's downloadble for the Blackberry I'm in.

The first mobile phone version of the popular web browser Firefox is "days away" from launch, the head of the project has told the BBC.

The browser, codenamed Fennec, will initially be available for Nokia's N900 phone, followed by other handsets.

It is currently going through final testing and could be released before the end of the year, said Jay Sullivan at Mozilla, the group behind Firefox.

Link: http://www.nuffy.net/articles/the-15-most-stupid-products-of-the-decade.html

Tooler is a unique program that allows you to create special type of shortcuts. What's so special about them ? They have all features of the typical shortcuts, so you can move them, rename them, or change their icons. But they also allow you to easy accomplish such tasks like turning off the monitor, restarting your PC or ejecting selected CD-ROM tray. This program is very easy to use, requires no installation and the exe file has only 50KB - so you can take it wherever you'll need it.

Not that you can't do it manually, but in this case there's no need to ask or look it up. Freeware.

Link: http://www.ghacks.net/2009/12/20/hard-drive-space-analyzer-disktective/

We all deal with it - your 80 gig laptop drive is no 13 gigs free and what the heck is taking up all the free space? This freeware program will help you nail that down.

The program can analyse a folder or complete drive and will display the results in a tree structure and as a pie chart in its interface after it has finished scanning the relevant parts of the hard drive.

Link: http://www.geek.com/articles/mobile/privacystar-app-nails-illegal-telemarketers-20091216/

This new privacy app will let you kill off and report telemarketers and other pesky callers you don't want to deal with.

With PrivacyStar this will no longer be a problem since users will be able to capture the date, time, number and identity of callers. The application also gives users the ability to control privacy preferences directly on their BlackBerry or on their synchronized personal web portal account.

Read on for the full details... Luckily I'm not in this club - yet.

Link: http://www.geek.com/articles/mobile/vlingo-4-0-plus-adds-speech-recognition-to-most-blackberry-apps-20091214/

Total voice control over just about everything gives this app a thumbs up from my point of view.

Vlingo 4.0 Plus takes that voice functionality to virtually every application on your BlackBerry. Now you can speak to enter text into any text field of an application
. Incredibly, you can even complete fields on websites using nothing more than your voice.

Vlingo 4.0 Plus is available at $14.99 for a limited time compared to regular price at $19.99.

Link: http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/7363/macrium-reflect-is-a-free-and-easy-to-use-backup-utility/

The fastest disk imaging software is now available as a free edition.

XP and Vista compatible disk imaging software with BartPE and Linux based recovery options.

* Create a disk image whilst running Windows using Microsoft Volume Shadow copy Service (VSS).
* Image to Network, USB, FireWire drives and DVD.
* Built in scheduler.
* 32 bit and native 64 bit versions.
* Industry leading compression levels and speed.
* Linux based Rescue CD with Network access and full GUI. Only 6.5MB in size!
* Built in CD/DVD packet writing engine. Supports packet writing to DVD DL media with Windows Vista.
* HTML log files.

And How To Geek has an excellent write up of all it's goodness - if you've been holding off on doing a decent backup you now have no excuse.