Archive for February, 2008
WinStars 2.0 is free to try and will cost you $9.00 to buy it. It requires Windows 98/Me/2000/XP, DirectX 9.0c drivers. If you are into stargazing with a telescope you are about to discover a whole new way of looking at the universe. The latest 3D technology is used to create a realistic portrayal of the objects in our solar system.
You can move from planet to planet or follow a space probe on its journey. You can also observe a celestial event from another part of the world. Jet Propulsion Laboratories DE 404 planetary theories are used to give you an exact representation of displayed events.
The world is yours on your PC with WinStars. Winstars can be likened to a virtual planetarium – view galaxies, constellations and planets as you desire. The items displayed on it’s map can be chosen by you. The scene can be easily animated by you. In addition to a wealth of information on heavenly bodies, you can get web photos for a better view. There are many icons in the main window, though they are neatly arranged. A lot of hard disk space is used up by this program.
This is one program astronomy enthusiasts cannot afford to miss. Recommended.
February 24th, 2008
MediaMonkey Standard is available as a free download with a file size of 4.83 MB. It requires Windows 98/Me/NT/2000/XP. If you use the iPod or are a serious collector of music, then this is a software you must own. It is useful for catologing CD’s as well as different kinds of audio files. With an intelligent tag editor, you can look up Album Art and track information through Freedb and the web.
There is also a renamer which can help organize your music library. The renamer is automated, for renaming files as well as directories. There is a CD ripper as well as a CD/DVD burner included in this package. If you want to save music, you can use the handy audio converter. You can also edit playlists manually or through an automated process and create music mixes.
Volume levels can be automatically adjusted leaving you free to do other things. Hundreds of Winamp plug-ins are supported. If you choose to use Winamp as the default player you can do so as well. There is portable audio device synchronization on offer with this great software. You can sync with iPods, MP3 Phones and other portable audio devices. MediaMonkey, formerly known as Sound DB is definitely worth your one minute of download. Highly Recommended.
February 23rd, 2008
Comodo Firewall Pro 3 is available from download.com as a free download with no limitations. It requires Windows XP or Vista. If you need to secure your system from Trojans and malware as well as external hacker attacks, this might be just what you need. The interface is simple and user friendly. The single click interface offers complete protection from attack. Connect securely to the internet with Comodo Firewall Pro.
In the latest version there is a new user interface and an addition to the firewall engine for external threat protection. There are many significant changes in the new version. It does not take up so much of your system resources anymore.
If you are an advanced user, there are many options and a lot of information, but beginners will still find this software extremely usable. The new user interface is the other noticeable feature of this software. There is no blue color scheme – there is a white color scheme instead. Between the various options there is more empty space now.
The terminology has been made more intuitive. There are some new tabs – Summary, Firewall, Defense+ and Miscellaneous. The Host Intrusion Prevention System is a new addition that protects against unknown threats. The Comodo programs automatically learns about your computer’s behaviour. This program is a great offering and handles your firewall needs for free. Worth the download.
February 21st, 2008
Quicknote is one Notepad replacement that works at the concept of a lightweight text editor. The interface is unusual and there are some unique features in this app. The package is not highly polished though. In the right corner, a small control panel controls the gross functions which determine how the program behaves.
Mouse-over labels are useful so that you do not have to keep guessing what the feature does. Some tools of this app, like the calculator can be accessed elsewhere. Some functions are unique. A good example of this is a function that allows you to send drawing or text to another computer, if you have the IP address or computer name.
Quicknote can also be minimized to a white bar. It is set at the top left of the monitor by default. This can be changed though. If you mouse over the line it maximizes again. Many options are available which relate to show/hide behavior and transparency. If you want you can set quick time to run on start up. Speaker volume can be controlled by using hotkeys when the program is in focus.
This software includes a scheduler with alarms, a screen measuring tool, task manager, and more. This note taking app does some unique things and this is its strength. Yours for free with no limitations.
February 17th, 2008
Photoscape is a feature rich image editor, that surprisingly, is free. The flipside of this is that it leaks memory and consumes a fair amount of it as well. For people who edit at home and are just discovering DSLR cameras, this is an ideal software. If you aren’t yet ready to spend moolah on GIMP or Photoshop, then try this baby out.
Not only is it good for RAW conversion, it also handles JPG to PNG and all popular image formats. You can also create animated GIF’s with the help of it. There are prebuilt templates to create webcomics, fumetti and photo collages. There is also contrast editing, light/shadow and red-eye removal standard capability in this software.
This quick loading program has an interface that is significantly different from the industry leaders. There is a circular navigator and a tabbed nav on the main screen. You can access almost all essential features from both Navs. The unusual layout takes some getting used to, but overall I would call it intuitive and fast. Only the extremely advanced image editing features are missing here.
If you are a budding photographer without the money to buy Photoshop or GIMP, then this program should work well for you.
February 16th, 2008
Dark Room 0.8b is available on download.com as a free download. It requires Windows XP, Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0. It has no limitations in the free version. If you are into studying and writing papers this is the software to do it on.
Studying and writing are not easy to do. It requires a great deal of focus. Often while writing papers there is a lot of distraction. Often you start surfing the web, checking mail and generally find ways to get distracted.
Dark Room is a tool that helps people who need to stay focussed while writing papers. This program is not very feature rich but its main feature is that it helps you focus and eliminates distraction. With this program, you can write full screen on a black background which hides chat notifications, email alerts and other things that come in the way of writing that perfect paper.
If the black color is not to your liking you can change the background to a color of your choice as well as choose a text color and font. This tool is really useful to writers. The readme file is a big help, and if you know the hotkeys you are going to rock the writing world 
February 10th, 2008
If you have a wallet that is not too heavy and you want to use a word processor, consider AbiWord. This word processor is available as a free download with no limitations. It requires Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP. Although it is not too feature rich, it has all the features you would normally require in a word processor.
The interface will be familiar to users of other word processors. It has a spell checker, interactive rulers and tabs, find and replace, unlimited undo/redo, paragraph alignment, character formatting and the other features that are necessary to prepare a professional document. MS Word 97 as well as Rich Text Format are supported. In addition Newspaper style columns, widow/orphan control, superscript/subscript are supported.
The AbiWord wordprocessor can be learnt quick because of the similarity between it and other word processors. There is no grammar check in it however. The spell check works for many foriegn languages in addition to English. There is a proprietary format that this program saves files in, in addition to MS word. If you want a word processing program completely free, then this one is probably the best one on the market.
February 7th, 2008
The Oxford Dictionary of English, Second Edition is now available as a 20mb download. It is free to try and will cost you $59 to purchase. The free trial is only for 10 days. The system requirements are Windows NT/2000/XP.
This software has been produced by iFinger which has been creating interactive products which can be had as direct downloads. Some of the worlds most famous publishing houses have been collaborated with by iFinger for it’s software.
Both online as well as offline searches can be done. In addition manually entering text searches is possible. 355,000 words, definitions and phrases used in Modern English are covered in this software.
If you want to look up a word quickly as you browse the web, you will find this Oxford Dictionary very useful. All you have to do to check a word is double click it. Before you begin using this software, iFinger needs to be installed and this is time consuming. The search bar instals into any Windows app.
If you want to lookup fast, this software is useful since the most common meanings come up initially followed by more detailed information. The dictionary base can be expanded, word by word or by importing text files. I recommend this dictionary to surfers even if they own the printed version.
February 3rd, 2008
Weather Watcher is a free software with no limitations. It requires Windows 98/Me/NT/2000/XP/Vista. If you want to keep on top of the weather, then this is the way to do it. Weather watcher offers forecasts hourly with detail. Alerts for severe weather and weather maps for cities all over the world are on offer.
The current temperature is displayed. You can choose the information you want to display in the system tray. Weather data can be converted. If you want the weather map on your desktop, you can do it with this app. Log and export weather data as you like. Skins allow full customization of the interface.
In this latest version there are hundreds of new weather maps – most are US ones. All you need is to provide a city or zip code. You get the expected highs and lows and a wealth of information on your fingertips with this app.
The other data provided is wind speed, dew point, moon phases, humidity and pressure. The only problem with this app is that it uses too much memory – 19 MB of it to be precise. However the fact that it is free and is very useful overrode the high memory usage in my decision to download it.
February 2nd, 2008
AOL Active Security Monitor 2.0.0.18 is available as a free download without any limtations. It requires Windows 2000 or XP. If you suspect that your computer is infected by malware like spyware, viruses, network intrusions or such other threats to your data then you should consider AOL Active Security Monitor.
This free tool for diagnosis keeps tabs on your computer and lets you know the health of your PC and home network as well. You do not need to be an AOL member. It evaluates how safe your computer is and gives you a security score. This is done by an analysis of the status of your AV software, Wireless security, Firewall and browser. If it finds a vulnerability, you are given quick fixes and recommendations for safety. ‘
It takes just a quick PC scan to let you know how effective your protection is. The tips, links and explanations on how to improve your security are very helpful. The program is more of a functional tool rather than a promotional one.
With step by step instructions on plugging security loopholes, you can peacefully use your computer with AOL Active Security Monitor on your side. A good way to know how good your computer security is. Recommended.
February 1st, 2008