How to Uninstall AVG Anti-Virus from your PC?

In spite of the fierce competition on the software market of free antiviruses, AVG remains among the top performers in this category. I personally use it for at least 7 years in the row, and I am totally satisfied with its performance. However, there are some glitches with this utility as well. It was reported by users, that sometimes, when they need to install the new AVG software version, or uninstall the software completely to switch to another utility, the program cannot be cleanly removed.

And here it comes solution from AVG. AVG Remover eliminates all the parts of your AVG installation from your computer, including registry items, installation files, user files, etc. AVG Remover is the last option to be used in case the AVG uninstall / repair installation process has failed repeatedly.

All AVG user settings will be removed after the uninstall process is complete, as well as content from the Virus Vault and all other items related to AVG installation and use. You will be asked during the removal procedure to restart your computer. Therefore, please make sure to finish your work and save all important data prior to launching AVG.

Website: http://www.avg.com/gb-en/utilities

Free Loan Calculation Utility

If you are not rich enough to buy everything you need for cash – houses, cars, study tuitions, etc. – you can borrow money from the government or private lenders. The trick is that you will have to pay eventually not the original amount, but much higher, paying the lender for the opportunity to use the money for your purchase.

An amortization schedule is a table detailing each periodic payment on a amortizing loan as generated by an amortization calculator. While a portion of every payment is applied towards both the interest and the principal balance of the loan, the exact amount applied to principal each time varies (with the remainder going to interest). An amortization schedule reveals the specific monetary amount put towards interest, as well as the specific put towards the Principal balance, with each payment. Initially, a large portion of each payment is devoted to interest. As the loan matures, larger portions go towards paying down the principal.

Amortization schedules run in chronological order. The first payment is assumed to take place one full payment period after the loan was taken out, not on the first day (the amortization date) of the loan. The last payment completely pays off the remainder of the loan. Often, the last payment will be a slightly different amount than all earlier payments.

In addition to breaking down each payment into interest and principal portions, an amortization schedule also reveals interest-paid-to-date, principal-paid-to-date, and the remaining principal balance on each payment date.

Serious buyers will not risk borrowing the funds, if they are not sure if they can pay for it. But, your payment and amortization calculation is not easy, and you do not want taking a risk to make incorrect decision. The free small utility will help you to perform the necessary evaluation every time you need to take the loan, to pay the outstanding balance, or to refinance on supposedly better terms.

Loan calculator is completely free & user-friendly amortization software. It makes loans management and repayment a more predictable and informed process.

There could be times when it feels you are paying towards a loan without making any progress towards reducing the liability. This free and reliable software works out your repayment plan in order to work out a loan management plan. The loans that you need to manage are generally on your house, car or a loan taken to refinance an existing loan. These loans can span from varying time periods and this software takes care of all time spans be it one month or fifty years. The efficiency and reliability of the tool are least effected by the time period for which it is calculated. You get a fair idea of your loan repayment pattern in order to manage your finances accordingly. The input required by the program is basic loan information such as principle, interest rate, and time span.

Once the resultant screen is displayed you can choose to either transfer it to an excel sheet or HTML.

Website: http://www.loancalculator.ws/software/

Direct Download: http://www.loancalculator.ws/loancalc.exe

Enhancing Computer Performance with CloneSpy

Why was CloneSpy written?

Do you often download files from the Internet? Is your hard drive crowded with these files? Have you ever asked yourself which files you have downloaded more than once? Perhaps you have burned files to a CD and retrieved them again? Do you want to find these files and eliminate the duplicates? Maybe you want to find duplicate files without checking your entire collection of backup CDs every time? Then CloneSpy is the right tool for you!

What can CloneSpy do?

CloneSpy can help you free up hard drive space by detecting and removing duplicate files. Duplicate files have exactly the same contents regardless of their name, date, time and location. Also, CloneSpy is able to find files that are not exactly identical, but have the same file name. Perhaps you have different versions of a file and you want to find all of them and remove the older versions. CloneSpy can also find zero length files. These are files that have no content.

With CloneSpy you can process files which

* are duplicates
* are duplicates and have the same file name
* have the same file name
* have the same file name and (approximately) the same size
* are zero bytes long

CloneSpy offers you a complete mechanism for determining which duplicate or same-name files should be removed. It is also possible to leave this decision up to the individual user.

CloneSpy can handle equal files by:

* deleting redundant files
* moving redundant files to a specific folder
* exporting a list of all equal files without removing any files
* deferring file operations on redundant files to a batch file where you can apply arbitrary file operations

With CloneSpy you can build checksum files from files on CDs (or even on hard drives, etc.) and use them to check whether these files already exist on your system.

Who can benefit from CloneSpy?

This free portable and light utility will be useful for any computer users, especially advanced computer geeks and software addicts. It is not recommended to the newbies, as deletion of the files that are essential for your computer operation can lead to the severe damage of the operation system or the important utilities installed on your hard Drive. While you are absolutely personally control the process of the files removal, be careful making any decisions. With all that, cleaning your system might bring huge benefits to improve your system performance. I absolutely recommend keeping the software a part of your PC maintenance “toolbox”, as it can be executed from USB external drive and does not require installation on your Hard Drive.

Developers’ website: http://www.clonespy.com/

Direct downloading link: http://www.clonespy.com/english/download/cspy304.exe

Free Software Song by Richard Stallman

Free Software Song

The Free Software Song is a filk song by Richard M. Stallman, founder of the Free Software Foundation and creator of the GNU operating system, sings a song about free software. The song is set to the melody of the Bulgarian "Sadi Moma".

This song is used by both Stallman’s supporters and critics to support their positions. Jamie Zawinski has used this song as an explanation for why he thinks co-operation with Stallman is impossible. A version of this song is also performed by a band (the GNU/Stallmans) during the credits of the documentary Revolution OS.

Video Clip

This clip was recorded at the UAB - Bellaterra (Barcelona) on April 7, 2008.

Free Software Song by Richard Stallman

Text

Join us now and share the software;
You’ll be free, hackers, you’ll be free.
You’ll be free, hackers, you’ll be free.


Hoarders can get piles of money,
That is true, hackers, that is true.
But they cannot help their neighbors;
That’s not good, hackers, that’s not good.


When we have enough free software
At our call, hackers, at our call,
We’ll kick out those dirty licenses.
Ever more, hackers, ever more.


Join us now and share the software;
You’ll be free, hackers, you’ll be free.
You’ll be free, hackers, you’ll be free.

Story of Writing the Song (by Richard Stallman)

I wrote the free software song at a filksinging session at a science fiction convention. It was a "bardic circle" session, which means each person in turn around the hall had the chance to either sing or ask someone else to sing. I had just had my turn, and there were 20 or more people there, so I knew it would be a long time before I had another turn. I decided to pass the time writing a filksong. This meant I was not starting with any particular inspiration in mind. I had to look for what to write about and how.

So first I asked myself, what topic should it be about? I realized I had never written a filksong relating to free software, so I figured it was time I did.

Then I asked myself, what tune should I use? I realized I had never written a filksong using Bulgarian dance music, so I figured that would be a good thing to do for once. I chose Sadi Moma because it is not too fast or complicated, and is easy to sing.

By the time it was my turn again, the song was ready. After I sang it, someone else in the room said, "That has an anthem-like quality. You should show it to Richard Stallman." (That year was the time I was a little famous and I was a guest at the convention.)

I said, "I am Richard Stallman."

She said, "Oh, I’m sorry!"

I responded, "Don’t be sorry, it’s fun when that happens."

Freeware Software Update Monitor

Little-by-little, the amount of the software you install on your computer, or execute from your USB (portable utilities) is growing. Some of the programs might be years old, and you might not be aware that the new versions are already available. In most cases, the new software versions bring more functionality and clean the bugs, generated in earlier releases. So, by upgrading you soft, you might benefit a lot and make your computer performance more stable. But visiting software developer Web pages just to check if there are no updates is not very attracting option for busy professional. Here comes SUMo to help you.


SUMo, which stands for Software Update Monitor, will assist you to keep your PC up-to-date by using the most recent version of the software, installed on your computer. Unlike build-in auto update features (where available), SUMo tells you if updates are available before you even need to use this software.

Main Features

* Automatic detection of installed software.
* Detects required updates / patches for your software.
* Filter / authorizing Beta versions updates (user setting).
* Ignore list: Setup to track the software you want to track.
* Internationalization support: English, French, Dutch, Danish, Turkish, Romanian, Slovenian, Bulgarian, Hungarian, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Arabic, and Russian.
* The utility is absolutely free to use with no limitations.

Developers Website: http://www.kcsoftwares.com/index.php?sumo

How to Convert DVD to iPod Format

Do you have a ton of DVD’s? Are you interesting in watching them on your iPod, iPhone or Apple TV? The free multi-platform open-source software Handbrake is everything you need to rip DVD’s into MPEG-4 video files for these purposes.

System Requirements:

• An iPod, iPhone or Apple TV.
• 500 MHz processor or better with at least 16MB of video RAM.
• QuickTime 7.0.3 or later.
• iTunes 6.0.1 or later.

1) Download and install HandBrake. If you download version 0.9.2 you must be running Leopard. If you are using Tiger or older, you should download 0.9.1

To download installation files for other operating systems, go to the developers Website: http://handbrake.fr/

2) Place the DVD you wish to rip into your DVD drive and open HandBrake you just installed. If your computer tries to play the DVD automatically, close the program so that only HandBrake is accessing the DVD.

3) Click the Source button in the top left corner. Then choose your DVD drive and click Open. At this point HandBrake will begin to scan the DVD. This could take a couple minutes.

4) Click the drop down box next to Title and choose the longest title if you wish to copy the entire DVD (this does not apply to Episode based DVDs).

5) The default Destination is the Desktop. Change this to wherever you wish to save the DVD file.

6) If the presets are not already displayed on the right side of the window, click the Toggle Presets button in the upper right corner to display them.

7) For the iPhone and iPod Touch you should choose iPhone / iPod Touch.
If you have an iPod video or iPod classic and want high resolution (much larger file size, good for 160GB versions) choose iPod High-Rez.

Lastly, if you have an iPod Video or iPod classic and want smaller files (good for 80GB versions) choose iPod Low-Rez.

TIP: For better quality, choose 2-pass encoding. This will take longer to encode but will look better.

8.) Click the Audio & Subtitles tab. Here you should choose the language you prefer under “Track 1:”. Also, be sure toset Subtitles to None. The Sample rate should be between 32 and 48 while the Bitrate should be set between 112 and 160.

9) At this point you should be ready to begin ripping your DVD. Click Start to begin.

10) Once your DVD is finished ripping all you need to do is add it to your iTunes library (or whatever iPod manager you use) and then transfer it to your iPod.

Troubleshooting 

If you have trouble with the video and audio settings from the presets, you should try the following settings instead. These settings are more strict and should work on any iPod with video capabilities.

File format: MP4 file Codecs: MPEG-4 Video/AAC Audio Average bitrate (kbps): 700 (again lower numbers mean less quality and smaller files) Check 2-pass encoding Picture settings -> set Width: 320 and the height will auto adjust to something close to 240 (will be lower for widescreen movies).

Once you find the settings that work the best for you, you can save them as a custom preset.

Additional Reading:
http://wlmtips.com/2008/06/02/how-to-rip-dvds-to-your-ipod-using-handbrake-mac-monday/
http://ipod.about.com/od/addingvideotoyouripod/ss/ipod_dvd_ih.htm
http://www.methodshop.com/gadgets/tutorials/handbrake/index.shtml

Video Tutorial:

Digital Images Printing Program

Couple of years ago, I was looking on the freeware software market for convenient application for the pictures printing. With quality paper being quite expensive, it is not a bad idea to reorganize pictures for the most optimal paper usage. At the time, I could not find an application, which fitted my modest needs.

It seems that the Pos Multiple Image Printing Wizard is exactly what I was looking. It is a simple free computer utility allowing printing easily multiple images on a single paper page in various ways and in multiple formats. The software comes with many build in templates and effects you can select from. With Pos Multiple Image Printing Wizard you can also create impressive photo albums, artworks, posters, collages and much more. Software is designed for all versions of Windows Operating System Windows 98 and higher, including support for Windows Vista.

Developers Website:
http://www.image-editor.net/Pos-Multiple-Image-Printing-Wizard.asp

Free Avast Anti Virus

We have a guest blogger today! It is Rudy, my virtual friend from YouSayToo Community. He will present the article on the very useful free antivirus program - Avast!

After having a little problem with AVG 8 free edition, I thought it was a good chance for me to try a new free antivirus from ALWIL Software based in Prague, Czech Republic. As a matter of fact, I was very happy with AVG 8 until it displayed a warning box telling me that "avgscanx.exe" had a problem during full scan. The scanning itself was stopped or interrupted and not completed. I could not find why this happened whenever a full scan was executed.

The brand new replacement was Avast Antivirus 4 Home Edition which is free for non commercial and home use only. The package already includes anti-spyware protection and anti-rootkit detection as explained in its home website athttp://www.avast.com/. But you have to register and get a licence key in order to use it for one year period. After one year, it will expire and you have to re-register again.

The product has On-Access Scanner with 7 "providers" as follows:

1. Instant Messaging: "While chat itself would not impose any serious security risks in terms of viruses, today’s IM applications are far from being just chatting tools: most of them support more or less sophisticated file sharing methods - which may quite easily lead to virus infections, if not properly monitored."
   
2. Internet Mail: It is supposed to scan all incoming and outcoming e-mail when I use Outlook Express as explain in their website, ie: "it is a generic scanner working on the SMTP/POP3/IMAP4/NNTP protocol level. It is capable of protecting any existing e-mail client that uses these protocols". But it seems that I cannot get my Outlook Express working well. You can see from Comodo Firewall Active Connection List depicted below that there are 4 open ports for these feature, ie: 12025 (SMTP), 12110 (POP3), 12119 and 12143. I use Gmail and Yahoo Mail which use SSL with port 465 (SMTP) and 995 (POP3) to connect to their servers. I try to use 12025 and 12110 for connection between Outlook Express and Avast but it fails. So that is the end. I cannot find alternatives. Maybe someone on the net can tell me :-)
   
3. Network Shield: "This module provides protection against known Internet worms/attacks. It analyses all network traffic and scans it for malicious contents. It can be viewed as a lightweight firewall (or more precisely, an IDS - Intrusion Detection System)."
   
4. P2P Shield: "The P2P protection module doesn’t need much explanation - on today’s P2P networks (such as Kazaa) there are thousands of infected files, and an effective protection is a must."
   
5. Standard Shield: "File system protection ensures that no virus will be started on the computer. It offers a wide range of settings, such as the possibility to specify that files will be scanned during copying, or that the scanning will include files with given set of extensions only."
   
6. Web Shield: "Web Shield is a unique feature of avast! that enables it to monitor and filter all HTTP traffic coming from the Web sites on the Internet. Since an increasing number of viruses (and other malware, such as adware, spyware and dialers) are being distributed via the World Wide Web, the need for an effective countermeasures has also increased. The Web Shield acts as a transparent HTTP proxy and is compatible with all major web browsers, including Microsoft Internet Explorer, FireFox, Mozilla and Opera." It is good to have this feature but if you set its sensitivity to "high", the performance of web browser will be low. It shows the pages slowly. Therefore I set it to "normal" in order to show web pages faster. All HTTP connections at port 80 are intercepted and scanned by Avast. I still set the proxy setting in Firefox to "No Proxy"and the interception stil works.
   
7. (Microsoft) Outlook / Exchange: I turn it off. It only works for Microsoft Outlook (not Outlook Express) and Microsoft Exchange only.

Conclusion: I like all the features available in Avast with some setting adjustment but unfortunately its e-mail scanner cannot work with SSL for Gmail or Yahoo Mail. Therefore I rely completely on Gmail and Yahoo virus scanner to do that (if only the Gmail or Yahoo virus scanner is also active for their POP mail?). Because Avast e-mail scanner is useless for me, I would turn it off later.
That’s it for now. Please let me know your comments or suggestion to share with us... Thanks!

The article originally was published on Rudy’s blog Dummy Review.

1400 Free Channels on your Desktop

JLCґs Internet TV is a free program for watching and browsing thousands of TV channels available online. There are about 1400 channels available at the moment, and users are able to submit, rate and flag channels. As an extra feature presented in the utility, users can also subscribe to adult content for only 11$ a year and get 50+ adult channels. A good thing in the software is the new flagging system, since you can easily see which channels work the best.

Main Features:
* User maintained online database with thousands of channels.
* Adult content for subscribers (50+ channels) for extra fee.
* Rating and flagging system.
* Your own personal favorite list.
* Search function to easily find any channel.
* Program-updates are automatically downloaded.
* Absolutely NO spyware/adware or malware included!

Developer Website: http://jlc-software.com/index.php?page=internet_tv.html

Direct downloading link: http://jlc-software.com/programs/JLCs_Internet_TV_Setup.exe

RarmaRadio - listen and record Worldwide Radio Stations

RarmaRadio allows you to listen to and record radio stations from around the world. While listening to your favorite radio station you can record it anytime you want. Browse through the radio stations or just select a random station and enjoy Internet radio!

You have total control over your radio stations allowing you to add or delete a station anytime you want. Need to play a station from another application then just enable global hotkeys and control it anytime.

Program is completely portable and does not require installation. When you run it for the first time, it will create application folder in the same directory, and will write all the settings there.

Key Features

• Listen to and record multiple stations simultaneously
• Create a schedule for automatic recording
• Show cover art and lyrics for each song
• Save tag information to music files
• Ability to add more stations
• Add or update stations in the online database
• Store your favorites online
• Play random station
• Last.fm support
• TV support
• Multi Language support
  

Developers website: http://www.raimersoft.com/rarmaradio.aspx

Direct Downloading Link: http://www.raimersoft.com/downloads/Rarmaradio_setup.exe

Note: When I run it for the first time, some of the menu labels were missing. Fix that easily, choosing again the preferable language from the service menu View >> Languages.

Xenon Portable Freeware File Manager

Xenon File Manager is an open source file manager written in AutoIt. It is packaged as a portable application so you can open files easily wherever you go. You can place it on your USB flash drive, iPod, portable hard drive or a CD and use it on any computer, without leaving any personal information behind.

Main Features:

• Portable File Associations
• Tabbed browsing
• Bookmarks
• Folder view for an overview of the file system.
• Folder size monitoring.
• Multi-language interface available (6 languages included in the package: English, German, Spanish, Polish, Portuguese, Japanese, Polish, Italian, and Russian).
• Two great looking themes plus additional downloadable themes.

Developer Website: http://portableapps.com/apps/utilities/xenon_portable

Xenon is rated 4 of 5 on the rating list of the 44 freeware file managers at RateItAll.

Birthday Reminder to make your life easier

The most effective way to remember your wife’s birthday is to forget it once. In some cases, very simple software utilities can improve significantly daily life, reduce amount of stress and tension. For example, free portable application Birthday Reminder will do exactly, what you can imagine according to its clear title.

Birthday reminder will alert you to birthdays you need to remember, in advance of those dates.

The software is easy to configure. Clicking the Options button allows you to manage the birthdays, choose how far in advance you want to be reminded for each, which icon you’d like to use for that person, and set other options.

You’ll ask is that is all software can do for you? Yes, it is. Definitely, this feature can be setup as part of the regular reminder program, or part of the email program (Outlook, for example) operations. But, do we really need to mix all our appointments and dates to remember at the same location? I prefer to keep birthdays separate. Especially, since the software is very small, fast, does not need to be installed, and can be easily carried on USB drive.

Developers Web Site: http://www.zhornsoftware.co.uk/bday/index.html

Direct link for downloading (portable version): http://www.zhornsoftware.co.uk/bday/BirthdayReminderPortable.exe

Avidemix - Free Portable Video Editor

Avidemux offers simple video editing for your PC, but packs many more features than that. This open source project is great for DVD/DivX converting and editing. Avidemux also has scripting support for automation - and even offers DVD authoring (this requires 3rd party, but still open source software e.g. dvdauthor).

It is an ultimately free portable video editor designed for cutting, filtering and encoding tasks for your video projects. It supports many file types, including AVI, DVD compatible MPEG files, MP4 and ASF, using a variety of codecs. Software is available for Linux, BSD, Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows under the GNU GPL license. It is a completely stand alone program that does not require any other programs to read, decode, or encode video files other than itself.

The software can be considered as valid freeware alternative to the following commercial products: Adobe Premiere Pro CS3, Microsoft Movie Maker 2.1, Final Cut Pro 5, and Apple iMovie.

Developers Web Site: http://avidemux.sourceforge.net/

Portable Synchronizer for Files and Directories

SyncEXP is a small and powerful piece of Windows application that can synchronize files and folders within a LAN or a single PC on the fly. It works fast and provides multiple synchronization options. It is free from dll and can be run from USB disk. No installation to the client computer is ever required. It works even if software installs are prohibited. When USB disk is pulled out, the synchronizer detaches from the computer.

Software is characterized by functions of checking existence/time/date/size of items, optimized file comparison algorithm, automatic activity log, progress report window, and ability to preview of the action. And, as you understand, the software is ultimate freeware.

Operating system supported for SyncEXP include Win9x, ME, 2000 , NT and XP.

Visit Developer Website: http://syncexp.com/

Direct Downloading Link: http://bit.ly/syncing

WinPenPack - free portable software collection

I love portable software. It means computer Windows programs that does not require installation or un-installation, and are executed on host PC without leaving tracks of their execution neither in the system folders of the Operating system, nor in the registry. They can be run from slave HDD, network, CD or DVD, or USB, as the most mobile storage carrier. In this post, I want to introduce one of the leading Italian Web Sites, providing an excellent source for the free portable applications to its users. Programs are subdivided in categories and executable through a practical menu, analogue to Windows Quick Launch, the winPenPack Launcher. WinPenPack suites are available in the following editions: Flash Essential, Flash 1Gb, Flash School, Flash Web and Flash Game.

Besides WinPenPack application, Web Site presents a respectable collection of the X-Softwares, are created and developed by winPenPack Team. Each X-Software is composed by a launcher, X-Launcher, that allow to modify program startup options for originally non portable programs to make them portable, through an .ini configuration file. X-Softwares, X-Launchers and .ini files created for portabilize programs are exclusive work of winPenPack development Team, and constitute integrant part of winPenPack.
Highly recommended for all computer freaks!!!

Access the Web Site software downloading section through the link: http://www.winpenpack.com/main/download.php

Find and Download Clip with ClipFinder

It seems that video naturally came as the next big thing on the Internet, slowly replacing MP3 madness. Video adds one more dimension to the people perception, sometimes making easier to show than describe.
So, how and where do you find videos on the Internet? Youtube has definitely the biggest collection, capturing a significant share of the video market. However, there are many other video sites with original content that might be worth trying as well. But, searching each and every one would be a pain.

ClipFinder from the popular German software manufacturer Ashampoo is offering a convenient solution. It is a freeware video search program that crawls some of the popular video sites, looking for content that matches your query. It supports YouTube, MySpace, MetaCafe, iFilm, VideU, MyVideo, ClipFish, Google Video, sevenload, Dailymotion, and several other video sites. The results are presented as video thumbnails that can be viewed with the built-in player with no need of visiting the hosting websites. Among additional features are possibility to bookmark and download chosen videos and advanced search through the videos databases of all the involved portals.

Link to the authors’s description and downloading: http://www2.ashampoo.com/webcache/html/1/product_2_0055__.htm

A brief video presentation:

Find and Download Clip with ClipFinder

For those, who hate clogging your computer with additional software, I can offer an alternative solution - use multi-site video search online services, searching several video hosts from a single page. The rating list, hosted at RateItAll, provides a brief description, web links, and rating. You can leave your feedback with particular services as well.

Access the list through the link:
http://www.rateitall.com/t-26312-searching-multiple-video-sharing-sites-in-one-place.aspx

Enhance Automatic Translation with Freeware Translate.Net

If you ever tried to use online machine translation service from the language you understand, you know how funny and inaccurate the translation is performed. However, in many cases, when you need to get a main idea of the foreign language site, it will be good enough, definitely, much better than no translation at all. However, the question is naturally raised if the automatic translation can be improved, bringing more accurate results. Translate.Net, a free Windows translation aggregator is a desktop application offering the results from different language translation engines and dictionaries, letting you compare obtained results.

There are 17 services, 35 languages, and 1352 translations directions supported by the software with GUI localized to French, Chinese, Ukrainian and Russian. The program remembers your recent translation directions and allows saving your previous choice for the next session.

Note, that the software requires permanent Internet connection for processing of queries and retrieving translating results.

More information and source for downloading: http://translateclient.googlepages.com/index.en.html

Find Quality Freeware on Hobbyist Blogs

Today, I want to present you a guest publication by Scott May, owner of Columbia-based CompuSoft Consulting, specializing in home and small office tech support, on his views related to the freeware.

It seems the cost of almost everything is going up these days. Rather than dwell on the grim, why not focus on something extremely useful and absolutely free?

As difficult as this might be for some people to grasp, not every programmer is out to make a buck. Some simply enjoy sharing their handiwork with others, at no charge, for the common good. Other freeware publishers choose to give away their software in hopes that you’ll want to sample the rest of their product line or upgrade to a more feature-rich commercial version.
Google the word "freeware," and you’ll get thousands of sites enticing you to step closer, read all about it. They are virtual carnival barkers, luring you in with the promise of free software. Unfortunately, the vast majority is advertiser-based, and some are only a few bytes short of being malware. You can’t just jump at the word free, or you could get more than you bargained for.

The best places on the Web to find quality freeware are hobbyist sites. Computer nerds are hands-on and brutally honest, with little of no advertising to deal with because that’s not their motivation. So rather than reinvent the wheel for the umpteenth time, I’ll assume the role of Internet signpost, pointing the way to untold treasures.

One of my favorite tech-oriented stops on the Web has to be TechSupportAlert.com. Editor Ian Richards, nicknamed Gizmo, runs a fantastic site. There’s so much quality content here, with links galore, it’s a tech head’s paradise.

In the upper left side of Richards’ homepage, there’s a link to his list of the best freeware utilities in 46 different categories. Constantly updated, this is a monster list guaranteed to find a program for every purpose, from Web browsing and antivirus protection to multimedia production and integrated productivity suites. Even if I don’t agree with his first choice, the chances are that one of the many alternatives will satisfy your needs.

Another great source for new and sometime offbeat free software is the BestFreewareBlog.com. Freeware categories fill the left column, while screen shots and brief descriptions of the software appear on the right. Content is updated several times each month and past program links are organized in searchable archives.

The find of the week at Best Freeware Blog is DocPad, a feature-laden alternative to the rather anemic Windows Notepad. DocPad offers 10-level undo, built-in spell check, font and object formatting tools, and much more. Unlike some freeware sites, this one offers a lot for Vista users.
Blogs can be great sources of information and tested freeware. Again, no one hates spyware worse than PC nerds, and most don’t recommend something they wouldn’t use themselves. Forums also are great places to get feedback from fellow users on the best and worst freeware programs out there.

Finally, check out the goodies at FreeDecentDownloads.com. In addition to the site’s very active user forums, you’ll also find more lists and links to the best freeware in dozens of categories.

The more you explore, the more you’ll find, until you finally locate that ultimate freeware application that might not cost you dime but is pure gold.

Copying data from partially corrupted drives

Today I had a problem at work. One of the customer’s computers came corrupted. In the process of migrating the most valuable confidential customer data (of about 250 GB) to the new computer and the fresh Hard Drive, I found, to my complete un-satisfaction, that some of the customer’s files are corrupted beyond recovery. There were randomly distributed through the drive, and several attempts to copy the data "as is" failed. Usually, I prefer to copy all healthy information before stressing the HDD with any data recovery attempts. But, in choosing the healthy data to be transferred appeared to be a main challenge. You have a problem - Internet almost always gives you a free solution. Just look for it!

This time, the solution came as a freeware YCopy. Nothing fancy, but the program did exactly, what I needed from it. Program copied all the “good” files and made notes of the files that could not be copied due to the corruption. When the copy process completed, I had a detailed printable report, that I could use to attempt fixing and recovery the files, if they seem to be important, or just provide the client with a professional listing of the files which were unable to be copied. It saved a lot of time on browsing through directories and files making the best efforts to recovery an available data. And customer was really impressed by the submitted report.

Download: http://www.ruahine.com/downloads/setup.exe

Free Anonymous Surfing with JanDo

There are many reasons why Internet user might prefer to surf the Web anonymously. It might be related to the “privacy paranoia” that can be developed following multiple frightening posts on the government monitoring and controlling all Internet communications, or, possibly, somehow justified fear on being tracked by the governmental organizations in the countries, where the meaning of freedom is not properly developed yet. JAP (JonDo) anonymous browser gives a user such possibilities. The degree of the featured software anonymization abilities is so good, that the German Police insisted in 2004 on opening a backdoor to the product allowing proper authorities interception, while investigating cases related to child pornography. The required modification was performed, but later was subsequently removed as a result of court action by JAP.

While you use a regular browser for Web searches, your computer in communicates with Internet using a traceable address that can track, which site you were visiting, and who is your internet service provider (ISP). JAP uses a single static address which is shared by many JAP users. That way neither the visited website, nor an eavesdropper can determine which user visited which website.

So, instead of connecting directly to a Web Server, JAP uses integrated proxy services that hide the real IP address through a proxy mix cascade that effectively hides the identity of any one single user among the connections of all the other users - making it impossible, even for the proxy provider, to determine which IP belongs to which user. After installing JAP, you need to configure your browser to use the local proxy server for web browsing. The provided control panel allows you to turn anonymity on or off, and also displays the current level of security. JAP comes pre-configured with several free service providers and also supports pay services. The free services are run by universities and other public infrastructures and are free of charge for the user. The mix providers officially declare that they do not keep connection log files or exchange such data with other mix providers.

Note, that the project supports the following Internet protocols: HTTP, HTTPS, FTP (download only), and Gopher. Other applications, like file sharing, P2P, chat, IM, email, and Internet telephony, are not supported.

Software can be downloaded from the authors’s Web site:

http://anon.inf.tu-dresden.de/index_en.html