I’m not sure if most people have a certain topic that they are partial to for wallpaper images, but I know for myself that I generally like expansive landscapes with an awesome sky and (for some reason) a single tree. In fact, I’ve written a previous posting about it which even makes an attempt at a psychological explanation. I also like representations of the globe (see the Desktop Earth post). Bing image search has a "wallpaper" filter that allows you to find wallpaper images for the topic of your choice.

Can I do this with Google?: although Bing and Google both provide size filters that can help you hone in on large images, Bing IMHO has a three-pronged advantage (1) the filters are right there in the sidebar whereas in Google you have to dig for them; (2) the Google filters are much more granular, which can be an advantage, except in this case I like the "wallpaper" size option in Bing, and most importantly (3) Bing’s image results are simply cooler; it seems to be looking for "wallpaper" images as such rather than big images. (Note this is what I found at least for terms I was searching for; make the comparison yourself).

Here’s a step by step.

1. Go to Bing Image Search and type in a topic you like. Make it broad (do not make it too narrow) in order to get a decent set of results. For this exercise I typed in "Tree".
2. Next, scroll down to the "size" filter in the left sidebar and click on "Wallpaper"
3. Check out the set of results.
4. Filter some more: if you like, you can use the other filters in the left sidebar to further filter the results by layout, color, style, etc.

Bonus: once you find desktop wallpapers you like, check out the sites where you found them for other cool wallpaper. For this posting I made two searches for the keywords "tree" and "cloud" and the images displayed above came from this, this, this, and this cool wallpaper site/sources.

You likely have a reason for having multiple browsers installed on your PC (assuming that you do!). I use IE7 at work, for example, because most of the people who browse our work sites use that browser and I prefer to have their same browsing experience. But I also have Firefox installed because of the many interesting extensions and plugins that it has, etc.

Whatever your reasons for having multiple browsers, BrowserMaster is a small app that becomes, in effect, your default browser, and once it detects a request to open an internet link it briefly flashes browser icons on screen and allows you to quickly select the browser that you want to use. More notes below:

• Applies to links clicked outside a browser: for example shortcuts on your desktop, in a notes program, in an email notifier app, in an Office or PDF document or an email client, etc. Links clicked inside a browser behave as normal.
• Links: works for HTTP:\\ or HTTPS:\\ links.
• Default wait time: it gives you 2 seconds to choose your browser before going with the default. This can be changed in the settings file, but has to be done manually using a text editor. The settings file is in “C:\Documents and Settings\yourusername\Application Data\BrowserMaster\BrowserMaster.xml”; find the “delayin seconds” tag and change the value from 2 to something else.
• Other settings: from the settings file mentioned above, you could also enable/disable specific browsers. Find and change (Enabled=”true”) to (Enabled=”false”) for each listed browser.

Wish list (or how to make this program even better)

• Force a choice: I wish that BrowserMaster could be set to force the user to make a choice rather than the few seconds that this version waits for a decision.
• Set a default browser: it does not seem possible to set a default browser choice. It will default to whatever browser is open, but if no browser is open it defaulted to something and I couldn’t figure out how it made its decision (or whether that can be changed).
• Present a choice when opening local links: for pages that were stored on my hard drive, it didn’t give a choice, which I thought was strange.
• GUI interface: to quickly change the settings. Would be great.

The verdict: an original, clever little app that has a lot of potential. As it is it can be very useful, but they can really push this one and make it a lot better in my opinion. Check it out for yourself.

[Via: Umair from Crispytech tipped me off about this one; check out his BrowserMaster writeup here]

Version Tested: 1.1.0 Beta (note: I STRONGLY recommend installing this one over 1.0)

Compatibility: WinAll

Go to the program page to download the latest version (approx 376K).

[Editor's note: this post was written by Freewaregenius contributor Jason H. Check out his tech blog: 404techsupport.com].

Text 2 Mind Map

Text 2 Mind Map is listed as a work in progress, but it’s very complete in what it does. While it’s not as advanced as the other sites on the list, it is the most simple to use. You just make an outline of the text that you want in the left pane. Use Tab to indent and Shift+Tab to outdent to make the order of your thoughts. You can easily edit the list while you’re working on it or after the chart has been made.

The toolbox on the right is also straight forward and you can move it around to if it’s in your way. You can make the screen go full size in order to accommodate your chart if it’s too big. By default the chart will move around whenever you update it or drag nodes around so that everything is mostly equidistant. You can turn this off by checking the ‘Freeze map’ and then drag everything how you want it to look. You can change the size and the color of the text from the Toolbox and you change the color of each node level by clicking on the node and then the small arrow that appears. You can also change that coloring from the Toolbox under the Colors section. You can also choose to have each branch a separate color instead of each level if you’d prefer it that way under Coloring Method. Finally, you can change the line color and width as well.

You can save the Mind Map for working on later by just manually copy/pasting the outline to a file for yourself and you can save the image by hitting the ‘Save map…’ button in the toolbox to render a .jpg version of it.

Lovely Charts

Lovely Charts allows you to make flowcharts, sitemaps, wireframes, organization charts, network diagrams and pretty much anything else by allowing you to import .jpg, .jpeg, .gif, or .png images as symbols. Lovely Charts has a Basic, free version and a Premium version at $29 Euros a year. You can see what the version differences are on their FAQ page and judge for yourself if it’s worth the upgrade. The Basic version allows you to create diagrams with the full symbol library and the ability to export as .jpg or .png files. The diagrams will have a Lovely Charts logo with the free version. The free version allows you to have one editable document that can be collaborated upon with others.

To get started with Lovely Charts, just create account and enter the verification code that’s e-mailed to you. You’ll have to have Adobe Flash installed for your browser, but you can quickly start creating diagrams for whatever purpose you need. Some cool features of Lovely Charts includes opacity control for each symbol and the ability to quickly select a different symbol in the same library group from the right-click menu. You can also control the line width and arrow end of any pointing lines and align the symbols to a grid.

Lovely Charts uses a different type of control to create symbols that I didn’t quite find intuitive although I believe if I got accustomed to it, you could very quickly create charts if you had a specific purpose in mind. You start off by dragging a symbol from the toolbar onto the grid. You then drag that object to where you want the next object to be and a copy will be made with an arrow pointing back to the original object. You can then right-click the new object to change it to a different symbol if needed. While an interesting method that seemed very smooth, I think I would prefer a more static system where I could just drag an object, drag a different object, and then drag an arrow from one to another.

Creately

Creately is the full-blown experience and the best tool out of this list. It is a data driven, online diagramming & design suite all in one sharp web application. With Creately, you have a package that is much more comparable to the full-blown commercial suites like Microsoft Visio. You can sign up for an account to get started immediately. Creately gives you a lot for free: unlimited public diagrams, 5 people collaborating on a diagram at most, the ability to publish/export, 10 megabytes of storage, and SSL protected connections. With the basic account, all exported documents are watermarked with the Creately logo. You can upgrade to the Creately Plus! account at a ‘pay what you want’ price. But back to the features you get with the basic account (free):

You can collaborate with people over flowcharts, mockups, network diagrams, presentations, sitemaps, and a lot more. You can easily create your charts using the drag and drop interface, resize shapes, and easily undo any mistakes you make along the way. In your collaborating, revisions will be made and your co-workers can leave comments on the revisions. As far as the visual display is concerned, you can style your charts or even make graphics out of the tools available at hand including gradients, style, text size and font, and the alignment of nodes.

You can export your diagrams as an image, a PDF file, an XML data file, or send through e-mail. Your diagrams can all be saved under your account for easy access from any Flash-enabled browser. Creately also uses tabs to allow you to work on multiple files easily at the same time.

See their demo video for a tour and a display of its awesome ability to intelligently work with network diagrams and other features:

Oolite is an open source remake of the classic space simulator Elite. This non-linear title puts the player in control of their own experience. Trading, piracy, and mining are just a fraction of what you can do in this expansive universe.

[Editor’s note: this review was written by Freewaregenius contributor Travis B. Check out his new blog here].

Captain Jensen had traveled three systems to make this run. His cargo hold full of radioactives would fetch a hefty sum on this rich industrial planet. But the swarm of blips fast approaching on radar didn’t look like innocent freighters. The only policed sector surrounding the station was on the far side of the planet. This is what you get for trading with a lawless system…

Oolite takes something old and makes it new again. This open source remake of one of gaming’s great classics Elite is solid gaming gold. In this incredibly non-linear space simulator players can fly around the galaxy trading, fighting off pirates, pirating, or taking intergalactic taxi missions. With no story except the one you make for yourself, Oolite is a member of a dying type of game.

Gameplay: This is one of the least linear games I’ve ever played. From the very start you are in charge of your own experience. Do you trade in your standard Mark III for something cheaper, letting you afford the much desired upgrades? Or do you struggle through the first few runs without a docking computer, fuel injector, or effective weaponry? The decision is yours. It’s almost intimidating to strike out into the vast game world without a mission. This trend continues for as long as you play. Your profession and actions are entirely up to you. You can prey on weaker ships, collect space debris for credits, and engage in both legal and illegal trade. Just keep an eye peeled for the GalCops.

Sound: The audio in Oolite leans toward the retro. The sound is inspired by the space simulators of yesteryear. Laser effects are clean without fizzles and pops, events are marked by conservative alert beeps, and your engine hums contentedly. It almost sounds like a cut and dry military simulation.

Lasting Appeal: Oolite is the sort of game you keep on your hard drive. Once you’ve gotten into the groove of things, it’s hard to not keep upgrading your ship, finding new trade routes, and fighting anyone who dares cross you. But for those who tire of the simple graphics and gameplay of Oolite vanilla, the game’s community has created an enormous amount of expansion packs. These addons, called OXP’s, drastically enhance the game. The modding community has created additional HUD displays, more detailed ship and space station models, mission types and ship upgrades. More than enough to keep even flighty players playing.

Graphics: The Original Elite was one of the first fully 3D games. Sporting rudimentary wire-frame graphics, players had to fill in the details for themselves. The vanilla version of Oolite comes with simply textured models, keeping this tradition alive. It’s not that this graphics engine isn’t capable of handling more impressive visuals, it’s that it doesn’t need to. This universe is full of activity, with traders zipping around dodging raiders, and galactic cops trying to keep the peace. It may take spoiled gamers time to adjust to the simple graphics. That’s fine, because it’s not the visuals that make Oolite great.

Controls: Oolite supports playing with both the keyboard and joystick. While it’s not strictly necessary to hook up your dusty peripheral, you’ll be short changing yourself if you don’t. Keyboard controls are workable, but in combat their is no substitute for the finesse a good joystick allows. The keyboard commands for non-combat functions are intuitive an easy to pick up.

The verdict: If you’re starving for a good space simulator, Oolite will satisfy. With a more rewarding trade system than it’s contemporaries, fast paced combat, and a healthy dose of retro appeal, this is worth checking out.

Compatibility: Windows, Linux, and Mac OS 10.3.9 and up.

Go to the game home page to download the latest version (approx 20.63 megs).

Your audio library likely comes from a hodge-podge of sources; tracks that you ripped from CDs using different programs and settings over the years, tracks that you downloaded from sites and file sharing services, and tracks that you bought from services such as iTunes, etc. This means that unless you have put in a lot of time and energy fixing tags, normalizing volume, and generally doing maintenance on your audio files your audio library probably has a lot of issues that need to be remedied (including many problems that you were never aware of). This is where MP3 Diags steps is to discover, diagnose, and fix any problems or other issues that your audio library may have.

Problems? What Problems?
The most visible problem are of course tagging and missing normalization data, but there are other, more technical issues that you may not be aware of. MP3 Diags, to quote its website, “is a one stop solution that identifies more than 50 different issues in MP3 files and provides the means to fix many of them”. These (again from the website) include broken tags/headers/audio, duplicate tags/headers, incorrect placement of tags/headers, low quality audio, missing VBR header, missing (or broken) track info/cover art, missing normalization data, and character encoding issues (for languages other than English).

What I like about this program
Is that it doesn’t just diagnose, it includes the tools to fix. However, here’s a specific list of things I like about this MP3 Diags

1. Full fledged Tag editor: which is really very cool. I like that you can copy from one “cell” in its Excel-like grid, then paste into multiple places.
2. MusicBrainz (and Discogs) integration: it includes a full fledged tag editor that can pull data from Musicbrainz and Discogs. (Musicbrainz is a community based digital thumbprinting database that can identify and tag audio files with no tag or filename information).
3. Volume normalization: uses external app Mp3Gain to process and normalize albums, in order to ensure that played tracks from different albums or different source don’t exhibit volumes that are too loud or too low on transition. To enable Mp3Gain download the zipped version of that program nd extract in the MP3 Diags directory.
4. Tooltips: while most of the issues that MP3Diags are technical and in many cases not easily understandable, the program will let you hover over the different columns and get an instant explanation. This makes the program so much more accessible and easier to use for novices and experts alike.
5. Maintains backups of changed files

Wish list (or how this program can be even better):

• A “fix everything” button: as it is there are a number of “action” buttons, and each will perform a certain group of fixes (which are editable in the settings). However, I found myself clicking on these on after the other in order to get all the issues taken care of.
• Search box: although there are many kinds of filters available for sorting through files, it is not possible to filter by typing in a string of text, which I found very strange.
• Column sort: issues found are laid out in a grid, and it was strange to discover that I couldn’t click on column heads in order to sort by these.
• Context menu integration for the tag editor: i.e. the ability to right click on a folder or selected audio files and open these in the tag editor. This is one thing that Mp3Tag does which I love, and I wish this program would do it as well.

The verdict: I’ve seen a handful of programs that scan your audio library to identify quality issues, but MP3Diag is without a doubt in a league of its own. If you’ve every wished there was a single program that can help you identify problems in your audio library and allow you to fix then you’ve found it.

Some caveats though: this program is still in beta so be mindful of that if you encounter any bugs (I didn’t). Also note that what constitutes low quality is user defined in the settings, so change that according to your preference.

My experience with this program is that it works great; however, I often found myself a little … incredulous (may be the word) … that problems were found with audio files that I didn’t think had anything wrong with them (such as containing invalid streams for example). In cases like these, you could either use the auto backup and apply the fix or simply decide to move on. In my case I did the former without adverse effects, and I actually have a high degree of trust that the program “knows what its doing”. Highly recommended.

Version Tested: 0.99.06.042

Compatibility: Windows, Linux.

Go to the program home page for more info; download link can be found here (installer and portable versions available; approx 6.36 megs).

I have a soft spot for little apps that access to favorite items on-the-fly. JumpTo provides access to folders, files, apps, and URLs from anywhere and can be displayed in any program. It is very similar to previously mentioned Folder Menu, with some differences. Here’s a list of pros and cons.

PROS:

• Launch your favorite folders, files, apps, or URLs from anywhere: simply launch the app via its keyboard shortcut and you can be quickly on your way.
• Memos: JumpTo also includes a simple notes app. It can quickly
• Create your own submenus: which is to say it lets you create and organize the cascading menu entries as you like.
• Adding items: can be performed via the context menu entry, by highlighting an item and pressing Alt+shift+S, or by opening the add items dialog and dragging and dropping items into it.
• Less than 4 megs in memory: makes this program truly lightweight.
• Extra functions: via the "extra functions" context menu entry launch a run box, insert dates dynamically into your text, or strip any text in the clipboard from any formatting. You can also hide and display windows.
• Portable version: is available for download on the site.

CONS:

• Does not provide access to favorite folders in Windows open/save dialogs: unlike for example similar apps such as Folder Menu.
• Does not support icons: which is to say your app shortcuts and other shortcuts will be represented using text only. Not a big deal, but could have looked better with icons.

The verdict: a nice little app that and is truly lightweight. It has room for improvement in terms of accessing folders in open/save dialogs but as it is it can be extremely useful and a huge time saver.

JumpTo video Tutorial:

Version Tested: 1.0

Compatibility: WinAll.

Go to the program home page to download the latest version (approx 787K).

Although I have a handful of folders designated for specific projects and topics, I notice that whenever I am working on something most of the files I am using invariably end up on the desktop. If this is your experience as well (or indeed if you download a lot of files into the desktop and have to sort them out later) then you should check this program out.

What DragTargets does is allow you to set up your frequently used favorite folders as buttons in a floating desktop widget. You can then drag and drop your files to the appropriate folder in the DragTargets window to copy or move them to the right place, or simply click on the folder button to open the folder. More notes on this program below:

• Copy or move: dragging files copies them by default; to move files instead check the little box next to the “stop” button.
• Open folders: click on the folder button to open it in explorer
• Portable: unzip and use, no install needed.
• Memory use: about 7 megs, which is fairly small.

Wish list (or how this program can be a lot better)

• Minimize to tray: essential, I think, for a program like this.
• Show and hide by hotkey: would make it so much more useful.
• The option to switch off semi-transparency

The verdict: a nice little program that can potentially be extremely useful. It can however be much improved with a few little tweaks though (see wish list above!).

Version Tested: 1.0

Compatibility: WinAll.

Click this link to download (approx 281K). Developer homepage here but does not provide any info. See this page for more info on this program.

Although there is probably no one left in the universe that hasn’t figured out how to find and download music on the internet, Songr is a nice program to have for the following reasons (consider this the PROS section):

1. It has a nice, compact interface.
2. The fact that it searches multiple sources, acting as a meta-search engine for audio search engines such as Skreemr and others.
3. It can identify songs based on lyrics. Perfect for those times when you have a section of a song echoing over and over in your head that you don’t have the name of and/or don’t know the artist.
4. It can download songs from YouTube as MP3 audio or as FLV or MPG video. (For this, click on the little blue floppy disk icon next to “search by lyrics”).

The CONS section:

• Reliability: many entries in the list of results turned out to be broken links when I tried to download them. And while eventually I invariably found entries in the list that worked, it would be great if Songr could check for and remove broken links from the list.

The verdict: a nice program; straightforward and does the job, but with room for improvement in terms of reliability. Regardless, Kudos to the developers for this nice little program.

Version Tested: 1.2

Compatibility: Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7. Requires Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5.

Go to the program home page to download the latest version (approx 0.45 megs).

This is one of those programs that are difficult to write about just because they contain so many functions and do many things. In some ways Signo is comparable to such automation tools as AutoHotkey, although it is less complex and more accessible. However, unlike AutoHotkey Signo does not have a scripting component so it is not a full fledged macro engine and development environment.

Aside from its accessibly what I also like about Signo is that it is very small (occupies a mere 9 megs in memory); I also like that it can give you a sort of "shortcut report" for your system that displays all of its keyboard shortcuts as well as ones that are used by other apps and by Windows (part of which is in fact pictured in the screenshot above).

Here are 7 (Seven!) cool things that this program can do:

1. Snap windows to the edges of the screen: in the style of Windows 7, using keyboard shortcuts (Alt+Win+Up/left/right/top/bottom).
2. Minimize to tray: (Ctrl+Win+T) will minimize the current window or app to the tray. Interestingly, you can minimize all windows to the tray in one fell swoop by pressing (Ctrl+Win+Z).
3. Launch apps and URLs: from the system tray or via hotkey.
4. Auto corrections (and abbreviations): we’ve seen this before with AutoHotkey; you can add frequently misspelled words to a list such that every time you type in a misspelling it is automatically corrected for you.
5. Insert predefined text: you can either set a custom hotkey that would insert a specified text, or define a "textkey" that you can type in and watch it magically being transformed to your predefined text (e.g. you can set "#sig" to automatically insert your signature/name/etc. inside the text you’re writing).
6. Optimize applications’ memory utilization: this program is by the same developer who released Minimem, an excellent memory optimization utility designed to reduce the memory footprint of individual programs. It would appear that they have incorporated that program’s functionality into Signo such that you could add any app from within Signo and create a shortcut that would optimize its memory use. Super cool!. For browsers use the predefined Shift+Win+B if your browser starts gobbling up large amounts of RAM.
7. Context menu of functions, anywhere: Ctrl+Alt+leftmouse will display a handy context menu of Signo functions anywhere you happen to be at that time.

Wish list: (or how this program can be even better)

• Disabling functions: although it is possible to delete functions you don’t want, I found myself wishing I could simply de-activate them without deleting (as it is you have the option to export them then delete, which keeps the option to re-import later if you want to).
• The screenshot function: needs to be improved. I was not able to capture a screenshot of a context menu (the program kept releasing it for me), wasn’t able to define a quality setting for my saved JPG, wasn’t able to attach a suffix or prefix to filenames. A "Repeat last capture" function would also be good.

The verdict: a nice program overall. If you find that it contains a bit too many functions and shortcuts you can always remove the ones that you don’t want and customize the keyboard shortcuts if needed. And at 9 megs in memory, Signo manages to be both powerful and small. Check it out.

Version Tested: 1.4

Compatibility: Windows 2003, Vista, Server 2008, 2000, XP, Windows 7.

Go to the program home page to download the latest version (approx 2.46 megs).

Do you want a cool application switching / Alt+Tab replacement app? Check out VistaSwitch. More notes on this one below:

• It looks pretty darn slick: don’t take my word for it, check out the screenshot.
• Preview thumbnails: see a thumbnail preview of the apps or windows as you scroll through them. Previews are available not just for maximized windows but for minimized windows in Vista and Windows 7 (but not in XP).
• Sticky: you can turn this mode on if you like. It will allow you to launch VistaSwitcher with Alt+Tab (or another shortcut), release the keys, and have the VistaSwitcher interface remain open. (Which I quite like actually)
• Windows operations: you can right click on an entry in the VistaSwitcher interface and perform some operations such as minimize, maximize, or close.
• Memory use: about 9 megs (which is fairly small).
• Native 64 bit version available.

The verdict: this app is the successor to TaskSwitchXP, which I am very fond of (they are both from the same developer). What I like about it is that it manages to be simultaneously slick, simple, and low on resources (and of course free). What more could you ask for?

Version Tested: 1.0.3

Compatibility: Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7. 32 bit and 64 bit versions available.

Go to the program home page to download the latest version (approx 271K).

I had two reactions here: the first was … wow! cool!. The second, I was initially wondering what the point of this was, exactly. If you are asking the same question, the answer is that this is built to view really large images; which is to say images with enough detail and visual data to make it worthwhile zooming in, panning, and doing all the cool stuff that Seadragon can do. More notes below:

• Fullscreen: can maximize to fullscreen (click on the icon in the bottom right).
• Images: can be used on images found on the web. If you want to use your own images, upload them somewhere first. Remember that its designed to view really large, hi-res images.
• Sharing links: Seadragon will provide a URL that you can send to and share with others.
• Embedding in a website: Seadragon will also provide the code you need to embed the image and in a page. You can modify the code to customize width and height.

See it in action below

Note: I’ve had this image on my hard drive for a while and unfortunately do not remember whence it came; cannot give credit.

The verdict: a nice toy to play with. It is perfect if you have large images that you would like to view or share without making them small and “internet friendly”, and for panoramic images as well. This is also a great way to publish images of artwork, commercial brochures or scientific images that may be rich in both visual information and text.

Compatibility: a modern browser.

Go to Seadragon.com.

If you post images on the internet you know that in most cases images need to be resized for optimal viewing in a browser and the compression quality adjusted to make the file sizes smaller and faster to download (my preferred settings, for example, are a width of 800 pixels and 80% quality setting). Dropresize is a program that provides a simple way to perform these adjustments on images simply by moving them to a designated folder. Here are more notes on this program.

• How it works: Dropresize is a background app that lives in the system tray and monitors a designated folder on your hard drive. Once it detects images moved into that folder it automatically resizes them based on your size and quality settings. (Note: max resize is 1600 pixels, and images smaller than your defined resolution settings will not be enlarged).
• Settings: users can specify desired height OR desired width in pixels, as well as the compression quality settings.
• Supported filetypes: at the moment of this writing only Jpegs are supported, but it seems there are plans to support other image types.
• Portable: unzip and run. No install needed. If you want this app to be launched when you boot into Windows you need to manually add it to the startup folder (found in the Windows’ start menu).
• Memory consumption: this is a MS .NET app and therefore memory consumption can be somewhat unclear. I believe its takes about 15 megs in memory, which is not that much but not quite lightweight.

Wish list: I could go on and on with ideas to make this better, but will make it brief

• Auto rename: automatically adding a prefix or suffix to the file names; such as appending an “_s” to the filename fo example to indicate that it is a resized version.
• Multiple profiles: for example having one folder resize to width=800 and another to width=200 (for thumbnails), etc.

The verdict: while there are many ways to resize images in batch, the “designated folder” concept employed by Dropresize is both innovative and appealing. The program is still in beta and my guess is that it will be improved greatly, but at what it does Dropresize works really well. If you frequently have to resize images for the internet then check this one out for sure.

Version Tested: 0.1.3b

Compatibility: Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7. Requires Requires Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 or newer. (This is already pre-installed in Vista).

Go to the program home page to download the latest version (approx 22.99K).

Why you need this app: although many sites have RSS feeds or email subscription options that can notify you when there’s new content, many sites do not and may require constant follow up in order to keep up with changes. And even if a site supports RSS some types of content may not be supported, such as comments or discussions on forums and the like.

I’ve been looking at desktop-based apps that monitor websites for changes when I found this site. Changedetection.com will monitor a list of websites you specify for changes and send you email notifications whenever it detects them. More notes below:

• Highlighting changes: once it detects a change, Changedetection.com will render a version of the web page that displays new text on the page highlighted in a yellow marker style. Text that is no longer on the page is also displayed in a strike-through style.
• Changes it detects: text changes anywhere at all (including in the sidebar). Images, videos, or other elements such as HTML tags are not detected.
• History: what is truly amazing is that once you create an account, a history of the website(s) you are tracking is kept and can be accessed for later reference (see the screenshot to the right above).
• Schedule: Changedetection.com will check a website for changes once per day.

The verdict: this is a truly great service. I prefer this to local apps that track site changes because the monitoring and detection is performed remotely on their servers, so you do not have to worry about your PC being online, and your computer’s resources are not being used at all times.

I’m also blown away by the fact that changes are tracked and saved, such that you could access older versions of the sites you are interested in.

Compatibility: Browser based. You will need to provide an email address where your notifications will be sent.

Go to the changedetection.com page.

As your image collection grows you may have noticed that although it is taking more and more space on your hard drive, yet ironically you seldom get to actually look at your pictures. Wouldn’t it be great if you could integrate your images into your desktop and screensaver so you could actually get to see them? If this sounds like something you want then read on.

There are three types of toys that this program offers:

1. Dynamic wallpaper (”collages”): these consist of a backdrops with three “postcards” overlayed on top where PhotoJoy will randomly shuffle pictures from your collection.
2. Photo widgets (which it calls Photo Toys): reminiscent of other desktop widget engines (e.g. Klipfolio or Vista’s built in widgets). There are 5 variations on this in the version I tested that feature animation and interesting transitions (see screenshot to the right). The downside is that these seem to consume too much CPU power, so I would use sparingly and only on powerful PCs (see CONS section below).
3. Animated Screensavers: I’ve seen screensavers based on images before, but must admit that these are very interesting and the range of different screensavers on offer is impressive (screenshot on top left of this post).

Here’s a list of PROS and CONS:

PROS:

1. An excellent range of choices; many “toys” that you can download and use
2. The screensavers: very cool and smoothly animated
3. The dynamic wallpaper “collages” are generally very interesting

CONS:

1. Memory use is approx 40 megs, which is not insignificant. But the more important issue is that this program seems to be constantly using up CPU processing cycles on my PC (about 20%-30%). Upon further investigation I found that it was the widgets (Photo Toys) that were responsible. The other toys were ok in terms of CPU usage. See more on this subject in the “verdict” section below.
2. The backgrounds for the dynamic wallpaper tends to be somewhat, erm… cheesy.

Wish list (or how this program can be even better):

• The ability to create custom dynamic wallpaper would be great, such that you would use your favorite image as wallpaper and overlay it with the postcard style changing images.

The verdict: generally a very good, well made program. What’s interesting about PhotoJoy is the range of options that it has on offer; there are dozens of “collages” and screensavers to choose from and most of them are innovative and well done. On the flip side the high CPU usage for the widgets (Photo Toys) was a deal breaker for me, and I quickly removed these. Unless you have a powerful PC or really want the widgets on your desktop I would skip those and stick with just the wallpaper and screensaver options instead (which to me are the more interesting ones anyway).

Demo video:

Version Tested: build 200956

Compatibility: Windows XP or Vista, graphic card with 64 mb of memory

Go to the program home page to download the latest version (approx 621K for the installer, which will then download more files on installation).

[Editor’s note: this review was contributed by blogger Ishan of ILoveFreeSoftware.com].

When Twitter was launched, I was really skeptical about how far it would go. 140 characters seemed like a joke. However, Twitter has proved me and tons of others wrong. Part of its strength is attributable to Twitter’s openly accessible API, whcih anyone can use that for free to build their own custom software (and which developers, unlike iPhone applications, do not need to get approval from Twitter). This API is why many people have come with up some really innovative applications around Twitter, and TweetMyPC is one of them.

To start, you need to install TweetMyPC on the PC that you need to control remotely. I find it useful to install this on my home PC, so that I can get stuff from it while I am in office or on vacation. After that, you need to associate the program with a Twitter account that TweetMyPC will monitor for your tweets. It is recommended that you create a separate Twitter account for TweetMyPC rather than use your primary Twitter account. Also, you should disable public access of your new Twitter account, so that no one else can do some fishy activity on your PC by sending tweets to your new account. To disable public access of your Twitter account, go to Twitter then Settings. In the "Account" tab, you will see an option at bottom that says "Protect my tweets". Once you check this option no one can follow your tweets. Also, do not follow anyone with this new account, otherwise their tweets will start coming in your timeline, and can confuse TweetMyPC.

Another step you need to take is associate a Gmail account with TweetMyPC. This email account will be used to get files from your PC (as I will explain later). You can choose an existing Gmail account, but you will need to provide your Gmail password as well, so I would recommend creating a new Gmail account for this. Once you are done with the setup, TweetMyPC will monitor your assigned Twitter account in one minute intervals to see to see if there are tweets that it needs to act on. Once you send a command to TweetMyPC it will act on that tweet and send you a tweet in response.

Here are some of the main things that TweetMyPC can do for you:

• Shutdown/Restart your PC: just tweet "Shutdown", and TweetMyPC will shutdown your system. Similarly, "Logoff", "Reboot", "Lock", "Hibernate", "Standby" will do the respective tasks as their names suggest.
• Get Screenshot of your system: if you are wondering what might be happening on your system in your absence, you can just tweet "Screenshot". TweetMyPC will grab a screenshot of your PC, and post it on Twitpic. It will then tweet you link to that screenshot.
• Download a file to your system: let’s say you want to start downloading some big file on your system so that the download is completed by the time you reach home. To do that, just tweet "download URL". TweetMyPC will start downloading the file from the URL that you mentioned. Note, however, that you need to use a URL shortened by Bit.ly
• Get a file from your PC: Let’s say you want to get a file from your computer. Just tweet "get" followed by file path. TweetMyPC will send you the file from the specified path at the Gmail address that you specified above. If you do not know the exact path of the file, you can tweet "getfilelist" followed by drive. TweetMyPC will send you list of files and folders in that drive. You can use that to find exact path of file you are looking for, and then use "get" command to get that file.

TweetMyPC has some other interesting commands as well and also an option to define your own command. All this makes TweetMyPC a really versatile tool that is very intelligent and still one of the simplest applications to use. Shoban, the developer of this software, has done some great out of the box thinking to come up with the idea for this innovative freeware, and then to implement it so beautifully. Love it!

Version Tested: 2.0

Compatibility: Windows, Mac. Windows version requires Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 or higher.

Go to the program home page to download the latest version (approx 931K).

[Editor’s note: this posting was contributed by Freewaregenius reader Elioz Hefer; to whom I offer my extreme thanks and gratitude].

After a period of using MS Internet Explorer, my computer’s response time has become slower and I have encountered repeated problems of being thrown out from IE8 (especially). I have come to the conclusion that a clutter of addons has caused it, and resetting to default regrettably hasn’t been much help.

I therefore turned to the portable version of Mozilla firefox, with the thought that I would prefer to preserve my PC hygiene as much as possible. I have learned in time that my most valuable asset is the speed and quick response time of a computer, and therefore I try to avoid fixed installations. I also found that virtualizations such as Altiris SVS help but do not completely block remains of programs, and the same goes for programs that monitor or record program installations such as Magical Uninstall.

Firefox Portable Edition is the popular Mozilla Firefox web browser bundled with the PortableApps.com Launcher as a portable app, so you can take your bookmarks, extensions and saved passwords with you. Mozilla Firefox Portable Edition can be copied to a thumb drive so that you can use it whereever you go.

One problem though is that Firefox Portable Edition does not register itself with the system, and
thus cannot be set as the default browser using the GUI. Whenever turning to a new Url (within Portable Firefox or from library links I have previously saved, my PC would continuously opens IE8. Which is why I started looking for a way to set the portable version of Firefox to the default browser without installing the regular non portable version and the least degree of integration with my system.

The solution came in the form of very elegant program called DefaultBrowser written by Ramesh of “Ramesh’s site“, a resource dedicated to troubleshooting windows XP. This small utility can set the default browser according to user preference. What’s more, it is reversible and doesn’t install itself on the system that I could notice. Download it here.

Here is how to set Firefox Portable as the default browser for your user profile in Windows XP.

1. Download DefaultBrowser and unzip to the folder of your choice
2. Run the executable and select Firefox Portable from the list of browsers (see screenshot above) then click Apply.
3. In the Browse dialog box, select the location where the executable FirefoxPortable.exe is located.
4. That’s it. Very quickly and like magic Firefox Portable is now set as the default browser for your user account.

Notes:

1. If your desired browser is not on the list: in this case click browse button in the “for other browsers” section and point to the desired browser executable.
2. DefaultBrowser doesn’t change the IE shortcut in the “Quick Launch” menu which will still open Internet Explorer. Therefore you must manually put a shortcut of the Portable Firefox executable in the quick launch folder. To do that click the quick launch area and then choose Open folder, you can then drag create shortcuts in there or remove the ones you don’t want (I wouldn’t delete the explorer Icon from that folder in case you wish to reverse things).
3. Reversing this process: is done is done very easily by opening the small DefaultBrowser utility and choosing the reset button.
4. Important: If you’re using Mozilla Firefox Portable Edition from a USB disk: whenever the drive-letter for the USB disk changes, you’ll need to re-register FirefoxPortable.exe using the DefaultBrowser utility. For instance, the drive-letter for your USB disk may change when adding additional hardware in your system.

That’s it, enjoy!

Version Tested: 1.8

Compatibility: Windows XP.

Go to the DefaultBrowser page to download the latest version (approx 31K).

If you’re interested in a single-stop ebook and edocument reader check out STDU Viewer. It offers support for many ebook formats, including PDF, Deja-Vu, as well as the comic book formats CBZ and CBR, and is an excellent program to boot.

If you’re wondering if STDU Viewer is a good PDF reader the answer is yes. Very good in fact, and makes for a great replacement to Adobe’s reader. Here are my top ten SIX things I like about this program:

1. One ebook reader to rule them all: I love the range of formats that it covers, which comprises the most common ebook formats on the internet.
2. Tabs: are not just for Firefox anymore, and the ability to work with multiple documents simultaneously each on its own tab is not only fashionable, it makes for a good user experience.
3. Search: what’s cool about the search function is that, unlike other readers, it doesn’t just jump to the next instance of the text but actually presents a list of results (see screenshot to the right)
4. User-defined double clicking action: STDU Viewer will divide the page into four quadrants and allows you to define an action to be performed when you double click on each quadrant. For example you could set it up such that if you double click on the bottom right of the screen the program would perform a page down.
5. Thumbnails: you could place page thumbnails and the left hand margin and use them to browse. Very cool (see screenshot at the top of this post). This applies to all formats and not just comic book archives.
6. Bookmarks: if you’re reading a document you need bookmarks right? Right. STDU allows you to set bookmarks for later use. It does not store these bookmarks within the document itself.

Wish list:

• Support for: .LIT and HTML Help CHM files. This would REALLY make this program an indispensable install.

The verdict: a very nice program; install this one and use for all (or most) of your ebook / edocument reading needs.

I also like that the program is so well laid out from a usability point of view and that it is kept so simple and straightforward. Now if they would only extend their support to .LIT and .CHM files! Regardless, this reader is highly recommended.

Version Tested: 1.5

Compatibility: Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista.

Go to the program home page to download the latest version (approx 1.65 megs).

If you’ve ever wanted to string a bunch of images together into an animation then PhotoFilmStrip is for you. Three things make this program notable:

1. It is extremely easy to use. I was able to create a fairly decent film literally within 10 minutes of installation.
2. It is very nicely laid out. The interface design is intuitive and simple.
3. The output videos are smoothly-animated and of excellent quality.

Decisions: part of why this is so easy to use is that the decisions that the user has to make are fairly straightforward, and there really aren’t too many of them. First off you have to add images to the movie, arrange them in the right order, rotate them if necessary, and choose whether you want to recolor them(b&w or sepia). Next, for each image you have to choose the beginning and end state of the camera; i.e. how the camera will zoom in or out. This is the most “creative” part and is done via two rectangles for the beginning and end states (see screenshot above), and is surprisingly simple to do. Lastly, you can type in a subtitle for each image (which is optional) and specify the duration in seconds that each image animation will occupy within the movie. You will need to make a couple more decisions once at the very end once you’re ready to render, including resolution, output format, and whether you would like to add a soundtrack. The program does not support any fancy transitions between one image and the next; all images simply fade in and out of each other.

More notes on this program:

• Subtitles: if you enter subtitles they will be rendered in .SRT format; they will not be “burned into” the final output movie. (Most decent media players, such as The KMPlayer, will be able to play this format of subtitles).
• Rendering the filmstrip: you can use pre-defined profiles in the settings, including DVD and other profiles for different resolutions (can go up to an impressive HD (1920×1080) resolution). I like that PhotoFilmStrip has the Xvid encoder built in and doesnt require the user to install codecs.
• Adding audio: once you’re ready to render, you can add an audio track. If you want to add narration you will need to do some post processing with external programs (e.g Audacity to record and something like VirtualDub or Avidemux to add the new audio track to the video.)

Wish list (or how this program can be even better)

• Support for custom, pre-built transitions: I just had to put this out there, even as I acknowledge that it will add a layer of complexity and that the default fade in/out transition works just fine.
• Burn-in subtitles: the option to burn subtitles in rather than output them in a sperate file.

The verdict: an excellent program that is both powerful and easy to use. You will be up and running creating animations out of your images in minutes. The program may lack some fancy bells and whistles, but the flip side but compensates for that in usability and good user experience. Recommended.

Version Tested: 1.1

Compatibility: Windows, Linux.

Go to the program home page to download the latest version (approx 14.9 megs).

This software is similar to Windows’ built in file search function (and different from other desktop search apps previously mentioned on Freewaregenius such as Everything, DKFinder, and Locate32) in two major ways; (1) it will perform searches on demand rather than pre-index your hard drive, and (2) it will look inside file contents and not just in file and folder names.

As such it is a direct replacement for Windows’ internal desktop search, with one major improvement: the file filtering and queries possible with FileSeek are simply a cut above the default Windows search. In fact, with its support for regular expressions you can perform searches such as the following: find me all files that contain the text "bla bla bla" or if the file path contains "internet", also look for text "blabity bla" excluding HTML and PHP files and excluding any files that have "bob" or "smith" anywhere in the title. You will have to be familiar with the regular expression query syntax to do this of course (see this link for a regex tutorial). More on regular expressions here.

More notes on this software:

• It integrates into Windows’ context menu: you can right click folders or files to quickly search inside. You can add or remove these from the settings.
• It has advanced filtering abilities: very handy even if you will never use sophisticated regular expression syntax.
• Regular Expressions: supports regular expressions
• It looks inside file contents: in contrast to the desktop search apps mentioned in the second paragraph above.
• You can easily exclude/include folder name or path matches from results
• Preview pane: displays the search results as found inside a file
• First instance or all instances: when your searched text is found inside a file, the program can list the first instance where it was found only as an entry in the list of results or it can list the same file multiple time showing all instances of the found text inside that file.
• Does not search/index files in the background: all processing is performed on-demand. It does not create databases and representations of your hard drives.
• Portable: no-install zipped version available for download.

Wish list (or how this program can be even better)

• The ability to switch searching inside files on/off: sometimes I just want to search for filenames and I do not want to search inside a file; I wish there was a simple checkbox I could use to switch searching file contents on/off.
• To not pester me about updates if I am offline: currently, if I use this offline I get a message that it wasn’t able to check for updates.

The verdict: as a replacement for Windows’ built in search function this is an excellent option. I particularly like the versatile filtering and the fact that it can search inside files.

The program has some very cool filtering options for filtering (including/excluding) file types even if you don’t know regular expression syntax. And although I personally am not a regular expressions expert I like that they are supported and that I could put together a sophisticated query if I need to. Recommended.

Version Tested: 1.8.3

Compatibility: Windows XP, Vista (x86/x64), Windows 7 (x86/64), 2000 SP4, 2003 and 2008.

Go to the program home page to download the latest version (approx 390K).

Someone at work sent me this and I liked it so much I wanted to post it here. The animation is looped twice back-to-back; I’m not quite sure why this is the case, but my guess is that they did it this way to show how seamlessly the beginning and ending of this can mesh together (so much so that I know it would have taken me a while to figure out that the animation had re-started had I not been forewarned).

Anyway if you have other animations you like please let me know as I would love to see (and potentially post) them.

[Thanks to Simon S. and Matt A. for the tip]

Go to the COMBO (2 times loop) page on Vimeo.