Notable App is a web app used in conjunction with a Firefox extension or IE bookmarklet (or even an iPhone app) in order to create and upload web clips or screenshots that can later be shared for feedback with friends, colleagues, or collaborators.This program seems to be geared towards creative teams of designers, webmaster, usability designers, developers and SEO practitioners interested in dissecting websites and sharing knowledge not just on the content of websites but on the way they were put together.

However, you can use Notable App any way you want, as a web clipping app or a platform to simply share sites that you find, like, and choose to clip. Up to three people can use Notable for free; adding more will require paid licenses.

The best way to get a feel for what this app is about is to view this demonstration video:

The concept here is fairly simple: a web-clipping tool with online storage where you can share your clippings with others on your team, and where they can respond and/or look at the shared websites in a number of different ways that help them comment on the design, metadata, and source code. A fairly innovative and noteworthy concept in theory, except I am not quite sure who this tool is targeted to, who these teams of fanatical website-analyzers would be, and how many of them are out there.

Which may not matter too much, because as with any tool you can create your own uses for it. You could also use it simply as a web-clipping tool with online storage and sharing options. The web clipping component is generally a good one, except it really needs to get a lot better (see wish list below for more on this).

More notes on this program below:

• Types of ’views’ available: (1) a straight screenshot of the clipped website; (2) a text-only stripped version, (3) the source code of the page, and (4) the metadata/SEO tags. Strangely, there is no “normal” view where you view a straight, functional webpage that you could interact with, click on functional links, etc.
• Ways of capturing data: by using a Firefox extension or IE bookmarklet, by uploading an image into the web app, by specifying a URL to capture, or by using the iPhone plugin to capture and share iPhone screenshots.
• Giving feedback: you can give feedback within any of the different views available; i.e. the screenshot view, the text-only view, etc. See the above video for a demonstration.
• Workspaces: you can create workspaces (which are similar to categories) and, once you’ve added feedback on something you can add to a workspace. Strangely, there doesn’t seem to be a way to add clips to workspaces without giving feedback first.
• Sharing: once you give feedback on something you can make it public or keep it private and share with your contacts. An easy way to share-in-batch is to create a “set”, add multiple entries to it and then share the set as a whole. Or you can give a contact access to a workspace so that they will always be able to view its particular contents.
• iPhone app: I didn’t test this myself, but the iPhone app seems to be designed for capturing screenshots from your iPhone and uploading these to your account. I am unclear as to whether you can use the iPhone app to browse clippings and feedback.

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

• The ability to clip a ’normal’, ’functional’ site: i.e. a site where you can click on the links and preview any functionality, such as being able to see what the options are for dropdowns in a form. I know that both Evernote and my favorite desktop-based “Local Website Archive Lite” will let you do this.
• Categorization and/or tagging: is not really supported in any way (you can use workspaces as categories, but only after you add feedback to your clips).
• A “visual” interface: i.e. the ability to drag thumbnails to workspaces or sets, etc. (this is a wishlist after all).

The verdict: this is an innovative and generally well-designed application. However, like I said previously I am not entirely sure who the intended audience is. The free version allows you to share feedback with up to 3 people, which further limits its usefulness.

Still, I am guessing that for some readers this may be exactly the app that they were looking for, and if that is the case for you please leave a note in the comments section below and let us know how you are using it.

My 2 cents: I really think they should focus on (1) making Notable App out to be the best online web clipping app out there, which is to say a direct competitor of Evernote. This will broaden its audience while still maintaining the differentiating aspects of sharing feedback; and (2) doing away with the 3-contacts limit for the free app, because it will merely stand in the way of this application ever achieving a critical mass.

Compatibility: a modern browser. Firefox extension available but you can use a Javascript bookmarlet for IE (and potentially other browsers).

Go to the Notable App site to signup and download.

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

Beyond the good looks, Seesmic look also presents Twitter information in a more useful, more presentable way than the Twitter website. Things like Channels, Interests, and “playback mode” all channel information into a usable, eye-catching way. First, however, we’ll need to install Seesmic Look. Its installer runs under a megabyte (669 KB) and requires .NET Framework 3.5 SP1. From what I’ve seen, the Seesmic.Look.exe process runs right around 100MB while in use.

After installing Seesmic (which is a very fast process), you’ll get a little tutorial to explain Seesmic’s interface and features. It was fairly straight-forward but I found the interface to be intuitive enough that I skimmed through the tutorial and was able to find my way around just fine.

When you first launch Seesmic, you’ll be greeted with bubbles fading in explaining current trends. It’s a pretty interesting visual display of the information, but you can also have it displayed in a list by chronological order or alphabetical order. You can also choose to see current trends, trends of the day, or of the week.

You can update your status or perform a search at any point using the text boxes at the top of the screen. You can also easily do a public reply or direct message to a person or retweet something by using the buttons on the right side of the screen.

You can use Seesmic to filter all of the information on Twitter down to things that interest you. Clicking ‘Interests’ on the left side will bring up another list of categories that you can use to filter down to your interests. You’ll then be viewing tweets that are relevant to your interests to help immerse you in the “real-time web”.

Channels are similar to Interests, but they are branded channels deriving their content from Twitter accounts associated with particular companies. There are a number of different channels like Time Magazine, Huffington Post, New York Times, and more.

Seesmic helps you delve into the Twitter-verse and find out lots of information going on in our crazy world, but Seesmic Look does it in a visually appealing way. If you’d like to download Seesmic Look, you can find it on the Seesmic Look Download Page.

If you’re looking for the Seesmic organization of Twitter, but don’t need the visual components of Seesmic Look you should still investigate other products by the same developers:

• Seesmic for Windows
• Seesmic Desktop (for Mac or Linux with Adobe AIR)
• Seesmic Mobile for BlackBerry or Android phones

Another day, another free utility that puts nifty function in the right click context menu. And although it may seem that we’ve seen a lot of the functions that Lammer Context menu offers before, a closer look will reveal some very interesting and noteworthy functions on here, such as mounting folders as virtual drives, search and replace file contents, batch file-and-folder renaming, select all similar files by type, and path operations (copy/move/list/delete) using regular expressions. Supports 32 bit and 64 bit operating systems both.

This app was mentioned in the comments section of my JDcontextmenu review (thanks reader “Free” for letting me know about it). This was the same discussion where it was mostly agreed that LopeSoft’s FileMenu Tools was likely the best free app (or at least one of the best) in it’s class in terms of installing useful functions in the context menu.

However, you should definitely check out Lammer Context menu for the following reasons:

• The functions are noteworthy and interesting (see my top 5 favorites below)
• The program is generally very well designed; you can tell that a lot of attention to detail went into each and every function.
• 32 bit and 64 bit versions available. I mention this because every since I switched to 64 bit Windows 7 a few months ago I’ve noticed that a lot of Windows extensions do not offer 64 bit support. It plays nice with the Windows UAC as well.

My Top 5 Lammer Context Menu functions

(1) Batch Rename:

Very handy tool with a well designed tabbed interface. Supports a wide range of interventions, and can be used to batch-rename files using a base name and number sequence. Will display previews of changes before renaming.

(2) Mount path as virtual drive:

This option allows you to right click on any folder and mount is as a virtual drive; i.e. give it its own drive letter and access it as a drive from “My Computer”. This lasts until you reboot or right click on the virtual drive and unmount the folder later on. If you want a more permanent way to do this, or at least one that survives a reboot, check out previously mentioned Visual Subst.

(3) Search and replace

Right click on a folder in order to perform search and replace operations on the files within it. You can search using regular expressions and search recursively through subdirectories as well. Search results are neatly displayed within the interface and so that you can preview the search/replace operation before implementing.

(4) Path operations

This will let you perform copy/move/delete or change attribute operations on folder contents intelligently. Suppose you want to move all files that are bigger than x K in size, whose modification date is on or after a certain date, who have either .jpg, .gif, or .png extensions to a new folder while preserving relative paths, this function can easily do this for you. This function will process folders recursively, supports regular expressions, and will let you invert your set of results by simply checking a box.

What’s worth mentioning is that if you have a set of criteria/filters that you want to re-use you can easily save them as a template.

(5) Select by Type

Right click on any file and choose “select by type” and all of the files of the same extension in that location will be selected for you. Very cool.

The verdict: this app gives an impression of being generally well designed and well built. What I like about it is that it packages a range of useful functions in one place in the right-click context menu. Aside from my favorite functions detailed above, it also includes staple functions that everyone should have such as “command prompt in current folder”, “copy path”, “jump to shortcut target”, and “calculate checksum”, etc.

And although it doesn’t offer the range of functions that FileMenu tools offers (or the ability to customize the context menu and manage other, third party extensions), it still offers a lot of value.

Note that this app is still in its early stages and some aspects of it (e.g. help files) are not fully implemented yet. These kinks will be ironed out in time, and I hope that new functions will be made available going forward, as mentioned somewhere on the program web site.

Version Tested: 1.0.1.4

Compatibility: Supports Windows XP through Windows 7, 32 and 64bit. Requires .NET Framework 3.51 for XP.

Go to the program home page to download the latest version (approx 1.51 megs).

I’ve known about this browser extension for a while, but I am writing about it now after using it recently and finding it to be an invaluable tool.

I recently needed to download some 450 or so entries into Excel from a browser-based workflow and ticketing system that we use at work . There is no “export” function and I simply intended to copy and paste the rows of text into my spreadsheet. The only problem was that there were 40 listings per each displayed page in the browser, and that number was not customizible. I would have had to manually browse through a dozen or so pages and copy and paste a whole bunch of times in order to complete what I thought should have been a fairly straightforward process. This is when I remembered the PageZipper bookmarklet on my browsers; a single click loaded all listings pages instantly into the same browser page, and a single copy/paste transferred all the data into my spreadsheet all at once.

Here are more notes on this program:

• It works well: in articles or listings that employ “next” links to move to the next page, including most search-style results.
• It does not work well: in articles or pages that do not use “next” links or use a custom navigation scheme such as javascript (it does not work well with this site).
• Headers and footers: from all pages are loaded into your consolidated page. This means that if you want to grab the information on the page and are concerned about esthetics you will have to go in later on and clean up your web clipping manually.
• Be careful how you use: using PageZipper on search results that may span dozens or hundreds of pages means that your browser will be downloading and appending pages forever, and you will have to abort.
• How to install: for Firefox you simply install a plugin. For IE you will need to place a Javascript bookmarklet on your favorites toolbar (or in your favorites folder). Instructions on how to do this are on the PageZipper site.

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

• The option to specify a specific number of “next” links to load. For example, if I am looking at a set of results that span 100 pages I might want to, say, consolidate and clip the first 5 pages only. It would be great if I could specify this, although I realize that it may be tough to embed too much interactive functionality into a javascript bookmarklet.

The verdict: a brilliant and original idea. This little service will be extremely valuable to anyone who does a lot of research on the internet (and/or a lot of clipping of web content). It will also be very valuable to anyone who might work with browser-based reporting systems where they might want to grab/clip or quickly copy information that spans many pages wholesale into the clipboard.

Compatibility: Requires Internet Explorer or Firefox browser.

Go to the PageZipper page to get the latest version.

A nice little utility that provides a number of useful tools at your fingertips, and packages them neatly in a single context menu entry. Most of these functions are self explanatory (copy full path, copy name, CMD line here, MD5 checksum, FileDateTime Stamp, send fullname by email as link, add file to startup folder); however, here are a few notes that may be of interest:

1. Lets you pick and choose: the functions you would like to display and use.
2. The "clear folders" function: is interesting. It allows you to right click and clear temp files or empty folders from a folder. You can define your own wildcard/pattern for the kind of files you want to delete (see screenshot to the right).
3. The "new folder" function: also interesting. Can create a bunch of numbered folders.
4. The favorite folders function: lets you define favorite folders and access them via the context menu (see screenshot to the right). But this is flawed, unfortunately, as (a) it only works when you are right clicking on a file or folder (as opposed to when you are just hovering on the desktop), (b) it doesn’t work in windows open/save dialogs, and (c) it requires users to restart Windows explorer when adding or changing favorite folders for the changes to "take", which is rather inconvenient.
5. 32 bit only: no 64 bit version, unfortunately.

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

• A 64 bit version: please
• The ability to install entries in the root of the context menu: rather than within the JDcontextmenu entry, as an option.
• A better favorite folder function: see point #4 above.

The verdict: a nice utility overall. I am very keen on cool functions added to the right click menu (see Shell Tools, Open++, QwikTulz, and my favorite FileMenu Tools).

I’ve already gone over my wish list above on how JDcontextmenu can be better, but will re-iterate the hope that the would release a 64 bit version as I am running a 64 bit version of Windows and cannot use it on my machine. If you’re running a 32 bit version of windows definitely check this one out you will like it.

Version Tested: 1.3

Compatibility: Windows 9x, ME, NT4, 2000, XP, 2003. I tested on Windows 7, so I would add Windows 7 and Vista to this list. 32 bit OS’s only.

Go to the program home pageto download the latest version (approx 4.75 megs).

If you’ve switched to a 64 bit versions of Windows, as I have, you may have noticed that many right-click shell extensions associated with some programs (specifically those written for a 32 bit environment) no longer appear in the Windows context menu. These shell / Windows extensions, however will still work in a 32 bit environment, and the objective of this app is to quickly launch a 32 bit file browser that provides instant access to any 32 bit Windows/shell extensions that may be installed on your system.

To use this program you can right click any file or folder and choose “FileBrowser32″ from the context menu. A 32-bit file browser will appear in the current folder location, allowing you to right click on files and use the 32-bit context menu. That is all the program is supposed to do (selecting files and clicking on them will do nothing). Another way to invoke this program is to launch the program from the start menu; it will appear in the system tray and can be accessed there.

The verdict: some readers, like myself, will be quite excited about this little context menu utility; others, however, who might not have any 32-bit explorer extensions they particularly use or miss do not need this.

If you do use a 64 bit Windows it is best to find Window tweaks/extensions and generally speaking software that does what you want and is specifically compiled for 64 bit OS’s. But that is not always possible, especially with free software that may no longer be in development; in which case this little app will come in handy, at least for the time being.

If I were to suggest one improvement it would be to remove the “FileBrowser32″ context menu entry from the 32 bit browser. I am not sure why it is there, if any reason at all.

Version Tested: 1.01

Compatibility: Any 64-bit Windows OS.

Go to here to download the latest version (approx 140K).

Possible uses are up to your imagination, and include merging disparate chapters or parts of an audiobook into a single file, archiving and organizing albums, and creating a single file for easier publishing or sharing on the net.

Ir ecently downloaded an audiobook that was dispersed over 36 or so separate MP3 files. As I started listening I realized that it was quite difficult to keep track of where I last left off and which of the numbered files I had already listened to. Also, it was impossible to get an overall mental picture of how many minutes I had listened to and how many still remain.

This is when I started looking for free programs that can merge audio files into one, and MakeItOne MP3 Album Maker is one of the best that I found. Here’s what I like about it:

1. The merging process is reversible: MakeItOne seems to store the information needed for this within the audio file itself.
2. Preserves audio tags: with the ability to edit this data before combining.
3. Ability to add album art: within the MP3 file itself, from a locally saved image file. Will not fetch from the internet.
4. Nice Interface: with drag and drop functionality
5. Command line interface/scripting option: is available
6. Can split Albumwrap-merged files: which you may occasionally encounter on the internet.
7. Supports VBR: in some fashion. MP3s that are between 96-320Kbps 44KHz 16bit Stereo should play fine, but the duration of the album will be misreporeted. However, to quote the developer’s site, the program’s "support for VBR is no worse currently than any other Album Maker/Joiner/Wrapper Mp3 application." Go here for more info.

The verdict: if you need to merge MP3 files this is one of the best options around. If I could ask for one feature, however, it would be the option to save CUE files, which some related programs utilize. Aside from that I can report this program does exactly what it promises and does it well. Recommended.

Version Tested: 3.4

Compatibility: WinAll. Requires MS .NET Framework 1.1 or higher for XP.

Go to the program home page to download the latest version (approx 432K).

Acer GridVista supports a custom configuration for each monitor, and provides a great user experience. It also offers a handful of other functions, such as transparency and stay-on-top options.

The ability to snap your windows to sections of the screen has become very fashionable after it was introduced with windows 7, and once you get accustomed to having this feature it becomes integral to the way you use your computer. Acer GridVista is one of a handful of free programs that provide this and has a few points to recommend it:

1. It is activated on drag and drop, or by using the special buttons it adds to the top right of your open windows next to the default minimize, maximize, and close buttons (see image to the right).
2. It works with multiple monitors, each with its own custom configuration. It also allows for extending the desktop into external monitors (a feature which I did not test because I do not have one).
3. It sticks to a range of 4 possible configurations, giving users an excellent range of options while not going overboard with too many screen configurations that may be too complex or esoteric (see images to the bottom, to the right).
4. It adds a couple of other functions: namely transparency and pin on top of other windows.
5. Can easily be disabled: on any individual window: using the aforementioned button extensions on the top right of your window.
6. Plays well with Windows’ 7 snap function. This is because the Windows 7 snap behavior kicks in once you drag a window to the edge, while GridVista can kick in the moment you hold down the mousebutton.

Wish list: I am not sure if this program is still in development, but all the same here are some suggestions that can make this program can be even better.

• The ability to set it to be inactive by default. With GridVista any window you move will be poised for snapping to a pre-defined area, even if you are simply interested in moving it. You can disable GridVista easily using the buttons on the top right, but it would be nice if you could set it to be inactive by default and only activate it when you need it.

The verdict: if you do not have Windows 7 and would like the snap functionality this program is an excellent option and one of the best programs of the sort around (I’ve reviewed a few which I will mention below). Acer GridVista is free, useful and delivers exactly what it promises.

If you would like a more powerful program, however, that offers more options (although admittedly at the cost of more complexity) you might want to look at WinSplit Revolution, which is one of my favorites.

Thanks to user usersp001 for letting me know about this program (he/she mentioned it in the comments for my MaxTo posting, which is another similar program).

Version Tested: 2.72.317

Compatibility: WinAll.

Go to this page on Softpedia to download or go here for more information (approx 1.8 megs).

Prism HUD (heads up display) is a free, lightweight performance and resource monitoring software. It provides a wealth of information in real-time right on the desktop. Although there are many free system monitoring tools out there, what is unique about Prism HUD is the way it displays information: it does not display continuous chart; rather, colorful icons appear on the desktop in a designated area of the screen only when events are taking place, and disappear altogether when the event has passed.

The five performance areas include CPU (total usage and each core’s load); Memory (total usage and hard faults); Disk (used space, utilization and transfer rate for each drive); Network (each interface’s transfer rate); and Process (the CPU usage, memory usage, page faults and IO transfer rate for each process). If you only care for a subset of these metrics you can customize the program to show exactly the ones you want.

If you’re interested in what’s going on inside your computer Prism HUD is an excellent resource and performance monitoring software. Here are a more notes on this program:

• Drill down: which is to say it doesn’t just report the macro level but individual performance data for each process (memory usage, CPU usage, etc.; see screenshots above).
• Customizable: metrics are displayed within 3 invisible floating panels on the top right of the screen by default. You can add or remove panels or move them around, and you can specify which performance measure (or submeasures) to be displayed in which panels (see image to the right).
• Lightweight: around 10 megs in memory.

The verdict: if you’re looking for a visually appealing system monitoring software then by all means give Prism HUD a try. It is very light on resources and will let you make the little visualizations as large or small as you want, and place them exactly where you want them to be. If there is one feature that I would have asked for, however, it would be for some sort of logging support, which some people would find crucial for this sort of app.

Version Tested: 1.x0

Compatibility: Windows XP or higher.

Go to the program home page to download the latest version (approx 242K).

A brilliant strangely original app, but also potentially very useful. This blog, for example, is mostly written on a laptop on the bus that I take to and from work, and I often find myself inconvenienced by the unintended Windows startup chime blasting on the bus when I start up my laptop, which I have to wait out and can do nothing about. In other situations I was surprised by the annoying "congratulations, you just won an Ipod" or somesuch voice ads while surfing in cafes or at work, or by the unanticipated introductory music or sound effects from a game that I may have been considering for a review, etc.

More notes on this app:

• How to use: unzip in a place you like and run. All settings are self explanatory.
• Wish list: although not a problem in Windows 7, for XP I would have liked the option to hide the program icon in the system tray.
• Mute/unMute by hotkey: Ctrl+F10 by default. Can be changed at user discretion.
• Size in memory: 9 megs, which isn’t a lot but surprisingly large for the provided functionality.

The verdict: nothing more to say on this one, except that it will become a permanent fixture on my laptop.

Version Tested: 2.0

Compatibility: Any 32 bit or 64 bit version of Windows.

Go to the program home page to download the latest version (approx 326K).

Another nice launcher. I’ve been using this one for a few days and am very pleased with it. I like that it can easily be used as an organizing tool; for example, you can easily organize your desktop icons into tabs you create in FSL Launcher and get rid of desktop clutter. I also like that it automatically reconciles shortcuts you drag to it and links to the original icon (you can, for example, drag a shortcut on the desktop to FSL Launcher and then delete that shortcut, the icon in FSL Launcher will still work). Here are more notes on this one.

• Adding icons: select the appropriate tab and simply drag and drop icons (shortcuts, files, folders URLs) to the interface.
• Tabs: users can freely add or edit tabs. Tabs (called “groups” in the program terminology) exist as folders placed inside a specific location within the FSL Launcher installation folder, you can move files in or out of these straight from Explorer if you so choose.
• Cussomizable: in many ways (optional single click icon launch, optional stay on top, can minimize if user clicks outside the interface or will optionally stay open, icons+text can be displayed or icons only, can tweak icon sizes, etc.)
• Resides in the system tray: once minimized.
• Navigating tabs: aside from clicking on tabs with the mouse, I like that you can switch across tabs using the “Tab” button. Or you can use “<” and “>” keys.
• Free vs. Supporters versions: the “supporters” version seems to be the full version of this program and is made available to users who donate to the author. Has a number of additional features, such as customizing the mouse click location to launch the program, and the ability to launch the app using a keyboard shortcut.
• Skins: there seems to be (a) skin support, and (b) a skin development contest going on. However, I couldn’t figure out how to change the skin or how to download new skins.

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

• The ability to link to any folder to use as a group: it would be great, for example, if I could link to my “D:’data’” folder and use that as a tab in FSL Launcher. I tried placing a folder shortcut in the “groups” folder in the hopes it might work in lieu of an actual folder, but it did not.
• The ability to customize where the “groups” folder resides: currently it is located in the Windows user folder on the main (c) partition. I would like the ability to move it to another partition and to a specific location.
• The ability to custom order tabs in the interface: currently it simply uses alphabetical sorting from left to right.
• Portability: the ability to use this app to launch apps on a USB drive would be great. May be available in the so-called “supporters” version; I am not sure.
• Launch by keyboard shortcut: a feature which is offered in the supporters version.

The verdict: I like this one very much. As a launcher it works great, and I especially like the fact that you could use the tabs to organize your work; I was recently trying to de-clutter my desktop and FSL Launcher really came in handy, and I was able to simply move a lot of icons out of the desktop and into the appropriate tab on the launcher. And while there is a full “supporters” version as well as the free version reviewed here, I still strongly feel that the free version is excellent and adds a lot of value (and is not crippleware).

Thanks to user Guy for letting me know about this one!

Version Tested: 1.1.4.4 SR1

Compatibility: Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7; 32 bit or 64 bit.

Go to the program home page to download the latest version (approx 3.13 megs).

VUE (Visual Understanding Environment) is a free, open source mind mapping and data visualization software developed by the Academic Technology group at Tufts University in Boston. VUE is unique in that it offers a range of innovative functions such as tagging of nodes and of relationships, support for images, videos, and other objects within the mind map structure, and the ability to import and analyze datasets (from CSV files, XML files, and even RSS feeds) using semantic mapping. It also functions as an innovative Powerpoint-style presentation tool, allowing users to define “presentation pathways” on top of the mind map structure, and to create presentation-style content that is associated with the mapped concepts.

VUE can also be used in conjunction with the Zotero Firefox extension to map out and visualize online documents and web clippings.

Imagine an environment where concepts and notes, images, as well as URLs, file objects and datasets of rows and columns can all be placed together on the same page and governed within a single structure and metadata (tags, relationships), and you will get an idea of what VUE is all about. VUE is a very ambitious project whose simple in interface belies the power and potential that it has to offer.

VUE is also a full-fledged, Powerpoint-style presentation software. Admittedly, the conflation of concept mapping and presentation software seemed a bit strange to me at first, until I considered that the likely objective of creating and mapping out knowledge is to share it. VUE makes it simple and easy to create a presentation out of your concept maps without having to jump to Powerpoint or another presentation software to do so. It enables your concept maps and your presentation itself to be a single, unified whole instead of being fragmented across different files and platforms.

Here are more notes on this program:

• Node behavior: if you’ve tried other mind mapping tools you will appreciate the ability to place elements within elements. For example you can place a node or multiple nodes within other nodes, you can define associated, clickable URLs or files for nodes, and add local or online images. (You can even browse and link to Flickr images on-the-fly from the program’s context menu). Lastly, you can group nodes and relationships together and even create “layers” of elements that can be switched on or off (Photoshop style).
• Objects: aside from text, URLs, and images, you can use any file(s) as objects that you simply drag and drop into the interface, including videos and documents. VUE can import CSV files, XML files, and even RSS feeds, and can use elements within these files (such as column/fields in the CSV file) to define relationships and to group nodes. Web clippings and documents can be mapped via the Firefox Zotero plugin (see below).
• Tagging and ontologies: both the concepts (nodes) as well as the relationships (arrows) can be tagged. These tags are used to give structure and overall meaning to your maps, and are also searchable. The set of tags you might create for your maps, termed an ontololgy, can be exported or imported for sharing or for use in other maps.
• Zotero: is a Firefox plugin that can be used to collect web documents and clips. Once you’ve built a Zotero collection, you can use the VUE plugin to create map them into concept maps. See this video on a tutorial on how to do this. The VUE plugin for Zotero for VUE 3+ and Zotero 2.0 b6+ can be found here.
• Analysis: the main thrust of doing concept map analysis with VUE’s is the ability to use semantic linking “i.e. tags” to re-organize your concepts on-the-fly in a variety of ways and in a semi-automated fashion. But there’s more: the “connectivity” analysis tool instantly exports your mind map into a sort of number grid that can be used for statistical analysis, while the “SEASR” content analysis parses resources (documents, URLs) to automatically generate metadata (what SEASR is or stands for is a little unclear to me; it appears to be some method of tagging documents in the humanities; more on SEASR in VUE in this YouTube video).
• Ease of use: there is a learning curve which is not insignificant; however there is a breadth of tutorial videos on the VUE site itself and on YouTube; spend a half hour or so looking at these and you’ll be up to speed in no time. There are also a great many demo maps that can be freely downloaded and perused and that can illustrate
• Presentations: you can overlay your mind maps with presentation “pathways”. Your presentation screens can display nodes or relationships from your mind map that you outline (see the pink blocks in the right-hand screenshot at the top of this post). Alternately, you can create custom “slide” content that is associated with each of your nodes (this is illustrated in the image to the right; the slides are visible as black blocks in the map). Presentations can be linear or non-linear. It works remarkably well.
• Keyboard shortcuts: feature prominently, and make this program much easier to use.

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

• Multiple tabs within a single file: one thing I found myself wishing for is multiple tabs within a single file (Excel-stlye); currently VUE does support tabs, but each tab represents a completely separate file and mind map . Once a mind map grows and grows it can become unwieldy and it would be nice to be able to span a mind map over multiple tabs that nonetheless remain searchable as a single unit and have the same tags.
• Pre-defined structures: on right-click, such as tree right/left, fishbone right/left, org chart up/down, logic charts right/left. I switched to using VUE from xMind, and the latter has better support for these pre-defined structures in my opinion, and I found myself missing them.
• A full fledged RSS reader: while the RSS mapping feature is nice it is not very practical and seems experimental. I feel that you really need a full-fledged reader associated with VUE that can act as a springboard for mapping RSS items (or, if not, a VUE plugin for a good open source RSS reader, similar to the one for Zotero).
• For URLs (or Zotero items clipped from the web), it would be great to be able to right click “grab URL screenshot” or somesuch (next to the “add most relevant Flickr image”option for example). Ironically the “Node Info” context entry for a URL includes a URL screenshot, but will not allow you to save the screenshot to the mind map for some reason.

The verdict: VUE offers a good balance between complexity and ease of use, and between offering the simple building blocks needed to create mind maps of all kinds, on the one hand, and sophisticated tagging, analytical, and presentation tools on the other.

But more than this, VUE is a very ambitious program that aspires to be no less than a comprehensive data visualization environment. And although it does a terrific job at accomplishing this, it still feels like it has some ways go. It is very sophisticated and accessible; however, it is not a perfect program (yet), and I frequently found myself wishing that some details or features were done differently (see wish list above). Moreover, it seems that in order to become a comprehensive information visualization tool VUE plugins would need to be developer for many programs where information is gathered, such as an email clients, RSS readers, notes apps, etc.

Having said this, VUE is without a doubt a terrific achievement and a very unique program, and is rapidly getting better and better. I highly recommend you try it!

Version Tested: 3.0 beta4b2. Requires Java 1.5+

Compatibility: Windows (XP, Vista, Windows 7), Mac (OS X 10.4+) , Linux (JAR only version)

Go to the program home page to download the latest version (approx 55.9 megs). Note that you will need to create an account with a valid email address to access the download link.

Ninite is a revolutionary new way of installing the software you want. Instead of having to download and install each program individually Ninite will do it all for you. Simply go to the Ninite website, choose the programs you want, download the installer and run it. That’s it. That simple. You can now go off and do something less boring whilst Ninite downloads and installs the programs for you.

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

Ninite is also clever and it will not install toolbars or anything else that the programs try to install. It also checks what language your PC is using and whether it is 64bit or not and then installs the correct version of the software.

Ninite has only supports a limited number of programs at present (66) but does offer some of the more popular and better known software. The software is ordered in sections such as web browsers, messaging, media players and security. The software featured includes popular titles such as Firefox, Opera, , Pidgin, Thunderbird, iTunes, KMPlayer, Aimp, Paint.NET, GIMP, Irfanview, Open Office, Microsoft Security Essentials, Avast, Spybot, Flash (both IE and non IE), Silverlight, uTorrent, Dropbox,CCleaner, CDBurnerXP and 7-Zip (and one of my favorites, Digsby).

The only problems I have with Ninite are just little niggles. The first is that it installs software with it’s default settings. Whilst this is not a bad thing it does mean that you get everything that Spybot does including security center integration and it’s system monitoring. Also, whilst it does install the appropriate version of the program for your language, it does not always install the correct version of your language. So for me here in the UK I get the English version of things like Firefox and Thunderbird but it is the US English and not the British English. As I said only minor niggles and not major show stoppers.

Compatibility: WinAll.

Go to the program home page to download.

Why this app is cool: it provides a really neat way to browse folders in-place from a shortcut or on the Windows 7 taskbar. I am finding this a great substitute to keeping files/icons on the desktop, by stashing these in folders while keeping them instantly accessible via stacks.

Here are more notes on this app:

• Stack Types: vertical stacks, grid stacks, and menu style. In Windows 7 you can have up to 10 stacks on the taskbar.
• Stack behavior: can be customized such that stacks”close” whenever you click anywhere outside of them, or otherwise only close when you either click on an element in the stack or on the stack icon itself.
• Stacks are Browsable: you can move in and out of folders in place. Menu stacks cascade like the start menu in XP.
• Opening a folder in explorer: the last entry in your stack will always be the option to open the folder you are browsing in explorer, which is a great idea.
• Windows’ context menu: right clicking on file or folder within a stack displays the default Windows context menu items, making it possible to perform normal file operations on these.
• Icons: for the stack itself is customizable; it will prompt you when you set a stack up or simply change the shortcut icon for your stack after it is created.
• Customizability: you can change the height and font sizes of stack items, you can choose between white font on black background or the opposite, and you can choose whether to have text and icons or just icons in your stacks. You can also choose to display a thumbnail preview for image files although this will not show if you make your icon size too small.

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

• Using vertical stacks, I encountered a bug whereby if you browse down a couple of levels (subfolders) and then attempt to right click on a file or folder you get an error message and the windows context menu doesn’t show (on Windows 7 64 bit).
• Editing a stack: when right clicking on a stack icon in Windows 7 in order to edit the stack, only the last created stack seemed editable.
• I wish that the “back” and “open in explorer” entries in the stack would use distinctive icons, such as arrows or something like that. It would make a very positive difference in the user experience I think.
• Skins: I wish there were more of them.

The verdict: a potentially very useful program (especially on the Windows 7 taskbar, imho). This app is somewhat similar to previously mentioned Standalone Stack, and when stacks are browsed as cascading menus 7Stacks is very reminiscent of MenuApp. However, 7Stack is different from both of these in that the stacks are browsable and more interactive. I like the way some of the behavior is handled, esp. with respect to stacks being open until their icon is re-clicked, and also the fact that items in the stack are can be right-clicked on to perform normal file or folder operations on.

Having said this, there are a number of bugfixes and little changes that can be made to make this program much better (see the wishlist above), and I hope that the developers will address these in future versions.

Version Tested: 1.5 beta 1

Compatibility: Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7.

Go to the program home pageto download the latest version (approx 2.74 megs).

I am kind of depressed at my dearth of postings, actually. In an ideal world I would like to post an average of 2 times per day, but that does not look like it will happen anytime soon, not with my full time job and kids getting first dibs on my time.

But now that the new year is upon us, here are my 12 Freewaregenius resolutions for the new year (which I might add are not a whole lot different from my personal new year’s resolutions). I will also include a probability percentage of what I think the likelihood is for each one of these resolutions to actually come to be.

1. To reliably post at an average of 4 posts per week, 53 weeks per year. My average for last year was lower than that, I am sure. (Likelihood of this happening: 60%, I fear).
2. To make my posts less wordy, shorter and more ’economical’. Not sure if I could do this even if my life depended on it, but it might make it more likely that people read this stuff. I have a nagging suspicion that very few people actually read a Freewaregenius-style posting. Readers frequently raise issues in the comments section that were already addressed in the body of the text (e.g. “how does this software compare to program x” or “have you tried program x”) even as the issue was discussed in the posting. (Likelihood of this happening: 60%)
3. To create at least one uber-interesting “featured post” every 2 months, 6 per year. This may be more valuable in the larger scheme of things than the daily updates. (Likelihood of this happening 70%).
4. To use Twitter. Perhaps I can use Twitter for casual freeware discoveries that I am unlikely to review, or use it to get a bit of feedback before I write about something (e.g. “hey check out this new program that looks promising”). I must admit though that I am afraid it will simply create more work for me and more demands on my time. (Likelihood of this happening 50%).
5. To change my site hosting. Likelihood of this happening = 100%. I am moving from MediaTemple to RackSpaceCloud. Its just a matter of time, and I hope will be complete in January. MediaTemple provides “ok” service, but my site is frequently slow and I get slapped with very expensive overage charges every single month without fail.
6. To publish regular postings by guest bloggers. I would love it if other tech bloggers were regularly featured on Freewaregenius. If you can create good content in excellent English and are interested drop me a line. I can offer a link to your site in the top of the posting and a gift card to Amazon. (Likelihood of this happening: 100%; Likelihood of it happening reliably such as once per month=??)
7. To get a virtual personal assistant. I read the book “The 4-hour workweek” in which the author advocates getting a personal assistant from India with flawless English to outsource time-consuming admin tasks such as responding to emails and setting up appointments, etc. I want one that would also function as a sounding board for ideas. (Likelihood of this happening: 40%)
8. To update my high-traffic posts. Such as the “Freeware Top 20“, “Free PDF to Word Comparative Test“, and “Best Freeware Antivirus Comparison“. This will happen for sure, just a matter of time (I have been working on the “best freeware” post). Likelihood of this happening: 100%; likelihood of ALL of this happening in Q1/2010: 60%.
9. To change my site theme: to something spectacularly better. (Likelihood of this happening: 75%). I am looking for a better theme.
10. To re-categorize and re-tag all of my posts. I would like to re-arrange everything into a dozen categories and two dozen tags. (Likelihood of this happening: 35%; its just too time consuming and has to compete with other demands on my time).
11. To use Facebook: just because everyone is aghast when a “tech” blogger like myself doesn’t use it. I do have an account, but I log in once every two months or so. Honestly, it just seems like another thing that will make demands on my time. (Likelihood of this happening: 50%).
12. To do an SEO overhaul on Freewaregenius. I.e. to make some pro-active initiative that might get me better rankings on Google for my site. I get fairly decent rankings on some terms but I do think my site needs an SEO rethinking. Not sure what I will do about that. (Likelihood of this happening: 40%).

Bonus resolution: the following is more of a personal new-year’s resolution, but I will mention it here all the same

• Reading more books: it would seem that there is some sort of information revolution taking place, and I would like to be part of it. There are soooo many books that I would to read but will never do so; I would like to read at least two books per month. (Likelihood of this happening: 55%. Alas).

This post will outline how to get rid of these security prompts without switching off the UAC altogether, by using a free app called TweakUAC to switch the UAC to "quiet mode".

There is always a tradeoff between defense mechanisms and quality of life. You may be more secure if you walled off your house completely yet might end up concealing what might be a nice view, and if you never risked rejection you might never start a romance with someone you really like, etc.

This is basically how I feel about the UAC in Vista and Windows 7: a well-meaning device that basically costs too much in terms of the quality of the user experience. What’s more, the presumed protection that the UAC provides is very debatable (see below).

The rest of this article will consist of 4 sections as follows:

1. Why UAC does NOT work
2. Why UAC does work
3. A definition of the UAC quiet mode
4. How to enable quiet mode using TweakUAC

1. Why UAC does NOT work: in a nutshell, because you do not listen to the boy that cries "wolf". The frequency of these security prompts makes them essentially useless. If in 99.9% of instances I am being asked to give permission to safe apps and processes how can I be expected to take note of the 0.1% of the time when it may not be wise? This seems to me like a classic case of technologists forgetting that their users are human beings.

Moreover, the UAC is really intended to protect you from yourself. In itself it is not adequate security and you still need to have the usual arsenal of protection software (an antivirus, antispyware, and possibly firewall).

2. Why UAC does work: it works because, after reading up on the subject it seems that the primary impetus behind UAC is probably a policy decision by Microsoft intended to force developers to create applications that only require standard user rights. My guess is that in the long run this objective will have some measure of success, but it only reinforces the idea that as a normal user in the here-and-now it would be a good idea to simply get rid of UAC. Or at least to switch it to "quiet" mode.

3. A definition of the UAC quiet mode: the so-called UAC quiet mode offered by TweakUAC suppresses the elevation prompts of UAC without turning the UAC off completely. The following is a direct quote from the TweakUAC web site:

"In such a mode, you keep all the positive effects of UAC, such as Internet Explorer operating in the protected mode, applications starting without the administrative privileges by default, etc. The only thing that gets changed is that you will no longer see the infamous "Windows needs your permission to continue" messages whenever you attempt to make a change to your Vista configuration, or when you run a program that needs administrative rights."

(Note: click here to visit the original page where this text was found)

In addition, quiet mode seems to disable prompts in your administrator account while maintaining these in other user accounts.

4. How to enable quiet mode using TweakUAC:

Go to the TweakUAC program page; download, install, and run. Select "Switch UAC to quiet mode" and click ok (you will not need to reboot). UAC prompts from this point onward will not appear, but the UAC is not completely switched off and preserves some measure of protection as defined above..

SPlayer is a free, open source media player that is lightweight, well designed, and quite powerful. It promises to play every conceivable media format (including DVD’s and streaming media), and to optimize your audio and video quality to best utilize your hardware specifications. It is light on power consumption, making it ideal for laptop/travel use, is truly portable, and offers a handful of innovative features such as on-demand automatic downloads of subtitles.

Wow! Where did this one come from? To start let me just state that there is an undeniable wealth of fantastic free media players available, such as The KMPlayer, which I am very fond of, VLC, GOM Player, BSPlayer, to name a few. Which is why it is quite an achievement when a newcomer can lump all of the others together and somehow differentiate itself. Splayer does exactly that by means of its sheer “economy”; i.e. by being lightweight, having a small footprint, being truly portable and light on power consumption, and by its sparse yet sleek interface. It does this while simultaneously being innovative and offering a breadth of features. Here are more notes on this program:

• Lightweight: low footprint, low startup and playback memory footprints, low energy consumption (perfect for laptop travel use).
• Design: a lot of attention to detail when it comes to interface design and look and feel. Splayer seems sparse and simple; on-screen controls appear only when you hover over the program dialog. They succeed in presenting a clean, minimalist interface even when the program has a lot of features on offer.
• Optimizes picture and sound quality: reduces screen noise, features algorithms that are enhance image and sound quality, optimized for multi-core SSE2 SSE3 MMX GPU etc
• Portable version available: unzip and run; includes all internal codecs that can play any media file in any environment. Look for the word “portable” on the program page to find the download link to the portable version.
• Streaming: streams any format; allows users to supply URL for media on the internet.
• Audio and video capture: to disk from device, supported.
• Other features: “subtitle matching” automatically downloads and displays subtitles, bookmark favorite media, pin as topmost window, tweak transparency, capture screenshots, automatically remove black bar (if any) for widescreen video, etc.

Wish list

• One thing I noticed switching from KMplayer on Windows 7 was that video file icons added after the switch no longer automatically displayed a preview screenshot as their icon. A minor issue but I hope it will be addressed.

The verdict: a very nice player that is also open source. With its combination of (a) being extremely light on resources, (b) having a very nice and sleek interface, and (c) playing every conceivable media format this program has won itself a permanent stay on my machine. It has also just become the default media player that I would recommend to people if asked. You will like it.

Version Tested: 3.3 (build 1021)

Compatibility: WinAll.

Go to the program home page to download the latest version (approx 5.75 megs).

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

You don’t see many games like Death Rally anymore. I thought these sort of games died off in the late ninety’s, but this title has gotten a second wind. Death Rally was originally published in 1996, and it’s surprising how well its aged. This title was recently ported to run on modern operating systems and released as freeware.

• Gameplay: Death Rally is a largely straight forward, fast paced game. It can be played as a straight forward racer, or a combat/racer hybrid. If you’ve enabled weapons, you slightly complicate the gameplay by adding projectiles and mines. No matter what mode you play, the track will be littered with power-ups and power-downs. These drops include: repair kits, speed boosts, ammo, player dropped mines, and mushrooms. The mines and the mushrooms can really wreck a players day. Mines do significant damage and stop the car cold, and mushrooms make the entire screen go wonky. Civilians line the track waiting to be crushed. Try not to do that, it’s mean, and it slows down your ride. The old dos version of Death Rally supported multiplayer, unfortunately the modern ported version does not.
• Controls: The game’s controls are very responsive and can take some time to get used to. You only need the arrow and shift keys in a regular race, and just a few extra keys in a combat race. Death Rally is the first PC game I’ve played in a long time to make me miss game pad’s. Keyboard controls work fine, but USB controller would enhance the experience.
• Sound: Audio is not all that great. The music has not aged well, and the sound effects for collision and weapon fire are both very low fidelity. It’s better to mute the game and play something angry from your music collection.
• Graphics: By today’s standards Death Rally isn’t great looking. The levels and the cars look highly pixellated at first glance. But considering it’s more than a decade old, it’s pretty enough. In fact, I’m surprised by how quickly I adjusted to the graphics, and started concentrating on the gameplay. For what it is, and for the type of gameplay the graphics support, it looks good enough.
• Replayability: Death Rally offers a few good reasons to keep playing. Most obviously are the significant differences between the pure race and combat racing modes. Both play very differently, even though they share tracks and vehicles. The different vehicles allow different degrees of upgrading, access to higher difficulty tracks and more challenging opponents. The difference from vehicle to vehicle in terms of speed and handling is enormous. Also, upgrades to you’re engine, tires, and armor have a huge impact. There is a good range of cars, but not enough tracks. Death Rally would have benefited from multiplayer.

The Verdict: Fans of the genre have a lot to enjoy here. So will players looking for a taste of retro racing. Death Rally offers extremely fast paced gameplay from the starting line, so it’s good for an adrenaline fix or two. The option to play with or without weapons spices things up, and both modes are challenging without being frustrating. The visuals are unimpressive by modern standards, but it takes all of four minutes to get over that. Death Rally is worth taking for a spin.

Version tested: 1.0

Compatibility: any windows system from XP through Windows 7, including 64 bit versions

Go to the program home page to download the latest version (approx 42 megs).

If you’ve ever wanted to crop out a human figure or a face (or anything else) from the background for use on projects (and assuming that you’re not a Photoshop wizard), then this software is for you. It presents a quick and easy way to separate visual elements from the background in any image, by simply outlining the foreground figure and the space surrounding it with the mouse.Here are more notes on this program:

• How to use: use the green crayon (which actually leaves yellow marks) to make a rough outline within the foreground figure, and the red crayon to outline the area around the figure. Click preview to instantly see the masking results, then go back, zoom in or out, and refine your outlines if need be. Save the resulting image to disk and you’re done.

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

Keeping in mind that there is a paid (pro) version of this software that covers some of the points below this wish list will nonetheless inform the reader on some of the limits of this software.

• Undo and erase: strangely, there is no “undo” to save you when you make an incorrect mark, nor is there an eraser. In this situation you have to either (a) cover the yellow marks with red ones, or vice versa, if appropriate, or (b) re-load the image and try again.
• Save with transparency: another strage omission is the inability to save to PNG or GIF and specify a background transparency. This means that you will indeed have to use another bitmap editing program in order to mask the white background, delete it, and save as transparent.

The verdict: this software works very well and will appeal to the average user that doesn’t necessarily know what a magic wand tool is in Photoshop or similar bitmap editing software, and thinks about objects that you put on your face when they hear the word “mask”. It could be better though, esp. with respect to the wish list items above.

Check out the screenshots in this post to see the kind of quick results that you can get. I used InstantMask in conjunction with bitmap editing freeware RealWorld Paint (which I quite like) to transport the image of my friend Diablo (see his latest posting on Freewaregenius) and insert an image of the Golden Gate Bridge in the background (see image to the right). I wonder if they have WIFI in that location.

Version Tested: 1.1

Compatibility: WinAll.

[Thanks go to reader Ramesh for letting me know about this one]

Go to the program homepage to download the latest version (approx 5.16 megs).

If you need a personal calendar app with tasks, notes, and contacts functions you should take a look at this program. Something about this is highly appealing: it is built to be a workhorse not a showhorse. Here are more notes on this program.

• The interface: is quite nice. Aside from the tabs, which are great, there is an economy to the interface that makes this program easy to use, without sacrificing complexity in function. Osmo minimizes to the system tray, making it quickly and easily accessible.
• Calendar view: is my favorite. It will display all kinds of info which can customized in the settings, including tasks for the selected day, week numbers, previous and next month, etc. You can add a note for each day that is separate from the main notes tab. The Calendar tab offers iCalendar export/import functions.
• The task list: tasks can have a due date or not, and you can request an alarm or set a recurrent task if you need to. You can categorize, set the priority, and add notes to tasks, and print them out as a task list. You can right click on any day in the calendar view and create a task for that date, which is cool. There’s also date-dependent task coloring,
• Notes: you can create a note for each day in the calendar, which is actually quite useful, or otherwise use the "Notes" tab for proper notes functionality. There are some formatting options for the text, such as styles, highlighting, separator and date insertion. Notes can also be categorized (and filtered by category) as well as password-encrypted.
• Contacts: there is a comprehensive array of informational fields used for contacts, and you can import and export these from/to a CVS file. Tagging is implemented for contacts as well as a search function.
• Keyboard shortcuts: if you like the efficiency that keyboard shortcuts provide then you’ve just won the jackpot, as every single function in Osmo can be performed via hotkeys.
• Google Calendar integration / iCalendar subscriptions: this is NOT implemented in the version I tested but mentioned in the TODO section on the Osmo site.

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

• Global search: is strangely absent. It is possible to search contacts in the contacts tab or search within each individual note, but there really needs to be a separate global search function, perhaps in its own tab.
• Tags: implementation of tags would be great (tags differ from categories in that an element, such as a note or task, can be associated with multiple tags rather than a single category).
• Applying categories across the board: I was surprised to find out that I had to define my categories for the notes tab then re-define the same ones for the tasks tab.
• Clickable URL links inside notes: was surprised that URLs were not clickable, which is a disadvantage if, like me, you do a lot of internet research.
• Make the column heads clickable: for sorting purposes, in the task list. Although you can set rules for default sorting of tasks in the settings, its nice to be able to sort by clicking column headers.

The verdict: a very nice program overall, with a simplicity that gives it considerable appeal. I quite like the ability to switch off modules to focus on the functions I need. For example I only want to use the task management and calendar functions, and can simply switch the other modules off.

However, Osmo can (and should) be much improved (see wish list above). iCalendar and especially Google Calendar integration would take this program to the next level and significantly broaden its potential target audience.

If you’re looking for a nice, clean and light PIM give this one a shot; you will probably like it.

Version Tested: 0.2.8

Compatibility: Windows, Linux

Go to the program home page for more info, or the Osmo project page at Sourceforge to download the latest version (approx 4.8 megs).