PersonalLog will be upgrading to 2.7 whenever WordPress µ finishes merging the changes.

I chanced upon a representative from APICoders.com who introduced me to their outsourcing company that does mashups, complex database solutions, and Google Maps mashups. Let me introduce you to some of the things that they can do for you:

Integrate with Flickr

If you have, for instance, a travel site that needs pictures of a certain place in the world, it is far simpler to automatically draw upon photos from Flickr using the Flickr API than to manually find photographs. Even that process can be simplified if you outsource your programming to this company from India.

Although APICoders.com is a relatively new company, already they have created interesting and useful mashups (such as their Flickr API photo mashup). Whether your Web site or service needs to integrate with Flickr, or Google Maps, or PayPal, or Authorize.Net, or another service through SOAP, these talented mashup programmers can get your business to where you need to be.

WordPress 2.7 brings a fresh new admin backend with a number of great features and improvements. The following screencast showcases some of the best features.

What’s interesting about Cloud Files is that they have an online control panel for direct access to the files, unlike Amazon S3, which only provides various (and lots of) API’s that are really only suited to developers. With Rackspace’s recent acquisition of JungleDisk, a program originally conceived for user-friendly access to S3, Cloud Files will also target end users who want to look for an easy and affordable way to back up their files online, or simply store photos — or whatever — in the cloud.

In November, MOSSO will be adding a Content Delivery Network, powered by Limelight Networks, to Cloud Files. This is on par with, if not superior to, the planned CDN feature that will shortly be added to S3, since Limelight is a world leader in content delivery, with extremely fast and reliable connections at super-fast rates.

The only thing about Cloud Files that may make some developers and prospective users wary is the fact that this service has not been in operation for a long time, is not as polished as S3 now appears to be, and is essentially a clone of S3 with no significant advantages. Additionally, I am not aware of how MOSSO’s datacentres and server equipment compares to Amazon Web Services’ datacentres and equipment.

If I were a developer, I would keep a close eye on MOSSO’s Cloud Files, a service that competes on nearly equal footing with Amazon S3.

Download Flash Player 10!

• WordPress (blogging platform)
• Joomla! (content management system)
• Zend Framework
• CodeIgniter

All of the above tools are indispensable tools, particularly the blogging platform that runs four of my Web sites and that is used by millions of other people. But my dilemma rests with the last two products.

Recently, I’ve been working on three projects — SiteElements, FriendStalkr, and one other project. All three of these projects have been built on top of the Model-View-Controller structure provided by CodeIgniter, an excellent, efficient, and lightweight PHP framework.

My previous Web developments have never used an MVC structure, where the content (view) is separated from (yet dependent on) the backend (controller), which is separated from the data processing (model). Yet I believe that my choice to use MVC for these three sites is a good decision, since MVC makes code maintainable and probably will also help if the database structure or the site design are ever changed.

My previous Web developments on PHP also didn’t use CodeIgniter. The creator of PHP himself recommended CodeIgniter because it was the most lightweight of all of the viable frameworks and fastest (right behind core functions). Zend Framework, my framework of choice, is much less efficient, perhaps due to the number of files that need to be loaded when many classes are used.

I like CodeIgniter because it is extremely efficient, and its MVC structure is quite easy to use. The framework can be extracted and used as-is, since the ZIP archive contains the directory structure that is used by default. CodeIgniter also makes it easy to use built-in classes as well as extra helpers to simplify development and enhance functionality.

However, CodeIgniter lacks the comprehensive functionality of Zend Framework, and cannot, by any means, compete with Zend Framework on that level. Zend Framework is the most powerful and extensive set of libraries that I know of, which is why I began using it in the first place. Unfortunately, Zend Framework loses out to CodeIgniter and many other PHP frameworks in its MVC implementation (which is optional), and sometimes awkward to use.

My dilemma is simple: I want the simple structure, lightweightedness, and speed of CodeIgniter, while also making use of the powerful libraries in Zend Framework. Although it should be possible to combine the two and use both frameworks, doing so would inevitably slow down the site — unless memory caching was implemented, which I cannot do at this point.

I have not considered switching any of the sites to another PHP framework like CakePHP or Symfony, perhaps because I want to stick to the frameworks that I prefer, and also because many developers have the same closed-mindedness that prompts them to use what they know rather than what’s new or better. Nevertheless, I will not use CakePHP or Symfony; Zend Framework and CodeIgniter are, by far, the best frameworks for my purposes, as well as the best documented.

What can I do? In my mind, I can do nothing.

But I also believe that the possibility of switching to the less efficient Zend Framework exists. For sites that may require speed, such a switch could not be possible. However, for a development such as SiteElements — which will require advanced API functionality present in Zend Framework and not CodeIgniter — it is conceivable that I could choose to use Zend Framework.

What can I do? Perhaps the better question is, “what should I do?”

Microsoft has since replaced the incriminating evidence with one created on Windows, but it doesn’t look as good, and has a file size 3 times larger.

Read more about this.

I’ve now changed my Windows Live Messenger nickname to “Frederick » get a Mac”.

This is just a tiny bit more entertaining than the previous commercial. But is this effective advertising? I don’t think so.

Compare with two recent Apple ads.

Watch more humorous Apple ads.

I got an e-mail not too long ago from 1&1 telling me of their free .biz domains offer.

Although I’m not sure whether this offer is also valid for new users, I’m extremely pleased with 1&1’s services, and have great confidence that they are absolutely honest and non-deceptive in this offer. I’ve registered “freddyware.biz” among others, all of which I plan on developing — there’s a requirement that you can only register .biz domains if you are going to use it for business/commercial purposes (which do not include selling or trading domains).

Anyhow, check it out. This is an offer webmasters cannot miss out on.

But did you know that VistaPrint (which also caters to Canadians specifically) also does T-shirts and custom T-shirts?

A custom, pre-shrunk (100% cotton) T-shirt can be yours for as low as $9.49, or even lower if you order in bulk. It’s excellent for businesses that need to promote their brand or non-profit organizations (even school clubs) that want to fundraise.

You can choose from white, gray, or black colours (some fees apply), small, medium, large, or extra-large, and even choose a design or logo to be printed on the backside (for a fee). For instance, a Student Council might place their logo or graphic design on the front, and some text on the back to the effect of “Student Council”. VistaPrint is a reputable company that lets you choose all the fine details.

If you go to VistaPrint now to get your custom T-shirt (or T-shirts), you can get 25% off the price of the T-shirts using the code “TShirts25″.

Save now on your T-shirt printing needs with a company that has been trusted by more than 13 million customers worldwide!

Only programs that I use or have used are in this list. I’m sure there are plenty of great programs not in this list, but I believe this list will suit the various needs of most Windows users. (I have excluded PuTTY, as it is a program intended for use by a small group of users — those with Linux/Unix servers.)

15. Handbrake

This is an excellent program for backing up (a.k.a. “ripping”) DVD’s, converting them to formats like H.264 MPEG4 for playback on computers. Leo Laporte has recommended this program to many callers on The Lab With Leo Laporte, but it may not be legal much longer if the proposed copyright reform in Canada is passed. From what I can tell, it is a powerful program.

This program is available for Mac, Windows, and Linux.

14. PDFCreator

I used to use this for converting any printable document to PDF, but now I have Office 2007 which has built-in PDF capabilities. I no longer have a need for this open source solution. Mac users, of course, can convert to PDF in a simple fashion when printing. With PDFCreator, it leverages other GPL/LGPL things like ghostscript in order to convert whatever you’re printing to PDF. There are commercial and non-open source solutions, but this is by far the best of them — aside from Adobe Acrobat.

13. Pidgin

This is a good instant messenger that consolidates multiple IM accounts from Windows Live Messenger, Google Talk, AIM, Yahoo! and more. It doesn’t look as intuitive as a free (but closed source) product like Windows Live Messenger or Google Talk, but it is a powerful application. I used to use this before I found out how to install Windows Live Messenger on Windows XP Professional x64 Edition.

Other notable IM clients for Windows include Miranda IM.

12. DVD Flick

DVD Flick is a really good program that creates DVD’s that can be played in most modern DVD players. It doesn’t match up to iDVD on the Mac — it only converts the video/audio to the DVD standard format and creates titles & chapters — but it is an easy-to-use solution for average Windows users that don’t need a menu. There is another open source solution for menu authoring, though.

11. Notepad++

Notepad++ is an interesting program that is so much more than a Notepad replacement. It can even replace some coding programs, given the plugins available for it and code highlighting, even though I think Dreamweaver still beats it in terms of usability and user-friendliness for Web designers and developers.

I would appreciate the authors of Notepad++ more if they didn’t have a large, ugly, and ineffective banner at the top of their site advocating the boycott of the Beijing Games. Guess what? Not a single country decided to boycott the Games! But that’s a matter for another time and another blog…

10 more programs after the jump, including (in no particular order here) Firefox, 7-zip, VLC Media Player, Audacity, MediaCoder, and more!

10. WebKit

This is the open source engine used in Safari and some other browsers. It is a KHTML-based engine, which makes it differ from the Gecko engine used by Firefox. However, it is very standards-compliant, on a level that competes with the Gecko engine.

You can download nightly builds that allow you to use Safari with a more up-to-date engine.

Firefox is a great contender, and it is higher on the list (see below).

9. FileZilla

FileZilla is an open source FTP “solution” — that is, both a client and server are available. It is powerful and customizable, though it lacks the user-friendliness that I enjoyed with the SmartFTP program, which was, until recently, available for free for non-commercial use.

However, it is still the best open source FTP client for Windows.

Does anyone know any other great FTP clients out there for Windows? I am not entirely satisfied with FileZilla.

8. Audacity

This is a great sound recorder and editor, which many podcasters and other audio enthusiasts will find extremely useful. Unfortunately, the current beta version seems to crash a lot (on my x64 machine), and Audacity in general doesn’t seem to work as well as the trial of Adobe Soundbooth that I tried.

By the way, did you notice that the icons/images for the top 10 projects are generally larger? I want them to be appealing!

7. TrueCrypt

Best. Encryption. Tool. Ever.

There isn’t any real competition out there for TrueCrypt in terms of whole-disk encryption or encrypted containers. The software supports AES and other industry standards for encryption.

Their release cycle is also extremely quick, fixing issues and adding new features at least every month.

Sorry, I don’t have a large logo or image available for this software.

6. MediaCoder

Best. Multimedia. Converter. Ever.

Out of the box, it supports most of the multimedia formats anyone would use. The creators of MediaCoder have really outdone themselves in creating a great product that competes with commercial solutions like QuickTime Pro.

It also makes use of many open source libraries, but because of its limited compatibility with Linux, Mac, and 64-bit Windows, it just isn’t as high on the list as Java.

5. OpenOffice.org®

This is a “good” alternative to Microsoft Office if you don’t have Microsoft Office. However, from experience, I would say that OpenOffice.org is better on Linux than it is on Windows, and seems to look better as well. Personally, I have grown accustomed to the Office 2007 Ribbon look, and I only now use OpenOffice.org on Linux.

4. Java™ platform

This platform is so crucial to so many open source projects (including OpenOffice) that it just has to be in this list. Unfortunately, the Java platform and Java applets seem to run slowly on computers with limited RAM.

It was recently made open source.

3. VLC Media Player

This is a multimedia player. VideoLAN uses many open source libraries, making it so powerful it can essentially replace Windows Media Player and (shudder) RealPlayer. It is far more capable than most of these commercial products, including QuickTime, which has its uses. Unfortunately, even with skins enabled, it doesn’t look as good as some of the proprietary software out there.

Still, if you’re looking for one multimedia player that does it all (and more), VLC Media Player is the best choice, which makes it my number 3 pick.

2. Mozilla Firefox®

The popular Web browser is an obvious item, but not necessarily the best, and thus not my top choice in this list.

It would be better if it was even more standards-compliant and had a better designed interface like that of Safari. It would also be better if there was a 64-bit edition. I wouldn’t say it’s the best browser ever… not to mention the memory leaks.

If you don’t know what Firefox is, you’re probably not keeping up with the times. (I’m sorry to be so blunt.) But it is a great browser, and I fully recommend it to you, alongside comparable products like Opera and Safari.

It might be shocking for you to find Firefox not at the very top, but you’re free to express your opinion in the comments section.

1. 7-zip

Best. Archive. Tool. Ever.

Supports a variety of formats (it can open just about any format) and has a fast, simple and intuitive interface. It is an amazing product that completely blows WinZip out of the water.

There are other people who tell me that WinRAR (shareware) is great because its format is efficient. There are also those who tell me that StuffIt (commercial closed source) has great compression rates.

So what? Neither WinRAR nor StuffIt are open source. And their formats aren’t public, either. I’d much rather stick with open source projects like 7-zip, and open formats like ZIP, LZMA (great!!!), gzip (also great!!!), and bzip2 (which is slow!!!).

Also, props to 7-zip for supporting 64-bit (both IA64 and x64) as well as having ports to Unix.

Final Note

OpenOffice, OpenOffice.org, Java, Mozilla Firefox, Mozilla, their logos, and all other trademarks are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. Geekie.org and FreddyWare are not affiliated with any of the organizations owning such trademarks. The logos of the products mentioned here are used according to Fair Dealing / Fair Use and in compliance with their trademark guidelines where applicable. Any trademark owner may contact me to request removal of their trademark from this list.

What was the purpose of this list? Well, I wanted to share my favourite programs with anyone else who was reading. Hopefully, if you like this list, you can Digg it or add it to StumbleUpon (see the links below) and share it with others, or link to it from your Web site or blog.

But really, I did this partially as a reference for myself. It’s a list of programs I’m likely to install on any new computer, like the one I’m putting together today.

So, comment, share this, or be on your way to installing the top 15 open source programs for Windows!