I've been trying out chat applications that work on my home network for a couple of years now. This one is the best I've found so far. It has tons of features and it even has a battleship game you can play over a network. I also had fun grabbing remote screenshots from my wife's PC while she was chatting with me.
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Quote from the website
Windows Communicator - universal chat client,based on ICQ and IRC functionality and solutions. Application can work on Local Area Networks as well as over the Internet.
Basic application functions:
sending public messages
private chat
private message
secure channels
remote screenshot
remote execution
list running application
remote shutdown/reboot/logoff/wake up
other
Note : Each of listed above spy functions may be blocked by users.
Here's another fine mini-review from dhuser, who is a member of the DonationCoder forums and the author of QSale freeware as well. I used to use IconArt, but it's nice to know there are some other free tools for getting the job done.
From dhuser:
IcoFX is a free icon editor. It can create Windows XP/Vista icons with transparency. There are many tools available, with filters and effects. You can extract icons from an application, including Vista programs. Batch processing available. It is very similar to other commercial editors.
Who is this app designed for:
Icon designers, professionals, software developers, graphic designers, new users.
The Good
- Easy Icon Editor
- Numerous tools
- Effects and Filters (ex. Drop Shadow, shake, glow, etc...)
- Extract icon files from applications quickly
- Import Images to create icons
The needs improvement section
- No Problems Found, yet
Why I think you should use this product
It is the easiest and a full-featured editor.
How does it compare to similar apps
It rivals (or beats) many free and commercial editors.
Conclusions
IcoFX will prove to be a great solution for your Icon-editing needs.
IcoFX is an award winning freeware icon editor. It is an all-in-one solution for icon creation, extraction and editing. It is designed to work with Windows XP and Windows Vista icons supporting transparency.
I had read reviews of this one a few times and I finally got around to trying it a short time ago. I didn't have time or the inclination to review all of the features it has. It plays my MP3's and DVD's with no problems. Even though much of the development is done in Korea, there is an active forum with many English speaking members. There are a great deal of skins and quite a few tweaks available.
I think this could be the new WinAmp. I really like it.
KMPlayer is available as a no-install (portable application). Just look for the zip downloads.
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Quote from the website
The KMPlayer is a versatile media player which can cover various types of container format such as VCD, DVD, AVI, MKV, Ogg Theora, OGM, 3GP, MPEG-1/2/4, WMV, RealMedia, and QuickTime among others. It handles a wide range of subtitles and allows you to capture audio, video, and screenshots in many ways.
Network Traffic Monitor is an easy way to check to see what applications are connecting to the internet and how often. I was really surprised to see all the ports that a web browser listens on. NTM is fairly small and also gives you the ability to export it's monitoring to a text log.
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Quote from the website
Network Traffic Monitor shows you which processes in your machine are causing TCP/IP network traffic, how much traffic that is, and over which IP ports this traffic takes place. For each process it can show detailed information, including the path to the process executable. Network Traffic Monitor can give you a historic overview of the network traffic since the application was started, and save that info to a file for later examination.
I recently ran across a good review of Mozilla's Songbird music player and manager. Nick Peters tells you about Songbird and his likes and dislikes. If you think you'd like to try Songbird, you'll want to check out their add-ons repository and iPod support plug-ins.
Songbird is a cross-platform, open-source iTunes replacement that is built off of Mozilla. It has a similar look and feel to iTunes, but it extends many of the features. The site actually has a great screencast that introduces the unique features found.
Songbird™ is a desktop Web player, a digital jukebox and Web browser mash-up. Like Winamp, it supports extensions and skins feathers. Like Firefox®, it is built from Mozilla®, cross-platform and open source.
A simple tool which adds more functionality to your PC DVD player. Allows you to play any dvd on your computer without needing to change your region code and more ...
Kind Regards
Tony
www.topfreeware.net - The best freeware downloads and tips to optimize your system
From Clif:
Thanks Tony! Nice pick.
Quote from the website
Remote Selector is an add-on utility for PC DVD players with the following features:
Region free for all supported decoders and players with any DVD drive, even region protected ones. You will never have to worry about changing the region code or upgrading the firmware of your DVD drive, which can be difficult and dangerous!
Disabling MacroVision and changing video mode on TV output. Connect your DVD player to your VCR without the usual image distortion.
Disabling User Prohibition, or in other words enabling of Prohibited User Operations. All buttons and menus will be enabled in your player, which will allow you to:
skip or fast-forward FBI warnings and other intro's.
change soundtracks on the fly.
... and much more!
Disabling of forced subtitles. Even when User Prohibition is disabled, subtitles may still appear on screen. However, Remote Selector can remove any subtitle (!), as long as it has not been hardcoded in the image.
Control DVD player software by keyboard, joystick or remote control.
Display player info like title, chapter and time on LCD display and Closed Caption.
Currently supported decoders and players include Creative Dxr2, Dxr3 and Inlay, RealMagic Hollywood+ and Xcard, Chromatic Design Mpact2, PowerDVD and WinDVD.
Remote Selector works with all versions of Windows (95, 98, ME, NT4, 2000 and XP) and has support for all versions (including the latest) of the players mentioned above.
Check out these FREE comprehensive Windows XP & Vista users pdf. guides for the novice and advanced tweak-coholic. The author, Koroush Ghazi has been putting together guides since 2001. In the latest updated XP version he has done a superb job of compiling and condensing all the technical information pertaining to Windows into an easy to understand enchiridion. It's well written and organized, covers everything from basic PC terminology to system optimizations. He provides links to free software as well. Also, there is a guide(s) for Firefox tweaks and a list of games on his site.
Cheers .... peace out
bluepwrdup
Quote from the website
The TweakGuides Tweaking Companion (TGTC) is the complete system optimization guide for Windows users. Designed for novice and advanced users alike ...
Short version?, it's a site where regular folk such as you and I, give away whatever we don't want anymore, to whoever wants it - for free
Been using it for a few weeks now, and got myself a PC + 24 port network hub yesterday - for nothing. Not tested them yet so no idea if they actually work - but they were free so I don't care.
_________________
Regards
Steven Burn
Ur I.T. Mate Group
www.it-mate.co.uk
Keeping it FREE!
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Quote from the website
When you want to find a new home for something -- whether it's a chair, a fax machine, piano, or an old door -- you simply send an e-mail offering it to members of the local Freecycle group.
Or, maybe you're looking to acquire something yourself. Simply respond to a member's offer, and you just might get it. After that, it's up to the giver to decide who receives the gift and to set up a pickup time for passing on the treasure.
Our main rule: Everything posted must be free, legal, and appropriate for all ages.
Bluepwrdup sent me this one in an email. I think you'll like it. Thanks Blue!
Comments last week
Thanks to everyone who commented on the articles last week. You gave me more ideas and some good advice. If you see comments on an article, you will be missing out if you don't click on them to take a look.
If you commented last week, check to see who commented on your comment!
Chow.com is today's Cool Site of the Day, and it's one of the best ones ever! It features recipes, photos, videos, cooking tips, entertaining secrets, restaurant reviews, cook book reviews, resources, and stories for people who love good food and drink. I know it's not exactly computer related, but please at least take a look at it. This unique website is much too interesting not to share with your readers! For anyone who likes to eat, drink, entertain and/or cook, this one is a sure fire winner!
COOLSITES is a list of safe, fun, useful, informative and just plain cool websites and programs that are FREE, FREE and FREE. All of the programs and websites I list are free. If I list anything that is so good but isn't free I will list the price with it.
You need a free 2.8 GB Gmail account to access many of the cool features at Google. After more than two years in beta testing Gmail is open to the public. Just go to http://gmail.com and sign up for an account.
I think Gmail works best in the awesome Firefox browser. It's free, easy to use, and it's way more secure than Internet Explorer. My favorite thing to do is to customize Firefox so that it does much more than IE ever could. You can select new button controls for your toolbars, install extensions to add new features, or change the look of your browser with themes - the way Firefox looks and works is under your control.
Wow! Over 400 people and still growing! I invite all of you to record your locations on this map. You can include as little or as much information as you wish. I think you'll enjoy seeing yourself there.
Here's a small look at my frapper map.
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