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Newsletter Archive Reviews Archive 
Welcome to Clif Notes Newsletter
March 18, 2007
REVIEWS
Windows Communicator - chatting at home on your LAN
review from ClifNotes, Mar 2007, permalink Instant Messaging
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.
click to expand picture
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
IcoFX Icon Editor Reviewed
review from dhuser, Jan 2007, permalink Icon Tools
From Clif:
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.
read the full review here
click to expand picture
Quote from the website
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.
http://icofx.xhost.ro/
KMPlayer - CD, DVD, MP3, Playing Streaming and Ripping
review from ClifNotes, Mar 2007, permalink Multimedia Players
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.
click to expand picture
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.
KMPlayer website
http://www.kmplayer.com/forums/index.php
Download Zip packages
http://www.kmplayer.com/forums/showthread.php?p=22036#post22036
Network Traffic Monitor
review from ClifNotes, March 2007, permalink Network Monitoring
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.
click to expand picture
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.
OS: Windows XP
http://www.321download.com/LastFreeware/page2.html#ntm
Songbird - music to the ears of Mozilla fans
review from Nick Peters, Feb 2007, permalink Music Management
From Clif:
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.
From Nick: source
click to expand picture
Quote from the website
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.
http://www.songbirdnest.com/
Remote Selector - play DVD's with no worries about region codes
review from Tony at TopFreeware, Nov 2006, permalink _ DVD Utilities
From Tony:
Remote Selector
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.
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.
http://www.remoteselector.com/
Old Newsletter
I like to look back and see what I was thinking about. Here's another letter from the wayback machine.
TIPS AND FEEDBACK
TweakGuides.com - for the geek in us all
tip from bluepwrdup, Mar 2007, permalink Computer Tips
From Bluepwrdup:
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 ...
http://www.tweakguides.com/TGTC.html
Freecycle.org - another man's junk can be your treasure
tip from StevenBurn, Mar 2007, permalink Web Service
From Clif:
Steven Burn doesn't write very often but I always pay attention when he does. Thanks for the tip Steven.
From Steven:
http://www.freecycle.org/
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!
click to expand picture
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.
Screen Cleaner from Microsoft?
tip from bluepwrdup, Mar 2007, permalink Funny
Note from Clif:
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!
Here are the comments from last week.
Explorer Breadcrumbs - making MS Explorer a little better •
Xyplorer - better than Explorer can do •
Network Traffic Monitor •
PageBreeze - a free WYSIWYG webpage editor •
Little Setup Builder - create your own installers •
Asteroids+Plus - the game I wish I had way back when •
Sumatra PDF viewer - better than Adobe bloatware? •
Daylight Savings Time Bug? •
Online Word Processor Comparison •
Omnidrive - 1GB of free file space for sharing online•
Freeware for the Kids - the PricelessWare list for kids •
COOL WEBSITES
Chow.com - recipes, photos, cooking tips, yum yum
review from Tiffany, Mar 2007, permalink Cool Website
A letter from Tiffany:
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!
Tiffany
********************************************
http://tiffanycartier.stumbleupon.com/
http://hello-kitty.group.stumbleupon.com/ =^..^=
********************************************
CoolSites Newsletter this week
Here are a few links from Mark's CoolSites Newsletter. Be sure to visit his site and see the rest of his links this week.
Free Public Record Search Engine - Pretrieve: http://www.pretrieve.com/
Freeware by JAM Software : http://www.jam-software.com/index.shtml
Freeware from Brothersoft : http://freeware.brothersoft.com/
Freeware from Cubex Digital Entertainment Games : http://cubex.de.googlepages.com/games#ap
Freeware from LFI.net : http://lfi.net/LFI/Index.htm
Freeware by Elentaris I.T. Ltd. SecureEdit a secure notepad replacement : http://www.elentaris.co.uk/software/index.html
Quote from the website
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.
http://luem42.com/
Websites I've visited recently
Have you seen any cool websites you want to share with us?
NEW NEWS
SnapFiles.com - new and updated freeware
Source - http://snapfiles.com/freeware
News from Sarah in Tampa
Security news from Malware Advisor
blog by TeMerc Internet Countermeasures, source
Infected? Go to http://temerc.com for help
A veiw from CyberNirvana
CyberNirvana: Zia's blog about the web and web technology.
http://www.ziarezvi.com
OTHER STUFF
Get Gmail! and Get Firefox!
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.
Chatting at FreewareWiki
Now you can chat with anyone visiting a website by using Gabbly. To see who's gabbing at this website, click here.
Find out more about Gabbly.com
Frapper - you people live all over the world!
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.
Write your own review
I get many of the reviews in the newsletter from the readers. You don't have to be a genius or computer guru. Just answer a few questions and send me a review. I'll probably put you in the newsletter.
What do you have to say?
Just tell me what article you are talking about and leave me your comment.
Have fun and surf safely.
Clif
http://clifnotes.net & http://freewarewiki.pbwiki.com
Devoted to promoting Freeware and Free Information
Want a free 2.7Gb Gmail account?
Email me here.
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