Articles by Samer Kurdi
SmillaEnlarger is a free, open source program that enables enlarging/magnifying bitmap images in high quality. Based on original algorithms, this standalone software uses a number of filters that are designed to remove some of the typical artifacts generated by the enlarging process and “fill in” image information to achieve a much higher quality image than image enlargement algorithms typically employed in most applications. Read more on SmillaEnlarger: free tool produces high quality image enlargements…
This posting will describe how to split a very large CSV or Text file into a number of smaller parts by specifying the number of desired lines within each of the resulting pieces (for example, by 65536 lines for use with Excel 2003 or 1,048,576 for Excel 2007). The method described will use free software to do this and will work for very large files (even files larger that 4 gigs in size), will avoid loading the entire file into memory when processing, will maintain the format/extension of the original file, and will not add any additional information to the resulting files.
Read more on How to split a very large text or CSV file by a specific number of lines/rows…
PDFTools is a free tool that can perform a wide range of PDF editing functions including ones that you would expect such merging, splitting and extracting of PDF pages, as well as many other less common functions such as stamping PDFs with a text message or image, rearranging PDF pages in a document, as well as decrypting a PDF document or encrypting/editing the document’s user permissions.
Read more on PDFTools: splits, joins, extracts PDF pages and provides a myriad of other functions…
SuperF4 is a free utility that resides in memory and delivers instant, quick termination of apps or processes via hotkey. It is designed to forcibly terminate any running program effectively and instantly, but without notifications or prompts to save your work. This is done by pressing CTRL+ALT+F4 for terminating the active app, while WIN+F4 will allow you to use the mouse to click on any visible Window to terminate that app or process.
Read more on SuperF4: forcibly terminate any program via hotkey…
GSplit is a freeware program that can split any file, even extremely large files, in any number of ways including by user-defined sizes or predefined sizes, by spanning across a number of removable disks/media, by number of desired pieces, or even by number of individual lines or occurrences of a pattern in the file. It can create a tiny program to re-unite the split files without needing to use the original application, and can even integrate this into the first file of your splits. Gsplit also adds a Windows explorer context menu entry for on-the-fly splits. Portable version available.
Read more on Gsplit: powerful, versatile tool to split any file…
Pointy Haired Dilbert is a blog that provides some amazing, freely-downloadable MS Excel resources. The philosophy behind the site is a focus on data charting and visualization and on “telling stories” with data. Templates that can be downloaded from the site (all 100% free) include sophisticated reporting dashboards, templates for advanced charts (e.g. bullet graphs, Gannt charts, Petal Charts, Speedometer, Candlestick charts, etc.), and even Excel-based games and apps (including a calendar and an Excel-based Twitter client).
Read more on Pointy Haired Dilbert: amazing blog offers free Excel templates for download…
MetatOgger is a free, powerful program for tagging and renaming MP3s and other audio files. It offers the functions you would expect from a tag editor (e.g. mass renaming, tags from filenames or path, scripts to perform editing functions) as well as a few that are not so common, such as “acoustic fingerprinting” of unknown songs using the MusicBrainz database, built in album art search, importing lyrics from lyricwiki.org into your audio tags, and the ability to download a massive audio tag database that it can use as a tagging resource.
Read more on MetatOgger: audio tagger with “acoustic fingerprinting” and other powerful options…
AuthorStream Desktop is a free PowerPoint Add-on that makes it easy to search for and insert YouTube videos as well as images from the web into your PowerPoint files. Users on other computers that you might share your PowerPoint files with will need an internet connection to view the embedded videos, but will NOT require AuthorStream Desktop installed on their computers in order to do so.
Read more on AuthorStream Desktop: easily insert YouTube videos into Powerpoint…
If you’ve ever encountered a blocked startup app in Vista and would like a work-around that can bypass it then read on. This posting will describe how to launch an app on startup as a scheduled task, which will circumvent the startup apps list altogether. Ultimately you will be able to get your app to launch without seeing the notice in the screenshot and without having to shut down Vista’s User Account Control security infrastructure.
Smart Soft’s Free PDF to Word Converter is a free program that offers one-click PDF to Word (DOC) conversions. It performs conversions locally on your desktop (i.e. it is not a web service) and offers excellent fidelity to the original document.
Read more on Free PDF to Word Converter: desktop app offers excellent PDF to Word/Doc conversions…
Battlefield Heroes is a third person, online only action game. It’s free-to-play, supported by optional micro transactions, and can only be launched through your web browser. It’s created by EA DICE, the developer behind the famous Battlefield series.
[Editor’s note: this review was written by Freewaregenius contributor Travis B. Check out his freeware games blog here]. Read more on Battlefield Heroes: wacky, fun, online wargame…
Tubemaster Plus Plus (the sequel to previously mentioned Tubmaster Plus) can download media (video/audio) from video sharing sites such as YouTube, Vimeo, MySpace, Dailymotion and others, as well as encrypted media from “ani-leeching” websites sites such as Imeen, Pandora and Last.fm. TM++ can also perform on-the-fly format conversions as well as general Video and MP3 searches.
