Description: Tobu is a “freeform information organizer”, a desktop-based note taking application that allows you to use multiple tags to categorize notes of all kinds. Tobu’s use of tags allows for making multiple connections between notes, which in turn makes it possible for this app to provide versatile database-like functionality for organizing, viewing, and finding your notes quickly and easily.

In general I am wary of posting beta versions of programs, especially if I encounter errors in the course of testing these; however, I am so impressed with this program and so convinced that it represents a quantum leap forward for desktop note taking applications that I am happy to post it, regardless of whether or not it is yet ready for prime time. (See the comments section below for a description of bugs encountered in this release and some solutions that I found).

Tobu is a simple note taking application that allows you to assign multiple tags to a note and then view your notes across tag filters. However, it also allows you to create tags and assign values to them much as you would do with database fields. For example, you can create a tag named “priority” and for different notes you could assign different values (e.g. “priority: 9″, “priority: 7″). What this means, in effect, is that both of these would be notes have the tag “priority” in common, but when viewed in a list Tobu will display the tag as a column that you could sort by value. (See screenshot above for an illustration).

This is a program which you will have to put some effort into initially, in order to create a tag structure that works for your information and the way you want to work with your notes; however, once this is done both storage and retrieval of information will become significantly faster and easier than using a hierarchical notes application such as SEO Note or TreeDBNotes. To illustrate: the difference between a freeform organizer like Tobu and hierarchical notes organizers is similar to that between hierarchical applications launchers (such as the Windows start menu) and a text-input-based indexing launcher such as Launchy. (If you are unfamiliar with what Launchy is and what it does go ahead and try it; you will not be disappointed).

More info on this program:

• The user interface: is split into an upper pane that lists your notes in rows and allows you to apply tags as filters, and a lower pane where you enter text and work with individual notes. The lower pane is tabbed, which makes it easy to keep multiple notes handy irrespective of what you are doing in the upper pane.
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Description: Wubi is an Ubuntu Linux installer designed to be run from within a Windows environment in order to create a dual booting Windows/Ubuntu machine. Wubi is an officially supported Ubuntu installer and is open source.

I install a lot of software every day. I am always on the lookout for good software, always researching and testing programs. If I had a nickel for every program I have installed in the past year I would have a nice stash.

I am also curious about Linux, and have caught myself at times mulling the idea of a dual booting XP/Linux setup on my computer. But installing an OS is not quite like installing an app; you don’t just click on an installer and click “next” a bunch of times; first, you have to create a new partition on your hard drive (which likely involves moving a lot of your data around), then figure out which Linux build to use and download it, then figure out the steps needed to install Linux and their sequence, as well as all the tools needed which you will likely have to add to you Linux boot CD, etc, then perform a whole bunch of steps to make it dual bootable. Wouldn’t it be great if instead of this drawn out process all you had to do was run an installer from within Windows much like you would install any application?

This, in fact, is exactly what Wubi does. In order to install Ubuntu you simply download this 1 meg executable and run it within Windows just as you would any other setup program. Here are more notes on this program:

• How to use: download and run the installer in Windows. You will be asked to specify a folder to install into, and asked to specify your login passwords. Wubi will then proceed to download Ubuntu for you (approx 700 megs), save it into your specified folder, and install it for you. (Or if you have an Ubuntu CD it will be automatically detected).
• Prerequisites: you need to have at least 5 gigs of space on your chosen hard drive partition. You do NOT have to re-partition and/or move data around. Minimum memory requirement is 256 Megs.
• Dual booting: the next time you boot your machine you will be asked whether you want to boot into your Windows OS or into Ubuntu. Very cool! The folder where you installed Wubi will be mounted as a partition.
• Access to your Windows partitions: you can mount and access the Windows partition where you installed Wubi from within Ubuntu and get access to your Windows files.
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Description: Looxis Faceworx is a free 3D modeling program that can construct a textured 3D model of a person’s head out of two 2D photos (one from the front, "mugshot" style, and the other profile style from the side).

With this program you can create a modeled 3D head and then export it as an .OBJ file for use in other 3D modeling software such as Sketchup or Blender. As a starting point you will need two well light photographs of the subject whose head you want to model, and, once imported into Looxis Faceworx, the process will require a degree of manual intervention on your part to best map your subject’s phase/features onto the 3D model. Here are more notes on this program:

• The learning curve: is very shallow. Just go to help then video tutorial and you will know everything that you need to know within 5 minutes. The program is very easy to use and come to grips with.
• How it works: once you have the images, you will have to manipulate a line/point structure manually in order to best fit it around the face in the photographs.What you need to know here is that there are different levels of detail that you can work with: you can tell the program to give you more points or less points to manipulate.
• More tips: make it simple by deactivating the line/points structures that you are not working with instead of having them be displayed on screens. Zoom into the images when working with them for best accuracy (with the mouse wheel). Start with as little points as possible then make it more detailed afterwards; the better you "fit" these points around the head, the better the result will be. Deactivate the "blend zone" to begin with and deal with it at the very end.
• The user interface: is very straightforward. Three different windows display your subject’s frontal image, profile image, and 3D model of the head. What is nice about this program is that since it only does one thing - maps images to a 3D head - there is a limited set of tools that you need to use and come to grips with.
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Description: Translate.Net is a desktop-based translation tool that will translate any text from one language to another. It connects with multiple online translation engines and delivers multiple translations at once straight into your desktop.

Although a translation engine where you enter you text and have it magically translated into another language sounds like a fairy tale, the web is full of these services. Of course these cannot provide the textual nuances that a human translator could, and the quality can vary widely from text to text and engine to engine, which is why it is a good idea to run a text through multiple translation engines and get multiple versions/attempts at deciphering the text.

Translate.Net, like the recently reviewed Lingoes, is a straightforward program that will simply run your text through several online translation services and give you a list of results. Here are more notes on this program:

• The user interface: is simple and intuitive and fairly self explanatory.
• Languages supported: the list of "from" and "to" languages is extensive, with 25 languages supported in total, including every major language represented. The total number of translation directions is a whopping 1352.
• The language resources: what is cool is that Translate.Net will automatically identify out the available translation engines/resources that cover your language configuration and use them. As of this writing there were 17 language resources used, including Google dictionary, Google,translator Wikipedia, wiktionary, and SYSTRAN translator (used by Altavista Babel Fish). For a list of these go here.
• History of language pairs: once you perform a translation your from/to language pair used will be stored in the main interface, enabling you to quickly fire up that language combo the next time you need it. Quite useful.
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Description: Google Earth is a fully interactive 3D representation of the globe and (more recently) of space, with interactive representations of galaxies and constellations. Users are able to explore/navigate the virtual world and view and interact with a growing number of "layers" of information that are continuously being added and/or refined, such as 3D buildings, panoramic images of places, real-time weather information, roads, etc. Users are also able to interact with a growing number representations of well known places and monuments worldwide.

We are all familiar with satellite/aerial images used on Google maps. Google Earth takes this a step further by using this information (as well as a number of other information sources) to construct a virtual, fully interactive 3D globe. Astronomical pictures are also used to add a space exploration component called Google Sky (more on this below).

What’s interesting about this world is not just the ability to fly around, zoom in and explore, but the multiple layers of information that you can switch on and off (e.g. 3D buildings, image galleries, borders and labels, weather, etc.) as well as a growing number of pre-defined places that you can visit and explore virtually.

As of version 4.3 there have been a number of noteworthy additions to Google Earth, including a revamped navigation system, 3D "photorealistic" models of buildings, monuments, even entire cities, and time lapse views where you can control the time of day that you are viewing something in or even observe an accelerated sunrise-to-sunset scene at any spot in the world. "Street view" photos are also added, which display panoramic photographs of a particular sport that show you what it is really like to be there (similar in concept to the Panoye panoramic photo sharing site).

Community involvement: what is really exciting is that anyone can contribue to Google Earth, and many of the content is in fact either contributed by fans and enthusiasts or linked from other community based projects such as Wikipedia. For example, fans who have modeled and submitted buildings in their home towns using 3D modeling tools such as Google Sketchup or taken photos and associated them with places on Panoramio. Here are more notes on this program:

• Resolution: different locations have different resolutions, but most of the earth’s territory is covered within at least 15 meters of resolution, and some, such as Las Vegas and Cambridge, MA, have the highest resolution at 6 inches (15 cm).
• Navigation: you can search by address (in some countries), enter geographical coordinates, click on a an entry in the "places" section in the left pane, or simply use the on-screen 3D controls (with mouse wheel and arrow key integration).
• Layers: you can check and uncheck different layers of information in order to activate/deactivate them inside the main display. The amount of information that can be displayed is nothing short of astounding, from Panoramio pictures to related Wikipedia and New York Times articles to Metro transit lines, roads, international borders, weather/clouds, YouTube videos, restaurants, etc. The more you expand the layer categories the more you realize just how much they’ve crammed in there (see thumbnail to the right for the full expanded list of informational layers).
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Description: Mikogo is a free, browser-based screen sharing and remote computer access platform for Windows. It allows you to create virtual meetings/webinars where any of the participant’s screens can be shared, to define which applications can or cannot be accessed remotely, and to instantly share files with participants, all without the need to configure firewalls, ports, and routers etc.

Say you want to demonstrate to your friend in another town how you perform a certain trick with Photoshop, or say you want to send your mother in a different time zone a really good freeware antispyware program and install for her on the spot. Mikogo will allow you to do all of the above.

I work in a company here in Seattle that’s been merged with another one on the east coast, and a few days ago I had to give a presentation “virtually” to a group of my colleagues back east. A conference call was arranged for the audio part, but what was needed was a platform whereby I could share my screen with multiple PCs on the other side of the continent. This being the business world, we used an expensive proprietary software, but I nonetheless started researching easy ways this could be done for free and found and tested Mikogo.

Once you download and install this program, you will have to create an account and log in. What’s really cool is that if screen sharing/broadcasting is all you need you audience on the other side would not need to create accounts or install software (they do, however, need to download and run a single no-install executable). Moreover, all interaction happens through the browser and there are no firewalls or routers to configure, no IP addresses to investigate and ports to open or close. Here are more notes on this program:

• How to share your screen: once you launch your Mikogo account and log in, right click on the Mikogo icon in the system tray and select “Start meeting”. You will be provided with a meeting ID (a kind of password) that others could use to view your screen. Once you have your meeting up and running, you can easily switch presenter to view another user’s screen rather than them seeing yours (subject to their acceptance, of course). Meeting limited to 10 participants.
• How others can view your screen: all your audience members need to do is go to the Mikogo website and click on “join meeting” which will download a small executable (approx 680K) that they can run and enter the meeting ID into. This will instantly open a browser window with your own shared screen displayed in it. They can also switch to broadcasting their screen or controlling another desktop without the need for any further download. Once the meeting is over, they can simply delete the executable and the config file that it creates (in the same directory in-which it is placed).
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Description: Kerkythea is a free multiplatform standalone rendering software that can be used to create photorealistic image renderings using physically accurate materials and lighting when integrated with Blender, SketchUp, Wings3D, 3ds Max, Silo and any program that exports files in OBJ and 3DS formats.

A few months ago I reviewed SketchUp from Google, a great, easy to learn, yet powerful modeling program, and although Kerkythea can be used with most 3D modeling programs for the purposes of this interview I will write about using it with SketchUp.

SketchUp allows you to you make great models in nice graphic formats, but it stops short when it comes to photo-realistically rendered finished images: you cannot show reflections or shiny surfaces using SketchUp only, or, say, highlight an area with a spot-light to create a theatrical feeling. The good news is that now on you can, with the powerful and free Kerkythea Rendering System that adds all that is missing from SketchUp. Here are more notes on Kerkythea:

• How it works: install into your SketchUp plugin folder. It will add new functions (e.g. many lights which you can use in the SketchUp components) that will become active once you export the model to Kerkythea. You can also open the files you have created with SketchUp straight into Kerkythea (the files will employ an XML internal format).
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Description: Lingoes is a free program that makes a wide range of translation and language reference tools available at your fingertips, enabling you to access these globally from any application to perform word lookups, text translation and pronunciation of words in over 60 languages, including English, French, German, Spanish, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Italian, Portuguese, and others.

We’ve seem a lot of “global” language reference tools before, however, what’s special about this one is that (a) its focus on translation resources, bringing together most of the better/more well known translation resources available on the net into a single interface (including Google, Babelfish, Altavista and Yahoo). Lingoes also (b) allows you to download and install any number of reference resources, some of which offer online lookups while others work offline from the hard disk. For those whose primary language is not English, (c) Lingoes is not restricted to English, as there is a wide range source/target languages available across many downloadable language resources. Finally it should be pointed out that Lingoes (d) is a translation and word-definition engine, but does not provide a spellchecker functionality.

there are a few things that are special about this one:

• Translation: gives you a choice of a wide range of online translation engines, including Google, Altavista, Yahoo, Babelfish and about ten others. This means that (a) you will most likely find a translation service for the language that you are interested in, and (b) you can experiment to see which service provides the best results.
• Word definitions: CTRL-right clicking on any word will summon a dictionary definition of that word (or you can look up a definition from a dialog within the program). What’s cool is that the program employs a plugin architecture such that you can download free dictionaries and add them to Lingoes. The screenshot to the right, for example, shows a CTRL-right click definition of a the word “authoritative” after I had installed the Vicon English-Russian and English-Arabic dictionaries (in addition to the default English).
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Description: this posting will compare a number of different possible ways to convert PDF files into Word Doc format, including freeware programs and free web and email services. Six different programs/services are tested: (1) PDF2HTMLgui, (2) the Koolwire email PDF to DOC conversion service, (3) the Zamzar web service, (4) Free PDF To Word Doc Converter, (5) Adobe PDF to HTML email conversion service, and (6) the MediaConvert web service.

In order to do this test I created a PDF document using Open Office’s export to PDF function that had the following elements (1) a two-column table with special formatting, which contained (2) three thumbnail-szied jpeg images. My PDF document also contained (3) working hyperlinks; and (4) it featured text that was bolded; (5) contained bulleted points, as well as (6) a numbered list.

For the sake of simplicity my PDF was only a single page. To see what the document looked like click on the screenshot to the right.

The objective: was to get a converted document that could be loaded into MS Word where the text/contents could be edited and subsequently saved as .DOC format, which is to say any of the following formats would be satisfactory: .DOC, .HTML, and .RTF.

Comparative results: look for them at the bottom of this positng.
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Description: DocShield is a program that runs in the background and monitors files and folders that you specify for changes. It will create compressed snapshots of your files whenever it detects any changes, enabling you to retrieve your files in case of data loss, and providing a retrievable version history of your files and/or data.

You may or may not be regularly backing up your most important files and/or archiving the most important version changes, and saving your backups into compressed archives to keep your files from growing too large. But chances are that you do this in fits and starts and/or are not as consistent as you like to be, or even have simply given up on this. Wouldn’t it be just great if there were a program you could run in the background that would automate do this for you and manage the process automatically? DocShield is exactly this program.

Although there are a number of freeware programs that do this (e.g. File Hamster, previously featured on Freewaregenius), DocShield features mature functions such as archive management, on-the-fly compression, and FTP backup. Here are more notes on this program:

• The user interface: is very well designed. The main configuration screen is split into 4 tabs and is very easy and intuitive to work with.
• Files monitored: can monitor local files or files on the network. You can point the program explicitly to the files you want it to monitor (drag and drop is supported), or you can define a folder/folders and tell it to scan for certain file-types (you can include or exclude subfolders and use wildcards to exclude certain files). I would strongly encourage the former approach as I have found that pointing the program to a folder that contains a large number of big files can sometimes be problematic.
• Monitoring activity: the program will check for changes in your files and folders at 5 minutes periods by default, but you can set this to anything you like (seconds/minutes/hours). If it finds that a file has changed from the latest version of it in the archive it will add that latest version to the archive. Any changes or versions that may have been created between the monitoring intervals will not be recorded. (You can also trigger the monitoring action manually by pressing the “Shiled Now” button)
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Description: RecentFilesView is a small, no install freeware program that can retrieve and save the list of the most recently accessed files.

If you’ve ever needed a list of the last opened files on your machine, RecentFilesView is for you. It provides a much more comprehensive list than the one in the "Recent Documents" folder. Here are some scenarios I could think of where you wil find this program very useful:

• If you are working on a project and for whatever reason need to create a list of all the relevant files for that project. With RecentFilesView you can export a comprehensive or partial list to a text or CSV files and edit that as needed.
• If you are uncertain as to which files or file versions you were using when you were working on a project 5 days ago. With RecentFilesView you should be able to survey that history in a snap.
• Please post other uses you might think of in the comments.

Here are more notes on this app:

• Sorting: you can sort by created time, modified time, executed time, and filename.
• Which files will be listed?: those files that were either opened from the desktop or from an application. It will list folders that were opened as well.. It will display your file activity, not files that were created or accessed by programs, such as temp files or cached files saved by your browser. Files that are deleted will also be listed, although it will indicate in the list that the file is no longer available.
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Description: PhotoMesa is a free tool for managing image libraries. Dubbed a "zoomable image browser", it employs an innovative method for browsing a large number of images by zooming in and out of folders in a sort of "bird’s eye view". It also offers the ability to browse image collections by folder, category, people, year, and month, and for adding searchable tags and captions stored within the image files themselves using the IPTC standard.

This program was apparently developed based on research that was done in the University of Maryland’s Human-Computer Interaction Lab, and the end result is a very intuitive way of browsing image libraries. What you will immediately notice when you first start using this program is its unique (and quite pleasing) way of scrolling through a large number of images in "zoom mode" (I will attempt a description of this below, but if you want to get a sense of this see the video at the bottom of this review). Here are more notes on this program:

• Zoom mode: by default, Photomesa will scan the folders that you tell it to and generate groups of rectangles that represent your folder tree visually. What is nice about this representation is that (a) it serves to take maximum advantage of your available screen space, and (b) it allows you a bird’s-eye-view (or satellite-eye view more like) which allows you to easily browse your entire image collection in a very intuitive way.
• Scroll mode: is a normal interface of viewing folders or groups sequentially employed in most programs (such as Picasa). This is made available in case you prefer a conventional way of working with folders/groups. This is also a better interface when you need to see all images within folders, as zoom mode uses "representative" images for most folders until you zoom into it.
• Interacting with the program: the system of interaction under zoom mode is well thought out, and takes a very short time to get the hang of it. Left or right clicking over any rectangle zooms in and out of it, respectively. Each rectangle will only display a representative number of thumbnails, but once zoomed into will display all the images within using very small thumbnails (this depends on the program window size and the number of images within). Hovering on any thumbnail produces a larger floating preview of the image, which is very useful. You can perform operations on the images by selecting one or more images (using CTRL or Shift) and using a number of options in the context menu (rotating, captioning, making an image a "favorite", etc).
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Description: TreeDBNotes Free Edition is a hierarchical notes outliner program with a wide range of features, including organizing information in both tabs and tree structures, rich text editing, support for tables, images, and links, global search, and more.

I used this program as my primary hierarchical notes outliner more than a year ago but eventually abandoned it because it lacked some key features and languished without development for a long time. Needless to say I was intrigued to find that the developer recently released an update, and very pleasantly surprised with how mature this program has become. The new release is worth the wait; to get straight to the point: if you are looking for a full-featured, sleek, well designed freeware hierarchical not-taking program, TreeDBNotes Free Edition is one of the best options around. More info below:

• Organization: notes are organized two dimensionally in tabs and hierarchical folder trees. This is extremely important, as some notes programs only provide a single hierarchical folder option which can get very cumbersome to manage. Trees/folders can be easily managed from the right click menu (moved around the tree or into another tree, copied/pasted, sorted alphabetically, etc).
• Rich text editing: the editing capability provided rivals that of any major word processor.(e.g. text styles, justification, bullets, sub-bullets, numbering, text and background colors, paragraph formatting etc). One feature I really like is the shrink/grow font by one point function, familiar to MS Word users. Includes a nifty text manipulation tool that can change the case of selected text: uppercase/lowercase/first letter/first word.
• Links creation: this is one of the coolest features which is surprisingly absent in many freeware notes programs; the ability to link to a URL (online or locally), link to another note or bookmark within TreeDBNotes, or link to a local file. I am using this feature to link to web pages that I save locally using the free version of Local Website Archiver, and it works really well. It also enables you to use TreeDBNotes as a versatile bookmark manager of sorts.
• Tables support: for HTML and Word tables. Tables are easily created and manipulated through the right click menu in a very intuitive manner. You can copy tables from a web page and paste straight into TreeDBNotes.
• Image support: images can be inserted into any page, or pasted from the clipboard. For some reason, though, when copying/pasting paragraphs from the internet that include images those images are not transferred (unless copied/pasted individually).
• Favorites and bookmarks: both can be accessed from the left hand pane (these are 2 different things). You can create a favorite out of any note (folder or node in the tree structure) in order to jump to it from anywhere. Bookmarks, however, are anchors that can be used to jump to a specific location within the text, and are visible only within the tree/tab you are working with. (To bookmark: right click > insert > bookmark).
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Description: ALToolbar is a free Internet Explorer toolbar that offers a number of very useful functions straight from the browser, including an internet cleaner, advanced find, automatic site login with online password storage, online bookmark management , screenshot capture for websites, quick access to multiple search engines, a flash ad blocker, control by mouse gestures, and a few others.

Let me be clear first that I usually do not like toolbars and try to avoid them. I especially do not like toolbars when they offer functions and features that have little value-added, and then try to force you to use their own custom search page. The only toolbar that I have previously recommended on Freewaregenius is the Google Toolbar (see this post). ALToolbar, however, offers a number of functions with high value added and I have no qualms giving it my highest possible endorsement.

The reason I recommend ALToolbar is because it brings together a terrific collection of browser tools in one place. And although it does have it’s own customized search page, the last used search engine (e.g. Google or whatever other engine you like) will be used as default, or you can define your own default search provider.

Note that of the many functions that ALToolbar offers, two of these (the automatic password login ALPass and the Bookmark manager) actually store your information online. The idea behind this is to enable you to manage your bookmarks or site logins on one computer (say, at home), and then access these from your work computer for example such that you will always have access to the will always be in sync. These are discussed in mroe detail below. Here’s a list of all the functions ALToolbar has to offer:

• The user interface: the toolbar generally looks good but what is cool is that it allows you to maximize it (so that a text label is displayed next to each button) or minimize it so that only the icons appear. The latter option is very useful if you are interested in minimizing your browser toolbar clutter.
• Customizability: ALToolbar allows you to pick and choose in terms of the buttons you would like to display within the toolbar and/or the functions that you would like enabled. If you do not care about any offered function(s) you can disable it and use the remaining ones.
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Description: WordFlashReader is an open source program that promises to increase your reading speed (of electronic texts) by multiple factors, as well as increase your comprehension of them. It will flash the words within a text in sequence (individually or in chunks) on the screen in large font, with pauses for punctuation. WordFlashReader can open and display multiple text and ebook formats.

I am 36 years old, and one of the facts of life which I have come to terms with is the following: I will never read all the books that I would like to read. In fact, I will most likely never read all the books that I have already purchased, hoping that I might someday get to them. Unlike some people (my wife, for example, who can zip through books) it simply takes me too much time to read a book; there is simply too much thinking, reflection, and daydreaming involved for me to get through texts as efficiently as I would like.

Which is why this program piqued my interest as soon as I lay eyes on it. What WordFlashReader does is open and display electronic texts such that only one word or a chunk of text is displayed in large font on a dark background at any one time. The flashing word(s) move through the text in quick succession, with some considerable degree of control allowed the user in terms of display speed, size of the displayed chunk, and the behavior of the text with regard to punctuation. This system of reading is supposed to have the following effects:

• Comfort: it is supposed to be more comfortable on the eyes than the normal method of reading. Although it takes a bit of getting used to at first, I can see that how this might be the case.
• Efficiency: because the stream of words served is constant and uninterrupted, the user is forced to keep with the pace, although he/she can control the display speed. If you are going to use the program you will be forced read in a constant and efficient manner.
• Comprehension: the program pauses for punctuation, which is supposed to increase comprehension.
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