Posted by Samer on April 3, 2010 in Games | Tagged Games |
Do you have a toddler that is always trying to play on your computer? Or maybe you have a small child within that misses playing with blocks and balls and toy cars?
Either way, you will like this free program. SoupToys lets you place a wide variety of toys on your desktop, from blocks to cars to ramps to balls etc. All of these objects are simulated to obey the laws of physics; you can fling them around or set them up to interact with each other, but what is more impressive is that all the toys behave as they should; magnets attract metal objects, basketballs bounce higher than soccer balls, care run and accelerate and careen over ramps, etc.
The program also features dozens of pre-made sets, instantly playable toys and objects arranged by a specific theme. You can join the Soup Toys community and download new ones or upload your own. Continue reading ..
Posted by Samer on March 29, 2010 in Audio, Audio Conversion, How To, Video, Video Conversion, Video Utils |
Have you ever needed to extract the sound file from a downloaded video, such as videos from YouTube or other video sharing sites? In this post I will show how to separate the audio track from a video file (a process also known as “demuxing”).
Of late it seems that there is an increased interest in how to do this, which might have something to do with YouTube becoming the go-to destination for many people who want to look up music. Also, many download-from-YouTube programs are now adding the option to save straight to MP3.
Two sets of instructions will be presented for video files in FLV or MP4 formats, which are typically used in video sharing sites. Note that the tools covered here can also demux AVI, MOV and TS formats as well. Continue reading ..
Posted by Samer on March 25, 2010 in System, Utilities | Tagged Desktop Enhancements |
Secondshell tweaks Windows and provides easy and practical shortcuts for performing a handful of tasks, such as: Maximizing windows to the edges of the screen vertically or horizontally using keyboard shortcuts (see screenshots above) and resizing or moving windows by clicking anywhere on the window, then using Alt+left click drag to move or Alt+right click drag to resize (similar to KDE Window Resizer).
Other functions include substituting the Caps Lock key for the middle mousebutton (useful for laptops or netbooks that do not have it), minimizing windows by right clicking the title bar, closing a window by middle-mouse clicking the title bar, and setting up to 10 keyboard shortcuts to launch applications. Continue reading ..
Posted by Samer on March 23, 2010 in File Management, HD Utils, System, Utilities |
Comodo Time Machine is a free program that can roll your system back in time, on-demand, to a previous state. It provides the ability to “undo” any kind of undesirable event, such as a virus or malware infestation or any event or events that might have caused your PC to become too cluttered, slow, or unresponsive, by giving you the ability to revert back to a baseline state or to a snapshot of the system taken before the problem started. It also provides the ability to recover any data or files that may have been accidentally deleted, saved-over, or damaged in any way.
Comodo Time Machine is unlike Windows restore in that it doesn’t just affect the registry and system settings, but transforms your entire system including your files and everything on your hard drive. What is interesting is that if you do revert back to an earlier state, the software will still preserves the “future” point which you reverted from, allowing you to reclaim any files that had been changed or added if you need to. Comodo Time Machine takes regular scheduled automatic snapshots, making it possible to use the protection it provides while on auto pilot, so to speak, without having to be managing it manually it at all times. Continue reading ..
Posted by Jason on March 22, 2010 in File Management, HD Utils, System, Utilities |
I’ve previously discussed why you shouldn’t just throw out or recycle your computer without wiping the drive first to protect your identity and files in a 404 Tech Support article Before you recycle/garbage that old computer. If you’re deleting files from your computer that need to be kept from prying eyes, you should be using a secure deleting application for the same reason. The open-source application I recommend for that task comes in the form of Eraser 6.
The same analogy used in the previous article holds true for justifying why you should use Eraser 6. A file on a disk can be compared to a house in a neighborhood. In Windows, when you delete a file (even Empty the recycle bin) all you really did is take the address off the house and put up a ‘lot for sale’ sign. If somebody knows where to look, they’ll be able to find it until a new file comes in and takes over that space. A secure deleting tool comparably bulldozes the house and fills the lot with a bunch of random bricks and mortar with the ‘lot for sale’ sign still up in the yard.
[Editor’s note: this review was written by Freewaregenius contributor Jason H. Check out his tech blog: 404techsupport.com]. Continue reading ..
Posted by Samer on March 19, 2010 in Productivity & Applications | Tagged Screensavers |
What would you do if you wanted to know what the weather is like right now? Naturally you would take a peek out the window. YoWindow Free is a free interactive weather reporting app that takes this concept and flips it on its head; it will show you the current weather or the weather forecast as a virtual visual representation of what the landscape would look like if you looked outside.
YoWindow Free delivers the weather forecast as well as a host of other meteorological info. It runs as a desktop app and in the system tray, but can also be set as the default screensaver. Continue reading ..
Posted by Samer on March 18, 2010 in Productivity & Applications, Video, Video Utils |
Wondershare PPT2Video Free is a free app that can convert PowerPoint files (PPT, PPS, as well as the Office 2007 .PPTX, formats) into video. Specifically it can output to WMV, ASF, Quicktime (.MOV) as well as .MKV video formats.
PPT2Video can preserve and record most elements inside a PowerPoint presentation, including custom animation or transition effects, as well as sound events. It allows a degree of control over the output settings, and output videos can be up to 1280×720 in resolution. Continue reading ..
Do you have a toddler that is always trying to play on your computer? Or maybe you have a small child within that misses playing with blocks and balls and toy cars?
