Favorite Files

1. @icon sushi
2. Adeona for Windows
3. Adobe Photoshop Lightroom for Windows
4. Adobe Reader for Windows 2000/XP/Vista/2008
5. AnyDVD HD
6. AOL Instant Messenger for Windows
7. Ares
8. Autoruns
9. Avi2Dvd
10. Bart's PE Builder
11. BeamFile
12. BitTorrent for Windows
13. BitWise for Windows
14. Blender for Windows
15. cFosSpeed
16. CHM Ifilter
17. Clean Messenger
18. Construct
19. Copernic Desktop Search
20. Damn Small Linux
21. Dial-a-fix
22. DVD Decrypter
23. DVD Flick
24. DVD neXt COPY Standard
25. e
26. eMule
27. eMule Plus
28. eXeem
29. FairUse4WM
30. FastStone Capture
31. FastStone Image Viewer
32. FileZilla v3 for Windows
33. Firebird for Windows
34. FireTune
35. fishCode Library .NET Professional (.NET 2.0)
36. Floola for Windows
37. Free Download Manager
38. Gentoo Linux
39. GMail Drive
40. Google Chrome for Windows
41. Google Desktop for Windows
42. Google Talk
43. Half-Life 2 Enhancer
44. Hamachi for Windows
45. IconLover
46. ImgBurn
47. Inno Setup
48. Internet Download Manager
49. Internet Explorer Developer Toolbar
50. Mandriva Linux
51. Microsoft .NET Framework (v3.0)
52. Microsoft Acrylic
53. Microsoft ActiveSync
54. Microsoft Anti-XSS
55. Microsoft Avalon and Indigo
56. Microsoft Expression Blend + SketchFlow
57. Microsoft Expression Design
58. Microsoft Expression Web
59. Microsoft Internet Explorer for Windows XP
60. Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool (x86)
61. Microsoft Max
62. Microsoft Pre-Release Software Visual Studio Tools For Office "v3"
63. Microsoft Private Folder
64. Microsoft Save as PDF or XPS
65. Microsoft Silverlight for Windows
66. Microsoft Virtual PC
67. Microsoft Visual Basic
68. Microsoft Visual Studio Code Name 'Orcas'
69. Microsoft Windows Defender (32-bit)
70. Microsoft Windows Vista (32-bit)
71. Microsoft WinFX SDK
72. Mozilla Firefox for Windows (v2)
73. Mozilla Firefox for Windows (v3)
74. Mozilla Firefox Portable Edition
75. Mozilla Sunbird for Windows
76. Mozilla Thunderbird for Windows
77. Mozilla Thunderbird Portable Edition
78. n-Track Studio
79. Nakido Flag
80. Nero
81. NeroVision Express
82. Nexenta
83. Notepad++
84. NSIS (Nullsoft Scriptable Install System)
85. nVIDIA ForceWare Drivers for Windows 2000/XP (32-bit)
86. nVIDIA ForceWare Drivers for Windows Vista/7 (32-bit)
87. Nvu for Windows
88. OpenOffice.org for Windows
89. Opera for Windows
90. Orbit Downloader
91. Outlook on the Desktop
92. Paint.NET
93. Parted Magic
94. Partition Logic
95. PDF-ShellTools
96. PerfectDisk Professional
97. Picasa for Windows
98. Pidgin for Windows
99. Process Explorer
100. PSPad editor
101. ratDVD
102. ReactOS
103. Rendezvous for Windows
104. RSS Bandit
105. RunWithParameters
106. Sandboxie
107. Screenshot Captor
108. Shalom Help Maker
109. SharpEnviro
110. SimplyMEPIS Linux
111. Skype for Windows
112. Smart Defrag
113. SmitfraudFix
114. Spybot - Search & Destroy
115. SWiSH Max
116. Tor for Windows
117. Ubuntu
118. UltraEdit
119. UltraVNC
120. UnHackMe
121. Unlocker
122. UPX (Ultimate Packer for eXecutables) for Windows
123. VLC (VideoLAN) for Windows
124. Vuze for Windows
125. WinMerge
126. WinRAR (32-bit)
127. wxBasic for Windows
128. X-Fonter
129. xacc.ide
130. XeroBank Browser
131. µTorrent for Windows

Recent Posts

1. 
   Review - Notepad++

   5.0.1 (Jul 15, 2008)

   Seriously fantastic editor. Ever since 5.x was released, the load time was dramatically sped up which was perhaps my only real complaint prior to that. I love the syntax highlighting for SQL and Code. The program is constantly being updated, and the interface doesn't look like it comes from Windows 3.1 like many other free editors.

2. 
   Review - Ubuntu

   7.04 "Feisty Fawn" Herd 5 (Mar 5, 2007)

   I tried FF Herd 5 the other day. It has some nice features, for example, it located and displayed the wireless access points that were available, which is a huge step up. It still didn't allow me to set my WPA-PSK conncetion natively however, I had to hack that in by hand.
   
   I also saw that there was a 3D Desktop setting built in, which I think means built in Beryl.
   
   Things didn't go smoothly however - it didn't correctly detect my video card and monitor settings, which Edgy did just fine, so my display looked like heck. The wireless connection didn't setup as smoothly as it should have, and even the partitioning seems to have changed, and was tough to understand.
   
   I like Ubuntu, but I still don't get all the hoopla over it. It is still very immature as far as Linux distros get. Something like Suse or Mandriva (or others) has much better hardware detection, wireless setup, broader software package selection, so on and so on. I think ubuntu somehow managed to get a "coolness" factor that the other distros haven't for some reason, but honestly, there are plenty of mature, stable distros out there that give a "windows like" experience from start to finish. I think Ubuntu will just frustrate the average user (at this point in time anyway) more than help them.

3. 
   Review - Slackware Linux

   11.0 RC2 (Aug 21, 2006)

   For what it is worth, Slackware is a darn solid distro. Some of the comments below seem to indicate that the technology it comes with is "old", and I can't deny that to some degree, but then again, that's why it is so solid. Slackware if NOT for noobs to Linux.
   
   If you want an easy to use, bleeding edge distro, then go with Mandriva, (or RedHat or Suse maybe) but if you want a solid, professional package then you could do worse than Slackware.

4. 
   Review - Mandriva Linux

   2007 Beta 1 "Thor" (Aug 1, 2006)

   Mandriva has early releases of ISO's to customers who donated money, which enourages people to donate. Having access to those ISO's doesn't mean you that work for Mandriva.
   
   For what it is worth, you can always access the latest Mandriva, for free, by downloading the "Cooker" version. That is the open source "in development" version, but you can always get "the latest and greatest" with no donation required.
   
   Once the donaters get their early "official" copies, Mandriva then releases them for free anyway, minus any non-open-source code such as some drivers and programs, and that's just a licensing issue, same as any other distro.
   
   For what it is worth, Mandriva is still the most feature rich and easy-to-use distro I've tried, and I've tried them all. Power users may whine about it because it "feels like Windows", but Joe average will love it. My mother can use it, and she's 75 and can't figure out how to use a cell phone yet. If she can use it, it's easy. Best driver selection of any distro I've ever seen.

5. 
   Review - Microsoft Office System 2007

   Beta 2 (May 24, 2006)

   While I am a huge MS fan, and applaud their effort to do something new, I have to admit that I really hate the new office so far. I felt the changes were too radical. Gone is the familiar File|Edit|Help style menu - everything is named differently, and thus not so easy to locate what you need. This also doesn't lend itself well to consistenty between applications.
   The toolbars are HUGE, and I'm one of those people that tries to minimize too and menu bars as much as possible - this is just awful. Not only are they taking up major screen space, but they aren't laid out well, and seem to waste resources on useless eye candy. Do I really need huge icons to pick a paragraph style? A dropdown used to suffice, why all the hoo-hah now? That's just one example of course, and before everyone screams at me, I'm not an idiot, I'm aware you can customize the interface to some degree. What I'm saying is, that as a software developer with 20+ years of experience behind me, *I* found the interface confusing and un-intuitive, and I think that if sat a computer novice down before this application, they'd be completely lost.
   
   And for what it is worth, the application has a tendency to bomb on me. Probably just a beta thing, but it happens pretty frequently, which doesn't add any stars to the rating.

6. Comment - Betanews CES 2009 Contest: Win Vista Ultimate and Office 2007

   Beta 2 (Jan 8, 2009 - 8:50 AM)

   Laptops have been around for years now, and are as powerful as desktops, yet there is still no "standard footprint" for motherboards and components the way desktops have. Is there any movement in the industry amongst Intel/AMD/etc. to create laptops that are upgradeable? That is to say, I want to buy my laptop, and then able to upgrade the motherboard, or sound card, or video chip, the same way I would in a desktop.

7. Comment - Mail Goggles a lot of $(@)!# fun, but safety net has holes

   Beta 2 (Oct 8, 2008 - 8:22 AM)

   Wouldn't it have been simplier to simply store the emails in the outbox for, say, 24 hours? Then once you sober up (and wake up) you can go re-read them before they send.

8. Comment - Visual Studio Incompatibility Hits Vista

   Beta 2 (Sep 28, 2006 - 9:20 AM)

   This surprised me. I've been using VS.NET 2005 and Vista for a while now (at home, not in production work). I haven't seen any problems. The article says that the problem is that Vista ships with .NET 3.0, but that doesn't mean that you can't install .NET 2.0, and for what its worth, .NET 3.0 is really a misnomer anyway. It isn't really so much a new version of the CLR binaries, it's more like "add ons" to work with the WinFX and Workflow foundations, etc. Nonetheless, I'm glad to hear that they are working on it, and that SP1 is on its way.

9. Comment - Dell Recalls 4.1 Million Laptop Batteries

   Beta 2 (Aug 15, 2006 - 9:00 AM)

   Thank you! I've seen about a dozen articles about this recall, including a blurb on the news, and this the first time I've been able to actually find a link to the current recall. All my Google hits seem to lead to the last one.
   Yup - there's my XPS in the list. No wonder my thighs keep frying when the laptop is in my lap...

10. Comment - 108 Year-Old Telcom Tax Repealed

    Beta 2 (Aug 2, 2006 - 8:49 AM)

    Old laws are a pain to get rid of. I live in PA, and we have a set of laws called the "Blue Laws". Basically, on Sundays, you can't buy a car or motorcycle, and you can't buy booze of any kind. This dates back to some kind of religious objection to performing those tasks on a Sunday, but no one is willing to be the one to say it's ok to buy a car instead of going to church, so the laws remain.
    
    These taxes are like that. Everyone knows that if the remove this tax, then they'll have to tax something else to make up for the lost revenues, so it is easier to just leave it in place.