Enginerve's Blog

Treat yourself like someone you are responsible for helping, and always have a mountain in life to climb

  • From PCMag

     

    Microvision SHOW

    Enlarge

    The world’s smallest business and personal projector could arrive in stores later this year.

    by Lance Ulanoff

    CES 2008 Coverage

    Just 12 months after demonstrating a working prototype of the world’s smallest projector,
    Redmond, Wash.-based Microvision is unveiling a full functioning,
    self-contained prototype that should be available as a real
    product—possibly from Motorola—later this year.





    SLIDESHOW (4)
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    All Shots

    Dubbed SHOW, the lensless PicoP projector is designed for the home
    and business use, and uses tiny lasers to shoot a WVGA (848 by 480,
    roughly DVD resolution) image on virtually any surface that isn’t a
    dark color or textured. It can even project onto curved and uneven
    surfaces. So, from a distance of two feet, it could project a two foot
    diagonal, full-color image on a white T-shirt. From five feet away, it
    could show a five-foot image on, say, a white wall or ceiling.

    “It’s a great for-use mode when it comes to spontaneously sharing
    content with your friends,” said Russell Hannigan, Microvision’s
    Director of Product Management for Consumer Projection Displays.

    And while last year’s prototype relied on some peripheral technology
    outside the handheld-size projector, SHOW needs no external parts. It
    includes a rechargeable battery and can charge and power via USB cable,
    as well.

    Hannigan explained that SHOW is plug and play and should work with any video-out capable devices, including laptops, the iPod touch, and some phones. The pocket-size projector.

    SHOW is even something of a green product. Hannigan noted that its
    three colored lasers turn on only when needed. So unlike the powerful
    lamps in standard business projectors which are always on during
    operation, SHOW doesn’t need a fan to keep the PicoP-based projector
    cool. Also, the lack of a physical lens allows Microvision to make SHOW
    as thin or thinner than your standard cell phone. The rechargeable
    battery on the prototype lasts about an hour and a half, but Hannigan
    expects the final product’s battery to last almost twice as long.
    Shipping SHOW projectors could sell for between $200 and $300.

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  • 7 Essential Tips to Make 2008 Your Best Year Ever

    The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams. – Eleanor Roosevelt

    As I reflected on this past year,
    I realized that 2007 has been perhaps my best year ever. It’s funny,
    because that’s what I thought about 2006, but my years seem to be
    getting better and better.

    And so I reflected on what made these past two years so great, and
    how I could leverage these successes for even further improvement. I’d
    like to share some things I’ve learned about the past two (very great)
    years, and how you might be able to use them to make this next year
    your greatest year yet.

    1. One goal. This will sound crazy to many of you
    who have so many goals you’d like to accomplish. And trust me, I know
    how that feels. I started out 2007 with a whole bunch of goals, but I
    only accomplished about half of them. I didn’t realize how things would
    change for me during the year, and anyway, 9 goals is too many.

    I’ve said this before, but it’s so important I’m going to repeat it:
    you’re at your most powerful if you focus on one thing at a time. If
    you have 10 goals, you’ll spread your focus thinly. But if you have one
    goal, you’ll be able to focus you energy and attention completely on
    that one goal. And that’s one of the secrets of success.

    You might have 10 goals to achieve for your lifetime. If so, choose
    just one to accomplish this year. And focus completely on that this
    year. You might have shorter-term sub-goals to achieve in a month or
    two, but those should lead to your One Goal for 2008.

    Put your goal on your wall, on you computer desktop. Make it your
    mantra. Keep it your focus for 2008, and you’ll not only achieve it,
    but you’ll feel great for doing so.

    2. Create a new habit. In 2006, when my goal was to
    run a marathon, I built up the daily habit of running. That habit led
    to my goal. When my goal became to grow my blog in 2007, I developed
    the daily habit of blogging. Goals are achieved by habits. What habit
    can you develop this month to help achieve your One Goal for this year?

    Once you’ve identified that goal, you’ll need to commit yourself,
    hold yourself accountable to a group of people, and focus completely on
    that habit for a month. I recommend the Zen Habits January Challenge. It’s the perfect way to create a habit and lead to the achievement of your One Goal.

    I also plan to write more about creating habits in the next week or two, so stay tuned.

    The journey of thousand miles starts with a single step. – Chinese Proverb

    3. Take action now. It’s all good and well to set
    goals or resolutions, but the best plans are worthless if you don’t act
    on them. Action is everything. Take action today to make your
    goal come true. Tomorrow, take another action. In fact, take one action
    toward your One Goal every day, first thing in the day, and make it the
    most important thing you do every day. If you do that, there’s almost
    no way that you won’t achieve that goal.

    The actions can be small things: making a list, making a call, doing
    some research (”find five possible venues for the conference”). But
    take action.

    4. Simplify. As you might have figured out by now,
    I’m all about simplicity. So this will sound redundant. But if you take
    the time to simplify your life, in some way, this month, your year will
    be much better. When we have too much going on in our lives, it
    overwhelms us. It spreads us thin. It makes us ineffective. Simplifying
    things helps keep us sane, and makes us more powerful. Take some time
    to identify the 4-5 things that are most important in your life, then simplify your commitments (and goals and to-do list) so that they fall in line with those 4-5 priorities. More.

    5. Focus on happiness. It sounds corny, but if you
    make your happiness become your focus, you’ll be happier. It’s really
    that simple (or at least, it has been for me). What makes you happy?
    That should be the focus of your life. This year, make happiness be
    your priority. Then do the things necessary to make it a reality. Some tips.

    6. Schedule time for you, and your loved ones. If
    these two things are in your top 4-5 important things (see above), you
    might consider revising the list. At least one thing on your short list
    of 4-5 things should be something you love to do. At least one other
    should be spending time in some way with people you love to spend time
    with. For me, that’s my wife and kids, and running and reading and
    writing. Actually, that sentence describes my entire short list: spend
    time with family, read, write, and run. Everything else is superfluous.

    Spending time with yourself, doing something you love to do, will give you time for reflection. It will make you happier, and give you time to decompress. Don’t have time? Make time.

    Spending time with loved ones, connecting with them, is in my opinion absolutely essential to happiness. Make it a priority.

    7. Learn to focus. This goes back to what was said
    above about One Goal and simplifying, but it’s important not only on
    those macro levels, but on a day-to-day basis as well. It’s easy to get
    caught up in things that come our way, in the daily crises that derail
    our plans, in distractions and email and phone calls and Twitter. Very
    easy. If you allow yourself to lose focus, you’ll have a very difficult
    time accomplishing your goals.

    To make this your best year ever, learn to focus. Make it one of
    your monthly habits. Start by identifying your One Goal and your 4-5
    priorities. Then, every day, focus yourself on those things. Each
    morning (or the night before), make a list of the 3 Most Important Things
    (MITs) that you want to accomplish today. Then start on the first one,
    first thing, instead of getting distracted by email or any of the other
    things that take away your attention. Shut everything off except what
    you need for that task. Clear your desk and turn off the phone and any
    notifications on your computer. Then focus on that one thing, trying
    your utmost to complete the task.

    When you’re done, take a break and reward yourself. Then focus on
    the next task. Working like this, there’s nothing you can’t accomplish.

    We are all of us living in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars. – Oscar Wilde

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  • It strikes me, right now, as something that is going to take a lot of hard work.

    See more progress on: spend more time talking with my children

  • WebMD Feature from “Redbook” Magazine

    By Ty Wenger

    11 “Don’t-Tell-the-Wife” Secrets All Men Keep

    I was in the ninth grade when I learned a vital lesson about love. My
    girlfriend at the time, Amy, was stunningly cute, frighteningly smart and armed
    with a seemingly endless supply of form-fitting angora sweaters. And me? Let’s
    just say I was an adolescent Chris Robinson to her budding Kate Hudson — and
    well aware of my good fortune.

    Then one day, as we stood in line for a movie at the mall, Simone Shaw,
    junior high prom queen, sauntered by. Suddenly Amy turned to me. “Were you
    looking at her?” she asked. “Do you think she’s pretty?”

    My mind reeled. Of course I was looking at her! Of course she was pretty! My
    God, she was Simone Shaw! I paused for a second, then decided to play it
    straight.

    “Well, yeah,” I chortled.

    Five days later our breakup hit the tabloids (a.k.a. the lunchroom).

    There comes a time in every man’s life when he discovers the value of hiding
    the grosser parts of his nature. He starts reciting the sweet nothings you long
    to hear: “No, honey, I play golf for the exercise.” “No, honey, I
    think you’re a great driver.” “No, honey, I wasn’t looking at that coed
    washing the car in the rain.”

    We’re not lying, exactly. We’re just making things…easier. But Glenn Good,
    Ph.D., a relationship counselor, disagrees, and maybe he has a point.
    “These white lies are pretty innocent, but they can turn confusing,” he
    says. “Many women think, If he’s lying about himself, is he also lying
    about something else? Is he having an affair? To establish trust you have to
    tell the truth about the innocuous stuff.”

    And so, in the interest of uniting the sexes, we’ve scoured the country for
    guys willing to share the private truths they wouldn’t normally confess. Some
    are a bit crass. Some you’ve always suspected. Some are surprisingly sweet.
    (Guys don’t like to reveal the mushy stuff, either.) But read on, and you may
    discover that the truth about men isn’t all that ugly.

    Secret #1: Yes, we fall in lust 10 times a day — but it doesn’t mean we want to leave you

    If the oldest question in history is “What’s for dinner?” the second
    oldest is “Were you looking at her?” The answer: Yes — yes, we were.
    If you’re sure your man doesn’t look, it only means he possesses acute
    peripheral vision.

    “When a woman walks by, even if I’m with my girlfriend, my vision picks
    it up,” says Doug LaFlamme, 28, of Laguna Hills, California. “I fight
    the urge to look, but I just have to. I’m really in trouble if the woman
    walking by has a low-cut top on.”

    Granted, we men are well aware that our sizing up the produce doesn’t sit
    well with you, given that we’ve already gone through the checkout line
    together. But our passing glances pose no threat.

    “It’s not that I want to make a move on her,” says LaFlamme.
    “Looking at other women is like a radar that just won’t turn off.”

    Secret #2: We actually do play golf to get away from you

    More than 21 million American men play at least one round of golf a year; of
    those, an astounding 75 percent regularly shoot worse than 90 strokes a round.
    In other words, they stink. The point is this: “Going golfing” is not
    really about golf. It’s about you, the house, the kids — and the absence
    thereof.

    “I certainly don’t play because I find it relaxing and enjoyable,”
    admits Roland Buckingham, 32, of Lewes, Delaware, whose usual golf score of 105
    is a far-from-soothing figure. “As a matter of fact, sometimes by the
    fourth hole I wish I were back at the house with the kids screaming. But any
    time I leave the house and don’t invite my wife or kids — whether it’s for
    golf or bowling or picking up roadkill — I’m just getting away.”

    Secret #3: We’re unnerved by the notion of commitment, even after we’ve made one to you

    This is a dicey one, so first things first: We love you to death. We think
    you’re fantastic. Most of the time we’re absolutely thrilled that we’ve made a
    lifelong vow of fidelity to you in front of our families, our friends and an
    expensive videographer.

    But most of us didn’t spend our formative years thinking, “Gosh, I just
    can’t wait to settle down with a nice girl so we can grow old together.”
    Instead we were obsessed with how many women who resembled Britney Spears we
    could have sex with before we turned 30. Generally it takes us a few years (or
    decades) to fully perish that thought.

    Secret #4: Earning money makes us feel important

    In more than 7.4 million U.S. marriages, the wife earns more than the
    husband — almost double the number in 1981. This of course is a terrific
    development for women in the workplace and warmly embraced by all American men,
    right? Right?

    Yeah, well, that’s what we tell you. But we’re shallow, competitive
    egomaniacs. You don’t think it gets under our skin if our woman’s bringing home
    more bacon than we are — and frying it up in a pan?

    “My wife and I are both reporters at the same newspaper,” says
    Jeffrey Newton, 33, of Fayetteville, South Carolina. “Five years into our
    marriage I still check her pay stub to see how much more an hour I make than
    she does. And because she works harder, she keeps closing the gap.”

    Secret #5: Though we often protest, we actually enjoy fixing things around the house

    I risk being shunned at the local bar if this magazine finds its way there,
    because few charades are as beloved by guys as this one. To hear us talk, the
    Bataan Death March beats grouting that bathroom shower. And, as 30-year-old Ed
    Powers of Chicago admits, it’s a shameless lie. “In truth, it’s rewarding
    to tinker with and fix something that, without us, would remain broken
    forever,” he says. Plus we get to use tools.

    “The reason we don’t share this information,” Powers adds, “is
    that most women don’t differentiate between taking out the trash and fixing
    that broken hinge; to them, both are tasks we need to get done over the
    weekend, preferably during the Bears game. But we want the use-your-hands,
    think-about-the-steps-in-the-process, home-repair opportunity, not the
    repetitive, no-possibility-of-a-compliment, mind-dulling, purely physical
    task.” There. Secret’s out.

    Secret #6: We like it when you mother us, but we’re terrified that you’ll become your mother

    With apologies to Sigmund Freud, Gloria Steinem — and my mother-in-law.

    Secret #7: Every year we love you more

    Sure, we look like adults. We own a few suits. We can probably order wine
    without giggling. But although we resemble our father when he was our age, we
    still feel like that 4-year-old clutching his pant leg.

    With that much room left on our emotional-growth charts, we sense we’ve only
    begun to admire you in the ways we will when we’re 40, 50 and — God forbid —
    60. We can’t explain this to you, because it would probably come out sounding
    like we don’t love you now.

    “It took at least a year before I really started to appreciate my wife
    for something other than just great sex; and I didn’t discover her mind fully
    until the third year we were married,” says Newton. “But the older and
    wiser I get, the more I love my wife.” Adds J.P. Neal, 32, of Potomac,
    Maryland: “The for-richer-or-poorer, for-better-or-worse aspects of
    marriage don’t hit you right away. It’s only during those rare times when we
    take stock of our life that it starts to sink in.”

    Secret #8: We don’t really understand what you’re talking about

    You know how, during the day, you sometimes think about certain deep,
    complex “issues” in your relationship? Then when you get home, you want
    to “discuss” these issues? And during these “discussions,” your
    man sits there nodding and saying things like “Sure, I understand,”
    “That makes perfect sense” and “I’ll do better next time”?

    Well, we don’t understand. It doesn’t make any sense to us at all. And
    although we’d like to do better next time, we could only do so if, in fact, we
    had an idea of what you’re talking about.

    We do care. Just be aware that the part of our brain that processes this
    stuff is where we store sports trivia.

    Secret #9: We are terrified when you drive

    Want to know how to reduce your big, tough guy to a quivering mass of fear?
    Ask him for the car keys.

    “I am scared to death when she drives,” says LaFlamme.

    “Every time I ride with her, I fully accept that I may die at any
    moment,” says Buckingham.

    “My wife has about one ‘car panic’ story a week — and it’s never her
    fault. All these horrible things just keep happening — it must be her bad
    luck,” says Andy Beshuk, 31, of Jefferson City, Missouri.

    Even if your man is too diplomatic to tell you, he is terrified that you
    will turn him into a crash-test dummy.

    Secret #10: We’ll always wish we were 25 again

    Granted, when I was 25 I was working 16-hour days and eating shrimp-flavored
    Ramen noodles six times a week. But as much as we love being with you now, we
    will always look back fondly on the malnourished freedom of our misguided
    youth. “Springsteen concerts, the ’91 Mets, the Clinton presidency — most
    guys reminisce about the days when life was good, easy and free of
    responsibility,” says Rob Aronson, 41, of Livingston, New Jersey, who’s
    been married for 11 years. “At 25 you can get away with things you just
    can’t get away with at 40.”

    While it doesn’t mean we’re leaving you to join a rock band, it does explain
    why we occasionally come home from Pep Boys with a leather steering-wheel cover
    and a Born to Run CD.

    Secret #11: Give us an inch and we’ll give you a lifetime

    I was on a trip to Mexico, standing on a beach, waxing my surfboard and
    admiring the glistening 10-foot waves, when I decided to marry the woman who is
    now my wife. Sure, this was three years before I got around to popping the
    question. But that was when I knew.

    Why? Because she’d let me go on vacation alone. Hell, she made me go. This
    is the most important thing a man never told you: If you let us be dumb guys,
    if you embrace our stupid poker night, if you encourage us to go surfing — by
    ourselves — our silly little hearts, with their manly warts and all, will
    embrace you forever for it.

    And that’s the truth.

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  • Aging: Walking Faster and Outpacing Death – New York Times
    Aging: Walking Faster and Outpacing Death

    By ERIC NAGOURNEY
    Published: November 20, 2007

    Researchers who followed the health of nearly 500 older people for almost a decade found that those who walked more quickly were less likely to die over the course of the study.

    Improvement in Usual Gait Speed Predicts Better Survival in Older Adults (Journal of the American Geriatrics Society)

    The findings, the researchers said, suggest that gait speed may be a good predictor of long-term survival, even in people who otherwise appear basically healthy. The study was presented at a conference of the Gerontological Society of America.

    In a related study, appearing in the November issue of The Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, the researchers also found that people whose walking speed improved reduced their risk of death.

    “We don’t know why,” said one of the authors, Dr. Stephanie A. Studenski of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. “Did some of these people exercise? Did some of these people have health conditions that were treated and improved?”

    The study presented at the conference reported that nine years after their gait speed was measured, 77 percent of those people described as slow had died, 50 percent of those considered medium and 27 percent of those considered fast.


  • Reinstall Windows and outfit your system with all freeware programs

    Author: Samer

    Gparted screenshotDescription:
    I recently clean installed Windows XP on my laptop, and this meant that
    I had to re-install all the essential software that I use. It also
    presented an opportunity to write a posting about how you can outfit
    your computer with all the essential (and non-essential) software you
    need using strictly 100% freeware and/or open source titles.This
    posting could have been titled any of the following:

    • How to never use a paid program again (aside from Windows).
    • 53 essential freeware programs that can take care of the majority of your computing needs.

    I am writing this from the perspective of myself clean-installing
    Windows and re-installing all the software I find to be essential
    afterwards. This post took a long time to write, please Digg and/or
    Stumble it ;).

    Pre-installation: before reformatting my hard drive, I used the following programs:

    Gparted screenshot1. Gparted Live CD:
    one of the easiest ways to preserve your data when you want to wipe
    your system clean is to create a secondary partition and move all of
    your data into it. Gparted Live CD is a fantastic program that can
    create and manage partitions and hold its own alongside any program of
    its kind, paid or otherwise.

    Unstoppable Copier Screenshot2. Unstoppable Copier:
    I used this program to copy any of the data and files on the primary
    partition (C:) to the secondary partition. Unstoppable copier makes the
    process of moving large numbers of files easy because you can set it up
    and leave and be certain that the copying process will not be
    interrupted by pointless Windows dialogs such as “are you sure you want
    to move the read only file xxx” or any other possible prompts of this
    sort.

    Amic Email Backup Screenshot3. Amic Email Backup:
    can backup all of my Outlook email to the secondary partition ahead of
    the drive formatting (it can backup email from numerous programs except
    Thunderbird; if you use Thunderbird use Mozbackup). For another freeware alternative try EZ Email Backup.

     
     
    drivermax4. DriverMax:
    I used this one to back up all my current drivers. DriverMax will
    backup all of your drivers locally and can optionally restore them for
    you. Although I have my manufacturer’s CD with all of the original
    drivers (and anyway they are all on the internet), I used DriveMax just
    in case; if it were the case that I am unable to locate a driver for
    any device after re-installing XP, I figure I could always go back to
    the drivers backup that I made with DriverMax and find it.

    Produkey Screenshot5. Produkey:
    used this program to keep a record of all the product keys for the
    Microsoft products that are on my system, including Windows XP and
    Office. Made a printout of this info and saved it on the secondary
    partition for later use. I found that unlike some other similar
    programs, this one doesn’t make antivirus/antispyware programs act up
    and react adversely to it.

    Installation: re-installed Windows XP on the
    re-formatted primary partition. Used the CD that came with my laptop to
    install all the proper drivers without hitch. If you have drivers
    issues try to find the drivers you need on the internet and, if not
    100% successful, use the ones from the DriverMax backup
    (#4 above). Once Windows was installed I did a Windows update (actually
    several, since it kept doing partial updates and restarting), then
    installed the Microsoft .NET framework and the latest Java RTE).


    Post installation: now the fun begins.

    PC Decrapifier Screenshot6. PC Decrapifier:
    if you install Windows from a CD image disk provided with your computer
    then it is highly likely that it comes pre-loaded with all manner of
    junk software that the computer maker wants to foist on you. PC
    Decrapifier will batch-uninstall many of these for you; be careful,
    however, to check the list so as not to uninstall something you might
    want something you actually want.

    Driveimage XML Screenshot7. DriveImage XML:
    used this program to create an image of my freshly clean installed hard
    drive. (A hard drive image is a backup of the drive as-is with
    everything in it; performing such a backup means that I can quickly
    revert to my clean install of Windows in the future simply by restoring
    the image). There’s a number of reasons why I like this program (a) it
    can split the image file into several files, allowing you to save an
    image that is larger than 4 gigs onto a hard drive that uses the FAT
    filesystem rather than NTFS; it features ’Volume Locking’ which
    contributes towards ensuring that your created images are error free,
    and it is featured on boot CDs such as BartCD, which means I can boot into it and restore the primary partition.

    Launchy Screenshot8. Launchy:
    everybody needs a good launcher, and Launchy is my favorite. Pressing a
    hotkey will prompt a dialog to appear whereby you can type in the first
    few letters of the name of the program that you want in order to launch
    it. Launchy will index your start menu and program files folders by
    default so that it will know all the programs available on your
    computer (you can define other folders for it to index as well). If you
    would like alternatives to this one checkout Key Launch and the very powerful Keybreeze.

    AVG Screenshot9. AVG Antivirus:
    the reason this is the my free antivirus of choice is (a) it is very
    light on the system’s resources, (b) it does a simply excellent job,and
    (c) it supports email scan, which is something that I need (and which
    is why I use AVG rather than the excellent AntiVir). Secondary choice: Antivir. Third choice: Avast.

    SpywareTerminator Screenshot10. Spyware Terminator: provides
    very good real-time protection against spyware/malware. For system
    scans it also integrates the open source ClamAV virus killer, which it
    also auto updates. Overall this program provides a very good free
    antispyware solution. Note that it will attempt to install a “Web
    Security Guard” toolbar in the setup which I typically disable (I do
    not like toolbars installed in my browser thank you very much).

    Comodo Firewall Screenshot11. Comodo Firewall: this
    is not only an excellent free firewall, this program is a PC Magazine
    Editor’s choice and is possibly the best personal firewall out there,
    free or paid. According to Matousec.com’s latest firewall ratings, Comodo gets the highest overall firewall
    score as well as the highest anti-leak protection (these results as of
    the date of this writing Oct 20, 2007). (Thanks go to reader DevZero
    for mentioning this in the comments section of my Comodo Firewall
    review).

    Tweakui Screenshot12. TweakUI:
    this powerful Windows tweaking tool from Microsoft is one of the best
    out there, IMHO. In general I do not like to have any of my data stored
    in the primary (C:) partition, and I use this program to switch many of
    Windows’ special folders (i.e. My Documents, My Pictures, My Music, My
    Favorites, and the Desktop itself) from their default locations to a
    new location on the secondary partition. Having no data on the primary
    partition means that I can create images of my hard drive with DriveImage XML
    (#7 above) and restore them at will at any point without having to
    worry about lost data. Later I will also change the default data
    storage locations for all programs that I use so that they are on the
    secondary partition as well. More interesting tweaks that TweakUI
    does that I should mention: customizing the placesbar in the windows
    open/save dialog and increasing the number of folder customizations
    that Windows would remember.

    OpenOffice Writer Screenshot13. OpenOffice: a
    world class office productivity suite and Microsoft Office replacement.
    OpenOffice can read and write MS Office 2003 documents in DOC (Word
    2003) ,PPT (Powerpoint 2003) and XLS (Excel 2003) formats, and can also
    output documents in PDF format. Note that some MS Office documents that
    employ VBA Macro scripts may not be fully compatible with OpenOffice.
    (Ok, I have a confession to make: I actually install MS Office 2003 and
    2007 both on my machine rather than OpenOffice, because (a) I need to
    use Outlook for work, (b) because most of my Excel work is done with
    VBA script, and (c) the licenses are paid for by my work). For the
    average user and for the purposes of this article, however, OpenOffice
    would be my free productivity suite of choice.

    Forcevision Screenshot14. Forcevision Image Viewer:
    this is a very competent and straightforward free image viewer. Image
    viewing programs tend to be either (a) simple lightweight programs with
    few features but get the basic job done, (b) mid-level image viewers
    that have a good range of image editing options and features, some of
    which can do image format conversions (c) larger programs that have a
    comprehensive set of features and are typically extendible by plugins,
    and typically include the ability to read/write all manner of image
    formats including obscure ones. And although I know many people swear
    by Irfranview and Xnview,
    which would belong to category (c) in this case, for myself I prefer a
    mid-level program that I find can handle 99% of my image viewing needs,
    and Forcevision is the one I use. (Another good alternative: Faststone Image Viewer).

    Jzip Screenshot15. JZip: my current compression/zip utility of choice. Based on the 7 Zip
    open source archiver, JZip Can handle a good number of formats, has
    excellent compression ratio and speed as well as context menu
    integration. Other options that are good in this category are TugZip, IZArc, and ALzip
    (this last one might come as a surprise to some readers, but I actually
    used the new beta version for a few months and liked it).

    CDBurnerXP Screenshot16. CDBurnerXP 4:
    is the free program I use to burn CDs and DVDs; it is a full featured
    CD/DVD burning program that can burn audio CDs, copy CDs/DVDs,
    burn/convert ISOs images, and handle a large variety of formats
    (including Double layer DVDs, Blu-Ray and HD-DVDs). My second program
    of choice would be InfraRecorder, which provides most of these functions as well.

    JkDefragGUI Screenshot17. JKDefrag GUI:
    this is the graphical user interface for JKDefrag a hard disk
    defragmentation program. There are 3 reasons why you should use this
    program (a) JKDefrag has recently been tested and found to be the best
    amongst x different defragmentation programs, free and paid, (b) it
    provides the option to install itself as a screen saver, which will
    kick-off the defragmentation process whenever your computer is idle and
    goes into screensaver mode, and (c) it is fast and delivers excellent
    performance (see this blog for an interesting comparison of free and commercial defraggers, where JKDefrag was deemed the best freeware defrag program)..

    FolderSize Screenshot18. Folder Size:
    this free Windows Explorer extension provides a “Folder Size” column in
    Windows explorer’s ’Detail’ view that shows the size of both files and
    folders (Windows shows the size of files but not that of folders). My
    second choice for a for a free program that does this would be “Aurionix FileUsage“; the latter offers more columns but requires .NET and therefore much more resources than Folder Size does.

    Pidgin Screenshot19. Pidgin:
    a fantastic IM client that supports multiple messaging protocols
    including AIM, MSN, Yahoo!, XMPP, ICQ, IRC, SILC, SIP/SIMPLE, Novell
    GroupWise, Lotus Sametime, Bonjour, Zephyr, MySpaceIM, Gadu-Gadu, and
    QQ. It enables you to access all of your instant messaging accounts for
    the above networks
    simultaneously in the same client. You can use it to communicate
    individually with other people or to create chat rooms where multiple
    people interact simultaneously. Pidgin has been improved continuously
    and it is my favorite IM client (they finally implemented minimizing to
    tray which was inexplicably lacking forever). My second choice in this
    category: Miranda IM, which also has matured greatly, or try Meebo,
    which performs this function but is a web service that you can use from
    anywhere rather than a program that you install locally.

    Google Toolbar Screenshot20. Google Toolbar:
    this is the only toolbar that I install. Google Toolbar provides a
    quick searchbox your browser’s toolbar, but it also provides the
    ability to fill simple forms, quickly translate pages, and spell check
    your text that you enter in internet forms. See this posting for a
    description of how to do that.

    CCleaner Screenshot21. CCleaner:
    a fantastic hard drive cleaner that can rid your system of temp files,
    internet traces such as your surfing history, cookies, logfiles, cached
    files and other unused files from your computer. Installer comes with
    Yahoo toolbar included, so be careful to uncheck that during the
    installation process so it doesn’t install on your computer. Also
    includes a registry cleaner.

    Shock Sticker Screenshot22. Shock Sticker:
    a really nice desktop ’sticky notes’ program that provides rich text
    editing and minimizing notes to floating icon (which is why I like it).
    This is my favortie desktop notes program, although Stickies, another similar program, is also extremely good and has more features.

     
     

     
    Folderico Screenshot23. FolderICO:
    I really like to differentiate my folders with different colors and/or
    icons. FolderICO installs an entry into the Windows context menu that
    does this, but it also saves the changed icons within the folders such
    that the changed icon is preserved if, say, the folder is accessed on a
    network from another computer from a different operating system (or
    after a Windows re-install).

     
     
    BeCyIconGrabber Screenshot24. BeCyIconGrabber:
    if you work with icons you will love this one. It enables you not just
    to extract icon resources from files, but to do the opposite (save
    individual icons into libraries) which most like-programs do not. Very
    cool.

    25. Alpass:
    an excellent password manager (for Internet Explorer only) that can
    store, encrypt, and fill in passwords and logins into forms for you.
    For another excellent program that performs a similar function check
    out Keepass.

     
    Picasa Screenshot26. Picasa: an excellent program from Google
    that can help manage your picture libraries as well as share/upload
    them online. Provides many picture enhancement functions, and is also a
    very nice viewer to boot.

     
     
    Faststone Image Capture Screenshot27. Faststone Capture: a
    really powerful image capture program that is extremely easy to use and
    has a built in editor for adding annotations and image manipulations.
    Unfortunately this program has recently become shareware but you can
    still download and use the last freeware version (5.3). Check out Screenshot Captor
    for another excellent screenshot capture program. If you know another
    excellent screenshot capture program please mention it in the comments
    (I’d like to try something new).

    GOM Player Screenshot28. GOM Media Player: a
    fantastic player that plays DVDs as well as video formats, including
    Real Media, Quicktime, DivX, Xvid and FLV. Whats is really nice about
    this program is that it is self-contained and uses all internal codecs
    (meaning that in most cases it will not install codecs on your system).
    If, however, it encounters a video file that it cannot play it will
    automatically download it for you.

    I chose this one over my other favorite, VLC media player,
    because it handles FLV videos better (allows you to jump to the middle
    of an FLV video, which the current version of VLC does not). It also
    has a nicer look and feel, IMHO, esp. when playing DVDs.

    Also check out CodecInstaller,
    an excellent program that can identify, download, and install the
    codecs needed to play any media file (regardless of the player you are
    using)

    QMP Screenshot29. Quintessential Media Player: supports
    most audio formats. It is simultaneously (a) a very nice player, (b) a
    competent tag editor, (c) a CD ripper with CDDB database support, and
    (d) and audio formats converter. Also features an equalizer,
    visualizations, and skins and is extendable through plugins. One of the
    nicer abilities is autotagging, which it does through digital
    thumbprinting and CDDB. (Note: album art is supported through a plugin, or use the cool CD Art Display).

    Mediamonkey is
    another excellent program that also provides CD ripping, mp3 tag
    management, downloading of album art, audio format conversion,
    visualizations, skins, and equalizer, etc. Mediamonkey is vastly
    extendible though plugins and has a large community following.

    MP3tag Screenshot30. MP3Tag: a
    fantastic MP3 tag/metadata manager that can download album art from
    Amazon and save it into the audio file itself. I’ve used a number of
    similar programs but like this one most because of it’s straightforward
    interface and user experience. Try The Godfather for
    another free alternative (note that the audio players mentioned in #29
    above also provide MP3 tag management, which might be sufficient for
    most people’s needs).

    Musicbrainz Picard Screenshot31. MusicBrainz Picard: use
    this program if your audio files have incomplete and or missing tags.
    Picard uses sophisticated digital fingerprinting to compare audio files
    to the community-created MusicBrainz database. It employs a different
    technology than Quintessential Media Player (#29 above) and can in the
    most cases auto-tag audio files that have no tags whatever.

    Exact Audio Copy Screenshot32. Exact Audio Copy: an
    audio CD ripper that reads audio CDs “almost perfectly” (i.e. produces
    very high quality MP3s), connects to CDDB/Freedb to get track
    information, and supports a handful of audio file formats. Another
    favorite of mine that does the same thing is BonkEnc.
    (Note that the audio players mentioned in #29 above also provide
    competent audio CD ripping). If you are looking for an excellent audio
    file converter try Any Audio Converter which supports most audio formats as well as FLV and can demux audio from video files.

    MP3gain Screenshot33. MP3gain: this
    program can analyze a group of MP3s and determine the average volume
    for each, and then raise and/or lower the volume of the files in order
    to “normalize” them (such that volume differences that might occur when
    one song transitions to another largely disappear). The cool thing is
    that it does this without re-encoding the files and its intervention is
    reversible. Another program that has this same function: MP3Trim.

    Unlocker Screenshot34. Unlocker: this
    small memory resident program will pop-up whenever you encounter a file
    that is locked by a process or another program which prevents you from
    deleting or moving it. Once you install and use this you will start to
    consider it a must have program. (Also see this related post).

    Orbit Downloader Screenshot35. Orbit Downloader: is
    an excellent download manager that has the unique ability to download
    streaming media (audio and video, as well as flash SWF) from video
    sharing and other sites. Another excellent download manager: FlashGet.

     
     
    Winscp Screenshot36. WinSCP: if
    you need an FTP client WinSCP is an excellent program that supports FTP
    and SFTP (as well as the legacy SCP), allows for secure transfers, and
    features dual pane file-manager like functionalities (such as sorting
    and comparing directories). It also allows for session saving (i.e. a
    bookmarking functionality), with the option to create entries in the
    Windows’ send-to menu for uploading files straight from Windows.

    FileZilla is
    another competent, free program that is constantly improving and
    supports FTP, SFTP, and FTPS. If you want a very nice program that
    integrates FTP support into explorer through the Windows’ right-click
    context menu check out RightLoad.

    Local Website Archive Screenshot37. Local Website Archive: is
    a program that saves individual webpages locally on your hard drive,
    including pictures and formatting, and allows for later viewing even if
    offline. What’s cool about this one is that it saves websites in the
    original HTML format and therefore allows you to reference the local
    URL of the saved webpage in your notes program or other applications.
    Another alternative that I used for a long time until I found Local
    Website Archive: Evernote.

    Flashnote Screenshot38. Flashnote: a
    quick and handy scratch-pad that pops-up when you press a hotkey and
    disappears back into the background again when you minimize it (or
    press the hotkey again). You can store multiple notes in it and quickly
    retrieve them when needed (its not a full-fledged notes program, but
    nonetheless has become a must install on my machine).

    Revo Uninstaller Screenshot39. Revo Uninstaller: my
    uninstaller of choice, Revo Uninstaller will uninstall a program and
    then look for any files and/or registry entries that were left behind
    by the program’s uninstaller (and does a beautiful job at that). Be
    carful to look at the entries that it identifies for deletion
    post-uninstall, as it will sometimes list registry entries and/or files
    that should not be removed. Revo also provides a slew of other tools
    such as a startup manager and hard drive cleaner.

    Another nice uninstaller which I used previously is ZSoft Uninstaller;
    this one will not uninstall programs as thoroughly as Revo does, but on
    the other hand will not erroneously remove registry entries or files
    that should be left alone.

    BitTyrant Screenshot40. BitTyrant: this
    is the free torrent client that I’ve been using for some time. What it
    is is a modified version of Azureus that, controversially, picks and
    chooses peers to allocate bandwidth to such that those who are
    providing more bandwidth for downloaded files receive more of your own
    bandwidth (which is why it is sometimes called the ’selfish’ bittorent
    client). It is claimed that this can result in up to 70% faster
    downloads, but the reason this is controversial is that peers with
    lower connection speeds or are not sharing files may be overlooked by this program (read more about it here). Other excellent free torrent clients: uTorrent, Azureus.

    Starter Screenshot41. Starter: a
    small, no-install program which does a fantastic job managing the
    programs that start with Windows. (I’ve tried many, and this is the one
    I like the most). Note that Revo Uninstaller (#39 above) provides a
    built in startup programs manager as well.

     
     

     
    Send to Toys Screenshot42. Send To Toys: use
    this program to add any folder to the explorer “send to” menu, which
    allows you to quickly copy or move any file to your favorite or most
    used folders.

     
     

     
     
    Returnil Screenshot43. Returnil: a system
    virtualization program that allows you to surf dangerous sites and/or
    install and test software or implement any desired changes then restart
    your system to get it back to the state it was before said changes.

     
     

     
     

     
    SysTrayMeter Screenshot44. SysTrayMeter: a
    small program that shows your processor usage and free memory in the
    system tray. Invaluable if you like to keep an eye on your available
    resources, and very useful in troubleshooting a problematic or slow
    system.

    Sweepram Screenshot45. SweepRAM: a
    tiny, no-install RAM optimizer that frees system RAM by allowing
    applications all the RAM that they need, but no more (i.e. does not
    deprive programs from RAM). Use it to free RAM whenever your available
    memory plummets and/or your system becomes sluggish.

    VSO Image Resizer Screenshot46. VSO Image Resizer: installs
    an entry in the Windows right-click context menu that enables image
    resizing and format conversions on-the-fly. One of the nicer things
    about this software is the ability to create custom image profiles that
    you can save in order to access them quickly at any later point.
    Another program which I also used for a long time: Easy Thumbnails.

    Photoscape Screenshot47. Photoscape: is
    an all-in-one image management and manipulation suite that includes an
    image editor, a screen capture program, image formats conversions, an
    image viewer, GIF animation editor, mass image renamer, page creator,
    as well as a handful of other functions. While it does most of these
    functions competently, what I like about this program is its ability to
    combine and/or overlay images and easily add annotations. If you have
    to use a lot of images in presentations (as I do for work) you will
    find this program a great help.

    PDF-XChange Viewer Screenshot48. PDF-XChange Viewer:
    a very nice PDF reader that allows for form filling as well as
    annotation and adding notes. The only thing I would change about this
    program is the icon it displays for PDF files (but that can be done
    with a program like Icon Phile).

    PrimoPDF Screenshot49. Primo PDF:
    a virtual printer that can create PDF files out of any printable
    document. If you’re interested in printing to image formats as well try
    PDFCreator. Another alternative: DoPDF.

     
     

     
    HOBComment Screenshot50. HobComment: this
    will add a “file/folder comments” in Windows details view, and a
    right-click “add comment” extension in Windows explorer (the latter
    only for NTFS partitions). The end result is a very easy way to add
    comments to files and folders that can be displayed in the Windows
    details view.

    I.Mage Acreenshot51. I.Mage: I
    use this image editing program as a replacement to Windows’ “Paint”
    program; it’s simple and straightforward and sufficient for my
    occasional image manipulation needs. If you need a more powerful
    Photoshop-replacement freeware bitmap editor try Gimpshop or Paint.net (both excellent programs).

    Flashfolder Screenshot52. Flashfolder:
    an explorer extension that adds user-defined favorites folders (and
    recent folders) to Windows’ open/save dialogs. A favorite of mine that
    I always have on my machine.

    JOCR Screenshot53. JOCR:
    can snap any area of the screen (or simply load an image) and provide
    instant (and excellent) optical character recognition. This one might
    be a little out of place for an article that advocates using only free
    software because it needs a library installed with MS Office, whereas I
    list OpenOffice (#13 above) as the MS Office alternative. Still, I use
    this program a lot and find it to be a must-install, which is why I
    decided to list it.

    Create Disk Image: now that I have my system decked
    out with all the software that I use, I create another image with
    DriveImage XML so that I have 2 images; one that contains Windows XP
    clean installed with drivers, and one with all the software that I use.
    Should I need to for any reason I can quickly and easily revet back to
    any one of these setups.

    Powered by ScribeFire.

  • Time Machine for every Unix out there – IMHO
    Time Machine for every Unix out there
    Using rsync to mimic the behavior of Apple’s Time Machine feature

    rsync is one of the tools that have gradually infiltrated my day to day tool-box (aside Vim and Zsh).

    Using rsync it’s very easy to mimic Mac OS X new feature called Time Machine. In this article I’ll show how to do it, but there is still a nice GUI missing – for those who like it shiny.