Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Useful (Free) Things #1

I've installed and used all of the following software. I found them all to be stable and fairly easy to use. Worst-case, I had to actually read the software's documentation to get things working.

Cobian Backup - Effective, option-laden Backup software for XP and Vista

FreeNAS - use retired PCs as Network Attached Storage devices

RipIt4Me - DVD file ripper

Handbrake - Shrink your ripped DVD files

CDEx - Extract CD Audio to WAV or MP3

Audacity - Capture audio output (any audio output; wink, wink, nudge, nudge)

LAME Encoder - Useful with several audio applications; use with Audacity to compress your captured audio to MP3
·http://audacity.sourceforge.net/help/faq?s=install&item=lame-mp3

JasperReports - Open Source reporting engine.
·XML based report creation

iReports - Open Source graphical report designer for JasperReports
·GUI report creation if your not an XML jockey

AusLogic Disk Defrag - XP and Vista compatible disk defragger

JAP - Anonymity and privacy while online

SwitchProxy - Firefox plugin to automatically switch between direct and proxy connect modes; great to use with JAP for quick switching between normal and anonymous browsing

McAfee SiteAdvisor - Free Firefox plug-in by McAfee

Adblock Plus - block annoying ads in Firefox

FlashBlock - block annoying Flash-based ads in Firefox

Sunday, February 10, 2008

The Hawaii Chair

If you can sit... you can get fit.