Here’s some more free software that I’ve used recently. Why pay money, when there are such good free alternatives!
I’ve used the commercial program “Retrospect” backup software, and it works OK, but I’ve recently discovered a free backup program that I like even better. It’s Cobian Backup. It will back up the files on your hard drive to another hard drive, to CDs, to a network drive, or even to an FTP (internet) location. Conversely, you can use it to back up the files on a website down to your local computer, automatically, at regular intervals, using FTP. Compression is an option, using standard ZIP instead of proprietary formats, and encryption is also an option.
Google Earth has begun adding higher resolution graphics of some areas. Take a look at downtown Las Vegas — you can make out some of the types of cars, and even see people’s arms and legs in their shadows.
Nero is still probably the best CD/DVD burning software out there, but it’s not free like it was a few years ago when I started using it. Since it comes bundled with new CD and DVD burners, that’s not usually a problem, but if you lose it or for whatever reason don’t have a copy for a particular burner, there is a free alternative: CDBurnerXP Pro 3. I haven’t personally used it, but Donna has and reports that it is “great” and “very easy to use”.
Recently I suggested that “MyACDSee” was an alternative to the commercial “ACDSee” image viewer. I’ve had some problems with MyACDSee and can’t really recommend it, but I have found a free alternative that seems to give ACDSee a run for its money: FastStone. Just like ACDSee, it has a thumbnail viewer and slideshow, but even better it will do image editing, type conversion and emailing, with on-the-fly resizing and recompression during the emailing. FastStone has some other free image utilities, such as FastStone MaxView that is a small, simple quick image viewer. You can set it as your default program for opening image files, and then when you double click on an image in Explorer, or from Email, will open it instantly.
FoxIt Reader is still better than Adobe Acrobat, and has some newer versions that fix some minor bugs, especially with printing. If you’re already using it, make sure you have the latest version.
DVDShrink will make copies of your DVDs, even shrinking them as necessary to fit on a standard single-layered DVD. You have to have DVD-burning SW already on your hard drive for it to create the copy, but even if you don’t burn a new DVD with it, you can just copy it to your laptop hard drive and have movies to watch while travelling. Of course, this is only legal with DVDs that you own, and even then you may be in a gray area.
If you work with networked PCs, here’s a neat utility: Angry IP Scanner. It will scan a range of IP addresses and look for connected computers. Very useful for determining who is connected to your network, for troubleshooting or finding free-loaders. Pressing two buttons will load the range of your local subnet, and a third button starts the scan. One note: The default is to list ALL ip addresses, whether there is a connection or not. Go into Options and set it to show only ip addresses that have connections, otherwise it’s too hard to wade through the big list.
Another related utility is NetStumbler. This is used for “War Driving” (the practice of driving around looking for unprotected wireless networks), but has legitimate uses too. Running on a computer with a wireless connection, it will continuously monitor all the wireless signals it can detect, constantly updating readouts on strength of signal, encryption status, and many other parameters. If you are setting up or troubleshooting a wireless network and need to optimise the layout, this could be a very useful tool. You’ll probably be amazed at all the signals flying through your house, even though most of them will be too weak to connect to.