Download with ease using Jdownloader

One big problem with downloading from file hosting sites is the inability to automate the download process forcing downloaders to be constantly monitoring their downloads because of the inability to queue downloads due to things such as countdown timers or captcha boxes such as that on Megaupload.Thanks to the guys over at Jdownloader they made a program that could automate the process without much hustle requiring you only to input the link

The program was built especially for file sharing sites and has various feautures to make downloading much easier,here are some of them





Platform independent. (Windows, Linux, Mac, ..)
Runs on Java 1.5 or higher
Complete Open-Source (GPL)
Completely portable-No need for installation
Download several files parellel
Download with multiple connections
JD has an own powerful OCR module (JAntiCaptcha)
Decrypt RSDF, CCF and DLC Containerfiles
Decryptplugins for many services. e.g. sj.org, UCMS, WordPress, RLSLog….
Youtube, Vimeo, clipfish video and Mp3 Download
Automatic extractor (including password list search) (Rar archives)
Theme Support
Multilingual
About 110 hoster and over 300 decrypt plug-ins
Reconnect with JDLiveHeaderScripts: (1400 router supported)
Webupdate
Integrated package manager for additional modules (eg. Webinterface, Shutdown)

For more info check out the jdownloader homepage

Free software alternative to Adobe Photoshop

Adobe photoshop is one of the best image creation and editing software there is but with the price tag people are forced to seek cheaper or even better yet free alternatives which brings me to todays software of interest called Gimp(GNU image manipulation program)






Here are some of its features
1.Multiple image file format support such as:
JPEG,PNG,GIF,PSD,TIFF and many others

2.Customizable interface to enhance ease of use

3.Numerous photo enhancement features such as distortion,blur and others

4.Comes with hardware support for users of devices such as graphic tablets,pressure sensitive screens e.t.c

If you are interested in it you can check ouy more features and download it here

Free antiviruses you can try out

Antiviruses have these days become a must have and if you don't have one you better get one fast,but usually antiviruses cost money and no one feels like paying for something which they will only use for a year so if you have the same problem I have you can check out some of these free antiviruses.

1.Avira
size:21 MB
features:
1.Inbuilt antivirus
2.Antidialer to prevent illegal premium calling
3.Fast system scan speeds
4.Good user interface
5.Anti-phishing function that prevents hackers from stealing your bandwidth
Remark:Very good for a free antivirus and also a small file to download
Visit download page for Avira here

2.Bitdefender
features:
1.Inbuilt antivirus
2.On demand and scheduled scanning
3.Skinnable user interface
4.Quarrantine for infected files
5.Detailed scan reports
Remark:Not a bad software but you have to give them an email address before you can download it.
Download it here

3.Avast home edition
size:30 MB
features:
1.Inbuilt antispyware
2.easy to use user interface
3.P2P and IM shields
4.Web scanner
5.Special quarrantine that enables use of infected files without harm to the computer
6.Automatic update
7.Shell integration
and many other just to name a few.
Remark:A more functional antivirus than the rest and therefore I would recommend this one.
Download it from here

4.Rising free antivirus
Size:60 MB
features:
1.Antivirus & Antispyware Protection
2.File Monitor: Automatically detects viruses in active files and prevents them from infecting your computer.
3.Email Monitor: Scans inbound (POP3) and outbound (SMTP) emails for malware.
4.Application Control: Monitor the operational status of applications and block suspicious activities.
5.Malicious Behavior Interceptor: Monitors programs in the system for possible malicious behavior.
6.USB/CD/DVD Monitor: Blocks malware on USB storage media, CDs/DVDs and network drives.
7.Embedded Scan: Provides integrated protection for instant messengers, download managers and other popular tools.
8.Self-Protection: Prevents malware from making changes to the Rising Antivirus software.

Remark:Quite an unknown antivirus but it is still worth a try
Download it here

Run Windows applications on MacOS or Linux

This must be one of the most interesting programs that I have come across and it is a program called Wine which basically allows you to run Windows applications and games on most of the other operating systems as they would normally run therefore without performance handicaps like other emulators

The program is very unique in that it does not act as an emulator but a translator enabling the software to run as if it was running under Windows.
Many programs have been found to work on Wine such as;
Photoshop CS3
AutoCAD
Utorrent and many others

Some games confirmed to be working on it are;
Call of duty 4
Bioshock
Left for dead 4
Command and conquer just to name a few

If you are interested you can download the file here or visit there homepage
Download
Homepage

Google opens the year with Chrome v.2 beta

Happy new year every one.This is the first post of 2009 with some fresh news concerning the release of Google Chrome pre-beta 2.0.Thats right it is pre beta meaning it is for those adventurous types who don't mind bugs and errors now and then.The new browser comes with some really interesting new features,


1.form auto-complete-One of the functions which the first release sadly did not have.
2.Full page zoom-You may think this is nothing special but apart from resizing the text it also resizes the images and other embedded objects.
3.Profiles-This allows you to set-up different profiles each with different settings such as homepages and bookmarks which is a very good function especially if you share a computer with other people.
4.Greasemonkey support and other minor updates such as to the javascript engine and the likes.

1. If you don't have Google Chrome, install it from google.com/chrome
2. Subscribe to the developer preview channel. This is required even if you've previously subscribed to the channel.
3. Wait until the new version is downloaded (you may force the update by opening the "About Google Chrome" dialog).

Specialised browser for African Americans called Blackbird.

These days software are really starting to target individual social groups for example the recent release of a blogging platform specialised for females called Onsugar and todays article is similar to that as it is specialised for African Americans

The browser is called Blackbird and it specialised for the African American community in that enhances their surfing experience with content that they would not otherwise find and enables them to easily connect to their social networks,email and share ideas.
The browser comes with some unique features such as;
-black search
-blackbird TV
-Social network manager and many more

The browser is free to download and is powered by Mozilla so you can expect a very stable software.The software can be downloaded from their homepage.

The best mobile phone browser just got better

With the release of Opera Mini 4.2 a few weeks ago mobile phone users have been surfing with delight due to the efficiency of the new software.The software is made by the same people who brought you the Opera desktop browser and is one of the most portable mobile applications there is as it can work on almost any phone including even the Blackberry phones.The application is well know for its easy to use interface and rapid page loading speed.The new version which is 4.2 has also come with some very special features which the others did not have such as;


1.Users have the ability to change the skin of the browser which is a very handy feature if you got bored of the Opera Mini classic theme.
2.The ability to watch videos on your mobile phone from the youtube mobile and others which is a feature that many mobile users have been crying for.NOTE:not all phones are capable of doing this according to the Opera mini website but some new Nokia's and Sony Ericsson's can
3.New servers have been added in the US therefore faster loading speeds for users in America and Asia-Pacific regions

These above are some of the new features but some of the more common features are;
-Capability to view pages in landscape
-Upload or download files directly from Opera Mini(if your phone supports JSR-45
-Sync bookmarks from your Opera desktop browser
-Search in a page
-Create a custom search engine and many more features.
To download it visit Opera Mini on your phone or on your PC

Remotely access computers via internet using Gbridge

Gbridge is a free software that lets you sync folders, share files, chat and VNC securely and easily. It extends Google's gtalk service to a collaboration VPN (Virtual Private Network) that connects your computers and your close friends' computers directly and securely.The software allows you to do various activities between 2 computers such as;




-Access your computer desktop remotely or share your desktop with your friend from anywhere which is referred to as Desktop Share
-Securely share files among your own computers, so you can remotely access your files, e.g. play mp3 , with ultimate privacy. Securely share files to your designated friend, so the selected friend can instantly view the auto-generated photo thumbnails and slideshow remotely. No web upload/download needed! which is called SecureShare
-Transfer big files and sync folders from/to anywhere has never been easier. Auto schedule, auto resume, incremental and no size limit! which is called AutoSync and much more....

You can view more screenshots or download the software free from the Gbridge homepage

Copy files fast with teracopy

In this day and age removable storage has become the in thing and therefore copying files to these storage devices is quite easy if its a few MBs but what if we are talking about hundreds of gigabytes,it might take a little time with the Windows standard copy feature and so I found an alternative software that cuts copy time tremendously.The software is called Teracopy and here are some of its features



-Copy files faster. TeraCopy uses dynamically adjusted buffers to reduce seek times. Asynchronous copy speeds up file transfer between two physical hard drives.
-Pause and resume file transfers. Pause copy process at any time to free up system resources,this is a very handy feature if your computer always brings problems during copying.
-Error recovery. In case of copy error, TeraCopy will try several times and in the worse case just skips the file, not terminating the entire transfer.
-Interactive file list. TeraCopy shows failed file transfers and lets you fix the problem and recopy only problem files.
-Shell integration. TeraCopy can completely replace Explorer copy and move functions, allowing you work with files as usual.
-Full Unicode support.

You can get the software free from the teracopy homepage:Download.

How to prevent viruses from spreading to your computer from USB drives

One major way through which viruses spread these days is via USB pen drives and apparently for every 100 pen drives 10 have viruses on them.So somebody came up with an application that can prevent these viruses from spreading to your computer.

The program is called iKill and what it does is it searches for removable drives and then parses the autorun file of a virus preventing it from infecting your computer.It also has the ability to delete these viral files automatically or after prompt by user.

The application is free and can be downloaded from this website:Download

Google launches web browser called Google chrome

Believe it or not Google recently launched their first web browser called Google Chrome.It is still in beta but is available for download for free.Some of its main features include

-It has a built in task manager,Now you can view details such as CPU and memory usage from within the browser and even better each tab is treated as a separate process so when one page gets an error you do not have to close the whole browser which I found to be very important because this is a major problem I encounter with FireFox

-Incognito browsing,this is another handy feature where you can browse and all your browsing details such as history,cookies,search history will disappear when you close the window,a very good privacy feature.Things such as downloads,bookmarks and saved pages will still remain unaffected.

-Better javascript performance,the Google web browser supports a totally new javascript engine called the V8 virtual machine which makes AJAX applications more responsive.

-One box for search,entering addresses and history.This is pretty self explanatory where if you enter a word it will suggest a website that has that word in its URL from your history or if you press enter it will search Google or your default browser for that word

-Improved tabbed browsing,As I said before each tab is a separate process so it will be treated as if it is its own window and also relevant plug ins will appear only in relevant pages,h=thus enhancing memory usage.

-Support for web applications,Although no browser will be able to do what Mozilla did to FireFox with their addons feature Google added web applications support to its browser.Some of them include Google Docs,Sales Force and many more

-Faster browsing-If you look at all the features that reduce memory usage in the end you have a browser that is faster when it comes to loading and executing certain commands.

If you want to download it and also see some screenshots go the Google chrome page here
Google Chrome

Preview webpages before they open using Coolpreviews

I was surfing through the Mozilla addons page and came across this very cool FireFox add on that allows you to preview web pages before they open,with this you can skim through pages at super speed as the preview opens in a small window which enables you to do many things with the resulting preview.Here are some of the things it can do.

When you hover you mouse over a link it provides an icon which when clicked opens the preview in a small window.The smalled window enables tabbed browsing and even allows you to share the web page with your friends via email.
It also allows you to disable it from the status bar if you don't want to see the small coolpreview icon.The preview load speed is also good.You should try it out.
Get it here:CoolPreviews

My first computer bug

Since a few years back I had taken some lessons in VB 6 I decided to dust off the old programmer codes and make a bug to disturb the owner of a certain cyber cafe who kept deleting the files I was secretly downloading from Utorrent on his computers.So I started coding and realized it was harder than I remember but I managed to put something together and you can get it here

Okay first of all it is not a virus as it does not replicate itself nor autostart.What it does is when you launch it it displays a countdown timer and if you do not enter a password before the clock hits zero it shuts down your computer(by shut down I do not mean destroy or crash just switch of the computer).

I added a progress bar that says deleting files to scare people so that they panic and don't press ctrl+alt+del which can close the program.It actually does not delete any files but it just says that it is.

If you are lucky enough to know the password which is 'hitman' the countdown timer will stop and you will be shown a calender and your IP address.

I know it is not much of a bug but it is still a work in progress as I am going to add more features to it as soon as I remember the codes.

You can download it here if you want to bother your friends with it.By the way it does not do any damage to your computer and if you want to close it all you have to do is press ctrl+alt+del and just close it from the task manager.
MY first bug,download here
HERE is a screenshot of it in action

If you have any improvements in mind for it just comment here and I will read them.

Free DVD maker

As a follow up to the free media converter post I wrote yesterday I am going to do a whole series on free software you can get which are just as good as the softwares that are up for sale.Today I am going to write about a free DVD maker software called Sothink movie DVD maker
Here are some of its features

* Convert different formats of video to DVD, such as AVI to DVD, MPEG to DVD
* Support almost all video formats
* Play source video instantly when adding the video
* Enable user to cancel conversion at anytime, even during the conversion
* Support embedding subtitles onto video to create subtitled DVD movie.
* Convert videos to a DVD folder, so that you can burn it to DVD disk at any other time
* Use it with SWF to Video Converter, you can enjoy Flash on home DVD Player!

Supported formats include;
* AVI
* MPEG
* DAT
* VOB
* WMV
* ASF
* MP4
* 3GP
* RM/RMVB...and many more

You can download it from their website here

Sothink movie DVD maker

Free media converter

If you look at the cost of the various media converters that are out there they are not cheap and they don't do that much so why bother paying for one when there are some for free.For example one of the free softwares available is called mediacoder.This software has the most features I have ever seen and all for free

Some of its features include;

• Convert to and from many audio and video compression formats and re-multiplex into various container formats in batches
• Full control over transcoding parameters, you can learn about audio/video encoding and play with various codecs
• Strong decoding capability for partial or corrupted contents
• Simplified UI for popular mobile devices (e.g. PSP, iPhone/iPod)
• Fully standalone, no dependance on system codecs/splitters
• Extension (scripting language) infrastructure to expand user interfaces and improve user experience

Supported Fomats

* MP3, Vorbis, AAC, AAC+, AAC+v2, MusePack, Speex, AMR, WMA, RealAudio, mp3PRO*
* FLAC, WavPack, Monkey's Audio, OptimFrog, AAC Lossless, TTA, WAV/PCM, Waveform
* H.264, XviD, DivX, MPEG 1/2/4, Theora, Flash Video, Dirac, 3ivx*, RealVideo*, Windows Media Video
* AVI, MPEG/VOB, Matroska, MP4, PMP, RealMedia*, ASF, Quicktime*, OGM*
* CD, DVD, VCD, SVCD

You can download it from their homepage here Mediacoder

Convert documents to PDF

I just came across a software that allows me to convert any document or image type to PDF format.I just came across a software that allows me to convert any document or image type to PDF format.It is called PrimoPDF and way it works is that it installs itself as a printer so it can be accessed via any program.
Once you click on it the program launches and then you customise the PDF the way you want it to be.
Download it