Re: Software products that you think are really good
 

early days, lol.

Re: Software products that you think are really good
 

This is a pretty interesting screen saver for the Mac folks:
http://www.objective-cocoa.org/fenet.../download.html

Re: Software products that you think are really good
 

TrueCrypt is great.

http://www.truecrypt.org/

Re: Software products that you think are really good
 

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List some software that you think rocks.

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A lot of what I use my computer for is usenet/movie related. I download mostly from divx/xvid binary groups, and sometimes from DVD groups, but not as much as divx since the DVD downloads are 4gb compared to 700mb for divx movies with mp3 audio. After downloading, I stream to the television using a Hauppauge MediaMvp unit which doesn't handle all video file types, so a lot of times I need to massage the video files using mostly free software.

Forte Agent News Reader I have used Agent as my newsreader for almost 10 years now. A lot of folks don't care to use it for binaries, but I am used to it, and the filtering is very strong. Grabbing binaries is a snap.

Quick Par Parity Check/Repair Use it for repairing binaries with missing parts using parity files. Free as in speech.

WinRar After repairing any busted files with QuickPar, I use WinRar to rejoin the parts into the original 1 large file.

VirualDub If the downloaded movie is encoded with AC3 audio, it is most likely going to be split into (2) separate 700mb files. VirtualDub can join the 2 files together to make 1 file. Free.

AutoGK Auto Gordian Knot, for converting DVD/VOB's into divx/xvid. The AutoGK authors made a very complicated task using multiple programs into a 3-4 click ease-fest. The Hauppuage unit will not stream VOB fles, so I convert the DVD to divx, saving almost 4gb of hard drive space. Free.

Videora Tivo Converter If I get a movie that is divx and AC3, I use Videora convert it to an .mpg since the Hauppauge cannot stream AC3 audio. It run really clean and fairly quickly, converting a movie in less than 2 hours. Free.


--
TomE.

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I use a lot of these as well. Great stuff.

Re: Software products that you think are really good
 

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A couple of iPod things:

vPod - A much easier way to transfer songs to your iPod.

http://www.vonnieda.org/vPod/screen1.jpg

Very fast. You load everything to your library, which is little more than a checklist. Everything checked is on your iPod already, all you have to do is check an artist, album, or song to add it. Sync and then quit.

Pod player - a lightweight iTunes look-alike that plays everything that's on your iPod.

They're portable, so you only need the .exe to run it. Put them on your iPod to be able to transfer and play things on any computer without iTunes.

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I really like vPod as well. Definitely give it a look.

Re: Software products that you think are really good
 

http://www.autopano.net/
Panorama software photo stitcher: Autopano Pro Home - Autopano Pro Website


The best photo stitcher ever; this thing is amazing.

Re: Software products that you think are really good
 

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http://fuzlez.com/content/view/50/90

WheelsOfVolume (does it show we have fun when we try to find names for our software?) uses the mouse wheel to control the volume of your computer. When ever you turn the mouse wheel when it is not used by any application (in other words) when it is on the desktop, the volume of your computer will be adapted. When you are in a full screen application you will have the same effect when you move the mouse to the top right corner of the screen. To mute the sound you just have to click the mouse wheel.

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This is the greatest piece of software ever. Thanks for the recommendation.

Re: Software products that you think are really good
 

jkdefrag - a better, opensource defrag for windows (something everyone should run monthly if you want your computer to run fast)
teracopy - this program makes copying/moving lots of big files around a breeze (great if you have multiple hard drives and want to sort or something). You can copy files faster, pause/resume file transfers, error recovery. It's really just great.

Re: Software products that you think are really good
 

I love this thread, glad to see it bumped. Let's keep the good stuff coming...

Re: Software products that you think are really good
 

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I love this thread, glad to see it bumped. Let's keep the good stuff coming...

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I really wanted to thank those who recommended Wheels of Volume and Notepad++, but I didn't want to bump the thread to do it. Thanks to everyone who's posted in this thread.

Re: Software products that you think are really good
 

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PSPad - Notepad replacement, it has syntax coloring that are user editable. By default color codes everything from web languages like (XHTML, PHP) to programming languages (Java, C++, C) to niche languages (Assembly, Autohotkey).

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I still like this more than Notepad++ ... I was using it before I saw this thread, but I'm glad to see it show up here.

Re: Software products that you think are really good
 

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vPod - A much easier way to transfer songs to your iPod.

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From his site:

"IMPORTANT: vPod Doesn't Work With iTunes 7.3+ iPods
With many of the recent versions of the iPod firmware, which iTunes automatically installs for you, vPod will no longer work with most iPods. This is especially the case if you have used iTunes 7.3 with your iPod.
I am working on a new version of vPod that supports all new iPods and firmwares but my time is limited and I cannot say when it will be released. Check back now and then."

His last update was over two years ago. Is there anything that works with the latest version that anyone knows about?

Re: Software products that you think are really good
 

Has anyone used Amazon S3 coupled w/ Jungledisk? I'm expecting Amazon's S3 to be a place where I host my media.

Re: Software products that you think are really good
 

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teracopy - this program makes copying/moving lots of big files around a breeze (great if you have multiple hard drives and want to sort or something). You can copy files faster, pause/resume file transfers, error recovery. It's really just great.

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Love this program.

Re: Software products that you think are really good
 

I was roasted in BBV when I posted a pic of my 3 monitor set up and didn't have Ultramon.

I suspect a few of you have multiple monitors. It allows for panoramic backgrounds as well as convenient window management. I "could" live with out it but I like it.

While we are arguing about editors...

alias vim 'rm *'

Please do.

Re: Software products that you think are really good
 

http://www.stardock.com/products/objectdock/

For Windows users, if you are familiar with the application "dock" of Macs, ObjectDock is a great emulator. It looks sexy, and can replace or supplement your taskbar as you wish. Very customizable (think widgets), it's free, and did I mention it's sexy???

Re: Software products that you think are really good
 

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TypeIt4Me

You set up a list of abbreviations for common words/phrases. Then, any time you're typing in any program it replaces the abbreviation with the word/phrase you defined.

Only for Macintosh though. If anyone knows of a similar program for Windows I'd love to know about it.

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Textomatic

Really simple program, but extremely useful. I use it for work.

Re: Software products that you think are really good
 

Can't believe it took me 6 months to find this thread. Memento and Launchy are going to change my life!

Re: Software products that you think are really good
 

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TypeIt4Me

You set up a list of abbreviations for common words/phrases. Then, any time you're typing in any program it replaces the abbreviation with the word/phrase you defined.

Only for Macintosh though. If anyone knows of a similar program for Windows I'd love to know about it.

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Textomatic

Really simple program, but extremely useful. I use it for work.

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Actually this is one of the functions Autohotkey provides (among others).

Re: Software products that you think are really good
 

StrokeIt

Sweet program that allows you to use customizable mouse gestures in Windows explorer and just about any other program.

Re: Software products that you think are really good
 

www.lifehacker.com

A website dedicated to handy computer programs and other good life living tips.

Re: Software products that you think are really good
 

Notetab - The greatest PC editor IMHO
BSPlayer - A great video player - You will need to look for an old version because the newest one includes ad-ware.
Delete Invalid File - Great program for deleting those files that Windows won't
Show Traffic - Great software to see if you have something eating your bandwidth

Re: Software products that you think are really good
 

I would like to pass along a Firefox add-on that my brother showed me recently.

CoolIris Previews (link) is an add-on to Firefox that basically gives a preview of a link on a web page when you hover over it. When you do, a small preview window within the same browser will open up.

You can essentially multi-table 2p2 with this add-on. The add-on also creates a small "Stack" tab on the right side of your browser. This collapsible tab allows you to save previews of links on the right side of the browser window, so you can go back and visit those links in a small preview window (or you can stay up to date with your current favorite thread).


Link to large image

http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/2...risprevdc0.jpg

Re: Software products that you think are really good
 

Re: Software products that you think are really good
 

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LAUNCHY

want to open paint? alt-spacebar, type 'pa', and hit enter.

want to open notepad? alt-spacebar, type 'no', and hit enter.

want to calculate 467823 * 463? alt-spacebar, enter the expression and it's calculated inline.

it indexes your start menu by default, but you can make it do other things. i added my documents to its directory list and pdf as a filetype. now if i want to pull up my nutritional data pdf from subway i hit alt-spacebar, type 'sub', and hit enter. this will work for any type of file that can be executed/opened: word documents, excel spreadsheets, etc. it can also index ie and firefox bookmarks.

http://umn.dl.sourceforge.net/source...hySetup103.exe

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WOW

this might cut 20-30 minutes out of my day

Re: Software products that you think are really good
 

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There are 3 different versions of Quicken Personal, so I don't even know which one to start with. Even the most basic one seems to have a bunch of unnecessary stuff though, like ways to pay your bills. I really don't want to link up my bank accounts to other programs.



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I have Quicken 2004, and I use it only as a basic checkbook register, albeit for four different accounts--three of which I have since closed but were on earlier versions of Quicken that carried over.

FWIW, even the Geico cavemen could quikly master Quicken's basic checkbook register functions.

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Yes Quicken is very good. I've used it ever since I got my first Windows machine in the early 90's, which came with Quicken preinstalled. I haven't kept a check register in about 15 years.

Just get the most basic version. The online bill paying and account linking stuff is all optional. The only thing I use that for is to import my Interactive Brokers statements. It's good at tax time because I can just print a report with all my trades, cost bases, and profit and loss in the same format it needs to be on my tax forms.

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quick question...is there a program that can handle bank accounts/ms money type stuff in different countries? I am a dual citizen and most of my poker money is in the states but most of my daily stuff is in Canada.

Re: Software products that you think are really good
 

http://www.di.fm/

If you are a fan of trance, techno, electronica, or dance music check this site out.

Re: Software products that you think are really good
 

Has anyone noticed that .wmvs seem to not be playing in MPC or VLC now? I've had so many problems with this lately!

Re: Software products that you think are really good
 

Amazon S3 Storage solution for data. Instead of backing up media (pictures from trips and being subject to hardware failure, I rely on amazon to backup my pics.

"Storage
$0.15 per GB-Month of storage used

Data Transfer
$0.10 per GB - all data transfer in

$0.18 per GB - first 10 TB / month data transfer out
$0.16 per GB - next 40 TB / month data transfer out
$0.13 per GB - data transfer out / month over 50 TB"

I upload files to my "harddrive" via http://www.jungledisk.com/pricing.shtml

Re: Software products that you think are really good
 

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Has anyone noticed that .wmvs seem to not be playing in MPC or VLC now? I've had so many problems with this lately!

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Codecs up to date?

Re: Software products that you think are really good
 

Anyone know of a way to do IE-style resizing in Firefox? In IE, when I click ctrl+mousewheel up, the images, frames, etc resize, whereas in Firefox basically the text is the only thing to resize(sometimes the frames resize vertically only, I think).

Re: Software products that you think are really good
 

Jeff W,
switch to Opera

Re: Software products that you think are really good
 

new additions to the thread:

-firefox - browser sync
i use two main PCs for browsing the interweb; when you close one, it transfers the pages you're on to google, and when you open the other one, it grabs the URLs from google so you can pick up where you left off

-google apps for your domain - gmail (integrated) plus start page
great email, accessible anywhere, easy start page generation

-www.orb.com
stream media from my home PC anywhere

-safemine + freephg = datamining and lots of it

-"my computer" disk management in Vista
it has let me create "dynamic disks" very, very, easily, so i have very easily put together four 150gb disks to make one 600gb disk (having one disk is easier for orb, which allows me to access my content from any internet pc)

-holdem manager
awesome poker db program

Re: Software products that you think are really good
 

Bloatware alternatives:
http://forums.anandtech.com/messagev...;enterthread=y

Freeware:
http://forums.anandtech.com/messagev...;enterthread=y

Re: Software products that you think are really good
 

snagit screenshot and camtasia studio video capture software. see the techsmith web site for product details.

you can get older commercial versions for free. they work with vista, and are also eligible for upgrade pricing.

snagit: download version 7.2.5 and request a key
camtasia studio: download version 3.1.2 and request a key