eCommerce Freeware

FREE eCommerce Store

Ecommerce is a low cost, low risk way to start out in business, or to expand into new markets. The number of customers online is growing much faster than the number of suppliers. So the commercial opportunity has never been greater. Whether you want to source a complete ebusiness web site, or build an ecommerce site yourself, OneWorldStore™ can do the business for you. OneWorldStore™ offers a family of easy to use, feature-rich ecommerce software products that can grow with your business; backed up by a comprehensive range of support options.

Personal spider

RafaBot is a high-speed, multi-threading, large scale web spidering robot. A powerful bulk website downloading tool. It can download websites from a starting URL, search engine results or web dirs and able to follow external links. It can download either a single website or many thousands of websites in one session.

RafaBot saves all downloaded files in user hard drive in native format and user can view / research / extract them off-line without being connected to the Internet. It has numerous filters to restrict download like - URL filter, date modified, text, file type, file size, etc. It allows user-selectable recursion levels, retrieval threads, timeout, proxy support and accesses password-protected sites.

search server

DNKA 0.30 - search tool for remote computer. It acts as a $40 web server (search server) by interacting as a layer between Google Desktop Search (GDS) and user. And allow other users to search, view and download your files, emails, chats and web history. Downloads What's New FAQ

Auction tools

AuctionIntelligence was developed by eBay users, for eBay users, with input from eBay users. Add those up and you get a software package that turns eBay data into information quickly and easily.

DeepAnalysis 2, eBay market research software! Extract and analyze licensed eBay data and statistics for any eBay market sector. Then, use DeepAnalysis to reveal market trends and develop eBay strategies that will help you make money on eBay. $209 Includes: DeepAnalysis, FeeFinder, AuctionInformant, BayCheck Pro, BayMail Pro, andBidderblock.

3 colon

There is only one path:
One beginning:
One aftermath:
"It’s our winning."

Tape Calculator free

Moffsoft FreeCalc is a great replacement for your existing Windows® calculator. We took the standard Windows calculator functionality and added the following features:

Tape - Save, print, or clear the simulated paper history tape.
Color schemes - Select a color combination or use your Windows color settings. (see example)

Linux update

Linus Torvalds once led a ragtag band of software geeks. Not anymore. Here's an inside look at how the unusual Linux business model increasingly threatens Microsoft. Five years ago, Linus Torvalds faced a mutiny. . . . Business Week Copyright

Black Viper's Operating System Guides

Black Viper's Operating System Guides: "Windows 2000 Professional and Server This guide is a sneak peek at what you will find on the inside.
Installing Windows 2000 Professional

Windows 2000 Install Guide: READ MORE...
Windows 2000 Services Configuration
When Windows 2000 first came out, I was very confused as to what to 'disable' and what not to. This is a summary of months of trial and error on a 'home' network.
Windows 2000 Services Configuration Page: READ MORE... "

Windows XP A to Z

Windows XP A to Z site offers a comprehensive set of XP tips, tricks and resources. It's not the largest site I've seen but still well worth visiting. Make sure you check out the "Performance" section.http://www.windowsxpatoz.com

E-Waste

E-WASTE IS PILING UP Consumers' penchant for constant upgrades -- new cell phones, a sleeker laptop -- is causing havoc in the environment, and with technology products now accounting for as much as 40% of the lead in U.S. landfills, e-waste has become one of the fastest-growing sectors of the U.S. solid waste stream. The International Association of Electronics Recyclers estimates that Americans dispose of 2 million tons of electronic products a year -- including 50 million computers and 130 million cell phones -- and China, which has served for years as the final resting place for Americans' unwanted TVs and computers, is becoming overwhelmed by the volume. Some high-tech companies are taking matters into their own hands -- Hewlett Packard and Dell job out their e-waste handling to environmentally sensitive recyclers such as RetroBox -- but such efforts are still quite limited and unable to cope with a problem that's reaching crisis proportions. Meanwhile, the U.S. is the only developed country not to have ratified the 1992 Basel Convention, the international treaty that controls the export of hazardous waste. "There's a real electronics-waste crisis," says Basel Action Network coordinator Jim Puckett. "The U.S. just looks the other way as we use these cheap and dirty dumping grounds." (Washington Post 21 Jan 2005) <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A24672-2005...>

Juggling robot builder

The late Claude Shannon is recognized as the father of information theory, but he was also a juggling enthusiast (he liked to juggle and ride his unicycle up and down the halls of Bell Labs), as well as an animatronic maker. My mind is reeling after watching this movie clip of his juggling robots. It's my pick for "Wonderful Thing" of the week. Link [via boingboing.com]

Make synchronizing simpler

Just ran across a program called SyncBack
( http://www.2brightsparks.com/syncback )
that looks as if it will make synchronizing much simpler. The software will also "backup" files (not a true backup but a file copy). Sync is a two-way operation. The sync mode places the newest file from the source folder into the destination then checks for anything not in the source but in the destination and copies that back to the source. Backup copies files to another location. SyncBack can be set to zip the backups and has a scheduler built in. There are a number of settings to control how everything works including exclusions. The standard version has the right price too - free, donations accepted. As with some other freeware, a "pro version" is offered at a cost. Install and non-install versions are also available. I haven't tried it but the non-install version might be a good addition to a rescue CD/DVD. ---Ron

Memory tweaks

For good advice on what memory tweaks really do work in XP/2K, see: http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.htm

PC is a TV

Canopus Inc. announced Jan. 14 a new USB TV tuner card and software bundle that enables you to tune in TV on a PC.The company will sell both PCI and USB versions. The USB version, called the KTVX1000USB, has a standard cable connector into which you can optionally attach an old-fashioned antenna that receives standard TV.Bundled software enables a variety of video-editing tasks, including TV recording. The Canopus KTVX1000 goes on sale next month in Japan for just under $100.

Recording to a PC

This tutorial explains how to record audio from an outside source (i.e. DJ mixer/turntables, CD-player, MD-player, etc.) to your PC.

In the not-too distant past, recording your own music meant hiring out a professional recording studio to record and mix your own music. Nowadays, with the dawning of the project studio, laying down your tracks at home, on the road or in your project studio is a basic fact of the music biz. Still, with all the tools and technology that at our disposal, the concept of laying down your own tracks for the purpose of making a pro-sounding demo or creating a finished project can be an expensive, complex and technically-frustrating task. One of the most basic of tools for the aspiring musician, songwriter and producer is the portable studio.

Voice Grabber

Because of this new, exciting, technology, the Voice Grabber offers you the opportunity for vast improvement in the quality of recordings. Voice Grabber will pickup sounds at distances you never thought possible and it will pick them up with clarity that other microphones don't have because of the limitations of their construction. Compared to the Sound grabber the Voice Grabber is designed with a battery box for on/off switching to save battery life. The Voice Grabber is a microphone designed around a new method of picking up sound waves. The design is based on the Pressure Recording Process, discovered by Long and Wickersham, in which sound waves reinforce themselves in the area nearest a flat surface, usually called the boundary. The Voice Grabber does not need to follow the action, since it has a wide-angle pickup pattern. So long as the mic "sees" the sound, in whatever direction it will pickup clearly. Ideal for applications such as conferences, group discussions, interviews, home video production, lectures, and recordings. The mic can be placed on a large surface such as a table, floor, wall, or lectern. The omni directional boundary microphone is designed for applications where an unobtrusive high performing microphone is needed. Its sleek design and rugged construction make it easy to set up in almost any location such as on the floor, on a table or lectern, on wall or ceiling. Its omni directional pickup pattern picks up sound equally from all directions within the space above and around the microphone, making it ideal and highly useful in surface-mounted applications involving professional recording and high quality sound reinforcement for conferences, stages productions, choral ensembles and other demanding sound pickup situations. About $60

GMail Drive 1.0.5

WinXPcentral - GMail Drive 1.0.5

If you have a gmail account and just aren’t using all that space they give you for mail, how about backing some stuff up to it?

GMail Drive creates a virtual filesystem on top of your Google GMail account and enables you to save and retrieve files stored on your GMail account directly from inside Windows Explorer. GMail Drive literally adds a new drive to your computer under the My Computer folder, where you can create new folders, copy and drag'n'drop files to. [via Betanews.com and Digital Dave at winxpcentral.com

FBI retires their Carnivore system.

FBI surveillance experts have put their once-controversial Carnivore Internet surveillance tool out to pasture, preferring instead to use commercial products to eavesdrop on network traffic, according to documents released Friday. Two reports to Congress obtained by the Washington-based Electronic Privacy Information Center under the Freedom of Information Act reveal that the FBI didn't use Carnivore, or its rebranded version "DCS-1000," at all during the 2002 and 2003 fiscal years. Instead, the bureau turned to unnamed commercially-available products to conduct Internet surveillance thirteen times in criminal investigations in that period. Carnivore became a hot topic among civil liberations, some network operators and many lawmakers in 2000, when an ISP's legal challenge brought the surveillance tool's existence to light. One controversy revolved around the FBI's legally-murky use of the device to obtain e-mail headers and other information without a wiretap warrant -- an issue Congress resolved by explicitly legalizing the practice in the 2001 USA PATRIOT Act. [Full Story]

* Comments

Cassini spacecraft

Huygens has landed successfully on Titan.

Today, after its seven-year journey through the Solar System on board the Cassini spacecraft, ESA's Huygens probe has successfully descended through the atmosphere of Titan, Saturn's largest moon, and safely landed on its surface. The first scientific data arrived at the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt, Germany, this afternoon at 17:19 CET. Huygens is mankind's first successful attempt to land a probe on another a world in the outer Solar System. "This is a great achievement for Europe and its US partners in this ambitious international endeavour to explore the Saturnian system," said Jean-Jacques Dordain, ESA's Director General. The probe began transmitting data to Cassini four minutes into its descent and continued to transmit data after landing at least as long as Cassini was above Titan's horizon. The certainty that Huygens was alive came already at 11:25 CET today, when the Green Bank Radio Telescope in West Virginia, USA, picked up a faint but unmistakable radio signal from the probe. Radio telescopes on Earth continued to receive this signal well past the expected lifetime of Huygens. Huygens data, relayed by Cassini, were picked up by NASA's Deep Space Network and delivered immediately to ESA's European Space Operation Centre in Darmstadt, Germany, where the scientific analysis is currently taking place. One of the main reasons for sending Huygens to Titan is that its nitrogen atmosphere, rich in methane, and its surface may contain many chemicals of the kind that existed on the young Earth. Combined with the Cassini observations, Huygens will afford an unprecedented view of Saturn's mysterious moon. [Full Story] Update: Here are the first raw images from Huygens. It was only meant to last for a few minutes on the surface, but it continued transmitting for over an hour and a half. Click on the pictures to view their descriptions. New images can be found here. You can hear the winds of Titan here and listen to Huygens descent here.

* Comments

via TinyApps.com

Barry Klein kindly sent in two tiny DOS apps by Tom Kihlken (quotes are from the included docs):

TinyView 0.9k (released into the Public Domain) - "The best text file viewer your ever going to see. It's tiny (958 bytes), it can view ANY size text file, it displays lines up to 1024 characters wide, and it uses all 25 lines of your display. How does TV do all of this? Through the magic of assembler. This program is written in 100% pure assembly language for the smallest, fastest program possible."

TED 3k - "A small, full-screen editor for line-oriented files of up to 64K in length that supports scrolling, cut, copy, paste, and printing operations, and permits entry of all members of the IBM character set."

Troubleshooting Wireless Networks

[via TechSupport Alert] Despite the advertising, I can assure you that installing awireless network can be a real pain. If you run into trouble trythe excellent troubleshooting section at this site. The site has some excellent tutorials as well. http://www.practicallynetworked.com/

RSS Writer

MX RSS Reader-Writer - workstation license

MX RSS Reader-Writer is a Dreamweaver MX extension that allows you to import (read) RSS files in your website and also to export (write) database information in RSS format. This license grants you the right to use MX RSS Reader-Writer on a single developer seat, with no runtime royalties for the generated code (this means that you can install it in any number of sites you are creating for your clients). Supported server technologies: ColdFusion, ASP_VBScript, PHP_MySQL and PHP_ADODB. Requirements $30

Default File Associations Fix

The files listed here are all ZIP files, which contain a REG (Registry) file. Download the ZIP and open it. Extract the REG file to your hard disk and double click it. Answer yes to the import prompt. REG files can be viewed in Notepad. Each of the REG files contains the default settings for the file extension indicated. For the ZIP file fix, the download is a REG file, since ZIP's aren't working anyway!
Batch File Association Fix (Restore the default associations for BAT files)
CAB File Association Fix (Restore the default associations for CAB files)
CPL File Association Fix (Restore the default associations for CPL files)
COM File Association Fix (Restore the default associations for COM files)
- Thanks to John Hanney
Directory Extension Fix (Restores defaults to HKCR\Directory)
EML File Association Fix (Restores defaults for EML files)
EXE File Association Fix (Restore default association for EXE files)
Folder Association Fix (Restore default associations for File Folders)
HLP File Association Fix (Restore default associations for HLP files)
HTM/HTML Associations (Restore the default associations for htm/html files)
ICO File Association Fix (Restore the default association for ico files)
INF File Association Fix (Restore the default assocation for INF files)
Internet Explorer Desktop Icon Fix (Restore the default behavior for the Desktop IE icon)JPE/JPG/JPEG Association Fix (Restore the default associations for jpe/jpg/jpeg files)
LNK (Shortcut) File Association Fix (Restores Default Shortcut Behavior)
MPG/MPEG File Association Fix (Restores default associations for MPG/MPEG files)
MSC File Association Fix (Restore default associations for MSC files)
MSI File Association Fix (Restore default associations for MSI files)
MSP File Association Fix (Restore default associations for MSP files)
REG File Association Fix (Restore default associations for REG files)
SCF File Association Fix (Restore default associations for SCF files)
SCR File Association Fix (Restore default associations for SCR files)
TXT File Association Fix (Restore default associations for TXT files)
TIF/TIFF File Association Fix (Restores default associations for TIF/TIFF files)
URL File Association Fix (Restores default associations for URL - Internet shortcuts)
VBS File Association Fix (Restores default associations for VBS files)
ZIP Folder Association Fix (Restores default associations for ZIP Folders - REG File)
This page last updated 06/15/2004
[via http://www.dougknox.com/xp/file_assoc.htm]

Freeware

CleanSoftware.org is a resource to help Windows users find the best free daily-use software, free from nasties: adware, spyware, harmful/intrusive components, and threats to privacy. You might want to bookmark our What's New page, updated during changes.

Recover Password

Tip: don't try to crack password longer than 6-7 characters by brute-force, use more powerful methods.

Here is a listing of password crackers if you are locked out.

One Computer Guy

The main goal of this site is to provide clear, accurate and easy to understand information regarding Windows95/98/ME/2000/XP

Welcome to the longest running, advertising free, Windows site on the Internet.
You will find no banner ads, other logos, or pop-up windows while you explore this site.

Improve wireless range

Paul English offers some tips

Paul English offers some tips on improving the range of your 802.11 wireless network, including a step-by-step guide to using dual Linksys routers for wider coverage. See also Paul's thoughts on small code. (via David Weinberger)

Disable unused services

Windows 2000 services that can be disabled

Windows 2000 services that can be disabled - (requires free registration)
UPDATE: Thanks to Harry for sending in a direct download link.

Last versions of freeware

Rareware - before they were ...

Rareware - Last versions of freeware before they went shareware or simply disappeared.

Get music OFF your iPod

HOW-TO: Get music OFF your iPod

IE Maximizer

IE NEW WINDOW MAXIMIZER will automatically maximize new Internet Explorer and Outlook Express windows for you. It also includes functions for hiding/closing all IE windows with a user-defined hotkey, opening new IE windows and sending them to the background and closing popup windows.

Free pic shadows

FreeShadow can help you put very nice shadows on all pictures in a directory in one go. The shadows can be controlled in every aspect (blur factor, intensity, distance, angle, opacity, color) and the images can be with transparent color to allow for irregular pictures also.

Use it to e.g. add shadows to all pictures in help files, web pages or slide shows. The optimal looking shadows added are a very nice looking and stylistic graphical effect suitable in many situations. In addition the resulting images are cut perfectly so minimum size border is added. This is almost impossible or quite cumbersome to do with any paint program. The program was developed to add shadows to a lot of screenshots in a help file for a software product. It saved hours of manual work.

Hey! This isn't an iPod

A broadcast tower in the palm of your hand.
Record what you hear on the FM Radio.
Record rom any other audio source.
Synchronize: Get Neuros in tune with your PC.

The Neuros Bundle allows you to use your 256mb flash player with the small included backpack when portability or the ultimate shock resistance is needed. Then swap with the included 80GB backpack and you have up to 20,000 songs at your fingertips and ears!

Rate My Network Diagram

The idea of setting this site up was not to make it possible for people to vote on the “look” of a network diagram. The purpose of this site is to allow people to learn about computer networking and network documentation by seeing what other people have done with their networks -- all for free.

Along with rating network diagrams, users may also leave comments or messages in the RMND forum to interact with other users of the site. Anonymous users are allowed, but who wants to remain anonymous. When rating other user’s network diagrams or designing your own diagram, please keep in mind ratings should be based on the function of the network and not the graphic design capabilities of the network administrator.

I hope you enjoy sharing networking ideas and methods

Digital Media Predictions

What's the most important development in digital media and entertainment that actually will occur in 2005?
1) Content will continue to unbundle itself.
I have no idea what night The Apprentice airs -- I'm not even sure which network it's on. All I know is that every Friday night this past year, my friends would gather around the TiVo and lovingly poke fun at Donald Trump's hair. Whether it was iTunes or RSS or TiVo, this was the digital media lesson of '04: content has no natural brand identity. Marketers try to force "brand" on it while journalists try to force "narrative" on it, but content will continue to shed these mucky add-ons and proceed toward its natural state: pure information.

[more]

PUP Excel Utility

Power Utility Pak v6
Add-in tools for Microsoft Excel $9.95
PUP v6 contains the most comprehensive set of Excel add-in tools available.

* more than 70 general purpose Excel utilities and 50 worksheet functions.
* remember the last settings used in PUP dialog boxes.
* display the most recently used PUP dialog box by pressing Ctrl+Shift+R.
* display a graphic progress indicator for lengthy operations.
* Undo is available for most of the operations.
* An Auto-unload option for improved memory management.
* "stay on top" dialog box - work without dismissing the dialog box.
* complete VBA source code a very modest fee (US $20).
* The VBA code can be easily inserted.
* Detailed context-sensitive help .
* Easy-to-use menu system.
* The ability to create a PUP Toolbar.
* quickly access the PUP file folder.

Free fonts

You can never have too many fonts.
Here are hundreds of wonderful ones, all free.
What's not to like?

Power line services

Power line data transmission capacity: Bigger than DSL or cable

Penn State engineers have developed a new model for high-speed broadband transmissions over U.S. overhead electric power lines and estimate that, at full data rate handling capacity, the lines can provide bit rates that far exceed DSL or cable over similar spans. Dr. Mohsen Kavehrad, the W. L. Weiss professor of electrical engineering and director of the Center for Information and Communications Technology Research, led the investigation. He says, "Although broadband power line (BPL) service trials are now underway on a limited basis in some locations in the U.S., these trials run at DSL- comparable rates of 2 or 3 megabits per second.

Are home networks secure?

They're no more vulnerable to hacking than a single computer connected to a broadband service. And many home-networking manufacturers have embedded security features in their products. But just to stay on the safe side, you should consider downloading a simple firewall software program to keep hackers out of your broadband connection, whether or not you have a home network. See this security section for more details.