Flickr Drive Shell is a similar plugin for Windows Explorer which can display the photos hosted at the Flickr photo hosting service. The program will display a new Flickr Drive icon in the My Computer window in Windows Explorer. The service needs to be authorized which is done by entering the username in the popup window that is being displayed after clicking on the icon for the first time. This will lead to the Flickr website where the user needs to login to authorize the desktop application.

Flickr Drive will work like any other drive after the authorization. It provides access to the private photos of the user and access to the two public folders Today’s hot tags and Today’s hot photos. The photos are displayed as thumbnail images in Windows Explorer with options to interact with the photos that are displayed. This includes copying, printing and viewing photos, moving them or even editing them in the default Windows image editor.

Photos can be easily copied to the associated Flickr user account which can then be accessed from the Flickr website normally. This is actually a very comfortable way of adding files to Flickr. Flickr Drive Shell is available as an executable and source at the developer’s website. The program is compatible with Windows Vista and Windows 7. (via Techie-Buzz)

Related posts

• Windows Tabbed Browsing (4)
• Xkcd Comic Wallpaper Changer (2)
• Wireless Network Scanner inSSIDer (3)
• Windows Run Aliases (8)
• Windows Management: Super Maximize Windows (9)

Free File Sync is an Open Source file synchronization software that’s above everything else super-easy to use. The main interface is separated into a left and right column. Directories can be added to each column. The two main actions offered by Free File Sync are to compare or synchronize the directories and the files residing in them. A click on the Compare button at the top will generate a directory and file listing for every directory that has been added to the application.

All files and directories are displayed in both columns with a blank row in the opposite column if the file or directory does not exist there. Information about each file including its name, size and modification date are displayed in the table as well. Arrows in the middle indicate the action (e.g. overwrite file in the left column, copy file to the right column) are taken if the Synchronize button is pressed.

Statistics for each column are displayed in the footer listing the number of directories, files and the size of the data conveniently. There are also general statistics about the total number of files and folders that would be created if the user would synchronize the files. Several advanced options are available. The file synchronization program supports file filters and several different ways of comparing and synchronizing files. Files are initially compared by name, size and date which can be changed to a file content comparison instead.

Four different file synchronization options are provided by Free File Sync as well with automatic synchronization of both sides selected by default. This can be changed to mirror files that reside in the left folder to the right folder, copy or update files from the left to the right folder or a two way synchronization which synchronizes both sides simultaneously.

A batch job can be created using the parameters configured before. Batch jobs can be executed by starting the file synchronization software with the file name of the batch job as a parameter. This makes it also possible to add the file patronization as a scheduled task in the Windows Task Scheduler.

Free File Sync is easy to use. It takes only a few minutes the most to compare or synchronize files and another few to create a batch file to sync files regularly with little to no user interaction. The program is available at the Sourceforge website where it is available for 32-bit editions of Windows and Ubuntu.

Related posts

• VLC Media Player 1.0 Released (9)
• Open Office 4 Kids (11)
• Open Office 3.1 (17)
• Music Management Software Jajuk (6)
• Metamorphose File And Folder Renamer (1)

The interface is different as well. Open Office 4 Kids makes use of less buttons in the interface and divides them into a header toolbar and sidebar. The changes are slim at the moment but the developers have plans to implement additional changes in future releases. The main difference on the other hand is that Open Office 4 Kids is a simplified version of Open Office.

As you probably know, the OpenOffice.org Education Project aims to create a bridge between Educational world an OpenOffice.org, through several actions. One of the results is OOo4Kids

The development release 0.5 of Open Office 4 Kids can be downloaded from the project website. It is available for Microsoft Windows, Linux and Apple Macintosh operating systems.

Related posts

• Open Office 3.1 (17)
• VLC Media Player 1.0 Released (9)
• Music Management Software Jajuk (6)
• Stream Music With Subsonic (11)
• Prep For GRE, GMAT, SAT Tests With Words (3)

The xkcd Wallpaper Randomiser is a lightweight software program for the Windows operating system which can be used to grab a random comic from the xkdc website. The comic is displayed in the interface of the portable software program where it can be viewed and set as the wallpaper of the computer system.

All downloaded comics are stored in a local cache so that they are not downloaded again should they be selected by the random comic chooser again at a later time. It is possible to exclude comics from bein displayed as wallpapers by adding them to the exclude list.

The program supports two command line parameters which can be used to automate the process of setting a new wallpaper. The parameter -random will change the wallpaper without displaying the graphical user interface while -silent will ignore any popup windows that might appear (e.g. an error if there is no Internet connection). These parameters combined with a shortcut can be added to the autostart folder or task scheduler to change the wallpaper regularly and automatically.

The program and its source code are available at the developer’s website.

Related posts

• Windows Tabbed Browsing (4)
• Windows Run Aliases (8)
• Windows Management: Super Maximize Windows (9)
• Window Management Software Taekwindow (4)
• Wallperizer Is A Desktop Wallpaper Changer With A Twist (7)

Windows Explorer alternatives are an option as they usually provide the feature as are programs that have been solely designed to sort files and folders of a partition or hard drive by size. Directory Size Calculator is a free portable software program that belongs to the latter category of applications.

The applications clean interface is divided into two levels. The upper level is displaying the folders and subfolders that are located in the root folder that has been selected by the user. The size of each folder is displayed in Megabytes and as a total percentage of the space. The lower level lists all files of the selected folder including their size and percentage of the total space. This makes it easy to locate the largest files and folders on a computer system.

A right-click on a file or folder opens a context menu with options to move or delete the directory or file, open it in Windows Explorer or export the data in an XML document. Directory Size Calculator should be compatible with most versions of Microsoft Windows. The developer is providing binary and source downloads on his website.

Related posts

• Xkcd Comic Wallpaper Changer (2)
• Windows Tabbed Browsing (4)
• Windows Run Aliases (8)
• Windows Management: Super Maximize Windows (9)
• Window Management Software Taekwindow (4)

1) Saturday is wrong day of the week to try to pass out software and hold events.

2) Where is the publicity?

So in light of that, I am going to do my part here on Ghacks to help out the community learn and understand FOSS. For this article I will highlight outstanding sights where you can become involved with open source as well as other informative sites and ideas. I hope, upon reading this, you will have a better understanding of why open source exists, why you should give it a try, and how you can help.

What is open source?

First and foremost I want to set aside the whole Linux vs. Windows debate for this article. Why? Two reasons: 1) it is counter-productive to the very heart of open source and 2) there is open source software for both platforms.  Open Source is a not just a type of software, it’s a philosophy that says the source code to software should be freely available to the public. Being available makes this source code open for modification, forking, etc. The most obvious benefit of open source is that if you want to change (or fix) the way a piece of software behaves you can. You do not have to wait for the developers to release bug fixes or updates. If you have the ability, you can make those changes yourself.

Of course open source is only a type of software that has unlimited access to code guaranteed by a license (GPL). Open source is also a movement with the purpose of fostering open standards, heterogeneous environments (and accessibility), non-monopolistic practices, and world-wide acceptance.

Benefits of using open source

• Cost effective.
• Huge variety of software.
• User-friendly graphical tools.
• Avoids lock-in.
• DRM free.
• Avoids monopolies.
• Freedom to alter software to fit your needs.

And much more.

How/where to learn more

There are so many places where you can learn about open source. Here is a listing of the best places to start:

Open Source Initiative.

Linux Foundation.

Go Open Source.

How can you help?

There are many ways to help the open source movement. First and foremost you can help others learn about open source. Many people do not even know about the alternatives to proprietary software. Education is the best tool. One issue many people fight with is the idea that open source, by nature, is less secure or less user-friendly. It is that cross section of users that efforts need to be focused on. Educate them so that they see the validity of open source software.  Of course education goes way beyond trying to spread an “ideal”. Other ways to help the open source movement include:

Install Fests: Although, for the most part, the install fest is a thing of the past it was a great idea. LUGs all over the country (and world) would dedicate certain days of the year to help people install Linux on their machines. That was, of course, during a time when installing Linux was not an easy task. Linux installation is now quite an easy task. But that doesn’t mean the install fest has to go away. Instead plan a Linux fest where people can see how it works, bring their machines to be tweaked or have Linux installed on, or show off Linux networking tricks, etc.

Hand out open source software: Download OpenDisk, burn copies onto CD and hand them out. OpenDisk is a collection of open source software for Windows. But don’t forget to burn copies of Linux and hand them out as well.

Create a LUG: If your area doesn’t already have a Linux User Group start one. This is one of the best ways to foster open source among a community.

Of course there are plenty of other ways to help spread the word of Open Source. Do you know of a way? If so, share it with Ghacks.

Final thoughts

I would like to see those who have developed Software Freedom Day do a better job of promoting this event. Eventually this day should become more widespread, adopted, and celebrated. I hope this has inspired you in some way to celebrate software freedom.

Related posts

• Xkcd Comic Wallpaper Changer (2)
• Wireless Network Scanner inSSIDer (3)
• WinLibre, your open source software library (5)
• WinLAME 2009 Beta Released (5)
• Windows Tabbed Browsing (4)

The initial configuration of the program is the most important part after installation. Applications can be configured in here that should be terminated and started whenever the panic button is pressed by the user. It is possible to select an unlimited number of programs that should be closed whenever the panic button is pressed. Up to six programs can be selected to be started at the same time so that the started programs can look completely different from how they looked like a few seconds ago.

Additional options can be configured in the actions tab of the settings. It is here possible to select how the processes should be closed (terminated or closed normally) or hidden (which will keep the programs open). There are also options to clean traces of these programs from the recent files folder, Internet Explorer history, temporary Internet files and the recycle bin.

There are other options to activate the program. A hotkey (Ctrl P) is available, probably not the best choice considering that many applications use this as the print hotkey. Dozens of other hotkeys are available so that’s not a huge problem.

Another option is to enable Panic Mode. This will display a semi-transparent button in the lower right corner which when pressed will activate the process. Don’t Panic uses roughly 2 Megabytes of computer memory while running. The Open Source program can be downloaded from the developer’s website.

Related posts

• Xkcd Comic Wallpaper Changer (2)
• Wireless Network Scanner inSSIDer (3)
• Windows Tabbed Browsing (4)
• Windows Run Aliases (8)
• Windows Management: Super Maximize Windows (9)

Firefox 3 History Recovery helps in all other cases. It is a command line tool that can analyse uncompressed disk images to discover traces of the four SQLite tables moz_places, moz_historyvisits, moz_formhistory and moz_downloads. What the recovery tool can return are therefor the visited urls, the form history and the downloads.

Firefox 3 History Recovery is a forensic tool and therefor not designed with usability in mind. It can only be executed from the command line and the biggest problem that users face is that they need to create a disk image for this process. The developer mentioned a few tools that can be used to create those disk images: winhex, ftk imager and dcfldd.

The program itself is easy to use in comparison. All the user needs to do is to enter the command

ff3hr -i


to start the recovery process. The command line tool will create four new text documents in its directory that will contain the information found on the disk image. Firefox 3 History Recovery is an Open Source software program that is available at the Sourceforge website.

Related posts

• Xkcd Comic Wallpaper Changer (2)
• Xenocode Web Browser Sandbox (0)
• Wireless Network Scanner inSSIDer (3)
• Windows Tabbed Browsing (4)
• Windows Run Aliases (8)

The network management software Network Switcher offers a better solution to manually changing network settings. It can store multiple network profiles allowing the user to switch between network profiles easily whenever the need arises.

Each profile that is created in Network Switcher contains two network connections that contain various networking parameters including the IP address, DNS servers, the subnet mask and the default gateway. It is furthermore possible to enable the option to obtain IP addresses from DHCP servers.

Network Switcher is limited to the TCP/IP protocol and extensible through plugins. One plugin, to disable the Internet Explorer proxy, is provided by the developer of the software.

The software is Open Source and the source code is supplied with the download of the networking software.

Network Switcher requires the Microsoft .net Framework 2.0 and is compatible with Windows XP or newer Windows operating system.

It seems that the developer has discontinued development of the software program.

Related posts

• Network Security Analysis With Network Miner (5)
• Network Monitoring Software Open Monitor (27)
• ZoneScreen Finally Gets 64-bit Update (7)
• Xkcd Comic Wallpaper Changer (2)
• Wireless Network Scanner inSSIDer (3)

The interval can be changed to display a new wallpaper after specified time has passed or when a certain time of the day is reached. Wallperizer can resize wallpapers automatically based on an if else statement that might confuse users who do not code.

There is also a tab for basic effects that include normalizing the brightness and setting a gamma level of wallpapers.

More interesting than the previously mentioned options that are more or less integrated in most wallpaper changers are the following features. Wallperizer can display a calendar on the wallpaper. The calendar can be defined in detail including its position and detail level.

This calendar might be interesting for users who would like to see these information on their desktop without having to use a desktop widget or software that is displaying it.

The calendar cannot display customized date or synchronize date with other applications. Users who are interested in downloading the application can do so at the developer’s website.

Related posts

• Xkcd Comic Wallpaper Changer (2)
• Windows Wallpapers From MSN (12)
• Windows Tabbed Browsing (4)
• Windows Run Aliases (8)
• Windows Management: Super Maximize Windows (9)

The only way to password protect data is to use encryption. It would theoretically be possible to zip or compress the files and use a password to protect them which would however mean that the data would need to be uncompressed before it could be used.

All you need to password protect CDs or DVDs is True Crypt (or another software that can create encrypted containers). The Open Source encryption software can create so called containers that can be filled with data. These containers are password protected and can only be accessed if the correct password is supplied. The user does need True Crypt on the other hand to access the CDs and DVDs.

Start by downloading True Crypt from the official website. Click on the Create Volume button after installation. This opens a wizard that can be used to create an encrypted file container.

Select to create a standard True Crypt volume.

Now select a filename and location on the hard drive for the container.

Keep the algorithms and select an appropriate size for the container. You might need to experiment with the sizes a bit. If sizes do not matter that much select 650 Megabytes for a CD container and 4000 Megabytes for a DVD container.

Now select a password and use the format button to format the container.

Now that the container is created it needs to be mounted which basically means to use the password to make it accessible in Windows. Click on the select file button in the True Crypt main menu and locate the created container. Now select the Mount button. True Crypt will ask for a password. Just enter the password supplied to access the container. The container becomes available as a drive letter in Windows then. You can now transfer data in the container. Once all data has been added it can be burned to CD or DVD depending on the size of the container.

The user then needs to select the file on the CD or DVD whenever data on the disc should be accessed. Everything else will remain the same.

Related posts

• Xkcd Comic Wallpaper Changer (2)
• Wireless Network Scanner inSSIDer (3)
• Windows Tabbed Browsing (4)
• Windows Run Aliases (8)
• Windows Management: Super Maximize Windows (9)

A click on the New Note entry will display a new post it note on the desktop. This note can be moved around freely and is always on top by default. Several formatting options are available to create lists, bold text, change colors or change the font size. It is furthermore possible to change the size of the note itself.

A right-click displays additional options that include docking the note to the computer screen, adding it to favorites or configuring notifications.

It is possible to create multiple notes and place them in different locations on the computer desktop. Notifications and other settings can be edited in the preferences. Users can for example enable transparency effects, different skins, fonts and colors, define docking behavior or add hotkeys for faster access of some of the program’s features.

PNotes is a feature rich Open Sourcesoftware program to post notes on the computer desktop. It can be downloaded from the developer’s website.

Related posts

• Desktop Notes Taking (4)
• Xkcd Comic Wallpaper Changer (2)
• Wireless Network Scanner inSSIDer (3)
• Windows Tabbed Browsing (4)
• Windows Run Aliases (8)

Smilla Enlarger is a portable software program for the Windows operating system that can be used to enlarge photos. The results depend on the resolution and quality of the source photo and the resolution increase entered by the user. They do look pretty good on average though making Smillar Enlarger one of the few valid one-click solutions to enlarge photos.

The program basically works the following way. The user loads a photo into the software program. The photo will be displayed automatically on the left side of the interface. A suggested new resolution will be automatically selected and a zoomed in area of the source photo will be displayed on the right side. The target resolution of the enlarged photo can be changed by moving the zoom slider or by entering a value for the width and height manually.

It is possible to change the area that is being used for the preview to ensure that the most important areas of the photo display fine in the new resolution.

The controls at the bottom can be used to fine tune the enlarged photo further to increase the overall quality. The following five controls are available as sliders in the program: Sharpness, Flatness, PreSharpen, Dithering, DeNoise.

A click on the calculate button will start the photo conversion. The enlarged photo will be saved in the source directory by default. Smilla Enlarger (via Essential Freebies) is a great software program for users who want to enlarge some of their photos or images.

Related posts

• Xkcd Comic Wallpaper Changer (2)
• Windows Tabbed Browsing (4)
• Windows Run Aliases (8)
• Windows Management: Super Maximize Windows (9)
• Window Management Software Taekwindow (4)

The software program will display the personal documents upon startup. Personal documents are those found in the user’s My Documents folder of the Windows operating system. It will list all documents with their names, modification dates, owners and directories they are stored in.

The documents can be sorted by the same parameters and opened by double-clicking them. A search form on top makes it possible to search for documents containing the search term in their title. It is currently not possible to search the document’s contents as well.

A click on the context pulldown menu makes it possible to change the view to display everyone’s documents, program files or the internet cache instead. The same options apply to these selections as well. Doc Update is available in an early version which might be the reason for the lack of information. The program does take relatively long to display the documents in the table as well. The program might already be useful for some users who need to keep track of document updates made by co-workers.

Related posts

• Xkcd Comic Wallpaper Changer (2)
• Wireless Network Scanner inSSIDer (3)
• Windows Tabbed Browsing (4)
• Windows Run Aliases (8)
• Windows Management: Super Maximize Windows (9)

I found a bootable disc image smaller than 10MB which downloads the packages on the machine on which they’ll be installed, rather than having to burn them onto a disc and then run them. However, this method of installation also allows the user to only select the packages they want to download, which potentially dramatically reduces the size of the download.

This small disc obviously uses a text-based installer. Whilst this isn’t quite as user friendly, it ensures compatibility and can be used in many scenarios in which the alternative installation CD would currently have to be used.

Discs are available for 32-bit and 64-bit installs on PCs; 32-bit PowerPCs and patchy support is available for Sparc and 64-bit PowerPCs.

This seems like a much better way to install Ubuntu, because one can avoid pointless packages and the time needed to burn the 700MB image!

Related posts

• Adding Windows Vista and Kubuntu to Windows XP (5)
• Ubuntu Take 2 – I Think I’m Getting the Hang of Things (13)
• Ubuntu 8 makes it even easier to try out Linux (6)
• Portable Ubuntu For Windows (36)
• Linux Mint (8)

It has been created by the same developer who created Tweet My PC, a software program that would accept commands from a Twitter account to manage the computer system automatically.

Remind Me About is different as it comes as a service offered by the software developer and also as a version that can be installed on a server to run it more privately. It basically works the following way: The user sends a message to a Twitter account that has been created to handle the reminders. These reminders will be stored in a database on the web server running the scripts. Another php script will be checking the database frequently for reminders that are ready to be send out. If those reminders are found they are send out using the same Twitter account.

The php scripts have not been published yet officially by the developer but are going to be released soon. They do require a web server that supports php, MySQL databases and Cron jobs. Running the script on a web server can make sense for several reasons including Twitter Api limitations but also privacy or security related concerns.

The script will be published by the developer soon. As of now only the reminder service setup by the developer is available. No Twitter information (other than following and being followed by the Twitter user the service is running on) are required to use it though.

Related posts

• Manage your Tasks with Task Coach (3)
• Yahoo Meme Opens Registrations For Anyone (1)
• Yahoo Meme Invites (48)
• Xkcd Comic Wallpaper Changer (2)
• Wireless Network Scanner inSSIDer (3)

Amberjack is a virtual tour software that can be used to create website tours without programming knowledge. It basically offers a site wizard that can be used to create a tour based on urls pasted by the user. The urls should be on the same domain as the technique behind the virtual tour requires a bit of code to be integrated into the source code of the website. That might sound complicated but it is not at all.

The virtual tour wizard on the developer’s website provides access to a few skins (with the option to create unique ones which does require CSS skills) and several parameters that define certain aspects of the tour. The text that is displayed during the tour can be edited right in the source code after the virtual tour has been created. Website visitors can stop the tour at any time to explore the currently active page. The tour creator has the option to close the tour controls at this time or open the active url in a new tab so that the tour itself stays open.

Webmasters can use the virtual tour software Amberjack to create tours of their websites easily. It only takes a few minutes to create a tour and integrate it in an existing website.

Related posts

• Webmaster Contact Software (1)
• Typealizer: What Type is That Blog (6)
• Test Websites in various Internet Explorer Versions (9)
• Get Notified If Other Websites Use Your Articles (6)
• Fast Way to Submit articles to bookmarking sites (3)

Sticking to standards can therefore lead to issues with certain web browsers, which lack support for the latest tags or render pages wrong.

The W3C therefore has its own web browser and editor which adheres to standards more than many browsers and supports certain new technologies others don’t, such as RDF annotation. This browser is Amaya, an open-source and cross-platform browser.

Amaya can handle a wide-range of open file formats, including HTML, CSS, XHTML, SVG and MathML.

The software integrates the browser and web editor: when you go to a web page, it can be edited inside the browser. It also instantly displays syntactic errors.

It also integrates the mark-up languages. For example, in a web page, one can write formulae utilising MathML or add SVG shapes inside the software.

Amaya is a reasonable WYSIWYG editor and a good web browser for developmental purposes. It is also good to produce rich web-pages, which include other pieces of mark-up than HTML.

Related posts

• KompoZer, a free, open-source and half-decent WYSIWYG web editor (3)
• Manage your Tasks with Task Coach (3)
• Create and edit vector graphics for free (10)
• XML Escape Tool (0)
• VirtualBox a Vmware alternative (9)

The changelog lists all of the changes and additions that the developers have packed into the new release of the VLC Player including live recording, finer speed controls, new HD codecs (AES3, Dolby Digital Plus, Real video 3.0 and 4.0), formats, video scaling in full screen or zipped file playback. VLC Media Player can still play most video and audio formats out of the box without needing third party codec installations to do so.

VLC Player is still cross platform which means that the new release is available for all supported operating systems including Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac OSX and Linux. Users can download the new release directly from the developer’s website.

A viable alternative is SMPlayer which uses less resources than VLC Player while providing most of the benefits.

Related posts

• VLC Media Player (2)
• Open Office 4 Kids (11)
• Open Office 3.1 (17)
• Music Management Software Jajuk (6)
• Stream Music With Subsonic (11)

The computer program has to be installed on the system. It integrates itself into the right-click context menu of executable file extensions such as exe, bat and cmd with the option to add custom file extension during installation.

The advanced run box becomes available after right-clicking a supported file type and selecting run with parameters from the context menu. It is then possible to supply command line arguments to run the software with these additional parameters.

The computer program will remember command line arguments that have been used in the past for that specific software program. This option is also configured during installation. Up to 20 arguments are saved by default. The program will only use system resources during execution. The main application will terminate its process after the selected program has been started with the command line arguments. Run With Parameters is therefor a lightweight software program ideal for launching executables that require parameters from time to time (for example Google Chrome with or without extensions, Firefox with another profile). It can be downloaded from the developer’s homepage.

Related posts

• Unpack Installers With Universal Extractor (4)
• Portable Computer Software Collection Liberkey (10)
• Nirsoft Installer (5)
• Launch Applications With The Mouse (13)
• Ask The Readers: Recommended Security Software (29)