...we'll be right back after these messages

[awediot]

A commercial Break...

Being still a little newbie with this whole pc trend (finally got one at home to play with 6 mo.s ago, went highspeed 2 mo.s) and coincidentally have more free time than usual, and fluctuating between being cheap and poor, have lead me into the dangerous, oft ad bugged and virus riddled world of freeware. Never the less, the amount of free useful tools, fun toys and just plain eye candy is amazing... I wanted to both share some and try to discover other stuff...

All the links and programs are reputable, clean, not time limited and FREE... If your hesitant to download any, or wonder about what is already eroding your pc, start with
Avast anti-virus. It runs 24-7 in the background, filtering for incoming crud. You can also run its scanner to clean out whatever unwanted junk.
Spybot is the one everyone seems to recommend. Its great on top of Avast, but doesn't screen real time. To easily list and remove all sorts of temp files, cookies, busted links, unused files etc.
CCleaner just came out and simplifies tons of maintenance.

If you like to play, and avoid dangers all together,Mozilla is a cool addition, giving a new dimension to browsing. I have heard a few times that it is not worth hackers time to try to invade, so it is actually safer than IE's browser. The Stumble Upon add on itself is intriguing enough for the effort. And the add-on instant R click dictionary speeds along those endless post edits.

So does this simpleNotes organizer. And if you want to customize your screen capture, or just snag a portion of it, the drag open box feature of Gadwinis a big help.

While all of these are 100% free, a couple need you to register so they can E-mail you ads, upgrade sales pitches etc. I've found all of them non intrusive and instantly delete your address if you unsubscribe. If you start to accumulate, or have already, odd passwords that you'd like to organize, and keep private, Password Safe is really handy.

While its still legal,Limewire is the premier file sharing program out there. I have recently downloaded Brokeback Mountain, March of the Penguins, Ghost in the Shell and the Lynch cult classic I always wanted to see again, Eraserhead, as well as the new Kate Bush album, Aqualung, The new Gomez and the urban mythical Dark Side of the Moon already synced up to the Wizard of Oz (any one seen it?) ...Now, this is all legal so far; Question: Is it stealing? Is it a sin? (to make this a little relevant to these forums) I've got mixed feelings (but obviously not enough to stop me) -Real question. Is it?

Cel phones are killing landlines, and this will be their last nail.Skype offers TOTALLY free PC2PC calls and webcam service, worldwide, any and all the time. You need a mic, which even cheap cams have these days.. Get it now or you will get it later... Unbelievable. (highspeed req.)

To see where you are calling,Google Earth is a must. Its the same satellite zoom in on your roof system that you see on the news. Type in your address, then the address you're going to... I'll leave it at that. You've got to see it. A MUST. (highspeed req.)

If you like drawing and playing with pics,SerifDraw is pretty cool. There are alot of Photoshop wannabees out there, (you can actually download the newest, complete version -about 500$ worth- and play with it for a month, but you can't save anything --always a catch)) and takes some research. This is one area I've spent a few bucks, so I stopped diving for more.... To go 3-D, Google just bought
SketchUp and released a free version to the public. They also offer a terrific picture viewer/organizer called Picassa , that is an excellent way to see and make your pictures into a slide show, movie, CD, poster, grid, spread sheet and more...

To make your pics into a neat album with all sorts of worthless gadgetry, like custom covers and pages, video support, page turning sounds, mp3 accompaniment and web page to post your creation,DigiBook is scrap booking at its cyber best.

Music is a given, and the visuals that go with it you either love or haven't really noticed. If you dig the throbbing and flickers of mesmerizing eyecandy going to the beatWinamp is a full media player designed to showcase whole 'societies' of tempo obsessed computer artist. It puts the measly built-ins of Windows player to shame. 1000s of customizable viz's, including some that utilize and warp your webcam image. Super, pretty, fun time.

And for pretty,Glowing World is the best screensaver out there. The free version lasts a mere 20 days, then the options lock up after addicting you. I broke down and spent the 15 bills (on a screensaver?!!?!), and haven't looked away since...

Last and least, is the wallpaper animaterDremples. It boils, drools and melts any folder of pics as your desktop image or screensaver. Mindless in the best way...

I compiled this for a different reason and tweaked it for here... Hope you can use some of it... The web creation utilities and more hard core PC gizmos are my next steps... Please share anything that you have run across that has made your virtual life better or just funner...

...we now return you to your regularly scheduled programming...

[Mia14]

For spyware, I adore Ad-Aware SE Personal Edition. It's freeware version is awesome and requires no registrations. It's done right by my computer, and those at the college I used to attend, for quite a while now. I find that it's more user-friendly than Spybot for people who aren't as technologically-inclined.

Cnet.com is a great website for finding free computer tools.

I'm trying out Picassa for all the pictures from my digital camera I'll let you know how it goes.