Free Stuff

Now that I've got your attention...

I've been a software junky for years now, always trying out new apps for this and that. What this means is that I'm always trolling about the internets looking for software to satisfy this jones of mine.

Lately the effort has paid off more handsomely than ever.

So here are three of my most recent finds.

First off a PC firewall. The firewall PC World rates as the best in fact. It was developed by one of the big players in online security - you know those guys who put the little padlock logos on secure pages.

It's called Comodo Personal Firewall. I've been using it for about a month with no problems. They make other software that they've made free too. PC only.


Second is for digital photography. I've been using Paint Shop Pro 7 for years and I'm used to it. I've tried Photo Shop but it's way too top heavy for what I generally want to do (as is PSP frankly) and an insatiable RAM pig. What I'm interested in primarily is resizing, cropping, red eye correction, contrast corrections and so on. I'm not a designer and I don't need to overlay textures on the faces of my family members or superimpose their faces on one another's bodies (even though now and then I do).

I was very happy to find this lovely little app is also now being offered free of charge. Photo ToolKit is a sort of end result of the VicMan products being integrated into one suite and, as of December, becoming freeware. Of all the photo apps I've tried this one has the simplest red eye corrector - one click basically. Very nice interface, very intuitive and straightforward with a relatively small footprint. Other nice photo related freeware here too.

The third isn't a piece of software, it's a website that gives away a piece of software every day. No kidding. They give a way a game too but that's not my jones. They're called Give Away of the Day. Today's give away is the i-Sound WMA MP3 Recorder. Other days it's HD utilities or safety utilities or search utilities or video players and mixers. Each morning a new giveaway shows up and you have the day to download it and install it. That's important - you have to install it. (I know, I know, paranoia runs deep) For the i-Sound WMA MP3 Recorder you have about 6 and a half hours as of 5:15pm Pacific today. Tomorrow's another day.

That is all.