To Be Free ! - Free Utility Software Downloads

Dink Smallwood - A Classic RPG & AVG Game

2011-02-22T22:24:00.000+08:00

Dink Smallwood is a fun and humorous adventure/role-playing game made by Robinson Technologies. It was initially released in 1997 before being released as freeware in 1999.

The game features the twisted adventure of Dink Smallwood, a pig farmer who leaves his town and goes on a quest to save the world.

screenshot of Dink Smallwood

Dink Smallwood HD is a newly optimized version by the original creators. This version is not only available for Windows, but also for Mac, Android, iPhone and iPad. A new feature is the player can save and load the game at any point while the original game where saving was only possible at specific points in the game.

Dink Smallwood HD for iOS, Android - Official Trailer

Homepage | Downloads

Dink Smallwood (V1.08)| Dink Smallwood HD for Windows, iOS, Android, Mac

If you want play Dink on Linux, BSD, PSP and more, you can try the open-source portable version - FreeDink.

Browse The Web Safer With WOT Add-on

2011-02-18T23:24:00.000+08:00

Image via CrunchBaseThe Web of Trust (WOT) add-on is a safe surfing tool for your browser (IE, Firefox, Opera, Chrome). The traffic-light rating symbols help you see which websites are trusted when you search, shop and surf online.

WOT ratings are based on a global community of millions of users who have rated millions of websites based on their experiences and technical sources. This means WOT could keep you safe from both technical threats and the dangers that only human can detect, like a bad shopping experiences or inappropriate content for children.

The WOT add-on provides reputation ratings to search results when you use Google, Yahoo!, Bing and other popular websites. You can view website detail and other users' comments by clicking the WOT symbol.

Let's see the example of WOT ratings.

Trustworthiness - This means "Is it safe to use?". It is the most important indicator of WOT.
Vendor reliability - Mainly for some commercial trading sites like a shopping website.
Privacy - "Does the site have a privacy policy that protects your personal identity and data? "
Child safety - No introduction for this point :)

In brief, the green symbol stands for good and the red means bad. After you installed WOT add-on, a simple guide will show up. And you can join the WOT community to rate websites and leave a comment.

Download WOT for your browser at http://www.mywot.com/en/download

Unshorten Urls & Check If The Site Is Safe With URLVoid

2011-02-17T23:18:00.000+08:00

Nowadays, you are exposed to a lot of urls that are shortened. Like on Twitter, Facebook, you almost can not avoid those urls. If you are worried about the safety of some websites, here is a solution.

「URLVoid」 is an online service that can scan a website address with multiple scanning engines such as Google Diagnostic, Norton SafeWeb, MyWOT to detect the possible dangerous. And you can also check reputation of domains and subdomains.

URLVoid：http://www.urlvoid.com/

「Extract URL」is a service of URLVoid, you can unshorten urls with it.

So, just 3 steps to check the shorten url.

1. Unshorten the shortened url with Extract URL
2. Use URLVoid to check the website reputation
3. After step 2, don't forget to start a Virus Scan

You might be interested in it <5 Free Online Antivirus Scanners>.

Minus App Is Availabe For Windows, Mac, Linux and Android!

2011-02-15T19:41:00.001+08:00

Minus is a service which make sharing pictures, documents, music, videos and files fast, easy.

It's very quick and simple to share & upload images. The desktop app is rather simple to use, you just need to drag the files to the taskbar icon and drop into popup panel to start uploading.

Right now, Minus app is available for Windows, Mac, Linux , Android, the version for iPhone/iPad and Blackberry is coming soon. This release does not have account support.

You can download the apps at http://min.us/pages/tools
Chrome web app: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/emgdobmndjcmnciellikkhigcbpgpklk

IObit Cloud - Online Antivirus File Analysis

2011-02-15T00:03:00.001+08:00

IObit for many people may not unfamiliar. IObit Advanced SystemCare is a well-known software. IObit's reputation may be not very good as some past actions, anyway, IObit Smart Defrag is a nice free app I have used.

I'll introduce today is a recent launched online threat analysis system - IObit Cloud. It uses the latest Cloud Computing technology and Heuristic Analyzing mechanic to analyze spyware, adware, trojans and other security-related risks in a fully automated mode.

http://cloud.iobit.com/

Just like the other online antivirus scanners, you can analyse your files through sveral steps:

Upload file to IObit Cloud
IObit Cloud will analyse your file automatically
Get the report immediately

You can get a report link after the scan.

Overall, IObit Cloud is so new and function limited, and the privacy policy remains to be proven.

VirusTotal is probably the best online antivirus scanner choice for most users.

N - An Addictive Action Puzzle Game

2011-02-13T23:45:00.000+08:00

N, "the way of the ninja" , is a free flash game for Windows, Mac and Linux. You play a ninja in it, and this game is a highly advanced system of spirtual, cognitive and physical training.

This game is extremly hard (You need to watch out for mines, lasers, and heat-seeking missiles.) but fun, and addictive. It has 500 built-in levels and you can edit your own levels. You have 1.5 minute to finish each level, you can get some extra time by collecting the yellow beans.

Watch the gameplay of Episode 85

Controls
You can configure custom keys via the main menu.
The default keys are:
[left and right arrows]: accelerate
[shift]: jump (hold key down for higher jump)
[k]: kill yourself (useful if you get stuck or trapped, or just for fun)
[p]: pause game

Furthermore，you can find N+ for Xbox 360, DS and PSP.

Official website | Download V1.4

Sync TwitPic Pictures to Flickr Automatically

2011-02-11T00:09:00.001+08:00

TwitPic is a popular website that allows users to easily post pictures to Twitter. If you're a TwitPic user, and want to sync shared pictures to Flickr, here is a easy way.

http://twitpictoflickr.com/

With twitpictoficker, you can finish the synchronization easily in 3 steps.

Step one: Enter the websit, and fill in your email address.

Step two: Fill in your twitter username and enable "Send all existing photos to flickr"

Step three: Connect to flickr

Of course here you have to choose "OK".

That's it, so easy!

20P Wonderful Rainbow Images

2011-02-10T00:06:00.000+08:00

Bow by P0RG

Somewhere Over the Rainbow by GeorgiaPeaches

rainbow by JohnnyLOVEDepp

Gold Under The Rainbow by drewyboy

Under The Rainbow by Toope

Rainbow… by mouzeron

A world within a rainbow by Alex37

Double Rainbow by samuelbitton

Rainbow on Mt. Evans by daskibum

Rainbow Evening by DennisChunga

Over The Rainbow by SarahSleaze

Rainbow Reflection by rekokros

Niagara's Rainbow by Rainbow826

Rainbow remake by Patrick Emerson

Cow with Rainbow by David Ovila

Sunset Rainbow by David Putnam

Rainbow Valley By rwangsa

Rainbow through Gum tree By mick walters/Billy

Oh look ,there is a rainbow ! By Nicolas Valentin

Rainbow Over The Badlands At Sunset By McKinley2006

Auslogics Disk Defrag - Fast And Easy To Use Defragmenter

2011-02-08T22:55:00.001+08:00

If you are looking for a defragmenter to speed up your computer, I would recommend IObit Smart Defrag and Defraggle and Auslogics Disk Defrag. The first two softwares have been introduced before, and here is Auslogics Disk Defrag's review.

Auslogics Disk Defrag is a compact, safe and fast defragmenter. Easy is its advantage, just one-click to defrag, like the Windows its own defragmenter, for sure Auslogics Disk Defrag is much more powerful.

Simple interface of Auslogics Disk Defrag, I think you could finish the defragmentation easily even you never defragged before.

Detail description of settings.

Auslogics Disk Defrag is available in English, German, Spanish, French, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese and Russian. And some practical features like Auto-defragmentation mode and scheduled work. Moreover，Auslogics Disk Defrag can do the single file or folder defragmentation you want.

In short, Auslogics Disk Defrag is a nice product and it's free! You can get this freeware at http://www.auslogics.com/en/software/disk-defrag/download/
If you know some other great defragmenters, please share with me :)

AllVideoDownloader - Download Videos From 280+ Streaming Sites

2011-02-07T22:02:00.000+08:00

AllVideoDownloader is a free and tiny application to download clips from more than 280 videos websites. With it, you can download videos from YouTube, Dailymotion, Vimeo, Google Video, Yahoo Video, Myspace, etc.

This software is similar to ClipGrab，ClipGrab supports less websites, but it is cross-platform for Windows, Mac and Linux. AllVideoDownloader is only for Windows.

It's very easy to use, paste the video link, set the output format and then click the "Donwload" button. Batch mode is available if you need to download more than one video.

Official website | Download

Radial Plus: Space Shooting Game

2011-02-06T22:26:00.001+08:00

Radial Plus is a space shooting game, you can't hurt enemies with direct fire but bounce your shots off a wall and then into them. It's a little game with nice effects and sound.

Controls:

Arrow keys:     Move
Left mouse:     Shoot
Right mouse:    Boost
Controls are configurable.

Screenshots

Watch the playthrough

This game is a work in progress, so there may be much more things will be added to the game in the future.

Download Radial Plus v0.20 (6.05MB)

A free Cloud-based Antivirus Software - Immunet Protect

2011-02-04T22:26:00.000+08:00

Immunet Protect Antivirus is a free cloud-based(NO virus signature files updates required), community-driven antivirus software. It is built to protect entire online communities against viruses in real-time.

As Immunet is cloud-based, it is much smaller and faster than traditional antivirus softwares. Really low memory and CPU usage and it gives you extra protection.

Interface

Immunet Protect can be installed as stand-alone anti-virus or a companion anti-virus product, here is the compatible security package list.

Moreover，Immunet is one of the default Google Pack apps - which only includes Google's own apps and Adobe Reader. After my test, I really like this product and want to spread it, whether you have antivirus software or not, Immunet is worth a try.

Official website | Features | Download

PDFZilla (PDF Converter) Time-limited Giveaway

2011-02-03T20:15:00.000+08:00

PDFZilla is a full functional and easy-to-use PDF converter. It can quickly convert PDF files into editable MS Word Documents, Rich Text Documents, Plain Text Files, Images, HTML Files, and Shockwave Flash SWF Files, etc.

PDFZilla is a shareware ($29.95 USD), but now you can get it for free. This Time-limited Giveaway Promotion will be CLOSED on Feb 5th, 2011.

PDFZilla supported formats

Convert PDF to Word
Convert PDF to Word with all text and Graphical data.
Convert PDF to RTF
Convert PDF to Rich Text Files. You can edit all text and graphic by Windows Wordpad.
Convert PDF to TXT
Convert PDF to plain text files. You can edit text by Notepad.
Convert PDF to Images
Convert PDF to BMP, JPG, GIF or TIF files.
Convert PDF to HTML
Convert PDF to HTML files and automatically generate the Index file.
Convert PDF to SWF
Convert PDF to Shockwave Flash Animation files which can be published on websites.

Giveaway page | Download(5.9MB) | Registration Code: 8061822TWDV6YUK

If Disney Produced "Up" In The 1960s

2011-02-02T00:18:00.001+08:00

What if... Walt Disney produced "Up" in the 1960s?

Here is a stupendous trailer by YouTube user whoiseyevan. This guy combined many clips of old movies into the 60s "Up". Besides, whoiseyevan has created an amazing fake “Premakes” series which shows movies were made before they were made;)

Editor's Note: I have always enjoyed old Disney movies from the 60s and 70s. They managed to tap into such an imaginatively odd combination of situations and characters (like dinosaur bones and Chinese spies in "One of Our Dinosaurs is Missing", or flying cars and basketball players in The Absent-Minded Professor"). In many ways, Pixar's "Up" continues this charming tradition with its flying houses, talking dogs and gigantic flightless birds. It's a brilliantly written and beautifully imagined film. Oh, and stay tuned for the frame-by-frame breakdown and cheat sheet... there are a couple of Easter eggs hidden in this one.

Here's the recipe for the trailer: Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, *batteries not included, The Red Balloon, Superman, The Wizard of Oz, The Muppet Movie, Follow Me Boys, Mackenna's Gold, Benji, A Boy and His Dog, Mysterious Island, The Doberman Gang, The Alvin Show, Posse, One of Our Dinosaurs is Missing, The Island at the Top of the World, Zeppellin, Stephen King's It, Hollywood Hotel, Jonny Quest, Peter Pan's Flight, Habanera from Carmen, Always

BrainSplode! - Indie Physics Puzzle Game

2011-01-30T23:05:00.000+08:00

BrainSplode! is an indie puzzle game made by Rust Red Games where you control a missile launcher in order to bust some alien brains in a cave.

BrainSplode! takes you through 7 fun and challenging levels where you must fire rockets at alien Brains sucking the life from the planet!

Screenshots

Watch the gameplay

The game is still at a prototype stage. Download BrainSplode! v1.1 （14.7MB）| Homepage

The Creature - An Indie Adventure Game

2011-01-29T22:52:00.000+08:00

The Creature is a PC platform, adventure, 2D scrolling game that uses Unreal Engine 3. It is developed by five master students during a year, and it could be completely free to download.

There are 20 challenging levels through five different areas: Ruins, Crystal, Mine, Jungle and Volcano.

It has also 20 collectible hidden objects + terrifying bosses + 2 extra bonus levels + 1 extremely happy and mysterious area with lots of secrets + 2 alternative endings + a whole original soundtrack composed specifically for the game.

Screentshots

And the game trailer

Download the game (400M+) for free at: http://thecreatureproject.wordpress.com/download/
The Creature Project Homepage

Opera 11.01 Final Is Available

2011-01-27T22:04:00.000+08:00

Opera 11.01 has just been released. This release adds security fixes and stability improvements.

For most users,you may feel the sensitivity of mouse gesture becomes better than some eariler releases. I recommend turning off the visual mouse gestures function, it's really boresome.

Changelogs for Windows, Mac, and Linux and FreeBSD

Download http://www.opera.com/browser/download/

Of course, Opera 11.01 is a recommended update for every Opera 11 user.

Free Office Suite - LibreOffice 3.3 Final Released

2011-01-26T22:43:00.000+08:00

LibreOffice is a productivity suite that is compatible with other major office suites, and available on a variety of platforms. The goal is to produce a vendor-independent office suite with ODF support and without any copyright assignment requirements. As free software, users are free to download, modify, use and distribute LibreOffice.

LibreOffice is a fork of OpenOffice, it is open-source, community-driven and developed software by the not--profit organization, The Document Foundation.

After 4 RC releases, the first stable release was released( 3.3/25 January 2011). It's available in more than 30 languages and for all major operating systems, including Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.

The LibreOffice Start Center

Some New Features

Import SVG pictures into Draw and edit them interactively
New easy-to-use dialog box for title pages
Navigator lets you unfold one heading as usual in a tree view
MS Works import filter
Load and Save ODF documents in flat XML to make external XSLT processing easier
SVG import into Writer
Lotus Word Pro import filter

LibreOffice 3.3 is available at http://www.libreoffice.org/download/

For Ubuntu users, you can use PPA to install it ;)

    sudo add-apt-repository ppa:libreoffice/ppa
    sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install libreoffice
-- GNOME:
    sudo apt-get install libreoffice-gnome
-- KDE:
    sudo apt-get install libreoffice-kde

Vox: A Lightweight Music Player For Mac OS X

2011-01-25T23:24:00.000+08:00

If you do not like the excessive iTunes, and just want find a simple music player for Mac，Vox is a choice.

Feaures of Vox

little and simple
support for FLAC, MP3, AAC, WAV, OGG and many other common file formats
includes numerous effects like Equalizer, Reverb, Time Stretch, Pitch Shift, Echo
all supported files can be exported to AAC+, Apple Lossless, WAV and other formats with enabled effects

Download | Dev Blog

100+ Free Open Web Games In Mozilla Labs Gaming

2011-01-23T23:43:00.000+08:00

Mozilla Labs Gaming is the latest project launched by Mozilla Labs, committed to providing the game developer community with the platform and tools they need to make innovative games on the Open Web.

Game On 2010 is Mozilla Labs' first international gaming competition. Right now, you can find 129 selected games in Game On Gallery. Everyone can access and enjoy the games, and registered users of Game On can vote for the games they like.

Check out the game gallary at https://gaming.mozillalabs.com/games/

How To： Run KDE Softwares On Windows

2011-01-22T21:08:00.000+08:00

KDE is one of the most popular desktop environment used in Linux, its community has developed a wide variety of applications for communication, work, education and entertainment.

The KDE on Windows Initiative is an ongoing project to port the KDE applications to MS Windows. You can KDE softwares in a normal KDE environment by KDE-Installer, a graphical network-based installer.

Download the installer http://www.winkde.org/pub/kde/ports/win32/installer/kdewin-installer-gui-latest.exe

Installation Instructions

The installation is rather easy, for average users, just use the default selections. Make sure Internet connection is enabled.

choose the KDE4 installation directory

choose the download path

choose the sever closest to you

here shows releases, choose the latest stable 4.5.4

this step is the most important, choose the apps you wanna try, select all is recommended ;) they support for multi-languages

Now, you can run KDE softwares just from your start menu :)

Find more at http://windows.kde.org/

Reduce Your Aim Of Cursor With Preme for Windows 7

2011-01-19T23:51:00.003+08:00

Preme for Windows7 is a tiny and easy-to-use system optimizer tool, with it, you can enhance desktop and mouse features of Windows 7, Mac OS X users must be very familiar to users this.

Main function is to stimulate the potential of the four corners of the desktop, you can easily switch windows by moving your cursor to a setted screen corner, at the same time, you can customize a shoortcut key.

Some features

minimize a window with your scroll wheel
press ESC twice to close the active window
close window by pressing the wheel and then releasing it when cursor is pointing to the title bar
Touch Start option let you access the start menu by hovering the mouse pointer over start menu

the official features introduction

Download (1.1MB)| Homepage

Firefox Add-on: DownThemAll! 2.0

2011-01-18T23:20:00.000+08:00

DownThemAll! (DTA) is a download accelerator extension for Mozilla Firefox, HTTP and FTP protocols are supported. It is a must-have extension of my firefox. With it, you can definitely throw away firefox its own download manager. After more than two years of development, it reached 2.0

DownThemAll! 2.0 includes a lot of new features like

notably support for Firefox 4
speed limits (Global, per server/download)
private browsing mode support
Media-Sniffing (flv)
mirror management and better platform/OS integration
Video DownloadHelper integration

See the detail at http://www.downthemall.net/main/install-it/downthemall-2-0/

Homepage http://www.downthemall.net/
Download https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/downthemall/

DownThemAll! 2.0 is compatible with firefox 3.5 – 4.0

Free AVG Antivirus For Android

2011-01-17T22:07:00.000+08:00

Image via CrunchBaseJust a short time after AVG Technologies finished the acquisition of Tel Aviv-based DroidSecurity, AVG has released a free security software for android mobile devices.

DroidSecurity™ is a pioneer in the field of mobile security solutions, providing both the tools and services needed to safeguard all Android devices (smartphones, e-readers, tablets and appliances).It was acquired by AVG Technologies in November 2010. Then AVG Technologies enables AVG’s Mobile Solutions Team (MST) to extend its security solutions to mobile devices. More information at http://www.avg.com/us-en/avg-acquires-droidsecurity

Like the desktop edition, AVG antivirus for android has free and pro versions.

Features

System requirements : Android1.5 or higher

Free Indie Game - Escape from the Underworld

2011-01-16T23:24:00.000+08:00

Escape from the Underworld is an indie game made by Banov for Indie Kombat ( http://www.indiekombat.com ).You play as a fallen angel in this exploration platformer.

The story is about an angel one day tired of living and began to attack human beings, fallen to the dark angel. Then, with all your powers taken by heavenly beings, you're left to roam the depths of Hell. You need to get your powers back one by one and revenge.

How to play

The arrow keys to control, Z attack, press C to view the map. Press the down arrow in the direction of key areas to save the game.

Download(12MB):http://gamejolt.com/freeware/games/escape-from-the-underworld/download/3816/

Beautify 7-Zip Easily With 7-Zip Theme Manager

2011-01-15T22:22:00.000+08:00

7-Zip is a free and open-source file archiver with a high compression ratio. But its oringinal theme is so simple (or should say ugly), maybe because of this, lots of users missed this nice software.

Here is a program for beautifying 7-Zip, 7-Zip Theme Manager. With it, you can change the theme just in two steps: choose a theme, then click "Active" buttom.

Homepage http://www.7ztm.de.vu/

Toolbar theme

File type theme

Download the current 2.1 version: http://killercookie-server.media-xshell.com/7zTM/download.php?cat=00_German&file=7zTM_2.1.7z

One Day A Free Shareware

2011-01-12T21:18:00.000+08:00

If you like sharewares, this post is for you ;) Today I recommend a software website to you. Every day this site offers for a free licensed Windows software.

It's Giveaway of the Day.

HomePage: http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/

The free sharewares can only be installed on this specific day due to protection software which checks the website and activates it on the day of the giveaway, with no right of reinstallation. Anyway, there are occasional high-value giveaways. (Like the great hard disk drive partition software - Acronis Disk Director Suite)

Click the download link you will get a .zip package, Unzip it after you've downloaded and you can find the instructions and license code in readme.txt file.

Have a nice Giveaway of the Day!

A Free DVD Video Transcoder For Windows, Mac OS X And Linux

2011-01-10T20:07:00.000+08:00

HandBrake is an open-source video transcoder designed to convert MPEG video (including DVD-Video) into an MPEG-4 video file (.mp4) or .mkv containers.

This software is used to convert DVDs into other forms so they can be viewed on iPods, iPhones. It is available for Mac, Windows and Linux.

Home page: http://handbrake.fr/

Supported Sources:

Any DVD-like source: VIDEO_TS folder, DVD image or real DVD (unencrypted--protection methods including CSS are not supported internally and must be handled externally with third-party software and libraries), and some .VOB and .TS files
Most any multimedia file it can get libavformat to read and libavcodec to decode.

Outputs:

File format: MP4 and MKV
Video: MPEG-4, H.264, or Theora
Audio: AAC, CoreAudio AAC (OS X Only), MP3, or Vorbis. AC-3 pass-through, DTS pass-thorugh (MKV only)

Misc features:

Chapter selection
Subtitles
Integrated bitrate calculator
Picture deinterlacing, cropping and scaling
Live Video Preivew

Core updates of current version 0.9.5 (more)

BluRay disc structure support. (No decryption support)
SSA Subtitle support.
MP3 audio now supported in MP4 files
VOBSUB subtitle now supported in MP4 files

Download the latest version (0.9.5): http://handbrake.fr/downloads.php

For Ubuntu Users

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:stebbins/handbrake-releases
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install handbrake-gtk

Ninja Senki - A Free Mega Man-Like Game

2011-01-09T12:07:00.000+08:00

Ninja Senki is a fast-paced platformer featuring the blue ninja hayate. It is inspired by classic 2D NES game Mega Man.

This game is made for players who enjoy challenging 8-bit action. "Skills are required". 16 levels and multiple endings.

How to play.

Arrow left,right (or A,D) – Move
J – Throwing darts
K – Jump
Enter – Pause
Esc – Quit
+/- (keypad) – Adjust the screen size
F1 – Help
F2 – Toggle Surfaces On/Off (On by default)
F4 – Full screen
F9 – Capture

Watch the trailer ;)

Download http://www.ninjasenki.com/NinjaSenki.zip

Note: This game is Windows-only. It doesn't save your progress if you quit.

Desktopography Wallpaper Exhibition 2010

2011-01-06T21:41:00.000+08:00

Last month, I wrote an article about Desktopography. It is a non-profit high quality wallpaper project started in 2005. It only has one exhibition every year, and each exhibition has less than 100 pics. But each piece on Desktopography is fabulous.

Not long ago, Exhibition 2010 was released. Here is a selected image set (1440x900).

Find more at http://desk08.customize.org/

Three DirectX 11 Benchmark Tool

2011-01-05T21:28:00.000+08:00

3DMark 11 is not the only DirectX 11 benchmark tool, here are three different benchmarks.

DirectX Software Development Kit

This tool is provided by Microsoft. You can get the latest DX SDK at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/directx/aa937781 Latest version:

9.29.1962 (500M+)

Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X. 2 Benchmark

Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X. is an arcade flight video game. Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X. 2 Benchmark is a stand-alone benchmark released by Ubisoft. You need a www.ubisoft.com account to use this benchmark.

Download at http://games.softpedia.com/get/Tools/Tom-Clancys-HAWX-2-Benchmark.shtml (700M+)

Unigine Heaven Benchmark

Heaven Benchmark is a DirectX 11 GPU benchmark based on advanced Unigine™ engine from Unigine Corp. It is the first DirectX 11 benchmark. Current version: 2.1

This benchmark works on Windows & Linux. Download at http://unigine.com/products/heaven/ (200M+)

10 Useful Opera Extensions I'm Using

2011-01-03T21:19:00.000+08:00

Opera is always a full-featured web browser, though no extension support before, you still can customize it from buttons, toolbars to entire layout. But personalize Opera to my way is no easy, I think this is same to most new users.

With the latest Opera 11, to improve my Opera is easier as it supports extensions now. Here are ten practical extensions I'm using.

FastestTube - YouTube Video Downloader

Of course it's a YouTube downloader tool.

Advanced inline translator: Select the text then press selected key (default is shift) to translate selection.

Image Preview Popup

This extension shows a popup with an image preview when hovering over link that points to an image file or a page with an image.

LastPass

I have introduced LastPass before, it is not only for Opera, you can also use it on Internet Explorer, Firefox, Google Chrome, Safari. More detail @ <LastPass - A Free & Cross-platform Password Manager And Form Filler>

Drag with left mouse button to open links in background. Select the links by drawing a box around links then release the mouse button to open the links in that box/region.

Shows weather information (current conditions and forecast) , it is provided by "The Weather Channel" from Yahoo!

Find more extensions at https://addons.opera.com/addons/extensions/

2D Free And Open-source Worms Game - Hedgewars

2011-01-02T21:09:00.000+08:00

Worms is a series of turn-based computer games. Hedgewars is a free and open-source game and is based on the Worms series. It runs on Linux, BSD, Windows, and Mac OS X. Your job is using different weapons to kill the other team hedgehog, hedgehog will explode when life drop to 0, and fell into the water will die.

Game Features

Hilarious and devistating turn based combat for up to 6 players
Both local and network multiplayer, with optional AI opponents
Battle on an infinite number of randomly generated maps, with over 20 environments
Utilise 47 (and counting) devistating weapons! Including the piano strike and explosive robotic cake
Play the game your way, with 18 different game modifiers, tweak almost every aspect of the match
Customize your team, with over 120 costumes, 30 graves, 12 forts, 100s of flags and unique voice packs
Plugin your own custom maps, costumes, and other artwork

Watch the game trailer ;)

Download (Version 0.9.15 100M+): http://www.hedgewars.org/download.html

Prey - Anti-theft Software For Windows, Mac, Linux & Android Phones

2011-01-01T21:35:00.000+08:00

Prey is a free and open-source software, it helps you keep track of your phone or laptop at all times, and will help you find it if it ever gets lost or stolen.

Latest Prey features include wifi autoconnect, an alarm system, screenshot grabbing, hardware scanning and webcam capturing, etc. All of these functions are managed as modules, which can be activated on demand by the user, and new functions can be added by adding new modules.

How it works

First of all, you need to install Prey in your PC or phones.
Set Reporting mode and create your Prey account, then it will run silently and wait for a remote signal to wake up.
Once you device is lost, you should login to Prey web control panel and report your device is missing.
After that, Prey will send you informations regarding the device's location, hardware and network status, etc.

Download http://preyproject.com/download

Note: The free account only free for 3-device and 10-reports. Anyway, this is just a software (and network connection is needed), it'll fail to work once your operating system is damaged, do not forget that.

Make Your IE More Powerful With Google Chrome Frame

2010-12-31T21:58:00.000+08:00

Google Chrome Frame is a free plug-in designed for Internet Explorer based on the open-source Chromium project.

The plug-in works with Internet Explorer 6, 7 and 8. It allows suitably coded web pages to be displayed in Internet Explorer by Google Chrome's versions of the WebKit layout engine and V8 JavaScript engine. So it can speed up your browser.

Download it @ http://www.google.com/chromeframe
Disable or uninstall Google Chrome Frame

To disable Google Chrome Frame, follow these steps:

In Internet Explorer, go to Tools > Manage Add-ons in the menu bar.
In the "Toolbars and Extensions" section, select ChromeFrame BHO.
Click Disable.

To uninstall Google Chrome Frame, follow these steps:

Select Start > Control Panel.
Double-click Add or Remove Programs.
Select Google Chrome Frame.
Click Remove.

Xonotic 0.1 preview - Free & Open-source First Person Shooter

2010-12-30T21:47:00.000+08:00

Xonotic is a fast paced free, open-source first person shooter licensed under GPL. It is a fork of Nexuiz, and a successor of the Nexuiz Project. Xonotic works on Microsoft Windows, Mac OSX and Linux. To find out why Nexuiz was forked into a new project, you can view my previous post <Nexuiz - a free opensource FPS game>

The latest 0.1 preview version has been released on December 23,2010. Find screenshots, Xonotic Videos at http://www.xonotic.org/

Watch the Xonotic Movement Tutorial

20+ WWF Public Service Ads Pics

2010-12-29T21:30:00.000+08:00

WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature) is an international non-governmental organization working on issues regarding the conservation, research and restoration of the environment, formerly named the World Wildlife Fund, which mission is "to halt and reverse the destruction of our environment".

Free Download The 3DMark 2011 Basic Edition( Benchmark for DirectX 11)

2010-12-28T20:04:00.000+08:00

3DMark is the world’s most popular computer benchmarking tool for measuring the 3D graphics performance. In 3DMark Vantage released two and a half years later, the latest 3DMark 11 is launched which is designed for testing DirectX 11 hardware running on Windows 7 and Windows Vista. Fortunately, there's a free edition.

So if you are still in use Windows XP, or graphics only support DirectX 9, 10. You can try the early version 3DMark 06 or 3DMark Vantage.

3DMark 11 Basic Edition is free to use and allows an unlimited number of benchmark runs without registration or expiry. And now, except English, 3DMark 11 supports German, simplified/traditional Chinese & Finnish.

Download @ http://www.3dmark.com/

Watch the 3DMark 11 Deep Sea Demo.

How To Refute Those Who Believe That Santa Claus Does Not Exist

2010-12-27T14:36:00.001+08:00

Stick to your beliefs and listen to your own heart talking, don't let others shake your point of view ;)

Source from survivingtheworld.net

Merry Christmas ;) (although a bit late) & enjoy your holidays.

I Need A Break

2010-12-14T14:43:00.001+08:00

It's the end of the semester, I have to prepare for my end-of-term examinations. So I will not update my blog in about two weeks.

Bless me -_-

Moonlights: A Tower Building Physics Puzzler

2010-12-12T20:36:00.000+08:00

Moonlights is a tower building physics puzzler, that will challenge the brain and the physics skills of the whole family. This game is very much like World of Goo but with a few twists. It is available for iPhone, iPod, iPad and it has a free online flash version.

What you need is build tower to the moon, then you can pass a level. There are many levels, of course, you have different ways to touch the moon.

Play this flash game online for free: http://www.bonuslevel.org/games/game_moonlights_24.html

Buy the iPhone version at http://www.bonuslevel.org/moonlights/

Canabalt : A Parkour Flash Game

2010-12-11T19:39:00.000+08:00

Canabalt is a fast-paced escape-oriented action game, a bit like Parkour.It's gameplay is very simple, you just need one key to control the role (using X, C or Space to jump).

Start the game! http://www.adamatomic.com/canabalt/

There's no end in this game, the final score is the distance you run. The online flash version is free to play, it also available for iPhone ($2.99 USD). You can buy the iPhone app at http://www.canabalt.com/

Watch the gameplay.

If you like this flash game, you could download the portable version at http://portableapps.com/apps/games/canabalt_portable (5 MB)

TeamViewer (Remote Desktop Control) 6 Released With iPhone/Android Support

2010-12-10T13:28:00.001+08:00

Image via CrunchBaseTeamViewer is a free and cross-platform remote desktop control software. It supports Windows, Mac and Linux (wine). TeamViewer version 6 was just released several days ago, in this new version, it supports iPhone, iPad, and Android !

Imagine that you control the computer using an iPhone/Android mobile, it is neat!

Some improvements:

Improved custom QuickSupport
New function QuickJoin
Optimized performance and design
New language version (19 languages support)

Download | Home page

How To: Check If Your CPU Is 32-bit Or 64-bit

2010-12-08T23:39:00.000+08:00

Here are two tiny softwares to help you check if your CPU ( or Windows) is 32-bit or 64-bit. The first is 64bit Checker,

Features

shows if your computer is running a 32bit or 64bit version of Windows
detects whether your processor supports a 64bit operating systems (if you are not sure that you can install 64bit operating system on your computer)
copy report information to clipboard, or save in text or html file

Download (.exe 68KB | .rar 29KB)

The second is SecurAble, it is more powerful than 64bit Checker, it checks Hardware D.E.P (a security feature) and Hardware Virtualization too.

Download (115KB) | Homepage

Minus - A Easy Way to Share Your Picutres, Documents, Music, Videos

2010-12-07T20:26:00.001+08:00

Minus is a brand new sharing site started in October 13th, 2010. It helps you share pictures(docs, music, videos and other files coming soon!) online easily. With only 3 steps ( drag your pictures onto its page; click to start upload; get the image link ) , then you can share with others, there's no need to sign up to use this nice service.

Minus supports most common image formats like GIF, JPG, JPEG, PNG, APNG, BMP. Single picture is limited to 7MB, and 50 pictures could be uploaded once. You can store your images forever as long as you don't violate the terms of service.

See the demo pic ;)

Note: Minus is optimized for Firefox , Chrome , Safari on Mac , and IE 9.

A Free High-quality Desktop Wallpapers Website

2010-12-06T22:09:00.000+08:00

http://desk08.customize.org/ is a site where you could find many fantastic wallpapers. The desktopography project arrived in 2005 as a place to download nature / topological themed wallpapers with edits from selected designers, it is non-profit. You could join this project if you are up to scratch in Photoshop.

Most of the wallpapers here can be downloaded in a variety of sizes, whether large or widescreen monitors. You'll find a high resolution & widescreen wallpaper from it ;)

Below is a selected image set (1280x800) from desktopography.

Privates - Award-winning Sex Education Game

2010-12-05T20:24:00.001+08:00

Privates is a platform shooting game (developed by Zombie Cow Studios) in which you lead a teeny-tiny gang of condom-hatted marines as they delve into peoples’ vaginas and bottoms and blast away at all manner of oozy, shouty monsters. It’s rude, funny, bitingly satirical and technically pretty accurate if you don’t count the tiny people or the germs with teeth.

It's a really different game, this game is free to download and play for PC users, for some reason, the Xbox 360 version was cancelled. Just last month, Privates was nice to be nominated for three BIMA awards (Games, Originality and Effectiveness), finally, it's the 2010 BIMA winner (Games).

Screenshots

Watch the trailer of Privates!

Download (100MB) | Find more at http://www.zombie-cow.com/privates

Free And Open-Source 3D Kart Racing Game

2010-12-04T16:47:00.000+08:00

SuperTuxKart is a cross-platform and open source Kart game featuring the Linux mascot Tux. It supports Linux, Windows, Mac, FreeBSD, and some other platforms.

This is a TuxKart enhanced version of its free software feature is the use of the mascot as a racing driver. You can use various tricks on the track, including the use of props (banana peel, etc) the way interfere with the opponent's actions. The latest SuperTuxKart 0.7 RC1 (with new graphics engine ) has just been released.

Personally, I think it is a very good game for killing time. You can play with up to 4 friends on one PC, racing against each other or just try to beat the computer.

Homepage | Blog

Download 0.6.2a | 0.7RC1

Source from: http://www.ubuntugamer.com/2010/12/supertux-kart-release-candidate-ubuntu/

Supercharge Your Google Reader With FeedSquares (Chrome Extension)

2010-12-03T23:30:00.000+08:00

FeedSquares is a Chrome extension for Google Reader. It provides a cool, entertaining way to read your favorite feeds. FeedSquares transforms your subscriptions into squares, see the detail via below images.

Download at https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/ddkahgkblobiogkkeedfnjkldecloidi

Screenshots

Some Features

Show your Google Reader feeds in a beautiful feed wall
Feed posts with image previews
Synchronize read status/stars/tags with Google Reader
Easily share articles to Google Buzz, Twitter and Facebook
Auto-update your feeds in background
Keyboard shortcuts support

In addition, if you're a Android user, you can use the FeedSquares app for Android.

View author's tutorial @ http://blog.rocketinbottle.com/2010/05/feedsquares-for-chrome-tutorial.html

Unlock Secured PDF Files Online For Free

2010-12-02T21:33:00.000+08:00

Many PDF files you downloaded from Internet can be secured with restrictions. For instance, copying text from them or editing, printing, merging or splitting them. If you want to use the contents of PDF files, an unlock tool is needed.

PDFUnlock! is such an online tool that can remove these restrictions. However, it is not a crack password tool, you have too enter the passwords of PDF files to open them.

A PDF file can also be subject to non-standard encryption, such as DRM. PDFUnlock! does not remove such.

Use this tool at http://www.pdfunlock.com/ (5MB limited)

Also you may like PDFCrack! (yeah, this tool could crack passwords;) , PDFMerge!, PDFSplit! (split a PDF file into one or more pieces) and PDFProtect! (Add password protection to your PDF files).

If you know some nice PDF tools, please share with me ;)

Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Theme For Windows 7

2010-12-01T22:35:00.001+08:00

Here is a nice Harry Potter movie theme for Windows 7. Although I‘m very disappointed in David Yates, this does not affect my love of Harry Potter, and this Windows 7 theme is very nice.

The Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows [Windows 7 themes] include the 30 + customized desktop wallpapers and icons, and sounds.

Screenshots

Download this theme at http://www.vikitech.com/windows-7-themes?did=63
View more screenshots.

Wulala - Secure Online Storage Backup & Synchronize Files

2010-11-30T21:33:00.000+08:00

Image via CrunchBaseWuala is a free secure online storage which allows its users to securely store, backup, and synchronize files across multi computers and operating systems(Windows, Mac, Linux). Wuala's servers currently in Germany, Switzerland, and France. You can share files easily with friends, groups, and the world. All data encrypted on your computer.

Users start with free 1 GB of storage but can get more by inviting friends to wuala(up to 3GB), trading idle disk space or by buying additional storage. Wuala comes as a client for Windows, Mac, and Linux. Start it, you'll get a network drive named WualaDrive like SDExplorer. If you close it, this drive will disappear.

Main interface of wuala client. Very simple, you can drag the files into it.

You can set the permissions of files or folders: Private, Public and Share. If you choose Share, you will get a public link of your file, then you can share with your friends - with no registration required.

The most special feature of wuala, if you want more storage or be a pro menmber, it's not necessarily to pay for it, you can trade with wuala with your local storage.

Overall, I don't like its client very much, it's a bit complicated compared to Dropbox, and you can't manage documents from its website. But its security should be guaranteed.

Note: 1. Java is needed for installing wuala.

2. Trade local storage need your computer is online for at least 4h/day.

Download wuala

LastPass - A Free & Cross-platform Password Manager And Form Filler

2010-11-29T21:15:00.000+08:00

Image via CrunchBaseLastPass is a freeware password manager and Form Filler that makes your web browsing easier and more secure. It is available as a plugin for Internet Explorer, Firefox, Google Chrome, Safari. And LastPass is now available as an Opera extension. It works on Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and some mobiles.

Passwords in LastPass Password Manager are protected by a master password and are encrypted locally and are synchronized to any browser you use. You can also import passwords from most major password storage vendors such as RoboForm, 1Password, KeePass, Password Safe, MyPasswordSafe, Sxipper, TurboPasswords, and Passpack.

In addition, LastPass offers a premium upgrade which includes native mobile apps (iPhone, iPad, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, Android, WebOS (Palm), Symbian S60), additional multi-factor options and priority support.

Download at https://lastpass.com/misc_download.php

(For Opera 11;)

Castle Vox: A Strategy Game For Windows, Mac & Linux

2010-11-28T21:45:00.001+08:00

Castle Vox is a real-time strategy war game. Cross-platform support Windows, Mac OSX and Linux. Capture all the enemy Castles to win!

It has a lot of maps, each map offers nine levels of difficulty, and you can play against people online (Online modes: relaxed and speed variants). You even can use the built-in Map Editor to create your own maps.

Castle Vox is free to download and play, you can pay for some extra features.

Screenshots

Homepage http://sillysoft.net/vox/
Download http://sillysoft.net/vox/download/(45 MB)

Ubuntu One For Windows Is Available Now

2010-11-27T21:37:00.001+08:00

Ubuntu One is an online storage & sync service (similar to Dropbox) operated by Canonical Ltd. The service allows you to sync files across multiple computers, you can also share files with friends.

It runs on Ubuntu 9.04 and later, a beta version for Windows is available now. Currently there is no client available for Mac. A free Ubuntu One account offers 2 GB of storage, you can pay for more storage. But Ubuntu One Mobile is not free, it offers music streaming apps for iPhone and Android phones. The Mobile package costs $3.99 USD a month ($39.99 one year).

Just like Dropbox, you need to install a client, then start your backup and synchronization. At the same time, you can access your files from web.

Now is the first release of Ubuntu One for Windows, so its features are limited. File sync may take a bit longer compared to the Ubuntu experience and sync is manually.

Join the public beta test of Ubuntu One for Windows at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuOne/Windows .

Ubuntu One Homepage | Tutorial for Windows | Bugs

Note: The Ubuntu One client for Windows requires Windows XP SP3, Vista, or 7 with the Microsoft .NET Framework 4 installed.

Chrome Extension: Jimmy Wales Wikipedia Donation Banner

2010-11-26T23:11:00.001+08:00

If you like the Wikipedia founder - Jimmy Wales' smiling face, this extension could let you see his face everywhere when you browse the Internet.

This extension adds a Wikipedia donation banner to every single web page. Nowadays, up to 80% operating expenses of Wikipedia is of the come from donations.

I don't think this extension could do much help to those guys like to donate, but if you install it on public or your friends' machines, at least, it's a good way to let more people know Wikipedia.

Download this extension at https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/idkjdjficifbfjjkdkiimioljbloddpl
Read the appeal from Jimmy Wales at http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate

5 Online Timers

2010-11-25T22:59:00.000+08:00

Still remember the countdown website: E.gg Timer? Here are another 5 online timers.

1. Timer Stopwatch：http://www.timeme.com/

It's a simple online timer stopwatch with large numbers. You can set its alarm sound.

2. Online-Stopwatch：http://www.online-stopwatch.com/

Many flash online stopwatch and online countdown timer is available at this website when you need it. And you can download the timers from its website.

3. CD：http://cd.justinjc.com/

The function of this site is rather simple, you need to change its address to get the countdown you want. For instance, http://cd.justinjc.com/5m means 5 minutes. No sound prompts.

4. Online Egg Timer：http://www.online-eggtimer.com/

Three timers could be used at the same time from Online Egg Timer.

5. Steep.it：http://steep.it/

Finally, and it's the most special one. Steep.it is made by the E.gg Timer team. It helps you steep tea like Black, Green, Herbal, Oolong, etc. Meanwhile, you can set the time you like.

If you know some other timers, please share with me ;)

Opera 11 Beta With Tab Stacking And More

2010-11-24T14:05:00.000+08:00

Opera has released its latest Opera 11 beta web browser. The beta is loaded with some new features, while others are improvements to existing Opera features like tabs and mouse gestures.

Here are some nice features of Opera 11 beta:

Visual Mouse Gestures

Now Opera has the addition of an interface that guides you. But this function is useless to old users.

Extensions support

Extend Opera with new functionality. Access the extensions at https://addons.labs.opera.com/

A new address field

The new address field hides the complexity of long web addresses and you can click on the badge for the website to see information about the site you are visiting.

Tab stacking

Tab stacking lets you drag one tab over another to create a group. Now, you can keep dozens of webpages open, organized and under control. Watch the video below to find more.

Tab stacking in Opera 11

Download Opera 11 beta for Windows, Mac and Unix @ http://www.opera.com/browser/next/

10+ Incredible Illustrations by Tiago Hoisel

2010-11-23T20:27:00.000+08:00

Tiago Hoisel is a talented illustrator from São Paulo, Brazil.

He has extraordinary skills in drawing and Photoshop, his most works are done with Photoshop. His works are humorous and exaggerated.

Find more @ his blog http://hoisel.zip.net/

Bulkr - Backup, Browse & Download Photos On Flickr

2010-11-22T20:41:00.000+08:00

Bulkr is a free Adobe AIR application (Windows/Mac/Linux) which can be used to backup, browse and download photos on Flickr.

It's simple, fast and intuitive. Once you've installed the application, you can login into your own Flickr account to backup your own photos. Or you can use it to search for photos and then download them in bulkr.

You can browse your Flickr photos, explore others' photos easily in Bulkr. Please note their licenses.

Four kinds of image size you can choose to download, but the original size only available for Pro users.

In short, the free Bulkr version is limited functionality but enough for ordinary users. The free version only allows downloading 50 photos at a time.

Download Bulkr

OpenTTD 1.0.5 Just Released

2010-11-21T16:09:00.000+08:00

Image via WikipediaOpenTTD is an open source simulation game based upon the popular Microprose game "Transport Tycoon Deluxe". It attempts to mimic the original game as closely as possible while extending it with new features. OpenTTD is licensed under the GNU General Public License version 2.0 .

The biggest difference between OpenTTD and the original game is that OpenTTD offers LAN and Internet play via public and worldwide servers for up to 255 players.

OpenTTD runs on Linux, Windows, Mac OS X (unofficial), and some other operating systems such as AmigaOS.

Download | Homepage

Top 10 Cross-Platform BitTorrent Clients

2010-11-20T23:10:00.000+08:00

Here is a list of top 10 free and cross-platform BitTorrent softwares, each of them is popular and worth a try. Apart from BitTorrent and µTorrent, other clients are open source softwares.

1. BitTorrent (Windows, Mac OS X, Linux)

BitTorrent was the first client written for BitTorrent protocol.
BitTorrent, Inc's software client allows you to quickly download high-quality digital content such as video, music, and games. Available in over 20 languages, it leverages our community of over 70 million users to securely deliver files to your PC faster than anything else out there. BitTorrent was written in Python. Since version 6.0 the BitTorrent client has been a rebranded version of µTorrent. And now it is no longer open source.

There's no special description needed for this old BitTorrent client.

2. µTorrent (Windows, Mac OS X, Linux)

µTorrent (or uTorrent) is the second most popular BitTorrent client (after the Chinese Xunlei).

µTorrent is a freeware, closed source BitTorrent client by BitTorrent, Inc. It is available for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. All versions are written in C++. Very tiny, efficient and full-featured.

A variety of skins and languages. At the same time, µTorrent has an App Studio.

3. Vuze (Windows, Mac OS X, Linux)

Vuze (previously Azureus) is a BitTorrent client written in Java, and uses the Azureus Engine. In addition to downloading data linked to by .torrent files, Azureus allows users to view, publish and share original DVD and HD quality video content.

Azureus offers multiple torrent downloads, queuing/priority systems (on torrents and files), start/stop seeding options and instant access to numerous pieces of information about your torrents. Azureus now features an embedded tracker easily set up and ready to use. Azureus also offers a range of plugins.

4. Transmission (Mac OS X, Linux)

Transmission is Ubuntu's default BitTorrent manager. It features a very simple, intuitive interface on top on an efficient, cross-platform back-end.

It has native Mac, GTK+ and Qt GUI clients, and it can be remote controlled by Web and Terminal clients. It supports add-ons.

Simple interface and Low resource usage are its best features.

5. BitTornado (Windows, Mac OS X, Linux)

BitTornado is a bittorrent client built on the original BitTorrent
client from BitTorrent Inc. This client features a console and curses mode, and is one of the original bittorrent clients created. It is programmed using Python, the interface is very simple and even a bit ugly.

But it's rather lightweight and easy to use.

6. Miro (Windows, Mac OS X, Linux)

Miro is an Internet television application, a wonderful video player and torrent downloader. You can search, download, and save videos from YouTube, Google Video, Blip, and more.

The program supports most known video files and offers sound and video, some in HD quality. Miro should be the most special one of these 10 softwares, it is a video player, BitTorrent manage is just one of its function.

It also supports RSS BitTorrent. When a new video is available, the program will notify and download if possible.

7. MLDonkey (Windows, Mac OS X, Linux)

MLDonkey is an open source, multi-protocol, p2p file sharing application that runs as a back-end server application on many platforms. It can be controlled through a user interface provided by one of many separate front-ends, including a Web interface, telnet interface and over a dozen native client programs.

Like Miro, BitTorrent isn't its only function. It supports the following network protocols, either partially or completely:
          o Ed2k
          o Overnet
          o BitTorrent
          o Kad Network
          o Direct Connect
          o HTTP/FTP

8. Deluge (Windows, Mac OS X, Linux)

Deluge is a full-featured, multi-platform, multi-interface BitTorrent client.
Meantime,

Deluge is a lightweight, Free Software, cross-platform BitTorrent client. It aims to be a lightweight, secure, and feature-rich client with Plugin System.

Portable version is available at PortableApps.

9. qBittorrent (Windows, Mac OS X, Linux)

BitTorrent client written in C++ and based on libtorrent-rasterbar with a Qt4
user interface. qBittorrent is a feature rich but lightweight client that is
very similar to uTorrent.

The qBittorrent project aims to provide a Free Software alternative to µtorrent. Additionally, qBittorrent runs and provides the same features on all major platforms (Linux, Mac OS X, Windows, OS/2, FreeBSD).

10. KTorrent (Windows, Linux)

KTorrent is a BitTorrent client written in C++ for KDE using the Qt user interface toolkit. It is maintained in the KDE Extragear.

Obviously, KTorrent supports such basic features
as downloading, uploading and seeding files on the BitTorrent network.
However, lots of other additional features and intuitive GUI should make
KTorrent a good choice for everyone. Some features are available as plugins
hence you should make sure you have the ones you need enabled. It takes very little system resources.

Personally, I'm using Transmission & MLDonkey under Ubuntu, both of them have a low resource usage, especially MLDonkey, if you control it just via web, You can hardly feel its presence. Although µTorrent is not an open-source software, I still like it and hope for the improvement of its Linux client.

TabCloud: Another Way To Sync Chrome Tabs Across Computers

2010-11-19T20:55:00.001+08:00

Not long ago, I wrote a post Use Rocket To Send Chrome Tabs Between Computers. It's about a Chrome extension called TabRocket. With it, you could send Chrome tabs between computers and different OS. TabCloud is another extension could sync Chrome tabs, but it does better than TabRocket.

Download TabRocket https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/npecfdijgoblfcgagoijgmgejmcpnhof

TabCloud allows you to save any window session selectively and restore it at a later date or on another computer.

To use you simply click the TabCloud icon on the menu, you will then see your current open windows and previously saved windows, you can save open windows, or restore saved ones. You can also delete previously saved windows.

First of all, you need to enable the Sync of Chrome to connect to your Google account.

Elephants Dream In 3D

2010-11-18T22:51:00.000+08:00

Elephants Dream is the world’s first open source movie, originally released in 2006, it was made almost completely using the free and open source 3D graphics software - Blender.

It's a story about two main characters are on a journey in the folds of a giant Machine, exploring the twisted and dark complex of wires, gears and cogs. Until one moment a conflict arises that throws out all their assumptions. This movie short couples lively fun with passionate characters in an epic story line.

Here is the 3D version I found at YouTube. You could watch and download the 2D version from my previous post <Another Two Open Source Films By Blender Foundation>.

Visit the homepage of Elephants Dream @ http://www.elephantsdream.org

FindIcons - Largest Icon Search Engine & Icon Converter

2010-11-17T22:41:00.000+08:00

A visitor suggested FindIcons.com at my previous article <10 Free Icon Websites>. After visited FindIcons, I found that it's the Largest icon search engine I have ever used just the same as it says.

Not only have a large number of free icons, FindIcons also provides a icon converter, it could convert your icon to: ICO, ICNS, JPG, PSD, BMP, TIF, EPS, GIF, SVG, TGA.

But in general, the function of this converter is poorer than iConvert. It should not support to output the PNG format.

You can visit this converter @ http://findicons.com/convert

E.gg Timer – A Cool Countdown Web site

2010-11-16T22:32:00.001+08:00

E.gg Timer is a Web site provides countdown.

Sometimes, the role of count down timer is usefulness, especially for reminding a few seconds to a few minutes for those hardcore computer users. They may forget the day and the time. E.gg Timer uses Flash and JavaScript to implement the countdown function.

Visit @ E.gg Timer, enter the time you want, then click "Go" to start the timer. Now you will see the timer like the above image. Once the time came, It will prompt you with the sound. Of course, you can't close your web browser ;)

Example usage:

Special Timers:

Amazing 3D Pencil Sketch by Fredo

2010-11-15T21:39:00.001+08:00

Fredo, a young Chilean painter, his drawings are really awesome. Here is a collection of pencil sketch work. Each one is astonishing and just like a 3D three-dimensional painting.

Find more at DeviantART and his blog.

Adventure Game - Ginkgo

2010-11-14T20:58:00.002+08:00

Ginkgo is a 2.5D platformer in which you play as a furry bouncing creature named Ginkgo （a bit like a rat）, who needs to restore its forest world from decay. This was developed by a five member team using the UDK engine.

Screenshots

Control
Left Mouse Button OR Spacebar - Kickbounce
"A", "D" and "S" - Movement
"P" - Pause
MINIMUM System Requirements
Operating System: Windows XP SP2 or Windows Vista
Processor: 2.0 + GHz processor
Memory: 2 GB system RAM
Video: SM3-compatible video card
Hard Disk Space: 500 MB free hard drive space

Download (286MB) | Homepage

Indie Games By Zack Banack: Time Still I & II

2010-11-13T21:06:00.000+08:00

TimeStill is a puzzle platform game by Zack Banack, a teenager from United States who has made a bunch of freeware games, you can find him at his own site, GameJolt and YoYoGames.

The goal of this game is to collect all the shiny points while dodging obstacles. The controls are very simple, Arrow keys to move and Z to freeze time. You can stop time in its tracks while jumping, dodging, freezing, warping, and altering the world around you, then take those obstacles to your advantage. All 24 levels, you can pass a level once all the points collected.

Download (2.5MB)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TimeStill II is a continuation of TimeStill with over 30 new levels of puzzles. And
there is some features achievements and a special game mode.

Download (7.8MB)

Happy Birthday To MPlayer!

2010-11-12T21:36:00.000+08:00

Image via Wikipedia
2010.11.11, MPlayer is ten years old now!

MPlayer is a free and open source media player. It was originally called "MPlayer - The Movie Player for Linux". As it is available for all major operating systems including Linux, Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X, so later, developers are later shortened to "MPlayer - The Movie Player".

The MPlayer project was started because Arpi (the original author) was unable to find any satisfactory video players for Linux. The development was began in 2000, and the first MPlayer version is v0.01: http://www1.mplayerhq.hu/MPlayer/old_stuff/releases/MPlayer-0.01.tar.gz Already ten years, mplayer now is definitely a great media player!

If you have never used Mplayer, just download it!

Find out more at Wikipedia and http://www.mplayerhq.hu/ .

An Anti-Frustration Software - Soluto

2010-11-11T23:34:00.000+08:00

You will find that your Windows system become more and more slowly after a few months after use, this may be caused by a variety of causes like too much junk files and startup apps, virus, disk fragmentation, etc.

For the proficient users who have access to computers for a long time, they must have some measures in response, but there is still a lot of newbies to PCs, they may get a deeply frustrating experience.

Soluto is such a simple-to-use software can convince the millions of frustrated PC users to use their software. It allows you to understand your boot, discover which applications are slowing it down, then it will give you a solution to speed up your system boot! ( Soluto is the winner of 2010 TechCruch Disrupt. )

Now let me make a brief introduction to it.

First is the installation.

.NET Framework & Internet connection are needed. Then a you need to reboot your computer to let Soluto work.

Main window of Soluto, very simple and it looks very comfortable. You can know the boot time of your computer and start up apps.

Three types of start up apps

No-brainer - remove from boot
Potentially removable
Can't remove with Soluto yet

Every start up app has an introduction including the impact time on boot time. You can pause it or delay it (start until the boot is finished) to speed up.

The advanced introduction interface.

Right now, the function of Soluto is rather simple as it is just in beta. Boot is the first step for Soluto.

Note: As Soluto is still in beta, the user is very small, so now most of the third-party programs are still not too specific description.

At last, you can watch the official How-to.

Homepage | Download

Bring VirusTotal To Firefox & Chrome

2010-11-10T22:48:00.001+08:00

Image via WikipediaVirusTotal is a service that analyzes suspicious files and URLs and facilitates the quick detection of viruses, worms, trojans, and all kinds of malware detected by antivirus engines.

As I have introduced in my previous post <5 Free Online Antivirus Scanners> , so I will not detail it again. A few days ago, a new Chrome extension called VTchromizer appeared, you can right-click on any link and scan the target with VirusTotal.

At the same time, if you're a Firefox user, an add-on called VTzilla(a toolbar) is waiting for you ;)

Downloads | VTchromizer VTzilla

Let Canonical Tell You What Is Ubuntu

2010-11-09T21:00:00.001+08:00

Ubuntu is definitely nowadays's most popular Linux distribution. You could get about 63,000,000 results from Google, to be sure, this number will be larger. And I don't think you can find out another distribution that has so many results via Google.

Although some Linux users do not like it. For some reasons like Ubuntu is just based on the Debian GNU/Linux, its contribution on Linux and open source community is not large or something else.

As a ordinary user, Ubuntu has given me a good user experience, I think this distribution is doing very well just like the Ubuntu philosophy says. So I'll always do something to promote it.

This is a video is produced to be looped telling people in a fun way what Ubuntu is. It is made by Canonical Design.

FastStone Image Viewer

2010-11-08T20:13:00.000+08:00

FastStone Image Viewer is a fast, tiny image browser, converter and editor that supports all major graphic formats like BMP, JPEG, GIF, PNG and ICO. It has a nice array of features such as image viewing, management, comparison, red-eye removal, watermarks, resizing, cropping, color adjustments, musical slideshow and more.

Some nice features

It's simple, it takes very little system resources.
Draw texts, lines, highlights, rectangles, ovals and annotations on images
Slideshow creation with 150+ transitional effects and music support
Image EXIF metadata support plus comment editing for JPEG
Batch convert and rename support.
Image special effects: watermark, annotation, drop shadow, framing, bump map, lens, morph, waves
Multi-language support

If you want to find a lightweight and full-featured image viewer, FastStone Image Viewer is definitely a good choice. I think the only weak point is its interface looks a bit confusing and not very attractive, but you will find out that the default design is useful soon.

Homepage | Download (version 4.2) Portable | Tutorial (pdf)

PixEvo - The Fountain: Just For Killing Time

2010-11-07T22:52:00.001+08:00

PixEvo -- The Fountain is a flash game. At first, you're a tiny pixel, you can't walk, only can jump from place to place. There are a lot of dots full of the screen. The only thing you need to do is eating these dots. Then you can get bigger, get legs (then you can walk) and jump farther!

No time limited, you won't die, but perfect jumps are needed to collect the dots. This game is frustratingly hard, some parts are annoyingly hard as once you miss one jump, you have to go back up there again. Just a kill time game, have a nice weekend ;)

How to play.

WASD & Arrow keys to control

Enter to open gate

Space to fire

Start the game!

Tricky Truck - Lorry Game

2010-11-06T22:15:00.000+08:00

Tricky Truck is a nice physics-based freeware game that lets your practice parking skills with a long truck. You even can make your own levels and share them with other players.

Several modes you can choose, in difficult mode, you can only view from inside the cabin and through the mirrors.

How to play.

Arrows keys to control the truck, space to brake.
Turn the camera with ADWS, zoom in and out with E Q.
Switch to fixed angle camera with F8.

To figure out more, watch the preview below.

Homepage | Download

Converts And Creates Windows, Mac and Linux Icons In One Step By iConvert

2010-11-05T21:34:00.001+08:00

iConvert is a website which provides the service to convert and create icons easily. When you want to get a icon (256x256 | 128x128 | 48x48 | 32x32 | 16x16) from your picture, iConvert could give you a help.

This is iConvert's screenshot. What you need to do is choose the icon or image directory, then click the "Convert" button, that's all.

Supported formats.

Options you could set before convert icons.

The conversion could be finished very quickly, you can download a list of Windows, Mac, Linux icons and favicon icons. Especially the PNG Image (256x256 | 128x128 | 48x48 | 32x32 | 16x16), you have a great choice space.

In addition, you can get a lot of elegant icons from iConvert ;)

http://iconverticons.com/

Comodo System Cleaner

2010-11-04T21:17:00.000+08:00

Image via WikipediaIf you have paid some attention to To Be Free ! , Comodo should be a familiar name to you, I introduced several Comodo products before. The software company's main products are security software category, best known for its firewall, but it also provides some other nice free softwares.

The software today to introduced is also from Comodo - Comodo System Cleaner. It is a suite of utilities and tools that allow you to make your computer faster, more efficient and more secure.
Now let's take a look at its functions!

Below is Comodo System Cleaner's main window, its user interface makes it easy to accomplish common tasks while providing guidance and information, all in a modern looking presentation.

Simple & nice Interface

A special feature you can see is "Active Clean". Its a feature that will let you handle more important things, bringing your computer to speed without intervention.

Then is the settings, very easy to deal with it even you don't have depth knowledge.

Settings

Certainly, Cleaners are the most important part .

Cleaners

Comodo System Cleaner collects three free and useful cleaning utilities: Registry Cleaner, Disk Cleaner, and Privacy Cleaner that includes our unique feature: SafeDelete™. Running these utilities will rid your computer of duplicate, harmful, unnecessary files to to free up disk space and improve system performance.

Summary: With this app, you could clean your system easily, it doesn't require any advanced knowledge. After my test, I found there is a bad feeling that each cleaner has its own restore and backup component, it makes me confused.

Honestly speaking, it really is a very good software. But as a CCleaner user for several years, I still like CCleaner better, its more simple to use and lightweight.

Homepage | Download

Convert Any Web Page To PDF

2010-11-03T22:58:00.000+08:00

I have been using Web2PDF to convert the web page I like to PDF for some time, but it's not friendly to me. Actually, it can't handle some Chinese encodings.

But now I have found a better Converter - PDFMYURL.

How to use it?

Visit http://pdfmyurl.com/

Enter the page URL which you want to convert PDF, that's all ;)

Firefox and Chrome users could find its add-on and extension.

Firefox: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/197365/

Chrome: https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/dbggjianealcbimnmaellhccgjkjoelm?hl=en

For other browsers, you could bookmark the code below, and when you need to convert a page, just click the bookmark.

javascript:pdf_url=location.href;location.href='http://pdfmyurl.com?url='+escape(pdf_url)

A Free & Cross-Platform Image Viewer - XnViewMP

2010-11-02T11:35:00.000+08:00

You may have heard or used the famous image viewer and converter - XnView before, it is a cross-platform image viewer used for viewing, converting, organising and editing graphical & video files. Today I'll introduce XnView's new version - XnViewMP.

XnViewMP (XnView Multi Platform) will eventually replace all other versions of XnView (*nix and Mac OS X and Windows) using the same source code for all platforms and is intended to have a unified look and feel. It will have native unicode support and be able to load full bit depth pictures, easier handling of native language support (text based files) and a better database.

A special point of XnViewMP is multi-tabbed browsing, each image will be open to different tabs, like the browser to open multiple tab pages. XnViewMP has many features and tips and it's highly customisable and multi-lingual. This free software provides a number of helpful tools like the standard tools for rotating images and renaming files in bulk, it also can convert pics among a wide variety of formats.

XnViewMP 0.26 on Ubuntu

Generally speaking, XnViewMP is very powerful, but its size is a little big to the ones who like lightweight apps.

Homepage | Downloads

Google Web Clipboard Extension For Chrome

2010-11-01T19:58:00.000+08:00

Image via Wikipedia
Web Clipboard is a new Google's official Chrome extension. It uses the Google Docs feature to bring a synced clipboard to Chrome, so you can access all your data directly in Google Apps.

This extension allows you to copy and paste text and images (store text and HTML content) online -- even if you’re going from one window to another. Once you’ve intalled the extension, it will work on every new page opened (or refreshed).

Clicking on the extension's icon will list all the items currently stored in the clipboard.

It's easy to use, to copy something, first select it on the page, then click on the icon and select "Copy selection to web clipboard". To paste an item, select the field to the content to on your webpage, click on the icon and select the item.

Some known Issues:

Once the extension is installed, it will only work on newly opened pages (or you can refresh the page)

The extension does not work with pages containing frames.

Gmail is not supported.

As it is an official Google extension, I think the bugs will be fixed quickly.
Download: https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/idonmcopbgceobhkdbikbdellmdogkih?hl=en-US
Note: Content you copy to the server clipboard is stored on Google's servers and remains there until 30 days have passed since you last action.

Steel Storm - A TPS Game For Windows, Mac and LInux

2010-10-31T17:34:00.000+08:00

Steel Storm is an old school TPS game with score oriented competitive gameplay, and is designed for people who like fast paced action and have limited amounts of time to play computer games.

The events take place in an alternative universe where you control an advanced hovertank, packed with the most advanced and sophisticated weapons. Your task is simple, but, nevertheless, is not trivial. In the fight with presumed extraterrestrial invaders, you must prevail! (via game's page)

The beautiful graphics, the background music is also good, and it's simple to get start, just use WASD keys and mouse to complete control. In a word, it is a nice game for killing time.

At the moment the developers have released episode I as a free title and the episode II as a commercial product.

In addition, I found a Steel Storm in FPS mode video on YouTube, maybe the gameplay could be change into FPS in the future;)

Downloads | (About 300MB) Linux users just extract the downloaded package and click on either the 32-bit or 64-bit executable depending on platform and away you go.

Open Sonic ：Open Source Sonic Game

2010-10-30T21:12:00.001+08:00

Open Sonic is an open-source & non-profit fan-game based on the popular "Sonic the Hedgehog" universe. It introduces a different style of gameplay called cooperative play, in which it's possible to control 3 characters simultaneously.
It works on Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. The latest release is 0.1.4 (September 19th, 2010).

Screenshots

Main features:

It's portable! No installation is required!
Available in 9 languages: English, Portuguese, French, Polish, German, Czech, Dutch, Indonesian, Italian
2 levels + innovative items + extras + create your own levels using the built-in level editor + find more level at community
You can make your own custom items, enemies and bosses using our object scripting system
Good performance even on old computers*

Watch the demo.

Downloads | Homepage

Back In Time: A Simple Backup Tool For Linux (GNOME & KDE4)

2010-10-29T21:19:00.000+08:00

Image via Wikipedia
Back In Time is a simple backup tool for Linux. The backup is done by taking snapshots of a specified set of directories and you only need to specify 3 things: where to save snapshots, what to backup and backup frequency.

It's creating multiple snapshots with only one stuff, so it saves a lot of hard disk space for you. At the same time, you could customize its auto-remove option. Back in time's restore function is also easy to use - choose a snapshot & choose folders from it, then hit "Restore", that's all ;)

Homepage | Downloads (It was included into Fedora repositories.)

For Ubuntu users, run the commands below in your terminal.
sudo apt-add-repository ppa:bit-team/stable
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install backintime-common backintime-gnome

Or visit Launchpad to get a deb package: https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/backintime

The Best File Unlock Software - Unlocker

2010-10-28T14:05:00.000+08:00

You may often have such an annoying message given by Windows like: Cannot delete file: Access is denied.

Generally speaking, it is caused by the source or destination file may be in use or the file is in use by another program. If you meet these, Unlocker is the best solution. Unlocker is an Explorer extension that allows you with a simple right-click of the mouse on a file or folder to get rid of error messages. It's a fast, simple-to-use and reliable app for processing stubborn files.

How to use it?
1. Simply right click the folder or file and select Unlocker

2. If the folder or file is locked, a window listing of lockers will appear

3. Simply click Unlock All and you are done!

Homepage | Downloads 1.9.0 (32bit 64bit Protable )

Note: I have used this software for several years, it definitely is a reliable utility, but some antivirus Software may treat it as spyware. Please feel at ease using it!

How To: Convert PDF To Word (doc) Easily

2010-10-27T19:30:00.000+08:00

When you need to re-use a PDF document, it's a very efficient way to convert it to an editable DOC file. Here is a free solution to this.

PDFtoWord is an online PDF-to-Word Converter. This free tool is owned by Nitro PDF Software. It's easy to use, first visit http://www.pdftoword.com/, then you can get the converted file after finishing the 3 steps - choose you PDF file, choose a file format, write down your email address to receive the file.

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