To continue the theme…Drive Manager is another computer tool. This program gets you detailed info about your drives, HDD or optical, even USB.
It tells you the size/format/name/volume number/read write speeds, and even better, SMART info, system flags, and analyze disks. An interesting but I doubt very secure form of privacy is also included, letting you hide drives so they don’t show up in Explorer. Its a nifty little thing, which is relatively useful, but not something you would go out looking for.
Check it out, save it for just the right time to shave off a few minutes of looking for the data: Drive Manager
By Brian
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I would like to assume that the name of this program is quite self-explanatory, but…let’s elaborate.
WhoCrashed is a program for Windows that analyzes crash dumps and tells you what drivers were responsible for crashing your computer. Granted, its not a fool-proof app, there are times when its wrong, but it has been quite useful troubleshooting computer crashes, especially ones that aren’t giving you a google-able error code that actually gets you results.
Check it out, WhoCrashed?
No…not what your probably thinking.
Instead, synergy allows you to use a keyboard and a mouse to control several computers. What this lets you do on a network is use 3 or 4 computers, as a 3 or 4 monitor setup.
To make it better, a clipboard is shared across them.
You install the server software on the main computer that has the keyboard and mouse, and client software on the others. What is quite nice and lets everyone have the fun, is that you can use Macs in this wonderful array too.
Check it out, Synergy
So you know how to go to the folders in the user folder which serves as the way XP or Vista stores your start menu organization.
Theres an easier way to organize though, instead of moving folders, individually cutting and pasting them into new folders. Theres Winstep Organize which is simple and free. You can get a pro version which lets you create categories, but really, that you can do pretty simply through windows.
Check it out, people who would like a more tidy start menu but don’t want to go into the folders and manually do it will find this pretty useful. Winstep Start Menu Organizer
I’ve found 2 new apps that should help with those who have a handful of computers to admin, mainly at a home network type, or a very small business.
Advanced IP Scanner finds and then lets you control computers on your network. Mainly useful for remote shutdown and LAN-on machines, easy ftp/ssh, etc. Granted, if you have a home network set with reserved IP’s, its kind of useless, but it does make connecting to computers a simple matter of finding it on the list and clicking on it. Best of all, its free for windows.
Check it out, Advanced IP Scanner
SoftPerfect has a nice portable network scanner. It’s small (<1 mb) but can scan the network quite quickly. It provides a list of shared folders that you can easily map as a drive, the usual Lan-wake, restart, but also provides mac addresses, but the best part?
It lets you launch applications through the network. Of course its freeware, and sadly, windows only.
Check it out, Softperfect Network Scanner
Here is a nifty program for the mac users out there.
I know, we neglect you guys here, but really, I don’t have a mac, although I would like to run a virtual mac on my desktop (Currently trying to figure out how to do that)
This is one program that makes me want a mac…other than final cut of course.
CSSEdit is a…*gasp* CSS editor. It does things differently than other CSS editors though, which are essentially a pretty notepad that helps you code, and maybe show you a preview. Instead, CSSEdit allows realtime stylesheet changes on a preview page. You can manipulate the code and see the changes happen, or you can do it the other way around, move around elements, change them in the preview, and watch as your css code changes with it.
Of course, it also has W3C validation 
Its one of the things I really wish Dreamweaver could do, but alas, this program is Mac only, and they plan on *keeping* it mac only.
If anyone has alternatives for windows, please tell us!
Check it out, CSSEdit
Our sincerest apologies to our sudden disappearance. We ran into some real life issues that needed to be solved.
And so, without further ado, introducing Celemony.
Celemony is a program/company which has made something truly revolutionary for musicians and dabblers in music editing.
Celemony’s suite called Melodyne has algorithms which allow a user to individually edit each note within a chord. This is the applicable to chorus recordings, piano, essentially all instruments. You can shift an individual note out of the chord, move it out completely, change a chords key, etc. With a suitable library, you could concivably make a recording based solely on previous recordings.
Check it out, Celemony
You know, sometimes the weather report is just too much. You really don’t need to know that theres a 39.8% chance of rain with a standard deviation of 2, that the relative humidity is going to be 60%, and that, in the next hour, its going to change by 3 percent.
Instead…umbrella today? tells you a very simple thing. Do you need an umbrella today?
It can even send you text messages on the days you need an umbrella (kind of unnecessary).
Kind of useless, but heh, on some days, you just don’t want to mess around.
Check it out: Umbrellatoday.com
Now, we are all crazy about chrome, but theres one main thing I won’t like about chrome until its implemented, and thats extensions. Speaking of which….
Firefox extension: Ubiquity. Its an extension that is like launchy for firefox, so that commands can be typed with a few letters instead of clicks or searching. Check out some of the commands on their site, Ubiquitous Interfaces
Yes, Google has recently released the beta of its new browser Chrome. It has been designed from the ground up for web applications with a focus on security and performance. Some of the features include a UI with tabs on top, an integrated privacy mode, and a task manager that can monitor and restrict individual tabs and plugins like processes. For more information take a look at the comic book Google produced to explain every aspect of Chrome. I have been using the browser since yesterday, and it does seem to be faster than firefox especially when loading a whole bunch of tabs at the same time. Being that it is still in beta, Chrome is not without some issues. There are reports of some security flaws, even though Chrome is supposed to be more secure than other browsers. I experienced some problem with the controls in flash videos, but this was easily fixed putting the tab in its own window. Chrome still has a lot less features than Firefox, most significant being its lack of extensions. This is something Google is working on, and will perhaps be included in the final release. Even though it will not yet replace firefox, Chrome is a good, albeit minimalistic alternative.
