BitClamp offers up a simple solution to keep your data safe. The application is very easy to use: just drag and drop the files you want to encrypt onto the BitClamp window. You have four encryption methods to choose from and can create covert files by hiding them under different names and file extensions.
Month: December 2007
Recover files accidentally deleted from your PC
Recuva is a freeware utility that can help you to recover files and folders you’ve accidentally deleted from your PC. Featuring many of the capabilities normally found in costly file recovery applications, Recuva (yes, it’s pronounced ‘Recover’!) searches the ‘free space’ on your disk drive and analyses whether the file which was once stored there is still restorable. It even works with thumbdrives and MP3 players.
Top 10 Christmas PC games
Wowee, it’s nearly Christmas!! Great news indeed, but there are some downsides to this time of year, mainly owing to the fact that it’s impossible to go out without a) getting cold and b) getting caught up in the seasonal shopping tsunami. Don’t worry, because I’ve devised a plan to let you enjoy the build-up to the big day from the comfort of your home. Put on Bing Crosby, pour yourself a sherry, and get ready for some Christmas gaming merriment.
- Loco Christmas Edition – Load up Santa’s fleet of trains (?) with presents
- Santa Claus Save the Christmas – Can old Beardy find the presents?
- Chicken Invaders II Christmas Edition – Suspect fowl play in this one
- Christmas Sudoku – Yuletide puzzler for intellectual festive fun
- Elf Bowling 7: The Last Insult – Latest version of the classic elf-skittling game
- Santa Claus in trouble…again – He’s only gone and lost all the presents. Fool
- Snowboard Santa – Gift-delivery action with a cool twist
- Santa Ride! – Guess what? He lost the presents again. Easy on the sherry Pops
- Snowball Scramble – Bring seasonal cheer to your kin by pelting them with ice
Top 5 DivX tools
DivX has become one of the most successful compressed DVD formats on the net. It became so successful that even DVD-player manufacturers had to take note and build models that could play the format. Now the PS3 and Xbox 360 have jumped on the bandwagon to support it as its popularity shows no signs of abating. There are many tools out there that can help you get the most out of DivX films including editors, converters and subtitlers. Here is a selection of my top 5 essential downloads for anyone who wants to get more out of DivX.
- DivX For Windows – Essential DivX studio from the official makers of the format
- VSO ConvertXtoDVD – One of the best DivX converters out there
- VLC Media Player – Plays DivX effortlessly and just about everything else too
- DivX Web Player – You’ll need this to watch streaming DivX films on the web
- DivX Subtitle Displayer – Having problems viewing DivX subtitles? Try this
Crossloop reveals new look and profile features
As I wrote a while back, Crossloop is my favourite desktop sharing application. It’s enabled me to help my parents on several occasions fix problems on their PC even though I’m in another country. The good news is they’ve just made Crossloop even better with a professional new look and most importantly, personal account features which enable others to see how helpful you are and even allow you to advertise your own PC help services.
Creating an account is free and once this is done, you have a dynamic public profile page which you can update and others can rate. You can also view other things like your log-on history, time spent connected to Crossloop, users you have helped etc. The profile also allows you to tell others what aspects of software or PCs that you are particularly well versed in. You’re also given some code to place a Crossloop badge on your website indicating your latest rating. Fore more info, check the excellent tutorial below:
[youtube]WjZwYVRfkEY[/youtube]
Flickr launches online photo editing
Photo site Flickr has teamed up with online editing site Picnik to add some really cool functionality to your Flickr account. From now on, you can easily perform simple edits on any photo in your account, just by clicking a new ‘Edit’ button that has appeared on single image view mode. The editing features, familiar to anyone who has already played around with Picnik, are fairly basic like adjusting colour temperature, contrast, cropping, resizing and so on. But there is also a premium mode which allows for more artistic range of effects and frames which unfortunately is only available to Picnik premium members (not Flickr Pro account holders).
For those who haven’t tried Picnik before, it’s really a joy to use. Responsive, quick, effective and packed with tips and advice, it was probably already the best of the free online photo editors before teaming up with Flickr. The best comparison I can think of is the controls in Picasa for Windows or iPhoto on Mac: simple and intuitive. If you’ve got a Flickr account, go and check out the new features now. If you haven’t, go and create one!
New Limewire to get a browser
It’s already widely known that everyone’s favorite peer to peer (P2P) application for PC and Mac, Limewire, is soon going to offer an online store, where you’ll be able to buy and download songs and albums in MP3 format at a selected fee. Here’s the press release in case you missed the story back in August. Initially the site was supposed to Beta in fall and be up for the holidays but it seems the project has been somewhat delayed.
The good news is that Limewire is very likely to be fitted with a browser (which you can test out in the latest Beta released yesterday), as we can read on the latest post by the developers. As they explain, the idea has been around for a while, and right now the real challenge is choosing what browser to integrate to the Limewire client, the purpose being the following,
With the launch of the LimeWire Store, we wanted to be able to search the Store through the LimeWire client and the easiest way to achieve this was to integrate a web browser into the client.
Initially the idea was to use a Java Desktop Integration Component (JDIC) browser, but unfortunately Sun, the developer of the browser, seems to have let go of the project since August 2006. The Limewire team have weighed up the solutions and found IBM’s Eclipse to work out best. It does get more technical, so I’ll spare you the details, except to say that the Limewire team worked on building a browser in SWT (used to make Eclipse) which could be embedded in the Swing built Limewire client.
The question now is: Will fitting Limewire with a browser kill what is a simple and easy to use P2P client, by considerably increasing its memory usage and bloating it with features? Or will both the browser and the online store prove to be a real asset to the Limewire resource?
[Via: P2P Blog]
Organize all your files with Together
Together is an application that will store anything, be it document, video, image or even bookmarks. The program lets you save these items in multiple ways, whether in groups, with labels, by creating smart lists or even adding notes. Together integrates Spotlight search and can display links in an embedded browser.
Play Reversi on your mobile
I’ve always thought of Reversi (or Othello as it’s sometimes known) as a poor man’s version of chess. Having played the highly addictive CEZebra though, I’m starting to warm to it. Don’t worry if you’re new to it like me, because there’s a helpful practice mode. You’ll need it too, as the computer opponent is very, very tough.
Software to test the stability of your PC
If you’re having problems with the stability of your PC – i.e. you’re experiencing regular crashes, slow downs or hang-ups, then there are a number of tools you can run to test your system. These tests usually involve putting your main components such as CPU, RAM and hard drive under intense pressure and then recording the results. If there is something wrong with any of these major components, it could well be the source of your problem.
Hot CPU Tester Pro focuses on that most important part of your PC – your processor. Every single action your PC performs goes through it and the faster it is, the quicker your system should be. This program tests not only the CPU, but also the Motherboard and other related chipsets.
Meanwhile Passmark BurnIn Test goes even further in testing just about everything from DVD and CD drives to soundcards and video playback. It can even test your USB ports to see if they are functioning correctly which is a big bonus because I find that Windows invariably starts having problems with them over time.
If you just want something very simple that can benchmark your system i.e. take a snapshot of it at any given time, then CrystalMark does the job quickly and displays the results in an easy to read format.