Neat Free Software?

[BillyP]

Since there is a lot of free software out there and we are somewhat used as guinea pigs, I thought it would neat if we shared some of the good stuff. You know, the kind that does what it says it will.

NoteHolder Lite 1.30--If you're looking for a program to keep notes and reminders, this is it. It's a simple program that actually works. You can set the time, date and how often you want a reminder to appear. If you need to make a quick note, just move your mouse over this little bar and it pops up. It doesn't clutter up your desktop.

ieSpell--This program has been out for a long time and a lot of us have been using it. It's a spell checker add-on for IE. It works great.

Google Toolbar--If you use Google as your search engine, this is a must. It adds a search bar to your browser and comes with a popup blocker.

I use these programs with Windows XP and have had 0 problems.

 

[OkeeDon]

Ah, free software -- it can be terrible, but it's often great. I second your nomination of ieSpell.

But, let's go heavy duty. I've been buying Microsoft Office in various releases for years. It wasn't too bad when I had just one computer. But, now we're up to 3, and it's not only illegal to copy software onto different computers, it's also getting harder to do. /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif I simply refuse to pay for 3 copies when we're only using one at a time.

So, I downloaded Open Office. The basic Open Office package includes Writer, which will open and save in MS Word format; Calc, which will do the same for Excel files; Impress, which handles Power Point files; Draw, which is a sophisticated drawing program; and Data Base handlers, which provide links to many different types of data bases. It's all published under the Gnu Public License, and is totally free to download. I've been using it for a couple of weeks, and I'm impressed. I haven't gotten into the drawing part, yet, and I still haven't tackled the data base stuff in full, but the Writer, Calc and Impress programs quickly became my favorites. Find it at openoffice.org, but you should probably have broadband to consider downloading it.

I have also downloaded MySQL, an open source (and free) data base program, but haven't fully set it up, yet.

My favorite place for looking for free stuff, especially for web development is SourceForge, which is seriously supporting open source software development. Among other things, that's where I got PHPgallery, which I use on my home site. They are also where you can find phpMysqlAdmin, the best way to administer MySQL databases on the web, and a whole lot more.

On the lighter side, go to Chimer page and scroll until you see "Chimer", then download it. It's a simple clock program that has several different clock faces for your desktop, and lets you set several different chimes to signal the time. I have it set for Big Ben, and get a "dong" at the quarter hours, and the full BBC chime on the hour.

 

[MossRoad]

Astronomy: Starcalc
http://www.m31.spb.ru/StarCalc/main.htm

Freeware that plots the night sky anywhere in the world for any time of day for any year. Great software if you are planning an evening of star gazing. Just punch in the coordinates of where you are going to be at any given time and it will show what objects will be in the sky at that time and place. Wonderful for Scouting, camping, hiking, etc...

 

[RanchMan]

<font color="green"> 602Software PC Suite - </font> For those who don't want to buy MS Office but have a need to read/create Word/Excel docs, this is great product. It is FREE for home users only. If you want to use it for your business, you gotta pay up the $60.

It works really well and I've never had a translation error. Doesn't have a Powerpoint or Access component to it, but does offer photo editing/viewing software. Heck of a program for free.

Download.com web site (reviews & download)

Product Web Page

WARNING!!! BIG! (21.5 MB) This will take you some time to DL depending on your connection speed.

 

[BXMMCC]

Do you have a pointer to Noteholder lite?

 

[BillyP]

Here you go

 

[heehaw]

Privacy Keeper; free software that cleans your tracks every time you turn off the internet exployer..supposedly, it cleans it so well, the fbi couldn't track your surfing from your hard drive; then moffsoft has a great calculator thats free, and an even better one that cost $20...the free one has a "tape" on the screen, just like calculators have and you can print the tape when your thru with your calculations. both of these came from the tech show, call for help..
heehaw

 

[slowrev]

The FBI, etc tracks your internet traffic by monitoring ALL internet traffic. Wiping the browsing history off of your computer will not help if you are doing something illegal /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[RanchMan]

Privacy Keeper

 

[slowzuki]

Maybe if they have you in suspicion, they may monitor your internet traffic. There is no possible way to monitor all internet traffic as in keeping a record of it. They would be buying all the worlds supply of storage media /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( The FBI, etc tracks your internet traffic by monitoring ALL internet traffic. Wiping the browsing history off of your computer will not help if you are doing something illegal /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
)</font>