Gadgets and Gizmos World

(And maybe you can’t too after you try them)

There’s a lot of applications in this world wide web we love, some are free, some are not so free; some are expensive, some are even ridiculously expensive. But, my friend, price is definitely not a guarantee of the quality of an application. Hi price tag application doesn’t guarantee its usefulness, and fortunately for us, more than often a free application is even more useful than its pricy counterpart. Thanks e-God

From many free applications, I’ve tried and utilized, at last I can make a list of applications that I can’t imagine working with my PC without it. Here the list of ten free very useful applications that I want to share with you (in no particular order):

1. WordWeb - http://wordweb.info/free/
If you write and read a lot like me, you’ll need a handy and dependable dictionary. WordWeb is an English dictionary that is not just complete and very fast but also very lightweight; almost has no track in my computer system resource. To see a definition of a word, simply highlight the word (from any application) then double click WordWeb that is reside in the tray icon, and then the WordWeb interface will pop up along with the word definition, synonym, antonym and some usage examples. If the word you ask is not found in its database, then it will automatically open your web browser, already pointed to some well-known online dictionary. Very impressive.
WordWeb database is actually WordNet database by Princeton University.

2. RoboForm and RoboForm2Go - http://www.roboform.com/
I’m a member of many forums and sites. For security reason I always use different passwords for every sites I’ve registered. I also try not to use my keyboard to type my usernames and passwords. This is where RoboForm comes in handy. It will automatically fill any login forms that you have set. It also protects you from phising attempt. So RoboForm has at least two practicality: to save you some typing (simplify your life) and to protect you from keylogger and phising attempt (security protection). The free version is only good for 10 logins, but I guess it’s enough for most people.

3. SpyBot Search and Destroy - http://www.spybot.info/
If you’re tired with all the spyware, adware, malware, trojan, or whatever the name of those evil things that are plaguing the internet (and your PC), then this application is a must. It simply searches all that junks and destroys it. It is able to immunize Internet Explorer from evil web sites, see the active processes, see what applications will run at Windows startup (and disable it if you wish), and many more. It’s worth a try.

4. AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition and AVG Anti-Rootkit Free Edition -
http://www.grisoft.com/doc/download-free-anti-virus/us/crp/0
http://www.grisoft.com/doc/download-free-anti-rootkit/us/crp/0
Don’t let your PC unprotected without any antivirus whenever you can get an excellent antivirus freely from the net.

5. Wisdomsoft ScreenHunter - http://wisdom-soft.com
This is a decent screen capture application. It can capture your screen picture to clipboard or directly save it to jpg format. It can capture your active window screen or capture a part of your screen (your choice, you

6. 7-Zip - http://www.7-zip.org/
7-Zip is a compression and decompression application, just like WinRar or WinZip, the different is it’s totally free. It also has its own format (.7z). As long as I know, 7z format has the best compression to-date, compared to zip or even rar format.
Supported formats:
Packing/unpacking: 7z, ZIP, GZIP, BZIP2 and TAR
Unpacking only: RAR, CAB, ISO, ARJ, LZH, CHM, Z, CPIO, RPM, DEB and NSIS

7. Auto Patcher - http://www.autopatcher.com/
Auto Patcher, just like its name, is a patching application for MS Windows. As we all know, MS Windows has zillion of bugs and holes, thus we need to install zillion of patches and fixes too. Here Auto Patcher comes in handy. All we need to do is just download the application and install it. It will take care all the patches. All patches are already included in the package. Please note that Auto Patcher is not supported by MS, so go to the web site and decide by yourself.

8. PIXresizer - http://bluefive.pair.com/free_computer_software.htm
PIXresizer is a tool for quickly generating screen-friendly versions of your images with dramatically reduced file sizes. It is a photo resizing program that enables you to quickly resize one file or a selection of image files for use on the web and in e-mail. It can also transform the image format on the fly to JPG, BMP, GIF, PNG or TIFF. Useful for photographers or webmasters.

9. FireFox - http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/
Nuff said. The best internet browser to-date. It’s even more powerful and more useful with some additional add-ons. More on that later in my next posting

10. Foxit Reader - http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/rd_intro.php
It’s a PDF reader just like Adobe PDF Reader, only it’s a lot smaller (~1.67MB) and faster (cause of less plug-in running in the startup). Another note: closing one window will not close all windows like its bigger counterpart, so it saves me from accidentally close all my PDF documents when I just want to close one.

Some of you may notice that I don’t have any desktop e-mail application. For e-mail I only use internet email. I use the best e-mail the internet has ever had, Gmail from Google. I’ve been a member since the beta and invitation only version, and I’m sooo satisfied. This is the first thing in the internet that I hooked up from the very beginning and never think about switching to anything else. What I like is the email speed (almost instantaneous), the smart and fast search engine, the mailbox size (~3 GB is just insane!), the portability (I use the Gmail mobile version for my Nokia E61), and the slick, splendid and fast user interface. I’m happily married with Gmail forever and ever..