All That Nerdy Stuff » freeware

Freeware: The Mailing List

The Web N3rd — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 07:54:38 +0000

We all know by now that these are tough times, and when tough times come along what do nerds do? We troll the internet for Freeware, of course! Probably the most successful of our (more or less) ongoing series’ here on ATNS has been our reviews of excellent free applications that anyone can use at no charge to do the kinds of things that the big boys pay big bucks for. While we’ve recently been, shall we say, a bit lax concerning our reviewing responsibilities–things are about to kick up in a serious way. We’ve been gathering the latest and greatest freeware apps to our sides, glued our butts to our chairs (well, OK, so it isn’t actual glue…) and have begun sifting through more free goodies than even Lord Voldemort could shake his rather deadly stick at.

In anticipation of the forthcoming explosion of Freeware reviews, we’ve decided that a monthly newsletter, to serve as a digest of sorts, would probably be a darn good idea. With that in mind, I bid you look to the sidebar for the simple and easy sign up form. You’ll have to check your email for the confirmation letter and click that sucker, but beyond that you should be in relatively good shape. We’ll promise not to sell your email to spammers (well, unless they offer us a really big bag of money) and in return we ask that you promise not to do terrible things to our pets. Which, let me tell you, if you harm one hair on my Nintendog’s head, you’re in for a butt kickin’!

FreeWare Review: VisualSVN SubVersion Control Server

Jason Ward — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 07:59:12 +0000

So today we’re checking out something especially geeky, the VisualSVN SubVersion Control Server. Yeah, that’s a mouthful, isn’t it? For most folks, this is something you’ll never, ever use. However, if you’re a person who develops, say, software-or artwork-or games, then this will be of interest to you. There’s a lot of Version Control software out there, and believe me I’ve looked at a lot of it lately. But most of it has a problem that prevents it from being accessible to the average user: most of it runs on Linux. Now, Linux software is all well and good, and there’s very little negative I’d ever say about Linux overall. However, the reality remains that for the average user-who by this point has used Windows of one flavor or another for most of their computing life-Linux just isn’t very friendly. As a rule this won’t matter because people who need version control can often afford to hire an engineer who understands Linux just fine, or they may be savvy enough to sort it out on their own. This software, indeed this review, is not for you.

Who this software is for, is the small time developer of something, whether it’s code or art or whatever, who needs version control but doesn’t have a huge budget or a lot of time to spend learning the ins and outs of Linux. This is version control that you can install on Windows in 5 minutes, have it configured in 10, and be using it in 20 (the extra 10 is because you will need to install Tortoise SVN on your client PC and reboot, then configure it to Check Out your repository). If you’re unfamiliar (and I was until a few days ago), what this software does is it runs on a server that your team then connect to via client software on their PC’s. The clients each sync to and from the server, and as changes are made to the files in your project everyone is kept up to date on the latest project files with their own local copy. When they’ve made changes, they sync back to the server and the rest of the team will get their changes next time they sync.

In addition to just keeping everyone on the same page, the server also keeps track of different versions of the files in the repository. This is useful when, for example, I’m working on a file and I screw it up but don’t realize that until I’ve already synced to the server. With the SVN server, I can go back to a previous version of that file very easily and redo my work without the mistake in tow and without having to start the file over from scratch. This saves me individually and the team collectively a boatload of time and effort that might otherwise be wasted redoing work as the result of small mistakes.

But wait…there’s more! Beyond the simple fact that your team is now saving time and effort and keeping up to date with the latest and greatest files, there’s another benefit. That benefit is simple: if the server crashes and there’s no backup…you’ve got backups of project data on every person’s PC. If you haven’t backed up your server, of course, shame on you. Bad panda! But lucky for you, the rest of the team’s PC’s save your ass. Heck, even if you’re one person, setup your home PC with an SVN server and your laptop (or work PC if you can get away with it!) with the client so you can stay synced and backed up on the go!

VisualSVN’s client software will integrate directly with Microsoft Visual Studio, though be warned: the client app is not free, only the server is (and how weird is that?). Even so, you can use any SubVersion compatible client to access the VisualSVN repositories from a client PC and sync both up and down with ease. The software further runs with such a light footprint that you can easily run it in a Virtual Machine under VMWare, MS Virtual Server, VirtualBox or any of the other tools out there for virtualization (and we’ll be covering some of these very soon). For your ease and comfort I’m including a link to the free TortoiseSVN client below, which you can use with VisualSVN at no charge.

If you’re in the market for a Version Control System for your team’s project but you don’t have a lot of cash, consider VisualSVN. It’s an excellent product that does a single job, and it does it very well. Please do remember that you need BOTH the Server and the Client below to make use of this product.

Final Judgment: Highly recommended for small development teams on a budget.

Website and Download: VisualSVN Server Download

Client and Download: TortoiseSVN Client Download

FreeWare Review: IOBit Smart Defrag

Jason Ward — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 05:42:19 +0000

OK smartasses, you thought you had me, didn’t ya? You thought “Oh look, he forgot to post up a FreeWare review today”, didn’t ya? Yeah? Well…you’re right. I did forget. I suck! On the bright side, I did already have a plan for it, so we’ll go ahead and with that right now.

Today’s exciting Freeware pick is IOBit’s Smart Defrag software for Windows. Like virtually any defragmenting software it’s far superior to the built in Windows Defrag, but more than that I’d say it’s probably better than many of the commercial defragmenters currently on the market. As a Windows user, the need to defragment your hard drive is a simple fact of life. You either do it or you face a downward spiral of decreasing performance, slower access times for all your software and worse performance for Windows itself. Windows Vista is particularly bad about this; an untended drive can easily become 30-40% fragmented in a matter of weeks or months depending on use (though in fairness, Vista is far more resilient to fragmentation than earlier versions of Windows have been).

IOBit’s product is, without question, the most polished free defragmentation software available today. Its interface is simple and intuitive, it is updated with a frequency that very few freeware programs are, and it’s highly effective at what it does. Beyond just being an on-demand defrag tool, Smart Defrag also has a fair number of serious features. It supports scheduling so you can set your defrag to happen when it’s least intrusive to you (middle of the night? Daytime while you’re at work? Your call!). It supports Auto Defrag, which tries to keep your files from fragmenting to begin with and kicks in a defrag cycle whenever your PC is idle for 5 minutes (or longer, configurable by you). You can configure the software to run whether you’re logged in or not (requires credentials with a username and password), whether it will run at boot, etc. What’s best about all these features, though, is that they’re configurable by you.

Unlike a lot of commercial products, which features you use are configurable by you on a one by one basis. You’re forced to use pretty much nothing with this software, which makes it a real pleasure to use and more importantly, to forget you’re using. If you prefer the software only run on demand, you can do that. If you want it on in the background you can do that too. It’s your choice, and choices are always nice to have.

Final Judgment: Highly recommended, probably the best free defragmenting tool on the market

Website and Download: IOBit Smart Defrag

FreeWare Review: IOBit Advanced System Care 3

Jason Ward — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 16:00:11 +0000

Most people probably haven’t heard of IOBit, but if you use a PC at all you really should. IOBit provides some very interesting free software that I’ve enjoyed using for about a year now, and I’m happy to be able to report that their software is both high quality, professionally polished and updated damn frequently. It’s with this idea in mind that I introduce today’s Freeware Review product, Advanced System Care 3.

Just what is Advanced System Care? Let’s start with the basics. Advanced System Care will help you remove spyware threats from your system, inocculate against future infection by scanning for and plugging known vulnerabilities in the OS (read: Windows flavor) you use, and it will check for items that can be optimized to get a little better performance out of your system. If you’re a user of some of their other free products it’ll integrate with those as well.

Beyond these more obvious tools, Advanced System Care also has a set of tools to perform tasks such as defragmenting your Windows Registry (Yes, it actually helps), backup or update your drivers, optimize your TCP connections in Firefox or system-wide, defragment and free up RAM (the usefulness of this process is a topic of much debate, but there’s no conclusive evidence that it either helps or hinders your system from my experience. It also seems to depend heavily on the tool you use).

Perhaps the nicest part of these additional tools is that, unlike other comprehensive sets of system tools where everything is enabled automagically and ends up actually slowing your system down, all of ASC’s tools must be enabled manually by the user. Therefore if it gets jacked up it’s your own damn fault; on the bright side, ASC is quite diligent in reminding you to set a Restore Point prior to taking any actions that could potentially harm your system, so most hiccups should be a no-brainer to recover from.

So you know: There is also a paid version of Advanced System Care 3, the Pro version, which offers a few extra features. If you’re a serious power user you might want to consider a purchase, but I really believe that the vast majority of people will be more than happy with just the freeware version. Last but not least the software will ask if you want to install the Yahoo Toolbar and set Yahoo.com to your search page default. If you already use the toolbar, hey, why not? But it’s entirely up to you and you are not forced to install either option. Personally I don’t.

As with any Freeware product, if you really like the software, consider making a small donation to the developer. Even a buck or two can help support a broke coder

Final Judgment: Highly Recommended (I install it on anyone’s PC I help fix)

Website and Download: IOBit Advanced System Care 3

FreeWare Review: CD Burner XP

Jason Ward — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 16:00:29 +0000

Don’t let the name fool you–the fact that we live in the era of Windows Vista with an impending Windows 7 likely hitting our doorsteps later this year is no reason to avoid this fantastic CD and DVD Burning application. For those who remember using Ahead Software’s Nero back in the day, before it became…well, enormous, you’ll be pleasantly surprised to find that CD Burner XP is all about the data burning operation.

It’s pleasantly small at only 3.03MB, making it both fast to download and fast to install. A word of warning for those who may be averse: this app requires Microsoft’s free .Net Framework in order to operate. My sincere recommendation for those who’re fearful of .Net is simply this: get over it. The framework is very light and very useful, and unlike the early builds it’s pretty darn stable.

I’ve provided the complete feature list for CD Burner XP after the jump, but most users will only care about the obvious: the software will burn data CD’s and DVD’s, both from folders and files and from ISO’s. It will burn audio cd’s, including converting MP3′s into audio format for those who want to take their music to a device that won’t read MP3′s. You can burn DVD movies with it, but do be aware you’ll need a separate ripping or decrypting program if you intend to copy protected dvd’s.

If all you want to do is burn your own stuff, though, this software will take care of you. It’s fast and stable and doesn’t skimp on features, but at the same time it’s not bloated and doesn’t include a lot of bells and whistles that you’ll probably never use. Best of all, it’s free. I’ve been using the software myself for about 4 years and I recommend it constantly over any other, paid or otherwise. If you like the software and feel like you’d be willing to pay for it, I highly recommend dropping a couple bucks donation to the developers.

Final Judgment: Excellent application, highly recommended

Website and Download: CDBurner XP

CD Burner XP’s complete feature list

Create Data-CDs/DVDs

burn any Data on CD-R/CD-RW/DVD+R/DVD-R/DVD+RW/DVD-RW/DVD-RAM/BD/HD-DVD, including double layer mediums
burn mp3-CDs to store many audio files on one single disc
create bootable discs
verify written Data automatically after burning process
use either the internal browser to add your files or the intuitive Drop-Box to drag and drop files directly from any Windows Explorer window
save your compilations for creation of backups
burn on-the-fly and with buffer-underrun protections
import previous (ISO 9660) sessions and edit existing file structure on CD/DVD
quick- and full-erase disc
copy data discs (possible copy-protection is not bypassed)
retrieve recorder and disc information

Create Audio-CDs

create Audio-CDs from mp3, wav, ogg, flac and wma files
add single or multiple tracks from existing audio-CDs directly to your new compilation without ripping tracks before (add cda-files)
play audio-files with integrated audio player
gapless audio-CDs supported (disc-at-once-mode)
import M3U or WPL playlists
support for ReplayGain
import CUE sheets
create mixed-mode discs

ISO features

burn ISO files to CD
create your own ISO files
convert bin- and nrg-files to ISO
save CDs/DVDs as ISO file to disc

Other features

simple cover printing feature for data- and audio-discs
LightScribe integration
Command line version
supports most IDE, USB, Firewire and SCSI drives
integrated option to enable access to drive for restricted users
multi-language interface
online update