PC Magazine’s Kyle Monson writes:
Each year, a team of PC Magazine editors, bloggers, and analysts assembles to find the best Web sites of the year. We pore over thousands of submissions from PC Mag staffers, proud Web admins, enthusiastic PR flacks, and readers just like you. We then painstakingly whittle the list of nominations down to 100 Undiscovered Web Sites.
There are definitely some gems here - enjoy!
The TechMixer blog recently posted a good list of free CD and DVD burning programs for use on Windows. We’ve used all of the listed programs on several different Windows PCs with no problems or issues.
Our personal favorite, BurnAware Free Edition, isn’t on the linked list above. The last freeware version produced (the company was sold and the new owners no longer offer a free version) can be downloaded by clicking here.
Edit 08/26/2008:
BurnAware Free Edition lives! We have not yet tried this new version 2.1.0.0, but it’s good to see a freeware version available again.
Courtesy of Google, we now have a custom Windows Freeware Search Engine. Here’s a preview:
It can also be found at the top of our Links to Free Software page. It has been customized so that the search starts with all of the freeware sites that we’ve linked to on that page and in this blog. If you have a specific need for a program to perform a particular function, or if you’re just curious as to what’s available, give it a spin.
As always, please contact us if we can be of assistance. We’d be happy to help!
These are the 100 top Web apps, 10 each in 10 categories, according to Webware users and the fans of the products that were finalists in the awards.
IrfanView is a free image viewer and editor that we’ve used (and really enjoyed) since the Windows 95 days. It is quick, light and easy to use. This YouTube clip is a good basic tutorial on how to get started with IrfanView:
Samuel Dean has written a couple of great posts about IrfanView on the Web Worker Daily blog called IrfanView: Great Graphics On-the-Fly, and Free, and Tutorials and Plug-Ins for IrfanView–a Graphics Gem.
Ben Carigtan has written an outstanding tutorial called Photo sketch tutorial and swapping colors using IrfanView for the Online Tech Tips blog.
A Google search for IrfanView Tutorial will give you many more guides and tutorials to choose from.
There are ads currently running on Craigslist selling TV on PC software for $9.95. Why pay for what you can get for free?
JLC’s Internet TV is a FREE program for watching and browsing thousands of TV channels freely available on the internet. It’s probably the biggest and most up to date database of channels ever, and users are able to submit, rate and flag channels.
Here’s a screenshot: (click image below to open enlarged in a new tab or window)
You definitely will not get the same channels or shows that your cable/satellite provider gets, but it is free. It is worth a look. Many of the available channels are from all over the world.
We would also recommend downloading and installing VLC Player and then setting JLC’s Internet TV to use it (rather than Windows Media Player) by default. To do this, click on Options, Settings in the Menu Bar. When the Settings window opens, click on the Media Player tab at the top:
As shown in the graphic above, make sure there’s a checkmark in the box labeled “Use VLC to play ALL streams“.
Online help, including a “Get started tutorial” is available here.
You can also see the same channels right in your internet browser here.
See also our post titled Watch TV via the Internet.
PC World reporter Christopher Null tried to buy a computer with Windows XP preinstalled on it from the United States’ nine biggest PC makers. His findings: You can get one, but be prepared to fib.
The biggest issue with “downgrading”, in our opinion? Before trying (on your own) to replace a factory install of Vista with a retail copy of Windows XP, make sure that there are Windows XP drivers available for all of the hardware in your machine. The first place to look would be the computer manufacturer’s website. If you don’t find everything you need there, you could run a program like SIW to positively identify all of your hardware. Once you have identified the hardware you can try to get drivers from the hardware manufacturer(s)…
Here are two lists of web-based, no-install applications worth perusing and trying:
From the netHACKZ website, 15 Killer Web Apps That’ll Rock Your World, and from the SmashingApps website, 21 Online Free Web Based Applications That You Probably Would Love To Use Every Day!
Web-based applications are a double-edged sword of sorts. They are platform-independent which makes them good for users of multiple computers and/or non-Microsoft operating systems. They do require internet access, which makes it tough to be productive while offline.
There are still worth a look, in our humble opinion…
Nelson Doyle, on Webupon:
Delivering the best of the best free music on the Internet is what these Top 45 Music websites are best known for and now, they are presented to music lovers the world over as an easy reference guide to bookmark.
In addition, Mashable has compiled a list of 30+ awesome streaming music sites along with a list of 30+ sites for free, legal music downloads we know you’ll enjoy.
Regardless of your choice or taste, what would life be like without music? Getting it free is the icing on the cake!
Laura Milligan writes on the Teaching Tips blog:
Beyond Google, Wikipedia and other generic reference sites, the Internet boasts a multitude of search engines, dictionaries, reference desks and databases that have organized and archived information for quick and easy searches. In this list, we’ve compiled just 100 of our favorites, for teachers, students, hypochondriacs, procrastinators, bookworms, sports nuts and more.
If you’re an information junkie, there’s much here to be had…
Edit 08/02/2008:
Laura has also written an article listing 50 Awesome Search Engines Every Librarian Should Know About. It is linked here because we feel that even non-librarians should find these search engines useful.