AdesBlog.com

This great program is free for bloggers. Actual Title Buttons is the window management tool which offers extended window manipulation capabilities by adding new buttons to a window caption. (see demo screencast) Normally it costs $19.95, but now it’s free for bloggers.

The site explicitly says that it’s totally free and they do not need anything from bloggers, meaning program review on the blogs, mentioning it briefly in the posts..etc. However if you do, they say it should be purely out of your good will for the great, free program.

How to Take Advantage of This Initiative?

1. Please register at our website (valid contact e-mail address is required).
2. Upon registration, please provide us a link to your blog.
3. Please note: the blog should be active, up-to-date and exist more than half a year.
4. After checking out your blog, we will send you the free registration key for Actual Title Buttons.

I am getting my free copy for sure ;)

Get it here: actualtools.com/blogs_support/

I have been working on the new version of AdesClrPicker - my color picker software. The new version is going to be out soon.

Before its launch, I would like to give you some sneak peeks on the new features.

Floating Panel

Floating Panel (see image to the left) has been redesigned to include most used functions of the program. Previously it used to show the last 10 captured colors only. Now it has a lot more useful features on it. Floating Panel just sits on your screen, on top of all your windows. It’s small in dimension, so it can easily be positioned in any corner of your screen. If you do not want, you can always minimize it to taskbar.

Export Captured Colors as Image

New export feature has been added. Now you can export your captured colors as an image (jpg, gif or png) as well, in addition to Adobe Photoshop table export feature that it has. Exported images will have a colored box + color code. These images are useful if you want to share your colors with others. Instead of sending just the color codes, now people can actually send the colors together with the color codes.

This is how the exported image will look like (image + color code):

Change Preview Pane Size & Zoom Level

I have also added a new feature that allows you to change the preview pane and its zoom level. Some people suggested that they want to have a bigger zoom level. With new version that will be possible!

As you can see, a lot new exciting features are being added to the new version. But I can assure you that, even though it will have a lot of features it will still stay small and related. It won’t be another Photoshop or Swiss Knife Software. It will still be a nifty color picker tool as it is.

Price and Update

If you purchase now, you will get a free update when the new version is released. Price is still the same at $9.90 (normal price 19.90).

More info at: Product Details Page

P.S Yes, I am doing a lot of things ;) I wish the clock had 25 hours on it!

Get Free Linkback: Review this tool and get a free PR7 linkback from my blog. more info

DVDVideoSoft is offering 10 free dvd and video related softwares. Most of them are video converters such as from YouTube to iPod etc.

Actually all these could be combined into one software, what they have done is - they have created a separate product for each feature.

Anyway Free stuff is always good. So here are the list of free programs:

1. YouTube to iPod Converter 2.7
2. YouTube to iPhone Converter 1.2
3. YouTube to MP3 Converter 2.3
4. 3GP Video Converter 2.3
5. Video to Flash Converter 2.3
6. Video to iPod Converter 2.3
7. Video to iPhone Converter 1.2
8. Video to MP3 Converter 2.7
9. Fast MPEG Cut 2.3
10. YouTube Uploader 1.4

Download them all at: www.dvdvideosoft.com/free-dvd-video-software.htm

P.S How to solve “burried posts” problem? post has been updated after some users have suggested more solutions.

Download FastStone v5.3 (freeware) here

Very popular freeware tool FastStone Capture is now a shareware, when it was still freeware I had blogged about it here recommending you to download. FastStone Capture is my favorite when it comes to capturing screen, cropping captured images, writing on them..etc. I use it extensively for this blog.

I have heard that it became paid before, but I thought people were referring to the commercial license. Previously it was free for personal use, but not for commercial use. Companies supposed to get a license for using FastStone Capture.

But let’s face it, when the program is available for free download, which company is going to pay for a freeware? Answer: Ethical one. Correct! But these days it’s difficult to find those ethical companies. So the solution for the developer was obviously to charge them all: $19.95 for lifetime license. Still not bad offer, considering you get a lifetime license, that is a free update for all future versions.

I was using version 5.3 and wanted to update it to 5.5 since it had better features. However after installing I got a trial pop-up window; try for 30 days or enter code. So I uninstalled and reverted back to my 5.3 version. Luckily I had the old installer.

Sites like OldVersion.com, OldApps.com and Old-Versions.net keep the old versions of the popular softwares. Unfortunately none of them had the later versions of FastStone Capture. Only OldApps had versions from 3.1 - 3.9. That’s too bad.

Lucky you, I had made further research on Google and found that you can download the latest free version 5.3 at this site. I strongly suggest you to get it.

What to learn from this

• If you are a developer, don’t make a software that is free for one party and paid for another. If you want to charge them, give them more features, better support..etc give them something more.
• If you have developed a freeware software, keep it free always. Don’t disappoint or worse misuse the public, making your software paid when it becomes popular.
• If you will develop a software in the future, remember that donationware didn’t work for FastStone Capture. If you want to make money on freeware, maybe you should think again. On the other hand, if you want to just benefit public with your freeware, go ahead and do it!
• And lastly, when you read AdesBlog suggest you something, just go and get it ;) Otherwise they turn into sharewares.

I hope this post has benefited you, and I hope you will make your own lessons from this case.

Important Link: Download version 5.3 (freeware) here | another source

CNN Money reports that Microsoft is claiming that Linux violates over 200 of its patents. Now it wants royalties from distributors and users. More than half the companies in the Fortune 500 are using the free operating system Linux in their data centers. If Microsoft gets his way then Linux won’t be free anymore the article says.

It’s a three page long article, read the full article here.

Here is a list of great softwares that I use everyday, some of them I have used for years. I thought I would make a list and share it with you guys. Let me know if you have any favorite softwares of your own.

FastStone Capture
FastStone Capture is a screen-capture utility. It allows you to capture anything on the screen including windows, objects, full screen, rectangle regions, freehand-selected regions and scrolling windows/web pages. http://www.faststone.org

P.S Free version is located here.

Foobar - Free
Foobar2000 is a lightweight audio player. It plays MP1, MP2, MP3, MP4, MPC, AAC, Ogg Vorbis, FLAC / Ogg FLAC, WavPack, WAV, AIFF, AU, SND, CDDA, WMA formats. http://www.foobar2000.org

Shortkeys
With shortkeys you don’t have to type repetitive texts anymore, you simply set a hotkey for any text and it would automatically type the pre-entered text. For example, when emailing somebody my blog url I just type .a1 and it would type http://www.adesblog.com for me. It will save time for you, tons of time! http://www.shortkeys.com

ZVolume
ZVolume Pro is a nice, powerful replacement to the standard Windows Volume Control. It can be vastly customized, including changing its look using skins. http://www.shelltoys.com

More programs after the jump Read more »