Need a small but very effective open source editor for plain text? Check out AkelPad! AkelPad is an open source editor for plain text. It is designed to be a mall and fast.

Still not sure this is for you; check out these features that AkelPad has:

• Full support of Unicode strings on Unicode systems (NT/2000/XP/2003);
• Single window mode (SDI), multi window mode (MDI);
• Support of Unicode codepages (UTF-16 little endian, UTF-16 big endian, UTF-8);
• Correct pseudographics displaying;
• Editing of files with “Read Only” attribute;
• Notice when trying to open binary file;
• Multi-level undo;
• Remember last opened files;
• Printing of a document;
• Support of language modules;
• Plugins support (syntax highlighting, auto-completion, scripts execution, keyboard macros and much more).

For more info and download, go to http://akelpad.sourceforge.net/en/index.php

Scribd is a very interesting site for anyone who likes to read a lot! So if you are the type of person who spends a lot of time at the library or reading stuff at magazine racks without actually buying anything, this site is something you’ll love spending time at!

Scribd enables anyone to upload any kind of document for easy online browsing by visitors to the Scribd site. Multiple document formats are supported. There’s a lot of interesting and random documents to be viewed ranging from photos, ebooks, classic books, serious stuff, humorous stuff and random things of almost any subject you can think of. The site also has several different language versions.

The simplest way to describe it is that it’s like the YouTube of documents. Check it out for yourself, but be warned, you could be there for quite a while once you get stuck into something!

Here is a really useful tool for opera users, it’s called oSync.

This cool tool provides a simple and secure way to synchronize Opera bookmarks between computers. You will also love the fact that it can backup your bookmarks or publish them as HTML and clean up bloated bookmark files. And when it comes to the synchronizing, it really delivers in style, it can be completely automated and is aimed to be as transparent as possible for the user.

It is now also available on Opera Mini, meaning you can now use it on your mobile phone since Opera Mini is a free mobile browser.

For free download of o Sync visit http://osync.sourceforge.net/index2.html

“Computerize Your Assets” is home inventory software for making a list of everything you have in your home. Everyone hopes it won’t happen to them, but his could be very useful in an unfortunate event of fire, theft or natural disasters like flooding etc.

It can be useful to show police or insurance companies in such situations, also it’s hard to memorize absolutely everything you own anyway! Especially regarding brand, model, serial number and cost. It has a lot of useful features such as unlimited categories,items and locations, encryption, graphs, picture and video support, and much more than I can list right here.

If this sounds like it could save you from a lot of trouble someday for whatever reasons such as your home location, local water levels or weather patterns , etc, Its definitely worth checking out at the site here for much more info.

The latest updated version of this cool software is out- SIW 1.69 Build 632. If you don’t know about SIW before let me let you in on the gist:

SIW is a Read-Only / Display-Only System Information tool that gathers detailed information about your system properties and settings.

It is a utility that includes detailed specs for Motherboard, BIOS, CPU, Devices, Memory, Video, Drivers, Ports, and Printers. SIW also displays information about Operating System, Installed Programs, Processes, Services, Serial Numbers, Users, Open Files, System uptime, Users, Network, Network Shares, etc.

With this software you also get real-time monitors for CPU, Memory, Page File usage and network traffic. It also displays currently active network connections, Passwords hidden behind asterisks, installed codecs, and more.

Think it’s worth checking out? Well It’s FREEEEE so it won’t cost you anything but rather give you a lot.

Go check it out at http://www.gtopala.com/index.html

Here is a freeware that comes highly recommended, it is called Movable Type. If you want the best of professional grade blogging, you need to check out this software.

Movable Type is the platform that invented professional-grade blogging, powering the biggest and most successful blogs for pro bloggers, publishers, organizations, enterprises and businesses of any size. Of course blogging is fast evolving but so is Movable Type as it leads the way with reliable service, outstanding performance and continuous innovation.

The latest version is Movable Type 4.0; Go check it out at http://www.movabletype.com/

The latest version of Nokia PC Suite is out!

Nokia PC Suite is a package of Windows-based PC applications developed especially for use with Nokia phones. Depending on your phone model, it lets you synchronize, edit, and back up many of your phone’s files on a compatible PC through a wireless or cable connection.

The latest Changes in this latest version includes:

• Enhancements to performance and stability;
• Improved synchronization of files and folders between PC and phone;
• Improved notification system (add-on applicationsNotifies when new add-on applications are available.

Go to http://www.nokia.com/pcsuite for more info and download.

Nokia PC Suite is a free PC software product designed to help you make the most of your Nokia phone. With Nokia PC

Suite, you can connect your phone to a PC and access mobile content as if the phone and the PC were one. Go Check it out at http://www.nokia.com/pcsuite

For users of Windows 2000 and Windows XP, here is good tool for you, It is called XP SysPad.

XP SysPad is a launcher which makes access to Windows system utilities its specialty. The cool thing about this software is that it allows you to launch all of the prime Windows system info and utilities like the individual control panel applets with the click of a button, making things so easy.  So instead of navigating around the explorer pane or waiting for menus to open up, this tool makes it real easy for you to access your windows utilities.

You can also recover your Windows 2000/XP product key, get your IP address, execute web queries, monitor any running system process, launch any program,search files, and more. It launches over 200 functions in all.

Here are a couple of the great features you’ll get to enjoy with this software

Just some of the 200+ features of XP Syspad:

• Disk Partition Manager
• DDE Share
• Removable Storage Operator
• Windows Explorer
• System Memory Stats
• Find Files + Folders
• EmptyRecycle Bin
• Windows Sound panel
• Regedit
• Temp file sweeper
• Printers
• Multimedia Settings
• Java Plug-In Control Panel
• Capture Screenshot
• Windows Sound Recorder
• Command Shell
• Windows Help
• Open Windows Folder
• Open Windows System Folder
• Windows Scanner and Camera Wizard
• Program Manager
• Add Network Place Wizard
• Sql Client Config Utility

For a more detailed list of features CLICK HERE!! Want to give it a shot? Why not it won’t cost you a dime, it’s free!!!

It’s common knowledge that having an anti virus program is a very important part of computer security. If you want a second opinion for peace of mind in knowing that your computer is virus free, F-Secure online scanner is an online anti virus scanner that does exactly this without the need for installing yet another program (Installing multiple anti virus programs can cause conflicts with each other anyway).

You simply go to the webpage and follow the instructions to allow the ActiveX control to load (supports Internet Explorer only right now). Then it begins downloading the necessary scanning stuff (around 22 MB).

When it’s done scanning, it will give you the option of cleaning anything bad it finds and/or sending it for further analysis.
I almost forgot to mention that it also scans for spyware and rootkits.

It’s a useful online tool and second opinion on the security of your computer. Check it out here.

The Sans Internet Storm Centre has warned of an email scam that lures users with the promise of a free iPhone.

One e-mail claims you have ‘won a new iPhone’. Clicking on the link however brings you to a page that attempts to exploit a number of well known Internet Explorer vulnerabilities and then downloads a malicious executable ‘sys—-.exe’. This executable installs itself as a service and upon review appears to be a spam bot.  Anti virus coverage was very spotty this morning but has improved during the day. 

Another scam aims to convince readers they need to go and buy an iPhone on what appears to be an Apple site (faked using a browser helper object). Naturally the site does not belong to Apple and you end up paying someone in Latvia. Sunbelt has a great writeup on this here. Thanks to roseman for the link.

(via Sans Internet Storm Centre)