So you want your images to look the best they can, but you don’t have money to spend on professional software…Check out FastStone Image Viewer. It does the basics but it does them well!

This freeware program supports all major image formats, such as BMP, GIF, ICO, JPEG, JPEG2000, PCX, PNG, PSD, TAF, TIF, and WMF. It also includes EXIF metadata support. You can crop, resize, flip, rotate, and adjust colors on your images and compare them side by side.

It also lets you convert from one format to another; you can even convert or resize your photos in batches. For a closer look, use the Full Screen image viewer to zoom in and size things up with the clear magnifier. If you wanna liven things up you can apply over 150 transitional effects in a slideshow.

If you don’t yet have a program for fast image viewing and basic editing, or if you’re not completely satisfied with the one you currently use, FastStone Image Viewer is one you should try. It’s free.

More info and download

Firekeeper is a recently released add-on for the Firefox browser and it aims to protect your from malicious websites which may exploit browser and code security flaws. It keeps your Internet-browsing session safe by performing as an Intrusion Detection and Prevention (IDP) system at the browser level.

It does so by using rules found in the open-source IDP tool Snort. Snort is an open source network intrusion prevention and detection system which, according to the snort website, “has become the de facto standard for the industry.”

Features of Firekeeper include the ability to scan, detect and deny malicious webpages that you may unwittingly try to connect to. It also supports a blacklist and whitelist.

If you’re hoping to make your web surfing that little bit safer, this seems to be a good add-on to add on!

Check out the Firekeeper page for more info and the download.

Post2blog is a WSIWYG (what you see is what you get) blog editing and publishing program that includes some advanced features such as a full featured word-processor-style editor, advanced image and table handling options, with live spelling checker and thesaurus. It supports WordPress, Blogger, Typepad, Movable Type, and LiveJournal and more.

Here are just a few of the features that Post2Blog offers:

• Advanced WSIWYG editing: the full featured editor includes comprehensive editing options as well as support for tables and emoticons. All its functions are hotkeyed for easy access. Edit offline and post whenever you are ready;
• Advanced image support: upload and format images (including creating thumbnails to custom resolution, adding captions, resizing the image itself, and adding shadows). Also supports uploads into Flickr and other online image resources (imageshack.us, picturelli.com, as well as FTP).

All this and its freeware too! So check it out if blogging is your thing.

Here is a freeware worth checking out! µTorrent is an efficient and feature rich BitTorrent client for Windows sporting a very small footprint.

This software is pretty cool as it is designed to use as little memory and space as possible while offering all the functionality expected from advanced clients. Most of the features present in other BitTorrent clients are present in µTorrent, including bandwidth prioritization, scheduling, RSS auto-downloading and Mainline DHT (compatible with BitComet).

This small but feature rich tool also supports Protocol Encryption joint specification (compatible with Azureus 2.4.0.0 and above, BitComet 0.63 and above) and peer exchange. In the latest version which was released on the 19^th of June, µTorrent the major change in features is:

• Fixed: Escape-style handling on the exit confirmation and a create torrent dialog.

If you want to try it out, you can go here, it is free!

Two ‘extremely critical’ vulnerabilities have been discovered in Yahoo Messenger that could be exploited by malicious users to compromise a system.

The boundary errors have been confirmed in version 8.1.0.249 of the messaging software, but other versions may also be affected.

Both flaws are based around the Yahoo Webcam facilities within the software. The problems occur in the ‘ywcupl.dll’ file that deals with the Webcam Upload, and the ‘ywcvwr.dll’ file which handles the Webcam Viewer.

Both ActiveX controls can be exploited to cause a stack-based buffer overflow by assigning an overly long string to the Server property and then using the ‘Send()’ or ‘Receive()’ actions.

A successful execution of the exploits could allow arbitrary code to be run on the affected machine.

Security firm Secunia rated the flaws at its highest ‘extremely critical’ level, and said that the problems can be blocked by changing the kill-bit settings for the affected ActiveX controls. (more…)

Here is a cool emulator worth checking out.

iDeaS is a Nintendo DS emulator that can run NDS games on Windows PC with OpenGL. So far, it has emulated the ARM7 GBA processor at 100%, but the ARM9 dual screen processor at 90%.

The plugin system came originally from UltraHLE N64 emulator so that further support can achieved without looking at the source code of the emulator.

The latest version, iDeaS 1.0.1.5 which has just been released has these changes:

• Added LDRD and STRD opcodes;
• Added HuffUnComp BIOS function;
• Added Square Root BIOS function;
• Added command line options;
• Added zipped rom support (the emulator slows down);
• Added basic frameskip;
• Added support for M3, Supercard CF and Supercard One files;
  Added Run to Cursor(F6) and Step Over(F8) in debugger;
• Added support for Shadow Polygons;
• Added support for .ds.gba and .sc.nds files;
• Added Rotation feature;
• Added Save/Load game capability;
• Fixed unaligned memory access on LDRH opcode;
• Fixed a bug in textures management;
• Fixed a bug in 3D matrices management;
• Fixed a bug in LIGHT_VECTOR register;
• Fixed a bug in NORMAL register;
• Fixed a bug in GXSTAT register;
• Fixed a bug in Extended Draw Mode management;
• Fixed a bug in microphone support

It’s Free! Go to http://spazioinwind.libero.it/linoma/ideas.html to check it out!

Think digital presentation – think Chimpfolio. Chimpfolio is basically an artist’s portfolio generator for the discerning artist who needs to make the transition to digital slides without knowing anything about computers. It is a program that generates cross-browser compatible web pages with valid xHTML and CSS. Web pages generated by Chimpfolio have a standard set of Introduction, Bio, Statement and Contact pages along with an indexed portfolio page that has individual pages for each image. Each individual page can have additional optional information like title, size, medium and date of creation of image. It can have a separate section for any other additional information.

This is one of those rare tools which make you feel that computing can be natural rather than robotic. A must –have program for image-portfolio generation.

(more Info and Download)

ITWorkTimer 1.1 keeps track of employee’s work time. Software takes screenshots of currently running programs to confirm that the employee’s time is actually spent on the work allotted. It captures screenshots after every 10 minutes on a random basis. You need not look behind their shoulder every time to confirm their work.
 
Software actually calculates each employee’s work time and hence salary based on working hours. It allows you to have full control on efficiency of the employees in your organization. You can easily differentiate between actual workers and lazy employees. This promotes you to encourage hard workers and scold those who work little and spend their time on some personal work other than office work. You can stop paying employees for the hours not spent on allotted work.

ITWorkTimer is an effective tool to those companies who are facing problem of their employee’s efficiency and overpaying to some employees. This software helps to improve labor efficiency and hence company’s profit.

(more Info and Download) 

Light Artist is a program that allows you to add realistic lighting effects to your photos. The cool thing about this program is that it allows you to easily make your ordinary and undistinguished photos sunnier, romantic and if it’s gloomy you want, it’s gloomy you’ll get, it’s all up to you.

With this program, you can modify the light color, add multiple light sources, change the surface qualities of the image and add various ambient illumination effects. But that’s not all, using one of the image channels as the texture channel you can add 3D relief to your images. Ain’t that Cool?

The latest version which hit the software market sometime towards the end of last month is Light Artist 1.5. If you’ve been using a previous version go get the new version fast, it’s free, not a trial version, but totally free.

Go to  http://vicman.net/lightartist/ for free download and more info.

In summary here are the features you will enjoy with Light Artist 1.5:

• Load and save jpg, bmp;
• Add multiple light sources to the image;
• Adjust light source type and parameters;
• Add 3d relief to the images.

Once again head on to http://vicman.net/lightartist/ for a free download.

Lovers of Christian music will definitely want to have this on their PC. Christian Music Toolbar is 100% FREE and it allows you listen to Christian radio directly from your browser. If you love Christian music you will really enjoy this because it gives you the opportunity to listen to and change stations as you browse the internet.

One other good thing about this free toolbar is that it installs and uninstalls in seconds, so if you decide you don’t want it, it is to get rid of unlike some software that are very hard to uninstall.

This software opens you up to different brands of Christian Music as you get a number of genres of Christian Music, over a 100 great stations to choose from. It also comes with a Google search box, and a favorites section.

If you are really into Christian Music what are you waiting for? Go get it, listen to the Best of the Best of Christian Music regularly.

CLICK HERE for more info and download.