Hard drives are such an essential part of our PCs, and with the rapid reduction in prices of hard drive disks over the years, it’s easy to take them for granted. But just like any machine, even hard drives need their timely dose of fine tuning to ensure that they perform at their optimum capabilities.

1. How To Recover Accidentally Deleted Data From Your Hard Drive

Anyone who’s ever accidentally deleted a portfolio of family vacation photos from your camera thinking that you’ve already backed them up to your computer, will know the pain of losing a treasure trove of precious, irreplaceable memories forever, never to be recovered. Thankfully, we’re not the only ones who’ve lost precious data before, and Restoration is here to change all that.

You see, when you’ve deleted a bunch of items from your Recycle Bin, that data isn’t actually deleted immediately. It still sits dormant in a corner of the hard drive, waiting to be overwritten over by another newer file when the time comes; but without the appropriate software to access it, it might as well be lost forever. Restoration changes that by providing a “bridge” to the dormant “deleted” data, allowing you to access it as long as not too much time has passed.

2. How To Significantly Improve Your System Speeds

Ever felt like your computer was running at speeds comparable to the glacial movements of ice sheets? Always feel like Microsoft Word takes way too long to load? That’s because Windows is an extremely large piece of software, and just like a house left unkempt, there’s bound to be digital dust and cobwebs stranded all over your PC. You could use Windows’ very own Disk Cleanup tool to try and keep things tidy, or you could use Advanced SystemCare Free 5.

Unlike Disk Cleanup or other “sweep” programs, which only targets rouge files and deletes them, Advanced SystemCare Free 5 acts like a Swiss knife with solutions like diving into your network configuration, fixing vulnerability exploits, and fine tuning areas with red flags, in addition to doing the aforementioned “sweep” task.

The differences in speed after performing a check is astounding, and its user interface is simple and welcoming enough, unlike many programs of its type. You’ll probably see the biggest gains on dated PCs which haven’t been reformatted in a long time, but even if you’re running a fairly new computer, you’re bound to see improvements.

3. How To Speed Up Your Windows Boot Time

Perhaps one of the oldest gripes about running a Windows PC which has continued to persist into the current day is the amount of time it takes to boot up Windows. WinPatrol presents a nice and tidy solution to reducing your boot times. It’s separated into multiple functions, but the 2 you really need to focus on are Startup Programs and Delayed Start.

Startup Programs identifies the programs which Windows automatically loads on boot, and if there are a significant number of programs listed in this pane, you might want to turn off those which you never really use anyway. Delayed Start is an alternative solution to turning off your non-essential startup programs (e.g. Windows Messenger); by delaying loading them until after a few minutes into startup, it allows you to begin your work more quickly than if you had to wait for them to finish loading first.

4. How To Remove Duplicate Files From Your Hard Drive

Duplicate files are the bane of existence of any photo or music enthusiast, or just about anybody who finds themselves constantly transferring Word files back and forth from a thumbdrive. Aside from the nagging experience of having multiple files with indecipherable names like “IMG_00129”, having a large double backlog of photos, videos and music files can eat up a sizeable amount of disk space.

With CloneSpy, you can quickly let your computer do the work of scanning for duplicate files for you. CloneSpy works not just by identifying files with the same names – it also compares the data within the files themselves for a thorough sweep through of duplicate files. If you’ve always been wondering if you may have duplicate photos tucked away in the recesses your photo album, you could give CloneSpy a try.

5. How To Nurture A Blissful Copy/Paste Experience

Copy and pasting are probably one of the most-used features of the average computer, and while Windows’ default copy and pasting system is pleasing, it still leaves a lot to be desired. As a remedy, UltraCopier brings with it faster copying times by running extra functions which optimize the copying process, and implements error and collision management methods to reduce copy times and instances which require user intervention.

Ultracopier also introduces a host of extra options, such as the ability to pause and resume copying at will, speed regulation – for times when you want to save system resources for other more important tasks, and a search feature for your copy list – in case you want to review what you may have or have not copied during a bulk file transfer.

This guest post was written by Aaron Pek

If there’s one great thing about switching to a Linux-based system, it is that the word ‘FREE’ is encoded deep in its DNA. Open-source, free software is how Linux was built, and most Linux distros (whether Ubuntu, Mint, Fedora or Debian) slip onto your computer, without coming anywhere near your wallet. 

Naturally enough, there’s a whole universe of free software, apps and programs out there, all jostling for your attention. But just because it’s free doesn’t make it fabulous. So, to help you sort the wheat from chaff, we’ve put together a list of the very best free software that no Linux desktop should be without. Enjoy.

GIMPshop – Linux alternative to Photoshop

First there was GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program), the superb graphics package from the guys at GNU that upped the ante for image manipulation.

Now there is GIMPshop. This takes the rich graphical and image editing functionality of GIMP, and wraps it in an Adobe Photoshop-like front-end. This is a huge step forward, making GIMP much easier to use, and opening up Linux image editing to generation of Photoshop-familiar users. A must-have.

GnuCash – Linux alternative to Microsoft Money

If you’re looking to better manage your cash-flow, or even for a tool able to run small business accounting, then GNUCash could be the answer to your prayers. This software has been built from the ground up with professional bookkeeping in mind, so it has such top-end features as invoicing, stock-tracking, and double-entry accounting But is also very handy for day-to-day tracking of your personal finances, with its checkbook register.

What makes it doubly useful is that GNUCash is not an island unto itself – you can import from Quicken or Microsoft Money. Equally you can export your financial data to standard spreadsheet formats. Add in a flexible and powerful reporting tool, and you’ve got a free financial package that is hard to beat.

Chromium – Linux alternative to Internet Explorer

Google’s Chrome web browser has won plenty of plaudits, for its uncluttered interface, fast loading, synchronized bookmarks, and easy integration with Google’s growing stable of apps. But Chrome isn’t just freely available on Windows; it has an open-source, free-to-use cousin, called Chromium.

This open license means that many open software-based Linux distros now have Chrome in their base installations – including Ubuntu, one of the top Linux installations. So Chrome on Linux is well worth looking at – whether you’ve come from an Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox background. It is now fully featured, fast and stable – and real contender for the browser-of-choice for Linux systems.

Banshee – Linux alternative to iTunes

For music-lovers out there, Banshee is the program that ties all of the threads of the modern music player together. So, yes, it can play MP3 files (often a hassle with Linux distributions), as well as Ogg Vorbis and FLAC files. Yes, it can play and rip audio CDs. And yes, it has rich music library functionality, pulling play-lists and album art down for you on the fly. But Banshee does much more.

It also integrates with Amazon’s MP3 store, not mention Apple’s iTunes and Last.fm, fully interconnecting your audio multiverse. Oh, and did we say – and it can play videos too.

Ardour – Linux alternative to Garage Band (Yes I know Garage Band is Mac software)

Linux has always had a special place in the heart of music-makers, with a generous suite of open-source audio applications, developed over a number of years. Ardour builds on that tradition, offering a fully-fledged recording and mixing tool that wouldn’t look out of place in a studio.

While it is a little tricky to set up and use, it does allow you to hook up directly into your computers sound system. That ensures fast and professional sound recording. Ardour also allows you to edit soundtracks, apply filters, and mix them together; and it is indispensable for recording CDs, LPs and old-time tapes. Time to shift those old-time media into the online digital age?

LibreOffice – Linux alternative to Microsoft Office

One of the first things that ex-Windows users worry about with Linux is how they’ll cope without Microsoft Office. That turns out to be a non-issue, especially once you’ve taken a look at LibreOffice. Previously known as OpenOffice, this is a suite of productivity apps that matches MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint – and the rest – on everything except the price.

LibreOffice has a word processor, spreadsheet and presentation tool, which not only have similar functionality – they also share many of the menu layouts and shortcuts of the Office equivalents. They also save documents in standard open doc formats, and you have the option of reading (and creating) the typical MS DOC and XLS formats. In short, the move to LibreOffice is as painless as it is charge-free.

ClamAV – Linux alternative to McAfee Antivirus

Although Linux is often-touted as a much-more secure system than Windows, that’s not to say it’s invulnerable to viruses and malware threats. E-mail is a particular vulnerability, with the bad guys potentially being delivered through attachments. So it’s a good idea to get an anti-virus tool to lock the vaunted Linux security down that little bit tighter.

ClamAV is just such a tool, developed especially for scanning emails for malicious software. It automatically keeps itself up-to-date with the latest viruses. The one drawback is that it’s a command line tool – which some users may find scary. But once setup, ClamAV is pretty self-sufficient, and most importantly, it gets the job done.

WINE – Linux alternative to Windows

Finally, whatever the richness and breadth of free software coverage in the Linux world, there’s often a Windows tool, app or game which has no real equivalent. That’s where the WINdows Emulator (WINE) makes a very welcome addition to your Linux system. WINE has been under development for a number of years, and does an excellent job of creating a Windows ‘sandbox’ for all of those legacy Windows apps to play in. Get WINE and you’ll never have to moan about what’s missing from your Linux ever again.

This article is a guest post from Chee Seng, a blogger who writes about freeware reviews at BestFreeOnline.net/

This is MY smartphone

Yes, that’s an actual screenshot of my phone.  Juice defender is a battery management Android app which is so good that I swear by it, and it’s one of the first apps I recommend putting on your Android phone (sorry Apple folks).

So good that it typically doubles my battery life!

How it works:

In a nutshell all it does is turn off data when you don’t need it.

When my phone screen is on: All my data runs normally.

When my phone screen is off: It turns off ALL my data and turns it back on every 5 minutes for just to check if there’s incoming data like email or twitter notifications.

Now, because data is only turned on every 5 minutes, there is a chance your received messages will be 5 minutes late if your phone screen is off, so this is where you make your conscious trade off…I have to say though, through personal experience, that 5 minutes is really no big deal, and you hardly feel any sort of delay at all.  After all, If you’re expecting some urgent messages you can always turn Juice Defender off.

FriedBeef’s Verdict:

The basic version is free, but I’d recommend you pay for the ultimate version for maximum effect… After all it’s hard to argue with doubling your battery life :)

Guest blogging has gained in importance since Google increased the value of original content over time. Duplicate content went down in value, article directories went down, backlinks for the sake of backlinks went down. Useful, original content went up, and with it, the value of a guest blog post.

It’s a win-win-win situation: The blog owner wins because it helps bring in fresh new content. The blogger wins because it’s a quality backlink as well as exposure to a new audience. The audience wins by getting a different perspective on a favorite topic. If you’d like to use guest posting to expand your message and reach new audiences, there are a few common best-practices to keep in mind.

1. Write for the blog’s audience.
2. Send an original post that appears nowhere else on the web (unless the blog owner specifically tells you different).
3. Link to your own website in the resource box, and don’t use affiliate links anywhere in the article. Most bloggers accept informational links in the body of the article, but clear it with the blog owner.
4. Do your best work and correct grammar and spelling errors before you send it off.

That’s pretty much it. Different bloggers will have different instructions about how to contact them, how to get your blog post to them, the length and so forth. These rules are all to help you write a post that fits their blogs, and so take them as friendly advice from someone who really wants to be able to publish your post.

Here are 41 great blogs on a number of topics that invite accept guest posts. They’re not by any means the only guest blogging opportunities around, but if you want to get started in guest blogging, you can probably find a few candidates here that are looking for the kind of writing you do.

About the list:

Each of the items in the list includes the name of the blog and a link to the page detailing guest post submission guidelines. And then there is a brief description of the topics covered in the blog.

I also include Google’s PageRank and the Alexa rating for the comparative power of the blog. Google’s PageRank affects how high a site will appear in search engine results for a keyword it covers. Higher is better. The Alexa ranking is based on traffic in the home country, and "1" is the top. If a site has a ranking of 459, that means 458 sites get more traffic than it does in its country. The numbers are good for a general reading, but they can fluctuate wildly, and they’re always out of date. So if you see a site that is a really good fit, go for it. Don’t be dissuaded by the numbers.

Blogger Forums

• Blog Engage PR 4, Alexa 8,675 Blog Engage is a bloggers’ showcase, where members either post to the site or link to a post on their own site for other bloggers to rank it and give feedback. There are also occasional blogging contests with cash prizes.
• My Blog Guest PR 5, Alexa 4,977 My Blog Guest is a community of guest bloggers and bloggers who need guest columns. Put an article in the forum, and a site owner can come and use your post, giving you credit. Or site owners can tell bloggers what kind of post they’re looking for, and you can write to fit the bill. There is also a forum offering paid blogging opportunities.

Business

• Copyblogger PR 6; Alexa 2,972 This powerful media company started as humble blog. The blog provides some of the best copywriting and content marketing advice around. A guest post in Copyblogger puts you in the top tier of bloggers.
• Successful and Outstanding Bloggers PR 5; Alexa 86,828 Successful and Outstanding Bloggers wants success stories and information about small business, big brands, social media, writing and entrepreneurs.
• Phil Simon Systems PR 5; 680,495 The Phil Simon Systems blog focuses on technology, management, social media, publishing, consulting, Enterprise 2.0, and the like.
• Bigger Pockets PR 4; Alexa 14,428 Blog giving tips and news for real estate investors, homeowners, agents, mortgage lenders, other real estate professionals, real estate press and bloggers.
• MT Herald PR 3; Alexa 221,969 The MT Herald is a blog for medical transcriptionists and includes topics relating to the health information field, as well as personal investing and financial planning.
• One Woman Marketing PR 4; Alexa 292,792 One Woman Marketing provides marketing tips for solo preneurs and small business owners.
• Everyday EMS Tips PR 4; Alexa 1,923,074 Everyday EMS Tips is a blog supplying information for emergency medical servcies professionals and students. The site owners encourage guest bloggers who are EMS professionals or students. Those not in the industry who want to write for the site are asked to donate to the National EMS Memorial Bike Ride before submitting.
• Geek Business PR 5; Alexa 1,496,065 Geek Business describes itself as "detailed tips and information to webmasters on how to combine being a successful geek and successful business person simultaneously."
• Career Alley PR 4; Alexa 702,109 Career Alley focuses on career, job search advice, and job search site reviews.
• Small Business Trends PR 6; Alexa 9,250 Small Business Trends offers mostly marketing-related topics of interest to small business.
• Fresh Energy PR 5; Alexa 2,514,626 Fresh Energy is a site dedicated to "fresh energy issues," such as clean energy, energy efficiency, transportation and land use, and global warming.

Blogs about Blogging

• Blog Godown PR 4; Alexa 44,183 Blog Godown features tips for blogging and social media. Instead of emailing the post, you write it directly into their WordPress post box. The blog owner will review and publish it, if it’s a good fit.
• Problogger PR 6; Alexa 2,022 Get your site ready for an avalanche of traffic if you get accepted to this high-powered blog by Darren Rouse. The blog is mostly about how to make money blogging.
• Men with Pens PR 5; Alexa 74,125 Men with Pens is one of the top writers’ websites around. Don’t be fooled by the title, though. Although the target audience is "men with pens," women writers are welcome. In fact, the site owner is a woman who writes under the pseudonum of James Chartrand.
• Quick Online Tips PR 5; Alexa 5345 Quick Online Tips actively solicits guest bloggers to write about tech, advertising, marketing, computers, gadgets, blogging, WordPress, SEO, Google, tips, tricks, hacks, etc.
• Daily Blog Tips PR 5; Alexa 4,458 Daily Blog Tips gives how-to information on blogging and internet marketing.
• JayPee Online PR 4; Alexa 81,822 JayPee Online offers technology news, blogging news, WordPress news and updates, WordPress theme and plugin reviews, gadgets, free software, and tips and tricks.
• iBlogZone PR 3; Alexa 16, s667 iBlogZone gives simple techniques to improve earnings, find small business opportunities, increase traffic, improve conversions, search engine optimization and everything else related to online business or the social web.
• Famous Bloggers PR 4; Alexa 8,257 Famous Bloggers is a site that actively solicits guest bloggers, focusing on business, SEO, marketing, design, social networking, making money online, and blogging tips.
• Kikolani PR 4; Alexa 14,792 Kikolani publishes up-to-date news on blogging techniques and technology, making money blogging, and personal development for bloggers. She periodically closes guest post submissions and reopens when she’s cleared her backlog to keep the information fresh.

Home, Family and Lifestyle

• Money Saving Mom PR 5; Alexa 5,127 Money Saving Mom talks about coupons, deals and money-saving hints for families.
• Small Notebook for a Simple Home PR 4; Alexa 130,368 Small Notebook presents Ideas for simplifying and organizing the home.
• Summer Tomato PR 5; Alexa 88,389 Summer Tomato gives actionable tips for healthy eating and healthy living. Note that for your guest post to be considered, you have to donate $10 to Charity Water.
• e-Patients PR 5; Alexa 457,411 E-Patients is the blog of the Society for Participatory Medicine, which aims to get patients informed and involved in their health care.
• "Cents"able Momma PR 2, Alexa 61,010 "Cents"able Momma offers money-saving tips and ways to earn extra money.
• Twenty-Something Travel PR 4; Alexa 58,788 Twenty-Something Travel is a guide to long-term world travel, exotic destinations and other travel matters for the the footloose and fancy-free.
• Simple Productivity Blog PR 5; Alexa 53, 6518 The Simple Productivity Blog presents ideas for productivity, simplicity, balance and life design.
• Frugal Living NW PR 4; Alexa 60,284 The Frugal Living NW blog focuses on frugal living and homemaking. It follows a series of themes that change every two months. See the editorial calendar for a listing of 2011-12 themes.
• End the Neglect PR 5; Alexa 2,719,232 End the Neglect is a blog dedicated to preventing and curing neglected tropical diseases and and focusing on other global health issues.

Personal Growth and Productivity

• Life Optimizer PR 5; Alexa 71,372 Life Optimizer focuses on personal growth and effectiveness.
• Procrastinating Writers Blog PR 4; Alexa 1,021,462 Procrastinating Writers Blog offers help for creative writers trying to overcome procrastination.
• Head Heart Health PR 2; Alexa 635,037 Head Heart Health focuses on healthy living, mind-body-spirit, and self-esteem for women.
• Real Men Real Style PR 4, Alexa 234,681 Real Men, Real Style teaches men to improve their wardrobe and lifestyle.
• Productive Flourishing PR 5; Alexa 77,105 The tagline of Productive Flourishing is "strategies for thriving in life and business." The blog aims to help people think more clearly, ask better questions, and do the things that will enable readers to flourish.

Technology

• Right Now in Tech PR 4; Alexa 593,325 Right Now in Tech features stories about technology and science.
• 40tech PR 2; Alexa 135,010 40tech’s owner describes the blog as being about "technology, gadgets, the internet, software, and video games for those over 40, but not over the hill."
• Regular Geek PR 4; Alexa 269,988 Regular Geek writes about software development, web development, programming.
• TechSling PR 3; Alexa 69,913 TechSling blog covers news in the computing, mobile, and gaming world.
• Tech Gyo.com PR3; Alexa 51860 Tech Gyo presents news about the internet, Twitter, computer, blogging, WordPress, social media, make money online, search engine optimization.

Placing Your Guest Post

These are 41 sites that present good opportunities to increase your traffic, get good backlinks and spread your message. It’s by no means all the opportunities you could find. For more sites, you can google the phrase "guest post* guidelines" + "YOUR KEYWORD" (filling in the actual keyword you’re looking for).

Alternatively, if you know of a blog you’d like to write for, the owner might accept your post even if there is no "guidelines" page. Simply outline a post that would be a good fit for the blog and email the blog owner, using the contact page information. Explain why you want to write for the blog and the idea you have for an article. If the blog owner sees it as a good fit, you might find a home for your post. The worst that can happen is that you look to place it somewhere else.

Guest posting has become a hot topic, and the practice is not going away. Put it to good use to build a bigger audience for your blog.

This post was written by Jan Bear.  By the way, this blog ALSO allows guest posting.  Just drop us a line if you’re interested.

Assignments, social circles, classes – so many things – so little time for the college student.  Thankfully, we have 5 tips here that are absolutely relevant (and useful!) to the techy student in all of us.

1. Connectify – because you want to share your wifi connection with other devices

Anyone who has lived on campus dormitories know that there are strict rules to abide by, and one of them tends to be a restriction on tampering with college property – even if its as simple as connecting your own wireless router to make your life easier. And without wireless access or an expensive data plan, mobile devices such as the iPhone, iPod touch, Android tablets etc. harkens back to the days of featurephones in terms of usability.

Gratefully, and we mean this in the sincerest way, there’s Connectify. Connectify is a service which allows you to transform your laptop into a wireless hotspot; and there’s no messing around here – it’s an Apple-esque one-click process. Since it looks like just about any other program, you won’t need to worry about it being detected by any tracking software the college authorities may have mandatorily installed on your computer.

2. Google Chrome Portable – because computer labs don’t usually have the best browsers

College campuses usually provide students with the luxury of computer labs; but unless you’re attending a rather reputable school, you’ll most likely have to contend with sub-standard services beyond the bare necessities – for example: limited range of wireless access, imperfect air-conditioning which is either too hot or too cold, and… Internet Explorer 6. If you’re among those who are stuck with Internet browsers from the 90’s and whose college computer labs restrict the installation of third-party programs, take comfort in that there is a solution for you.

Google Chrome Portable takes the speed and efficiency of its desktop variant and crams it into the tight confines of a thumbdrive. Taking up barely 100 MB of disk space, it’s nary a problem for even those constricted by 2GB thumbdrives, and the portable version works just as well as the desktop version – the differences are hardly noticeable in all practical aspects. As an added bonus, Google Chrome Portable handles a large number of open tabs just fine, making it a boon for those in the midst of writing their thesis.

3. Dropbox – because all your work should be instantly backed up to the cloud

If you’re constantly forgetting to bring your USB drive to campus, then Dropbox will be a lifesaver for you. Dropbox works by automatically uploading the contents of an entire folder on your home computer to its cloud servers, of which you can proceed to download from www.dropbox.com – so as long as you have access to an Internet browser, you’ll have immediate access to all the files which were originally saved on your home computer.

If you live constantly in fear of losing the contents of your entire USB drive to a washing machine, Dropbox may become more to you than merely a way to quickly share files across multiple computers. What’s more, it also has offline saving features for its apps on all the major smartphone platforms, so if you want access to lecture notes on-the-go, Dropbox will be especially valuable to you.

4. Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool – because you can’t afford to lose time reformatting a PC

Whether it’s your own computer or a friend’s, reformatting a Windows 7 computer can be a pain sometimes, especially when you have to search high and low for the installation CD after months of neglect. Fortunately, Windows has a nifty tool which helps you to reformat your Windows PC straight from a USB drive.

The Windows USB/DVD Download Tool handily creates a series of files which makes it bootable from the BIOS, and it has been tested to work even if you make a backup of those files and return them to your USB drive the next time you need to perform a fresh install. Best of all, since a USB drive has faster read/write speeds than a CD, your Windows 7 installation will be at least twice as fast, making reformatting your laptop a breeze.

5. KatMouse – because multi-tasking should be simpler on Windows

If you’ve done a proportionate amount of assignments on a Windows PC, you’d probably have started to realize that you can’t scroll in applications without first clicking on them. This makes it frustratingly difficult to do your research and type your assignment in Microsoft Word at the same time, because you’d have to click on the Internet browser to scroll through the website you’re researching, then click on the Word document to scroll through it, and rinse-and-repeat – even if you have both windows visible across your screen.

KatMouse does away with this little but noticeable irritation by allowing you to scroll up and down pages just by hovering your mouse cursor over them and moving the scroll wheel. This way, you can keep your Word document open as your main application, and still be able to scroll through the website you’re researching without having to click on it everytime you need to review something.

6. CopyTrans – because students love music

Ever performed a fresh install of Windows on your computer, only to realize that all your playlists in iTunes, which had been meticulously and painstakingly put together over a number of years, had been wiped clean? The endevour is made even more heartbreaking, by the fact that Apple has failed to acknowledge in iTunes the simple task of transferring the songs and playlists already residing on your iPhone or iPod back to your computer.

iTunes’s all-encompassing backup function has its advantages in simplicity, but if you’re just trying to copy your playlists over from your iPhone, tough luck. Well fret no more, as CopyTrans just does that. You can choose to backup your songs and playlist from your device straight into iTunes, so that things appear to have never changed at all. In addition, CopyTrans is also able to selectively backup your photo album, apps, contacts, messages and the like, so you’re actually capable of selectively backing up pretty much anything you wish.

This post was written by Aaron Pek

Streaming video has marked a new era in multimedia content delivering. What was earlier broadcasted on TV or distributed on DVDs, today is rather streamed through video-sharing sites like YouTube or Megavideo. The main asset of streaming video is that you don’t have to download a video file in order to play it – the content is always displayed in real time. However, sometimes we need to save web videos onto a hard drive in order to transfer them to a smartphone, portable media player or just escape the problems with a slow Internet connection.

It’s no longer a secret that almost any web video may ripped off a website. The technologies may vary from video grabbing to stream recording. The tools may be also quite different: browser plugins, web services, desktop software. The point is that not all "video downloaders" do what is promised: most of them fail to overcome frequent changes in video portals’ coding procedures, others are so user-unfriendly that it’s next to impossible to use them on a regular basis. Still there are rare exceptions. Here is the roundup of top 5 tools which really work and deliver free and fast streaming video downloads.

1. Freemake Video Downloader

This is a free Windows-based desktop software which uses an intricate grabbing technique thus allowing users to download streaming video from thousands of websites. In addition to popular portals like YouTube and Vimeo, the downloader works for most local video resources and any sites embedding video. The tool lets download videos in any quality or format available, extract audio tracks or convert to MP3, AVI, MP4 (iPod, iPhone, PSP, Android), 3GP, MKV. There are also handy browser plugins for Chrome and Firefox which let download video within one click only. To work with the software users will need to install .Net 4.0.

2. Firefox Video DownloadHelper

This is one of the most demanded Firefox addons. It lets download videos from YouTube, MySpace, Dailymotion and other sites, so you can watch them whenever you want. When you are on a page containing links to images or movies, you can download some or all of them at once. All you’ll have to do is click the Video DownloadHelper icon and save the video. You can also setup the extension to automatically convert the downloaded movies to your preferred video format: AVI, MP4, WMV, MPEG, MP3, MOV, 3PG and popular portable gadgets. The only minus is that you can’t use it in other web browser but Firefox.

3. BienneSoft YouTube Downloader

This is an ad-supported desktop software for Windows. Leaving aside the utilitarian interface, this is a good option to rip streaming videos based on YouTube, Facebook and some other video sharing sites. The download process is quick and easy: just paste a URL, set a resolution and click “Download”. The program allows users to convert YouTube videos to handheld devices and formats and play the downloaded video as well. There is also a paid version for $19.90 which promises to be faster and download video in batch.

4. Zamzar

This is a free web service to convert various files between formats and download streaming videos from YouTube, BlipTV, Metacafe, Myspace and some other sites. The service doesn’t provide “only download” option, therefore the conversion to some video format is indispensable. The link with a resulted video is sent to your email. You may download only one video at once. The other drawback is 100 MB limit for source files, still there are Pro pricing plans for the advanced users.

5. Xenra

This is another free online tool which allows you to convert and download YouTube streaming videos to MP3, AVI, MP4 and other formats. All you need is a video URL and the software will download the video to server, convert it and then pass you a link to the converted file. Users can easily customize video and audio bitrate, audio volume, or add information about artist, album. The service also provides a handy Chrome addon. Unfortunately, there is only YouTube in the list of supported websites.

Guest Author’s Bio

Elena Vakhromova is IT enthusiast, freelance blogger and SMO fan. She enjoys writing about popular Windows and web-based apps.

Major computer games are complex and very realistic. The upside is that games are very deep and engaging.  But what if you’re a busy person with busy things to do, and you just want to unwind after a long day? Here are 30 free indie games which are boatloads of fun, while simple to play – with video previews so you can see before you try :)

4 Free Racing Indie Games

1. Nitronic Rush

Nitronic Rush is easily the prettiest, and possibly the most well-developed indie game to grace our PCs for a long time. It’s developed by Team Nitronic of game studio DigiPen, perhaps as a side project that didn’t make it to the main arena, but all the hints points towards a beautiful project crafted with care and detail.

Nitronic Rush is basically a racing game set in a digital ‘Tron’ like setting where your cars can hop, boost and even fly. Throw in an online multiplayer component and a few amazing racetracks which includes loops, broken tracks, and revolving obstacles, and you have an amazing racing game which rivals the likes of top names like Need for Speed or Burnout. And unbelievably, it’s all absolutely FREE!

2. SWERVE

In case you haven’t had enough of racing games, here’s one more to add to your list. Unlike Nitronic Rush, with its bright, shiny colors and uber smooth controls, SWERVE is more of an old-school style of racing games, where all the cars move at around the same speed and strategy is key to winning the races.

If you’ve played the Rush Hour games before (completely unrelated to the Rush Hour movie starring Jackie Chan), you have a good idea of what SWERVE is all about. Old timers who want a taste of nostalgia will be delighted to learn that the controls handle well, and the toy car setup with realistic engine sounds reflect almost identically the way Rush Hour used to play.

3. Dirche Kart

If you’ve ever fallen in love with the go-cart racing genre, such as the wildly popular Mario Kart series, you’ll have a ton of fun with Dirche Kart. Even though the trailer above showcases the Xbox 360 version, the PC version is “even better”, in the sense that the director has already begun work on Dirche Kart 2 and is making the beta available for anyone to try.

In any case, it’s clear that a lot of work has gone into Dirche Kart. The controls are butter smooth, which are all-important in this game given the tight corners you’ll be turning, and the cell-shaded graphics pay a tribute to Mario Kart, giving gamers a sense of familiarity from the moment they start. Overall, the gameplay experience is just delightful. You can even play with your friends, if you hook up enough controllers or keyboards. If there’s one thing you’ll never get bored of, it’s pitting your driving skills against 3 other friends in a race to the finish, with super powers and go-karts to boot.

4. Wroom

Physics-based games are the best. They incorporate the game mechanics of the real world, so you’d somewhat know what to expect when your ball or cloud falls off from a ledge or gets trampoline-d up by a fan, as opposed to the unrealistic, flailing physics in most games. So how do we make it better? By including sweet, toothache-inducing graphics and throwing in a racing component.

Wroom does just exactly that. The artwork is so cute and sweet, you can’t help but marvel at its ingenuity. In addition, there’s a huge array of levels for your car(s) to roam around in with the object of reaching the finish line, all governed by the game’s rather good approximate idea of physics – so you can perform loop-a-loops, ramp launches, 360 degree somersaults, and the like. In addition, you can play with up to 3 other friends, making it the perfect getaway session for your colleagues, mates, etc.

3 Free Platform Indie Games

1. Spelunky

Spelunky is reminiscent towards the old-school platformers of the days of old, such as Mario and Prince of Persia. It combines a sense of puzzle-ness together with a confusing layout of caves to spelunk in, and throws in some enemies peppered here and there to give a sense of urgency to the atmosphere. Spelunky, as the name would suggest, tells the story of a spelunker who traverses the intricate mazes of caves to reach a fabulous treasure at the end!

The game has received critical acclaim among the indie-game community, and has achieved such high status among the gaming community, that the developer has already ported it for the XBLA community last fall, and has featured it at the games festival PAX 2011. Although PC fans won’t be able to play the slightly enhanced ported version, there’s still the original which started the entire phenomenon.

2. NeonPlat Adventures

NeonPlat Adventures tells the charming story of an individual neon boy/girl made of bright colors making their way through a neon bright world to reach the end of NeonPlat. It may look a little dated, but NeonPlat really stands out among the indie game crowd due to its bright, well-placed rainbow colors. Where most indie games are constrained by their budget and end up looking less pretty in the graphics department, NeonPlat’s makes up for its simple design with its colorful style and turns out looking pretty swell.

In the course of your adventure, you’ll come across creatures like ‘pinkies’ and giant floating heads which try to block your way, and the game bears a cutesy theme throughout its entire package, which fits with the colorful neon world. Also, the developer has promised to create one new level every day, so it’s really something to look forward to when you come back from a long day.

3. Voxatron

Voxatron can be easily defined as Space Invaders, modern-style. It features the classic top-down alien invading shoot-them-before-they-reach-the-bottom type of enemy swarms trying to overwhelm your character, who hugs the bottom of the screen fending them off by shooting projectiles upwards.

However, where Voxatron is different is in its unique application of the Space Invader concept, by including traversable levels. Thus, you can not only shoot from down-to-up, but even side-to-side as you move your character along levels, and in some cases fall into areas requiring you to dispose of surrounding enemies swarming at you from all sides. The levels are created with a lot of detail and color, and this indie developer has paid a lot of attention to its 3D 8-bit artwork, so you can expect to have a load of fun with this game.

6 Free Puzzle Indie Games

1. JNKPlat

JNKPlat is an old-school game that takes its roots in platformers like Prince of Persia and Lode Runner, which results in a game which resembles a combination of the two. It has platforming aspects, in the sense that the little yellow man which you control tries to run from one end of the level to the other, climbing ladders in the process, dropping down chutes etc.

The difference here is that JNKPlat is at its heart not a platformer game. This quickly becomes evident with the lack of in-air mechanics, i.e. your character cannot move while falling, which you may not think much of at first but quickly becomes striking when you start playing the game. Although this may seem less than a little quirky, the levels are actually arranged in a “Grid” format, meaning that you have to think about the limitations of your character instead of mindlessly blowing your way through the entire level. If you’re looking for a puzzle game which plays like a platformer, give JNKPlat a try.

2. Brainsplode

If you’ve played Angry Birds before, then you’ll immediately feel at home with Brainsplode, except for maybe the “brains” aspect of it. Brainsplode is about controlling a stationery rocket launcher, and firing rockets at… you guessed it, brains. The object is to destroy all the brains stationed upon the various walls, floors, and ceilings of the many levels, and you’ll have a wicked fun time trying to achieve that.

Just like Angry Birds, the developer has designed the game to be challenging enough to be fun, without making it frustrating. The cartoonish artwork bears a resemblance to the old PC game ‘Worms’ of 10 years back or the more recent World of Goo, which is pleasant to the eye and conveys the physics aspect of the game quite nicely.

3. Tag: The Power of Paint

Tag: The Power of Paint, is familiar to two other indie games in this article for good reason. The first one is Nabacular Drop, whose development team was absorbed by Valve together with this one, to work on Portal 2. The second reason is that it also started life as a student project from DigiPen, the same studio which contributed to the epic racing installment, Nitronic Rush. With the backing of these big names, it’s understandable if you might already have high expectations for this game.

So how does it play in practice? I’m delighted to report that Tag: The Power of Paint is oodles of fun. Basically, in this game’s world, each color of paint represents different properties, such as jumping higher, running faster, or transporting you to a different point in space. Of course, the fact that you’re equipped with a “paint gun” really helps even out the fun factor. By implementing different strategies, the goal is to overcome all the obstacles and reach the end of the level – with mind-numbingly challenging, yet endless solutions and possibilities.

4. The Big Sea

The Big Sea is a traditional rolling ball game which takes you through a path of select mazes and obstacles to reach a goal. You play as a pulsing blue orb with red stripes traversing your way over elevations, slopes, cylinders, revolving blocks and the like, until you reach the end of the level.

The stark white scenery reminds one of an Escher’s painting, and the cool colors against the white backgrounds with soft shadows really imbue a relaxing mood upon the player during play. It’s one of those games that you can really escape into when you need a moment to relax or two.

5. BallMan Planets

Ballman Planets aims to bring back the joys of Pacman, the little yellow man who ran around mazes gobbling up yellow dots while ghosts chased him. Indie game developer Code Viking recreates this classic adventure in full 3D, giving players a chance to roam around the game worlds collecting the yellow dots, all in the third dimension.

Ballman Planets was the brainchild of a programming competition which the developers eventually won, and their win is proof to the game’s capacity. Besides the obviously entertaining aspect of playing Pacman on a 3D planet environment, there are multiple different environments to choose from, a “fake” 3D anaglyph mode (if you have cyan-blue glasses), and it features in-game music developed by actual music professionals. Whether or not you were a fan of Pacman before, you’d be one by the end of this game.

6. Waker

Waker is an indie game developed by developers from the Singapore-MIT Gambit Game Lab, and is a puzzle-platformer game at heart. Its narrative concept is quite interesting: you play as a “waker”, a being which reconnects the broken bridges which returns sleeping dreamers to the real world. The team claims that it was created as an educational game to teach players about physics, more specifically how displacement and velocity work in tandem using the manipulation of graphical representations.

So how does it play? Waker employs a distinct hand painted artwork style, which reminds players of the World of Goo games. Alongside its theme, it also bears a very soothing, calm, zen-like music, so playing this in isolation, perhaps in a dark enclosed room, will really give you a sense of immersion into the game. The puzzles are adequately challenging and intuitive, and overall Waker is a really well-developed game.

2 Free Music (Rhythm) Indie Games

1. Frets on Fire

Fancy a music themed rhythm-game like Guitar Hero but don’t have a Playstation 3 or a plastic guitar? Well, fret not, as Frets on Fire is here to fulfill that void in your life with a free, open-sourced indie game that not only plays like Guitar Hero, it even looks entirely like an identical copy, with slightly dated graphics. If you’re still not sure how it plays like, just think of hitting the corresponding keys in sync with the music as they slide down along a backdrop of a rock-themed layout.

The great thing about it is that since the game is open-sourced, there’s a huge developer’s community which constantly updates the already burgeoning availability of song selections, meaning you’ll never have to worry about depleting the supply of songs. If you happen to have Guitar Hero song files, you can also upload them and play them right away on this program.

2. MusicRacer

MusicRacer is the definitive rhythm game that you just have to try out. Inspired by the spaceship tube riding concept of the WipeOut series, MusicRacer adds a notch to the franchise by analyzing any music files residing on your hard drive and creating a track which matches the rhythm of that song. Be it pop, rock, jazz, or whatever your music preferences are, MusicRacer adapts to that genre and creates a track with powerups specifically placed in the areas where they correspond with the beat of the song.

The graphics are pretty decent even compared to some of the modern budget games, and the controls are slick and smooth, as they should be for it to be considered a good rhythm game. The point system works well and adapts to whatever song you’re using, so you get an objective representation of your progress no matter what song you play it with.

6 Free Action Indie Games

1. Thunder Gut

Ever wanted to be Neo of the Matrix, flying off walls, coolly swinging through the air and firing rounds of bullets into your enemies? Well now you can have all that, except for perhaps the “cool” factor. Thunder Gut features a nameless hero bearing a really huge moustache, and tries to mix the shooter, platformer and arcade styles of games. The resulting batter turns out to be quite a successful, entertaining mix.

Thunder Gut’s hero jumps off walls, ricochets along ramps, and mercilessly unloads rounds and rounds of ammo into his enemies in a swift, smooth motion. The gameplay mechanics are nothing short of awesome, and the “Matrix” effect certainly is there thanks to the workable physics engine incorporated within the game. In addition, the light cartoon style complements the entire package, and the inclusion of timers within which to clear the levels of enemies only serves to up the ante of the challenge.

2. Super Crate Box

Have you ever come across games by big-name studios which are adorned with bright, terrific graphics, a heightened plot involving aliens and guns, backed by a huge production and advertising budget and having gained enormous word of mouth… but somehow falling short of expectations? Well, Super Crate Box is the antithesis (opposite) of that.

Despite its 8-bit, polygon style artwork, simplicity in concept and having a practically irrelevant storyline, Super Crate Box somehow manages to remain not just fun, but exceedingly addictive. It involves picking up all the crates on a level, with a twist – each crate packs a random weapon with which to destroy enemies, including the likes of bazookas, laser guns and projectile ammunition. See where I’m coming from? You can easily while away hours on this game without even realizing it.

3. Alien Arena

If you try to recall the games from the early 2000s, the typical online multiplayer first-person shooters that will come to mind are Counter Strike (which is still being played now) and Unreal Tournament. While not as popular as Counter Strike, Unreal Tournament, which featured an intergalactic space marine war theme, had nearly the same magnitude in its user base in its glory days.

Alien Arena plays (and looks) almost exactly like Unreal Tournament. You have your standard shoot-it-out arenas, team deathmatches and capture-the-flag game modes, except this time you’re playing as aliens of different races. It’s a fight to the death with laser guns and rocket launchers, and the “frag” system works pretty much how you’d expect. If you’re looking for a decent indie game of the first person shooter genre, Alien Arena fits the bill nicely.

4. Death Worm

Death Worm follows the adventure of… a gigantic worm, which is out to eat, destroy and claim everything that stands in its path. While the premise may not sound all that vein-popping in itself, Death Worm actually stands out among the indie game crowd as a genuinely entertaining way to pass your time and fulfill your destructive tendencies.

The game basically revolves around a giant brown worm which grows in length (a la Snake) and size as he consumes more and more victims in its wake. You control the worm and snake around underground, occasionally popping up to claim people, animals, airplanes and the like to fulfill your all-consuming, everlasting hunger. It may not sound like much, but the fast-paced excitement from mindlessly destroying virtual people and property positions this as an action game to look forward to in your free time.

5. RunMan: Race Around The World

One of the most iconic games ever created in the 20^th century has to be Sonic the Hedgehog. The speedy little blue ball which races along through side scrolling screens is easily recognized by any child of the 90’s, but unfortunately, not many indie attempts have managed to successfully recreate the fast, fluid, motion that the original Sonic delivers. Fortunately, RunMan not only succeeds at that, it surpasses it.

One of the hardest aspects of Sonic to preserve was the fluidity of its controls, given the level of speed and tight responses Sonic has been known to deliver. RunMan: Race Around The World not only manages to be such a game with rapid control delivery, it’s also an engaging colorful world to explore in as well. Given the tons of positive reviews it has garnered, it’s safe to say that this game is worth giving a shot.

6. Walkie Tonky

In Walkie Tonky, you play as a cute giant alien robot bent on the destruction of an unnamed city in an invasion on Earth. It’s a side-scroller game in its essence, in the sense that it requires you to keep up with the scrolling on the left side of the screen, and the challenge comes in the form of obstacles trying to impede your path. It may not be an extremely unique concept, but it’s one that turns out to be really fun.

In the game, the human government tries to stop your onslaught against the city by throwing barriers, helicopters, jets, missiles and even buildings at you, in an attempt to squish you against the advancing left side of the screen and damaging you in the process. You can pick up the obstacles which stand in your way (or else you’ll get stuck in them) and hurl them at enemies, and there is a variety of enemies and bosses for you to defend against in your quest to reach the rightmost part of the level. The difficulty level has been tuned just right to provide a fun and challenging, yet not frustrating gaming experience as you engross yourself in trying to beat the level without getting destroyed.

6 Free RPG (Role-playing) Indie Games

1. Sissy’s Magical Ponycorn Adventure

Sissy’s Magical Ponycorn Adventure plays exactly how it sounds like – it takes place in a dreamy cartoony world, hand-drawn with color pencils, and tells a story about magic portals, love, happiness, rainbows and ponycorns (a hybrid of ponies and unicorns). However, that’s where its likeness to children’s games ends, as Sissy’s Magical Ponycorn Adventure is jam packed with all the elements of a good mature fairy tale – sarcasm, witty banter, utter and complete suspension from reality, and the like.

It’s debatable whether the game author’s intention was to design the game towards children or adults, but what’s indubitable is that Sissy’s Magical Ponycorn Adventure is an immersive game which completely sucks you into its universe. It’s definitely a game which takes you away from life for a minute or two, giving you a respite from your daily life throughout the duration of your play.

2. Frogatto & Friends

Frogatto & Friends is a delightful little game that, if you’re a gamer from the 1990s, will take you way back. It’s reminiscent of the games of old such as Tales of Destiny 2, Final Fantasy 6 and Chrono Trigger, just to name a few, and it really harkens the melody of the hottest blockbusters of those times. Of course, you won’t get the same level of detail as the JRPGs which were created by massively financially-supported game studios, but the hand painted pixel artwork and MIDI music will send shivers of nostalgia racing down your backs.

3. Narbacular Drop

Ever heard of Portal? No, really? Well, to bring you up to speed, Portal was created by Valve, which counts among its big-budget titles popular games such as Half-Life and Warcraft: Defense of the Ancients (or D.O.T.A.). In fact, Portal has garnered such widespread critical acclaim for its uniqueness, that it has been given the privilege of being turned from a pet project into one of Valve’s most recognized games.

So what are Portal’s roots, one might ask? Where did such inspired creativity come from? Look no further than the indie game which begot Portal, Narbacular Drop. Its teleportation concept amazed Valve’s CEO so much, that he decided to absorb the small game development team into Valve, leading to the team’s eventual production of one of the hottest and most critically acclaimed games on the face of the earth.

4. Cave Story

Cave Story can be said to be one of the earliest flagship indie games that started the indie game bandwagon along the road that it has taken up till today. And despite its age, its gameplay is no less compelling. Telling the story of a young boy who is travelling the world, you play by shooting enemies with various types of guns which grants the boy specific abilities.

Cave Story has a huge fledging community fan base, and nearly everyone who has played it has recommended it over and over again. It has been ported to the Mac, PSP and Xbox, and you’ll have to spend a little bit of time to figure out how to install the English version patch and read up on the controls, but once you’re done, you’re guaranteed to have a blast playing this little game.

5. Iji

If you’ve played Duke Nukem before, then Iji will feel very familiar to you. Iji follows the tale of Iji, a strong willed girl who is thrust into an apocalyptic robot world and has to fight her way through to find her lost brother. She has a bunch of guns in her arsenal, but the main weapon which makes Iji so distinct from other RPGs is her high kick, which can destroy robots, sentry turrets, boxes, and just about anything she comes across.

Iji has a compelling story to tell, which is rare in most indie games, so it’s really worth checking out. The plot builds nicely, and the hard, flat color palette really invokes a sense of nostalgia which is hard to place, but will certainly reverberate with older gamers. The action sequences are also nicely laid out for an indie game, and there are a ton of choices, including multiple endings (which has only recently appeared in big budget games), to partake from.

6. Burning Thirst

We’ve covered first person shooters, racers, real-time strategy games, platformers, side-scrollers, and even JRPGs, but we still haven’t touched on one of the most popular genres of all time, the third person perspective game. Burning Thirst is an amazing tribute to the genre, given the fact that it’s free – it has a decent storyline, an engaging experience, and awesome gamplay mechanics.

If there’s a game that it has to be referenced against, it would be a combination of two of Capcom’s biggest franchises – Devil May Cry and Resident Evil. In Burning Thirst, you play as a man named Joe, equipped with a giant oversized dual-edged sword and superpowers. You can fling your sword around like a boomerang, cause explosions by stomping on the ground, and in general just hack-and-slash your way through zombies and mutants like there’s no tomorrow. Given its lush 3D environments and modern day graphics, it’s probably the best zombie apocalyptic indie game you’ll ever be able to find.

Free RTS (Real-Time Strategy) Indie Games

1. Base Invaders

We’ve covered action games, platformers, puzzle games, and even racing games, but is there no love for real-time strategy (RTS) games? For those of you reminiscing about the times spent playing Red Alert, worry not, as there is also an indie game for you.

Base Invaders isn’t Red Alert, in the sense that your objective isn’t to conquer and annihilate your enemy’s base; but it does feature the self-preservation aspect of the games and many different types of units for you to choose from. There are assault towers, sentry guns, iron barricades and the like to defend your base against, and you have to defeat a select number of increasingly challenging enemies that are trying to destroy your base to proceed. In addition, it has a pretty nice soundtrack, so that’s a picky bonus.

2 Free Miscellaneous Indie Games

1. Cloud

Cloud was voted among the Top Ten Games You’ve Never Heard Of by Game Informer Magazine, and has to be one of the most unique concepts to ever grace the world of gaming in a while. Unlike other games, Cloud doesn’t have a very specific objective; it’s basically a free-roaming game in which you interact with your environment. If you think that’s boring, then you have another thing heading your way.

In Cloud, you control a cloud sprite, who has the power to control white puffy clouds in the sky. While there’s no in-game objective to accomplish, the game draws you in by delving you into a huge degree of interactivity: you can use “puffs” to draw surrounding clouds into your area of control, crash into dark clouds to create rain, fight with “enemy” clouds to start a lightning battle, and such. But the true gem of Cloud lies in the ability to freely roam around the land, and the feeling of power that you wield to affect the environments, cities and people which roam beneath your field of control. That’s the true crystal of Cloud: seeing how the environment reacts to your actions.

2. QWOP

QWOP is one of the most hilarious games to be ever created; and the amazing thing is that it is so creative that it manages to combine fun, ingenuity, and sheer hardcore challenge into one package. In the game, you play as QWOP, which incidentally is the name of the runner that you’re controlling. However, instead of controlling the runner as a whole, you control his thighs and calves individually – which makes for a very unique experience.

Basically, since you’re individually controlling the runner’s muscle segments, your player runs like a stumbling block. The trick is balance, you’ve got to maintain the equilibrium between control and speed to reach the farthest distance in the fastest time possible without falling over, amid obstacles such as hurdles (which you have to mind-bogglingly attempt to jump over). There’s also a leaderboard, so you can compare your attempts with millions of other people who have already given the game their best shot.

QWOP has already intrigued millions of players around the world ever since its inception, and has become so popular that it has also inspired an iPhone version of the game.

This post was written by Aaron Pek

We all love our feline cuddly creatures just like they love a low-hanging piece of string, but often times we find the Internet doesn’t share the same love for us. Useful pet websites can be difficult to find compared to other topics such as sports and technology, so here are 5 useful online resources made just for cat lovers, like you and me!

1. How To Get Accurate Health Advice Concerning Your Pretty Pet

Cats are supposed to have nine lives anyway; and as pets, we usually take it for granted that they will live illness-free and content for the rest of their lives – only to be brought to a jarring halt when our beloveds suddenly begin to display sickly symptoms. Fortunately, most of what your cat may go through has been experienced by other cats in different parts of the world and can be diagnosed. For instance, I found out that my cat’s unretractable inner eyelid would heal by itself in the course of a week.

The Cat section of Ask The Vet’s Pets has a comprehensive log of the various different kinds of diseases your cat may encounter. It’s written with the intention to be easily understood, and as a bonus is written from the perspective of the author’s cat, so you actually get an entertaining read-through that empathizes with the cat folk rather than a medical report. There’s also an equally useful Dog’s section here if you, like many others, own both a dog and a cat.

2. How-To Tutorials On The Daily Rearing of Your Cat, plus Useful Hints & Tips

Cat Lover’s Only may seem like one of the millions of cat blogs “littering” (pun intended) the Internet, but beneath the homely front page and the 1990s design is a goldmine of tips and hints on the best way to care for your cat. What’s great about Cat Lover’s Only is that it doesn’t just contain facts written from the author’s experience; he or she was actually trying to compile a comprehensive database to advice other cat owners, with links to other websites appropriate to the topic.

This site details the author’s personal journey in finding the best cat food (from looking up on the toxicity of different kinds of foods to answering questions on organic cat food), gathers up research by different cat benefit groups to discuss the health effects on cats, and recommends acceptable cat foods with links to the manufacturer’s website.

And that’s just one page on cat food! The rest of the site is peppered with similarly valuable information on different topics, and there’s a good chance you can find whatever your fix is here.

3. Where To Buy Cat-Related Products Online

Want to complement your cat’s presence with an outfit of cat-shaped furniture in your home? Desiring to dress-up your cat in frilly bows or “cat shirts” like you see on TV? Fortunately, where there’s demand there will be a market, and from the looks of things it seems like cat-related goods are high in demand. Here are just a few places you’ll probably want to visit if you’re looking for something cat-flavored:

• Celebrating CATS: Mugs, bags, T-shirts & tumblers
• Cozy Cat Furniture: scratching posts, pet stairs, cat towers, cat houses & cat beds etc.
• CatToys : Cat toys, bowls, parasite solutions, litter accessories, odor and stain removers
• MeowStore: Cat stuff for humans!

4. Where To Share and Discuss Your Cat Love With Other Cat Lovers

If you own a cat, you must know by now how lovable, adorable, and all-sorts-of-able they are, and it’s hardly surprising that people in millions of other households feel exactly the same way. At the same time, Internet forums are a great place to discuss topics with others around the world at the speed of light. Mix both together and you get the ultimate combination of “awesome”: online cat forums.

Here, you can discuss topics such as pet health, share cat pictures to bask in their mutual cuteness, or just talk plainly about cat-related stuff. There are just too many cat forums around the entirety of the Internet, so I’ll just list down a few of the good ones I’ve come across:

• VetClick – talk about your furry felines in good company of veterinary professionals here!
• PetForums – Cat shows and events in the UK; photos, adoption classifieds and discussion forums for everyone else!
• CatWorld – from cats in Australia, for cats all around the world!
• PetLovers – concerning nearly any pet you can think of, including thousands of cat-related posts

5. How To Reach A Feline Adoption Agency or Helpline, or Travel With Your Pet

If you need contacts, this list provides crucial contact information in the event of a pet emergency such as the Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care Society (VECCS) .  It works across many different countries, and is handy to have as a bookmark.

This post was written by Aaron Pek

Title Photo credit: ‘The Piano’ by Daniele Civello

The lure of attracting new clients is the primary reason why many freelance designers, developers, and writers set up portfolio websites. The key is to make sure your portfolio represents who you are and encourages visitors to give your services a shot. Here are 5 tips for getting the most out of your portfolio website:

1. Present Your Brand with Clarity

Within seconds of visiting your site, viewers should have a clear idea of who you are, what kind of work you do, and your personal style. A professionally designed logo at the top of your page should let visitors know they’ve landed in the right place. A brief tag line near the logo will further clarify you and your work.

Lee Munroe shares four key questions to ask yourself about your tag line at Smashing Magazine:

• What are you? A designer? A writer? A developer?
• What do you do? Design websites? Develop games?
• Where are you from? Country? City?
• Are you a freelancer or do you work for a studio? Are you looking for work?

A tag line requires sharp, concise writing that emphasizes the most relevant details about your work. In fact, all of the writing on your portfolio should have short sentences with strong verbs (avoid “is” or “was” if possible).

2. Focus on Your Work

Besides your logo and tag line, make sure viewers can find your work on your first page. Some portfolios include a link or small thumbnail on the home page that leads to a page dedicated to a list of previous work. Other portfolios include a grid on the home page so that viewers can move right to the heart of the site. One other option is to include some thumbnails of your most popular work on your homepage, and then include a link to a  portfolio page.

Each portfolio image and its associated text should lead to a page explaining the services you provide, the software you used, and customer feedback.  As you consider what to include in your portfolio section or page, only mention what you want to be hired to do. If you have experience with print media, but you want to focus on attracting clients for the web, mention your web design work and limit your examples to that category.

Beware of cramming too much work on your portfolio page. If you have a wide range of examples to include, look into the use of column and grid designs that will preserve the clarity of your page.

3. Meet Customer Expectations

Customers will be accessing your site with a variety of browsers at an even wider range of connection speeds. Make sure your site’s code is valid < http://validator.w3.org/> and that nothing prevents customers from finding the essential information they seek: who you are, what you’ve done, and how to hire you.

Designer Andy Stratton suggests,  “There’s nothing wrong with flashy graphics and fancy Javascript effects on your website, unless they are stopping users from accessing your stuff.”

Customers will also expect to find an “About” page where they can learn about your experience, specializations, and awards. Skellie Wag of Envato writes that an about page should include the following elements:

• Who is this person?
• What qualifications and experience do they have?
• Do they seem trustworthy and reliable?
• Are they looking for work?
• Can I see some examples of previous work?

4. Present Your Services Clearly

List your services with bullet points and make them easy to find on your home page and your about page. If you have too many to include on your home page, provide an overview on the home page and then click through to a page that contains a more thorough explanation if that’s required.  For example, a writer with a broad range of experience could say on his home page that he works for commercial publishing and business clients, and then link to a page with a list all of his services for each industry.

5. Provide Action Steps

Action steps may be the difference between a bounce and a new client. At the very least you’ll need a page with contact information. More importantly, think about your potential clients and what steps they need to take in order to hire you.

Some options for action steps could include bright, clear images that say “learn more” or “get a quote.” You can also make a softer connection by including links to your social media accounts on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google Plus.

Effective portfolio site design requires a balance between including essential information and keeping the site clean and uncluttered. If you aren’t sure where to start, check out Smashing Magazine’s incredible list of 50 portfolio designs.  Once you see how other freelancers and professionals present themselves and their work, you’ll be prepared to focus on what sets you and your work apart from the rest.

This guest post is written by Lior Levin, a marketing consultant for the Tel Aviv University political communication major department, and who also works with inspection services in China.

As a Web design student you’re constantly learning new and often complex concepts that can sometimes seem overwhelming. You’ll need all of the tools possible in order to help you learn and to also make your job easier. With Google Chrome’s speediness and growing popularity, it’s a perfect browser for Web design students to get their feet wet with. This list of extensions are especially great for Web designers just starting out. They’re not only easy to use, but they will also help inspire students and make learning fun.

1. Chrome Palette

Lets you create a color palette from any image. This is useful for finding out the different colors used in an image that can then be used for your website. You can use these colors to make everything blend and look aesthetically pleasing.

2. Google Font Previewer

A great way to preview different fonts in different variations before using them on your own website. This is useful for finding a font that will look good with the design of your site. The fonts are taken from the Google Font Directory.

3. Window Resizer

The concept is simple: it resizes the browser window for you so that you can see what the page will look like at other resolutions. This is important because not every computer user will have the same screen size. You’ll need to know what your website will look like to those with smaller or larger monitors as well as those on mobile devices.

4. Web Developer

An easy way to add numerous advanced Web developer tools to your browser in an organized format. You can edit CSS as well as display and disable other types of information and elements on the current Web page. Great for doing extensive developing and debugging.

5. BuiltWith Technology Profiler

Are you wondering what the currently website you’re viewing was built with? Wondering how they got that cool feature to work? This extension can tell you all of that by looking up a page and telling you all of the technologies used on it. This is great for learning about new technologies that you may be able to implement on your own website.

6. Eye Dropper

A very handy tool that can pick colors from any Web page and show you the exactly what the hexadecimal and RGB values are for it. This is great for matching colors on a website without having to look through the code. If you see a color that you like as you’re browsing the Web, you can just use this to find out what it is and then use it on your own site.

7. MeasureIt!

With this you can draw a ruler around any element on a Web page to find out its exact measurement in pixels. Web design is all about measurements and making sure everything fits perfectly without overlapping and this extension can help you with that.

8. Firebug

Another great Web development tool that is meant to be used in conjunction with other development tools for modifying and debugging websites. “Provides some cool features like inspecting HTML elements with your mouse, and live editing CSS properties.”

9. Lorem Ipsum Generator

A very easy way to create the ever-popular “Lorem Ipsum” dummy text for your website templates. “The main purpose of this is to use the less amount of code (and also memory) and help the developer get the job done.”

10. Validity

The easiest way to validate the HTML coding of any website. Just click on the icon and within seconds you’ll be given any validation errors for the page. Since it’s so important to have valid code for performance as well as SEO, this is a must-have extension.

11. Webpage Screenshot

They say a picture is worth 1,000 words, so does that mean a screenshot is too? Well with this extension you can take screenshots and then save, share, print or edit them. Sometimes you may come across a Web page that will inspire you or give you a great idea to use on your own site. With this you can capture it, add notes and then save for later reference.

12. Code Cola

A great tool for modifying the CSS styling of any Web page. “Operators can type the generated code in the cms’ node style properties; no need to open Photoshop, Axure and other tools, but directly open the tools to edit, save and then throw the file to front-end; front-end check the code, then coding based on the generated code.”
If you’re also looking to enhance your productivity while working, StayFocused may be your best bet. It’s normal to get frustrated and give into distractions, but StayFocused can help you overcome all of that by blocking out those distracting sites and forcing you stay focused on work – thus increasing productivity. With all of these cool extension though, it should be pretty easy to stay focused on Web designing. Good luck!

This guest post is written by Lior Levine, a marketing advisor for an online company specializing in a to-do list app. Lior also advises at a cancer treatment center that specializes in personalized oncology exams.

In our world, where information is constantly being plugged into one device after another and frequently changes hands, many people don’t realize how vital it can be to safeguard their digital information from sniffers and malware – destructive programs which can steal sensitive information. Here are 5 free software encryption tools for your on-the-go use.

1. How To Encrypt Your Files On The Cloud, e.g. Dropbox

It may be all smooth and easy going encrypting files on your own hard drives, but what about files on the cloud? As we become increasingly dependent on the cloud for storage, we also become more and more wary of the fact that all our personal, and potentially important files, are floating on some foreign server, exposed to the vulnerabilities of that server.

So if you have files on Dropbox, for instance, what’s a person to do? Thankfully, there’s BoxCryptor, a great free program which allows you to encrypt files even on cloud servers. The free version works great with the standard AES-256 encryption, but does not allow commercial usage and is only limited to encryption of files up to 2 GB. Still, that’s plenty enough for most of us, and is an excellent solution towards solving file encryption on the cloud.

2. What To Do If You Want to Encrypt Entire Hard Drives

The issue: Enabling encryption on one machine disables it from being read on another unless they both have the same encryption software installed; which is sometimes not practical when you have to constantly switch between PCs in an environment, such as a school setting.

Enter TruCrypt, a truly real-time encryption program which encrypts data as it is being written onto the file partition (e.g. folders), and decrypts it in real-time as it is being removed. Impressive feature aside, this gives you the peace of mind that you won’t ever find yourself stuck with an inaccessible file simply because you were trying to be careful.

TruCrypt also allows you to encrypt entire hard drives, which can be useful if you run your own company, and has a hundred and one other fancy uses such as enabling hardware acceleration during encrypting on modern processors. It is by far the most highly recommended free encryption software on the Internet, customizable for nearly all but the most specific uses.

3. How to Encrypt Your Entire USB Flash Drive Without Installing Anything

PenProtect doesn’t give you any excuse to not use file encryption while transferring files. There’s absolutely no hassle in using it – all you have to do is copy the downloaded file to the home folder of your USB drive – no installation required! It really doesn’t get any simpler than this, and it provides full 256-bit key AES encryption to your entire USB flash drive, hiding files from being interpreted by the host computer.

4. How To Plug In Your USB Drive With Peace Of Mind at Internet Cafés

By now, we should all already have recognized how dangerous it can be to plug in your flash drive into a port of a computer at a cyber café. Since you never know what the computer has been uploaded with, the potential for your information being compromised is mind boggling; there could be key-loggers to trace your passwords, malware to read your Word files, trojans to sneak onto your device… the list goes on and on…

Add to this the fact that most of the time, you don’t get administrator privileges in a computer at such places, disabling the option to install a “safe” encryption program on-the-spot. So what can you do? Well, there’s a solution with FreeOTFE Explorer, an encryption software which not only does not require installation, but works even on PCs where administrator privileges have been disabled! It works by creating a “virtual disk” on the computer in question, where everything that is written to that “disk” is encrypted securely before being stored.

5. How To Enable File Encryption using Tools Already Within Reach

Some people just don’t like having an extra program hanging around on their computer, especially something like encryption which isn’t visible enough to warrant having to stare at its icon every time you access My Computer. Well, did you know that you probably already have a fully sufficient encryption program sitting on your desktop?

7-Zip, the great file compressor, is also a decent file encryptor.  Providing only AES-256, it’s really solid. Whether it’s sending work documents over email, or personal items to your loved ones, if you really don’t want to deal with the hassle of an extra program, 7-Zip may just be the perfect file encryptor for you.

This post was written by staff writer Aaron Pek

As games evolve and become more complex, they start out as fun, but they can often be so challenging to the average gamer that it becomes frustrating.  If you’re stuck on a level, have no fear, we’ve pulled out 6 of the best gaming guides you can find on the Internet for cheats, walkthroughs, and FAQs.

1. IGN

IGN is the epitome of game guides on the Internet, and usually most people debate whether it or GameSpot possesses the better style between the 2 giants. While GameSpot tries to preserve the old-school feel of the yesteryears with a touch of personality and nostalgia that older gamers can relate with, IGN does away with the human aspect completely and goes for a mechanical and objective image. Its delivery of content is sleek, modern and efficient, all wrapped up in bright lights, perfect sound placement, and shiny packaging much in the same way Apple does.

Having said that, IGN excels where it is supposed to, and that is in its provision of game guides, which are nothing short of effective. They have game guides for almost every game of every console on the planet; and if you need extra help, they also have numerous video playthroughs, specific strategy guides and reviews on Youtube which may give insight into things you may never have realized.

2. GameSpot/GameFAQs

If you’ve been around in the tech industry since 1996, that means you’ve withstood the tech bubble of the 2000s and the recent financial collapse of 2008, which means people think you’re relevant. One of the oldest names in PC gaming guides, GameSpot has managed to maintain its top status in gaming by constantly revamping their techniques to keep up with the competition and what users want.

Their pages are updated daily with game guides, reviews and developer commentary, and the range of guides they provide are truly dynamic – there are guides in the form of videos which walk you step-by-step through the game (hover over the Cheats tab for more options); while its sister site GameFAQs is frequented by elite gamers who write their own ‘wiki’ of guides for gamers to peruse, so you actually have at least 2 or 3 different walkthroughs to consult for any one game.

3. CheatCC

Back in the day, CheatCC (Cheat Code Central) was an absolute behemoth of a game guide collection, with tons of walkthroughs and cheat code databases stored on their servers. It lost its top gun status in the early 2000s by retaining its 1990s grey-against-white look while IGN and Gamespot made major cosmetic revamps, but that doesn’t mean that it lost the terabytes of cheat codes and guides still locked away in its databases; and today, CheatCC is still a household name in providing cheats to gamers worldwide.

Since then, CheatCC has kept with the trends and updated its look to suit modern tastes, while retaining the essence of the game guides that it has long been known for. A quick search for Megaman X3 (a game I played in 1998) reveals that the guides are still there, so if you’re looking for old-school advice, you have some form of assurance that you’re getting quality stuff.

4. 1UP

1UP.com is one of my favorite go-to websites for gaming. Unlike the heavy relevance of user-contributed information that its mightier brethren employ, 1UP seems to write its own guides, so each game’s walkthrough bear the same distinctive style of the 1UP trademark. It also means that instead of being heavy walls of text, the editors have some measure of control over how their guides turn out; as a result, it’s picture-heavy, with some guides having more pictures covering its real estate than words.

As far as usefulness goes, the heavy picture reference makes it easy on the eyes and easy to follow, although the non-traditional style keeps it free of personal bias and hence useful perspectives which many walkthrough contributors usually pepper throughout their work. However, if you’re a fan of clean, convenient help, 1UP will become a favorite of yours soon enough.

5. SuperCheats

SuperCheats does not boast the massive library of walkthroughs that the above established sites have, but where it excels is in quick-and-easy gaming advice, cheat codes and short, helpful hints in the same degree that the bigger gaming sites possess. Perhaps a blessing of its sparser inventory of game guides, it’s an in-and-out, no-hassle kind of place, where you don’t have to wade through deep columns of menus just to find what you’re looking for.

For instance, if you’re just looking for the location of certain hidden items on IGN, you’d have to wade through a huge body of unnecessary text and meticulously hunt for what you’re looking for due to the enormous amount of information they provide – which is good for an overall guide, but less so on a contextual basis.

On SuperCheats, you can search for the name of the game, choose from a menu of perhaps ten cheat items, and they’ll be listed out in a clean, orange-against white interface. And then you’ll be on your merry way again.

6. Mahalo

Mahalo is something like a hand-crafted Google, where answers are provided by humans as opposed to software bots and crawlers searching the Internet. It covers a wide variety of topics, but I’ve never used it much except for its video games section, and for good reason – it’s an excellent nest for video game resources.

Mahalo contracts game editors and freelancers in the industry to write and provide their numerous guides, and everything I’ve seen so far is nothing short of spectacular. What especially draws me is their play-by-play walkthroughs with accompanying thumbnails on the sides, so if you’re the type who switches back and forth between games and reading guides, this is an exciting alternative to the pause-then-play-then-pause-then-play style of video guides, or the boring wall of text of traditional game guides.

Mahalo also makes excellent video walkthroughs, which can be found abundantly on Youtube and other video streaming providers. Their clean narrative, thought-out delivery, simple style and plain useful gaming advice sometimes makes me wonder why they’re not among the top 3 already.

This post was written by Aaron Pek

One of the hardest things you can set out to do when building an online community is getting people to contribute useful content.  

The challenges with building community

Twitter rarely generates anything more than cursory comments because of its brevity.  The majority of facebook and blog comments respond to the post rather than add a significant amount of value to the conversation.  Forums are amazing at generating user content, but unless you have critical mass – its far too easy to end up looking like a virtual ghost town of inactivity.

So how do you get people to contribute useful content online to build your community?

One good way is via a public Question and Answers section. 

Where you have people gathering together and answering each other’s questions – you have a collective hive of readers who help each other and in turn – generate a lot of useful content which help other people in the future as well.  It’s easy to find answers to common questions with a system like this.

The thing is – it isn’t really that easy to roll your own Q&A site.  Or is it?

Building your own Q&A site

Enter Answerbase – which is a complete end to end solution.  Using your own customized domain, it is completely white labeled to your branding and provides a solid platform to build your community on.  It has a ton of features and pricing starts at USD15 per month (Free trial available).  A small price to pay for the obvious rewards.  An example of this would be GetApp, a community around business software.

Features & Benefits

There’s a whole slew of features for the service like mobile optimized sites, voting on answers, comment and moderation abilities, and much more.  Features aside, there’s a lot more to community building than just interaction.  Through interaction people build more content for search engines to index, leading to more potential traffic (which you can monetize on by placing you own custom ads – Answerbase has no advertising on your site).  If you’re using this for support purposes, it can also act as a community where people discuss and solve each other’s problems – which means lots of manpower savings for support staff.

Data Liberation – Yes

The first question I asked the guys at Answerbase was if it was possible to port your data out?  My biggest fear about using any platform is that you’re in a real danger of being locked in to their system.  The good thing is that data can be ported out to CSV if you decide to stop the services at any point.

This post was sponsored by Answerbase, but my opinion does not differ from the review.  It truly is an interesting service and a compelling way to build an online community.  Please check them out and let us know your thoughts. Thanks Answerbase for being our sponsor this month and helping keep this blog afloat :)

There has always been two major camps in the personal computer sphere – the PC and the Mac. So defined is this distinction, that Apple itself draws upon this fact to make hilarious ads. But all the passion and glitter aside, the truth is that Windows and OSX work and act in highly different ways, and that they both offer significant advantages in their own measure over the other. If you’re reading this, chances are you already have a PC running Windows; so how does one make your PC feel more like a Mac? Here’s how:

1. How to emulate Mac Spaces : Dexpot

Spaces is Mac’s answer to having multiple applications open at once cluttering up your workspace. Anyone who has ever had to juggle different duties at the same time – like managing Youtube, iTunes and a bunch of minor tasks while you’re doing an assignment on Microsoft Word and Internet Explorer, perhaps – will find that compartmentalizing the two categories will yield better results. PC users, however, do not have access to this feature natively; but they do now.

Dexpot is a nifty little third-party program which allows you to implement a Spaces-like function to your screen. While it’s not the only function of the program, it certainly is the best – with it, you can open 4 separate desktops and, for instance, write your assignment in one, and switch to the other when you’re doing miscellaneous stuff. Here are all the new functions (including Spaces) which are present in the newest revision of Dextpot.

2. How to emulate the Mac Dashboard : myBoard

Dashboard is an apt name for the Mac OS functionality – it dims the screen and opens a dashboard of sorts where your collections of widgets sit waiting for you. By itself, Dashboard comes with a few useful native apps included, including a weather widget, a calculator and a clock, but the real deal of widgets arrive in the full-blown third party support developers have injected into the functionality.

For Windows, Dashboard arrives in the shape of myBoard, and instead of widgets, they’re now called magnets. It’s hardly surprising that there is a lot less third-party support given that this isn’t a native application in Windows, but the basics are there; calculator, weather, notepad, clock, calendar etc.

Tip: After you install myBoard, you’ll be prompted to click the middle mouse button to bring up the empty ‘Dashboard’; look for a “+” sign on the bottom-left side of the screen. That brings up the option to access the Magnet Store, where you can obtain magnets.

3. How to Emulate the Mac Dock : RocketDock

Dock is a solid, unique way of getting around Mac OS in the way Windows does with shortcuts, except prettier, and is one of the most defining features of OS X. Windows Vista and 7 both have taskbars which allow you to pin items to them, but it’s just not the same as having a row of icons which ‘pop’ when you hover over them.

Being one of the most famous functions of the Mac, there are many third-party iterations of Dock; but my personal favorite is RocketDock. RocketDock behaves exactly like Dock does in OS X, just less snazzy-looking; you can place customizable shortcuts in it, the Recycle Bin, and it has the familiar ‘pop-out’ effect as you hover over it.

4. How to Emulate Mac Expose : Switcher

All of us who have used Windows before should now be familiar with the Alt+Tab function, which surprisingly hasn’t been given a dedicated name besides its key presses. Nevertheless, it’s a practical way to get around; but it still can’t beat OS X’s Expose though. That’s why it’s Windows alter ego exists – in the form of Switcher.

Anyone who has used Expose will instantly relate to how mind-blowingly profound the visual representation of tasks arranged in sizes according to their importance is – it takes every lesson of human psychology in the book and applies it to the simple function of task-switching. It just feels right. And more and more importantly, that has become what we as users are increasingly looking for. Just using Switcher for the first time has got me utterly convinced that I’ll be using it for a long time to come.

5. How to emulate Mac Stacks : 7Stacks

Stacks in OS X is precisely what its name supposes it to be – a way to stack programs into one icon to save space, which pop out like a pop-out book upon clicking. There are so many ways this could be done wrong, but Apple has managed to make it not only eye-catching, but functional as well. There’s no greater joy than the convenience of watching all your Microsoft Office shortcuts unfold neatly into a list of choices.

The third-party Windows alternative that you’re looking for here is 7Stacks. Developer Alastria wasn’t able to incorporate the pop-out aesthetics into 7Stacks, but what they’ve done is pretty close and equally as practical. 7Stacks is definitely worth a shot, as it accomplishes what it sets out to do.

6. How to Emulate Mac Multi-task Scrolling : KatMouse

One of the biggest complaints about Windows is that despite its maturity as an operating system, it still misses out on a few elementary functions – the ability to maintain different screen resolutions for different users, the ability to run .ISO files out of the box, and among the most glaring, the ability to scroll through open programs when they’re not being selected as the primary application.

For instance, if you’re doing some research on your Internet browser, you can’t scroll through your open Word document unless you click on it first. And then you’d have to click on your browser again to scroll through your research material, and back and forth.

KatMouse does away with this concern by bestowing the all-empowering function – of middle-mouse scrolling just by hovering over the application – upon your Windows computer, which has been on Macs since eons ago. I can’t tell you how much time this little third-party software that runs quietly in the background has saved for me. If you’re a student or someone whose work involves looking for information online, be sure to get this.

This post was written by Aaron Pek

The last five years have seen two great things being championed and heralded by anyone who has had any measure of interest in the Internet – Social Networking and Apple.

On one hand, the unexpected lightning-fast development of Facebook, Twitter and Zynga to the top of the Internet has inspired even the greatest of companies to stick a hand in the social networking pie. On the other hand, Apple, the company already made relevant by the wildly famous iPod, has generated massive consumer interest in their unveilings of the iPhone. It’s no surprise then that people have put two and two together, and have decided to bring social networking exclusively to the iPhone. Here are 4 of the top choices which you can dive right into right now.

1. Path

Path takes the concept that people want social networking, but they also want it to be personal. Facebook seems like the ultimate offender of this principle, with its wide-sharing features and privacy issues, while Google+ seems to recognize this by providing people with the capability to aggregate their friends into Circles.

Path, which had appeared long before Google+ took the stage, takes this a step further by recommending a social network with only your closest friends. As self-described by its official website, Path is a “simple way to share life and never miss a moment with family”. It only allows you to share your updates with up to 50 of your friends, and the interface behind this activity is clear and seamless enough to encourage it.

Clearly, Path was developed with the intention of making social networking a sweet, enriching experience, as opposed to the social atmosphere that it is today. It is an amazing concept, to say the least, and Path’s burgeoning user base is only proof that people want what they have dreamt up more than ever.

2. Klip

Klip is very new on the social scene – as new as a month perhaps – but it highly deserves a place on this list because of its remarkableness. Klip is basically an app for you to share your videos. That’s right, that’s all it does – share videos you have took with others. The brilliance of it lies in the ability to assign hashtags to your videos, not unlike Twitter, which categorizes the videos according to their nature in the public arena.

So, if you’re a person who likes cat videos, just look up “#cat”, and all the cat videos taken by Klip users show up on your screen! The propensity for its use is just so large in scale; imagine a major event being shared by hashtags – a feature still unavailable on Youtube or Twitter – in a personal space by thousands of individuals. It’ll be like a video version of Twitter all over again.

Klip’s interface is very pleasing, with the small video box giving users the feeling that it was made just for the iPhone. It’s also easy to navigate, and once its number of users grows, the developers will have a goldmine of information sharing on their hands.

3. Pool Party

Google has a tendency for scavenging successful products and making their own version, backed by their enormous resources to take down the existing competition – and it seems like Pool Party is their latest effort yet.

Created by wholly-owned subsidiary Slide (which also created the recently pulled Photovine), Pool Party is an attempt to unseat Instagram, the hipster photo-filtering social app which is presently taking the streets by storm. Pool Party is in its essence a photo-sharing app, where people share their photos into a “pool” with friends in a sort of group album. This creates opportunities to share photos taken from parties, hikes and sleepovers with a select group of people, much in the same way Google+ encourages sharing with Circles.

Pool Party is currently in beta and only accepts invitees, but as with all Google’s products they’re bound to be released to the public soon and gather a quick following. If you simply cannot wait, you can visit here to get an invite.

4. Heywire

With the multi-capabilities of the iPhone, many people seem to have forgotten that the iPhone is primarily a phone; but Heywire’s creators aren’t one of them. Realizing the potential for a worldwide-based, affordable text messaging service, they have created a working, effective version of the Messaging app which bypasses all carrier costs. As long as you have access to the Internet, you can text message to any number from 45 countries, from anywhere in the world.

So how is this different from Whatsapp, Facebook or MSN Messenger on the iPhone? Well, Heywire not only provides you with a Heywire account, it also provides you with a temporary US number which others can reach. This means that even those without the app, or friends using Blackberries or old-school Nokias, can communicate with you by not only receiving but sending text messages to your temporary number, all without incurring the extravagant carrier costs usually associated with international travel.

This post was written by staff writer Aaron Pek