Applian FLV player

Flash videos (.flv) are getting more and more popular but the programs that can play these videos are not a lot. One of them is "FLV player" created by "Applian technologies". What is worth to say about flash videos is that they use about 3 or 4 times less space than .avi files and even less than .mpg files. So everybody could say that they are really useful, but still useless if you can't play them. As you understand this is the use of "FLV player".

You can find more information about "FLV player" on the following site: "http://applian.com/flvplayer". On this site you can also download the program, which is completely free. Enjoy!

Image Converter Plus

As you know, there are a lot of codecs for images. Unfortunately some programs aren't capable of openning these codecs and as a resault the images become useless. With "Image converter plus" you can convert every image to any codec that you want. You can do multiple conversions and get best quality images without spending a lot of time. The problem is that the full version is not completely free, so you can try the free version. In the free version after converting an image the program automatically adds a "watermark" on the bottom right place of the picture, which means that part of your picture will be changed a bit (to understand what I mean, take a look at the picture shown under my name in every site that I follow; it has a watermark). But in my opinion this is not a problem.

You can download both full and free versions at the following site: "http://www.imageconverterplus.com". Enjoy!

Google Earth

Amazing sights, interesting pictures of places, our space as seen from earth, Mars,..... What else do you want?!? "Google Earth" is a program produced by "Google" (as you can understand from its title...) and with this program you can fly to any place of the earth (not in the real world!!!) and see every country, every town, every island....everything just by zooming in and out!!! When you open the program you see a 3D view of the earth. Then you zoom in and see how a place is seen from a satellite. In addition people add pictures to the places and as a resault you can see...... e.g. how a port looks like and if you have some interesting pictures of places you can add them, too. Furthermore, you can see every small planet and every star in the sky just by using the program (names are included). Finally, you can see Mars in a 3D priview and zoom in and out, but I don't think that there's a lot to see on Mars yet...

What is amazing about this program is that it is completely free! For further information visit the following site: "http://earth.google.com". In this site you can also download an updater with which you are going to download and install the program. I hope you found it useful!

BPM Analyzer 1.0

Let me guess..... You love music and you always want to listen to your favourite songs, learn new songs and so on. Sometimes, when you have no radio, no internet, no mp3 player, etc. but you still want to do something that has to do with music. I think that it's a bit useless, but you could download BPM Analyzer (beats/minute analyzer) and find out the beats per minute of your songs!!!

As I said it's useless but if you have downloaded programs (as Audacity, Nero wave, ...) you can make easily two or more songs at the same tempo and then mix them and make.... something better than before!!!

You can dowload the program at the following site: "http://www.mixmeister.com/bpmanalyzer/bpmanalyzer.asp". It's completely free and it's size is smaller than small!!!

Pivot Stickfigure Animator

Well, you are in front of the computer screen and have about 24 hours to do WHATEVER you want! But you notice that everything is boring. Even talking to your friends on "Windows Live Messenger" seems exhausting. Why don't you try "Pivot"

It's a program with which you can make stickfigure animations (animations with stickfigures as the one in the picture at the left), save them and whatch them whenever you want! You can also upload them to the internet, download other uploaded animations and so on. Then it will be a great form of having a great time with your friends when they visit you (watch older "creations", make new, etc.)

You can find more information on the following site : "http://www.geocities.com/peter_bone_uk/pivot.html" . In this site you can also find a link to download the latest version. Have fun! ;)

Web of trust (WOT)

You search for something on the internet. You press the left button of your mouse to open the site you want. But suddenly a virus gets into your pc and then you lose files (some of which might have been important), then you need to re-format your pc or erase every file that seems to be dangerous, and so on. Wouldn't it be great if you were sure about what kind of sites you are visiting?

"Web of trust" is here to help you do this!! You just install the program and then next to every site that you are about to visit, a green or yellow or red circle appears. When it's green the site is safe, when it's yellow you should always be sure about what you do when you visit the site and when it's red you should ignore the site..... The colours represent the average of the ratings. So by using this program you can also rate every site (to get points!!) and then other people will know whether it's safe to enter this site or not.....

You can find more info on the following site: "http://www.mywot.com". The program is available as an add-on and can be used in every browser.

Chemsketch 12.0

So you grab your mouse and move it until the cursor "falls" on a program or folder. Then you double-click it and start doing ..... whatever. Wouldn't it be great if it had to do with something you like. As I mention in the "About me" section , I love chemistry. So it's difficult for me not to mention the program "Chemskech", produced by "ACD/Labs (Advanced chemistry developement / Labs)". It's a program with witch you can draw every substance that you can imagine, preview it on a 3D board (rotate it, give specific colours to every element, etc.) and of course take some time learning more about chemistry...!

You can download this program from the following site : "http://www.acdlabs.com/download/chemsketch", but it's not free, so you can try the freeware version, which does not differ a lot from the full one.

Note: Sometimes when I open the program my whole computer stucks, but I think that this has to do with my computer and not with the program...

Audacity

Check it out! I recently found out the program "Audacity" and it's really exciting. You can edit any of your songs easily and fast. For example, you can cut parts of songs and use them as ringtones on your cell phone. Learn more about it on "http://audacity.sourceforge.net". It's completely free and you can do loads of things.

You may also need to download the file "lame_enc.dll" to convert your whole projects into mp3s (visit: "http://www.dll-files.com/dllindex/dll-files.shtml?lame_enc" and click the link above the comments to safely download the file) and of course you may need to watch some videos to learn how to use both basic and advanced tricks of the program as well (e.g.: removing vocals, adding effects, etc.) !