Photo Sketcher Software

Free Photo Sketcher software. Turn your photos into Pen and Ink sketches. Software with this capability used to cost hundreds of dollars. Now you can have it for Free.



This and tons more free software can be found at one of my favorite software sites: the Portable Freeware Collection.

http://www.portablefreeware.com

Free Firewall Software

Free Firewall Software. Keep the bad guys out.

http://www.personalfirewall.comodo.com/

Extreme Tech

Here is a deep dive into computing technology, courtesy of the folks at Ziff-Davis and PC Magazine. I just spent some time looking into the newest version of DirectX, the graphics programming platform that makes the Xbox fly so smoothly. Very cool stuff in here. This technology forms part os the base for Vista, the newest Operating System from Microsoft, which, BTW, went gold today. (That means it was actually shipped off for manufacturing).

http://www.extremetech.com/

iTunes Library Updater

If you have music on your computer that, for whatever reason, you didn't get through an iTunes rip or purchase, the iTunes Library Updater can automatically add those new tracks to your iTunes database.

http://www.lifehacker.com/software/itunes/download-of-the-day-itunes-library-updater-145098.php

http://itlu.ownz.ch/wordpress/

Tag&Rename

Tag&Rename is software from softpointer that allows unlimited access to updating the tags on your media files. The software gives you full screen edit capabilities and multi-file support to change groups of files with the same info. It can also be used to change tag format versions and to fix corrupted tags that might keep your music from playing in iTunes. (That's the reason I tried it in the first place).

http://www.softpointer.com/index.htm

Window Blinds

Microsoft Vista is coming soon to a PC near you. This is a product that "skins" Windows XP so that it gets the look and feel of Windows Vista. Vista will be coming out just after the first of the year. By using the skins you can get a jump on the Vista learning curve. Strictly for the geek in you.

http://www.stardock.com/products/windowblinds/

TVUplayer

Freeware program TVUplayer lets you watch potentially any TV channel for free.

"TVUplayer works like this: Someone (called a "broadcaster") records live TV on their computer, then sends out the stream to the world at large. From that point, the more people who decide to watch the station, the better the "signal" you'll receive, since TVUplayer uses peers to redistribute content similar to bittorrent (or that's how I understand it). That means it's going to be uploading plenty while it's running (and believe me, it did). What I was most impressed by is that TVUplayer was less than 1 minute behind my live TV, which is pretty impressive."


http://www.tvunetworks.com/downloads/index.htm