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Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Visio 2010 Beta Download

The advanced diagramming tools of Visio 2010 help you simplify complexity with dynamic, data-driven visuals and new ways to share on the Web in real-time.

Start by building your diagram with professional-looking templates and modern, pre-drawn shapes. Then, easily link your diagram to popular data sources (such as Excel). You’ll see data automatically refresh right within your diagram, reflected in vibrant visuals such as icons, symbols, colors, and bar graphs. Finally, with just a few clicks, publish your data-linked diagram to SharePoint, and provide access to others on the Web, even if they don’t have Visio.

Together, simplicity, data-driven shapes, and Web sharing make Visio 2010 one of the most powerful ways to see and understand important information.

Read more and download...
Also Top 10 benefits of Visio 2010
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Saturday, December 26, 2009

Getting a Job with the Skills Nobody's Paid You For

I've gone through the article and want you to read it too...following is an excerpt from the article:
If you've picked up a language or development skill on your own time, it can be hard to sell that expertise to an employer. Here's two ways to do it.
This is an old question, but it's one that comes up at least once in every developer's career: How do I get a job using the skills or tools I want to use, if my current employer doesn't give me an opportunity to use them? I just found a variation on the question on a developer's discussion forum (edited slightly for clarity):
"I'm looking for work and am considering doing a sample website. What should I put in it to be appealing to prospective employers? Should it just be a content management website? I want to do the site in C#.NET to show I can, because my work experience is with VB.NET. I've been thinking about using modules from 'BeerHouse' done in ASP.NET 2.0, and dress it up in different CSS, but maybe that's trite."
 If you want to demonstrate your non-résumé skills to a prospective employer, the writer has two suggestions.

Read the entire article...
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Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Free Silverlight Controls And Tools For Brighter Websites

Silverlight, which is used in more websites everyday, has several beautiful free controls, components & tools that will help you develop websites faster & better.
They are not very easy to find as they are hidden inside the blogs of Silverlight developers or .NET products websites & there are still not so many resources where you can read about Silverlight.
WebResourcesDepot have collected these free Silverlight controls, components & tools to help making your websites brighter.

GOA WinForms

Free Silverlight Controls
Use the standard System.Windows.Form .NET library for both Adobe Flash and Microsoft Silverlight. It allows .NET developers to write standard WinForms applications that will run on these two RIA platforms.

AgDataGrid Suite – Free Silverlight Grid Control

Free Silverlight Grid Control
This free grid control has data grouping, data sorting, row editing, multi-row selection features & many more.
It is a feature-rich & very professional grid solution.

Visifire – Silverlight Charts

Silverlight Charts
Visifire (see WRD post) is one of the most powerful & well-documented open source chart solution that can be found in the net.
It can be used with ASP, ASP.Net, PHP, JSP, ColdFusion, Ruby on Rails or just simple HTML. Animated 2D-3D column charts, bar charts, pie charts & more can be created with it.

SvLite Effects – Silverlight Dynamic Animations

Free Silverlight Effects
This Silverlight effects library is currently in beta (& can be paid in the future).
It has carousel panel, slide show, advanced wipe animations, fade animations and more. Animations can be easily configured & support chaining.

Silverlight.FX – Silverlight Effects Library

Silverlight Effects Library
Effects / transitions in this library are: resize, move, spin, fade, highlight, colorFill, shake, pulsate, crossFade, blinds, slide, and flip.
The download package can be found within the post & there are examples to show you its capabilities.

Silverlight Contrib – Free Silverlight Controls

Free Silverlight Controls
A collection of Silverlight Controls built by the Silverlight developer community.
Current control in the package are:
  • Color picker
  • Menu
  • Gauge
  • Star selector

Controls From Vectorlight

Silverlight Controls
Vectorlight presents many free Silverlight controls including:
  • Calendar
  • Upload
  • Date picker
  • Progress Bar
  • Treeview & more..

Silverlight Nuggets – Free Silverlight Controls

Silverlight Calendar
Lots of free controls that are Silverlight 2 compatible including border, calendar, canvas, checkbox & more..

ComboBox – Free Silverlight Combobox Control

Free Silverlight Dropdown Menu
A combobox control that includes templating, data binding, and auto complete functionality.

Silverlight 2 Video Player

Silverlight Video Player
A re-sizeable video player with no custom controls. Some features are:
  • Supports streaming media
  • Ability to autostart & show a thumbnail
  • Full screen playback
  • TimeLine marker support

Slide.Show (With Flickr Support)

Silverlight Slideshow
This slideshow can be embedded to any webpage & configures via JavaScript or XML easily.
It can display album and slide data provided by XML, Flickr, or JavaScript & has auto-playback with multiple transitions (e.g. fade, shape, slide, wipe, etc.) support.

Video.Show – Video Community Application

Silverlight Video Show
This is a beautiful Silverlight application that enables anyone to create a video community.
All video is hosted at Silverlight Streaming for free, which gives you 4GB storage and 700 Kbps bandwidth via Microsoft’s worldwide Content Delivery Network.
The application has time-based comments, broad media support & many other features that will show the features of Silverlight from the most basic to the advanced level via the downloadable source code of it.

Silverlight Slideshow

Slideshow For Silverlight
A lightweight image slideshow built with Silverlight 1.0.
It supports several transitions effects, has smart image scaling & full screen mode.
Images are defined in a XML file & here is an example of Flickr integration.
Source code is hosted at CodePlex & can be found here.

PageTurn – Silverlight Page Flip

Silverlight Page Flip
A magazine like page flip effect that works very nice.
Images can be flipped with mouse or browsed via the thumbnails.

photoGallery – Silverlight Photo Gallery

Silverlight Photo Gallery
This photo gallery displays upto 12 images & gallery can be configured easilt from an array in a JavaScript file.

agTweener – Silverlight Tweening Engine (Tweener ported)

Silverlight Tween Engine
This Silverlight tweening library is a ported version of Tweener (Flash tween library).
Although it does no have all the features of Tweener, agTweener is still very promising.

Silverglobe – Silverlight Globe Map Control

Silverlight Globe
This open source Silverlight control renders a global map onto a vector based 3D globe.
The globe can be freely rotated in all directions and geographical locations can be added and selected.


Silverlight Examples With Source By Vectorform

The examples below are produced by Vectorform and all of them can be reached from here. You can find demos for each of them & download the source codes.

Silverlight Carousel

Silverlight Carousel
A Silverlight image carousel which rotates when clicked on left or right and displays the big image of the thumbnail clicked.

Silverlight Video Player

Silverlight Media Player
This video player has very simple controls like the play/pause button, sound & the process. It can display full-size videos & can scale to the browser size.

Silverlight Media Viewer

Media Player For Silverlight
This media viewer can show videos, photos & content from RSS feeds.

Silverlight Slide Viewer

Silverlight Slideshow
An easy to navigate slide viewer with the arrows on the sides. It shows you which slide you’re viewing & slides are presented with a reflection effect.

Navigation With Silverlight

Silverlight Navigation
A nice menu with a depth that has a mouse-over effect for every item. And items are presented with a Web 2.0 like reflection effect.

Silverlight Twitter Widget

Silverlight Twitter Widget
This user interface accesses the Twitter API, parses the loaded XML and displays the latest tweets. It also incorporates a custom skinned scrollbar.

Silverlight Tools

These are some free Silverlight tools that will help you develop faster or add a twist to your applications.

Desklighter – Create Exe From Silverlight Apps.

Silverlight To Exe
Desklighter is a windows utility that will create a standalone exe application that renders Silverlight content that is easily portable and accessible.

Silverlight Spy – Detailed XAML Inspection

Silverlight Spy
Silverlight Spy provides detailed inspection of any Silverlight application.
Use the built-in browser to navigate to a web page. Silverlight Spy will automatically pick up any Silverlight application embedded in the page and display the structure of the application in the Explorer.

Moonlight – Silverlight For Unix

Silverlight For Unix
An open source implementation of Silverlight for Unix systems.

Kaxaml – Free XAML Editor

Free XAMl Editor
A XAML editor that supports Silverlight & has a snippet gallery. It gives you a "split view" so you can see both your XAML and your endered content.
Do you know any other free Silverlight controls, components or tools? Please share them in the comments.
Thanks to and taken from...
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Thursday, December 17, 2009

Optimize your Website for Search

Over the period we are learning on how to optimize our websites to make the SEO friendly.
The FREE SEO Toolkit from Microsoft helps you improve the volume and quality of traffic to your Website from search engines like Bing and Google.
I’ve been surprised by how many people either have never heard of the tool, or have not yet had a chance to run it against their websites. This blog post by Scott Gu provides a quick summary about why anyone doing web-development should check it out.
The SEO Toolkit helps you improve your Website’s relevance in search results by recommending how to make your new or existing site content and structure more search engine-friendly. It works on any Website on the Web. Best of all - it’s a small, lightweight free download!
Detailed route analysis to see how search engines reach your content Discover common problems in site content and structure.
Works on both local and external public facing Websites. Fully customizable with a powerful query engine
Control how search engines access and display Web content Edit and manage Robot, Sitemap and Site Index files.
 Download and install it today with the Microsoft Web Platform Installer.
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100th Post

Well this is my 100th post to this blog. I tried to share anything that I thought added me in my endeavor to learning.
The material is currently taken from different sites--codeproject.com, microsoft.com, iclarified.com are to name a few.
I thank you all for spending some time here. This is great pleasure if you learned something new or reminded of something that was missed.
I request you to post some comments to make my efforts better.

JazakAllah khair.

--muneeb
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Saturday, December 12, 2009

Urban Definition of Weven

And we all thought it meant Windows 7...
(see definition #2) Urban Dictionary's Definition

But does this mean that Vista is Weven?
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Friday, December 04, 2009

MS WebsiteSpark Program

Microsoft is has launched a rather, new programm namely WebsiteSpark.
WebsiteSpark is designed for independent web developers and web development companies that build web applications and web sites on behalf of others.  It enables you to get software, support and business resources from Microsoft at no cost for three years, and enables you to expand your business and build great web solutions using ASP.NET, Silverlight, SharePoint and PHP, and the open source applications built on top of them.
This program is somewhat reminiscent of MS Action Pack. It's free to sign up for 3 years, but there's a $100 "exit fee," so you can essentially figure your cost to be not free, but a deferred payment of $100. By signing up, you get licenses to the following:

• 3 licenses of Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition.
• 1 license of Expression Studio 3 (includes Expression Blend, Sketchflow, and Web).
• 2 licenses of Expression Web 3.
• 4 processor licenses of Windows Web Server 2008 R2.
• 4 processor licenses of SQL Server 2008 Web Edition.
• DotNetPanel control panel.

An entry from September on Scott Guthrie's blog says that you'll be able to download the latest versions of the tools and that this will eventually include VS 2010. Not sure why it's currently 2008, but remember, this program operates in the massive bureaucracy of MS.

Anyway, seems to be a good deal for those who want the non Express tools and / or are looking for an inexpensive upgrade path to future versions.
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Wednesday, December 02, 2009

CNIC verification via SMS

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Tuesday, December 01, 2009

Backup & Recovery 10 Free Edition

Here I found Backup and Recovery 10 Free Edition whiz simply the most powerful FREE backup solution!
It enables you to take complete control of your PC’s safety. Based on solid commercial backup and recovery software from Paragon, the new Backup and Recovery 10 Free Edition will give you a rich set of features that you can trust.
Read more and download...
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28 Questions You Wish You Asked the Manager During the Job Interview

What should a developer say when the prospective big-boss asks, "Do you have any questions for me?" Here are several suggestions, from management style to company finances.
Plenty has been written about the questions that developers should ask one another [1] during a job interview, from "How would you solve this programming problem?" to "Why are manhole covers round?" I've written about the subject myself, a time or two, such as my 2006 article, "The Best and Worst Tech Interview Questions." [2]
But those are tuned for techies. At some point, a manager will want to chat with the prospective hire, even if only to feel that she participated in the process. If the manager isn't (or is no longer) technical, that means the questions won't be about system internals or coding techniques, and she won't participate in any hands-on coding which the candidate's asked to do. And, since every job (or contract) interview is two-way (though I'm always surprised when people see that as a revelation), developers should be ready when the manager inevitably asks, "Do you have any questions for me?" What should those questions be?
This is your opportunity to learn how the company works and what it values (at least based on what trickles down from the top). Don't dismiss it. The answers will tell you whether you'd enjoy the job, not just the work you're assigned to do — and they may let you know that this is a job you truly don't want under any circumstances [3]. Among the things you're looking for is the manager's management style; the freedom that you'll have to perform; the manager's ambition to grow, because you cannot grow unless she does; and a clue about how she (and upper management) will respond during tough situations.
I asked dozens of experienced developers to share the questions they asked (or wish they asked) the non-technical manager during a job interview. Here's several suggestions about what — and why — to ask. You probably don't need or want to ask all these questions, certainly not in a single meeting. But they should calibrate your brain for quizzing the person who may sign your paycheck.
    About the Team
  1. Who is my line manager or the project leader to whom I will report? Can I meet him? (Some companies only let candidates meet the managers. Go figure.)
  2. Before I accept the job, can we do a lunch with the whole team to get to know each other?
  3. What is the demographic of the team? or Why are there so few women in senior positions here? (Diversity matters.)
  4. What sort of team environment do you promote? How do teams interact with one another?
  5. About the manager
  6. How much time do you spend in one-on-one meetings versus the time in team meetings?
  7. Give an example of something unexpected and how it was handled.
  8. How do you measure success? Where does that measurement stand now? What actions are you taking to change the measurement(s) (in the right direction)? What have those actions done to the measurement(s)?
  9. How does your manager measure your success?
  10. What is your preferred method of communication? Phone calls, e-mail, informally, in meetings, only when necessary? How much contact will I have with you?
  11. Why do people typically leave your team? (The best answer probably is that they were promoted, but if they're leaving the company or seeking internal transfers you may have an opportunity to drill down and find out why. This is also a subtle way to ask how long the manager has been managing people.)
  12. About the work environment
  13. Can you show me where I'll be working? Can we walk around the office? (As you walk around, listen.)
  14. Are the tools I'll be using cutting edge or totally ancient? What is the specification of the developer machines that you provide?
  15. What sort of training and development mechanisms are there for professional development? How about conference attendance? (Factor in the answer when you begin negotiating. Plus you want to know if the company is interested in investing in people.)
  16. Are there opportunities to explore my skills at different business areas through the course of my tenure? (Can you grow in different areas, and move into a new one? For examples, can testers with a bend towards coding become developers?)
  17. I'm not a morning person. Will I have flexibility to work when I am most productive, barring things like mandatory meetings?
  18. What is our mission? What will be my role in the mission?
  19. How many positions am I actually covering?
  20. What will I be expected to accomplish the first three months?
  21. What projects will I work on? How will I be transitioned to new projects after existing projects are over?
  22. How much overtime has this team been doing in the last three months? What's typical? What's acceptable? How does the company respond after a time-crunch is over? (If you ask directly, "Do you encourage work/life balance?" naturally they'll respond "Sure!" Instead, ask a specific question to find out if that "Sure!" matches reality.)
  23. The company
  24. What is your company vision? How do you reflect it in your daily work? (Most start-ups have big ideas but few conduct themselves in a way that will help them reach their goals.)
  25. How do benefits compare to sector averages?
  26. Could you explain the pay review system? Also, the performance review system?
  27. How comfortable are you with your company's financials? How has the current economic climate impacted business?
  28. When did the company have its last layoff? (What you really want to know, of course, is "How long until the most recently hired get laid off?")
  29. The open-ended questions
  30. What one thing would you change about working here? You can ask this of anyone on the team. The answer tells you a lot about the workplace, as well as the values of the person you're talking to.
  31. What's the best thing about working here? What's the worst thing about working here? Expect that the "best" things will be unremarkable, however nice to hear (such as "so many smart people!"). Listen carefully to the undertone in the worst-things.
  32. In six months, what will I love about working for you? What will I hate? (I learned this question during researching the aforementioned DevSource article, and it's been amazingly useful. Warning: if the manager says, "You won't hate anything! I'm a nice guy!" run away. Either he has poor self-assessment skills, or he has demonstrated that he'll never give you a straight and honest answer.)
What shouldn't you ask? According to one manager, these items all could be an immediate interview failure:
  • Candidate has done no homework on the company, the product and the job. If the candidate cannot spend thirty minutes preparing for an interview, he does not deserve the job.
  • Starts negotiating during the interview. This is not a deal breaker but is not the way to start a relationship (and an interview is the beginning of a professional relationship).
  • Says inappropriate things about their previous company or the people they worked with. This could include passing on confidential information or saying negative things about people.
  • Not asking any questions when given the opportunity to do so.
Naturally, these aren't the only questions you could ask. And I'm sure some will disagree with a few; that's fine, because each of us only has to ensure the job makes us happy. But maybe I've left out a few. Chime in, and tell me what question you wished you asked during a job or contract interview.

Links:
[1] http://www.noop.nl/2009/01/100-interview-questions-for-software-developers.html
[2] http://www.devsource.com/c/a/Techniques/The-Best-and-Worst-Tech-Interview-Questions/
[3] http://www.javaworld.com/community/node/2614
[4] http://www.javaworld.com/community/user/21332
[5] http://www.javaworld.com/community/user/21334
[6] http://www.javaworld.com
[7] http://www.articlesdirectories.com/
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Wednesday, November 25, 2009

iPhone and Android now total 75% of U.S. smartphone web traffic

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Monday, November 23, 2009

Social networking using Outlook 2010

View existing friends' profiles and updates and add new connections without ever leaving Outlook

In the upcoming months, you will be able to view the activities of your friends and contacts from your favorite social networks directly in Microsoft Outlook 2010.
Choose your network
To get started, download and install social network add-ins for Outlook.  Currently, there are no social network add-ins available as of the beta release of Outlook 2010.  But in the months to come, this page will be updated with links to new partner networks as they become available. 
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Saturday, November 21, 2009

Transition to the ribbon with interactive guides

Office 2010 is out, in case you don't find any command, you are familiar to using in Office 2003, use the interactive presentations below to see new location on the ribbon.



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Thursday, November 19, 2009

What’s New Inside Microsoft Office 2010

office 2010The first public beta of Microsoft Office 2010 (v. 14.0.4536.1000) is now available for download on both MSDN and Technet.
If you are not a subscriber, don’t hit the torrents yet because Microsoft may announce the general availability of Office 2010 beta sometime today itself. Update: You can download Office 2010 now.

Microsoft Office 2010 – What’s New

Here’s a quick visual guide to some of the new features of Microsoft Office 2010 that you’re likely to find useful once you get access to the software.

#1. Save Office Documents to the Cloud

With Microsoft Office 2010, you can directly upload documents to your Windows Live SkyDrive account and access them from any other computer.
SkyDrive provides 25 GB of free online storage and, since the service is integrated with Office Web Apps, you can view and edit these documents anywhere in the web browser without requiring Microsoft Office (even on a Mac).
save office documents to skydrive

#2. Embed Web Videos in your Presentations

With Office 2010, you can easily embed video clips from the Internet into your PowerPoint presentations just the way you embed Flash videos in regular web pages. Just copy the embed code from YouTube (or any other video sharing site) and paste it anywhere on the slide.
embed video in powerpoint

#3. Quick Steps in Outlook

Gmail includes a useful feature called Send and Archive that performs multiple tasks. When you click this button, it will first send the reply and then archives the thread with one click.
With the new Quick Steps feature in Outlook, you can create a sequence of commands (Send & Archive is just one example) and apply them to any Outlook item with a click. For instance, here’s a quick step for "Send and Delete" which would delete the email from your inbox after you’ve replied.
outlook quick steps

#4. Built-in PDF Writer

All Office 2010 programs include a built-in PDF writer to help you save documents into the PDF format with a click. Earlier, you had to download an add-on separately but now PDF support is native.
pdf writer in office 2010

#5. Document printing made simple!

With Office 2010, Microsoft has completely revamped the print dialog and it’s a tremendous improvement. For instance, you can tweak printer settings (like page margins, etc.) and preview the changes side-by-side.
printing documents in office 2010

#6. Broadcast Slideshows within PowerPoint

This is probably my favorite new feature of PowerPoint 2010. You can deliver live presentations over the web from within PowerPoint and anyone in the world can view your presentation using a web browser. It just works.
broadcast live slideshow

#7. Video Editing meets PowerPoint

Do you want to trim some parts of a video clip before using it in your presentation? Or do you want to apply professional styles to a video (like reflection coupled with 3D rotation) so that your audience stay glued longer? Well, that’s easy because PowerPoint 2010 now includes some very powerful video editing features.
correct video in powerpoint

#8. Distribute your slides as video

PowerPoint 2010 can convert your presentation into a video file that you may upload on to YouTube or distribute on a portable media player like the iPod. The video conversion happens in the background so you can continue using PowerPoint while the video is being created.
convert powerpoint to video

#9. Built-in Screen Capture

All Office 2010 programs now include a screen clipping utility to help you quickly capture any area of the desktop screen. The tool will automatically take screenshots of all open applications on your desktop (that are not in minimized state) and you can insert them directly into your document or presentation.
screen capture in office 2010

#10. Outlook gets social

When you open an email message inside Outlook 2010, it will show you related information such as email attachments, pictures, meeting requests and all previous email messages that you may have exchanged with that person (something like Xobni).
social outlook
There’s a green add button that lets you "add that person to your online social networks from Outlook" but the service isn’t live yet. Until then, you can use these add-ons to make your Outlook more social.
Important: Before installing Office 2010
1. If you are installing Office 2010 beta for the first time, the default settings will upgrade your existing copy of Microsoft Office. You can however customize this setting and install Office 2010 alongside an older version of Office.
2. If you already have Office 2010 Technical Preview on your computer, make sure you completely uninstall this edition before attempting to installing Office 14 beta. In case you still have trouble installing Office, use the cleanup utility to remove all traces of the previous version of Office from your system.
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Saturday, November 14, 2009

It's Official: Water Found on the Moon

Since man first touched the moon and brought pieces of it back to Earth, scientists have thought that the lunar surface was bone dry. But new observations from three different spacecraft have put this notion to rest with what has been called "unambiguous evidence" of water across the surface of the moon.


The new findings, detailed in the Sept. 25 issue of the journal Science, come in the wake of further evidence of lunar polar water ice by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and just weeks before the planned lunar impact of NASA's LCROSS satellite, which will hit one of the permanently shadowed craters at the moon's south pole in hope of churning up evidence of water ice deposits in the debris field.

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/090923-moon-water-discovery.html
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Friday, November 06, 2009

Google Dashboard: Find Out What Google Knows About You

If you’re concerned that Google is starting to know a bit too much about you, you might be interested to find out that Google has released Google Dashboard, a window onto the data that Google stores about your accounts.
All you need to do is go to www.google.com/dashboard and log into your account. You’ll be presented with a list of all of the Google services that you use, and the data that is stored in them.
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Wednesday, November 04, 2009

IE8: Ad blocking with the InPrivate Filter

There's an interesting article up on Neowin about how one can implement an effective ad blocker in IE 8 using the browser's InPrivate Filtering. Turns out it's not hard at all. Because it's built-in.

IE8 actually contains a great Ad blocking feature built-in, it's called "InPrivate Filtering". The InPrivate Filter (enabled by pressing CTRL+SHIFT+F) is intended to block content that may potentially share your information; thankfully advertisements are one such example of said content.
The InPrivate Filter is 'smart' in the sense that it can and will (if enabled) automatically detect content which appears with a high frequency on websites that you visit. In this regard, the Filter learns as you use the web and can detect what is an advertisement or of similar content, and take action accordingly. By entering the 'Manage Addons' window, you can select how many websites a piece of content must show up on before it is flagged, at which point you can then determine whether you want to block or allow such content.
Given the functionality of the InPrivate Filter, it seems that all that is required is a "Subscription List" containing the locations of advertisements for the filter to function as other Adblock applications. This is similar to a "Block List" in Adblock Pro and equivalent software. With such a list, it should be possible to simply block certain locations outright without relying on IE to learn from your browsing habits.
With regards to a subscription list that will block advertisements outright without having to 'learn' your browsing habits, I am in the process of searching for such. I have stumbled across this link where someone has compiled an XML file of the blocked URL's from Adblock Plus.

In order to Import these URL's into the InPrivate Filter, you must enter your "Manage Addons" window, accessible via Tools > Manage Addons. Click the InPrivate Filtering button, followed by Import and then locate the XML file. The result should be IE8 blocking content from said providers outright, without the need to learn via your browsing habits. Doing so has blocked about 99% of the advertisements I see while browsing with IE8.

To make it automatically enabled whenever you open the browser:


[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Safety\PrivacIE]

"StartMode"=dword:00000001

0 - off
1 - auto
2 - manual

Thanks to Manos P. and Mitchel T. for the tip.

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r22124619-IE8-InPrivate-filter-from-adblock-plus-list

Edit:

If you’re using Internet Explorer 9 which is in Beta as of this writing, create/rename the DWORD value named FilteringMode (instead of StartMode) and set 1 as the data. Thanks, slinky333.


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Friday, October 30, 2009

Windows® API Code Pack for .NET Framework

The Windows® API Code Pack for Microsoft® .NET Framework provides a source code library that can be used to access some new Windows 7 features (and some existing features of older versions of Windows operating system) from managed code. These Windows features are not available to developers today in the .NET Framework.


The individual features supported in this version (v1.0) of the library are:

  • Windows 7 Taskbar Jump Lists, Icon Overlay, Progress Bar, Tabbed Thumbnails, and Thumbnail Toolbars.
  • Windows 7 Libraries, Known Folders, non-file system containers.
  • Windows Shell Search API support, a hierarchy of Shell Namespace entities, and Drag and Drop functionality for Shell Objects.
  • Explorer Browser Control.
  • Shell property system.
  • Windows Vista and Windows 7 Common File Dialogs, including custom controls.
  • Windows Vista and Windows 7 Task Dialogs.
  • Direct3D 11.0, Direct3D 10.1/10.0, DXGI 1.0/1.1, Direct2D 1.0, DirectWrite, Windows Imaging Component (WIC) APIs. (DirectWrite and WIC have partial support)
  • Sensor Platform APIs
  • Extended Linguistic Services APIs
  • Power Management APIs
  • Application Restart and Recovery APIs
  • Network List Manager APIs
  • Command Link control and System defined Shell icons.

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Urdu Nastaleeq Font for mobiles

CRULP announces successful deployment of open source Pango rendering engine onto Symbian mobile development platform. This engine allows rendering of complex Asian writing systems through Open Type fonts. Please visit http://www.crulp.org/research/Project-Details/ALSMP.htm for some details. The current work has been on Arabic script.
The picture shows Nafees Nastalique Open Type Font rendered on Nokia E51.


The project aims to continue to investigate deploying Pango on Adroid mobile platform by Google and develop training material to enable the same for other scripts.
Read the entire article...
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Saturday, October 24, 2009

MSDN Virtual Labs

MSDN Virtual Labs! Quickly evaluate or learn how to build great applications for Windows and the Web through a series of guided, hands-on labs which can be completed in 90 minutes or less. The best part is, the MSDN Virtual Labs don’t require any installation and are available to you immediately for FREE.
Direct Link
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Friday, October 23, 2009

Windows 7 is now available

Here's the email from MS:
We’ve reached the final milestone in our Windows 7 release schedule—general availability! Thank you all for the feedback you have provided during the Beta and Release Candidate processes. You have helped us make this the strongest Windows client operating system to date.
For continued support for your deployment and migration processes—including resources to help you with application compatibility, security, networking, manageability, and much more—bookmark these resources:
- Guidance, tools, and demonstrations - Springboard Series for Windows 7 on TechNet
- Community advice, tips, and best practices – TechNet Windows 7 Forums
- Virtual labs, webcasts, and podcasts – Windows 7 IT Pro Events and Webcasts Portal

Also, to stay up to date on new resources, the latest guidance, and upcoming events, sign up to be a Springboard Series Insider!
Thank you for all your support!
The Springboard Series Team
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Monday, October 19, 2009

MS launches Kid's Corner--Beginner Developer Learning Center

Are you a cool kid who wants to impress your friends and family with your mad skillz? Check out the Kid's Corner for lots of fun, easy to understand lessons on programming!
Are you a parent or teacher looking to start your kids learning about computer programming? Start here!

Kid's Corner
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Microsoft Ajax Minifier

Scott Guthrie recently announced that the ASP.net team published a free tool that enables you to improve the performance of your Ajax applications by reducing the size of its JavaScript files. The new tool is named the Microsoft Ajax Minifier.

You can read Scott Guthrie’s announcement here.

Overview of the Microsoft Ajax Minifier

The Microsoft Ajax Minifier was created by Ron Logan (who is clearly a super-genius). The Microsoft Ajax team has been using this tool internally for a number of years. For example, they use the Microsoft Ajax Minifier to minify the Microsoft Ajax Library before publishing it.
The Microsoft Ajax Minifier enables you to reduce the size of a JavaScript file by removing unnecessary content from the JavaScript file. The tool supports two modes: normal crunching and hypercrunching.
When you use normal crunching, the Microsoft Ajax Minifier strips all comments, unnecessary whitespace, curly-braces, and semicolons from a JavaScript file. Surprisingly, just removing all of this unnecessary code fluff can make a significant difference to the size of a JavaScript file.
When you use hypercrunching, the Microsoft Ajax Minifer gets more aggressive about reducing the size of a JavaScript file. In hpercrunching mode, the Microsoft Ajax Minifier shortens the names of local variables (variables in functions but not global variables) and it removes unreachable code.
Read the entire article...
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Monday, October 12, 2009

Windows 7: 77 Windows 7 Tips

Windows 7 may be Microsoft’s most anticipated product ever. It builds on Windows Vista’s positives, and eliminates many of that OS’s negatives. It adds new functionality, too—all in a package that is less resource-hungry than its predecessor.


And whether or not you're upgrading from Vista or skipping it altogether and moving up from Windows XP, you'll need to know how to make the most of it in your environment. Here are 77 tips and tricks to get you there.
Here are some tips that would enhance your user experience for Windows 7.
Windows 7: 77 Windows 7 Tips

At a Glance:
Make Windows 7 faster
Get more done with Windows 7
The best Windows 7 shortcuts
Securing Windows 7
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Tuesday, October 06, 2009

LINQ to SQL Tips and Tricks

There are many little tips and tricks for LINQ to SQL which can make our lives easier, or improve the speed and efficiency of the generated code. The article at CodeProject details some more tips related to LINQ to SQL.
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Monday, October 05, 2009

How to Use Your iPhone as a USB Drive

These are instructions on how to use your iPhone as a USB stick / USB flash drive without needing to install software on your computer.
Read the entire article...
This is one of the most useful iPhone utilities I have ever seen. A big thanks goes to dmp for creating this app!
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Friday, September 18, 2009

Launch of Space Shuttle Endeavour

A very cooooool image.
OV-105 Launch of Space Shuttle Endeavour from Pad 39B on mission STS-97. This is a five minute exposure taken from the Causeway (about 7 miles away from the pad). Taken with a borrowed all-manual Nikomat camera, 24 mm lens, f/16, Kodak Royal Gold 100 film. When the exposure was stopped in this shot, the shuttle was approximately 229 statute miles downrange.

View now...
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Scientists extract images directly from brain

Researchers from Japan’s ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories have developed new brain analysis technology that can reconstruct the images inside a person’s mind and display them on a computer monitor, it was announced on December 11. According to the researchers, further development of the technology may soon make it possible to view other people’s dreams while they sleep.

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Friday, September 04, 2009

JavaScript OS

The SkyLight Project has created a fully functional window based operating system written in JavaScript. The code is compatible with the latest versions of all of the major browsers. Supporting a remote server based file system and using the latest Ajax techniques the SkyLight Project is a demonstration of the future. With a complete suite of standard controls ranging from text boxes and html editors all the way to color pickers and file save dialogs.

The BETA version will be released on the 1st of October 2009. If you want to take part in it please use their contact us page to submit your application.

read more…

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32 Indispensable Bookmarklets for Web Developers and Designers : Speckyboy Design Magazine

All of these bookmarklets/favelets will be useful to all web designers and developers, they are the quickest method for testing, analyzing and tweaking any web page.

A Bookmarklet or Favelet is a small application tool, stored as the URL of a bookmark in a web browser or as a hyperlink on a web page.

Read the entire article...

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Thursday, September 03, 2009

2009 Ultimate Developer and Power Users Tool List for Windows

Everyone collects utilities, and most folks have a list of a few that they feel are indispensable. Here's a list by Scott Hanselman saying... Each has a distinct purpose, and I probably touch each at least a few times a week. For me, util means utilitarian and it means don't clutter my tray. If it saves me time, and seamlessly integrates with my life, it's the bomb. Many/most are free some aren't. Those that aren't free are very likely worth your 30-day trial, and perhaps your money.

Complete list...
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Microsoft offers free Windows 7 RTM trial

Microsoft on Tuesday offered a free 90-day trial of the final version of Windows 7, saying that the three-month free ride is for IT professionals.

Except for a short form, however, Microsoft makes no effort to qualify eligible users, giving anyone the opportunity to try out the new operating system before it ships on Oct. 22. "A limited number of licenses are available, so the download will only be available while supplies last," said Rose in a Tuesday entry on a company blog.

The 90-day Windows 7 Enterprise trial can be downloaded from Microsoft's site. A short FAQ is also available, but support is offered only through community-managed online forums.

Source

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Wednesday, September 02, 2009

The best(?) free open source software for Windows

To many, free open source software and Microsoft Windows seem to be mutually exclusive. After all, the open source development model is most closely associated with the Linux OS and, to a lesser degree, various Unix derivatives. So when you mention the two together, you often get some rather strange looks. This is a strange because there exists a growing landscape of compelling free and open source solutions just waiting for the intrepid Windows user.

I personally don't agree with the effectiveness of the software mentioned in the list, but sharing this for reference.
Filezilla becomes pathetic sometimes, same is the case with Paint.Net.

Get well-connected with FileZilla
FileZilla [5] is one of those essential Internet tools that you just can’t live without. A full-featured Windows FTP client, FileZilla makes interacting with FTP sites an efficient, productive process.

I’m particularly fond of FileZilla’s handling of batch transfers. I mostly use the program to update various remote Web sites I manage, and I find its ability to process large sets of modified source files to be especially helpful. Most operations are a simple drag-and-drop affair. However, when I need to exert more control over the transfer, I can tap into FileZilla’s dizzying array of configuration parameters -- for example, using a time zone offset to synchronize files from a distant location, a convenient feature when you live on a remote island that’s nine hours ahead of your servers.

FileZilla truly is a Swiss Army Knife of a transfer program, and that is ultimately its undoing. In their quest to cover every conceivable FTP scenario, the developers have created a bit of a Frankenstein product, with multiple mixed UI metaphors clashing with one another. For example, the program (now in version 3.1) sports an archaic-looking, Windows 3.x-era toolbar. However, most of the more powerful features and options are buried inside its old-school menus and tree-view-laden dialog boxes.

FileZilla’s main UI window is also a throwback, with a confusing four-panel directory tree and contents layout that’s reminiscent of the old Windows File Manager application. In fact, everything about the FileZilla UI feels a bit dated, possibly a side effect of its cross-platform heritage.

Bottom line: FileZilla isn’t going to win any Windows UI beauty contests. But if you can look past the ancient exterior, you’ll discover one of the most powerful FTP clients available on Windows, Mac OS X, or Linux.

[6]

FileZilla isn’t the prettiest Windows application. However, it gets the job done, providing a wealth of options to streamline and automate batch transfers.

Double your OS pleasure with VirtualBox
VirtualBox [7] has grown from a scrappy unknown wallowing in obscurity to a serious contender in the classic desktop virtualization space. Much of the credit goes to Sun Microsystems, which plucked VirtualBox from its underfunded developer, InnoTek GmbH, and gave it the technical resources and attention needed to reach its full potential.

The net result is a solution that now rivals -- and in some respects, surpasses -- VMware’s category-defining Workstation product. For example, under Sun’s guidance VirtualBox has expanded its host and guest OS platform support to include virtually all 32- and 64-bit variants of Windows, Linux, Unix, and Mac OS X. And while it lacks the sophisticated IDE or stand-alone VM authoring capabilities of its commercial competitor, it makes up for this by providing more brute processing power, including support for up to 32 virtual CPUs and 16GB of RAM per VM. (VMware Workstation 6.5 tops out at two CPUs and 8GB of RAM. See my comparison of Workstation 6.5 and VirtualBox 2.0 [8].)

Unfortunately, if there’s an Achilles’ heel in VirtualBox, it has to be the clunky user interface. Another victim of the cross-platform development process, the VirtualBox UI features a variety of non-standard conventions and custom dialogs that look like they would be a better fit on a Linux or Unix system than any edition of Windows. And though VirtualBox makes an effort to streamline the guest OS configuration process -- for example, by flagging seemingly incompatible configuration parameters and suggesting corrections -- it doesn’t hold a candle to VMware’s Easy Install mechanism.

Still, the UI is just window dressing, after all. VirtualBox covers the basics well and, as of version 3.0, outshines VMware Worsktation in terms of CPU and memory scalability per VM. It will be interesting to see how VMware responds to this potent threat to its desktop virtualization hegemony.

Bottom line: Unless you need the very developer-specific features of VMware Workstation (IDE integration, Easy Install, robust snapshots with real-time playback), there really is no reason ever to pay for desktop virtualization software again. VirtualBox 3.0 is that good.

[9]

Watch out, VMware! VirtualBox 3.0 now supports up to 32 virtual CPUs per guest OS session, making it the new class leader in desktop virtualization scalability.

Get down to work with OpenOffice.org
OpenOffice.org [10] is one of the tools most closely associated with the free open source movement. Encompassing word processing, spreadsheet, presentation graphics, drawing, and database functions, OpenOffice.org is a full-featured office productivity suite designed to compete with commercial solutions from Microsoft [11] and SoftMaker [12], as well as SaaS offerings from Google and Zoho [13]. It also serves as the basis for a variety of derivative productivity suites [14], including IBM’s Symphony and the Novell inspired Go-OO.org. (See my review of OpenOffice.org 3.1 [12].)

Unfortunately, OpenOffice.org’s high profile has also made it a lightning rod for criticisms of open source development practices. A sprawling, sometimes top-heavy product, OpenOffice.org has been accused of succumbing to a kind of featuritis [15], with each new release trying to match or surpass Microsoft’s market-dominating commercial Office suite. Meanwhile, core deficiencies -- like the lack of a reliable import/export capability for Microsoft-formatted files -- has caused many IT organizations to take a pass on this free, yet fundamentally flawed, Office alternative.

But for users who don’t need to exchange data regularly with Microsoft Office, OpenOffice.org provides a capable set of tools for accomplishing just about anything a typical business user would require. The OpenOffice.org Writer application is comparable to Microsoft Word in terms of core features, and the Calc and Presentations applications are more than adequate for all but the most demanding usage scenarios.

Bottom line: OpenOffice.org provides a powerful business productivity solution for IT shops that are looking to save costs and for which Microsoft Office compatibility is not a top priority.

[16]

OpenOffice.org is the quintessential free open source application, with numerous derivative works -- like the Novell-driven Go-OO.org variant -- providing an endless variety of custom-tailored solutions.

Expand your horizons with Mozilla Firefox
Like OpenOffice.org, Firefox [17] is another tool that's almost synonymous with free open source. It’s also the movement’s greatest success story, with more than 30 percent of Web surfers running some version of the Firefox browser. The story is all the more remarkable when you consider that Microsoft effectively owned this category just a few short years ago, having captured 90 percent of Internet users by bundling the Internet Explorer browser with the Windows operating system.

Although Firefox is free, unlike Internet Explorer it doesn't just fall into your lap; you need to consciously seek out, download, and install it -- all tasks that have traditionally been beyond the pale for average users. That Mozilla.org has been able to reach past this kind of inertia and convince such a wide audience to try Firefox is testimony both to the product’s quality and to the power of public perception: All the cool, savvy users seem to run Firefox, while Internet Explorer is now considered the choice of newbies and the unsophisticated.

It also helps that Firefox is a darn good browser, chock-full of useful features and thoughtful touches, like one-touch bookmarking and an integrated search and address field (aka the "awesome bar"). And if there’s something you don’t like about Firefox or a feature you think is missing, chances are the need has already been addressed by one of the program’s 6,000 or more add-ons.

In fact, it’s this active add-on community that makes Firefox so attractive to the tuners and tweakers of the global IT audience. Firefox truly is whatever you make it, and for many users, this is just the kind of customizability that’s worth seeking out.

Bottom line: Firefox is the standard bearer of the free open source movement and a shining example of what a community-oriented development process can achieve.

[18]

Firefox is another standard bearer for the free open source movement, with features that surpass even those of commercially developed Web browsers.

Show your creative side with Paint.net
Paint.net [19] has a checkered past as a free open source solution. Originally released as a completely open source project, its developers were forced to scale back to a more restrictive Creative Commons License (still freely available, but without source code) after unscrupulous parties decided to rename the original and try to resell it for profit.

As currently constituted, Paint.net qualifies for only the “free” part of the FOSS acronym, which is a shame since the program itself is a hidden gem. Designed by a bunch of Washington State University students as a replacement for Windows’ anemic Paint accessory, Paint.net has evolved to incorporate a growing list of sophisticated image editing capabilities, including layers and a complete plug-in system for adding image effects and support for various file types.

The program’s fans like to think of Paint.net as a functional alternative to commercial tools, like Adobe Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro. However, limitations in key areas (brush selection, text manipulation) coupled with a lack of TWAIN scanner support, continue to relegate Paint.net to the amateur leagues. Furthermore, the program's reliance on the .Net framework means that you need to factor that additional layer of complexity into your cost/benefit calculations (not to mention download time, considering .Net Framework 3.5 with SP1 weighs in at more than 200MB).

Bottom line: If your image editing needs are modest -- and you don’t mind going outside of your image editing environment to fill the occasional features gap with another tool (such as scanning) -- then Paint.net may be just the solution you’ve been looking for.

[20]

Although Paint.net may not be ready to take on the best-of-breed commercial offerings, it still provides more than enough muscle to satisfy all but the most demanding artists.

Go back to the future with Media Player Classic
Media Player Classic [21] is a tool that always causes me to do a double-take. After all, it appears to be almost identical to the original Media Player accessory that shipped with Windows 9x all those years ago. However, looks can be deceiving, and under the hood, MPC is a completely different animal, with built-in support for a wide variety of audio and video formats, an extensible architecture, and a seemingly inexhaustible supply of nifty hidden features.

All nostalgia aside, it’s the integrated playback support that makes MPC so popular. Simply download MPC from its SourceForge.net Web site and run the program (no installer is required). You are immediately able to play a variety of formats, including MPEG/MPEG-2/MPEG-4, DivX, Xvid, and CD/VCD/DVD media -- all without installing any external codecs. In fact, many users rely on MPC as a kind of litmus test for media files: If MPC can’t play it, there’s probably something wrong with the file.

Of course, the preceding statement is a bit of a generalization. There are instances where MPC doesn’t provide complete support (Ogg Vorbis files are known to have issues), in which case MPC -- designed around Microsoft’s DirectShow media streaming architecture -- can employ any number of external codecs in order to render the media. MPC can even double as a DVR, tapping into most Windows-supported TV tuner devices and recording to disk.

Bottom line: MPC is a must-have tool for anyone serious about their media. Even if you don’t use it regularly, just having a copy available to test/verify compatibility is a good idea.

[22]

Don’t let Media Player Classic’s unassuming looks fool you. This is not your father’s media player, as evidenced by the wealth of internally supported media formats.

Satisfy your paranoid streak with TrueCrypt
TrueCrypt [23] is one of those free open source utilities that fly under the radar of most Windows users. Not as flashy or controversial as Microsoft’s BitLocker, TrueCrypt nevertheless provides many of the same features -- full disk encryption with separate key-based recovery -- as well as some that BitLocker does not, like true pre-boot encryption of all volumes. (BitLocker requires that you create a separate, unencrypted pre-boot volume.) In fact, TrueCrypt is superior to BitLocker on many counts, with support for more encryption protocols, more varied encryption scenarios (such as hidden volumes), and more flexibility in how and when you can encrypt your data.

I’m particularly fond of TrueCrypt’s on-the-fly handling of volume encryption. You can start encrypting your disk, pause the process, and resume it later, even after a reboot. And for the truly paranoid among us, TrueCrypt provides the option of creating a second, decoy file system volume that exists in parallel with your actual primary volume. That way, if you’re ever forced to decrypt your volume under duress -- for example, at a security checkpoint or to satisfy the demands of some malfeasant character -- you can enter the decoy password and present them with the bogus volume, leaving them none the wiser.

Of course, TrueCrypt’s hidden decoy volumes and other encryption esoterica are really targeted at niche users with very specific requirements (this means you, 007). However, for the masses, TrueCrypt offers one very compelling feature: It works on virtually any modern NT-based variation of the Windows OS, including Windows 2000 (SP4), Windows XP, Windows Server 2003/2008, and all flavors of Vista (not to mention Mac OS X and Linux).

Bottom line: TrueCrypt’s flexibility, combined with its broad platform support and active development community, make it a terrific free alternative to Microsoft’s BitLocker.

[24]

Cross over to the dark side of digital paranoia with TrueCrypt’s hidden volume option -- 007, eat your heart out!

Stick it to The Man with PDFCreator
For many years, the act of creating an Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) file was either more complicated or more expensive than it needed to be. In the old days, you typically had one of two options: Spring for the full Adobe Acrobat product or take your chances with one or more third-party "print to file" solutions, many of which were overpriced or of dubious quality.

All of this changed with the emergence of GhostScript and its subsequent licensing under the GNU GPL. Suddenly, anyone with some programming chops could roll their own PDF creation and editing solution, using the GhostScript interpreter as their framework. Not a programmer? Not a problem -- there are several prebuilt solutions that allow you to generate a PDF. And by far the most popular of these is the PDFCreator [25] tool hosted on the SourceForge Web site.

PDFCreator installs as a virtual printer driver under Windows, allowing you to dynamically generate PDF output from virtually any Windows application. It supports a broad range of Adobe PDF options, including password protection (both for users and authors) and 128-bit encryption. In fact, if there’s a downside to PDFCreator, it’s the sheer number of configuration options available. Fortunately, these settings are hidden deep within the program's Options dialogs. Novice users can simply print to the PDFCreator virtual printer driver and get good results with the default settings.

Bottom line: If you need to generate the occasional PDF file but don’t want to skimp on functionality or configurability, then PDFCreator is an excellent solution and a great alternative to Adobe’s pricey Acrobat product.

[26]

Forget Adobe Acrobat. With PDFCreator you can generate PDFs on the fly, with a wide range of security and digital authoring components.

Tighten your belt with 7-Zip
7-Zip [27] is another great example of a free open source project that takes over where many commercial solutions stop. Incorporating a wide range of decompression formats (from ARJ to ZIP, and virtually everything in between) and its own advanced LZMA-based compression engine, 7-Zip delivers performance on par with proprietary formats like RAR and ACE while remaining entirely open and extensible.

I first encountered 7-Zip while downloading archived Nvidia drivers from the fount of all things mobile, LaptopVideo2Go.com [28]. All of the driver packages were encoded with 7-Zip using its self-extracting option, making it easy to pull down the sometimes bulky Nvidia ForceWare suites over my sometimes spotty international Internet connection.

After downloading, I found that the packages decompressed quickly and reliably. I’ve never encountered an error or data corruption with 7-Zip, which is more than I can say for PKZIP and its myriad derivatives. And because 7-Zip is a free open source project, released under the GNU LGPL, I don’t have to wade through all of the nagware screens that accompany the trial versions of commercial versions.

Bottom line: 7-Zip provides everything you could want in a basic file compression solution. It’s fast and reliable, and it supports a wide range of formats -- a real no-brainer.

[29]

7-Zip’s LZMA-based algorithms deliver excellent compression ratios -- for example, deflating a megabyte of files to a package of just 64KB in size.

Thwart those evildoers with ClamWin
ClamWin [30] is a free open source anti-virus solution that provides a (mostly) comprehensive shield against the majority of common malware threats. I say "mostly" because the product lacks real-time execution monitoring, a critical component of any modern anti-virus solution. To scan for a virus with ClamWin, you need to manually initiate the process by selecting a suspect file and choosing the ClamWin option in the pop-up context menu.

Assuming you can live with a manual tool (some users may actually prefer it), ClamWin offers a fairly robust solution that includes an auto-updating virus definition database, an Outlook plug-in that provides real-time scanning of message and attachment data, and a scheduling function to automate proactive scans. And true to form for most free open source solutions, ClamWin offers a plethora of tweaking and tuning options so that savvy users can get it to work to their liking.

Prior to the release of Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE), ClamWin was one of the easiest ways to obtain a free anti-virus solution for Windows. However, now that Microsoft is offering its own, robust, and fully automated solution -- and providing it free to virtually anyone with a legitimate copy of Windows -- ClamWin’s star seems a bit diminished. Still, if you’re looking for an anti-virus solution with the transparency of open source development practices, ClamWin is the package for you.

Bottom line: ClamWin provides a good basic level of protection, but its lack of real-time execution scanning makes it more appropriate for veteran users than novices.

[31]

ClamWin is a tweaker’s paradise, with a plethora of configuration and tuning parameters to satisfy the savviest user.

Join the revolution -- without leaving Windows!
There’s no doubt about it, the FOSS-on-Windows landscape is full of hidden gems waiting for you to discover. Some, like TrueCrypt and VirtualBox, are real diamonds in the rough: enterprise-grade solutions that deliver many of the same bells and whistles of their commercial brethren, but for free. Others, like Firefox and OpenOffice.org, are already legendary, and their strong followings ensure their continued development and support at levels that rival the best proprietary solutions.

If your idea of open source is limited to Linux and Firefox, you really owe it to yourself to check out some of the tools detailed above. Chances are, at least one of them will impress you enough to make it into your own must-have tools collection, leaving you with a few extra dollars to splurge on that Windows 7 Ultimate Edition upgrade you’ve been eying.

Or not. With TrueCrypt available for free, you can scratch BitLocker from the thin list of reasons to buy that high-end Windows SKU. No wonder Microsoft doesn't like open source.

Source...
Links:
[1] http://www.infoworld.com/win7-deep-dive?source=editinline
[2] http://www.infoworld.com/win7-deep-dive?source=fssr
[3] http://www.infoworld.com/d/windows/windows-7-rtm-arrives-time-finally-ripe-windows-upgrade-356?source=rs
[4] http://www.infoworld.com/d/applications/top-10-open-source-apps-windows-glance-309?source=fssr
[5] http://filezilla-project.org/
[6] http://www.infoworld.com/sites/infoworld.com/files/media/image/filezilla_lg.gif
[7] http://www.virtualbox.org/
[8] http://www.infoworld.com/d/virtualization/virtualization-showdown-vmware-workstation-vs-sun-xvm-virtualbox-735
[9] http://www.infoworld.com/sites/infoworld.com/files/media/image/virtualbox_lg.gif
[10] http://www.openoffice.org/
[11] http://infoworld.com/d/applications/office-2010-looks-solid-and-smooth-031
[12] http://www.infoworld.com/d/applications/better-office-alternative-softmaker-office-bests-openofficeorg-445
[13] http://www.infoworld.com/d/applications/test-center-review-office-killers-pack-some-heat-972
[14] http://www.infoworld.com/d/applications/many-faces-openoffice-277
[15] http://www.infoworld.com/d/open-source/openofficeorg-priority-adding-new-features-vs-fixing-bugs-477
[16] http://www.infoworld.com/sites/infoworld.com/files/media/image/openoffice_lg.gif
[17] http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/
[18] http://www.infoworld.com/sites/infoworld.com/files/media/image/firefox_lg.gif
[19] http://www.getpaint.net/
[20] http://www.infoworld.com/sites/infoworld.com/files/media/image/paintnet_lg.gif
[21] http://sourceforge.net/projects/guliverkli/
[22] http://www.infoworld.com/sites/infoworld.com/files/media/image/mpc_lg.gif
[23] http://www.truecrypt.org/
[24] http://www.infoworld.com/sites/infoworld.com/files/media/image/truecrypt_lg.gif
[25] http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator/
[26] http://www.infoworld.com/sites/infoworld.com/files/media/image/pdfcreator_lg.gif
[27] http://www.7-zip.org/
[28] http://laptopvideo2go.com/
[29] http://www.infoworld.com/sites/infoworld.com/files/media/image/7-zip_lg.gif
[30] http://www.clamwin.com/
[31] http://www.infoworld.com/sites/infoworld.com/files/media/image/clamwin_lg.gif

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