FREE STUFF

JDARKROOM - Cross-Platform Distraction Free Writing

2012-02-15T13:03:00.000-08:00

Well, I dabble in writing every now and then. I do short stories, and I've been attempting to write a novel for a good few years now. I have Microsoft Word, which of course isn't free. I have LibreOffice, which is (but that's for another blog post). My point is that although both of these programs are great for writing in, they don't necessarily work for me when I'm in author mode. They're full of buttons and whistles, and I can see the taskbar, which beckons to me to drift off into other programs and the internet. The end result of this is that I write for about ten minutes, and then I get distracted utterly. Obviously, I have issues with self-control... However, I recently found a program that has helped me a good deal in this regard, and if you suffer with similar issues, then maybe it can help you too. It's called JDarkRoom...

JDarkRoom In Action...

JDarkRoom is a very simple program. It is a full-screen text editor, very low on features, which in this case, is a good thing. It provides an isolated environment so you can concentrate on that essay, thesis, speech, novel, blog post or short story you're working on. It even hides the taskbar.

JDarkroom is controlled and configured through use of the F buttons. For example, F6 provides access to the settings where you can change the font type and size, as well as your colour preferences. The default is green on black (very Matrix), but I straight away shifted it to red on black. F7 is a text search. Other features include a word, line and character count, and the ability to display a word count goal, very useful for essays, etc. It exports to HTML if you need it, and has a 'no delete' mode if you like to freewrite. JDarkRoom also remembers the last file you were working on, autosaves a backup just in case, and reminds you if you've forgotten to save before you exit. You can insert a timestamp, take a screenshot by pressing Ctrl-F11, and play about with an experimental 'typewriter mode', which is rather cool.

The program requires at least Java 1.5 to run, although Java 6 is recommended. As well, the beauty of JDarkRoom is that it is cross-platform. It works on Windows, Mac and Linux. In fact, I installed it on my Linux partition. The developer does ask for a donation to help continue supporting the application, but it is not required for download or use.

JDarkRoom's Settings Page

JDarkRoom was heavily inspired by a previous program Dark Room, which is Windows only and requires .NET framework 2.0. This was designed for Windows XP, 2000, and 2003. However, someone in the comments mentions that it works well on Windows 7. I haven't tried it, so I can't promise anything. Dark Room in turn was inspired by Write Room, which is Mac only and, I'm afraid, not freeware. I've given you the links for those in case, for some reason, you don't want to mess about with Java, or you'd like to try them out.

Overall then, I have to say that JDarkRoom is brilliant. It provides a clutter-free environment for me to really make some headway on my novel. When trying it out, I found that an hour had gone by with me furiously typing away, and I hadn't noticed. Why don't you give it a go? It could be just what you need.

To download JDarkRoom, as well as a user guide in PDF format, go here.

MYDEFRAG - Free Disk Defragmenter And Optimiser

2012-02-07T07:21:00.000-08:00

MyDefrag is fairly well known to a lot of people, but for those of you that don't know about it, I wanted to share it with you. It definitely makes my list of essential software for every computer, and the great thing about it is, of course, it's free!

MyDefrag's User Interface

MyDefrag is a maintenance utility that performs the dual function of defragmenting and optimising your hard disk, thereby lengthening its life span. If you're not sure what that means, defragmentation involves rearranging the files on your computer so that those that should be together, are; removing the spaces between them as it goes. This makes your machine run faster. Optimisation is a little different, and maybe even more important. Because the beginning of a hard disk works better than the end, MyDefrag moves everything there, and then sorts things into "zones" by type and use. This means that your machine doesn't have to work as hard, and so it'll last longer.

Now, Windows ships with an inbuilt defragmenter utility, tis true. However, from personal experience I can tell you that MyDefrag is better at it. As time has gone on, I've noticed a marked decrease in the time it takes for my laptop to boot up, and indeed, for it to do pretty much anything.

MyDefrag runs on virtually any version of Windows. It can not only sort out your hard disk, but floppies, memory sticks and and external hard drives as well. It comes with scripts that are tailor-made for each of those devices. More advanced users can build their own scripts and customise MyDefrag completely.

MyDefrag Running A Scheduled Daily Defrag

The program also has the option of adding itself to the Windows scheduler as you install it to run daily, weekly or monthly. Daily is fastest, and monthly is the slowest but gives the best results. This scheduling option is great for people who like to "set it and forget it", and you can create customised runs as well.

The only thing that has bothered me slightly is that for half a minute just as the program gets going, MyDefrag can hog resources, but this really doesn't last long at all. Overall, as I said in the introduction, MyDefrag is a small, fast, essential piece of software for my laptop and I couldn't do without it these days. Why don't you give it a look? It can be downloaded from here.

LMMS - A Cross-Platform Audio Sequencer

2012-01-30T13:46:00.000-08:00

Well, this week I decided to yield the floor to another reviewer. It was always my intention to bring you cool free softwares from more than just the Windows platform. Although I've recently made a tentative foray into Linux, I am by no means an experienced user. My boyfriend is. He loves Linux, and if he could marry it and have its babies, he would. So... all that remains is to hand you over into his capable hands so he can tell you all about the Linux Multimedia Studio.....


Screenshot of the LMMS User Interface.

"Nothing quite scratches that creative itch like making music and, thanks to the miracles of modern science, the humble home computer is now often powerful enough to allow the dream of a home studio to become a reality. Enter LMMS - the free and open-source Linux MultiMedia Studio. "But I don't run Linux!", you may be screaming. Fear not, a Windows version has also been created, and both are available here. (Sorry Mac users, you're out of luck with this one.) The "Multimedia" in the title may be slightly misleading, as it is essentially just an audio sequencer, but despite its simplicity LMMS has raised itself above many of its competitors with some pretty nifty features.

"Fundamentally it works like most other sequencers. However as well as being able to sequence samples, LMMS ships with an impressively varied bank of instrument plugins, and for all of your music & mixer channels there is some pretty great FX support (including supporting VST effects and instruments even when running on Linux). This opens the way for a veritable plethora of weird and wonderful noises to be made.

"LMMS's automation - where controls such as volume or effects levels are set to change automatically on the song's timeline - is a simple and very visual interface, and allows pretty much any control you can find to be automated with a simple drag-and-drop. As well, where LMMS really shines is being able to mix all of the above with two of its instrument plugins - the ZynAddSubFx synthesiser and a SoundFont player.


LMMS's Main Song Editor Interface, With ZynAddSubFx Hovering In The Corner.

"Despite its off-puttingly chunky and slightly confusing appearance, the bizarrely-named ZynAddSubFx is one of the most flexible and powerful freeware synthesisers available. If you read up on sound synthesis and get used to shaping and filtering soundwaves (which is fun in itself if you're a geek like me), almost any sound you can think of can be created, essentially from scratch. Making this awesome piece of software available as an LMMS instrument plugin was a stroke of genius by its developers.

Beats Made Easy - The Beat+Bassline Editor Is Very Intuitive, And Is Seen Here With Its Buddy, The Mixer.

"Sitting somewhere near the song editor window is a beat and bassline editor. This is also designed to be very visual, and very much in the style of the FruityLoops beat editor. MIDI support is also fairly good. Instrument tracks can be set to accept notes from your MIDI cable, or other software sequencers if you have the know-how to "wire" them together. Also, notes from the piano roll can be routed out and wired into other music software or hardware.

"Most of LMMS's problems have so far been small UI bugs, with project windows spontaneously rearranging themselves upon loading, or the smaller FX windows disappearing behind the larger Song Editor window when scrolling, but these are more annoyances than show-stoppers. The only serious flaw I found was when attempting side-chaining, to automate a channel's volume to dip whenever a kick drum sample sounded. The automated drop in volume came with horrible crackling distortion bad enough to make that otherwise-clever method unusable.

"Despite having a bad rap at first, a Youtube search for LMMS music will nowadays dredge up some pretty good stuff along with a few obligatory terrible efforts. (To check out my own creations, go here.) Overall then, I have found LMMS to be the most accessible and flexible of audio sequencers tried so far, acting as a perfect introduction to audio production on a budget. In fact its simplicity and flexibility actually serve to lift it into more advanced territory and, although truly advanced audio is not possible with LMMS, it will take longer than you may first think to outgrow it."

~Rob

CIRCLE DOCK - A Unique Freeware Launcher

2012-01-24T06:31:00.000-08:00

So, over time, I gradually grew a little OCD about my desktop icons. I didn't like them just laying there where I could see them all the time, making the screen untidy. Weird, I know... especially considering how appallingly messy my bedroom is... Anyway, the best solution seemed to be a dock of some sort, but it was hard to find a free one that was actually any good. After some searching however, I came across Circle Dock. Not only is it freeware, but it also has a uniquely spherical, and beautiful, design.

My Own Customised Circle Dock... :) I Like It Dark...

Circle Dock can be used to launch not only applications, but files and folders as well. What's more, it's completely customisable. In the settings section, you can change the icons, the center button, and the visual style as well as editing the behaviour of all these elements. The dock can be set to appear as a circle, an ellipse, or a standard line, and the icons rotate by use of the arrow buttons or the mouse wheel. This can be useful if you place your dock at the edge of the screen, and want access to icons that are hidden off-screen. Plus, it looks cool too!

Circle Dock can be activated and hidden by a custom hotkey, and you can add any app, file or folder to it by simply dragging and dropping the icon. I've not yet found a limit to the amount of links that can be added to it, and indeed I'm not sure there is one. All shortcuts can be managed by use of a right-click. The dock is currently available in 50+ languages.

The actual Circle Dock wikidot site only seems to go up to version 0.9.2 (which is the version shown in the above video featured on the site), but the version I'm using came from Softpedia, and features version 1.5.6.30. Not sure what that's about, but I've provided both links for you below. The download is about 40Mb, install is easy, and the program runs on Windows XP, Vista, XP64, and 7. It was last updated in May 2010, so I'm not sure whether the developer is still working on it, or whether it's still supported. However, I've never had any serious problems with it, and it comes with some very good help files. The only bug I'll mention is that I have Circle Dock set to load when I boot up, and sometimes it loads slightly weird: with the icons where they should be, but the actual dock quite a ways off to the side. It's not a serious problem, as restarting the program invariably fixes it, and it doesn't happen often. Overall, Circle Dock is one of my favourite apps. It leaves me with a clean desktop, and looks very pretty. Why not try it out for yourself?

Circle Dock website: http://circledock.wikidot.com/start
Softpedia download: http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/Launchers-Shutdown-Tools/Circle-Dock.shtml

MAXTHON 3 - An Alternative Web Browser

2012-01-17T07:18:00.000-08:00

One day not so long ago, I got bored of Google Chrome. I'm not entirely sure why. It's a perfectly good browser; one of the best out there. However, I'm always on the lookout for new things due to a rather short attention span, so I reckon that's the reason why I did a search for a replacement. I stayed away from all the usual suspects: Firefox, Opera, Safari, etc, in search of something a little more off the beaten path. That's when I came across Maxthon 3, and let me tell you, it's pretty awesome.


My Customised Maxthon 3 Browser... :-D (The Wallpaper Came From Here.)

First of all, Maxthon has a dual render system, combining both Internet Explorer's Trident and Webkit. This means that in the case of compatibility issues, you can switch between them by way of a button on the URL bar. It's a very handy feature. For the developers out there, a right-click gives you access to Webkit Developer Tools. Moreover, Maxthon is extremely fast, even faster than Chrome in my opinion.

Maxthon comes with free cloud services. With a Maxthon passport account, which of course requires registration, your favourites, logins and passwords are securely synced and saved, so you'll never lose them. Cool inbuilt tools include an RSS reader, a night-mode option, and an online notepad. The resource sniffer allows you to easily download video, audio or any images for any webpage you're on. For pages with large amounts of texts, you'll find an option on the address bar for Reader Mode, which shows the text clutter free, and loads the rest of it automatically so you don't have to click through many pages to get to the end of a long article or book. Maxthon Multi-Search allows you to quickly search across multiple search engines, and there are many more features that I don't have the time or the space to do justice to here.

This Demonstrates Maxthon 3's Reader Mode, Which Has A "Day" And "Night" Option... :)

Maxthon is available for Windows as both an install and a portable version. It also boasts versions for Android phones and tablets. Previous versions of Maxthon are also available, and I would add that at present Maxthon 2 still has more skins and extensions available, although Maxthon 3 is ever-expanding in this area, and so is fully customisable. It's quite well supported, and has an active blog and forum.

In the interests of fairness, I will mention that the latest update did include a small bug with regards to icons not being displayed properly in the sidebar. However, I found an easy fix for it straight away in the forums, and it actually opened the door to further customisation for me, so I didn't mind. However, I realise that you might.

Overall then, I love this browser. It suits me better than any other I've tried. Why not give it a go and see how you like it? Here's the link: http://www.maxthon.com/

SMALL BASIC - A Foot In The Door Of Programming

2012-01-11T15:05:00.000-08:00

I do not understand computer programming languages. They may as well be Klingonese for all the sense they makes to me. However, as a burgeoning geek and the girlfriend of a fully-fledged geek, I do have an interest in learning. When I've watched my boyfriend tap away in fluent PHP, I've always wondered exactly what all those pretty-coloured lines meant. Plus, the idea of learning how to create applications and websites from scratch was always very appealing. All in all then, I've been thinking for a while now about taking the plunge. There was just one problem... Where the hell to start! The sheer level of difficulty involved was very off-putting.

So, if you, like me, have also ever wanted to learn programming, but were put off what a gargantuan task it seemed, then I may have just found a way in for you... And a free way at that. On the Microsoft website, I came across a great program named Small Basic. Although it's basically relegated to the kid's corner, don't let that discourage you. Small Basic is focused on making programming simple and accessible enough for beginners, both children and adults. Sound good so far? Well, come closer then, so that I can entice you further.

A Screenshot Of Small Basic's UI... I Think It's Rather Pretty... :)

The program is a very small download, only 5.74Mb. To run it the only requirements are that your OS be Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows 7, and that you have Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 installed on your computer. (A little note here that might save you some time, and I wish I'd known beforehand, is that Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 was already installed as part of my Windows 7 OS, so it didn't require an extra download. However, if you do need that download, there's a link to it on the website.)

Small Basic's interface is pretty, uncluttered and easy to use. There are lots of resources available to you as well, such as a "Getting Started" pdf, which explains everything in a clear way. There's also a free downloadable teaching curriculum that you can use to further your understanding, sample chapters available from e-books, as well as a forum, a blog, and a Facebook page.

Overall, I'm loving playing around with this, and I'm working my way through the Getting Started guide as we speak. Whilst I know I can't use it to do anything overly complicated, it's not about that. It's about getting my foot in the door, and then who knows? So, what are you waiting for?? Here's the link to get you started: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-gb/beginner/ff384126.aspx

POINTS2SHOP

2011-12-29T11:30:00.000-08:00

So, I found this website, and it was my first experience with websites of this nature. It isn't a "get things for free" website, so much as a place to earn things that you would otherwise have to pay for. I thought I'd share it with you.

This is how it works: Advertisers place links on the points2shop website. Members, like yours truly, complete whichever of these offers interest the most. When this happens, points2shop get paid by these advertisers for bringing people to the site, and the member gets a portion of that payment in the form of points. These points can be redeemed for items on Amazon, donated to various causes, or used in points2shop's own shop for things like Facebook, Playstation, Nintendo and XBox credits. Also, various tasks on points2shop, as well as offers in the sister site Cashle, pay in the form of actual money which can be withdrawn into a Paypal account. Here: I made a video for you to better see how it works:

More information can be found on the site's forums, where members post pictures of the things they have received as proof that it works.

Overall, I can say that this can be a good way to get those items that you can't afford any other way. For example, I myself am racking up the points in order to afford a pair of studio headphones. In the interests of fairness however, I would say that it can take some time to amass the points needed for something expensive. So, if you're looking for a quick fix solution, this probably isn't for you. On this site, you get rewarded for putting in your time.

So, if you're interested, click the button below to get started:

SCULPTRIS - Brilliant Free 3D Design Software

2011-12-28T08:18:00.000-08:00

So, for this, my first post, the first piece of free software I wish to tell you about is Pixologic's Sculptris.

In my interwebby travels I've come across a fair few different 3D softwares, and coming from a painterly/photography base, and only recently becoming interested in 3D art as well, I've often found them to be too technical for me to wrap my brains around. However, Sculptris has a very intuitive, fun and user-friendly feel to it. I installed it and started getting on with it right away. It feels like proper sculpting, or drawing, as you can edit the mesh with simple brush strokes. The interface is very simple, short on buttons and things to confuse.

A Screenshot Of My First Design In Sculptris... Still A Work-In-Progress... (Not That Great, But Hey, I'm Experimenting!)

I feel I have to mention however, that the program is an Alpha release. I have never experienced any problems because of this though. For instance, it has never crashed on me. Yet, if this were to actually happen, Sculptris has a restore feature which would prevent any proper loss of your work. The only snag I've noticed is that the program slows down a bit as your design starts to get quite large. There are handy Optimising Brushes though, that let you reduce the amount of triangles on the model to make it easier on your system. I would say that to get the most out of the program, a tablet and pen is the best way to go.

An Image From Pixologic's Website Showing What Can Be Done...

Overall, I love this program. It is easy enough for a person with no experience in digital art to use, and yet sophisticated enough for those with more experience to create base models which can then be transferred into other, more advanced softwares for refinement. The program is available for both Windows and Mac, and it can be downloaded here: http://www.pixologic.com/sculptris/