Feeling brave and yet too cheap to splash out more money to Microsoft? Then download the free Vista Transformation Pack and transform your boring old Windows XP interface into a shiny new Windows Vista look-alike. Why brave? Because this skinning stuff has a tendency to dig itself deep into the guts of your PC, which can make it tricky to uninstall if it doesn’t work properly. In other words, don’t do this unless you’re prepared to re-format your machine and start again…

A couple of cool Firefox extensions that I’ve stumbled across. Split Browser. Great little utility lets you split your browser or tab window as many times as you like, vertically or horizontally. Lovely. S3Fox Organizer. This extension makes it a snap to manage your Amazon S3 storage areas. Excellent tool. Tags: firefox+extension, split+browser, amazon+s3

If anyone needs proof that the Open Source movement is becoming a seriously important factor in the world of software, they only have to look as far as the two newest arrivals on the scene. Songbird and Democracy are two media players – music and video respectively – which have the potential to blow the bloated, DRM enslaved commercial alternatives out of the water. Make no mistake, this stuff is not just good because it’s free, it’s good because it’s well coded,…

They’ve gone and upgraded the Kish Kish Lie Detector for Skype. It’s now got a fancy needle and a dial just like a proper lie detector. Golly. I’m sure I don’t need to warn you against relying on this piece of software in any serious or meaningful way, do I?  Then, every time you call or receive a Skype call the KishKish Lie Detector will come to the front. The first 10 seconds are used to calibrate the system to…

Omziff. Small freeware encryption program. Secure your passwords, shred files and otherwise mess with stuff. Designed to be USB flash drive friendly to give it that portable touch.  Omziff is a straightforward encryption utility that uses various cryptographic algorithms to encrypt and decrypt textual files. These algorithms include: Blowfish, Cast128, Gost, IDEA, Misty1, AES/Rijndael, and Twofish….Omziff also generates random passwords, splits files, and does secure file deletion according to DOD Standards. It is freeware, comes in a standalone executable file with no…

Advanced WindowsCare Personal is billed as the ‘most essential and practical’ Windows fix utility. I haven’t had a chance to use it yet, so can’t vouch for its real world benefits, but the specs look pretty good for the price. Worth a look, I reckon.  Advanced WindowsCare v2 Personal is a comprehensive PC care utility that takes an one-click approach to help protect, repair and optimize your computer. It provides an all-in-one and super convenient solution for PC maintenance and protection. This fantastic program is available free of…

YamiPod. Pretty cool freeware program to manage your iPod music and files the way you want. Better yet it works under Linux, Windows and Mac and is available in 28 languages. Anyhoo, copy to/from the iPod, playlist import/export, PC synch, RSS upload support etc etc. Even has Last.FM support. Nice!  YamiPod is a freeware application to efficiently manage your iPod under Mac OS X, Windows and Linux. It can be run directly from your iPod and needs no installation. Take a look at the feature list to find…

iRemotePC. A freeware remote desktop control utility. Download the software to the machine you want to control and then access it from any web browser anywhere. It’s straight down the line VPN stuff, isn’t it, but this one apparently works from behind firewalls etc. Worth a look?  iRemotePC is a “Remote Desktop Viewing” service that allows you secure access and full view of your remote computer’s desktop all from any web-browser. This provides an extremely cost effective, practical and secure…

Free Classic AudioBooks. Available in either MP3 or m4b audio book format. Something to add to your player for those cosy winter evenings by the fire. Just you, a pair of earphones and a good cat.  Welcome to the Free Classic Audio Books site where you can download free audio books in either mp3 format or m4b audio book format for iTunes and the iPod. Some of our audio books are human narrated Librivox recordings and others are narrated using…