Monday, March 21, 2011

Freebies Ten

Ten Things You Can Have for Free

DocHaven is "a cloud-based library for your documents. You run DocHaven as an alternative to the normal folders on your PC or file server. Your documents are permanently backed up. You take them out of the cloud as you need them then put them back into the cloud when you have finished with them. You can store any kind of document in these ‘Projects’. Once a Project is back in the cloud it can be taken out by others in your group. Every time a Project is put away, it keeps the last ten versions automatically. So not only do you have a permanent backup, but if you make a mistake with your Project file, you can always go back to a previous version on the Cloud. Each time a person tries to take out a Project they are verified. They must be either the owner of the Project or a member of the group to which the Project belongs. DocHaven meets the 3-2-1 rule for data Backups: Your files are in three places 1. your DocHaven folder 2. the cloud and 3. your cloud backup. At least three copies, at least two different media and at least one of the copies is offsite. Plus DocHaven also gives you extra assurance with multiple versions on the cloud and in your backups. Use the Backup window to create an on-site record of all your cloud projects and project meta-data" (OS: Windows, Linux, Mac or via a browser)

Fusion 2.0 "allows merging several images of the same scene in one. You can merge photos taken with the same exposure or images taken with different exposures. When blending together images taken with different exposure, the program creates an image with high dynamic range of brightness (HDR). Subsequent tone mapping to low range (LDR) uses nonlinear algorithms and allows preserving maximum details of the original images" (OS: Windows XP/Vista/7)

Money on Thread is "a free simple application for personal finance, house budget, or household budget. You add, delete modify the transactions that you usually have (salary, mortgage, rent, bank rate, car rate, credit cards due payments) on the "thread", and thus you can have a quick view when you might have some short cash, or not. There is support for the following languages: English, French, German, Spanish, Italian and Romanian (FR, GE, ES, and IT has been updated using the Google translator tool. Requires Java Runtime Environment" (OS: Win 98/ME/NT/2000/XP/Vista/7)

Now being offered as freeware, Photo Pos Pro "offers users a wide variety of possibilities in the fields of Image Enhancing and Image Editing and in the field of Computer Graphics Design. Using the editor you can perform various tasks, from simple basic tasks to complex tasks; you can edit existing images, create new works based on existing images, create new works from scratch and more. Photo Pos Pro Photo Editor offers powerful tools and functions which include among other things Support of many picture file types, Support of scanners and digital cameras, Advanced Image Enhancing and editing tools and functions, Tools for creating Computer Graphics Design, Rich Text Tools, Special Effects, Selection Tools, Layers & Masks, Gradients, Patterns and Texture, Script Tools, Batch Operations and also The Ability to expand the software yourselves" (OS: Windows 98/Me/XP/Vista)

Reading Ruler is "a virtual plastic ruler to help you reading. What it does is just to guide your eyes. ReadingRuler can also detect the text under it and move to the next line. Requires Java Runtime Environment" (OS: Windows XP/Vista)

ScreenReader "reads all elements menus or screen text pointed by mouse. This software has been done for people with visual troubles. It uses new microsoft SAPI 5 technologie without agent, and replace the older Agent Screen Reader software. It gets a text free window (like the old Simple Reader software), and shortcut to read clipboard content" (OS: Windows with SAPI 5)

SpeakHaven is "an application that speaks whatever is on the computer clipboard whenever the application is brought to the foreground. If the clipboard is unchanged it is ignored, otherwise it speaks the new clipboard text" (OS: Windows, Mac)

SpeedCrunch is "a fast, high precision and powerful desktop calculator. Features: history and results on a scrollable display; up to 50 decimal precisions; unlimited variable storage; intelligent automatic completion; fully usable from the keyboard; more than 50 built-in math functions; optional virtual keypad to be used with a mouse; on-the-fly and selection calculation; customizable appearance; syntax highlighting and parentheses matching" (OS: Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X)

Task Unifier is "a task management sofware based on the well known GTD (Getting Things Done) method. TaskUnifier helps you manage your tasks, folders, contexts, goals and locations." Feature list: "Multiplatform java software; Synchronize your tasks with Toodledo; Use folders to organize your tasks by projects; Use contexts to organize your tasks depending on your current context; Use goals to help you achieve some goals by executing specific tasks; Use locations to organize your tasks depending on your current location; and You can create templates in order to help you add tasks more quickly" (OS: Windows, Linux, Mac OS X)

Our blogpal Simon Haynes has just released the latest version of yWriter, a word processor freeware that breaks down your novel into chapters and scenes. Here's the list of features: "Organise your novel using a 'project'; Add chapters to the project; Add scenes, characters, items and locations; Display the word count for every file in the project, along with a total; Saves a log file every day, showing words per file and the total (Tracks your progress); Saves automatic backups at user-specified intervals; Allows multiple scenes within chapters; Viewpoint character, goal, conflict and outcome fields for each scene; Multiple characters per scene; Storyboard view, a visual layout of your work; Re-order scenes within chapters; Drag and drop of chapters, scenes, characters, items and locations; Automatic chapter renumbering" (OS: Windows XP/Vista/7)

4 comments:

  1. Just a heads-up, I just rejected an anonymous comment left here in the form of a personal message for me but that links to a discussion on another author's blog.

    I generally don't do this, but lately I've seen so many attempts to divert my visitors to this same author's blog that I suspect I'm being used (the fact that the author involved is a rabid self-promoter adds to my suspicions.) If I'm wrong, I apologize for my cynicism.

    I do like to keep things as open as possible here at PBW, but I don't accept advertising from anyone, whether it be honest or otherwise. Any comments you want to make or links you want to leave behind should relate in some way to the topic of the post. If you'd like to send me a personal message, my e-mail is LynnViehl@aol.com.

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  2. It's new? I've been running 5 for a bit now and I'm wondering if I'm missing something. Do I need to download a new version of yWriter?

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  3. Megs wrote: Do I need to download a new version of yWriter?

    I think it depends on what version of yWriter5 you have, Megs. According to the download page, this latest version is 5.1.66, dated 3-15-2011. I don't see a changelog, but because Simon didn't go to #6 he's probably tweaked it, and if you want the changes you should probably download the latest version.

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  4. Thanks for the mention!

    I update yWriter5 fairly often, and the changelog is kept up to date on the Downloads page: http://www.spacejock.com/yWriter5_Version.html (You can also read it by clicking Tools - Check for Update and then Display Current Version Info)

    I'll start on yWriter6 after I finish writing Hal 5 (and/or Hal Junior...)

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