Skype: iTunes track info as a mood message

"iTunes Info - History" writes the current track into the Skype mood message. You can change the format in which this is written on the options page. The extra message can be changed on the main page and can even be connected to a certain song or artist. The program can warn you when your mood message gets changed.

You can find this Skype extra here

Google: advanced searching for music, videos and documents

The following is a Google search string for searching open web directories containing downloadable "Kate Nash" music files. Substitute the name "Kate Nash" in the search string for any other band of your liking.

-inurl:(htm|html|php) intitle:”index of” +”last modified” +”parent directory” +description +size +(mp3) “Kate Nash”

With simple modifications the same search string can easily be used to search for documents and books in DOC or PDF format:

-inurl:(htm|html|php) intitle:"index of" +"last modified" +"parent directory" +description +size +(pdf|doc) "ebooks"

Video can be found in this way:

-inurl:(htm|html|php) intitle:"index of" +"last modified" +"parent directory" +description +size +(wmv|avi) "pink panther"

Enjoy!

Foxit: small and fast PDF Reader

Foxit Reader is a free (still free...) PDF document viewer, with incredible small size (only 2.55 M download size), breezing-fast launch speed and rich feature set.

The main plus of this viewer - Foxit is really fast!

Sometimes in the past one System Administrator recommended to try it. And I tried. I've been using it for 2+ years - no critical bugs found :)

You can find the FoxitReader here

IrfanView: one of the most popular viewers worldwide

IrfanView is a very fast, small, compact and innovative FREEWARE graphic viewer for Windows.

Some IrfanView features:

• Many supported file formats
• Thumbnail/preview option
• Paint option - to draw lines, circles, arrows, straighten image etc.
• Toolbar skins option
• Slideshow (save slideshow as EXE/SCR or burn it to CD)
• Show EXIF/IPTC/Comment text in Slideshow/Fullscreen etc.
• Support for Adobe Photoshop Filters
• Fast directory view (moving through directory)
• Batch conversion (with image processing)
• Multipage TIF editing
• File search
• Multimedia player
• Print option
• Support for embedded color profiles in JPG/TIF
• Change color depth
• Scan (batch scan) support
• Cut/crop
• Effects (Sharpen, Blur, Adobe 8BF, Filter Factory, Filters Unlimited, etc.)
• Capturing
• Lossless JPG rotation
• Many hotkeys
• Many PlugIns
• Only one EXE-File, no DLLs, no Shareware messages like "I Agree" or "Evaluation expired"
• No registry changes without user action/permission!
• and much much more

You can find IrfanViewer here

Firefox: shortcuts I am using

I am using these shortcuts everyday - the way to increase working productivity!

Ctrl+T	Open a new tab
Ctrl+W	Close the current window/tab
Ctrl+R	Refresh
Alt+D	Move focus to the address bar to type in URL
Ctrl+Enter	Add "http://www." and ".com" around the address
Shift+Enter	Complete .net address
Ctrl+Shift+Enter	Complete .org address
MiddleClick	Middle-clicking a tab will close it, even if the tab is not active
Ctrl+Tab	Next Tab
Ctrl+Shift+Tab	Previous Tab
Ctrl+(0-9)	Switch to the 1st, 2nd, 3rd etc tab
Ctrl+K	Move cursor to the Web Search
F11	Full Screen mode

CamStudio: Free Streaming Video Software

CamStudio is able to record all screen and audio activity on your computer and create industry-standard AVI video files and using its built-in SWF Producer can turn those AVIs into lean, mean, bandwidth-friendly Streaming Flash videos (SWFs)

Sometimes we need to attach video instead of screen shots to e.g. bug description. I know several programs that can do it but they are expensive. The main plus is - CamStudio is freeware...

AVI to SWF convert process is slow but it really reduces the size of the file.

Enjoy!

CamStudio can be downloaded for free from the official site

PicPick: user-friendly screenshot software

PicPick is a lightweight yet full featured image editor and capturer, perfect for simple daily image editing tasks.

Main Features:

• Captures Full Screen, Active Window, Web Page, Region, Freehand
• Image editor
• Color picker
• Pixel ruler
  

The Good:

• Freeware. You can use ut on any number of computers for as long as you like.
• Supports four most used image formats: JPG, PNG, GIF, BMP.
• Intuitive interface.
  
• Requires no installation.

The Bad:

• Web page capturing works only with IE.
• I haven't found the possibility to capture entire web page.
  

The Truth:

• If ease of use and basic editing is what you want the PicPick is definitely worth a shot!
  

PicPick can be downloaded from the official site