LiberKey is a system for installing and keeping updated over 300 free programs (both open and closed source) on a Windows machine. All of the programs are portable meaning that they can run directly off a USB key without installing anything additional on the computer (this is very useful if you’re working on a computer where you don’t have administrative rights). The programs are organized into the following categories: audio, CD/DVD, education, file management, games, graphics, internet, networking, office, security, system utilities, and video. One great feature Liberkey has is the ability to
temporarily change file associations. Here is the
full list of programs available.
posted by Jasper Friendly Bear
on Jun 4, 2011 -
14 comments
Fifteen years ago this week, programmer
Ron Britvich launched version 1.0 of
Active Worlds. Started as an autonomous project of
Worlds, Inc. (a spinoff of educational gamesmaker
Knowledge Adventure), Active Worlds was one of the first and most ambitious attempts to create a 3D virtual community on the web.
Built on the architecture of Britvich's
Worlds Chat beta, Active Worlds
debuted in the form of
Alphaworld, a sunny green infinite plane open to
public building. In its opening years Alphaworld experienced
a land rush of construction, resulting in
an anarchic starfish sprawl larger than the state of California. A sister company, Circle of Fire, was soon founded to craft
additional themed hubs, and once individual ownership of worlds became possible the AW community spawned a veritable universe of
hundreds of worlds.
Although
the company has seen its
ups and downs since those heady times and its fortunes have slowly dwindled, the
Active Worlds platform survives to
this day. Look inside for a simple guide on how to log in to the (free) service, rundowns of the best worlds, links to essays analyzing the program's legacy, and other content summing up
its venerable community.
[more inside]
posted by Rhaomi
on Jul 4, 2010 -
18 comments
Mendeley is a cross-platform research management tool which features article databasing, PDF annotation, online backup, private, shared and public collections, metadata lookup on Google Scholar, direct exporting of multiple citation styles to Word, OpenOffice and BibTex, the ability to add documents directly from a web browser, and social networking with other members in your field of study. Like
Zotero (
previously), but out of the browser and with note-taking abilities. For Windows, Mac and Linux.
posted by l33tpolicywonk
on Jun 11, 2010 -
27 comments
Ninite is an incredibly nifty website/service that packages and lets you choose and install the correct versions of 59 of the best free Windows software packages in one click. It joins its mass-installing brethren: the venerable
Google Pack (10 applications) and the
Lifehacker Pack (22 applications), as well as a variety of
specialized packages for Installpad, including those specializing in PC rescue or media.
posted by blahblahblah
on Dec 14, 2009 -
32 comments
EclipseCrossword is a powerful
windows tool for automatically creating crossword puzzles. You can create multiple puzzles from the same word list; print the puzzles in assorted formats; or export interactive puzzles for web pages.
[more inside]
posted by Mitheral
on Dec 8, 2008 -
9 comments
SoupToys Toybox is a digital physics simulator for Windows that lets the user create semi-elaborate machines with real world physical effects (gravity, velocity, impact, etc). For a lengthier explanation,
see here. Until today, the software was trial/purchase, but as of now,
it's switched to freeware.
posted by lilbrudder
on Jul 14, 2006 -
16 comments
The Portable Freeware Collection tracks free Windows software that can be launched from a USB flash drive with no installation. It advises on how to prepare and launch the software (usually as simple as saving and double clicking an exe file), and if/where settings are written to the computer. I'm particularly keen to get to grips with the
Pimmy email, newsgroup and RSS client; the
KM@ web browser (portable versions of Firefox and Opera are
also available); and organizational joygasm
NeoMem.
posted by nthdegx
on Jan 3, 2006 -
23 comments
Whizzkid develops Linux application for Windows [...]The significance of the development is that Linux and Windows are able to work in parallel on the same computer or server. To[sic] now, the computer world is divided into systems that operate either with Windows or with Linux. [...]
posted by Postroad
on Apr 12, 2004 -
33 comments
What software version numbers really mean. Not sure who started the latest trend of dropping version numbers from software. We could always blame Microsoft with Windows
ME . But Macromedia is at fault too with the whole
MX thing. And MX doesn't even stand for anything. Now Adobe is getting into the mix. There will be no Photoshop 8 or Illustrator 11. Just
CS . So is this a good thing? Version numbers may not be exciting but it sure did make it easy to keep track of the latest upgrade.
posted by jeremias
on Sep 29, 2003 -
42 comments
Windows Vulnerabilities XPlained I've always used Gibson Research's website to test my Windows system for
vulnerabilities. With the latest
BLAST aimed at MS, I thought to share his site with the class. While Mr. Gibson obviously has some axes to grind and bones to pick with
Microsoft and with various software
firewall makers, his explanations of how Windows can be XPloited in terms that are fairly easy to understand is most appreciated. Be sure to check out the numerous
free utiltites (
small downloads! I mean,
really small!) that will help you plug nearly every hole in your Windows.
Didn't know MS had shut down www.windowsupdate.com til just now, either
posted by WolfDaddy
on Aug 18, 2003 -
42 comments
Celebrate, Windows users, you too can use the world's best MP3 player, with
the final release of
XPod
today, which gives
iPod compatiblity to
Windows.
And this is not the only option,
ephPod
does the same thing, but does require you to buy a copy of
MacOpener first.
Didn't Apple say they were coming out with their own Windows drivers for iPod
eventually?
posted by Mwongozi
on Jun 24, 2002 -
19 comments
$100 million in fake software seized .The copies of Windows Millenium and Windows 2000 Professional were indistinguishable from the real thing except for their failure to crash every 15 minutes(I made that up).Ever burn a copy for friends? Is that wrong?
posted by Mack Twain
on Nov 17, 2001 -
31 comments
NY Senator wants XP's release delayed and
The Register writes a somewhat humourous article about it (as usual). Excerpt:
"It appears that Microsoft intends to maximize its monopolistic power, using XP as a platform to enter new lines of business while encumbering competitors," Schumer said, rooting deep into the 'I just sussed out Redmond's business strategy; let's arrange a press conference' archive.
posted by DyRE
on Jul 25, 2001 -
1 comment
MS Cookie Patch Breaks Some Images - We noticed something odd today. Those of us with IE 5.0 who installed the patch to close the cookie security hole can no longer see many of the images on the
Washington Post site. People who installed the patch on IE4 still can; and IE5 users without the patch also can. [More inside thread...]
posted by julen
on May 19, 2000 -
6 comments
