SASANK@TECHNOMANIA

Leaving your computer on overnight is usually the easiest option when you need the computer to perform a task that takes quite a long time to complete (e.g. Downloading large files, ripping DVDs, etc.)

It is however, neither energy efficient nor an environmentally friendly option to take.

WinOff is an excellent piece of freeware which very simply shuts down your computer after a defined time so you don’t need to wait till the morning to attend to your PC.
3 things I like most about WinOff

1. It’s flexible. You don’t HAVE to shut it down. You can also schedule it to - restart, log off, suspend, hibernate or just lock the computer.
2. You get to see the last thing that happened before shutdown. There’s an option for capture a screenshot of the desktop right before the shutdown. With this, you can see if everything turned out OK before the PC shut itself down
3. It’s free. Need I say more?

In what other ways do you automate windows tasks? Tell us in the comments!

If you’ve seen this error message…


error


unlocked


…or any of these:

* Cannot delete file: Access is denied
* There has been a sharing violation.
* The source or destination file may be in use.
* The file is in use by another program or user.
* Make sure the disk is not full or write-protected and that the file is not currently in use.

I’m sure you can identify how frustrating it can be not to be able to move, copy, rename or delete those files!

Unlocker is a free tool which helps locate any file locking handles running, and give you the option to turn it off. Then you can go ahead and do anything you want with those files.

It’s that simple :)

If you want to supercharge the simple act of copying and pasting - Teracopy is just the piece of freeware for you.

Here are 5 key features that stand out the most to me:

1. Copy files faster - Asynchronous copy speeds up file transfer between two physical hard drives
2. Pause and resume file transfers - Pause copy process at any time to free up system resources and continue with a single click
3. Error testing - It allows you to run comparison tests on any copy you make, to ensure its integrity
4. Error recovery - In case of copy error, TeraCopy will try several times and in the worse case just skips the file, not terminating the entire transfer. It also shows failed file transfers and lets you fix the problem and recopy only problem files.
5. Windows Explorer Integration - TeraCopy can completely replace Explorer copy, paste and move functions, allowing you to seamlessly work with files as usual.

The one thing I really love about this program is that I don’t have to make a special effort to use it. Too many programs are spoiled by the fact that you have to change your workflow to accommodate it. With Teracopy, everything is business as usual, and it just adds its functionality in the background.

There’s a pro version available with a few extra features - but the free version itself is already spectacular.

(Teracopy)

We’ve previously taken a look at how to Read Wikipedia on your iPod, but what if you wanted to listen to specific articles from Wikipedia rather than read them?

Pediaphon is a free service which translates Wikipedia articles into synthesized computer speech in the form of MP3 files. This makes it easy for you to grab any article you want to delve into, and listen to it on any music player, mobile phone or directly from your PC.

How did I like it? Well for short articles, I found it reasonably useful. For longer articles…. well, maybe it’s just me - but Pediaphon’s synthesized voice isn’t exactly the most pleasant sounding voice to listen to! Nevertheless, if you feel like some quick e-learning on the way to work, give it a shot.

Hidden files are good for organizing files, and helping to ensure critical files don’t get accidentally deleted.

Hiding them as a security measure however, is pretty much useless. A few simple clicks in Windows is all one needs to view everything which you’ve hidden on your system.

Free Hide Folder is a free tool which helps you REALLY hide everything, make it invisible, and secure it. You’ll even need to run the program and enter a password before you’re be able to even view those files.

What I also liked about it was that you could back up the hidden key (Not the data just the key) so you can restore the data easily if something happens with your system.

I wish you could drag and drop files into the program though rather than having to browse from the program itself, but aside from that it’s a beautiful piece of freeware.

If you liked my previous post on 5 ways to pimp Windows Explorer, you’ll love this gorgeous piece of freeware. DMEXbar is a plug-in for Windows Explorer which turns it from a clunky system to a real powerhouse.

Once installed, your Windows explorer will have the ability to:

* Open two explorer windows aligned side by side
* Split and reassemble large files
* Create “Hot Paths”, which are like the “Favorites” in the Internet Explorer, for simple and fast change to these directories
* Fast copying and moving of files between two aligned explorer windows by shortcuts
* Synchronize files and directories between two aligned windows
* Open DOS shell windows or run any other user-specified programs using the current directory or selected files as parameters
* Calculate the total size or used disk space of directories including all subdirectories

…and so, so, so many other features for both power and novice users.

What I really like about DMEXbar is the fact that I don’t have to use an alternative explorer, but I can just use Windows explorer like I’ve always done, and take advantage of all the new functionality when as and when I need to, and yes - it’s free. Works for Windows 2000/XP, no Vista support yet.

Two thumbs up!

Link: DMEX BAR

How do you find out where exactly a phone number is originating from? tp2location
is a free service which lets you track down locations of a phone number right down to the region within a country - and even shows you a Google map to boot!

If you’ve ever wanted to check up on a number before you dial long distance - this is the service to use :)

Best Places to Get Free Books
Written by Jen Blue on 4:32 AM

In our fast paced world of email, and RSS feeds, sometimes it’s best to just slow down and read a good book…but if you’re unwilling to shell out big bucks for the latest bestseller - try out these great resources, and read to your hearts content!
1.Find Popular Public Domain Works With The Gutenberg Project Top 100 List


This site is the oldest producer of free ebooks on the Internet. Their collection, pieced together by thousands of volunteers, now amount to over 20,000 works which have fallen into public domain. With great numbers however, comes the headache of picking true literary gems from the fodder - That’s why this Top 100 page is so valuable.
2. Exchange Used Books With BookMooch

book mooch

Want a real physical book for a change? BookMooch is a community for exchanging used books. Under a points system, it lets you give away books you no longer need in exchange for books you really want.
3.Get Technical Books With ebookspyder

ebook spyder

This site specializes in technical books ranging anywhere from C# to AJAX. Many commercial works can be found here though. This makes the legality of this particular site questionable… but we of course assume you own these books before you download them :)
4. Read the Classics Online with Google Book Search

google book search



This service has been giving Google a fair bit of copyright headaches, but has moved forward quite well in spite of the circumstances. It comes with a book-like interface which many people like - I am unfortunately not one of them. Maybe it’s just me, but I like to download my books rather than read it of a website. If you’re going to use this service, select ‘full view books’ under the options page for best effect
5. Download Plain Text Novels With Dwalin

This is as basic as it gets, and consists of an open directory with plain text files for download. Don’t be fooled. Their library is comprehensive, and plain text would be the most portable file format around.

-----------------------------------

reading

When we were reviewing 10 of the best online resources for free books, we had a LOT of readers chime in with their own favorites as well. Thank you for all your helpful contributions!

In fact, we had so many suggestions, we have enough to compile a huge list from them, so here they are in no particular order:

1. ManyBooks - Free eBooks for your PDA, iPod, or eBook reader - Thanks Tony Bryan & abben
2. BookCrossing - Where real books are released into the wild to be found by others - Thanks Engtech
3. LibraryElf - The perfect companion to a public library system - Thanks Engtech
4. Scribd - Open library to publish and discover documents online - Thanks CincauHangus
5. Word Public Library - 400,000 PDF ebooks for download - Thanks Ellen
6. Free Tech Books - Free computer science and engineering books (+ lecture notes) - Thanks Ellen
7. Bookins - Swap real books with other readers - Thanks Jimbob
8. WellToldTales - Free short story podcasts (like audiobooks, but shorter) - Thanks Kevin C.
9. Wowio - Public domain, free legitimate copyrighted materials & one of the only with a selection of Comic Books - Thanks Jane and Art Dardia
10. BizBooktalk - Free book giveaway contests on Fridays - Thanks Brandon
11. MoochMuch - Organize your book lending with your friends - Thanks Bobby
12. CHMPDF - A collection of general interest and technical ebooks - Thanks Manish Garg & Brian Di Croce
13. Realtime Publishers - free IT eBooks by many of the world’s best authors - Thanks Kevin
14. FrugalReader - Trade Books for free - Thanks Brent
15. TitleTrader - Swap books, movies, and music - Thanks Brent
16. ZunaFish - Trade your old media and books items for new titles you’d rather have - Thanks Brent
17. SwapSimple - Swap your used books here -


20. SF-Books - Exchange Sci-Fi Books here -
21. PaperbackSwap - Swap books for free -
22. PinkMonkey - 450 Study Guides / Booknotes / Online Chapter Summary Notes and Analysis - Thanks Spellchecker
23. eBookWorld - Technical resources -
24. Flaxx - IT and computer books -
25. Baen Library - Free science fiction and fantasy novels - Thanks lanthus & Glen Davis
26. LibraryThing - Social networking and free books - Thanks Michael
27. Online Books Page - Facilitates access to books that are freely readable over the Internet - Thanks Aman
28. Podiobooks - free audiobooks that you can subscribe to with iTunes or any other podcatcher - Thanks KJToo
29. BookRags - Research material in the form of eBooks - Thanks Henry Delany
30. Technical Books Online - Old tech books from the “vacuum tube age” of electronics- Thanks obiewiz
31. ebookSearchr - Google powered Thanks Rico & Rokker
32. Internet Archive - The Intenet indexed - that includes a vast text library - Thanks jojo
33. BookYards - Books, videos, education materials- Thanks Victor
34. Memoware - Free books for your PDA - Thanks Doug

The items below were taken from my original Top 10 list with full reviews (here and here)

1. Gutenberg Project Top 100 - Popular books from the oldest producer of free ebooks on the Internet
2. BookMooch - Community for exchanging used books
3. ebookSpyder - Specializes in technical books ranging anywhere from C# to AJAX
4. Google Book Search - Read the classics online
5. Dwalin - plain text novels
6. Free Computer Books - Technical resources about computers
7. Librivox - Audio works and podcasts of books
8. CliffsNotes - Get the notes to cram for the exam
9. WIkibooks - Free textbooks
10. DailyLit - Receive small parts of books via email

You probably use Google everyday, but do you know... the Google Snake Game? Googledromes? Memecodes? Googlesport? The Google Calculator? Googlepark and Google Weddings? Google hacking, fighting and rhyming? In this book, you’ll find Google-related games, cartoons, oddities, tips, stories and everything else that’s fun. Reading it, you won’t be the same searcher as before!

(From the author of Google Blogoscoped.)

Download: http://rapidshare.com/files/47237142/book.pdf

Firefox Ultimate Optimizer 5.37 M


Firefox Ultimate Optimizer is a small tool that will dramatically reduce Firefox usage and therefore make your system faster and more stable. It doesn't require installation and stays unobtrusively in your system tray. Try it and see for yourself!



More details about Firefox Ultimate Optimizer
- Languages:

English, Spanish, French


- Minimum requirements:
* .NET Framework 2.0


Download: (Size: 5.73 MB)

RapidShare