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May 18

Fast Powerful Bulk File Renaming

Posted in: Features, Freeware, Software, Today's Chili, Windows

This article was written on March 13, 2009 by CyberNet.

ken rename.jpg

Windows only
I’m a big fan of file renaming utilities because they can save a ton of time when you have hundreds of files or photos who’s filename needs to be cleaned up. There are a few different tools that I used in the past to do this, but lately I’ve found myself gravitating to a freeware application called Ken Rename. It’s available for Windows only, and the best part may be that you can download a portable version that is ready to be thrown on a USB drive.

This program has all of the features that we look for including a live preview of the changes, and the ability to undo an operation. It also supports regular expressions for those of you who like to get down and dirty with your file renaming.

Here’s a list of features it includes:

Filter files with wildcard
Use multi-actions to rename and can change order
Create a numbered file list
Convert to upper or lowercase
Replace a string with a different string
Use regular expression with Replace
Keep only certain letters of the file name
Remove a string between 2 string or before or after a string
Can undo rename
Unicode support
Convert of code page
ID3v1 ID3v2 support
EXIF support
Set File Attribute
Select directory in file explorer with context menu
Preview rename results are shown immediately
Export and import rename file list
Save actions as preset
Picture preview
Custom keyboard shortcuts
VBScript support

The program has been receiving updates every few weeks so be sure to check back regularly for new versions.

Get Ken Rename for Windows

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May 13

CyberNotes: Google Talk Add-ons, Shortcuts, and Chat Themes

Posted in: Apple, CyberNotes, Freeware, Google, Microsoft, Screenshots, Software, Today's Chili

This article was written on February 08, 2007 by CyberNet.

Tutorial Thursday

//cybernetnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/08/GoogleTalk Google Talk is undoubtedly my favorite chat client because it is a wonderful little application that offers all of the right features. Well, it doesn’t quite offer everything because a lot of people would like to see the application interact with other messenger services, such as AIM. I, however, have somehow managed to convert a large majority of my friends to using Google Talk so the interoperability isn’t necessary for me.

The first thing I want to mention is that Google offers a survey that asks you what features you would like to see the most in an upcoming release of Google Talk. It looks like the survey has gotten some new options such as Google Calendar integration and a built-in spellchecker since the last time I mentioned it. I’m actually surprised that there hasn’t been another release in nearly 6 months which is when they added the file sharing option. At the time, it was the most requested feature. Once file sharing was introduced, they said: "Now, we’re off to the next version. I can’t tell you what your #2 and 3 suggestions were, but I do know that they’re on the way." I have copied what options are currently available on the survey, and I put an asterisk (*) next to the survey items that were available when the Google employee said they were working on the #2 and #3 feature:

———-
Personalization:
*Rich text for outgoing chats
*Additional smilies or emoticons
*User profiles
*Friend groups

Communication:
*Multi-user chats
*Conference calls
*Video conferencing
Appear invisible or offline

Additional functionalities:
~~Offline message delivery~~ (already implemented)
*Mac or Linux versions
*Call and message encryption
*Calls to regular phone numbers
Google Calendar & Personalized Homepage integration
Sign in to multiple accounts simultaneously on the same computer
Spellchecker
———-

My guess is that they are working on video conferencing and calling landline phones as the #2 and #3 features, but some of the new options look appetizing as well. Post which features you think will make the cut on the next release in the comments below.

Alright, now we’ll move onto what you came for. The other day I was thinking to myself that other messenger clients have all kinds of add-ons and themes available to do more with the application. I knew there had to be a way to do similar stuff with Google Talk, but I just had to find the right place.

ExtendedTalk The best site that I found was CustomizeTalk.com which has everything from skins, themes, tweaks, and tricks. The first thing that I’m going to point out is Extended Talk Beta (download mirror) pictured to the right. It adds a few features to Google Talk that are kinda nice such as making windows transparent. The software actually has its own file transfer utility built-in because the last time it was updated was before Google released that feature themselves. There is only one bug that I did mange to notice: the button on the chat screen overlaps with the "Send Voicemail" button since that wasn’t there when this program was developed. If you can cope with that little flaw then you’ll probably enjoy the rest of the things this offers:

Dynamic statuses
Send custom images (or emoticons)
Graphical smilies
/slash commands
Floating desktop contacts
Boss protection
Locking
Font color and chat window color (visible locally)
Fast text input (example: automatically insert IP address)
Change your text while typing (example: to 1337)
Transparency
Text recall
Underline text (visible locally)
Bold and italic hotkey
Run at startup

One of the other cool things about that little add-on is that it is a completely separate program that integrates itself into Google Talk. That means you can close that program or uninstall it and your Google Talk will be back to normal.

GmailChatSkin The other thing that I wanted to point out was using skins with Google Talk. Google has a nice variety of different skins for your chat conversations but none of them really seem to grab me. Then I found one that looked really great and is far better than any that Google offers themselves.

The theme I’m talking about is called Digital Ecstacy (download mirror) and is one of the 8 conversation window themes that they have available. They even have one that mimicks the Blue Screen of Death, (BSoD) but I thought the Digital Ecstacy one looked nice. It has a smaller avatar than normal for the person that your chatting with, which is nice to have. Normally, I choose themes that don’t have an avatar at all because of the amount of room they take up, but this one is well done.

All you have to do to install that theme is download the file and install it. During the installation process it will add the necessary files to your Google Talk profile so that you can go to the Settings and select the new theme. You should probably restart Google Talk before applying the theme because none of the theme’s images would show up until you do. Now that I have this classy look, it will be hard for me to go back to anything else.

So, those are two ways that answered my own question of how I can do more with Google Talk. I knew there had to be things available, but I just never went looking for them. You might even be content with the way Google Talk is right now, and in that case these things might not be for you. I’m not sure if I’ll keep using the Extended Talk add-on but the theme is definitely a keeper!

Download Extended Talk
Download the Google Talk Theme (mentioned above)

Google Talk Themes

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May 12

Microsoft says “not so fast” on DoubleClick Deal

Posted in: Apple, Google, Microsoft, Screenshots, Today's Chili

This article was written on April 16, 2007 by CyberNet.

Google may be purchasing DoubleClick for $3.1 billion, but Microsoft is saying “not so fast.” They too were in on the bidding for DoubleClick and lost, which had to have stung pretty bad. Now Microsoft is protesting the proposed sale, and they also expect other companies like Yahoo and AT&T to join them.

The New York Times is reporting that Microsoft is claiming that the deal would “hurt competition in the fast-growing market for advertising on the Web and raise questions about how much personal information would be collected by Google.”

Microsoft is usually the target of these antitrust battles, and now they find themselves on the other side. AT&T is already saying that antritrust authorities really need to take a look at this deal, and Microsoft is saying that if this deal goes through, Google would be master of 85 percent of the market for ad distributing and they need to be stopped.

Google’s response to all of this is that they’ve taken a look at their claims and it’s not true. Along with Microsoft, Yahoo was also in on the bidding for DoubleClick, and they’re expected to step up and express their concerns over this deal as well.

So here we are with Microsoft, the king of anti-trust, hoping to stop Google in their tracks before they become a monopoly. Ironic, isn’t it? Although, maybe Microsoft does have a point here?

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May 09

Schedule Computer Shutdown or Restart

Posted in: Features, Freeware, Screenshots, Software, Today's Chili

This article was written on August 14, 2007 by CyberNet.

The other day we wrote about an application called Local Cooling who’s goal was to save energy by teaching you to hibernate your computer when it’s not being used. It didn’t really present any useful features, but it showed you cool stats to let you know how much energy you have saved.

Today I have a program that is actually useful: WinOFF (Download Mirror). This is a free program that doesn’t require any installation. The best part is that you can have it automatically shutdown, hibernate, and restart your computer at anytime throughout the day. Just tell it when, and WinOFF will make sure the job gets done when it is supposed to.

Here are some screenshots of WinOFF (click the thumbnails for fullsize versions):

And here is everything that you can do with it:

Shut down the computer at certain hour (e.g. at 12:00).
Shut down the computer in several minutes (e.g. in 15 minutes).
Shut down the computer when the CPU becomes idle.
Several types of shut down (shut down, restart, log off, power off, suspend, hibernate and lock computer).
Option for hang up the modem instead of doing a shut down.
Option for set a password to protect the access to the configuration.
Complete command line support for batch process.
Option for capture the desktop and/or execute a program before the shut down.
Option for run the program when starting Windows session, for daily programmed shut down.
Immediate shut down and computer lock from the traybar icon menu.
Option for show an alert window, which allow the cancellation of the shut down.

This free program is also a great solution for anyone who forgets to shutdown their computer at night. After all, you can have an alert shown before the action is executed. That way if you’re in the middle of doing something you can bypass shutdown process.

WinOff Homepage (Download Mirror)

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May 09

Free PVR TV Guide Service Reaches for your Wallet

Posted in: Linux, Software, Television, tivo, Today's Chili

This article was written on August 10, 2007 by CyberNet.

MythTV There is some bad news for those of you taking advantage of free media center software, such as MythTV or Media Portal. As it turns out Zap2it couldn’t continue to provide the television listings that many free media center applications were using.

As a result Zap2it had announced earlier this year that, starting September 1st, they were no longer going to be providing TV guide updates to users. Without the guides much of what makes a media center so great would be rendered useless.

You can sleep a little easier knowing that MythTV was able to work with Zap2it, and they will pickup where they left off…kind of. The new service will be called Schedules Direct, but being able to use the service is going to cost $15 every 3-months. That’s still less than what it costs to use a TiVo, and their goal is to get it down to just $20 per year.

Many people that I talk to hate having reoccurring fees hanging over their head that they are constantly having to pay. They much prefer to have a lifetime subscription to things like this. Unfortunately Schedules Direct doesn’t think that will be possible, which is something that might make people look towards software like SageTV or even Windows Media Center (which is included with Vista Home Premium and Ultimate editions). Both of those solutions off free guides after the initial purchase of the software.

Despite Linux users being accustomed to getting things for free, I think they would be willing to fork over the $15 every 3-months if only to support an open-source project. In the next few weeks we’ll be seeing how it all plays out though.

Source: Slashdot & Download Squad

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May 08

Nokia’s Ovi Store said to be launching with 20,000 ‘items,’ unknown number of apps

Posted in: application, download, nokia, Today's Chili

The launch of the Ovi Store is just around the bend and, according to reports, Nokia is looking to blow things out a little better than Google, which launched its Android Market with a paltry 50 selections. Nokia is said to have over 20,000 “items” ready for download when things go live, a number that compares quite favorably to the 40,000 apps Apple currently offers through its App Store. However, what remains to be seen is exactly what an “item” is defined as. We’re sure that count includes custom apps and WidSets, and there’s talk about N-Gage games finding inclusion as well. However, video and music downloads seem to be counted and we’d guess ringtones too. So, how many actual applications will it have at launch? That remains to be seen.

Filed under: Cellphones

Nokia’s Ovi Store said to be launching with 20,000 ‘items,’ unknown number of apps originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 08 May 2009 08:51:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apr 23

Apple’s App Store hits a billion downloads

Posted in: Apple, AppStore, Today's Chili

Here’s to another billion — and not just from the App Store. Windows Mobile, Symbian, Android, webOS, BlackBerry — we’re expecting every bit as much out of you guys, so let the games (and the productivity apps, utilities, flatulence simulators…) begin.

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Apple’s App Store hits a billion downloads originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 23 Apr 2009 17:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apr 20

3D Virtual Desktop Manager for Windows

Posted in: Apple, Freeware, Microsoft, Newly Released, Screenshots, Software, Today's Chili

This article was written on March 22, 2007 by CyberNet.

Windows Cube This isn’t quite as cool as what we’ve come to know (and love) in Linux with XGL, but it is definitely a step in the right direction. Yod’m (Download Mirror)stands for Yet anOther Desktop Manager and is a new virtual desktop manager that’s available for Windows users.

The “claim to fame” for this program is that it tries to replicate what XGL offers Linux users. The program doesn’t require any installation so you can have it up and running in a matter of seconds.

Yod’m definitely has its limitations though, and anyone who has played with XGL in Linux will surely recognize some of the shortcomings:

The cube can only rotate horizontally.
You cannot have a window halfway on one desktop and then halfway on another desktop.

The application works in both Windows XP and Vista so it doesn’t take advantage of Vista’s advanced visual features, such as live previews. When I tried it out it was a little choppy switching between desktops, and while it looked cool it didn’t seem as useful as some of the other virtual desktop managers that I have used in the past.

If you do decide to try out Yod’m, these are the shortcuts (which are customizable) that you’ll want to know:

Ctrl+Shift+Left/Right – This will take you to the previous or next desktop.
Ctrl+Shift+Up – Activate and show a “far” view of the current desktop
Ctrl+Shift+Down – Activate and show a “near” view of the current desktop

To move a windows to another desktop:

Click and hold the title bar of the window.
Press and hold Ctrl+Shift to activate the cube, move the cube left or right using the mouse or arrow keys.
Release the Ctrl+Shift keys.

Yod’m Homepage (Download Mirror)

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Apr 08

Firefox 3 Download Manager, Resizable Toolbar Items, and More

Posted in: Features, Firefox 3, Freeware, Mozilla, Pre-Release, search, Software, Today's Chili

This article was written on August 13, 2007 by CyberNet.

Pretty soon Firefox 3 is going to be feature complete, and all that will be left for them to do is fine-tune the things they have implemented. As we build up to that big moment there are some new features that are coming out of the shop for testers. This includes a spruced up download manager, resizable toolbar items, a plugin manager, and better looking menus.

So let’s go ahead and take a look at all the enhancements that have come about since Alpha 7 was released:

–Download Manager–

The download manager has gotten a lot more useful with the features they’ve added. First off it sorts your downloads with the ones currently in progress up top, and those that are completed down below:

Firefox 3 Download Manager

For any of the completed downloads you can click on the blue "i" for more information, such as the location it was downloaded from.

Then there is also the search box located in the bottom-left corner. That does a live search of all your completed items, and the results are then immediately displayed:

Firefox 3 Download Manager

At first I thought this might be really really nice, except I always setup Firefox to clear my completed downloads after they are finished. The reason why I do that is because it’s supposed to improve the startup time of the browser, and this feature is therefore rendered useless for me. So if you have Firefox setup to clear completed items in the Downloads window, the new layout and features won’t really do much for you.

–Resizable Toolbar Items–

This is a super sweet feature that I’m glad Mozilla got implemented. There is now a "Resizer" item in the Customization screen that can be added to the toolbars. It is the most useful for placing between the search box and address box, where you will then be able to drag it back and forth to resize the two boxes.

Firefox 3 Toolbar Resizer

It also works when placed between toolbar buttons, but the results may not be what you expect. I noticed that the buttons scrunch together when trying to resize them, and if space gets really tight they are just hidden. It would be a lot better if Mozilla worked on a way to scale the buttons to a size that would allow all of them to remain visible, but that might be something they are working on.

–Plugin Manager–

Plugin management has been taken from about:plugins to the same place where you manage extensions and themes. One of the most notable things that I saw when opening the plugin management was that it easily lets you disable certain items. For example, if you don’t want Flash enabled you can disable it right from the plugin management screen.

Firefox 3 Plugin Manager

The only problem, which can’t be seen in my screenshot, is that plugins with more than one file associated with them show up repeatedly. For me the issue was with Java, which had about 10 entries all given the same title.

–Menu Appearance–

The menus have also gotten a slight overhaul. Now Firefox 3 supports a Vista-like menu appearance. Some things take advantage of this, such as the History menu which shows the site’s icon next to the entries:

Firefox 3 Menus

–Overall–

Still to come in Firefox 3 is integration with Vista’s parental control system, a visual refresh/new default theme, Places enhancements, as well as a few other things that are pretty high priority. The next milestone, which is due September 18th, could be either an Alpha or a Beta build. Mozilla appears to be picking up the pace and getting some much-needed features implemented, so it wouldn’t be a surprise to me if they are able to move on to the Beta releases.

Sources: The Burning Edge, Ars Technica, Mozilla Links, Firefox Extension Guru & Kyle’s Cove
Thanks for the tip Mohan!

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Mar 30

Maximize Vista’s Battery Life with Vista Battery Saver

Posted in: Freeware, Pre-Release, Software, Today's Chili, Windows Vista

This article was written on July 25, 2007 by CyberNet.

On my laptop that runs Vista (with the Aero Glass enabled) I receive about 4-hours of battery life on full screen brightness. I would say that is pretty darn good, but I can often squeeze out an additional hour or two if I use the free Vista Battery Saver.

This program is designed very well, and with it running you’ll be able to disable the Aero interface and the sidebar if your battery level gets too low. The Aero interface is claimed to reduce your battery life by 1-4% of what it would normally be, so disabling it along with the sidebar should definitely give you some extra time when you need it.

Vista Battery Saver
Click to Enlarge

Also, a new feature in Vista Battery Saver lets you choose a different power plan for Vista anytime your computer isn’t plugged into an outlet. This is nice because you can send Vista into Power Saver mode when using your battery, and have it automatically switch back to a more performance-focused state when you plug back in. And from personal experience I can get an extra hour of battery life just by using the Power Saver mode, so this is a very welcomed addition to the application.

All you have to do is download the Vista Battery Saver, install the program, and set it up once. From then on it will automatically start with Windows, and will quietly do all of the work in the background while running in the System Tray.

Vista Battery Saver Homepage
Vista Battery Saver Download

Thanks to Download Squad and gHacks for the heads up!

Related Posts:

Hasta La Gadget!

Fast Powerful Bulk File Renaming

CyberNotes: Google Talk Add-ons, Shortcuts, and Chat Themes

Microsoft says “not so fast” on DoubleClick Deal

Schedule Computer Shutdown or Restart

Free PVR TV Guide Service Reaches for your Wallet

Nokia’s Ovi Store said to be launching with 20,000 ‘items,’ unknown number of apps

Apple’s App Store hits a billion downloads

3D Virtual Desktop Manager for Windows

Firefox 3 Download Manager, Resizable Toolbar Items, and More

Maximize Vista’s Battery Life with Vista Battery Saver

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