Hasta La Gadget!

This article was written on September 04, 2007 by CyberNet.

Time Saving Tuesday

Hard drives are becoming huge these days, and most applications have begun to make use of the abundant space that barely ever gets filled up. I’m a big proponent to full-featured applications as long as they serve a purpose, but size isn’t always the best representation of quality. To prove that, I set out to find 15 top-notch apps that take up little to no room on your hard drive.

–Requirements–

The first thing I did was setup a few requirements for the applications that I was going to look for:

• A download size smaller than 250KB (I caved in and included one program that was 252 KB though)
• I preferred apps that didn’t require any installation
• They must run on Windows (at least compatible with XP, but most listed work on Vista as well)
• Has to be completely free

One of the problems I ran into is that many programs include installers with the download, and doing so often adds a considerable amount to the download size. After some careful deliberation I still decided to go with the download size as the deciding factor for this article, and not the actual size of the program once it is setup on your computer.

–The List–

I’ve listed each of the 15 programs below, and sorted them with the smallest program first. Next to all of the apps you’ll see the download size, and some of them also specify that they don’t require installation. A few of the programs we have also written about before, and we give links to our reviews on those apps. Some also have similar, but more feature-packed siblings, and we’ve listed those in case the small size isn’t the primary characteristic you look at.

Without further ado I present to you our top 15 ultra tiny apps:

1. jRes [5KB] – No Installation Required
   Description: Switch between all available resolutions using a simple System Tray icon.
   
2. WinRoll [9KB] – No Installation Required – Our Review
   Description: Roll windows up so that only the title bar of the window is visible.
   
3. GhostIt [11KB] – No Installation Required
   Description: You can assign certain windows to have a “ghosting” effect. When a ghosted window loses focus it stays on top but becomes ultra-transparent.
   
4. Mouse Emulator [14KB] – No Installation Required – Thanks for the tip “s”!
   Description: Control the mouse using the number-pad on your keyboard
5. SlimFTPd [59KB] – No Installation Required
   Similar: Quick ’n Easy FTP Server
   Description: There is no GUI for this FTP server application, but everything can be edited through a well-explained text configuration file. I’ve yet to see another FTP server that has a footprint as small as this one.
6. Switch Off [64KB]
   Similar: WinOff, Power Manager, Shutter, and PowerOff
   Description: Schedule your computer to shutdown at a specified time, or you can easily access the shutdown options from the System Tray.
   
7. Taskix [64KB] – No Installation Required – Our Review
   Similar: Taskbar Shuffle
   Description: Rearrange Taskbar items using this super-small app. Prior to this I used Taskbar Shuffle, but this is much smaller and does the same thing.
   
8. TinyResmeter [92KB] – No Installation Required
   Description: Monitor your system’s resources with this customizable application. You can pick and choose which stats you want to see, and you can customize the look as well.
   
9. TrayIt! [144KB] – No Installation Required
   Similar: TrayDevil and DM2
   Description: Minimize windows to the System Tray therefore decluttering your Taskbar!
   
10. TweakUI [147KB]
    Description: Customize dozens of hidden Windows XP options. This is a must-have for anyone running XP!
    
11. winMd5Sum [181KB]
    Similar: digestIT, HashOnClick, MD5 Column Display
    Description: Calculate the MD5 checksum so that you can make sure files were downloaded without becoming corrupt.
    
12. Unlocker [192KB]
    Similar: WhoLockMe
    Description: Unlock files that are still considered “in-use” by the operating system. That way you will be able to deleted them without restarting your computer.
    
13. uTorrent [219KB] – No Installation Required – Our Review
    Description: This is hands-down my favorite BitTorrent downloader.
    
14. Notepad2 [243KB] – No Installation Required
    Similar: Notepad++
    Description: A great Windows Notepad replacement that has dozens of settings you can configure.
    
15. Total Copy [252KB]
    Similar: Copy Handler and TeraCopy
    Description: This one barely broke the 250KB limit that I was shooting for, and so I thought I would include it. With this you’ll get a better file transfer manager that can pause and resume file transfers. You can also impose speed limitations so that the transfer doesn’t hog all of your network bandwidth.
    

–Overview–

Did you even realize that there were so many tiny apps that are this useful? I’ve only begun to scratch the surface, and there are hundreds more that are just as good if not better. I just wanted to diversify the list, and tried hard not to list programs that performed similar functions as one another.

If you know of any free tiny apps that you use on a regular basis, hit us up in the comments below. Let everyone benefit from your knowledge!

Copyright © 2010 CyberNet | CyberNet Forum | Learn Firefox

Related Posts:

2007 CyberNet Awards: Best Tiny ProgramsYour Week in Review with Sunday’s SummaryCyberNotes: Our Favorite Tuesday CyberNotes ArticlesHow To Collapse Unused Menus In Firefox2007 CyberNet Awards Recap

This article was written on February 26, 2007 by CyberNet.

Microsoft Monday

Before I dive into Power Toys, I wanted to point out that we have changed our CyberNotes Monday feature to “Microsoft Monday.” It was about time for a change from the previous “Million Dollar Monday.” A rather large majority of our readers (94%) use some form of Windows, and I’m sure many of those that don’t still use software from Microsoft. For those reasons alone (and the fact that we’ve been Windows users forever), we thought it was a fitting topic. We’ll cover a variety of different things raging from Windows to Xbox to Microsoft Office, and everything in between. And as always, if you come across something that would fit in well with our “Microsoft Monday” feature, let us know! Now on to Power Toys…

First things first, the Power Toys that I am mentioning today work only with Windows XP. Yes, I know that XP is out and Vista is in, but there are still more people that use XP than Vista. So with that, what are Power Toys? Essentially, they are extra add-ons that have been released by developers after XP launched. They’re supposed to add functionality to your Windows Experience, and with my experience they work well.

Microsoft doesn’t offer technical support for them, and they’re unable to answer your questions because they’re not actually part of Windows.  Over time, I’ve downloaded and used a few of them without problems, so chances are, you won’t have problems either. Here are some of the more useful tools that I’ve used that might be helpful for you too.

—Image Resize—

There are are plethora of options for resizing images, but this one is by far the simplest one I’ve come across.  It does exactly what it says it does and nothing more. By right clicking on an image, or a group of images you’re given a few options for resizing. They include:

• Small (fits a 640×480 screen)
• Medium (fits a 800×480 screen)
• Large (fits a 1024×768 screen)
• Handheld PC (fits a 240 x 320 screen)

You’re also able to select a custom size, and resize the original picture.  By default, it will create a second copy of the image. This will be especially useful when you’re wanting to email pictures, or when there are image size restrictions (i.e. MySpace).

Download Image Re-sizer

—Power Calculator—

If you’re using the calculator on your computer, you probably aren’t needing any advanced functions. However, just in case you need more than the simple add, subtract, multiply, and divide, this Power Calculator gives you the ability to graph, evaluate functions, and perform conversions.

Entering Input is very similar to what you’d do with a standard graphing calculator, and the image below shows what the Power Calculator looks like:

Download Power Calculator

—HTML Slide Show Wizard—

This Power Toy will make it simple to create an HTML slide show because it does most of the work for you! After installing it, you can select to add single images, or an entire folder, and then drag them into the order you prefer for the slide show. Once you have your images in order, you’re give a few options like selecting a name for your show, what size you’d like it to be, and whether you want the simple, or advanced slide show type.

From there, your slide show is created and you’re ready to share it with friends or publish it to the web. It’s a really simple process that anyone can do.

Download HTML Slide Show Wizard

Each of these add-ons are really small downloads (around 550KB) and take no time to get set-up. I tend to use the Image Resizer most often just because I tend to email pictures frequently, and I know people don’t like to receive huge images.

You can find the entire list of Power Toys here, and remember, they’re only for Windows XP.

Copyright © 2010 CyberNet | CyberNet Forum | Learn Firefox

Related Posts:

CyberNotes: Your Week in Review with Sunday’s SummaryYour Week in Review with Sunday’s SummaryFlickr Fun With Flickr ToysImage Resizer “Power Toy” for Windows 7CyberNotes: How to Customize the Windows XP/Vista Send To Menu

This article was written on February 27, 2008 by CyberNet.

(Click to Enlarge)

We knew that Microsoft was getting ready to crack down on Vista piracy even more so than it did in Vista SP1, and that day is upon us. All Vista users will see a new update that is classified as important, and once you proceed with the update it will check to see if your system has been activated using a known exploit.

We once again wanted to see how well this works, and so we set up yet another virtual machine running a pirated copy of Vista. This time around we used the OEM BIOS crack that we knew isn’t detected by Vista SP1, and after about an hour-long preparation period we were finally able to install the update pictured above. Immediately after the update was installed we were presented with this dialog:

(Click to Enlarge)

Yep, it looks like Microsoft adjusted the detection technology to pick up the other activation exploits. However, this is just a notification and didn’t deactivate the system that we were running it on. You are given an option to go online and learn how you can remove any installed exploits, but I’m fairly confident that a lot of the pirates out there won’t be doing that.

The good news is that users running a legal copy of Vista won’t ever see a prompt like this. You’ll still be pushed to install the update, but on all of my legal machines the update didn’t trigger any prompts like the one you see above.

Copyright © 2010 CyberNet | CyberNet Forum | Learn Firefox

Related Posts:

Microsoft Cracking Down More on Vista PiracyMicrosoft Pushes Office 2007 Release BackVista SP1 Download AvailableWindows Vista Beta 2 Update AvailableWindows Vista Update Available to help Application Compatibility

This article was written on July 15, 2008 by CyberNet.

We know that you’ve had less than two weeks to kick around our CyberSearch extension, and we hope by this point you’re finding it to be an indispensable tool. The true power lies in the keyword system that it comes with, but it might take a little time to really understand how it works. Our video demonstration should be enough to get your creative juices flowing though.

The whole reason that I created this extension was because I saw how it could make me more productive. I laid out a plan with the features I knew I’d use (namely a keyword system), and dove in head first. The end result didn’t turn out half bad, and what I want to show you today are some ways that you can maximize the usefulness of the extension.

1) Using Firefox’s Built-in Keyword System

Our extension uses Google to do all of its searching, and I know that a lot of you would love for our extension to search more sites directly. In fact that is one of the things I’ve received the most requests about. The reason why that isn’t feasible is that there aren’t many sites out there that are designed to return results in a text-based fashion that is performance friendly. Google, on the other hand, is capable of returning search results in a no-frills format that we can quickly pull data from. Other sites… not so much.

If you want to search sites directly the best way you can do this is by setting up a keyword search in your browser that is identical to one of your CyberSearch keywords. For example, setup a keyword search in Firefox for Google called “goog”. The CyberSearch extension ships with a keyword already named “goog”, and these will work well together.

Once you have duplicated some of your important keywords you can start taking advantage of them. Now when you type “goog” followed by a word/phrase it will show you the instant results in the address bar thanks to our extension. If you don’t see what you need just press enter and the built-in Firefox keyword search will kick in. You’ll then be taken directly to the results page for the keyword that you have setup.

2) Search More Specific Pages

When you’re setting up a keyword there’s a good chance that you’ll restrict the search to a specific domain, but don’t be afraid to use longer URL’s to get precisely the data you’re looking for. What do I mean? Imagine setting up a keyword search that returns results for Firefox add-ons. Don’t vaguely specify “mozilla.org” as the domain you want to search. Instead use “addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/” so that only pages from the Firefox add-ons site are returned.

3) Search Multiple Sites Simultaneously

Sure it’s nice being able to search one site with a keyword, but don’t forget that you can also search multiple sites! In the website URL field all you have to do is separate multiple sites by commas. Then when you perform a search using that keyword the results from all of those sites will be intermingled.

When would this be useful? There are a few different things that pop into my mind, but one of my favorites would be searching all of your favorite BitTorrent sites at the same time.

Copyright © 2010 CyberNet | CyberNet Forum | Learn Firefox

Related Posts:

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We might be busy refilling our inkwells in preparation for CES 2011, but let’s not forget that some of the CES 2010 exhibitors are still working feverishly on bringing their innovations to market. Copia is one such company, though in the time between its January debut and today it’s had to abandon its plans for own-brand e-readers and has fully transitioned itself into a software offering — with apps available for the desktop, iPad, Windows Phone 7 now, and Android and other touch devices following soon. Copia allows Facebook Connect logins, which should give you a hit at its premise — it aims to meld an ebook store in with a vibrant and active online reading community, with a litany of social and sharing features making it perhaps more attractive than the somewhat more limited social skills on offer from the current ebook market leaders. Unannounced OEM partners have been engaged to deliver the Copia platform on upcoming e-reading devices, though whether the whole thing sinks or swims will be entirely up to you, the user. See a video demo of what Copia’s about after the break.

Continue reading Copia’s ‘social reading’ platform goes live, abandons hardware plans

Copia’s ‘social reading’ platform goes live, abandons hardware plans originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 19 Nov 2010 04:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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