What’s This All About?

CatGrab is a handy program to download your photos and videos from a USB connected camera or from a Flashcard reader. CatGrab automatically renames your files and places them in separate folders for photos and videos on your desktop. This review is for the “small” or Freeware edition which has restricted options and a “nag” screen, however for a simple and quick method of downloading it is quite acceptable. Personally I use Picasa which is also free and provides more options.

Why Would You Want It?

Most cameras come with some proprietary software which will do the job of getting photos/videos from the camera to your PC. If you have more than 1 camera you may need to load more than one program and there may also be conflicts. CatGrab provides a simple and quick solution to this. It also separates photos from videos and provides renaming based on the date the photos were taken. Also it will not download duplicates.

(Note - Static addresses can be assigned if required. This is relatively easy for LAN addresses but will probably involve additional costs with an ISP for your WAN)

What Does It Do - The Essentials?

Summary:

• Downloads photos and videos to a PC/Laptop
• Renames files based on original date and time
• Separates Photos from Videos

Pros: What’s Good?

Features & Benefits

• Freeware (small version)

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Popularity: 4% [?]

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What Is It?

Scan2PDF is a small program designed to scan images or load images from standard image formats which can then be combined as pages to form a single pdf file. Images can be rotated and text can be added to overlay the image if required. What’s more, several images can be added to the same page, resized and arranged with text added as captions or for information.

Why Would You Want It?

In any home or small office environment there are hundred of documents you need to keep for one reason or another. In the home bank and credit card statements, normal house hold bills, receipts, guarantees, instructions, official letters, tax returns, car documents, etc. There are literally hundreds of documents you need to keep, some for a short time others for much longer. Managing all that paper, filing it, finding it when you need it, sorting out what you don’t need any longer and what you must still keep takes a lot of time to do properly. When you don’t do it well then you spend even more time trying to find something when suddenly you really need it.

The obvious answer is to keep all the documents on your computer. With an organised file naming system (and folders as well if you like, personally I prefer to minimise on folders and use the file naming system as a sort of virtual folder structure). A document scanner that is suitable for this is fairly cheap nowadays and many multi-function devices are also available.

So why scan to pdf rather than just standard jpg, tif, bmp or other image format files. Mostly as this is a convenient and standard document format which will store multiple page documents. That combined with the ready availability of programs to convert word documents to pdf also means that you can keep all correspondence in a single format and read it with a single application whether you use Adobe Acrobat or smaller and faster pdf applications such as Foxit or Sumatra.

There are a few quite to very expensive document management applications available to do this job so it is nice to find a freeware solution which will meet the needs of most home users if used with an appropriate file naming/folder storage method.

What Does It Do - The Essentials?

Summary:

• Scanning Interface for single or multiple pages
• Other images can be used to create pdf pages
• Text can be added where required

Pros: What’s Good?

Features & Benefits

• Freeware

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Popularity: 5% [?]

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What’s This All About?

Folder Size adds a “Folder Size” column to the standard Windows Explorer file explorer utility. It also adds a further 3 columns that report the number of files and folders that appear under the folder being viewed. This is a simple and brilliant Explorer add-on that is an essential tool for anyone interested in how disk space is being used or where all the large file/folders are.

Why Would You Want It?

Windows does not provide a utility that shows the size of folders in a simple and easily used way*.There are many reasons why you need to know the size of folders. It may be that you are running out of disk space. You may want to know why a particular folder is using so much space. Or you are simply interested in the fact that certain applications produce large files and use up so much disk space. Armed with this information you can make all sorts of decisions:

1. Do I want to use an application that uses lots of disk space?
2. Do I want to delete this folder?
3. Do I want to move this folder?
4. How can I use this utility more efficiently?
5. What do I delete now that I am running out of disk space?

I am sure there are lots of other reasons why you would want to know the sizes of folders.

*You can always use the “right click context menu” in Explorer to view propertied. This only give information for a single folder and is slow/cumbersome to use.

However, not only does Folder Size add a Windows Explorer column for the size of the folder, you can also add columns that will tell you the number of files and/or folders within that folder (sub-folders/files).

What Does It Do - The Essentials?

Summary:

• Displays Folder Size Information in Windows Explorer
• Displays Number of sub files and folders in additional columns
• Runs as a Service

Pros: What’s Good?

Features & Benefits

• Freeware

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Popularity: 8% [?]

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The Pantone Huey is a useful piece of kit combined with a software program that allows you to accurately calibrate the color display of your monitor. This calibration means that you will see images and in particular your photos with accurate color rendition. What’s more the Huey and combined software will automatically adjust the display based on the room lighting conditions.

Why Would You Want It?

Accurately setting the colours, contrast and brightness of your monitor is practically impossible with the naked eye. If you want to see digital images and in particular your photographs as they actually are then accurate calibration is a necessity. If you use digital editing software to change or enhance your images then it is very important you work with accurate settings in order to achieve the desired results. This is even more important if you are then going to print the enhanced images.

I bought a Huey about 12 months ago and I am still amazed at how different the true settings are for my monitors compared to those I have set by eye. The results, particularly where I am printing photos to display or send to relatives make the Huey a worthwhile investment.

What Does It Do - The Essentials?

Summary:

• Sets the colors, brightness and contrast for your computer monitor
• Adjusts the display based on changing room lighting
• Allows optimised settings for different  uses.

Pros: What’s Good?

Features & Benefits

• Simple to set up

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Popularity: 9% [?]

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Neutron is a tiny portable utility to synchronize your computer with “Atomic Clocks” through various Internet servers.

Why Would You Want It?

While you probably don’t need the time on your computer to be accurate to the second you will often want it to be correct to the minute. Things like scheduled reminders or recordings of programmes are obvious examples. It is also useful to have reasonably accurate time “stamps” on the creation and modification of files.

I have had occasions where a computer has been years out due to corruption of the bios information on a power failure and then the system restarts with the bios reset to the base date or some other completely wrong time. If this goes unnoticed you can have hundreds of files with the wrong dates and (perhaps) even worse restore points that are incorrect. Trying to sort duplicates where files have incorrect dates or synchronising files across your local area network can be made far more difficult if different machines don’t have the same time.

So a simple, tiny utility that will make sure you don’t have this problem is well worth while.

What Does It Do - The Essentials?

Summary:

• Looks up the exact time on Internet Servers
• Synchronises the local computer either manually or automatically
• Syncs at Startup (Optional)

Pros: What’s Good?

Features & Benefits

• Freeware

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Popularity: 11% [?]

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What’s This All About?

ShowIP is a handy utility that will show you your Local Area Network (LAN) and Internet (WAN or Wide Area Network) IP address. It will also monitor these IP addresses for change and warn you if this occurs.

Why Would You Want It?

Your IP address is used by remote computers and servers to find your computer. There are times when you need to know this information. For instance for remote login applications and setting up games consoles for multi player use over the Internet. Sometimes it is useful to know your Internet IP address to when looking at access by programs and “Web 2” applications. Most IP addresses assigned locally or by your ISP are dynamic and can change, so it may be useful for you to be aware of this.

(Note - Static addresses can be assigned if required. This is relatively easy for LAN addresses but will probably involve additional costs with an ISP for your WAN)

What Does It Do - The Essentials?

Summary:

• Looks up LAN & WAN IP addresses
• Monitors addresses for changes
• Copies addresses to the clipboard
• Allows release/refresh of LAN dynamic addresses
• Logs Information

Pros: What’s Good?

Features & Benefits

• Freeware

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Popularity: 13% [?]

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Laptops are getting every cheaper, a good quality refurbished or secondhand laptop can be purchased over the Internet from eBay or other reliable websites for very reasonable prices. Loaded with Windows Media Center or Vista they provide an ideal platform having all the basic essentials for your “media playback over TV” needs.

In writing this post I checked on eBay and found that a Laptop with HDMI output can be bought for $500 US or £400 (why do we always pay more in the UK than the same product in the USA?). The fact is you don’t need HDMI and a suitable laptop with a Video, S-Video output will do. If you have a TV that will accept VGA or DVI input even better. A quick search shows suitable secondhand laptops with Video/VGA output connectors are available on eBay today for less than £200 or $250 US.

In the picture above the Laptop is sitting just below the top shelf on top of the Hard Drive recorder box, this setup in my lounge includes Logitech surround sound with remote control and a wireless keyboard with touchpad. The laptop connects to my home network and provides access to videos, music and pictures as well as Internet access. It is all connected to a 42” Panasonic Plasma screen.

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Popularity: 17% [?]

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What Is It?

iRotate is a small utility which does a great job in its sole purpose is to rotate the image on your monitor. It works with most current  graphics cards and is a useful utility if you want to change the view from landscape to portrait.

Why Would You Want It?

It is sometimes very useful to be able to view a program window in portrait mode, particularly when writing documents or creating images which naturally appear that way. Generally you would want a pivoting monitor, but in a multimonitor setup an ordinary monitor could be stood on its end without too much difficulty.

What Does It Do - The Essentials?

Summary:

• Rotates the on-screen image
• Provides access to Display Properties dialog

Pros: What’s Good?

Features & Benefits

• Freeware

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Popularity: 16% [?]

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A Firefox Add-on that allows you to save and view web pages in a handy single file often known as web archive or “mht” files (from the .mht extension which is for MIME HTML)).

Why Would You Want It?

Firefox doesn’t natively handle the web archive single file format. The advantage is that using this format saves all the elements of the web page as a single file containing graphics, text, etc. This is particularly useful if you want to save web pages to archive, send by email or transport on removable media, flashdrives, etc. As the screenshots below show , where I saved the ProReviewer Homepage, it is a far more simple and tidy solution:

(Click on screenshots to enlarge where necessary)

as the statusbar shows there are a total of 74 files saved in the folder with a standard page save.

This is now all contained in a single file using UnMHT

See below for more details about the mht/web archive file

What Does It Do - The Essentials?

Summary:

• Saves web pages as web archive files
• Views mht files in Firefox
• Allows all current tabs to be saved to mht files

Pros: What’s Good?

• Freeware

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Popularity: 20% [?]

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What Is It?

AceCad DigiMemo can best be described as a sort of portable scanner and graphics tablet for capturing handwritten notes and sketches or diagrams using a standard paper pad and a special pen/tablet combination. Essentially it provides a method of remotely storing these notes and drawings electronically and transferring them to your PC or laptop. Software is provided to manage the stored notes and convert them to standard image or pdf formats. It will also work as a PC Tablet device while connected to your computer and synchronize writing/drawing on the DigiMemo with your computer while connected. Handwriting can also be recognised using the optional My Script Notes software and then transferred to MS Word. The DigiMemo comes in 4 different sizes depending on your needs:

1. Letter
2. A4
3. A5
4. 6” x 9”
5. There is also an optional portfolio case

Why Would You Want It?

If you take notes or sketches while away from your computer such as at meetings or out on site the DigiMemo provides a way of quickly and easily transferring them to your computer. The included software helps you manage the information and also to convert the notes/drawings to standard graphic and pdf formats. If you don’t want the optional handwriting recognition you could achieve the same results using an ordinary paper pad and pen then scanning the pages, this is however a convenient and easy way to transfer the information to your computer.

Why Do I Want It?

I use my AceCad DigiMemo A402 to take notes at meetings and at conferences. I use the optional handwriting recognition to help convert notes to word documents. (My handwriting is fairly poor and the recognition software needs a bit of manual help from me )

What Does It Do - The Essentials?

Summary:

• Stores handwritten notes and sketches electronically
• Transfers notes/sketches to computer
• Acts as a graphics tablet when connected your computer
• Optional handwriting recognition

Pros: What’s Good?

Features & Benefits

• Easy to use

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Popularity: 21% [?]