Disk defragmentation tool

Last weekend I was preparing to defragment my computer's harddisk. I first tried the tool that comes with Windows Vista, and found that it does not show the animated progress status anymore. That means I can't see how much the harddisk is fragmented and what is the analysis anymore and I don't feel comfortable with that.

I then searched for a 3rd party tool that would serve my need and found the Auslogics Disk Defrag. Downloaded and installed it. Tried it and it works fine! And I actually find that it works quite fast.

So if you are looking for a defragmentation tool, you may want to take a look at this one at:

http://www.auslogics.com/en/software/disk-defrag/

It is one of the free tool provided by Auslogics. They also have other utility programs such as for finding duplicate files on your system, clean up the registry, and for recovery. Some are available for free and some needs to be purchase.

Web based Instant Messaging

Rcently tried the following two web based instant messaging:
www.meebo.com
www.ebuddy.com

One of the advantage of using web based tool is that you do away with installing each of the IM clients on your computer, and you can just log on to your IM account anywhere you have access to a computer with Internet access.

You can log on to your IM account sauch as Yahoo Messenger, Windows Luve Messenger, Google Talk, etc by visiting the web site.

And if you register at either site for an account (i.e. Meebo or eBuddy account), you can then make use of the account to log on to multiple of your instant messaging accounts at the same time. So you can have your IM buddies all list in one web based page.

You could chat, conference, video chat etc etc... with your buddies as you like.

Google Chinese Pinyin IME

Most of users are using the IME (input method editor) provided by Windows XP & Vista for entering Chinese characters. I have been using that for a long time too. When Google has its Chinese Pinyin IME available, I tried it. I find that it's quite user friendly and with many good features, but one of the best feature it has is that it also provides key stroke input option. This is definately one of the feature I have been longing for a long time. For I can use the pinyin method alright but if I can't pronouce the Chinese character I need to input I would run into trouble. Hence I have started using this Google Chinese IME tool a lot.

For anyone who may like to take a look, you can download it from link provided below. As usual as with many other Google tool, it's free!http://tools.google.com/pinyin/

The Google page for the above is in Chinese. There are also lots of information and discussion of the tool when you do a search in Google search page, using keywords such as 'Google pinyin IME'.

For using the stroke input option, you first enter 'u' to get into the correct mode, then use the following characters for the different stroke types:
h - 横
s - 竖
p - 撇
n - 捺
z - 折
d - 点

Fax program in Windows Vista

I have been using the default fax driver that comes with Windows XP for a long time, and imagine my disappointment when I switched to Windows Vista Home Premium and found that Microsoft does not provide the same fax drive anymore. It only comes with Windows Vista Business edition. Can't understand why this is so. Doesn't home users also send and received fax, like the Windows XP home users?

Anyway, since I need to use my system to send faxes at times, so I search and tried some fax programs for Windows Vista. Found the following two programs from a number of user discussions:

1) Snappy Fax (US$29.99, for standalone version)

2) RKS Fax (US19.90)

I actually like the RKS Fax better and it's cheaper. But I have already settled with Snappy Fax for easier payment options. Anyway both serves my purpose well though.

You can download and purchase either of the above programs from below sites. Both of them can be used as trial for a period of 30 days beofre you decided which suites your requirement best.

1) Snappy Fax Version 4.0

http://www.snappysoftware.com/

2) RKS Fax

http://www.rkssoftware.com/

Youtube Downloader

Ever wanted to watch the video on Youtube and also to download it? The following Youtube Downloader is a wonderful tool to help you do just that. It's simple to use, and you just need to enter the url for the video to download, and then click [Ok].

This tool also provides ability to convert the video to different formats.

This is a freeware program, and no registration is needed. Check for more details or download the tool from:http://youtubedownload.altervista.org/

Faststone Capture - screen capture program

This is one of the shareware program which I use very often for capturing screens and make changes such as resize, save in different format, rotate the capture graphics etc.

Anyone interested can find it at:
http://faststone.org/

Free pdf creation tool

One of the favorite tool I used for creating pdf file is pdf955.
It's a free tool and available at:
http://www.pdf955.com/

WikiMapia - web based map

Recently discovered a very useful site which provides very good source of information for searching places, and the map are marked with names.

Those who used Google Earth before would noticed that both uses the same satellite images. But they are different programs and I tend to like the way places are maked and named in Wikimapia. Plus Wikimapia is web based so without installing any program I can access the information just by using my browser to reach the site.

From the Wikimapia faq:

About WikiMapia

WikiMapia is a Web 2.0 project to describe the whole planet Earth. It was created by Alexandre Koriakine and Evgeniy Saveliev, inspired by Google maps and Wikipedia.

Try it at: http://www.wikimapia.org/

Time zone & world clock

Ever get confused with the different time zones you need to deal with?
How to find a suitable time to communicate with your counterpart on other parts of the globe?

Try checking the following two sites for time, clock, time zone information.
They have served me well, and hope they are useful for you too:

http://wwp.greenwichmeantime.com/
http://www.timeanddate.com/

Document converting tool - Print2eDoc

Another great program for converting your office documents to pdf, or jpg, bmp, etc file formats.

The program is free for personal use, but you need to register so that you don't get the the line of message printed across the top of the page. And of course if you pay for the Pro version, there are more enahnced features, should you need them.

Great tools! give it a try at:
http://gnostice.com/index.asp