Net Snippets - Virtual Scissors for Web Pages

Imagine if you will, a newspaper.  You want to be able to cut snippets of the newspaper out for later reading or keeping a record of some information you are interested in.  Now fast forward to today and you are on the Internet wanting to do the same thing you did back in the old days.  To serve those of us who wants a snippet of the web is Net Snippets.  It does what it sounds like.  It helps you document and take snippets of websites and store them on your hard drive.  It's a great researching tool that I use on a constant basis when doing a paper.  The program retain the snippet of information you wanted.  Some information even gets populated automatically.  For example, you browse to a site and decide to take a snippet of a particular page.  Net Snippets will pull down all the text, the URL that you were at, and the date that the page was last updated.

[UPDATE 2007-04-16] As of March 2007, Net Snippets have been discontinued.  I had a comment that said Kee<p>oint is a much better product than Net Snippets.  Unfortunately I can't argue with that considering Net Snippets is no longer around.  I will try to download the free version and try it out in the near future.  Look for a new post on the review of Kee<p>oint.  If you are curious and want to try it out.  You can check it out here: http://www.keepoint.com/

Platform: Windows
Price: Free for Free Edition (go figure)
Website: http://www.netsnippets.com/

Firefox Portable

Police Officers carry they badge whereever they go, shopaholics carry their credit cards, well, I carry my thumbdrive. I guess it's like a badge for techies. With the sizes of thumbdrive shrinking while the disk space enlarging, it is possible to carry incredible amount of information and data with you where ever you may go. Sometimes, I just wish I have all my bookmarks and Firefox settings whatever PC I happen to be on. Firefox Portable helps me do just that. It's all the program in a self contain folder that runs as long as you have access to a USB port on the PC that you are currently on. Plug in the thumbdrive and run the startup program and Firefox fires up with all your settings just like when you were at home.

Platform: Windows
Price: Free
Website: http://portableapps.com/apps/internet/firefox_portable

Kirby Alarm

Windows comes with a program for scheduling tasks called Tasks Scheduler or Scheduled Tasks.  At least they named it right but the usefulness of the program is somewhat lacking.  Kirby Alarm takes the job of scheduling tasks a step further by allowing you to set up reminders and more.  So if you wanted to remind yourself or run a specific program, then you can use Kirby Alarm to set up when you want the program to run.

Platform: Windows
Price: Free (Donations)
Website: http://www.kirbyfooty.com/

SoftAwareness - Ep. 02 - Windows XP Tweaks

Overview of Windows Tweak UI

Link: SoftAwareness Ep. 02 - MP4
Duration: 10:53

Maxthon - Tab Browsing Without IE7

Before Internet Explorer 7, to have tabs for your browser you must use Firefox and such.  Firefox is great but since I am a web developer, I still have to embrace the IE world and be able to view and test with IE.  However, I yearn for the ability to be able to have tabs for my IE browser.  Maxthon formerly known as MyIE2 was a great help.  Maxthon is essentially a skin for IE.  I am able to use the Maxthon browser and be able to view multiple websites without cluttering up my desktop or taskbar.  It also adds extra features like mouse gestures, popup blocker, middle clicks to open links to new tabs, and customizable quick web search.

Platform: Windows
Price: Free (Donations)
Website: http://www.maxthon.com/

SoftAwareness - Ep. 01 - Review of CastBlaster

Link: SoftAwareness - Ep. 01 - Review of CastBlaster
Duration: 06:54

ObjectDock - Mac Taskbar for Windows

Let's face it, even though I like Windows and regularly use it, Mac does have very nifty look and feel.  I keep asking myself, why can't Windows do what a Mac does.  Overlooking the nice look of a Mac computer case and hardware, it all comes down to the software that runs it after all.  I was very happy to find an answer.  Windows can do nifty things too if there's a program for it.  ObjectDock by StarDock.com does the imitation of the Mac Taskbar very well.  Actually, it looks so similar, I'm amazed Apple didn't sue them.  Now I can drag and drop shortcuts and folders into this nice taskbar and feel almost like I am using a Mac without actually owning one.  There's a free and a pay version of the software.  Link is below.

http://www.stardock.com/products/objectdock/index.asp