December 15, 2009

How to Watermark Images Online

Are you looking for a free program to watermark images? Here is a free online software to batch watermark images!!! If you do not prefer to install a software to watermark images, then you must try this free service that lets you Customize your watermark type, position, colors and style

Watermark-images.com is a free online service through which you can add image (logo) or text watermarks to images.You can enter the watermark text, select the font, position of watermark, any special effects or box around the text via the ajax based menu on the left. If you want to add the watermark to the background, you can set the logo or the text to be more or less transparent, and define the transparency color on the image or select the first pixel in the upper left corner as transparency color.




If you have several images, then you can upload a maximum of 20 images of size not exceeding 10 MB, batch Watermark and download them at once.Go to Watermark-images.com and enjoy adding custom watermarks to your images!!!

We had earlier covered another free online service to add Watermark to your photos or images.

Free High Quality Open Source Software In One Disc - OpenDisc

I come across friends & family who are forking out big bucks for everyday software like anti-virus, Office, spyware, photo editing, etc. They do so, not because they like to spend the money but because they have no idea that there are excellent, free, open source alternatives available. Today. Right now.
I have nothing against paying for excellent software or services that provide value. But, if there is a quality free alternative for your everyday needs why not save that money you would have spent for a better product/equipment that you wouldn’t have been able to afford before?
In fact, one of the most popular (all time number 3 .. if you looked at the footer) posts here has been about Free Software for your Computer. I should update that post soon with my new finds.
I recently wrote in a guest post at Techie-Buzz about a very cool project called WinLibre. WinLibre was a project where they put together some of the best in breed open source software available for free into one downloadable package.
A reader (thanks MechMike) quickly pointed out that WinLibre hasn’t been updated in a while and told me about the OpenDisk project. Here is an excerpt from their About page which summarizes this cool project!


OpenDisc is a high quality collection of open source software (OSS) for the Microsoft Windows operating system.
The two main goals of the project are:
  • To provide a free alternative to costly software, with equal or often better quality equivalents to proprietary, shareware or freeware software for Microsoft Windows.
  • To educate users of Linux as an operating system for home, business and educational use.

OpenDisc project gathers some of the best free & open source software out there into one easily downloadable CD image. They also list the programs in the cd image with description and link to the individual software home page if you’d like to get them A la carte.
Here are the list of programs that are included in the OpenDesc project categorized by its function:


Design

  • Blender - a 3D graphics modeling program
  • Dia - a Visio like drawing program
  • The Gimp - Adobe Photoshop alternative
  • InkScape - Adobe Illustrator alternative
  • Nvu - WYSIWIG Web page editor
  • Srcibus - A professional desktop publishing program
  • Tux Paint - Free drawing program for young children

Games

Internet

  • Azureus - A cool bit-torrent client
  • Filezilla - FTP client
  • Firefox - An excellent Internet Explorer alternative
  • Httrack - Offline web browser utility
  • Pidgin - Multi-protocol IM client
  • RSSOWL - A Feed reader client
  • Seamonkey - Web browser, IRC client, newsgroup client and HTML editor in one
  • Thunderbird - A modern email client
  • TightVNC - A remote control software
  • WinSCP - Full featured SFTP client

Multimedia

Productivity

  • GnuCash - QuickBooks alternative
  • MoinMoin Wiki Engine - A wiki building software
  • NotePad2 - Windows Notepad alternative - with syntax highlighting and other features
  • OpenOffice - Full featured alternative for Microsoft Office
  • PDFCreator - Generate PDF documents from any Windows program with the Print button

Utilities

  • 7-zip - Packing & unpacking archives tool with support for a lot of formats
  • Abakt - A backup tool
  • ClamWin - Powerful anti-virus program (misses an on-access scanner - so it can’t replace a full time scanner yet)
  • GTK+ - Toolkit for creating graphical user interfaces
  • HealthMonitor - System monitoring tool
  • TrueCrypt - Powerful encryption software to protect your private data
  • WorkRave - Protect yourself from Repetitive Strain Injury
Whew.. isn’t that an excellent collection of free software? There are a few in here like InkScape & WorkRave I haven’t tried yet.

Download OpenDisc iso image | bit-torrent

OpenDisc uses a K-Meleon interface in the cd image so far and is experimenting with a Kiwix interface that’s supposed to be leaner and better for the next release.
Also, OpenDisc has a pretty active forum if you have questions about any of these or if you’d like to see something included to this list. I have downloaded OpenDisc and I am going to make copies and give it to friends who have an open mind about trying new things. I am sure some of them are going to chase me away but hey it’s worth a try, isn’t it?


Best Places to Get Free Books – The Ultimate Guide

When we were reviewing 10 of the best online resources for free books, we had a LOT of readers chime in with their own favorites as well. Thank you for all your helpful contributions!

In fact, we had so many suggestions, we have enough to compile a huge list from them, so here they are in no particular order:
  1. ManyBooks – Free eBooks for your PDA, iPod, or eBook reader – Thanks Tony Bryan & abben
  2. BookCrossing – Where real books are released into the wild to be found by others – Thanks Engtech
  3. LibraryElf – The perfect companion to a public library system – Thanks Engtech
  4. Scribd – Open library to publish and discover documents online – Thanks CincauHangus
  5. Word Public Library – 400,000 PDF ebooks for download – Thanks Ellen
  6. Free Tech Books – Free computer science and engineering books (+ lecture notes) – Thanks Ellen
  7. Bookins – Swap real books with other readers – Thanks Jimbob
  8. WellToldTales – Free short story podcasts (like audiobooks, but shorter) – Thanks Kevin C.
  9. Wowio – Public domain, free legitimate copyrighted materials & one of the only with a selection of Comic Books – Thanks Jane and Art Dardia
  10. BizBooktalk – Free book giveaway contests on Fridays – Thanks Brandon
  11. MoochMuch – Organize your book lending with your friends – Thanks Bobby
  12. CHMPDF – A collection of general interest and technical ebooks – Thanks Manish Garg & Brian Di Croce
  13. Realtime Publishers – free IT eBooks by many of the world’s best authors – Thanks Kevin
  14. FrugalReader – Trade Books for free – Thanks Brent
  15. TitleTrader – Swap books, movies, and music – Thanks Brent
  16. ZunaFish – Trade your old media and books items for new titles you’d rather have – Thanks Brent
  17. SwapSimple – Swap your used books here – Thanks Brent
  18. SwapThing – Community of users who swap items including books – Thanks Brent
  19. BookCart – Internet paperback exchange – Thanks Brent
  20. SF-Books – Exchange Sci-Fi Books here – Thanks Brent
  21. PaperbackSwap – Swap books for free – Thanks jane dough, IBelieveInFairies, & Lauren
  22. PinkMonkey - 450 Study Guides / Booknotes / Online Chapter Summary Notes and Analysis – Thanks Spellchecker
  23. eBookWorld – Technical resources – Thanks 5n7p3r
  24. Flaxx – IT and computer books – Thanks tejinder
  25. Baen Library – Free science fiction and fantasy novels – Thanks lanthus & Glen Davis
  26. LibraryThing – Social networking and free books – Thanks Michael
  27. Online Books Page – Facilitates access to books that are freely readable over the Internet – Thanks Aman
  28. Podiobooks – free audiobooks that you can subscribe to with iTunes or any other podcatcher – Thanks KJToo
  29. BookRags – Research material in the form of eBooks – Thanks Henry Delany
  30. Technical Books Online – Old tech books from the “vacuum tube age” of electronics- Thanks obiewiz
  31. ebookSearchr – Google powered Thanks Rico & Rokker
  32. Internet Archive – The Intenet indexed – that includes a vast text library – Thanks jojo
  33. BookYards – Books, videos, education materials- Thanks Victor
  34. Memoware – Free books for your PDA – Thanks Doug
  35. DocStoc – online document sharing website. the “YouTube of documents” – Thanks Sean
The items below were taken from my original Top 10 list with full reviews (here and here)
  1. Gutenberg Project Top 100 – Popular books from the oldest producer of free ebooks on the Internet
  2. BookMooch - Community for exchanging used books
  3. ebookSpyder – Specializes in technical books ranging anywhere from C# to AJAX
  4. Google Book Search – Read the classics online
  5. Dwalin – plain text novels
  6. Free Computer Books – Technical resources about computers
  7. Librivox – Audio works and podcasts of books
  8. CliffsNotes – Get the notes to cram for the exam
  9. WIkibooks – Free textbooks
  10. DailyLit – Receive small parts of books via email

How to Crop Pictures For Rounded Corners


Cut Pictures and create rounded corners for your images with CutMyPic. This is an online free photo editor built by a team of programmers in Tokyo, Japan.

CutMyPic is so simple to use. Go to CutMyPic.com. Upload the picture or photo that you want to edit with this free online photo editor. You will be given the sizing information when the upload is done and you can simply drag the selection tool on top of your image to select the part you want to leave behind.


You can also create rounded corners for your images, with CutMyPic and you can, infact, specify the level of roundedness you want!!! If you feel like giving a drop shadow effect to your photo or image, Simply adjust the darkness level of the drop shadow effect by dragging on it.Once you are done editing you image, preview and save it on to your desktop or email it to your friends.



Though CutMyPic may not be a complete photo editor, it is definitely a great alternative for desktop photo editors for such tasks like cropping the image, creating rounded corners or drop shadow effects on your images. You neither need a CPU hungry desktop photo editor nor you need to learn any photoshop skills for creating such cool effects with this online photo editor.

CutMyPic is meant for cropping images and creating rounded corners and it definiely does that job well.Enjoy cutting and chopping pictures at CutMyPic.com, a free photo editing software on the internet!!!

If you are looking for simple ways to create photo backgrounds, check this free and easy-to-use software called Fotomix to create a Photo Background!!!

Steps to remove Generic Host Process for Win32 Services Error

Are you using Windows XP SP2 and encountering Generic Host Process for Win32 Services Error? Don’t worry. We do have several solutions to to fix this nagging error.

For Windows XP SP2, the Generic Host Process error can potentially occur on any system and at any time. Most would have received this error message, shortly after system startup. But this error actually occurs during the previous system shutdown.


According to microsoft, this error occurs in windows XP sp2, if security update 873333 (MS05-012) had been installed. Microsoft also claims, that this problem only occurs in Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2), but it does provide fixes for windows server 2003 and windows 2000.
Microsoft had earlier issued security update 873333 (MS05-012), to fix a Vulnerability in OLE and COM, that could allow remote code execution.
If you encounter this problem in Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2, then upgrading to XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) could easily fix this problem.

Symptoms for Generic Host Process for Win32 Services Error:

  • E-mail messages that include file attachments would not display file names, when the file name contains double-byte character set (DBCS) characters and the file name is longer than 42 characters.However, this problem can only be noticed when the e-mail message format is Rich Text.
  • All applications that implements the IMallocSpy debugging interface may experience heap corruption. For example, you may be browsing the internet and would suddenly experience a halt in all your Network activity.Though you might see the Internet connected icon in the tray, you may not able to browse
  • You encounter error messages about faulting netapi32.dll and svchost.exe
  • You also receive error messages that state “Your PC has recovered from a serious problem
Thus this Generic Host Process for Win32 Services Error is a broad issue.microsoft has a patch for this issue.You may download the patch KB894391, to fix this issue.
Alternatively you can do windows update manually (Note that the above patch solution and the following windows update solution works only on PC/computer running genuine Windows and not pirated versions):
  • Go to the start menu
  • Right click “My computer”
  • Click “properties” then the “automatic updates” tab
  • Choose “turn off automatic updates”
  • Restart your computer
  • Go back to start menu and in all programs go to “windows update” you have to be connected to the internet
  • Manually update windows
  • Turn your automatic updates back on
You can also try the following solutions to fix this error:
Solution 2:
  • Go to Run and type regedit
  • Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE >> SYSTEM >> CurrentControlSet >> Services >> Browser >> Parameters
  • Find the key IsDomainMaster
  • Set its value to False
  • Restart the computer

Solution 3:
  • Go to Run and type cmd
  • Type ‘netsh’ in command console then press enter
  • Then type ‘winsock’ and press enter and then type reset
  • Restart the computer 

Solution 4:Download Generic Host Removal Tool, double click on this file after download, this will change the required Registry Vales to fix Generic Host Error. 
Your Antivirus Program may detect this removal tool as a potential threat, Ignore the warning in such case.

Quickly convert html to pdf using free online tool


There are a lot of free/paid html to pdf converter for us to convert any html to pdf documents. Today i would like to introduce a website which provide this service for free.



html-pdf-converter.com is a simple pdf converter that did the conversion job pretty well. It renders the whole website and then convert it into a single pdf file, which include the images as well.
It is very simple to use. Simply enter the URL, and then hit the “Make PDF” button, and you will get your website in pdf format after few seconds.
I had installed some free pdf converter on my own PC, but html-pdf-converter.com will definately become my first choice if i am not using my own PC!


How to extract images from PDF files within a Minute


How do you extract images from your pdf files? One of the most conventional way to extract images from pdf files is pressing the print screen button, open your image editor and paste the copied screen shot.

Do you know that you can actually use software application to easily extract images from pdf files? I am going to share a tool called PDF Image Extraction Wizard, which is a step-by-step wizard tool to extract images from pdf files.

Step 1: Launch the PDF Image Extraction Wizard.

Step 2: Choose your PDF file and output folder. You can optional input your desired base name for images too. The extracted images will be named ‘basename#.ext’, where # is the sequence number.

Step 3: If you want the application to process certain pages only, you can enter the start page and stop page. Leave the textbox blank and the application will process all pages. If the pdf file is protected by password, then you can enter the user and master password here.

Step 4: Choose your output image formats. You have 6 different formats to choose. They are JPG, BMP, PNG, TGA, TIFF and GIF.

Step 5: Choose the image transformations. This page also lets you to choose whether want to extract all images, extract small images, or extract only large images.

Done. You just finish extract images from your pdf files. The PDF Image Extraction Wizard is a shareware and it limits you to extract only first 3 images if you haven’t register. But you could use the First page and Last page method that i explain in step 3 to slowly extract all images from the pdf file.


Download Via http://www.rlvision.com/downloads.asp

Device Unplug Shortcut-For removing Flash Drives and Other removable drives

Here’s a tip that may interest those of you using Windows Vista, forever inserting and ejecting flash drives and other removable media..



After a time, it gets to be a real pain having to click on the tiny Safely Remove Hardware icon in the system tray to bring up it’s eponymously named dialogue box to select the device you want safely removed. This is the recommended procedure to take if you want to safely unplug a removable storage device without fear of data loss.

This process tells Windows that the device needs to be removed and this will prompt it to complete any differed/pending write operations to the device in question, thus assuring the completeness of one’s data on the device.


Creating an easy to click shortcut

Simply right-click on your desktop and select New -> Shortcut to create a shortcut on your desktop, and in the prompt window type the following line:

RunDll32.exe shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL hotplug.dll

Click Next, choose an appropriate name then click Finish.

If you would prefer a more appropriate icon for the shortcut, right-click the resultant shortcut the you created, select properties, under the Shortcut tab click the Change Icon… button, type in the following path and click Ok:

%windir%\system32\HotPlug.dll

The first icon should suit nicely

..and that’s it – a more user-friendly removable hardware disconnection icon!

How to Delete or Uninstall Device Drivers from device manager


I remember the times when I’ve been subjected to the spectre of faulty driver installations possessing Windows to ignore my attempts at updating my devices with undamaged versions. What a nightmare!


Send those drivers into the abyss.. (well… yeah)

Step 1
First we, need to run the command console under Admin privileges. In Vista, to do this we bring up the Start Menu search box and type cmd in the box and right-click on the resultant automatic recognition above of the cmd executable, selecting Run as administrator.

Step 2
We then type at the command prompt the following line:
SET DEVMGR_SHOW_NONPRESENT_DEVICES=1

Afterwards, type devmgmt.msc to bring up Device Manager.

Step 3
Once in Device Manager, go to the [View] menu and select ‘Show hidden devices’. Now locate your driver under it’s respective device category and right-click ‘Uninstall’. That’s it! This works for XP as well.

As you can see from my Device Manager window, the mouse and keyboard nodes are expanded, showing that even though I have these devices plugged in, there are grayed out versions of these devices.

In this case the screen-shot indicates that there are drivers resident within the operating system that aren’t being used at the moment. This is because they are identical drivers installed for other ports from when I had my devices plugged in those!

I hope that people find this a useful and easy enough set of steps to follow through to successfully resolve their problem(s) – good luck!

How to Split and Join Large Files- Download File Splitter



Here is a program that is not only able to split or join files, but can do so in a timely fashion, and is available for all versions of Windows..

FFSJ: The Fastest File Splitter And Joiner

FFSJ is available in two versions; either the Lite version or Standard. The Standard version has all the features of the Lite version, but also includes support for integration into the Windows Explorer shell context menu. Both versions of the program will fit on floppy disk.

Joining
For the splitting process, you can set the number of parts that you wish to divide the source file into, to evenly divide them, or divide after a certain file size, as well as to delete the source file after splitting and password encrypt the data being split. With the Standard edition of FFSJ, you can select Split from the right-click context menu.

Splitting
During the joining process, you can set FFSJ to prompt for input of split parts that are in different locations. Upon input of a split file out of a number of related split files local a folder, the rest will automatically be included in the joining process. After completion of the joining process, FFSJ can automatically delete the parts. With the Standard edition of FFSJ, you can select Join from the right-click context menu.

In either the splitting or joining process, you can drag the respective files into the appropriate tab within FFSJ to automatically create the source path for that file and in the case of joining split files; enumerate any related files in a drop-down menu list, which can be selected as the start file for joining.

Other Features
FFSJ includes support for the generation of MD5 hashes that are useful in comparing a file (after say; transit via the Internet) to the file’s original source by seeing if the hash numbers generated for each match, thus proving both files to be of identical integrity. With the Standard edition of FFSJ, you can select MD5 Hash from the right-click context menu.

FFSJ also supports execution from command line interface (CLI), which makes it particularly useful for batch operations (scripting) of multiple splitting/joining operations.


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FFSJ