Edit the properties of any MSI. Change the title, and text within the installer. Look at how and where the files are delivered. Enables you to right click any MSI and open with Orca. Download: ORCA MSI Editor | Technipages

This package has been getting a load of hype mainly for 2 reasons: 1) dvdjon made it (the inventor of decss) and 2) it rips itunes songs and lets you put it on other devices because the doubletwist desktop basically exchanges files between devices so that you don’t have to worry about the codecs, bitrates, Read more about doubleTwist[…]

Get the unix gnu bash tools in your windows – no cygwin layer, just the tools. |Awesomeness!

Wow, so it’s finally happening – a new HTML! This links to the press release This is the list of changes from 4 to 5 And this is the draft itself

Lifehacker has some of its own productivity software on their page: Windows Applications Texter (text substitution) Save countless keystrokes by automatically replacing abbreviations with commonly used phrases you define, like email signatures and common acronyms. Swept Away (automatic window minimizer) A simple system tray utility that automatically minimizes applications that you aren’t using. ClickWhen (timed Read more about Lifehacker Windows Applications[…]

This tool copies the text out of PDF and Flash documents and cleans it up so you don’t have to play around with image markers etc.

This is a method to hide your application ports shimmer works by cryptographically changing a set of 16 ports (one of which forwards to the real service, and 15 others that lead to a trap to blacklist attackers). The 16 ports change every minute frustrating an attacker, but a legimitate user with access to a Read more about Shimmer[…]

This guy has an amazing Wii mod which puts the sensor bar on your head and has a WiiRemote track the location of your head. Because it knows this, software can change the image on the screen relative to the position of your head, creating a very effective 3D space. The whole thing is explained Read more about Head Tracking for Desktop VR Displays using the WiiRemote[…]

Both Steven Poole and Virginia Heffernan in the NY Times have written great pieces about how they are pissed off with the huge bloat that is MS Word and how they have gotten around it. One option is to use WriteRoom which presents you with a blank screen with text. Which is kind of… it. Read more about Goodbye, cruel Word[…]

This freeware disables all the little things you hate about Vista, making it slightly less crap: Vista4Experts is kind of a treat for computer experts who don’t want security center notifications, User Account Control dialogs, automatic Windows Defender scannings, automatic update installations (which cause you to reboot your system if you don’t react quickly enough). Read more about Vista4Experts[…]

This Cambridge based search engine doesn’t simply index websites, it links to databases and allows users to correct knowledge in the system in a wiki type style. This means it can intelligently answer questions instead of just looking at the relationships of words in the query related to websites it has indexed. Not only does Read more about True Knowledge search engine[…]

This page allows you to convert bitmap images to vector format, allowing you to rescale them as you like. It does a surprisingly good job.

The Eclipse framework is an open source development platform used mainly by Java and C developers. They do have a PHP Development Tools framework, which allows Eclipse to be used to develop PHP with. Version 1 was released 18/9/7 and there have been regular releases since 8/3/6. Phalanger is a PHP compiler for the dot Read more about PHP development odds and ends[…]

This looks simply awesome

Google Earth 4.2 now incorporates space with the Sky option, allowing you to explore the heavens with images from various sources overlaid. Still have to compare it to Celestia though.

So far as I can find out there are two PHP compilers out there: Zend Guard, which compiles your code so that it’s optimised, sped up and unreadable. This is run using an Apache / IIS extension called the Zend Optimiser (free). Phalanger, which is open source and compiles to .NET, allowing the use of Read more about PHP compilers[…]

Like VideoLan, Flumotion from Fluendo offerts a streaming media server based on the GStreamer multimedia framework. Fluendo creates plugins for different formats as well as a DVD player, Media Center and Streaming Java applet (Cortado). The Fluendo Site The Flumotion site

You don’t know what DivX and XviD are? Or you simply don’t care? They are called codecs and this neat little program will download and install them for you next time Windows Media Player tells you it doesn’t have the correct codec.

This programme allows you to log in to your windows PC using your face – you set up a template and then after lock up you show your muggins to the camera and it will let you in. No, it probably isn’t the most secure thing to do at all, but it’s neat!

3dvia.com is a flickr copy, except it hosts 3d models. They’re backed by Daussault Systems of France and hope to be as big as flickr / utube. They use the 3dxml as a standard, which has some slightly better editors for it than Google’s Earth 3D unit editor. Good luck to ’em.

Quercus is Caucho Technology’s fast, open-source, 100% Java implementation of the PHP language. Quercus is a feature of Caucho Technology’s Resin Application Server and is built into Resin – there is no additional download/install. Developers using Resin can launch PHP projects without having to install the standard PHP interpreter (http://www.php.net) as Quercus takes on the Read more about Quercus: PHP in Java[…]

The programme is a really easy to use planetarium, with a fish-eye view for round mirrors so you can project the output onto the inside of a sphere should you want to. You can view the stars and labels from any point at any time on the globe as well as from other planets. It’s Read more about Stellarium Planetarium[…]

One of the PCs is set up as a server, the rest run the client. Like dual-monitor, you can move the mouse to the next computer and it takes over control. You can also share clipboard content over the computers, allthough this is still a bit buggy. So, can you take an IR keyboard and Read more about Synergy: control multiple PCs with one keyboard and mouse[…]

Gaia online is a mix of an MMO (people have Avatars and can walk around in a virtual, Manga-esque world, but there are no ‘enemies’), forums, media and ways to improve your avatar. You get gold by being social – ie. posting on the forums, exploring the world or uploading content. The subscriber base has Read more about Gaia Online new form of social networking[…]

The Register ran a survey among it’s readers and it turns out that Software as a Service is not really taking off yet. The most common apps people use are email and office. MS is the Office king. Doesn’t look like web-based apps will rule any time soon and thin clients are still a stupid Read more about Desktop apps here to stay[…]