Linux, for a long time, has natively supported virtual desktops in their window managers but this feature is not standard within the Windows GUI. No problem though as there are plenty of freely available tools to add this functionality. One such tool is the open source VirtuaWin. In addition to the typical features you would expect from a virtual desktop tool,...

For those of you out there who play fantasy sports (myself included), a browser plugin you definitely need to check out is Pickemfirst. Pickemfirst aggregates the latest news and stats from Rotowire, Twitter, Fantasy Sharks, Fantasy SP and many expert bloggers. Pickemfirst delivers them directly to you whenever and wherever you need them. In a nutshell, this...

A disturbing trend among popular freeware applications seems to be the inclusion of browser toolbar and/or other garbage options as part of the installation wizard. One rather lengthy message post has an updated list of offending programs which they have titled the “Installers Hall of Shame“. As a developer I can certainly appreciate the hard work it...

When it comes to graphics editors, there are loads of options but typically many of the free ones are either online only or designed for Windows. Mac users wanting a free (and open source) image editor should check out Seashore: Seashore is an open source image editor for Mac OS X’s Cocoa framework. It features gradients, textures and anti-aliasing for...

If you view a lot of pictures online and have wanted to make the preview images larger (or smaller), then a Firefox add-on you might be interested in is the aptly named Image Zoom. From the author’s description: Easily zoom in, zoom out, fit image to screen or set custom zoom on individual images within a web page. All this can be done by using the context...

Internet Explorer 8 features a very useful function which allows you to view the time an add-on takes to load. To view this information, go to the Tools > Manage Add-Ons menu option and then scroll over to view the Load Time column. If you are having problems with IE8 or new tabs being slow to open, you can use this information to figure out who the culprit...

If you have wanted to give Google Voice a try and have been unable to get an invite, you will be happen to know that the service is now available for everyone. If you are unfamiliar with Google Voice, the idea is simply you have a single number people call which can ring to any device. You are not tethered to a single device in the event you, for example, change...

While publishing on the internet is no doubt the future, magazines remain a great way to keep you informed on topics of interest. There is a magazine for virtually everything out there so if you want to catch up on some of their content, check out Maggwire. Maggwire is a free service which publishes articles from many popular magazine titles. There are loads of...

As a heavy user of virtual machines and with Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 being my tool of choice, I work with VHD files quite a bit. As a result, often times I need to access a file I have stored on a virtual machine which means I have to boot up the VM to access the file. Thanks to 7-Zip, there is now a much easier way. The “beta” release of 7-Zip (at...

Here is something interesting Mac users might want to take a look at. The Growl application centralizes the way applications notify you of events using a common interface. For example, the following events can all notify you through the Growl system:Safari finishing download a file. New email received. Incoming Skype call or message. Low battery.The benefit...