The Smiling Pirate

Have you ever been somewhere and needed a file that was on your computer? There’s a solution for that. It’s called Dropbox. Not only can you use drop box to access files from your computer on another computer, if you have an iPhone, you can access those same files there too.

Dropbox gives you the ability to drag documents, pictures and videos to your “Dropbox”, share them with other users of Drop box and even email them right from your iPhone.

To get started, it’s simple. Download and install the Dropbox software and sign up for a free account. Then decide what other computers you may want to install the software on so you’ll be able to access the documents on those computers. Once you get everything set, you can create a shared folder where you can put your files that you would like other Dropbox users to see.

Dropbox gives you 2 Gb of space free of charge.

Create your free Dropbox account, download and install the software and start sharing. It’s that simple.

Download Dropbox here

1 – Open Your Home Directory

Your home directory is located at C:\Documents and Settings\Username in Windows XP and C:\Users\Username in Windows Vista and Windows 7. The quickest way to open this directory is to open the Run box (Win+R) and type “.” (a single dot), then hit enter.

2 – Open the Users Directory

The users directory is the directory one folder above the home directory, i.e. C:\Documents and Settings in Windows XP and C:\Users in Windows Vista and Windows 7. To open this directory, type “..” (2 dots) in the Run box and hit enter.

3- Open My Computer

My Computer is where you can find all of the hard disk drives as well as various other drives and devices depending on what you have connected. To open My Computer, type “…” (3 dots) in the Run box and hit enter.

4- Open the System Drive

Usually the C drive, this is the drive where Windows is installed. To open this drive through the Run box type “\” (the backslash).

Do you have some more? Leave a comment to let us know.

WinFF is a GUI for the command line video converter, FFMPEG. It will convert most any video file that FFmpeg will convert. WinFF can convert multiple files in multiple formats at one time. You can for example convert mpeg’s, flv’s, and mov’s, all into avi’s all at once.

Here are some of the features available in WinFF:

* Easy to use interface.
* High quality output.
* Converts multiple different files all to the same format at once.
* Convert video to audio.
* Convert between audio formats.
* No external codec’s needed.

Download WinFF here

MP3Gain is a simple and elegant application that serves one main purpose – to automatically adjust MP3 files so they all play at the same volume. It does it without decoding and re-encoding, so the quality remains the same. No more fiddling with the volume between different songs.

Download MP3Gain here

**For Windows XP Pro only. Not for use with XP Home Edition.

If you’re a Windows user, and you’ve had a software application lock up on you one or two thousand times,  I’m sure you’ve become familiar with the term “Not Responding”. This is the lovely message that is displayed along with no other useful information when your computer locks up because your computer decided it had more important things to do (other than its sole role of handling processes). If you’re a savvy Windows user, (or you’ve been through a few tech calls) you know that this worthless phrase also appears in the Task Manager. It is there that you can usually kill the process of the program that is causing you grief. It’s easily identifiable because it has the words “Not Responding” next to it.

Like I mentioned earlier, if this has happened one or two thousand times to you (and I’m guessing the latter), I have a tip that will save you some time. How about the next time this happens, instead of pressing Ctrl-Alt-Del or right clicking the Taskbar and selecting Task Manager, you can just click a shortcut on your desktop. Sounds good right. Follow along below and you’ll be killing tasks like a pro. (I’m not sure if there are actually any professional Task killers but if you use Windows, your close enough).

1. Right click on the desktop. From the menu hover over New and click on Text Document.
2. Name it “taskkill.bat” make sure there is no .txt at the end of the file.
3. Hit “Yes” in the dialog box that asks you do you want to change the extension.
4. Right click and select edit. This will open a blank notepad.
5. Type the following lines:
   

   @echo off
   taskkill.exe /f /fi “status eq not responding”
   exit

6. Save it. File -> Save and close notepad.
7. Now any time a program freezes just double click taskkill.bat. In fact this will kill all programs that are not responding.

Mozilla’s Minefield is an experimental browser from the makers of the uber-popular Firefox. Minefield is still in the alpha testing phases but should be released as Firefox 4 once the bugs are worked out.

Download Mozilla Minefield pre here

Click Here to Find Out What They Are

TweetMyPC v2.0 lets you shutdown/restart/LogOff and lots more in your Windows PC remotely.

Setup is simple.

• Download the setup file and Install.
• Go to www.Twitter.com and create a new Twitter account for your PC (This is optional as TweetMyPC only responds for updates). This account will be used by TweetMyPC to monitor for new tweets
• Start TweetMyPC and then fill in the login details. Wait for some time for the application to verify your login details.

Double click the Twitter Icon to start TweetMyPC

• TweetMyPC checks for new tweets every 1 minute.

Download TweetMyPC here

Thanks to PortableApps.com you can do this. With PortableApps, you can carry your favorite computer programs along with all of your bookmarks, settings, email and more while on the go. Once loaded onto a portable device (i.e. external hard drive, USB flash drive, etc.) you can use them on any Windows computer. The best part is that your personal data will follow you.

The PortableApps platform is built entirely around the open-source format. It does not contain any spyware and there are no advertisements. It is not a limited or trial version and there is no additional hardware or software to buy. You don’t even have to give out your email address to them. It’s 100% free to use, free to copy and free to share.

PortableApps includes a web browser, email client, office suite, calendar/scheduler, instant messaging client, antivirus, audio player, sudoku game, password manager, PDF reader, minesweeper clone, backup utility and integrated menu, all pre-configured to be portable for use on your portable device. Simply download it and you’re ready to go.

What could be easier? For the cost of a USB drive you have all that you’ll need to get things done on the go. Take it with you when traveling, at work, at college, family and friends homes, or any other place that has a Windows PC.

Recently, we’ve all been feeling the crunch from the economy. Some of those people who are unfortunately out-of-work may need some way to stay interactive. This is perfect. We all know that applications can be expensive and no one should be shut out of getting things done simply because they can’t afford an office suite. (Kind of like the Healthcare issues we’re currently facing). That’s what The Smiling Pirate is for. To pass along great recommendations like PortableApps.


 


Download PortableApps here

Free Audio Editor is a completely free audio editor that is powerful and full of features. The FAE user interface was designed with speed, accuracy and ease of use in mind. You can record you audio from a microphone or any other input device. Once you’ve got your audio recorded, FAE has various effects that can be applied to give you that unique sound. When your project is complete, burn it to CD and enjoy.

Download Free Audio Editor here