The Download Munkey : Download This, Download That :)

The Windows-based RSS reader FeedDemon has recently released as freeware. Abilon by now defunct SisyphSoft was originally my favourite RSS reader until two weeks back after I decided to give FeedDemon 2.6 a test drive

While Abilion’s clean and sleek two-panel interface was a big plus, it was sometimes quite a memory hog and updating all feeds often consumed an incredible amount of bandwidth which significantly affected browsing and download speeds. Feeds with embedded media like Youtube videos also had display issues.

I like FeedDemon because it’s very fast in updating feeds unlike web-based readers like Google Reader which sometimes takes an eternity to update my 130+ feeds Plus it doesn’t have the memory and embedded media problems of Abilon so that’s always a Very Good Thing™.

As stated earlier, I love Abilon for its minimal interface and thankfully, FeedDemon allows you to configure it that way.

In fact, FeedDemon allows you to heavily customize the application to your liking but I found that changing the following options mimics the familiar Abilon feel the most.

Switch to Full Posts instead of the default Summaries view.

Check Mark feed read when feed changes and Mark the current newspaper page read when I change pages under Tools > Options > Reading.

I have also set FeedDemon to minimize to the system tray when clicking the X button and turned off the Desktop Alert under Tools > Options > Desktop Alert as I find it too disruptive but I guess that’s just my personal preference

I didn’t like FeedDemon’s way of breaking up feed items into pages but it was probably a compromise to load and display items in the feed more quickly. Besides you can always change the number of feed items per page under Tools > Options > Reading > Newspapers > # items to display per page.

While DownloadSquad and PC Magazine have already declared FeedDemon the best Windows-based RSS reader out there, it’s still subjective thing IMHO since I believe most users define “best” as the one with the most comfortable and familiar interface rather the one with the largest number or most powerful features available. That said, FeedDemon is still a very fast,very easy-to-use and more importantly, highly customizable, application that’s worth a try for anyone who does a lot of RSS reading.

As an added bonus, registering a free Newsgator account allows FeedDemon to remember when your feeds were last updated, enabling you to always catch up with your favourite feeds whether you’re in office or at home. I was also relieved to find that I didn’t miss a single feed item when I launched FeedDemon after a week of Internet-less holidays

Download FeedDemon 2.6.

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A cool, easy to use application to those who like their music electronic, pulsating (and optionally bleepy ).

© Arguru

By adjusting sliders with complex names like VCF Env Inertia and Oscillating Mix, you get to create a myriad of electronic sounds that range from acidic (my 15 seconds sample with settings shown above - max out the resonance for an acid trip) to trancey stuff (my 15 seconds sample using settings below).

© Arguru

© Arguru

My favourite settings involve heavy basslines (my 15 seconds sample with above configuration).

The download below is the last publicly released version of Saiko - version 1.0 R9. The author, Juan Antonio Arguelles Rius (Arguru), stopped development back in 2003 and will never complete since he unfortunately passed away in a traffic accident last June RIP Arguru.

Download Saiko 1.0 R9 from Aodix Arguru Software (the FMOD.dll in this package seems to be of an incorrect version - try downloading from here if it doesn’t work for you).

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I’ve been searching for good freeware hex editors as my current work requires viewing and manipulation of binary files. My thumbdrive also screwed up recently, so I resorted to using a hex editor to read and recover some of the text stored on it.

Here’s two of the better ones (freeware) I found on the .NET below.

HxD 1.6.1.0 by Mael Horz.

© Mael Horz

This hex editor has a simple uncluttered user interface. It loads large files very quickly and I especially like the file truncation operation where you can truncate bytes by selecting and pressing the Delete key. It also has a handy feature to generate checksums for the currently opened file for a variety of algorithms like MD5, CRC32 and SHA-1.

It’s also able to read the memory of currently running applications or the actual physical disks (like my thumbdrive). The memory reading feature is definitely useful for reverse engineers

Hexplorer 2.5 by Marcin Dudek.

© Marcin Dudek

A open source hex editor released under the GNU GPL. Features like viewing of the PE file header and a built disassembler will definitely interest both coders and reverse engineers. Also includes data analysis features like finding byte patterns and data manipulation operations like XORing and byte swapping and flipping. A macro facility is also provided. The only complaint I have is that loading of large files is slightly slow.

At a glance:

HxD

• Clean interface
• File splitting, joining and truncation features
• Load large files quickly

Hexplorer

• Coder/reverse engineering features
• Data manipulation Operations
• Extra tools for editing executable files

I currently use Hexplorer for editing executable files (patching, etc) and HxD for editing binary data files like bitmaps, etc. If I have to keep only one, HxD would be my choice for its ease of use.

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She was asking me to help merge a collection of single page PDFs into a single PDF. I found pdftk, a set of commandline utilities to manipulate PDFs like joining, splitting or even watermarking PDFs.

Being the lazy monkey that I am, I went to look for a frontend for pdftk so that she could merge the PDFs on her own.

I downloaded PDFTKBuilder, an GPL graphical interface for pdftk which also comes with the current version of pdftk (version 1.41) in a single installer. Installation is a snap and using it is equally simple.

Just choose the files to merge, change the merge order using the Move Up and Move Down buttons, click Save As and all selected PDFs are then combined into a single document.

Here I’m combining Mongoose Publishing’s Battlefield Evolution unit cards into a single PDF.

NOTE: The pages textbox allows you to specify which pages of a PDF to ignore when processing a particular PDF for merging. Handy for those ebooks which comprise several PDFs with an additional cover page for each PDF.

Splitting a PDF with PDFTKBuilder will create a set of single page PDFs using pdftk’s “burst” command so if you’re looking to extract selected pages from a PDF, you might want to use another tool instead.

As a side note, reverse engineers might recognize that Angus Johnson, the creator of PDFTKBuilder, happens to be the guy who programmed the freeware resource editor Resource Hacker

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I saw a Before You Know It (BKYI) ad from Google Adsense not too long ago on my previous Blogspot site about learning Korean with free software and so went to the BYKI website to look for the advertised free download. And, no this isn’t a sponsored or affliated post

Click this! Click this! Just kidding

Transparent Language offers lite versions of its Before You Know It langauge learning software. There are wordlists for a total of 63 languages as well as additional user-submitted wordlists in BYKI ListCentral Beta up for free download. Languages range from common ones like French and Chinese to less frequently seen languages like Tuvan. (spoken in Russia, China and Mongolia)

Each language download comprises an small downloader application which will then download 15 to 20 MB of data comprising of the actual application installer as well as the wordlists for that langauge. It does not download the actual application installer (around 12 MB) if you have already installed BYKI Lite on your computer so installing additional langauges is a breeze.

BYKI is essentially a flashcard application where words on a virtual flashcard are shown along with accompanying audio pronounication. You then have the additional option of showing the word in English or the language you’re learning and then typing the correct answer in the other language. The available modes in the Lite version can be summarized as below.

• Review It: View all flashcards in the list
• Recognize It: View a flashcard with a word in a foreign language and mentally think of the corresponding word in English
• Know It: View a flashcard with a word in a foreign language and type the corresponding word in English
• Produce It: View a flashcard with a word in English and mentally think of the corresponding word in the foreign language
• Own It: View a flashcard with a word in English and type the corresponding word in the foreign language

© Transparent Language

Review it mode (top) and Know It mode (bottom) using a Bahasa Melayu wordlist

BYKI Lite comes with around 17 lists of words per language about numbers, colours, days as well as those basic phrases commonly used in travel, meal or business scenarios.

The Deluxe version costs 39.95 to 49.95 USD per language and on top of additional 75+ wordlists over the 17 lists in the Lite version, it offers additional ways to learn a language like voice recording for practicing pronunication as well as the ability to take your lessons with you on iPods and other MP3 players.

I personally prefer these flashcard apps over audiobooks since I find that I remember things better when I can visually recgonize the word. Also, audio books usually need to be listened to in an entire episode to be fully effective.

Currently I’m working on improving my Malay, Vietnamese and German words and phrases with BYKI . From my expriences, it definitely wouldn’t make you an expert in any language since you also need to learn extra stuff like sentence structure which I don’t think is possible with BYKI. It’s a great way to see if you’re really interested in a langauge plus there’s totally no harm (and expense) trying since it’s a free download

For those interested in keeping a backup of the actual installer, run the downloader application under Sandboxie (More about Sandboxie here) and go to Contents of Sandbox > Explore Contents and browse to user\current\Local Settings\Temp\BYKI0.TMP once the Installation screen appears.

Download Before You Know It Lite or additional word lists.

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