1. ImgBurn: ImgBurn is a lightweight CD / DVD / HD DVD / Blu-ray burning application that everyone should have in their toolkit!

I like it because it is very simple and lightweight and does its job quickly and without too many hassles.

2. Winmerge: WinMerge is an Open Source differencing and merging tool for Windows. WinMerge can compare both folders and files.

I find this tool very useful to compare files and merge them. The tool presents the differences in a visual format that is easy to understand and handle.

3. Wordweb: WordWeb is a one-click English thesaurus and dictionary for Windows that can look up words in almost any program.

I use this extensively through the shortcut CTRL-ALT-W, which immediately opens Wordweb and gives the meaning of the highlighted text in the web browser or document or almost any other program.

4. gSyncIt: gSyncit is a Microsoft Outlook add-in that allows for synchronization of calendars and contacts between Google and Outlook.

I use this to sync my office calendar to a second calendar in my Google calendar, so I can access a combined view of my office and personal calendar anywhere and also make use of the Google Calendar features, like reminder through SMS, email, etc. gSycnIt is more advanced and stable than Google Calendar Sync, which tends to crash Outlook sometimes for some strange reason and only allows synchronisation to the default Google calendar. Next I team this up with GooSync, which I use to sync my Google calendar with my phone calendar through gprs!

5. Cute PDF Writer: Create professional quality PDF files from almost any printable document.

I find this tool very useful to create PDFs while printing. Especially useful for creating PDFS of e-tickets and other documents that can then be mailed around, instead of sending a jpg or doc. It is very simple to use and once set up, while printing *anything*, in the print options, we need to select CutePDF as the printer and click print. Next we get a prompt to save the file and we end up with a PDF of whatever we printed.

6. Virtual CloneDrive: Probably the best virtual drive software, Virtual CloneDrive allows you to enjoy the freedom of a virtual drive and is completely free. Image files can be mounted onto a virtual drive from your hard-disk or from a network drive and used in the same manner as inserting them into a normal CD/DVD drive. 

7. SyncBack: SyncBack is a freeware program that helps you easily backup and synchronise your files.

I use this mainly to back up my photographs and other documents to a USB drive. It can be configured and scheduled to run as desired.

8. Zinkmo: Sync bookmarks across computers and browsers (IE and Firefox, for now). Also the bookmarks are synced to your registered profile in Zinkmo.com, which can be accessed from anywhere. Also the Online Manager can be used to find and delete duplicate and bad links! Thus helping clean up all the junk bookmarks.

9. Windows Install Clean Up: When you are working on your computer and installing a new program, the installation suddenly fails. Now you are left with a partly installed program. You try to install the program again, but you are unsuccessful. Or, maybe you have problems trying to remove an old program because the installation files are corrupted.

You can use the utility to remove installation information for programs that were installed by using Windows Installer. Be aware that Windows Installer CleanUp Utility will not remove the actual program from your computer. However, it will remove the installation files so that you can start the installation, upgrade, or uninstall over

While trying to test out new utilities, I sometimes end up with a lot of extra junk and bad installs or uninstalls, etc. This tool helps clear up all that. It is only to be used as a last attempt at clearing an installation, since it doesnt remove the program files as such., only all references to it.

Following few are part of my photo processing workflow -

10. Camera Raw for processing all the RAW image files.

11. Neat Image, which I sometimes use to remove the noise from some of the images that I might have shot at high ISO in low light conditions.

12. Frame Fun, which I use to give my images a frame and copyright text information. One can also use custom actions in Photoshop for the same effect.

Next few are more well known and commonly used:

13. Flickr Uploadr to upload my photos to flickr

14. Opera is my default browser in my desktop and Opera Mini is what I use in my phone, which is an amazing phone browser. I also use Google Chrome in Application shortcut mode for Gmail and Google Calendar. This is mainly because my Opera browser would have multiple tabs open from different sites and from multiple sessions and the Gmail tab can get lost in there. So I like that application shortcut in Chrome to open Gmail in its own seperate window.

15. Antivirus: AVG Free edition

16. Textpad: Needs no introduction.

17. VLC Media Player: The best and most versatile media player out there.

This is not a complete or comprehensive list. Will add more to this as and when I find something else worth using. Do share your own lists as well, maybe we can all find some nice handy unknown tool

I have multiple personal folders (PSTs) in my MS Outlook profile and have rules set up to automatically move the emails to appropriate folders. When I delete an email, it is sent to the corresponding personal folder’s Deleted Items folder.

Now, MS Outlook has an ‘Empty “Deleted Items” Folder’ menu option, but that only empties the Deleted Items folder in the default mailbox and not the other personal folders. To empty these folders, one manually needs to right-click on each Deleted Items folder and click the ‘Empty “Deleted Items” Folder’ option.

Therefore I wrote this MS Outlook VBA macro code that is used to empty all the Deleted Items folders with one click.

You can download the code here.

To use this in your MS Outlook: Press ALT-F11 in MS Outlook to open the Microsoft Visual Basic editor. Macros need to be enabled and if Macros have not been enabled when you pressed ALT-F11, you will get a prompt to enable the same.

In the Project explorer on the left, right-click on Modules and Insert a new Module. Open the  text file that you downloaded above and copy-paste the code in the module.

To customise the code for your requirements, firstly figure out how many Personal Folders you have and their names.

Add the following code as many times as there are Personal Folders in your outlook profile, and replace “Friends” with your Personal Folder name:

‘***Empty Personal Folders Deleted Items Folder
‘Change the current folder to the target personal folder / pst name
Set personalFolder = mNameSpace.Folders(“Friends”) ‘Friends is the name of the Personal Folder
Set objExpl.CurrentFolder = personalFolder.Folders(“Deleted Items”)
‘Select the target folder
objExpl.SelectFolder personalFolder.Folders(“Deleted Items”)
‘Get the Empty Deleted Items command = UID 1671
Set objCBB = objExpl.CommandBars.FindControl(, 1671)
‘Execute the command
objCBB.Execute

At present the code has details of two Personal Folders (Friends and Family)

To run the above code you can press ALT-F8 (or go to Tools -> Macro -> Macros) and then select EmptyDeletedItems and click Run.

You may also add a shortcut button to the Toolbar, so you can run the macro in one click. For this right-click on the Toolbar and click on Customize. Click on the Commands tab and then select Macros as the Category and then drag and drop the EmptyDeletedItems macro command to a location on the Toolbar.

Running the macro now empties all the Deleted Items folders, in all the Personal Folders and the default Mailbox.

Download the code here.

I choose this lens over the ones from Canon primarily for the cost. I got this at US $188 and for the price this is quite a lens! Also for my current requirements of general photography this lens should suffice.

The lens feels great, extends quite a bit and comes with its own lens hood, which is useful. The f/4-5.6 lens has a 1:2 macro feature between  200 – 300 mm, with a minimum focussing distance of 0.95 metres.

The flickr pool of Sigma 70 – 300 mm APO DG Macro lens users has some amazing shots and you can check it out here.

I finally got to take out the lens and test it last weekend! Keep watching my photoblog for updates.

Closer to home, the Indian Space Research Organisation is planning their ambitious mission to the Moon! Chandrayaan – 1 is India’s first such mission to the moon and the countdown. This is a very proud time for all of us in India and I wish the team all the very best! :)
Read more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandrayaan and http://www.chandrayaan-i.com/

There are also some interesting Wordpress updates. Apparently now we can host Wordpress and other PHP Web applications in IIS!

And finally I am really looking forward to Wordpress 2.7. The previews of the interface looks awesome!

1 million downloads in the first day and counting, since Opera v9.6 was launched on 8th October!

The best browser out there.

’nuff said!

www.chooseopera.com

The countdown and other information on the launch can be read here, where CERN welcomes the first beam!

In the meantime – the scientists behind LHC are getting death threats and legal cases from doomsdayers and other scientists who believe the experiment will go out of hand and cause destruction to the planet. But here is why the world won’t end on 10th September.

Kate McAlpine who works at CERN has come up with a nice rap that tries to explain what the LHC is going to do and also has some exclusive footage of the machine and other areas. Enjoy! :)

Click here for the direct video link if you are unable to view the above video.

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is a gigantic (27-kilometre) scientific instrument near Geneva, where it spans the border between Switzerland and France about 100 m underground. It is a particle acceleratorused by physicists to study the smallest known particles – the fundamental building blocks of all things. It will revolutionise our understanding, from the miniscule world deep within atoms to the vastness of the Universe.

Two beams of subatomic particles called ‘hadrons’ – either protons or lead ions – will travel in opposite directions inside the circular accelerator, gaining energy with every lap. Physicists will use the LHC to recreate the conditions just after the Big Bang, by colliding the two beams head-on at very high energy. Teams of physicists from around the world will analyse the particles created in the collisions using special detectors in a number of experiments dedicated to the LHC.

There are many theories as to what will result from these collisions, but what’s for sure is that a brave new world of physics will emerge from the new accelerator, as knowledge in particle physics goes on to describe the workings of the Universe. For decades, the Standard Model of particle physics has served physicists well as a means of understanding the fundamental laws of Nature, but it does not tell the whole story. Only experimental data using the higher energies reached by the LHC can push knowledge forward, challenging those who seek confirmation of established knowledge, and those who dare to dream beyond the paradigm.

Read more at the following source links:

CERN – LHC
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large_Hadron_Collider
CERN announces start-up date for LHC
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/08/08/lhc_preps_to_open_fire/

Finally we got fed up of waiting and after 9 months of no connectivity at home, we decided to go for an Airtel connection and within 2 days of calling them, they installed the phone and set up the broadband connection today. So now I can finally surf from home and get around to blogging more frequently and uploading more pictures and of course catching up on all the blogs and groups and forums and what not!

Yay!

I got 2 lenses along with the dSLR -

1. Canon EF 50 mm f/1.8 II – This prime lens is amazing at portraits and colours and is very sharp.

2. Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8 DC – This will be my main walk around lens.

I am currently enjoying playing around and experimenting with the camera and the lenses. I have a lot to learn now that I’ve upgraded to a dSLR and I’m super excited!

Being a Canon fan, I had no doubts as to which camera I was going to get. The camera feels just right in my hands and is easy to operate. 

Keep watching my photoblog for more updates and photos with the new camera and lens!