VirtualBox - Best free desktop virtualization

VirtualBox is a very good desktop virtualization software from Sun Microsystems that is available for free. VirtualBox runs on Windows, Linux, Macintosh and OpenSolaris hosts and supports a large number of guest operating systems.

Truecrypt - Free on-the-fly file and disk encryption software

Truecrypt is for the paranoid user who needs to have their files or partitions encrypted on the fly [no user intervention], once you have configured the software. It is an open source software available for free. Check out all the features here. The software runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux.

OpenOffice - An excellent free alternative to Microsoft Office

Openoffice is available for free for use an alternative to Microsoft Office. Download it from http://download.openoffice.org/index.html. Many institutions across the world are using this software. The software can install and run on Windows, Mac, and Linux. If you need to send any of the documents produced from Openoffice to anyone who needs it in a Microsoft format, you can do so. You can even open Microsoft formats with Openoffice [You will need to wait for OpenOffice 3 for Microsoft Office 2007 documents] . The upcoming OpenOffice 3.0 release has many features that would it make it a serious contender to Office 2007.

Peazip - Free file and archive manager utility

PeaZip is a free, open source file and archive manager.

It allows you to open archives of the following types:

• ACE, ARJ, CAB, CHM, COMPOUND (MSI, DOC, XLS, PPT), CPIO, ISO, Java (JAR, EAR, WAR), Linux (DEB, PET/PUP, RPM, SLP), LHA/LZH, LZMA, Mac (DMG/HFS), NSIS, Open Office files, PAK/PK3/PK4, RAR, SMZIP, U3P, UDF, WIM, XAR, XPI, Z/TZ.
  

It allows you to create archives of the following types:

• 7Z, ARC, BZ2, GZ, PAQ/LPAQ, PEA, QUAD/BALZ, TAR, UPX, ZIP

PeaZip allows to save archive's layouts; apply powerful multiple search filters to archive's content; handle multiple archives at once; export job definition as command line; bookmark archives and folders etc.
Other features: AES256 encryption, robust file copy, split/join files (file span), secure file deletion, compare, checksum and hash files, system benchmark, generate random passwords and keyfiles.

PeaZip is cross platform, available as portable and installable software for 32 and 64 bit Windows (9x, 2000, XP, Vista) and Linux.

Miro - Free Media Player and so much more

Miro is a media player that can play any format [MPEG, Quicktime, AVI, H.264, Divx, Windows Media, Flash Video, and more]. It is just not a mediaplayer. Check out the features at http://www.getmiro.com/features/. It works on Windows, MAC, and Linux. Best of all, it's free.

Search for songs and listen to them using Songza

Songza is a website that allows you to search for any song and play it from within the webpage using an AJAX based interface. You don't need to use any external application to listen to the songs.

Free Disk Partitioning Utility - GParted

I was looking for an open source alternative to Norton's Partition Magic. I created 2 partitions on my laptop's 40 GB hard drive and my 20 GB C: partition was running out of space. I wanted to extend it's size. Windows Disk Management utility does not give you the ability to do this. I wanted a reliable tool that would let you do this. I used Partition Magic in the past. I wanted to explore open source options before buying something to do this and found a few. The best among them, IMHO, is GParted.
Here is the description of GParted from the website -> GParted is an industrial-strength package for creating, destroying, resizing, moving, checking and copying partitions, and the filesystems on them. This is useful for creating space for new operating systems, reorganizing disk usage, copying data residing on hard disks and mirroring one partition with another (disk imaging).
In order to use GParted on a windows PC, you need to create a Live CD [a bootable Linux CD]. The disk image for the GParted Live CD is available here. You need to download the .iso image to a CD and this creates the bootable disk. Documentation on how to use GParted Live CD is available here.

Lightweight Operating System - Damn Small Linux [DSL]

Damn Small Linux aka DSL, is a lightweight Linux OS that can run off a flash drive or CD. The size of the OS is about 50 MB. You might think - "Hmm, this must one of those command line shell interfaces". Don't be fooled by it's size. It has a GUI desktop and several applications such as XMMS, FTP client (both graphical and command line) and server, Mozilla Firefox web browser, Dillo web browser, Links-hacked web browser, Siag Office's Siag spreadsheet, FLWriter, Sylpheed email, spellcheck (US English), some editors (Beaver, Vim, Nano), graphics editing and viewing (Xpaint, and xzgv), Xpdf, emelFM (file manager), Naim (AIM, ICQ, IRC), VNCviewer, Rdesktop, SSH/SCP server and client, DHCP client, PPP, PPPoE (ADSL), Monkey web server, calculator, generic and GhostScript printer support, Network File System, games, system monitoring apps, a host of command line tools, USB support, and PCMCIA support.
Whoa!! All that in just 50 megs is amazing. Wait, it gets better. You can download more software for free using DSLPanel, a tool that is available on the DSL desktop.
Get DSL here -> http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/download.html

I can think of several scenarios where this can come in handy ->

1. if you want to use a public PC [internet cafe, library, etc.] and want to be protected from viruses and malware, use DSL. Instructions on creating a flash drive containing DSL.
   
2. PC crashes - DSL can come in handy to help you recover files from the hard disk.
3. Put old PCs to good use by installing DSL on them
   

Free firewall software - highly rated

Comodo is a free firewall software that was recommended by Computerworld . Download it here.
Comodo has other free products too such as an anti-virus,anti-spam, and anti-malware. I have not used these but I would highly recommend the firewall. It's way better than the standard windows firewall.

Inexpensive prescription glasses and sunglasses - why pay $$$ to your local optician?

I wanted to buy a pair of prescription sunglasses and shopped around the usual places -> Lenscrafters, Sears Optical, Pearle Vision, etc. The prices ranged from $200 to $400. That was the cost of whatever frame I picked plus $90 just for lenses. I looked around on the web and found several websites that would let you order prescription glasses and ship it to you. The following were the popular ones I read reviews for online:

1. Zenni Optical - Glasses start at $8.00 plus shipping!!!
   
2. 39DollarGlasses - Just like the name of the website, prices start at $39 plus shipping. You can find some coupon codes online that will bring down the price.

Free Microsoft online training on Microsoft Visual Studio

http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/beginner/default.aspx

Free Antivirus software

1. AVG Antivirus -> http://free.grisoft.com/doc/1
2. Avast Antivirus -> http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_4_home.html
3. Clamwin Antivirus -> http://www.clamwin.com/ - Open Source
4. Avira Antivirus -> http://www.free-av.com/
   
Avira is rated pretty high in the latest anti-virus ratings at av-comparatives

Latest Anti-virus software ratings at Av-Comparatives.

Photo Tourism

A colleague of mine pointed me to this new paradigm in storing and viewing photographs. Check it out->
http://uwnews.washington.edu/ni/article.asp?articleID=30518
http://labs.live.com/photosynth/

Real estate resources - Buyers can get the upper hand in negotiations

1. Trulia: Want to find what's available for sale in a neighbourhood? Enter the zipcode or city and state and Trulia shows you all the homes for sale on a map. Point your cursor to one of the homes and it will you show you the price of the home. For any given search, Trulia will show statistics on average home prices per bedroom, average time a home is on the market, average price per square foot, etc. This translates into more power for the buyer.
2. PropertyShark: Want to find out what the seller paid for the home you are interested in? You don't need to waste your time going to the local county office for this information. PropertyShark let's you find this information and much more. When you register for a free account, you can look upto 15 properties per day. With the free subscription, you get information on how much the seller paid and when the property was purchased. It also tells you when and how much the neighbouring properties were purchased for. For more information you need to sign up for their paid subscriptions.
   

Free online meeting (alternative to Placeware and Webex)-

1. Yugma: I started researching free alternatives to Placeware and Webex and found one -> http://www.yugma.com/. It lets you do an online virtual conference with upto 10 people. For more than 10 people, you have to signup for their premium service ($50/month). You need to download a Java applet to do your desktop sharing and let your meeting participants see your screen. Your meeting participants need to download the Java applet as well. This is done automatically when they go to join the meeting at the Yugma website.
2. Several other free online meetings I found and haven't had time to review yet:
   
• http://showtime.powwownow.com/
• http://vyew.com/content/
• http://www.unyte.net/
• http://www.marratech.com/free/
• https://www.webhuddle.com/

Disposable phone number - Jangl

While researching Jajah, I found this service called Jangl -> www.jangl.com.

Jangl allows you to exchange IDs to strangers to allow them to call you without actually revealing your phone number. The recipient of your Jangl ID plugs the ID into Jangl, which generates a phone number that routes to your regular phone. You can then call this same number to reach the other party. All this goes on without either side exchanging real phone numbers. Simple and effective.

Why would you use this? Two examples I can think of are dating and online eBay sales. If you don't want to give away your home phone to strangers, Jangl will protect your privacy for free. You can even route Jangl calls to any phone, whether it's your cellphone, landline or VoIP number.

Jangl is in closed beta and the only way you can sign up is if someone sends you their Jangl ID.

Free calls using Jajah

I found this cool service called jajah -> http://www.jajah.com. JAJAH is an innovative and simple way to make cheap phone calls using the Internet without headphones, microphones or having to install any software at all. JAJAH connects two standard telephones, whether they are landline or mobile, local or anywhere else in the world, regardless if the owner is connected to the Internet or not. JAJAH is just like using your regular phone, only a lot cheaper! They are offering free local and international phone calls to land line and mobile calls to and within: the United States; Canada; China; Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan, and to landline calls to and within: Australia; UK; Germany; France, Italy and most other European nations. Check it out!!

Free web hosting - Microsoft Office Live Basics vs. Google Apps

Microsoft and Google started offering free web hosting meant for small businesses. Both of them are in the beta stage right now. I signed up for both these services and tried them.

Microsoft Office Live Basics

You can sign up for the Microsoft Office Live Basics at http://www.officelive.com. There are 3 options -> Live Basics which is free before and after the beta, Live Collabaration free during beta/29.95 per month post beta, and Live Essentials free during beta/29.95 per month post beta. You can read more about all these products at http://officelive.microsoft.com/products.aspx. I just signed up for the free Live Basics option and that is what I will review here.

I signed into Live Basics using my Microsft passport account. You have an option of choosing a new domain name or transferring a domain. Microsoft does not charge for the domain or for the transfer. Their terms and conditions stated that they will pay for the renewal of the domain. I choose to transfer an existing domain I had hosted by another company. The transfer took about 48 hours and was relatively painless. Your experience may vary depending on which company is hosting your domain. You need to provide a credit card number during registration. Microsoft is asking for this to limit people signing up for multiple sites. They don't charge anything to your credit card. They also limit domains you sign up for -> 1 per credit card.

Here is what comes with Live Basics:

Template based web site design tool - Very easy to use. Cannot access the html or aspx code.

5 personalized e-mail accounts

30 MB of Storage and 10 GB data transfer

Web site traffic analysis and reporting tools

E-mail Support

This is sufficient for small businesses and individuals who need simple to use web design tools. There is no capability of editing the html or aspx. Microsoft states that they might include context sensitive ads after the beta.

Google Apps

You can sign up for Google Apps at http://www.google.com/a. This is meant for small business and sign up is not automatic. Google will send you an e-mail if you are accepted. In order to use google apps, you already need to own a domain. Once you qualify for the beta, google provides you instructions on setting up the CNAME [Canonical Name - this is to send users to your webpages hosted at google] and MX [Mail Exchange - for incoming and outgoing e-mail from/to your domain]. This involves some knowledge of how these parameters are setup by your current domain registrar. The domain registrar I used did not have an interface to modify these parameters. I had to send an e-mail and they didn't get right the first time. Needless to say, it took a while and it wasn't as painless as the Office Live signup experience.

Google Apps provides e-mail, calendar, instant messaging, and web site hosting.

Great sites for best deals

Here are some excellent sites for deals on PCs, consumer electronics, etc.:

Edealinfo
Deals2buy
Techbargains

Cheap/free phonecalls to and from India using VOIP [Voice Over IP] - about 2c/0c a minute

Yes, you read it right. Cheap/free calls to and from India. It's possible and 100% legal. No, this is not a scam. So, where's the catch?
You do need to make an initial investment on some hardware and get a (reliable) broadband provider in India. I am assuming the audience to this blog is in the USA [although they can be anywhere], so I am going to mention US specific VOIP providers.
Here's what you need:

Free calls from India to the US and vice versa:

1. An unlocked VOIP ATA [Analog Telecphone Adapter] - I would recommend any of the Sipura devices [http://www.sipura.com]. You can buy them at Voxilla. For basic use, a Sipura 1001 is sufficient although an ATA with a built router would make setup easier. There are also other devices out there in the market such as the Grandstream Handytone.
2. An account with Free World Dialup [FWD]-> http://account2.freeworlddialup.com/index.php?section_id=94. Once you sign up, you will receive an e-mail from FWD with your account number. You don't need the communicator software that Pulver provides.
3. Setup the ATA using the FWD dialup info. Use the following settings:
• Username: FWD Number
• Password: FWD Password
• Domain: fwd.pulver.com
• SIP Proxy: fwd.pulver.com:5060
• STUN server: stun.fwdnet.net:3478 (Phone must be STUN enabled)
• OR
• Outbound Proxy: fwdnat.pulver.com:5082
• Listen RTP Port: 8000
• Listen SIP Port: 5060
4. An account with IPKALL -> http://www.ipkall.com. This will give you a US phone number also called a DID. Give it all your friends in the US and they can call you at the cost of a local US call. You will need to provide the SIP account information that you get from Free World Dialup.
5. That's it. If you have followed all these steps you should have a working VOIP phone. You can now receive calls. You can make calls to toll free numbers and some users who have VOIP provider accounts. Check this list -> http://www.freeworlddialup.com/learnmore/?p=features&s=accessnumbers#peering However, you cannot call all US numbers.

Cheap calls from India:

1. An unlocked VOIP ATA [Analog Telecphone Adapter] - I would recommend any of the Sipura devices [http://www.sipura.com], which is now owned by Linksys. You can buy these devices from Voxilla -> http://store.voxilla.com/voip-categories/fxs/ . For basic use, a Sipura 1001 is sufficient although an ATA with a built router would make setup easier.
   
2. An account with a prepaid VOIP provider AKA a pay as you go provider. I can recommend Vitely.net -> http://www.vitelity.net
3. Now you can make outgoing calls to anyone in the US at about 1.5 cents a minute. You can purchase an incoming number also known as a DID from the same service provider. Vitelity.net charges a monthly fee of $1.50 for a DID.