Discoveries

If you are looking for a complete web server package that can run from read-only devices like CD-Roms, DVDs, usb memory sticks, etc. Server2Go is definitely worth a look.

Server2Go is a Webserver that runs out of the box without any installation and on write protected media. This means that web applications based on Server2Go can be used directly from cdrom, a usb stick or from any folder on a hard disk without the hassle of configuring Apache, PHP or MySQL.

Did you know that FLV files are really just wrapped boxes holding audio and video files in fairly standard formats? Probably not. Until I discovered this little gem, I didn't know this either. This program extracts video and audio without decompressing them and then recompressing them. Therefore, this program avoids the loss of quality that comes from doing so. The video portion is saved to AVI (H.263/FLV1 and VP6/VP6F are supported). The audio is saved to MP3. It's simple to use and very useful.

Microsoft did it again with Word 2007. They changed the file format so that older versions and other Word Processors can't read it. If you get a Word 2007 .docx file from an associate or client, you no longer need to buy Office 2007 to read it. Docx2rtf is a freeware program that converts .docx files to the much more standard richtext (.rtf) format -- preserving as much of the original formating as the .rtf format allows. It will also convert the new "ODF" format used by the latest versions Openoffice, NeoOffice and similar program to standard richtext format.

You've probably seen programs that display a graph of the directories/folders on your computer so you can see which are taking the most space. WTF!? Music Info is a free program that analyzes the ID3v1, ID3v2, and ApeTags metadata in music files and displays a graph showing the size of your music collection by artist, genre, or year. This program will not earn many points for usefulness, but it is different and a lot of fun if you have a large music collection stored on your computer. Of course, you might not want to know that you have more Disco music than anything else.

Word processor programs have become monsters in recent years with so may features that writing a simple letter or report can be hard due to feature bloat. The basic features one needs for everyday writing tasks are lost in menus and toolbars among all the features that most people do not use (or even understand) but are loved by marketing people who need "New Features!!!" to convince people to spend money buying the latest and greatest upgrade (that few people really need).