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Recover deleted files with Handy Recovery™
144 years ago
Handy Recovery is data recovery tool created by SoftLogica for recovering lost or deleted files under Windows platform. Handy Recovery comes in with nifty features for recovery and proves it is a worthy choice for data recovery.
Have you ever bothered to backup files? If not then Handy Recovery is a handy tool for you that helps you to recover accidentally deleted files. However, I personally encourage everyone to backup their important and sensitive data in timely manner.
There are plenty of tools available both freeware and commercial when it comes to file recovery. Handy Recovery stands out from most the rest just for ease of use. Earlier, file recovery can be done only by a computer expert. This has been proven wrong again by Handy Recovery, allowing any novice user to restore their files safely.
Key Features
- Support most of the Windows file system
- Very extensive scanning for deleted files
- Ability to create disk image for recovery
- Search option for deleted files
- Explorer style interface for ease navigation
- Preview for recoverable items
- Supports recovery from memory cards
Handy Recovery works great for most of the file recovery. Handy Recovery also provides you the probability of recovering data. In addition to cool features, Handy Recovery has also got Windows VISTA certified logo for its reliability.
Setbacks
Here are few drawbacks which I have observed so far with Handy Recovery.
- No support for Linux partitions
- Not a free ware
Bottom line, Handy Recovery would have been more attractive if it was provided as freeware. Handy Recovery is priced in the higher side and it costs 39$. But if you’re the one looking for an easy way to recover your deleted files go for Handy Recovery.
If you like to try Handy Recovery, you can download the trial version from their download page. The trial has limitation of one recovery per day; sometimes good things doesn’t comes for free
Have anyone tried anything similar to Handy Recovery for file recovery? Share your views.
This is a sponsored post.
4 tools to integrate Flickr photos into your website
364 years ago
by Benedict Herold
in tools
Flickr is a great and best photo-sharing site, no second thoughts about it. But the inability Flickr to allow their users to brand their own photoset is notable. Flickr API’s comes in handy for the rescue. Flickr tools built over Flickr API allow the user to brand their photo into their own site.
I have been using Gallery2 till now, since I wanted to brand my photos under my banner. But when you have bunch of photos trust me managing it with a self-hosted solution is a pain. That why I decided to move to hosted photo-sharing solution. Flickr sounded like the solution for me with plenty of flickr tools.
Here is the bunch of flickr tools that I discovered recently. If you are looking methods to brand your Flickr photos under your banner this list would be great help.
Flogr is a photoblog application that works great with Flickr. Flogr written on PHP over MySQL database and off course uses Flickr API. Flogr allows you to customize your template. It uses Slimbox implementation for slideshow. Flogr grabs EXIF data and comments from Flickr for each image. Moreover Flogr is easy to install and configure!
Satellite is a photo gallery application that allows you to use Flicks for hosting. The installation is simple; all you need is Flickr account, Flickr API key and a PHP supported host. Satellite uses MooTools framework and Slimbox implementation.
Chasr is another similar mini application that allows to display Flickr images in own website. Chasr is very simple implementation that allows you to customize it to you own theme. Chasr allows you to view / add comments to the images.
FlickrViewer ( Demo | Download )
FlickrViewer is a simple script written over SimpleViewer, which allows viewing Flickr photoset. SimpleViewer is a popular Flash app that allows to views self hosted photos. FlickrViewer needs Flickr API Key to read the images from you blog. This is simple flash gallery application.
Also if you like to integrate Flickr into your WordPress blog there are several plugins for it.
BTW, I have recently purchased Panasonic Lumix FZ50 camera and now I’m thinking of creating new photoblog. If you guys have better suggestion for photoblog, please suggest me.
Are you running photoblog using Flickr? If not do you plan to do so?
Update:- Moses over WPThemesPlugin.com has listed all flickr related plugins used with WordPress.
Update (08/30) :- Ram over TeknoBites did a favour for me listing all the photoblog themes available for WordPress. Thank you gentleman.
VLC Media Player, play everything anywhere
624 years ago
by Benedict Herold
in tools
VLC media player is a free cross-platform media player for various audio and video formats available today. VLC media player support streaming protocols and also can be a streaming sever with Ipv6 support. VLC comes with built-in support for most of the video and audio codec as well. In other terms, VLC media player can play any format, play any codec, play any media and stream any protocol from any platform (Windows, MAC, Linux)
I discovered VLC media player few years back when I was researching for an alternative player to play my media file that refused to play in most popular players. VLC Media Player alone helped me that situation. I didn’t have to install any extra codec to play the media file. I believe everyone here might have already discovered VLC player. If not, make sure you give a try today. VLC Media player can be downloaded from VideoLAN VLC Homepage.
Another main feature I love with VLC player is the ability to play any broken media file (say partially downloaded file). I use this feature to preview the media before downloading the entire content and save my effort 
Few Interesting Facts about VLC Media Player
Here are few interesting facts I found about VLC Media Player.
- VLC (VideoLAN Client) was initially client for Video LAN project; Later they combined both server and client into VLC media player.
- Google’s Video search uses browser plugin based on VLC player.
- Democracy Player, an Internet player uses VLC media player as a back-end on Windows
- The code name of VLC Media player is based on character name from the movie golden eye
- There are bunch of project that uses VLC; see complete list here.
- VideoLAN enhancement projects are featured in Google Code.
Key Features
- Play Anything – As said this is the main feature of this player you can play whatever you want. Be it any format or any codec no bar; they got to play in VLC. They have ability to read disk images (iso) and play directly.
- Simple – It can be used by any novice without any hitch.
- Network Streaming – It can stream internet video over HTTP, UTP protocol more over it support IPv6.
- Steaming Server – you can broadcast video using unicast or mutlicast in high bandwidth network.
- Equalizer -VLC has an equalizer for both audio and image.
- Filters -VLC comes in with dozens of audio and video filter that you can apply to alter the output.
- Skins – This is not much attractive, but yes you can change the default skins.
- Portability – This works with all operating system, which include Windows, MAC, Linux, BEOS, Win CE. etc. The latest version is compatible with Windows VISTA as well.
Possible Improvements
I have couple of suggestions probably here for VLC Player. VLC also doesn’t have support for real format, which they can add in feature version.
1. Interface
Sadly, this needs some serious attention. They have easy to use interface though their interface and not that attractive. They have skin support but it is not effective too.
2. Playlist
VLC provides you the ability to manage your play list. I think that can be improved a bit to allow option to effectively manage and have some tagging and rating features. Also the play list is not integrated well with the main area.
3. Real Format support
Unfortunately, VLC player doesn’t have support to Real format till now. It would be great if they add support to them as well. Thanks to CyBer$|x for pointing this out.
Other than this I really don’t see much on improvement track. VLC almost rocks already!
Bottom line, VLC Media Player might not be my favorite media player but I use it really extensively.
Have you tried VLC? Share your experience with VLC.
Update : Haris has compiled a list of best skins for VLC player. Deepak has his own list of beautiful skins.
Top 5 Free Notepad replacements
834 years ago
by Benedict Herold
in tools
Notepad is one of the few tools that is been a part of Windows operating system and which have not been evolved since its initial release. Notepad is simple to use and lacks many features / enhancement. So it is always better to look for a replacement, which will overcome all known issues of Notepad.
Why Replacement?
Notepad has some disadvantages, which is known to everyone who uses it frequently. Here is a quick list of them.
- Doesn’t have support for multiple document interface
- Doesn’t display line number (this is harder part for programmer / debugger)
- Doesn’t support syntax highlighting
- Doesn’t support larger files
- It is after all Microsoft product
To overcome these and other disadvantages many programmers looked into developing better tools that will be as simple to use as Notepad, yet offer additional features and enhancements that were left out of the original Notepad.
Couple of weeks back I wrote about my favorite notepad alternative and I asked my readers about their favorite too. Thanks to the readers who have given their views about their notepad alternative.
Top 5 Notepad Replacement
Here is the top 5 list of notepad replacement. I bet you will love at least one 
Notepad++ is a free source code editor and an effective Notepad replacement. Notepad++ supports several programming languages. The features include syntax highlighting, code folding, auto-completion, multi-document, drag and drop, full regular search support etc., It also has include advanced macro recording and playback feature. Moreover Notepad++ has most of my readers vote and it is the well-know replacement for Notepad.
Programmer’s Notepad is free, open source, text editor with special enhancements for Programmers. Programmer’s Notepad is a project featured in Source Forge, which comes in as one of the best notepad replacement for programmers. The main features include book marking, code highlighting / folding, no limit to file size, tabbed document support, project management feature and much more. Programmer’s notepad is my favorite choice for Notepad replacement.
PSPad is freeware code editor and wonderful notepad replacement. PSPad offers main features like rich text formatting, mighty code editing features, project management, syntax highlighting, auto-correction, HEX editor, text difference, spell checker, macro recorder and many more. PSPad also has inbuilt FTP functionality which is a plus for Web developers and Bloggers. PSPad is more advanced of all editors mentioned here. If you are looking for full functional and feature rich editor then PSPad should be your choice.
Notepad2 is a lightweight, free and open source text editor. Notepad2 is a full functional Notepad like editor with syntax highlighting. It is also based on Scintilla source code editing component similar to Notepad++. The features also include drag and drop feature, regular expression search, syntax highlighting for most of the languages. Notepad2 is best suited for persons who need simplicity like Notepad and Code highlighting feature for fun programming.
MetaPad is a small, fast and completely free text editor. It was designed to completely replace Notepad since it includes all of Notepad’s features and few extra features. The features include tool bar functionality, WYSIWYG printing, auto indenting etc., It is also been said it consumes less amount of memory than Notepad. So even if you like to stick with the simplicity of Notepad; you can very well try MetaPad.
I have complied the list with the help of my readers feedback and my thanks everyone.
Are you able to spot your Notepad replacement?
Programmer’s Notepad, simply powerful text editor
324 years ago
by Benedict Herold
in tools
Programmer’s Notepad is for people who don’t prefer to code in either large IDE’s or just windows Notepad. Programmer’s Notepad is handy tool and good replacement for Notepad users. Programmer’s Notepad comes with lot of enriched features and is highly customizable.
I have to agree that I’m one among the people who extensively use Windows Notepad either to take notes or little debugging / code editing etc. Windows Notepad can’t be much efficient choice when it comes to coding / debugging. Notepad does lack features that will increase the productivity of programmer / debugger.
Consider a case where you’re trying to fix an error in multi-nested loop. Notepad does fail here and it would consume few extra time than the time intended if we use good productivity tool. One among such tool is Programmer’s Notepad. It would increase your productivity by reducing the time taken.
PNotepad’s Code Folding feature comes in handy here. Code Folding is a feature that allows user to selectively display and hide section of currently edited file. The section can be either a fragment of code or function etc. This feature is available in most powerful text editor and IDE’s
See the screen shot below with code folding done for function second_page(). Also have a look at Text Clips in notepad area.
Programmer’s Notepad offers syntax highlighting for wide range of programming and markup language. Also it has Text-clips option to insert the predefined code-snippets for various languages. Programmer’s Notepad also has a simple project management interface to manage the files related to the projects.
Key Features -
- Code Folding
- Code / Syntax Highlighting
- Project Management / Grouping
- Regular expression search
- Code Snippets
- Tabbed multi-file support
- Bookmarking
- Export feature
- Addon Support
- and lot more…
Programmer’s Notepad is an open source project that is featured in SourceForce Programmer’s Notepad is a free to distribute under GPL license. Thanks to Simon Steele for Programmer’s Notepad
Bottom line, Programmer’s Notepad can’t be a replacement in high-end IDE’s but it can be a good replacement for Windows Notepad.
What is your choice?
CodeIDE, a online code complier and IDE
155 years ago
by Benedict Herold
in programming
CodeIDE is a web application that allow users to write and compile their code using their online interface. CodeIDE isn’t cool but I would it is a good idea worth a try. CodeIDE provides basic IDE functionality with option to save executable file. CodeIDE also did try well to socialize by providing a public chat.
I stumbled upon CodeIDE.com recently. CodeIDE is a browser based IDE that allows you to write and compile few programming language. Currently CodeIDE supports BASIC, Pascal, ANSI C, Perl, JavaScript, HTML, LISP, MATH, etc., CodeIDE is still in development stage and they are adding bunch of features lately. Now they have their own blogs, wikis, forum etc to share and learn idea between the users.
CodeIDE added compiler feature recently which allows you to compile your code remotely. They have support for Linux and Window executable now. They will be adding support for Mac pretty soon which would be more fun. But they have not yet released information on what kind of compilers, processors they use for compiling. They support compiling C code, it has it own positives and negatives. I will not be able to comment much on that since they haven’t provided the internal details.
CodeIDE offers a command line function, which was very similar to the command line provided by YouOS. The command line interface was clean and allows user to do basic file operations. Over the sidebar, codeIDE also has a File browser which resembled to DOS file browser tools. It didn’t come with much user friendly but handy though. The sidebar also has a Result window that displays the output of your code.
CodeIDE also comes with a simple text editor that allows you to import the code, export, search / replace and other basic things. Registered users can save their files and share their files to other user as well. The basic IDE functionality of creating a project and grouping the code base is also supported.
The most interesting part is they have public chats enable that allow user to socialize and interact with other programmers. They also have concentrated much on the social networking by having personal blogs, etc. They need to build upon this in their upcoming release as well. They have a user edited wiki documentation now. They have live support also to fix your issues online. Moreover forums are there for expert guidance.
CodeIDE has option to run the code interactively using their Run option. It will compile the code and display the result in output window. You have option to save the executable as EXE file or publish the project as required.
Improvements-
IMO, following would be reasonable enhancement /addon to their application.
- an advanced full functional editor
- support for syntax highlight this makes programming much easier
- support for programming language like PHP, Python, Ruby etc.,
- improved and well arranged UI currently all the components are placed clumsy in the homepage
- better documentation and support
- online help library
- advancd complier features support
Bottom line, CodeIDE creates a new environment for beginners who can learn programming language without much pain of installing Compilers and IDE’s. CodeIDE will not be a programmers choice until they have support to most of the advanced / must have functions that are currently been supported by off-line IDE’s. But CodeIDE is a unique idea that need to be appreciated.
IrfanView – the best lightweight image editor / viewer
225 years ago
by Benedict Herold
in tools
IrfanView is a fast and compact image editor cum viewer of all time. It is best for use of beginners to professionals. IrfanView supports almost every image format available; moreover plugins are available to enhance the support. IrfanView is well suited for single image editing tool to multi batch image processing.
If you’re working with images and computers for sometime you must have explored about this tool long back before. It is the cool tool for image editing for all ages right from Windows 9x to VISTA. Now we have a great news as well; latest version of IrfanView 4.-0 has been released. You can download the installation file right here. This release is little bulkier than all its previous release I believe. The size of the IrfanView installer is 1.10 MB (first time reaching Megabytes). This may be because of the improved Vista compatibility in the new release.
IrfanView is written by Irfan Skiljan, a graduate student of Vienna University of Technology. This compact software is completely free for non-commercial use. The development is supported by donation; feel free to donate towards this. IrfanView is especially useful when working with digital photos and their retouching. My top use of IrfanView is to watermark and resize my entire digital collection; so it is ready for Web.
Features Glimpse
- Many supported file formats ( almost every image format)
- Multi-language support
- Thumbnail / Preview option
- Slideshow (Save as EXE / SCR)
- Fast directory browsing
- Batch conversion / editing
- Multipage editing
- File search
- Email Option
- Multimedia Playe (plays popular video)
- Change color depth
- Scan Support
- Cut/Crop
- IPTC editing
- Capturing
- Lossless JPG operations
- Effects (sharpen, blur, Adobe Photoshop filters)
- Extracts icons from EXE/DLL
- Lot of shortcut keys for ease of use
- Command line options for experts
- Customized plugins
Edward de Leau lists the 10 ways of using IrfanView. He writes clearly about how IrfanView can help in day to day image processing needs. Here is the quick summary on how IrfanView can be used,
- To take Screenshots
- To preview, sort, rotate albums
- To resize image
- To create thumbnails for online photo album
- To scan image
- To watermark my photographs
- To preform batch processing
- To apply effects / filters
- To set Windows wallpaper
- To do lot more with the image
Update:- Pallab has written a Ten Things you can do with Irfanview with more explanation.
IrfanView has been around for many years and keeps getting better. It might still require lot of improvement towards the UI. Hope it gets better too.
IrfanView is my favorite when it comes to basic image editing / viewing. If you never tried it before give a try today. Visit their homepage.
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