Free/Cheap cool software

[oligopoly]

Thought I would ask you guys and geeks for suggestions of software/progs that are useful/cool to get. a few which i like that dont seem to be known by EVERYONE:

- daemon tools - fools your pc into thinking you have another cd drive which you can mount images to
- prog to sync mobile to pc via bluetooth to control PowerPoint, Winamp etc
-WinAvi - converting to DVD
-EPHpod - great for adding/removing ipod tracks - dont bother with itunes and multiple ipod issues
-Google Earth - doesnt need an explanation really...
-GSpot - for finding what codecs you may need
-TVAnts - to watch live footy online
-PeerGuardian - to improve torrent download speeds

Any more you'd like to share?!!

[Oneeyedvic]

I like rasterbator http://homokaasu.org/rasterbator/

and this http://www.amset.info/pocketpc/netmusic.asp which lets you play music over my wireless mobile phone.


what is the program to sync via bluetooth?

[oligopoly]

thanks for the reply. will check those out. links:

http://www.bluetoothshareware.com/bluetooth_remote_control.asp

http://www.winamp.com/plugins/details.php?id=147306

[fo3nix]

PeerGuardian isn't to improve download speeds.

And cool software is only cool if you have a use for it... looking at that list I'd say you fairly regularly convert films to another format, perhaps. And then save them to DVD. But those programs are then only cool for you; not much use to someone's gran who doesn't know their DVD from their VD.

OpenOffice
AVG Free
Ad-aware Personal
Kerio Personal Firewall
FireZilla
Firefox
Thunderbird
VideoLAN

[fo3nix]

(but I thought I'd join in the fun anyway ;)

[oligopoly]

wow what an utterly pointless post, fo3nix. well done. you must be proud of that effort. is it not conceivable that the software and website's that 'someone's gran' likes may not be of use or interest to a 20 year old for example? Are yours not just ant-virus type jobbies?

Oh and by the way PeerGuardian does improve download speeds, buy filtering bad connections. That is part of what it was designed to do.

[tomd]

I'd recommend VideoLAN player as well, it's a media player which will play just about anything without any additional codecs.

PeerGuardian is to stop data collection from organisations like the RIAA, and also to block data collection by some Spyware agencies. It's nothing to do with increasing download speeds - if anything it would slow them down, as it has to queue and search all incoming and outgoing connections.

If you're going to ask for links and recommendations, there's no point in criticising them without even knowing what they are. What were you expecting?

[fo3nix]

I did not mean to criticise, just to make it obvious that "cool" programs are only cool if you have a use for them.

And yea, 3 of them are security-related programs, but I'd say they're a lot cooler than Norton products.

... I think we need a cool wall!

[oligopoly]

tomd - which link/recommendation was i criticising? thanks for the VideoLan suggestion.

any more?!

[huge piles]

i don't see anything wrong with fo3nix's post... think ollie has taken the wrong end of the stick...