Best softwares for your Mac

There are tons of software you can install in your mac and if your thinking that it won't be as convenient as Windows then you're wrong.

Here are some mac programs you may find useful. Just click on the link for the download page. All of the program provided are opensource and free.

1. Mozilla Firefox for Mac - Don't like Safari? Then download Firefox for mac. It is virtually the same as the one for Windows. Themes and add-ons works as well.

2. Adium - Adium is an IM application for mac. It can be used to login in with different accounts (YM, AOL, MSN and many more). You can even login simultaneously with different accounts.

3. Unarchiver - Having problems on how to open rar archives in your mac? Here's the solution, it can also extract other popular archive formats.

4. Handbrake - Fond of ripping dvd videos? Here's a software you can use for mac.


5. VLC Player - Here's a player that can play almost any video format you can think of.

6. Burn - A good program to burn your files or automatically create video and audio cd.

7. OpenOffice - Want to have MS Office functionality for free? Then here's what your looking for. Compatible with MS office documents.

8. Gimp - If photo editing is your thing then this one is for you. A solid and formidable competitor of Adobe Photoshop.

9. Nvu - Want to design a website? Then here's a free html editor comparable to Dreamweaver.

10. Transmission - An easy to use torrent client for mac.

11. DosBox - Do you want to play those old Dos games in your mac? Then install DosBox and play all you want!

12. Kigo video converter - It is a free video converter for mac that allows one to convert popular video formats from one format to another. It supports flv,mp4,avi,mpg and many more.
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DirectX Offline installer

DirectX is an important part of Windows OS. Basically it is responsible for multimedia playback and gaming support on Windows platform. It is also consist of different API's namely Direct3D, DirectDraw, DirectMusic, DirectPlay, DirectSound, and so forth. Keeping DirectX in your computer updated is important for a smooth multimedia or gaming performance. It can be easily downloaded in Microsoft but there is a problem for some. It requires internet connection and there's a need for Windows genuine validation.

The solution? Get an offline installer: DirectX 9.0c

This is a standalone redistributable setup installer directx_jun2008_redist.exe. This is a full installer and you can also use this if you need to reinstall DirectX 9.0c core runtime.

An updated version 9.26.1590 as of March 2009 can be also be downloaded offline. directx_mar2009_redist.exe.

If you have an internet connection and using a genuine Windows then you can just go to Microsoft download center for the latest DirectX update.

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Microsoft struggling to promote IE8

Microsoft is struggling in the browser wars. Waging a losing battle to Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome, Microsoft steps up their campaign with a boost in promotion. This campaign boost is even associated by many with the "bing bug" that affected IE6 users and prompts them to upgrade to the new IE8. Microsoft also released their own browser comparison chart that clearly shows that IE8 out-performs Firefox and Chrome. The results in the comparison is good for Microsoft but how credible is it? Many are scratching their heads with this comparison with a negative reaction. Microsoft also launched it's browser for the better program that offers 8 free meals to the charity for every download of IE8. Even though this is a good deed, it also draws some negative reaction with this charity inclined campaign for popularity. They also launched numerous ads but nothing beats this one that drawn so many attention. So much attention that they need to pull it out. This ad is about what will happen if your wife looks at your browsing history. But IE8 will save the day with their "In-Private browsing". Funny.



This extra effort for Microsoft is a confirmation of their struggle in losing grounds with other browsers. The war is still not over though, Microsoft once reigned the browser war and they can still do it-they'll just have to deliver a browser that can satisfy its users. If they can do that again, then there will be no need for desperate campaigns.

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Bing to offer twitter-search

Microsoft Bing which was released as beta on June is now gaining its share on the search engine market. But even though it has gained it's own success many are still doubtful that it would challenge the king of the search engine market which is Google. Microsoft eases some doubts as it beats Google in offering search from famous tweets in twitter. This is a move indicating that they have set their eyes in real-time search as well.

As of now, Bing will only show tweets from famous persons. Given examples are former Vice President Al Gore, Americal Idol host Ryan Seacrest, Danny Sullivan from Searchengineland.com and a technology columnist for Wall Street Journal Kara Swisher. Bing is also adding results from other users in the coming months.

Google will surely take notice of this and there have been rumors that they will offer a new site for microblogging search specifically for twitter. Bing is also not alone in this area, a real-time search engine named Collecta is also specializing in social networking search like twitter.

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Bing hijack fix

Many are still complaining about this "bing bug" and how to fix it. The first way (recommended) is to upgrade your Internet explorer (IE) to a newer version, preferably IE8. Or if your tired of this IE bugs, better try a new browser. I highly recommend Mozilla Firefox because its fast, safe and easily customizable with thousands of useful add-on programs. Another good browser is the Google Chrome, it may be new in the browser arena but it packs a punch and can compete with Firefox except for the add-ons.

If you really love your IE6 then this fix might work for you:

In IE6, go to your menu bar:

Tools
->Internet Options ->Security ->Restricted Sites

Add "www.bing.com" and "bing.com" to your list of "Restricted sites".

Another option is to use IE search hook that will enable you to change the search engine of IE6. You can grab the software here. You will also need a Microsoft powertoy called tweakUI to configure your search engine of choice. See post here for the powertoy.
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Few easy steps to download streamed content

In order to have a good streaming experience while watching your favorite videos online, you need to have a good internet connection speed but sometimes, streaming can still be frustrating because you need to buffer again if you want to watch the video another time. There is also sometimes a browser or plugin issue that can lead to stutter in the video stream. Well to avoid this kind of problems or if you want to have a copy of the streamed content for yourself then you can always download it. Yes, downloading a stream content can be much faster than waiting for the video to load to 100%. With just a few steps, you can save a copy of your favorite videos online.

First we need to have the pre-requisites or the needed software for you to be able to start downloading. Install the following:
- Mozilla Firefox (Grab it here if you don't have one)
- Free download Manager (Grab it here if you don't have one)

After you installed the required software, we need to install the additional feature we want:
-Install downloadhelper as a Mozilla plugin (Grab it here). It's installation is very straightforward and after restarting firefox your ready to download from streamed content.

And now for the main part which is downloading from streamed videos online:

1. Start free download manager which we previously installed. (We will need it later)
2. Go to a streaming website. We will make youtube as an example. Just pick any videos and click play. Don't wait for it to buffer, just click pause and you should see the downloadhelper icon is animated (it is located just on the left side of the address bar). Downloadhelper can download the videos itself but we will use free download manager to boost the download much faster.
3. You should see a small arrow beside the downloadhelper icon, click on it, you should then see the title of the streamed content. Hover on the title and click copy url.
4. Open free download manager and "add a download". You can do this by clicking on the "plus" icon and just paste the url there. Click ok to start downloading.

This method will work on almost all video hosting providers including youtube, veoh, megavideo, zshare and many more. Supported content are the following - flv,ram,mpg,mpeg,avi,rm,wmv,mov,asf,mp3,rar,movie,divx,rbs,mp4,mpeg4.

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Need to download in Megaupload?

It is free to download a file from megaupload but it all comes with limitations. One of the most complained about is the country download slot limit. Apparently, there is a limit megaupload imposes on every country on how many can download but offers a solution of installing a megaupload toolbar or registering a paid subscription.

But do we really need to pay or install this toolbar to be able to download numerous files from megaupload? It's a big "NO". There is a way to bypass this limitation and you can only do this by using the world's #1 browser. Yes, we need the firefox magic. We are all aware that apart from being secure and fast, many loves firefox customizable feature and thousands of add-ons we can install. And thankfully there are a number of add-ons that we can add to firefox to do the megaupload bypass.

1. The first one is the Megaupload SX 3.2 add-on. It works perfectly but there is a compatibility issue of the current version. It only works with older version of firefox >3.0. If you are using firefox version 3.0 and above there is no need to revert as we have another option below.

2. We can also use Megaupload Integration. It is still an experimental add-on but worked like a charm with many people and I personally tested this one out using firefox 3.0.11. Some complained that it's not working for them but still worth the try.

Enjoy your limitless download slot limit! Haven't switched to Mozilla yet? Grab firefox browser here.

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