Better Faster PC

The environment is a hot topic in this day and age and whilst many hardware manufacturers are (slowly) making changes to the devices they manufacture, those of us with existing, or older hardware often are branded as greedy consumers and destroyers of Mother Earth.

Not so anymore! Edison is a free program that automates the process of energy saving on your PC so that even the novice computer user is able to do their bit for the environmen. Check out the Edison website here.

So, I spend a lot of time blogging about applications and other things on this blog but I never just blog about just plain fun. For a change today I am going to give you some links to some free fun programs for you to play with.

• Want to spray some fire on your desktop? Use Napalm to create flame graffitti all over your desktop. Get it HERE
• Desktop Toys are cool and what is better than a Pink Chair that spins around on your desktop. Get it HERE
• Make a whole lot of graffiti on you desktop, nice and colorful. Get it HERE
• Evil Smiley makes an evil, smiley face float around on your screen. Get it HERE
• Make a loud, high-pitched BEEP with your computer for no reason. Get it HERE
• Make ASCII faces automatically, a cool little application that generates ASCII art for you. Get it HERE
• Silly 8Ball will provide answers to all your questions. Get it HERE

Everyone has heard of Photoshop, AutoCAD, InDesign and other high profile and high priced programs but what about some of the lesser known alternatives out there that you can download for free. Today, I am going to give you a list of some programs to check out you might have heard of before. These are all free so go ahead and try some today.

3D Design & Modelling

• AutoQ3D is a 3D Design and Drafting for drawing 3D tools. Get it HERE
• Wings 3D is a subdivision modeler. Get it HERE
• Art of Illusion is 3D modelling and rendering studio in Java. Get it HERE 
• Blender is 3D modelling program that is very popular if not a bit complicated to use. Get it HERE
• avoCADo is a 3D CAD program. Get it HERE

Drawing Programs

• Pencil is traditional animation software for drawing and animation. Get it HERE
• Pixia is drawing software originally designed for anime but has more uses. Get it HERE
• GIMPshop is a modified version of the GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) which makes it much easier to use with an interface similar to that of Photoshop. Get it HERE
• Paint.NET is a powerful and simple image & photo eidting software. Get it HERE

Windows XP has proved to be the most successful release of Windows ever but one thing that most poeple always complained about was the lack of themes supplied by Microsoft, Vista and Windows 7 did not suffer this fate but for some peculiar reason Windows XP was never well supported in terms of themes from Microsoft.
So, today I am going to give you a list of some options you might not have checked out before. These are all completely free.

The Official Microsoft Themes for XP

• Royale Theme - Nice Blue Theme - Get it HERE
• Royale Noir Theme - Nice Dark Theme - Get it HERE
• Zune Theme - Another Dark Theme with a bit of Orange - Get it HERE
• Embedded Theme - Another Nice Blue Theme - Get it HERE

Some Alternative Themes for XP

 These themes are something a bit different and not offiicially from Microsoft - they do offer additional benefits from the official theme and more visual eye candy.

• deviantART is a great resource for XP Themes and you can get some amazing themes from HERE
• Just Skins has a nice list of the their Top 10 Themes for Windows XP - Get it HERE
• There is also a list of themes to make XP look like Windows 7 - Get it HERE

To install non-official themes (ie - Themes not from Microsoft) on Windows XP then you will need to use UXTheme Multi-Patcher which allows you to install any theme not created by Microsoft. You can get it from Softpedia right HERE.

Really great screensaver that displays the time in a unique format. Check it out - really nice. PixelClock is HERE.

Well, if you didn’t an invite to the closed Beta of QuakeLive - it is going to be open to everyone soon - that means you can play Quake in your browser.

Check out the official site right HERE. If you want to find out a bit more about it then check out Wikipedia - HERE.

Thought I would share a list of some of the utilities I use a lot personally as they might be as useful to yourself as they are to me.

• Get important information regarding important devices inisde your system such as CPU, Mainboard, Memory and more - CPU-Z - Get it HERE.
• Get important information about your graphics card - GPU-Z - Get it HERE.
• Get information about almost every part of your system with System Information for Windows - SIW - Get it HERE.
• Minimize almost any program to the system tray and un-clutter your taskbar with Tray-It! - Get it HERE.
• The best text editor I have ever used (and can be used for a whole host of other things) - just try it  - Notepad++ - Get it HERE.
• The best PDF reader as far as I am concerned, and also the fastest - Foxit  - Get it HERE.
• The easiest and most powerful photo editor and a tiny download is PhotoFiltre and it has a lot of plug-ins as well - Get it HERE.
• Need to do some vector drawing - then check out InkScape - Get it HERE
• Do some desktop publishing for free with Scribus - Get it HERE.

Since games are pretty expensive these days and usually require a rather high specification in terms of hardware I have decided to give a list of some my favourite titles. These games are all completely free and legal to download and distribute so if you have nothing better to do then check out some of these games in you spare time.

• PlaneShift >> Is a completely free online, cross-platform MMORPG - Get it HERE.
• Sauerbraten >> A free 3D shooter (a bit like Quake) also called Cube 2 - Get it HERE.
• Egoboo >> 3D open source dungeon crawling - Get it HERE.
• Frozen Bubble >> A puzzle game based on Puzzle Bobble - Get it HERE.
• UFO: Alien Invasion >> A strategic game based on the X-COM series. Get it HERE.
• FreeCol >> Is a clone  of the classic game Colonization - Get it HERE.
• FreeCiv >> A clone of Civilization II - Get it HERE.
• Abuse >> A side-scrolling 2D shooter - Get it HERE.

Since I haven’t written much about modding lately I thought I would give a bit of a round-up of some programs for Windows modding.

• Want some transparency in Windows XP then check out True Transparency right HERE.
• RocketDock is a great docking application and a great alternative to the regular interface and it is HERE.
• Need some great icon effects for your dekstop check out UberIcon right HERE.
• WinFlip is a great application for window flipping in 3D - get it HERE.
• BumpTop is 3D interface for Windows currently in Beta and is HERE.
• LClock is a clock mod for Windows XP and get it HERE.
• ViOrb is a start menu mod for XP and is HERE. It can be combined with ViStart which is HERE.
• Samurize allows integration in the desktop of other applications and is HERE.
• Get tabbed browsing in your Explorer with QTTabBar - which is HERE.
• Unclutter your taskbar with TrayIt - which minimizes everything to the system tray. Get it HERE.
• Get some very nice screensavers from Really Slick Screensavers right HERE.
• If you have Windows 7 you can get some free stuff from Microsoft right HERE.

And that is about it for the day!

Telltale Games is offering some free games. Just sign up for their newsletter and get a free download. What could be better?

The Telltale Games homepage is HERE.