Combining Dropbox with portable apps makes the ultimate portable solution, for instance as a password syncer. Another very nice feature of Dropbox is a “public” folder that makes files available online – all you need to do is to copy or save a file to that folder on your computer and it becomes publicly available link on the Web.

Their wiki also has a useful list of tips and tricks for using Dropbox.

Link: Dropbox

No one market research tool is perfect and often it is best to look at more than one to get the information that you need. It is so much easier when they’re free! So here are four of the best free tools that you can use for competitive analysis.

Google Ad Planner

The [big] new kid on the block that launched a few months ago, and when it did it knocked comScore shares down by over twenty percent. In typical Google style it is free and all you need is a Google account – that’s why we love Google!. The reason why Google Ad Planner made such an impact on comScore shares is because Google has so much more data – and information – at their disposal and just like Search, they have the ability to crush anyone in that space. Ad Planner gathers its data from:

a variety of sources, such as aggregated Google search data, opt-in anonymous Google Analytics data, opt-in external consumer panel data, and other third-party market research. link

Ad Planner has huge potential with their incredible database of marketing intelligence. Learn more about Ad Planner from this great post by Avinash Kaushik.

P.S. It is quite disturbing that they block stats to google.com, but not to Yahoo! or Microsoft! (You need to be logged in with your Google account to access these links)

Quantcast

The two year old company has been making quite a splash. Quantcast’s claim to fame is that they supplement panel data with server-level data from participating publishers via JavaScript tagging. What I do find really interesting is their approach towards bridging the gap between on-line and off-line marketing data: less people than cookies, rather than more people than circulation.

Addressing this challenge requires innovation in bridging the inherent differences between the directly measureable cookies and estimates of people. This is not unlike challenges that the media industry has previously faced in bridging the “what� (raw traffic) and the “who� (actual people) in Print. The magazine industry provides an analogy to the challenges in the digital space in that circulation is a “census� level data point (it represents the reported number of magazines printed and distributed) which is coupled with panel data for people-based adjustments (readers per copy, demographics, etc). As we shall see, in digital the correction factors are reversed (less people than cookies, rather than more people than circulation) but the hybrid approach leveraging raw circulation and panel data is relevant. link

Compete

CompeteInc, a research firm, also launched their competitive analytics service called Compete about 2 years ago and they are seen as the main Alexa alternative, mostly because of their toolbar. Compete collects it’s click stream data from participating ISPs, the Compete Toolbar and opt-in panels. Not everyone approved at first, but they have been quite busy as can be seen in their blog and they are continually improving.

However, they really are punting their premium services and are not giving enough away for free. Their free Site Analytics reports are the main attraction and they are excellent, but their Search Analytics and Referral Analytics are simply sample teasers. Perhaps they’ll loosen up now that Google has entered the market space!

Alexa

Alexa has been around for a decade in spite of all the criticism of their data collection methods and how their stats can be manipulated. Even McAfee SiteAdvisor warns that their toolbar could be spyware. However, it remains a handy tool for quickly checking Web site metrics and for doing sanity checks.

(The number shown is time in milliseconds to perform certain tasks.)

Chrome was much faster than Firefox which was much faster than IE. Of the frameworks, JQuery was generally fastest, with MooTools and Dojo a close second with Prototype and Yahoo! UI Selector a distant third. Note that it is a MooTools developed test so it may be biased, but it seems like an honestly objective test.

UPDATE: Matt Cutts has some interesting facts about their new browser. In particular I found it interesting that “Google Chrome uses WebKit for rendering, which is the same rendering engine as Apple’s Safari browser”. Considering that Google has been pro Firefox, I wonder what that means…?

Here’s a tip on how PDFCreator can be used to help with filing expense reports. When you’re making hotel reservations or airline bookings while working remotely and without access to a local printer, you can print your reservation confirmations to PDFCreator and save them as PDFs on your computer. Now you can email the PDF version of the confirmation to someone who can print it for you and you have easy access to your invoices when it’s time to file your expense report.

1) Remove copy protection using DVD43
DVD43 gets rid of the copy protection nonsense. If you try to run DVD Shrink without decryption software you may get “DVD Shrink encoutered an error and cannot continue: Copy protection error“. Once DVD43 is installed (which requires a reboot) it runs in the backround and removes any copy protection.

2) Compress and copy using DVD Shrink
DVD Shrink compresses commercial DVDs to fit on to a regular 4GB DVD. Doom9 has an excellent article on how to use DVD Shrink.

In addition, Revo Uninstaller also comes bundled with other useful utilities like the Autorun Manager which let’s you enable or disable programs that autostart at Windows startup and the Junk Files Cleaner which scans and deletes temporary files that should have been deleted.

Revo Uninstaller is portable, free and with no spyware or tricks – a great productivity tool just the way we like it.

Revo Uninstaller (Look for the Portable version download link)

Why use portable apps?

Light weight. Portable applications do not require installation and therefore (normally) do not fill your registry with unnecessary junk. So one does not experience performance degradation when you add apps. Besides, portable apps are normally created to fit on USB drives so they are small and efficient.
Portable. Portability doesn’t only apply to USB drives, it also allows you to copy your apps between computers. So for instance, I keep all my portable apps in my d:\Portable folder and can easily copy that folder to other computers without needing to install the applications on the other computer. That way I can have my favorite apps on my home and work computer. By synching (see below) them up I am also able to keep all data related to the portable apps on both computers. Another nice thing about portable apps is that when you reinstall Windows or have a re-image as we often do at work, you do not need to download, install and configure your apps because they’re all self contained in your portable folder.

PStart application launcher

PStart is a simple tray tool to start user defined applications. PStart is itself a portable application and can be used to launch your portable apps similar to the Windows Start button. The nice thing about PStart is that if you copy it along with your portable apps to a USB key or other computer all the settings get copied as well. So it provides an easy way to launch your portable apps the same way on any computer.

Synchronizing portable applications between computers

I use SyncBack (look for the freeware download) for regular backups, but I also use it to synchronize my portable apps folders between computers. By scheduling a daily sync I have access to the same apps and data on my home and my work computer.

A nice side-effect of applications that are built to be portable is that they are normally not copy protected. Copy protection would defeat portability and as a result they are normally free.

EverNote

TiddlyWiki

wikidPad

NeoMem

Others Solutions

For a comprehensive list of mostly on-line tools, check out Fifty Ways to Take Notes. I left out Microsoft OneNote because it’s not free and some other solutions, like ZuluPad don’t offer much in their free versions. For now I am going to stick with EverNote.

You may use the program free of charge indefinitely only if
* You take at most 4 flights (2 return flights) in any 12 month period
* AND you do not own or regularly drive an SUV (sports utility vehicle).

I also like that it can be installed as a portable USB application (under Advanced Options during install).

Via Lifehacker

1) Most commercial DVDs are encrypted for copy protection;
2) There are many encoding variables (bitrates, aspect ratios etc.).

It isn’t publicized, but commercial DVDs are normally copy protected with encryption technology (including region codes) and most commercial DVD copy software does not allow users to copy protected DVDs. Without going into the legalities suggested in #1 above or the complexities suggested in #2 above, here is a free solution to copy DVD to iPod. It’s really very easy, but the first time will take a few minutes longer.

Step 1: Decrypt DVD using DVD43

1) Download and install DVD43. AnyDVD (http://www.slysoft.com/en/anydvd.html) is another option, but it’s not free.

Step 2: Rip DVD to iPod mp4 format using Handbrake

1) Download and install Handbrake (Windows GUI version)

2) In the Source section:

3) In the Destination section:

• For 1.33:1: 320 x 240
• For 1.78:1: 368 x 208
• For 2.35:1: 384 x 160

4) In the bottom section:

Step 3: Copy your mp4(s) to your iPod

Use iTunes to copy your mp4(s) to your iPod in the usual way.

Additional information

Handbrake is really a CLI (command line) tool and the GUI that is used in this post, really just builds and executes the command line instruction. In the GUI you can see the resulting command line instruction by selecting the “Query Editor” tab and hitting Generate Query Now. Now, you can go further and use this “query” to script batch copying by copying it into a .bat file (note that you will need to replace hbtest.exe in the query with hbcli.exe for it to work).

There are other free solutions like the ones below, but they seem to me to be more cumbersome. For example DVD Decryptor is a powerful DVD decryption program, but DVD43 does it on the fly. Anyway, here are other solutions you could try:
* Lifehacker.com – Alpha Geek: Copy DVDs to your iPod [using DVD Decryptor and Videora iPod Converter]
* All Things Marked – HOWTO: Convert movies to iPod format [for free] [using 3GP Converter]

If you are used to using command line tools for Copy & Paste, i.e. CTRL+C to copy and CTRL+V to paste then this little tool is a gem: You simply copy as usual using CTRL+C, but instead of using the CTRL+V hot-key to paste, you use the WINDOWS+V hot-key. (The WINDOWS key is the key with the Windows logo to the left of the [most-left] ALT key). PureText can be configured to use another hot-key combination, but the default makes sense and works for me.

PureText – plain text copy and paste app.

Typorganism is a Series of Communication Experiments exploring Computational Interaction Design and Interactive Kynetic Typography based on the Metaphorical Notion of Typography, Type is a Lifeform,…

DiskAnalyzer Professional is a disk space analysis and cleaning software. It helps you search, monitor and clean oldest files, big size files, duplicate files, zero size files, graphics files, video files, compressed files, temporary and junk files from PC.

Besides the typical productivity type software that they give away daily, they also have a game giveaway of the day and they recently released a freeware library. I find it best to subscribe to their RSS feeds to not miss that free app opportunity.

As a side note, their site is WordPress driven and a good example of how traditional sites can be more effective when published in blog style.

Technically all you need to do is add a few Registry keys, but most people hate to do that so here’s what I’d suggest:

For Windows XP:
Download and install TweakUI, a Microsoft PowerToys for Windows XP application. Then from the Control Panel, start Tweak UI and update your view source editor under Internet Explorer | View Source.

For Windows 2000:
First you have to ask yourself why you are still on Win2K?! (oh, right, thanks to the corporate build I am too). Unfortunately the Tweak UI for Win2K isn’t as good and, besides, it’s really hard to find (but if you’re curious it’s here). To change your default view source editor in Windows 2000 you do need to create the needed Registry entries. What you need to do is to create a file called whatever.reg and then to copy the following text into that file:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\View Source Editor]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\View Source Editor\Editor Name]
@=”D:\\Portable\\NotePad++\\notepad++.exe”

Note: Edit the last line to point to the editor of your choice (notice that you need double backslashes in the path)

Then double-click on the whatever.reg file and accept the “Are you sure” warning.

Alternatively you can manually create the above registry keys. Or upgrade to XP.

• Added tabbed browsing. It is more elegant than Firefox, has a preview tab “(Quick Tabs”) and an easier way to open a new tab.
• Collapsed menu bars. This opens a lot more of the browser window.
• Add-ons, similar to Firefox extensions. E.g. IESpell enables spell checking in forms (Firefox 2.0 does this natively)
• RSS feed handling, similar to Firefox.

Overall I think the that collapsed menu bars makes IE7 more elegant than Firefox and while I think Firefox will remain strong due to the Linux community, IE will retain and regain many users.

There are a few Web sites that offer tools for download to remove popcorn.net, but how can you trust them? The best advice I found (and trusted) was here.

However, you can create your own VMware Windows virtual appliance or live CD if you had a windows installation CD. You really need a fresh Windows installation CD (with an unused license) to create a legal Windows VMware virtual appliance. However, you can legally create a Windows live CD from your original Windows installation CD using BartPE. But wait, you can run a live CD virtual appliance so then you do have a way to get a free WinXP virtual appliance!

Bart’s Preinstalled Environment (BartPE) is a hack of the Microsoft Windows Preinstallation Environment (Windows PE). Windows PE is only available to OEM users and BartPE’s creator was kind enough to make a (legal and more flexible) version that we all can use. Bart’s PE Builder helps you build a “BartPE” bootable Windows CD-Rom or DVD from the original Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 installation/setup CD, with a complete Win32 environment with network support.

To find out if an application is portable can be tricky and often an application may be promoted as portable but you need to find the right download because it’s default design isn’t. Typically a zip download (vs. exe) will be the portable one. I will try to indicate the portable version with each of the recommendations. All of the applications listed are free.

TrueCrypt
Free Open-Source Disk Encryption Software. TrueCrypt creates a virtual encrypted disk within a file and mounts it as a real disk. Essential software even for non-portable use. Read the traveller mode documentation to understand it’s portability. If you are saving personal information to a USB drive, this is a must.

Firefox
Mozilla Firefox – Portable Edition is a true portable application: it leaves no personal information behind on the machine you run it on, including all your bookmarks and extensions.

KeePass Password Safe
Keepass is the best password manager around and it’s free, open source, lightweight and extremely secure.

ClamWin Antivirus
I have previously posted about ClamWin antivirus. ClamWin Portable is the portable version of the application.

portaPuTTY SSH Client
PuTTY is the free SSH client that we all love. “portaPuTTY is a hacked version of PuTTY that stores all its information in files, not in the registry.”

GreatNews RSS Reader
Lean, clean and fast RSS reader.

µTorrent
A lightweight, yet full featured BitTorrent client.

Gaim Portable
The portable version of the popular IM client that supports AIM, Yahoo, MSN, Jabber and Sametime (yes, even Sametime! ).

DeepBurner
CD and DVD burning application. To run DeepBurner Free Portable from your Flash drive, download it and then simply unzip onto your USB memory drive and run DeepBurner.exe.

VLC Media Player
A free, portable media player. Media players could be a p.i.t.a. so having it portable is a huge bonus.

FastStone Capture
FastStone Capture is a powerful, flexible and intuitive screen-capture utility. Forget SnagIt, this is free, clean and portable!

NotePad++
Notepad++ is a free source code editor. It’s a great replacement for the default Notepad.

Nvu Web Authoring
Nvu is an easy to use Frontpage or DreamWeaver like application. Nvu Portable is just that.

FileZilla
FileZilla Portable is a portable FTP client so you can take your server list and settings with you.

7-Zip
Compression software for those situations where you don’t have access to WinZip.

HijackThis
A browser homepage hijackers detector and remover. An unpolished, but very powerful spyware detection app.

PStart
PStart is a tray tool to start user defined applications, especially for portable applications.

XAMPP Lite
XAMPP is an integrated server package of Apache, mySQL, PHP and phpMyAdmin (the AMPP in XAMPP) that all run from a removable drive. You can even make WorPress portable using XAMPP.

While not really a portable application, SyncBack deservers a special mention. SyncBack is a really good backup utility and is very useful for synching USB drives with local hard disks. It is not a freeware application, but they offer older versions (still very good) for free.

• Portals; e.g. Drupal, Mambo, Joomla
• Blogs; e.g. Serendipity and of course WordPress
• eCommerce, Forums, Image Galleries, etc..

The administrator username and password is given for every system and each system is deleted and re-installed every two hours. This allows you to to add and delete content, change the way things look, basically be the admin of any system here without fear of breaking anything.

OpenSourceCMS has a timer on the home page that counts down from two hours. Every two hours the demo sites shut down and reset to fresh installs. During that time you have complete administrator access to test the applications. So, for instance, if you were interested to learn about Drupal (because, wow, the Rachael Ray Show is built on Drupal!), then instead of downloading and installing it yourself you simply try it out on-line with admin access.

Now if only we could download OpenSourceCMS onto a USB drive as a portable app

OpenSourceCMS

1. Of course you first need to have the VMware Player installed. (See previous post for more info)
2. Download the OS Integrated Live CD Player, available as a BitTorrent download from the VMware directory. If you don’t have a BitTorrent client try µTorrent, a portable BitTorrent client.
3. Read the README.txt. For Windows it goes something like this:

There is no configuration script for Windows 2000/XP, so it will need to be configured manually.

From Windows Explorer, Click “Tools” -> “Folder Options”. Select the “File Types” tab and scroll down the list looking for the type with extension ISO (If it is not there, you will need to make one by clicking “New”). Highlight the ISO type and Click “Advanced”. Click “New” and under “Action:” give it a name like “Boot with VMware”. Under “Application used to perform action:”, give the filename with path to the ISOPLAYER.BAT script, followed by and switches you want and finally “%1″. It is important that the %1 be enclosed in quotation marks. Also make sure to enclose in quotes any filename that inclused spaces.

For example, you might type something like this:
“C:\isoplayer\isoplayer.bat” /d /vmware:”C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Player\vmplayer.exe” “%1″

After this, click “Ok”.

So it really is easy to set up even though it doesn’t use an installation wizard. Once setup you can download and launch live CDs within a virtual machine without burning CDs and without installing anything!

Not serious
If you want to simply create a blog for free and do not care too much about domain names and getting email accounts for your domain, then sign up with one of the many free services, e.g:

• Blogger
• WordPress
• Windows Live Spaces
• LiveJournal
• Yahoo! 360
• Xanga

Maybe serious
If you think that you are serious enough that you would purchase a domain name and pay a few dollars a month for hosting, but want to test the waters first then I suggest that you first sign up with wordpress.com. You will get a free blog that will live under myname.wordpress.com, where the “myname” part will be replaced by the username you choose. Then choose a theme, create some posts and play around with it to get familiar. The reason I suggest using WordPress is because I recommend WordPress for the “Serious” users and so it will give you chance to familiarize yourself with WordPress Administration.

Serious
Primarily if you want to use your own domain name and add custom features like Web analytics code and sell adds. To set up a blog of this nature requires the use of several services and will cost about $50/year. Google will become your best friend. Here’s what you need to do:

• Configure WordPress on godaddy.com
• Get a Google Analytics account
• Create Google Adsense account

Happy Blogging!

There are two ways to add the tracking code to your WordPress blog: 1) by installing a plug-in and 2) by editing the theme source pages directly.

Install a Google Analytics plug-in.
There are a number of plug-ins available for free and they are mostly similar and very easy to use, including:

• Google Analyticator
• Boakes Google Analytics Plugin for WordPress
• Semiologic Google analytics plugin for WordPress
• OraTransplant – Ultimate Google Analytics plugin for WordPress

Edit your WordPress pages directly.
This is probably the no so smart option, but since I did it I might as well mention it. You will need to edit the source of your theme pages. Login to your WordPress admin tool, select the Presentation tab and then Theme Editor. The Header (header.php) or Footer (footer.php) is normally the best place to insert your Google Analytics code, but make sure that you insert it after the <body> tag in the Header or before the </body> tag in the Footer, depending on which file you inserted the code. After saving the file, preview your blog and view the page source to verify that the tracking code has been inserted. Google Analytics can can lag a few hours to show traffic.

Sudoku Portable is a an addictive puzzle game originally created in France over 100 years ago. It features a 9×9 grid containing 9 3×3 grids. Within this you arrange the numbers 1 through 9. But, each number can only appear once in each of the 9 3×3 grids. And it can only appear once in each row and on each column. It’s a simple concept, but it can get addictive quickly.

Sudoku Portable – portableapps.com

The TrueCrypt file can be emailed, backed up and FTP’ed and remain secure because of the strong encryption. It can also be run from a USB flash drive. The virtual disks can be mounted on any operating system.

Once a volume is mounted, files that are written to the virtual disk are encrypted on the fly.  Performance is excellent and you hardly notice anything – except if you choose some ridiculous encryption algorithm.

You can create almost any size virtual drive and chose from most popular file systems, e.g. FAT32 and NTFS.

Make sure to save your password:  There is no way to recover a lost password!

• Creates a virtual encrypted disk within a file and mounts it as a real disk.
• Encrypts an entire hard disk partition or a device.
• Encryption is automatic, real-time (on-the-fly) and transparent.

It’s very simple:

1. Download and install TrueCrypt: http://www.truecrypt.org/downloads.php
2. Start the application
3. Click on Create Volume
4. Select a location and file name for the virtual drive. The virtual drive is saved as one big encrypted file (or a whole disk)
5. Choose an encryption algorithm
6. Choose the virtual drive size
7. Choose a password
8. Select the file that you just created and choose a drive letter on which to mount it
9. Click on Mount and enter password

The drive is available to you and anyone else connected to the computer for as long as it is mounted. See the Beginner’s Tutorial for more information.

The Sysinternals web site provides you with advanced utilities, technical information, and source code related to Windows internals that you won’t find anywhere else.

Some of my favorite utilities are:

• BlueScreen – A “blue screen of death” screensaver : )
• Junction - Symbolic links for Windows
• Du – Disk usage by directory
• MoveFile -  Schedule file rename and delete commands for the next reboot
• Process Explorer – Task Manager on steriods

Public key cryptography uses a pair of keys for encryption: a public key, which encrypts data, and a corresponding private, or secret key for decryption. Your public key can be distributed to anyone and does not pose a risk. Your private key needs to be kept safe and not given to anyone. Anyone with a copy of your public key can encrypt information that only you can decrypt using your private key.

I use free software called GnuPG (http://gnupg.org/). Once you have the software installed you need to create a public/private key pair and then you need to exchange public keys with the party you wish to exchange encrypted files.

Here’s what you need to do:

1. Download and follow the instructions to install the software:
http://www.gnupg.org/(en)/download/index.html (look for the Binaries section to make your life easier)

2. Generate a public/private key pair: Go to your GnuPG install directory and type in gpg --gen-key. The default settings are usually good (DSA (1024 bit) and Elgamal (2048 bit)/never expires).

C:\Program Files\GNU\GnuPG>gpg –gen-key
gpg (GnuPG) 1.4.4; Copyright (C) 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This program comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.
This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it
under certain conditions. See the file COPYING for details.

gpg: keyring `C:/Documents and Settings/Leonard/Application Data/gnupg\secring.gpg’ created
gpg: keyring `C:/Documents and Settings/Leonard/Application Data/gnupg\pubring.gpg’ created
Please select what kind of key you want:
(1) DSA and Elgamal (default)
(2) DSA (sign only)
(5) RSA (sign only)
Your selection?
DSA keypair will have 1024 bits.
ELG-E keys may be between 1024 and 4096 bits long.
What keysize do you want? (2048)
Requested keysize is 2048 bits
Please specify how long the key should be valid.
0 = key does not expire
= key expires in n days
w = key expires in n weeks
m = key expires in n months
y = key expires in n years
Key is valid for? (0)
Key does not expire at all
Is this correct? (y/N) y

You need a user ID to identify your key; the software constructs the user ID from the Real Name, Comment and Email Address in this form:
“Heinrich Heine (Der Dichter) < heinrichh@duesseldorf.de>”

Real name: Leonard Labuschagne
Email address: leonard@davinciplanet.com
Comment: Da Vinci Planet
You selected this USER-ID:
“Leonard Labuschagne (Da Vinci Planet) < leonard@davinciplanet.com>”

Change (N)ame, (C)omment, (E)mail or (O)kay/(Q)uit? O
You need a Passphrase to protect your secret key.

We need to generate a lot of random bytes. …. [lots of text and characters while generating keys]
gpg: C:/Documents and Settings/Leonard/Application Data/gnupg\trustdb.gpg: trust db created
gpg: key 51756B80 marked as ultimately trusted
public and secret key created and signed.

gpg: checking the trustdb
gpg: 3 marginal(s) needed, 1 complete(s) needed, PGP trust model
gpg: depth: 0 valid: 1 signed: 0 trust: 0-, 0q, 0n, 0m, 0f, 1u
pub 1024D/51756B80 2006-07-18
Key fingerprint = 2492 ACA4 EA74 BF33 C45E 31D5 F719 9D78 5175 6B80
uid Leonard Labuschagne (Da Vinci Planet)
sub 2048g/C3BFDE51 2006-07-18

3. Export your public key so that you can give it to others. Run a command similar to this one (replace key name with the key name that you chose when you generated the key pair):
gpg --armor --output YourCompany.asc --export "YourCompany "

C:\Program Files\GNU\GnuPG>gpg –armor –output DaVinciPlanet.asc –export “Leonard Labuschagne (Da Vinci Planet) “

4. To encrypt a file for someone else to decrypt you have to import their public key. Copy their public key file to your GnuPG install directory and run the command gpg --import other_persons_pub_key_file.asc

5. Sign their public key. You need to know their User ID (the name that they gave their key). Run the command gpg --sign-key "their User ID"

To encrypt files, use the following format:
gpg --yes -eq -r "their User ID" -o encrypted_file.pgp file_to_encrypt

For instance if someone wanted to send me an encrypted file, they would use the following:

gpg –yes -eq -r “Leonard Labuschagne (Da Vinci Planet) < leonard@davinciplanet.com>” -o encrypted_file.pgp file_to_encrypt

To decrypt files, use the following format:
gpg -o decrypted_file_name file_to_decrypt.pgp

The GNU Privacy Guard – gnupg.org

Other Resources:
A Practical Introduction to GNU Privacy Guard in Windows – glump.net
GnuPG on WikiPedia

Some other on-line spreadsheet service providers:

• Zoho Sheet has a more advanced on-line spreadhseet with a very good interface.
• gOFFICE
• ajaxXLS is a on-line spreadhseet viewer (vierwer only)
• EditGrid
• Num Sum

Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool
It is not a full featured anti-virus application, but it is a quick scanner for the most popular malicious software. It is Microsoft’s version of the McAfee Stinger.

The Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool checks computers running Windows XP, Windows 2000, and Windows Server 2003 for infections by specific, prevalent malicious software—including Blaster, Sasser, and Mydoom—and helps remove any infection found.

Windows Defender
A very good anti-spyware tool that has received very good reviews. It has a simple interface and is very unobtrusive.

Windows Defender (Beta 2) is a free program that helps protect your computer against pop-ups, slow performance, and security threats caused by spyware and other unwanted software. It features Real-Time Protection, a monitoring system that recommends actions against spyware when it’s detected, and a new streamlined interface that minimizes interruptions and helps you stay productive.

Internet Explorer Developer Toolbar
The Internet Explorer Developer Toolbar is similar to Firefox’s Web Developer extension (not quite as good). It allows you to do several things like outline tables, table cells, images, or selected tags and validate HTML and style sheets. It includes something similar to Firefox’s live bookmarks (RSS Web feed links).

Windows Server 2003 Resource Kit Tools
Although the title suggests that the tools are for Windows Server 2003, Windows XP is also supported. The toolkit includes useful little tools like Tail (Unix like tail for Windows).

The Microsoft® Windows® Server 2003 Resource Kit Tools are a set of tools to help administrators streamline management tasks such as troubleshooting operating system issues, managing Active Directory®, configuring networking and security features, and automating application deployment.

Internet Information Services (IIS) 6.0 Resource Kit Tools
SelfSSL is a tool for generating ssl certificates, which is very useful for developers trying to develop secure sites. The Log Parser is a powerful command line tool for querying log files database style.

The IIS 6.0 Resource Kit Tools can help you administer, secure, and manage IIS. Use them to query log files, deploy SSL certificates, employ custom site authentication, verify permissions, troubleshoot problems, migrate your server, run stress tests, and more.

Stinger is a stand-alone utility used to detect and remove specific viruses. It is not a substitute for full anti-virus protection, but rather a tool to assist administrators and users when dealing with an infected system. Stinger utilizes next generation scan engine technology, including process scanning, digitally signed DAT files, and scan performance optimizations.

Stinger does not require installation so it’s completely mobile.  Updates are made by downloading the latest executable.

McAfee Stinger

A virtual appliance is a fully pre-installed and pre-configured application and operating system environment that runs on any standard x86 desktop or server in a self-contained, isolated environment known as a virtual machine. Virtual appliances provide an evolutionary step in the software distribution model.

There is a substantial list of free virtual appliances available on the VMware site, including operating systems like:

• Debian
• Fedora Core (4 & 5)
• FreeBSD
• Gentoo
• Kubuntu
• Puppy Linux
• RedHat Enterprise
• Ubuntu

and applications like:

• BEA WebLogic
• BugZilla
• MySQL Network
• Twiki

All you need to do is to download install the VMware Player (it’s a 28MB download). During installation it will ask if you want to disable autorun on your cdrom and also if you want to install the Google Deskbar, which you typically would want to disable by unchecking the checkboxes. To use the player you can either download pre-built virtual appliances or you can create your own. To use a pre-built appliance, simply download the one you want and open it with the VMware Player. You can also create your own virtual appliances, e.g. a virtual Windows XP desktop, by installing the VMware Virtual Server. It is currently in beta, but it is free for home use and it works just fine for creating virtual appliances. Note that you will need OS and application licenses (as usual) for the products that you install on the VM instance (e.g. Win XP).

So for me, as a new-cool-app-I-have-to-try-it type of person, this is awesome. It’s like having unlimited sandboxes at hand

VMware
Microsoft Virtual PC (MS Virtual Server 2005 R2 Enterprise Edition is currently available for free)

GRISOFT Free Advisor: Get AVG for your home PC virus protection

ClamWin Free Antivirus