Computer Graphics and Animation
Easy GIF Animator
(Free Trial - Affordable Price)
Although Easy GIF Animator is a little primitive, it's still the best program I have used for creating GIFs so far. It also has built-in banner/button creators and you can add sound and export to Flash.
Easy GIF Animator (EGA) makes creating and editing GIFs more fun and less of a chore. When drawing your own animations, it helps to be able to draw an image, copy it to the next frame, change it a little, flip back and forth to see if it looks right, copy the second image into the next frame, change it, flip back and forth to see if it looks right and continue doing that until your animation is finished. That's how I made animated sprites on my Commodore 64 and Amiga 500 and now I can finally do the same thing using Easy GIF Animator. It's like having an old Sprite Maker from the 1980s or early 1990s again! I can use EGA to draw my own sprites for games or animated GIFs for my web site. It's also fun to play around with existing animated GIFs you find on the Internet.
You can't flip between frames using the average image editor and most GIF animation programs won't let you create images by drawing or painting in each frame; you can only import a collection of finished images. If you are creating an animation by hand, that's not very helpful. You need the ability to flip between the images while you create the animation as if you were a Disney animator.
Easy GIF Animator has some cool effects and it can create some nice looking bold text. You can also edit frames using your favorite image editing software. After you set it up in the Options, all you do is select Edit Frame under the Frame menu and EGA will send the frame to your other image editor (I use Paint Shop Pro X). You do what needs to be done, save the image, go back to EGA and click the OK button and the frame automatically reloads. A very cool time saver.
There are some things I hope they will add in a future update such as a keyboard shortcut for the Color Picker, the ability to paint the background color with the right mouse button, and letting us move a selection with the arrow keys.
trueSpace7.6
(Freeware)
Before, all we had was the old crusty full version of trueSpace3.2 that we could use for free, but most everyone complained about the clumsy interface as if it was designed by an alien with different appendages. Now we have trueSpace7.6 which is complete, up-to-date 3D authoring software which is also free! They even have free video courses that you can watch!
3D Canvas
(Freeware)
3D Canvas is a real-time, 3D-modeling and 3D-animation tool that incorporates a drag-and-drop approach. Complex models can be constructed from simple 3D primitives or created using 3D Canvas's object-building tools.
This program is especially great for beginners. Within minutes of starting the program, I loaded in my own images, created a cube, and 'painted' the images on each side of the cube. It felt like click, click, click, click, done. What an easy-to-use dream come true! I've used a few other supposedly easy to use 3D programs and they were either too limited or too darn hard to learn how to use. For example, I tried Anim8or and it was nothing but hours of frustration and I couldn't even do what took only seconds to do with 3D Canvas.
Mihov Background Tester
(Freeware)
Mihov Background Tester is a program used to test different images and see how they would look as a tiled background. This is very useful for testing background images for home pages. It can show you JPG and GIF images (for web sites) and also bmp images (for Windows background).
IrfanView
(Freeware)
Free graphics viewer which is better than most viewers you'd have to pay for. Trivia: IrfanView is pronounced 'Ear-Fan-View.'
Video Editing
Format Factory
(Freeware)
Multifunctional media converter. Converts all popular video, audio, and picture formats. Repairs damaged video and audio files. It can crop the visible area of a video (just drag the edges of the rectangle). It can trim the start and ending of a video. Format Factory can also turn a video into an animated GIF.
AVS Video Editor
(Free Trial - Affordable Price)
Unlike Windows Movie Maker, AVS Video Editor can handle every file format that I could ever use and it lets me overlay text and graphics exactly where I want them. AVS Video Editor also lets me make more adjustments. Here is a list of some of them: Brightness, BrightnessEx, Contrast, Gamma, Equalize, Grayscale, Invert, AutoContrast, AutoLevels, Hue, Saturation, Posterize, Temperature, Colorize, and Threshold. I think Sharpen, BrightnessEx, Temperature, and Contrast are the most useful.
I'm not totally giving up on Windows Movie Maker since it still has a few transitions and text effects that I really like, but I use AVS Video Editor to do most of the initial work. I import my video, do all of the tweaking and add any needed text and graphics, save the file, then load it into Windows Movie Maker for the final polish if necessary. Sometimes I don't use Windows Movie Maker. It all depends on what is needed.
Internet Related
Microsoft Security Essentials
(Freeware)
Microsoft Security Essentials provides real-time protection that guards against viruses, spyware, and other malicious software. They don't give you a crippled version of the software and nag you to buy the full version. You get full protection from the start. Now you can say goodbye to AVG, Avast, Avira, and so on.
MailWasher
(Freeware or Pay for Better Version)
MailWasher is a powerful e-mail checker with effective SPAM elimination. Bounce back unwanted e-mails so it looks as if your e-mail address is not valid. This will make the sender think your address is no longer active so your name can be removed from their list. Some people say that bouncing doesn't work anymore to fight SPAM, but after using MailWasher for a while, the thousands of SPAM e-mails I used to get have been reduced to a trickle. It works. Besides bouncing SPAM, I use MailWasher to alert me when I get a new e-mail.
VLC Media Player
(Freeware)
The interface used to be primitive and that made the player hard to use, so I avoided it for years. I tried it again in 2010 and it's one of the best free players I have used. It will play flv files as usual, but the improved interface makes the experience more enjoyable.
Game Making Software
batari Basic
(Freeware)
If you are of a certain age, there was probably a time in your life when you wished that you could make your own Atari 2600 games. That time is finally here. You can make games using a BASIC language, then play them using your favorite Atari 2600 emulator. If your game is good enough, you might be able to talk someone into putting it into cartridge form. You never know. Now that we have a Java emulator called JStella, you could also put your games online for people to instantly play on your own web site!
Multimedia Fusion 2
(Free Demo - Expensive)
Game making software for newbies and non-programmers that is supposed to be better than Game Maker from YoYo Games. Seems like Multimedia Fusion 2 Developer would be a good product to buy if you can afford it, but regular Multimedia Fusion 2 is more affordable. Soon Multimedia Fusion 2 will let you make Java games that you can put on your web site for people to play online instead of making them download that stupid Vitalize garbage. Who wants to download something special to play a game? I've wondered for a while if I should use Game Maker or Multimedia Fusion 2 since they are similar products and the upcoming Java feature of MM2 was the last thing I needed to help me choose. I'm going to buy Multimedia Fusion 2 as soon as I can after the Java feature is out of the beta testing stage and start making some of my own online games! Being able to make your own online games without knowing how to program is going to make a lot of people happy.
Windows Maintenance
Glary Registry Repair
(Freeware or Pay for Better Version)
Fixes your registry and optimizes your PCs performance. Worked great on my Vista PC.
Free Registry Defrag
(Freeware)
Data becomes scattered within the registry file over time and when information is deleted from the registry, holes are left which fragment the data. Registry compacting optimizes your registry by removing gaps and wasted space, thus improves the whole system performance. After Glary Registry Repair fixes up the registry, this program will defrag it and it could make your PC seem to run faster/smoother. Always create a restore point before messing around with programs like these, just in case.
Miscellaneous
Moffsoft FreeCalc
(Freeware or Pay for Better Version)
FreeCalc is waaaaaay better than the Microsoft calculator on my PC. It's adjustable, so you can have huge buttons if you want. It uses x for multiply and ÷ for divide instead of * and /. You can use default colors or select from a small list of color schemes (I like traditional). It also has a very useful simulated paper history tape.
OpenOffice.org
(Freeware)
The leading open-source office software suite for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, databases and more.
WordWeb
(Freeware or Pay for Better Version)
Quickly look up definitions and synonyms. I use WordWeb many times a day.
Grey Olltwit's Block Text Replacer
(Freeware or Pay if You Hate the Nag Screen)
I couldn't download it using Firefox, so I tried it with Internet Explorer and it downloaded fine with that. This program is great for replacing or editing chunks of text in HTML files. You can update hundreds of web pages in seconds. This is a powerful and possibly dangerous tool in the hands of people who suffer from mindlessness, so be sure to backup your web site folder and be very careful. Don't use it if you're half asleep or not paying attention. I have made many changes to my web site with this Block Text Replacer in seconds that would have usually taken weeks. This is a great time saver if you're careful.
StripMail
(Freeware)
Clear out the crap in an e-mail or remove the line breaks from blocks of text found in REM statements in BASIC programs.
Always on Top
(Freeware)
Press Ctrl + Space to stick or unstick any window.
StrokeIt
(Free for Personal Use)
Mouse gestures for your while computer, not just one little browser. I got sick of mouse gesture add-ons for Firefox because they would stop working with the latest Firefox update and I'd have to hunt down the new version. Well, now I'm using StrokeIt and I don't have to deal with that stuff anymore. It works and it keeps working.
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