The following is a list of 50 great software applications that you can download and install for free. The list is originally compiled by TechVivo and edited by Elias Kifle.
1. Audacity – Audacity is a free, easy-to-use audio editor and recorder for Windows
2. VirtualDub – VirtualDub is a video capture and video processing application for Windows
3. Avidemux – Avidemux is a free video editor designed for simple cutting, filtering, and encoding tasks.
4. K-Lite Mega Codec Pack – K-Lite Codec Pack is a collection of codes, needed for encoding and decoding (playing) audio and video formats. With the K-Lite Codec Pack you should be able to play most of the popular audio and video formats, even the rare ones.
5. SUPER – If you need a simple, efficient, and ugly tool to convert any of your multimedia files into any other format, then SUPER is all you need
6. FormatFactory – If you need a simple, efficient, easy-to-use, and a not-so-hideously-ugly tool to convert any of your multimedia files into any other format, then FormatFactory is all you need
7. Mozilla Sunbird – Sunbird is an open-source, cross-platform calendar application.
8. VLC Media Player – VLC Media Player is a multimedia player that can play most of the audio and video formats out there, including DVDs and CDs, without the need of a codec.
9. WinAmp – WinAmp is a fast and flexible music and video player for Windows
10. Media Player Classic – Media Player Classic looks like Windows Media Player 6, but with additional features, such as AVI subtitle support, QuickTime and RealVideo support, and a few built-in codec. And it doesn’t have the bloat the Windows Media Player 11 has.
11. KeePas – KeePas is an opensource password manager which helps you manage your passwords in a secure way
12. MemoKeys – MemoKeys allows you to create shortcut key combinations (hotkeys) and associate them with any text information of your choice.
13. AutoIt – AutoIt is a freeware BASIC-like scripting language designed for automating the Windows GUI
14. AutoHotKey – AutoHotKey is a free keyboard macro program. It supports hotkeys for the keyboard, mouse, and joystick.
15. PeaZip – PeaZip is an open-source file and archive manager
16. 7Zip – 7zip is an open-source file archiver predominantly for Microsoft Windows OS
17. GMail Drive – GMail Drive is a Shell Namespace Extension that creates a virtual filesystem around your Google Mail account, allowing you to use GMail as a storage medium
18. Mozy – Mozy is the industry-leading solution for online backup. Its offers 2GB storage for free.
19. Recuva – Recuva is a freeware Windows utility to restore files that have been accidentaly deleted from your computer
20. Windows Live Writer – Windows Live Writer is a desktop blog-publishing application that has many features.
21. BitTorrent – BitTorrent is a BitTorrent client and a good alternative to uTorrent.
22. ZoneAlarm Free – ZoneAlarm Free is one of the best and well know free firewall software in the market.
23. Ashampoo Burning Studio Free – If you’re looking for a fast, responsive, and high-quality burning software that does not cost a dime, then Ashampoo Burning Studio Free is for you.
24. DeepBurner – DeepBurner is a free CD and DVD burning tool
25. Defraggler – Defraggler lets you defrag individual files, without having to process the whole drive, and it allows you to schedule runs
26. CCleaner – CCleaner is a system optimization and privacy tool. It removes unused temporary files from your system, allowing it to run faster, more efficiently, and giving you more hard disk space.
27. Startup Delayer – Startup Delayer allows you to setup how many seconds after Windows has started, to load each program.
28. RevoUninstaller – RevoUninstaller can be used to uninstall programs, and scan for leftover registry keys, files, and folders.
29. Eraser – Eraser is a secure data removal tool for Windows
30. SUMo – With SUMo, you’ll be able to keep your PC up-to-date by detecting required updates for your software.
31. RadarSync – Stop searching for drivers and app updates, update your PC for free with RadarSync
32. FileHippo Update Checker – The Update Checker will scan your computer for installed software, check the versions, and then send this info to FileHippo.com to see if there are any newer releases. These are then neatly displayed in your browser for you to download.
33. Launchy – Launchy allows you to launch programs with just a few keystrokes
34. FileZilla – FileZilla is a powerful FTP client that is easy-to-use, has many features, and is fast and relaible.
35. Kompozer – WYSIWYG HTML and CSS editor derived from Nvu
36. HTML-Kit – HTML-Kit is a full-featured and customizable HTML text editor that can be used to create and edit web pages.
37. Ades Clr Picker – AdesClrPicker is a very easy-to-use, yet powerful color picker application for web designers.
38. Notepad++ – Notepad++ is a free source code editor and Notepad replacement that supports several languages.
39. Internet Download Manager – Internet Download Manager is a tool that can increase download speeds, resume, schedule, and manage downloads.
40. FlashGet – FlashGet is a free download manager that allows you to spit the files you’re downloading into different sections.
41. GIMP – The GIMP is a multiplatform photo manipulation tool. It’s suitable for a variety of image manipulation tasks, including photo retouching, image composition, and image construction.
42. Paint.NET – Paint.NET is an image and photo manipulation software. It’s meant to be a free replacement for the MS Paint software that comes with all Windows operating systems.
43. CamStudio – CamStudio records screen into standard AVI files. It’s an ideal tool for creating software demonstations.
44. Mozilla Thunderbird – Thunderbird is a great email client from the same people who brought you the Firefox browser
45. PDFCreator – PDFCreator can create PDF files from almost any Windows app
46. Gadwin PrintScreen – Gadwin PrintScreen is an easy-to-use utility that allows you to capture any portion of the screen, and save it to a file, copy to Windows clipboard, print it, or email it to a friend.
47. Skype – Using Skype, you can make telephone calls over the Internet, and calls to other people using Skype.
48. SAM – SAM is a simple voice answering machine for Skype users
49. OpenOffice – OpenOffice is an open-source, multi-platform, and multi-lingual suite comparable with MS Office.
50. AbiWord – AbiWord is a free word processing program similar to Microsoft Word and is rapidly becoming a state-of-the-art word processor.
Ethiopia’s regime has rejected Kenya’s proposal to monitor the construction of a hydro-power dam on River Omo that could lead to the death of Lake Turkana.
A row between the two countries now looms over the waters of the river, the main tributary of Lake Turkana. Ethiopia is midway through construction of its largest dam upstream on the river. It is feared that the giant project may pose a great threat to more than 300,000 people in Turkana Central and North, if the lake recedes.
River Omo supplies 20 billion cubic metres of water to the lake, but three-quarters of this volume will go to the dam to turn turbines for power generation. The dam is designed to generate 1,870 mega watts of electricity, some of it to be sold to Kenya (500 MW) and Sudan (200-300 MW).
After realising the danger posed by the project, Kenya this month sent a 15-man delegation to Ethiopia to discuss its impact on water levels in Lake Turkana. After a five-day mission in Ethiopia, the team, led by Mr John Nyaoro, the director of Water Resources, discovered that the water will only run the turbines and flow downstream.
However, the team proposed the formation of an independent joint commission to regulate the use of the basin. “We want a commission that will help moderate the effects of the recession,” said Mr Nyaoro at a press conference on the matter.
Not necessary
He added: “The commission would also make sure that the waters of River Omo would not be used for other purposes other than generation of electricity.” But the Ethiopian authorities have declined to accept the proposals, saying “they were not necessary”.
According to Mr Nyaoro, failure to have a joint commission could leave room for Ethiopia to utilise the waters for other purposes such as agriculture.
He feared the river course could be diverted permanently. “There is need to have a joint commission monitoring the activities taking place around the river,” he said.
KAKUMA, Kenya(Xinhua) — Suspected Ethiopian warriors killed two Kenyans and wounded 14 others on Wednesday night in a ritual killing barely a fortnight when deadly clashes between Merrile and Turkana tribesmen killed dozens others along the common frontier.
Survivors and officials said on Thursday that hundreds of Merrile youths aged between 13 and 18 are queued for a circumcision ritual between this month and August and cultural dictates that they exhibit braveness by killing an enemy before being circumcised.
Once they kill, they chop off private parts and other organs oftheir victims, including ears, noses and toes, which they carry away and present as a sign of bravery.
And on Wednesday night, Merrile initiates from Namurupus area, Southern Zone travelled over 40 km inside Kenya and indiscriminately fired at a dancing crowd during Wednesday night attack at Kokuro village.
“The Turkana villagers were dancing ‘Edunga’ (a respected and popular traditional dance) when the intruders attacked at 23:00 (2000 GMT) and opened fire killing two and injured several others,” said JacK Obuo, the Turkana North District Commissioner.
The villagers were caught off guard as they were busy jumped up and danced before they could retire to bed.
The Edunga dance purposely is used as an occasion for men to lobby and hunt for women to marry and usually is conducted at night due to high heat during the day.
“We were about 200 people busy dancing and everybody was happy with the occasion when the gun shots were heard from all directions. But I thank God I’m that I’m alive,” narrated a survivor Ekiru Lokale recuperating from bullet wounds at Lodwar District Hospital.
Lokale said the assailants were repulsed when local Police reservists (home guards) were alerted and challenged them in a gunbattle.
The assailants were unable to chop off their victim’s organs which they must present no casualty was reported from the attackers’ side during the attack that last few minutes.
“They Merrile treked over 40 km inside Kenya and ambushed the villagers intentionally to kill and many could have died were not the immediate response from the police reserve,” added the DC.
Government official and rescue workers evacuated the injured people to Lodwar hospital nearly 400 km away from the attacked remote village.
Obuo could not confirm the number of the attackers but villagers put at 50 youthful boys who were armed with assault rifles.
The official said home guards have been supplied with enough ammunition to protect the villagers from ritual attacks.
Nearly 35 people were killed a fortnight ago in revenge fighting between the two communities over cattle raids and fishing row.
The clashes were elicited with theft claims of fishing nets by the Turkana fishermen at River Omo and Lake Turkana delta.
Cattle raids and row over fishing territories are common at Todonyang and hostilities have continued to hamper fishing activity, a major source for living for the two tribes.
(UN News) — An independent United Nations human rights expert proposed a set of measures today to guide large-scale international land purchases, known as “land grabbing,” ahead of upcoming negotiations by the “Group of Eight” (G8) industrialized nations on responsible investment in agriculture.
The UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Olivier De Schutter, identified the practice of international investors buying or leasing large amounts of farmland in developing countries as one of the new trends to emerge out of last year’s global food crisis which needs to be addressed.
Although transactions can be opportunities for development, with the potential for creating infrastructure and employment, increasing public revenues and improving farmers’ access to technologies and credit, they also have negative effects on the right to food as well as other human rights, noted Mr. De Schutter.
The eviction of people who have informally cultivated the land for decades, the loss of access to land for indigenous peoples and pastoral populations, and increased competition for water resources are some of the potential detrimental impacts.
“These principles and measures are intended to assist both investors and host governments in the negotiation and implementation of large-scale land leases and acquisitions,” Mr. De Schutter told reporters in Brussels, Belgium.
He said that the proposed measures are meant to ensure that such investments work for the benefit of the population including the most vulnerable groups in the host country, with obtaining the right to food as the ultimate goal.
“From a human rights perspective, the negotiations leading to investment agreements should be conducted in full transparency and with the participation of the local communities whose access to land and other productive resources may be affected as a result of the arrival of an investor,” stressed the Special Rapporteur.
“Any shifts in land use should in principle be made with the free, prior and informed consent of the local communities concerned.”
Other measures included arrangements in investment contracts that obliged foreign investors to provide farmers with access to credit and improved technologies, and the establishment and promotion of farming systems that are labour intensive.
“A multilateral approach could avoid beggar-thy-neighbour policies, with countries competing against each other for the arrival of foreign direct investment and thus lowering the requirements imposed on foreign investors,” he argued.
Mr. De Schutter – who reports to the Geneva-based Human Rights Council in an independent, unpaid capacity – stressed that land not only represents the main means to access and procure food for millions, it is also critical to the identity of certain peoples and communities.
UN News Centre — The head of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) was in Ethiopia today, where she met with the country’s leader and discussed ways to support efforts to tackle poverty, address climate change and ensure that progress made thus far is not lost amid the global economic downturn.
“I think many countries would be happy to be seeing the progress Ethiopia is making,” UNDP Administrator Helen Clark said, highlighting achievements in areas such as maternal health and universal education.
While in the capital, Addis Ababa, Miss Clark met with Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, who she said was “obviously very serious about the climate change negotiations and the possibilities that come from that.”
She said there are huge opportunities for developing countries if the Copenhagen talks aimed at a global agreement on tackling climate change “go right and deliver a deal for development.”
In addition to meeting with the Prime Minister, Miss Clark also met with members of the House of People’s Representatives, with whom she discussed the work being done to encourage women’s participation in local government and the importance of UNDP’s support to parliaments around the world.
The top UN development official also addressed a meeting of UN resident coordinators in Africa, stressing the importance of achieving the globally agreed anti-poverty targets with a 2015 deadline known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
“In the middle of a global economic crisis, making progress on these goals is of course challenging. In fact, we risk going backwards,” she noted.
“But if we drill down to the specific situation of any country and to evidence of progress and failure on specific MDGs, or we look at growth potential in new and emerging areas, we will find that dramatic progress is often possible.
“That progress will depend on what kinds of policies nations pursue, their budget priorities, their ability to enact governance improvements, and investments in filling crucial capacity gaps,” she stated.
Ethiopia is the last stop on Miss Clark’s inaugural tour to Africa as head of UNDP, which also took her to Liberia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
ATLANTA, GA (WABE) – The Atlanta-based Carter Center has been fighting neglected tropical diseases like river blindness and guinea worm all over the world. In our week-long series “From Georgia to Ethiopia”, WABE’s Odette Yousef focused on the Center’s fight against another disease, called “trachoma.” Trachoma is the leading cause of preventable blindness in the world… and the most affected country is Ethiopia.
In April, the Center’s launched a major new part of its health initiative: to treat and educate 5 million people in one region of the country, in just one week.
But trachoma is not exclusive to countries far away. It was once a health concern right here… in Georgia.
In 1921, the U.S. Public Health service dispatched a certain Dr. John McMullen down to Camilla, in southwest Georgia, to investigate reports of an outbreak of an eye disease. McMullen, who ten years earlier had found trachoma endemic in parts of Appalachia, was greatly concerned about what he found, and wrote about it in a report.
McMULLEN: A subsequent examination some months later showed many more trachoma cases, some of whom had lost both eyes from trachoma; others had been blinded in one eye, and a considerable number of others had had their vision greatly reduced as a result of this disease.
A temporary clinic was opened in the neighboring town of Pelham to focus on what McMullen termed an “epidemic”. In the four-and-half months that it operated, the hospital recorded 200 cured cases of trachoma, and McMullen declared the venture a success.
McMULLEN: Mothers have been restored to their places in their families, fathers resumed their work as bread winners, and children returned to school as a result of this public health endeavor by the United States Public Health Service, the State of Georgia, and the local authorities.
At the time, U.S. Public Health officials were not only worried about the endemic trachoma that was found in Georgia and Appalachia, but from other sources, too.
KRAUT: But there was also a major concern about trachoma being brought from abroad by immigrants entering the US.
Alan Kraut, professor of medical history at American University in Washington, says that U.S. officials began examining immigrants for trachoma when they offloaded at Ellis Island and other depots. They’d flip up immigrants’ eyelids, to see whether they were red, grainy, and irritated on the inside — the tell-tale signs of trachoma. Those who had it were sent back.
KRAUT: Imagine yourself standing on line, waiting to be assessed by a physician, hoping that nothing goes wrong so you can enter the US uneventfully, and someone comes along and everts your eyelid, and not just everts your eyelid, but uses for want of a better instrument, a buttonhook.
Chlamydia trachomatis is caused by a bacteria that irritates the inside of the eyelid. If untreated, repeated infections over the years can cause blindness. The only thing that can save someone from blindness in later stages, is surgery.
But what once was a major health concern is now more likely to draw blank stares…
HARPER: Tell me what kind of hospital it used to be? Trachoma. Which is an eye disease, right?
Tom Harper and his family live in the building in Pelham, Georgia, that served as the temporary hospital in the early 1920s. The one-story complex is now a neutral beige, and has a car port in the back, but it still looks institutional, with a very plain exterior.
HARPER: If you actually look at the inside of the house, you can tell that each of the rooms was definitely designed for hospital rooms. The doors are much larger than typical doors, and inside the rooms you can tell that the closet doors are much smaller because obviously the patients would only be there for a short period of time.
There’s a skylight in the kitchen, which once served as the light source for the operating room. And perhaps most revealing about the structure’s former use
HARPER: Almost every one of the rooms has its own individual sink, sink and mirror where they can stand and wash their hands, or the patients can wash their hands. Yeah, you can tell there are a lot of features inside the house that still remain that were for a hospital.
Hand-washing, and face-washing, are key components in controlling the spread of trachoma… and health officials at the time promoted that type of basic hygiene.
Paul Emerson, director of the Carter Center’s trachoma control program, says the disease can be found anywhere, but it thrives where people are poor.
EMERSON: Where slum conditions exist, or where there’s poor access to water, where there’s poor access to sanitation, where people are living in high densities close to one another, without washing their clothes, without access to hygiene and sanitation facilities, that’s where you find trachoma.
As western countries developed, the conditions that favored trachoma disappeared: housing became less crowded, easy access to water became the standard, and trachoma went away. Now the battleground has shifted to places like China, India, Sudan and Ethiopia — a landlocked country roughly twice the size of Texas, in the Horn of Africa.
Experts say that Ethiopia is the most endemic country in the world for trachoma. Out of a population of roughly 80 million, more than 1 million have been blinded by it already. Eighty-five percent of Ethiopians live in places where they’re at risk of getting it. Former President Jimmy Carter says the magnitude of the problem is what convinced the Carter Center to work there:
CARTER: We are demonstrating to others who are working on the same disease the techniques that can be used.
And one of those techniques that the Center has recently ramped up is the wide-spread use of antibiotics. In late April, nearly every one of the 5 million people in the eastern part of the state of Amhara got the medicine, in just one week. The same was done in the western half in November, and it will become an annual feature of the project.
Paul Emerson says that helps to relieve people’s irritated eyes, but it’s no long-term solution
EMERSON: The antibiotic is a great kick, and really accelerates the process. But antibiotic alone is never going to be the answer.
Still, the attention and resources poured into the massive treatment campaigns will bring attention back to trachoma, which often lies in the shadow of bigger-name, fatal diseases that also afflict the country, namely, malaria and HIV. The trick is, how to spread the messages of hygiene and sanitation, the habits that will ultimately defeat trachoma, where the prospects for development are decidedly dimmer than they were in the U.S. in early 1900s.
