Description: Passage is a side-scrolling casual game done in pixellated, retro-looking graphics. The game can be completed in 5 minutes and is meant to represent a lifetime from birth until death. Passage is an art project open to each player’s interpretation.

The description above pretty much says it all. As in life, the only guarantee in "Passage" is death, otherwise you are free to explore as you like. Make sure to use all of the arrow keys to scroll up and down as well as left and right. Whats interesting is that even though your character is made up of a handful of oversized blocks ("pixels") the process of ageing is nonetheless represented so convincingly. I’ll admit to experiencing a genuine, heartfelt sadness when my character lost his mate.

More notes on this:

• Controls: aside from the arrow keys, press F for fullscreen, B to adjust blow up factor.
• Hints: don’t just avoid things, there are objects you can "collect". Also note that you can re-play this game differently, making different choices.
• Installation: no installer, just unzip and run.

But is it art?: I think so. As in all artwork, the author makes sure to point out that the player’s own reaction/interpretation of this is the interesting part. He does volunteer his own interpretation on his site though, but requests that you please play the game first (which is why I’m not going to link to it from this review).
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Description: SysExporter is a small tool that allows you to extract information from any application or window and export it as text, HTML, or XML files. It is designed to retrieve information from programs that do not normally allow you to simply copy/paste info, such as the files list inside a folder or zip archive, list of emails and/or contacts in an email client, registry values in the right pane of the registry editor, error message prompts, etc.

What do you do when you have information being displayed right in front of you that you need but cannot simply copy/paste or export? Typically what I used to do in this situation is simply grab a screenshot and perform OCR (optical character recognition) using a program such as JOCR. With SysExporter, however, I could simply locate the application that I want to extract data from in the SysExporter interface, then simply scroll through all of the dialogs associated with that application until I find the information I seek. Simple and quick. Here are more notes on this program:

• Information you can extract: everything, from a list of checkboxes used by a program or dialog to the list of files in a folder to the HTML of a web page.
• The user interface: simple and straightforward. Scroll throught the different controls/elements in the top pane, and preview the available data in the bottom pane. Note that you could filter across the different controls (e.g. Listview, Listbox, Combobox, Treeview, etc), as the program allows you to activate/deactivate these at will. If you don’t quite know what this means forget about it: simply scroll through all the available dialogs of the program you seek and you will find your info.
• Portable: installer setup as well as zip-only versions available.
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Description: EditURLs is a small program that works with Internet Explorer and allows you to edit and save the dropdown list of URLs that Internet Explorer uses in the address box for URLs that are typed in manually.

I occasionally have the opportunity to observe how people use their browsers at work, and one function that is used surprisingly frequently is the autocomplete for URLs typed in the address box. Which, I suppose, makes sense; bookmarks very quickly proliferate and require maintenance and management, while the address box is quick and easy (and will auto-populate the rest of your URL as you type).

All well and good, except the list of autocomplete URLs will itself grow too big, will frequently contain undesirable entries, and will disappear altogether when you perform periodic system or browser cleaning actions (say with a program such as CCleaner). EditURLs will remedy this: it will let you maintain a list of all the URLs you want to have in your autocomplete list, and will allow you to easily add new entries from any new URLs that you might have typed into the browser.

What I like about this program:

• Can create a desktop "restore" shortcut: go to "help" then "generate shorcuts" and create a "Restore URLs from Master" shortcut on your desktop. This will allow you to instantly restore the list of URLs into Internet Explorer without opening the program dialog itself.
• Does not reside in memory. Use this program when you need it, and the close it.
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Description: Tobu is a “freeform information organizer”, a desktop-based note taking application that allows you to use multiple tags to categorize notes of all kinds. Tobu’s use of tags allows for making multiple connections between notes, which in turn makes it possible for this app to provide versatile database-like functionality for organizing, viewing, and finding your notes quickly and easily.

In general I am wary of posting beta versions of programs, especially if I encounter errors in the course of testing these; however, I am so impressed with this program and so convinced that it represents a quantum leap forward for desktop note taking applications that I am happy to post it, regardless of whether or not it is yet ready for prime time. (See the comments section below for a description of bugs encountered in this release and some solutions that I found).

Tobu is a simple note taking application that allows you to assign multiple tags to a note and then view your notes across tag filters. However, it also allows you to create tags and assign values to them much as you would do with database fields. For example, you can create a tag named “priority” and for different notes you could assign different values (e.g. “priority: 9″, “priority: 7″). What this means, in effect, is that both of these would be notes have the tag “priority” in common, but when viewed in a list Tobu will display the tag as a column that you could sort by value. (See screenshot above for an illustration).

This is a program which you will have to put some effort into initially, in order to create a tag structure that works for your information and the way you want to work with your notes; however, once this is done both storage and retrieval of information will become significantly faster and easier than using a hierarchical notes application such as SEO Note or TreeDBNotes. To illustrate: the difference between a freeform organizer like Tobu and hierarchical notes organizers is similar to that between hierarchical applications launchers (such as the Windows start menu) and a text-input-based indexing launcher such as Launchy. (If you are unfamiliar with what Launchy is and what it does go ahead and try it; you will not be disappointed).

More info on this program:

• The user interface: is split into an upper pane that lists your notes in rows and allows you to apply tags as filters, and a lower pane where you enter text and work with individual notes. The lower pane is tabbed, which makes it easy to keep multiple notes handy irrespective of what you are doing in the upper pane.
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Description: Xobni is a free program that adds a sidebar with a slew of organizational functions to your Outlook. Principally built around organizing your Outlook data around people (similar in many ways to the Gmail model), Xobni provides a quick way to view threaded conversations with other people, view exchanged attachment history, view contacts you might have in common with another person, perform "lightning fast" searches, view email analytics data, and other functions.

Xobni ("inbox" spelled backwards, pronounced zob-nee) is an add on that aims to provide an alternative way to access your emails and data. Although currently it is only available for Outlook (apparently the world’s most used email client), there are plans to release this for other clients in the future.

I’ve been using this for a while now, waiting for it to move beyond the "invite only" beta in order to post it on Freewaregenius, which just recently happened. You might have had a glimpse of some degree of publicity surrounding Xobni, being featured in the New York Times, Newsweek, etc., and if you were wondering whether it lives up to the hype the answer is a definite yes. Xobni to Outlook is just what the doctor prescribed; it takes a somewhat dysfunctional, top-heavy and unexciting piece of software and adds a set of functions that are innovative and exciting, but - most importantly - it is fast and it works.

Here are the top five things I like about this program:

1- People-centric organization: search for someone by name and Xobni will construct and display a "profile" for that person that includes contact info, statistics, network of contacts, and other info. It will also display the email history with that person with the most recent messages displayed on top. You will like this person-centric approach if you like and/or used to Gmail (although it doesn’t quite replicate Gmail’s "conversations", it’s a good approximation).

2- Quick attachment discovery: search for someone and Xobni will display a history of exchanged attachments with that person (to and from) for easy access. This surprisingly useful in practice, probably more useful than you would expect at first.

3- Extremely fast search: forget about Outlook’s search; Xobni does its own indexing of your Outlook data when it is first installed and will keep all subsequently data indexed as well. The result: extremely fast searches without having to install the bloated and top heavy MS desktop search.
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Description: Wubi is an Ubuntu Linux installer designed to be run from within a Windows environment in order to create a dual booting Windows/Ubuntu machine. Wubi is an officially supported Ubuntu installer and is open source.

I install a lot of software every day. I am always on the lookout for good software, always researching and testing programs. If I had a nickel for every program I have installed in the past year I would have a nice stash.

I am also curious about Linux, and have caught myself at times mulling the idea of a dual booting XP/Linux setup on my computer. But installing an OS is not quite like installing an app; you don’t just click on an installer and click “next” a bunch of times; first, you have to create a new partition on your hard drive (which likely involves moving a lot of your data around), then figure out which Linux build to use and download it, then figure out the steps needed to install Linux and their sequence, as well as all the tools needed which you will likely have to add to you Linux boot CD, etc, then perform a whole bunch of steps to make it dual bootable. Wouldn’t it be great if instead of this drawn out process all you had to do was run an installer from within Windows much like you would install any application?

This, in fact, is exactly what Wubi does. In order to install Ubuntu you simply download this 1 meg executable and run it within Windows just as you would any other setup program. Here are more notes on this program:

• How to use: download and run the installer in Windows. You will be asked to specify a folder to install into, and asked to specify your login passwords. Wubi will then proceed to download Ubuntu for you (approx 700 megs), save it into your specified folder, and install it for you. (Or if you have an Ubuntu CD it will be automatically detected).
• Prerequisites: you need to have at least 5 gigs of space on your chosen hard drive partition. You do NOT have to re-partition and/or move data around. Minimum memory requirement is 256 Megs.
• Dual booting: the next time you boot your machine you will be asked whether you want to boot into your Windows OS or into Ubuntu. Very cool! The folder where you installed Wubi will be mounted as a partition.
• Access to your Windows partitions: you can mount and access the Windows partition where you installed Wubi from within Ubuntu and get access to your Windows files.
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Description: Xneat windows manager is a free windows enhancement that adds a number of “window management” type functions to explorer, including the ability to customize window transparency, minimize (or hide) windows to the system tray, toggling always on top, and drag and drop taskbar buttons in order to rearrange them. It also adds interesting options to the windows save file dialog: a “clone file” button that becomes active when overwriting a file, and a time stamp button.

I am always in the market for good windows shell enhancements, and I must say that this is one to take note of: Xneat has a good range of interesting Windows functions, uses very little memory, and has a very nice overall look and feel . Here are more notes on this program:

• Nice set of functions for open/minimized windows: change windows transparency, minimize to tray, hide, and toggle always on top are the standard ones. You can optionally add windows and process priority functions as well. Note that you can customize the context menu to display only the functions you want (e.g. only the minimize to tray and, say, the transparency functions, if that’s all you want).
• Save file dialog functions: adds two buttons; the clone button appears when you are about to save over a previous file with the same name, and gives you the option to create a clone with a counter appended to its file name rather than overwrite a file (e.g. filename(1).html rather than filename.html). Very useful. The other button automatically adds a date stamp to the filename, which could be very useful to some.
• Arrange taskbar buttons: by dragging and dropping, in the manner of Taskbar Shuffle.
• Hotkey activation: will make an Xneat “hotmenu” pop up on the screen wherever the mouse is located. This menu will give you access to all windows minimized or hidden to the system tray, but can also optionally give access to the Quick Launch menu shortcuts or a list of recently accessed files.
• Memory use: just about 2 megs, which is lightweight and quite an accomplishment by the creators of this program.
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Description: Looxis Faceworx is a free 3D modeling program that can construct a textured 3D model of a person’s head out of two 2D photos (one from the front, "mugshot" style, and the other profile style from the side).

With this program you can create a modeled 3D head and then export it as an .OBJ file for use in other 3D modeling software such as Sketchup or Blender. As a starting point you will need two well light photographs of the subject whose head you want to model, and, once imported into Looxis Faceworx, the process will require a degree of manual intervention on your part to best map your subject’s phase/features onto the 3D model. Here are more notes on this program:

• The learning curve: is very shallow. Just go to help then video tutorial and you will know everything that you need to know within 5 minutes. The program is very easy to use and come to grips with.
• How it works: once you have the images, you will have to manipulate a line/point structure manually in order to best fit it around the face in the photographs.What you need to know here is that there are different levels of detail that you can work with: you can tell the program to give you more points or less points to manipulate.
• More tips: make it simple by deactivating the line/points structures that you are not working with instead of having them be displayed on screens. Zoom into the images when working with them for best accuracy (with the mouse wheel). Start with as little points as possible then make it more detailed afterwards; the better you "fit" these points around the head, the better the result will be. Deactivate the "blend zone" to begin with and deal with it at the very end.
• The user interface: is very straightforward. Three different windows display your subject’s frontal image, profile image, and 3D model of the head. What is nice about this program is that since it only does one thing - maps images to a 3D head - there is a limited set of tools that you need to use and come to grips with.
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Description: Translate.Net is a desktop-based translation tool that will translate any text from one language to another. It connects with multiple online translation engines and delivers multiple translations at once straight into your desktop.

Although a translation engine where you enter you text and have it magically translated into another language sounds like a fairy tale, the web is full of these services. Of course these cannot provide the textual nuances that a human translator could, and the quality can vary widely from text to text and engine to engine, which is why it is a good idea to run a text through multiple translation engines and get multiple versions/attempts at deciphering the text.

Translate.Net, like the recently reviewed Lingoes, is a straightforward program that will simply run your text through several online translation services and give you a list of results. Here are more notes on this program:

• The user interface: is simple and intuitive and fairly self explanatory.
• Languages supported: the list of "from" and "to" languages is extensive, with 25 languages supported in total, including every major language represented. The total number of translation directions is a whopping 1352.
• The language resources: what is cool is that Translate.Net will automatically identify out the available translation engines/resources that cover your language configuration and use them. As of this writing there were 17 language resources used, including Google dictionary, Google,translator Wikipedia, wiktionary, and SYSTRAN translator (used by Altavista Babel Fish). For a list of these go here.
• History of language pairs: once you perform a translation your from/to language pair used will be stored in the main interface, enabling you to quickly fire up that language combo the next time you need it. Quite useful.
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Description: Google Earth is a fully interactive 3D representation of the globe and (more recently) of space, with interactive representations of galaxies and constellations. Users are able to explore/navigate the virtual world and view and interact with a growing number of "layers" of information that are continuously being added and/or refined, such as 3D buildings, panoramic images of places, real-time weather information, roads, etc. Users are also able to interact with a growing number representations of well known places and monuments worldwide.

We are all familiar with satellite/aerial images used on Google maps. Google Earth takes this a step further by using this information (as well as a number of other information sources) to construct a virtual, fully interactive 3D globe. Astronomical pictures are also used to add a space exploration component called Google Sky (more on this below).

What’s interesting about this world is not just the ability to fly around, zoom in and explore, but the multiple layers of information that you can switch on and off (e.g. 3D buildings, image galleries, borders and labels, weather, etc.) as well as a growing number of pre-defined places that you can visit and explore virtually.

As of version 4.3 there have been a number of noteworthy additions to Google Earth, including a revamped navigation system, 3D "photorealistic" models of buildings, monuments, even entire cities, and time lapse views where you can control the time of day that you are viewing something in or even observe an accelerated sunrise-to-sunset scene at any spot in the world. "Street view" photos are also added, which display panoramic photographs of a particular sport that show you what it is really like to be there (similar in concept to the Panoye panoramic photo sharing site).

Community involvement: what is really exciting is that anyone can contribue to Google Earth, and many of the content is in fact either contributed by fans and enthusiasts or linked from other community based projects such as Wikipedia. For example, fans who have modeled and submitted buildings in their home towns using 3D modeling tools such as Google Sketchup or taken photos and associated them with places on Panoramio. Here are more notes on this program:

• Resolution: different locations have different resolutions, but most of the earth’s territory is covered within at least 15 meters of resolution, and some, such as Las Vegas and Cambridge, MA, have the highest resolution at 6 inches (15 cm).
• Navigation: you can search by address (in some countries), enter geographical coordinates, click on a an entry in the "places" section in the left pane, or simply use the on-screen 3D controls (with mouse wheel and arrow key integration).
• Layers: you can check and uncheck different layers of information in order to activate/deactivate them inside the main display. The amount of information that can be displayed is nothing short of astounding, from Panoramio pictures to related Wikipedia and New York Times articles to Metro transit lines, roads, international borders, weather/clouds, YouTube videos, restaurants, etc. The more you expand the layer categories the more you realize just how much they’ve crammed in there (see thumbnail to the right for the full expanded list of informational layers).
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Description: BitRipper is an integrated DVD ripping and conversion program that provides AVI or Mpeg creation from DVDs in a single step.

I’ve been making terrific conversions of DVDs into video files using all freeware tools for a long time, my programs of choice in this regard being AutoGK and more recently Handbrake. Both of these, however, will start processing your files from the DVD/VOB files after the DVD encryption/protection is removed using another, external, program and in most cases after the DVD had been saved (”ripped”) to your hard drive. What BitRipper offers is an integrated solution that consolidates the ripping and conversion parts into a single process, and then attempts to make it as simple to run as clicking a single button.

BitRipper started life as a commercial product that only recently became freeware. Note that in my evaluating this program I will be implicitly comparing it with Handbrake (mentioned above).

What I like about BitRipper: some cool features

• Decrypts and converts: combines the DVD decryption and conversion processes, so that you no longer have to think of these as two distinct parts requiring different programs. More convenient but also will save you a lot of time and manual involvement with the process.
• Handles any DVD: whether its a normal 4.7 Gig size or a double density 8 Gig+ DVD. “Decryption” mentioned above means that BitRipper will copy most commercial, copy-protected DVDs (includes “3rd party” CSS decryption module. (I am guessing that some very recent DVDs might have protections that it will not be able to decrypt).
• Converts on the fly: i.e. does not save the DVD to your hard drive first and therefore does not require gigabytes of free space on your hard drive to run.
• Installer includes codecs: installing BitRipper will also install a number of codecs that you need to perform a conversion, but the program will also use any codecs that you might have pre-installed on your system. I would advise downloading and using the LAME MP3 codec which provides better audio quality options than the included MP3 codec.
• Simplicity: the program is designed to suggest a simple, 1-click conversion (see screenshot above), where you merely insert a disc and press a button. My experience, however, is that this is the case if you do not want/need to customize the conversion settings, at which point things can become both complex and confusing.
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Description: Daphne is a windows process manager that provides a number of interesting functions, such as the ability to shut down, find, or hide an app or process by dragging and dropping a tool onto open windows with the mouse. Other functions include the ability to set “traps” where processes invoke user determined actions, killing processes by name, etc, in addition to a number of the usual functions that you would expect to find in a program of this type.

This is another process manager that does some cool stuff. It offers many of the standard functions that you would expect from most process managers, but what makes it interesting is a visual interface whereby you could point to elements on the screen with the mouse in order to, for example, kill the process behind them, find the underlying process, or quickly access (and optionally change) the properties and values of windows and controls.

What I will do for this review, as I did when reviewing “System Explorer“, is attempt to convey a sense of this program by listing my top 5 favorite things you can do with it:

1- Killing a process with the mouse: all you need to do is set Daphne to “kill process”, then grab the crosshairs and drop them on the window. This will end the process instantly, and avoid the need to hunt for the name of the associated process in a list and/or going through multiple steps to get it shut down. (Note: you can also do this with Revo Uninstaller; see this posting).

2- Visually finding a process: if you’ve ever faced a situation where you are unable to determine the process underlying an app or a window you’ll appreciate this one; simply drag the “find” crosshairs onto the window to identify its process. I sometimes need this when I am trying to figure out how much memory an app is consuming but find the process hard to locate because it’s named differently.

3- Creating traps for a process: this means that Daphne will automatically take a pre-specified course of action once it encounters a process that you pre-specify or a window that has a certain title. Once it detects this, you can tell Daphne to automatically kill the process, hide it (so it’s not visible), set the process to a priority level that you want, set the window to a certain transparency level, and set it to be always on top (or not).
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Description: Binary Toys are animated windowless vector characters “made up of springs, muscles, and masses” that are designed to inhabit your computer, interacting with your desktop environment in accordance with the laws of physics.

Get the picture: animated wireframe creatures walking, crawling around your desktop, tumbling from the top of one open window to the another, falling on their backs, legs wriggling in the air, and hence unable to move without your intervention (which, in this case, could either be to grab hold of the edge of the creature and flick it around with the mouse, or press “U” to magically untangle it). Not sure if I should categorize this as a “game” or a “desktop enhancement . Here are more notes:

• Interaction: you can grab any of the “nodes” on the creature’s body and drag it around, drop it, etc. Keyboard controls as follows: T/toggle transparency, S/change size, large and small, M/show muscles (really just changes the look a little bit), U/untangle, get back on its feet, R/reverse direction, Space/pause and unpause.
• Creatures: ten in total (right click on a creature to change). You can have creatures change randomly or have multiple creatures running around the screen simultaneously. Creatures include: Amoeba , Bouncy Diamond, Breaking Wave, Caterpillar Pod, Cheeky Triangle, Dainty Walker, Dirk Jiggler, Hairy Caterpillar, Millipede, Wiggly Worm. There’s an option to load creatures from an XML file for future additions.
• Behavior: according to the Binary Toys site: “these toys exhibit complex behavior and are surprisingly life-like”. They really do.
• Memory consumption: around 5 megs in memory.
• Installation: no installing necessary; simply run the executable.
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Description: Kana Launcher is a “pop-up menu” style applications launcher that can either reside in your system tray or appear anywhere on the desktop when invoked by a hotkey. It offers two modes, a regular “context menu” style pop-up launcher with a hierarchical tree structure, and a so-called “floating icon” launcher style. It also offers the ability to install a permanent shortcut to programs, bookmarks, or folders within the system tray itself.

Ok so those of us who have tried indexing, search-box style launchers (such as Launchy) may not be looking for a new icon-based launcher, but we at Freewaregenius are always on the lookout for useful and/or interesting launchers, and have determined that Kana Launcher deserves a mention here. More notes on this program below:

• Two modes of operation: a “floating window” style launcher and a pop-up, context menu launcher. These can be configured separately (i.e. the shortcuts that are displayed in one need not be the same as those displayed in the other). The “floating icon” mode displays tooltips that can help identify each icon as you hover over it. See the screenshot above to get a sense of what these two modes are like.
• System tray or hotkey: the launcher is called by right clicking or hovering over its icon in the system tray (for the pop-up and floating window launchers, respectively), or otherwise both the pop-up and hovering styles can be called anywhere through user definable hotkeys.
• Shortcuts: Kana can open programs, folders, files/documents, or URLs/bookmarks. The popup menu style launcher includes the ability to create a hierarchical folder structure that can be used to organize your shortcuts.
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Description: RipShout saves the audio from “shoutcast” internet radio stations directly to your hard drive. It will preserve the song’s IDv3 tag info and organize recorded audio by creating a folder for each artist and saving the individual tracks within it.

This has to be the world’s most straightforward internet radio recorder/”ripper”. All you need to do is get the URL of the internet radio station that you want to record; however, the station has to use the “Shoutcast” protocol, which is the most common on the internet, and RipShout will record the audio stream for you. Here are more notes on this program:

• How it works: once you find a station you like you can (1) click on the station’s link and open it with RipShout, (2) right click on the shoutcast link and select copy shortcut, then paste it into the box at the bottom of the app, or (3) right click on the Shoutcast link and select “save as” to save the .PLS file to your desktop, which you could then open from within RipShout.
• Don’t have a station in mind? :go to shoutcast.com for an entire directory of these, and a search box to help you find things stations you like.
• Supported stations: RipShout only records MP3 based Shoutcast radio stations, so make sure that you do not choose AAC format stations. Note: some internet radio streams typically give you a choice between 128kbit and lower quality streams; for recording purposes always go with the higher quality.
• Recording: you could either do this silently in the background or you could choose to hear what is being recorded either through RipShout’s own internal player or through WinAmp. This did not work for me, unfortunately (my internal player did not produce any sound, and I do not use WinAmp).
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