The second article in our series of how to get more out of your Australian broadband is now available - 10 Free Applications BigPond Broadband Members Should Want. We look at ten extremely useful free, open source applications for Windows users that are available on BigPond Files - things that will almost certainly make your life a little easier, ranging from software like Firefox for a better web experience to WinDirStat to help you figure out what the hell is taking up all your hard disk space.

Of course, these files aren't just for BigPond users - anyone can download and use them. If you're on your BigPond broadband connection though you'll note the links to BigPond Files, which will be unmetered (assuming your broadband service is one of those that gives you unmetered access to that site).

In case anyone actually cares - I use every single one of those applications on a near-daily basis, with the exception of WinMd5Sum - and I only don't use that because I am a command line junkie and use command line versions of hash tools (2hash fo life).

edit: oh, I forgot my own list; I also only use Pidgin on Linux every few days when I boot into Ubuntu

last edited by trog at 16:24:18 21/May/08

I prefer KeePass over any other password storing utils I've used. I did try Password safe as well and the latest version of KeePass still wins.

It is OS as well http://keepass.info/

last edited by reso at 15:51:18 21/May/08

Curious about the password safe one, mainly when I format I lose all my firefox usernames and passwords, although, I did have a firefox plugin to fix that.

GIMP would be 10x better if it didn't have such a dongs interface.

And I've found 7zip will often take a bit longer unraring big files, because it seems to copy them to a temp directory before moving them to its final directory. I don't recall this happening with WinRAR. Kind of annoying, but it's rad in every other respect.

Good save reso, I nearly gave you s*** for not linking to the page. Does look good, though the screenshot seems more complicated.

I'm a stuck in my ways Miranda user, but for multi-network IM'ing, i'd probably point new users in the direction of http://www.digsby.com before pidgin.Big ups to all the rest though.

last edited by Dan at 16:01:57 21/May/08

I nearly gave you s*** for not linking to the page.

Lucky I'm not writing the articles then :)

I demand that you remove Pidgin from the list right now. One of the most horible programs I've ever used.

Miranda 4 lyfe.

Miranda

Screenshot of its awesomeness

last edited by mongie at 16:13:45 21/May/08

Screenshot of its awesomeness

read: "Screenshot of its awesomeness after you've taken hours searching for plugins and configuring everything"

Seriously, i like and use Miranda, but I wouldn't recommend it to most just because it's s*** unless you spend ages setting it all up. See also: Foobar2000.

Digsby has a pretty big memory footprint, but it's default config is easily the best of the bunch.

I demand that you remove Pidgin from the list right now. One of the most horible programs I've ever used.

I use Pidgin on my office computer at uni, and aMSN at home. Pidgin, in my opinion, is plain, unintuitive and lacks many features (still can't do proper Offline messages yet). I'd recommend aMSN over that any day, even though it's not as snappy.

EDIT: Then again some people suffer from the 100% CPU bug in aMSN (I used to, but it just went away one day for some reason), so I can see why they look for other clients :)

last edited by parabol at 16:56:54 21/May/08

I like and use Miranda IM as well (MSN, AIM, jabber and sometimes it's IRC module while at work) and while I like it a lot I've gotta agree with Dan. That and I just prefer the default look of it over any other custom one that I've seen.

I think I have to disagree with you there...

Here is my actual contact list on my work pc. It takes me all of about 30 seconds to set it up like this, without installing any additional plugins.

Miranda has come a long way in recent times (as has foobar, I might mention)

http://mongie.com/ulthumbs/jdv1211350876z.PNG

last edited by mongie at 16:24:38 21/May/08

I recommend keepass as well. I carry the runnable version on my usb key and the same database is used by the PPC version on my phone. it is awesome.

That's great if you do like it looking like that. I prefer a simple list of names with groups breaking them in to the different networks.

Also, does memory usage go up much when using something like that over the default mongie?



last edited by reso at 16:25:05 21/May/08

I only use one network. MSN.

That is CL_Modern, which is an included plugin. With it sitting on the tray it uses 696kb of ram, on screen it uses about 3.5MB.

last edited by mongie at 16:26:31 21/May/08

Here is my actual contact list on my work pc. It takes me all of about 30 seconds to set it up like this, without installing any additional plugins.

That ugmo setup is a far cry from the slick one you linked to earlier. (imo of course).

It would take all of about 8 seconds to install the ClearModern skin I linked to.

what about truecrypt and bcwipe?

what about truecrypt and bcwipe?

Augh! I forgot about TrueCrypt. Although I prrrrrrrobably wouldn't have included it anyway, I was going for the more generic easy-to-use easy-to-understand applications.

Hadn't heard of BCwipe but the page doesn't seem to indicate that it is open source (which was another theme I was going for)

http://mongie.com/ulthumbs/bwy1211351694u.PNG

It would take all of about 8 seconds to install the ClearModern skin I linked to.

Hardly 8 seconds, but yeah it can be quick if you know exactly what you're looking for. My point is that for a new user wanting to set it up how they like, it takes a s***-ton of dicking around. Often there's even several competing plugins that do the same function in different ways with more/less bloat. It's a lot of crap to sort through. Then if you slack off for a year or so and want to update, you have to do it all again because config compatibilities have all changed.

Sweet I moved to the top of mongies contact list!

#1 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I guess the point is, for the majority of users on here who have a clue, its easy. You can use it out of the box and it looks great. Plus it has a tiny footprint.

oh, 'opensource AND free'.. got it... though I challenge you to name five windows apps that are OS AND not-free!

yeah BCWipe is not OS but it is free.

7Zip sounds really good...

does it work as well as WinRAR? any compatibility problems?

7Zip sounds really good...

does it work as well as WinRAR? any compatibility problems?

I've had no problems.

The .7z format on the Ultra compression setting absolutely owns. I use it to pack files more than most other formats allow.

7zip is retarded.

it uses copy/delete when extracting files, rather than move. fine for small files, but try extracting 4 gigs that way.

it uses copy/delete when extracting files, rather than move. fine for small files, but try extracting 4 gigs that way

I remember something about that.

How do you reproduce it? I can't get it to do it on demand.

EDIT: nvm, found the bug submission page:

http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=1927718&group_id=14481&atid=114481

last edited by parabol at 20:11:39 21/May/08

*deletes 7z from 3ePC*

thanks. that would've been pretty frustrating and time consuming to figure out myself

to be fair - I'll definately run it on the gaming rig... storage isn't nearly as important on the home pc as it is on my portable

i guess out of the list of 10, vlc is ok to use

vlc is the ap we're trying our best to make our HTPC run at =(

Haven't used 7zip standalone, since finding Zipgenius http://www.zipgenius.it/eng/index.php to handle all zip formats and its ease of use... not open source but free

Can't believe open office didn't make the list

vlc is the ap we're trying our best to make our HTPC run at =(

That's almost english.

MPC > VLC

Relying on codecs to come with a player is nice, but there's always one or 2 that are out of date and you have to go and get your self anyway, so why bother using a pack that you're not going to use all those codecs from, and just install the ones you want.

Open Office didn't make the list because it isn't allowed on BigPond Files, you have to use BigPond's own office product instead. Talk about not having their user's best interests in mind eh.

As for Miranda, I agree with Dan. The guide isn't really meant to be for expert PC users so other IM products might be better.

Open Office didn't make the list because it isn't allowed on BigPond Files, you have to use BigPond's own office product instead. Talk about not having their user's best interests in mind eh.

How can I accuse you mammoth guys of being part of the evil empire when you respond with out spin...

MPC > VLC

Relying on codecs to come with a player is nice, but there's always one or 2 that are out of date and you have to go and get your self anyway, so why bother using a pack that you're not going to use all those codecs from, and just install the ones you want.

Ok so you use MPC + an obscure codec maybe 1 in every 50 videos that VLC can't play.

Does that imply that one should just do away with VLC altogether? Not really, broken logic.

I prefer MPC to VLC, its menus etc. are more intuitive.

MPC is no doubt sweet but I've only ever seen one or two videos that VLC won't play, and they've been videos I made myself so I probably screwed them up

Ok so you use MPC + an obscure codec maybe 1 in every 50 videos that VLC can't play.

Does that imply that one should just do away with VLC altogether? Not really, broken logic.

nice sensationalism.

No, i sugest that as with all codec packs, they don't keep uptodate, and more often than not, you have to go and manually update a codec your self (Quick time are fantastic at changing their codecs continaully).

So why install 1000000000 codecs when in truth, you only use 4(xvid, dvix, mkv, maybe quicktime), and are more than likely going to have to update/maintain them your self anyway.

(Note, thats all irrelevant if VLC have an autoupdater that updates the codecs you have installed when new versions are put out, and it's a quick turn around).

nice sensationalism.

Please explain how that is sensationalism.

The figure of 1:50 that I gave is quite accurate in my own experience.

No, i sugest that as with all codec packs, they don't keep uptodate

So what? If 98% of videos work on outdated codecs, who cares?

So why install 1000000000 codecs when in truth, you only use 4(xvid, dvix, mkv, maybe quicktime), and are more than likely going to have to update/maintain them your self anyway.

You do know that -most- of the VLC codecs are installed locally for VLC's use only? They don't mess up your system. So you are more than welcome to use alternative players and global codecs for the 2% of videos that don't work.

and are more than likely going to have to update/maintain them your self anyway.

I don't understand what your beef is. Just use whatever works for you. For many of us, as I said .. VLC does the job perfectly for 98% of the videos out there. For those that don't work, we manually update the required global codec and view the video in MPC or Media Player. Then we revert back to VLC for our normal videos.

I don't see a problem here.

EDIT: fixed maths.

last edited by parabol at 11:12:15 22/May/08

wicked post man. thanks

I like MPC. it is a testament to everything Microsoft does wrong.

Want a feature rich, small media player that does the job well? Check out MPC, it looks just like Microsoft's superceeded model (6.x) but works great and does everything most people want and much more

want a s***ty, bloated buggy annoying piece of crap media player? Try Microsoft's updated version, anything after v6.4. I struggle to get this to do even basic things like play two media files at once.

I prefer MPC over VLC interface-wise and MPC is snappy whereas VLC feels a little clunky. However I have VLC installed and use that when MPC doesn't play a file and I cbf'd finding the appropriate codec.

EDIT: fixed maths.

Edit, fixed bite.

Does MPC properly handle Windows Media streams?

Does that imply that one should just do away with VLC altogether? Not really, broken logic.

what?
that's not even close to what giri said

Does MPC properly handle Windows Media streams?

As far as I'm aware it does?

i'm trying keep ass because reso said so. and he is an ass expert.

VLC is a pain because it doesn't provide a timebar in full screen mode. i only use it when nothing else works.

I am using OpenOffice on all my company computer's now as an experiment to see if they really can handle mostly daily office computing. looking good so far.

thanks for the list though. a few goodies to try out that are new to me.

VLC is a pain because it doesn't provide a timebar in full screen mode. i only use it when nothing else works.

I think I saw as part of Google's Summer of Code this is something they're going to try and fix. It doesn't bother me at all; I tend to only skip forward/back and don't really care about the time bar, but I do admit I find it a little handy in the Mac OS X version (which does have a timebar).

that's not even close to what giri said

To be honest I don't really know what giri's point was or if he had one :)

I think he was saying how hot yo momma is

I recommend keepass as well. I carry the runnable version on my usb key and the same database is used by the PPC version on my phone.

do you have some sort of newsletter i can subscribe to for further information?

So why install 1000000000 codecs when in truth, you only use 4(xvid, dvix, mkv, maybe quicktime)

For the record, mkv is not a codec.

call me stupid, but miranda just doesn't want to let me give it any customisable features, had a few google searches to see how to skin it.. they all say there's an option yet there isn't one in my options... /shrug? :D

seriously, why would anyone want to use thunderbird when gmail is perfectly okay

seriously, why would anyone want to use thunderbird when gmail is perfectly okay

what if your mail is on an imap server?
what if you have more then 5 pop3 accounts?
what if you don't want to see ads when you use your email client?
what if you don't want to trust a third party with storing your mail?

if guess what is perfectly okay for you isn't perfectly okay for everyone. who would have thunk it.

You forgot offline mail.

what if you don't want to trust a third party with storing your mail?

Here's a couple more:

* What if you want to view your emails offline when you don't have internet access or the mail server is down?

* What if you want to back up all of your emails without going through a lengthy and possibly dodgy Gmail backup/sync process?

Those are two reasons why I don't use Gmail for important communication.

whops

the f*** do you need to backup your emails for? They're stored with Google - let them do the backupz.

and since when are poeple without internet tehse days? everyone has internet constantly connected

I guess when you're 13, have no important emails and your internet is provided by your mummy and daddy ... then I can see where you're coming from. Wait till you finish school, start taking on responsibilities and go rental-hunting!

Good luck kid.

trolled by yellowfeet alt account

why the f*** would you want to backup your gmail?

use your brain silly
to have a backup under your own control

i dont want one, i woudlnt want to waste the space:
i trust google with all of my emails*




*note, these arent work emails

you might not want a backup
you might trust google with all of your non-work emails
you might steal a handbag full of mp3's

but that wasn't your question

Does anyone know of any http (i.e. port 80) msn clients that are good for work? I've tried setting up Miranda but its not really doiong anything when i tell it to go Online... Gives me some "Online message" (whatever thats for...) and then goes away and nothing happens. I've set up my msn config and turned on the HTTP version and use IE proxy settings.

Any other ones available?

I've been using web-based meebo but it doesnt beat a native app.

gmail > jim <==8 cock

Does anyone know of any http (i.e. port 80) msn clients that are good for work? I've tried setting up Miranda but its not really doiong anything when i tell it to go Online... Gives me some "Online message" (whatever thats for...)

Try going to miranda options, network, msn, connection tab and fiddle around with the options there.

EDIT** it was the HTTP proxy setting that needed to be set up. All good!

last edited by 3dee at 11:59:31 27/Aug/08

vista has em all out of the box.

fanboys coming out of the closet ITT