VK Lounge: September 2009

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Video Converter and Cutter

Atleast once in a while we had always wanted to convert a video from one format to another. For e.g., XviD to DVD format to watch the DivX video in DvDPlayer.

Though there have been quite a long list of free and pricey options, I would like you to try this free video converter.

Kate's Video Converter

It can convert video file between all popular video formats including AVI, WMV, MOV , DIVX, ASF, 3GP, MP4, MPEG1, MPEG2, VCD-PAL ,VCD-NTSC, SVCD-PAL, SVCD-NTSC, DVD-PAL, DVD-NTSC and other formats.

Download from: http://www.fakewebcam.com/vfcc.asp

The best part is that you can use this a video cutter also. Just select the starting time and ending time of the video. The converter will convert the selective part to a new video in the specified format.

There is a separate Video cutter tool also available from the same website, try it if you want.

Screenshots:

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Using Google Calendar

Many of us might have been using different websites doing reminder services, birthday alarms etc. However, if you have gmail account, you can use Google Calendar.

Even I use google calendar for my reminders. Be it a credit card pay date, Electricity Bill payment date, friend's birthdays, AMC renewals etc., once added to Google calendar, getting reminders from it is awesome.

Ways google calendar reminds the events:

SMS (it works for my airtel number. I have not checked for other operators, but I am sure it works for vodafone, BSNL too)
EMAIL

Recently, google introduced several calendars (like Indian holidays, sports calendars) and you can subscribe them to get notified about the events.
You can go through the guide from google site to know the features and how to use them in detail: link

Amazing houses

Launchy

Hello friends..today we will see about a open-source windows (yes, windows!) application, "Launchy".

Launchy is a free windows utility designed to help you forget about your start menu, the icons on your desktop, and even your file manager. Launchy indexes the programs in your start menu and can launch your documents, project files, folders, and bookmarks with just a few keystrokes!

I use Launchy very much.. be it opening word, excel or opening my favorite folders etc. I would just add the path to launchy directories and bingo! No need to scroll through length submenus or traverse through the folders in windows exlporer. Isn't it nice!

You can download the application from here.

Some screenshots:

Launchy opening a .doc file using the Gantchy Blue Skin

Launchy opening an .mp3 using the Default skin

Launchy opening Mozilla Firefox using the Black Glass skin

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Easeus To-do Backup 1.0

Hello friends.. sometime back I wrote a blog about taking backup using Norton Ghost (DOS version). Though it has been a choice of many for several years (including mine), there are plenty of GUI based free backup tools available. Today I read an article about one such tool "Easeus To-do Backup 1.0".

Go ahead and give it a try. It's free.

The interface is clean and very intuitive, making it easy for anyone to use. Here are some of the good features of Todo Backup:

    * Backup system data, partition, or entire disk to an image and restore it quickly.
    * Clone a disk (copy all data from one disk to another)
    * Mount and browse backup images files as virtual drives
    * Check image files to make sure they are not corrupted
    * Copy using either file-by-file or sector-by-sector copying
    * Ability to backup the data straight to CD or DVD thereby saving time
    * Excellent help file with lots of information and explanations
    * Ability to compress and password protect image files
    * Supports FAT12, FAT16, FAT32, and NTFS file formats
    * Supports IDE, SCSI, USB, SATA, and Firewire hard drive interfaces

Download location: http://www.todo-backup.com/download/ (35MB)

Some screenshots:

Main Window