It's Hibernation Time

With my CBSE final board exams starting from 1st of March, I have decided to put PC Ton!c into temporary hibernation. The board exams - All India Senior Secondary Certificate Examination - is the final one of our schooling career (good ol' school!). We have to appear five papers from 1st of March to 31st of March. Wait, the worst is yet to come! Immediately after the exams, I have to appear a host of competitive exams for admission to an engineering college. As a result, my schedule is pretty much packed and I have practically got no time to add any posts to PC Ton!c. Anyway, here's my exam schedule that runs right into May:

• At least 8 hours daily preparation for board exams
• Mock tests for IIT-JEE and AIEEE every alternate day
• 1st March - Chemistry
• 7th March - Physics
• 10th March - English Core Course
• 20th March - Mathematics
• 31st March - Computer Science (the mock tests will continue as usual between these papers!)
  
• 13th April - IIT Joint Entrance Examination (the toughest entrance exam in the world! read this if you don't believe me)
• 19th April - VIT Engineering Entrance Examination
• 27th April - All India Engineering Entrance Examination
• 4th May - KIIT Entrance Examination
• 11th May - SAU Admission Test
• 20th May - BITS Admission Test
• 25th May - Orissa Joint Entrance Examination

There will no relief after OJEE too - the results will be out one after the other!!!! I am already getting the creeps and I need your wishes to come through all this!

So am I signing off for good? Hey NO!!! I will still be visiting PC Ton!c every day for 10-15 minutes to check out your comments and all; and you may see a new post any day too! Of the competitive exams, I am focusing on IITJEE, AIEEE and BITSAT only, so I will have plenty of time in between. And after all this is over, expect a BLAST of posts from me!

:)

Tuned Into Kioskea!

PC Ton!c is now a member of the Kioskea Tribune, an upcoming computing community from France. Kioskea boasts of a

• Forum - Get solutions to your computer problems from geeks.
• FAQ - Section with general computer tips.
• Downloads - Free software download section.
• News - Get latest tech news from all over the world.
  
• Tribune - Discover select articles from a handful of tech blogs from all over the world.

So far two articles from PC Ton!c - The Complete PC Pack and Disk Defragmentation Tools - have been published in the Kioskea Tribune. Kioskea is completely free to join, so register now! Don't forget to subscribe to PC Ton!c posts as well.


:)

Audio Tools

Audacity ~ Audacity Developer Team
*****
Available for: Windows Vista/XP/2000/ME/98
Overview: A very popular and richly featured open-source audio editor.
Home | Download.com | FileHippo


Any Audio Converter ~ Any-Audio-Converter-Team
*****
Available for: Windows Vista/XP/2000/NT
Overview: As the name says, it's an any-audio converter!
Home | Download.com


Mixxx ~ Adam Davison, Albert Soni
*****
Available for: Windows Vista/XP
Overview: Power packed open source DJ tool.
Home | Download.com


Switch ~ NCH Software
*****
Available for: Windows Vista/2003 Server/XP/2000/ME/98
Overview: Handy audio converter with support for a large number of audio formats.
Home | Download.com


AoA Audio Extractor ~ AoA Media
*****
Available for: Windows Vista/2003 Server/XP/2000/ME/NT/98
Overview: Software to extract audio from CDs and save it in a wide variety of formats like mp3, ogg, wav etc.
Home | Download.com


CDex ~ Albert L. Faber
*****
Available for: Windows Vista/XP/2003 Server/2000/ME/98/95
Overview: Open source and very popular CD extracting tool.
Home | Download.com


:)

Check out a list of free media players too.

Flock, The Social Browser ~ In Pics

After Firefox and Opera, it's time to Flock. Here are some snapshots of the Firefox-based Flock web browser, which has been creating waves in the internet recently. Click on the pics to have a larger view.

Default home page "My Page" in Flock. It gives you instant access to all your bookmarks, feeds and media.

Flock with the sidebar and the media bar open

Hurrah! Almost all add-ons (oh yes, skins too) for Firefox work in Flock!!




Did I say that there are exclusive extensions for Flock too!
Flock Extensions





The Flock Blog Post Editor; just jot down anything and post it directly to your blog in a single click!

Oops I forgot the main thing! Flock makes your internet social life easier for you. You can easily manage most of your accounts right from the Accounts & Services sidebar; once you add an account, Flock will keep you notified of everything going on in your profile / account!

I am sure your hands must be really itching to try out this exciting browser. Now some technical information: Flock is available for Windows Vista/XP/2003 Server/2000, Mac OSX and most Linux distributions. If your computer has Firefox, be assured that Flock will run on it too.

Visit Flock @ www.flock.com.

:)

The Complete PC Pack

I have listed down a complete list of free and useful software for your computer; try them out! All basic categories have been covered.

Note: All mentioned software are compatible with Windows Vista and Windows XP. Additional support for older versions of Windows may be available too. You can check this out from the respective category of Freeware Fiesta.

SAFETY & SECURITY

[Antivirus]
AVG Free Edition: The simple, popular and effective antivirus that is extremely light on your system resources. Home | Download.com

OR

Avast! Home Edition: The feature rich solid antivirus with a skinnable interface. Registration (free) is required every 14 months. Home | Download.com | Registration | Skins

[Antispyware]
Windows Defender: The sleek antispyware from Microsoft to keep your computer safe from unwanted software. Available only for genuine Windows XP / Vista users. Home | Download.com

OR

Spyware Terminator: Fully loaded spyware remover with integrated virus scan and boot scan features. Home | Download.com

[Firewall]
Comodo Personal Firewall: Extremely powerful firewall with leak-proof technologies. Simple enough for all people. Home | Download.com


[Safe Web Surfing Tool]
SiteAdvisor: Web browser plug-in to warn you of potentially harmful and malicious websites. Available for Mozilla Firefox and Internet Explorer only. Home

ENTERTAINMENT

[Media Player]
GOM Player: Sleek media player with inbuilt support for almost every media format (video & audio) out there. Home | Download.com


[Internet TV]
Miro: Internet TV software with over 3000 (and counting...) downloadable channels. Home | Download.com

OFFICE / STUDENT WORK

[Office Suite]
OpenOffice.org: The complete office suite with word processor (Writer), spreadsheet (Calc), database (Base), presentation tool (Impress), all-purpose calculator (Math) and drawing application (Draw). Compatible with MS-Office and Corel WordPerfect suites and with a similar interface as well. Home | Download.com


[PDF File Reader]
Adobe Reader: Popular PDF file reader. Home | Download.com

INTERNET

[Web Browser]
Firefox: Universally popular web browser from Mozilla with tons of available add-ons. Home

OR

Flock: Mozilla Firefox based "social" browser, which makes your online social life easier for you. Home

OR

Opera: The small and extremely fast web browser that integrates stunning features with a techno-cool interface. Home


[Email Client]
Thunderbird: Secure and popular email client. Home


[Safe Web Surfing Tool]
SiteAdvisor: Web browser plug-in to warn you of potentially harmful and malicious websites. Available for Mozilla Firefox and Internet Explorer only. Home


[Parental Control]
K9 Web Protection: Parental control tool to block access of obscene and malicious websites on your computer. Home | Download.com


[Instant Messenger]
Pidgin: All-in-one instant messenger with support for Yahoo! Messenger, Google Talk, Windows Live, MySpace IM, AIM and many other protocols. Home | Download.com


Skype: Popular instant messenger with high quality PC-to-PC (free) and PC-to-Phone (low cost) calls. Home


[Download Manager]
Download Accelerator Plus Basic: Popular download manager to organize your downloads and speed up slow downloads. Home

OTHER UTILITIES

[CD/DVD/Blu-Ray Disc Burner]
BurnAware: Light and cool looking CD/DVD/Blu-Ray disc burning software with all essential features. Home

OR

StarBurn: Powerful CD/DVD/Blu-Ray disc burning software. Home | Download.com


[Audio Editor]
Audacity: Popular audio editing software. Home | Download.com


[File Archiver / Compression Utility]
AlZip: Popular archiving utility with support for over 30 formats (including *.zip, *.rar) and with cute egg icons. Home

OR

IZArc: Fast archiving utility with a simple interface and support for over 50 formats (including *.zip, *.rar). Home


[Image Editor]
GIMP: Heavily loaded, yet extremely light image editor with features comparable to Adobe Photoshop. Home | Download.com

OR

Paint.Net: Popular image editor with all essential features. Home | Download.com

[System Cleaning Tool]

CCleaner: Tiny utility to quickly clean your computer of junk materials. Home | Download.com

OR

Advanced Windows Care Personal: System cleaner with 'one-click repair' option. Home | Download.com



:)

Check out more freeware at Freeware Fiesta!