As you all know (or at least those that are into free but brilliant software) Paint.Net is one of those wonderful pieces of software that not only works, but is somehow better than much of the commercial stuff that’s out there. Anyway for those of you using this great software I have found a mixture of free tutorials for the software.

SoftFocus: http://docs.google.com/View?id=dsgjq79_810jvmx6df7
Backgrounds: http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dsgjq79_15hdnjpzv6
Colour and B&W photo effect: http://paintdotnet.forumer.com/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=26974
Antique effect: http://paintdotnet.forumer.com/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=26969
Airbrushing: http://paintdotnet.forumer.com/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=27823
Whiten Teeth: http://paintdotnet.forumer.com/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=31660
Enhance colour: http://docs.google.com/View?id=dsgjq79_829f9wv8ncd
Pencil Sharp Edges: http://docs.google.com/View?id=dsgjq79_803g5twxhkd

One of the features that sets this software apart from so many others is the great collection of addins available. These addins add a wonderful array of functionality to the software to enable it to easily compete with Photoshop and other commercial software. The great thing about Paint.Net is that (a) it’s free – donationware and (b) it’s robust and (c) it’s easy to use.

A quick scan on YouTube.com for tutorials shows 100′s of really good tutorials and videos to help use the software and create some great effects. I easily give this software 5/5 and recommend it to everyone that wants a very comprehensive free graphics package. Oh, and bye the way it works great with Windows 7 and has very comprehensive support for masks and layers.

One last comment… be sure to check out the very popular Paint.Net forum for expert advice and help.

Created by Ryan Stout

A web based wizard system that uses a very easy to use online interface to find domain names, it’s also very fast and effective by combining words in different ways. It’s basic features are:

• Find domain names
• Word Combiner in multiple sequences
• Relating words – key words – description
• Creates list of words (also using it’s built in thesaurus)
• Combinations and other techniques to quickly find unique names
• Shows whats available – VERY QUICKLY
• Similar words can be easily added

You can also:

• Add prefixes
• Add suffixes
• Can sort easily using various criteria
• A nice feature is “Quality” sorting (best domains first)
• Add the word “ly” or “ster” or “i”, etc. in front of the domain
• You can Pluralise words
• Type a domain name in directly and show if available
• Whois will check availability

Results can be saved for later use,  you can then choose which registrar to use to register your domain names. The selection of ISP’s is comprehensive and actually shows you the cost of the registration, which is really helpful.

I especially liked the addition of being able to create groups, and then drag words into the groups to differentiate good or bad domain names from the results. This really helped to weed out the final list of domain names to register. If you add the ability to go directly to a decent selection of ISP’s and directly register from the site, it makes this a wonderful and easy to use system.

In summary, a very effective online tool to find a unique domain name given a list of key words. I give this a 5 star rating and have used it many times to find really good domain names. Domain name creation can be a real chore, with this tool it almost becomes both an enjoyable experience and and easy one!

Manage Music, Videos, Podcast and Photos all in one simple app, anywhere on any computer.

Installation of floola merely involves unzipping the distribution and copying the .exe file to your iPod root directory. You can then run the application to manage all your music, download podcasts, images, smart playlists and synchronise with Outlook all from the iPod – no additional software is required. The process is very easy and quick. I haven’t found any issues with the software.

Floola works on multi-platforms; Windows (from 98), MAC and any Linux distribution. Floola also integrates well with last.fm. Adding files to you iPod is now just a question of drag and drop onto the Floola interface – it couldn’t be easier. Other really handy features include a search for duplicate files, search for ‘lost’ files on the iPod, easy addition of videos, automatic conversion of audio and video that are not in recognized formats, synchronisation with Google calendars, export playlists to HTML – it will even try to FIX a iPod that is not working properly!

Clearly an essential addition to your software if you do not want to have to rely on iTunes and its limitations.

Top Security Free Tools

My top security tools and download links. These tools should keep you PC nice and secure; run regularly for a trouble / virus free PC!

AVG (fee anti-virus software that works with all platforms)
http://free.avg.com/download?prd=afe

spybot search and destroy (IMHO the best anti-spyware)
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html

Spyware terminator (including realtime detection)
http://www.spywareterminator.com/download/download.aspx

Comodo Personal Firewall
http://www.personalfirewall.comodo.com/download_firewall.html

ccleaner – disk space tool cleanup
http://www.ccleaner.com/

Defraggler (defrag tool)
http://www.defraggler.com/

Restore deleted files
http://www.recuva.com/

Complete file eraser program
http://www.heidi.ie/node/6

Index.Dat erasers (Permanent deletion of all history)
http://www.systenance.com/indexdat.php

MRU Blaster (delete most recent file list…)
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/mrudownload.html

FileChecker (tells you what files have been modified)
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/mrudownload.html

DOC scrubber (delete all embarrasing stuff from word doc files)
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/dsdownload.html

Disposable email account
http://mintemail.com/

File dump area for uploading for 30 days
http://file.io/

Encrypt Files (TrueCrypt is the best around)
http://www.truecrypt.org/downloads.php or
http://www.encryptfiles.net/

Lock your PC (better than ctrl-alt-del)
http://www.freewebs.com/lockplatinum/download.htm

Bubbl.us is a simple and free web application that lets you brainstorm online. Why use bubbl.us? Because you can: * Create colorful mind maps online * Share and work with friends * Embed your mind map in your blog or website * Email and print your mind map * Save your mind map as an image And it’s FREE!

Turn a Scrabble Board into a Picture Frame

Open Source Business Intelligence

ScrewTurn Wiki