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No matter how many clocks you have in your home or office, there is none more accurate than your PC with Dimension 4 installed.

Preconfigured with a huge list of super-accurate Internet time servers, Dimension 4 allows you to syncronize your PC manually or automatically with the server of your choice, many of which are tied directly to atomic clocks, giving you unrivaled accuracy in your machine’s time settings. If you have a favorite time server not in the list, you can easily add it.

Dimension 4 runs as an application, or for the NT/2000/XP/2003 crowd, it can be configured as a service, making sure that your system’s clock is always accurate and up-to-date. You can even use Dimension 4 as your own time server, allowing other hosts on your network to rely on it to accurately set the time on their internal clocks. Compact and easy to install, Dimension 4 will run on P-100 under Windows 95.

Dimension 4 is freeware for private or educational use.

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Google Pack is a collection of free software available from Google, featuring several of their own applications–Google Earth, Google Desktop, and an updated Google Photos Screensaver–as well as many other programs.

We originally looked at Google Pack last summer, and they have added several apps to their bundle since then. Norton Security Scan detects and removes viruses, and Spyware Doctor Starter Edition helps eliminate spyware, adware, and trojan horses. Current offerings include the latest RealPlayer for playing popular media formats, Skype for free PC-to-PC VOIP calls, Google’s instant messaging client “Google Talk”, and others.

With Google Pack, you can choose which applications to install, so you don’t run the risk of overloading your system with a bunch of things you won’t use. The Google Updater makes sure that you have the latest versions of each of the Google Pack applications. Google Pack is available for Windows XP and Vista.

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DialIdol is a fun little application for fans of the American Idol television show. It features two different tools: a speed-dialer for voting and a predictor of who will “win” or “lose” on a given episode.

Using your computer’s modem to speed-dial your votes, DialIdol casts as many votes as possible for your favorite performer. DialIdol won’t get bored hitting the redial button and can keep going through the whole voting period.

In addition, by tracking the number of calls you make, and how many of them get a busy signal, and aggregating your data (anonymously) with data from all other DialIdol users, DialIdol can make predictions about who the low-scoring contestants will be and who is most likely to be asked to leave the show. While admitedly not scientific–it measures votes only from other DialIdol users and doesn’t include text voting–it boasts an accuracy rate of 87% for Season 5, and claims to have accurately predicted the winner of every show that it has covered.

You can use DialIdol for many other phone-to-vote shows as well, like Dancing With The Stars and Celebrity Duets.

DialIdol is available for Windows users with WinME or later.

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Transferring files between machines can sometimes be a challenge, especially with older systems that don’t necessarily all speak the same language. Moving files across the Net can be a pain in terms of needing to properly configure FTP servers, especially if you’re a Windows jockey but your ISP provides only a Linux box.

Home FTP Server is an easy-to-configure, easy-to-use FTP server for your Windows machine. This application makes it easy to share files across your network or across the Internet. Home FTP Server supports anonymous connections as well as authenticated user accounts. You can specify the allowed actions for each user (upload, download, rename, etc.) and create virtual directories to specify allowed destinations and to simplify navigation, as well as restricting the types of files that can be uploaded. In addition, you can ban users by IP address, as well as automatically banning addresses that may be trying to make trouble for you (multiple failed login attempts, trying to download non-existent files, and so forth) to control who does what on your server.

Logging is easily configurable, and you can choose which actions to keep track of, as well as roll-over to a new log file at the end of the day.

Of the various FTP servers available out there, this may well be one of the easiest to set up and use, and probably warrants a serious look.

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Expression is a scientific graphing calculator, similar in many ways to the Texas Instruments graphing calculators, like the TI-82, used in many schools. With Expression, you can evaluate numeric expressions, plot functions, convert between decimal, hex, octal, and binary, and more. You can enter values by clicking on the calculator itself, or by using the keyboard. Expression keeps track of previously evaluated expressions, allowing you to recycle them back into the main window, saving you time in data entry. The function catalog lets you pick functions and operations from a list.

Expression can be customized to fit the way you work. You can minimize it to the System Tray to keep it out of the way, or you can set it to “stay on top”, where it is always available to you. Licensed under the GNU GPL, the Visual Basic source code is available, just in case you always wondered how apps like this work.

Expression is a Windows app, and will run on Win95 or later.

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How important are your pets and their well-being to you? When was Fido last seen by the vet? When is Fluffy due to get her shots?

With Pet Health, you can track your pet’s health and maintain a personal record of your pet’s health history. The tabbed design lets you keep an eye on medical appointments and procedures, grooming information, and emergency info, as well as identification data: height, weight, identifying marks, and license numbers. You can even add a recent photo.

Maintaining all this information in one place makes it easier to keep track of changes in your pet’s health, and when you go out of town, you can print out all the important health and contact information to give to the pet sitter.

You can enter multiple pets into Pet Health, so you can keep all of your records in one location.

Pet Health is compatible with most versions of Windows, and requires a separate .NET Framework 2.0 download. There is also a custom database that works with the app, available for download on the pet-health.org website.

Download Pet Health Software

While there are many free web browsers available out there, Flock is a browser with a difference.

Built on Mozilla technologies, Flock combines the best of web browsers with a social component. Flock comes with a built-in blog editor, RSS feed reader, and del.icio.us tagger. Run across an interesting web site? Grab images and text and post them to your blog without having to leave the page. Share your photos with built-in support for Flickr and Photobucket.

The search feature allows you to search through your browser history, looking for terms in the pages you’ve visited, not just their titles, as well as your favorites and the Web.

There are some application-specific extensions available, but Flock also appears to support many Firefox extensions, or you can build one of your own with the instructions and API reference available on their website.

Flock is still in “pre-1.0” release, so there may be a few bugs along the way. The good thing, however, is that since it is a project still in active development, you can help to make it even better by reporting back your user experience.

If the social component of the Web is important to you, you may want to give Flock a try.

Download Flock

Did you sleep through all the astronomy lectures in college? Do you still have problems finding the Big Dipper? Stellarium may be the answer.

Stellarium is an open source planetarium application available for Linux, Mac, and Windows. Set your observing position and see the sky as it appears. Did you ever wonder what it all would look like from the moon? You can choose any moon or planet from which to observe, as well as any terrestrial location. How about a different time? Set the time and date, and you can travel back, or ahead, in time.

Now about that Big Dipper: turn on labels to show you what you’re seeing. Fire up the constellation overlays and see if that really looks like a goat up there (Capricornus), or just a bunch of stars. You can dig deeper and look at deep sky objects among the constellations.

Stellarium features over 120,000 stars, as well as all the planets and their moons. There is a scripting feature that allows you to record and play back your own shows, and you can even use Stellarium to drive a telescope.

It’s too late to improve your grade, but you still have time to find Orion’s belt.

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Passwords are a good thing. Good passwords are a better thing. The best passwords are those that are so complex that even you can’t remember them. Now maybe you don’t have to.

AST, the Advanced Security Tool, is an app with many tools all rolled into one. It includes a password generator that allows you to generate random passwords up to 256 characters in length, and includes the ability to use “special characters”, giving you greater security when creating passwords. It also includes a password manager that integrates with Internet Explorer, making it easier to use those complex passwords you’ve just created. All the passwords it manager are encrypted, making it all the more secure.

An encrypted pad is included, allowing you to easily secure documents through a simple Save As command.

An intuitive interface makes AST easy to learn and start using. Maybe now you’ll be able to start using real passwords, instead of the dog’s name or your birthday.

Download AST-Advanced Security Tool

8start Launcher is a floating, transparent application launcher for your Windows system. It combines the functionality of the Start menu, the Quick Launch bar on your Taskbar, and all those shortcuts cluttering up your desktop.

You can configure 8start Launcher to fit the way you work, dividing your apps up by categories and groups, mixing icons and lists, so that you can quickly and easily find just what you’re looking for. Buttons are customizable, allowing you to use many different image types to create custom buttons. Labels can be tweaked for font, weight, and alignment. You can even quickly check on the status of your fixed-and removable drives.

8start Launcher is skinnable, with over 30 different looks available for download from the site.

Running on Widows 2000 and later, including Vista, 8start Launcher may help you clean up the clutter that is your Start Menu, and get you off to a good start.

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