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Here's your chance to be a hero. Save a loud and obnoxious kangaroo from the gallows in this amusing variation of the game, "Hangman". The premise is simple if you've ever played Hangman, or have ever watched Wheel of Fortune — try to figure out a phrase by choosing different letters of the alphabet to fill in the blanks.

Hangaroo tries to be educational, and offers over 8500 terms and phrases in 120 different categories. There are even phrases which are in the form of "Did you know…?" facts. If all those possibilities aren't enough for you, you can create your own customized phrases and store them in external datafiles. The software developer will even upload your phrase database to the site so it can be shared with other users.

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To get right to the point, Language Identifier is able to accurately identify the language in which a document is written. It currently supports 260 documents and encoding modules, and new languages are being added all the time. The software publisher, LexTex, claims it's the most comprehensive language identifier program available.

If you find a webpage or document whose language is a mystery to you, simply copy and paste a section of it into Language Identifier, and click the "Identify" button. The program will tell you the likely identify of the language you've found, as well as name three similar languages for comparision purposes.

A program like this wouldn't have a lot of use for the average person, but if you need to identify a language, it's really the only way to go. If you're doing an important school or work project and find a document which seems crucial, and needs to be translaterd, you can use Language Identifier as the first step toward getting your document to the correct language translator. It's also a fun way to figure out the origin of all those annoying spam emails which are written in fancy languages.

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In the mood for a vacation? Don't forget the Schmap! Just install Schmap on your Windows PC and you'll have access to an ever-growing collection of interactive travel guides for cities and countries all over the world. Every Schmap Guide comes with dynamic maps, useful links, playable tours, top picks, plus photos and reviews for 100s of sights and attractions in the city of your choice. Whether you've wondered about travel to Perth, Australia, or wanted to take a virtual stroll down the streets of Lake Tahoe, Schmap will help you do it.

Schmap Guides can be downloaded individually, if you already know your destination. If you're still undecided, you can download special packs geared towards people with special interests. There's a Schmap Guide about the best golfing destinations, about the best destinations for those who love food, and even one listing unsung tourist treasures right here in the United States. More and more Schmap Guides are being added every day. The company actively solicits user feedback and wants to improve their product, so you're welcome to speak out about your Schmap experience.

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Weather Watcher is a fun and useful program which allows you to have a full-featured weather station on your Windows desktop. Customize the program for your location, and it will pull information from the Internet to keep you updated on the current temperature, weather conditions, and forecast. Information for 77000 cities worldwide is available.

The current temperature and conditions are displayed in a tray icon when the program is minimized. When maximized, you'll have access to more detailed information, including hourly forecasts, international weather, and satellite maps. The program can be customized with skins, and the developer maintains a support forum if you need assistance.

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You don't even need an Internet connection to use Mobysaurus, an English-language thesaurus of over 30,000 root words, and two and a half million synonyms. Well, you'll need the Internet to download the program, but once completed, it runs offline and can be accessed from within most other software programs by using a designated hotkey. Wildcard searching is permitted, and Mobysaurus will "suggest-as-you-type" and auto-complete. The entire database is cross-referenced, so click one word within a displayed list and you'll be taken to new results. Mobysaurus can also find words that are related through synonymous roots.

If you do have an Internet connection, Mobysaurus can access sites like Dictionary.com and Wikipedia.com to look up definitions and synonyms. Clipboard and print support are included, so you can quickly print your results, even the results of an entire session of searching.

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Geek alert! If you're wearing a pocket protector and carrying at least one mechanical pencil, you'll definitely want to download SpeQ Mathematics, a small but extensive math calculator. You'll probably also find it handy if you're just an average math student, because SpeQ performs most calculations you'll need for your homework. It even draws graphs. To use it, just enter your variables into the intuitive interface, and then choose the calculations you want to execute. You can easily edit your variables to test different outcomes, and plot a graph of your results. The program can perform calculations for arithmetic, statistics, trigonometry, integers, probability, and a number of other options. There are about 100 built-in constants for math and physics, including the popular "chaos theory".

SpeQ is easy on system resources, and will run on just about any Windows computer. It can also be executed from a flash drive or floppy disk. The help and user guides are detailed and extensive, so don't be intimidated. If you can use your Windows calculator, you can use Speq Mathematics.

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Computer-based dictionaries, spell-checkers, and thesauruses (thesauri?) are nothing new — after all, they come with the poplular word processors or can be acquired as add-ons. Independent products are available also: this is one of them.

Everest Dictionary's coverage is extensive: dictionaries are available in English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Hungarian, Romanian, and Bulgarian. There are several specialized dictionaries, too: medical and technical words, Biblical names, synonyms and antonyms, "hypernyms and holonyms", the French Larousse, and (intriguingly) "English Romanian proverbs", among others. Translation dictionaries are also supported. There are 37 in all at present.

In action, all the standard vocabulary capabilities are implemented. As well, the Everest Dictionary supports instant translation within most Windows applications by use of a special keystroke combination; instant translation of given words; and instant, complete translation of the clipboard. There's a glossary section that the user can update and make available to the world. There's even a voice component to pronounce English words!

Support is by a help file and forums. The author, Daniel Vladutu, invites comments, suggestions and donations; he also states that e-mail support is no longer available due to the number of viruses and the constant barrage of spam that have come to his support site..

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In Pictures, a company that publishers computer books that rely primarily on pictures rather than words to show how to perform tasks, has released its entire catalog of books as free PDF files for a limited time. The titles includes books about Microsoft Office, web graphics applications, web programming, OpenOffice.org, and more.

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So Cheapie stayed up wayyyy too late last night playing with Google Earth, a program just released by Google. Google Earth combines satellite images with mapping functions for a fun and educational look at… well, everything on the planet. Start by entering a city and state, and Google Earth zooms in to that spot from space. You can then rotate and tilt the view — in some cities, you can even see 3-D representations of the buildings. You can get driving directions from place to place a la Google Maps, and overlay the images with notations about landmarks, restaurants, and schools.

(And if you like to keep up with the latest Google news and rumors, bookmark Google Blog Roundup.)

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Ever wish that you could take a ride on a space shuttle? Celestia is a 3D simulation that puts you in the passenger seat for a ride around the galaxy. Celestia features all of the major astronomical bodies, along with many star clusters. If you can't find a particular celestial body, you can probably find it in the extensive add-on library. If you prefer sci-fi, you can download the Death Star from the Star Wars series and a laundry list of other fictional add-ons. The application is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux and takes up 12MB of hard drive space. The universe is yours to explore with Celestia.

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