[Pascal's place]

Essential freeware for the PC

2009-12-01T23:52:00.013+01:00

Last week I bought a new pc, and I'm pimping it up with the freeware tools I happen to use all the time. Having a new pc, it's a good occasion to evaluate some of them and look for (better?) alternatives.
There used to be a nice overview of "essential freeware" on the Brilliant Ignorance blog (http://brilliantignorance.blogspot.com/) but this blog appears to have been removed.

So, I'm writing this blog entry as a kind of reminder/shortlist of freeware that looks useful to me. Feel free to comment :)

Pdf related

Pdf printer: primo pdf
Pdf reader: Sumatra pdf: free, lightweight and open source, and with regular updates. I didn't want to install Adobe Reader (too heavy) or Foxit Reader (wants to install too much crap like toolbars and stuff)

Image viewer

Irfanview: the one and only image viewer you ever need. Also plays movies, slideshows, does batch conversion, screenshots...
Picasa: for managing my photo library, tagging photos, ...

Photo editors

Gimp: opensource alternative for PS. I haven't installed it yet, but I'm considering.
Exifer: manage EXIF/IPTC data of your photos. Batch updating is possible! This software is actually very old (last version 2002), and on his website, the author proposes some alternatives,

Office

OpenOffice: appears to work well at first look. I was afraid I would pay a price in usability and compatibility as to MS Office, but so far I didn't experience anything odd.

Text editors (notepad replacements)

NoteTab Light
Notepad++
Notepad2

File handling

Copy Handler: it's running almost non stop for the moment as I'm pumping al my data from my old pc to my new one.

Web browsing

Maxthon: this browser stays years ahead of its competitors in terms of comfort of use (I have troubles with going back to the previous page in any other browser since mouse gestures don't work). Especially now, with a new pc: just sync all my (protected) user data with my other pc's: favourites, form data, browser settings, shortcuts, and I have my customised browser ready on a new pc! Super! And my wife has her own account, so her favourites, form data, and settings are different. (I don't know how other people handle this in other browsers...)
Google Chrome: worthwhile installing because its fast and has a different engine (I'm still waiting for Maxthon to give you the choice of rendering engine, should be next early year), and great for applications that use this engine (wave) or to create direct application shortcuts (no browser menus & toolbars).

Music/media player

VCL Media player: especially useful for playing file extensions that cannot be played with other players
Switch Audio File Converter: great tool for converting audio files to other formats. Check out the website from NCH software for other interesting freeware
Accord CD Ripper Free: simple and straightforward CD ripper. Gets CD data from online db.

Music library manager/player

MediaMonkey

DVD ripper

Handbrake: I've tried a lot of DVD rippers, but Handbrake is the only one that did what I wanted. It can convert DVD's to MKV format, which stores chapter information in the resulting file. This way, I can play it on my movie cube and select the chapter I want to go to.

System maintenance

CCleaner: scans pc for temp files (for selected/all applications) and allows to remove them + registry integrity scan and cleanup + startup & uninstaller maintenance + manage system restore points
SmartDefrag: defrags and/or optimizes your drives. Options for autodefrag (when cpu usage is low, or scheduled defrag)

Antivirus/Firewall

Commodo: probably the best free personal firewall software!

Desktop enhancements

Enterra Icon Keeper: a must-have for everyone who frequently gives presentations with external screens or projectors, or who often changes his screen resolution: after my presentations, all my desktop icons were screwed up because the projector's resolution was lower. This little program saves your icon positions and lets you revert them to the last save state.

GPS related

Tyre (trace your route everywhere): integrates Google Maps (or Earth) with Tom Tom. Create routes in Google Maps and export them to Tom Tom.

Similar essential freeware overview:

http://www.freewaregenius.com/2007/10/29/reinstall-windows-and-outfit-your-system-with-all-freeware-programs/

Bathroom once again...

2009-04-08T00:13:00.002+02:00

Months have passed, and still the bathroom remains unfinished... Not much has happened recently. But if you watch the pictures, you will notice that our bathroom starts looking nicer and is getting more functional at last. The toilet and the shower are installed and in use, and so is the radiator. Just the sink is still missing.

New windows

2008-11-18T23:59:00.004+01:00

Last week, the windows have been replaced in our house. A couple of months later than planned, but the window company finaly turned up with our new windows.
The biggest challenge for me was to turn the big living room window opening into a door opening. And because the work of the window placing men was progressing much faster than foreseen (three days were foreseen, but everything was done in 1,5 days), I was under big time pressure to have my work finished.
Now, we're very happy with our new windows. The old windows were still single glazing instead of double glazing...

Bathroom tiles

2008-08-20T23:27:00.002+02:00

Long time since I wrote an update on the building works. Of course, I'm still working in the bathroom, and it will still take a while before it's finished. But I've been watching the pictures of some months ago and fortionately, I can say that I've made a lot of progress :-)

In June, I've been hurrying to have the bathroom floor finished (at least to have the tiles placed, not the tile joints yet), as Andréa's family was arriving at the end of June to celebrate Kyan's birthday.
After that was done, I had a one month break (Kyan's birthday, family trip to Paris, Gentse Feesten,...)

Last week, I started working again in the bathroom. Tonight, I have finished the tiles of the shower wall. It looks very different with the tiles. It starts to look great :-)

I've added some new pictures.

Bathroom...

2008-05-04T23:55:00.002+02:00

The bathroom remains the central theme in my construction works. It seems to be a story without end... also because I haven't been able to work that much. Only last week, when I took some days off from work, I could make some progress. Now all the water tubes have been placed (warm & cold water for the sink, shower and toilet), as well as the radiator tubes. And I started with the electricity.

The pleasure of a good bath

2008-02-24T22:03:00.001+01:00

It's been taking much more time than I had hoped, but finally, last night, we could enjoy a great bath in our new (big) bath tub.

The past weeks, I haven't been able to work a lot in the bath room. Kyan has been sick, Andrea got a job, I bought a car for Andrea: enough other things that consumed my time and energy.But finally, yesterday, I finished the placement of the bath, including some tricky plumbing work (I had to connect the drain of the bath-room to an existing lead pipe with an inner diameter of only 28 mm).

There's still a huge amount of work to be done. But at least we can bathe now :-)

A warm 2008!

2008-01-08T00:21:00.000+01:00

A warm and happy 2008! We already have a warm home :-) We are already very used to our new heating system and a warm house. As foreseen, the central heating has been started-up on Dec. 26. It was a historical day for me :-) After months of cold, I could hardly believe it when the house got warm. What a comfort.

Now the next high-priority job is finishing the bathroom. As you can see on the picture, it's still far from finished. We do have hot water, but we don't have a bath or shower...

Almost there!

2007-12-22T23:57:00.001+01:00

If everything goes well, we'll have the heating working next Wednesday (26th)! A lot of work has been done recently. Last week, the gas company came to open the main gas tap. They first didn't wanted to open the tap, because they said there was a leak - although the installation had been officially inspected and approved. I asked the inspector for advice. He did another inspection and declare the installation leak proof again. Then I called the gas company again. They came back and opened the tap, as they said it was leak proof...

Yesterday, I cut the main water pipe in the house, next to the water meter. I connected the pipe to the new water tubes I have been placing. Everything went well - no water leaks - and now the heating system is filled with water! The only remaining thing that needs to be done is start up the heating system. The heating company will do this next Wednesday. Actually, I still have to place one more radiator, in the bath room, but I will do that later. I have placed taps on the heating collector exits, allowing me to "plug in" that final radiator later on.

There's still a whole lot of work to do. The bath room needs to be redone from scratch. And there are a lot more water tubes to place (currently there's only water in the kitchen and at the heating system). But once we have the heating on, it will be much more relaxing. The past weeks were pretty hard, because it's been freezing well... Especially now that Andréa and Kyan have returned from Brazil.

The bathroom

2007-12-11T23:18:00.000+01:00

Last Thursday, I had an unexpected visitor. Yanko, the brother of Giselle (= the biggest fan of Kyan's blog :-)), called me from France. He's travelling in Europe and would arrive at our home that night. That was a pleasant surprise. Yanko stayed till Monday morning. It was nice to have his help and company during the weekend.

Today, I had a day off, because I expected the delivery of the new bath and the sink for the bathroom. This morning I removed the old, iron bath. After that, I installed a new radiator in Kyan's room - Yanko had painted the wall behind it last weekend. Check out some additional photos in the Step by step album.

Around noon, the delivery of the new bath tub was there. The new bath is made from acryl, so it's much lighter than the old one. I managed to bring it upstairs by myself. Still a big thing to move...

Now I'm figuring out what works to do first, what to do in which order, in order to have the central heating working as soon as possible and with a minimum of discomfort (like having no bath or shower or having no water).

I added a new photo album with bathroom pictures.

Water works

2007-12-04T22:25:00.000+01:00

Time flies, and the heating works are still not finished. The gas piping has been finalised in November, and the gas installation has been tested and approved by an inspector.
But now I still have to do water piping: a cold water supply is needed to feed the heater, and warm water has to be distributed from the heater to the different consumers in the bath room (bath, sink, shower (still to be built)).
Using the existing water pipes with the new heater is virtually impossible, so I have to install a brand new water tube system in the whole house.
I've already been installing a couple of parts. Last Saturday, I bought the remaining parts needed, and I made a diagram on cardboard (picture) to figure out what parts have to come where. After 3 hours of studying everything I had most things on their place, and I realised I was missing some parts... So next Saturday I have to go shopping once again.

Kyan and Andréa are arriving on Sunday Dec. 16. I'm looking forward, of course :-) On the other hand I'm stressed, as there's one thing I am sure of already: the heating will NOT be finished by then. I still have a lot of work to do in the bathroom (including installing a radiator and water piping), and all the procedures to have a new gas heating system working take time as well: the gas supplier contract needs to be ready, the gas distributor needs to open the gas tap, the heating company needs to initially start the heater. There are waiting periods for all of these steps...

I have uploaded a new photo album, step by step. It shows the progress made at 3 places in the house: placing the heater, placing a radiator in the living room and placing the radiator in Kyan's room.

The gas meter is installed

2007-11-15T00:23:00.000+01:00

My (working) holidays are over - I'm back at work since last Thursday. Today, I had an extra day off, because they came to install the gas meter, and connect it to the gas pipe in the street. That was not such an easy job. While drilling trough the front wall of the house, the gas man cut some electric cables that were in the wall...
Today as well, I had a worker in the house to do the gas piping work - placing a pipe from the gas meter to the heater. He's gonna finish this work next Monday.

Andréa and Kyan are still in Brazil. They would normally return on November 10, but Andréa posponed the flight. Now they will return on December 15. Another month...

Next Friday, I have an other day off, but then I'm going to Amsterdam: I'm having a concert there with my band Ashville.

Slowly...

2007-10-30T01:40:00.000+01:00

The work advances slowly. I add some new pictures to my foto albums. The past week, I spent most of the time removing the old radiators (cutting the iron supports out of the wall, filling the holes in the wall...), and preparing for the installation of the new ones (making new holes for the tubes,...).
I already sold some old radiators, I have a couple more for sale.

Paint & dust

2007-10-23T00:43:00.000+02:00

Today I continued with my paint work on the wood board surrounding the roof. A couple of days ago, I painted a first layer, today I did the second layer. It starts to look white again :-)

I also demolished the wall between the bathroom and the corridor, as I will extend the bathroom. It was a very dusty job...

Yaana's birthday

2007-10-22T00:13:00.000+02:00

Today (Sunday) was the 15th birthday of my godchild, Yaana. We had a nice walk in the dunes and Yaana did some big jumps on the beach, as you can see on this video .

Work work work

2007-10-18T00:02:00.000+02:00

The past days, I've been working outside, on the wood board surrounding the roof. It really needs some fresh paint. Check the pictures.
I've also been doing some more work in the living room, like removing the fake wall. Behind the fake wall, there was more work waiting on the actual wall: the plaster continues until the bottom of the wall. As you can see on the picture, there's a tar film in the brick wall to stop raising ground water. But since the plaster is continued over the film, the water can still raise via the plaster. Result: himitidy in the wall. Solution: remove plaster, let dry, and apply a concrete layer to the lower part of the wall instead of the plaster...

Break the house down...

2007-10-14T22:58:00.000+02:00

While Andréa and Kyan enjoy hot and sunny Brazil, I'm wrecking the house bit by bit ;-)

Yesterday, I removed the ceiling in the living room. I posted a couple of pictures in a web album.

I also had some fun playing "hammer darts". Check out the video!

Today, I've taken advantage of the sunny weather to work outside. The roof border needs to have its paint removed and then it needs to be repainted...

One month to refurbish the house

2007-10-11T18:28:00.000+02:00

Yesterday, my one month holiday started. While Andréa and Kyan are in Brazil, I will be working in our house. We currently don't have a heating system - I removed the old oil fueled system last spring. So, now I will install a brand new central heating system on gas.
I started with removing some of the old radiators. They are very heavy, they are massive iron radiators. Tomorrow, the new heating system will arrive.

Welcome

2007-07-03T17:03:00.000+02:00

Have a look at Kyan's blog.