TBL Software Picks

I'm a big fan of the little programs that seem to do most of the grunt work in my computing life.  And, boy, do I have a lot of them.  It's a bit like collecting cards, or spoons, or in my case - cute little programs.   And because I run so many different Operating Systems, I always seem to be playing with something new.

After I was asked the other day if I knew of a program to keep an eye on downloads, I instantly sent through a link to Netlimiter, which is a neat little free program to monitor traffic and set limits that I use at the office.

So I thought I might jot down a few fun programs for you, and hopefully solve a few problems you may have run into recently.

1. Netlimiter - Windows
As mentioned above, I have put this on a number of the computers at work and track which software is using my bandwidth.  Netlimiter will show you what is happening on the network card and also help you with bandwidth limiting, hence the name.

2. TeraCopy - Windows
Found this program after @digitalkitty (Colleen from TWIT) tweeted it a few weeks ago.  Free for home use, this little program makes those huge data moves over a network or between folders a little easier.  I'm still playing around with it at this stage and it is shaping up to be quite handy.

3. Transmission - OSX, Linux
"Get your Bit torrents before they run out", Transmission is a great lite Bittorent client program - if you would like something lighter on resources than Azureus and a little more straight forward.

4. CamTwist - OSX
This one was on the last MacBreak Weekly, and as I have plans to do a little screen-casting, just in time.

"CamTwist is a software package that lets you add special effects to your video chats. It's also possible to stream your desktop and still images. With CamTwist, you can also use multiple video chat programs at the same time. "

Sounds so easy doesn't it?  I'll let you know once I've had a bit of a play.

5. GOM Player - Windows
I found this one some time ago on a episode of Tekzilla, a Revision3 podcast, and I would put it up there with VLC Player as one of the better media players.  The feature that grabbed me was its ability to check to see if it can play the file you are trying to play, and if not, it jumps online and find the appropriate Codec.  With this feature, GOM Player will play just about everything.  Also it also looks a little better than VLC.

That should be enough to keep you occupied for now, enjoy!  And if you have come across some great programs of your own that you think I should collect, drop me a line, email, or shout a little louder.  But please, no spoons.

Jason