Thursday, May 27, 2010

Best Open Source Shopping Carts

1. osCommerce

osCommerce is the leading Open Source online shop e-commerce solution that is powered by a dedicated, strong, and ever growing community, and is released under the GNU General Public License.

2. Zen Cart

Zen Cart truly is the art of e-commerce; free, user-friendly, open source shopping cart software.

3. Magento

Magento is a robust e-commerce software application designed to be simple to customize.

4. OpenCart

A free shopping cart system. OpenCart is an open source PHP-based online e-commerce solution.

5. PrestaShop

PrestaShop is a professional e-Commerce shopping cart software that you can download and use for free.

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Best PHP Frameworks

PHP Frameworks

A web application framework is a software framework that is designed to support the development of dynamic websites, Web applications and Web services.

CodeIgniter
CodeIgniter: an open source Web Application Framework that helps you write PHP programs

Symfony

Based on an innovative architecture, Symfony is fast, flexible, and easy to learn. It allows developers to build better and more easily maintainable websites with PHP.

CakePHP

CakePHP is a rapid development framework for PHP that provides an extensible architecture for developing, maintaining, and deploying applications. Using commonly known design patterns like MVC and ORM within the convention over configuration paradigm, CakePHP reduces development costs and helps developers write less code.

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Free image editor software

This is my review of some of the most common free image editors, and some of the ones that I like, and you've never heard of :wink: This is meant for the people who are on a really tight budget like me, I would not recomend any of these over Corel Paint Shop Pro, Photoshop Elements, or Photoshop CS3.

Gimp Terrible user interface, it's very confusing, and it really slows down the program with so many things going on at once. It does however have some very nice effects and tools. If you are computer savy, and on a tight budget this is probley the closest to photoshop you can get for no money. Another option is Gimp-Shop, which is based off of Photoshops menue system, but the source code is from an older version of The Gimp, so most of the plugins and "Script-Foos" won't work.

Gimp has a lot of useful plugins and Script-Foos, but yet again the interface is just a huge problem here. It is very hard to know how to use them.

Were it not for the interface I would give The Gimp 10/10, but as it is I give it a 6/10.

Paint.net (windows only) I really recomend this program. It supports infinate layers, and infanite undo. The interface is extremly easy to understand, and it has a lot of powerfull tools that you will not find in Photofilter, and similar programs. While not as powerfull as The Gimp, it will still do all you need it to.

The plugins are for the most part very good. Some of them though are a bit pointless or redundant, and many are meant for graphic designers. Don't let this fool you though, it still has some very nice effects, and the Soft-focus, and Glow are, in my opinion, even nicer than those found in Photoshop. My biggest gripe about it though is that you will notice 3 very important things missing immediatly,

1) It only supports 8-bit color
2) No Burn or Dodge tool
3) No Polygonal Lasso

But don't let this turn you away from Paintdotnet, it is still a very powerfull tool, and most likely all of these things will be found in version 4.0 (it's currently at version 3.2).

I give this program 8/10

Photofilter As the name implies it is mainly about filters, but it is labeled as being a full image editor. There aren't really many powerfull tools in it, and the interface is out-dated. I will say though that it is easy to use. If you really like filter effects, then this is the program for you, but I found it to be an old clunky beast with no real point other than to please point-and-shooters, and scrap-bookers. I really find nothing wrong with that, but I am not pleased that the description is so misleading.

I give this program 3/10

Now we are going to move away from the full-fledged image editors, and on to the veiwers/editors/organizers.

Picasa 2 This is a wonderfull free image viewer, while it may not be Photoshop Light Room, it does do a great job of keeping you organized. As soon as it is installed you get the option to have it scan your entire computer (all connected drives), and organize all of the images based on the date that we were taken. It has some nice effects, nothing you can't do in Photoshop, but sometimes you don't need the "big-guns".

It really is a pleasure for me to use because not only does it keep me organized, but it also reads Canon raw files, so there is no need to fill up my computers hard drives with their ineffective, and slow software. The Raw download on Picasa is much faster than on the Canon supplied software. I am not positive, but I think it also supports Nikon's raw format, so it could really be appealing to Nikon shooters as well as a RAW downloader.

The one weakness of this program though is its slide show feature. The buttons in an odd-ball place, and it isn't as nice looking as other image viewers.

I give this program 9/10

FastStone image viewer Another great program, it's not as powerful as Picasa, but I still love to use it, and I am sure others will as well. It does not veiw, or download RAW files, but it does do a great job of going through jpeg and tiff files. FastStone has a much better Slide Show feature than Picasa, and that is one of the main reasons I still have it. The Slide Show allows you to move your cursor around, and veiw shooting information in one area (it has a little box that pops out), and in another area it has a menu that pops up when you put your cursor over it for editing features.

The editing features are somewhat limited, but that is to be expected when using a program like this. It does have one feature though that will appeal to both newbies and veterans alike though, the crop tool has a grid that comes up, and helps you apply the rule of thirds to your image. It also has red-eye reduction, it works, but there are better red-eye reduction functions on other software. It also allows you to add frames, I don't know how, but it does.

I give this program 8/10

Irfanview This is another really limited program, but it does have one feature that still makes it worth a look, it is compatible with photoshop 8bf plugins, which is the format most photoshop plugins are in. It has a simple to use interface, even if it is a bit.....lacking. The levels adjustment works well, and it has a variety of downloadable skins that are fun, but relitivley useless.

Despite the good though, I think if this were the only image editor availible we'd still be shooting film. Even Faststone has almost as many editing features, and it has a slide show feature, and is an organizer to boot. If you just want to edit levels, and change to colors of a picture in one click, Irfanview will do that, but try to go beyond, and you will find yourself wanting more.

I give this program 5/10

Artweaver (windows) Artweaver is a fun to use program that is meant to be a free-ware version of Corel painter. Although not nearly as powerful, and lacking mixable paints, it really excels at drawing with different brushes, and is very fun to use.

While meant to be a painting program it does still have some nice image editing features. The polygonal lasso tool works much like you expect it to, and it has an unsharpen mask. It also has the ability to add texture to your pictures, and it creates a neat "fish-eye" effect that is meant to mimick a fish eye lens on a slr, or Holga. While not designed to be an image editor it still excells at things you wouldn't expect it to, and for that reason I highly recomend it.

I give this program 7/10

Friday, May 7, 2010

Best Free Partition Manager

Disk partitioning is the act or practice of dividing the storage space of a hard disk drive into separate data areas known as partitions. A partition editor program can be used to create, delete or modify these partitions.

Download EASEUS Partition Master

It allows you to easily create, delete or format partitions with a simple step, resize and move partitions without erasing data, hide or unhide partitions in your hard drive.

Download Easeus Partition Master

Download Partition Wizard Home Edition

Partition Wizard Home Edition is a free partition manager software designed by MT Solution Ltd. Our partition manager supports 32/64 bit Windows Operating System including Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7

Partition Wizard Home Edition Screenshot

Download Paragon Partition Manager Express

Partition Manager Express provides easy and reliable hard drive partitioning and full-range of hard disk management.With Express Edition you can easily organize your hard drive and redistribute your free space.

Paragon Partition Manager Express Screenshot

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Best Bible Software

Biblical software or Bible software is a group of computer applications designed to view and study biblical texts and concepts.

Bible Explorer

Bible Explorer is the fastest and easiest to use free bible study software. Over 3,400 Bible and Bible reference works available!

Bible Explorer Screenshot

SwordSearcher

SwordSearcher makes study easier and faster for Christians seeking a deeper understanding of the Bible, with an efficient interface for both devotional and in-depth Bible study.

SwordSearcher Screenshot

The Word

Bible Software without price: Completely free, high-quality Bible Study Software for everyone. The Word is also portable and works directly off a USB flash drive.

The Word Screenshot

Bible Star Pro

Get 145 Bibles, with thousands of references, commentaries and massive numbers of Bible maps. Includes Bibles in 16 languages and a simple to use interface based on the popular Microsoft Office look and feel. Big buttons with clear instructions

Bible Star Pro Screenshot

Bible Pro

BiblePro includes 1.75 million verse links, 250,000 commentaries, 43 bibles, more than 100 maps, and an interface with free updates for life. BiblePro uses the same buttons, tools, look, and feel of Microsoft Word and Outlook.

Bible Pro Screenshot

Best Free Drive Imaging Software

A drive-imaging program makes a byte-by-byte duplicate of your full hard drive (or of one or more partitions if you've divided your physical drive into multiple logical drives), maintaining the identical data structure.

EASEUS Todo Backup

Free backup and restore software for your system, partition and hard disk!


Macrium Reflect

Award winning Windows backup and disk imaging software. Backup files and folders into a single compressed archive file or create a browse able image of your hard disk for easy hard disk upgrade or recovery.



Paragon Backup and Recovery Free

Paragon Backup & Recovery is the best, free disk backup software!



DriveImage XML

Make a replica—an image—of your entire hard drive for easy backup and restore later.

Sunday, May 2, 2010

The Best DVD/CD Burning Software

We made a list of best burning software:

Download CDBurnerXP

CDBurnerXP is a freeware burning solution with many features. It can burn Data-CDs/DVDs and Audio-CDs, create and burn ISO files.

CDBurnerXP Screenshot

Download ImgBurn

ImgBurn is a lightweight CD / DVD / HD DVD / Blu-ray burning application that everyone should have in their toolkit.

ImgBurn

Download InfraRecorder

InfraRecorder is a high quality free CD/DVD burning solution for Microsoft Windows. It offers a wide range of powerful features; all through an easy to use application interface and Windows Explorer integration.

InfraRecorder 0.50

Download FinalBurner

FinalBurner is a freeware alternative to expensive CD and DVD recorders. It allows users to produce professional data, audio, video disks and ISO images. Many types of media are supported, including CD R/RW, DVD+R/RW, DVD-R/RW, DVD DL.

FinalBuner 2.20.0.187

Download DeepBurner

DeepBurner is an advanced and extremely powerful CD and DVD burning package that comes absolutely for FREE. It removes the hassle of making CDs, DVDs, autoruns, creating labels and booklets.



Download DVDStyler

DVDStyler is a free DVD authoring application for the creation of professional-looking DVDs. It allows not only burning of video files on DVD that can be played practically on any standalone DVD player, but also creation of own-designed DVD menus.

DvdStyler 1.8.0.1

Download WavePad

Free sound editing program to edit wav, mp3 or other audio files.

WavePad 4.42