Apr 27 2009
GMx’s Freeloader Favs
I’ve got a potpourri of free stuff this week. Some fun, others that will help
you with your productivity.
Adobe Exchange
The Adobe Exchange is a site where you can pick up all kinds of brushes, actions,
styles and gradients among other things, for Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign
and GoLive. Most of them are produced by Adobe products users and are very good.
This can save you a lot of time. Some of the Photoshop actions are incredible.
And it’s all free! If you think you’re up to the challenge, you
can submit your own work.
Snard
Technically not freeóSnard only costs $10. If you don’t pay, there no annoying
timers or reminders. This excellent utility can be placed in the dock, as a menu
extra, or as a pop-up menu. You can stop your dock clutter by putting your apps
in the Snard menu. You can even add your System Preferences. You can also create
work groups for files you use most often. I couldn’t live without it now.
jEdit
jEdit is an open source Java based text editor that you can use for coding just
about anything: HTML, XML, C+, and other codes. There are a lot of plug-ins you
can also get to customize jEdit to fit your needs.
InVisibles
This little app just does one thing: it turns the visibility of files on and off.
You could do that with Cocktail or other utilities, but you always have to type
in your admin password. You don’t have to with InVisibles. So make sure if you
use it that nobody has access.
JoyChat
If your afraid of using IRC because it’s too complicated, this app is for you!
Based on Open Mac, JoyChat is about as easy as they come. It has a nice aqua interface
and is automatically set up to go on the Joy of Tech IRC channel (you can add
others too).
Correction: You can not add new channels to Joychat without recompiling it.
Now for something silly:
Hacker
Translator
Wish you were 1337? Don’t have time to turn all those characters to numbers a
symbols? It’s Hacker Translator to the rescue. This little app takes your ordinary
text and automatically turns it to 1337 5p34|<. You can also translate the other
way, so if your kids are trying to use code to send messages about their nefarious
doings, you can catch them!
Well that’s all for this Friday. Enjoy!