CNet put out two lists of recommended freeware for new PC's today.  The first was a general list (CNet's Windows Starter Kit 2010) in which I was honored to see my own Find and Run Robot program get the nod.  The second is this one, a list of recommended free security tools that serve different purposes.

CNet's Security Starter Kit 2010

Refined for 2010, the Security Starter Kit will ensure that your sanity lasts way longer than your resolutions through a collection of must-have programs to protect your Windows computer. In our six categories this year, we offer the core essentials of Antivirus and Anti-spyware, as well as ancillary but important categories such as In-browser Security, Firewall, Encryption, and Parental Control.

http://download.cnet...2701-2023_4-6-1.html

This one really made my day today, it's cnet's latest edition of their "Windows Starter Kit 2010", recommending essential freeware tools for windows:

"In Utilities, we added Revo Uninstaller, threw in a second Notepad replacement, and replaced Launchy with Find and Run Robot... a must-have whether you're on a desktop or a laptop."

• See Windows Starter Kit 2010 Article on CNet
• And CNet blog about the new edition.

I'm looking for a better means of processing RAW images from my camera. There are a bunch of apps to do this, some free and some commercial, some standalone and some integrated into image editors. I'd really like feedback about what you folks have experienced, most significantly in terms of image quality, but also in terms of ease-of-use.

Here's where I've looked

• Paint Shop Pro - My camera outputs DNG, which PSP can read directly. But it seems a lame way to do this, it doesn't seem to give the opportunity to really use the additional information that's in the RAW data.
• Photoshop (Adobe Camera RAW) - The expense of Photoshop pretty much eliminates this
• ACDSee - I've been meaning for some time to start using ACDSee more for cataloging my photos, but haven't really given it a try in this respect yet. Has anyone out there?
• RawTherapee - Does a very good job, but involves some effort, and I hate the user interaction. Free
• RAWHide - Apparently decent quality, although I haven't really put it through its paces. Also seems to involve some effort (I'd prefer to be able to get good results from default settings, and go back to tweak just the photos that deserve it). Free
• Silkypix - Apparently equivalent in quality to Adobe, but much more expensive than free.

Any suggestions that produce good quality, especially for default settings, is easy to use, and hopefully free or cheap?

A DC member requested a tool with a super simple interface that can create an mp3 file from a video file.

Member Skwire comes through again with this new tool "Video 2 mp3":

Instructions:
1) Drag & drop a video file onto this executable file.
2) An MP3 file will be created in the same directory as the executable.
3) It will use the same name as the dropped video file except with an mp3 extension.

I tested it with an AVI, MPG, and FLV file.  Obviously, the larger the file, the longer it will take to extract and produce the MP3.

here's a good blog article where ten commercial imaging apps are compared. 10 Commercial Disk Imaging Software Features and Backup/Restore Speed Comparison

The latest edition of Ehtyar's Tech News Weekly is out!

• 1. Want To Try Out Google Chrome OS For Yourself? Here’s How.
• 2. Hacked Darwin Kernel Available for 10.6.2 On Atom Netbooks
• 3. The One Instruction Wonder
• 4. Modern Warfare 2 Breaks Sales Records Across Entertainment Industry
• 5. Pirate Bay Says Tracker Tech is So Yesterday, Man
• 6. Civilian Supercomputer Shatters Nuke Simulator’s Speed Record
• 7. Never-before-seen 'Star Trek' Pilot Found
• 8. Early Christmas! DEF CON 17 Video and Audio Now Online!
• 9. Grand Theft Auto Vs. Frogger

Ehtyar says:
"Hi all. I've decided to take a new approach to the news. Instead of going through the week's news of a Sunday and picking out what I consider to be the most relevant headlines, this week's news is a collection of what I found most interesting from news articles I came across throughout the past week. Please let me know what you think over the next few weeks"