As if these weren’t enough, the open-source/freeware product Snarl exists solely to double your notification pleasure.

While providing you with some of the same notifications you already receive (battery is low, audio is muted, etc.), Snarl also enables even more notifications for those that either have OCD or just need to always be “in-the-know.”  Examples include notifications for: hourly time updates, timer countdowns, more-specific power/battery notifications and more. Plus, like any truly-great application, Snarl supports extendability. For those that like the concept of this application, this is where it really gets interesting. Developers (or even you) can even write their own Snarl applications so that you can be visually notified for every event imaginable.

Want to be notified of a recent Tweet? New emails (even Exchange emails)? New Google Wave messages? New weather alerts? Snarl has you covered.

Plus, if you’re a true nerd, you’ll certainly appreciate how much granular control over what you’re notified about and how exactly you’re notified.

G’head and check it out: http://www.fullphat.net.

[Source: downloadsquad.com]

Enter 7Stacks and Jumplist Launcher. Both apps enable you to add shortcuts to folders/applications anywhere on your system… shortcuts that will be accessible via a right-click on the app icon in your taskbar. It’s something that I wish was built into Win7 natively but a 3rd-party app will do just nicely.

[Source: FreewareGenius.com]

I’ve found many MySQL backup solutions but none of them seem to be perfect in my eyes. (Hey, what is perfect these days?)

DESKTOP APPS

There’s Backup Watcher for MySQL but a) it costs $$ and b) you have to “activate” the software in order to use it. For someone like myself – who is constantly reformatting the various machines on which I work – that’s far too annoying given that you have to wait for a new activation code from the company. Of course, if you’re just gonna set this up on a server or desktop that you touch maybe once every three years – it may very well be worth it. Setting up automated backups is fool-proof and the interface isn’t too archaic. Plus, support usually responds within one business day – even if they aren’t that fluent in the English language.

One benefit to the above app is that it runs on Windows. For me, at least, that makes administration much easier. Another such app is Auto Backup for MySQL. (I’ll try and download and install this to post a review here soon.) This one also costs money (still less than $100) but the fact that it appears to be continually updated – it’s now Windows 7 and Server 2008 compatible – puts my mind at ease.

For more advanced MySQL DB management, you might also look at Navicat for MySQL – an all-in-one mgmt app that not only enables scheduled database backups but also provides you with options to interact with the data itself as well as the overall structure of the database. Pricing is much better than I remember. You can probably stay close to the price-range of the apps mentioned above and wind up with many more features at the same time. Plus, the interface is quite a bit more polished than the other apps.

WEB-BASED SCRIPTS

A more universal option (for those on different platforms beyond Windows) is a self-install script like Backup2Mail… which costs absolutely nothing. (The song “Born Free” from the last episode of the first season of Dexter is now running through my mind.)

Scripts like this one reside on your server, alongside your MySQL install, and regularly emails you backups of your database(s). The company recommends that you use a secure email environment given the risk involved in sending potentially-confidential data through email.

AutoMySQLBackup is a free script that’s been around for a while. Much like Backup2Mail, this script enables scheduled backups via the web but, with this one, you can not only send backups by email but also dump them to a directory on your web server. That way, if you’ve got the available space, you never need worry about the size of your DB backups.

What backup solution are you using/do you recommend? Let other readers know in the comments below.

Basically, you launch the software and create your image – either to an external hard drive or to another partition. (Hey, guess what you can use to create a new partition.) Then, use the software to create bootable rescue media (CD/DVD, flash drive, etc.) so that you have something to boot into should your OS crap out on you. Then you just sit back and wait for your system to fail. When the day comes that you can’t boot into Windows, just use that bootable media you created to boot into the ToDo recovery console and “restore” your computer to a previous point in time (retaining all of your software installations and their respective settings) using the image you created in that first step. Voila.

Like I said, I encountered an error or two but nothing major. However, there are a few different critical errors that reviewers on Download.com have pointed out. It’s free though so it’s definitely worth a shot. If you’d prefer a hassle-free experience, you could always shell out a few bucks ($50, actually) for Acronis TrueImage Home.

(By the way, I *highly* recommend Acronis Backup & Recovery – especially with the Universal Restore add-on. As an IT pro, it’s come in handy more times than I can even fathom. My only complaint is with their product licensing. It’s expensive for enterprise users and volume licensing isn’t nearly as easy as it is with Microsoft. For 30 different users, I was given 30 different product keys… and 30 more for the Universal Restore add-on. That’s a lot of keys to manage. There’s a better way to manage that, Acronis.)

[via FreewareGenius]

If it sounds intriguing, you can download the freeware app over at the official site:
http://www.binaryfortress.com/traystatus/

(I actually used to be a big fan of the stylus when I first started dealing with PDAs – wow, I sound like I’m 80 – but I’m now of the opinion that “if you can’t do it without a stylus, it should be designed differently.”)

Well, if you’re more than familiar with the problems I’m describing, you might want to check out iDialer for Windows Mobile. [Author: Doug Melton of supware.net. He’s on Twitter if you want to follow app developement.]

The application is completely free and gives you a nice, full-screen application for dialing numbers or contacts. The interface is modern (read: iPhone-esque), the keys can’t be missed and it certainly benefits those of us who are forced deal with (what seem to be) 2 pixel x 2 pixel number keys on our existing WinMo phones.

As Geoffry over at TechZulu mentions, “the program is QVGA and VGA compatible and should work in both portrait and landscape orientation.

In addition to giving your fingers, eyes and stylus (stylii, if you will) some much-needed relief, iDialer offers integration with Google Voice, Phone.com or jajah! Essentially, you can configure you the iDialer app to make outgoing calls from your account on these networks. You can use supware.net’s iDialer online configuration to generate a customized .cab installation file based on your Google/Phone.com/jajah account info. (You just need to provide your phone number, no passwords.) Then, install that after you’ve gone through the initial iDialer installation.

[via TechZulu]

So, if you find yourself using popular applications like AVG Anti-Virus, Firefox, Ad-Aware, QuickTime/Real Alternative, DeepBurner, DVD Shrink, CCleaner, FileZilla or one of hundreds of other brilliantly-useful applications available for download on FileHippo.com, you can ensure they’re all up-to-date by using FileHippo’s automatic updater app.

Alternatively (or, in addition), if you find yourself using alot of niche applications that perhaps don’t get updated all that often, you can still ensure you’re running the latest version by using Ketarin. However, while FileHippo’s tool can ensure your applications are automatically updated, Ketarin goes about the whole process in a different way – by updating the setup packages instead of the installed application itself.

So, for instance, you can have an entire folder (think USB flash drive) with a bunch of different setup applications that are all updated whenever there’s a new release. This way, when you choose to (and/or are forced to) reformat your system, you don’t have to worry about downloading new installs once you’ve wiped your drive… you’ve already got them.

Ketarin might take a little bit more work to get up-and-running with the application titles you want but the possibilities are pretty much endless. For instance, user FranciscoR in the Ketarin forums has uploaded a template that enables you to keep any installation package from PortableFreeware.com up-to-date. All you have to do is input the title ID number from the site (i.e., the "507" in "http://portablefreeware.com/?id=507"). There are several other user-submitted templates for your favorite download sites in addition to tutorials on how to control other powerful aspects of the Ketarin software.

(As an aside, Ketarin is made possible by one of my favorite freeware and shareware burning applications: CDBurnerXP Pro.)

These two amazing and handy utilities are completely free and can save you some headaches while, at the same time, giving you some peace of mind.

Ketarin – Keep Your Setup Packages Up-to-Date…
FileHippo – Keep Your Installed Apps Up-to-Date…

Although, I did enjoy Taskbar Shuffle, I’d be a lying dog if I said I wasn’t a little bit relieved to be able to rid myself of yet another application that has to run at startup. Still, it was a well-designed, well-coded app that served me quite well and I definitely recommend it for Windows XP/Vista users.

What about you? Are there any other applications on which you depend on a daily basis that may become obsolete with Windows 7?

Those of you who constantly find yourselves frantically searching for your frequently-used folders or files may find the freeware application “Shock Bookmark” to be of some use.

The program adds a drop-down option to your right-click menu in Windows Explorer to which you can easily add shortcuts  to folders, files, other applications and URLs.

(image courtesy of SoftPedia)

If this type of application sounds familiar, you’re 100% accurate: there’s plenty of similar programs out there. First off, there’s Moo0 RightClicker. This one enhances your right-click menu in Windows Explorer by not only allowing you to add shortcuts to your favorite directories but also by enabling certain other types of functionality like “duplicate current window.” There’s a free version of Moo0 available but the full version is going to set you back $38.

Just as a side note: I installed Moo0 a few months back and began noticing that shortcuts to Office 2007 applications from within the start menu stopped working. Turns out it’s an actual issue – caused by a 3rd-party shell extension.

Another great freeware utility for adding shortcuts to frequently-used folders is Folder Guide. I’ve been using this one for some time but the only problem is that you can only add shortcuts to folder and not URLs, applications, etc. like Shock Bookmark can.

Well, cnet at some point seems to have caught onto the fact that users find this particular option to be, more often than you’d think, absolutely invaluable. That’s why they decided to implement this particular type of functionality into their own downloads site: Download.com. For instance, Apple just released iTunes 8 today but, if you think it’s still too disgustingly bloated not as great as you might have hoped, you can go all the way back to iTunes v4.2 (for Windows, v1.1 for Mac OS) and install it, instead.

Now, I’m not entirely sure when download.com began offering this (I honestly can’t tell you the last time I visited their over-crowded, ad-ridden site) but, if you’re a frequent cnet user, you might rather enjoy this feature. If you’re like me, however, and tend to stay away from cnet-related sites at all costs, then just bookmark oldversion.com and be done with it.