Orbit Downloader 2.7.8

Orbit Downloader is an excellent download accelerator and a batch downloader.Not only does Orbit fetch normal files for you at lightening fast speed,you can also download rich media (Streaming Media, RTMP, Social Music & Video ).
Your favourite youtube videos can be downloaded very easily now.The highly optimized multithreading algorithm Gives OrbitDownloader unmatched download speed capacities (God help the servers!).

Another feature of this application is the Grab++ interface.When activted,Grab++ runs in the background and sniffs for all active elements,such as streaming media,flash movies,etc.You can pick and choose the files you want to download.This is another way of ripping filies of your favourite streaming video sites as well as social networking sites.

Orbitdownloader is a freeware.You can get it here.
My rating: 4/5.

Gtalk added services

Personally I love GTalk.It is so simple and uncluttered when compared to others like YIM,etc.Now after some e-rummaging,I found some nice tricks and addons for this app.

1.Running multiple Gtlalk instances:
I have 3 accounts which I give out to different categories of contacts (let's just say I'm Uberorganized).It's such a HUGE pain in the backside to sign out and sign in again using different accounts to talk to my contacts! Not any more,not since I found this while surfing.The trick isn't necessarily new,but hey,I found it very useful..
OK so what you do is look for your Gtalk shortcut.If there isn't one,create it.Now right click it,go to properties.Under target add the startup option 'nomutex' (see image below)

And voila! you can start multiple Gtalk windows,log in to different accounts and blabber away :D

2.There are always too many friends online.Friends and *contacts* with whom you really don't want to chat right now.There is a busy mode for this but that might scare away people you don't mind having a chat with.Worry not,my friends,gAlwaysidle is at your service! Get the setup (small,about 1 megabyte) from here and install.Now log into Gtlak.Right click the gtalk icon in the tray and select always idle.Your status will change to Idle.

Credits: A shoutout to Vedang for this app

3.Chat in Hindi,tamil,etc:
Have to say,this,I didn't know.You can chat in regional language using a google talkbot.Fire up Gtalk and add the following format to your contacts: 2@bot.talk.google.com using one of the following language pairs

ar2en, en2ar (Arabic<->English)
bg2en, en2bg (Bulgarian<->English)
cs2en, en2cs (Czech <-> English)
da2en, en2da (Danish<->English)
de2en, en2de (German<->English)
de2fr, fr2de (German<->French)
el2en, en2el (Greek<->English)
es2en, en2es (Spanish<->English)
fi2en, en2fi (Finnish<->English)
fr2en, en2fr (French<->English)
hi2en, en2hi (Hindi<->English)
hr2en, en2hr (Croatian<->English)
it2en, en2it (Italian<->English)
ja2en, en2ja (Japanese<->English)
ko2en, en2ko (Korean<->English)
nl2en, en2nl (Dutch<->English)
no2en, en2no (Norwegian<->English)
pl2en, en2pl (Polish<->English)
pt2en, en2pt (Portuguese<->English)
ro2en,en2ro (Romanian<->English)
ru2en, en2ru (Russian<->English)
sv2en, en2sv (Swedish<->English)
zh2en, en2zh (Chinese<->English)
zh-hant2en, en2zh-hant (Traditional Chinese<->English)
zh-hant2zh, zh2zh-hant (Traditional Chinese<->Simplified Chinese)

for example to chat in Hindi add en2hi@bot.talk.google.com .In a matter of seconds the bot should add you back.Now when chatting with your friends,open a chat window with the bot.Type in english and send the message to the bot.It will reply in the language you chose.



Ingenious,Indeed!

I also read somewhere that the new Gtalk version will use HTML,CSS to render,like webpages.Some major Skinnage ahead!

Best Free Software - Launchy

Launchy is a Open Source Keystroke Launcher,or in a lay man's term a '1 stroke program launcher'.It's the simple yet undoubtedly useful concept behind this,which has captivated me.There are 2 kinds of Windows users:
1. The ones those patiently go through the Start Menu tree to Launch their programs
2. Ones with a desktop cluttered with shortcuts (Looks disgusting,frankly)

Launchy takes care of both kinds,by offering a simple interface.


[Click to enlarge]

Like I said it's very simple,only a search box and a result thumbnail space.Start typing in a few letters of the desired program,and launchy shows you possible programs/files matching your query.

See the simplicity? Launchy starts up with Windows itself and once you get the hang of it,it's bye bye start menu and cluttered desktops.

Now before you start twiddling your fingers,there's a few things to be done.Our pal launchy ain't no psychic.We have to tell it what to search for and where.It's very simple.

Step 1 : Press Alt+Space (this is the default shortcut for bringing up launchy)
Step 2 : Right Click the Launchy window and select 'Options'.
Step 3 : Click the 'Catalog' tab.


[Click to enlarge]

Step 4 : Click the add (+) button under 'Directories' to add a custom folders (Remember the first 4 entries should be there by default,so you can launch programs,etc right away).I've added my songs folder
Step 5 : OK,so now we have told launchy where to look.Now lets specify what to look for.So Click on the directory you have just added.Now,to the left there is a box to specify what kind of files to search.Add your extension to the box provided (in my case *.mp3) and hit '+'.
Step 6 : Hit rescan catalog and then OK.Congratulations! you have done it.

Now to test it,try typing in something that you know is in the folder (in my case a song) and launchy should start giving you hints.


[Click to enlarge]

Other features :

1.Launchy acts as a calculator as well.Simply enter some algebra in the launchy window and it will be solved once you hit enter.
2.Launchy comes with a 'weby' plugin that allows you to get results from search engines of your choice.Setting it up is quite easy.Once done,type search engine name,then a tad and then the query


[Click to enlarge]


[Click to enlarge]

Potential Problems : On rare occasions, launchy has abruptly stopped functioning,so you have to restart it using..here's the kicker..the start menu.However this has happened only once or twice and i've been using launchy for months now.

Varun's Rating : Personally i have fallen in love with this app.It's very user friendly,packed with nifty features.Haven't seen any drawbacks at all.I'd say a 4/5 for this one

Launchy is a free software.You can get it by visiting the author's page here