I Love Free Software

Free Inventory Based Accounting Software: Icebergo
Change Login Screen with InstantLogonChanger
Free Windows Optimization Software: Ashampoo WinOptimizer
Free 2D Animation Software: Synfig Studio
Free Ad Blocking Software to Block Online Ads: Privoxy
Get Weather Forecast on iPhone with WeatherBug App

Free Inventory Based Accounting Software: Icebergo

Posted: 31 May 2012 12:30 PM PDT

Icebergo is a free inventory based accounting software. Icebergo is developed in Microsoft Access and deployed with the same. It is an efficient tool for professional accounting particularly in small and medium enterprises.

Installation

Installation was a bit confusing. Once I double clicked the installer, I thought I had finished installing only to discover that the installer unzips installation files. The installer request you for a username and a company name the latter is not mandatory. There is a choice between a typical installation where the software selects which components to install and the custom allows you to decide what to install. Icebergo requires that you have a valid installation of Microsoft Access which can be substituted for Microsoft Access runtime that is bundled with the installer.

Features of Icebergo free Accounting software

The purchase register manages purchase orders. From here you can create purchase orders and record invoices.

The material coding feature can be used to keep track of inventory. Material coding can be done with bar codes or without. Material coding without bar coding is done by grouping the materials in unique material categories.

The barcoding feature allows for automated inventory management. However, it is only available for Icebergo version 4 and above. With this you can generate and print barcodes for materials but the materials have to be existing in the database. Barcodes are printed on an A4 size paper containing 24 bar code stickers.

The report and statements feature allows users to view various things like daily transaction, inventory stock and many others. This gives you an executive summary on any transaction or any data you may want to view.

The payment register allows users to conveniently manage all payments. From here you can add, edit and delete purchase orders or and invoices.

The general ledger record and accounts for all expenses and income. The receipts register manages all Account receivable. It also allows for sales invoices to be linked with their corresponding receipts.

The admin panel allows for various administrative functions like adding new users. On this panel, administrators can sign a number of documents like purchase orders, vouchers and journal.

How to use it

The interface which looks very much like Ms Access is characterized by a switchboard at the centre. This switchboard contains a number of buttons which when clicked open their respective modules. Sample data can be deleted using plimus which you have to pay $5 for or you could use the manual delete which was quite inconvenient. Plimus is bundled with a few additional features like monthly balancing receivables and payable statements. Buttons at the centre open their respective forms.

New users can be added from the admin panel opened by the admin button on the switchboard. Customization can be performed by contacting the developer but for a fee of $50 which is quite fair keeping in mind that the stock program is for free. The Icebergo accounting software comes with a manual which was quite helpful for anyone looking to quickly familiarise with the application.

Opinion

I could not wrap my head around the fact that they offered the software for free and charged for a tool meant to clear a few rows of sample data. No backup or recovery utility is provided meaning that in case of a catastrophic loss of data, you are back to square one. Save yourself the trouble and procure third-party backup software.

Verdict

Icebergo is as good as many off the shelf accounting software only that you don’t have to dig into your pockets for it.

Free Inventory Based Accounting Software: Icebergo was originally published at I Love Free Software

Change Login Screen with InstantLogonChanger

Posted: 31 May 2012 11:00 AM PDT

InstantLogonChanger is a free software to change login screen of Windows. It’s one of the best software available across the internet for customizing your login screen. The best part about this software is that its very simple to use, highly effective and most of all; its available for free.

Downloading and Installation

I used download manager to install the software, which increased the speed of the setup process. It hardly took me 2 minutes to get done with the installation process and start the software. It takes up hardly 120KB space, so I was pretty happy with that as well!

Interface of this change login screen software

For a software which has a very limited scope, interface must be kept very simple. InstantLogonChanger has one of the simplest interfaces you will ever see. Three tabs of Logon Background, Settings and the mandatory About us are present. It’s one of those interfaces, which is designed to keep it simple.

Working of this change login screen Software

Logon background, as expected, is the main tab in this software. There is an option to use the desktop background as the Logon background, which is done by default. The other options are to use your own custom image as the Logon background or to use solid color image as the background. Restore to the default setting option, is also present! By default, after installing the software, your desktop background will be the logon image.

There are just two settings options. One is to hide the software icon, other is to check for updates. The about us tab has the agreement of the software listed, while also mentioning the developers and the version of the software.

Strengths of this Software

It's difficult to change your Logon background, without tweaking your security settings and obtaining the privilege to access the logon background zone. InstantLogonChanger lets you do that in an easy manner. You just have to use the interface to change your login background. You can use any format of an image, which you may wish to put up as the Logon background. The basic formats supported are JPG, BMP, GIF. The ability to adjust your image, just like you would do to your desktop background; is also provided.

Negatives

The software has a limited scope of changing the logon background. This may only appeal to those who try to modify their system's appearance.

Our Verdict

If you want to change your logon background like the way you change your desktop background, InstantLogonChanger is the perfect software for you. Its very simple to use, effective and most importantly; hardly takes up any space! It’s certainly worth trying if you are a big fan of customizing your PC.

Change Login Screen with InstantLogonChanger was originally published at I Love Free Software

Free Windows Optimization Software: Ashampoo WinOptimizer

Posted: 31 May 2012 09:30 AM PDT

Ashampoo WinOptimizer is yet another Windows optimization software that you can use in order to speed up your system and remove small errors which can crop up with time. If you don’t clean your registry and file system from errors and old files, then given enough time it’s very likely that you experience system performance issues. So scanning your system for errors from time to time is a good idea and you can do that with Ashampoo WinOptimizer.

This is the overview screen of Ashampoo WinOptimizer where you are given the options for either Quick scan or Full Scan, which will immediately start scanning your computer for a wide number of errors. If you would like to do one thing at a time then continue reading to find out what exactly this Windows optimization software has to offer.

Download and Installation of Windows Optimization Software:

There are no problems when it comes to downloading the program, just make sure that you pick the free version if you are not interested in paying for the paid version of Ashampoo WinOptimizer. Installation of the program is worth a mention because it tries to install browser toolbars and also set Ashampoo as your default website.

If you’re not interested in any of these things, then you can just uncheck these options, don’t forget to do that and just click Next, which sometimes happens during installations.

First run and first impressions

Program comes packed with a lot of different options and if you are using a lot of different small programs for all the things that we’re gonna be talking about, then you might want to think about switching to WinOptimizer to unify your tools. There are 6 different main categories of tools that you can use in order to optimize your system, and each one of those has several different tools that should help you maintain your Windows system.

What kind of tools and features does Ashampoo WinOptimizer have?

Like you can see on the image above, program comes with a lot of different tools, and all that you need to do in order to start using them is find them in their category and run them. Basic Clean up tools include:

Drive Cleaner
Registry Cleaner
Internet Cleaner
One-Click Optimizer

Name of these tools are pretty much self-explanatory, the last one One-Click optimizer allows you to run all of them at once, if you don’t want to play with them individually.

In the Optimize performance category we have the following tools available:

Defrag 3 – disk defragmentation software
Startup Tuner – select which program should run when the program is started
Process Manager – check which program are currently running
Internet Tuner – improve Internet performance

Are there any other tools for Windows optimization

Oh boy does it, the ones that were mentioned here are just the basic tools, there is still a lot of goodies that are at your disposal, for example file recovery, permanent file deletion, file encryption and even system diagnostics and benchmarking. This Windows optimizer really has it all, Ashampoo WinOptimizer is a must for any Windows user.

Free Windows Optimization Software: Ashampoo WinOptimizer was originally published at I Love Free Software

Free 2D Animation Software: Synfig Studio

Posted: 31 May 2012 08:00 AM PDT

Synfig Studio is a free open source 2D animation software. It uses vector and bitmap artwork to create high quality animations. It breaks from the norm of frame by frame animation allowing you to create high quality animations with less resources. Synfig Studio is a multiplatform software available in Windows, Linux and MacOS. Synfig Studio does has its vectors done in a powerful industry standard application that you don’t have to pay for. Animations are represented in a custom file type, ".sifz".

Features of this free Animation Software

Some of Synfig Studio features include

Synfig Studio supports various types of layers including geometric, gradients, filters, distortions, transformation and fractal.
The spatial resolution feature allows for most elements to be vector based and layers to be generated using a set of parameters. Also it allows for a degree of flexibility in that if the resolution of a project is to change, in built components are not affected and only imported raster images are pixelated.
Temporal resolution independence automatically blends animation key frames to produce smooth motion.
High Dynamic-Range Imaging uses floating point mathematics to perform calculations. This allows canvases to get the right pixel luminance resulting in better image lighting and colour composition
The Path-based Gradients feature which is only available in professional animation software helps to add soft shading to the animation and save you the trouble of painting every frame. This is done via gradient paths which run along shapes.

The Interface

Surprisingly, Synfig Studio launches from the windows command prompt. On launching the program you are bombarded by a clutter of windows which is not very pleasant. If you are a first time user like I was, it does not get any better. Finding your way among this maze of widows is almost impossible and it will take time before you get up to speed. Tooltips are well used all round the application.

Opinion

The Linux version of Synfig Studio offers more features than its windows counterparts- they opted to do two different software to run on different platforms instead of a single software that is similar on both platforms. The launching of the program from the windows command prompt leaves a lot to be desired-once you closed the command prompt window the application crashed instantly. Lack of a main window meant that the typical menu bar at the top wasn't there.

The program would have done much better with a parent window and the rest of the windows could have been added as toolbars. It also lacked support for 3D animation. Using a single window could have made the program a bit tidy and I found the many small windows quite annoying. I was quite relieved to find tooltips as none of the icons looked familiar. While tutorials and FAQs were available, you had to be online to access them.

Synfig Studio is not what you can call easy to use but this is best left to professionals familiar with animation software. I took me quite some time before I could get used to.

Verdict

Synfig Studio is the nice option for anyone looking for a free professional 2D animation software or you can always try SharpAnimator which is much better compared to Synfig Studio.

No related posts.

Free 2D Animation Software: Synfig Studio was originally published at I Love Free Software

Free Ad Blocking Software to Block Online Ads: Privoxy

Posted: 31 May 2012 06:30 AM PDT

Even though on the count of its name and the way that it’s used Privoxy might make some people think that this is a proxy software. In reality, Privoxy is ad blocking software, which has a very unique way of blocking ads. The most popular ways of blocking ads is by installing various browser plugins like AdBlocker. Privoxy mixes AdBlocker and proxy software in an effort to combat annoying ads with which users are bombarded everywhere they go these days.

In a way Privoxy is a proxy software, it does give you anonymity but anonymity against ad companies. Privoxy acts as proxy software, to set it up and start using it, you’re gonna have to configure your browser so that traffic goes through Privoxy, but the software doens’t change your IP address, just makes you invisible to online ads and not only them. According to the site with Privoxy you can also manage and contain tracking cookies that advertising companies like to place on our computers.

How to setup Privoxy for ad blocking

Setting up Privoxy is different from setting up AdBlocker and other ad blocking software. What you see on the image above is the default screen that will welcome you when you first start Privoxy. It doesn’t offer much information, there is only the giant white text area and the usual toolbar at the top. Unfortunately this will not change when you actually start using the program. When everything is setup, the giant white area should display logs of what the program is doing, which ads, what kind of content is blocked, that didn’t happen while we were testing the program. It remained empty despite of the fact that log displaying was activated, but the program worked just fine:

Before Privoxy:

After Privoxy:

To use Privoxy, you’re gonna have to configure your browser to channel traffic through Privoxy. In Firefox you can do this by clicking on Tools >> Options >> Advanced >> Network >> Settings. When you do that you will be presented with the following window:

Fill in the HTTP and SSL proxy fields with this IP address and port:

Address: 127.0.0.1
Port: 8118

Don’t worry this is the local IP address and port that Privoxy monitors for ads. Once your browser is configured to use this address and port for traffic, then any ad which tries to ruin your browsing experience will be squished by Privoxy. Other browsers should be configured with the same settings and ads should be blocked in them too.

How to change options in Privoxy

Next to the fact that during our tests there were no logs being displayed by the program, another drawback that the program has is that the options have to be edited in files directly, there is no graphical user interface. Privoxy is rich with options and it can be configured in any way you want, but you’re gonna have to do it manually in files, by editing commands, instead of just marking checkboxes. Program does what it is intended to do, so if you are not afraid of getting your hands dirty with manual edits, Privoxy will do you just fine.

Free Ad Blocking Software to Block Online Ads: Privoxy was originally published at I Love Free Software

Get Weather Forecast on iPhone with WeatherBug App

Posted: 31 May 2012 05:00 AM PDT

WeatherBug is a free iPhone app to know the weather status on iPhone and other iOS devices. The part of this iOS app which I liked the most is it's temperature display modes. You can easily view the temperature in Celsius and Fahrenheit on your iPhone. Also, displaying the weather condition of multiple countries is one of the key feature of this iPhone weather app.

You can see the weather status of one particular day, and the app also displays the weather forecast of next 7 days. So now you will get to know and plan your vacations according to the weather conditions of upcoming days. Along with the temperature, this iPhone weather app also displays humidity, gust and wind level on your iPhone. Just launch the app on your iPhone, enter the zip code or state name and you are done.

If you have an Android phone with you, then install 3D Digital Weather Clock for Android.

What I Liked About WeatherBug App:

Know the weather forecast of your area at any point of time on your iPhone.
The app provides weather forecast for next 7 days too.
Simple and easy to use app on iPhone.
Provides temperature, wind level, humidity level and gust.
Temperature can be viewed in Celsius as well as in Fahrenheit.
Graphical presentation of weather forecast on iPhone.
Tells the weather forecast of multiple countries.
Different view of wind units which includes mph and kmph.
Pictorial presentation of weather forecast.

In short, I liked everything about the app except that it requires internet to update weather forecast on iPhone…..Just kidding. Everything is perfect about the app.

You can check out iPad Weather apps reviewed by us.

How To Install WeatherBug App On iPhone:

Scan the QR Code below with Barcode Reader app.
You can also search for "WeatherBug" app in App Store on your iPhone.
After searching or scanning the QR Code, tap on install button to install the app on your Android.

The free iPhone WeatherBug app will be automatically installed on your iPhone. Click here to download WeatherBug app on your iPhone.

Get Weather Forecast on iPhone with WeatherBug App was originally published at I Love Free Software

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