Posts Tagged ‘windows 7’

When I hear “Free Screensavers” I think “virus, spyware, malware, errors, incompatibility, demo crap, betas”, but the other day, against my better judgement, I entered that search term yet again. Running Windows 7 RC1 for a few months now (AWESOME by the way), I knew chances were that I’d end up downloading something useless. I was very pleasantly surprised when the search result gave me the gems on www.reallyslick.com.

Now I hear you – get a life – but here’s the thing: I’ve got 3 LCD monitors hooked up to my PC, and that’s still an oddity to my circle of friends. I’ve been looking for a multi-monitor screensaver or two that will still wow people even if it’s only function is to prevent screen fatigue (or whatever it’s called). So yeah, Reallyslick has a few awesome screensavers, and they work! My favourite one by far is the Helios (screenshot below) screensaver. It’s like a lava lamp on steroids. I tweak the settings every now and then, and find myself staring at it for ages… Now I know it’s no “aquarium” screensaver, but I love the fact that every shape is randomly, uniquely generated. Who needs a lava lamp (or the aquarium screensaver for that matter)!

I’m a BIG Audi fan, and I came across this nifty little desktop widget today on their SA website. As I have three LCD PC screens, I use the least populated one for my widgets, and haven’t come across one this useful just yet.

This brilliant little widget:

• Tells me 3 days’ weather
• Gives the time in 3 countries
• Provides the exchange rate for 3 currencies
• Displays a local traffic report
• Shows Audi News

Note: I had to reboot before everything worked right (weather & traffic).

Over the years I’ve been known to change my email address and IM ID more often than I changed my socks (not accurate, really, by you get the idea). And every time I find a new IM, I think this is the one to stick to. This left me with a yahoo, google, skype, msn, icq, facebook, twitter & mibli account. You end up making friends on each of the network, and before you know it, you’re “forced” to install each IM’s software on your PC… enough already!

I ended up looking at multiple IM messengers (One program that connects to all of the above at once). I was a big fan of Pidgin for a while, but I had to install a plugin for every small little function, and with each plugin having it’s own list of options, it left me with just WAY too much to re-setup every time I format my PC (I do it every 3-6 months). I looked at Trillian, probably the most popular Multi-IM around. I thought I found the answer… but not really. It still had WAY too many options, and yet some of the ones I really wanted weren’t there. It looks prettier (especially the new Astra version), but if you consider that your IM is minimised most of the time, WHO CARES!

Then a good friend introduced me to Digsby. Even though there were a few bugs, it really did the essential things I needed it to do: It connected me to ALL* of my favourite networks, did it easily, and did it without bombarding me with a seemingly unending list of options – while still doing the job way better than the IM’s that have DEFINITELY found the Devil in the details. This was almost a year ago.
*Apart from Skype, and nobody’s been able to truly integrate that into a Multi-IM. Trillian tried, but it just loads the Skype main software too)

Today, I must say, is one big jump forward for Digsby. A few little things that still bugged me were fixed, and a few things I didn’t even know I needed (as life goes) were added!  It’s fast, it’s stable, it doesn’t slow down your PC, and most of all, it does what it’s meant to do, and does it well! OH YES, AND IT’S FREE!