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Defrag your hard drive with UltraDefrag (32-bit)

Most Windows users are familiar with the Disk Defragmenter utility -- or, at least, they should be. Defragmenting your hard drive can improve your computer's performance by making sure that files are all stored in one spot on the disk. There are plenty of alternatives to the built-in Windows defragmenter, including UltraDefrag (32-bit). This program comes with a defragmenter and other optimization tools that can ensure that your computer is performing as it should.

UltraDefrag has a simple interface that will look familiar to anyone who's used this kind of software before. We clicked the Analyze button, and … Read more

Porn studios accused of shafting enthusiasts

People have needs.

There are those who attempt to make money out of satisfying those needs. And there are those who attempt to make money out of offering to hide people's embarrassment at having those needs in the first place.

Currently, certain porn producers -- normally rather nice people -- are being accused of the latter ruse.

Allegations are being laid that these porn producers are involved in shaking down alleged illegal downloaders, who may not be illegal downloaders at all.

According to Wired, the scheme is blessedly direct. Porn producers locate the IP addresses of those they believe … Read more

Torque turns BitTorrent into a Web app

A new way to manage your torrents puts a bit of Torque in your Web browser. Debuting today from the company that makes uTorrent and BitTorrent, the alpha version of BitTorrent Torque creates rudimentary torrent controls in JavaScript that can be run from your HTML5-compliant browser.

In a blog post announcing Torque, BitTorrent developer Patrick Williams explained that Torque works by providing a JavaScript hook to a custom BitTorrent client backend. From there, developers can write apps that use Torque's APIs.

Currently, there are two extensions for Torque. One is Paddle Over, which integrates drag and drop file transfers … Read more

Hacked 8-bit music umbrella rocks out as it rains

Pop quiz. You have 12 piezo sensors, Arduino Uno, two speakers, lots of wire, and plenty of duct tape. There is an umbrella nearby. What do you make? How about a musical umbrella that translates raindrops into song?

Two creative Germans, Alice Zappe and Julia Lager, built an umbrella that detects raindrops and interprets them as 8-bit music. This could turn a regular walk down the street into a personalized retro gaming adventure.… Read more

Great news! You might have to buy all new Apple accessories

Those who live in Apple world surely know why they love it.

Everything is so well thought out, so full of wit, wisdom, and whimsy that every little thing these people do -- as Sting himself can assert -- is magic.

Somehow, then, it is strange that there is a rending of garments and a foaming of mouths at the notion that Apple might change the design of all its connectors for the launch of the iPhone 5.

Rumors, supposedly confirmed by many forms of bush telegraph, say that the 30 pins of silver will be reduced to 19.

This … Read more

Bitly moves into the bookmarking biz, aiming to stay relevant

Bitly is expanding its link-shortening service to include bookmark features, which will allow users to save and share links as the happy pufferfish -- Bitly's mascot -- looks on.

"We want this to be the single best place for you to save and share your links and to discover interesting things from your friends and the entire web," the site's blog announced today.

The move is designed to diversify its business away from just solely shortening URLs and move towards more social-networking services, the company said, adding it plans to add future services down the line. … Read more

Bitly picks up $20M in funding

Bitly, a tech company known for URL shortening, looks like it's heading toward greener pastures and making more user products. The New York-based company is said to have raised about $20 million in funding, according to tech news site The Verge, citing multiple sources. This is double the amount the company raised in its previous round of funding.

"The link shortening has always been a bit of a Trojan Horse," investor Joshua Stylman told The Verge. "Bitly is really an analytics tool for tracking content across the open, distributed web, and doing it at a massive, … Read more

Judge dismisses piracy suits, says IP address doesn't confirm state

A California judge has dismissed 15 lawsuits against John Does accused of sharing pirated adult movies on BitTorrent, saying the court lacks jurisdiction because the geolocation tools relied on don't always accurately identify the state in which the IP address is located.

In order to serve Internet service providers subpoenas to find out which individuals are behind IP addresses linked to alleged pirated content on BitTorrent, the lawyers for plaintiff Celestial needed to convince the judge that the IP addresses are located in California. But the judge said he was not persuaded that the geolocation tools had a high … Read more

Fire and water: Waterfox is a 64-bit version of Firefox

Waterfox is a 64-bit version of Firefox. The browser's developers modified the Firefox source code specifically for machines running 64-bit versions of Windows. Software designed for 64-bit Windows editions can take advantage of faster RAM and processing speeds and greater stability in 64-bit systems. Just converting Mozilla's source code for 64-bit Windows doesn't do enough to make Waterfox stand apart from Firefox and other Firefox-based Web browsers; other unique tweaks help it exploit the speed of 64-bit systems. As the Waterfox Web site states, speed is its mission.

When we first opened Waterfox, it displayed our bookmarks … Read more

Take another look at system events with MyEventViewer (64-bit)

What happens in Windows stays in Windows, and the tool that logs and displays it is called the Event Viewer. NirSoft's MyEventViewer is a useful alternative to the built-in Windows tool. For example, it's less confusing, with a simpler layout. You can view multiple logs in one list. It displays the event description and data in the same list, too, instead of opening a new window. And it's available in separate versions for 32-bit and 64-bit Windows operating systems, for maximum compatibility and stability. We sampled the 64-bit version in Windows 7.

As with many of NirSoft'… Read more