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UMPlayer stands for Universal Media Player, and this open-source freeware aims to be a universal media solution. With hundreds of codecs, it plays most video and music files as well as audio CDs, DVDs, SHOUTcast, and live radio and TV from tuner cards. Of course, it plays YouTube videos; in fact, it has a built-in YouTube player/recorder feature and search field on its toolbar. With a skinnable interface, hot keys, subtitle sync, and the regular free updates of an active open-source project, UMPlayer poses a serious challenge to VLC, MPC and other popular free media players.

As an efficiently … Read more

Contrary to popular belief, diaries aren't just for teenage girls. Keeping a diary--or journal, if you prefer--is a great way to keep track not only of your most private thoughts, but also of work activities, food logs, travel, and much more. Efficient Diary Portable is a feature-packed program that lets users create custom diary entries and take them along on a portable device--all with password protection, of course.

The program's interface is sleek and attractive, and we had no trouble getting around. A tree hierarchy on the left lets you access entries from the current day, current month, … Read more

Judging from the Developer Preview version of Windows 8, Microsoft has finally decided to change the Windows Start menu in a big way. And it's about time. The last time this happened was with Windows 95, when the Start menu was first introduced. Over the years, this menu has been the signature feature of the operating system, a feature that represents both the innovation and the stasis of the software giant.

In Windows 8, the Ctrl-Esc combo key, which shares the same functionality as the Windows key, now brings up something entirely different: the Metro Start Screen. This screen … Read more

One thing that we can probably all agree on is the fact that Windows Explorer is not exactly the greatest file management tool around. There are plenty of alternatives, but we can't say that we've ever seen one like Nemo Documents. This innovative program lets you see which files you accessed on particular days by displaying them in a calendar view. It sounds a little unconventional, but the program's usefulness becomes obvious as soon as you open it.

Nemo Documents has a sleek, intuitive interface--a good thing, since there's no Help file. Down the left side … Read more

Notekeeping software offers two substantial advantages over paper notes: first, handwriting recognition expertise is not required; and second, you have a better place to keep your notes than your monitor's frame. Efficient Sticky Notes Portable offers all the features of the typical e-notekeeper, with some advantages. It's free, for instance, and it's totally portable, meaning it can go with you on a thumbdrive, smartphone, or other portable device and run on any Windows PC.

Efficient Sticky Notes Portable's layout takes the familiar Explorer-style route, with a left-hand navigation panel and a main view split horizontally between … Read more

Windows 98 may have been retired long ago by the vast majority of users, but the operating system is still driving more traffic than the nascent Windows Phone 7, according to Web advertising company Chitika.

The ancient Windows operating system--which has about 0.04 percent worldwide OS market share, according to Net Market Share--secured about 0.019 percent of all traffic on Chitika's ad network at the beginning of January. By contrast, Windows Phone 7 captured a little less than 0.010 percent market share.

It gets worse. Chitika found that Windows Phone 7 has 0.44 percent &… Read more

We're back! Again. And this time it's personal. That's right, we're together again, for the first time. Forget it Dong, it's Chinatown.

Dong is away in Vietnam this week, yet through the miracle of technology, we're able to come together and record a podcast. What an age we live in.

Actually we recorded this episode before he left and honestly there's not much "us" in it. We spend as much time going through your e-mails and voice mails as we do being our usual narcissistic selves.

This week we're discussing … Read more

Earlier this week, I posted a video featuring an SUV, the T-98 Kombat, as made by Russian manufacturer Dartz (whose $1.5M Dartz Prombron Monaco Red Diamond Edition extravagantly decked out in whale penis leather--how high-brow is that--even got lip service recently on "The Colbert Report"). Anyhoo, this particular blog (located here for your convenience) garnered the snide comment of "It looks like a Hummer...big deal." Well, funny that you should say that, sir, as today's video features the Dartz Kombat one-on-one against the Hummer H1. Let's get ready to rumble!

The Dartz … Read more

About a week ago I was watching "The Colbert Report" on Comedy Central, and all of a sudden Stephen Colbert starts talking about an extravagant SUV made by the Russian-based Dartz brand that costs roughly 1.5 million dollars and is so luxurious that its upholstery is made of genuine whale penis leather (no, I'm not making this up). While I have yet to locate video of the exact model vehicle that Stephen was talking about, I did find a clip of a similar model SUV made by Dartz in action, and since it's kinda timely, … Read more