Camera Phones Plaza

Google launched the new Sky feature of Google Earth that offers spectacular views of the cosmic space meaning 100 million individual stars and 200 million galaxies.

Users have to click on Switch to Sky from the View drop-down menu in Google Earth or press directly the Sky button on the toolbar.

Sky was created in collaboration with Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, U.K. Astronomy Technology Center in Edinburgh and Caltech's Palomar Observatory in California.

It won’t be of much help for professional astronomers but for common people, a virtual tour of the space will mean something extraordinary while watching cosmic events as they occur.
And more than that, it can be a start point for those that have penchant for astronomy, and probably will increase the interest in physics or information technology.
As S. George Djorgovski astronomy professor at California Institute of Technology said, "There is a huge need to get more young people interested in science."

VOEventNet project of The Caltech Center for Advanced Computing Research, that linked a number of telescopes creating a virtual observatory, developed a software that works with Sky allowing its users to post images and videos with cosmic phenomena like colliding and exploding stars, gamma-ray bursts, and supernovae within minutes of their detection.

VOEventNet team intends that by March to add links that will let users track movement of asteroids.

"No matter what you get, get something else than Windows Explorer!", that's what I always say. When talking about Vista's file manager, things are not different at all, at least for me, so you should get something better than that one also. If today's solution is really worth the change, that's what remains to be seen, because the first impression I got from Desktop Expert is not that great...


Setup

The last version of this program shows that Desktop Expert is still in its youth, being labeled 1.1. Its setup package has 1.8MB in size, and installing it is really easy, as I was expecting. The trial version of this 30$ program has limited features during the 30 days trial period and even a nag screen, and we'll see more about it a bit later.

Interface
To be honest, I don't like this program's interface. The icons on the toolbars look like they were meade by 3 different people, and the "X" icon is really ugly, just notice those jaggies! Also, the default interface layout looks too much like Windows Explorer, with a single file browsing window and nothing really special to it, as you can see in the screenshot above. These facts being given, at least it's not hard to find your way around, so we get an interface that doesn't look that good but it's easy to use. So far, so good. Neext!


Features

Now, where should I start? Take Windows Explorer, add two or three features - like two explorer windows side by side, some online help that starts with a typo of the program - "Desktop Expwerts" and a Tools menu that only links to some programs built into the operating system, like the command prompt, registry editor or drive cleaner, and you know what you can get from Desktop Expert.

I am not being mean, and I really don't want to, but look here - the File menu has two options, apart from Exit - Add New Tab and Add New Note, the Configuration area, as you can see in the last screenshot above, is like a desert, with only a few options to change. Should I say more? Just look at the screenshots and draw your conclusions! But first of all, I hope you'll read mine ...


The Good

There aren't many good things to mention about this program, but I can say at least that Desktop Expert is fast and pretty easy to use, because this is the truth.

The Bad

Considering the features present, and especially the absent ones, the price is huge. That says it all.

Conclusion

I usually advise you to try the programs I review, and decide, but this time, I won't do that. Only if you are bored to death, you can try to waste some time on Desktop Expert, but no matter the situation, don't buy it! Well, I am sorry about that... but you can try to buy it for your mother-in-law, especially if she doesn't like you!

Developer: DesktopMinds.com
Price: 30$
Trial Link: Download

Today, I will start by telling you a secret about me - no matter how many excellent programs I get to encounter each month, I have some favorite applications that I won't change in a million years. One of them is my text editor, but I won't tell you which one that is, so don't ask, OK? Anyway, don't worry, I have a really interesting text editor for you today, so you can simply assume that EditPad Pro is my one and only text editor I mentioned earlier, if that makes you happy...


Setup

EditPad Pro's last version was released less than a week ago, and its number is 6.3.2. The trial version comes with some functional limitations (no spell checker and configurable print headers), a registration reminder and you don't get the separate application for creating your own coloring schemes, while still being able to use custom syntax highlighting. I couldn't find any reference about the trial period, but considering the above, I see no reason why not to use this program as trial for at least 30 days.

The setup package has almost 6MB in size, and I must say that I had the pleasure to notice a unique feature while installing the program. For the first time, I get to encounter a setup program that has an option called "No-Questions-Asked Installation"! Since the name says it all, let's move on and talk about the interface now, shall we?


Interface

Most text editors have a really simple user interface, being very easy to use, as it is natural. After all, writing text is one of the most basic things that you can do with a computer. All the features of the program are gathered inside the menu bar and the toolbar, without wasting any valuable space. While exploring the menus, you'll find that additional interface elements can start taking up space as you're using them, so let's move on to the features and discover them now, shall we?


Features

As I was just saying, EditPad Pro is one of those text editors that packs quite of a punch, its features including a FTP client, a file navigator and allows you to create and use text snippets. All these can be found in the View menu, together with the keyboard shortcuts that you will get to remember pretty easy,as time goes by and you keep using the program.

Did I mention the fact that EditPad Pro is able to edit multiple files at once? Well, I didn't, but most of you already noticed that in the screenshot from the Interface chapter. Even more, you can easily manage projects with lots of files, by using the File Panel, accessible from the View menu or when pressing F10.

There are a lot of features inside this program that deserve to be pointed out, like its ability to record and use macros, allowing you to speed up repetitive tasks, together with the text snippets. Only these two? Noo, in fact almost everything you find in this program, starting with the bookmarking system or the built in hex viewer that loads automatically when needed, is there to help you enhance your text editing experience and increase your productivity, no matter what you are doing - programming, writing books, or you-know-what.


The Good

EditPad Pro is fast, has an impressive amount of features and is very easy to use. Also, it's highly customizable and the full version contains an additional program built to help you create text highlighting styles.

The Bad

I know that some power users may say that auto completion is missing, but that's not a serious problem. The big problem, in my opinion, is the price/features ratio of this program, because it doesn't look good at all from this point of view...

Conclusion

If you don't have a serious text editing tool yet, then you should try EditPad Pro, but I don't want to hear you saying that I didn't warn you, so be careful - this program has a lot of good parts, but it costs 50$, so think about this first of all!

Developer: Just Great Software Co. Ltd.
Price: 49.95$
Trial Link: Download

Lavasoft launched the latest version of Ad-Aware anti-spyware product.
With almost one million downloads every week it became one of the most popular products of its kind.

Ad-Aware 2007 comes with a redesigned engine for superior program flexibility; an improved Code Sequence Identification Technology that raises the privacy protection; updated incremental definition file for saving time and resources and this way decreasing the download times; TrackSweep feature with which tracks left behind while surfing can be easily erased, support for Internet Explorer, Opera and Firefox.

Ad-Aware 2007 comes in four subversions: Free, Plus, Pro and Enterprise.

Even if XOOPS core development released version 2.2.5 of XOOPS dynamic web content management system, it is labelled as unrecommended and the users are advised to use 2.0.17 version instead.

XOOPS is an Object Oriented tool written in PHP used by developers of dynamic community websites, intra company and corporate portals, and weblogs.

2.0.17 version is an update with lots of bug fixes and functionality enhancements.
The tool is released under the terms of the GNU General Public License and is free to use, modify and redistribute.

Key features that make it popular include: a relational database to store data required for running a web-based content management system; it is fully modularized; registered users can edit their profiles, select site themes, upload custom avatars; user management; it is supported world-wide; has a multi-byte language support; versatile group permissions system; theme-based skinnable interface.

XOOPS is available for download at the Project SourceForge Download page.