So without further ado (thanks Jesse), I present to you:

Yeah, I know this is a no-brainer and is listed on just about every single freeware list on earth. But think about it... I used to use Internet Explorer until this came around and after switching I refuse to go back. I've also tried out Safari, Opera, K-Melon, and yes even Google Chrome.

The thing I like most about Firefox is that it comes across as versatile while allowing me to customize to my hearts content through the use of add-ons. So take a moment and install the latest version of Firefox, because the next part of this list will be the Add-Ons that I have installed which make my browser an elite and powerful program.

Download Latest Version of Firefox

Now, let's work on the essential Firefox Extensions. These are the same ones that I have installed by default and are the very same ones I simply cannot live without. Your tastes may vary, of course, but again we're focusing on the things that I have personally installed and refuse to live without.

Firefox Extensions:

404: File Is Not Found? Now It Will Be!

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I wish this extension was around about ten years ago... so what does this do? Well, when you hit a page that throws you a 404 error (file not found) it pops up a dialog in Firefox asking if you want it to check Archive.org to see if they have a cached version of it on their servers. So essentially, if the site or page is missing today, there may be a good chance that it wasn't missing awhile ago and there is an archived copy of it.

Very useful indeed.

Adblock Plus!

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This is a staple for me, and pretty much a god-send. Does essentially what it says: Blocks popups, pop unders, and even advertising banners (if you tell it to be totalitarian about things).

AutoAuth

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AutoAuth automatically submits HTTP authentication dialogs when you've chosen to have the browser save your login information. (If you've already told the browser what your username and password are, and you've told it to remember that username and password, why not just have it automatically submit it instead of asking you each time?)

If you don't have a username and password saved for a subdomain (e.g., foo.bar.com), AutoAuth will give you a list of suggestions for that domain, based on other saved usernames and passwords for similar subdomains (e.g., bar.com or *.bar.com). Just choose which username to use from the list, and hit the Autofill button. [This feature is only available in Firefox 2.]

Better Gmail 2

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Add useful extra features and skins to Gmail, like hierarchical labels, macros, file attachment icons, and more.

Better Gmail 2 compiles the best Greasemonkey user scripts for Gmail into a single package. All scripts copyright their original authors. Click on the script homepage in the About tab for help and more information. Only compatible with the new Gmail interface.

If you are a Gmail user like I am, you'll find this add-on invaluable. It has a settings interface which lets you further pick and choose which options you would like for it to apply to your gmail account when you log in. Some things I have enabled, others I've left out. Give this a shot and see if it suits your tastes.

GMail Notifier

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The original notifier for Gmail.  Supports checking multiple accounts as well as Gmail Hosted accounts. It adds a GMail icon to the bottom right corner of the browser with a little number on it. Every 15 minutes or so it checks to see if you have new mail, and if you do, displays the number of new messages.

Clicking the little icon loads GMail in a new tab (if you set it to do so). Since you need to give it your login information to check for new messages, clicking it will automatically log you into your GMail account.

Again, this is a must-have for GMail users.

BlockSite

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BlockSite is an extension, which automagically blocks websites of your choice. Additionally, this extension will disable all hyperlinks to these websites, by just displaying the link text without the clicking functionality.

Ever run into a website that you simply do not want to see again? We'll say for example YTMND.com or maybe some stupid site you stumble across... This plugin allows you to literally stop it from ever loading in your browser again. It's that simple.

Colorzilla

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Advanced Eyedropper, ColorPicker, Page Zoomer and other colorful goodies.

With ColorZilla you can get a color reading from any point in your browser, quickly adjust this color and paste it into another program. You can Zoom the page you are viewing and measure distances between any two points on the page. The built-in palette browser allows choosing colors from pre-defined color sets and saving the most used colors in custom palettes. DOM spying features allow getting various information about DOM elements quickly and easily. And there's more...

If you are a designer like I am, or simply have a need to pick out colors for things, then this is uber-useful.

CustomizeGoogle

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CustomizeGoogle is a Firefox extension that enhance Google search results by adding extra information (like links to Yahoo, Ask.com, MSN etc) and removing unwanted information (like ads and spam). All features are optional and easily configured.

GoogleGears

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One of the few Firefox addons that aren't locted on the actual Mozilla site. GoogleGears allows web applications interact naturally with your desktop, store data locally in a fully-searchable database, and run JavaScript in the background to improve performance.

Something I can imagine uses this right off the bat is GoogleDocs, which comes in super useful when you get an email attachment in Gmail which is a document&183; Instead of downloading it, then opening it, you can simply open it right up in GoogleDocs and edit it - then send it back with revisions.

Google Preview

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Simply put, it adds thumbnail images to search results in Google showing you what the page looks like ahead of time. While I have this installed and have had it for quite some time, this function is a 50/50 mix for me.

Check it out and see if you like it. If not, no big deal :)

Download Embedded

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Downloads all or selected embedded objects on a webpage. Can be used for downloading movies, mp3s, flash, quicktime, or other embedded files (although this does NOT work on video embedded in flash [ youtube, video.google.com, etc.. ]

Of course, what kind of person would I be if I didn't hook you up with something that did actually work for places like youtube?

Video Download Helper

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DownloadHelper is a tool for web content extraction. Its purpose is to capture video and image files from many sites.

Just surf the Web as you are used to, when DownloadHelper detects it can do something for you, the icon gets animated and a menu allows you to download files by simply clicking an item

For instance, if you go to a YouTube page, you'll be able to download the video directly on your file system. It also works with MySpace, Google videos, DailyMotion, Porkolt, iFilm, DreamHost and others.

Thank me later

DownThemAll!

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You simply cannot live without this one, and neither can I.

DownThemAll is all you can desire from a download manager: it features an advanced accelerator that increases speed up to 400% and it allows you to pause and resume downloads at any time.

DownThemAll is fast, reliable and easy-to-use! It lets you download all the links or images contained in a webpage and much more: you can refine your downloads by fully customizable criteria to get only what you really want!

DownThemAll is absolutely freeware and open-source. No Adware, no Spyware.

Fission

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Fission combines address bar and progress bar (Safari style). This makes the progress bar more visible and allows for a nice visual effect.

FullerScreen

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This extension enhances the Full Screen mode into a really full screen mode, hiding the remaining toolbars and statusbar and making them visible again when the mouse pointer hits an edge of the screen.
It also offers a slideshow mode, enabling @projection CSS rules in a document when full screen mode is turned on. Navigation between slides in implemented in the extension and a slide manager showing thumbnails for the slides is available through shift-F11.

Grab And Drag

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Enables Adobe Acrobat-style grab and drag scrolling, Flick gestures, and Momentum scrolling in Firefox, Thunderbird, and Flock. Why worry about grabbing the scrollbar on the side when you can just grab the page itself and flick it up or down? This addon is my personal favorite.

  Greasemonkey

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Well duh. Of course I have Greasemonkey installed! Cmon! This single addon for Firefox lets you literally go hog wild with the web and change sites around to your hearts content!

Allows you to customize the way a webpage displays using small bits of JavaScript. Hundreds of scripts, for a wide variety of popular sites, are already available at Download.

IE Tab

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Ok, let's face it. Sometimes you absolutely positively are faced with a site that requires you to use Internet Explorer. I know it's not as often as it used to be in the days of old (thank god), but there are still times when you need to.

If you are using Windows (Apple and Linux folks can sit this one out), this usually means cranking up the Internet Explorer and staring in horror as it eats your sou- I mean resources.... But this is the answer to that horror.

Using IE Tab, you can integrate only the bare requirements of the IE Engine into Firefox in an "on-demand" manner. All the IE ability (like Microsoft Windows Website Downloads) and none of the hassle that actually running Internet Explorer brings.

Cooliris (formerly Piclens)

Words really cannot explain what Cooliris does. So what I will do is ive you a basic description, followed by a video of it in action. Hands down, this is the greatest plugin I have ever seen.

Full-Screen, 3D -- Cooliris (formerly known as PicLens) transforms your browser into a visually stunning experience for searching, viewing, and sharing online photos and videos. Our "3D Wall" lets you effortlessly search and zoom your way around thousands of images, videos, news feeds, sports feeds, and more. To share stuff with friends, just drag and drop.

Extended Statusbar

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Adds an Opera-like statusbar that shows:

• percentage of the page loaded,
  
• number of loaded images,
  
• bytes downloaded,
  
• average download speed,
  
• load time.
  

Stumbleupon

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Think of Stumbleupon as an infinite improbability drive for your browser. You can click the button and it will randomly bring you to a website page that is in your defined interests. You can rate what it gives you with a thumbs up and thumbs down, which allows it to get to know what you like over time, thus bringing you more of what you like and less of what you don't.

This is definitely a great time waster, as well as an excellent way to be exposed to content that you normally would not have simply found through normal searching. One of my personal favorites.

Translator

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Don't let the simple name fool you, translator is web translation extension that allows you to translate any web page into nearly any language at the click of a button.

Currently supports the following online translation services:

• Google Translation
  
• Babelfish
  
• PROMT
  
• freetranslation.com
  
• Altavista
  
• Im translator

I have this installed and use it often, because let's face it, the Internet is not always written in your native language.

That's it just for Firefox... but of course this excludes the common things like the latest version of Flash, PDF Reader, etc that is an automatic installation.

Now it's time to move along and get to the rest of the programs that I recommend, and also have installed.

FileZilla!

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It's a free and open source FTP client. Over the years, this has proven to be not only the best in my opinion but also my favorite one to use. I also keep a copy on my USB Memory stick when doing random work on a computer that isn't my own laptop, because you never know when you'll need a digital swiis army knife.

Spybot Search & Destroy

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It's either this or Adaware, but in either case, spyware and other things that simply crap up your computer and make life a pain in the butt for you is a reality. Clear that stuff out of your system and keep it clean using this program.

AVG Antivirus

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Depending entirely on your personal preferences, a virus scanner is still a must. Personally I run AVG Antivirus, and haven't had an issue yet. Since anti-virus software for Windows is a must, I will not limit the recommendation to just AVG, an instead will offer a couple of leading free options to take care of this.

Alternatives to AVG:

1. Avira Antivirus: Download
   
2. Avast! Home Edition: Download
   
3. Clamwin: Download

Pidgin Instant Messenger

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What to do when you have friends who use YIM!, GoogleTalk, MSN, ICQ, AIM, IRC, and others? The first answer is usually to download and install all of the above seperately just to keep in touch, but I'm here to offer you an open source alternative.

Pidgin is a multi-messenger client that is lightweight and lightening fast. It allows you to connect to all of those networks in a single client, but also is stripped down so essentially all you get is a text mesenger. This means no Video or Voice functionality, of course, but in the end most people don't really need all of that bloatware to begin with. If you are looking for a multi-messenger, you may want to give this one a try - or one of the following:

Trillian: Download

Digsby: Download

OpenOffice.org

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The name says it all. It's an open source office suite made by Sun and features pretty much every office type program you will ever need. No need to run out and buy Microsoft Office, because this can do everything and more for free.

Irfanview

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This is my swiss army knife for converting image formats. It can open nearly any image format and convert it to nearly any other format. Also supports batch processing which makes converting whole folders a breeze.

Auslogics Defrag

Not like you needed a full explanation of why you should defragment your hard drives regularly, but there is a specific reason why I use Auslogics Defrag instead of the built in Windows Defragmenter.

Personally I think Auslogics is simply a better program for the job, and also it actually shows you what it's doing while it's doing it (which for some reason is no longer the case in Vista from XP).  I'm an old school geek and still like to see those little squares lighting up and moving around like the old days of Windows 3.1 and Windows 95 Defrag.

Give it a shot and see if you agree with me on this one.

Auslogics Registry Defrag

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If you thought just your hard drive could get mucked up with adding and deleting things, think again. If your computer is running slowly, another culprit may in fact be a messy registry in your operating system. So grab a copy of Auslogics Registry Defrag and so some maintenance on your computer today.

Format Factory

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Ok, so we've covered the swiss army knife of graphics (Irfanview) but what about video and audio conversion? I cannot tell you how many times I've been around the Internet only to see innumerable posts all over the place begging for a good and free video converter.

Since nearly all available converters cost money or simply don't work, this can spell out a ton of downloading and uninstalling for the computer user who doesn't know any better. If this is the case, then see also the prior listing about Auslogics Defragger ;)

Format Factory is my personal choice for a Video and Audio Swiss Army Knife. It converts nearly anything to anything easily (at least within useful formats) and can even rip a DVD straight to AVI format if you want.

While it is true that I also have Goldwave Pro installed, Goldwave is an audio editing program and costs money so it is excluded in this list.

Inkscape

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Looking to create Scalable Vector Graphics? Inkscape is what I have installed just for this purpose. What can I say other than it just gets the job done and is free :)

Gimpshop

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Ok, so I lied. I do not have Gimpshop installed on this computer, but not because I wouldn't recommend it. What I use for general graphics happens to be Photoshop CS3 and Paintshop Pro 8. Both programs are not free and so would not work for this list So what I *can* offer is the rough equivalent for free which happens to be Gimpshop.

There is also Paint.NET which I actually have installed too, but do not use as much as Photoshop or Paintshop.

Skype

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The obvious choice if you want to do Voice chat online (and if you are a Pidgin user like I am).

ZScreen

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ZScreen is an open-source screen capture program that allows for region/window/full-screen screenshots. It can FTP screenshots and put the URL in your clipboard in a single keystroke. It supports automatic custom naming conventions with variables. It can also interface with image editing software. It is a C.NET 2.0 program hosted on Sourceforge.net and built by BrandonZ.

Reader Submitted: FastStone (Portable Freeware Version)

uTorrent

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If you are going to download torrents from the internet, I suggest uTorrent. It's lightweight and feature packed. Of course, I don't condone illegal file downloading... *coughs*.

What I would recommend if you didn't mind spending money

Hands down I would recommend getting your hands on Tuneup Utilities. I have a copy of it and it works wonders for keeping the hard drive cleaned up and purring like a kitten.

Also for website creation, I would recommend Dreamweaver CS3 and Flash CS3. While there are a handful of WYSIWYG website editors out there that are free, I haven't yet found one as good as Dreamweaver. If you have the cash to spend, I would also recommend Photoshop CS3 as well.

Of course there is the alternate method of just grabbing them from a torrent online using uTorrent, but you assume all risks involved with going this route and I wouldn't recommend it.

Well, that's it (finally) for my comprehensive list of things that I have installed on my computer that I recommend to you. This list of programs comprise what I actually have installed and use on a near daily basis, so you know they have to be pretty good. I know I've excluded things like the obvious media players (Winamp and VLC) or video editing software like Audacity, but Audacity isn't installed on this computer, while Winamp and VLC are both no-brainers.

I hope you've enjoyed this list, and the programs listed here come in handy for you in your daily routine.

Till next time...

Above all, we will use sketch command to define a planes. Simply pressing sketch button in Solidwork menu, you can define a plane on which you want to start drawing. Basically, one has three alternatives, front, top, and right respectively. For 2D drawings, one can select any of them. In our tutorial set, I will select top plane as a reference plane. This means, I'll draw on the top surface of imaginary rectangular prism. Think like this for simplicity.

 

How to draw a line

To draw line, simply click the line figure on the toolbar. Solidworks will present you four alternatives to draw line. They are "as sketched", "horizontal", "vertical" and "angle". Lets we draw a vertical line with a height of 60. Click the "vertical" radio button and  and somewhere on the screen and drag the tip of cursor vertically. This will draw a vertical line. To dimension it, click "smart dimension" button and starting point of line. Then drag the tip of cursor to the end point of vertical line. Solidworks will ask you the numerical length of the line. Write 60 into the space. Now, you have a vertical line with a length of 60 mm.

How to draw a rectangle

To draw rectangle, click the rectangle figure on the toolbar. Then draw a rectangle with any lengths. Then dimension it by using "smart dimension" button. Dimension each side of rectangle. Let's draw a rectangle with a side length of 120 mm and a height of 80 mm.

Virtually every program code has inputs and outputs. Before compiling a source code, programs generally request an input from the user and then output it to the screen after compiling if the program is well designed and there is no error inside it. Usually, as the program becomes more complicated, error possibility increases. A good software expert easily realizes where the code has faults and corrects it. Since our first code will be very small and very simple, we will not face with any error.

Before starting to write code, we initially have a compiler which is going to evaluate our code. I use Dev C for this. There are many other compilers which run on different platforms like Unix, Linux and Windows.

In this project, we will output the names of the subprograms of Triond on to C terminal screen. This is the simplest algorithm since there is no input in this example. Let's start writing our code step by step.

Step 1: Open the File from the menu bar of C software and save as the blank page Project1. This yields a file with an extension of cpp.

Step 2: Describe the name and aim of the programs. To do so, we use comments. Comments are ignored by the compiler. For commenting, we use some special scripts like double slash or slash-asterisk character .

If we use a single line comment, double slash is enough. However, if our comment is placed more than one line, we use double slash for each line or take the commented part between slash-asterisk and asterisk-slash characters .

Step 3: C needs library files which define what the input and output functions are and what they do when they are used in a code. Iostream is the library file of input and output function.

Before the name of library files, we use a special character, preprocessor directive character. Include is used before the name of every library file and such file names are placed mathematical comparison characters.

Step 4: Every C code uses functions. The default function is main. Main function is the first function compiled by the programs. This function usually calls other functions. Before the name of function, we specify which type of output our code returns. In our program, we think that it returns to integer and use int. After the function name, we use parantheses. In this example, there will be nothing between parantheses but in more complicated programs, there may be parameter names and it's types or definitions. We place our statements between left brace and right brace.

Step 5: To print on to the screen,we use cout function. We simply place our string inside double quote characters. Every statement inside the functions ends with a special semicolon character.

Step 6: To check the validity, we use return function.In this simple example, it returns to 0.

Click here for the code

If you are like me you have to have a Yahoo! IM account, an AIM account, an MSN account, etc. Trillian allows you to access all of these from the same program and the same window, simplifying your instant messaging life.

Skype

If you go on a lot of business trips, Skype is an absolute must. Video chat is completely free, so both you and your significant other can get face time even when you are halfway around the world. If you insist on doing it the old fashion way, you can call a telephone anywhere in the world from your pc for lower than normal rates. Also has regular text chat.

VLC Media Player

VLC can play almost any type of video or audio file you can think of. Since I got VLC, I haven't opened QuickTime or Windows Media Player, and there hasn't been a file that I was unable to view or even had trouble watching. VLC is a must, especially if you download torrents.

Vuze

Speaking of torrents, Vuze is the greatest client I've found for that. Search multiple sites from inside Vuze, it has an easy to use download manager, and even has videos that are exclusive to Vuze users. It's the new and improved Azureus. The best part is probably the torrent reviews you see in the searches.

CDBurnerXP

CDBurnerXP allows you to burn CDs, Blu-Ray and HD DVDs, and create ISO files. Awesome interface, easy to use, I haven't had any problems with it so far.

Thunderbird

I currently have four email addresses that I need to check regularly - work, school, Gmail, and AOL. Thunderbird allows me to check all of them in one window, check for updates to all of them simultaneously, and also has a calendar and task list. Thunderbird is made by the same people (Mozilla) that make the Firefox browser.

Firefox

Even though most people know about it and already have formed their opinion, I might as well mention it. Firefox for me has been worlds better than Internet Explorer, and also even better than Opera. It's secure, the add-ons allow me to add whatever functionality I want to it… if you haven't tried it, you need to.

Let's all help out the internet by having the most up-to-date web browser. Don't let your needs be defined by the browser, but let the browser you use be defined by your needs.

In Order of Importance:

1. Mozilla Firefox - Regarded by most to be the best web browser, fast with lots of available add-ons
2. 7-Zip - Free file compressor/decompressor, supports most formats out there
3. Sun Java - Better alternative to Microsoft Java (you will need this)
4. Adobe Acrobat Reader - Necessary to read PDF files (you will need this)
5. CCleaner - Small, fast app that helps you remove all the accumulated clutter on your system, also has a registry fixer
6. K-Lite Mega Codec Pack - Installs all the codecs you need to view any video file. NOTE: you need to remove all previous codec packs (if you have any) before using this or they will conflict
7. Trillian Instant Messenger - Combines AIM, MSN, Yahoo IM, and many other chat programs into one program
8. Winamp -  Simple music player compatible with most formats
9. Metapad - Replacement for notepad with no filesize limit. After you download it, unzip it using 7-Zip and rename it as "notepad.exe" and place it in your windows folder to replace notepad.

A super fast one? Or a super safe experience? Or a gaming one?" All these question will change what type of browser you should download. Internet Explorer is based towards the more "I wanna get on the internet to look something up group."

Firefox is based towards the more savvy fun person who wants to explore the internet. It has many add-ons that make for a more fun experience, too. The Opera browser is very customizable and is based towards the person who wants more security. It has no holes in its security compared to 7 for IE, 4 for Firefox, 3 for Safari, and 2 for Konqueror, as of 2/19/2007.

Opera also has many widgets that are like the add-ons for Firefox with the exception that anyone can make these widgets. Safari is customizable and doesn't have as many security issues as IE, but is only for Mac and PC, meaning no for Linux. And last but not least is Konqueror, which is like a mix between Firefox and Internet Explorer. It is very customizable and presents few security concerns for the average user. These are the main browsers that people use nowadays and by far the best. It is up to you to decide which one you should use.